I'm working on Marvel's Spider-Man in American comics.

Chapter 620 What the Devil Expects

After Peter destroyed Nimrod, Mephisto arrived in Universe 616 through a brief rift in reality and was planning something.

His plan was then interrupted when Kang used the Cosmic Cube to create the Kang Dynasty. Similarly, in order to restore everything to its original state, he found Johnny Blaze, the Ghost Rider with whom he had made a pact, and asked him to use the Judgment Eye to awaken the other heroes to fight against Kang together.

"Mephisto did this entirely because he had his own conspiracy and needed to restore the original world."

Strange told Peter this, and Peter had guessed it before, but he didn't know what Mephisto had actually done.

"So, have you found out what conspiracy Mephisto is plotting?"

Peter was really looking forward to a definite answer from Strange, but Strange's response took Peter by surprise.

"He's trading stocks."

???

Peter thought for a moment whether he had misheard, then looked at Strange: "What stocks?"

"Simply put, in just a few days, Mephisto acquired hundreds of millions of dollars through the stock market and used magic to keep people from realizing the problem."

Strange recounted something that seemed completely unreal: "He used all his money to buy about 3% of Roxon Energy, became a member of the company's board of directors, and then we caught him and kicked him out."

After a long pause, Peter finally asked, "Didn't he do anything else?"

"No."

Peter scratched his head. He knew a little about Roxon Energy Corporation; it was a villainous organization in the Defenders series and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but he really didn't know what kind of conspiracy the company was involved in.

It's a company controlled by Hydra, and there's no evidence yet that it's directly controlled by Hydra, but...

Peter was completely baffled when his phone beeped. He opened it and saw the shared message.

Tony and Janet have conducted an in-depth investigation and discovered something that neither Thor nor Namor mentioned, and probably didn't know: the entire Atlantis incident began with Roxon Energy's plan to build a brand new deep-sea oil well.

The city of Atlantis, which was directly beneath the site of that oil drilling rig, is the very city that triggered this conflict.

Is it a coincidence? Unlikely.

Peter told Strange the news, and after a moment of silence, Strange frowned: "Mephisto was involved in this too?"

"I'm not entirely sure if Mephisto was really involved, since this happened quite a long time ago, after all..."

Actually, it's not far, only a little over two months.

"For beings like them, who transcend the multiverse, time is not linear; perhaps they have already foreseen what will happen today..."

Strange's head throbbed with worry. Atlantis and Asgard were already a major headache, and now Mephisto was involved too. These guys were all lumped together; it seemed this whole affair was far more complicated than he'd imagined.

However, Strange suddenly thought of something else that was even more troublesome.

"If I remember correctly, Atlantis did not establish diplomatic relations with any surface civilization?"

Peter thought for a moment, unsure if that was true, so he simply asked in return, "What if we didn't?"
-
Upon arriving at the White House, the captain encountered a very troublesome problem: Atlantis and the United States had no diplomatic relations whatsoever.

“When Roxon Energy came to sign the mining permit, we knew nothing about the city of Atlantis. Due to Atlantis’s deliberate concealment, many cities were unknown to us.”

When the captain inquired, the president's special advisor stepped forward to explain. The reason was simple: President Ellis had no intention of having any direct conflict with Atlantis.

President Ellis doesn't want to touch either Atlantis, the Namor-owned Atlantis or the tyrannical Krona-owned Atlantis.

Therefore, he will not interfere or mediate. Whether it is the beating of Atlantis by Rockx Energy or the Avengers' plan to intervene in Atlantis, it is impossible for him to get any support from the US government.

Upon hearing this news, the captain sighed and then continued to inquire: "So, legally speaking, there's nothing wrong with Roxon Energy's mining permit, and even now that this has happened, there's no way to withdraw it?"

"Yes, Captain Rogers."

If the mining permit cannot be revoked, then Roxon Corporation can continue deep-sea mining. Giving Atlantis a pretext for war is not a problem. The issue is that, according to intelligence from the wasteland universe, Roxon Energy Corporation is one of Hydra's shell companies.

Normally, the captain would definitely not mind having some fun with them before finally pulling out and cutting off the hydra's head.

But this time is different. The world is shrouded in the danger of an ice age, and Captain America discovers that Hydra not only organized this crisis, but is also deeply involved in it.

The captain reluctantly stood up, left the White House, and quickly contacted Tony.

"Bad news, Tony." After receiving the confirmation, the captain contacted Tony on the channel.

"Roxon Energy's mining rights are legal. In other words, if we raid their facilities, they could say that we are the avengers interfering with their operations."

Tony was speechless upon hearing the news. The fact that Roxon Energy's mining operations in Atlantis were legal meant that the Avengers would face enormous trouble if they got involved.

However, this is not a problem.

Peter Parker would be willing to take on this mission, since he has a whole host of skills that he can use for infiltration.

Tony planned to keep the operation a secret from Captain America. He sent a message to Spider-Man to confirm the results of the latter's investigation, but instead of telling Captain America, he directly assigned Peter a new mission.

"We can't directly access the Roxon Energy drilling platform to find the problem right now. Spider-Man, we need you to infiltrate it, find the evidence, and then let the Avengers in openly."

"It's all up to you, Spider-Man."

(End of this chapter)