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….
It was… stylish. A bit narcissistic, considerably embellished, slightly vulgar, but stylish.
To my shame, I successfully missed the opening of the exhibition itself, because I wasn't interested in local television, and generally, I had a lesson that day where I was inspiringly showing the kids in colors and panoramic illusions how the ancestors of their classmate Piotr Rasputin (widely known as "Colossus") cynically bent over the Vikings.
Therefore, I could only observe Anthony Stark's self-aggrandizement from the Stark Expo podium in a recording, and even then only after watching his epic rinsing of the Senate committee on the Iron Man technology issue in the choicest crap topped with shaving foam.
What can I say? Tony is a handsome devil. I would have done better, but he's still a handsome devil, but everyone has flaws.
And yes, my "better" would have been much more painful, offensive, and would have cost all involved and most active congressmen, senators, and military officials their careers, property, and quite possibly, their lives.
…I won't say I saw anything reprehensible in that. On the contrary, I genuinely considered it the best option…
Lately, I've started treating people somewhat strangely. I mean, I live and work in America, I have a bunch of… well… at least acquaintances among Americans, but at the same time, I still consider Western barbarians, from Poland to San Francisco, creatures whose lives aren't worth an extra minute of my time spent persuading them.
Come to think of it, even the fact that I call them "Western barbarians" was already a pretty serious warning bell, but understanding with my mind all the incorrectness of my state, I could do little, I just absolutely didn't give a damn about their lives and feelings.
The exception was those with whom I had managed to become more or less friends, but even for them, I wouldn't risk my life.
Adding extra dissonance to the picture was the fact that I liked doing good deeds.
That is, I was ready to easily kill the entire population of the USA, and right there, simultaneously, I was ready to help part of this population to the best of my ability.
From such a hodgepodge, even the gears in my head were slipping, but it's good that at least no maniacal urges have happened yet.
But back to Tony Stark.
Having evaluated his public appearances, I found them very familiar, and therefore, without thinking long, decided to visit the prodigal billionaire.
He lived in constant travel and flights, but he still had a permanent apartment, if you can call a three-story mansion in Malibu on the seashore with a multi-level basement for a car collection an apartment.
I had to get to California on my own, although Xavier most likely wouldn't have refused to lend his little plane for a ride, after all, I saved the world for him, made life much easier for a bunch of students, and generally am a charmer.
But firstly, I wasn't burning with desire to let the X-Men in on my plans regarding Stark ahead of time.
Secondly, the "Blackbird" was undoubtedly a good plane, but I had doubts about its stealth, especially for the time it would have to wait for me on the ground.
And thirdly, it was simply more interesting for me to take a ride on the local small aviation lines.
In short, I made it. And yes, this was the very mansion where Tony created his armor, it was hard not to recognize the setting, as well as the four suits of armor displayed under glass in the workshop.
There was the very first artisanal Humpty Dumpty assembled by Stark in a cave from some junk, and the steel prototype that a certain black guy was supposed to steal later, and finally the final version of the golden-red color in two copies, which had already managed to thunder throughout the world.
Penetrating the estate was no harder than entering the open doors of a restaurant. No, Tony's security system was up to par, but Earth technologies simply didn't allow seeing me if I didn't want to be seen.
It was much harder to find Stark himself in this palace.
Even on death's door, he was a natural whirligig, jumping somewhere and doing something all the time, and his bickering with Pepper Potts…
This was something between "young couple, ten years married," "good-for-nothing hooligan brother and responsible sister trying to set his brains straight," "cheeky goofball schoolboy and strict teacher," "petty tyrant boss and poor secretary," and finally, "two nervous psychopaths on a trip."
Moreover, both received a lot of pleasure from their bickering, although Miss Potts tried with all her might to show otherwise.
One way or another, having wandered like a silent shadow behind the billionaire for several hours, I managed not only to hear all sorts of informational noise, including conversations about life with a certain semblance of artificial intelligence responding to "Jarvis," but also to form a preliminary opinion about Stark.
I must say, outwardly he fully corresponded to his image from the movies, but there was a very important detail: Anthony Stark in the movies was a very different person; I would even say that in different movies he represented different characters.
And I'm not talking about the fact that during the release of the "Avengers" series, three different people played his father, one of the mother variants was a man, and even his black friend completely changed his appearance once.
The fact is that in different pictures he really showed contradictory character traits.
One moment he spins the government's desires to obtain his technologies on his reproductive organ, then a couple of films later he's the first running to sign enslaving contracts submitting the "Avengers" to the authorities, and even provokes a war among the personnel, arranging a brawl of a bunch of superhumans in a densely populated city.
One moment he personally flies to beat up all sorts of militants in the Persian Gulf region, then he couldn't care less about information that some guys are dealing weapons based on alien technologies in his hometown and are strong enough to almost kill Spider-Man without the slightest loss to themselves.
In short, one moment he's a selfless hero, then an assholish indifferent guy, then a self-respecting smart and far-sighted strategist, then an obedient doormat for the authorities, and so on, there's a lot to recall there.
And all this uncertainty with "now I'm building Avengers Tower, now I'm selling Avengers Tower", it worried me considerably.
Somehow I didn't want to deal with a crazy jerk billionaire capable of creating the most advanced Earth weapon on his knee.
So, returning to the opinion formed in the process of observation. And this opinion sounded like… "Hell if I know!"
….
Bonus Chapter on every 500 power stones;
If you want to read ahead by 20+ chapters from here you can visit my Patre-on.
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