Ever since the courthouse was attacked, those criminals seemed to have vanished again.
These past few days, Peter had not heard a single piece of news related to the Green Goblin.
Not only that, Storm lost the lawsuit completely. All of his assets were used to compensate Norman Osborn's losses.
And Norman, in turn, handed most of that wealth straight into Bant's hands.
"Now that is what it means for the loser to eat dust."
After receiving the money, Bant laughed and turned to Connors. "The loser ends up with nothing. The winner devours everything, even the loser's corpse, and grows stronger from it!"
"The law of nature," Connors said. He did not think there was anything wrong with it.
What he studied were reptiles. In nature, the weak being eaten by the strong was the most basic rule. Rather than pitying a guy like Storm, it was more important to figure out how to get Bant to allocate more of that money to his projects.
"You're wrong, Dr. Connors." Bant shook his head.
"The truly important thing is this. Your identity and reputation have been restored. In a few days, Norman will hold another press conference and announce that he's found you, and that with Osborn and Plymouth working together, you've been completely cured. Then you can step back into the light."
Hearing that, Connors nodded.
Truthfully, he did not particularly like going out, but he had a wife and a child. Having his name cleared was always a good thing.
On the other side, Peter, who could never sit still, wandered around Queens for several days, then decided to go check out Hell's Kitchen again.
But compared to the calm in the rest of New York, Hell's Kitchen had been far livelier these days.
Gang shootouts kept erupting nonstop.
Once night fell, the gunfire sounded like it was New Year's, rattling on without end.
Even Peter was startled by the scale of it. He found a way to get in touch with Daredevil, and only then did he learn what had happened.
"Rumor has it Kingpin killed the Green Goblin to keep the serum all for himself, and that caused a conflict with the Hand," Matt explained.
Even he only understood it in fragments.
But no matter what, the Hand had fallen out with Kingpin again over this, and the two sides were fighting with gusto. Hell's Kitchen's criminal forces had begun another major purge.
In the end, though, the ones whose interests truly suffered would not be Kingpin, nor the Hand, but the large and small gangs dragged into the mess.
Villains tearing each other apart had nothing to do with Peter or Daredevil.
If anything, after learning the Green Goblin had been killed by Kingpin, Peter actually let out a breath of relief.
The days that followed were far less turbulent.
Peter continued swinging through the skies over New York, Daredevil kept punishing evil in Hell's Kitchen, and Bant waited for the World Expo to arrive.
"I wonder what Tony's up to?"
Just as Bant was thinking it was getting a bit too boring to keep waiting like this, a visitor arrived.
Pepper Potts had never imagined that the address of Plymouth Technology, the company that had recently risen to fame alongside the Osborn Group, would be located in a place like this.
The area was remote, the buildings were old, and they did not even have a building of their own.
Not just her, even the people with her found it hard to believe.
"It's hard to imagine this is the place that invented the self-healing serum," Coulson said, standing beneath the building in amazement.
His gaze shifted to the other side, where the glamorous Hammer Industries stood like a pillar holding up the sky among a cluster of not-so-tall buildings, as if everything around it existed only to frame it.
"In reality, nobody believes the self-healing agent was invented by this small company called Plymouth," Pepper said. "Everyone's looked into its background. One of the founders is Harry Osborn. Obviously, this is something Norman Osborn set up for tax avoidance, or some other reason."
Now she was the lofty CEO of Stark Industries. In theory, even if Plymouth had suddenly become a new rising star, it would not warrant her personal visit.
But there was no choice. Resumes submitted by a whole group of agents, including Natasha, all sank without a trace. Plymouth was like a fortress with walls too tight to penetrate, defending itself against every prying eye. They needed someone who could smash a hole in that wall.
Coulson had only come to Pepper because he had run out of options.
Faced with someone who had saved her, and Natasha, who had once been her secretary, Pepper did not really have the heart to refuse.
