This island is very close to where the plane crashed. You can even see the palm trees on it swaying gently in the breeze with the naked eye. At this latitude, most of the coldness has receded, and the wind brushing your temples is warm. Everyone walked around half the island along the ice surface made by Iceman and arrived at the side with a beach. As soon as they walked over, they discovered a small house where the beach meets the jungle.
The group didn't rush onto the beach because conditions here were quite primitive, and all kinds of protection had to be done properly. The parents began putting beach shoes on their kids, wrapping them in protective raincoats, spraying insect repellent, and warning them not to run around in the jungle.
The adults were also switching to beach sandals. Normal shoes would be troublesome when they got sandy, so people either wore boots or sandals. Besides, no one had anticipated that the landing would be this abrupt; none of them had applied sunscreen. The UV rays here were no joke. After walking for ten minutes, their skins were already feeling painfully hot.
The few distinctly white folks were visibly starting to redden. Steve looked at Stark's skin color and grinned. This bigwig would normally go for deliberate tanning, but has been too busy lately and hasn't done it for a while, thus reverting to Caucasian skin. When he walked over, he was wearing sunglasses, and now he took them off, revealing white eye rims while the rest was red.
"What are you looking at?" Stark said irritably, "It's time to prove that the sunscreen I chose is the most useful."
"Then apply it," Steve walked over, draping his arm around Bucky's shoulders, only to find Bucky was also applying sunscreen. Natasha looked at him with an equally puzzled face.
"Are you serious!" Natasha said, "Aren't you a cyborg? What are you using sunscreen for?"
"That's right, dude, genetically modified people don't get tanned," Steve said, "Look at me, my skin tone is always even..."
Bucky rolled his eyes and said, "Isn't there a possibility that only my arm was replaced with a mechanical arm and not my entire body genetically modified like yours?"
Their shock was immense. Natasha gestured and said, "But that's impossible! How can you handle such a mechanical arm with a regular human body?"
"Soviet black technology, haven't you learned about it yet?"
Shiller was helping Billy's brothers apply sunscreen. Wanda has quite a few kids and was adjusting the baby carriage mode with JARVIS to avoid the wheels getting stuck in the sand, so caring for the two brothers was left to Shiller.
"Amazing, Doctor, you're actually not impatient. My mom often feels impatient. They keep chattering away. Even my dad, he's a robot, gets annoyed by us..."
"I'm a psychiatrist," Shiller said, "No matter how you look at it, you won't outdo those mental patients with their flights of fancy. Turn around, let me get some on the back of your necks..."
Little Jack was well-behaved since he was older and could apply it himself. He even had Matt squat down to help him apply it. Pepper, while pressing down on Little Morgan who was dancing around, said enviously, "Oh my god, your little darling is so considerate. Alright, Morgan! If you don't put some behind your ears, I absolutely won't let you go play. Don't move!!"
Erica patted Little Jack's head and said, "Honestly, I never thought my child would be so quiet. My dad told me I was a handful when I was young. I used to worry that if he turned out like me it'd be a problem. Turns out, he should have been livelier."
"Well, I think he's got potential as a scientist," Matt said, "Everything before was my fault. I really didn't expect a blind man's child would face discrimination. Should've moved earlier."
The young folks had long mixed with the travelers; photos with phones were taken, snacks handed out, and some held selfie sticks streaming live. Curiously, there was even a signal on this remote desolate island, albeit a bit choppy. But being able to communicate is already fortunate, given that it's in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
They prepared all afternoon and then saw two people coming out of the small house. As the two walked closer, they shouted towards us. Everyone was bewildered, not knowing what language they were speaking.
"Is this a local Hawaiian dialect?" Polaris scratched his head and said, "Don't they speak English in Hawaii?"
Shiller and Xu Shang-Chi understood it was Chinese. Shiller hurried up and said, "Hello, our plane crashed, and this is the nearest island. Are you staff here?"
Upon hearing about the plane crash, the two were terrified and quickly asked if they needed a doctor. Shiller quickly waved his hand and said, "They're all American superheroes affiliated with S.H.I.E.L.D., who saved these two planes. No one is injured, but we need a place to rest..."
The other party immediately gave a thumbs-up and then pointed to the small house beside them. Shiller looked that way and seemed to see the vague characters of "noodle shop." Chinese people are indeed the world's NPCs; even after a plane crash leading to an island, you can still find a Chinese noodle shop.
Shiller then went back to relay the message, Xu Shang-Chi came over, chatting with them. Naturally, Xu Shang-Chi, with a yellow-skinned face, got along more intimately with them and quickly gathered the story.
It can't really be said that the island was unfinished; rather, it was completely built, just not yet opened. It is SWORD's asset, originally intended for tourist development, but due to tightened global flight approvals, even if opened now, there wouldn't be many flights here, so it had to be shelved.
