Chapter 5021: Advance on York, Advance (Fifty-Seven)

The instant weightlessness hit, Shiler immediately adjusted his posture, landing on his back — he didn't strike his head, but the wound on his shoulder tore open a bit, and he drew a sharp breath.

This place was bright, even the lighting was a bit too strong, blinding one's eyes for a moment. Still, Shiler adapted quickly, and saw Pepper fallen beside him; she seemed to have been knocked unconscious.

Shiler was just about to go check on her when red dots locked onto him. He looked through the glare — several robots closed in, each holding weapons that didn't look like ordinary firearms.

He surveyed the room: metal floor, metal walls, plus incandescent lights. A ring of consoles ran along the side; the robots all stood outside the consoles. No windows, no doors visible — looked like some kind of experimental base.

At that moment Pepper woke up. She started in shock the moment she came to. And clearly, Pepper was the mastermind's target — the instant she woke, a door behind her swung open.

"Apologies for inviting you over in such a rough way, Ms. Potts." A male voice sounded.

Shiler turned his head. Walking in through the door was none other than Alexander Luthor.

"Figures it's you." Pepper's expression turned cold. To thoroughly destroy Stark Industries, and have the means to hire assassins, and kidnap them here by unknown means — probably only Luthor could pull that off.

"Please forgive my crude methods. It's just that when you decided to jump ship, you actually chose Wayne Enterprises over me — truly heartbreaking."

Shiler sized up this Luthor. Because Earth-1 as a whole was relatively young, Bruce Wayne had just entered university. Luthor looked a bit older than him, but still only in his twenties, and hadn't lost that thick head of red hair — he looked quite handsome, actually.

Though Luthor deliberately used that slightly ambiguous, teasing tone, Shiler understood — this was just him hiding his true intentions. Be it Pepper, White Can, or Luthor, people like them would absolutely not mobilize such forces merely for personal feelings. Daring to pull a stunt like this, there had to be profit in it.

"Why didn't I choose Luthor Corp? Shouldn't you know that perfectly well?" Pepper gave a cold laugh. She reached up to tidy her slightly messy hair, straightened her collar, then said, "What you want is Stark Industries' technology. Precisely speaking, the Extremis virus master sample."

Shiler turned to look at them. It seemed Luthor's attack this time killed two birds with one stone: on one hand, a heavy blow to Stark Industries' stock price; on the other, he wanted to extract the location of the Extremis master sample from Pepper.

As it happened, Pepper really did know. And judging by White Can's previous behavior, even though the two of them had beaten each other to this state, White Can still hadn't moved the master sample — it was still a secret known only to the two of them.

"I really don't know what to say about you." Pepper snorted coldly. "He and I have been broken up this long. Even if I knew anything, he would've moved it long ago. I don't want to work with you because you're too stupid."

This Luthor clearly hadn't cultivated his self-control enough — his face changed instantly. But he was better than Bruce; he quickly reined in his expression and said, "Who do you think he'd choose? You, or the Extremis master sample?"

"The Extremis virus, of course." Pepper answered without a second thought. "I'm already Mrs. Hogan. Why would he choose me?"

"You don't hate him?" Luthor paced to her front, staring into Pepper's eyes. "The two of you ending up like this today is entirely because of his willful recklessness."

Clearly Stark Industries leaked like a sieve — or rather, a restructuring this big could never be hidden. Luthor knew White Can's operations inside and out, even understood the inside story of their dispute.

"I completely understand you, ma'am." Luthor continued. "You've given so much to Stark Industries, while that idiot wants to destroy it. You have zero obligation to keep secrets for him. Besides, your husband is still lying in a hospital bed — don't you want to save him?"

Pepper walked to the chair beside her and sat down. "I've said it — we've been broken up this long. He'll definitely have moved everything, maybe even set traps in the original spot waiting for me to walk in. As for my husband, I do want to save him. But even if I save him now, Tony would go kill him. If you could actually handle Iron Man, you wouldn't have come kidnapping me."

Shiler couldn't help but admire — this lady's head was remarkably clear. The only problem was, she didn't seem to follow the principle of hostage self-rescue.

Normally, a hostage wanting to avoid being executed has to demonstrate value — claim to know many secrets, then leak them slowly, buying time for rescue. Pepper right out of the gate said she knew nothing, and acted desireless — had she decided Luthor wouldn't dare kill her?

Think about it — Luthor might truly not dare. If it were the kindly Iron Man, fine. But this current White Can — if you dare touch his people, he'll absolutely chase you to the ends of the earth to kill you. The Revival Alliance might not even be able to stop him.

Don't be fooled by how stiff White Can and Pepper are right now — just from the fact that he didn't move the Extremis master sample, you can see their binding has never been fully severed.

White Can struggled half his life, returned to find only this one person he could trust. If Pepper lives, White Can can hate her till his teeth itch. But if she dies at this critical juncture, she truly becomes an unbeatable white moonlight.

Sighing once more at their melodramatic romance, Shiler leaned against the lab bench and sat down. He'd taken a bullet in the shoulder — needed to dig it out and do a quick bandage. Let's skip the dialogue drama after this.

The two of them didn't seem to have attention to spare for him either. Luthor continued, "If that's the case, what did you go to Wayne Enterprises to talk about?"

