Capítulo 73: Chapter 73 Tony Stark
It took Harry thirty seconds to realize that Tony seemed unable to exist in a space that did not contain the sound of his voice. He turned back to see Yinsen's amused expression a few times and figured the poor man must've suffered through this as well.
"Hey, you got any water?"
"Glove box, hand some to Yinsen too."
Tony opened said glove box to find a half dozen bottles of American brands of water. He handed two to Yinsen before downing a full one himself.
Harry had a funny idea and asked, "Want some ice cream?"
Tony answered, "You keep a fridge in here or something?"
"Don't be ridiculous. We'll just find an ice cream truck."
"Yeah, I'll keep an eye out for one."
"You do that."
Tony gave a light chuckle at the absurdity. He was still fidgeting at various things as the reality of what happened seemed to be replaying over and over in his head. Harry figured he was trying to keep talking as a way to distract himself.
"So how'd you find me with a hairbrush?"
Harry answered, "You know how Fractal Resonance works?"
Tony rolled his eyes, "Who do you think you're taking too?"
Harry smiled, "I was asking Yinsen."
Yinsen did have a confused look so Tony answered, "Fractals are specific, complex patterns. If you make an antenna in the shape of a fractal, you can broadcast a frequency which can only be properly deciphered by an antenna of the same fractal pattern. That's Fractal Resonance. It's how cellphones can each have a unique broadcast frequency."
Harry continued, "There are ways of using Fractal Resonance for DNA. After Jarvis asked me to retrieve you, I went to your house and got a sample of your DNA. I was only able to use that to get a direction though and it took me a few days of triangulation to find you."
"That doesn't make any sense at all, but okay. How'd Jarvis contact you?"
Harry figured that was his way of asking, 'Couldn't you have come a bit sooner?'
"Jarvis made a friend. That friend asked Harry Potter. Harry Potter asked me. And here we are."
"Potter? That kid?"
"Yes, that kid. I don't accept most forms of payment but Potter knows how to contact me and can pay my fees."
"So you're what, a mercenary?"
"No. I don't advertise and I don't work for just anyone to do just anything."
Tony realized someone and asked, "Wait, how did you kill those guys? I didn't see any bullet holes. It looked like they were beaten to death."
He was referring to the Ten Rings goons outside the cave. Tony destroyed the weapons stockpiled out front but he would have taken note of the condition of the corpses Harry took care of as well.
Harry answered, "Hand me that iron mask plate and I'll show you."
Tony went over to his suit and removed the fittings for the mask and handed it to Harry.
Harry's hands glowed with Immortal Dragon Chi and he crunched the face plate that had rebounded bullets like it was an empty soda can.
Harry passed it back to Tony and said, "My body contains several different forms of energy I can direct without equipment to enhance my capabilities."
Tony's eyes shined with excitement like a kid in a candy store. "What kind of energies?"
Harry said, "Wait, let's get some Ice cream first."
"What? Wait, no way."
Harry slowed down the Hummer as they approached a parked American ice cream truck on the side of the road in the Afghan desert.
Ignoring Tony and Yinsen's flabbergasted expressions, Harry pulled up to the truck before turning to the pair and asking, "What do you two want? My treat."
Harry doubted either had a wallet.
Neither of his passengers could form coherent words and the American ice cream man simply asked, "What can I get for you?"
Since no one in the back answered, Harry said, "Three fudge bars please."
"Coming right up." He went into the back of his truck for a moment and returned with three fudge bars. Harry handed him a ten dollar bill and said, "Keep the change," before he started driving off.
Both dumbfounded former prisoners watched the ice cream truck fade into the distance as Harry drove off. "You gonna take your ice cream or not?"
Tony eloquently answered, "What, how, wait, no, but, that can't, how?!"
Harry just tossed the fudge bar in the man's lap and unwrapped and started eating his own with one hand while driving with the other.
Tony picked it up with a concerned expression. He seemed to be worrying this was a dream or something and any moment he'd wake up back in the cave.
Harry smiled and decided that was good enough. A time stopped inventory that keeps stuff cold and some good illusions were enough to mess with anyone's head.
