Shiller looked speechlessly at the mess on the ground.
In the High Tower, Shiller's face was equally speechless as he looked at Greed.
"Why are you looking at me?" Greed said irritably, "I just said to send Morbid up; how was I supposed to know which one would go? And isn't it usually about Hunting and stuff? Who knew he would actually go out."
Everyone turned their gaze to Superego, who said, "Why are you looking at me? It's Self who's in charge of controlling the elevator."
"You said to let Morbid come up," Self said. "With the permission, of course, I just let him through without picking which one."
"Stop passing the buck," Arrogant spoke. "The issue now is what to do. I said we shouldn't let Morbid come up to Marvel; they simply can't handle it. Now what, Stark might get stirred up into something serious, right?"
Greed glanced outside again and, looking at the lively fish scattered everywhere, said helplessly, "I just wanted to blow off some steam. What's done is done, so let's think about how to solve this."
"This is your turf, so of course, you have to figure out a way," Superego said mercilessly. "Get back to work quickly. Any later, and there will be no way to save the situation."
Greed had no choice but to resignedly climb up.
Looking at so many messy corpses, Greed felt it wasn't right to just leave them there. After pondering for a moment, he still used the Gray Mist to stack up the bodies. Now it indeed looked not like many redfish but like a complete red whale.
Ignoring the snarky comments from the Shillers in the tower, Greed quickly cleaned up the crime scene and tossed the already unconscious Stark at the factory entrance. Watching Howard hurry over, Shiller slowly made up his mind.
Stark was lifted onto the ambulance, the policemen entered one after another, then burst out of the room as if calling on God, vomiting messily at the door. Howard wanted to go in for a look but was stopped; he had to go to the hospital with Maria.
Stark woke up, but soon fell asleep again. Howard, looking worried, walked out of the ward and closed the door, heading towards the smoking area. On his way, he noticed a small figure.
The figure just stared at him. Howard couldn't help but slow down, instinctively drawn in by those focused gray eyes.
"Who are you?" Howard went over and squatted down, asking the boy, "Why are you here? Where are your parents?"
"You should recognize me." The boy said, "I ran away that day, so you didn't see me."
Howard didn't understand what he was talking about at first, but then the boy said, "My adoptive parents are the Hamiltons."
Howard nodded, understanding. He said to the boy, "You shouldn't be out so late. Won't they worry?"
"No, they won't. Right now, they're more worried about Tony Stark."
Howard blinked in confusion, then his expression stiffened. He wasn't a fool; of course, he made some connections.
"You don't need to guess; it's exactly as you're thinking," the boy told him. "My adoptive parents invited Tony to visit our home. They knew which road he would take, and the people who kidnapped Tony were arranged by them."
Howard suddenly grabbed the boy's shoulders and said, "Are you Xier? The child we were going to adopt that day?"
"That's me," Shiller nodded and said, "Do you know why I didn't go with you?"
"Why?"
"Because you are doomed to die," Shiller said, not caring how shocking it was to hear such words from a child. After all, even as a child, he was certainly not ignorant, or rather, his current state was even more like his childhood.
Howard looked at him dumbfounded, while Shiller said, "Choosing Hydra as adoptive parents is better than choosing a dead man. Too many people want you dead."
"Tell me what's going on," Howard implored Shiller, looking into his eyes. But then suddenly remembering not to put so much pressure on a child, he said, "Don't be scared, I'll help you deal with the bad guys. You just have to tell me what happened."
"No, you can't deal with them; you will die," Shiller said, tilting his head as he looked at him. "The Hamiltons have no scruples in climbing up in Hydra, cooperated with a man named Garrett to abduct Tony."
"They think I understand nothing. They took no precautions at home; I overheard all their plans. And I got the contact of another Hydra group that had dealings with them before. Through online communication, I sent Garrett's plans to that group."
"Did you save Tony?"
"I was just saving myself," Shiller said with a tone so calm it didn't suit a child's, and Howard noticed this, but he was too preoccupied to dwell on it. He heard Shiller continue, "My adoptive parents are fools. They have no idea that Garrett won't let them live for long; they're just witnesses to be eliminated. Killing one more child makes no difference to him."
"I came to you because, although you are undoubtedly doomed, you still can save me momentarily, and if you save me, I have a way to save you."
