Chapter 4971: Advance to York, Advance (VII)

The security check has been completed. Natasha nodded and said: "We'll come by again before bedtime tonight, but you don't need to let us inside for another inspection. Someone will be in touch with you regarding the overnight security detail. By the way, are you allergic to bats?"

Shiler's finger paused slightly, not understanding why she would ask that, so he half-joked: "Are you looking for Batman to come stand guard for me?"

"Not exactly." Natasha gave a professional smile, "Possibly even more bat-like than that."

Shiler didn't quite grasp her meaning, but he didn't dwell on it. After Natasha left, Shiler watched her retreating figure. Thor seemed worried that Shiler thought Natasha's attitude was poor, so he explained: "This lady tends to be more stern in her work, but she is extremely conscientious. With her here, no one can threaten your safety."

"I believe that." Shiler said, "After all, she is Ms. Romanoff, and they have always been quite accomplished in this regard."

Thor didn't catch his meaning, but Peter couldn't help laughing out loud, nodding and saying: "Yeah, they haven't had any assassinated presidents over there."

"Or rather, two."

The two exchanged a glance and smiled knowingly.

At that moment, Peter's phone rang. He answered and said: "Hello, this is Parker. What? A fight broke out? With whom?... Okay, I'll be right there."

Peter slipped his phone back into his pocket and stood up, saying: "Bruce Wayne seems to have had some conflict with his classmates; I need to go check it out."

Just as Peter was about to leave, Shiler called out to him, saying: "Don't rush, first call the people from the Revival Alliance. Natasha should still be downstairs and not have left yet—ask her if she can bring someone over. Otherwise, how are you going to stop Spider-Man?"

"I'm not saying I can't beat him." Peter said, "Of course I don't mean I want to fight him, but if he acts up, I can completely restrain him. I'm a sorcerer now."

Shiler sighed and said: "But you're not a member of the Revival Alliance, so it's better to have someone with an official position handle it. How about I call Agent Carter?"

"Oh, better not—she's been especially tired lately." Peter pulled out his own phone, dialed a number, gave a few instructions to the other end, then said: "I still need to go see what's going on. I think there might be a misunderstanding. If it can't be resolved, it might affect his relationship with his classmates. I don't want any conflict among the students I brought..."

"Go ahead." Shiler said, "Thor can keep me company for a walk."

After Peter left, Shiler stood up. Thor assumed he was heading out and walked toward the door, only to find Shiler had stopped at the floor-to-ceiling window.

"What's going on between you and Loki?"

Thor let out a long sigh: "Last time, I withstood everyone's pressure and brought him back. Then he turned around and released Sutel, putting me in an awkward spot. This time, no matter what, I'm not letting him out."

"Is he not giving you trouble?"

"He's been able to calm down lately." Thor said, "But I think it'll probably only last about half a month. Why not say, this wedding is perfectly timed. Loki is in a cooldown period, so at least he won't come out causing trouble."

"Keeping him locked up like this isn't a solution either—what do you plan to do?"

"Actually, letting him out to move around isn't a problem." Thor said, "Now I can control all Nine Realms; whatever mischief he causes won't escape my eyes, and I can stop him in advance—I definitely won't let him cause any major chaos again."

Shiler lightly pressed his lips together, as if he had something to say, but in the end he didn't speak. Thor noticed and asked: "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Shiler gently shook his head, "If you have any psychology-related issues, feel free to come find me."

"I heard you charge a lot." Thor grinned.

"Sometimes that's true." Shiler also didn't deny it, "But occasionally I also offer free help."

At that moment, the door was knocked again. Shiler walked over, opened it, and found Carter looking helpless and Iron Man with his arms crossed.

"You really came." Iron Man squeezed in through the door gap directly.

Shiler looked him up and down, then said: "I really didn't expect you to show up in this armor to see me—if you don't want to come, you don't have to."

Iron Man was instantly dumbfounded: "What?"

"If your symbiote armor is like a suit, then this one should be more like pajamas, right?" Shiler looked at his gold-and-red armor, "Even if you can't wear formal attire for some reason, there's no need to drag everyone into throwing a retro pajama party, is there?"

Thor on one side and Carter on the other both widened their eyes at Shiler: Is the War of the Dual Cities going to happen all over again???

Iron Man instantly flushed—physically flushed. The core on his chest armor flared brightly, and the nozzles on his hands all opened.

But he took a deep breath, slammed his hand hard against the doorframe, then said: "You illiterate! This isn't the first-generation armor, just the same color scheme. It's not like any gold-and-red combo automatically makes it the first generation!"

"Then what about your symbiote armor?"

Iron Man shut down.

"I didn't mean to offend, but this outfit really does look too much like other Iron Men, which would make me mistakenly think you're a good guy."

"I am a good guy now! I'm the head of Strategic Security!"

"Then Mr. Head of Strategic Security, what brings you here?"

