Chapter Twenty-Four: Arkham Asylum!~

"Why not?"

Tony, who had originally thought he couldn't care less, suddenly changed his tune. He had never seen eye to eye with Nick Fury anyway—if the other man was against it, then he absolutely had to be for it!

"Have you S.H.I.E.L.D. folks even finished cleaning up HYDRA? We barely managed to get back the gems that were stolen last time. And Wanda and Quicksilver—are you really capable of keeping an eye on them?

If you ask me, Natasha never should have handed Wanda and the others over to you. Who knows if they'll be snatched away by HYDRA one of these days!"

"You don't have the authority to build a prison! And the United Nations will never allow it!"

Nick Fury's vision went dark from Tony's barrage, but he still denied and refused with every word. In fact, he had already made up his mind to contact the UN after the meeting adjourned.

Are you kidding? If all the enhanced individuals were locked up in the Illuminati's prison, wouldn't that be like delivering sheep straight into the tiger's mouth? Handing their best and brightest over to the Illuminati for brainwashing, free of charge?

Then how was S.H.I.E.L.D. supposed to maintain world peace? Might as well rename S.H.I.E.L.D. the Illuminati and be done with it!

"Disagree? Simple. Pepper!"

Pepper picked up the phone and stepped aside. Ten minutes later, she returned.

"The Mayor of New York City, the Police Commissioner, the President of the United States, and the Governor of New York State all think that Stark Industries building a super-powered prison is a sound investment. The approval documents have already been sent to the company. We can pick them up anytime."

"So," Tony spread his hands, turning to Nick Fury with smug satisfaction, "problem solved. No one disagrees."

"You—!"

Nick Fury was so furious he couldn't speak... Meanwhile, Hao Yun nodded at Tony, twisting the knife even deeper.

"Since it's already been decided that the Illuminati will establish the super-powered prison, I'd appreciate it if you could transfer Wanda and Quicksilver to us tomorrow, Director."

"They're HYDRA!"

Nick shouted in fury, his face twisted with rage. "Those two are the ones who single-handedly brought down S.H.I.E.L.D. There's no way I'm handing them over!"

"No, those two are still children."

Tony, without needing any prompting from Hao Yun—well aware of the potential of Quicksilver and the Witch—willingly took the brunt of the fire: "Given their ages, they're minors. All responsibility should fall on their guardians.

They don't have a guardian now, so I, Tony Stark, voluntarily offer to become Wanda and Pietro's legal guardian and raise them until they come of age."

"You—!"

Nick Fury's face turned red, then purple, his neck bulging with rage. He began to wonder if he should have just skipped this meeting altogether.

"Or, Nick, you could always try debating it in court with my multi-million-dollar legal team?"

At that point, Nick couldn't even be bothered to be angry anymore. Debate with Stark Industries' legal team? Who else but them would spend ten million dollars a year just to keep a legion of lawyers on retainer for lawsuits?

Hmph, and a legal team that exclusively serves Stark Industries and the Illuminati, no less!

"Director, I really do think you should let the Maximoff siblings out," Natasha chimed in from the side. "HYDRA hasn't been fully purged from S.H.I.E.L.D. yet, and who knows how many agents in the upper echelons of various countries are still buried HYDRA sleeper cells. They'd be safer with the Illuminati than with S.H.I.E.L.D."

Nick's lips twitched, as if he wanted to argue, but he had no idea how to counter that.

The truth was, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s track record was just too embarrassing. Not even the Illuminati believed in them—hell, even he, the Director himself, wasn't too confident about keeping anything valuable locked up in S.H.I.E.L.D. these days.

"Fine. I'll have someone bring the two siblings over tomorrow."

"Excellent."

Tony took a sip of red wine. Oh ho, the Illuminati was finally getting two more heavy hitters!

Once the matter of Wanda and Pietro was settled, Hao Yun pressed on.

"As everyone knows, ever since Mr. Stark announced in 2008 that he was Iron Man, the number of enhanced individuals on Earth has grown exponentially. Super-powered crime has also been escalating to a whole new level.

In light of this, I believe the Illuminati should no longer confine itself to handling world-ending crises—we need to expand our capabilities. So, I propose we turn the future prison into a pilot program with the NYPD. Illuminati members will serve as part-time super-powered police officers, specifically tasked with handling metahuman crime."

"That's worth considering."

Tony thought it over for a moment, then cast the first vote in favor.

Captain America and Falcon exchanged a glance, then both nodded in unison.

The others didn't need much deliberation either. With both heavyweights—Captain America and Iron Man—in agreement, and the proposal coming from Hao Yun, no one was about to object.

Besides, how could heroes call themselves heroes if they didn't go out and fight crime?

"So what should we name our prison?"

Pepper raised a key question. Hao Yun thought about it for a moment. Since it was a prison, and it was for locking up super-powered criminals, why not call it Arkham Asylum?

It wasn't like the DC Universe was going to come collecting copyright fees.

"Arkham Asylum!"

........................

With the prison's construction settled, the rest was naturally left to the two tech geniuses, Tony and Banner.

Hao Yun, bored out of his mind, mulled over the trajectory of the Marvel movies... Hmm, setting aside Age of Ultron, it seemed like now was around the time of the Guardians of the Galaxy, wasn't it?

Maybe he should consider taking a trip out to some alien planet to see Gamora and that idiot Star-Lord? And Rocket the talking raccoon—back in his past life, raccoons had been his favorite animals as a kid. He'd bought hundreds of bags of instant noodles just to collect their cards.

Hmph, it definitely wasn't for the noodles themselves! And definitely not for the collectible cards! He just genuinely loved raccoons, that's all!

The only problem was, Earth didn't exactly have spaceships lying around, let alone any knowledge of space jump points... Well, he'd have to go have a chat with the Sorcerer Supreme.

Acting on impulse, Hao Yun casually told J.A.R.V.I.S. where he was going, packed up his things, and headed straight for the doors of the New York Sanctum.

"Mr. Potts, the Sorcerer Supreme is already waiting for you in the drawing room."

Same as always, the moment he stepped through the door, Daniel the sanctum guardian was there waiting, and the Ancient One was waiting for him to come have tea.

Sigh, he had to say, having a Time Stone and being able to see the future at will was pretty damn convenient! Look at the Ancient One—she'd practically become the ultimate divine prophet who never misses a word.

"Thanks."

He returned a sorcerer's salute, silently ribbed the Ancient One in his head, and headed straight up to the drawing room on the second floor. Then, with all the natural ease of an old friend, he sat down across from the Ancient One, picked up his teacup, and took a light sip.

"Sorcerer Supreme, your tea-brewing skill is getting more impressive every day."

Hao Yun offered a business compliment, complete with a business smile.

"If you don't like it, don't drink it. You know how many people would kill for a cup of my tea."

The Ancient One shot him a reproachful glare and whisked the teacup away from in front of him. "Come on, out with it. What do you need this time?"

"Uh... I want to take a little trip."

"Where to?"

"Xandar."

The Ancient One looked up at him with an inscrutable smile. "Are you sure you're going for a trip, and not after the Power Stone, looking to snatch it?"

"Uh... Sorcerer, you're being a bit too blunt. Do I really look that shameless? I just want to do some research, take a look, just a look!"

Hao Yun gave an awkward chuckle. Scout's honor, he genuinely had no intention of grabbing the Power Stone!

The Illuminati's vault already held the Mind and Space Stones, and he'd even given the Reality Stone to Thor to take back to Asgard. Why the hell would he go after the Power Stone?

Besides, the Time Stone was still in her hands. If he grabbed another one, Thanos would probably come knocking on Earth's door directly.