Chapter 5

Three more weeks have passed since Wolverine left us. I still suffered agonizingly from being in a fairy tale, but flying with fabulous beauties, but fried potatoes, cocoa and American chocolate chip cookies slowly reconciled me to reality. By the way, white American bread (well, the one that is so square and a little sweet) is also quite a good thing. At first I was shy about it, with longing and nostalgia remembering the domestic "cut", but then I tasted nothing like that - the main thing was to choose the right sausage for it! Such a fateful expansion of my horizons, however, remained unnoticed, but Cyclops and I pressed the professor, and now the initiative fucked the initiators with envy and gossip to all the pupils. Alas, no plasma turrets, no armored sashes on doors and windows, or even a couple of robots were given to me to install. Not that I was too eager ... but sometimes it rolled over. I wanted a canon steel citadel with saw blades, lasers and a whole training room with material holograms of the most terrible creatures on Earth to beat the unfortunate students.

For some reason, when I expressed such ideas, people, which is canonical (in cartoons, but who cares?), Invented this case, looked at me somehow strangely, once again proving to me that the Marvel Cinematic Universe sucks. No, I also had like-minded people. Mostly from the students ... Only from the students ... Not to say that they knew the whole ins and outs of my ideas - I prudently did not tell them about throwing circular saws and sparring with the Hulk (so as not to spoil the surprise, of course!), But they supported me, Yes. In my lessons, mostly, but they supported ...

And yes, now once a week I gave a lesson in ancient history with visual aids in the form of illusions of people, objects and dwellings of that time. Oddly enough, it was fun. Although I did not even particularly emphasize the reasons that prompted Loki's past to dislike the Vikings and other Nordic Germans.

However, back to the security system. It was not difficult to rework it for a qualitatively better intrusion detection - even terrestrial technologies made it possible to track the penetration of the Mystic or the violation of the perimeter by some special forces at night, it just needed a little creativity and a little magic. A trained professional can bypass any sensor, but how can he bypass it if he does not know about its existence? The rest is the same.

I didn't leave the work on "X-Gene Stimulant 2.0", along the way studying the data provided by Xavier, having already found in the archive a very interesting surname "Stryker" to me. Another surname no less interesting to me, "Stark", was also there, slowly giving the first signs of preparations for their funeral. In the sense that in the film, as soon as Tony realized that he was dying, he began to make attempts at beautiful care, the main one of which was the opening of the Stark Expo innovation festival, which was announced on the news literally the day after the closing of the UN summit , and this immediately became the hottest news, behind which all the recent screams about mutants and the registration law were lost at once. By the way, Senator Kelly, who has dramatically "changed" his position, is attached.

In general, I studied the world around me more and more, but the world, in the person of one sensitive telepath, studied me. Talking about history, Asgard, the Nine Worlds and so on, somehow imperceptibly entered our tradition, as well as chess games. But in addition to the above, I found interesting things related to my unsurpassed charisma, charm and other great virtues. To be more precise, one fine day Miss Ororo accepted my invitation to sit one evening in a cozy restaurant and pay tribute to fried chicken, duck and other gifts of nature ...

"You look just incredibly gorgeous, oh beautiful goddess!" I did not misrepresent myself at all. The black silk dress was in perfect harmony with the girl's skin color and made Storm's beautiful pearl-white curls seem completely mystical. - Your hair shines, surpassing the moon silver of the miniatures. I am all in admiration and awe.

" Loki ... it sounds very embarrassing," the lady's cheeks darkened slightly, showing that my compliments were not ignored.

"The truth can be embarrassing, but the truth never ceases to be," I straightened my "smarty" suit and held out my hand to the girl. "Come on, my fair lady?" Having hesitated a little, the mulatto nevertheless accepted a gesture of concern, and we ceremoniously and nobly followed to the executive class car I had called in advance, which took us to one of the trustworthy and flattering reviews of critics of New York restaurants. Well, there, having released the driver, we already went into the hall, sat down at the reserved table and made an order. While it was being prepared, they brought us wine and light snacks for it. There was an "awkward" silence, from Storm's point of view.

"Loki," the girl began, after hesitating a little, "this is an invitation ... all this, of course, is very nice, but ...

"I know," I take a sip, "you don't have any romantic feelings for me, and this is unlikely to change.

Eh, as expected, local wine - although a very high-quality product, but compared to the real Asgardian ... that's what you had to grab into your subspace pocket! Interestingly, Odin will be very upset if I arrange a raid on his estate in order to loot a wine cellar and steal stocks of mead? Or will he wipe away a stingy man's tears and say: "my boy is finally behaving like an ace!"?

"I'm sorry," she was clearly very embarrassed, and… it touched me.

"You have nothing to apologize for, and besides, it's perfectly normal and reasonable."

" Reasonable?"she did not understand. "So you assumed something like that?"

" Of course," with a kind, but typical for Loki (that is, a little asking for a brick) smile I spread my hands, "we have known each other for less than a month, and even that you, for the most part, ran away from me and secretly read Elder Edda. And what kind of romantic feelings can we talk about after this psychedelic thriller in the scenery of schizophrenia and sexual perversion of the most vile and unnatural form? I am amazed that you generally have the heart to talk to me after this pamphlet," jokingly saluting the girl with a glass and taking another sip.