Iron Man seemed to have completely lost his temper, walked straight in, and said: "Are you pretending not to know, or do you genuinely not know?"

"What should I know?" Shiler looked at him and asked.

"I'll just assume you're an ordinary person without mind-reading." Iron Man walked in, let out a long sigh, opened his faceplate, turned to look at Shiler, and said: "There are two Iron Men in this universe."

"You're here to win my support?"

Iron Man looked visibly embarrassed, but he still said: "Originally, if there were no Batman, I could accept having two Iron Men, but now another Batman has shown up as well."

"You can't beat the two of them together?"

"Shiler!" Iron Man raised his voice.

"It's not that I'm being too blunt, but it's not like you standing here chatting with me for half an hour will get you the answer you want. Because I'm just here to attend the wedding." Shiler said, "I don't want to cause trouble."

Iron Man stared at him blankly, as if he'd just heard some ancient oddity: "You don't want trouble? Then tell me why this universe has two Iron Men, and why a perfectly fine Earth suddenly has Batman and the Justice League?"

"This isn't trouble." Shiler said, "No matter how you say it, it should also count as helping you solve trouble."

Iron Man had already realized Shiler was impervious to persuasion, so he changed tactics: "I don't care whether that kid Nightwing's wedding goes smoothly or not—I just want to settle the score with them."

"I'm still here." Thor crossed his arms and looked at him, saying: "Don't even think about causing trouble in front of so many guests—be careful, or I'll throw you out."

"Ruining someone else's wedding won't make you look clever." Shiler walked back to the sofa and sat down, then asked Carter to sit opposite him. He looked at Carter and said: "Haven't you thought about mediating between them?"

"Everyone else is fine." Carter said, "Only he insists on not getting along with them."

Shiler looked at Iron Man, and Iron Man also stood there looking at him. After standing a while, Iron Man turned to leave, and Shiler said: "I can understand you. You believe you're living in constant terror of imminent danger, so you're desperately trying to control something around you, trying to prove you can control something—you're almost driven mad by it."

Iron Man's steps halted, he turned his head to look at Shiler, but by then he had already closed his faceplate, so no one could see his eyes.

"I don't understand." Carter also looked at Iron Man, "The war is over—what exactly are you afraid of? Is it guilt?"

Carter clearly viewed the issue from another angle. Obviously Iron Man also belongs to the mad scientist camp—even if this incident wasn't caused by him, and even if he brought in the Three Realms to defend Earth, which in some sense counts as resistance against Darkseid and thus some contribution, he might also be worried about being purged.

Especially since this Iron Man is clearly off—his arrogance surpasses anyone's imagination. So he probably doesn't want to go live in some deserted place like Reed does; he wants to enjoy the city's prosperity and bustle, resist control, yet also want others to genuinely believe in him.

Thinking this, Carter flared up. These people always act this way—relying on their genius-scientist status, they don't put anyone's life safety or Earth's safety in their eyes. Because they know they'll be forgiven after causing trouble, they keep causing dangerous accidents over and over.

Carter stood up, looked at Iron Man, and said: "The ones who should feel fear and unease aren't you, Tony Stark. It's the ordinary people shadowed by your dangerous inventions—even if they're willing to call you a great scientist, willing to believe your accidents are just innocent mistakes, a necessary part of human scientific development. But you yourself should know deep down whether that's really the case or not."

"You should be very clear about whether you truly deserve such affection and praise. If you really are the all-powerful hero they claim you to be, why did Pepper leave you?"

Iron Man's face changed: "How dare you mention Pepper?!"

He stepped forward, and Thor quickly stepped in between them. Iron Man shoved him aside, looking at Carter and saying: "Your own marriage is unhappy, so you can't bear to see others happy. If you hadn't told Pepper about my past, she wouldn't have..."

"Do you really think you can hide it forever?!" Carter stared into Iron Man's eyes and said firmly, "The evil you possess, the sins you have committed, will eventually be exposed to the public. By then, how do you know she won't personally stand in the courtroom to accuse you?"

"I'm still here telling you this precisely because you are the only one who resolved the interstellar war through action. I believe perhaps you have a part that deserves people's praise. But Tony, if one day someone destroys you, it won't be Spider-Man, it won't be Pepper, and it won't be me—it will only be yourself! Tony, you threw your talent into the sea; only those who want to fish it out will drown. I hope you remember this."

Iron Man's chest heaved violently, his hands gripping the doorframe tightly: "Then you shouldn't have... you shouldn't have, you shouldn't have dragged Pepper into this!"

"Don't underestimate her, Tony." Carter almost pressed her face against Iron Man's, "She is your best assistant, the one who knows you best. If she had no suspicions, why would she come to me?"

"But you could tell her, I didn't..."

"How could you think I could fool her?! If you had consistently acted with integrity and kindness, displaying a true sense of justice from beginning to end, even if I said you were evil, she wouldn't have left you!"

Iron Man walked away, dazed and disoriented.