After leaving S.H.I.E.L.D., Peter returned to Queens, and Bant arrived at Plumbers alone.
As expected.
Not long after he arrived at Plumbers, Tony Stark rushed over.
Tony Stark was quite polite. After a brief period of anger, he had sobered up considerably. He did not even put on his armor, instead driving his A8 and parking it right at the entrance of Plumbers.
Looking at the two drastically modified Iron Legion drones now being used as guard dogs, Tony walked straight past them without any fear.
Sure enough, the drones showed no reaction whatsoever.
He immediately realized that Bant was probably already waiting for him.
"You do not even have a receptionist?"
Plumbers was just as empty as ever.
At that moment, Eunice's voice rang out from the intercom. "Tony Stark, Sir is in the medical ward. Please proceed to the elevator."
"An electronic receptionist, I suppose that works too."
He nodded, then spoke to Jarvis through his earpiece. "Jarvis, I suddenly feel like a female voice just sounds a bit more soothing. How about we give you a sex change?"
"Sir, theoretically speaking, I do not possess a gender."
Jarvis could not care less about the suggestion.
The medical ward was on a lower floor, and the elevator quickly arrived at the destination.
Stepping out, Tony almost thought he had walked into a hospital. There were vast expanses of white everywhere, and even Bant was pretentiously wearing a white lab coat over his clothes.
"Did you change your profession to a doctor?"
"How about it? Want me to treat you too?" Bant raised his head and pointed at Tony's chest from across the room.
"Pass."
Although he had swapped to a new element, Tony had not removed the Arc Reactor.
The main issue was that he did not dare undergo surgery.
To perform the surgery, the reactor had to be shut down. Once the reactor was shut down, the shrapnel would flow into his heart, and if the shrapnel flowed into his heart, he would die.
Therefore, surgery equaled death.
This was Tony's logic.
"You should know why I came looking for you."
He made himself at home, pulling up a chair and sitting down. Then he looked left and right before asking, "When are you going to hire more people?"
"Eunice can handle most of the work," Bant said.
"It is not an issue of artificial intelligence. Providing jobs through this method is beneficial for Plumbers' reputation. But more importantly, you do not even have a beautiful receptionist here!"
Tony Stark was furious at his lack of ambition!
Such a massive company, complete with a medical ward, shouldn't he hire at least eighty to a hundred beautiful women? Have half of them wear office lady suits and the other half wear white or pink nurse outfits?
Work capability?
Work efficiency?
Did those things even matter?
"No matter how capable Eunice is, she cannot help you handle everything," Tony winked teasingly, speaking with the tone of an experienced man.
"Do not tell me you are still a little boy."
Bant sneered and said, "Come talk to me about experience after you have tried an alien."
"An alien... So, you really are connected to the Plumbers?"
The two finally got to the main topic.
Tony came to find Bant for two reasons. One was to learn the identity and location of the assassin who killed his parents. The other was because of the Plumbers.
At the mention of the Plumbers, Bant set down the medical report for XLR8, stood up, looked at Tony, and said, "I originally thought you would be more eager to know about the assassin."
"I want to know about both."
"The Plumbers is an interstellar law enforcement agency. It was established recently, and its headquarters are not located on Earth. Its internal members consist of aliens from different planets, and of course, Earth is among them."
Bant briefly explained the structure of the Plumbers.
"And I am the Magistrate appointed by the Plumbers on Earth."
But Tony wasn't buying it. "Interesting. So what gives those aliens the right to meddle in Earth's affairs?"
To this day, he still had not forgotten XLR8 killing a human right in front of him. Even though he later investigated the background of the murdered human and confirmed that the man absolutely deserved to die, it was still not the place of aliens to intervene.
"The Plumbers establish branches in the regions under their jurisdiction, and the members of a branch are appointed by the Magistrate of that planet. Therefore, in most cases, you will not see aliens arbitrarily interfering in Earth's internal affairs, unless the branch actively requests backup."
Bant explained.
He sidestepped the topic of XLR8 because it would be too difficult to explain the situation with the totems to Tony.
"So what? You want me to join the Plumbers?" Tony asked. "I will be blunt, you cannot afford to hire... wait, you actually can afford it..."
