fics I read

FanFiction.Net

Just In

Community

Forum

V

More

Dragonborn's Might makes Right by Infonticus

Game X-overs & Avengers Xover Rated: M, English, Adventure, Words: 356k+, Favs: 1k+, Follows: 1k+, Published: Aug 25, 2021 Updated: Jun 12, 2022

513Chapter 16

Chapter 16: First, Do No Harm

[In the secret room of the Dragon Cabin]

I was telling jokes while I waited for my doctor to arrive, but I wasn't having much success with my audience.

"Alright, I have a better joke: a Kree, an Asgardian and a Xandarian were strapped to operating tables." I started, "The Sakaarian Warlord says: If you don't laugh at my jokes, I'm going to flay you alive and nail you to the wall as an example for the next batch!"

And immediately, the Kree, the Asgardian and the Xandarian- all with black bags over their heads and that were strapped to operating tables in front of me- burst out laughing as loud as they could. Their desperate laughter echoing across the operating theatre.

This was my other special room when I wanted a private conversation with my doctor. A sterile, white-tiled operating theatre possessed all the cutting-edge medical equipment available to the sci-fi worlds of Nova and Kree Empires. The sum of those two Empires' life-saving technologies present right here thanks to the generous donations from their worlds that I have pillaged. The doctors and medical staff that used to operate them were now working as medical slaves somewhere in Sakaar. And the patients whose lives the equipment were sustaining… no longer needed them.

My audience's laughter was cut short however, when my magic-comms console- looking like a crystal ball attached to the ceiling- began to light up. And with a soft magical hum, the doctor appeared across me among the operating tables.

"Dr. Lucifina Zee." I smiled at her. "Glad that you can make it."

Looking like a flirtier version of Mercy's usual lab uniform, the blonde doctor was looking sexy in her usual white lab coat, partially unbuttoned button down and a brief black pencil skirt covering half of her smooth thighs.

She wasn't really here though.

It was just a very convincing hard light projection of her. She was still a galaxy away, and likely just in her apartment. It was essentially a hologram that could interact with objects, but running off the magicks that Johanna called 'Ether-Energy' which was drawn from the Reality Stone. It wasn't perfect- the illusions shattering if touched too hard- but it was useful all the same. It was one of Johanna's many inventions before she caught a bad case of the 'Multiple stab wounds through the cranium' courtesy of Rudeus.

"It is good to be 'here.' " She replied with a soft chuckle- her subtle Suisse-Allemagne accent ringing through her laugh, "If I have to eavesdrop one more time on Angela having another conversation with Director Fury about finding me, I might just burst out laughing and give away my position."

"Hopefully, this will be a productive distraction then." I replied with my own smile.

"Oh, you're certainly distracting, alright." she shamelessly leered at me as her hologram set on the edge of one the operating tables. "How long has it been since we've last been together in person, Hev?"

Then she uncrossed those long creamy legs that filled out her pencil skirt- showing off her lack of panties and her already pink nether lips that were already glistening with her arousal… But only for the briefest moments as she crossed her legs with a sultry smirk and hid her prize from view.

"Less than a week ago, you insatiable witch." My already deep voice growled deeper at the blatant teasing.

"Perhaps I am- as you say- a witch…" the beautiful blonde doctor conceded- her sexy smirk widening and her slender thighs rubbing against each other… before she shamelessly opened them nice and wide, "Would you like to stir up this witch's cauldron? Perhaps… fill it up to spilling again?"

And I had to restrain myself from taking her up on her offer right then and there. I pushed down the urge to use the Space Stone to instantly teleport her from wherever she was and straight onto my cock, and thoroughly fuck this hot doctor's tight and very eager holes until she was leaking profusely with my cum. But damn it all! This project of ours that we were just about to work on was very important to not only the Sakaarian war effort, but also in our HYDRA Research & Development as well as for incoming hostile contractors.

We could scarcely afford to always be distracted with a heated session of intense and animalistic fucking every time we talked. Most of the time is enough, and unfortunately, now was not one of those times.

"In time… let's finish this project first." I reluctantly ground out. Oh, the things I did for universal conquest…

"Tsk, tsk. You're so cute when you're holding back, Hev. But very well…" Lucifina laughed before pulling out a set of lacy purple panties from her pocket to cover herself up. The horny minx had deliberately taken them off just for this call! "... Let's move on to our project."

Still barely holding off from wildly fucking her, I walked with her over to the operating table with the fearfully shaking Asgardian.

"Sedating the subject." She said out loud and the voice-activated operating table did its work- the man immediately slacking on the operating table, and I could remove the black bag over his head to reveal a completely unremarkable man. Brown hair, blue eyes, light summer tan, fairly muscular build.

"The ring, if you would, Hev." Lucifina gestured to me. And I nodded, pulling out a ring of Hevnokrenite that I had materialised beforehand.

My new metal- due to being a combination of both Proto-Adamantium and Uru- was significantly harder to materialise than either metal. The process took five times as long too- even with all the Infinity Stones in my possession powering me up. But the advantages were interesting to say the least: I had a spiritual connection to the metal- I could sense the metal. Every Hevnokrenite item I had ever created shone like a lighthouse through the fog of reality. Wherever they may be, no matter where they were hidden… I would be able to find them.

And now, we were about to test how far that connection can be exploited.

I slipped the Hevnokrenite ring on the Asgardian's finger.

"I'll monitor the patient's lifesigns." She coached- pulling up some golden holographic interfaces in the air in front of her, before nodding at me- her blonde ponytail swaying. "Now do what we did just like before…"

And here was where my affinity with my own metal was put to the test: Without touching the ring, I must channel the energies of the Infinity Stone to it.

Everything I picked up from Johanna's research into the Space Stone was put to the test. For this, I had to repurpose her Tesseract-Energy magic-comms to accomodate more than just psychic messages. It was like using your phone to send someone else' phone some battery charge instead of a text. It just wasn't supposed to originally work that way.

But as I concentrated and began to channel the Infinity Stone energies, the Asgardian's veins began glowing a sparkling red, purple and blue. And he jolted awake- his thoughts pouring through the ring- an unintended but convenient side-effect. His principal thought was amazement for the power now surging through him. And I didn't doubt that. With the enchantments on the ring being supercharged like this, this noodle-armed Asgardian civilian with zero training could maybe 1v1 Captain America.

"Hev, the patient's body can't take that much power!" Lucifina panicked for a moment before seeming to catch herself and calming down- adopting a pondering expression on her face as she continued in a curious voice, "... but let's keep going and see what happens. Increase the power, Hev."

Nodding, I did just that, and the Asgardian began roaring. Like a caged gorilla, he tried his best to break through the Vibranium restraints that I had forged just for this experiment. And all throughout, his thoughts came flowing back to me as he wordlessly roared in desperate fury.

'It hurts! Make it stop! Make it stop! Make it stop! Make it stop! Make it stop!'

"Rraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaggggggggggghhhhh!"

Then he exploded in a magnificent shining halo of blues, purples and red. And gone was the Asgardian man thrashing on the operating table, there was nothing left of him except a smoking pile of ash.

"Fascinating!" Lucifina immediately exclaimed- completely uncaring about the man that just exploded as she typed away at her yellow holographic interfaces. "Very fascinating! I can possibly stabilise the reaction with my Biotic Technology… incorporate Hevnokrenite into my Caduceus Staff! But this opens up new avenues of research! Oh, the possibilities are endless!"

"What are you thinking?" I questioned, genuinely curious as to what she could come up with.

"If I can incorporate this into my Caduceus Staff? So many things!" Lucifina excitedly gushed- gesticulating to all the golden holographic displays, "Just imagine! My Staff rendering my targets invulnerable with an overcharged Tesseract-Energy shield, projectiles encapsulated in the Power Stone energies, or perhaps exuding a bubble of Ether-energy from the Reality Stone that would make you immune to certain types of damage!"

Wait… that sounded very familiar.

"If you do figure out that invulnerability, I'd like for you to name it the [ÜberCharge]." I suggested- amusement in my voice. And Lucifina shot me a questioning look.

"How did you know that my Caduceus Staff will need to build up a charge before I can use it?" She asked, and I didn't bother to hide my amused grin.

"Just a guess." I shrugged before digging my fingers into the ash pile and plucking the gleaming ring of Hevnokrenite out of it. "But with this breakthrough, I can distribute these rings to you waifus and maybe some distinguished Sakaarian. Right now, we can channel only raw energies through them- supercharging their strength, speed and resistance to damage tenfold…"

"And you are wondering if we can do more with it?" the doctor finished my thought for me.

"Yes… Wherever Hevnokrenite exists, I will be able to project my power to: Healing spells, Destruction spells, the powers of the Infinity Stone, perhaps even my Shouts."" I hypothesised- the possibilities rushing forth, "From anywhere in the universe… All without me ever leaving Sakaar."

"Power on demand sounds incredibly useful." Lucifina muttered- staring at the ring of Hevnokrenite amidst the ashes.

"Whosoever carries Hevnokrenite on their person will be my champion." I muttered as my blood-red eyes glanced down to the smoking ash pile, "Willingly or unwillingly."

I glanced at my Company Smartphone.

