This Luther, though relatively young and not as robust as most middle-aged Luthers in the universe, is still tall. Yet he is unable to get up, being pinned down by Pepper, who is both shorter and slimmer than him, and can only clamp his eyes shut and scream miserably.
"Calm down, lady, calm down!" Shiller shouted, his gaze beginning to scan the room. Where's Loki? Where did he vanish to? Laughing while your teammate is captured?
Already holding his magic wand, Loki was both surprised and suspicious. Though he didn't want to give up on Luther directly, he still wanted to rescue his teammate. Pepper's behavior made Loki feel something was off—this doesn't seem like the normal strength a human should possess, right?
Fortunately, Shiller's shout brought Pepper back to some rationality. She released her grip, allowing Luther to roll on the ground clutching his eyes, while she stood there, panting heavily. Just as she was about to say something, the room suddenly shook with a loud bang.
"Oh my God, Iron Man! Iron Man!! What are you doing?! Hurry up and take action!!!" Carter angrily yelled from the helicopter above. And just in the center of her view, Iron Man was bombarding the Luthor Building in his mecha.
The citizens of Forward York City were as quick as ever to evacuate, but this time Iron Man caused too much of a commotion. Special missiles were rapidly penetrating through the ground.
The combat team of the Rebirth Alliance had already arrived on the scene, led by Captain America. The shield was growing larger in the reflection of the mecha but dodged by the agile Iron Man, followed by Wonder Woman's lasso of truth and Superman's laser, but neither hit Iron Man.
"What's gotten into him now?" Spider Man pressed his headset.
"Pepper was kidnapped, very likely by Luther." Carter briefly explained and then said, "Hurry up and bring him down. If this continues, the whole street will be destroyed!"
Wonder Woman leaped into the sky, flying towards Iron Man while shouting, "Calm down, Tony. We'll rescue Pepper, but you're... "
Again, with a loud boom, the foundation of the Luthor Building was completely destroyed, and the whole tower swayed as it began to lean in one direction. Superman hurriedly dashed over to support the building, but doing so left him unable to help others deal with Iron Man.
Seeing that persuasion was ineffective, Wonder Woman sprinted towards Iron Man. Iron Man dodged, but Wonder Woman relentlessly pursued, and the two began battling in the air.
"We need to rescue Pepper first," Captain America remarked. He was undoubtedly hitting the crux of the problem, as Iron Man was clearly going berserk because Luther Group kidnapped Pepper. Simply obstructing him wouldn't help unless Pepper was rescued.
At this moment, the situation had already caught Thor's attention. He arrived faster than anyone else underground, and upon seeing Loki, he forcefully shut his eyes.
"I apologize, ma'am," Thor said to Pepper. "I'll give you an explanation when this is over, but I need to take him away first."
After saying this, he didn't hesitate, reaching out and grabbing Loki, hoisting him over his shoulder. Loki struggled and cursed loudly, but it was futile as Thor took him and disappeared from the room.
Pepper tidied her hair, looking distastefully at the blood on her clothes, which, of course, wasn't hers; it was all Luther's.
"We should go up," Pepper said, "I need to hurry back to the company, or it'll be too late. This is really unlucky..."
Shiller roughly understood why Pepper suddenly went berserk. Clearly, after the kidnapping, something exceeded Pepper's control, threatening her fundamental interests.
Just as Shiller was looking for a way to go up, suddenly, an even more violent tremor struck, forcing Shiller to brace against the wall to stay upright. Then, the entire room lit up.
Shiller looked up and saw that the entire Luthor Building was being moved. Evidently, whoever protected the Luthor Building now, Iron Man would attack them. Superman couldn't just stand there like a target supporting the building—the best course was to move the building first.
Superman flew away with the building in his grasp, the foundation destroyed again. This floor had already been bombed, and the huge commotion caused the ceiling to collapse down with a clatter.
Shiller rushed over to protect Pepper, but someone was faster. Iron Man dove down quickly, grabbed Pepper, and shielded her with his body. With a crash, the ceiling collapsed, burying them together.
Shiller was unscathed, as he was standing in a corner, where the damage was minor. Luther, also because he was in a corner, dodged a bullet. When Captain America and a few others jumped down, Shiller pointed to the center of the room.
Captain America took a gentle breath; he wasn't necessarily worried about Iron Man's safety, but Pepper was an ordinary person—she'd surely be severely injured, right?
Then, from beneath the rubble came a strong and angry shout: "Anthony Stark! What the hell did you do?!"
"I saved you! How come you still..."
"I'm asking about Stark Group!! What's with the stock price?! Are you planning to use suicide to threaten me?!"
"I would like to ask you! Wasn't it you manipulating the media, trying to smear my reputation, leading to Stark Group..."
"Are you out of your mind? How could I possibly..."
