Chapter 7: Shadows and Secrets
Leo returned home and fell asleep comfortably.
A new day arrived, and he went to school as usual.
"I can still enjoy peace for now. Stark hasn't made his announcement yet, so all kinds of threats can still hide in the shadows," Leo thought to himself.
"After he announces himself as Iron Man, it's estimated that the peaceful era will be over."
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Meanwhile, Pepper had contacted Phil Coulson, and Phil Coulson agreed to meet with Tony.
Phil Coulson immediately called his director.
"Director, Stark took the initiative to contact me and asked me to come to his villa," Coulson reported.
"Go ahead, and find out how exactly he escaped and came back," Nick Fury ordered.
Phil Coulson continued, "Director, he also said his father kept something at S.H.I.E.L.D. and asked us to bring it to him."
Nick Fury looked up slightly, his one good eye focusing on Phil Coulson. He realized something wasn't quite right.
Howard Stark was one of the founders of S.H.I.E.L.D.
He had made great contributions to S.H.I.E.L.D. and had developed many high-tech equipment and weapons.
Logically speaking, Howard's identity and involvement with S.H.I.E.L.D. were kept very secret. It should be impossible for Tony to know about it.
But judging from today's call, Phil Coulson sensed that Tony seemed to know something he shouldn't.
"How did he know this?" Fury asked suspiciously.
"I don't know either," Coulson admitted.
Nick Fury didn't know why this change had happened. However, the matter couldn't be ignored.
"Phil Coulson, take the materials over and try to find out what he knows. If there's no progress, I'll send others to investigate," Fury decided.
"Yes, Director," Coulson acknowledged.
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Phil Coulson arrived at Tony's villa with a box of documents, but Stark was quite busy at the moment.
Tony had just come back and had multiple urgent tasks—he needed to study the new element his father had discovered, develop new armor designs, and deal with the Obadiah situation.
There was also Obadiah hiding in the shadows. Tony wanted to prove Obadiah's guilt, but he had to be very careful.
Tony didn't dare to delay at all. He got up early every morning and got busy immediately.
He had brought back the model of the "City of the Future" that his father had built, and asked Pepper to contact Phil Coulson about retrieving his father's research materials.
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Finally, Coulson showed up at Tony's villa.
Under Pepper's call, Tony suspended the tasks in his hands, came up from the workshop, and appeared in the living room to receive Phil Coulson.
"Hi, I am Phil Coulson of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics—" Coulson began formally.
Stark sat down casually, picked up the wine that Pepper had prepared, and drank it directly, interrupting. "That name is too long. Why not just call it S.H.I.E.L.D.?"
"The name is indeed shorter, but I don't have the authority to change it," Coulson replied with a slight smile.
Stark got straight to the point. "Did you bring what I asked you to bring?"
"Yes. These are research materials Mr. Howard Stark left at S.H.I.E.L.D.," Coulson said, placing the box on the table.
Stark was very satisfied. He continued to ask, "My parents died that year, and the official conclusion was that it was a car accident. Did they really die because of a car accident?"
S.H.I.E.L.D. had strict hierarchy and compartmentalized information management.
Although Coulson was a high-level agent, he didn't have access to those classified materials.
"I don't have access to those materials, so I can't give you an answer," Coulson said honestly.
"So, you should have investigated it, right?" Stark pressed.
Phil Coulson hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "There should have been an investigation, yes."
"I need to know the truth of the matter," Stark insisted firmly.
Phil Coulson felt helpless. He was a trained agent, but during this conversation, Stark had taken the initiative throughout, controlling the flow of information.
"Okay, I will ask my superior for instructions," Coulson said. "But if you can cooperate with us and tell me how you and Yinsen escaped from the Ten Rings gang, I think we can reach a cooperation agreement soon."
Stark hesitated for a moment and thought of Leo.
However, Stark had already decided to conceal Leo's involvement completely. He would only say that the armor he built had helped him defeat the Ten Rings gang.
"We can cooperate, provided that you tell me the truth of the matter first," Stark said.