Tony unwrapped and took a bite out of the fudge bar. After a moment it seemed he decided to ignore what just happened and enjoy the ice cream. Yinsen took a bit longer but he too decided to just go with the flow.
The prank only silenced Tony for about a minute before the need to hear his own voice overwhelmed him once more.
"How'd you get those powers then? You a mutant?"
Harry answered, "Well, it all started with an explosion."
After a few moments of silence, Stark asked, "That's it?"
"How about we go tit for tat? I'll tell you how my abilities work and you tell me how that light bulb in your chest works? Deal?"
Tony raised an eyebrow but after a moment, he answered, "Well, it all started with an explosion."
Harry chuckled which caused Tony to laugh as well.
Tony asked, "Is there anything you can tell me? Favorite color? Are you a cat person or dog person? Boxers or briefs?"
Harry chuckled and shook his head.
Not wanting to remain silent, Tony asked, "So what should I say when asked about how I got out?"
"Tell them whatever you want. I'm certainly not going to get interviewed and say anything to counter whatever you say."
"I mean is there anything that you'd prefer. I mean you did save Yinsen and he saved me so I owe you one."
Tony was pretty sure he would have made it out of there alive but Yinsen was another story. The fact that Tony's metal suit didn't make Yinsen bulletproof was something the pair never openly discussed but that didn't mean they were ignorant of it. Tony's suit had a few rockets and a flame thrower which wasn't enough to kill everyone at that base and if Harry hadn't provided a distraction, Tony may not even have had time to set up the armor.
Harry shook his head. It really didn't matter what Tony said. He'd been laying low because his foundation wasn't strong enough but things were different now. The coordinates of an inhabitable planet made all his concerns about Earth a lot weaker. If everything went truly terrible, Harry would just take the girls off Earth and that would be that.
Still, Stark obviously wanted to be on good terms with Obscurus.
Harry answered, "The truth is fine. You can tell them Jarvis contacted Harry Potter and Harry Potter contacted me. You can make up or leave out the details. I'm not scared of anyone finding me or posing a problem."
"That's some confidence. Hmm. I'll think of something. Why did Harry Potter care enough to call you?"
"You'd have to ask him."
"Got his number?"
"He's probably teaching a class right now."
Harry looked back and asked, "What about you Yinsen? What are your plans?"
Harry confirmed earlier through telepathy that Yinsen's family was dead and he really hadn't expected to survive the cave. The Quest specifically asked Harry to save Yinsen which pretty much meant the world would be a better place with Yinsen in it.
Tony looked back and asked, "Yeah, what about you?"
Tony started yammering on once more about a few ideas and ways he could pay Yinsen back. He hadn't discussed this earlier with the man because they knew it wasn't relevant at the time.
Yinsen admitted he just wanted to continue his work helping others. Harry cast a discreet cheering charm on his so he'd think of some happy things to do with his life. Though the man did want to see his family, Harry knew his family would be patiently waiting for him regardless of how long it took for them to reunite.
Yinsen smiled and told Stark a few of the things he wanted to do and Stark ended up being all for it. They discussed a number of things and without the pair noticing, they eventually arrived at a nearby city.
Harry drives near one of the Checkpoints for the nearby U.S. Military Base and parks in a space without any cameras before he tosses the keys to Yinsen and gets out.
"This my stop. Yinsen, hide the truck somewhere decent until Stark retrieves the armor."
As Harry got out, Stark yelled, "Wait, how do I contact you?"
"You don't. Sorry, but you don't have anything I want."
"Then how does Potter pay you?"
"Potter is the world's only supplier of metagems. I'm sure you can figure it out."
Harry covered himself with Dragon Chi and turned into a blur of light that vanished from sight leaving a stream of golden lightning that dispersed just as quickly.
Once out of sight, Harry returned home via portal and used his Time Turner to go back so he could teach his Monday classes. Harry wasn't worried people would think he was a Hard-Light projection which would ruin his alibi. Harry only used Hard-Light in his Metaphysics class and his Monday class was Energy Physics. Also, his Hard-Light Projections were pre programmed movies. Harry could act with them but they weren't interactive so they wouldn't answer questions or interact with the students unless the students were in on the act.
