Chapter 221: Military Movements (Part 1)

"I repeat, I am a doctor, not God." Strange stood before Obadiah's hospital bed and said, "He is the first patient I have ever seen to be re-hospitalized less than a week after being discharged. If we look at this frequency, let alone newly developed medicine, even God couldn't save him."

Stark, standing on the other side of the bed, sighed deeply. Schiller, beside him, asked, "I am certain that his physical indicators were completely fine before he was discharged, even far exceeding those of an ordinary person. How on earth did you manage to anger him into a hypertensive crisis and get him re-hospitalized within a week?"

Stark said very aggrievedly, "I didn't do anything. It was just that after he was discharged, he saw the recent financial reports of Stark Industries, as well as the contract for the Stark-Osborn Joint Pharmaceutical Group, and he became like this..."

The cause of the matter was that after Obadiah finished his final course of treatment, he woke up. Just as Connors and Schiller had expected, the medicine extracted from the fear toxin to stimulate brain activity, combined with the healing serum from the lizard serum, not only awakened Obadiah but also improved his physical fitness.

After resting a little, Obadiah threw himself back into work. That's right, the first thing he did after waking up was not to have a heart-to-heart talk with Stark. Stark watched helplessly as Obadiah bypassed him and flew rapidly toward his precious company.

Clearly, in Obadiah's view, compared to Stark, the Stark Industrial Group was more important.

Although Obadiah had prepared himself mentally as much as possible before returning to the company, the situation of the company still made his vision go black.

There was nothing wrong with the original industries of the Stark Industrial Group. Although Pepper had gone through a long adaptation period when she took over and was a bit busy in the beginning, she did a pretty good job at the end. Although the profits were not as good as when Obadiah was there, they were barely acceptable. Obadiah felt a bit of heartache, but he accepted the result.

What really made Obadiah pass out was the new business of the recent period, namely the Stark-Osborn Joint Pharmaceutical Group and the Immortality Factor Foundation.

It is no exaggeration to say that the entire Stark Group was built by Obadiah single-handedly. Without Obadiah, Howard's genius ideas would always have been just talk on paper and could not be converted into real, actual benefits. Obadiah's talent in business was incomparable.

Having just returned to the company, he heard about the Immortality Factor industry and was also pleasantly surprised by this genius idea. But subsequently, he saw the contract between Stark, the Osborn Group, and the Immortality Factor Foundation, and then his hypertension flared up, and he was re-hospitalized.

Using the phrase "heart bleeding" could no longer well express Obadiah's feelings. His current situation was that his heart had nothing left but blood; he was almost having a cerebral hemorrhage.

Stark felt that the terms he had negotiated were already quite good, but in the eyes of a business tycoon like Osborn, Stark belonged to the category of "a son selling his father's fields without heartache." You actually went to talk to the Osborn Group about profit sharing? Shouldn't it be him paying you? You actually gave up a full 3% share just for the order of the company's naming! This prodigal son!

Obadiah was truly almost angered to death. "Hating iron for not becoming steel" could no longer describe his current mood. He wished he could dig Howard out of his coffin and let him see exactly how prodigal his son was.

Stark felt very aggrieved. Objectively speaking, he had indeed tried his best.

Stark sighed and said, "Pepper and I both thought we did well, but the result..."

"You might not be lacking in intelligence, just lacking in greed." Schiller finally concluded.

Stark spread his hands and said, "Whatever. I can finally stop worrying about those annoying things and return to my happy life from before."

"Sword of Coming"

Schiller shook his head and said, "I'm afraid you're happy a bit too early."

"Do you know about the recent movements of the military?"

"The military's movements, oh..." Stark said, "Let me guess, they must have a bunch of questions waiting to ask me, maybe they'll even want to hold some kind of hearing, and then make me hand over the technology for transforming into a cosmic demon and conjuring countless mechanical armies out of thin air to them..."

"Nick wouldn't let them do that." Schiller told Stark the conclusion directly: "He even has a speech draft ready to denounce the military."

Schiller was right; Nick was currently locking horns with the military.

Currently, Stark's attitude was more inclined toward S. H. I. E. L. D. They had common interests in the Immortality Factor and the cosmic demon, and they were cooperating very happily. Neither side wanted an interloper to intervene. It was absolutely impossible for Stark to cooperate fully with the military, but even if a little bit of meat was taken away, Nick would feel a heart-wrenching pain.

