"Pepper! Pepper!"
A desperate shout came from just over the horizon.
Thick black smoke trailed heavily from Iron Man's rear thrusters as he tumbled violently through the air and crashed into the ground.
"Tony!!"
Pepper Potts hurried over to help him up.
She began complaining loudly.
"Why are you acting like this?"
"What exactly is the matter with you?"
Tony opened his damaged steel visor.
He spoke without a single trace of concern.
"You are perfectly fine."
"You know I can't bear to leave my favorite assistant behind."
"It's just a burnt-out thruster."
Tony caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye and noticed that Genoko was looking directly at him.
His ego immediately flared, and his heart began throbbing with absolute confidence.
He naturally assumed that such a heroic and powerful woman was staring at him because she was deeply attracted to his handsome face.
After Tony finished appeasing Pepper, he turned his head back.
A charming, signature smirk crept onto the corner of his mouth.
Just as he was about to say something smooth, Genoko immediately rushed to speak first.
"Tony Stark, I have protected Pepper Potts intact."
"The Master's order has been successfully fulfilled."
"...Master?"
"Oh, is this just Light's twisted bad taste?"
"I truly didn't expect that guy to hide something like this..."
Tony murmured under his breath, looking exactly as if he had just swallowed a fly.
When he opened his mouth to say something else, he was immediately stopped by a weapon.
Click.
Genoko's left hand emitted a cold mechanical sound.
The liquid metal rapidly transformed into a heavy energy cannon pointed directly at Tony's face.
"Mr. Tony Stark, I can distinctly feel your dissatisfaction with the Master."
"I will take lethal action on your very next sentence."
"Tony, shut your mouth!"
Pepper shouted the blame at him while actively stepping forward to block his body.
She purposefully positioned herself in the line of fire, forcing Genoko to lower the glowing weapon.
After all, Pepper had been the designated target of Genoko's procedural protection protocol.
Although the primary mission procedure had been completed, Genoko's logic algorithms prevented her from endangering Pepper before receiving a new command.
Besides, Genoko simply wanted to scare the arrogant playboy.
The lustful thoughts swimming in Tony's head were strangled to death in an absolute instant.
Looking at the massive, smoking trench created by her incineration cannon, he gave a nervous, dry cough.
"I was just joking around!"
"It's just like when Light gave me those bear-shaped biscuits last time."
During their last meeting, Light had stuffed a biscuit into Tony's hand.
Tony couldn't bring himself to actually eat the bizarre item, so he had tossed it to a stray puppy on the side of the road.
Unexpectedly, the puppy's head had instantly transformed into a miniature bear's head.
Tony had almost wet himself in pure fright.
Taking advantage of the fact that no one was paying attention, he had grabbed the mutated dog, driven it straight home, and started running scientific diagnostics.
Ten minutes later, the dog had miraculously reverted back to its original state.
Tony couldn't find a single logical, scientific cause for the anomaly.
He finally realized that the strange cookie was just an elaborate magical prank.
He had marched right up to Light the very next day to demand answers.
However, Light had flatly denied him access for three consecutive days before finally speaking to him again.
Genoko turned around and left the scene without a single shift in her blank expression.
At this exact moment, Phil Coulson's voice called out from the sidelines.
The S.H.I.E.L.D. agent ran over with a disgraced, soot-covered face.
He smiled bitterly at the retreating cyborg.
"You..."
Whoosh!
Genoko completely ignored the federal agent.
Blinding flames spurted violently from the soles of her feet.
She shot straight into the night sky like a launched cannonball.
An incredibly embarrassed Coulson was left standing alone in the dust.
Nick Fury's gruff voice immediately crackled through the secure communicator hidden in Coulson's ear.
"You go to Tony Stark right now and get some answers out of him."
Meanwhile, high above the earth on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier.
"Use all available near-Earth satellites to track that robot's trajectory right this instant."
Nick Fury barked his orders to the bridge agents.
He stood with a dark, uncertain face, deeply frustrated by yet another unknown supernatural incident.
Although S.H.I.E.L.D. had not rushed to the chaotic scene in time, Tony's global importance and his relationship with Howard Stark meant Fury was observing the situation constantly.
The technology displayed by this mysterious blonde woman was undoubtedly several generations more advanced than Tony's prototype armor.
Fury had absolutely no choice but to pay strict attention to her existence.
"Director, Satellite One has lost all target information."
"Satellite Two has lost target information."
"Satellite Three is offline..."
"Satellite Four has lost the target..."
The agents continuously reported losing the tracking feeds one after another.