" A ... Um …" the mulatto, embarrassed, began to gasp for air, noticeably darkening her cheeks. " How do you know?!" and looked so frightened, frightened, as if she was not an adult woman, but a teenage girl whom dad caught peeping into the men's shower.

"Let's just say," another sip, which was powerless to drive a satisfied grin from my face, " I am not the first time on Earth and managed to study what people do when they recognize my true identity."

"That's how …" Storm's eyes ran around the room.

"Yes," I confirmed, moving my glass slightly with my magical telekinesis.

" And it does not bother you?" Noticing the movement, the blonde beauty looked at me again.

"I really feel sorry for you," I breathe out the word in my voice, "but I still admire your courage.

"Oh," Ororo took the glass and took a few sips, hurrying to calm her nerves. As soon as she did it, the girl met my gaze, took a deep breath through her mouth and spoke: "So what's next?"

"Anything you want," I shrug. " A mischievous and non-binding affair, a whirlwind romance with theaters and restaurants, something youthful with sweet romance, walks under the moon, wildflowers and going to the cinema, or just an innocent friendship with a touch of light flirting. I'm not going to force you to do anything ... Although, of course, it will upset me if you get up now, hit me in the face and leave, so please don't do that," I wink at the girl with a new grin.

" I won't," Storm agreed docilely, closing her eyes for a couple of seconds, "but explain to me what you yourself want from all this?" already with some more active interest and even excitement she moved forward. "And why do you need it?"

" What do you mean 'why' ?" I was surprised almost without pretending. "You are a beautiful girl. Kind, responsible, serious. You get along with children, single-handedly caring for a disabled father and a couple of half-relatives, you are a superheroine who, literally, just saved the world, and all this while managing to work as a simple school teacher. I like you. You are perfect! What other reasons do you need to justify my sympathy?"

"This is…" they put their index finger in my direction, once again gasping for air, only now they also tilted their head.

"No matter how you look, it's true," I nodded sympathetically, continuing to smile charmingly.

" And why did this happen to me?" The blond mulatto shook her head with a sigh.

"Because you are a clever, beautiful, sportswoman, Komsomol ... and, no, the last point, alas, is dumb, but everything else is there, so bear with it."

"It was a rhetorical question," Storm rolled her eyes.

Then the ordered dishes were brought to us, and for a while there was a new silence at the table. This time - focused.

" So it means," looking up from dinner, my companion spoke again, " will it suit you if nothing happens between us?"

" This is not the most ideal option, but yes: it will suit me," I nod, having finished chewing a piece of chicken.

" So you like me, but ... don't like me?" about women ...

"Oh, Storm!" It was very difficult for me not to laugh, but I still managed to resist - a wide smile on half of my face does not count. "You were able to guess and be completely wrong at the same time. I really like you. Joking aside, you can be admired as a work of art, your presence is pleasant to me, and your character is cute, but this does not mean that my thoughts revolve only around how to get you into bed. No, of course, if you wish for something like that, and one humble and sweet God would be very happy, but I still think of myself as a being somewhat superior to the standard male with his impulses, and therefore the aesthetic pleasure of admiring you, as well as the pleasure of your the reaction to my admiration will be fine with me."

"So," she rubbed the bridge of her nose, "you want to say that, ahem ... you would not mind at all ... well, with me, but do you like devouring me with an admiring look no less?"

"Staying friends with a beautiful and kind girl may not be as wonderful as being in a closer relationship with her, but it is still immeasurably better than being enemies with her or never meeting her at all."

"Loki …" Ororo wearily closed her eyes, touching her face with her fingers, "you ... Loki" the look of the person completely confident in the madness of his interlocutor was attached.

"I'll consider it a compliment," I sipped the wine. " In the meantime, you are deciding which place to allocate for me in the friend zone and whether to allocate at all. What can you say about the local cuisine? Should I pay a courtesy call to restaurant critics, or were they right?"

" Oh, the ancient Scandinavian god is expressed in jargon, like a twenty-year-old undergrowth, and aims to just take and stare at me," Storm sighed sadly.

"Don't forget the critics! Feedback is very important in the advertising business - without it people start lying" I put some rice in my mouth.

"Are you really going to visit them?" Ororo raised her eyebrows in disbelief.

" Well, not personally"I will send an illusion, but this will not make them any easier, " I honestly admitted my vile plans."

"You do not think that after this I will say at least a word in reproach to local dishes?" now on the face of Monroe reflected a fair amount of irony.

" On this and the calculation!"I raise the fork importantly.

"That is, you confess that you are now blackmailing me with the threat of brutal reprisals against several innocent people. If I say something unpleasant about the restaurant's kitchen, where did you bring me?" a liar from Storm is so-so "I would not give her feigned indignation and amazement even three points on a ten-point scale."

"Mmmmmmm…" I pretended to be deep in thought. "Not. I'm just very honest. And fair."

" Honest in what?" now a smile has crept on her face.

" In their intentions."

"Are you fair?"

"In their intentions."

"And why isn't this blackmail?" She tilted her head to the side.

"Because I don't want to get you to lie.

" Explain already normally."

" I am the God of Deception, no one has the right to lie to me. If I was lied to in the reviews, then the critics deserve my divine punishment. And I told you everything because you asked. I promised that everything will be as you want,"I wink at the girl and raise my glass again.