Human habits are difficult to change. If Stark were still like he was in the movie, just a scientist who had mastered mecha technology, then I'm afraid he would still be coerced and lured by the military just like in the movie.

But now, he had exceeded this specification by too much. The appearance of the Iron Demon had already made the military and the Security Council think about moving to another planet. The "Wandering Earth" plan was already on the tip of their tongues. If it hadn't been for the fact that Stark, who had transformed into a demon, disappeared into thin air, things would have been in chaos by now.

Even though the Iron Demon who conjured the mechanical army had disappeared, the military still had a belly full of questions to ask Stark. But because the power Stark displayed was too "over-modeled," they dared not adopt any coercive measures.

Because Stark had not yet announced to the public the fact that he was Iron Man, the military believed he could not participate in a public hearing. Therefore, it was not that they hadn't tried to privately invite Stark to hold talks with the military.

But this plan encountered too much resistance. On one hand, to avoid Stark's contact with the military destroying their cooperation, S. H. I. E. L. D. would definitely interfere. On the other hand, after Obadiah returned, the Stark Group seemed to have a backbone. Obadiah was very resistant to cooperating with the military, and it was also very difficult for the military to bypass him to contact Stark.

Now, Stark was not a hedgehog, but he was surrounded by a group of hedgehogs, and the military was a bit at a loss.

But it was also impossible for them to just stand by and watch. They would not let such a powerful force escape their control. Even if they knew a nuclear bomb was in front of them, before it finally exploded, there would always be someone who wanted to knock a little profit off it.

In the end, the military approached the World Security Council.

It must be said that they found the right person. Watching Nick Fury's power begin to grow stronger and stronger, and the superheroes around him becoming more and more powerful, Alexander Pierce couldn't sit still.

Originally, he and Nick had common interests, such as the Immortality Factor industry. But Nick had grown bigger and stronger through a series of operations, and his reliance on Pierce had become smaller and smaller. Seeing that the agent he had chosen was gradually becoming uncontrollable, Pierce also wanted to weaken Nick's power and hold him back in his own hands.

Changes in interests determine changes in stance. Soon, Nick received a call from the World Security Council.

On an unremarkable Saturday morning in New York in the autumn, the Global Times published a blockbuster news story: "Tony Stark—The Secret Beneath Iron Man's Metal Mask."

Stark put down the newspaper, placed the coffee in his hand on the table, and said in a light tone, "That's good now. No need for me to announce it myself; they said it for me."

Pepper, opposite him, said very helplessly, "This matter has a huge impact. Many people have been incited by the military. They believe you have a responsibility to hand over this advanced technology to the military to maintain world peace."

"To hell with world peace!" Nick held his phone in his office and shouted, "Don't use that set of rhetoric you use to fool three-year-olds to fool me!"

"How long do you intend to play this set of tricks? Constant probing, pushing for more, public opinion pressure, economic sanctions—is your brain completely rusted?"

"Why don't you understand yet? This set of tricks can no longer trap Stark, and once he is angered, the entire Earth will be in danger, and the final mess will still have to be cleaned up by S. H. I. E. L. D.!"

After hanging up the phone, Nick sighed and said to Hill beside him, "What was the name of the host of that black symbiote last time? Is he a reporter for the Global Times? Contact him immediately..."

At this time, Eddie was standing in front of a hot dog stand in Hell's Kitchen, arguing with Venom: "I warned you last time that the chili in Mexico is very spicy, but you insisted on buying the extra-spicy hot dog. I almost died from the spice. This time I absolutely will not..."

"You are truly the most cowardly human I have ever seen. A little chili makes you wail."

"One extra-spicy, please, thanks." A hoarse and low voice came from Eddie's throat. Subsequently, he twitched and said, "No! Don't make it extra-spicy, just make it mild..."

"No! Make it extra-spicy!"

"No..."

"Hey, wait, there's a beauty!"

"Don't try to interfere with me. This trick doesn't work anymore."

"Hello, my name is Hill. May I ask if you are Eddie Brock?"

Eddie turned his head and saw Hill, dressed in professional attire, appearing behind him.

"I am. What's the matter?"

"Hello, I am S. H. I. E. L. D. Agent Hill. Now there is some work that I need your cooperation with." Hill flashed her ID.

