With the landing of another Iron Man armored unit of golden and red hues, the Ultimate Iron Man's expression sank. His mind whirling like a bolt of lightning, he immediately noted that this armored unit was dissimilar to the Mark series he had previously constructed.
The glow lines on the face guard flickered twice, and Ultimate Iron Man was the first to open his faceplate. Narrowing his eyes slightly, he looked at the person in front of him with his whitewashed light eyes and asked, "Who are you? Why are you here?"
"That's the question I should be asking you." With a click, the Iron Man's face guard opposite him also opened up. The two faces, which were nearly identical, stood face to face. The younger-looking Iron Man in golden-red armor was visible.
"It was you who took Shiller away, wasn't it?" Stark asked.
At once, he recalled the events that had succeeded their parting in the German Valley.
Stark stood in the center of the valley, watching Shiller and Nick board the plane together. He remained silent for a long time, for he had finally realized that Shiller was right. He had selfishly been seeing Shiller as a powerless victim.
However, the abilities that Shiller had demonstrated and the past he hinted at made it clear that he always had the power to resist, even to control the situation. He was not a hero, but certainly a powerhouse.
Stark knew that not all of Shiller's story might be true, but he could also infer from the current situation that Shiller was indeed very familiar with organizations like Hydra, S.H.I.E.L.D., the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and so on. He was adept at walking between these cracks and even manipulating others' minds and capturing prey with his vast web, constructed from the tiniest of threads.
But this spiked Stark's curiosity about another issue: who was he? Where was he from? What was true and what was false? What was his intention of approaching Tony?
Stark was eager to find Shiller and ask him about these questions, but what surprised him even more was that Shiller failed to appear on the stand for Pierce's trial.
This was highly unusual. Even if Stark didn't know much about the intricacies of political games, he knew that this was Shiller's best opportunity to clear his name. He didn't even have to become a tarnished witness.
To smoothly assume the position of S.H.I.E.L.D Director and stabilize the state of S.H.I.E.L.D, Nick would be more than willing to negotiate with the most important witness, Shiller. If Shiller exaggerated the truth just a little bit to incite the jury's emotions, it would guarantee that Pierce would never get out.
Then Nick could completely clear his name and say that he was framed by Pierce. Or simply say that this doctor was his secret informant, and that getting caught was a part of the plan.
This could not only substantiate Pierce's guilt but also elevate Nick's status, showcasing his shrewd calculations and dutiful nature.
Stark had already planned to confront Shiller after the court hearing to ask him all these questions, but Shiller didn't show up.
Stark went to ask Nick about the situation, but Nick remained tight-lipped. Stark knew he couldn't get anything out of the head of a secret agent and so, disgruntled and disheartened, he returned to Stark Group.
It was then that Pepper found him and showed him the mailbox that had previously been used for finding people, saying, "I thought I had already cancelled this mailbox address and the retained emails are all from mirror websites. However, an employee just informed me that someone restored the previous webpage and sent a new email to this mailbox."
Pepper handed her phone to Stark and said, "Although the email is addressed to Tony Stark, there is no password. The employee opened it, but it's all gibberish inside. Would you see if any of your scientist friends sent it?"
Stark, somewhat puzzled, took the phone and sure enough, found an email at the top of the mailbox. When he opened it, it was English gibberish. Stark instinctively felt that it might have been sent by Shiller.
He asked Pepper for the restored mailbox's web address, and after looking through it, discovered that the time this email was sent coincided exactly with the previous email Shiller had sent to Pepper providing the location of the abandoned base - both sent at 22:06 p.m.
Sure that the final email was indeed sent by Shiller, Stark believed it might contain clues to his whereabouts, and thus, he began to crack the code.
He tried many ways to extract information from the gibberish, but the combinations of English and symbols were completely random with no clues, and even after employing the exhaustion method and running supercomputers for several days and nights, he could not form any coherent phrases.
Stark considered the possibility that the timestamp of the email was a clue, but whether he selected letters according to the digits or arranged symbols according to 2206, he found no related answers.
One day, Stark was once again staring at the email in front of his computer. The cold light illuminated his eyes, and suddenly he had an epiphany. He stood up and scrutinized all the gibberish closely. Then, he bent down and started hammering on the keyboard.
"What if it's not readable text, but a graphic?" As Stark muttered to himself, he quickly manipulated the keyboard.
His eyes mirrored the letters on the screen and very soon, letters were combined one after another to form a pattern Stark found somewhat familiar. It was of an eagle in flight, and what was peculiar about it was that it reminded Stark of a tobacco company's logo. It belonged to Reynolds Tobacco Company which produced Camel cigarettes. They called it Winston.
