Rhyolite Ghost Town isn't actually called Rhyolite Ghost Town, nor is its exact location in California.
Its real name is Rhyolite.
It's located in Nevada, just relatively close to California, and as early as 1923, after the last resident of the town passed away, the town was completely abandoned.
Over time, many people came to believe it was in California, and thus it earned the name Ghost Town.
Because of the rich rhyolite mineral deposits in the area, it was also called Rhyolite Ghost Town.
But that's all in the past.
In 1904, large quantities of rhyolite were discovered here, leading to the town's establishment.
Its population peaked in 1908, then gradually decreased due to an economic crisis.
Eventually, the mines were depleted, and everyone left.
Now, all that remains are crumbling ruins and a desert struggling to tell of its former glory.
But today, the town was brightly lit, especially around the mine entrance built for mineral extraction, where people constantly moved in and out, seemingly carrying things back and forth from inside.
Anyone unaware might think some company had come to this ghostly place for a team-building event.
It was pretty close to that.
These people were S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, and their presence here was, naturally, for HYDRA.
Although Hawke had recently made a circuit around the Federation, eliminating HYDRA Agents in various places, he only eliminated the HYDRA Agents who were operating openly.
It's important to remember that HYDRA had been relying on S.H.I.E.L.D. and meticulously cultivating its forces for many years, so the number of secretly trained HYDRA Agents was enormous.
So...
During this time, S.H.I.E.L.D. launched attacks everywhere, following clues to eliminate these HYDRA remnants.
And this was a new Base they had just found.
The team leader was none other than Tony Stark.
At this moment, Tony was having Jarvis contact Gwen, asking her to tell Hawke that if he had time, he should come over.
Just then.
Gwen, who was on the phone, interrupted him.
"Uh, Tony, Hawke has already gone out."
"Gone out?"
Tony paused slightly upon hearing Gwen's words: "Where did he go?"
As soon as he finished speaking, a voice sounded behind him.
"To you."
"..."
Tony subconsciously turned his head, looking at Hawke, who had appeared in front of him at some point, and was startled.
He instinctively said goodbye to Gwen on the phone, then his gaze fell on Hawke's current appearance.
White T-shirt.
Black shorts.
His left arm was in a cast and secured with a bandage.
Tony's faceplate opened, and he looked at Hawke's attire with some curiosity.
"Your injury..."
"Don't ask."
Hawke raised his uninjured right hand and directly cut him off.
He had originally thought of just breaking off the cast on his left arm, knowing that coming out like this would not only look bad but also affect his combat power.
But...
Hawke thought about the treatment he had received since his injury.
He felt that one hand was enough for him; if his left arm was injured, then so be it.
He even wondered if he could find a way to extend the hundred-day period after it expired.
After all, lying flat for a while is good, and always lying flat is always good.
In a physical sense.
But he obviously couldn't tell anyone that.
Hawke decisively cut off Tony's question and asked with some curiosity: "How did you end up here?"
Tony's expression was serious: "Fighting HYDRA is everyone's..."
Hawke turned and walked away.
Are you kidding?
You, the World's biggest capitalist, talking about everyone's responsibility.
You're probably just bored at the company, being dragged by Pepper Potts to handle company affairs, so you used the excuse of fighting HYDRA to get out, right?
Hawke thought to himself, ignoring Tony behind him, and turned to walk towards the passage leading to the underground mine not far away.
His Sixth Sense had already spread out the moment he landed, and then he discovered something interesting.
Deep within the underground mine, a huge space had been carved out, and in a room deep within a Base, built at some unknown time, filled with congealed blood and corpses.
After Hawke appeared in the room, his gaze locked onto the phoenix cloth on the table in front of him, which had been pieced together.
His saint cloth.
To be precise, it was the saint cloth that was shattered during his battle with the Dark Elf Malekith.
This was why Tony had said over the phone that there was an energy fluctuation from his saint cloth here.
Hawke looked at the pieced-together saint cloth in front of him with a look of surprise.
In his eyes, there was no nostalgia for his first saint cloth, only intense curiosity.
As everyone knows.
His saint cloth was completely broken and shattered into fragments, none larger than a fingernail, at Stonehenge in London.
As a result...
"Hiss!"
"HYDRA is impressive. My saint cloth was reduced to dust back then, and they still had the patience to piece it back together?"
Hawke blinked, sighing in his heart.
Just then.
Tony Stark also walked in from outside, as he couldn't teleport and had to run in honestly.
Hawke then learned how Tony Stark and S.H.I.E.L.D. found this place.
After Maria Hill was promoted to Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., she began a large-scale internal cleanup operation within S.H.I.E.L.D.
It turned out that not checking was fine, but checking revealed a shock.
The Black Jail, codenamed Cold Storage, a S.H.I.E.L.D. prison that originally held Dr. Mallick, the cloning expert, had not only had Dr. Mallick swapped out, but also a dozen other criminals originally captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. had been replaced.