== ] C [ ==

Time remaining off Sakaar before mission failure:

11 HOURS, 22 MINUTES, 48 SECONDS.

== ] C [ ==

I was one step closer to completely ignoring this restriction.

Now, it was only a matter of how much research I placed into this magic. How many experiments I can run before I perfect the magical theory behind it. And at the rate that we're going, I will be a bottomless source of magic and power in the universe.

There were a few more… ideas that I could pull off with enough magical research, but they were out of my reach without experts in the field. So Johanna and Raiden Ei both need to hurry up and stop being dead, because despite having the Company perks [Science Talent] and [Soul Talent], I still need to actually learn and study from people to increase my proficiency in the sciences and magic schools that I did not already have a proficiency in. And of course, more experts in more fields would only help my progress.

"I will need more brilliant minds- especially concerning the Tesseract…" I muttered to myself, but apparently Lucifina heard it.

"Well, I am a woman of medicine, not a mage nor physicist. So, I cannot help you with that." Lucifina shrugged, "Perhaps when Johanna returns, you two may further explore that avenue of research."

Her rich blue eyes shot me a pointed look as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"I could have resurrected them all, you know?" She pouted, "If you were not so liberal with your use of explosives and atomized their corpses, that is."

"If I was being completely honest, I was already furious after being led on a wild goose chase thanks to Rudeus' waifus, having Klee to pop in and say that the manor had fallen into Rudeus' hands only made me fly into a rage." I shrugged. With the loss of my HYDRA leader, a lot of my projects have been delayed, but that doesn't mean that the conquest was going to stop.

"In the meantime, I have a few more projects for you to help me with, Doctor." I mutter as an aside to her.

"Only if you'll indulge me." She tutted and gave lusty smirk as she undid her button down- showing both her lack of a bra and her perky C-cups, "Clinic duty has been stressful and I am in need of a very good fucking- something that only you can supply me."

"Of course." I graciously replied. She was my type of woman- the type that was both smoking hot and couldn't get enough of my cock. And just as I was about to teleport her here and pound her pussy until she was a well-fucked mess of semen and girlcum, she raised her hand as a sign to stop as she glanced to the far wall- likely something in her apartment catching her attention.

"Scheisse!" She growled in anger- hurriedly buttoning up her shirt, "Director Fury has come to take Angela to treat Stark… and also to apparently clitblock me!"

"Just go, we'll definitely be finishing this later." My deep voice growled as well. I'm definitely going to be raping Fury's sexy assistant- Maria Hill- as recompense for this interruption. Well, rape her rougher, at least. Or maybe I should go for his top agent, Black Widow, instead? Choices, choices, choices… But regardless, I might actually need a disguise for this one- just to make it funnier.

"We certainly will continue this." Lucifina agreed with an irritated pout as I glanced down at the ring of Hevnokrenite in my hand.

And that was when I froze still as I had a brilliant and incredibly hilarious idea. An idea that could both empower the heroes of Earth to better protect my hoard of capturable waifus and still stir up chaos for amusement.

"Before you go, I have a new plan for Tony Stark." I informed her with a predatory grin. "I'll send you instructions and the item over to you once I have everything sorted. Also, can you hand me some of your Biotic syringes?"

"Very well, I'll do what I can… I'll meet you later, Hev." She gave a conniving smirk and a flirty wink. And with that, she ended our little call. The Ether-Energy illusions disappear in a blink of an eye- a reminder that she was never in the room in the first place.

Well, time to get to work. From my [Pocket Space], I took out a single item: A shiny Hevnokrenite ball just slightly smaller than a lemon- a single star embossed on its otherwise mirror smooth surface. It was a prototype to the ring that we had just tested. But now, it will serve a greater purpose: an experiment in channelling energies. The ball rested easily on my palm as I began enchanting it right then and there- the ball flashing brilliant lights of purple, blue and red.

Time to set things up for the main event, and one of its first contestants/victims should be eating donuts right about now.

[Randy's Donuts - Inglewood, California] (Later)

Tony Stark liked Randy's Donuts.

The donut and coffee shop was just a 30 minute drive from his mansion in Malibu, or about a few minutes flight if you were Iron Man like him. Just a quiet place to kick back, take his helmet off and eat some goddamn good donuts. Then of course, Patchy the pirate (aka Nick Fury) had arrived to once again convince him to join his super secret boyband (aka The Avengers). And just as he was sitting down with the guy, a syringe semi-unexpectedly sank into his neck for just a fraction of a second.

"Gah!" Tony yelped as he jumped in his seat- the sound of whirring actuators from his Iron Man suit accompanying the motion. And he looked up at the person holding it, 'Agent Natasha Romanoff' Fury had called her, but Tony preferred to call her 'Pott's lying secretary who was actually a super secret super agent.'

"Oh god, are you going to steal my kidney and sell it?" he fumed- massaging the now sore spot on his neck, "Can you please not do anything awful for five seconds?"

Pepper's lying red-head secretary who moonlit as a supermodel shrugged. Well, Tony knew she wasn't Pepper's secretary now since he had explicitly told her that she was fired at least.

"Whatever happened to asking for the patient's consent?" Another woman spoke up with a sigh as she came into view, a blonde in a lab coat this time. Ice-blue eyes, golden blonde hair done up in a ponytail, pink pouting lips. Tony thought if there was a literal embodiment of the 'hot doctor' stereotype, she would be it. But after Pepper's secretary slipped a fast one on them all by being a special super secret spy agent, he wasn't going to fall for a second time.

Meanwhile, across the table, Nick Fury scoffed while giving him the stink eye.

"If we asked him if he wanted us to save his life, he would have still said no out of spite." Nick maintained in a level tone. And Tony really wanted to say that was wrong, but he had to admit that sounded like something he'd definitely do.

"You did? Save my life with that syringe thing, I mean. And not because you want to steal my kidneys?" Tony asked- pointing at the syringe that Fury's red-headed super spy was still holding.

"No, we did not 'save your life', Mr. Stark." The blonde doc answered for them, "The Lithium Dioxide solution that was just injected into you has only suppressed the symptoms, the palladium poisoning is still ravaging your body."

"I'm sorry, but who are you supposed to be?" Tony couldn't help but challenge with a suspicious tone, "Another one of SHIELD's pet chameleons like Miss 'Rushman' over here? Should I start stocking on flies to feed you all?"

Tony jabbed a thumb towards the red head as he said that, but Fury only gave him a hard look with his lone eye.

"Dr. Angela Ziegler here is the real deal, and she's going to make sure that you live through this." Nick responded in a tone of voice that sounded like he was ordering Tony not to die, and for once in his life, he actually felt like following someone else's orders, "She'll be your personal physician and toxicologist until we're sure that you're not going to kick the bucket from your condition."

Tony rolled his eyes as well as his head for this one..

"Well, I already know what she's going to say." He groaned- having gone through this a hundred times with dozens of other doctors already, "But sure, I can never get over how creative doctors can phrase 'There's nothing I can do, Mr. Stark. Go roll over and die.' "

He expected the same sort of spiel from her really. Maybe a look of pity that doctors seem to have a lot of practice feigning. What he got instead floored him.

"From your medical records that Ms. Romanoff has given me, I would say… give me two weeks to facilitate your full recovery." the doctor replied in an even tone- almost nonchalant actually.

"Okay, hold up. Firstly-" Tony pointed a disbelieving look at his former secretary, "You gave her my medical records?"

"I'm a SHIELD shadow." Natasha shrugged as if it explained everything.

"Spy, more like." He groused in response before turning towards the doctor with the unbelievable claim.

"And secondly, what did you just say?" He clarified- making his doubt loud and clear for her, "Cause I thought I heard you say that you can do in two weeks what most teams of doctors say they couldn't do in five years. Nu uh, I'm not buying it."

But instead of getting her panties in a twist like Tony expected she would, the doctor only glanced at him before aiming a flat stare at the SHIELD director.

"If he ultimately declines my aid," The blonde doctor reminded the eyepatched director, "you still default on your end of our bargain, Mr. Fury."

"I am aware of that, doctor. Would you please excuse us for a minute?" Fury suggested to the blonde who gave one last glance at Tony and Fury before walking out of the premises.

Tony levelled a flat look at the SHIELD director.

"What? Did you just take the first person who could promise you the impossible, and called it a wrap?" he quipped- pointing to door that the doctor had exited out of, "Because I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you… if 'Dr.' Ziegler hasn't sold it to you already, that is."

Fury and his pet spy shared a glance. Natasha's green eyes met Fury's lone brown one, and Tony felt like he was missing an entire conversation. But he could sense some kind of back and forth happening here, and it was over a big decision- likely a big secret that they were mulling over whether to share with him or not. And Tony's suspicions were vindicated as Fury pulled a small stack of polaroid photos from his coat's inner pocket and placed them on the table between them.

"Does this seem familiar to you?" Fury quizzed him- pushing forward a photo of a particularly striking angel-like woman in bone-white armour and glowing gold wings and staff.

