The Ultimates—this superhero team established by the US government to save face following the disbandment of A.I.M. and the defection of the American Avengers—had always found themselves in a rather awkward predicament.
There were three aspects to this awkwardness: first, they were constantly being compared to the Avengers; second, they couldn't recruit anyone; and third, they had no decent track record to show for themselves. The latter two points further highlighted the first, rendering the Ultimates all the more embarrassing.
And precisely because they couldn't recruit anyone, after months of resisting, Carol had quite helplessly succumbed to the pressure from various government factions. She brought Ares, the Greek God of War who had defected during the A.I.M. incident, into the Ultimates.
In truth, according to Carol's original thinking, this position should have been given to Hercules. However, Hercules looked down on the Ultimates (strictly speaking, he looked down on the previous American Avengers), and since Carol had no way to prove herself either, the situation had remained awkwardly stalled.
She had even thought more than once about whether she should just pack her bags and quit. But at the thought that if she didn't lead this team, it might be handed over to someone else, Carol decided to bear with it for the time being. Thus, after all sorts of struggles, the Ultimates happily gained a formidable warrior: Ares, who happened to have a prior record of backstabbing.
Then, she brought this group over to the Avengers Tower to help put out the fire.
"You guys arrived at a very opportune time. In fact, one could even say it's a bit too coincidental." Tony Stark looked at the group with distinct dissatisfaction, even though one of his friends was among them. "Did you install some sort of alarm in the Avengers Tower to arrive this quickly?"
"In reality, we just happened to be in New York, Stark."
Faced with the potential accusation hidden within Tony's sarcasm, Carol was considerably displeased. "The news of the Avengers Tower being attacked hit the broadcasts long ago. It doesn't take much time for us to rush over."
In reality, Tony and Peter had already resolved the issue, so the Ultimates certainly hadn't arrived early.
"Alright, alright, let me have a chat with Tony, okay? Carol?"
Colonel Rhodes glanced at Carol, then pulled Tony to one side. "Listen, pal, you know as well as I do that our Ultimates have to complete missions eventually..."
"Then you could also quit and join the Avengers, Rhodey."
Rhodes looked at Tony with utter helplessness, then shook his head. "It's not that simple, Tony. I am a soldier, and a soldier has no way to refuse orders, so the Ultimates is where I need to strive. Listen, pal, the Ultimates need some results. We have to do something... even if it's just arresting a few people."
Tony understood Rhodes's meaning. To make the Ultimates' performance record look a bit better, Rhodes hoped Tony would hand the Wrecking Crew over to them so they could transport them to another prison, rather than locking them up in the Mansion prison.
Tony pondered for a moment. Instead of agreeing immediately, he pulled Peter over to another side. After laying out the situation to him, Tony inquired, "What do you think, kid?"
"To a certain extent, I actually support it quite a bit."
Peter's words surprised Tony considerably, though fortunately, Peter proceeded to explain his reasoning afterward. "The capacity of a single prison is limited, just like the Raft prison before. If something goes wrong, it easily triggers a widespread chain reaction, so it is highly necessary to keep superhuman criminals incarcerated separately."
Tony picked up on the underlying implication within Peter's words even more. While keeping different prisoners confined separately was necessary, the problem lay in the fact that the US government itself was untrustworthy, and the management of these supervillains might inherent problems.
But then again, as Avengers, they actually possessed no legal authority whatsoever to manage these supervillains. The Avengers held absolutely no administrative rights over the criminals currently locked up in the Mansion; the only reason the Avengers could control the Mansion prison relied entirely on the fact that everyone took it for granted.
Regarding this matter, if the US government truly wanted to scrutinize the details, they could have a massive showdown with the Avengers.
Following that, Peter brought up another matter.
"When I was talking with the Wrecking Crew, I asked about the source of their power. As I questioned them one by one, I mentioned Loki, and my Spider-Sense distinctly flared up. Furthermore, many characteristics of that crowbar also bring Mjolnir to mind."
The conclusion drawn from compiling these observations was that the Wrecker was a superpowered individual created by Loki. Since Loki was the God of Mischief, it seemed incredibly bizarre for this fellow to intend for the superpowered individuals he created to enter prison.
Thus, after Peter and Tony discussed it for quite a while, they finally reached a conclusion. Smiling, Tony opened his mouth to Rhodes: "Alright, pal, consider this a favor you owe me. Take these guys away. But you have to leave their weapons behind, no problem with that?"
"No problem, no problem," Colonel Rhodes immediately chimed in to smooth things over. Carol was definitely dissatisfied with the current arrangement, but there was nothing to be done; though this tactic was shameless, it was practical.
Watching the departing Ultimates, Peter appeared somewhat plagued by gains and losses. "I am wondering, Thor's hammer can automatically recognize directions and return to its master's side. Is it possible that this crowbar possesses the same effect?"
"Are you worried that these guys will instantly become our enemies the moment they get their hands on the crowbar? But we've defeated them before, so we naturally know how to deal with them."
Despite this, Peter still felt that something was very amiss somewhere. It was just that he couldn't see the underlying reason for the time being, so he intended to set it aside for now and head back to Strange's place.
As for Tony, exactly as Hydra's research had anticipated, after doing some thinking, he decided to take a proper look at the USB drive brought by the Wrecking Crew. He first had Jarvis inspect the computer at the front desk. After confirming that there were no issues, he instructed Jarvis to begin parsing the data.
"What is the result, Jarvis?"
Jarvis didn't reply, causing Tony to instantly feel a wave of unease. Fortunately, it was a false alarm; Jarvis quickly reported his scanning results to Tony, stating there was absolutely no problem at all. Tony was amused by this—there's nothing inside, which means your USB drive is a pure hoax, isn't it?
That group from the Wrecking Crew truly is gullible, falling for such an obvious trick so easily.
"Falling for such an obvious trick so easily."
On the other side, the Grand Mage Loki, who had turned invisible to observe the entire battle and had enchanted the Wrecking Crew's crowbar, quietly manifested near the Sanctum Sanctorum. Loki shook his head helplessly, then recalled the aura present on the USB drive.
That was indubitably an incomparably massive power. With it, his plan might just succeed.
"But first, I must figure out who is behind him. As it stands now, that party doesn't seem to be on good terms with Stark either."
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