Fury felt as if he were being fiercely slapped across the face.
Even Tony's Iron Man suit couldn't physically chase after her flight speed, let alone the standard S.H.I.E.L.D. tracking grids.
Somewhere in Manhattan.
"Master, Genoko has officially completed the assigned task."
Light Inksworth watched the live news broadcast on his television screen.
He nodded his head in satisfaction.
"Very well, you can stand down for now."
Because of Light's direct interference, Tony Stark was not treated as the sole hero of the Stark Industries incident like he was in the original movie timeline.
Instead, Genoko's dramatic appearance had violently forced its way into the media's sight and was now being widely reported across every network.
However, there were absolutely no comments on the internet suggesting that she was the character Genos from the manga.
In addition to the unclear visual factors of nighttime recording and extreme distance shooting, there was also the deliberate difference in her appearance.
Genoko's slightly longer blonde hair and female base model helped mask her origins.
Furthermore, the commonality of modern mechanical technology provided an excellent cover story.
Whether it was Iron Man's huge repulsor beams or the energy column of an Incineration Cannon, the visual effects looked almost identical from a significant distance.
Not many people would logically associate a female cyborg with the male manga character Genos.
Of course, there were certainly some manga panels full of similarities that were already being subtly planted in the readers' minds.
"This entire night has been really troublesome."
Light stretched his waist and checked the time before getting ready for bed.
He walked down the hall and greeted Ken Kaneki.
The Ghoul had just emerged from the basement with fresh bloodstains lingering on the corner of his mouth.
After checking on him, Light finally left the house.
This specific property had been purchased and used by Light exclusively to house his summoned entities safely.
Currently, Ken Kaneki was the only permanent biological resident living there.
The Skynet AI, Alice, lived entirely on the global internet network.
The Blue-Eyes White Dragon lived peacefully inside its designated summoning card.
The five Terminator T-800 units, along with Genoko, were assigned to run the manga copying process twenty-four hours a day.
This tireless mechanical labor force meant Light didn't need to waste his own stamina on the Shadow Clone technique to meet deadlines.
After ensuring the secret house was secure, Light headed back to his primary residence to live with Gali and Lorna Dane.
Unlike Light, who was completely relaxed and laid back, Tony was busy dealing with S.H.I.E.L.D. agents using highly perfunctory words.
Tony genuinely hated dealing with such bureaucratic official institutions.
Light also didn't want to establish direct contact with them, nor would he willingly disclose his secrets to the government.
In this specific regard, the two men were considered to be very similar.
Tony, who had just sent Pepper safely away, did not fall asleep so easily tonight.
He stood silently in front of his damaged Mark armor.
His eyes were shining brightly with intense, unyielding inspiration.
"Liquid metal structure..."
"Generating such a powerful energy output makes for a truly terrifying, murderous robotic weapon."
"How exactly did Light invent it?"
"And what about that magical pink door?"
Tony was not frustrated by his own technological inferiority.
On the contrary, he was incredibly stimulated by a high spirit of absolute unwillingness to show weakness.
He confidently walked back to his main console to begin developing a brand new set of advanced armor.
Undoubtedly, Tony Stark was a visionary genius.
Under the direct inspiration of Genoko's existing mechanical display, he would likely cross several generations of Mark suits immediately.
It was highly probable that he would even begin utilizing nano-metals much sooner than expected.
Late at night in New York City, there was still a massive amount of noisy chaos surrounding the Stark Industries campus.
But a specific, isolated house located in the distance was quiet and truly terrifying.
"Blonsky, you absolutely cannot inject Bruce Banner's blood!"
"You will die!"
Dr. Samuel Sterns shouted the warning timidly.
This ruthless military man was already completely crazy.
He actually wanted to inject the gamma-irradiated blood of the beast directly into his veins.
He would either violently burst apart and die, or he would become another uncontrollable monster.
"Hurry up and do it, or I will kill you right now."
Emil Blonsky had originally been ordered by the military to arrest the Hulk.
However, after witnessing Mr. Blue and Mr. Green meet and successfully suppress the Hulk's mutation through a blood infiltration process, Blonsky knew his ultimate chance was coming.
"I will be the most powerful fighter in the world."
"I will easily surpass Captain America."
Blonsky stared intently at Dr. Sterns.
His eyes were burning with an endless, consuming ambition.
After a brief, tense while, a thunderous, terrifying roar echoed from the confined room.
A gigantic, dark brown monster violently broke straight through the reinforced brick wall.
"Hulk!"
"I am coming!!"
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Word count: 1679
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