"That's none of your business." Pepper clearly wasn't looking to die — she needed to keep a hole card. She said, "Actually, you're afraid Stark Industries and Wayne Enterprises will join forces, right? That's why you're in such a rush to kill me."

"What exactly did you talk about?!" Luthor's tone turned colder and harder. The robots pressed in closer, muzzles practically against Pepper's forehead.

Pepper knew in her heart she hadn't gone to discuss cooperation. But since Luthor didn't know that, she could make an article of it.

"One more thing." Pepper didn't answer, instead changing the subject. "The bodyguard beside me was assigned by the Revival Alliance. You probably didn't know that, right?"

Only now did Luthor notice Shiler extracting the bullet. Because he was younger and had never been to the Battle Realm, he didn't recognize Shiler's face — just took him for some ordinary agent.

He walked over, looking down at the busy Shiler. By now Shiler had already gotten the bullet out, was bandaging the wound with his coat — never once looking up at Luthor the whole time.

"The Revival Alliance..." Luthor murmured low. He was thinking — had Stark Industries, Wayne Enterprises, and the Revival Alliance already united? That was the scenario he feared most.

Same old story — he was too young. Any slightly more cunning Luthor wouldn't have come in person; at most a screen for remote shouting. And he wasn't wary enough of Shiler — figured with all these guns on his side, one agent couldn't make waves.

The result: the second Shiler finished bandaging, he exploded upward and pinned Luthor to the ground.

By the time the robots raised their guns to shoot, Luthor was already choked by Shiler and used as a shield in front of him.

Pepper shouted, "Don't move recklessly!"

The robots naturally didn't dare act rashly. Luthor struggled hard — of course he couldn't break free. He roared with a ferocious face, "Let go of me, you damn agent!"

Shiler ignored him, looking at Pepper instead. Pepper shook her head. "He still has accomplices. This IQ doesn't look like someone who could research a vortex portal..."

Shiler also had to marvel — Pepper's mouth really cut deep. Luthor visibly reddened with rage, his struggles intensifying. But Shiler didn't care; he was also scanning the room, trying to determine where this was.

Suddenly, one wall lit up. A familiar face appeared on the screen — Mister Fantastic, Reed Richards.

"My apologies for inviting you over in this manner." Reed said. "I just want to talk with Tony Stark."

Pepper stared at the screen for a while, then said, "What do you want to talk to him about?"

"We both dislike the Revival Alliance." Reed continued. "They imprisoned me here, and want to put Tony Stark on trial. But we both know Civil War is inevitable. Even if we're assigning blame for the spark, the one who should stand in the dock is someone else entirely."

Pepper tilted her head slightly. She stared at the screen, stepped a few paces closer, narrowed her eyes. "You're not Reed Richards. Who are you?"

Shiler, who had been getting drowsy from this cliché plot development, instantly perked up. Not Reed? How could she tell?

Since the other party only appeared on screen and spoke just a few lines, Shiler genuinely couldn't tell who he was. And even Pepper, despite having dealt with Reed more in the past, shouldn't be able to judge from just these few sentences.

Yet Pepper paced unhurriedly before the screen. "First, this isn't Jotunheim. Because Alexander Luthor, no matter how stupid, would absolutely never leave Earth to come to a place like this to threaten me."

"Second, Reed would never let Luthor in. Even if he were secretly plotting, inviting Luthor in so brazenly would expose his intentions prematurely. If Thor locked onto him, he wouldn't be able to do anything."

"Third, he has no necessity to cooperate with Luthor whatsoever. What can Luthor offer him? Money? Status? Technology? He lacks none of those. If he wants to break out, he has no use for anything of Luthor's. And Luthor has no leverage to threaten him. There's no basis for cooperation between them."

"So I should still be on Earth. Right on Luthor's turf. This is a scheme cooked up by Luthor and his accomplice — to frame Reed Richards, they staged this whole show."

"If it's just a performance for me, it's meaningless. Your real target is Tony. You want Tony to believe Reed Richards kidnapped me, so he'll rush to Jotunheim in an emotional frenzy, sparking conflict between Tony and the real Reed."

"Looks like you have more confidence in our feelings than we do yourselves. You're certain he'll come save me." Pepper shook her head. "But you're wrong. He won't just come charging in like that."

"Why not?" Luthor looked at her and asked. "You hold so many of his secrets, and hate him so much. Even just to stop you from cooperating with me, he'd come."

Pepper merely gave a cold laugh, and didn't speak.

Meanwhile, news of Pepper being attacked and kidnapped had already reached Iron Man's ears.

"I don't believe you didn't leave some tracking device on her." Natasha looked at Iron Man. "Where is she?"

Iron Man didn't speak. He stared at the word "Jotunheim" displayed by the positioning system for a long time.

"Even if you don't worry about her personally, you should at least worry about the secrets of yours that she knows?" Natasha hit the nail on the head, "The other party definitely came for those things, and with you two in this state, she won't keep your mouth shut for you."

"You're wrong about that, she absolutely won't say." Iron Man lowered his head, seeming not at all anxious, he said, "Someone who doesn't love a person for money isn't necessarily a profit-above-all advocate, but someone who doesn't hate a person for money definitely is."

"You mean Pepper Potts?" Natasha asked.

"I mean the two of us." Iron Man checked that address again, he said, "We don't trust each other's character and integrity, but we trust each other's profit-seeking, and that's the most important reason we've both lived to this day."