One of the reasons Harry allowed cameras in his Metaphysics classes was so those watching would discover these traits about his mobile projection system and act as witnesses. Of course, there were cameras in his other classes as well so that was a moot point.
On the following day Simmons was very awkward in class during the review. Harry figured it was because she realized that Harry had picked her pocket and placed her old school tape recorder into her own soundproof project without her knowing.
It was a simple prank but well worth the effort. Though Simmons was a number of years older than Harry, she ended up feeling like a scolded child that got caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
The next day it hit the news that Stark was found and was returning to the states. Harry watched on the news to see what Stark would tell everyone but the only thing he said about what happened was that he saw weapons he made used to kill American soldiers so he decided to shut down the Weapons Division of Stark International.
If the man hadn't been in such a rush he could have looked around at the time to find some evidence of how the Ten Rings got the weapons but he only had it in his mind at the time to destroy them so Harry couldn't blame him for that particular missed opportunity.
Harry didn't care too much at the time but the following day Harry got a message from Link that half his liquid assets were spent. Harry went over the report to ask how the hell that happened and it was apparently Stark's fault.
Harry hadn't taken back the command for Link to buy up all the Stark Stock that hit the market and with Tony's announcement, a lot of people were selling.
Thankfully Link wasn't an idiot. The stock's price had plummeted and Link only paid slightly more than others would for the same Stock. The problem was that even a plummeted stock price was still very expensive and a lot of people were selling. Such people were merely stock traders and such who didn't actually care who the stock belonged to, they just wanted to get as much money as they could off the stock before its value dropped even further.
At this point, Harry apparently owned about 11% of Stark International. Stark owned 40%, Obadiah Stane owned 20%, and a Board of Directors owned about another 20% with the remaining 9% owned by random stock brokers who didn't feel like selling at the moment.
According to the numbers Link sent, Stane had apparently been trying to buy the stock himself but Link always got to it first.
Harry considered it and decided it wasn't a problem. He wasn't really doing anything with his money at the moment so this could end up a good investment.
It was the following weekend that Harry actually got a message from Link with a request for a call from Stark. Jarvis and Link had kept in touch through the connection Harry planted in Stark's house and though Stark knew about it he hadn't removed it. In fact, he'd been using it to bug Link to get Harry's number since it wasn't listed anywhere.
Eventually Link caved and Harry got the call.
"Hello you've reached New York's Finest Pizzas, will this be an order for Takeout or Delivery?"
[You know it's funny, I actually had some Pizza from that place last week. Obi brought it back from a board of directors meeting.]
Harry asked with an amused tone, "If he brought it to you, doesn't that mean you didn't go to your own Board of Directors meeting?"
[Hey, you didn't go either. Jarvis told me you actually bought all the stock that went on the market. I expected the price to plummet like 40 points but since someone was actually buying it it only dropped 30 points.]
"I have enough problems dealing with my own Board of Directors thank you very much. They've become so blood thirsty at this point that I'm releasing them on an island next week so they can let off some steam."
[You're giving your Board of Directors an Island get-a-way?]
Harry laughed into the phone at that and answered, "Something like that. So what can I do for you Mr. Stark?"
[Tony, please. Mr. Stark was my father. I hear I have you to thank for hiring the demon dude to bust me out.]
"And I hear you would've gotten out on your own if I hadn't, so I only really saved Yinsen. I hear he's a good man though so that's fine too. In any case, it was Jarvis that asked so you can thank him."
[Yeah, Jarvis told me he made a friend. Should we arrange a playdate or something?]
"How would that work? Should I bring a CPU with Link's data core over to your house and plug it in?"
[That sounded dirty.]
"I can assure you it didn't, you're just a dirty minded old man."
[I'm not an old man. Anyways, I want to meet and discuss a few things.]
"$20 says you're only calling now because you just finished reading about metagems."
[Okay, you got me. I'm interested alright?]
