Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 1667

This feeling was somewhat peculiar, and no matter what she experienced, Laura Crawford still couldn't get used to it.

Compared to the gentle figure who had appeared the previous night, the person sitting across the long table now possessed an overwhelming presence, a dizzying charm that practically filled the entire room, leaving no room for even oxygen. Laura Crawford thought so; only this could explain her current dizziness. The person across the long table wasn't the traditional politician seen on television, the one who delivers a speech surrounded and watched by the excited animals of the House of Commons, then delegates the more concrete work to the civil servants while taking the lead in appearing on television.

This was a political system completely beyond her knowledge, a system with only civil servants.

She watched the most controversial man in the world across the long table, watching rows of beautiful maids bring stacks of documents and plates of food to the table, watching thick slices of steak and bread slick with gravy disappear in a flash, watching him scribble and draw on his whiteboard between meals. Laura Crawford glanced at it; the complex baselines, charts, and documents on the whiteboard flashed by, the enormous model of the solar system slowly moving, each planet enveloped by countless white numbers and dense dots of light. Bayonetta and Joan of Arc, also seated at the table, seemed oblivious, as if it were some kind of pre-meal exercise, or perhaps because he had satisfied their desires before breakfast (Laura Crawford swore the scene was incredibly beautiful), which made them so magnanimous in bringing official business to the table.

In her mind, a country's security agencies were generally only responsible for eliminating those dissatisfied with the state. Yet, she had witnessed him issue an arrest warrant for someone who was excessively pleased with the state. The reason was that a surviving official had profited from the new system he had established, and a once-distinguished soldier was accused of abusing his power after gaining authority. Such matters wouldn't attract much attention in another system, but he seemed intent on announcing the outcome to the entire world to demonstrate the fairness and impartiality of this system.

"The satellite has been shot down, but the other side doesn't seem to have realized it was us."

"Of course they won't know, and even if they did, they wouldn't care," a man's voice came from the dashboard. "The problems at the Houston command center are enough to give those politicians a good laugh. Republican and Democratic politicians are blaming each other, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI are completely dominating the investigation, and the CIA is jumping around like a dog smelling food. You can turn on the news right now and see a series of press conferences, and the US president might even give a speech in the last few days of his term and then lower the flag to half-staff."

"Thank you, Victor. If you don't mind, we can talk in detail in the castle's dining room."

After the call ended, Laura Crawford interjected at appropriate times without interrupting any important part of the conversation.

"I'm glad to hear from Tony Stark; he seems to be only injured. This proves you've been deceiving me from the beginning, making me think you wanted to kill him, but you let him live instead. I've always had a question..." she began to ramble on, "Where are you really from? What country are you from, what ethnicity? Now that you're ruling a country, that question is important to the people of that country." She said, "You look like a Greek, a West Asian, and a Palestinian."

"This question is meaningless. I can be anyone. Napoleon was Corsican, but he was still Emperor of France." He activated the holographic projector, gesturing for Laura Crawford to look there. "The whole world knows Tony Stark is awake. Aren't you curious how things will unfold? Just minutes ago, the White House declared it would retaliate against the attack. Do you think Tony Stark will tell the White House the truth?"

What does the truth mean?

"The truth means whether I'll be standing in the White House, Buckingham Palace, or other political centers of the West the next day, utterly destroying any political system that stands in my way." He gestured for the archaeologist to look at the wall. His sword, the world-famous sword, was hanging on the shield on the wall. "No one in this world can stop me; the only one who can stop me is myself. The decision to do so is not mine, but Tony Stark's. Only he can decide whether this sword will slit the throats of every member of Congress."

"You're finally awake! Don't worry, I told Pepper it was a mild concussion, so she wouldn't make you go home tonight." Colonel Rhodes forced a smile, rising from the chair by the hospital bed and walking towards Tony Stark. The latter, still somewhat dazed from just waking up, seemed confused about what had happened. "Your armor was removed by Friday; I had a hard time convincing her otherwise, the doctor couldn't have given you medication through it. For safety's sake, the General intends for you to receive treatment here for a while longer, at least not to go home now, and we still have many questions unanswered."

Colonel Rhodes pressed his palm down.

"This is just routine. The Pentagon needs a report to submit to the White House tonight, and you are the first witness. Only your testimony will be included in the president's speech. The Director of Homeland Security will arrange everything; no one here can harm you."

"I……"

Tony Stark, enduring a sharp pain in his head, managed to lift his head from the pillow. Colonel Rhodes straightened up, smoothing the wrinkles in his shirt and rubbing his eyes discreetly. This wasn't the place to discuss classified information; after all, many medical personnel were waiting to check on Tony Stark. Distant memories, like slivers of light filtering through blurry, dirty glass, brought back his purpose for coming to Houston. But when he tried to ask Colonel Rhodes about the situation at the Houston command center, he found himself unable to speak.

"We've installed surveillance cameras and motion sensors in the hallway outside. The doctor treating you and the nurses caring for you have both undergone background checks, and every bottle of medication has been repeatedly verified and analyzed. Even the president's security procedures aren't as stringent as yours—of course, I don't know the president's security procedures; that's the Secret Service's job—anyway, you're safe now. You can get a good night's sleep, and I'll come see you again later."

Before he could finish speaking, Colonel Rhodes rushed out of the ward.