"… Okay," Storm sighed after a long minute. "I like everything, they cook very tasty food here. And I'm not trying to deceive you. And ... you still can't be persuaded?" I nodded and spread my hands. "Then okay ... you can continue to do what you were doing ... no matter how strange it sounds and no matter how I understand that you would have continued it anyway …"

"I am very grateful," I smiled my best smile.

"Now let's just eat this wonderful chicken and diligently pretend that this conversation did not happen, okay?"

"As my beautiful goddess wishes," and she darkened her cheeks again and looked away.

Be that as it may, such a conversation, albeit in a very frivolous way, relieved the tension of the young mutant and cheered her up quite well, although she would hardly admit the latter, and in general, all this is outrageous, immoral, and so on. The rest of the conversation took place in a much more relaxed and free manner, and in the evening, after seeing the lady to her chambers, I even deserve a kiss. Chaste and on the cheek. In general, a good evening, you will need to repeat it somehow.

***

Contrary to initial expectations, the topic of mutation fascinated me, especially since I could not find a branch of Kamar-Taj in New York. Not that I, like a scalded one, rushed about the streets all day and night and listened to the magic background, but I devoted a couple of days a week to searches, however, by zeros. It seems that somewhere in the films there was a note for Thor with the exact address, but I could not remember its contents, despite the capabilities of Loki's brain, after all, my original brain remained in another world, and the transfer to the "new carrier", as it were it was not realized, it clearly copied only more or less active memory, and not all its depths from the moment of birth. It turned out to restore the appearance of the building's facade in my mind, but New York is a big city, you can't go over it quickly. So far, Stark, too, seems to have not been peddling, so it was too early to get to know him, but there were mutants around for every taste and color. I mean, apart from gorgeous beauties, only Storm saved me here, but let's say thank you to the universe for that too. Storm is cute.

However, I was distracted. Having buried myself in the analyzes and medical records of the residents of Xavier's school, I ... no, I did not select the X-gene, for this I would have to pore for five or even ten years on the earth's technical base, despite the fact that I ... Well, that is, the original Loki - the creator of Sleipnir, Odin's divine eight-legged horse, capable of flight. But I realized that I could help students with clumsy working abilities ninety percent of the time. Take Cyclops. His eyes emitted a certain spectrum of particle-wave radiation, which, nevertheless, could be completely extinguished with a light filter with the suppression of the proper spectrum. That is, as soon as I found out the composition of the glass in his visor and read how the experiments were going on to select this composition, I could easily create an optical illusion that would do the same. But an illusion is not a hefty half-face garbage, it can be made small - exactly under the surface of the eyeball. Then transfer the spell scheme to rune form, add a shutdown block on a mental message, tattoo it on Scott's head, shave it first, but the hair will grow back, and voila - a guy can walk without glasses, without the slightest risk of smashing the area while washing. All sentient beings have magical energy, some have more, some have less, and even an untrained person will have enough for the eyes to maintain a tiny illusion of volume. And it costs me just a couple of hours of work to do this.

Realizing this state of affairs, I did not think long and decided to have a heart-to-heart talk with Charles, after all, he is the most interested party. I must say, he also taught several lessons for his pupils, so he had to tactfully wait until he finished his favorite literature. And only after letting a crowd of excited kids pass out of the door, awarding a couple of especially nimble thematic horns under the devil along the way, I went inside. The storm, which is just now going to lead their mathematics, my prank, of course, will notice and then tell me something about this, but it will be later. Moreover, you cannot run along the corridors, so I am in my right, even if it is she who will scold the violators on my "tip".

"Will there be a minute?" closing the door behind me, I attract the attention of the professor, who is plunged into looking at a pile of some sheets of paper. Not otherwise, the children wrote a presentation.

" Loki?" Xavier looked up at me. " Of course, come in," the sheets were set aside, and the disabled person showed his readiness to listen in his entire pose.

"I'm talking about Magneto's car and mutants in general," I walk to the guest chair. There were many of them here - Charles did not teach his lessons in classrooms, but in a comfortably furnished room with many randomly placed chairs and sofas, although there were tables here too, without them you couldn't write anything much. " In the first one, I already figured out how to increase the chances of survival for the irradiated percent to forty and how to make the process safe for the operator, but I'm not sure if this is worth implementing in metal."

"So, even with Asgard's technology, a person's chance of survival will be less than fifty percent?" the telepath frowned. It seemed to me that he didn't really like the fact that I was working in this direction, but he did not try to prohibit it.

" You can increase it to sixty, and even up to ninety, if you try hard, but that is not the point, because even at forty we have at least five million mutants when using the installation in New York or a city similar in population. The problem is not in the success of the awakening of the X-gene, but in its quality. Correct me if I'm wrong, but after all, about half of your students have some kind of problem with controlling their powers, and almost always this is not the fault of their motivation and efforts."

"Yes, unfortunately, mutants have more and more problems of this kind," the professor nodded, sadly clasping his hands in a house in front of his face. "In such cases, we try to help by getting technical solutions, like, for example, Scott with his eyes, but the problem is really quite serious."

