"Princess Loki has fled!"
Shiller, who was dozing off in the clinic, picked up his cell phone and said, "What? What flee? Who?"
"Princess Loki!" Strange bit hard on the name and said with exaggerated lip movements, "Princess Loki of Asgard! She fled from there! She even stabbed her crown brother before leaving!!"
"Crown Princess? When did she become a Crown Princess?" Shiller's focus was entirely misplaced. He struggled to sit up from his bed, leaning against the head of the bed, covering his eyes with his hand, drowsy yet obviously awake.
"Her brother Thor became the new king of Asgard so isn't she the Crown Princess of Asgard?"
"I know, what I'm asking is, why didn't she accept the prince's coronation in a male's capacity but chose to be a Crown Princess?"
"Is that the point? !!!" Strange was almost drawn into Shiller's argument, he exclaimed loudly: "The point is, Loki fled! She even stabbed Thor! Now, she's nowhere to be found!"
"Oh."
"... Hey? Hey?!!"
With a clink, Strange set down the phone, taking a deep breath, turning to Stark beside him saying, "I told you this trick wasn't going to fool him. Doesn't he know Loki's reputation?"
"Apparently, words alone can't fool him." Steve, standing nearby with his arms crossed, chuckled at Stark's words—small and dismissive. "If language can't fool him, then let's make some noise."
Strange turns around, looking at Stark, "Tony, you and Shiller, both of you..."
"Shiller wanted to help you, so he went the long way round, making up the 'I am the Soviet Union' hoax which successfully promoted the development of civilizations on Earth. Then, he pushed you into the position as the head of the Solar System Construction Project. The only person who didn't know all of this was you."
"Now, you want to return the favor. So, you're planning to go the roundabout way to deceive Shiller, making him the only person in the dark about the project. Are you two... out of your minds?"
Steve laughs, patting Strange's shoulder saying, "Have you just met these two? Do you even need to ask this question?"
Just returned from a smoke break, Natasha comes over, looking at Strange asking, "How's it going? He must have hung up, hasn't he?"
"It's such a waste that the delegates didn't have you seduce Shiller. You seem to understand him well." Stark was irritable and ready to snap at anyone.
But Natasha didn't take it from him. She rolled her eyes, saying, "Yeah, when they thought about having me seduce Shiller, I thought, at least they weren't considering me to seduce you..."
Natasha's gaze lands somewhere below Stark's chest and above his thighs. She then looked up at his face, before shifting her gaze downwards again. Tossing her hair slightly, she snorted, turning around to leave.
Any man would have understood what she implied. Strange widened his eyes, looking at Stark with an interested expression. Steve coughed a couple of times and averted his gaze.
Furious, Stark pounded on the desk. Strange glanced from side to side then walked behind Steve, subtly elbowing him in the back, whispering, "Was Natasha initially sent to America as an undercover agent for Stark Industries?"
"Of course, although she probably didn't obtain much business information…" Steve turned to look at Stark as well.
"What are you talking about?! What are you talking about?!" Stark yelled. He waved a finger saying, "Firstly, we are innocent... alright, I admit, I did glance at her a bit when she first came."
Stark took a deep breath under their disapproving gaze, "Alright, confirmation bias, but...she is good-looking, beauty is human nature."
"But there's nothing between us at all! I was kidnapped to Afghanistan not long after she arrived."
"Honestly, she is visually appealing, but Pepper is far superior in substance. I'm not superficial, only focusing on a woman's appearance."
"Ohhhhhh, yes, yes!" Strange makes strange noises, looking up and calling out loud, "Jarvis, be sure to connect my communication with Miss Pepper. Otherwise, this innocent young man here is going to have his efforts go wasted."
Steve quickly ran up and shut off Stark, who was about to retaliate. He picked up his own shield then gave it a tap, "Back at the Avengers Base, when you said that you owe Shiller a favor, you were going to return it with a plan. You haven't told us exactly what that plan is yet."
Stark put down his fist, rubbing his own wrist, saying, "Some things aren't good to talk about here. Let's wait until tonight when we go to Luminous Alliance Base. By the way, Shiller's entire thing has quite a few victims. I'll have Professor X call all of them over…"
In the Hell's Kitchen clinic, Mark sat across the table from Shiller. He appeared nervous with his hands placed stiffly on his knees and his waist taut, not daring to lean back. Shiller said as he looked at him: