The Iron Man suits lined up in the air and began attacking the Extremis soldiers. I was moved. To be able to see the iconic scene from Iron Man 3 with my own eyes.
"Guys, I think I'm going to pee my pants."
Beside me, Deadpool was literally peeing his pants. Captain America looked at him with pity, like he was a severe dementia patient.
"Deadpool, if it's hard for you, maybe you should rest."
"No, no, I can't miss out on a moment like this! Let's go!"
Deadpool fought harder than ever. From a distance, it looked cool, but up close, the sight of him fighting while spraying urine from his lower body was quite grotesque, and I definitely didn't want to be anywhere near him. Right now, Deadpool was invincible. Even I probably couldn't beat him.
Anyway, we turned the tide and started taking down the Extremis soldiers. Looking up, Tony, now in his Iron Man suit, had also started fighting Killian, who had been watching everything from above.
Was that suit the 'Mk. 17 Heartbreaker'?
The interesting thing was Rhodes. Whether Killian had injected him with Extremis or not, his body turned red, and he was using his newfound strength to fight the soldiers. The Vulture returned and rejoined us, and the Extremis soldiers were being cleaned up noticeably faster.
I put on the [Leviation Cape] I had obtained from Cassandra Nova from my inventory, flew up into the air, and helped clean up by throwing energy bomb cards along with the Vulture.
I could have helped Tony, but I left him alone. It was for Tony to overcome his trauma. Captain America also began engaging Savin again.
-Boss, it seems we've almost cleaned them up.
"Phew... I guess so. When this is over, I'll have to get the Vulture's daughter a gift too."
-Hahaha, thanks. She'll love it.
All of Killian's men were cleaned up, leaving only Savin and Killian. With Deadpool joining the fight against Savin, they seemed to be taking him down quickly. Killian and Tony were still fighting on top of the crane tower.
I took this opportunity to collect the Extremis samples. This was to prevent Hydra from misusing the Extremis technology. That's why, when I took the research data from Killian's main base, I deleted all related data. Hydra was such a pain in many ways.
After collecting all the Extremis data and drugs, I came outside. The fight with Savin seemed to be over. Captain America and Deadpool were climbing the crane tower to help Tony fight Killian. Natasha was calling her Talaria to resupply.
The Vulture, looking around, also moved to help Tony. As we gathered towards Tony, Killian, realizing the tables had turned, screamed desperately.
"This isn't over for me!!! I am the Mandarin!!!"
Hearing that, Deadpool scoffed and said in his characteristic taunting voice,
"Yeah, you go be the Mandarin. If that's not enough, I'll write 'I'm the Mandarin, please beat me up' on your back."
Everyone snickered. Feeling humiliated, Killian screamed and charged at us.
"Aaaaah!!!"
Then Tony, like in the original story, used a hand gesture to force the parts of the Iron Man Mk. 42 suit onto the charging Killian, then lifted him high into the air and ordered JARVIS.
"JARVIS! Self-destruct the Mk. 42."
"No!!!"
But in the original story, this wasn't enough to kill him, so I also infused a metal ball with energy and threw it to add more firepower.
KABOOM!!!
Deadpool was impressed.
"Wow~ I don't know about the rest, but the explosion looked cool. It looked just like fireworks."
Hearing that, Tony thought for a moment, then gave another order to JARVIS.
"JARVIS, let's start over. You know what to do, right?"
When Tony gave the order, the various Iron Man suits circled in the air and then began self-destructing one by one. As Deadpool said, it looked like setting off many fireworks.
"You like that, guys? Let's enjoy Christmas."
"Wow~"
We watched the Iron Man suits explode with admiration. There were many meanings in this, but the most important was that Tony had finally let go of his obsession with the suits and overcome his trauma. Anyway, I was glad things worked out well, not as messed up as with Thor.
After resting a bit, we saw a large number of soldiers arriving, so we asked them to handle the cleanup and returned home on the Odyssey-class ship.