"The Archangel of New York City?" Tony muttered in recognition. This was just after Monaco. So, when New York started reporting about a woman in a suit, he had been worried that his tech had been stolen yet again before a second glance confirmed that it clearly had been developed by someone else. Tony tore his gaze from the picture and back to Fury's lone eye. "The same 'Archangel' that's been going around regrowing limbs for free like some reverse tooth fairy for arms and legs? Doctor Ziegler is her?"

"No, we don't think it's the doctor in that suit." Nick corrected him, "We think it's her close friend, Doctor Lucifina Zee."

"Then why didn't you get her then?" Tony proposed as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. And to be fair, it really sounded like it was to him.

"Doctor Lucifina Zee has gone to ground. Even we can't find her right now." Natasha admitted with just the slightest hint of bitterness- like it stung at her pride to admit that.

"I thought you were a super secret spy organisation." Tony wondered out loud, "How can you lose someone that flies around with glowing wings and a magic glowing beam staff?"

"We have it under control and figuring that out." Fury calmly reasoned, but Tony wasn't buying that they had it under control. So much for being America's shield.

"You know what? Fine… That's fine. Forget about that." Tony groaned- massaging the bridge of his nose as he did, "So what makes you think Dr. Ziegler can help me, huh?"

"We have reason to believe that she was involved in developing the technology, one way or another." Fury explained- catching Tony's eyes with a deadly serious expression, "Did you know that she was the first person to see these photos before they hit the mainstream news outlets? Oh, you should have seen the face she made when she first saw these photos…"

Fury pulled another polaroid from his coat- holding it up in his fingers for Tony to see. It was a candid picture of Dr. Ziegler sitting down- a look of shock and dread in her eyes as she stared at the same photos of the Angel that was laid out on the table in front of her.

"That expression remind you of someone familiar, Stark?" Fury hinted- tapping the photo with a finger, "After all, it's the same expression you wore in Monaco when Ivan Vanko sliced your race car in half."

And just like that, the pieces fit together in Tony's mind, and the realisation struck him hard.

"Angela recognized her own tech in action, just like I did with Vanko." he muttered, staring at her photos. "She developed the tech while Lucifina is the one who pilots it."

"Bingo. Still think she can't help?" Fury nodded with a satisfied smirk that made Tony feel like he was just proven wrong, and he hated that feeling.

[Malibu, California] (Later)

"Ah, home sweet home." Tony grinned as he stepped into his mansion- followed by both Angela and Fury. "A small chunk of it's still a wreck from my little tussle with Rhodes just the night before. But home is home no matter the repulsor damage. Could use less of these tough guys in suits though."

He eyed the SHIELD agents in their black suits and dark shades who were patrolling up and down the halls and hanging out at the veranda. In fact, the entire property had roadblocks and patrols like the black suit enthusiasts were holding a convention on his property.

"They're for your protection." Fury firmly maintained.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night." Tony rolled his eyes as he stepped over the police tape that just had to be placed across the foyer, "Honestly, can't a man leave his house for one night without unwanted guests creeping in? Geez, you're like a pack of mice or something. Anyways…"

He clapped- catching the doctor Ziegler's attention, and everyone else's for that matter. But only the doctor's attention mattered to him at the moment.

"Looks like for the next week or so, Mi casa es su casa, Doc." he welcomed sincerely- let it not be said that Tony Stark was a bad host. Tony Stark hosts guests like he hosts parties: he's the best in the world. He gestured to the northern corridor that led down the guest bedrooms, "I've got about twelve guest bedrooms here- and not the small ones either- so just take your pick."

"Thank you for the accommodations, Mr. Stark." Angela replied with a tentative smile.

"SHIELD will keep you safe here, Dr. Ziegler." Fury added his two cents. The blonde seemed to look around with doubt in her eyes. Especially at the torn down walls, wreck furniture and broken glass still cracking underfoot. But despite it all, the doctor being visibly reluctant to be working with SHIELD (not that Tony could blame her), she still found it in her to do a polite smile.

"Thank you, Mr. Fury." She replied before being led away by SHIELD agents who helped her with her luggage.

"If you need anything just talk to Jarvis!" Tony hollered after Angela just as she disappeared down the corridors that led to the guest bedrooms. And just in time too!

There was Pepper rounding the corner and marching up to him- looking stunning as always in her work clothes. They would have been better in Tony's opinion if she didn't look furious at him.

"Tony, We've been looking everywhere for you!" She yelled at him- equal parts worry and irritation in her blue eyes, "Where the hell have you been?"

"Just got some donuts over at Randy's." He shrugged. "A man's gotta have his donuts."

"Ugh, you ran away to get donuts? Okay, fine, but who was that?" Pepper probed suspiciously, glancing at the corridor that the doc had just walked down, "And why did she have her luggage with her?"

"That was Angela, she's going to be my assistant with some projects I need to do downstairs, so she's going to be staying here for the next week or so." He explained/lied. Letting Pepper know that he was dying of Palladium poisoning was an option, sure. But he'd rather that Pepper think he was just sleeping with Angela- she'd be a lot less angry with him for the latter.

"Of course, your suits." She groaned as if that explained everything- massaging the bridge of her nose, "Stupid of me to think that you care about anything more than your suits…"

"Hey, Pepper…" Tony comforted, moving in to wrap her in a hug… that she just gracefully dodged out of.

"Excuse me." Pepper said- sounding like she was saying 'Excuse you' instead, "I have to handle the fallout of last night's fiasco, run Stark Industries for you AND attend the expo for you."

And with a shake of her head, she marched past him in a brisk walk.

"Pepper… Pepper!" He tried to call out to her, but he gave up as he realised that she made her mind- he wasn't going to stop her when she's like that. "Dammit."

"You haven't told her?" Fury muttered to him- less in an asking tone and more accusing one. And Tony couldn't help but roll his eyes again. It really feels like he's been doing it a lot at the moment.

"Says the super spy with several warehouses worth of secrets?" He shot back as they reached the veranda- still littered with glass- and found a pair of chairs with a small table and bottle of whiskey waiting for them.

"Your funeral, Stark." Fury merely shrugged as he sat down and poured the both of them a glass, "Dr. Ziegler can cure you of your Palladium poisoning, but I don't think she can cure your bad relationship habits."

"Aside from playing relationship counsellor for me, and I have to say you're doing a bad job at it too." Tony groaned as he picked up his glass and placed the cold glass against his forehead, "Why are you still here again?"

Fury gestured to some of his men in the back and they immediately ran over to a corner and helfted a big box over to them- placing it at his feet. Tony was just about to joke about how they had brought along a contortionist in a box to cheer him up when he saw what was labelled on the lid. In big bold letters that it couldn't be mistaken for anyone else's box.

PROPERTY OF H. STARK

"What's this for?" Tony sighed. Digging around his father's personal effects wasn't what he wanted to be doing right now.

"That thing on your chest is based on unfinished technology." Fury pointed to the arc reactor in Tony's chest that was both keeping him alive and slowly killing him, "Howard said the Arc Reactor was a stepping stone to something greater. If there is anyone in the world that can figure out what he meant, it would be you."

There were so many questions he wanted to ask. But Tony settled for levelling a serious look at Fury.

"Why give this to me now?"

And Fury nodded at the corridor that Angela had walked down.

"Give Dr. Ziegler her week working on your heart." He muttered, "In the meantime, that box over there will give you something to work on. Because although Dr. Ziegler's a miracle worker, it won't mean much if your core thing keeps poisoning you anyway. That box over here might be the key to a long-term solution to your heart."

Tony frowned at that, the pieces still not fitting in his mind.

"But that's the thing: I get the impression that she didn't exactly ask to come here." Tony pointed out, "What did you offer her to get her to go along with this?"

"That we won't try to recruit her anymore." Fury shrugged, "But something tells me that she would have come running to save you even if there was nothing in it for her… And like I said, I'm putting together a group of remarkable individuals… to fight the battles that others never could. That's why she's here now, Tony."

Fury gestured to Tony's blood toxicity scanner.

"To fight the battle that you couldn't." He finished with a solemn tone and a hard look in his eye. And for once, Tony didn't have anything to say to that.

Fury pulled out his phone and gave it a glance.

"Alright, I have to take my 2 0'clock meeting. Agent Romanoff will maintain her cover with Ms. Potts…" Fury muttered as he straightened his coat, "...While Agent Coulson will be here to ensure that you don't go on drunken power-armoured fights again. And I hope when we meet again, you'll have made a full recovery. Maybe not with your relationship with Ms. Potts, but with your heart at least so… I'll be seeing you around, Stark."

And without even a backwards glance, Fury walked off- that black coat of his billowing in the Californian breeze.

"Yeah, yeah." Tony replied in a non-committal tone as he stared at the box filled with his dad's stuff at his feet. He really didn't want to deal with this, especially after Pepper being cross with him. His dad was a touchy topic for him and he would very much prefer to just keep the old man out of his mind. But now, he had a choice to decide on.

Should he open the box and hope that maybe his old man's stuff had some secret magic element from the 1950s that could replace his Palladium Core…

Or…

Should he toss his shitty dad's box somewhere he'll forget about it (like behind the fridge) and work on his own solution for the next few years?

