章節 88: Chapter 88 Whiplash
Two weeks after the opening of the Stark Expo, Harry had gotten another invite to Stark's Malibu home. Not to sign papers, but for some 'testing' Stark wanted his help with.
According to the conversation he'd had with the man over an untraceable phone call, Stark had already figured out his father's discovery, he was just having the same trouble his father had, synthesizing it.
Harry wasn't surprised Stark found it. The only clue that Harry had given Stark was that Harry himself had discovered it. That would usually be quite useless, but Stark's acclaim to the title of 'Genius' was not unfounded. The only thing Harry had access to that Tony's father had created was the Stark Expo, so it was not a great leap in logic to figure out that Harry had discovered Howard Stark's secret there.
It took only a few hours for Tony to put the pieces together and realized that when Harry had scouted the Expo, he'd discovered the configuration himself.
Harry arrived at the Stark mansion the normal way, via taxi after having gotten off an airplane sent over by Tony. Other than visiting Tony, Harry didn't have anyone else to meet consistently so Brilliance Inc didn't actually own any private Jets.
Upon arrival Harry first noticed that Pepper was there, trying to get Tony to sign a number of things. To her side was a certain stunning redhead in professional attire. Harry had never met the Black Widow in person, but the fact that he digitally created a smut film of her and Clint Barton as a prank indicated he was well aware of her existence.
Natasha didn't bat an eye or spare a second glance or make any movement that indicated she knew or cared about Harry's existence or presence there.
Tony approached and noticed Harry inspecting the new girl and said, "I see you've noticed our new red head, Ms. Rushman. Pepper has been running the company while I've been testing out new toys in the workshop and she asked for an assistant."
Harry gave an amused smile and said, "Well, she definitely gives off the feel of a Professional."
Tony nodded and asked the man he knew to be married, "Oh, what specifically looks professional about her?"
The Widow certainly didn't mind using this opening to turn and pay attention to Harry to see how he'd answer.
Instead of fidgeting on the question clearly designed to get him in trouble, Harry answered honestly, "Well, she has killer thighs, killer legs, killer arms, a killer face, and a killer body."
Pepper looked partially offended and Tony smirked while holding back a chuckle, clearly not getting the actual joke.
Ms. Rushman's expression didn't change in the slightest when Harry called her a 'Professional,' and used the word 'killer,' to describe her five consecutive times. Tony certainly couldn't complain later that Harry lied or misled him.
She did however state, "Ms. Potts, weren't there a few documents you needed Mr. Potter to sign?"
Pepper blinked and replied, "Oh, right, give me a minute to print them out. Harry, I need your signature on the approval of some new constructions." She stated while walking away.
Tony went downstairs to prepare a few things before he invited Harry down.
Harry himself approached Ms. Rushman's side and said in a low voice, "I've taken care of Stark's health issues in the short term. To deal with it in the long term, he needs access to his father's research which is probably in a Shield warehouse somewhere."
Rather than remain silent, Natasha asked in the same low tone, "And how exactly did you find a short term counter to long term palladium poisoning?"
Harry answered nonchalantly, "Oh you know. Big cauldron, full moon, newt eyes, frog warts, bat wings, dog hair. Old family recipe. Fury knows the family I'm talking about."
Natasha scoffed at that which made Harry smile.
Fury was allowed to know about magicals and Harry wouldn't be surprised if Coulson knew as well, but Harry certainly wouldn't actively tell someone who didn't know. He'd rather lay on a pile of hints and let them figure it out themselves.
Moments later Pepper returned with some forms. She was so used to dealing with Tony that instead of handing him the papers, she started explaining what each was as if she was speaking to a child. Harry simply said, "Ms. Potts, I'm a speed reader. You can just give me the papers."
Pepper realized what she had done and said, "Huh? Oh, yeah. Sorry."
Harry took the papers when offered and replied, "It's fine. I understand it's probably a habit at this point."
Harry really was a speed reader, but he still Paused and went over every page in detail before unpausing and turning the page. In only a few seconds he'd read everything and pulled out a pen to sign in all the right places. These papers weren't actually needed now, but were things Pepper would need him to sign eventually and getting it out of the way now would save a lot of time. Mostly it contained the various permissions for the construction of new factories where joint projects would be manufactured.
Tony finished his prep work downstairs and invited Harry down, which for Pepper, meant that nothing productive would be done in the mansion for a few hours so she left with Ms. Rushman and headed back to Stark's main office to get some real work done.
Harry was brought down to the workshop and shown a table with a hotrod red suitcase.
Tony looked pleased with himself and asked, "Well, what do you think?"
