Inside the Pentagon, a group of senior dignitaries and military bosses were surrounding Stark in the middle of the conference table, all of them looking solemn as never before.
This is not a public relations crisis, nor is it a small dispute that affects their jobs and public opinion. The news brought by Stark is a crisis of genocide, a disaster common to all mankind.
"Prank?" Stark raised his eyebrows, "Seriously, General. It's easy to hack into SHIELD's system without leaving any trace, just as easy as following out of your own back garden... You can do this
Some people just come here and say a few words to make a joke?"
Stark shook his head.
"No, I don't think this is a prank. Besides, the other party mentioned the term 'Tenjin Group', which I have heard of before."
"You mean, the opponent is a god?"
"Yes, the real thing." Stark said seriously, "And if the person who sent us the message is true, then we should not be facing just one god, but a large number of existences like this.
They represent the will of the universe, which we cannot possibly win."
Several senior officials whispered to each other for a while.
"You mean we should sit back and wait for death?" one of the senior officials asked.
"I mean, maybe we should keep force as a backup," Stark said.
There was a commotion among the senior executives, some shaking their heads and some discussing, but none of them seemed to particularly agree with this proposal.
They are used to using force to solve problems, and negotiations and exchanges are limited to the earth. As for alien creatures? If these old guys had their way, they would be eager to launch an air defense every time Thor enters and exits the atmosphere.
The missile blew him back to his hometown in Asgard.
The value of the human species is still open to debate, but in any case humans are certainly not a hospitable race.
"Excuse me for interrupting, this time I agree with Stark's point of view, gentlemen." Captain America, who had been listening as the representative of the Avengers, took a step forward and said, "According to the intelligence, the other party is not a super villain, nor an invader. They are
It represents the order of the universe and only comes with the purpose of judgment.
Going to war with them is equivalent to going against the entire universe. Not only do we have little chance of winning, it is also extremely unwise. Maybe we should try to solve it peacefully. If we can leave a good impression on them and make them believe that human beings have their own value, let them
See the good side of human beings...maybe things don't have to be confrontational."
An old general raised his eyebrows and looked at Captain America: "Since when did you become a diplomatic expert, Captain?"
"I'm just making a calm judgment," the captain said.
"So according to what you said, we should arrange flowers and plants on the city streets, and then arrange for a group of primary school students to put up banners saying 'Welcome to come for guidance'?"
Captain America frowned: "I mean, we should at least try to negotiate first."
"Enough, there is no need to continue discussing this topic." An older and more stubborn guy slammed the table and directly finalized the decision, "Go back and prepare for battle, Stark, Captain, and your Avengers too.
.
Whether it is valuable or not depends on the values of the enemy. We know nothing about those so-called gods, and maybe the other party's standards are fundamentally different from ours. So sorry, we can't pin the survival of all mankind on someone.
A sentence about an unknown species.
Do they want to destroy us? Then we'll fight back, just like we've fought against any enemy we've faced so far."
Stark and Captain America looked at each other, speechless.
It's obvious that these guys haven't realized the seriousness of the problem.
These bosses' understanding of those extraordinary enemies is generally a back-and-forth process. At first, they had blind confidence in their thermal weapons and felt that there was no problem that a nuclear bomb could not solve. Later, they were invaded by monsters one after another.
After they became autistic, they began to doubt life again and felt that human weapons were worthless.
As a result, after Ultraman and the Avengers defeated various invaders time and time again and resolved any crisis, they began to take it for granted that the alien enemies were "just like that" and there was nothing to fear.
In short, this kind of thinking is a bit like cloud players who play video games or watch live broadcasts of big bosses. Although those gorgeous operations are not performed by themselves, nor are the enemies defeated by them, but after playing obs for a long time, they will naturally
You will have the illusion that "I can do it even if you want me", and you will feel that those so-called god-level enemies are nothing more than that, and there is nothing to fear.
What? The Cosmic God Group? The maintainers of the order of the universe?
Wouldn't this thing be over if we beat it to the ground like before?
After the meeting ended, the two former comrades couldn't help but sigh as they reluctantly exited the room.
"Well, although I had expected it, I can't say that I'm not disappointed at all." Stark said, "It looks like we have to prepare for another war."
Captain America pondered for a long time, and suddenly said: "Sometimes I can't help but think, Tony...well, in fact, I have been thinking about it. When I woke up, they told me that the war had been won, but we
Did you really win?
I mean... now we have peace, a brief peace, but has humanity really learned anything? Or are we just standing still, waiting for history to repeat itself?"
Stark patted him on the shoulder.
"No one can answer a question like this, Captain. But maybe this is who we are, this is what humans are like." He said, "We can't change this, because like those guys said, we are just warriors. What we can do
All we have to do is hold on to the front, that’s all.”
Captain America turned his head and looked at him seriously.
"We have had many differences before, and our choices of paths have also been different, Tony. But now, at this moment... I am glad to have a comrade like you beside me."
Stark nodded: "Me too, Captain.
Okay, no more words. Let’s get started quickly, there’s still a lot to do.”
...
At the same time, somewhere else on earth, in a sanatorium.
The one-eyed old man stood by the window, opened the curtains and looked at the sky outside. The sky was covered with clouds and the air was oppressive, as if a storm was coming.
It's rare that Mr. Odin didn't play chess or cards today, he just stood here in a daze.
He has been in this state for quite some time.
Frigga noticed his abnormality and walked out from the back of the room: "What's wrong? Is there something wrong?"
"A storm is coming." Odin looked out the window intently.
"Pack your things, we have stayed here long enough."