Chapter 32 - Stark Expo and Magic

"Can you really heal every injury?" Gwen was basically drooling over the Regeneration Cradle at the Stark Expo.

"No, we can't create bones or nerves. But for that, we have been working with Oscorb's, creating prosthetics that are no different than real arms or legs. Even other body parts or organs. There are few injuries that we cannot heal. Although we are working on mass production of Regeneration Cradle, so it is accessible at every hospital."

Gwen touched the cradle, making the attendant raise his hand, "Ma'am, you can't touch that."

Gwen nodded, reluctantly removing her hands, sulking.

Jay stroked her head, "touch all you want, want to lie down inside?"

"Sir, that is not-" The attendant wanted to say something when Jay took out his waller, showing his card, "I'll get to it right away."

Gwen scratched her cheeks, awkwardly smiling, "this doesn't feel right."

Jay patted her back, "don't worry so much. It's my company. I can do this much, right?"

Gwen struggled for a bit, but then she couldn't take the allure, "thank you!"

Jay smiled, hearing his cell ring, picking it up, "Pepper?"

"Jay, Hammer's presentation is about to start. Are you coming?"

Jay glanced towards Gwen, eyes filled with expectations as she touched every inch of the Regeneration Cradle, like it was her lover, "Yeahhh...I am coming. I might be a minute or two late."

"Ok, be here," Pepper cut the call, while Jay walked over to Gwen, "listen, I have to go to meet Pepper. Once you are done here, can you go find others? Meet me at Hammer Presentation?"

Gwen waved her hands, not even paying attention, "yeah, sure, go, go."

Jay shook his head, walking over to see Hammer's Presentation. After long hours of shopping, eating, rest, and getting ready. It was evening b the time they came here, and now the sun had set. But maybe it was a good thing since the lights that brightened Stark Expo made it look beautiful.

Felicia was out there looking for technologies that could be used as weapons. It was a good idea, which was why Jay asked her to take a note of cool things. Maybe something might be serviceable for him too.

By the time he was walking across the seats of the Expo, there was a thunderous sound, reminded him of Jets.

He sat down beside Pepper, looking towards the sky, "Is that?"

Pepper followed the humanoid figured in red and golden, reaching the stage, landing on it, with one knee and knuckles touching the ground.

Jay took a photo from his mobile, whispering to Pepper, "I gotta tell him to face the audience next time. It just looks weird from behind."

Pepper chuckled, but soon worry covered her face, "you know why is he here?"

Jay's scarlet eyes glowed as he looked towards the robots. Their whole structure came apart in his eyes, turning into pure blueprints. The Army ones had shoulder-mounted tank guns, anchor spikes on foot. Multi-Grenade Launcher on the wrist, and machine gun on the other wrist. The Navy ones had shoulder-mounted guided missile launchers on both shoulders. A retractable armored faceplate guided missile launchers on both wrists, machine gun, and fixed-point coil lasers.

The air force had two better firing guided missile launchers, machine guns, back-mounted machine guns. Back thrusters for flight maneuverability and thermal vision vortex ring guns.

And the Marine Corps had a machine gun, missile launcher wrists, and high-definition cameras.

But this was a design that he had seen before, "I think, he got an invitation from someone."

He just said when all the drones raised their hands, pointing their weapons straight at Tony, "Pepper, go, go, evacuate everything."

"What?! What's going on?!" She glanced towards the crowd standing up, turning towards Jay. But he was nowhere to be found. Instead, there were gasps from the crowd, making Pepper look at them, follow their gaze towards a figure floating in the sky.

Tony just flew upwards to attract the drone fire when the air force humanoid drones flew up.

But massive, numerous Tao Mandalas appeared, covering the platform, keeping the robots inside.

Iron Man also stopped, looking down, "Yo, what kind of technology is that? Is that a hologram?"

Inside his helmet, he was talking to Jarvis, "take pictures of those symbols, and try to see if you can get a look under the hood."

"Yes, Sir."

New York, SHIELD Headquarters,

"Natasha, how long will it take you to reach there?"

"About a minute?"

"Talk to Hammer, and stop whoever is behind this."

"I will."

Expo,

The drones were silent for a moment as if the controller behind them was also adjusting to this.

But soon, they fired missiles, destroying the Tao Mandalas as Jay's magically changed voice entered Tony's ear, "I can stop them a bit longer. Can you evacuate people?"

Tony pointed at himself, "I? I evacuate the people? You mean me?"

