Yelena left the luxurious, spacious office, and as she opened the door, she bumped into Pepper Potts coming in. Yelena gave a polite nod and walked past her without a word.
Pepper glanced at Yelena, hesitating to speak, then entered the office. She glared at Tony Stark, who seemed deep in thought, and snapped, "Mr. Stark, if you could, please refrain from letting your lady friends waltz into the Stark Industries office."
"You know, with the stock market plummeting, most of the board members are already dissatisfied with you."
Pepper wouldn't admit she felt a bit jealous. She just couldn't stand Tony Stark's "decadence."
However, she suddenly noticed that instead of the usual carefree, teasing Tony, his expression was serious, and he seemed lost in thought.
"Tony?" she called, waving her hand as she approached his desk, trying to get his attention.
Her voice brought Tony out of his deep contemplation. When he saw Pepper standing there, he instinctively smiled and said, "Wow. Believe me, today is your most beautiful day, my dear Miss Potts."
"Thank you, Mr. Stark. Thank you so much for the compliment," Pepper replied with mock anger, although she was relieved to hear his familiar tone.
She wanted to say that if he didn't know how to give compliments, he shouldn't bother trying.
"You're welcome. So, my dear Ms. Potts, what brings you here?" Tony asked.
"I need you to sign the papers I'm carrying."
"Wow, looks like there's a dozen of them," Tony said, making a face full of rejection.
Pepper shook her head. "It's not a dozen, Tony. It's dozens, and this is only a part of them."
With that, she placed the hefty stack of documents on his desk.
Tony glanced at the pile, and his expression turned serious. He circled the desk and walked up to Pepper, placing his hands on her shoulders. Looking into her eyes with a mock-serious tone, he said, "My dear Miss Potts, you're already the executive assistant. I hereby authorize you to handle these documents."
"Which means... these files are now your problem."
Before Pepper could respond, Tony bolted for the door. Her face was frozen in disbelief as she watched him leave. Just before the door closed, she shouted, "Oh my God, Tony Stark! You can't just run away!"
Tony wore sunglasses and quickly left Stark Industries with his bodyguard, Happy. They headed downstairs to two sports cars parked in a nearby space. Just as Tony was about to get in, a middle-aged man in a suit with a gentle expression walked over, also wearing sunglasses.
When Tony saw him, something clicked. He paused, letting go of the car door handle and turning to face the man.
The man removed his sunglasses and extended his hand. "Mr. Stark, do you remember me? Coulson, from S.H.I.E.L.D."
"Of course, I remember your flowing long hair," Tony replied, shaking his hand with a perfunctory grin.
Tony had only vaguely remembered Coulson's introduction from when he first returned to New York, a quick briefing followed by a meeting with Nick Fury. It clicked later that Coulson was also part of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Coulson, a little self-conscious, touched his balding head but remained unfazed. He knew well enough about Tony's sharp tongue and sarcastic nature.
But Tony's next question caught him off guard.
"Agent Coulson, has anything big happened in New York this month that might concern me?"
Coulson's eyes narrowed. "Did that woman you met mention something? I'm guessing she didn't give you the full picture."
Clearly, S.H.I.E.L.D. had been monitoring Tony and the Stark Industries closely. The meeting with Yelena had not gone unnoticed.
Tony smirked. "So you're keeping an eye on me? Intriguing. Sounds like they're giving you headaches. Surveillance, I take it?"
Coulson remained calm. "They're too mysterious and too dangerous. We've been trying to trace their origins, but sadly, Mr. Stark, without your cooperation, our hands are tied."
"Well, what did your investigation turn up?" Tony pressed.
At that moment, a voice crackled in Coulson's earpiece: "Coulson, we lost her in a surveillance blind spot on 35th Street in Manhattan."
"The subject is skilled in anti-tracking, likely has backup, and the speed at which both she and the vehicle disappeared was...unusual."
"Understood," Coulson replied, then shrugged at Tony. "We lost the trail."
Tony scoffed, "Ha! Honestly, I hope you do find them. I'd love to know who they really are."
Even Jarvis, with all his advanced facial recognition and search methods, couldn't track Yelena or Natasha. Tony's curiosity was piqued. For a group to operate under the constant surveillance of modern society and leave no trace, it could only mean one thing: they had access to cutting-edge artificial intelligence well beyond anything currently known.
To completely suppress modern network information technology and block the world's networks, allowing that group of people to vanish from the digital world—now that was intriguing. As a genius, Tony was naturally curious.
But clearly, S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn't meeting his expectations, and that didn't surprise him. He was still waiting for the other party to reveal the full truth to him.
"A month ago, two individuals infiltrated the headquarters of the largest Crime Boss in New York and utterly destroyed him and several of his subordinates, all of whom had extraordinary abilities," Coulson said. "Their only goal was to ensure that no superhuman would come after you, Mr. Stark."
Coulson paused and added, "By the way, based on the information we received, Mr. Stane happened to be in a meeting with that Crime Boss at the time."