" Yes, if you can still get used to living with glasses, then living without being able to touch anyone is already torture," I closed my eyelids knowingly. " And it seems to me that the reason for such errors in the genome is that the massive awakening of the X-gene began prematurely. Radiation, radiation from cell phones, chemicals in the air and food, all sorts of GMOs and other environmental pollution are also hostile factors that can provoke the mobilization of the body's resources for its defense and, as a result, the activation of genes that are in a latent state. As a result, we get the same effect as that of Magneto's car, but quiet and without special effects. Meanwhile, the combination of nucleotides in DNA is not complete, for this it needed several more generations of successful crossing, and let it work, but there is no wonder that it works like a crude prototype."

" Are you sure?"

"Seventy percent," I shrug. "To be completely sure, I need Asgard equipment, several years of research, and very… very many samples to collect statistics. But this is actually a preface. And I wanted to discuss what I can do to help such mutants in your school, and I set out my conclusions.

" What is required of me?" At the end of the story, Charles asked briefly, making it clear at once that he was "for".

"To convince Jean that you don't have to declare war on me for making her boyfriend bald for a couple of weeks," I smile at the telepath.

"I think it won't be too difficult," Charles replied with a smile.

"Do you think?" I continue the game.

"I have every reason to believe that Dr. Gray has no prejudice against people with no hair on their heads," the most famous bald man in this world assured me with firm confidence in the whole pose.

"Oh, yes, I keep forgetting," with feigned embarrassment I depict shifting eyes under Xavier's knowing smile.

In general, as promised by the prof, there were no problems with Dr. Gray, although what problems could there be? We both knew perfectly well that the girl would not have any complaints, and my "request for help" was just a tribute of courtesy and notification of intentions, as always, dressed in a half-joking form. Cyclops, in fact, did not mind either, and for the sake of getting rid of the order of annoying glasses or even an inconvenient "battle visor" he was ready to sacrifice more serious than banal shaving of his head and playing a bowling ball. But in general ... Logan would have appreciated a shaved Scott, especially with a strip of runic ligature on his skull ... Huh? What? Why a camera? This is scientific research - we need to record the course of the experiment! Where did the Cyclops get the Hitler mustache in the photograph, and then the Cossack forelock? This is all your primitive earthly equipment! He has such terrible errors in capturing the image, such terrible ... Don't you believe me? Not? Strange ...

But Scott Summers is not alone in living the creative streak of a humble God. I got carried away. I understood this myself, but I could not stop my playful hands. And I didn't want to, frankly. It's not difficult for me, but the kids are really happy, so why not? Take Pyro, for example. The guy could control the fire and amplify it well - fanning a candle light to the level of a jet flamethrower was no problem for him, but it was already impossible for him to create fire, even at the level of that very candle. My delicate mental organization experienced truly terrible torment due to the fact that we have a pyromancer here who is not able to access matches. So I just could not, had no right to pass by! But pride did not allow me to repeat myself and beat a stylish tattoo on the hands of a fireman. As a result, the guy's hands got small ceramic implants over the bones. I didn't even cut anything - I inserted the material with magic and formed the structure of artifacts already under the flesh. There was nothing complicated there either, just when the fingers clicked above the palm, a small thin tongue of magic flame flared up, which Pyro himself could inflate to any size. There was happiness ... But Bobby, who is Iceman, was upset for some reason, I don't even know why ... It's a joke. The guy was happy for his friend.

I also worked with Rogue. I immediately dismissed the options for the "force" barrier of micron thickness - it is too difficult and energy-intensive. She simply will not have enough strength to maintain such a barrier all the time, and here I will not have enough strength either. Of course, if we are talking about a solid barrier, and not a fiction that will break with the first drop of sweat or the movement of a hair. To teach her to impose protection on her own at the right time was also unrealistic, if only because the level of such a barrier itself was too tough for a neophyte, but spending ten years mastering the discipline, and even without a guarantee of success ... long and ineffective. But if you cannot go one way, then we will go another way, everything is according to Ilyich's behest. Since the "defensive" configurations were clearly not suitable for the girl, why not try the "prison" ones? It just so happened that the methods of neutralizing magicians and creatures with special abilities in Asgard were well developed ... well, due to the vital necessity generated by constant wars with all sorts of mythical creatures. This development, in particular, took the form of suppressor shackles, a couple of which any Asgardian warrior carries with him, going on a military campaign. Loki also dragged such in a subspace pocket, not seeing anything shameful in first twisting, and then thoughtfully interrogating the enemy sorcerer for an exchange of experience instead of quick death. In a sense, the sorcerer exchanges his experience for the extra minutes of his life.

In short, I had a working method, a reliable tool and a person to fit all this. Moreover, as far as I knew, in Marvel such devices, that is, collars-suppressors of mutant forces, figured, and even seemed to exist in the MCU, but where, and most importantly, when they appeared, I could not say. In the MCU, this was shown in the framework of Deadpool's story, but ... the entire Wade branch looks complete nonsense and idiocy, even against the background of a black man who drives SHIELD. Nevertheless, it was clear where to go, so I started off.

The most difficult thing was to determine the "absorption" spectrum of Rogue ... Of course, to use the term defining the color of an object when light hits it, it is not very suitable here, to put it mildly, but for lack of a suitable term, let it be this one. So, having determined the method of influence, highlighting it from the main spectrum, all I had to do was "solder" the shackles in the desired direction. Well, removing all unnecessary, turn them into elegant bracelets. Also not the most trivial task, but after all those dances with tambourines (sometimes - literally) that I already had to jump around the girl, it was no longer serious.

