Brown spent the evening eating, drinking, and having a good time with Tony. Afterward, Tony called Happy back to drive them and Brown to a nightclub, where they also hired several internationally famous models and partied all night long.
Early the next morning, Pepper, who finally had a day off, arrived at Tony's house. Intending to wake Tony up, she noticed clothes scattered all over the place. She walked step by step toward the master bedroom and pushed the door open, only to find Tony, Brown, and four models lying together in the bed.
"Oh, my god."
It was the first time Pepper had ever witnessed such a scene. Previously, it had always been just Tony and one woman; this time, to her astonishment, Brown was there, and the number of models had increased to four.
She immediately shut the bedroom door, walked out to the living room, poured herself a cup of coffee, and sat down to handle work on her tablet while the TV played the news, passing the time until noon.
By noon, the models emerged. Brown chatted with them as he saw them out the door, then came back inside and sat down on the sofa three seats away from Pepper.
"Tony's still not awake. Do you want me to help you wake him up?" Brown asked.
"No, I'll go wake him myself!" Pepper snapped, marching angrily toward the bedroom.
Pepper walked into the master bedroom and hauled Tony up. At first, assuming it was one of the models from the night before, Tony muttered, "Oh, go back to sleep on your own. Don't bother me."
Hearing this, Pepper simply dropped him. Being pulled up and then abruptly let go shocked Tony completely awake. He was about to lose his temper at the culprit when he looked up and saw Pepper.
"Pepper, why are you here?" Tony asked.
"What? You didn't want me here? Afraid I'd ruin your fun?" Pepper immediately retorted with heavy sarcasm.
"How could that be? Nothing is more important than you," Tony said.
"Really? Nothing is more important than me?" Pepper pressed.
"Really! Absolutely, truly!" Tony said.
"Alright, get out here. We need to talk about Stark's financial report."
With that, Tony followed Pepper out. Catching sight of Brown sitting on the sofa, Tony walked over and lowered his voice. "Pepper's here—why didn't you warn me?"
"How was I supposed to warn you? I saw her the second I walked the models out. You expect me to run back inside just to announce that Pepper has arrived?" Brown replied.
Hearing this, Tony was left completely speechless. Regaining his composure, he glared at Brown and hissed, "Next time you see Pepper at my house, you'd better wake me up in time! And you too, Jarvis—the moment Pepper arrives, you're supposed to wake me up!"
"Alright, the two of you need to listen to me go over Stark Industries' financial report and shareholder dividends," Pepper announced.
"You don't need to brief me on that—just wire the dividends straight to my account. You can go over it properly with Tony, I'm heading out," Brown said, standing up to leave.
"Don't go, Brown! What am I supposed to do without you?" Tony called out.
"What's the matter? Is the great Iron Man afraid of his girlfriend?" Brown teased.
Hearing this, a blush crept across Pepper's cheeks, though it quickly faded away.
After that, whatever happened was no longer Brown's business.
"Red Queen, search for Bruce Banner's location. Also check if Dr. Blue has been in contact with Banner," Brown said as he walked out of Tony's mansion.
"Understood, Boss. I've found him. Banner is currently in a small town in Brazil near the Amazon rainforest, and he has mailed a test tube of blood to Dr. Blue," the Red Queen replied.
"Good, keep a close eye on both of them, and on that Blonsky fellow as well," Brown ordered once more.
"Understood, Boss."
A week passed uneventfully, until the Red Queen suddenly contacted Brown.
"Banner has smuggled himself back into the United States."
Unfazed, Brown asked, "How is Blonsky? I remember he took a kick from the Hulk."
"Boss, Blonsky is currently recovering. General Ross administered a very small dose of the Super Soldier Serum to him. Based on the data I hacked into and analyzed, he will be fully healed in the next couple of days," the Red Queen replied.
"Alright, keep a close eye on him. What about Peter Parker? Has he gone to visit Oscorp yet?" Brown asked again.
"Not yet, Boss," the Red Queen answered.
"Good. Keep monitoring Blonsky, Peter Parker, Bruce Banner, and Dr. Blue. These are all going to be major players going forward!" Brown said.