"Easiest choice in my life." Tony scoffed to himself. Get two more years or… force himself to go through his dad's stuff AND get the two years anyway? Besides, if Angela can cure his Palladium poisoning once, then she can cure it again. But honestly, the stress of everything lately was getting to him: Pepper practically leaving him for her job (that he handed to her in the first place), the US congress breathing down his neck for his Iron Man tech and now having his dad come back to haunt him.

There was only one thing he could do.

"Well, time to get shit-faced. It's been a while since I got absolutely wasted." He grunted as he added some ice to his tumbler before calling out over his shoulder, "Jarvis, Kindly inform Angela that if she's good to go, she can operate on me while I'm passed out drunk."

And like any good smart home operating system, Jarvis immediately answered.

"Sir, despite knowing that you will not listen to me, I would still like to voice my objections to this course of action." He advised- just as Tony scooped up a bottle of whiskey.

"Objection noted… and ignored." Tony agreed, "I have an in-house doctor now who can regrow limbs. I'm sure she can regrow my liver if I ask nicely."

"Very well, sir." Jarvis sighed.

Then Tony chugged down the bottle and the whole world fell into a spiral from there.

(A few hours later)

Tony blinked and suddenly, he wasn't incredibly wasted anymore. The familiar sight of his garage came into view just as a soft feminine voice, like a tinkling bell, laughed as it spoke.

"...And when the patient woke up, his skeleton was missing and the doctor was never heard from again! Ahahahahaha!"

Looking down, Tony was greeted to the sight a white staff shooting a continuous golden beam of softly glowing light straight at his chest… that was completely open down past the rib cage- all his internal organs suddenly being not-hidden underneath skin and muscle. Lungs, stomach, kidneys and intestines all on display like bread at bakery's window.

He wanted to scream, but wasn't sure if he was going to die immediately if he did.

"Oh, alcohol levels abruptly fell. I told you not to fidget too much." The blonde doctor tutted with a laugh as she wagged a bloody finger at him, "Now it looks like the staff has purged the alcohol from your system."

"Angela, what the hell?!" He demanded while staying as perfectly still as he could. Medicine wasn't his forte, but this situation looked a bit too precarious for him to make any sudden movement.

"Not Angela. Dr. Lucifina Zee, at your service." She winked, "But don't worry, we get mixed up a lot. Also, it is fine to relax- just stay under the beam."

Yeah, now that he looked closer, the doctor was definitely different from Angela despite looking similar. Her lips were more pouty, her eyes more hooded. It was like she was Angela's hotter and more confident sister. Also, the fact that she was wearing that Angel suit underneath that lab coat of hers was also a dead give away. But then he was reminded by how he can clearly see his squishy insides and still not feel any pain.

"Uh… Jarvis? How the hell am I still alive?" Tony asked as he watched his wet and squishy looking lungs and diaphragm expand and contract right before his eyes.

"It's good to have you sober again, Sir." Jarvis replied in that calm, but long-suffering voice of his, "Dr. Zee's technology has been by-and-large indecipherable to me, but as you can plainly see, it is sustaining your vital functions quite well. As per the orders that you have so enthusiastically cheered out, I have been recording the beginning of the operation and your entire conversation with Dr. Zee until you had regained sobriety just now, Sir."

"Conversation?" Tony baulked- feeling the blood rush from his face, "You mean I was awake all this time?!"

"Yes, sir. You have been awake and also incredibly inebriated the entire time." Jarvis answered him to his horror, "You were absolutely adamant on being awake for the operation, and Dr. Zee humoured your request."

"It was hardly any trouble at all." she reassured him with a smile- worryingly cavalier about cutting him open like a fish.

"Okay… moving on from that…" Tony hesitated- trying to ignore how he was still one slip away from spilling his guts all over his garage floor, "Did Coulson let you down here? Where is Coulson even?"

"He was urgently called away, sir." Jarvis answered, "A matter that had something to do with an- I quote- 'a freak super blizzard in Texas.' "

A super blizzard in Texas? Welp, no wonder.

"Never a dull moment." He sighed before nodding to Dr. Zee, "Since we're already in the thick of things, how far along are we, Doc?"

Zee tapped her chin with a bloody finger in contemplation.

"For your Palladium poisoning? We finished with that treatment about two hours ago. And the damage it has caused has likewise been treated. You 'double-dog-dared' me to also remove the shrapnel from your chest, so I did that too." She recalled with a carefree shrug as if curing him of the things that would have killed him was no big deal. Now, he no longer needed his Arc Reactor to live and it was all thanks to her. Tony was so floored that he didn't know what to say to that.

And all the while, Dr. Zee swilled her tumbler of whiskey as she hummed.

"You also had some liver damage and as well as a few tumours that needed to be manually excised, but after that…" She gestured to the empty bottle of whiskey sitting right next to her surgery tools. "...you invited me for another drink."

The cancer was worrying, but a part of Tony couldn't help but wonder what Angela had to say about all this.

"That's all swell, Doc Zee. But you wouldn't happen to know where Angela is?" He asked.

"She would have taken too long curing you." Zee shrugged, "So, I drugged her with some anaesthetics and left her in her bedroom upstairs. Honestly, you need to be back on your feet in less than the 'Two weeks' that she recommended. She was too scared to perform this sort of medical shortcut."

Tony agreed with that much, but glancing down to watch his wet-looking organs go about their business… he wasn't sure he would have gone through with this shortcut while sober.

"If you don't mind me asking…" Tony began, "What's your story with you and Angela anyway? Are you two sisters or something?"

And Lucifina Zee merely smiled knowingly, like he had said something distinctly funny.

"Closer than that." Zee replied with a mysterious smile, "But she herself doesn't know it. However, I think you would understand her- our- position more than most."

"I do?" Tony puzzled.

"She spent all her life pushed to follow in the footsteps of her parents." Zee revealed- swilling her tumbler of golden whiskey in her slender pale hand, "Eventually, she developed and perfected a groundbreaking technology that would have changed the world…"

"Let me guess…" He sighed- knowing where this was going. "She tried to make it into a force of good, and wanted to see what other people can do with it."

Dr. Zee traced a finger on the staff that was shooting the glowing beams keeping him alive.

"She shared a little of it to the world to see what they could do with it, yes." Zee agreed with a sad smile, "But instead, Angela found that for all her technology's potential to aid and cure and relieve suffering…"

"... people- being people- preferred to make weapons out of it." Tony finished for her. The parallels in their stories were there. The Arc Reactor sat in the same boat as Zee's tech. Dreams of unlimited clean energy corrupted by how people would create an arms race centred around his Ironman suits. While Angela's dreams of healing people could be easily corrupted into people creating an arms race centred around her healing technology.

"Yes, they did." Zee sighed, "And the thousands of dead civilians those weapons caused weighed heavily on her conscience. It made her have serious questions about everything she had accomplished at that point, and those questions frightened her. And so, for the longest while, she wanted nothing but to run away and bury her technology."

Tony knew exactly how that felt. It was what drove him to order Stark Industries to no longer manufacture weapons. Hell, the autobiography book that he had planned on writing was going to point that particular struggle out.

"And how did you end up being the one to use it?" He asked.

"Angela needs to be honest with herself and stop running away from her proudest creation." She answered before looking him in the eye and her voice on a passionate rise, "Deep down, she no longer wants to ease people's suffering anymore just because that's what her parents did- just because of how much other people keep saying that she should. She's… she's tired of living the way other people want her to live: She just wants to live her own life now. Angela wants to explore her technology to the fullest, and curing people is but a happy side-effect to it. And by using this technology in the open, I'm doing her a favour- making her face her demons for both our sakes."

Tony merely raised an eyebrow to her.

"That's the 'why' of my question, Zee. Not the 'how.'" he pointed out, and Dr. Zee merely smiled that mysterious smile again.

"How perceptive… And yes, I know how I answered." She replied- taking another sip from her whisky, "Let a girl have her secrets for now… I'm sure you would be more interested in the discussion we had about alternatives to your palladium core, ja?"

Tony found it curious as to how much Dr. Zee cared for Angela. There was something more to this. Because now, it was a question of 'Who' Lucifina Zee was to Angela Ziegler. But with Zee clamming up about the topic and dangling the discussion about alternatives for his palladium core… he had no choice to move on for now.

"Did that discussion go anywhere?" he asked- giving into his curiosity.

He normally didn't talk shop with anyone about his arc reactor- mainly because no one could keep up. Consequently, a second opinion on it wasn't something that he was looking for, because frankly, most people's opinions on his arc reactor have been patently wrong so far. But the doctor that had just finished operating on him while he was drunk out of his gourd? Yeah, maybe she had a second opinion that was worth listening to.

"My lucky charm caught your eye." She shrugged as she rinsed her hand clean of blood, picked something up from a nearby table before holding it out to him. And on her slender hand was… a shiny metal ball just slightly smaller than a lemon- a single five-pointed star embossed on its otherwise mirror smooth surface. "You wanted to integrate this into your Arc Reactor."

Tony felt so confused. How was a polished ball of platinum going to help him with his Palladium-

"Allow me to restate my findings to you now that you're sober, sir." Jarvis expounded- cutting off Tony's train of thoughts, "The metal matches no known element on earth, sir. Or even theoretical ones. In fact, I cannot even begin to fathom what it is. Scans, scratch tests, even heating the metal using repulsors had no effect."

