LightReader

Chapter 18 - God Among Men

At 3:20 AM3:20 AM, downstairs at Heisenberg Tower, Pepper Potts waited quietly with a smile on her face.

No one knew how long she'd been waiting. In any case, by the time Happy half-carried Tony out, Pepper's eyes were practically burning.

"Let go of me, seriously… how could I possibly lose a drinking battle to him!"

Tony's polished dress shoes were already scraping along the ground. Those uppers that could've been used as mirrors were now scuffed to hell.

But even drunk as a wreck, the instant he saw Pepper…

"Damn Heisenberg, if you've got the guts, pour me another drink, I… oh my God, Pepper?!"

Swish.

Stark stood up straight in a flash.

"What would you like to do, Mr. Stark?" Pepper asked gently.

Tony pressed his lips together and instinctively tugged at his collar.

"I… I drank way too much!"

Thud.

He toppled stiffly into the car.

Happy kept his head low, trying to squeeze in after him, but Pepper stopped him outside the car.

"Drive my car back. I want to take him home myself this time. It's rare he didn't bring those magazine-trash girls back tonight."

As soon as Pepper finished, Happy looked at Stark with instant sympathy.

The unconscious Stark quietly twitched the corner of his mouth.

Seeing the "don't leave" signal Stark sent with that tiny expression, Happy immediately chose the path of least resistance.

"Keys and Boss are all yours. Have fun, you two!"

He vanished the moment he finished speaking.

Watching Happy walk away, Pepper smiled helplessly, then sat in the driver's seat of the Koenigsegg.

Ignition, gas, the car rolled forward slowly.

Right then, Pepper froze.

"Huh?"

She patted Tony's arm.

"Did I drink too much too? Why does it look like someone's waving in the sky?"

Hearing that, Tony forced his heavy eyes open and glanced in the direction Pepper pointed.

Of course he knew that was Heisenberg.

That bastard was floating right in the middle of the intersection, waving goodbye.

But wasn't this guy being a little too shameless?

Couldn't you hide your identity a bit? Do you really have to show off your powers and steal the attention that should be mine?

The more Tony thought, the more his Iron Man pride surged up.

Don't forget, he was still wearing his portable armor.

That was also the reason Pepper dared to drive him home herself without worrying about kidnapping or robbery.

But now, Tony's portable Mark V armor blasted straight out of the Koenigsegg and shot toward Heisenberg in the sky.

In the eyes of countless reporters watching Iron Man, Iron Man charged with unstoppable momentum at a person floating in midair!!!

And in the next instant.

Boom!!!

A violent shockwave whipped Pepper's hair around like crazy.

Pepper was completely blank. What just happened?

For some reason, Tony flew up into the air. Luckily the car was a convertible…

Then Tony came back to the car, on the condition that a muscular man in pajamas pressed Tony's head and chest down and forced him from the sky back into the car.

That muscular man?

Pajamas?

That suggestive posture?

And Tony was the one underneath…

"Wuu…" Pepper almost cried.

Thankfully, the muscular man explained quickly.

"Pepper Potts, tsk, Iron Man's precious little sweetheart."

"I'm Heisenberg. Sorry I got this bastard a little drunk. Please forgive me."

"Forgive you, absolutely," Pepper said politely. "So can you let go of Tony now?"

"As long as he won't randomly charge at me again."

Heisenberg smiled as he let Tony go.

Then he hovered in front of the Koenigsegg and raised a very clear middle finger at Tony.

"Bye-bye, Tony 'I can totally drink'…"

"Fuck you, Heisenberg, fuck you…"

Tony raised a heavy hand and replied.

Heisenberg laughed as he flew away, then quickly stopped downstairs at his own tower.

A few reporters wanted to crowd in, but Heisenberg only shook his head at them.

"Go chase that drunk playboy. Don't waste your energy on me. I've got my own happiness to go look for too!"

After speaking, Heisenberg shot into the air.

By the time the reporters snapped out of it and started searching for Heisenberg's position…

He was already in bed with the two prettiest girls.