Harry took a moment to analyze it. Technopathy was just one skill of Technomancy which was the Perk he'd gotten from killing Apocalypse. Technomancy itself was basically the ability to create, fix, and manipulate technology using energy and the mind and was considered a branch of Sorcery. As long as a machine was not magically shielded or had built in magics, Harry could directly control many forms of technology.
Using a few Technomancer spells, Harry could get the details on many forms of technology without having to put them into his inventory.
Harry's response to the suitcase was, "Sporty. Did you want me to trick it out or something?"
Tony shook his head. "No. My Palladium Core can't support your metagems without burning itself out way too fast. Your gunk juice may be supporting my life, but it's destroying my taste buds and I really don't want to have to drink more than I have to."
Harry knew Tony wasn't wrong. Most things had a trade-off and Tony learned through a number of prototypes that active use of Metagems was ridiculously energy intensive and the things were way too fragile to support any reliable permanent enhancements to a suit. At the moment the best he could do was use them in some one-off gadgets, but according to his deal with Harry, any such gadget could only be defensive in nature. Harry just didn't want to bring attention to the destructive capabilities of metagems just yet and Tony respected that.
Tony put the suitcase on the ground and opened it up. Two sockets rose from the interior which Tony placed his hands in and used them to pull up the exo-skeleton which latched onto him and unfolded into an armor plating. The original suitcase exterior unfolded and shifted, becoming a chestplate which extended the remainder of the armor over the exo-skeleton until Tony was fully encased.
Through the armor's speaker Tony stated, "I present to you, the Mark V."
Harry rolled his eyes and replied, "Needs to be flashier. That way people will be distracted from shooting you during the time it takes to put it on."
Tony replied as if he completely missed the sarcasm, "You think?" Then he replied with his own, "Maybe I should add some neon lights, dance music, and a pop out disco ball? Oh, and fireworks!"
Harry added, "Don't forget the glitter bombs. Very deadly. No one can take someone covered in glitter seriously and since it is impossible to get off your clothes easily, a well-timed glitter bomb can dispatch the strongest of foes."
Tony shook his head again and said, "See, I still can't tell if you're being serious at this point. Really though, have you ever defeated someone with glitter?"
"Not yet," he answered honestly. "In any case, it's shielded right?"
"Of course it is, what do you take me for? It's a triple layered faraday cage so EMPs or lightning won't fry the suit or kill me."
Harry smiled, "Well then, time for a test run."
An hour later, Harry had finished repairing Tony's suit after spending twenty minutes peeling it off him after having spent ten minutes kicking his ass. The suit greatly enhanced Tony's strength and coordination, but had weaknesses Harry didn't mind revealing. This was the main reason Tony had called Harry in the first place, he wanted a second opinion and a 'safe' way to test the limits of the suit against someone who Tony, at least suspected, could probably bring him back from the dead if something terrible happened.
The Mark V wasn't a bad design overall, but it only had Tony's repulsors for offense and against Harry they were almost useless.
At the senate hearing, Harry told everyone the repulsors were not a weapon, and Harry did not feel he lied. They were basically the wheels of a car. Using them to attack was possible, but anyone with the smallest amount of training could tell where the beams would fire since Tony's arm position telegraphed the aim and the charging sound that came before each shot informed someone of when the beams would be fired.
Sure, you had to be fast enough to move out of the way, but to those who were, Tony's repulsors were not a threat.
Still, the system got the combat data it needed. Tony knew how much damage the suit could dish out, how much it could take, what its biggest limits were, and where its strength lied.
While Harry was repairing the suit and Tony was going over the data, the latter said, "Hey, I wanted to invite you and your wife to Monaco the day after tomorrow."
Although Harry had told Stark he was married, he had yet to mention the number. Smiling at the thought of seeing Stark's face, Harry checked his phone and said, "You mean for the Monaco race? Sure, we can be there. You gonna drive?"
Tony looked like he was considering it and answered, "Don't know. Stark International sponsors a driver every year, so I do have a car there. What about you?"
Harry shook his head, "Brilliance Inc doesn't spend that much on advertising outside of cyberspace."
The pair went over the details and Harry was thoughtful enough to bring up a few other points Tony was overlooking before he headed out. After returning to New York, Harry and the girls packed their things and got on another Stark Jet to Monaco. None of the employees questioned why Harry brought five women instead of one.
Harry wasn't sure why Stark didn't fly with them in the same jet since they were his jets and they would be there at the same time, but Harry figured that trying to guess the mind of a guy who was born rich was pointless.
