"The Ixa System & Sonic Armor."

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Back home, Krim was finally done playing dead.

"Dan, I'm a little disappointed in you. You do realize what it means to expose your identity, right?"

Dan had no defense—he raised both hands in surrender.

"Sorry, Mr. Belt. I screwed up. I didn't think he'd recognize me so fast. And come on, he's a top-level agent—I'm just a kid. What was I supposed to do?"

He hung the belt on its usual spot on Krim's little cart and walked straight into the lab.

"Mr. Belt, I've got an idea, but I need your help."

"What kind of idea?"

Krim was annoyed, sure—but he didn't push it. He could tell Dan trusted this guy Erik a lot.

Dan cleared off a workbench and got to work.

"Mr. Belt, did you record all the data from when I fought that bat freak?"

Krim rolled his cart over and saw that Dan had pulled up a full battle suit model on the computer.

"I recorded everything. But what are you doing—trying to replicate the Drive System?"

Dan shook his head. "No way. I'm nowhere near your genius level. This was actually a suit I started working on back when my teacher was still around. I scrapped it at the time, but now... I'm thinking of reviving it. Mr. Belt, can I reference the basic Kamen Rider system from Drive? I only need the base framework."

Back when Dan first realized he'd been reincarnated into the Marvel universe, the first thing on his mind was finding a way to keep himself alive. He didn't want to end up dead one day from some random supervillain.

He came up with a rough draft of the armor and proudly showed it to his teacher, Rick. But Rick tore it to pieces.

First problem: no solid energy core. Without that, the whole thing was just a tin can.

The G3 system from Kamen Rider Agito was the perfect example—charge for two hours, fight for five minutes. Anything stronger than a minor villain and you'd get crushed.

Second problem: no proper support system. Even if you built the suit, it'd just be a fancy piece of junk without the right AI or controls.

And it's true. Iron Man's suit worked because of the arc reactor in his chest and the JARVIS AI backing it up.

But Dan? He had neither. It's not like he could just steal Tony's reactor.

Now though, he had a new idea.

As Krim finished uploading the battle data, he watched Dan tweak the suit design bit by bit, even offering some suggestions here and there. This was his specialty, after all.

"Sonic-energy armor? Oh my god, Dan, how'd you even come up with that?"

Looking at the blueprint taking shape, even Krim was impressed.

Dan scratched his nose and laughed awkwardly, saying nothing.

Because the truth was—he hadn't come up with it at all. He was basically copying the Ixa System from Kamen Rider Kiva—a suit built by the Blue Sky Group specifically to fight Fang Vampires.

He never thought he'd be able to recreate it, but now that he had real Fang Vampire data and Krim's Kamen Rider system as a base, his customized version of the Ixa System was finally taking shape.

"Hmm… the blueprint looks solid," Krim said. "But what are you gonna use to build it? What material?"

Krim's question hit like a bucket of cold water.

"Uh… materials…"

Dan looked helplessly at him.

"Don't look at me. The materials I used for Drive don't exist in this world."

Dan collapsed into a chair like a deflated balloon.

"Great. All that work for nothing."

Seeing him so defeated, Krim didn't know what to say. Dan's talent had already blown him away—he was only sixteen. Now Krim was super curious about Dan's teacher. What kind of mentor could train a kid like this?

After thinking for a bit, Krim gave a command.

"Materials, huh… what could we use?"

Dan laid back in his chair, racking his brain. Vibranium? Nah, no way to get his hands on that. He wasn't about to sneak into Wakanda and steal it—Black Panther would kill him.

Adamantium? That could work, but where the hell would he find it? Pretty sure the military's hoarding that stuff.

Just as he was sulking, a bunch of little toy cars came zooming into the lab.

"Shift Cars? Krim, what the heck are you doing?"

Looking at the pile of tiny cars, Dan was confused.

"Nothing special. Just give me the specs of the material you need, encoded as data. I'll upload it to the Shift Cars."

Dan didn't get it, but he still did as he was told.

The cars honked once and zipped out of the lab.

"Listen, kid—you're a rare genius. So get your head back in the game. Back in our world, I found the right material eventually. I believe this world's got something suitable too."

Dan looked at Krim's smiling digital face and couldn't help but grin.

"Thanks, Mr. Belt. Don't worry—I'll bounce back."

Outskirts of New York. An abandoned estate.

Dan stepped out of the Deletron.

"This the place? Doesn't look like much."

He held the address Erik gave him and looked around.

Classic America—lots of land, not many people. The estate was huge and totally deserted.

Krim fired up the Deletron's scanner and scanned the area.

"Dan, there's something underground here."

"Underground?"

Dan thought for a moment. He remembered there was a secret lab in Blade, but didn't think it was underground.

"Mr. Belt, can you find the entrance?"

"I'll try… got it! It's in a storage shed behind the estate."

Dan hesitated for a second, then strapped on his belt and shift bracelet, heading toward the shed.

Inside the old shed, crates were piled high. No idea what was in them.

"The entrance is up ahead."

As soon as Dan approached, a flash of light zipped toward him.

"Look out!"

"....."