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"Oh, there's a gift for me too."
Peter suddenly remembered something and grew animated again.
"Oh, right, Ned and I checked out our secret base. It's incredible. Especially the basement and the forge."
He kept going without pause.
"Ned installed a full surveillance system in the warehouse, with remote access. You can monitor everything in the shop from anywhere."
He grinned. "Uncle Damon handled the hardware. Once he modified it, the entire warehouse became a blind spot-free zone."
Peter hesitated. "Ned said your warehouse manager isn't normal."
Jimmy nodded calmly. "Of course not. His name is Damon McReady, Five years ago, he was a decorated police officer who got framed and sent to prison."
Peter froze.
"…That explains everything."
---
Back in Jimmy's room, Jimmy took out a massive fang.
Nearly twenty centimeters long.
White.
Curved like a hook.
Peter stared.
"Whoa! What is that, A tooth?"
"A python fang."
Peter's eyes widened. "That snake must have been huge."
"Big enough to swallow a four-meter crocodile whole."
Peter fell silent.
Then whispered, "Whoa!"
That was the end of his vocabulary for the moment.
---
The next morning, after breakfast, Jimmy went to the warehouse.
He handed the fang to Damon as a gift for Mindy.
Then he went straight down to the basement.
To work.
Calling it a vibranium ore was not entirely accurate.
This was a vibranium meteorite.
Vibranium itself was extraterrestrial in origin. Most of it had fallen in Wakanda. Smaller fragments had landed elsewhere around the world.
This one.
Even among fragments.
Was enormous.
Jimmy released the entire mass.
The moment it hit the floor, the air felt heavier.
He extended his claws and began cutting.
Sparks exploded.
Metal screamed.
It was like hammering steel spikes into hardened steel.
The resistance was unreal.
Overall, Jimmy's memory-adamantium claws were still superior.
But this was no effortless cut.
The shrill sound was so harsh that when Damon opened the door, he immediately shut it again and backed away.
Jimmy worked for an entire day.
By the end, the outer layer was finally removed.
The surface vibranium that smelled like fertilizer was stripped away completely.
Jimmy planned to use this vibranium later to forge new weapons and armor.
But there was a problem.
He stared at the metal.
Melting it.
Shaping it.
That was beyond him.
Even with his current tools.
"…Tony," Jimmy muttered.
That settled it.
He would take it to Stark.
He packed the refined vibranium into the Horadric Cube.
Smaller fragments went into the safe.
The stripped residue would be used in the lab for experimental planting.
Blood Orchids were easy now.
But Jimmy wanted to test something else.
Blueheart Fruit.
If it could grow on vibranium enriched substrate, the implications were huge.
---
The next day, Jimmy arrived at Stark Industries.
With him were the vibranium mass, his damaged blades, and his reforged armor.
For once, Tony was not buried in the lab.
He was working on vehicle modifications.
A rare sight.
"Jimmy," Tony said, genuinely pleased. "What brings you here today?"
"My weapons and armor are damaged," Jimmy replied. "I need help fixing them."
Tony waved a dismissive hand. "You should just upgrade. Have you seen my armor? Bulletproof. Flight capable. Missile resistant."
Jimmy did not answer.
Instead, he reached into the Cube.
"No," Jimmy said flatly. "I don't want to be a superhero. Why would I need that?"
He shook his head without hesitation.
Tony blinked, then sighed. "Alright, can't argue with that, Kids these days."
He waved it off. "Your flower is already in a lab, by the way."
Jimmy looked up.
"I handed it over to the Biotech Lab," Tony continued casually. "The lead researcher is a woman named Gail Stern. The lab is currently overseen by Gordon Mitchell. Same people from that expedition."
He shrugged. "Go check it out in a couple of days. If it's useful, great. If not, have Pepper help you bring in a few real experts."
From Tony's tone, it was obvious he did not take the Blood Orchid very seriously.
He had seen too many miracle projects used to bait investors.
"Right," Jimmy said. "I actually found a metal while I was out there. Thought you might want to take a look. Should I put it here, or…"
"What?" Tony's head snapped up. "You found another strange metal."
His eyes lit up instantly. "Show me."
"Where do you want it?"
"Just put it on the side table."
"Alright," Jimmy said, smiling faintly.
Then.
Boom!
The table disappeared beneath a massive slab of metal.
The floor trembled.
Tony stared.
Then stared harder.
Then looked back at Jimmy.
"…Where did you pull something that big from?"
Jimmy lifted the necklace from his neck. "In here, there's a space inside, I can feel it. I just put things in and take them out."
Tony froze.
Then leaned closer. "Can I study it?"
"Of course," Jimmy replied. "I want to know how it works too."
Tony stopped.
"You're serious."
"Why wouldn't I be?"
That level of trust hit harder than Tony expected.
"…Alright," Tony said quietly. "In the future, don't trust people this easily."
Then, softer, "But thanks."
---
They moved into the main lab.
Test after test followed.
Based on Jimmy's descriptions and Tony's scans, the space inside the object was not mechanical.
It was energy-based.
Fixed in volume.
Access required Jimmy's conscious focus.
Tony compared it to a vault.
The lock was Jimmy's brainwave pattern.
Brainwaves were more unique than DNA. Even identical twins did not share the same patterns. And brainwaves shifted constantly.
Yet the cube recognized Jimmy every time.
If this were computation, then the processing power involved exceeded JARVIS by orders of magnitude.
Tony shook his head.
"No," he muttered. "This isn't code."
He looked up slowly.
"This is closer to magic."
That alone would have been shocking.
But then JARVIS finished scanning the metal.
"Tony," the AI said calmly. "Material identified, Vibranium."
Tony went completely still.
He stared at the massive block.
Then laughed once.
Then stopped laughing.
"This much," he said quietly. "This is absurd."
Captain America's shield had required only a fraction of this material. And even that had been a once-in-a-lifetime accident, impossible to replicate.
Not because the process was unknown.
But because vibranium itself was impossibly rare and expensive.
Tony looked at Jimmy again.
"You understand what this means, right?"
Jimmy nodded. "That's why I brought it to you."
Tony exhaled slowly.
The lab lights reflected off the dark, inert surface of the metal.
A single thought ran through his mind.
The world was not ready for this.
And neither was he.
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