MJ was joining them of course. Previously she had been living with her aunt as Peter's neighbor, but after she started dating Harry, MJ convinced her aunt to let her move out. Of course, Anna Watson was under the impression her niece had moved into an all girls boarding house that came with a Scholarship she had won. Like Jade, it would take a bit of time before she would decide to break the news to her family that she was joining a Harem.
The jet was well staffed and for a transatlantic flight, it was quite a short trip. Jade helped pass the time by giving examples of all the horrid ways she and her uncle Jackie had to travel across the world looking for antiques and magic artifacts while she was growing up. She swore she would never again ride a truck carrying yaks for as long as she lived.
A limo was waiting at the Airport to take them to a hotel where they could shower, change, and get ready for the Gala they were heading towards at the racetrack.
Before heading out, Harry offered everyone a piece of jewelry enchanted with a weak Notice-Me-Not. This was, technically, the first public outing Harry was taking his girls and it would certainly be filled with reporters and cameras. Jade, Wanda, Rogue, and MJ took a piece but Jean did not. Wanda and Rogue did not particularly enjoy being stared at and Jade and MJ didn't want the fact that they were in a harem broadcast on TV just yet, but Jean had no issues with either.
Another limo ride and moments later Harry arrived at the building near the race track. It doubled as a restaurant and Harry got a table for himself that had room for everyone and a few extras.
Before ordering anything, Harry sent a message to Pepper to bring Tony over.
It didn't take long for the billionaire to be dragged over by his assistant and his assistant's assistant. When Tony noticed Harry sitting at a table with not one, but five women, he did two double takes.
Harry smiled and introduced them. "Tony, Pepper. This is Jean, Wanda, and Rogue. My wives. Here we also have Jade and Mary Jane, my girlfriends."
Tony's face changed a half dozen times as he tried to process the litany of strange emotions he was feeling but then quickly pointed out, "I'm at least 99% sure the last time I checked, Polygamy was still illegal."
Pepper gave Tony a half glare and asked in a low tone, "And when exactly was the last time you checked?"
Tony chuckled nervously and Harry just answered, "Well the wedding wasn't in the U.S. and not officially documented. At least when I'm doing my taxes, everyone is just my dependent. Once I turn 18, I'll be married on paper to Jean."
Jade added, "But we all still live together in Harry's house."
Tony asked, "You have a harem?!" Both awe and respect could be clearly seen in the playboy's eyes.
Pepper pointed out in a concerned tone, "But you're all so young."
Rogue shrugged and answered for everyone, "None of us gals have grown up in a 'typical' fashion. I assure y'all we're far more mature than our looks give us credit for." Which was true. Jean was inheriting the powers and mind of the immortal Phoenix, Jade was digesting the knowledge of a thousand past lives, Wanda and Rogue had a hundred years of training, and even MJ had all of Red Sonja's memories.
Harry also met Tony's gaze and said in a voice low enough for Pepper and Natasha to be unable to hear, "And if you suited up in that Mark V, any one of these girls could easily kick your ass."
Tony's eyes widened just for a bit at that piece of info. He already knew Harry was Obscurus and now Harry had just admitted that his girls were gifted as well.
The group began talking about interesting and pointless things while Pepper talked with the girls about their schooling. She was more than a little impressed when she found that three of them were already college students and the other two were top of their classes in high school.
Justin Hammer and a reporter showed up not long after that and Tony excused himself while looking at the TV showing the race. Harry excused himself as well to follow leaving Jean and the rest to chat with Pepper. Once the boys were gone, the girls all started grilling Pepper on everything they knew she clearly would not discuss in front of Stark.
Eventually Harry found himself standing just outside the stands at the tracks of the Monaco Speedway, having watched Tony kick his driver out of the car and take it himself.
Everything seemed relatively normal up to that point until Harry saw someone walk out of the sideway for pit stops and onto the tracks. A moment later his orange jumpsuit started burning away and fell off in pieces revealing that he was wearing a metal frame around his torso. In his chest was what Harry guessed was a knockoff palladium core and on each forearm was a metallic whip. Harry raised his eyebrows when the whips started channeling energy generated by the core and started generating arcs of lightning between each segment of the whip.
An incoming race car swerved to avoid killing the idiot who just walked onto the race track. Instead of appreciating the kindness, the new arrival struck the passing car with his whips. The plasma arcing between the whip segments sliced cleanly through the car.
Harry was rather pissed at how stupid this guy was. If the driver wasn't nice enough to swerve, cutting the car in half wouldn't have stopped it from turning the idiot into meat paste. And that weapon clearly had the look of something built in a garage. Not exactly reliable. If the whip didn't cut completely through the car, it would have gotten stuck through the car moving at a hundred miles an hour and probably ripped the idiot's arm right off his torso.