Still, she remained skeptical of Plymouth. "I've met Norman Osborn. There's no way he would keep his real secrets in a place like this. The Osborn Group is his lifeline."
"Our agents already searched the Osborn Group," Coulson said, shaking his head. "There was nothing."
Osborn and Plymouth were different. A massive group like that had to hire employees to function. In that situation, no matter how cautious Norman was, he could not completely isolate it from agents.
And because of the Green Goblin incident, he was tied up in other matters, which happened to create an opening for the agents.
It could be said that the reason S.H.I.E.L.D. did not get involved in the last trial over the Green Goblin was because they were pouring far more energy into the self-healing agent.
At the end of the day, whether it was the Lizard Serum or the Green Goblin serum, the side effects were simply too severe. HYDRA did not care for them at all.
Whether it was HYDRA or Nick Fury, they all knew their own super soldier serum had already made progress. Quite a few agents had even been injected. It was not as perfect as Captain America, but the advantage was that it had almost no side effects.
Wasn't that far better than a Lizard Serum that turned you into a monster?
In their eyes, a power you could not control was better off destroyed.
By comparison, the self-healing serum was different. As for how useful it was, Captain America had the most authority to speak on it. Even when you were at death's door, it could drag you back. In a sense, as long as you injected it in time, it was basically a resurrection potion.
Of course, Captain America already had strong self-healing. For ordinary people, the effect was not nearly that dramatic.
But clearly, Osborn was holding something back, maybe more than one thing.
The self-healing serum on the market now was obviously not on the same level as the serum Norman Osborn used on himself at that press conference.
Coulson had reason to suspect Norman was hiding even better stuff.
Maybe an enhanced healing agent, or something else entirely.
Like the spider formula?
From the files, it was not hard to find that the Osborn Group researched spiders in the early years. Even now, specialized webbing products remained one of Osborn's pillar industries.
Combine that with the two Spider-Men that had appeared recently, and S.H.I.E.L.D. had reason to suspect they were products of the Osborn Group. The first one was fine. The second had only appeared once, then vanished after defeating the Green Goblin.
Hearing this, Pepper frowned. "Now I understand why Tony doesn't like you people."
She shook her head.
To Tony, what he hated most was this kind of thief trying to steal intellectual property. Not long ago, he had just chewed out senators at a hearing.
And now she was actually here to help S.H.I.E.L.D. do the same kind of thing.
"You misunderstand, Miss Pepper," Coulson said, shaking his head. "We're not trying to steal their technology. It's just that Osborn once invented something as dangerous as the Lizard Serum. We need to do a risk assessment on Plymouth Technology and the mysterious founder behind it."
Pepper said nothing more. She simply rang Plymouth's doorbell.
And so, with Happy the driver included, four people appeared in front of Bant together.
Bant was a little surprised, but it was fine. Eunice had already warned him the moment their group entered the building.
Right now, all company secrets had been locked down, including Connors, who was considered missing in the public eye.
If anyone was more surprised, it was Pepper. In her wildest dreams, she had not expected Plymouth's boss to be such a young kid.
Coulson and Natasha, on the other hand, were not surprised. They came prepared. Investigating a company's registrant and related information was nothing difficult.
Bant reached out to Pepper, gave her hand a light shake, then let go.
"Stark Industries' CEO, Miss Pepper Potts. I didn't expect you to pay a visit in person. And these are?"
"Uh, my driver, and… assistants," Pepper answered, looking a bit awkward. "I didn't expect you to be so young."
"Assistants?" Bant raised an eyebrow and gave Natasha a meaningful glance. "Your assistant probably isn't that honest. A few days ago, I saw her submitting a resume to my inbox."
Pepper was already awkward, and now her toes inside her heels could practically dig out a three-bedroom apartment. Natasha and Coulson, though, smiled like nothing happened.
When it came to shamelessness, even a big-company CEO could not compare to the Black Widow.
Even though Bant knew S.H.I.E.L.D. definitely had its own agenda, he still invited them in.