Well, the "mutual dislike" of Jubilee and household appliances is more complicated than a toaster after all this, he decided in passing, while fiddling with Marie - there it was only necessary to remove the unconscious "leak" of her energy. A simple pendant-absorber - and the problem is solved. In general, I fully deserved the title of the best friend of mutants and I still had to fight off Rogue, who, having received the opportunity to "touch all people with impunity", wanted to take out all my delight and thirst for affection at the same time on one charming God. And personally, I had nothing against such an approach, but ... she would have been nicer ... eh. In short, I handed it over to Iceman and fled to the workshop under lock and key. What to do? We are not such, Life is so! And in general, I'm terribly busy, I still ... uh-uh, for sure, I need to solder a holoprojector on a local elementary base to match the size of a wristwatch, so that it displays a hologram of a normal person for those mutants whose appearance is distorted. Yes, yes, this is a very difficult and painstaking process for a master of illusions, please do not interfere and leave the room!

This is how my everyday life passed in the welcoming mutant community. Quite fun, and even such "socially useful" affairs gave me a couple of points in the eyes of a sultry mulatto, but this did not solve the problem of finding magicians and did not approach a way to leave this sad world either, which was already a little sad. However, I was not allowed to give this feeling for a long time, because the opening of the Stark-Expo took place ...

***

It was ... stylish. A little narcissistic, pretty embellished, a little vulgar, but stylish. To my shame, I safely missed the opening of the exhibition, because I was not interested in local television, and in general I had a lesson that day in which I, in paints and panoramic illusions, inspired children to show how the ancestors of their classmate Pyotr Rasputin (commonly known as "Colossus") cynically bent the Vikings. Therefore, the self-praise of Anthony Stark from the podium at Stark-Expo could only be observed in the recording, and even then only after he watched his epic rinsing of the Senate Commission on the technology of Iron Man in the finest shit with shaving foam.

What to say? Tony is handsome. I would have done better, but he is still handsome, although he is a patriot of the United States, but each has flaws. And yes, my "better" would be much more painful, more offensive and would cost all the involved and most active congressmen, senators and military officials their careers, property and, very likely, life.

... I will not say that I saw something reprehensible in this. On the contrary, I really thought it was the best option ...

In general, lately I have begun to somehow strangely relate to people. I mean, I live and work in America, I have a bunch of ... well ... at least American friends, but at the same time I still consider Western barbarians, from Poland to San Francisco, creatures whose lives are not worth the extra minute of my time spent on their persuasion. If you think about it, even what I call them "Western barbarians" was already a rather serious call, but understanding with my mind all the wrongness of my state, I could do little - I just absolutely did not care about their lives and feelings. The exceptions were those with whom I managed to become more or less friends, but I would not risk my life for them either. The fact that I liked doing good deeds added additional dissonance to the picture. That is, I was ready to easily kill at least the entire population of the United States and immediately, at the same time, I was ready to help part of this population to the best of my ability. From such a mess, even in my head, the balls drove into the rollers, but it's good at least no manic urges have happened yet.

But back to Tony Stark. After evaluating his performances in public, I found them very familiar, and therefore, without thinking twice, I decided to visit the prodigal billionaire. He lived in constant travel and flights, but he still had a permanent apartment, if you can call it a three-story mansion in Malibu on the seashore and with a multi-tiered basement for a collection of cars. I had to get to California on my own, although Xavier, most likely, would not have refused to give his airplane a ride. In the end, I saved the world for him, a lot of students made life easier and generally charming. But, firstly, I was not eager to devote the Xmen to my plans for Stark ahead of time, and secondly, the Blackbird was, of course, a good plane, but I had doubts about its invisibility, especially at the time that he will have to wait for me on the ground, and thirdly, it was just more interesting for me to ride on the local lines of small aircraft. In general, I got there. And yes, this was the same mansion where Tony created his armor - it was difficult not to recognize the situation, as were the four sets of armor displayed under the glass in the workshop. There was also the very first handicraft humpty dumpty, assembled by Stark in a cave from some kind of trash, and a steel prototype that one black guy had to steal later, and the final version of the golden-red color in two copies, which had already thundered for the whole peace.

Getting into the estate was no more difficult than entering the open doors of the restaurant. No, Tony's security system was at a level, but earthly technologies simply did not allow them to see me if I did not want to. It was much more difficult to find Stark himself in this palace. Even on the verge of death, he was a natural electric broom, all the time jumping somewhere and doing something, and even his altercations with Pepper Potts ... It was something between "young spouses - ten years of marriage", "unlucky brother- a bully and a responsible little sister trying to fix his brains "," a cheeky dunce-schoolboy and a strict teacher "," a tyrant boss and a poor secretary "and, finally," two nervous psychopaths on the road ". And from their altercations, both got a lot of pleasure, although Miss Potts did her best to show the opposite.

One way or another, after wandering in an inaudible shadow behind the billionaire for several hours, I was able not only to hear a lot of all sorts of information noise, including conversations about life with some semblance of artificial intelligence responding to Jarvis, but also to form a preliminary opinion about Stark.