"Understood, Boss."
"This weekend is coming up. I'll take Gwen out for a couple of days."
With that, he contacted Gwen, who readily agreed. He had just finished making plans to spend the weekend with Gwen when his phone rang the moment he hung up.
"Brown, do you have time this weekend? The Director wants to test your various abilities."
"No time. I'm going out with a friend this weekend," Brown said.
"Alright, I'll report back truthfully," Coulson said.
Half an hour later, Gwen called Brown back.
"Brown, I'm so sorry, we won't be able to go out this weekend."
"What's wrong, Gwen? Did something happen?" Brown asked.
"The teacher hadn't planned on assigning this homework, but just now they suddenly came to class and assigned it, and it's really difficult. I won't be able to go out this weekend."
Hearing this, it instantly clicked for Brown—this was clearly a ploy by Fury to force him into S.H.I.E.L.D. for ability testing.
"Alright, don't worry about it. Your studies come first. I'm hanging up now, I've got some unpleasant business to take care of," Brown said, suppressing his anger.
Hanging up the phone, Brown flew straight to Fury's office, smashed right through the window, and demanded, "When can an ability test *not* be done? Why did you have to ruin my plans to go out with my friend? Why are you such a buzzkill? Are you still single or something?"
Fury was startled first by Brown crashing through the window, and then left dumbfounded in place by Brown's rapid-fire trio of questions. Recovering a moment later, he shouted, "Motherfucker, why do you keep flying in through the window? Didn't I tell you not to fly in through the window? And having you test your abilities is so we can assign you specific missions! Right now, there are only four people in the entire Avengers Squad: you, Natasha the Black Widow, Clint the Hawkeye, and Cap! Captain America has already finished his ability testing, and you're the only one left!"
Hearing Fury put it that way, Brown's temper flared up too.
"I don't care! I said I can't come this week, and that means I can't come. I have my own things to do, plus I'm just a consultant—missions are a separate matter. Anyway, there's no way I'm doing the ability testing this weekend."
With that, Brown flew right back out, shouting over his shoulder, "I'm not paying for the glass! You brought this on yourself!"
"Motherfucker, Brown, you really think you can just disobey orders like that?!"
Watching Brown fly away into the distance, Fury could only stand there in helpless fury. At that moment, Captain America walked upstairs.
"Director, I just heard a loud crash, and your office window is smashed to pieces."
Hearing Cap's words, Fury replied, "That was some insubordinate super-powered individual. He's a member of our squad, too."
Cap frowned upon hearing this.
"Director, do you have his address? I'll bring him back."
"Here. But be careful—S.H.I.E.L.D. hasn't fully figured out the extent of his powers yet."
"Got it."
Cap took Brown's address and rode over on a motorcycle.
That evening, as Brown was at home watching a movie and eating dinner, the doorbell outside began ringing incessantly.
"Red Queen, check who's out there being so endlessly annoying," Brown said irritably.
"Boss, it's Captain America here to see you," the Red Queen replied.
Hearing that Captain America had come, Brown wondered what he was here for. *Is he here to thank me for saving his life?* Brown thought to himself.
"Red Queen, let him in."
Outside, Cap pressed the doorbell and noticed the door pop open, but saw no one. He walked inside with a wary expression and spotted Brown on the sofa, eating and watching a movie. Cap walked right up to him, pulled him to his feet, and said, "Let's go. You're coming back to the base with me for your ability testing, and you're going to apologize to the Director and promise never to fly through his window again."
Brown's immediate reaction upon hearing this was that the bald egg had gone running to Cap to snitch. He jerked away from Cap's grip and snapped, "What gives you the right? Just because you call yourself Captain America? Do you have any idea who pulled you out of the Arctic in the first place?!"
"Even if you saved me, business is business. You're coming back to the base with me right now for your ability testing and an apology to the Director!" Rogers said righteously.
"And what if I don't?" Brown sneered.
"Then I'll just have to knock you down and drag you to the testing!"
With that, Captain America drew his shield and assumed a combat stance.