The next day, news reports said that the actor Trevor, who had cooperated with Killian, and the Vice President, who had tried to replace the President, along with his remaining forces, had all been arrested.
Dr. Hansen, thanks to our persuasion, was not arrested, but she still had to undergo investigation and trial. I provided her with bodyguards and skilled lawyers. One of the lawyers I hired was 'Matthew Michael "Matt" Murdock', also known as Daredevil. I thought he would be capable of protecting her from the Ten Rings, so it put my mind at ease.
I also gained something.
[(SSS) Extremis] – Grants superhuman strength, agility, stamina, and regeneration. (Stats +200 each.)
Even though I obtained the Extremis ability, my body didn't turn red. It seemed that by continuing to rank up, it had become a completed Extremis, not an incomplete one.
We also received a call saying that the President wanted to thank us and would award us medals for stopping the terrorist group. The medals were to be given to Tony, Captain America, me, Natasha, Deadpool, and the Vulture. Rhodes was not on the list, probably because he was under investigation for having the War Machine armor stolen and was receiving treatment for the forced Extremis injection.
On the day of the ceremony, we received our medals and the President's thanks. The Vulture wore a mask to hide his identity. Thanks to his activities across the country and his cool suit, he had gained immense popularity. After the ceremony, he was busy signing autographs for the surging crowds. I teased him.
"Hey, Mr. Popular, Vulture!"
"This is a bit embarrassing. Haha."
The Vulture seemed to be enjoying it, though. Seeing him like that made me happy too. The funny thing was, reporters asked me when the next Gundam would be out, but I didn't answer. Still going on about Gundam.
That day, we rented out a bar and had a party with the members. The next day, I went to Toomes's house and gave his daughter, Liz, various gifts. But she still seemed unhappy about not being able to spend Christmas with her dad.
"Liz, this big brother will give you anything you want or let you go anywhere you want to go. Don't be mad."
"Then, I want to go to Disneyland again."
"Really? But you've been there once. How about Disneyland in Japan this time?"
Liz's face brightened as she answered. She was still a kid, after all.
"Good! Thank you, big brother!"
I contacted my secretary, had her book Tokyo Disneyland and a luxury hotel, arranged a private jet, and also gave Toomes a generous bonus, telling him to rest well with his family. I also gave Tinkerer a bonus and sent him on vacation.
Then I went to visit Happy in the hospital. Happy was now conscious, lying in bed watching TV dramas he had missed.
"Ah~ Chairman, you came."
"Happy, how's your health?"
"I'm fine. Thank you. You came all this way even though you're busy."
Happy seemed touched that I came to visit. I told him what had happened, and he seemed pleased to hear that things had worked out.
A few days later, I visited the hospital again when Tony had surgery to remove the shrapnel from his heart, so he could remove the arc reactor. This time, Pepper and Natasha came with me. Tony and Pepper were being lovey-dovey, so Natasha and I chatted for a while and then gave them some privacy.
With the external matters finished, I returned home to find good news there as well. I heard that Banner and Jessica had started dating. For some reason, Banner was popular with women. It seemed American women liked smart guys—brainy men.
Come to think of it, Brother Stein was also popular with women.
I also set up a separate lab for Maya at the house and was supporting her. However, since she had partially participated in a terrorist group, she had to stand trial, so she couldn't start her research yet.
Since I couldn't just stay at home forever, I finally started construction on the Avengers base on the land I had bought. I built it with thick special concrete to withstand powerful explosions, and included a massive hangar for the Odyssey-class ship and other vehicles, training facilities, living quarters, various amenities, warehouses, and more.
This required an enormous amount of money, but interestingly, the cryptocurrency market was now active, and I was making huge profits. Even after building the Avengers base, I had money left over. I used the leftover money to wait for the crypto prices to drop, then reinvested and did some mining. I was aiming for the next big surge, which I expected to happen when China entered the market.