A tattered gold and red suit of armor stood to the side, one arm raised in alert mode. Tony Stark raised his hand and found his arm excessively heavy, a white cast covering the skin from wrist to elbow. A sharp pain shot through his muscles. When he saw the armor's mangled arm, he realized the damage was far greater than he had imagined; he was incredibly lucky his arm hadn't been smashed to a pulp.

"Mr. Stark," a nurse said, adjusting the IV drip, "please don't move." He ignored her, continuing to look around, even though the nurse's voice sounded somewhat familiar. He wanted to find a communication device so he could contact Pepper Potts and Happy and get them to arrange things at Stark Industries.

"I told you, don't move!"

Only then did Tony Stark's consciousness, which had been floating above the clouds, return to reality. He looked up in surprise at the nurse's face, a face completely different from the one he remembered. Then he recalled a device he had designed specifically for S.H.I.E.L.D.: a thin-film holographic projection device that could temporarily alter a person's appearance. Even so, the beautiful red hair still gave away the nurse's identity. "Romanoff? How come you…"

"I'm not the only one here."

The ward door opened, and a resident physician, holding a notepad, walked in with his head down. The nurse glanced back, then lowered her hand from the holster hidden in her coat. "Let me introduce you to your old friend, Dr. Bruce Banner, and the intern, Nick Fury." She smiled broadly, as the latter's clumsy disguise looked rather comical. She wondered which hospital would hire a one-eyed caregiver.

“We have a mission now, and you must participate. We must form an alliance; only by uniting can we fight that man. I know you have a conflict with Rogers, but this alliance must have him." Nick Fury, with one blind eye, pointed to the middle-aged man with graying temples beside him. “You have no idea what he did to Dr. Banner. Stark…”

“He’s passed out again, Fury.” Agent Romanoff shrugged. “I’ve already agreed to help you infiltrate. Now I’m leaving. I’m sorry, Banner, I have to go. I won’t be involved in this plan. No one in this world can stop him, not even Thor or the Hulk. We’ve already seen that.” She looked at Bruce Banner. “I’m sorry for what happened to you, Banner.”

"The reward is a Quinjet. Don't think I don't have a backup base; I won't write everything into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secret files. As it turns out, secrets are often not secrets at all," Nick Fury said. "We have to take that guy under control; he's the biggest threat our world faces."

"Nick Fury, your Skrulls and SkySword space station have been confiscated. You have no help left."

Agent Romanoff gritted her teeth. The former director of S.H.I.E.L.D. was clearly surprised that she knew of the Skrulls' existence, but what surprised him even more was that Agent Romanoff had been helping their enemies track down the millions of Skrulls on Earth. Regardless of which side she was on, she had witnessed firsthand the chaos caused by the Skrulls who parasitized human society.

"You couldn't do it when S.H.I.E.L.D. was still around, and you certainly can't now. I'm not going to die with you guys." "Besides, I don't know why he released the three of us. He never does anything without a reason. Maybe he just wants us to do this to achieve some purpose that we don't yet know or understand."

“You’re not the only one in this world who’s been to his dungeon. He’s too arrogant, showing us his weaknesses without reservation. This will be our opportunity,” Nick Fury said slowly. He patted the tense and embarrassed Bruce Banner. “I have help, and people are on the Skrulls’ side. I’m not talking about the Hulk, Dr. Banner, even if you’re both green-skinned. What I need is your wisdom, not strength. We must rescue General Ross. We can’t let him continue to disrupt the established order of human society, Agent Romanov. My help is stronger than him, and I will not fail. If possible, please wake Tony Stark. We don’t have much time left.”

"You know what Nick Fury is going to do." Laura Crawford heard a female voice, and she caught a glimpse of a strand of red hair in the hologram. "You broke your promise, you almost killed Stark," the woman on the other end of the communication said angrily. "If this is the weight of a promise, then this will be the last message I send you."

"I have no intention of arguing with you about the minutiae of the text. If I wanted to, I would be the best lawyer in the world, able to acquit even the devil in the dock," Salomon said calmly. "I know who Nick Fury's accomplices are, but that's irrelevant. What's important is that I don't know how many Skrull settlements there are in the world. As far as I know, not all Skrulls have obtained 'legal' status; the Skrull settlements we destroyed were just one example. I need more information, Agent Romanov, but I don't believe Nick Fury knows the locations of all Skrull settlements. Those aliens would never fully trust a human, even if that human is willing to help them."

"Are there things in this world that you don't know?"

"I don't even know what I'm having for breakfast today," he lied blatantly under Laura Crawford's gaze, pulling the plate of French toast in front of him. He had processed over six hundred documents in just one hour, and with the help of a three-meter-tall demigod, he had packaged and sealed them, preparing to transport them by hypersonic aircraft to the royal castle of the Yugoslav Federation. Desperate for energy, he had a particular fondness for this sweet treat. "I'm not a god; I can't completely control anything."

"Why did you do this to Stark? To be precise, why did you attack the Houston command center?"

"No comment, ma'am. Don't forget, you still have a debt to pay. You can do what you want, but don't forget the mission. You know justice won't be achieved through congressional debates, they won't count how many children they've crammed into trucks on the US-Mexico border, and only I in this world can save those abused children."

(End of this chapter)