The Sandbox, a S.H.I.E.L.D. warehouse specifically used to store various dangerous items, also had many registered items that went missing during this inventory.
Hawke's first phoenix cloth fragments, collected from Stonehenge in London, were stored in this Sandbox warehouse.
Bad news.
S.H.I.E.L.D. lost a lot of things.
Good news.
Because whether it was the Slingshot, the Sandbox, or the Cold Storage, they were all located in remote, uninhabited places in the World, the HYDRA Agents hidden within them didn't even know that HYDRA's second struggle had failed.
So...
S.H.I.E.L.D. got clues to track the lost items.
Maria Hill originally wanted to list Hawke's saint cloth as item number one for searching.
S.H.I.E.L.D.'s system was no longer reliable, and the system on the Insight Mothership also needed to be rewritten.
Jarvis was responsible for helping S.H.I.E.L.D. rebuild the system.
So, upon hearing the news of Hawke's lost saint cloth, Tony stepped forward and took on this task.
Don't ask.
If you ask, it's because he was also very curious about Hawke's saint cloth.
Well, then.
With the intervention of Marvel's rare genius, Iron Man Tony Stark, and his top-tier intelligence, they quickly followed the clues and found this place.
"But when we arrived, it seemed they already knew they were exposed."
"All the systems here are damaged; Jarvis is checking if any part can be recovered."
"..."
Hawke listened to Tony's description, thinking of the congealed blood and the corpses with blood flowing from their seven orifices that his Sixth Sense had scanned and perceived.
However...
Hawke glanced at the saint cloth that HYDRA had pieced back together and couldn't help but let out a laugh: "Why are they researching my broken battle suit? Are they planning to replicate it?"
Is a saint cloth important?
Of course it's important.
But what's important isn't the saint cloth itself, but the saint cloth that can connect to one's Little Universe.
The saint cloth in front of him, the moment it shattered, its connection to his Little Universe was severed.
And a saint cloth that has lost its connection to the Little Universe is nothing more than a battle suit made of a rather special material.
saint cloth.
saint cloth.
The clothing of a saint seiya.
Only clothing worn by a saint seiya is qualified to be called a saint cloth.
If it's not worn by a saint seiya.
Heh heh.
Then it's just an ordinary piece of clothing.
So...
Hawke thought about HYDRA's most likely intention for collecting his saint cloth and couldn't help but scoff.
Tony, seeing this.
"Aren't you afraid they'll replicate it?"
"Afraid?"
Hawke raised an eyebrow, looked at Tony, and said with a serious expression: "Tony, if you want, I can lend you the black phoenix underworld armor I'm temporarily using now.
If you can replicate it... no, if you can create a battle suit that's just as good, I'll agree to anything you ask, unconditionally, without any restrictions.
You can ask me to fulfill this promise anytime, anywhere, how about it?"
Tony also laughed upon hearing Hawke's words.
"Really?"
"I rarely joke."
Hawke smiled and gave Tony a positive answer.
As long as Tony genuinely created a battle suit not inferior to the black phoenix underworld armor by himself, what's the harm in agreeing to one condition from Tony?
Let alone one, he'd agree to ten.
The reason is simple.
He found his exclusive saint cloth craftsman for the future.
So!
He's making a huge profit.
Just as Hawke was thinking this, Tony also chuckled, then agreed without hesitation.
"Alright."
"Not going to think about it?"
Hawke looked at Tony, who agreed so quickly, and said with a smile: "If you replicate it, I'll unconditionally agree to one of your requests, but I haven't said what happens if you lose."
Tony reached out his hand.
"Speak."
"If you lose, give me a hundred million, how about it?"
"...Are you short on money?"
Tony had originally thought Hawke would make some big demand, but he didn't expect such a simple request for a hundred million.
He looked at Hawke with some curiosity.
Hawke shrugged.
"No choice, I have a virtuous wife at home.
I said I'd borrow some from the Five Great Benefactors if I ran out of money, but she wouldn't let me, saying I should be a kind person."
"Thanks, Gwen."
Tony heard this, thought to himself, then his Iron Man armor opened, and he stepped out, extending his right hand to Hawke: "It's settled then.
If I lose, I'll give you a hundred million; if you lose, you grant me one request."
Hawke looked at Tony, who seemed afraid he'd back out and was eager to finalize the agreement, and smiled as he extended his right hand.
"Deal!"
"Deal!"
The two shook hands, a brief touch and release.
The next second.
Tony's face showed a strange smile as he looked at Hawke.
"You're going to lose."
"Heh heh."
Hawke heard this, saw the hidden smugness on Tony's face, and raised an eyebrow.
"I don't believe it."
"Follow me."
"..."
On my Patreon, I have several advance chapters available if you're interested in more than 100: For $1, you get 20 fewer chapters than the $2.50 tier. For $2.50, you get 40 fewer chapters than the $4 tier. And for $4, you get them all.
The number of chapters is updated every 7 days and increases by 7 to 8 chapters.
My Patren: paroncom/FanTranslator