"For some kind of mysterious super starmetal…" Tony asked Dr. Zee as he accepted the metal ball and looked it over. "...How does it have a star embossed on it?"

"I have no clue!" She admitted with carefree smile, "It was already like that when I found it in a meteorite crater a while back, perhaps it was one of an astronaut's possessions or the like?"

Tony' confused expression gave way to an intrigued one at that. That's odd. No untreated metal can withstand reentry without deformation or discolouration like this ball did. But if it can… yeah, Drunk Tony had a good eye for this. Better have Jarvis run tests on this.

"Sir, we've already run the neutron damage testing as you had so drunkenly asked." Jarvis immediately answered- properly anticipating Tony's thoughts, "This metal sphere potentially has a lower limit of 40 million times the capacity of Palladium…"

"And the upper limit?" He prompted- wide-eyed. 40 million was enough to have an arc reactor power Los Angeles for a hundred years, and that was the minimum of what it could do. How much more can it possibly go?

"Undefinable, sir." Jarvis reported, and Tony blinked before immediately turning his eyes towards the doc- who was taking small sips from her whiskey. Did Dr. Zee just handed him the holy grail of energy generation? And she was using it as a good luck charm all this time?

"Hey, you don't mind if I buy this off you, Doc Zee?" He prompted- holding up the shiny metal ball.

"You already did, Tony." She drawled with an amused smile, "I asked for $3 million as a joke, and you insisted that I take 3% of Stark Industries instead, which- if I recall correctly- is certainly more than just 3 million."

Tony winced. If this magic star metal can do what Jarvis said it can do in his tests (and Tony didn't think Jarvis was even capable of running tests incorrectly). Then he had seriously, seriously lowballed her. And he didn't need the guilt of screwing over the person who just gave him the key to unlimited clean energy.

"Well, uh. I'll pay you the proper price for it, Doc." Tony gestured to his internal organs that he'd rather stay internal, "But if you can just close me up, we have an energy industry to revolutionise."

But Jarvis had more to say.

"Sir, if I may point out. In your drunkenness, you already adapted an arc reactor to suit the orb." the virtual intelligence pointed out. "You're already wearing it, and had enlisted Dr. Zee's aid in installing the orb."

"I did?" Tony puzzled before glancing down to his chest and noticing that- yeah- there was actually a wide hole in the centre of the arc reactor to accomodate a metal ball the size of a small lemon, and the accompanying hazy memories flood to him, "Oh, I did! But did drunk me say anything about needing an arc reactor in my chest when I don't need it to keep me alive anymore?"

And wordlessly, Jarvis played a security footage on one of the screens near them. And Tony watched as a very drunk him- whiskey bottle still in hand- slurred his plan to a chuckling Dr. Zee.

'Alrigh! I got an amazhing idea! The arc reactor ish like the car keys to my suitsh, righ? if I keeps the key alwaysh on me, it won't matter if they take my suitsh! I am Iron Man! No one else righ doc?!'

"Huh, drunk me does have a good point." Tony nodded with a thoughtful look as he seriously considered what his drunken self suggested.

If he removed all the arc reactors from his suits and let this super arc reactor with the metal ball(patent pending) to power his suits, then no one will be able to even operate his suits. Apart from the arc reactor, there wasn't much tech in the suits that he hadn't already sold to other people. It was just the arc reactor that made everything possible. If he can just make them run on batteries instead, he can even get best of both worlds! And Tony patted himself on the back. Looks like even completely drunk out of his gourd, he could still engineer circles around the smartest that earth had to offer.

Go him.

"Incoming call from Agent Coulson, sir." Jarvis informed him, and Zee raised a graceful blonde eyebrow.

"Would you like for me to give you two privacy for a moment?" Dr. Zee asked, but Tony only shook his head.

"Nah, stay," He grunted, "You've already seen the deepest parts of me, doc. Right down to my pancreas in fact. Have human pancreases always looked this icky? Anyway, Jarvis pick up the line for me?"

And with a soft ping. He was on the line.

"How's that Texan winter wonderland treating you, Coulson?" Tony greeted- feeling a thrill at talking to someone over the phone while in the middle of a surgical operation.

"Hey, Tony, how you doing?" The voice of a man who was supposed to be dead, greeted him instead. Anton Vanko, aka Whiplash, was supposed to be dead from that prison fire. But apparently, it was staged. Of course, it was staged. The one person who wasn't Tony Stark who could replicate the Arc Reactor.

Anton Vanko, aka Whiplash, as the news had been calling him when he slashed through Tony's F1 race car in Monaco, got his ass whooped, and was sent to prison where he 'died' in a freak fire.

"You sound pretty sprightly for a dead guy." Tony greeted, subtly nodding at Jarvis to mute the microphone and trace the call.

"You too, Tony." Anton Vanko continued in an almost friendly tone, "Now the true history of Stark name will be written. What your father did to my family over 40 years… I will do to you in 40 minutes… I hope you're ready."

And with that, he hung up and they failed to trace it back to the source.

"Jarvis?" Tony called out, "What's on the Stark Expo's itinerary for the next 40 minutes?"

"Hammer Industries is slated for their presentation, sir." Jarvis immediately replied and Tony groaned. Of course, it would be Justin Hammers who would be desperate enough to recruit Vanko.

"Jarvis, assemble the suit. Hammer Industries has somehow gotten Mr. Lightning-Whip McSlashMyCar on their payroll." Tony gritted his teeth as he aimed a serious look at the doctor. "Will you come along with me, Zee? Uh, you don't have to fight though, you can just stay on the sidelines. But we could use your healing tech if this gets ugly, Doc."

A pensive expression came to the blonde doctor's face- tapping her chin with a bloody finger before she smiled at him.

"Well, I would feel bad if I left Angela's assigned patient unsupervised after I made her sleep, so…" she nodded, "Count me in."

And with a flick of a switch on her staff, the golden beam of light brightened, and Tony watched as the skin and muscle of his torso stitched itself back closed. Patting his chest, Tony found that it was good as new and his insides were now back to being inside him and not on display, like good organs should.

"Okay, plop that ball in me, doc." He grinned- tossing the shiny metal ball to the doctor as he settled onto operating table.

"Sir, we are unclear as to what this sphere will-" Jarvis tried to warn him, but Tony didn't think this was the best time. Of course Jarvis had his reservations about that. He always did when he tried something that wasn't fully tested.

"I don't want to hear it, Jarvis!" he grunted as Doc Zee positioned the ball just above the port of his chest. "We don't have time to integrate a stand alone Arc Reactor to a suit!"

"Alright, doc, whenever you're ready." He nodded to the blonde doctor who nodded in return- her blonde ponytail swaying.

"I fully anticipate a surge of power when it activates, so brace yourself for that." She advised him before fiddling with her staff and taking the ball in hand- poising it over the slot in his new arc reactor. "Just try to breathe normally, Tony… putting it in 3… 2… 1…"

Power

Power like nothing Tony had ever felt before exploded from his chest- it was like liquid lightning was being pumped through his veins- sending his muscles tingling with incredible strength, his bones filling up with liquid magma, every ounce of his blood boiling with hot energy. But it was his heart that seemed to take the brunt of this new power- each beat felt so damn powerful that it felt like his body was too weak to contain it.

His heart was screaming for him to go out there and exert his new power on everyone who had ever wronged him or ever wanted to wrong him. Might. To take his suit and punch down mountains. To tear down nations. To overcharge his repulsors and blast apart cities. To see everyone on earth chant his name. Makes. To have nations build monuments to his greatness. To leave his father's name in the dust. The Future was so bright! He could see it! And He, Tony Stark, will be the one to bring it all! Him and no one else! Right. Tony Stark, Bringer of a Golden Age for all of Humanity!

Then suddenly- and disappointingly- he was back on earth, laying on that operating table in his garage.

"Wew. That was a trip!" Tony panted out as he shook his head clear. "Biggest adrenaline rush I'd ever gotten!"

Dr. Zee tapped at her own gold-coloured holographic wrist-display.

"Oh, that looks good!" She approved with raised eyebrows. "Your vitals seem… well, they seem to have improved somehow."

"That sounds great actually, I feel great!" Tony laughed, "What happens now, Doc?"

And Dr. Lucifina Zee merely smiled as she helped him up off the operating table.

"Now? Hmhmhmhm…" she chuckled- her pink lips curling into a wide and downright bloodthirsty smile that showed her teeth, "Now, let's go practice medicine."

[Stark Expo, New York City] (A few hours later)

Natasha Romanoff generally didn't like deep cover ops for three reasons: wide open spaces, crowds and lack of intel.

And she had all three of those as she sat right here.

The Stark Industries' Expo boasted a luxuriously spacious convention pavilion, crowds that sold-out seats and no expectation of what may or may not happen. To make matters worse… her red hair was done up into an elaborate bun, she was wearing a tight black dress with nowhere to conceal her pistols, and her only backup was Happy who had almost zero combat training. "Flat-footed" was an understatement at the moment, if things went bad- and they always did- she neither had the means to defend herself nor a nice exfil strategy.

Just business as usual for SHIELD's go-to infiltration expert, she guessed.

