Jack's Secret Hideout
"Jack, you made so much money using Red Queen." Seeing the huge amount of money Red Queen had earned in the stock market just from the news of Tony becoming Iron Man, Gwen couldn't help but be surprised.
"This amount of money is nothing. Just releasing a single technology Emma has to the outside world could create billions in wealth," Jack said casually while exercising.
"I don't even know how you're going to spend this much money."
"Mm... buy things needed for research?" Jack replied after thinking for a moment.
"Then?"
"Then spend it on the Plumber organization if it ever needs money. But I don't think that'll be necessary—you know what kind of organization I'm planning to build," Jack said casually.
"That's it?!"
"That's it." Jack genuinely couldn't think of anything else.
"You're not going to become a billionaire or anything like that? You could if you wanted to, right?" Gwen asked, curious about what Jack wanted to do in the future.
Hearing this, Jack stopped exercising. He genuinely hadn't thought about those things. His goal had always been to become stronger—strong enough to stop Thanos and whatever other dangers the future held. As long as he had enough money to buy what he needed and support his research, that was enough for him.
After all, he was planning to build the Plumber organization. Compared to the threats waiting in the universe, Earth's money didn't seem that important. If he truly wanted more money, all he had to do was release one piece of advanced technology, and billions would come to him easily.
"Do you have any ideas? Do you want to become a female CEO or something?" Jack teased her.
"No, I don't have any plan like that," Gwen replied.
"If you ever do, let me know. I'd be interested to see CEO Gwen Stacy," Jack commented with a smile.
"I don't. I just asked out of curiosity. Anyway, I'm leaving. Peter invited me to stop a gang transaction together."
Before Jack could reply, Gwen spoke first.
"I don't need your help. I can handle it."
Saying that, she walked toward the door. Just as she was about to leave, she suddenly stopped.
"Seeing my new Spider suit, Peter will definitely ask about it. It has a lot of new technology, and it also looks expensive. What should I tell him?" Gwen asked.
Jack thought for a few seconds. He had already decided to invite Peter into the Plumber organization, but not yet. He wanted to surprise him properly instead of revealing everything little by little.
"For now, just tell him it was a gift from Hero Blur. He'll believe it. We'll tell him the whole truth soon."
"Okay."
With that, Gwen left.
After Gwen left, Jack finished his exercise and went to take a quick shower.
When he came back, he noticed Emma and Morgan sitting at another table on the other side of the room. The table was covered with holographic screens, blueprints, and several strange devices. Morgan was typing while discussing something with Emma, who was currently in her Grey Matter form, standing on the table and pointing at different holograms with her tiny hands.
"What are you two doing?" Jack asked as he walked over.
Hearing his voice, Grey Matter Emma looked up.
"Dad, you're back."
Her tiny voice made Jack grin. He reached out, picked her up, and placed her on his shoulder.
"Hehe, you're so small."
"Dad!" Emma pouted. "Put me down! I'm working!"
Jack laughed and gently placed her back on the table.
"We're trying to create a time machine," Morgan replied before Emma could continue complaining. "But without any clue about anything related to time, we can't go from 0 to 1."
Hearing that, Jack wasn't surprised. Ever since Morgan arrived in the past and realized they had no way back to the future, she had immediately started researching time travel. Living up to being Tony Stark's daughter, she had quickly learned everything related to the subject she could find. Jack had also helped her whenever he had free time, but despite all their efforts, they still couldn't make any real progress.
"How did my future self create a time machine? Since future me could build one, we should be able to use the same method," Jack muttered as he began thinking.
"How did future Dad create it?" Emma, still in her Grey Matter form, asked as she tilted her tiny head. "I think it might've been with the help of Clockwork?"
She wasn't sure. By the time she was born, the time machine had already existed.
Jack fell into deep thought. He searched through everything he knew that had anything to do with time.
Clockwork...
Time travel...
Time manipulation...
After thinking for a while, he still couldn't come up with anything else.
"Maybe the Time Stone?" Morgan suddenly said. "I heard from my dad that he once borrowed it from Strange for research."
Hearing Morgan's words, Jack's eyes lit up.
"Right. I don't have the Clockwork alien now, so that's out of the question. The only other thing I know with time-related properties is the Time Stone. It looks like we'll need the Time Stone if we want to build a time machine."
Seeing there was no better option, Jack decided to visit the Ancient One.
She had invited him before, but he had been busy earning Heroic Points every day and never found the time to go.
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