Stark was not an avid smoker, but he was very familiar with this brand because it was his father Howard's favorite. When Stark was younger, he often saw Howard placing this brand of cigarettes high up. Out of curiosity, Stark had once taken them down to have a look.
Stark was confused. Did Shiller go through the trouble of making such a complex code just to show him a cigarette brand's logo?
But all of a sudden, he realized that it couldn't be a coincidence. Compared to the more common Camel or Lucky Strike, Winston, although not short on sales, did not enjoy the same fame. It was not distributed in the military either. Smoking this brand was a somewhat niche hobby.
So how did Shiller know about Howard's favorite brand of cigarettes? Did he know Howard?
But Shiller was nowhere to be found, and there was no one Stark could ask questions. More and more anxious, he kept staring at the design.
He then thought that Shiller didn't leave this design simply to tell him that he knew his father. This wouldn't make sense because Howard was dead. What good would knowing him do?
Unable to come up with an answer, Stark thought, as the clue was related to his father Howard, that he would go back to the old Stark family house to see if he could find a clue there.
He did not find a clue about Shiller, but he did find a video left by Howard along with the sandbox model that inspired the new element.
Due to Shiller's interference with history, Stark did not have an Ark Reactor embedded in his chest in this universe. However, his original concept of the unmanned armored unit required an energy source. As yet, he had not found a suitable one, but the clue to the new element spurred his thinking.
With this development, Iron Man in this universe still managed to develop a new battlesuit like most Iron Men, but did not find any clues about Shiller.
Unexpectedly, the king of Wakanda, Black Panther, pays him a visit, offering to provide enough Vibranium to perfect his battle armor, claiming that this was a reward proposed by Shiller.
Stark was like an ant on a hot tin roof, torn between gratitude and frustration. As Iron Man, he hated owing people favors. If someone helped him, he insisted on repaying them tenfold. However, Shiller had not given him the chance to repay the favor.
Moreover, he was eager to know why Shiller helped him. The deal had been decided when Shiller traded with Black Panther. In other words, they were not strangers who met by accident. Shiller knew him, but he did not know Shiller.
This knowledge disparity was driving Stark mad. He put on his new battlesuit, stormed unannounced into Nick's office, demanding an explanation. At last, after a long sigh, Nick showed Stark a video clip.
The video clip only lasted three seconds, but it clearly showed Shiller disappearing into thin air. Nick was not a tech person and was unable to explain what happened, but Stark was convinced that the flash of white light was a space-time tunnel. Shiller likely had gone to another universe.
Stark did not have teleportation technology at the time. He knew that developing this technology would not happen overnight. This made him even more angry—angry about Shiller's sudden departure, and that he left no coordinates for Stark to find him.
Subsequent events unfolded similarly to other universes. Iron Man became a superhero, and Nick, as before, invited Iron Man to join a mysterious superhero organization.
But there was a slight twist. Iron Man encountered Spider-Man, who, quite coincidentally, had just been bitten by a radioactive spider and been recruited by the Spider Legion, becoming a member of the glorious legion of studious Spiders.
At this time, Spider-Man was still a high school student without much caution. Iron Man was already a famous superhero by then, so he didn't overthink it. He promptly told Stark about the Multiverse Spider-Man and that he planned to visit the Central Universe over the summer.
Upon hearing this, Stark realized, wasn't this an opportunity for him to go to other universes? Therefore, he hurriedly asked Spider-Man to help him open the portal. He wanted to go to other universes to find someone. This Spider-Man had just joined the Spider Legion not too long ago and was not very aware of the rules, so he directly voiced the request to the other Spider-Men.
Initially, The Spider-Men intended to refuse, after all, rules were rules. If anyone could use the Spider Totem's portal, it would cause chaos. Other Spider-Men also disagreed because the issue regarding the Ultimate Iron Man had stirred up a round of argument in the legion, which was in the process of developing more stringent induction training.
Spider-Man felt a bit disillusioned, but did not say much. Yet in the casual flow of conversation, he mentioned that the Iron Man from their universe was going to other universes to find a doctor named Shiller.
As soon as the name 'Shiller' was mentioned, the Spider-Men in the room exchanged glances for about half a minute before their attitudes did a 180-degree turn. They decided on the spot, "You can go, right now, immediately."
Stark actually intended to teleport to Earth, but upon hearing that he was looking for Shiller, the Spider-Man from the Central Universe pointed him towards the right direction, saying Shiller was not on Earth. He suggested visiting Centaurus because it was the most well-informed place in cosmos.
As such, Stark, in the latest Vibranium Iron Battle Armor, had just landed in Centaurus when he detected an unusual signal. He flew directly to the Ultimate Iron Man's base and saw the fleeting shadow of Shiller walking into the machinery.