Stark then turned away and went back down to his underground workshop.
Pepper was also in an awkward position. Leo had shown up and brought up major revelations that changed everything.
She also had doubts about Leo's purpose, but she had no evidence of anything suspicious.
At the moment, she hesitated but ultimately chose to help Tony hide Leo's involvement.
"I'm sorry, Phil Coulson. Tony has been used to being self-centered his whole life," Pepper apologized.
"Oh, it's fine. I understand," Coulson said politely.
---
On the way back to S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, Phil Coulson reported the matter to Nick Fury.
Director Fury immediately realized that something was wrong. "I will consider this matter carefully."
After hanging up the phone, Director Fury pulled up the investigation report on the death of Howard Stark and read through the classified information inside.
"Howard Stark was attacked and killed by the Winter Soldier," he read aloud quietly.
S.H.I.E.L.D. had been investigating the Winter Soldier for a long time. All they knew was that this assassin was extremely powerful and highly effective.
Other than that, there were very few clues.
They didn't know which country the Winter Soldier was from or which organization had trained him.
The Tony Stark situation couldn't be ignored either.
He had escaped from heavily guarded kidnappers in Afghanistan.
Now he knew that Howard was a founding member of S.H.I.E.L.D. and even doubted the official story of his parents' death.
"It seems he knows something he shouldn't," Fury muttered.
With years of experience in intelligence work, Nick Fury felt these circumstances weren't simple coincidences.
Tony was rescued and even knew these secrets—there must be someone behind the scenes providing information.
"Phil Coulson's ability is very good, but for this particular matter, Natasha Romanoff is more suitable," Fury decided.
"Putting Natasha next to Tony will surely make it easier to figure out who's behind the scenes."
Thinking of this, Nick Fury immediately sent an encrypted message asking his top agent, Natasha Romanoff, to complete her current mission and return as soon as possible for a new high-priority assignment.
Nick Fury decided not to rush to hand over the classified information to Stark. Instead, he would wait for Natasha Romanoff to come back, then conduct a proper intelligence operation and test.
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Tony Stark remained busy, practically living in his workshop to build the new armor.
Stark was in no rush to confront Obadiah directly. He needed evidence first.
But while Stark wasn't in a hurry, some people were growing very anxious.
The board of directors of Stark Industries was in complete chaos.
Closing the weapons department would drastically cut down their income and profits, so they were extremely unhappy.
It was just that Stark had been hiding away, remaining invisible to the board. Obadiah came forward to calm the complaints of the board of directors.
But it was better to say he was fanning the flames rather than calming them down.
Obadiah secretly wanted the board to step in and remove Tony as CEO.
"At that time, I will be able to reap the benefits and become the person in charge of Stark Industries," Obadiah thought with satisfaction.
Not only that, but the Ten Rings gang had made a major discovery.
The wreckage of Tony's Mark I battle armor had been discovered by the remaining members of the Ten Rings in the desert.
When Obadiah heard this news, he set off immediately to Afghanistan and took the wreckage of the battle armor and the partial design schematics into his hands.
Looking at these pieces of advanced technology, he was very excited.
"Originally, I just wanted to kill Tony and take over the company," Obadiah thought greedily. "But now there's an even greater prize—this armor technology."
After Obadiah returned to the United States, he immediately gathered a large team of scientists and engineers to start researching and manufacturing a version of this armor for himself.
He hired the best weapons developers he could find, offering them enormous amounts of money to reverse-engineer Tony's design.
"With this technology, I won't just control Stark Industries—I'll have power beyond anything Tony ever imagined," Obadiah said to himself with a dark smile.
The scientists began working around the clock, trying to recreate and improve upon Tony's armor design.
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Back at Midtown High School, Leo was attending classes normally.
He knew all the pieces were moving into place.
Tony was working on his new armor.
S.H.I.E.L.D. was investigating Tony.
Obadiah was plotting against Tony.
And soon, everything would come to a head.
"The calm before the storm," Leo thought as he looked out the classroom window.
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