Another thing was that this idiot was lucky that all the rent-a-guards around apparently didn't have any guns. Harry could easily pull a gun out of his inventory, shoot the man three times in the head, and be done with it.
But Harry had no reason to. The man clearly wasn't a real threat.
Tony's car was coming up the track next. The idiot walked a bit to the side to leave the center open and when Tony's car passed by, the man sliced off the front half of Tony's car, leaving the rest to skid to a stop.
Harry doubted any of the drivers coming behind Tony would have the balls to run over the idiot, so Harry had one of the invisible drones flying around disable all the cars's engines, preventing them from accelerating or doing anything besides coming to a stop. The drones were actually launched earlier by Link who wanted to watch the race and Harry rarely if ever refused the world's best assistant.
Now he just had to debate on whether or not he should help Tony take care of the idiot. That question was quickly answered by a text from Jade telling Harry that Pepper left with a man who was holding a hotrod red suitcase.
In other words, Tony had backup coming, so Harry just had to stall, and then he could let Tony play.
The whip dude approached Tony's car and sliced off the driver's seat but only then noticed that Tony had gotten out. Rather than run away, Tony had picked up a piece of scrap and snuck behind the idiot and bashed him in the back. Unfortunately, bashing someone wearing a torso frame was easier said than done. The whip guy sliced at Tony making the latter step back and use the scrap he held as a shield but it got cut away and fell to the ground and rolled to the side at the whip guy's next strike.
Harry casually climbed and jumped the fence and the whip guy started getting fancy with his attacks.
Getting a little peeved, Harry picked up some debris and chucked it accurately at the back of the guy's head. He didn't want to pop the guy's skull like a water balloon, but Harry didn't like the fact that this guy had no head protection and still considered himself a threat. Dr. Octopus was twice the threat this guy was, and even he didn't do anything that might get him shot in the head.
The whip guy staggered and turned back to see Harry smile and throw another piece of metal. The throw was fast and accurate. From his staggered position the whip guy couldn't dodge easily so he swung his whip forward to strike and slice away the projectile.
Harry could swear he heard the man growl and run forward. Harry could just run away at this point, but plasma whips weren't a threat to him. When the idiot struck to slice Harry in half, Harry had already pulled out his light baton to deflect the strike. His Hard-light baton could in fact interact with multiple forms of energy depending on the setting and he could change the settings on his whenever he wanted to.
Of course, it was useless on physical matter, but those whips charged with plasma could interact with his baton.
The bare chested russian looked shocked just for a moment before he reeled back and swung with both his arms at the same time from two directions. Harry leaned to the side to dodge one and used his lightsaber look alike to deflect the other.
The man's next attack had him step forward and strike. This time at the moment Harry swung to deflect the strike, the whip changed its movement to wrap around the blade. The russian then tried to pull the weapon out of Harry's hand, but Harry just toggled the blade off causing the man to once more stagger back from pulling against nothing.
What he did next surprised Harry enough to at least, a tiny bit, rethink the man's classification as an idiot. The man struck Harry once more but deactivated his plasma current mid-swing. Harry had to bend like a gymnast to dodge as the uncharged metal whip passed through his light baton without issue.
Before the russian could take advantage of this, he got run over by a black car being driven by Tony's driver, a man named Happy. Harry could also see Pepper in the back seat.
Tony, who had recovered a bit, ran over to the car and opened the door, but Happy had just backed up so he could ram into the russian again, making Tony have to move to follow the car door.
Apparently, the russian's metal frame was a full exosuit protecting the legs as well under his pants. That's the only reason Harry could think of as a reason why Happy's attempt at vehicular manslaughter failed. He was only out of it for a moment before he growled again and used his whip to slice through the door Tony was trying to open.
Pepper seemed to start having a bit of a panic attack when the whip dude started attacking and wasn't throwing Tony the suitcase.
The entire scene was somewhat embarrassing to watch.
Still, Harry's turn was over. He used some psychokinesis to ensure when the whips struck the car, no one inside got hurt and Harry leisurely walked back to give them some room.
Eventually Tony got the suitcase and Harry counted off the twenty seconds it took for the suit to fully equip itself. Harry had no idea why, but the whip guy didn't attack the car or Tony during that time and just watched Tony use up nearly half a minute to suit up.
The first thing Tony did when the suit was on, was charge up a muon pulse from his repulsor. Of course, this meant he raised his hand, stood still, and waited half a second for it to charge while within the whip's range. This time, the whip guy did not just stand still and watch, he swung out and struck Tony's hand, damaging the repulsor, preventing it from firing.