"Hello, Phantom, long time no see. It was too rushed on the battlefield last time. Are you free recently?"

"Wait!" Eddie stopped what Venom was about to say next. He whispered, "Didn't you hear what she said? She is a S. H. I. E. L. D. agent..."

On the other side, Phantom was also saying to Hill in her mind: "I said before, Venom is truly crazy. He actually wants his host to hit on you!"

"I don't think he wants his host to hit on me. Don't you feel like he wants to hit on you?"

"Don't joke." Phantom said: "Symbiotes have no gender at all, because we don't need to combine two sexes like humans to reproduce. My form is female only because the human host I parasitized was female..."

At this time, a very subtle relationship had developed between the two pairs of symbiotes and hosts. Eddie felt that Venom definitely wanted to hit on Phantom; Phantom felt that Eddie wanted to control his host to hit on Hill; but Hill, like Eddie, felt that Venom must have taken a fancy to Phantom...

This caused the two of them to face each other without knowing what to say, and they could only talk to their own symbiotes in their minds.

Gonzalez, the hot dog seller, tapped the tray and said, "Do you still want hot dogs?"

Eddie didn't know how to start, but before he could speak, Venom said first: "Two, please. One extra-spicy, one mild. Also, two glasses of juice, one without ice, thanks."

When the hot dogs were ready, Eddie and Hill sat down at the table and chairs under the parasol next to the hot dog stand. Phantom said to Hill: "Are you really going to eat what Venom ordered? I'm really worried that I'll be infected..."

Hill did not touch the food in front of her, but said to Eddie: "You should have read that recent report in the Global Times, right?"

Eddie took a bite of the hot dog and said: "Are you referring to the report revealing that Stark is Iron Man?"

"What do you think about this?"

"Although reporters sometimes need to constantly repeat some obvious facts, this report stated something that anyone with a brain could have guessed, yet it received such a huge response, which made me deeply reflect on what the significance of my career is."

"S. H. I. E. L. D. suspects that this is a ploy by the military to pressure Stark again."

"It seems I misunderstood my former peers. It's not the reporters who are stupid, but the military."

Hill asked Phantom in her mind: "Is this fellow of yours named Venom always this venomous?"

"How would I know? I'm not interested in understanding a lunatic."

"The situation now is like this." Hill explained to Eddie: "We don't know what tricks the military has played, but in short, they moved the World Security Council. The Security Council and the military stood on the same side, claiming that Stark's technology could better maintain world peace."

"They wouldn't be wanting Stark to hand over his technology, would they?"

"Perhaps not all of it, but at least a part of it." Hill paused: "If we go by the power Stark displayed that day, the goal of the Security Council and the military is at least his latest generation of mecha, and they might even want to obtain the power that allowed Stark to transform into a god."

"To achieve their goal, they will try every possible way to harass Stark. Even if Stark isn't afraid of them in terms of force, if he wants to live in this society, they have many ways to cause trouble for Stark and the Stark Group."

"S. H. I. E. L. D. wants to prevent this from happening, but the problem is, we are an organization under the jurisdiction of the World Security Council."

Hill made a gesture and said: "Clearly, our situation is a bit awkward now. The World Security Council wants us not to intervene, and Director Nick is also facing great pressure. Therefore, we cannot help Stark openly."

"But we don't want them to succeed, so we hope you can do us a favor."

"I used to be a reporter for the Global Times, but that was also in the past." Eddie drank two sips of juice and said: "If you found me because of my former profession, then I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. I no longer have any credibility in the industry."

Hill said to Eddie: "The military won't have only this one trick. Next, they should repeat the same old trick, manipulating major media to target Stark, accusing him of possessing such advanced technology yet being unwilling to contribute to human peace, and even digging up old accounts to accuse him of selling arms."

"We hope to obtain evidence of the editor-in-chief of the Global Times accepting bribes and guiding public opinion. You should know that editor-in-chief very well, right?"

"In addition, due to the pressure from the Security Council, it is currently inconvenient for S. H. I. E. L. D. and S. H. I. E. L. D. agents to come forward, so we hope to hire you to help us resist the military's offensive and prevent them from smearing Stark."

"I heard from Phantom that you have a grudge against Riot. Now S. H. I. E. L. D. is using Riot for experiments. We can give him to you, plus some energy remaining on him. How about it?"

"... Deal." ===== CHAPTER 222 =====