Since they were marooned on the island due to a plane crash, they qualified under international humanitarian rescue regulations. The island's stationed personnel fell under the category of rescuing accident victims, so they hurriedly invited everyone into the noodle shop. Soon, steam rose from the chimney.
When the noodles were brought out, Xu Shang-Chi was moved to tears: "Finally, something tasty again."
Shiller tasted the noodles too; they were just ordinary homemade hand-pulled noodles. Perhaps due to a lack of ingredients, they had tomato and eggplant sauce, with added dried shrimp and minced meat. The flavor was quite good.
However, this restaurant definitely wasn't equipped with forks. Luckily, chopsticks aren't that hard to use; with some practice, you get the hang of it.
Peter, who often mooched meals at Shiller's, wasn't too skilled with chopsticks mainly because Shiller didn't like noodles much. He preferred rice and stir-fried dishes, which could be eaten with a spoon, so there wasn't much need to use chopsticks.
But noodles were different, especially hand-pulled ones, which couldn't be twirled like pasta. So you could see foreigners in the noodle restaurant clumsily using chopsticks in various awkward postures, trying all sorts of ways to get the noodles into their mouths.
Feeding kids was even scarier. Pepper quickly stopped Little Morgan from grabbing with her hands but couldn't prevent Helen from biting off a chunk of the chopstick. Wanda's youngest daughter was still breastfeeding, and she wailed loudly from hunger. Jarvis borrowed hot water from the staff to make formula, but then a few tourists' youngsters smelled the milk and wanted some too. The entire restaurant descended into chaos.
Shiller, of course, used chopsticks skillfully, and since there wasn't much choice now, even though he didn't like noodles, he quickly finished his meal before contacting rescue services.
He first called Nick. Learning that their plane had crashed, Nick laughed in anger.
"Listen, I really don't have time for your nonsense. Your suggestion is that most of you can fly from Earth to the Andromeda Galaxy in three seconds, yet now you want me to send a plane to rescue you?! Get out of here!"
"Wait, hold on." Shiller stopped Nick from hanging up, then said, "We're not flying because that's the only way to get insurance payout. This plane crash affected over a hundred people, making it the most severe air disaster in the past decade, capable of making it to 'Air Disaster'. Do you know how much the insurance company has to pay?"
Nick's tone immediately softened, and he said, "Alright, I'll go ask Congress, at least to get the regular passengers and crew evacuated first."
After hanging up the phone, Shiller returned to the restaurant where most people had finished eating. A Black man approached him. They shook hands, and he said, "Hello, I'm Pudi, the captain of this flight, and I'm from Wakanda. I'm sorry this happened. If you have communication equipment, I'd like to contact the Wakandan Royal Family..."
"There's signal here," Shiller said, "Using your own cellphone, it works, you don't have to use satellite phones."
The man was a bit surprised but relaxed upon thinking that this was SWORD's territory. As he took out his phone, he said, "When they asked me to test pilot this route, I felt something was off. All the Wakandan captains come equipped with Wakanda's most advanced life support equipment, and they didn't have much hope for this plane."
Shiller frowned, unable to comprehend why passengers would be on a test flight. But he quickly learned from other travelers that these people had all volunteered.
Some believed the plane flew fast and were in a hurry to return; some were industry insiders here for inspection; others were influencers, thinking it was the next big thing, here purely for the buzz.
Shiller was speechless; wasn't this just courting disaster?
No wonder the plane crashed, without wailing cries; most of them were just waiting for this moment. Now, the plane did crash, and it was rescued by superheroes, letting them catch both the spotlight and the superhero hype, while receiving insurance compensation. At least they have some investment acumen.
But the only good news was that this time the insurance company would bleed heavily. These weren't just ordinary people on the plane; those who dare to risk their lives for the spotlight are tough to deal with. Plus, Nick also wanted a cut, so it's bound to skin them alive this time.
Thinking of this, Shiller felt better. He stepped out of the restaurant, looking at the azure sea and blue sky outside. This small island was even closer to the equator than Hawaii, with warmer weather. Having just been built, there was no pollution, and the nearshore waters were crystal clear.
Then he began checking his inventory; he remembered bringing diving gear with him. He wondered if there were coral reefs and schools of fish nearby. He had to hit these beautiful scenes hard, to keep those folks from following him on vacation.
Suddenly, he thought, this time the agent got his wish, though not certain if this was Hawaii from his universe, but he indeed successfully avoided him.
After eating, everyone scattered to start their activities. The island wasn't very large; besides the cliffs to the east being somewhat high, there wasn't any other danger, no beast, and the most toxic bug was a mosquito, so the staff didn't stop them from exploring.
Shiller took out all the toys he had bought. The children couldn't resist seeing these toys, jumping around screaming as they gathered around. Shiller said to Helen, "Take them to play, but don't let them sit on the excavator's bucket, they might fall..."
"Don't worry." Helen gestured to him and said, "That sandcastle I built on the West Coast beach has now become a famous attraction. I must show these little brats a trick!"