Even though Solomon had taken a trip to the edge of the galaxy, the Immortal City continued to operate smoothly—that was entirely Stephanie's doing. This kind of stability was exactly what Solomon wanted. The dutiful daughter of Hydra executed Solomon's assignments with flawless precision. The steadily expanding surveillance network gave field operatives immense convenience, allowing Victoria Hand to keep wearing the guise of the congressional "Gray Group" while continuously acquiring funding, intelligence, and infrastructure for the Immortal City. Solomon had no intention of building a kingdom atop rubble, so Agent Hand's work was critical.
Thanks to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s unchecked expansion in its early years, many Hydra operatives were still on the run. Since the U.S. was S.H.I.E.L.D.'s largest financial backer, S.H.I.E.L.D. essentially functioned as an American intelligence agency. Therefore, no one knew exactly what kind of secrets those rogue Hydra agents might still hold. Agent Hand now had to race against the U.S. military—using her status as a "cleaner" for Congress—to secure resources for the Immortal City and feed the beast crawling in the shadows. So as soon as the Siberia mission ended, she and her team returned to the sky carrier, continuing their hunt for the secrets Nick Fury had left behind.
News of Solomon's return quickly reached the Avengers. He was moving openly around Oxford University, making no effort to hide his whereabouts. This caught the attention of the Avengers, who had been tracking the remaining Hydra cells.
Tony Stark was extremely curious about where Solomon had been, but Natasha Romanoff kept her word and didn't tell the others about the mage's whereabouts. Solomon's return even stirred some debate among the Avengers. Some—mainly Steve Rogers—felt that Solomon should be focusing on school, then finding a decent job, and then consider joining the Avengers. This old-fashioned perspective earned Tony Stark's complete disdain.
Stark emphasized Solomon's intelligence and capabilities, saying Solomon didn't need a job—Stark Industries could afford to sponsor a mage. Dr. Banner agreed, though he thought Solomon should publish more papers and produce a few impressive inventions so that Stark Industries would have to pay him a CEO-level salary.
"I still have the patent for that chemical analyzer he built!" Stark brought up an old memory and looked at Agent Romanoff, the only one who might remember. "The one he showcased at the EU Young Scientists Conference! That tech was cutting-edge. Stark Industries used it in our lab equipment. I swear he gave me permission—he told me so backstage, in person. We're paying him every second through that patent... he's just never shown up to collect."
"Ahem! I just have one question!" Clint, who'd been unable to get a word in, raised his hand. "Isn't Solomon already a member of the Avengers?"
"Of course not! How old was he during the Battle of New York? Fifteen? Sixteen?" Tony Stark shook his head quickly. "Under eighteen still counts as a child legally. Sure, maybe he met Nick Fury before Thor even came to Earth, but I don't think Fury had plans to recruit a fourteen-year-old into the Avengers Initiative. Kids just aren't mentally mature enough. Okay, sure, Solomon's a freak. He's an exception."
"Watch your language."
"Okay, grandpa."
"I partially agree," said Captain Rogers. "He was too young. At that age, he should've been in school."
Stark tapped his beer bottle against Rogers'. It was a special vintage he'd hunted down just to match Steve Rogers' pre-war taste. After all, even Coke didn't taste the same anymore. Though Stark didn't go as far as adding cocaine to it, he didn't realize that back then, Steve couldn't even afford abbey-brewed beer.
"But he's a mage. No adoption records, and forged birth certificates aren't hard to come by," Clint said, shrugging. "Maybe he just looks like a teenager. What if he's actually over a hundred?"
Romanoff gave her old friend a tired look. Nick Fury had once suspected the same thing, but after she found the church where Solomon had been born and vanished, and spoke with the priest, she confirmed Solomon's real birthdate. After all, most people imagined mages as hunchbacked old crones, limping old men, filthy vagabonds with rotten teeth, clutching warped staffs adorned with bones, metal, and dead birds—whose fleas were more dangerous than their magic.
Clint's theory earned nothing but disdainful looks. He waved it off, admitting defeat.
"He's very wealthy. Eton College tuition isn't cheap," Romanoff said. "According to old S.H.I.E.L.D. investigations, Solomon holds significant assets. Hydra isn't the problem. The IRS might be. They don't mess around. Did you pay taxes on his patent income, Stark?"
Everything she shared was from before S.H.I.E.L.D. fell. She withheld anything more recent. Clint didn't press her—he tacitly supported Romanoff's choice to withhold intel.
Tony Stark pursed his lips and shook his head. He hadn't bothered to route Solomon's patent income through a charity fund or some Cayman Islands shell company—common tax avoidance methods for the ultra-wealthy, ones Stark himself used frequently.
Of course, that depended on who was in office that year.
"So we don't have to worry about Hydra messing with his life. In fact, he took out an entire Hydra unit back in high school—a unit that was technically still part of S.H.I.E.L.D. at the time. You can imagine how furious Nick Fury was. But, to be fair, mages can read minds. Maybe he saw something that made him act first."
"That's fair, Agent Romanoff," Stark said. "Then why didn't he tell Fury?"
"Why would he? S.H.I.E.L.D. was just some random government group disrupting his life. Mages are eccentric. Based on our files, that probably wasn't even the first time Solomon killed someone…"
"That's a serious problem. Why didn't I know about this?" Steve Rogers frowned. "Even during wartime, you didn't see under-fourteen soldiers. No one told me about Solomon's background? Nick Fury must've known—he clearly withheld it just to get Solomon's help. Romanoff, that makes you responsible too."
"Fine. Why don't we just ask him what he thinks?"
"Bunch of children," Solomon muttered with a look of disdain, hanging up the call. He had no time to care about legalities—there were too many things to do. He had a lot of coursework to catch up on after taking time off. And because of his interdisciplinary background, he had to ride his bike all over Oxford in one afternoon to visit various libraries and borrow certain rare volumes with the help of his connections to professors. Some books had never been reprinted since publication; some were handwritten manuscripts no one had ever bothered to organize or republish—especially in the field of history.
Today, he was lucky—he didn't have to visit another university or borrow books from Lara. Who knew what went through professors' heads when they picked such obscure texts? Maybe the university's reading lists hadn't changed in over a century—except for political science and economics.
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Fairy Tail: Igneel's Eldest Son (Chapter 256)
I Am Thalos, Odin's Older Brother (Chapter 336)
Reborn in America's Anti-Terror Unit (Chapter 542)
Solomon in Marvel (Chapter 924)
Becoming the Wealthiest Tycoon on the Planet (Chapter 1284)
Surgical Fruit in the American Comics Universe (Chapter 1289)
American Detective: From TV Rookie to Seasoned Cop (Chapter 1316)
American TV Writer (Chapter 1402)
I Am Hades, The Supreme GOD of the Underworld! (Chapter 570)
Reborn as Humanity's Emperor Across the Multiverse (Chapter 660)
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