The man deflected the repulsor blast from Stark's other hand with a swing of his whips, showing Tony that his telegraphed blasts aren't gonna do much. As this was the second time in three days for this to have happened, he already had a plan. He fired off another blast which the whip guy deflected again, but this time Stark also leaned forward and used his forward repulsors from his feet to launch himself forward in a massive shoulder tackle. The whip user countered by throwing his whips forward to entangle Tony but the suit charged through without pause.
Iron Man crashed into the russian like a battering ram but since the whips were tied to the mech frame he had, and Tony was still entangled in the whips, the Russian wasn't thrown forward. The frame also seemed to protect the man a bit but not much. Tony was covered in plasma charged whips, but since his suit was a faraday cage, it didn't burn through and could sustain the damage for some time.
Tony used the fact that he was up close to his advantage and slugged the man's unprotected gut, causing him to almost lose consciousness, giving Tony the chance to rip off the man's arc reactor core.
Harry figured the fight was over and walked over to help Pepper out of the damaged car.
For some reason, only after the fight ended did a half dozen guards in full body armor holding AK-47s come out from behind the gate and restrain the russian. The man spit some blood and shouted, "Even with help, you still lose!"
Harry had an idea he knew what the man was referring to, but it was irrelevant.
The following media storm did a number of things, the least surprising of which was that Harry found out the last of his stock of Light Batons at the Expo had been sold out. That meant ten thousand people had gotten a ticket for the expo and stood in line to get one in just a little over two weeks.
Harry wondered how many would try to open them up to tweak or modify them. Each had a spell which would destroy the Metagem which made it work if opened up and just to be spiteful, the only way to open them required destroying the label which had the serial number engraved onto it. Since they were collectables, the value would plummet if the serial number engraving was damaged so anyone willing to break it must be willing to lose everything.
Besides climbing over the fence, nothing Harry did was illegal since, 'for some reason,' the other race cars never got close so Harry wasn't charged with endangering them by getting close during a race. His Light Baton couldn't even be called a weapon since on any setting it was unable to damage property or people.
Tony, Pepper, and Happy were on a plane back to LA and Harry and his girls were on a plane back to New York a few hours later. During the ride, Tony called Harry to discuss the info he'd gotten out of the Russian.
Harry's response was, "If he has anything to do with your arc reactor, then his name is probably in your father's notes for the creation of the reactor and that new element."
Tony gave an exasperated sigh and replied, "Yeah, and I have no idea where those are."
Harry answered back, "I already contacted Shield about that and they should have everything delivered to your place by the time you get back."
"Huh. Why didn't I think of that?"
"Dementia. It's common among the elderly. I'll ask Pepper to start looking into retirement homes."
"I'm not an old man, I'm only forty." Harry could swear he heard in the background Pepper correct to, 'forty-one.'
"Which is still more than double my age so-"
Tony interrupted, "I mean under that logic even Pepper is- OW. Sorry, never mind then."
Harry chuckled and said, "Tony, you should know that all women stop aging at eighteen, twenty-one, and twenty-five."
"That doesn't make any sense."
"Which is why you're still single at forty and I have a Harem."
"Hmm. Point to you."
Harry wasn't surprised when, a few days after returning to New York, Harry got another call from Tony. Using his father's notes, he had the missing pieces he needed to figure out what his father was lacking to synthesize a new material. Using Tony's plane which he had all but given to Harry at this point, it only took four hours to get from Harry's house to New York and Tony needed a second set of trusted hands.
Looking over the notes Tony had written, Harry stated, "it's not really a new element though, it's more like an isotope of a homogenized alloy."
With Harry's assistance Tony built a miniature particle accelerator in his basement and created a specific alloy. The alloy would be energized and neutrons would be fired from the particle accelerator at the alloy which, when energized, would cause the atoms of the alloy to accept the neutrons and bond the components of the alloy together using the newly introduced neutrons into a new atomic structure identical to the design Howard Stark initially envisioned.
Harry was impressed with the design because many factors involved actually mirrored the applications of magic, meaning in a universe without magic, this probably wouldn't work.
On May 25th, Stark had successfully created a new 'element.' Looking at the glowing triangle, he said, "I'm gonna call it Badassium."
Harry rolled his eyes and said, "Since it was technically created by you, and your father, why not call it Starkanium to honor his memory?"
Tony considered it and answered back, "No, I'm still calling it Badassium."
Harry shook his head and took out a bunch of Metagems. "Well then, let's see how badass it really is."
