Tony Stark realized something amusing. SHIELD didn't know.
The vaunted spy agency, the organization that claimed to see everything, was blind to the biggest variable on the board.
"So," Tony swirled his drink, hiding a smirk. "You guys really don't know who Superman is, do you?"
It made sense. Lucas was slippery. He wrote in his diary that he met Tony while "sunbathing," but he conveniently left out the altitude. 30,000 feet. Above the cloud layer.
"A regular person doesn't sunbathe in the stratosphere," Tony thought. "And a regular person doesn't write down their secret identity in a diary that half the planet's elite seem to be reading."
"It's a blind spot," Tony mused. "Everyone thinks Lucas is just a Transmigrator. A narrator. An observer with a magic book. Nobody suspects he's a player."
"So you know," Fury stated, not asking. His one eye narrowed.
This was the second reason he came to Stark. The satellite footage showed a blur defeating the Iron Monger. It wasn't the Mark 2. It was something... else.
"We want to recruit him," Fury said flatly. "If he's a potential asset, I want him in the Avengers. We've been combing the city for this 'Superman', but he's a ghost."
"Considering the 'explosion' of superhumans mentioned in the diary," Fury added, "another flying brick isn't surprising. But an unidentified flying brick is a threat."
"Hahahaha!" Tony burst out laughing. He couldn't help it.
"You can't recruit him," Tony chuckled, wiping a tear from his eye. "You literally can't."
"Why not?" Fury frowned. "Is he a criminal? A hydra agent? A minor?"
Tony took a long sip of his drink, savoring the moment.
"Because," Tony set the glass down with a definitive clink. "He is Lucas Chen."
"And you can't recruit him because you can't let him know you have the diary. Right?"
Fury's face went blank. For a split second, the unflappable Director of SHIELD looked... flapped.
This was the reaction Tony wanted. He had been on the back foot since Fury walked in. Now, he held the aces.
"Hahahaha!" Tony laughed again, enjoying Fury's rare moment of shock. "Gotcha."
"You're lying," Fury said, recovering quickly. "Lucas is a normal human. A Transmigrator from a non-super world. His diary confirms it. He has no powers."
"He wrote it himself," Fury argued. "'The rich rely on technology, the poor rely on mutation.' He's broke. He has no tech. And he's from a reality without mutants."
"Exactly," Tony nodded. "Remember that line? 'Rich rely on tech, poor rely on mutation.' It was a joke. A meme."
"But jokes can be true," Tony leaned forward. "Think about it. Spiderman got bit by a spider. That's a mutation. What if Lucas got... something else?"
"You're saying he mutated?" Fury asked, his mind racing. "A Transmigrator undergoing localized mutation?"
"I'm saying," Tony said, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "The day he wrote about meeting me? He said he was sunbathing."
"Do you know where he was sunbathing?"
Tony pointed a finger at the ceiling.
"Above the clouds."
"30,000 feet in the air. Wearing nothing but a pair of shorts."
"And he wasn't in a plane."
Fury froze. The pieces clicked into place. The "sunbathing." The "One-Punch" strength. The "Superman" nickname.
"Motherf..." Fury breathed.
"Exactly," Tony grinned. "Your 'narrator' isn't just watching the movie. He's rewriting the script."
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