Chapter 89 Find Them, Tony
That night, the Maximoff siblings were sleepless.
Pietro lay on the bed, his eyes wide open, staring at the ceiling lamp.
"Druig, Faustus, Makkari…"
Pietro didn't recognize these names, but that wasn't important.
What was important was Leon's attitude.
"I will go personally and drag them out of their holes."
Pietro had no doubt that Leon would make good on his word.
This man was a devil.
A devil in polite clothing, mild-mannered.
Pietro clenched his fists.
He felt like a wolf trapped in a cage.
Anger burned in his gut.
But he was powerless.
He didn't even dare to show his fangs in front of Leon.
"I must become stronger… I must protect Wanda…"
In the next room, Wanda was curled up under the covers.
Leon's words echoed in her mind.
He seemed to know everything, capable of anything.
But deep down, she also had an expectation.
An expectation for tomorrow… the next day.
In the early morning, the Sun was dazzling.
Jarvis's gentle voice sounded promptly in both rooms, waking the siblings.
In the luxurious bathroom, the hot water automatically adjusted to a comfortable temperature.
The walk-in closet was filled with brand new clothes.
The two changed into simple casual wear and walked cautiously downstairs, where a sumptuous breakfast was already laid out on the dining table.
Pietro didn't even look at the food.
He rushed to the French window and looked outside.
Leon wasn't there.
The beach was empty.
"Where did he go?!" Pietro was stunned.
He was ready to be crushed again.
But he found nothing.
Wanda also looked around, searching for that figure.
"Good morning, Mr. Maximoff, Ms. Maximoff."
Jarvis's voice sounded in the living room.
"Mr. Leon has already departed for New York."
"He has left today's training schedule for the two of you."
Pietro froze.
Gone?
He actually left?
He didn't take us seriously at all!
He didn't even bother to train us himself!
Pietro was truly bewildered.
"Training?"
"Yes, sir." Jarvis responded quickly.
"Mr. Leon believes that until you learn to control your powers, you are not qualified for his personal guidance."
"His exact words were: I only train elites, never fools."
"Bastard!!"
Pietro slammed his fist on the dining table, and a fist-shaped dent instantly appeared on the surface.
"Mr. Pietro, please calm down. Damaging public property… oh, I apologize, damaging Mr. Leon's private property, this cost will be charged to Mr. Stark's bill, which may displease Mr. Stark."
Jarvis's remark left Pietro's anger with nowhere to go.
"Training content." Wanda plucked up her courage and asked in a low voice.
"It's very simple, madam."
Jarvis activated a holographic projection.
The gym behind the Villa automatically opened, revealing a giant treadmill inside.
"Mr. Pietro. This is the custom treadmill 1.0 that Mr. Stark rushed to produce overnight. Its current minimum speed is set at Mach 1."
"Your task is to run on it."
"Run until you can control your speed and not shatter this treadmill due to recoil."
Pietro looked at the machine, his eyes wide.
"As for you, Ms. Wanda."
The Villa's greenhouse skylight opened, and under the Sun, rows of flowers were neatly arranged.
"Mr. Leon was very impressed with your erasure ability."
"So, your task is…"
Jarvis paused, seemingly choosing his words.
"Restoration."
"You have one hundred pots of orchids in front of you."
"Mr. Leon requires you to deconstruct them all today and then reconstruct them."
"Friendly reminder, it's reconstruction, not bringing them back to life. You need to use Chaos Magic to break them down into particles and then reassemble them into identical flowers."
"If you fail…"
On the projection, the remains annihilated by Wanda were displayed.
"You will need to continue practicing until all the flowerbeds have been completed by you."
Wanda: … Pietro glanced at the treadmill, then at his sister's bewildered face.
He took a deep breath, grabbed the bread on the table, and shoved it fiercely into his mouth.
"Eat!" he growled at Wanda.
"Eat them all!"
"He wants to see us break? We won't!"
"He wants to use us as tools? Fine! Then we'll become the sharpest ones!"
Wanda looked at the bloodshot in her brother's eyes and nodded vigorously… Meanwhile, New York.
S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters.
Laboratory.
Leon didn't use the security aisle.
He stepped out of the Villa, bathed in the morning Sun, and golden divine power tore through space.
