Chapter 102 - Fantastic 4, Christmas Delight & AI I

"Boss, Doctor Richard's ship had an accident. We lost all contact."

"What?!" Tony sat up with a jolt, his brows creased. He considered Reed and Susan very close friends. Any harm to them was a personal loss. "Where? I mean, what was their last location?"

"They were close to the Moon. The team... well, they're freaking out because they think they might've crash-landed there."

With his sleep gone, Tony jumped off the bed and grabbed his pants while speaking with Darcy on the phone. "When?"

"An hour ago, Sir."

"You waited an hour? Seriously? What the hell's wrong with you guys? I told you, every minute detail, no exceptions! That mission is crucial, it could unlock the infinite potential of human DNA. You understand the weight of that, right?" Tony snapped, his frustration boiling over. "Tell them to stand by, ignore the energy signature from the White House. I'll handle it—I'll go myself."

"You're going to space?!" Darcy's panicked voice came from outside the room's door suddenly.

Turns out, she was standing outside the entire time.

Knock! Knock!

"Sir, it's dangerous!"

Tony didn't bother to open the door since Natasha was still getting dressed. "This was part of the plan, Darcy. Reed and I had discussed this privately. If something went wrong I was supposed to save them. I hope I'm not going there to bring home their dead bodies now—a fucking hour, seriously."

"They delayed it, Mr. Stark. I just found out myself, and called you right away."

"Investigate them for negligence then." Tony fumed and summoned the Iron Man armor on his body. "Jarvis, prep the Space Vehicle attachment with Four life pods, now."

####

The Space Vehicle attachment was like a mecha suit for the Iron Man suit itself. Like a suit within a suit, but a lot more spacious inside. It was shaped like those old German V2 rockets. It had ten Arc Reactors powering its boosters, enough to throw Tony into space faster than anything else. It wasn't even his most powerful space flight tech.

Sitting inside the Space Vehicle attachment, Tony had his Iron Man suit directly connected to the vehicle. He could steer the thing at will if he desired, but left it to Jarvis for the most part. Since he didn't need to orbit the earth to shoot himself further or any other useless maneuvers, he straightforwardly boosted towards the Moon.

Hours later, Tony arrived at the last known location of Reed's ship. It was seriously close to the moon but his sensors told him that it wasn't close enough to crash. So, he looked around the orbit of the Moon.

"There it is!" Tony found a floating structure near the twilight zone of the moon. The rocket that Reed had built wasn't doing well, most of its shielding was already ripped off, revealing the core structure. "If whatever the hell happened here didn't take them out, the radiation sure as hell did."

Quickly, Tony ejected himself out of the Space Vehicle and flew to Reed's ship. With the electrical systems still functioning, he overruled the software and opened the hatch. He quickly entered, went through the whole depressurization sequence, and opened the second hatch, gaining access inside.

"What the!" Tony froze for a quick moment. In the pilot seat, the man he knew—Benjamin Jacob, looked like a hideous creature made of some weird skin condition or something. The space suit on his body was completely torn apart while the others were still safe and covered—alive.

He didn't waste time and took out palm-sized round Arc Reactors, though they were something more. He placed the Arc Reactors on the chest of the four astronauts.

"Jarvis, time to work your magic."

Instantly, nanotech, the thing that made Tony's own suit, began covering the four astronauts. It wasn't a fully functional Iron Man suit, however. More like a safety cocoon with flying capabilities.

"Take them to the Space Vehicle and shove them in the life pods," Tony ordered and stepped closer to the control console of the spacecraft. He tapped his finger on one of the output slots and copied all the data recorded in the system.

What the hell happened to them? Alien attack?

Minutes later, he left the battered spacecraft and returned to his Space Vehicle. But before leaving, he sent out small, autonomous thrusters that looked like round disks that flew and plastered themselves all around Reed's spacecraft, preparing to bring it back to Earth, or at least Earth's orbit.

After that, he rocketed back to Earth, to the land of the free.

####

November 4th came and went by. Reed Richards, Susan Storm and the other two still didn't wake up from their comatose state. Tony invited all the bright minds he knew to help, from Bruce to Hank from the X-Mansion.

However, November 4the was also the day of voting.

Early counting had already revealed that Tony was faring better than the other two parties. It was like the vibe of the festival had carried onto the election results.

Already, Tony had won Florida's gubernatorial election, meaning his party now occupied the Governor's office. Soon after, on Election night, it became clear that Tony was the big winner in Florida. Of the 27 Representative seats, he won 25.

Similarly, he won in Georgia, Ohio, North Carolina, and Texas. One after another the US map on the TV screen changed from Blue and Red to metallic gray. It was like a repetition of his Presidential run.

Of the 435 House of Representative seats, NTA won a landslide, 392 seats. It was history-creating, the biggest-ever victory by a single party.

But that wasn't all. Of all 36 Senate seats, Tony ended up winning all of them. And the competition wasn't even close. With the vote divided among the other two parties, NTA came out as the absolute winner with no doubt on any seat.

As for the governor seats, the only four where he didn't win the gubernatorial elections were Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Alabama. The rest of the 32 he won with an insane majority. But the surprising part was that even in the states he lost the gubernatorial, he won the Senate and the House.

Nonetheless, it was a fantastic start for the National Technocratic Alliance, a name that could no longer be ignored.

With that, Tony finally got what he wanted.

With more profound control over the states, he had the chance to initiate greater changes on a more grassroots level. Education, healthcare, cost of living, employment, and safety—things were about to change.

####

Beep! Beep!

A day before Christmas, as Tony flew towards the hospital where Reed and Susan were held, he received a text message from Emma Frost. The message said nothing other than 'tonight, 8 P.M.', and coordinates.

"Coordinates?" Tony quickly looked up the location and it was pretty close, just outside the city up in the North. "Jarvis, mark it in my calendar."

"Schedule has been updated, Sir."

Right then, he descended on the hospital's roof and took the elevator down. His suit disappeared on its own as he reached the private floor he had booked with top-tier security.

The reason he was there was because the four sleeping beauties had woken up that morning. As he had expected and Bruce had warned, the four were not normal. Benjamin's condition was already known, but the other three had remained unchanged except for their blood reports.

Not wanting to deal with the four shouting at him, he came over in the evening.

Bam!

He shoved open the door and walked into the small meeting room. In one glance he knew the four had already accepted their situation. But he was still unaware of what it was.

"So?" He asked, eying the four at the table.

Woosh!

Reed suddenly stretched his arm towards Tony and shook his hand. The distance between them was over three meters.

Susan then vanished on the spot.

Johnny Storm, Susan's brother, was engulfed by flames all over his body, which clarified why the guy was sitting there naked from the beginning.

As for Benjamin, it was clear with one look.

"Tony." Susan became visible again and stood up, rushing over to her dear friend and hugging him. "Thank you. You came for us."

"Well, I promised Reed I would." Tony shrugged, hugging her back. "How do you feel?"

"Weird," she replied and stepped back, looking at her own body. "I can feel something's changed but… I can't put my finger on it."

"Well, that's cosmic radiation for you, I guess." Tony shrugged and walked over to the short edge of the table. He looked at the four and chuckled. "So we got… Geodude, Stretch Armstrong, Susan, and a walking campfire—Great, let's start a circus."

"Why does she get to be called by her name?" Susan's brother, Johnny, protested.

"Because she's a pretty lady."

Johnny scoffed. "So if I chop it off you'll call me by my name?"

"Sure, campfire."

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