"Natalie?" Ms. Pepper Potts, her temporary 'boss,' whispered from her seat just beside her, "Can you hand me Hammer Industries' file again?"

"Sure." 'Natalie' responded with a small smile as she slipped the tablet from her tote, and handed it to the other redhead.

Natasha didn't have anything against Pepper. But despite being assigned to be her secretary, protecting Pepper wasn't Natasha's primary objective. No, SHIELD had a more pressing mission in mind: Infiltrate Stark Industries and find out the best way to protect it from those who seek the Iron Man suit.

She was the Plan B should Tony Stark lose his fight with his Palladium poisoning.

"I still can't believe Tony." Pepper groused as she swiped through the tablet, "He's going all in on those suits of his. He even has that blonde girl 'helping him out' ugh."

Natasha just kept quiet, but she shared Pepper's concerns all the same in her own way.

Those two doctors… Angela Ziegler and Lucifina Zee. Natasha had an uneasy feeling in her gut. Something was way off with them. They were hiding something, obviously. Who didn't? Most people had affairs, secret fetishes, and buried insecurities. But what these two were hiding was definitely bigger than most people. The dossiers that SHIELD had on Angela and Lucifina were thinner than the air the doctors appeared from, like ghosts. And Director Fury made it a standing order for everyone to get every tidbit of information on those two.

She may need to use her old contacts to get that kind of information. SHIELD could definitely supply the cash, but the people from her old life may not be so pleased to have her back.

But she was brought out of her thoughts as, right before her eyes, Justin Hammers came dancing onto the stage of the pavillion. Now him… Natasha could figure out at a glance. The scrawny, bespectacled business rival of Tony Stark was just another unscrupulous arms dealer willing to lie, cheat and steal his way to a good quarterly report to his company's investors.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Justin Hammers spoke at the glass podium, "For far too long, this country has had to place its brave men and women in harm's way, but then the Iron Man arrived, and we thought the days of losing lives were behind us. Sadly, that technology was kept out of reach. That's not fair. That's not right. And it's just too bad. So today I present to you the new face of the United States military. The Hammer drone!"

"What?!" Natasha heard Pepper blurt out as the parade of drones rose up from the stage- each and every single one were clearly equipped with copies of Stark's arc reactors. Then James Rhodes appeared with the Iron Man suit that he had 'borrowed' from Stark- several new armaments clearly visible on the suit, and their confusion only rose

Silently, Natasha hoped that Fury already was prepared for this to happen.

Then a roar from the distance caught everyone's ears- making them glance over their shoulders. The red and gold of Iron Man appeared in the night sky, and he brought along a friend: the Angel of New York City. A more slender and feminie suit of pure white with her golden wings made of energy and her staff of light. A featureless white mask covered her face and protected her anonymity. But Natasha was already briefed that it was Lucifina Zee behind the mask.

"Wait, why is Archangel with him?" Pepper tried to shout over the mad roar of the crowd seeing both Ironman and the recently-named Archangel together in one location. But the real question that Natasha was trying to figure out was… Why were they both here?

Stark, regardless of his condition, had a hundred reasons to be here ranging from 'He wanted to crash the expo for Potts.' to 'He wanted to give his blessing to Justin Hammers.' But Zee? SHIELD still couldn't make heads or tails of the slippery doctor's motivations.

There was some muttering from the crowd as both Stark and Zee- conversed with Justin Hammers- the weasel visibly sweating in his grey suit. And just like Natasha anticipated, everything went wrong.

Rhodes- for whatever reason- opened fire on Stark. Shortly after, the Hammer Drones followed suit- their wrist guns blazing away at Tony Stark. But in a surprising display of power, Stark's own suit let out a continuous barrage of repulsor fire that cut down almost half the Hammer Drones before he shot off into the sky. The remaining Hammer Drones in hot pursuit.

And Natasha's body felt like it was moving on autopilot after that- her Black Widow training perfectly aligning and coordinating both her mind and body to complete her objectives.

Protect the Secondary by bringing Pepper to the backstage- drawing her away from the fighting. Locate and secure the Tertiary by slamming Justin Hammer's face on a table until he surrendered the location of the puppet master behind the drones at… Hammer Industries headquarters that was just a ten minute drive away. Fast transport was provided by Happy who was willing to drive her as she changed into her actual gear.

Her Primary: safeguard Tony Stark's technology, whether by ensuring the man lived or by taking it after he's dead. Was still in effect, but powering down the drones should help with the former.

And ten minutes later, she found herself hacking the front door of Hammer Industries headquarters.

"Stay in the car." She instructed Happy, "And keep the engine running."

"What?" the out-of-shape man protested as he fell in step behind her, "I'm not letting you go in there alone!"

Looking at him, Natasha figured that he could likely take on one security guard, maybe. But the objectives came first, if he gets beaten and knocked out cold, that would be his fault. But as they pushed through the doors of Hammer Industries, they found… the guards already taken care of. The security guards in their black uniforms all lay beaten and knocked out cold all across the hallway.

"What the hell?" She heard Happy mutter as he nudged one of them with his foot, And Natasha already knew what was happening: A third party had beaten them to the punch, and they were fast at it. She didn't know who it could be, because the list was too long. Arc Reactor technology that wasn't in the billionaire playboy's control? People will practically line up for it. But the fact that they went non-lethal with the guards was a good enough sign that whoever did this wasn't some government wet ops team, and that was good news for her.

For now… she needed to get to that control room and to Anton Vanko. Pistols out and loaded, she established a quick but cautious pace through the facility. More beaten guards, but little signs of collateral damage. Whoever did this were professionals.

"Happy, get the car running." she whispered to her temporary ally of convenience- not taking her eyes, or pistols, off the long corridor leading to the control room. But where there was once the skittish footsteps of an overweight six-foot-tall man, now there were the footsteps of what sounded like a seven-foot-tall man in heavy armour behind her.

Natasha held back an exasperated sigh- this was why she preferred working alone- she hated it when this happened. How he was able to sneak up on her without her noticing was worrying, but he hasn't pressed the muzzle of a gun to her back, so that means he wasn't outright hostile, yet.

"Are you an assistant baker?" a deep electronically-distorted voice rumbled the cryptic phrase from just behind her. And Natasha frowned, but did not dare to turn around just yet.

The strange question itself wasn't so strange. It was what in the military and intelligence circles call a 'Countersign' - utilising strange code questions called 'Challenge' with equally strange answers called 'Passwords'. They use it to verify that the person they are meeting is actually the person who they are supposed to be, and SHIELD was no different in that respect. Before going on this infiltration mission, Fury had briefed her on dozens of countersign challenges and passwords for her to identify other undercover SHIELD operatives on the field.

However… 'Are you an assistant baker?' wasn't any SHIELD phrase that she was familiar with, which means this guy must be from some other black ops…

"Because you're about to get bred!" The same voice announced with a guffaw.

… or he was just making a really bad pickup line.

And that was when Natasha burst into action. Her slender hand flicked one of her taser disks- throwable disks that had all the power of a taser- at the unknown assailant behind her just as she turned around with her best straight kick.

And it was then mid-kick that she finally got a glimpse of her latest opponent, and he was a big one. Not just tall, but he was well-built too. Dressed head-to-toe in heavily-armoured black tactical gear, he looked like he wasn't even tickled when her taser disks arced electricity all across his body, neither did he budge an inch from her kick to his stomach. And before she could bring her pistols to bear, his armoured fist knocked it out of her hands one at a time and sent them clattering down the hallway.

"Fury shouldn't have gone to Angela when he did." He taunted as he took her by the throat and slammed her against the white-painted wall, "And now, it's going to cost him his best field agent for a few months."

At those words, she realised that this man wasn't here for Anton Vanko or even the Arc Reactor technology, he was here for her. But it also told her something else: He knew something about Dr. Ziegler.

And from that alone, this giant of a man had just placed himself at the top of SHIELD's list of people for questioning.

His large hand went for the collar of her catsuit- tearing it open and exposing her breasts. But what kind of Black Widow would she be if she didn't take advantage of that wasteful movement? So, with her free hand, she slipped the last shock tags down his sleeve- likely on bare skin too. Direct contact at that voltage would have fried skin and permanently paralysed limbs, but he shouldn't have been so handsy in the first place.

But as electricity arced up the man's arm and his hold on her throat didn't loosen one bit, Natasha was starting to get worried. If this man and his organisation knew that she would be here at Hammer Industries, did they also prepare countermeasures for all her gear? It would seem so since he barely even flinched at 80,000 volts of electricity.

"A futile effort!" the man's distorted voice laughed as he pawed at her chest- squeezing and kneading at them. And Natasha gritted her teeth as she slowed down her struggling just the smallest bit. It was a classic Black Widow tactic: Act like the vulnerable little woman that had been bested, and her target is more likely to run their mouth off.

"W-what does Angela have to do with any of this?!" She cried out- deliberately adding just the tiniest tinge of panic to her voice as the man's large hand tore her catsuit open. She didn't wear any kind of underwear, of course. And now her shaved womanhood was exposed to this man's leering eyes. Hopefully, his mouth would be as forthcoming with information.