For the next two days, the pair of geniuses played with the new power source and determined how it would react to everything they could think of. Similar to palladium, badassium could be used to generate muons, but it could do so much more than that. There were no issues replacing the arc reactor with the new one and they confirmed that it could pump Tony's blood without any ill side effects and was in fact far better than the old one at doing so.
What was interesting was not that the element generated muons, but from what they could tell, that it generated a form of energy that could be converted into muons. According to Howard Stark's notes, this energy was an imitation of something he discovered while researching an object called the Tesseract. Even better, the energy could be converted into other things as well.
Through some stress testing, the pair found that badassium could also convert other forms of energy into this tesseract energy and store it for a brief period. Harry confirmed that even the Chaos energy of wizard magic could be absorbed, meaning something powered by this reactor would have a base resistance to magic. This pleased Harry.
Tony knew that calling Harry over to help him make the element meant Harry knew how to make it as well, but Stark didn't mind. He felt Harry wouldn't betray him with it or use it to do anything Tony wouldn't use it for. Not that a list of things 'Tony Stark would not do,' was very long.
While designing a new Mark VI armor with Harry, the latter said, "You know, you might as well fit up your friend for one of these. We could make one that looks good but lacks the weapons. I could use a bit of metaphysics to guarantee no one but your friend will ever be able to use it without the thing self-destructing."
Rhodey had shown up not long after Harry did and told Tony that the government wanted to try and use the fiasco at Monaco as an excuse to get a suit.
Tony took a few moments to consider it before agreeing. His Mark II could be modified to Rhodey's frame and the more precious bits and designs could be swapped out. Nothing that would endanger Rhodey's life, but would ensure the thing required weekly maintenance only he could provide, giving Tony a chance to charge Uncle Sam an arm and a leg just to get them to understand that owning a Iron Man suit wasn't cheap.
Harry knew more legal and business jargon than Pepper did because of his constant dealings with the shark-like Goblins, so he wrote up a contract while Tony retro-fitted and downgraded the Mark II.
Harry didn't stay for Tony's birthday party since Harry didn't know anyone else in LA and didn't want to mingle. During his Birthday, Tony gifted the Mark II to Rhodey and gave him three copies of the legal papers that came with it. Harry had also sneakily acquired a bit of the man's blood to create a magical biometric lock which would prevent the suit from working if Rhodey wasn't in it. Even if the OS was replaced entirely, the suit still wouldn't allow for anyone but Rhodey to use it. Rhodey also knew that anytime the suit was to be refitted or upgraded, he was to remove the arc reactor to ensure the government did not get their hands on it. Considering he knew what could be done with it, the man had no problem agreeing to that.
Two days later Harry got an interesting notification from Link. A picture of a hammer was posted on Harry's Arcaneknowledge website. According to the post, it was in the middle of New Mexico and no one could move it. What made the post legitimate enough to be flagged was that for the last 24 hours around the same area prior to the Hammer showing up, the weather had been rather anomalous.
Harry was a bit curious, but he had to be at the Expo and couldn't be seen leaving today. He'd check it out tomorrow.
Later that evening, Harry got a call from Tony.
[Harry, you're still at the Expo right? Vanko is still alive, he's at Hammer Industries and plans to attack the Expo! I'm on my way now.]
Harry answered back, "Gotcha. I'll close up shop and call our mutual friend."
[Sounds good. I'll be there shortly. Oh, and by the way, why didn't you just tell me my assistant was a spy?]
Harry chuckled and figured that Fury had probably paid a visit to Tony after the latter had given away a suit and wanted to know why.
"Because I've given Fury so much grief, that letting him see the look on your face when you realized you'd been duped will keep him off my back a bit while I do more things which give him a headache."
[Dammit Potter, she was recording me and everything.]
Harry laughed and hung up, curious as to what price she'd ask for to let Harry see that video. Next he pulled up the schedule of today's events and noticed that Hammer Industries would have a showcase in a little while. Harry's stall had sold out of Light Batons but people could still fight using them in the arena next to the stall and Harry could still be challenged if someone wanted one. Harry had in fact been beaten three times. Once by someone who Harry was pretty sure was a mutant and twice by a man and woman Harry was 90% certain were members of the Hand. Though, those losses weren't from fatal blows, but small contact that Harry counted as a victory even though if it was a real blade, it wouldn't do more than draw a bit of blood.
Still, they were good fights and enough of a challenge that Harry didn't mind giving them a Light Baton in any color they wanted with a serial number of [xxx1], [xxx2], and so on.
To the groans of those playing in the arenas, Harry closed the stall, shut down the sparring space and sent everyone home. Harry then returned home as well before shifting into his Obscurus form and putting on his Demon mask and taking a portal back to the Expo.