Harry pulled up a calendar of events in the area and said, "Alright, apparently your company is hosting a Firefighter's Charity Gala in two weeks. I'll get a ticket and show up then."
[Sounds like a plan. See you then.]
The following week was business as usual though it was the last week of classes before the finals.
Harry had a very special prank planned for his Metaphysics class.
Part way through the review, there was a knock on the classroom door. This got a lot of people's attention because Harry's pranks didn't knock. The door always opened for them.
Harry walked over to the door and opened it before moving to the side.
Seven ugly Goblins donning a full set of Goblin crafted armor and weapons walked into the classroom.
Harry arranged some chairs for them and got out a very large scroll of paper he then tacked to the black board and unrolled. Addressing the Goblins rather than the class, he said, "So here are battle plans for the conquest of Genosha."
Harry pointed at a point on the map, "Lord Hagglefin will lead the Thunder Breaker War Party to the west barracks and assault the entrance. The Cyber Detonation War Party will ensure a communications black out from the start of the operation, though radios will likely be unaffected. We expect between 200 and 250 super powered soldiers with a response time of two minutes."
Harry's class looked pretty interested in the Goblin commanders and this fake War they were going to have against super powered soldiers on an island nation none of them had ever heard of. None of it was a Hard-Light projection of course. Harry used a bit of technopathy to ensure the cameras in the classroom would have a blurry picture but the sound would be alright, thus mostly preserving the Statue of Secrecy.
It took some doing for the Goblin commanders to agree to have the final discussion of the war in Harry's muggle-filled classroom but Harry convinced them it would be fine. The Goblins had artifacts which made them look normal but each was removed prior to their entrance to the classroom and every camera in the classroom and on the campus was having slight technical difficulties at the moment.
Harry wondered how Shield would react to this 'prank' when Genosha fell into the hands of Magneto next week.
Though complex, the discussion only lasted about six minutes before the Goblins left and Harry returned to reviewing the content of the finals. The prank was a nice change of pace from the monotony of the review which got people back into the mood for studying which would help the students more than an additional six minutes of review would have.
When Harry returned home, he saw Peter had actually joined the study group this time after a several month absence.
Harry stared at the now muscled, former lanky nerd with a suspicion filled eyebrow and said, "You look well for someone who's been sick for the last few weeks."
Felicia, always being one to help, said, "Puberty seems to have hit Pete like Truck hitting an Isekai Character."
Everyone looked at her and she smiled nonchalantly, "What, I like to read when I'm bored."
Peter was quick to say, "I've been working out. Uncle Ben said it's a good way to stay healthy."
Harry shrugged, "If you say so."
Peter's internal life energy was much higher than a normal person's. It was similar to Chi but slightly tainted. He wasn't a Demon Sorcerer either or at least he hadn't lost his soul. Mixing other energies into your Chi to strengthen it often causes your soul to become incompatible with your body, so Demon Sorcerers sacrifice their soul for power.
Still, it was unusual. Strings of energy were spreading out from Peter all around him like a spider web. Those lines of energy passed through multiple dimensions and Harry wondered how he'd react if those energies were messed with. No, better not to test it. Messing with them could cause a panic attack or fry Peter's brain depending on how his mind interpreted those energies if he was even capable of doing so.
Harry went upstairs and connected to his company's server to check everything that needed his input and go over the invasion plan one last time.
Everything looked mostly fine with one exception. Khan Industries had been making a lot of suspicious moves recently. Suspicious as in, money being spent out of the country on things that would not visibly affect the company. Yes, it seems an old acquaintance of Harry's was going to make a move.
*Author's Note*
Short Chapter for now, will have Goblin Invasion and the Gala meeting next chapter.
I got horrible distracted by a ravenous plot bunny of a Jedi Avenger SI fic..
As in, I got attacked by a Plot Bunny that got stuck in my head and wanted me to write such a fic so I spent like three days coming up with conceptual plots for it before said bunny left me alone enough to do a chapter on this fic.
Was thinking the SI would be in the same Orphanage as Clint Barton and they'd grow up and join Shield together.
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