cross Technologies?
Anton stroked his chin, his memory of cross Technologies not particularly vivid, but he had a deep impression of its CEO and the power holder, who happened to be the antagonist in the first Ant-Man movie.
This character company, originally known as Pym Industries, was founded by Hank Pym, the original Ant-Man.
As the first Ant-Man, Hank Pym was one of the earliest human superheroes.
Back in the last century, Hank Pym had joined S.H.I.E.L.D. and as an agent, he significantly contributed to the agency, solving a series of crises and even forming a close friendship with one of its founders, Howard Stark.
Everything changed when Hank Pym believed that S.H.I.E.L.D., led by Howard Stark, was stealing his technology and trying to replicate his Pym Particle formula, which could alter the size of any object. This led to his break with Howard Stark and S.H.I.E.L.D., and he left to establish Pym Industries.
Though not a behemoth, Pym Industries under Hank Pym leadership and years of development, certainly ranked among the world top, owning a series of special patents and making a fortune.
Until Hank Pym student, Darren Cross, became obsessed with Pym Ant-Man particle shrinkage technology. Pym, wary of his intentions, refused to divulge his past work secrets to prevent the Pym Particles from being used in warfare.
Darren Cross eventually turned dark, his ambitions exploded, and he usurped Hank Pym, taking over the fruits of his labor and pushing Hank Pym out of the company he founded.
As a result, Pym Industries was forced to change its name and became cross Technologies.
Shortly after the rebranding to cross Technologies, Tony Stark, the chairman of Stark Industries, was kidnapped and upon his return, Stark Industries completely exited the arms industry.
At the same time, the chairman of OsCorp, Norman Osborn, also disappeared, leading to internal chaos within OsCorp, one of the giants of the arms industry.
Following close behind, the chairman of Hammer Industries, Justin Hammer, was arrested for alleged involvement in terrorist activities and a series of other charges, leaving Hammer Industries in disarray.
Not long after, Destro, the CEO of MARS, a company that held a considerable share of the international arms market, was arrested by the World Security Council and exposed by the Daily Bugle as a member of the international terrorist organization Cobra, and a branch member of Hydra. As a result, MARS suffered greatly, and its share of the international market was divided among other arms companies.
These events caused great turmoil in the international arms industry.
One by one, the leading international arms companies seemed to hit a streak of bad luck.
While Wayne Enterprises, a company just a few years old and backed by the Justice League with Batman at the helm, arguably gained the most from these events, it was undeniable that other arms companies also managed to snatch some benefits in the chaotic market struggle.
Among them, cross Technologies, renamed and now led by Darren Cross, seized the opportunity to aggressively enter the arms industry and solidified its footing.
In early family conversations, Jonah Jameson had mentioned cross Technologies, which was picking up scraps behind Wayne Enterprises. At that time, all members of the Jameson family, including John Jameson, did not take cross Technologies seriously.
Wayne Enterprises, enjoying the right place, time, and people, always got the lion share of the cake. There was no reason to compete with someone who could only nibble at the crumbs, let alone compare who was getting fatter.
However, it now seemed that cross Technologies had become irrationally greedy, unwilling to just pick up scraps and setting its sights on Wayne Enterprises.
Taking military contracts right out of Wayne Enterprises hands was a clear sign they weren't taking Wayne Enterprises seriously.
During this reflection.
"Thank you for the heads-up, Mr. Keller," Anton said, coming back to the moment with a nod of gratitude for John Keller reminder.
"Wayne Enterprises has recently developed a type of technology-enhanced glasses, an upgraded version of the Men in Black sunglasses, which we're not selling to the public yet. I think you'll like them."
He paused for effect, then added, "I've prepared these glasses for my old man and my father.
If they encounter any danger, the glasses will emit an alarm and transmit the signal to the Justice League database.
At that time, the Justice League will prioritize and choose to come to the rescue as the first option."
"That great!" Keller was not surprised and showed no hesitation, joyfully responding,
"You know, I've always considered Wayne Enterprises to be our military best partner."
