American comics: Starting with Luke the Maker

Tricarrier Skyscraper.

“540 million? And the annual maintenance fee is 30 million per unit?” Nick Fury stared at Phil Coulson, who was standing in front of him, with his only remaining eye.

Phil Coulson glanced at his superior's dark face, unable to discern any emotion, and kept his mouth tightly shut.

“The energy source is diesel!” Nick Fury finally couldn't hold back his expression when he said this. What did he need diesel, an almost obsolete energy source, for? Even if it looked good from the data and actual tests, it couldn't deny its limited future potential. How was he supposed to deceive, no, request funding from above?

“Actually, the energy doesn't entirely rely on diesel. There's still a high-density battery in the internal core,” Phil Coulson added softly.

“Do you think Hephaestus has better energy technology?” Nick Fury asked thoughtfully, ignoring his subordinate's addition.

“There's no doubt about that. Hephaestus and Stark Industries are about to join forces in the energy industry, which isn't a secret in small circles. I believe the other party definitely has energy technology that's no less than Stark's arc reactor. Otherwise, with the big spender's arrogant and venomous personality, why would he bring Hephaestus along?” Phil Coulson gave the answer without hesitation.

“Then what kind of technology do you think it is?” Nick Fury asked again.

“Maybe it's thermonuclear fusion? Or some other technology. But whatever it is, he definitely has the manufacturing technology to miniaturize it, just like the big spender,” Phil Coulson guessed.

“That mysterious black and white Iron Man.” Nick Fury immediately understood the meaning in his subordinate's words.

“So, why didn't the other party use better technology, but instead used diesel as an energy source?” Nick Fury didn't understand. He could understand researching new energy sources, but why would they mess with crude oil while researching new energy? Did they have too much R\u0026D money to burn?

Was it to make up for losses, to make profitable use of waste?

Phil Coulson really wanted to say that, but thankfully he controlled himself and didn't blurt out his thoughts. Although he knew that his superior could definitely think of this, his superior thinking of it was his own business. He was already in trouble, and if he provoked him further, he felt that he might be assigned a very dangerous mission or sent on a long business trip to some harsh place.

“Can we crack the technology?” Nick Fury shamelessly asked a shameless question. Of course, for someone of his level, face was something that could be flexible.

“Two units have already exploded. Obviously, Hephaestus Technology's anti-theft technology is quite perfect. If we want to crack it, it will take at least three to five years,” Phil Coulson had done his homework before coming.

“So, 1.08 billion US dollars, and all that's left is a pile of scrap?” Nick Fury didn't feel sorry for the 1.08 billion US dollars, but he felt sorry that the money hadn't returned the corresponding value.

“Scrap is actually quite valuable.”

Phil Coulson's cold joke earned him a fierce death glare from his director.

“For the first batch, let's purchase ten units first,” Nick Fury really wanted to wave his hand and order fifty or a hundred units, but unfortunately, they were too expensive. And considering that it was likely not Hephaestus's bottom-of-the-barrel technology, he felt even more helpless. If S.H.I.E.L.D. had better technology than the Iron Titan series, it definitely did!

With reckless assembly, using S.H.I.E.L.D.'s reserves of various strange items and researchers, they could build creations that were even better than the Iron Titan, or even the Mark series armor, but they were difficult to mass-produce and might have some unknown hidden dangers. Nick Fury couldn't easily take this risk.

And as it stood, ten Iron Titans, plus the previous two that were scrapped, had already cost more than 6 billion US dollars. And that was just the price of the bare metal. They would definitely have to install weapons, and that would obviously have to be handed over to Hephaestus Industries for modification, which would undoubtedly be a considerable expense, given the company's money-grubbing nature.

Adding in the fact that the under-construction helicarrier also used a large amount of Hephaestus's alloy materials, which was another 6 billion US dollars, the total came to more than 10 billion US dollars. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s funding was indeed a lot, but there were also many places that needed to be spent.

“Can we get Stark involved?” Nick Fury looked at Phil Coulson, who had been responsible for contacting Tony before. The reason why Hephaestus could now ask for exorbitant prices and they had to grit their teeth and pay was entirely because Hephaestus was the only company on the market willing to negotiate sales to a limited extent. If there was another competitor, the negotiations would undoubtedly be much better.

“I don't think Stark would be willing to get involved. Once he's decided on something, it's hard to change his mind. He insists that his Iron Man armor is not for sale,” Phil Coulson shrugged.

……

An army base.

Pushing open the door, a man and an old man in military uniform with gray hair strode in.

“General, I've participated in many missions, and I've had failures. But never once has it been as absurd as this time! What exactly is he?” Emil Blonsky asked the old man anxiously.

Thaddeus Ross stopped and looked at Blonsky, saying, “Soldier, don't pry into him.”

“I don't mean to offend, I just feel that I can't just let it go. If there's another mission to capture him next time, please be sure to add me,” Emil Blonsky stood up straight and said to Ross with a face full of desire.

General Ross carefully looked at Blonsky for a while, and after seeing the firmness and desire in his eyes, he smiled with some relief, “Come with me.”

The two came to the base's armory, and Ross walked ahead while saying, “This matter is a bit sensitive, for you, for me, and even for the military. I've seen your resume, and I think you should be clear about the position you've reached. The military once had a weapon development program—Super Soldier! A product of biotechnology.”

“I've heard of it,” Blonsky said.

“To some extent, the research and development of potions to enhance soldiers' physiques was successful. But we weren't satisfied, we wanted to create even stronger soldiers,” General Ross said.

“That person?” Blonsky suddenly understood.

“That's right, the person we captured last time was one of the original researchers. I admit that I concealed a lot of things from him at the time, and made him mistakenly believe that he was only researching methods of radiation resistance. He's very smart, but smart people are too confident. He applied that immature technology to himself, he didn't die, but he became a monster.” Ross shrugged: “Actually, I don't care if he's a monster, I just want to catch him. He's military property, you understand?”

“Forgive me for speaking frankly, but it's not easy to catch him.” Blonsky frowned, thinking of the powerful and violent monster from before.

“Fortunately, I just got my hands on a good thing.” Ross shook his head at Blonsky, signaling him to follow.

The two finally stopped deep in the equipment warehouse, and under Blonsky's stunned gaze, Ross lifted the rain cover off a huge behemoth in front of him.