Link had pulled up the details of Vanko's death and determined that the prison was likely paid to release him and cover it up. Probably by Justin Hammer.
While under a weak Notice-Me-Not just to prevent people from staring, Harry walked into the building Justin Hammer was presenting from and stood in the back. The presentation was mostly Hammer being an idiot until he started showing off his Hammer Drones.
Harry figured that, considering how much of a pain in the ass they were likely to end up being, he should've called them Hammeroids.
Next up came Rhodey in the Mark II which had clearly been completely refitted with weapons. Harry could only roll his eyes at the fact that they actually called it War Machine. The contract did give permission to install whatever they wanted into it as long as only Rhodey piloted it, but Harry regretted letting them name it something so crude.
Only a few moments later, Tony showed up in what Harry recognized at the Mark VI. Tony tried to confront Justin Hammer about Vanko's location when War Machine's OS got overridden and every one of the Hammeroids started pointing their weapons at Tony. Tony flew up into the air and out of the building to ensure the drone's line of fire didn't hit the crowd behind him. This still led to the drones firing at the room, shattering the glass above and causing it to come crashing down.
Harry Paused. Pain in the ass indeed. Luckily it was safety glass which always shattered into tiny pieces so even though plenty of people got hit with glass fragments, no one had more than a few cuts. Since Harry wouldn't be needed to save their butts, he could do something useful.
After a bit of planning, Harry unpaused and saw that War Machine and the air force drones were about to take flight. Rather than let the hacker do what he wanted, Harry charged his body with Dragon Chi and Red Energy and charged forward. He jumped and caught the ascending War Machine and used the momentum amplifying effects of Red energy to toss the flying mech back to the ground directly at one of the Army mechs.
The Air force Hammeroids continued chasing and firing at Tony but the others all turned simultaneously at Harry, acquiring a new target.
From what Harry could tell using Technopathy, War Machine's suit was being overridden and controlled in real time. The OS that was piloting the suit and the drones wasn't even in the building. Still, that wasn't much of a problem for Harry. He used only a moment to stick a small disk onto the suit Rhodey was trapped in and heard Rhodey shout, "He's targeting you, get out! Wait, what's happening?"
The lights on the suit went out for a moment before being restored. The disk shielded the suit from all forms of wireless communication, allowing the suit's original OS to restart. It would prevent Rhodey from talking to Tony through his radio, but would give the man full control over the suit once more.
It was at this point all the drones still in the building started pointing at Harry and started firing. Harry was fully channeling red energy from Cyttorak's Crimson Cosmos, granting him the defense of the Juggernaut. Bullets didn't do anything but annoy him. Though the anti-air rifles on some of those drones did look more annoying than the others.
Harry lept at the closet drone and smashed it through like a sledgehammer through a styrofoam block. He smashed through the next by the time Rhodey was back up. Seeing that all the drones were being controlled and firing at the guy Rhodey knew saved Stark from the caves, Rhodey had no issue taking to the air and joining him in firing on the other drones.
At this point, all the drones stopped firing at Harry and started running in random directions. A third of them took to the air and Rhodey followed while Harry ran after the ones still on the ground.
The drones started releasing all their ordinance at everything they came across, trying to deal as much damage as possible. Thanks to Harry slowing them down at the beginning, most of the crowd had already gotten some distance from the building, but they were spreading out faster than Harry could destroy them.
Harry tried to hack them using Technomancy, but they'd already been put on auto-pilot and used a programming language Harry wasn't familiar with. Sure, he could figure it out if he took a minute to monitor it, but he didn't exactly have the time and he couldn't check such things while Paused. Still, he could use technomancy to slow them down and mess with them. Breaking each wasn't an issue.
Once the distance between them was getting a bit much, Harry whistled and called the hover bike he usually used when playing as Obscurus and proceeded to fly around, ramming through each of the drones he encountered. His Ultimate Broom could handle going dozens of times faster than the speed of sound, so ramming through some cheap prototype drones was an easy feat.
Stark showed up a few minutes later, having destroyed all the Air Force drones that went after him. His Mark VI was something the pair had been working on for a few days and used Metagems systems for some of the neater functions, so dealing with the drones wasn't difficult.
By the time War Machine, Iron Man, and Obscurus finished destroying the drones, they detected something new incoming. It was a hulking mech almost as big as the one the Mandarin was given by Obadiah.
Unfortunately, the mech did not open its head piece for Harry to have an opening to shoot him in the head. Instead, he made his identity known by releasing two giant whips which no longer had the look of something built in a garage.