After some more pleasantries, the two ended the call.
The special glasses developed by Wayne Enterprises incorporated some technology from the planet Cybertron and were independently designed by Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards, from the Fantastic Four, including numerous integrated technological features.
Anton had these special glasses made, as he mentioned, for his old man and his father— the two people closest to him in this world, who naturally needed protection.
On another note, this was also a way to consolidate and protect allies with good relationships with the Justice League, like John Keller.
In fact, giving John Keller a pair of Wayne Enterprises special glasses had always been part of Anton plan.
After all, John Keller was close friends with the old man and, as the Secretary of Defense, it was absolutely necessary to pull him into the Wayne Enterprises camp.
Sitting at home and pondering for a moment, seeing that the old man and his father were still at Wayne Enterprises, Anton decided to drive to the company to see if the old man and John were prepared for cross Technologies assault.
As heads of Wayne Enterprises, the old man and John would have more frequent contact with the military and should have already received the news.
Soon after, Anton arrived at Wayne Enterprises and saw John Wick, the head of the company security department, guarding the conference room.
"What going on?" Anton asked.
"The chairman is in a meeting, discussing some recent incidents," Wick replied.
"Is it about cross Technologies?" Anton pressed further.
"Yes," Wick wasn't surprised, seeing it as only natural that Anton would know about cross Technologies, then added,
"But it not just cross Technologies."
"Understood," Anton nodded.
"Let me know after the meeting."
"Will do."
A moment later, in the chairman office, Anton saw the old man and his father come in together.
"Anton, how are things going?" John asked.
"I just got a message from the research team saying things are going smoothly... Also, Superman took Jane Foster to Asgard, was that your doing? What happening in Asgard?"
"Asgard was under attack, Superman just helped them out with a minor issue," Anton explained.
"But I'm here not for this, but for cross Technologies. As far as I know, cross Technologies is trying to steal military contracts from us...
Mr. Keller, the Secretary of Defense, warned me to be alert, I don't know if you've received the message."
"Of course," the old man nodded.
"We discussed it today, cross Technologies poses no threat to us, on the contrary, they should be worrying about how to withstand the wrath of Wayne Enterprises."
The old man chuckled coldly, "Snatching food from the tiger mouth is not that simple."
"We've just investigated Darren Cross, his methods of taking over the company from Hank Pym were quite clever but not clean," John Jameson added.
"We are trying to find a way to put him directly behind bars."
"Put him away?" Anton stroked his chin. "That doesn't seem too difficult."
"Really?" John Jameson was curious. "Do you have any insider information?"
"Not easy to say for now," Anton replied.
"But I will try to use the Justice League channels to investigate this Darren Cross."
"Rest assured," the old man was very confident, "We won't let that kid off easy."
With his years of life experience, once he became wary of someone, he naturally wouldn't be easily fooled.
Hank Pym was not someone easily deceived either.
His only mistake was taking Darren Cross as a student and trusting him completely.
After speaking with the old man and others, Anton returned home, invoked his Cyborg interface, and searched for a name.
Mitchell Carson.
In the Ant-Man storyline, even though Darren Cross only obtained the imperfect shrinking technology from Hank Pym, Cross still managed to replicate Pym designs, thus creating his own highly weaponized Yellowjacket suit.
The key point was, Darren Cross attempted to sell the Yellowjacket suit to Mitchell Carson.
Mitchell Carson real identity is tied to an organization that cannot be avoided in the Marvel Universe.
Hydra!
Even though in Anton world, the Hydra within the United States was nearly eradicated following the Washington D.C. incident, with Alexander Pierce and his followers being cleaned out by him, Hydra still held significant power within Europe.
After all, having developed over the last century, Hydra couldn't possibly be uprooted completely due to a few incidents.
Given Hydra nature of regrowing two heads whenever one is cut off, today Hydra is vastly different from the Red Skull era, truly surpassing its predecessor.
Even though S.H.I.E.L.D. has been pushed to focus on Europe, entirely dedicated to combating Hydra, Anton did not believe that Hydra presence was completely gone from U.S. soil.