I must say that outwardly he completely corresponded to his image from the films, but there was a very important detail: Anthony Stark was a very different person in the films, I would even say that in different films he represented different characters. And now I'm not talking about the fact that during the release of the "Avengers" series, his father was visited by three different people, one of the options for the mother was a man and even his black friend once completely changed his appearance. The fact is that in different paintings he really showed contradictory character traits. Either he turns the government's wishes on the reproductive organ to get his technologies, then after a couple of films he is the first to run to sign enslaving contracts to subordinate the authorities to the "Avengers", and even provokes a war among the personnel, arranging heaps of supermen in a densely populated city. Either he personally flies to beat all sorts of militants in the Persian Gulf region, then he bows with the device to the information that some guys are using weapons on alien technologies in his hometown and at the same time are strong enough to almost finish Spider-Man without the slightest loss to himself. In general, he is a selfless hero, then an asshole does not care, then he is a self-respecting smart and far-sighted strategist, then an obedient underlayer of authorities, and so on - there is a lot you can remember. And this is all the uncertainty with "I build the tower of the Avengers, then I sell the tower of the Avengers", she worried me pretty much. Somehow I did not want to deal with a crazy idiot billionaire who can create the most perfect earthly weapon on his knee.

So, returning to the opinion drawn up in the process of observation. And this opinion sounded like ... "God knows!" In a sense, Stark, of course, created the impression of an eccentric idiot who wasted life, but I often create this myself, but what was behind this external game was not possible to determine in one day. So I just had to wait patiently for him to go to bed to calmly dig into his memory.

We had to wait for a relatively long time. This restless man clearly had a meter-long awl lower his back, and the fact that he was dying a little and the body simply could not keep such a rhythm did not bother Stark. But by the beginning of the third o'clock in the morning, fatigue still took its toll, and the local mad genius nevertheless deigned to pass out. Finally! I was already seriously thinking about carefully applying it with magic.

"So, let's see what is on your mind, Mr. Stark," being at the bedside of the "client", I did not take off my disguise in order to avoid the attention of any left Jarvis, but I still did not hesitate to give out a little expression to the environment.

And then there were Tony's memories. And they were ... peculiar. No, I remembered the scheme of his ARC reactor and the Iron Man suit, but ... I had to move a little away from what I saw and come to my senses. This guy is a Genius with a capital letter. Moreover, the adage "if you want to live, you will not get so hot yet" was copied from him. So, to begin with ... there really was shrapnel in his body, and at the first time a magnet was really cut into his chest. How he did not bend over from such an "operation" right in captivity, knew, probably, only that prisoner surgeon, another mad genius, but only from medicine. Why the heck he really created such a game, I had no idea, but hey, crazy geniuses are almost the same as brainless ones - their impulses of inspiration are not subject to logic. Nevertheless, the fact remained - the fragments of a land mine penetrated into his body and even though they did not have time to reach the heart, brain or other vital organs, they systematically turned his cardiovascular system into minced meat. But ... tormented by continuous pain, with multiple internal bleeding and suspecting that he had a very, very short time to live, Stark created his "reactor". It would seem ordinary ... well, well, not quite ordinary, but never a medical power plant was able to save him? Tony himself did not know, he had assembled the reactor stupidly in order not to carry a heavy battery in his hands, because he was already too bad, and when he felt better, he did not bother too much - there were more important things to do. True, after the escape, he prudently was not given to the doctors. But his independent research also did not bring any results - all the devices showed quite normal indicators. So the billionaire decided not to take a steam bath, it works - and okay. But here for me, having the knowledge of Loki, there was why to fall into a stupor and sacred awe. This ... Ingenious Idiot, without knowing it, managed to build a purely technical portal to the dimension of the Living Light!

I even felt the reactor, when I was a bit away from guessing, but yes - faintly, barely noticeable, but it was drawn by the energy of the Living Light!

