"Revenge for what?" Tony Stark scoffed, raising an eyebrow. "Sorry, I'm not interested in joining your little super boy band."
Nick Fury wasn't fazed by Tony's rejection. He simply responded, "This isn't some group of overgrown boy scouts. This is a team specifically assembled to deal with superhumans who are far from easy to handle—beings and monsters that make werewolves and vampires look tame."
"You mean the ones mentioned in Luo Chen's diary?" Tony asked bluntly, not bothering to play coy.
Now that Fury had brought up the diary, it was clear he had access to one as well. There was no point in dancing around it. If Fury already suspected Tony had a copy, then he likely came here fully prepared.
At that point, trying to hide anything would've been meaningless.
"Exactly," Fury confirmed. Since he intended to bring Tony into the Avengers—not the Super Boy Band—certain secrets had to be shared. "After reading the diary, you must have a general idea of who Luo Chen is."
"I do. He's some kind of time traveler, a regular person from a universe beyond the fourth wall," Tony said matter-of-factly.
"Then you've probably already put it together," Fury continued. "According to Luo Chen's writing, we're all just NPCs—characters in a fictional narrative."
"Hey, speak for yourself. I'm not just some background NPC," Tony shot back immediately. "I'm the protagonist. Do you know what that means? Do you understand the narrative weight I carry?"
Nick Fury was briefly at a loss for words. Tony Stark's arrogance truly knew no bounds. Even in the face of metaphysical existentialism, the man still managed to be shamelessly full of himself.
But then again… this was Tony Stark. He really was different from most. Maybe even different from other main characters.
"I couldn't accept it at first either," Tony said after a pause, his voice quieter now. A sardonic smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "But over time… yeah. I started to believe it."
When he first learned that he was just a fictional creation, it nearly broke him. His worldview crumbled. For a while, he indulged recklessly, living even more wildly than usual. But after a few days, he found his footing again.
Whether he was truly just a character created by someone beyond the fourth wall—or as J.A.R.V.I.S had tried to comfort him, maybe their universe had been projected into the mind of a writer—none of it mattered in the end.
He was still Tony Stark.
Not some puppet. Not a dog or a cat. He refused to be a character controlled by someone else.
"Luo Chen's diary records a ridiculous number of disasters," Fury continued. "Some are hard to interpret—he uses way too many memes and inside jokes—but they're real threats."
Tony nodded in agreement. That was one of the biggest issues with Luo Chen's writing. The guy was practically addicted to obscure references, and without being able to ask him directly, most of it had to be guessed.
"There are far too many potential crises described in that journal," Fury said. "That's why I've formed a small, elite task force—the Avengers. To handle threats beyond the capabilities of ordinary people. Like your dear uncle, Obadiah."
Tony couldn't argue with that. The Iron Monger suit—Obadiah's version of his original Mark I—was an absolute beast. On its own, it could probably steamroll an entire platoon of the Lighthouse Country's armed forces.
Don't let the rough, early design fool you. In raw power, it might have outclassed even his current suits—Mark II and Mark III—because the philosophy behind its construction was completely different.
"Some crises just can't be handled by one person," Fury said. "Take you, for example. You almost got killed by Obadiah. If it weren't for the intervention of a mysterious individual, things could've gone very badly."
He paused, letting the gravity of his words settle. "That mysterious person—according to our surveillance footage and cross-referenced intelligence—is most likely the street-level superhero who's recently made headlines: Superman."
Tony's brows lifted slightly. Now this was getting interesting.
"These are the kinds of things you can't uncover on your own," Fury continued. "We have access to intelligence networks spanning the entire world. Even with J.A.R.V.I.S, you simply can't match what a global organization like S.H.I.E.L.D. can do."
Tony swirled his drink, a sly smile creeping onto his face.
"So… what I'm hearing is… you still don't know who Superman really is?"
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