Although the Extremis Virus seems like a groundbreaking creation, there are actually quite a few technologies like this across the Marvel Universe. Besides Gamma rays and Pym particles, there are various serums, obelisks, and Magic Cubes. It's not like the moment you pull something out, everyone bows down to you. Good technology also needs a stage to showcase itself.
So, at that time, it was very likely that White Can was determined to implement a transformation, but there would be many issues when it came to actual execution. For example, how to gain the trust of shareholders, how to break the current monopoly in the biotechnology industry, how to further venture into the medical field, and with whom to collaborate politically to achieve the best results—these problems needed to be solved.
Pepper, after evaluating, thought that White Can's transformation plan wouldn't work. Either the plan itself had flaws due to White Can's commercial level, or the execution was too difficult. A forced transformation could ruin Stark Group. So she didn't agree.
White Can was determined to transform, while Pepper was firmly opposed. This was their fundamental conflict. But Pepper did conduct an investigation; she went to find former S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, including Carter and Nick Fury. She wasn't investigating White Can's character but looking into the situation of Stark Group in the original cosmos.
Once she investigated, things went awry. The Extremis Virus plan hadn't actually succeeded. Initially, it did make money and almost allowed White Can to dominate the world, but as the saying goes, it's like a Ponzi scheme, unable to sustain long-term operations. It could be a technical pillar for a corporation, but White Can hadn't established it.
This made Pepper even more pessimistic. If White Can led Stark Group to a dead end, Pepper's efforts for half of her life would be in vain, so she obviously wanted to stop White Can.
Verbal threats were useless. White Can himself had injected the Extremis Virus and had the Symbiotic Battle Armor. It was very difficult to deal with him personally, so she could only resort to another form of threat.
Therefore, Pepper chose to separate from White Can first and then immediately marry his bodyguard and friend. This was actually to threaten White Can's interests, putting a knife to his neck to force him to change his mind.
At this point, the agent realized, just as Greed said, their great conflict wasn't due to personal feelings but because of a significant conflict of interest. That's why they kept arguing with each other and used various extreme means to threaten the other.
However, the agent found it a bit strange. In fact, Pepper's way of threatening also left some room. After all, a marriage can end in divorce, and it's not like she and Happy truly took over Stark Group. It was at most a show of stance. But White Can, this time, would rather claim himself to be mentally ill just to make Stark Group's stock price plummet as revenge—wasn't that a bit too extreme?
Suddenly, arguing voices could be heard from outside the door again.
"You damn madman! Just to stop me from cutting the Mechanical Armor production line, you used Spider Man to destroy my Symbiotic Battle Armor and even sparked a Civil War. Now I have to stand in court!"
"It was you who went mad first! You thought with the Symbiotic Battle Armor and Extremis Virus, you could be carefree and actually planned to stop the production and maintenance of Mechanical Armor and even cut the Reactor-related research and maintenance team. You're digging your own grave! Standing in court is your rightful punishment!"
The agent slightly widened his eyes; this was some juicy gossip. It turned out the Symbiotic Battle Armor was destroyed by Pepper. From what he heard about the situation regarding the Civil War, Iron Man's madness was mainly due to this matter.
So, the truth was that the fuse of the Civil War was actually the internal conflict of this couple and the internal conflict's fuse was their disagreement on Stark Group's future direction.
"This might be a bit hard to resolve." The agent said, "Once the Rebirth Alliance is no longer threatened by Stark Group's divestment, and insists on having Iron Man face charges as a defendant, once these issues are exposed, Stark Group will be completely finished."
"No, it won't." Greed said, "Don't forget, Spider Man is involved too. If it were just Bruce Wayne, that would be fine. But with Thomas Wayne around, he has to be concerned about Wayne Enterprises' stock price as well."
The agent began to think again. Now, the truth of the Civil War was like a cat in a box; before opening the box, you wouldn't know whether it's a cat's corpse or a Sabretooth Tiger.
White Can went to court; who knows what his broken mouth would say, how reporters would embellish the story, or how people would spread rumors. By that time, Stark Group and Wayne Enterprises would be dragged into the water, and no one would benefit.
Anyway, Stark Group and Wayne Enterprises are considered conscientious companies. It's not a matter of black and white; compared to the remaining large corporations, these two still seem human.
The rest, like Roxon Corporation, Luther Group, Osborn Group, are heavier in weight, not to mention Hellfire Club, Hydra, Court of Owls, and Assassin's Union, which are purely villainous and love to fish in troubled waters.
This is also the main reason why the Rebirth Alliance doesn't want to conduct a public trial or even a trial at all after the end of the Civil War. The situation in the Fusion Universe is too complicated. With characters like White Can, who belong to the recruitable middle ground, there's a long queue of purely chaotic evil behind him.
