I rode the Talaria to Malibu, thinking. I was worried that if I intervened, Tony's trauma might not heal properly.
Maybe I'll just protect Pepper...
Also, there was something I wanted. The MCU had several brilliant scientists, and Dr. Maya Hansen was one of them. Although the Extremis technology had severe side effects, it was still quite useful. With Nano's help, it seemed possible to provide regeneration and superhuman strength to humans while minimizing side effects. Combined with the Super Soldier Serum, the synergy could be incredible.
I don't know if I can save her, but I'll try.
If I couldn't save the doctor, I decided to aim for securing her research data.
Just then, I received a call from Deadpool.
-Hey~ buddy, don't you need my help? Around this time, Iron Man is in bad shape.
"Hey, you haven't even gotten your driver's license. And it's almost Christmas; aren't you going to see Vanessa?"
-You know time is relative! What's wrong with you, smart guy?
"Ah! Brother Stein... I forgot for a moment."
I thought for a moment about how to use Deadpool.
'Damn! He's useless. I thought about using him as Pepper's bodyguard, but I don't want to hear Pepper complain later. Maybe I'll just send him to Tony instead...?'
While I was thinking about this and that, Deadpool said,
-Anyway, come pick me up. I'll be on my rooftop. You know, I hate being stood up.
"O-okay."
I turned the Talaria around, went back to New York, and picked up Deadpool. Deadpool was armed and in his costume.
"Long time no see, honey!"
"Hey!"
"What?"
"Why haven't you managed to get even one driver's license?"
"I want to, but the examiner was this crazy woman. She didn't appreciate my humor. The old maid was so hysterical... It was terrible..."
It seemed he had some kind of problem. Probably a trivial one.
"Then why don't you go get one in another city? Or start with a motorcycle license?"
"Yeah, I should."
As I drove, I kept thinking about how to use Deadpool. But no solution came to mind. While I was silent, Deadpool asked,
"What are you so worried about?"
I couldn't tell him the truth, so I brought up Tony's situation.
"It's just that, things might work out on their own, but I'm worried that if I get involved, Tony's trauma might not be resolved."
"Leave it to me. You saw how I helped the Wolverine with his trauma. I'm a mental health expert. From now on, call me Dr. Wilson."
"The way you say that makes me even more worried."
"Trust me! Have a little faith."
I couldn't trust Deadpool at all.
"You talk big for someone who can't even get a driver's license."
Anyway, we arrived at Tony's house in Malibu. Inside, Tony came out wearing his Iron Man suit.
"Jin. And who's your friend?"
"This is Deadpool. He's a friend, a mercenary, and a hero, I guess."
"I see. I'm Tony. Nice to meet you."
"Oh~ My god! It's the famously expensive real-life Downey... I mean, Tony! I promised myself I wouldn't get nervous. Ahem... I'm Deadpool. Nice to meet you."
Tony chuckled at Deadpool's antics. I looked around the house. There was nothing unusual. I sensed someone upstairs, so Pepper seemed to be home.
"Ms. Potts seems to be here too."
"Yeah, staying with me is the safest place."
As if on cue, Pepper came downstairs and greeted us.
"Jin, nice to see you. And who is this..."
"Nice to see you, Ms. Potts. This is Deadpool. He's a friend, a mercenary, and a hero."
"I see. Nice to meet you. I'm Pepper Potts."
"I'm Deadpool."
After greetings, we sat on the sofa in the living room and began to talk.
"Tony, this stunt was reckless. You might be willing to risk getting hurt yourself, but the people around you could get hurt too."
"I know. Happy got caught up in this and was seriously injured. I admit it was a mistake, but I'm also very angry."
Hearing that, Deadpool chimed in.
"I know how you feel. I have anger management issues too. You should have seen how hard it was to stop myself from driving that hysterical female examiner's head through the dashboard when I was trying to get my license."
"..."
The atmosphere suddenly grew cold. It was like that feeling when a friend fails at telling a dad joke. Anyway, to break the awkward silence, I asked about Happy's condition.
"How is Happy? Was he badly hurt?"
"He's hurt, but it's not life-threatening. He's still unconscious."
"At least that's a relief."
Just then, JARVIS announced an incoming person.
[A woman is currently entering the mansion.]
Hearing that, Tony put on his Iron Man suit again and prepared. A dark-haired, pretty woman entered Tony's house. It was Dr. Maya Hansen.
"Stop right there! You're not the Mandarin, are you? Right?"
Hearing that, Maya smiled and said to Tony,
"You don't remember."
"Have we met before?"
"Switzerland. Doesn't it ring a bell?"
Tony thought for a moment, then seemed to remember the incident in Switzerland. That day, Tony met Maya and Killian. As Tony was leaving, he told Killian to meet him on the roof, then spent the night with Maya, leaving Killian waiting on the roof all night, which became the catalyst for him becoming a villain. Tony really was a villain-maker.
"Ah~ you're the botanist from back then. Maya Hansen."
"Yes, that's right. I need to talk to you alone. Not here."
"Don't tell me, you have a 12-year-old kid in that car?"
At that, Maya looked incredulous.
"What? No! And the Switzerland incident was 13 years ago."
"I see. That's a relief. Anyway, normally I'd gladly go, but I'm already taken."
Tony took off his suit and introduced Maya to us.
"This is Maya Hansen, a botanist I knew briefly a long time ago."
I stood up and greeted Maya.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Jin. Dr. Hansen, I've read your paper."
"To see Chairman Jin here. It's nice to meet you."
Maya seemed a bit surprised to see me. We shook hands lightly. Tony asked why Maya had come to his house at such a time.
"So, why are you here?"
"I need your help."
"With what? And why now?"