He coughed lightly to ease the awkwardness.
"You have been to S.H.I.E.L.D., so you should also know about Nick Fury's Avengers Initiative, right? Why should I put aside the Avengers to join your organization instead?"
"Because I can tell you who killed your parents, and Nick Fury cannot. It is that simple," Bant said.
Tony was quite surprised. "I thought you were going to say, 'Whether you join or not, I will tell you,' and then wait for me to be deeply moved and join voluntarily."
"I do not want to play those empty games. The reason I sought you out is simply because you want to avenge your parents, and I also want to help my cousin find the guy who murdered his parents.
"We have a common enemy."
"Who?"
"Hydra!"
Next, Bant slowly recounted the entire sequence of events to Tony.
Unlike Captain America, who was under constant surveillance, Plumbers was very safe. Tony's position was also different from Captain America's, so Bant spoke much more clearly and provided more details.
The person who killed his parents was the Winter Soldier, but at the root of it all, it was Hydra.
"Absorbing Hydra's scientific researchers... what was he thinking?" Tony laughed out of sheer anger.
In a sense, Howard had brought about his own destruction. He advocated for keeping Hydra's personnel, wanting to utilize their intellect for his own purposes, which did indeed bring massive technological advancements to America.
But the problem was that this was also inviting wolves into the house.
In the end, Howard Stark reaped what he sowed, dying by Hydra's assassination.
"Hydra's power is too vast. I cannot wipe them out all on my own, which is why I asked for your help."
"What do you plan to do?" Tony asked.
Bant knew very well that Tony Stark was not someone who could be fooled with a vague outline of a plan. If he just told him: the plan is to find all of Hydra and then wipe them all out.
That would be no different from saying nothing at all.
The key lay in how to find them, and how to wipe them out.
"I have the locations of several Hydra bases in my hands." Bant didn't keep him in suspense, subsequently bringing up the intelligence he had gathered on Hydra.
On a world map, widely scattered Hydra strongholds were marked in red one by one.
"This many?"
Tony was highly surprised.
The number of bases Bant had found amounted to dozens. If all these bases were destroyed, it would indeed deal a massive blow to Hydra.
Some of these strongholds Bant knew from watching movies in his past life, such as the base in Sokovia, but most of them were clues Eunice had uncovered by searching the entire internet.
Wiping all of these out would easily be equivalent to chopping off several of Hydra's heads.
But how could Bant be satisfied with just that?
"These are merely small snake pits. The biggest snake pit is S.H.I.E.L.D. itself. But confronting S.H.I.E.L.D. head-on and destroying it is not something we can do ourselves." Bant glanced at Tony and smiled. "Otherwise, we would become the rebels."
"Then who should do it?"
"I found a banner, a banner that can symbolize America," Bant said.
Tony raised an eyebrow, signaling him to continue.
"Captain America, Steve Rogers."
He did not hide it from Tony, directly revealing the existence of Steve Rogers. Although surprised, Tony quickly accepted this fact.
"Having him deal with those hidden Hydra members is indeed very appropriate." Tony nodded.
If Bant or Tony tried to tell the world that S.H.I.E.L.D. had long been corrupted by Hydra, no one would believe them.
Instead, it would put both of them in a passive position, evolving into a crisis of trust. In the end, it would not be surprising if Hydra turned the tables and accused them of being Hydra.
But the reverse was completely different.
As the first superhero in human history, the propaganda America created around Steve during World War II was absolutely overwhelming!
And after he "sacrificed" himself, this propaganda did not diminish; it was heavily intensified instead!
A dead hero was much more useful than a living one.
For all these years, Captain America had been portrayed as the symbol of America, becoming the spiritual totem representing the nation.
Whether it was the older or younger generation of Americans, there was no shortage of Captain America worshippers.
Saying Captain America was Hydra would be like saying Lenin betrayed socialism.
Was that not completely absurd?
Even if you dared to say it, no one would dare to believe it.
In the comics, when the real Captain Hydra ruled the world, the public and all the superheroes refused to believe that Captain America was Hydra even unto their dying breaths.
They would rather tell themselves that Captain America was being mind-controlled, or that the guy was not Captain America at all.