"Your one-eyed leader interrupted my plans for her." He growled as he unzipped his fly and fished out his admittedly large cock and covered it in lube, "And that deserves some retribution."

Whatever, just keep the information flowing, big guy.

But as he sank that big shaft of hot man meat into her, Natasha had to admit that it had been a while for her since she did something like this. And not something this big. She couldn't help but grit her teeth at just how smoothly it sank into her. She was completely dry, but the man's well-lubricated shaft made it feel like she was soaking wet. Figures. The one guy who understood how important proper lubrication was for a girl's enoyment of sex, and he happened to be the one who didn't wait for her consent to do so.

Oh well, since he's enjoying it so much, it was time for the more direct questions.

"W-Who…" She deliberately stammered as he pumped in and out of her, and she added just a bit of tears to sell the illusion, "Who are you?! What do you want?"

Natasha winced as he picked up the pace- fucking her with every inch of large cock with every thrust, and she felt herself start actually getting wet from it. Alright… maybe she had underestimated how good he was. It felt like he just knew where to find the best spots inside her, and just kept hammering away at them with his throbbing hard cock. And Natasha knew for a fact that it was all skill, because she was damned sure that no intelligence agency in the world knew where the sensitive spots of her vagina was.

"Who am I? No one of significance just yet." He drawled with an amused tone like it was an inside joke, "Maybe one day, you'll all know who I am. But right now, I want to put you out of commission for a few months. And you seem to be the type to like motherhood, so that will definitely keep you from the field."

At that, Natasha had to stamp down on the faint twinge of actual hurt from being reminded that she can't bear children. But it was good that this man, whoever he was, was so talkative. Nothing that SHIELD could use at the moment, so maybe an oblique approach to the interrogation would work better?

"We were just looking for Lucifina, not Angela!" She 'admitted' to him, but really, it wasn't any information that he wouldn't already know. But what Natasha did want was how he reacted to that information.

"Hah! If only SHIELD knew where Lucifina has been hiding right under your noses." He barked with laughter as he pinned her against the wall with his torso- trapping her pussy between the hard wall and his pounding hips. And she was finding it harder and harder to focus, because every time he bottomed out and pressed that thick head of his cock right against the back of her vagina, it felt like she was going to black out from pleasure.

But at least she got some useful information: this man knew where Lucifina's hideout was. And by his wording, SHIELD already knew where it was as well- it was just hidden in plain sight. And they certainly have looked for it.

She… she had to focus.

"W-What did Lucifina ever do to you?!" Natasha genuinely stammered as she tried not cum- the wet splatter every time he bottomed ouit was no longer due to just the lube. It's definitely been a while since she has had any… private time to take care of her needs.

"To me?" His deep voice mused, "Lucifina was going to do so many things for me if Fury hadn't interfered just a few hours ago."

And just as he finished speaking, he gave a particularly deep and hard thrust that sent her crashing into a toe-curlingly amazing orgasm. A whimper slipped out of her. She couldn't help it. And she also couldn't help but tighten around that unfairly thick and hard cock that was fucking her so well. She didn't allow him the satisfaction of drawing out more than a whimper though, because she wasn't through with questioning him.

Focusing her thoughts- even as the man just kept going and going- Natasha found it odd that he mentioned Nick interfering with Lucifina when the SHIELD director hadn't made any major moves to track down Lucifina a few hours ago. All SHIELD had done so far was fly Angela from New York to California, and pick her up from the new apartment that was provided to her- compliments of SHIELD. But apparently, that was enough to interfere with this man's plans. She would have to point out in her report that Lucifina's hideout was likely near Angela's apartment for reasons unknown.

For now, she just had cu- question this man until he had blown his l- until he had given her actual workable info!

Alright, she'll admit it- even just to herself. She had a fetish for men who were so much larger than her, and she was rapidly losing control of her thoughts.

Despite being trained for it as a Black Widow, sexual infiltration had never her strongest suiit. But The 'Red Room' had deemed her skilled enough in all other aspects such as physical combat and hacking to not consider her a waste. Most of the missions assigned to her during her tenure were the missions that had high chances of heavy combat- something she excelled in. But now, she was paying for her lack of skill as she approached yet another massive orgasm thanks to this giant of a man with his equally gigantic cock that was, she bemoaned the fact that it just felt so good.

"W-why would L-Lucifina ever work for s-someone like you!?" She accused- unable to even think of a proper question anymore and stammering every so often as his cock slammed to the hilt in just the right way. And Natasha could hear her own voice take on an almost lyrical quality to it as she came again- soaking his frankly amazing cock with her juices.

"It's not like I'm going to give her a choice in the matter." He scoffed before suddenly hammering away even harder- his deep voice rumbling right by her ear, "Just like how I'm not giving you a choice in whose child you'll carry. Because you're definitely going to carry mine!"

And just like that, he drove the tip of his cock as deep as it can go before Natasha felt his semen fill her up. That warm sensation pooling in her abdomen was enough to trigger yet another orgasm from her. The biggest one yet. Too high into her orgasm, she didn't notice him pull out a syringe filled with golden liquid until he had sunk it into her lower abdomen. The tiny prick was barely noticeable. But rather than take away from her climax, it only multiplied it.

"Ooooohhhh yessss~!" She couldn't help but moan out loud because of her mind-meltingly good climax, and her long legs instinctively wrapped around his waist to keep him as deep as he could be inside her- balls deep so that every drop of his cum ended up in her.

She hadn't even come down from her high, before he pulled out of her- the long thick shaft glistening with her girlcum before he wiped himself off and tucked himself back into his pants. Then he- almost gently- slid her down the wall so that she could sit half naked on the hallway floor.

"I'll be sure to send my love, and some child support." he spoke with a malevolent chuckle, "I hope you enjoy motherhood, Natasha."

He seemed almost certain that she could get pregnant despite her having been sterilised as part of her graduation as a Black Widow. Then her green eyes flew wide open as she remembered the syringe that he had injected her with that glowing golden liquid… Could that have been one of Angela's technologies? If so, does that mean that she had regenerated the capacity to bear children?

She… she will have to check later.

Picking herself up from the floor, she shot an annoyed looked her torn catsuit, and winced at how semen leaked from her exposed vagina. Picking up her pistols, she continued down the corridor. She still had a mission here in Hammer Industries, and she could only hope that Stark was still alive for her to help.

[The streets of the Stark Expo]

"Aaaawwww yeeaahhh!" Tony shouted with relish as his turbocharged hand-repulsors fired off huge blasts of energy, "Come get some!"

The last of the Hammer Drones, or 'Hammerroids' as he liked to call them, fell onto the asphalt in flaming wrecks of metal and poor engineering choices. And underneath Tony's armoured foot, 'War Machine' lay unresponsive but only slightly damaged. It would have been a tall order to disable the Ironman Mk II suit without hurting Rhodes. But with his new starmetal reactor, or whatever name he will settle on, Tony had the speed and the power to fly circles around his old armour.

"Rhodey, Rhodey, Rhodey…" He tsked as he looked down on the airforce colonel, "if you can't learn to play with your new toy without hurting others, I'm going to have to take it away. Because seriously, you had it for less than 24 hours and you already got yourself hacked? You know that Hammer Industries has crap security software, I could have probably hacked you using my smart fridge."

"Yeah, yeah…" Rhodes grunted, "The air force isn't going to be happy about you taking back this suit, Tony."

"I'm not taking the suit back." Tony snorted, "I'm just going to destroy the power source."

And with that, he yanked out the Arc reactor from his old suit and- with a flash of his repulsors- turned it into ash. Now without power, Rhodes' 'War Machine' armour powered down- leaving him with noting but a few dozen kilograms of metal weighing him down.

"But it's fine," Tony reassured the air force colonel, "I got something that will smooth those ruffled feathers of those flyboys."

"Oh, you had better." Rhodes warned in a flat tone- looking up at Tony and glancing at the new starmetal reactor of his, "Once they see the energy numbers that your new upgraded arc reactor is outputting, they'll be fuming up a storm."

"Yeah, yeah. Babies want their bottles." Tony replied with a roll of his eyes just as Lucifina Zee landed right beside them.

"There were surprisingly few who were injured in the fighting." her soft voice reported as she rolled her shoulders- her golden wings of energy flexing with the motion. And Stark resisted the urge to ask her how they worked. Certainly not repulsor technology, but like a distant relative to it. And he wanted nothing more than to study it and incorporate what he learned into his own- It was like the technological second cousin that he wanted to marry to his own repulsor tech. Oh wait, bad analogy.

"You kicked ass out there, Doc." Tony guffawed- flashed a wide grin at her., "Saw you take on a few of those Hammeroids all on your own."

"Thank you? They were no problem." She shrugged before nodding to his new starmetal reactor, "I believe that was a good enough test, ja?"

"It sure was!" Tony nodded emphatically, "It flew like a dream. It was as magical as the first time I flew the Mark II."

This current Iron Man Suit that he was wearing could barely handle all that power that was now possible thanks to that star-ball-thing that was now in his chest. Just from the top of his head, he could think of a dozen brand new designs that were more suited to handle the new energy output. And they were going to be glorious. Fast enough to break the sound barrier several times over, strong enough to casually blast bunkers apart with his repulsors, and best of all, it wasn't ever going to run out of energy. The sky wasn't even the limit, he had just shot past the sky and was now going orbital with this tech.