Did it surge twice because of China? An Avengers base funded by China... that's ironic.
Anyway, while the Avengers base was being built, I resumed helping with training. As a result, my [Teacher] ability ranked up to S.
(S) Teacher – The student learns faster, and you can transfer one ability to them in a degraded form. (Cooldown: 100 years)
"Oh~ The ability to transfer an ability."
It had become a very attractive ability, even if degraded. But the 100-year cooldown was a concern. I thought the cooldown would decrease with higher ranks, so from that day on, I continued to help and teach them diligently.
Thanks to my dedicated teaching, Jessica, Banner, and Pietro quickly learned martial arts, and Wanda's control over her powers greatly improved.
Two months passed like that. Jessica, Pietro, and Wanda came to me with expressions full of complaint and said,
"Let us start operating now."
Wanda spoke for them. After being stuck here training for months, they were probably bored. Seeing the Vulture and Natasha active also seemed to have motivated them. After thinking it over, I decided they had trained enough and allowed them to operate.
"Good! Wait a moment."
I handed them the suits I had made in advance.
"What's this?"
"Suits I made in preparation for this day. I hope you like the designs."
Pietro's suit was sky blue, made with a special material to reduce friction. Jessica's was black, with reinforced gauntlets and impact areas using special metal. Wanda's was a light red. Since she would be flying in the air, she risked being a focus of concentrated fire, so I designed her suit with a focus on defense without sacrificing mobility. All the suits had bulletproof, breathability, and temperature control functions as standard.
With this, hopefully Pietro won't die stupidly by getting shot.
They all wore the suits and seemed satisfied, but Jessica frowned and complained to me.
"I said no spandex! Make mine like Wanda's."
Wanda's suit was indeed not spandex.
"Don't be like that. After all your training, you know now that for high mobility, spandex is good. And Wanda is a telekinetic; her situation is different from yours."
"I know, but... it's embarrassing."
"If you hate it that much, wear something over it."
Just then, Banner, who had been watching Jessica's figure approvingly, said,
"I think it's sexy and good."
"Ah, seriously! Men are impossible. Wanda, say something!"
Jessica asked Wanda, another woman, for support, but contrary to her hopes, Wanda said with an apologetic expression,
"I'm satisfied with mine... sorry."
"Ah, damn! This is insane. You too?"
Hahaha.
Everyone laughed. In the end, Jessica wore a leather jacket over her spandex suit.
Anyway, Jessica, Pietro, and Wanda started their hero activities, following Natasha and the Vulture. I provided them with the Odyssey-class ship and Talaria vehicles. Since hiding the Odyssey-class ship seemed pointless now, I decided to just use it openly.
From this time on, I also began expanding the hero merchandise business. I started selling not only dolls, figures, and toys of each hero, but also clothing and accessories. Furthermore, with permission from Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor, I sold merchandise of them as well, sharing a portion of the profits with them.
The remaining profits were all set aside as a fund for unforeseen circumstances. Unfortunately, Hawkeye was an exception. Because he worked in espionage, he didn't want his identity revealed, and S.H.I.E.L.D. also prevented it, so I couldn't sell his merchandise. Clint was very disappointed. He had every reason to be, as the potential side income was enormous.
Interestingly, the Vulture and Iron Man were the most popular and generated the most income. As expected, mecha fans' support was a force to be reckoned with. Next were the female heroes, followed by Captain America and the others. Captain America didn't seem to mind, but Deadpool and Pietro were a bit dissatisfied. I also had income, but I put all of mine into the emergency fund.
I started this business because I wanted them to be properly compensated. In the original story, Captain America lived in a small apartment provided by S.H.I.E.L.D., and Natasha was the same. Wanda had no home, either living at the Avengers base or wandering. I wanted to end that kind of treatment.
While running the business, I received inquiries about putting ads on the suits, but I rejected all such requests. Instead, I accepted a few TV commercials. The members liked the side income when they weren't busy.