"Because it seems like you're going to die soon."
Just then, Deadpool looked at the TV and said,
"Hey, isn't that Tony's house?"
A breaking news report was on TV, showing in real-time some aircraft flying toward Tony's house. It was Killian's men in multiple attack helicopters, firing missiles.
"Oh no!"
I quickly went to the window and used [Mystic Arts] to create a defensive magic circle around Tony's house.
KABOOOM!!
The helicopter's missiles couldn't penetrate my barrier and exploded in mid-air. Everyone looked surprised.
"What the hell is this all of a sudden!!!"
"Hey! Don't just stand there looking; do something!"
I continued maintaining the barrier. The helicopters, trying to break through, started launching missiles continuously.
KABOOOM!! BOOM!! KABOOOOM!!
Snapping out of it, Tony quickly put on his Iron Man suit, flew outside, and started engaging the helicopters. Deadpool evacuated Pepper and Maya outside.
I continued to maintain the magic circle until the missiles stopped coming. I canceled the spell and checked the situation outside. Iron Man was fighting reasonably well, but his movements seemed unnatural, as if something wasn't working properly. Eventually, he was hit by a missile from the last helicopter and fell into the ocean.
Crash!
The attack helicopter flew over the falling Iron Man for a moment, then flew off somewhere. I urgently called JARVIS and asked about Iron Man's status.
"JARVIS, is Tony okay?"
[Master is still alive. However, he appears to be unconscious from the impact.]
"Can you retrieve him from the ocean?"
[I am attempting to do so now.]
After a moment, I saw Iron Man emerge from the ocean and fly off somewhere. It seemed Tony was heading to Tennessee, like in the original story.
"JARVIS, where is Tony going now?"
[Master is en route to his last registered destination.]
"Can you turn him back?"
[You do not have command authorization.]
"Sigh... I understand."
I went outside. I saw Deadpool flying up into the air in a Talaria.
"Hey!! Where are you going!!"
Hearing me, Deadpool rolled down the Talaria's window, looked at me, and said,
"Trust me and wait! Leave Tony to Dr. Wilson!"
"What!?"
Deadpool rolled up the window and flew off after Iron Man. I was completely dumbfounded.
"Sigh... What a mess... I give up."
Just then, Pepper came over to me and asked with a worried expression,
"Jin! Is Tony okay?"
"I don't know. He flew off somewhere. He'll probably be fine. More importantly, we need to get somewhere safe quickly. They might attack again."
"Okay."
I was about to take Pepper and Maya and choose one of Tony's cars to leave when suddenly the Odyssey-class ship appeared over Tony's house. Natasha's voice came from the ship.
-Honey, did you miss me?
"Geez... Your timing is impeccable."
Pepper, Maya, and I boarded the Odyssey-class ship. Pepper and Maya looked so surprised they couldn't close their mouths.
"Jin, you're safe. I knew you weren't the type to die easily."
"Captain."
I shook hands with Captain America. Natasha ran over and hugged me.
"Jin! You're safe."
"Yeah. It takes more than that to kill me."
The Vulture also approached and shook my hand.
"Boss."
"Toomes."
They seemed very worried about me and Tony. We sat in the ship's living room and talked.
"How did you know to come?"
Natasha answered.
"How else? It was live on TV."
"I see."
Captain continued the explanation.
"We've been investigating while stopping and cleaning up terrorist attacks nationwide. We found out that all the people involved in this are former soldiers. It seems they were used in some kind of experiment."
"Did you find out anything else?"
"We obtained one of the drugs they have. There seems to be a secret to it. Natasha recommended it, and I was going to ask you, the smartest person in this field, to look into it, but then this happened."
"I see. Can I see the drug?"
"Sure."
Captain America took a silver syringe out of his pocket. It was obviously Extremis. I was about to take it to the lab when Maya Hansen suddenly blocked my way.
"That's in my field. I think I can help. I can analyze it, so give it to me."
Maya Hansen, sweating cold, tried to stop me from analyzing the drug by any means. But it was too late. I had already finished analyzing it with [Eyes].
"I refuse. I don't trust you yet. All communications are being monitored, so to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings, I suggest you just stay quiet."
"Ah... okay."
Maya finally stepped aside. I immediately went into the lab and pretended to analyze the drug. After killing about an hour, I came out and shared the analysis results with everyone.
"This drug alters human DNA."
Captain America didn't seem surprised.
"I see. So that's why the soldiers had such great strength."
"Next is the important part. I analyzed this drug and found it to be the same as the Extremis technology Dr. Maya Hansen spoke of. Do you have anything to say about this, Dr. Hansen!?"
Realizing she had no way out, Maya suddenly took a syringe containing the same drug I had analyzed from her bag, held it to her own neck, and threatened us.
"Let me off right now! Or I'll inject this! Even half of this will make my body explode!"
We tensed at that. Then Captain America said to Maya,
"Calm down, Dr. Hansen! You can't get out of here. Just give up!"
I also added to convince her.
"Captain America is right. You can't get out of here. And even if you did, you'd be wanted nationwide. Give up!"
Maya, realizing the reality of our words, shed tears, but still didn't lower the syringe.
"Dr. Hansen, it's not too late. I don't know why you're helping a terrorist group, but if you give up and help us now, I'll do my best to defend you and support your research. Think carefully. What is the right thing to do?"
"Innocent people are dying because of terrorism right now, Dr. Hansen."
Maya looked at me and said,
"How can I trust your words?"
"Because I support your research. There are many side effects, that's true. But if you gradually improve it, it might truly lead humanity to evolve."
Eventually, Maya gave up. She dropped the syringe on the floor, crying.
"When we were doing our research at the bottom, no one supported us. Maybe that's why Killian changed..."