The 5000-year-old girl in American comics

"I really don't know why some women are so tall." Tony Stark looked at Diana, who was half a head taller than him, with some displeasure, but there was nothing he could do about it; his height had always been a weakness.

"Mr. Stark?"

“I was looking for you, but this isn’t the place to talk, is it?” Tony said, noticing the security guard who was staring intently at him from a distance not far from Diana, as well as some other staff members who were originally working and were also looking in their direction.

They were like a pack of African hyenas scouting their prey.

Diana had no idea what this unexpected visitor wanted, but she nodded and said to Boca, "I'll be back in a bit."

“Miss Prince.” Boca wanted to say something, but Diana just gave him a reassuring gesture.

“Let’s go then, Mr. Stark,” Diana said, turning to Stark.

Tony didn't care about the stares he received; he'd seen them far too many times. He simply turned and left the museum with Diana.

"I thought you were going to take me somewhere like a coffee shop." Diana hadn't expected Tony to just take her to the parking lot.

Tony even bought a cheeseburger from a burger cart on the street.

"McLaren F1-LM, this guy has a good eye. But British cars are like their food, unbearable to fix." The mustachioed man grumbled as he munched on his cheeseburger, expressing his resentment towards British cars. "I once owned a British car and just couldn't stand the terrible mechanical feel of it."

Diana simply watched quietly as this famous American tycoon, philanthropist, playboy, and future Iron Man was presented to her.

“You’re strange, not because of who you are, but because of your file,” Tony Stark said, quickly finishing his hamburger. “No matter how I look into your file, I always end up with a completely ordinary one.”

Tony Stark took out his phone and handed it to Diana.

Diana looked at the photo where her flight posture was much clearer and was somewhat surprised. To be able to reconstruct it to this extent from just that blurry video was truly remarkable. She could only say that she was indeed the one cursed by knowledge.

Tony Stark didn't show the panic one might expect from someone who'd been found out, only a slight surprise. He wiped his hand, which was holding the hamburger, with his handkerchief and said, "But it's obvious you're not an ordinary person. Someone prepared a file for you to deal with the government."

Diana handed the phone back to the mustachioed man in front of her and said, "So you came here to prove your abilities, or what?"

Tony Stark shook his head: "No, I don't need to prove myself. Proving yourself is something only incompetent people do. I'm just here to clear up my own doubts."

"So?" Diana looked at the spirited man in front of her.

"I just want to know why you were still able to awaken the X-gene. After all, to prevent new mutants from appearing, we mixed vaccines that inhibited mutant genes into all the injectable drugs in hospitals. How did you manage that?" Tony Stark was not unaware of the existence of mutants. Stark Industries had contributed to the mutant cure in the past, and even the later vaccines were jointly developed by Stark Industries and the Osborn Corporation.

Diana glanced at her watch, then said to Tony, "If you're just here to ask this kind of question, I can't give you an answer, especially since I'm not a mutant."

Tony Stark never expected that the woman in front of him would tell him that she was not a mutant.

"That's impossible! You didn't use any known machinery to help you fly. I can't think of any other reason besides you being a mutant." Tony Stark insisted that Diana was a mutant, otherwise, how many things in this world were unknown to him?

“Mr. Stark, I think you should go back to your office and think about the future of Stark.” Diana didn’t want to get entangled with him on this topic. “Your decision to ‘shut down the weapons department’ has not only caused your company’s stock price to plummet, but it has also bankrupted many civilians!”

"Go and see if there are any people who have completely lost hope in life because of what you said. What did you protect?"

Diana took a deep breath and calmed herself down: "Mr. Stark, I hope you understand that sometimes being willful doesn't bring any good."

Tony Stark stared intently at Diana.

"Also, that McLaren is mine," Diana said before leaving the parking lot.

Tony Stark kept his eyes fixed on the direction Diana had left in, got into his car without a word, and drove away.

Chapter 30 The Arrival of the Hand

Diana had considered the possibility that Tony Stark would find her, but she didn't expect him to find her so quickly.

Or perhaps he simply didn't have time to come looking for her, even though he had never taken any responsible actions towards his company, with his "dear" uncle and Pepper Potts always managing Stark Industries for him. Yet Tony Stark came to her without even replacing his Arc Reactor, seeking a largely useless answer.

It's simply impossible to understand how this kind of person's thought process works.

The last thing she said to Tony Stark was also sincere; she sometimes really looked down on people who made decisions on a whim, just because of something.

In particular, this decision is likely to affect not only that person, but also many other people.

No matter if you're a superhero or anything else, sometimes your position is fixed, and you can't just make decisions on a whim.

Although she can't be considered a superhero in a certain sense, the concept of a superhuman with extremely high moral character and standards wasn't something she had been taught since childhood. This is why she admired people like Superman and Batman, who possessed exceptionally high moral standards, in her previous worlds.

As for the actual effect of her words, Diana herself was unsure. But at least she did what she could.

"Miss Prince, that damn shorty didn't do anything to you, did he?" Boca asked anxiously as he watched Diana walk back alone.

Everyone knows that this rose is not something they can pluck, but at least they shouldn't let it fall into the hands of a playboy.

Diana raised the corners of her mouth and revealed a bright smile, saying, "No, with you all backing me up, he wouldn't dare to lay a hand on me."

Boca smiled憨厚ly and said, "That's good, that's good."

Diana walked into the museum with a smile, and the originally somber atmosphere was lifted by the smile on her lips, like sunlight breaking through the clouds and shining back onto the world.

Everything is back on track.

Meanwhile, Tony Stark, who was being lectured by Diana, was rather dejected. Looking at the chart on TV showing his company's plummeting stock price, Tony Stark was somewhat lost.