The next second, he had already appeared outside S.H.I.E.L.D.'s laboratory.
He was wearing a casual suit, with a gentle smile on his face.
"Jarvis."
"Welcome home, Mr. Leon. Or rather, welcome to Mr. Stark's office." Jarvis's voice sounded.
"Mr. Tony is in the laboratory; he didn't sleep last night."
"As expected."
Leon pushed the door open.
Inside the laboratory, it was a mess.
Coffee cups, energy drink cans, and various parts were scattered everywhere.
Tony, with heavy dark circles under his eyes, was intensely arguing about something with Bruce Banner and Adam, gathered around a holographic projection.
"No! No! No! The data model is wrong!" Tony clutched his hair.
"This peak… it doesn't conform to thermodynamics! It's creating energy out of thin air! This is even less scientific than you turning green!"
Banner pushed up his glasses tiredly.
"Tony, I've already said it. This isn't science. This is a cosmic fluctuation, more like Leon's divine power."
"Divine power my ass!" Tony shrugged.
"I only believe in data!"
Adam silently watched the data stream, then suddenly, he said something.
"It's navigating."
"What?" Tony and Banner looked at him simultaneously.
"This isn't a one-time burst." Adam's eyes were deep.
"It left a beacon in the cosmic radiation."
"It's calling something."
"Good morning, gentlemen."
Leon's gentle voice suddenly interjected.
"Bang!"
Tony's coffee cup fell to the ground in fright.
"Damn it! Leon! Can't you just ring the doorbell like a normal person?!" Tony clutched his heart.
"I did." Leon pointed to the door.
"You were too focused; you didn't hear it."
"You call spatial folding ringing the doorbell?!"
Tony roared internally.
Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!
This bastard is here again!
Every time he comes, it's bad news!
Banner and Adam immediately straightened up and looked at Leon.
"Mr. Leon."
"Of course." Leon nodded slightly, then walked to the control console and casually scrolled through the data.
"Thor took his little girlfriend home. Then Loki mind-controlled Selvig to activate the Tesseract."
"So, this is a farce."
Tony, Banner, and Adam were stunned.
"Wait, that's a lot of information." Tony rubbed his temples.
"Loki?"
"That's not important." Leon interrupted him.
"What's important is that Loki sent an invitation to the Universe, or rather, to Thanos."
"Thanos?" The three were somewhat confused.
"A purple, wrinkled lunatic, oh, and a cosmic overlord." Leon summarized.
"He's obsessed with death and believes the Universe is overpopulated. He needs a springboard."
Disdain flashed in Leon's eyes.
They'd better be glad it wasn't Asgard coming, or his legions of conquest from two thousand years ago would show them what true death was.
"So you're here just to tell us this bad news?" Tony's face grew serious.
"No."
Leon smiled.
"I'm here to give you a test."
He turned to Tony.
"I need you to find a few escaped rats."
Tony rolled his eyes.
"Rats again? This is S.H.I.E.L.D., not a pest control center."
"These rats are special."
Leon's smile remained unchanged.
"Eternal."
Adam narrowed his eyes, and Banner's pupils also contracted.
They all knew this race.
Not long ago, Leon brought Banner to visit these guys.
Hulk even beat Ikaris, their strongest warrior, into a fool.
"Ajak contacted me last night." Leon said lightly.
"A few of their team members are not very obedient."
"Who?" Tony frowned.
Banner quickly spoke.
"Mr. Leon, I only remember their abilities. One can control minds, one can create tools, and one runs very fast."
Banner didn't know their names at all.
"Yes." Leon nodded.
"Druig, the mind controller."
"Faustus, the technical artisan."
"And Makkari, the speedster."
Leon gazed at Tony.
"They refused my invitation. They thought they could hide."
Tony opened his mouth but didn't dare to say that they had the right to refuse.
"Mr. Leon." Adam spoke in a deep voice.
"Can't you find them?"
"Me?"
Leon smiled.
"Adam, my radiance shines on every corner of Earth. No Shadow can hide."
"I can find them. I can close my eyes and pull them out in two seconds."
Leon's smile was gentle, but his words were still arrogant.
"However, Tony…"
He turned to Stark.