"Can you create these shields to hold back the robots?"

Tony pointed his fingers towards the crowd, "I-I'll do it. I'll handle them, evacuate them. Tell me when you can't hold it any longer. Iron Man will save the day."

Jay rolled his eyes under the hood, taking a deep breath. Creating these many Tao Mandalas of this size wasn't a problem. It was the fact that he hadn't done it in such a long while that held him back.

After a minute, the drones stopped using machine guns and missiles. They probably didn't want to run out of ammo. And so, they started focusing their punches on a single Tao Mandala.

Jay's eyes grew heavy, feeling the impact of the punch in his arms, "how much longer?!"

"Done, done, it's done!!" Tony saw that the last person got out, starting his repulsors at full powers, coming to a still beside Jay, "all right, I am ready to kick some ass."

The Tao Mandalas started breaking down. The robots were nearly free when Jay rotated his hand, creating a portal above them. He moved the portal down, closing it, cutting the robots apart into two, "Yeah, not this ass."

Tony lifted his hand, not sure about what to do with fingers, speechless, "you just did that. What did you do again? It's not that I don't understand. I just want to confirm."

Jay chuckled, "I created a portal and then closed it when they were at the center of it. Because of that, the space reformed itself and cut them apart into two."

"You created a portal. Yeah, I believe that. I am going to find out the secret behind your tricks. Are you combining lasers with holograms?" Tony rubbed his chin, nodding when a Natasha called him.

"Tony, I am at Hammer Industries, but Vanko isn't here. Instead, there is another drone coming after you. This one's readings are much higher on the chart. It's different?"

"Oh yeah? Let it come; it's finally my time to shine." Tony bumped his fist together, waiting, until a grey, bulky iron suit landing in front of them, "Now, this is more my type of enemy. Others were mostly small fries."

He started his thrusters, rushing towards Whiplash when a portal appeared in front of him. He tried to come to a stop, but the portal moved, dragging him inside. Iron Man's head his Whiplash's back, falling with him to the ground.

Jay narrowed his eyes, flicking his hands, and orange strings appeared, attaching themselves to Tony.

Jay crossed his legs, sitting down in the air, with his fingers moving Tony's armor moved, punching the Whiplash, but there was no difference.

Tony inside the armor tried to control his movement, but his body danced, while Vanko laughed, "Stark! Are you becoming a puppet for someone else?"

Tony mumbled in his mouth, "I am no one's puppet. I just need to...(kick)...get...(dodge)...free... (got kicked)."

His body fell in the distance, rolling, getting free of the strings, "myself. Yes, I am free."

Jay was laughing to himself, "that was fun."

He just said when his phone rang, "Natasha?"

"Stop playing around. This is dangerous."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. This was once in a lifetime's chance to play around with Tony," Jay shrugged, watching Tony get on his feet, fighting with Vanko.

"I get it. That was funny. Now, I want you to take care of the problem."

"And I want the data that you are taking from Hammer Industries," Jay smiled under the hood.

"Take that from Fury."

"Come on? You know I would have to hack every last bit of SHIELD's files for that? Can we not do that? Just send me the files."

"Jay...Ok, I'll make a copy for you."

Jay glanced towards Vanko kicking Tony's ass when his eyes shifted towards Gwen, swinging towards them, "right, are you free tonight? Come over?"

"I'll ask the Director if there is any other mission. If not, I'll come over. Btw, Is that Spider-Woman?"

"Yeah, you know about her?"

"I have heard. Spider-Woman and Black Cat are all over the news. New York's New Pets."

Jay laughed, trying to stop himself, wincing when Spider-Gwen got hurled in the distance by the whip of Whiplash, "you mean Superhero and Supervillain, right?"

"Are you going to help them or not?"

Jay stopped smiling, looking towards Tony, "I know Tony has lasers. If he uses it, then he can kill Vanko. I was just wondering if he would use it or not?"

Natasha slammed her hand on the console, "Jay, you are giving in to your bad habits again. Just help him!"

"All right,"

Jay raised his hand, and thousand of scarlet, fiery lines appeared, wrapping themselves around Whiplash, tying him up. Jay appeared beside Tony and Gwen that were swinging towards them, "and it's done."

Gwen was hanging on the web, upside down, "Whooh, Whip boy got whipped."

Tony glanced towards her, putting his hand on his head, "Oh, what the world is coming to?"

"What, I thought that was good. It was good, right? Jay?"

"Huh?"

"Uh?"

"Um...?"