Howard stared into his eyes, feeling this was utterly ridiculous, but soon Shiller showed him the evidence.
"Actually, it's nothing serious, just some Hydra and Congress communication records Ultron gathered from the net. Monitoring devices might not be so advanced in this era, but there are still traces to be found," Shiller explained.
"They haven't made a move on you yet because you haven't shown enough value, but you know you will. You will develop more and more high-tech weapons, even disruptive technologies. Right now, they're just kidnapping Tony to test you. What about when that time comes?"
Howard's expression turned grim. He knew his own affairs; the recent advancements in bionic robot technology had already made Congress salivate. They had sent all sorts of lobbyists just to probe into the matter.
He had thought of outmaneuvering them, but he hadn't expected that Hydra had been wanting to lay hands on him. If this continued, Congress's hypocritical mask wouldn't last a few more days. Once there was a technological breakthrough, they would certainly not rest until they got their hands on the core technology.
What would he do then? What could he do?
Howard desperately realized that he had no way out. He couldn't resist the onslaught of two such terrifying behemoths. He could only choose to side with one of them.
But would taking sides lead to a good outcome? Whether it was Hydra or Congress, they only wanted to exploit his value. Once he was of no use, his whole family would have to die.
Their fate was quickly confirmed two days later when the Hamilton couple was killed. Intruders stormed into their house and shot them twice, and their home was set ablaze.
Howard rushed back to the manor and found Shiller fiddling with a computer in Stark's room.
"Do you believe it now?" asked Shiller, lowering his eyelids. "Whether you resist or cooperate, your fate is sealed."
Howard, somewhat puzzled, asked, "How do you know so much?"
"This is something any normal person could figure out." Shiller pointed to his head and explained, "Some people's brains develop towards science and technology, others in my direction."
"And what direction is that?"
"Of course, struggle." Shiller said, "Believe it or not, I can see through many people's thoughts. It allows me to judge the path of events and carve out a path to survival from all the dead ends, just like now."
Howard didn't ask any further because he knew that he was facing countless dead ends, and he couldn't see any way out for himself.
He took a deep breath and looked at Shiller, saying, "I've agreed to your demands. I've brought you here and saved your life. So as you said, you can save me too, and more importantly, save Tony and Maria, right?"
"Of course, but you must do as I say."
Howard saw the young boy in front of him reach back and, seemingly out of nowhere, pull out something.
"What is this?" Howard looked at the object handed to him. It seemed to be an extremely precise model with an amazing structure that could even be described as fantastical.
"Oh, wait, how can this thing... I mean, it's not supposed to be a working machine... but... no, it could, this structure is actually..."
Howard was almost immediately lost in thought, and the object Shiller had given him was indeed the Ark Reactor Model that Shiller had originally asked Stark for.
Over the next few days, Howard was engrossed in studying the model. Although it was made by Stark and had been restored as much as possible, a model is still a model and there is a certain distance from the actual Ark Reactor structure.
However, Bruce had managed to create an Ark Reactor out of thin air with this model, and Howard should be able to do the same.
After a few days, Shiller went to the lab and saw a disheveled Howard. Holding the model with a worried expression, he said, "It won't work, I'm missing something crucial. Just by having this thing, it won't start. It's just unreasonable..."
"I'm afraid you can't figure it out on your own," Shiller hinted.
"Impossible!" Howard roared back. "Just give me a few more days, just..."
"Give you a few more days, and Tony and Maria will be in danger," Shiller said. "You're not an agent leader, and your surroundings are not as impregnable as you think. If others discover the power of this thing and realize you could potentially bring it to completion, what do you think they will do?"
Howard swallowed hard, a pained expression on his face. Clearly weighing his options, he finally set down the model resignedly and said, "I know my talent is not enough. If it were Tony, he could do it, but he's not in good mental shape right now... So tell me, what do you want me to do?"
"First, Tony will be discharged from hospital soon, and I don't want him to see me, so I need to stay somewhere else. The lab is good. Second, you need to find a research partner. I know someone. Do you want to meet him?"
Howard walked around the desk to the computer Shiller was using, and saw a photo on the screen. The person in it dressed unlike any typical American, and below the photo was written a string of letters—"Anton Vanko, Soviet physicist."