For Pietro, letting go of old hatred wasn't so easy.
The missiles hadn't been launched by Stark, but the fact that they came from Stark Industries was undeniable.
And the Celestial Union had fought side by side with the Avengers during the Battle of New York.
So Pietro really wanted to know: if one day he and Wanda decided to take revenge on Stark, what would the Celestial Union do?
Help them, or stop them?
If it was the latter, then no matter how generous Bant's terms were, he would never agree.
To that, Bant said:
"The Celestial Union isn't a community center, Mr. Pietro. We don't help mediate members' personal relationships, and generally speaking, we don't interfere in members' personal lives."
In other words, that grudge between them and Tony Stark—he wouldn't get involved.
Don't expect any help, but he wouldn't stop them either.
"That's enough!"
Pietro nodded at once.
As long as they weren't stopped, it was fine.
He immediately jumped up from the couch, slapping his backside, and asked, "When do we leave?"
"Right now."
A few hours later, Bant was back in the States, welcomed by a Quinjet Norman had sent. Then he brought Pietro and Wanda to Primus.
"The Celestial Union headquarters space station is still under construction, and New York City is being rebuilt. You can stay at Primus for now."
The Primus building had hundreds of floors. After Avengers Tower collapsed in the war, this had become the true tallest building in New York.
Before, Bant had assigned dedicated floors to scientists like Connors and the others as labs, but even with several floors each, they hardly took up any space. Most of the building was still unused.
Bant felt he really should start hiring for the company. Otherwise, always relying on Osborn employees to handle things wasn't ideal. When that Spider-Man costume image copyright issue came up, they'd even had to use Osborn's legal department.
"If you want to hire a lawyer, you could give my cousin a try," Bruce Banner said as he walked over. "Her name is Jennifer. She just graduated, studied law-related stuff."
It seemed the argument between Banner and Otto had ended. Who convinced whom was anyone's guess.
"Have her come in for an interview sometime."
Bant nodded. He knew Banner's cousin would eventually become She-Hulk, so bringing her into Primus early was fine.
Banner nodded. Then he looked at Wanda and Pietro and asked, puzzled, "And they are?"
"New members of the Celestial Union. This is Wanda Maximoff, and this is Pietro Maximoff." Bant's introduction was brief. Wanda seemed very reserved, but Pietro was far more outgoing. He proactively extended his hand to Banner and said, "You can call me Quicksilver. That's the hero alias I came up with myself."
"Bruce Banner."
Banner shook his hand lightly and prepared to leave. Truthfully, he wasn't very good at dealing with lively kids like Quicksilver.
"Otto and I plan to study the Mind Stone. I'll head upstairs now."
Clearly, Otto had won that debate. Bant wasn't surprised. With a wonder like the Mind Stone sitting right in front of them, no scientist could resist studying it. The stone's mysteries corresponded to truth itself.
"Be careful, Dr. Banner," Bant reminded him, then took Wanda and Quicksilver to pick out a floor for them to stay on temporarily.
"Stay here for now. I'll find time to buy you clothes, or you can go get them yourselves."
Bant directly handed them two pre-prepared salary cards, intending to let them move about freely for now.
"Tomorrow I'll test the strength of your abilities, then find a time to introduce you to the other members."
When they'd left Sokovia, night had just fallen. The flight took several hours, and with the time difference, it was already morning in New York now. Having been up all night, Pietro's energy was still fine, but Wanda already looked visibly tired. Bant decided to let them rest for the day.
"No problem!"
Pietro clearly had no intention of resting obediently. After taking the bank card from Bant, he immediately asked where to buy video games in New York. To adjust to the time difference, Wanda also planned to go out with him. Seeing this, Bant said:
"You're definitely going to become good friends with Harry and Peter."
——
"You're definitely going to become good friends with Harry and little Bant."
"Tonight little Bant is coming home. I can introduce you to him then…"
On the streets of New York, Peter swung through the city's sky on black webbing as he spoke to the Venom inside his body.
Ever since he'd put on Venom that last time, he hadn't taken it off.
Venom had a bit of a foul mouth, always cursing and thinking about eating people's heads, but he did make Peter feel more confident.
Anyway, the two of them were still in their honeymoon phase. The rush of power Venom had given Peter during the Chitauri war was intoxicating; he loved that feeling of strength.