In magic, there are, let's say, three of the most powerful sources of Power that determine the interactions of the spheres of life and other interesting mystical things. So, undirected Power is simply called magical energy. It is universal and generally available. In theory, any reasonable person can master it. In practice, everything is highly individual and depends on the efforts and talent of this most intelligent, plus the magic background is a heterogeneous thing, and, as a rule, for weak sorcerers who do not have noticeable reserves of their own strength, it is more practical to draw energy from some adjacent dimension, each of which it imposes on the one with its own shade, which also plays a role, well, simply by virtue of compatibility. In addition to this undirected and impersonal energy, there are two more Antipodal Forces. Dark Power and Living Light. And while the titles do not quite reflect the content, they are correct. Also, the degree of "intelligence" of these Forces is not known exactly. If Magic is definitely faceless and universal, then the last two ... no one knows for sure, doubts and suspicions in this matter have tormented many mystics for centuries. But back to the personalities, so to speak. The Dark Force is perfect for working with space-time, and also, according to some reports, negatively affects the character of the user. Nevertheless, the same Odin masterfully owns this direction. Although ... the character of "daddy" is the same, so the theory has some ground. True, it is still not clear what is a chicken and what is an egg: is it easier for assholes to get through to the required dimension, or does the connection with this dimension make it out of a reasonable asshole? This is a great mystery. Oh yes, even on the "Dark Side" all sorts of demons, monsters and other rabble live canonically, ala Dormammu, who does not mind being fed with giblets, or even the soul of an unlucky magician, who decided to poke into their domain without preparation. The Living Light, on the contrary, strives towards Love and Goodness, and therefore, by default, heals, blesses and incinerates everyone in whom there is "Darkness". Is it worth clarifying that the saint also has at least a small piece of "dark thoughts"? So, in addition to protecting and healing, the user of this Power can arrange terror and mass destruction no worse than others. True, if Magic is poured in everything that exists and its streams are everywhere and everywhere, then the Dark Power and Living Light "dwell" exclusively in their dimensions, to which it is very difficult to break through - not every magician, even from experienced and skillful ones, will dare to contact these Forces and dimensions. All the more incredible was Stark's discovery. A real portal to the dimension of the Living Light. Let it be small, albeit one-sided, but completely working and does not require effort on the part of the user! Yes, any sorcerer will not hesitate to give up his right hand and both legs in addition to such a thing - he will still be able to grow new ones very quickly on such a source. Even Tony, completely alien to mysticism, on one passive influence of the dimension was able to neutralize the injuries inflicted and still inflicted by shrapnel. And he noticed other "strange" properties of his reactor, for example, the protection of the carrier from damage. No matter how good the armor was, it did not abolish the laws of conservation of energy and momentum, and the tank shell taken "on the chest" was supposed to turn the body under the armor into a fine slurry, even if the armor itself could withstand the impact. But ... nothing of the kind happened. Living Light from the reactor absorbed damage and protected the carrier with its field. Actually, this was one of the reasons why in all armor models the "feeding element" was in front, although all the experience of people and just Common Sense kept saying that to put the "engine" almost on the "frontal armor", which is always assumed by the main the damage is complete idiocy.

But not everything was so good. The Living Light is a strong thing, but not omnipotent, and without the will of the magician guiding it, it is not too "smart". Yes, he stopped obvious injuries, forcing the vessels cut by small fragments to continue to deliver blood where necessary, the lungs to pump air and other organs to work, ignoring the presence of open gaps and foreign objects in themselves, but even to get rid of shrapnel and full healing it was not enough, but there was a problem and more serious. The nuclear fusion reactor remained a nuclear fusion reactor, and therefore, even with all possible isolation and protection, the phonil was pretty good. By the way, he worked on palladium, a kind of harmless noble metal of the platinum group, from which medical instruments, parts of pacemakers, dentures and a bunch of everything else are made, including contact nodes in electronics, which is due to its high wear resistance and corrosion resistance. Yes, yes, those same contacts in the warhead guidance system, from where Tony originally shot it. But all this splendor worked before the launch of the reactor, and in it harmless palladium was abruptly converted into a radioactive isotope 107Pd, and the fun began. Stark was irradiated, and, as it should be with prolonged irradiation, the further, the stronger and faster the effect followed. Let's add to this the poisoning with heavy metals, earned by him back in that cave in captivity, where he had to literally on his knee, without any protection, cast not the most healthy alloys, as well as fragments that had lodged in the body, which very quickly poisoned the body products of chemical reactions from its oxidation, and the picture will turn out to be rather unpleasant. Tony was really dying, what supported his life, protecting him from the consequences of being hit by a landmine explosion, irradiated his body, and the Living Light in a passive mode, not only could not heal radiation sickness, but simply added vitality "did not understand." Y-yes, if Stark had the X-gene, he would have awakened long ago, but the guy was waiting for a bummer, and he, most likely, turned out to be one of those few percent of people who lacked the X-gene or was in a too embryonic state ...

In the future, Tony's memory threw up a few more interesting moments and technologies, including the principles of creating and teaching a semblance of artificial intelligence on an earthly elementary base. The same Jarvis was not and could not be a full-fledged AI, if only because all earthly information technologies were based on binary logic, and for the formation of the mind matrix, at least threefold is needed, where, in addition to the simplest logical states of the type "yes" / "no" , also a variant of uncertainty. However, Tony was able to develop a self-learning algorithm for an operating system that mimics the mind. But even that was pretty good ... and safer in many situations. Again, the implementation in the local elemental base and in the local programming languages ​​was a very valuable asset, even if the principle itself was nothing special for Asgard. I also liked his repulsor-jet technology on clean energy, without the use of a working fluid in a jet stream. In part, it resembled the Asgardian plasma weapons, only the weapons for the defense of Asgard were originally created as a weapon that should shoot, and not give thrust for flight, while Stark did the opposite: first he learned to fly, and then the engine turned into a cannon. Honestly, a natural Ingenious Idiot!

By the way, I was finally able to form my own opinion about him. So, Mr. Anthony Stark was a very eccentric and selfish person, but at the same time damn smart, resourceful and above all appreciated his independence. Only one aggressive nigga, who is also the director of SHIELD - a., Liked it. Naturally, Fury, with all his claims and wishes, was sent to Tony on foot in an erotic fashion and was practically lowered down the stairs, or rather, such a possibility was transparently hinted to him six months ago and was politely asked to leave his private property, otherwise Iron Man may turn over the one who climbed to to him in the house of a Negro in the police, as a burglar, and even the press does not hesitate to show photos with savory comments ... What a pity that the film showed only the beginning of this conversation, but now I was already blissed out, watching everything from the first person.

