Chapter 1407 The Return of the Old Ones (Part 15) (Patreon)

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The next morning, Stark drove a flashy sports car to drop Peter Parker off at the clinic. They saw Schiller sitting in a window on the second floor, writing something. They could guess he was writing papers or medical records filled with psychiatric jargon.

As Peter got out of the car, he looked upset. He crossed his arms and glared at Stark, saying, "You're driving a multi-million dollar sports car, parading me around the streets of New York with the top down. The tabloid headlines tomorrow are going to be awful!"

"I never put the top up, you know that," Stark said nonchalantly, putting on his sunglasses and popping a piece of gum in his mouth. "Don't worry, I got word yesterday that they're more focused on whether I've been 'sharing' with Captain America. You're not their target right now."

"Sharing? What?" Peter frowned as he followed Stark into the clinic. Stark, without looking back, said, "You know, what you and Gwen did on her birthday."

Peter froze, his mouth agape, unsure whether to be shocked that Stark knew about his and Gwen's activities, or that the tabloids dared to write about Stark and Captain America.

Schiller opened the clinic door, and they saw Captain America struggling to put on a sweater, his head stuck and looking rather comical. He tossed a bag onto the sofa and sniffed, asking, "Doctor, is there breakfast? I'd like some scrambled eggs."

"Make it yourself," Schiller replied, already busy at his laptop, seemingly responding to student emails. The sweater-clad Captain America rolled his shoulders to settle the sleeves and said, "Alright, I'll make breakfast then."

Stark stood in the doorway, arms crossed, listening to the commotion coming from the street. Soon, a door slammed against the wall next to him, and Natasha yelled, "Tony Stark! The Avengers' mental health maintenance bill you submitted to S.H.I.E.L.D. had Nick cursing for three and a half hours, and the entire finance department in an uproar all morning. You need to explain yourself!"

"Natasha! Natasha, come back!" Clint Barton chased after the furious female agent, trying to stop her. Stark tilted his head slightly towards Natasha and said, "You should be asking the ones who actually got that money, not me."

"The finance department's biggest headache is that the one who got the money isn't here right now!" Natasha said coldly. "Nick needs the books balanced, no matter what. I'm here to take Dr. Schiller."

"Be my guest," Stark shrugged. "If his psych evaluation report didn't pass, but you let him work for S.H.I.E.L.D., no Avenger will ever take a psych eval again, because that would be contradictory."

The female agent glared at Stark, her lips tightly pressed, before finally speaking in a low voice, gritting her teeth, "You don't know how desperate Nick is to get your exorbitant bill included in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s expenses, to get more funding. But that requires Dr. Schiller to confirm you really spent that much on mental health maintenance, so we..."

"Ahem." Stark cleared his throat, then suddenly raised his voice, "So you mean, even if Dr. Schiller's psych eval didn't pass, even if his mental state isn't fit to continue working, you still want him back on the job, just to foot Nick's greed?"

"Hey, hey, hey, ma'am!" Peter immediately jumped up from where he was connecting a game console to the TV, rushing to the doorway and saying, "You can't tell me that's the case. That's unethical, you can't forcibly employ a mentally ill person!"

Feeling Steve's disapproving gaze from the kitchen, Natasha covered her forehead with her hand, yanking Stark outside and speaking in a low voice, "What are you doing? You know Schiller is fine now."

"But he may be doing something to make himself not fine again."

Natasha's eyes widened slightly as she looked at Stark, saying, "You mean he has a new plan? But I haven't heard anything from Nick."

Stark raised a finger emphatically, "The four of them - Stephen, Loki, Nick, and Schiller - are much more cunning than the mentally ill patients trying to hoard medication in the asylum. Keeping you in the dark is child's play for them."

"Nick is involved too?" Natasha frowned.

"Who knows," Stark replied.

Natasha grabbed Stark's arm again, saying, "You keep an eye on Schiller, I'll keep an eye on Nick, and we'll have Helen keep an eye on her mother. That should do it."

But Stark raised an eyebrow, looking at the female agent, "You actually want to be on my side? And not join their messy plan?"

"I mean, they all need a break! You know, Nick just strangled a Skrull, made it impersonate him, so he could have two bodies and never rest! They're all lunatics! Terrible workaholics!"

"They're constantly trying to give Earth and humanity a big surprise, but if they don't rest, the biggest surprise we'll get next is their corpses!"

Stark immediately stopped the female agent, leading her a bit further away and saying, "Okay, then that's how we'll do it. Give me a few more agents to keep an eye on their houses, and it'll be foolproof."

Natasha brushed the Scarlet Witch from her forehead, crossing her arms, "No, that's going too far. Nick will give me trouble for that."

"Then use your other channel."

Natasha looked up at Stark, a hint of suspicion in her eyes, but ultimately she lowered her gaze and said, "Alright, but you better be careful. They won't go easy on a capitalist like you."

Natasha strode away, and Batman asked in Stark's mind, "What's this other channel the Russian woman has?"

"She's not Russian. She's Soviet," Stark said as he walked back towards the clinic. "And I'm worried her other channel might be the KGB."