If legal proceedings were pursued because of such matters, leading to tearing each other apart, then, in the end, those pure evildoers would certainly be the ones who profit. Not to mention, there's also the Doomsday Blade like Darkseid looming overhead.
With this in mind, the agent understood why Nick's wording was so tactful. He asked the agent to protect Pepper, but only to prevent violent acts and not to completely separate the two. Evidently, there was still hope that the two could negotiate and stabilize Stark Group's situation.
"Haven't you thought of any solution?" the agent asked.
"Of course, I've thought about it." Greed crossed his legs, "I brought this Iron Man here, so naturally I have to take responsibility for what happened."
"Let's put it this way, the main conflict between the two of them lies in the fact that Iron Man has technology and ideas but doesn't know how to implement them, and although Pepper understands business, she doesn't trust Iron Man's decision-making skills."
The agent nodded, acknowledging that the situation was indeed like that. In fact, the main issue was the conflict between theoreticians and practitioners. The theoreticians had the determination and technology but couldn't find a good breakthrough point. The practitioners knew how to execute but didn't quite trust the theoreticians' theories.
"Iron Man's transformation plan was proposed too early," Greed said, "Or rather, he just talked without putting it into practice, or he practiced but didn't demonstrate enough commercial value, which is indeed hard to convince shareholders and managers."
"So to resolve the conflict between the two of them, we first need to show the value of the Extremis Virus, to let more people see the commercial potential of this technology, or at the very least, demonstrate Iron Man's understanding and utilization of this technology."
The agent nodded again, "So what did you do?"
"I gave him a plan." Greed sighed, "In my original plan, the entry point was the two hot seafood brands recently in Forward York, Atlantis Brand and Seven Oceans Brand. These two brands have also recently emerged, with high discussions by various media, and these two have competition, so it's best to start with them."
"Originally, Iron Man should contact one of them to provide them with a specially improved Extremis Virus that has no side effects on humans, to breed bigger and better seafood, increase competitiveness in the market, and outdo the other brand."
"In this way, by the time the Rebirth Alliance holds a Multiverse reception, they could recommend themselves, offering these farmed fish to Multiverse guests as a signature delicacy and merchandise of this universe."
"The key is, this could showcase the strategic value of the improved Extremis Virus in livestock farming and agriculture. If the Extremis Virus can breed bigger and better fish, it can also significantly enhance the yield of cattle, sheep, and chickens. Moreover, if applied to plants, it can increase grain yields."
"Grain is life. Demonstrating strategic value in this area, the Extremis Virus would no longer just be a commodity but a bargaining chip at negotiation tables across regions or countries. With Stark Group holding this technology, its strategic position would be significantly enhanced, and prospects would get better."
"And this perfectly avoids any black history, as long as it's harmless to humans, it won't involve issues like human experimentation that go against the mainstream values of the Rebirth Alliance, which is also better for Iron Man and Stark Group's image."
"Once the value of the Extremis Virus is fully demonstrated, Pepper would no longer oppose it so much, or even if she opposed, it would be ineffective, as the Rebirth Alliance, Multiverse guests, or other countries' governments, would all want this thing. Shareholders seeing the potential benefits won't easily give up, and Iron Man could carry out his transformation plan."
"Sounds good," the agent commented, "So how did it end up like this?"
Greed opened his mouth and said, "Firstly, Iron Man didn't want to cooperate with those two Sea Clans; he thought there was a better way."
"Poisoning them without their knowledge?"
Greed nodded, "He thought just throwing the compound into the fish farms, waiting for the fish to be raised, and then retrieving them would do, without needing them to know."
The agent fell silent for a moment, unsure of what to say. Greed continued, "Actually, if the execution had succeeded, it wouldn't have been a big problem, but the tricky part was, without a professional, no one here understood — fish."
"That's true, we rarely deal with seafood products, especially live ones," the agent said, "Arrogant can't catch fish, and you only eat sashimi... dead fish slices."
"And Tony is a very dramatic person," Greed continued, "He thought serving the dishes directly and having a professional introduce them was too uninteresting, so he arranged a surprise entrance for the fish. Due to not understanding the habits of the strong fish bred, and overly pursuing a dramatic entrance, the original surprise turned into a scare, directly ruining the Rebirth Alliance's reception."
"Wait," the agent said, "Are these fish really just strong? Are they really non-toxic? Then why did that Mutant end up in the hospital?"
"The fish raised with the Extremis Virus are indeed harmless to humans, but eating raw seafood with beer can sometimes cause gastritis."
"So that Mutant didn't get poisoned, but had gastritis?" the agent asked.
Greed nodded.