Especially since, as Venom replicated his genes, the replicated power was also fed back into Peter.
So in his eyes, many of Venom's flaws didn't matter at all.
Not only that, Venom was slowly influencing Peter too.
But Peter's personality was too soft, and he was overly righteous, so Venom's influence was slow—so far, the signs weren't even showing.
"Who cares."
Venom answered him absentmindedly. In truth, he didn't care at all what Peter said. The streets were full of people walking around—hearts, livers, spleens, kidneys, lungs, even large intestines stuffed with shit smelled delicious to Venom. Sweet, tasty smells everywhere! Having been hungry for days, Venom couldn't think about anything else, and he hadn't heard a word of Peter talking about him being an alien. He just didn't care!
In Venom's view, this whole planet was full of delicacies. Who would care about anything else? As long as he didn't run into that weirdo who'd captured him before and kept changing into all sorts of things. Back then, Bant's random shape-shifting had scared Venom badly. Most importantly, that guy didn't keep his word and knew exactly how to deal with him.
"When can I eat them?"
"Never." Peter raised a hand and swung himself higher.
"I protest!" Venom shouted. "I want to eat brains! I want to use my teeth to crunch their skulls like potato chips, then pour boiling water into their brains and give them a good scald! Mmm—fresh!"
As he said this, Venom acted like he was already eating, unconsciously sticking out his tongue, then using that tongue longer than a snake's to give Peter's face a thorough licking.
"You're so gross!"
Peter instantly cringed. As far as he was concerned, Venom was great in every way except he was just too disgusting. His behavior, his menu—all of it was revolting.
"We can't eat people, and we can't crack open someone's skull to scald their brains with boiling water!"
Peter lectured Venom, his face drooping, voice full of exasperation. "Venom, we're superheroes. We can't do bad things."
"Alright…" Venom said quietly, as if he finally understood Peter's well-meaning efforts. Peter nodded in relief. "Good that you understand."
Then he heard Venom ask, "Then let's eat the heads of scumbags."
"Ah… no!"
"Old people's. They're almost dead anyway."
"No! And if you ever even think about eating Uncle Ben and Aunt May's brains, I'll kill you!" Peter warned.
Venom immediately shouted in dissatisfaction. "Not this either! Not that either! What do you want from me?"
"Don't eat people," Peter said flatly. Then he shot a web at a corner of the Empire State Building and swung away. "Alright, I'm going home now. Shut up."
"No!!!" Venom's voice trailed a long tail through the sky. "You're abusing me! You won't let me eat. I'll report you to the Alien Protection Association!"
"Shut up!"
Thirty minutes later, Peter burst through the front door, arms piled high with a mountain of cheap chocolate. Inside, Uncle Ben and Aunt May were busy preparing dinner. Seeing their nephew return, both stopped what they were doing and stared at him in surprise.
"Peter?" Aunt May held a spatula.
"What?" Peter mumbled through a mouthful, chewing and stuffing unwrapped chocolate bars into his mouth.
"You look so weird!" Uncle Ben and Aunt May said at the same time. "Even weirder than last semester."
They meant last semester, when Peter had just been bitten by the spider and started developing powers. Back then, Peter ate more than a cow a day.
"Uh… I'm just a little hungry. You know, puberty…" Peter scratched his head and explained awkwardly.
Uncle Ben was still puzzled. "I didn't know puberty came with those symptoms."
"It's perfectly normal, Uncle Ben. You'll understand when you reach my age."
Uncle Ben: ???
Peter was talking nonsense. He decided to change the subject. "Okay, what I meant was, where are little Bant and Harry?"
"They're not back yet."
"Alright, I'll go wait upstairs."
After saying this, Peter fled upstairs. Once in his room, Venom stuck out his head and asked while eating chocolate, "Who are little Bant and Harry?"
"My cousin and my best friend."
"Wait, you never told me you had a cousin!" Venom exclaimed in shock.
"What nonsense are you talking about?" Peter slapped Venom directly. "I was telling you about him the whole way home."
"Oh my god! I really didn't know you had a cousin! Does he look like you? I bet, I bet, he must be incredibly delicious!"
"I'm warning you, you'd better not mess with him, or you'll be in for a world of hurt."
/-\
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