Could it really be as that wretched woman said? That I haven't protected anything at all?

Tony Stark's eyes slowly regained their light. No, how could this be! He was Tony Stark, how could he doubt himself because of a woman's words? As long as Stark Industries and he, a genius, were still around, there was no way things would go wrong.

Jarvis, are you there?

"For you, sir, forever."

“Let’s start the new project, Jarvis.” Tony Stark sat at the console, looking at the rugged prototype Mark I on the screen. “Let’s call it Mark II.”

At the same time, Kingpin Wilson Fisk of Hell's Kitchen received several uninvited guests.

Looking at the four people sitting in front of him, Fisk calmly asked, "So you are the other people that Madam Gao mentioned, right? It really is five fingers."

Alexandra began by saying, "We've come here to clarify three things."

Seeing that Fisk didn't seem inclined to respond, Alexandra didn't want to waste any more time.

“First, I want to know who killed Mrs. Gao?” Alexandra’s tone didn’t treat Fisk as some kind of mob boss at all; she was just questioning a brat who didn’t know his place.

“Madam, I have no obligation to answer you.” Fisk placed his hands on the table. “And no one can question Kingpin like this.”

"Hmm?" Alexandra's expression remained unchanged, but she was clearly somewhat impatient.

Meanwhile, the gambler said to Kingpin, "I don't know what you know, but I believe you wouldn't refuse a potential friend who could bring huge benefits."

“But I haven’t seen any so-called benefits yet, and I don’t even know the names of the people sitting in front of me right now…” Fisk paused and said.

Botu smiled, indicating that the conversation could continue since he hadn't immediately turned hostile: "I'm Botu from the Hand, and the others are Alexandra, Murakami, and Sowanda."

“Actually, there’s no irreconcilable conflict between us, is there?” Alexandra’s tone returned to calm, making it impossible to imagine the impatience the woman had just displayed. “At least there’s no major loss.”

Originally, Madam Gao, who was also one of the five elders, seemed to have been relegated to something useless by Alexandra.

Boto and Murakami both nodded, while Sowanga remained silent, resting with his eyes closed.

Fisk looked at the group and smiled. How could anyone feel comfortable cooperating with an organization that could so readily abandon its own founders?

Botu looked at Fisk with the same expression that said, "We can give you Mrs. Gao's illegal drug production line as a gift to facilitate our cooperation."

As he spoke, Murakami handed Fisker a document.

"What a generous gift." Even Fisker, who was basically the biggest gangster boss in New York City, couldn't help but be tempted by the detailed description of Mrs. Gao's production line in the document.

“We don’t ask for much: who killed Mrs. Gao, her body, and an exploration and excavation in Hell’s Kitchen. These are insignificant compared to this gift,” the gambler said to Fisk. “Besides, you can use our men at will while we’re operating in New York, helping you become the sole king of New York City’s underground.”

Botu and his companions did not believe that Fisk could resist such temptation.

“This is a very generous gift and reward.” Mrs. Gao’s production line alone would be enough to convince many people to cooperate, but it was clear that Wilson Fisk was not one of the majority. “But I’m sorry, I cannot tell you who killed Mrs. Gao.”

Fisk paused for a moment: "But I can tell you that Mrs. Gao did not leave behind a body."

Upon hearing these words, even Sowanga, who had been resting with his eyes closed, opened them.

Only with a corpse can one be resurrected using dragon bones; otherwise, the person is truly dead.

All four of them thought of the same question: Did the person who killed Madam Gao know the secret, or was it an accident? None of them knew for sure, but at least one thing was clear to them: Madam Gao was really dead.

“In that case, we will not disturb Mr. Kingpin any longer.” Botto stood up first and extended his hand to Fisk. “However, our conditions still stand, and we hope Mr. Kingpin will agree soon.”

Fisk shook hands with Bot and nodded.

Watching the four people leave his office, Fisk pulled out his phone, which looked rather small in his hand, from his pocket.

The screen displayed above shows the call interface, and the person on the call is Diana, who is currently working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

“I believe you heard me,” Fisk said into the microphone.

There was no reply; the call ended without a word.

Fisk didn't care, after all, it was impossible for a superhuman not to hear their conversation.

After putting down his phone and looking at the Hand document, Fisk tossed it into the trash can.

Diana, sitting in the museum, showed no emotional reaction after hanging up Fisker's call; after all, the appearance of the bedbugs was a good thing. She no longer had to worry about them jumping out to disgust her at any moment.

Bed bugs, apart from their stench being disgusting, are nothing special; they're just bugs.

Just buy a can of insecticide and kill them.

Chapter 31 The Bedbugs Appearing in Pairs

Just as Diana was preparing to get back to work, a phone call interrupted her once again.

A phone number I'd never seen before appeared on the screen.

"Hello, how can I help you?" Diana asked as she answered the phone.

"Hello, I'm the principal of Midtown High School. A team of FBI agents just came in and took Ms. Frost away. You are Ms. Frost's emergency contact, which is why I'm calling you."

"Okay, I understand. I'll look into what's going on." After exchanging a few pleasantries with the principal, Diana left the museum without a word, her pretty face covered in frost.

She couldn't imagine who would dare to do this, but one thing was certain: those people were definitely not FBI agents.

Sitting in the car, Diana instantly awakened the beast, its ferocious roar assaulting the eardrums of passersby.

The F1-LM was like a streak of orange-yellow light, tearing open the once peaceful streets of New York City.

Meanwhile, Diana, who was in the car, dialed Nick Fury's number.

“I didn’t expect…” Nick Fury was interrupted before he could finish speaking.

"Shut up! Now listen to me."

Nick Fury had never heard Diana speak like that before, and a sense of foreboding washed over him. He wanted to say something, but ultimately chose to remain silent.