Nick Fury wanted to make contact with him, and honestly, Bant had also been thinking about making contact with S.H.I.E.L.D.
Last time he went to Sakaar, he did not encounter a single Skrull. That was a bit of a regret. He was quite interested in the Skrulls' shape-shifting genetic ability.
The moment they walked in, Coulson and Natasha's eyes could not help scanning the place.
What met their gaze was a uniform spread of silver-white equipment. Plymouth's current scale was very small. Rather than a company, it looked more like a tiny laboratory.
And in such a cramped space, it had been divided into several separate areas.
"What would you like to drink? Coffee?" Bant asked.
"Thanks," the group nodded, thinking Bant was pretty polite.
The instant Bant stepped away, Natasha and Coulson quickly surveyed the surroundings, but they could not make sense of anything.
A moment later, Bant returned with several empty paper cups, stuffed them into their hands, then handed each of them a stick of instant coffee.
"Hot water's over there. Pour it yourselves."
Bant pointed at the water dispenser nearby.
Everyone: ???
Pepper turned to glance at Coulson, then somewhat awkwardly set her paper cup aside. "Mr. Parker, I'm here to invite you to attend the Stark World Expo."
"But the expo's next month, isn't it?" Bant put his hands on his hips. He wanted to see what kind of story Pepper could spin.
But she was clearly prepared. "It's like this. Because it involves the venue and area divisions, we need to take you to have a look in advance, and also consult with you about what product projects your company will be showcasing."
That was not untrue.
For a company like Plymouth that was currently drawing so much attention, even Stark Industries had to treat it carefully.
If a so-called World Expo did not even include companies like Osborn and Plymouth, who invented the self-healing serum, then it would be a bit undeserving of the name.
Calling it an Industrial Expo might fit better.
Of course, Bant knew this was just an excuse. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s real purpose was probably to find out what new product he might release next.
Maybe they assumed Plymouth's next product would still develop along biotech or medical lines.
But what surprised them was that after hearing Pepper's words, Bant stepped to the left, revealing a car behind him.
Not some beat-up wreck, but a newly modified product, and the real commodity that would face the public.
"This is it."
"A car?" Coulson froze.
He could not understand why Plymouth would showcase a car at the expo.
"I thought Plymouth was a medical technology company," he said.
"That's a narrow view. In fact, we're also involved in communications, and we have cooperation with Oracle," Bant said, pointing at the phone in Pepper's hand. "That is our product."
As for Oracle, it was a translation company.
"Plymouth Technology never planned to develop in only one single field. We have all kinds of scientists," Bant said with a smile.
"All kinds of scientists?" Natasha glanced around the empty company besides Bant and made a puzzled sound, as if asking: where?
"There will be," Bant said, still smiling.
Then he took out a remote control and gestured for everyone to step back a little. "The theme of the tech expo has always been the future. I remember that in the last century, Howard Stark once proposed the concept of an anti-gravity car."
"You made it happen?" Natasha's eyebrows lifted.
"Not completely." Bant pressed the button. In an instant, the car's tires flattened sideways. The center of the axles opened up, and layers of ripples released downward, twisting the air.
In the next moment, the car floated up.
"I used a sonic levitation system. The maximum hovering height can reach one hundred meters, and the stability is extremely strong. The car's shell is titanium alloy, just like Iron Man's armor, so safety is guaranteed."
The group stared, dumbfounded.
No one expected Bant to turn Howard Stark's old concept into reality.
At this rate, in just a few years, wouldn't Earth's cars be flying through the sky above the city like in sci-fi novels?
Seeing their expressions, Bant chuckled, and he even added something extra.
"Of course, considering some people have more retro tastes, we'll probably accept a certain degree of modification business too. We can give some old-fashioned cars this function as well."
Coulson's eyes immediately lit up.
After all, he was exactly the kind of person Bant meant by "retro." Old records, cars… and even his idol was a seventy-year-old popsicle.
/-\
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