"Ladies and gentlemen." Wonder Woman landed, "Can we argue after we get out of here?"
Captain America and the others had already started moving rocks, but unexpectedly, Iron Man and Pepper popped out of the debris like monkeys.
"Oh!" Wonder Woman was startled, why so much blood? Ma'am, are you alright?!
Iron Man turned at the sound, raising his voice as if seeing her for the first time, exclaiming: "Pepper!"
"Get her to the hospital, hurry!" Spider Man called out.
"It's not my blood." Pepper explained, afraid someone else needs to be sent to the hospital, go dig over there, and over there too.
Pepper indicated the directions where Shiller and Luther were located in the corners of the wall. At this point, Wonder Woman also noticed Shiller with blood marks on his neck, and Luther lying on the ground, uncertain if he was dead or alive.
"Call an ambulance!" Captain America sighed deeply.
When Shiller was on the stretcher in the ambulance, Natasha slipped past the medical staff and climbed in, closing the door. Shiller looked at Natasha and said: "Peppers likely used Extremis Virus."
Natasha paused: "On the other ambulance, Luther's not doing well. Wasn't it you who injured him like that?"
"Not me." Shiller gently shook his head. The medical staff was resetting his arm, but he didn't care, busy talking to Natasha, "Initially, I did attack and subdue him, but then Loki rescued him. Luther saw the news about Stark Group's stock price falling and provoked Pepper, and Pepper stuck a pen into his eye."
"I saw the strangulation marks on the neck, from the force it seemed quite professional, but the pen stuck in the eye was too emotional, I thought it wasn't you. So Pepper is a superpower user now?"
"Not just any superpower user." Shiller said: "She is very strong, and her recovery ability is also very fast. When the ceiling collapsed, it wasn't that she wasn't injured, but she had already healed before coming out."
"She absolutely refuses to get on the ambulance." Natasha said, probably afraid we'll find something abnormal about her, huh.
"Not necessarily." Shiller continued: "More likely she's eager to return to Stark Group to salvage the situation, things have spiraled out of their control."
When Shiller said "their" he was referring to Iron Man and Pepper. Actually, although it seemed on the surface that the two were stabbing Stark Group due to their internal conflicts—one revealing their mental patient status causing stock prices to fall, and the other roping in Wayne Enterprises to poach talent—these couldn't really hurt them deeply.
Not to mention that Stark Group itself is a real estate entity, with plenty of high-quality assets, and numerous patented technologies, not heavily reliant on stock prices. Just the matter of Pepper reaching out to Wayne Enterprises for poaching seemed quite serious when she told Thomas Wayne, but actually, it wasn't the case at all.
Pepper has been at Wayne Enterprises for years and is well-aware of the situation of mid-level employees. Among them, some are her confidants, and as long as she gives them a heads-up, they certainly won't be poached. Others are veterans of Stark Group, older, lack ambition, so job-hopping is meaningless to them. Of the remainder, those dissatisfied with Stark Group's current pay or losing confidence due to falling stock prices aren't that many.
This would indeed cause some talent loss but doesn't constitute deep harm. The most important thing is Pepper can leverage this to eliminate dissidents. Normally, she merely needs to exert pressure internally in the Group, and if Thomas recruits externally, it's likely these people would have no choice but to hop, actually strengthening Pepper's control over Group employees.
Clearly, this is another gamble between her and Iron Man. Iron Man wants to threaten Pepper by damaging Stark Group's interests, while Pepper tries to unite mid-level employees to pressure Iron Man.
Typically, this round between them is tit-for-tat as well—Stark Group would indeed suffer some harm, but considering its solid foundation and seeing it will follow their planning with enough tossing around, it's deemed worthwhile.
But alas, Fusion Universe isn't that simple, as more people mean more variables. Iron Man, thinking nothing major would happen, went to Jotunheim through fake coordinates to find Reed and didn't pay attention to Stark Group. Pepper didn't anticipate Luther being so reckless, directly rushing over to kidnap her, leading to confinement.
In a major crisis, the two soul figures of Stark Group weren't present on site, with recent events leaving Stark Group on shaky grounds, this elbow hit directly on the heart without anyone to administer CPR, nearly caused it to stop.
Nonetheless, Shiller was a bit confused, if it was just the stock price consistently falling, plus poaching, it shouldn't warrant such a cliff fall, so he looked at Natasha and asked: "What has happened to Stark Group?"
Natasha showed a somewhat troubled expression, sliding down to sit against the ambulance door: "You might count as an employee of Nick's so telling you doesn't quite amount to divulging secrets."
"Nick's handiwork, right?"
Natasha nodded. Nick wouldn't genuinely cooperate with Luther, he only wants to scheme Luther's money, yet Luther ran straight into a trap.
"He's very astute." Shiller commented.