"Congratulations, you got the answer right."

Batman was silent for a while, perhaps digesting this shocking fact, but he still chose to voice his surprise: "As the head of the world's largest capital group, you let a Soviet Union-led KGB keep an eye on the places you'll be visiting frequently in the future?"

"What's there to be afraid of?" Stark shrugged nonchalantly. Batman was silent for a moment and then said, "You let the KGB keep an eye on your friends?"

Stark leaned against the curtain, watching Steve cook, and said, "I let my friends keep an eye on the KGB... to ensure their beliefs and behavior remain pure."

The amount of information in this sentence truly stunned Batman. He suddenly remembered a detail - when Schiller was in his Space, on the road to his new residence, Schiller had recited a Pushkin poem.

"Have you been beaten by him?" This was an affirmative statement from Batman.

"That depends on what level you're talking about." Stark began to childishly tap the window, interfering with Steve's actions, and said, "Physically, no, but he has beaten everyone spiritually, as well as the entire U.S. political arena, and almost the entire Space, and almost all Space."

"You should tell me about his glorious history."

"I was just about to do that."

As Steve impatiently tapped the spatula handle on the window in response to Stark's actions, Stark leaned against the edge of the clinic's wall window and began to share Schiller's glorious light bulb-changing experiences with Batman.

Inside the house, Peter started shouting, as he had just managed to grab an easy and highly rewarding task, so he had to apologize to Schiller and then go complete his task. Schiller didn't seem to react, so Peter rushed out the door, but Steve's breakfast wasn't ready yet, so Peter came back, carrying Helen.

Peter came outside and handed Helen to Stark, saying, "Thor has issued a task, hoping I can bring Helen to you, because he's trying to get Loki to go back to his confinement, sorry, I'm just reciting Thor's words, because Loki is trying to get him and his other selves to complete the entire Interstellar Science and Technology Expo."

After Stark took Helen, he heard an exaggerated version from the little girl's mouth.

"You won't believe it, my mom is really working herself to death! Okay, she's not an Asgardian, but she's a Frost Giant, and she's also a sorcerer who's been cultivating divine power for years, but just last night, her divine power went out of control and destroyed her bedroom and an entire floor of the Celestial Palace."

"The doctor, Odin, and Frigga's diagnosis is that she's too overworked, her brain and mind can't support her continuing to work like this, and now Thor has locked her up, which obviously doesn't solve the problem."

"Those other Lokis are also about to collapse from exhaustion, they want to save Asgard in a single day, you understand? Every Loki is like this crazy, and Thor can't persuade even one of them to go back and get a good rest, he's about to be furious."

Helen babbled for a few minutes, then emphasized that Thor had resorted to force: "Correct, he fought with Lady Loki, but it was more like he unilaterally knocked out Lady Loki, but we all know this is not the end."

"So what does he want me to do?"

"He wants you to do something for the Nine Realms." Helen jumped to the balcony next to Stark and said, "He wants to know how you control Schiller, when Schiller is even crazier than Loki."

Stark pursed his lips, revealing a nostalgic expression, his eyelashes fluttering slightly, and he patted Helen's head, saying, "It's very simple, keep an eye on him 24 hours a day."

"Or you can put it in a more fundamental way." Stark looked into Helen's eyes and uttered the word, "Accompany him."

Helen blinked and tilted her head slightly, as if trying to understand what that meant, and at that moment, a gentle breeze blew by, and the dark aura became even more dense. A voice came from behind Stark.

"Hello, Iron Sorcerer, I am Hela."

Stark turned his head to see the still noble and calm figure of Hela, the dark-haired princess, who said, tapping her finger on her chin.

"The mutants have already sent the m'kraan Crystal into the Nine Realms, and it is currently resting at the location we agreed upon, which is my Netherworld, and I am also fulfilling my duty, to take you to inspect the goods."

Stark glanced through the window, seeing that Schiller, Steve, and Peter had finished breakfast and were now sitting on the sofa watching TV, so without much thought, he put Helen down and followed Hela away.

Schiller shifted his gaze from the TV to Stark's retreating figure, pretending to be drowsy and closing his eyes, focusing his attention on the gray ring on his finger.

In the world shrouded in gray mist, a black sun hung silently in the sky, still majestic, terrifying, and magnificent, but this time, facing it was an equally gigantic storybook.

Above the storybook, a feather pen floated in the air, writing something fluently, and soon an old hand grasped the pen, a gaze fixed on the new story that had appeared on the book -

"On a ordinary summer evening in the southwest, I returned to my home in Englewood, a place I haven't been to in many years, but the thing I need to do more than reminisce is to visit my mother's grave..."

As the last sentence fell, a deep sigh echoed.

"You've lured me here with a good story, so what do you want?"

The Black Sun did not respond, and the crowned, aged countenance emerged from the void, his eyes fixed on the patterns on the Black Sun, reading the information there -

"Hello, Loki, the God of Stories."

[Read at www.patreon.com/shanefreak, and thanks for the invaluable support!]

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Next Chapter ->Chapter 1408 The Return of the Old Ones (Part Sixteen)