"Ms. Archangel." Rhodes greeted her and interrupted Tony's line of thought. The blonde doctor nodded at Rhodes in return. And with some visible effort, Rhodes looked back to Tony, "I still can't believe the two of you know each other, or is that suit of hers actually one of yours?"

"Nah, it's not mine." Tony replied, not wanting to reveal that the suit technically wasn't hers either. The real owner, Dr. Angela Ziegler, was probably still drugged and snoozing in her room back at his mansion.

"We have one last drone incoming." She called out- pointing up into the night sky where an armoured frame propelled by repulsor thrusters was fast approaching them. And with a crack of concrete, the 'drone' landed a cautious distance away from them, and its helmet opened up to reveal the mastermind behind this attack on his expo: Anton Vanko, the son of Howard Stark's old work partner.

"Tony." the Russian convict greeted him with a smile, "It's good to be back."

And with that, those long energy whips lashed out- bright, blue and looking like they could cut a boulder in half.

"Alright, round 2 here we g- URGH!" Tony tried to cheer out, but found that he couldn't dodge the energy whip without leaving Rhodes vulnerable on the ground. So, the luminous lightning-wreathed whip found itself wrapped around the most crucial and vulnerable part of his armour: around the neck. Because it doesn't matter if his new starmetal reactor was outputting ten times the power to his weapons and thrusters when the connection to them were cut. And that's exactly what the energy whips did- the UI in his helmet telling him that he no longer had access to his repulsors or his thrusters.

"Tony, my [ÜberCharge] is ready!" Lucifina shouted at him as she shot at Vanko with her pistol- and not doing much to be honest. Still, he didn't know what a 'goober-charge' was, but he vaguely recalled discussing it with her while he was drunk.

"Uhhh, doc, are you sure this will work?!" He yelled back to her.

"I have no idea!" She shouted out a bit too cheerily for his liking, but as the energy whip was steadily heating up the armour around his neck. Tony found that he was up for whatever crazy drunken plan they had cooked up.

And suddenly, Lucifina shot her staff at him- the glowing beam of golden light pouring onto him… before it grew ten times brighter and engulfed his entire body in golden light. And if Tony had a nickel for every time he felt like ultimate power was exploding from his chest, he would have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it has happened twice. And Tony felt a roar of triumph tear free from his own throat- like it was a reflex.

"I AM IRON MAN!"

It was like Lucifina's tech formed an invulnerable shield around him, and Tony found that he had control of all his suit's weapons and thrusters again. But the strength that it gave him, it was unbelievable! Gripping the energy whip, Tony yanked it with a strength that he never knew was possible. The sudden tug was too much for Vanko's Whiplash armour and the energy whip was torn straight off from the metal- leaving nothing but an unpowered length of cable. And with another yank, the other whip joined in- leaving Vanko absolutely defenceless…

"No! You will still lose, Tony!" Vanko cried out- suddenly charging at Tony.

..except he wasn't. Because the ominous red beeping on Vanko's chest- and from all the destroyed Hammer Drones- told Tony that the convict planned on blowing the both of them up with a self-destruct charge. But with a single repulsor shot, Tony blasted Vanko's right leg straight off, and sent the convict stumbling onto the asphalt.

"Whoops, misjudged the power." Tony muttered before picking up Rhodes as the beeping got faster. "Er… doc? We better get out of here fast!"

"Right behind you!" Tony heard Lucifina shout back as they both shot into the sky just as explosions rocked the Stark Expo.

And once again, Iron Man saves the day.

With this starball reactor that he had, practically unlimited power was stuck to his chest, and for a clever guy like him? That gave him nothing but endless possibilities. It won't matter if people finally catch up and engineer their own Arc Reactors without him. It won't even matter if other Iron Men pop up. Because with this starball, Tony Stark will always be the superior Iron Man, and he was going to make this world his oyster.

[A warehouse in New York City] (Hours Later)

"Give me the straight answer, doctor." Natasha nodded to Angela as they sat with Dr. Angela Ziegler in the medical room of one of SHIELD's many disguised forward operating bases.

SHIELD had flown the doctor back from California to here in NYC. Hearing that she was knocked out by Lucifina had been worrying, but it turned out for the best. Tony Stark was now cured of his Palladium Poisoning and was now heavily considered by Director Fury to be a good candidate for the Avengers Initiative.

"Your uterus and ovaries are in perfect condition, and…" Angela hesitated before aiming her rich blue eyes straight at Natasha's own emerald green ones, "You're pregnant. The Biotic syringe has accelerated the baby's development to the equivalent of three weeks."

Natasha just rested a hand over her abdomen. It… had been a lost dream for her: To be able to bear children. She still got nightmares about her 'Graduation Ceremony' when she was sterilized. And ever since, she had always dreamed about having children. The apperaance of one Dr. Angela Ziegler gave her hope. And she had resolved to ask the doctor if she could help her. But now that she was bearing a child from a non-consensual encounter with a man whose name she didn't even know? Definitely a bittersweet moment.

"I do not know how that man was able to get a hold of that Biotic Syringe…" Angela apologised, "But I'm sorry all the same."

And Natasha merely smiled back at her.

"It's not your fault, doctor. And that syringe didn't exactly do anything besides healing me." Natasha reassured the the blonde woman, but Angela merely adopted a worried expression- her rich blue eyes glancing down to Natasha's indisputably pregnant belly.

"Will you…" She began, and Natasha felt a sudden flare of anger rise up.

"I'm keeping the baby." She snapped- cutting off that train of thought. Of course, she would. No matter what. The circumstances don't matter- not to her. She of all people knew what it's like to be unwanted through no fault of her own- her own para and she was going to ensure that her child won't go through the same. Her arms found themselves wrapped around her abdomen protectively, and Angela simply said nothing- likely feeling that she had said something she shouldn't have.

A welcome knock on the door broke the silence between them, and Natasha watched as Director Fury walked in with his usual black coat fluttering behind him.

"Dr. Ziegler, if you would let me speak with my agent in private." he gently told the doctor, "Something just came in that requires our immediate attention."

"Of course." Angela smiled, grateful for an out from that awkward silence. Both Natasha and Fury watched as the doctor left the medical room, and left the two of them alone. With a groan, Fury helped himself to a seat right across Natasha, his lone eye looking straight at her as he reached into his black coat.

"Agent Romanoff, this came in the mail right here in our supposed-to-be secret FOB." he stated in an annoyed tone, "Addressed to you."

He rested a block of metal on the desk, and Natasha found that it had an odd lustre to it that wasn't in any metal she had seen before, except for one.

"Is that…" She whispered in awe as her eyes widened in disbelief. Director Fury only gave an exasperated sigh.

"An ingot of pure vibranium? A kilo of the strongest metal on earth? Worth around eighty million dollars?" Fury listed as he massaged his temple- likely from the headache he was sporting, "It sure as hell is according to our lab results. And it came with a letter too."

He placed a folded up piece of parchment on the ingot which Natasha picked up with shaking hands.

= = = ] H [ = = =

Dear Natasha,

The first of the child support as I promised. Please take care.

With love,

Your baby daddy 3

= = = ] H [ = = =

"Now what I want to know is…" Fury began, leaning forward as his voice climbed to an annoyed yell, "Who the hell is this motherfucker?!"

[Sakaar]

I, Hevnokren, Dragon of Conquest and Warlord of Sakaar could only grin as my plan was all coming together.

Impregnating Black Widow gave me a good enough excuse to donate some materiel to SHIELD- after all, it would be a shame if they fell so easily just because I gave others great power. I didn't go to earth to rape Black Widow just for that though- I mainly did it for the hell of it. She was already smoking hot in the movies, but here, she was an 11/10, and I would have been remiss as a Rape Dragon if I didn't go over there and did her at least once. Though I'll definitely be back for more later.

But now that I had properly hooked SHIELD with the promise of constant Vibranium, and made sure that they won't be easily toppled this time? It was time for the main event.

From the main character of this story, I will now ascend to becoming the wish-granting artefact that everyone in the universe will fight over. Where once the Infinity Stones held that distinction, now I stand in its place.

My blood-red eyes gazed at the six small balls of Hevnokrenite that I had made- enchanted to the best of my abilities to empower whoever wielded them. Seven balls in total if we included Stark's. And when all seven of my balls are gathered, I will appear with my Infinity Stones to grant one wish (subject to my approval and interpretation of course). The only catch is that they'll have to collect them first.

Might makes Right, after all, and only the strongest will prove worthy of their wish.

But for me, this was exactly what I needed.

I needed people distracted with stabbing each other in the back, with scrambling over themselves to gain a scrap of power, with chasing their own wants and desires. And with everyone busy with the glorious chaos of this universal free-for-all, who will have the time to worry about what poor old Hevnokren was doing in the background?

I gave a vicious, bloodthirsty grin. And with a mere thought, I used the Space and Reality Stones to transport them to six special people all around Earth.

"Let the adventure begin."

- Chapter 16: First, Do no Harm End -

Chapter 17: The Mystical Adventure for the Dragon's Balls on Sunday…