[Ding! System sync: mission updated.]Shion's tone in Ryuuto's head was annoyingly chipper. He jabbed a thought back at her.
Where is Loki now?[Sorry, I don't know.]
Ryuuto scowled. "You really don't know, or you're lying."
[I really don't know. I'm a system administrator, not the future oracle. Host—]"Call me Ryuuto." He liked the sharpness of it; carried less baggage.
[Okay. Ryuuto, remember what I said: system missions are dynamic. The capture-Loki-alive mission popped because something triggered it. It wasn't pre-scripted from the start.]
Ryuuto's gut tightened. The Manhattan lab explosion. Of course those two were connected. He keyed Tony with a thought.
"Tony, should we head there now?"
"I've got to," Tony replied. "My main suit's busted, but I've got spares. You come with me—I'll need your help."
Ryuuto didn't need convincing. Whatever hit the lab felt like Loki's kind of chaos. If the trickster was back on Earth, the party would only get louder.
Tony suited up two armors and gave Ryuuto a quick tutorial. The suits link to the nervous system—think it, the suit moves. Ryuuto only needed the basics: thrust and stabilization. That, and the thrill of flying in full armor, which Tony described like a kid hyped on rocket fuel.
Pepper watched them take off from the villa, then, because she was Pepper, she shut down power and drove off in a sports car like nothing happened—business as usual.
Manhattan smelled of smoke and scorched metal. The lab roof had a baseball-sized hole in it and an angry plume of black smoke still clawed at the sky. Bystanders pointed and cheered when the two Iron Men touched down—because one Iron Man is showy, two are a spectacle.
Tony hopped out, faceplate up, and played Mr. CEO-First-Responder. "I'm Tony Stark, Avengers. Clear the perimeter. Evacuate. Leave it to us and the fire crew. If you want to be listed as a witness, fine—if not, disperse."
People obeyed. Money and hero-status buy you that. After the crowd thinned, Tony and Ryuuto pushed into the wreck.
"J.A.R.V.I.S., scan the site. How many casualties?" Tony barked.
"No bodies found, sir," J.A.R.V.I.S. replied.
Tony's jaw tightened. "Impossible. People would've been in there."
"Probable removal detected," J.A.R.V.I.S. added. "Items secured prior to explosion likely. Recommend locating Dr. Reese—alive or otherwise—for accurate inventory."
Tony closed his mouth. The lab had been rumored to be moving equipment; Tony had even told Dr. Reese to move sensitive stuff. Now the lab was ash and smoke. Who would have the guts—and tech—to track a Stark-made missile back to this spot?
Ryuuto scanned the wreck with practiced calm. Heat still licked the metal, but armor kept him comfortable. No Loki signatures. No obvious tampering beyond the missile strike. Susan Storm's presence in the earlier timeline nagged at him; she'd snooped here before the blast.
He turned to Tony. "Call Director Nick. Get SHIELD to pull every contact trace for Susan Storm. If she poked around here, we need her number—now."
Tony's face briefly showed the exact mix of anger and headache only billionaires with genius-level problems show. "On it. J.A.R.V.I.S., full trace. Nick, we're going to need you on comm."
They spread out—Tony to coordinates and comm channels, Ryuuto moving like a shadow over the scorched perimeter, a predator smelling a rat. The lab had no bodies but it had fingerprints—digital ones. Someone wanted this off the grid fast. Someone fast and careful enough to take people out without leaving corpses.
Ryuuto's nails dug into his palm. Loki. Susan. Missile. Too many moving pieces.
He let Shion ping his mind with a single, sardonic note.[Ding! SS-level mission unlocked: capture Loki alive. Reward: On-target data packet.]
Ryuuto's lips twitched. Shion was helpful when she wanted to be. This is my kind of mission, he thought, eyes hard as flint.
"Let's move," he said to Tony. "Find every trace of Susan. Nick should get on this before it spreads."
Tony nodded. Two Iron Men on the case. The city didn't know it yet, but tonight would get worse before it got better.