"If you can't even find a few lost sheep, what good are you to me?"
This was the test.
Tony instantly understood.
This was Leon testing him.
Testing the value of the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D..
Very well, I accept this challenge.
"Fuck."
Tony cursed softly in his heart, but the expression on his face instantly became serious.
"Jarvis!" He walked to the control console.
"Access S.H.I.E.L.D. database! No! Access Military, CIA, NSA… all! All the damn databases!"
"Cross-reference the energy provided by Banner!"
"Search keywords! Druig! Faustus! Makkari!"
Tony's fingers slid rapidly across the holographic screen.
Banner and Adam stood by, occasionally helping out.
They knew this was Leon's test for them.
Leon didn't rush them.
He pulled up a chair and sat down, pouring himself a glass of Tony's treasured whiskey.
Time passed, minute by minute.
In the laboratory, only Tony's frantic keyboard clatter remained.
Ten minutes.
Twenty minutes.
Tony frowned.
"Damn it! Damn it! These names don't exist in the database! They're like ghosts!"
"They've lived for thousands of years, Tony." Leon reminded him.
"They have countless fake identities."
"Don't tell me you can't do it." Leon's tone was flat.
Tony was displeased and immediately waved his hand.
"Jarvis! Abandon names! Switch algorithms!" Tony roared.
"Prioritize energy signatures! Search all unexplained anomalous areas globally! Match Banner's description!"
"Mind control… find me all areas globally with suspiciously large-scale peace!"
"Technical artisan, find me all locations where technology beyond its era has appeared!"
"Speedster…"
"Wait!"
Tony stopped his hand.
"Jarvis, analyze the Amazon basin, coordinates XXXX, YYYY. There's an area there with no records of armed conflict or deforestation for the past fifty years. All satellite signals there are distorted."
"Druig." Leon confirmed for him.
"And!" Tony's fingers flew again.
"Chicago suburbs! An ordinary engineer, Faustus! His son's school science fair project was a miniature anti-gravity engine! His wife posted it on Facebook as a joke!"
"Very good." Leon nodded.
"What about the fastest one?" Banner couldn't help but ask.
Tony's expression became strange.
"She… Jarvis, pull up the coastal satellite surveillance, fuck!"
Tony turned his head and looked at Leon.
"She was in Cairo five minutes ago, in Sydney three minutes ago, and now…"
Tony pointed to a real-time screen.
"She's on the roof of your Villa! She's peeking at Wanda and the others training!"
Leon raised an eyebrow slightly.
"Oh?"
"She seems very interested in Pietro." Tony's face showed a schadenfreude expression.
"Looks like your home is about to be robbed, Prince."
"Is that so."
Leon's smile remained unchanged, still gentle.
"That's good then."
"It saves me a lot of time."
Leon didn't pay too much attention.
Makkari? The speedster?
She thought she was peeking?
She didn't know that from the moment she stepped into the Villa, she was already bathed in the Sun god's domain.
Everything she saw was what he allowed her to see.
She was like a moth flying around a flame, feeling smug.
But unaware that the flame could burn her to ashes at any moment.
"Tony." Leon stood up and walked towards the door.
"What?"
"Increase the treadmill's power tenfold."
Leon's figure was bathed in the Sun, ready to step into the portal.
"If Pietro can't even catch an uninvited guest…"
His figure disappeared into the golden light.
"He'll just train harder."
The three: … "Fuck." Tony cursed softly.
"Alright, I really dislike this guy."
The golden portal slowly dissipated, and Leon's figure vanished with it.
"Tony…" Banner gave a wry smile.
"We… we'd better start immediately."
Tony slapped the control console.
"Start! Of course, we'll start!"
He smiled slightly.
"He thinks this is a test? No! This is a challenge! He thinks I, Tony Stark, can't find a few old-timers?!"
"Jarvis!" Tony roared.
"Always at your service, sir."
Tony stood up and looked at the two.
"Jarvis, get the new armor ready. We're going to see some old-timers."
"Yes, sir." Jarvis responded quickly.
With that, Tony walked out the door.
Banner and Adam exchanged glances, one shrugging, the other shrugging, and quickly followed Tony.
They knew that a big battle was inevitable, and they would act again.
....
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