Alas, the nigga was aggressive, but still smart enough to understand that a direct hit on Stark could end very badly for his entire office. When the stash of a potential adversary is comparable to the country's budget, and the technical equipment does exceed all possible analogs for twenty years at least, only a completely bruised nerd will act foolishly. Although, in my opinion, Tony hinted to him in vain, but in vain! In my opinion, without prompting, Fury had every chance of not guessing, which, in the end, would only benefit Stark. One way or another, the colonel decided to come in from afar - to wait until the dying Tony gets "to condition", and then to offer "help" ... however, I knew this from my memory of the "hitman", where there was a distinct moment of SHIELD's provision. -th records of Stark Sr., combined with "house arrest", more precisely, the forcible restraint of Tony himself, of course, is completely illegal. And how the "legacy" of Howard got to Fury, even then raised many questions for me. Here, however, everything went in the same direction, in particular, the traitor-deserter and simply "Red Bitch", popularly known as Natasha Romanoff, that is, "Black Widow", has already successfully infiltrated Stark Industries and even managed to start introducing itself into the inner circle of Tony himself, neatly and accidentally hooked him with correctly selected psychological techniques, but the dying and poisoned Stark does not need much now. And in the future ... taking into account the picture that has opened, I, from the standpoint of the God of Deception, have already seen how gradually, almost imperceptibly, Tony will be turned from an intelligent and too independent player, first of all looking for his own interests, into an obedient doggie "Uncle Sam" in general and Fury in particular.

The first stage is almost over - the victim has fallen for the professional "honey trap", which will not fail to throw at the right moment the thought necessary for the chapter of SHIELD. On the second - another negro simply insolently "gopes" Tony on the suit, de facto committing a robbery, theft on an especially large scale and at least inflicting "beatings" on the victim, or even attempting to murder. According to local laws, he earned this for fifteen years. By the nature of Stark, in this situation there can be only one solution: the requirement to take off the suit and no longer appear in his eyes, and in case of failure - a complete blocking of the system and activation of the timer "ten-nine-eight left before self-destruction ...", and such a function really was already and was on all the costumes. And no long-standing friendship with Colonel James Rhodes would have helped, as it did not help Obadaya Stein six months ago ... Especially against the background of what happened six months ago, because the situations are too similar for a person to draw very unpleasant analogies. However, instead of this, the black gopnik flew away safely, safely passed the armor to the military and safely continued to live. And here I have two options. Rather, there is only one option, but with two different outcomes. Stark skillfully shattered his psyche in addition to dying stress, which is very easy from the position of a personal secretary, whom Tony was already thinking of making one red-haired person with a round ass, since the place previously occupied by Pepper Potts has literally just been vacated by the appointment of this very Pepper as CEO of Stark -Industry. Well, then or SHIELD. organized the theft of armor on a memorable birthday, hacking into the security system of the estate and playing "Rhodey" in the dark, or with a subtle psychological treatment made Tony himself decide to take care of the successor of Iron Man and so extravagantly hand over the armor to him, having previously configured all the security systems so that they Rhodes was allowed in, and even added to the list of authorized users in the computerized reservation system. The competent authorities could have done both, especially since we have the pros in terms of manipulation of the Black Widow, and Tony in all seriousness believed that this would be the last birthday in his life. Well, the third stage is gracious help at the moment of the greatest need. In a sense, wait until the overslept Stark starts to get hung over and suffer from mediocre years, a broken day, ruined relationships and other philosophical things, quickly catch him on the verge of coming to his senses and show the option of salvation, setting things up so that he is now entirely due everywhere and obligated. I remember that he was also injected with some kind of lithium dioxide, which Tony himself did not know anything about, although it would seem that he rummaged through everything that was possible to solve his problem with radiation, poisoning with heavy metals and intoxication of the body. In other words, they could have injected him with anything from a combat stimulant, which could temporarily give the illusion of an improvement in his condition, to a psychotropic cocktail. And that's all - then the guy is already on the hook, especially when he became part of the Avengers, that is, he got into constant, direct contact with the agents of SHIELD, from which he denounced for a long time, but after all, there Fury was "stimulated" guys with a tearful story of Agent Colson's death and bloody vintage cards.

In general, they surrounded the man like a bear in a den, without a chance to rock the boat. But ... now a person who loves to troll those around him, as well as Cunning Plans and Style, now has a God who is responsible for the whole thing. So why doesn't God help his faithful adept? Of course, for a couple of services that are not at all burdensome for the latter. And we'll start with Natasha. I hate corrupt creatures who also disguise their foul nature with false slogans about "human rights", "democratic values" and "criminal regime", or that such defectors usually bleat there? No matter. There was a desire to visit her right now, break her arms and legs, and then tie Iron Felix to the monument, which is installed in Moscow opposite the fiefdom of all the Chekists, but I had to refuse such a desire - I still could not teleport, but to organize a flight, secret penetration and the vandalism was a bit too much. Firstly, the monument to Comrade Dzerzhinsky did not deserve to be tied to pieces of shit, and secondly, the Black Widow is not the kind of figure for such catchy performances to be staged for her, well, and thirdly, it takes a long time, and my hands are already itching! So I'll just strangle Natasha quietly, and then I'll talk to Stark and make him a number of proposals that it will simply be impossible for him to refuse. Well, that sounds like a plan. It remains to implement it!