This was the true weight behind the title of Captain America.
"Then the plan is very clear. We will act as the public force of justice, attacking these Hydra bases, while that old popsicle secretly dismantles S.H.I.E.L.D. from the inside and removes this massive cancer."
Tony's expression read: Excellent, I am gradually understanding.
But Bant shook his head.
"Wrong!"
"These are just bait."
He waved his hand, and the map disappeared, replaced by a project proposal.
— Project Insight.
"What is this?"
Tony frowned and asked.
After learning about Operation Paperclip, he had become highly wary of various "projects."
Bant did not explain it to him immediately. Instead, he said, "Just as you mentioned, wiping out all these bases will definitely deal a severe blow to Hydra. But after seventy years of laying dormant, their ever-growing ambition will not just sit back and watch us continue to sniff out more snake pits and destroy them."
"When that time comes, they will definitely initiate Project Insight."
"Which is why I asked, what is Project Insight?" Tony glared at Bant with dissatisfaction.
Bant smiled faintly and swiped his arm through the air. The detailed project proposal instantly unfolded before Tony's eyes.
The first thing to appear in the holographic projection was the towering Stark Tower.
"Through a specific analytical algorithm based on the past behavioral patterns of everyone in the world, it predicts who will pose a threat to Hydra in the future. Then, using three flying Helicarriers, it will annihilate them all in a single instant. This is Project Insight."
"Obviously, the famous Tony Stark is on the list. And of course, so am I."
Bant shrugged.
However, Tony Stark felt his scalp tingle with dread as he watched.
After all, at his core, he was just an ordinary human. He could not possibly wear his armor twenty-four hours a day. Once this so-called Project Insight was initiated, he might actually be killed.
"Lunatics!"
He slammed his fist hard onto the table, silently cursing his old man Howard once again for making such a stupid decision.
Not only did that old geezer invite wolves into the house and get himself and his wife assassinated, but now even his son was implicitly under threat.
"Knowing full well that the public strongly opposed Operation Overcast, he still thought he was being clever, just repackaging it and serving up Operation Paperclip instead..."
At this moment, Tony completely lost any desire to compare his intellect with Howard's.
His old man was clearly so brilliant, yet he made such a foolish mistake on a matter like this.
"We must stop Project Insight from being launched!"
Tony declared furiously.
But Bant relaxed, leaning back to sink into the sofa. He spread his hands and asked in return, "Why should we stop it?"
"What? Do you even need to ask? If Project Insight is implemented, who knows how many people will be killed, and this world will completely fall under Hydra's oppressive rule!"
Tony spoke as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
He was incredibly confused. Since Bant had placed this project proposal right in front of him, could he possibly be unaware of the consequences Project Insight would bring?
Yet Bant replied, "We cannot stop it. Not only will we not stop it, but on the contrary, we should push it forward."
He reached out and pushed his palm forward through the air. "I have already agreed to help Nick Fury upgrade the power systems for the Helicarriers."
"You are insane. Are you fucking Hydra too?!" Tony leaped out of his chair, pointing directly at Bant's nose, and cursed, "Do you even know what you are doing? You... wait, are you trying to...?"
"Took you long enough to realize."
Bant rolled his eyes. "I was almost starting to doubt your intelligence."
"If I am the one upgrading the Helicarriers, do you think they will end up belonging to Hydra or to Bant? Hydra thinks these three Helicarriers will become their powerful weapons to rule the world, but in reality, the guns of the Helicarriers will be pointed directly at them from the very beginning."
Bant's expression turned ice-cold. He pursed his lips and stood up from the sofa. At this moment, he looked as though he was standing upon a high commander's podium, pronouncing the doom of his enemies!
"Their Project Insight will perfectly allow us to locate every single member of Hydra. Cut off one head, two more shall take its place? Hmph, I don't like cutting off heads. I prefer to grind my enemies' bones to dust and scatter their ashes!"
Looking at Bant right now, even Tony could not help but break out in a cold sweat.
His lips turned pale as he thought to himself that those so-called Anti-Dinosaur and Anti-Heatblast armors in his backup plans could probably be pushed back a little.
The most urgent matter at hand was to build an Anti-Bant armor first...
/-\
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