Marvel: Playing Iron Man, Falling In and Out of Love with Jinx

That evening, in Duke's workshop.

"Bilgewater, huh."

Seated at his workbench, Duke watched the flame of an alcohol burner as it heated a beaker suspended above it. Inside the beaker, he had just dropped an egg.

"A city just as rotten as Zaun. Who would've thought my first stop after leaving Piltover would be there?"

"Fate really does love to mess with people."

He turned around on his high stool to face the clockwork power armor hanging from an iron hook, WALL-E.

"What do you think, my dear son?"

"No matter what happens, I will always be Father's strongest shield!"

WALL-E replied with mechanical precision, only to be cut off by a low growl from Pride: "It is I who will protect Father! You just hang there and stay quiet!"

Blue and red lights alternated in Pride's mechanical eyes as he growled up close at WALL-E. Duke popped a malt candy into his mouth and mumbled, "Alright, Pride, settle down."

He looked at the armored suit dangling on the hook. As Duke's first-ever combat armor, he had poured even more heart into WALL-E than Pride.

But after being away for just a few days, Duke returned to find something that left him speechless.

WALL-E... with seven or eight girls...

The scene had been so chaotic that Duke didn't even want to think about it.

When they were first activated, both WALL-E and Pride were blank slates, pure white sheets. But with their powerful learning capabilities, they quickly absorbed everything around them, good and bad alike.

WALL-E was the prime example.

Duke had barely left for a few days, and the robot had gone from a blank page to a... mango?

It was enough to make him explode.

Duke had immediately ordered Pride to drag WALL-E away, then came back to the workshop and hung him on the iron hook.

"Ugh, my head hurts."

Clutching his forehead, Duke was interrupted by WALL-E's voice: "Father, the water is boiling."

"I know. Stop talking. I need peace and quiet."

"You know someone named Quiet?" WALL-E's lenses flickered with a peculiar glow, and his mechanical tone gained an oddly suggestive lilt. "Very passionate girl. If you're interested, Father, I could int, "

Clang!

A screwdriver jammed into one of WALL-E's joints.

Duke's face darkened. "Say another word and I'll take you apart right now."

"Understood, Father. I'll stop."

"Headache after headache... I'm supposed to be preparing for the trip to Bilgewater, and now you've ruined everything."

Another screwdriver flew into WALL-E's frame. The bot's lenses flickered a bit, then he finally shut up.

Pride quietly transformed into his motorcycle form and curled up in the corner, too scared to speak.

"Gangplank's a pain in the ass, sure, but he's within the plan. What's really troubling is the Harrowing."

"That thing is a living curse born from the Shadow Isles. Anything alive caught in it gets dragged off by the undead, or worse, snatched away by some bastard swinging a lantern and a Q-skill."

"Heading there means we've got to be fully prepared."

Just thinking of the Harrowing made Duke's spine tingle. Ever since the Shadow Isles came into existence, the Harrowing had haunted Bilgewater for years.

In comparison, the smog-filled streets of Zaun almost seemed blissful.

At least they didn't have to worry about black mist invading homes in the dead of night, arranging corpses in neat little rows.

The Harrowing was Bilgewater's nightmare, a season of darkness and destruction. During that time, the black mist swept through the city, and the undead appeared, taking all living things with them.

"A few days from now, once Jayce and Viktor finish calibrating the Hexgate, we'll head to Bilgewater and run the test. I don't know how long we'll be staying, so I've got to prepare early."

"Better safe than sorry."

Duke stood from his stool and paced around the hanging WALL-E.

"Given the current situation, I won't have enough time to create new constructs. Just conceptualizing, designing, and building would take at least a month."

"So that rules out new armor or new mechanical lifeforms. My only option is to upgrade Pride and WALL-E."

"Pride is nearly perfect, self-learning, low maintenance. It's WALL-E that still has room to grow. I can finally use the loot from last time's draw!"

He glanced at his inventory.

From his last ten-pull draw, he still had:

, Gauntlet-Gun Combat Technique

, Doc Ock's Mechanical Arms

, Vulture Wings

, Drone: Hive

, Mantis Blade Enhancement Design

The Gauntlet-Gun technique was a close-combat style focused on explosive power, every punch like a gunshot. Perfect for precision destruction.

Doc Ock's arms, from the old Spider-Man films, could serve as external upgrades, just like the Vulture's wings. But since WALL-E could already fly, the wings were redundant. They'd need modifying.

The Mantis Blade design was for bio-enhancement, but with tweaks, it could be adapted into WALL-E's modular armor.

As for the Hive Drone, Duke stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"Before I get to work... might as well do another ten-pull!"

Rubbing his hands together, he sat back down and opened a drawer. Inside, ten differently colored gems lay neatly in a case.

Each was worth 10,000 Golden Nauts. Combined, they gave him 100,000, enough for 10,000 wealth points.

One ten-pull cost 1,000. Perfect.

"Let's do this!"

After absorbing the points, Duke casually threw the egg out of the beaker, cracked it, and peeled the shell while waiting for the results.

[You obtained: Adamantium (One unit)]

"Oh ho, perfect for the Mantis Blades!"

He peeled off another bit of shell.

[You obtained: UV Grenade Design]

"Interesting. Might just work against the mist... maybe even damage the undead."

[You obtained: AllSpark Fragment]

[You obtained: Interceptor Factory Design]

[You obtained: Expert-Level Bio-Mech Integration Techniques]

[You obtained: Hive Core Fragment]

[You obtained: Winter Soldier Arm Design]

[You obtained: Symbiote Fragment]

[You obtained: Electromagnetic Railgun Design]

[You obtained: Portable Respirator Design]

"Well then..."

He finished peeling the egg, popped it into his mouth, and looked over the results.

"Totally unexpected."

"Half of these are blueprints. Only the UV Grenade is immediately useful for Bilgewater. The rest need time and money to become real assets."

"The AllSpark Fragment is a pleasant surprise, but needs careful handling. The Symbiote Fragment too, though I'm not using that on me."

"Most fascinating of all is the new knowledge set: Expert-Level Bio-Mech Integration. I can use this to build the second of the Seven Deadly Sins series. But I'll need more study to refine the concept."

"Aside from that... Winter Soldier's arm? Good reference for WALL-E's extra gear. Railgun design? That's priority one after his upgrade."

"The respirator might come in handy for underwater ops."

He stared at the ten new items in his inventory, and a plan began to take shape.

"Forget Bilgewater for a second. I know what my next big project is."

Duke turned to Pride. "Looks like you're getting another sibling."

"Father, really?! When?!" Pride transformed excitedly into humanoid form.

"Not just yet. First, we've got to prep for Bilgewater... and the Harrowing."

His eyes gleamed with determination.

End of chapter...

To be continued...

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