Tony stepped up and said, "I got this. Rhodey, cover fire from a distance. Obscurus, keep the guests safe."
Vanko's mech swung its lightning coated whip at Tony who swiped his arm forward. The whip was cut through and it looked like a blade of light was coming from Tony's wrist.
A coil of line built into the back of Vanko's suit spun to give more length to the cut whip and Vanko started swinging both with astonishing skill. Those observing from a distance would see what looked like a whirlpool of blue lightning.
War Machine fired at Vanko using his minigun but it did little to the armored mech and the missiles he tried to fire were intercepted by the storm of whirling lightning.
Tony quickly calculated that the whip motion was increasing in speed and that letting him continue would be bad. Tony used a new system in his suit built from ruby metagems and his armor glowed red. He stepped into the storm and caught the whip.
As if anticipating this, Vanko released yards of slack for the whip from the coiled line on his back and tossed it into the air where it coiled and looked like it would wrap around Tony.
Another blade of light formed on Tony's foot and he backflipped while slicing all the lines in a flying kick.
Rhody used the opening to fire a tiny missile at Vanko. The missile bounced off the armor and sputtered and died. Everyone stopped to look at Rhodey whose head fell in shame. Tony asked, "Hammer Tech?"
Rhodey answered, "yeah.."
Tony jumped and started flying to the side to circle Vanko while getting closer. His suit glowed green for a moment as a metagem emerald was enabled and a half dozen holograms of Iron Man formed around Vanko. They circled and got closer forcing Vanko to twirl his whip around him to strike them all.
The whip passed through each illusion, causing it to disperse, but none were the real Iron Man. Tony flew down from above using the opening Vanko gave by twirling his whips and used his light blade to pierce the arc reactor core in Vanko's suit.
The suit lost power and collapsed. The head piece somehow opened up and the Russian growled, "You still lose."
The interior of the suit started glowing and Tony flew back. A moment later, it exploded with a force strong enough to shatter the windows of all the nearby buildings and vehicles.
Tony landed next to Obscurus and asked, "What did he mean?"
Harry answered, "He sent a signal before saying that. I'm guessing all the drones have bombs in them. Too bad I isolated this area from any transmissions. None of the bombs got that signal."
Tony gave a relieved sigh and said, "Good, cause I think that last bomb gave me whiplash."
Harry rolled his eyes and wondered how long Tony had been saving that one.
*Omake*
The day after his birthday, as Tony was finishing up the designs on the Mark VI, a certain bald eye patch-wearing spy walked into his workshop as if he owned the place.
Tony wasn't proud to say he was so engrossed in his work he hadn't noticed the man approach, so the stern glare of reprimand at the home invader was a bit lacking. Tony stated, "Jarvis has been upgraded, how did you get in?"
Fury smiled as another familiar face walked in from the side. Fury answered, "It helps to have someone on the inside."
Tony's eye twitched a bit as he gave a weak glare to the beautiful red head and flatly stated, "You're fired."
To which she replied, "You can't fire me. I work directly under Ms. Potts so only she can do so. It's in my contract."
Fury smiled at Tony's shock and since he didn't mind kicking a man when he was down, he proudly gestured to his side, "Tony, I want you to meet Agent Romanoff."
The latter used the opening to introduce herself, "I'm a Shield Shadow, once we knew you were ill, I was tasked to you by Director Fury."
Tony stated, "I suggest you apologize."
Romanoff smiled sweetly and asked, "For lying to you? But Mr. Potter told you exactly who I am when you asked."
Tony's eyes widened for a moment and in the next instant, he face planted his table in shame.
Fury looked intrigued and said, "Hold up, I thought you said Potter didn't blow your cover."
"Oh, he didn't. He just said I looked like a Professional with killer thighs, killer legs, killer arms, a killer face, and a killer body."
Tony couldn't help but look up at her and see the innocent smile she was wearing. It was painful to see. Almost as painful as looking at the shit-eating grin Fury was sporting when he clearly understood how thickly Potter had laid it on yet Stark still didn't get it.
Stark let out a groan of defeat and asked, "Why, are you here again?"
Fury asked about the suit and Stark told him that it was Harry's idea. Although Stark did so to throw Harry under the bus, Fury was actually placated since that implied Potter took measures to make sure it'd work out.
After the meeting was over, Romanoff took out a camera she had hidden and stopped the recording. While Tony was watching, Fury said he wanted a copy to use as a screensaver.
*Author's Note*
Sorry you have to wait so long for the chapter. I decided to cover pretty much the entirety of the movie here and even included a Omake to thank you for your patience. Next up is Thor and after that is Hulk.
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