In other words, the storyline of Ant-Man might not have changed.
Darren Cross was very likely still associated with this Hydra-linked Mitchell Carson.
Indeed.
After invoking the Cyborg interface, Anton traced Mitchell Carson movements.
Subsequently, by comparing their movement tracks, he discovered that Mitchell Carson and Darren Cross appeared at the same time in New York, inside a high-tech laboratory within cross Technologies, named "Future."
Inside the Future Lab, besides these two, there were also a bunch of military personnel.
Anton didn't exactly know these people but they looked familiar.
From his communications with John Keller, he was well aware that not everyone within the military agreed with the Justice League.
Some saw the Justice League as a threat, thus wanting to build their own tech teams to form a more powerful team.
Of course, given the current strong momentum of the Justice League, these individuals wouldn't foolishly come forward to oppose the Justice League.
Using military contracts as a pretext to collaborate with other arms manufacturers naturally could weaken the influence of the Justice League, or specifically Wayne Enterprises, over the military.
cross Technologies was just the first step.
After invoking the Cyborg, Anton easily breached cross Technologies firewall and accessed the records of that day meeting.
Among them was a video file.
Darren Cross stood at the center of the Future Lab, introducing to the many visiting dignitaries the latest achievements of cross Technologies.
"Since I took over cross Technologies, I have been dedicated to researching a type of technology particle, by increasing its mass and density, thereby changing the distance between atoms…"
Darren Cross slowly explained, "Why would such a revolutionary idea be buried among Hank piles of dusty papers and cobwebs...
You all know Hank, although he not here, you know he a stubborn old man, so I had to manage the company in my own way."
"However, you can imagine, a soldier, reduced to the size of an insect, would become the ultimate weapon we've crafted...
an Ant-Man. Of course, that was Hank old nickname."
As he spoke, the expressions in the room varied.
Everyone standing here was well-aware of many of the world secrets.
It was no mystery to them whether Ant-Man existed.
Now, the existence of Ant-Man wasn't the issue rather, the real concern was whether it was possible to mass-produce Ant-Man and recreate the Ant-Man technology.
"We have developed breakthrough compressible steel. The current challenge is whether it possible to use this material properties to shrink or enlarge living beings.
So, we have conducted many experiments... Although the process was arduous, the results were as expected."
"Ladies and gentlemen, Ant-Man has become a reality!"
"cross Technologies, Future Laboratory, has started a new project, which we call 'Wasp,' and as a finished product, we call it the 'Wasp Suit.'"
"The Wasp Suit will become a universal war weapon, changing the size of its wearer to gain the ultimate combat advantage.
As a universal peacekeeping wearable, the Wasp Suit can handle any geopolitical conflict discreetly, whether for defensive measures or tactical offense, it is extremely effective."
"Its practical applications include surveillance, industrial sabotage, and clearing obstacles on the road to peace.
Just one Wasp Suit gives the user limitless possibilities to carry out various protective actions.
Soon, an army equipped with Wasp Suits will create a safe and sustainable environment for the world."
Darren Cross displayed his lifetime of speaking skills to the fullest in the video, delivering a compelling presentation.
Even Anton, after watching the video, became a bit interested in the Wasp Suit.
This technology was indeed extraordinary.
Although the idea was stolen, Darren Cross ability to replicate Pym Particles still marked him as a genius.
Finally, he focused his attention on Mitchell Carson.
Bringing down cross Technologies was simple, just by exposing Mitchell Carson identity as a Hydra agent, it could easily cause cross Technologies to lose military trust.
However, what Anton was now considering was whether, after bringing down cross Technologies, he could gain control of the Wasp Suit technology from cross Technologies...
He attempted to use his Cyborg abilities to hack into cross Technologies internal system, specifically the Future Laboratory data on the Wasp Suit, but he discovered that while the firewall could be breached, any attempt to decode the data would result in its immediate destruction.
"So it seems..." Anton deactivated his cyborg mode, pondering, "I'll have to think of another way!"