After a little "exercise" all night, Heisenberg climbed out of bed and pushed away the two girls' hands and legs.

After shoving aside the octopus-like obstacles, Heisenberg went full nude and dashed straight into the swimming pool.

The moment he hit the water, he muttered in his heart.

"Clean up all bodily fluids I leaked outside. How much?"

"0.620.62 cubic units."

"OK!"

Heisenberg completely ignored whatever complaints the system might have and directly dragged the system's value toward some certain Du-surname brand.

Poor system…

And poor S.H.I.E.L.D. too…

It had only been one day, yet all those Heisenberg saliva cells and samples they'd collected had completely disappeared.

Forget S.H.I.E.L.D. for now. Back to Heisenberg.

After swimming for a while, Heisenberg noticed Barbara was dealing with the two girls he'd "worked on" last night.

But now, those two women didn't have a trace of last night's seductive charm left.

After all, who would still have energy after fighting a Kryptonian all night?

Besides, Barbara brought thugs into the villa to kick people out.

The girls, who'd been rudely woken up in bed, were furious, screaming that they wanted Heisenberg to come say goodbye.

Barbara didn't buy it at all. She directly brought in female bouncers and dragged the girls out together with the bedsheets.

After a while, the rooftop fell quiet again.

Barbara frowned, carrying a towel, and walked to the poolside.

"You're really fine with letting me throw out trash for you every day?"

"And what do you want to do?" Heisenberg smiled. "Be trash?"

Heisenberg floated straight out of the pool.

Not caring whether Barbara was peeking, he took the towel, wiped himself casually, then wrapped it around his waist and strolled toward the lounge chair.

"I really didn't expect you to become this lazy," Barbara sighed, watching him. "Back at S.H.I.E.L.D., you were so arrogant it felt like you couldn't wait to do something to the world."

Without turning his head, Heisenberg replied, "What do you think I'm going to do, blow up Earth? Sunbathing is the only serious business."

As he spoke, Heisenberg threw himself back under the sunlight.

"And you're not worried about your nightclub? Billy's asking you about the next theme."

"I am." Heisenberg flashed, instantly went to the storage cabinet, pulled out a camera, and tossed it to Barbara.

"There's a photo of Tony Stark looking stupid in there. Print it into promotional posters."

"Next theme, use Iron Age."

"Mhm. Poor Iron Man." Barbara snorted as she looked. "He looks like he's about to cry."

"Haha, that's right." Heisenberg laughed. "Barbara, if you look at it from another angle, he looks more like he's constipated."

"Tony's going to hate you for life."

"Should I be scared?"

While Heisenberg soaked up solar radiation under the sun, Tony had already climbed out of bed.

As usual, he instinctively wanted to fling away his bed partner's hand.

Because he was a playboy. Any woman he'd slept with, he wouldn't love again…

"Hm?"

"Pepper?"

"Oh my God!"

"What the hell did I do?!"

What was I just thinking?

Wouldn't love again?

No, no, no…

So good.

Tony went stiff.

Because lying beside him right now… was the little pepper he loved most.

At this moment, Pepper also woke from sleep.

Getting dressed, washing up, somehow they didn't really talk about last night at all. They simply did what they were supposed to do, naturally.

As if they'd been together for a long time.

They had no idea last night was also their first time.

But this time, after Pepper cleaned up the tableware and finally put on her work outfit…

"Tony… your chest…"

She couldn't help asking.

Once upon a time, she hadn't really done anything with Tony.

But last night, after she saw everything she was supposed to see…

Tony's arc reactor scared her.

To be exact, she'd seen the reactor plenty of times. A glowing circle wasn't enough to scare her.

But now, around the reactor on Tony's chest, there were black marks like spiderwebs. What was that?

Hearing her, Tony's hand holding coffee trembled slightly.

"Just a small problem. Easy to solve."

"Is that so?" Pepper stared at him. "I really want to believe you, but you're not good at lying to me, Tony."

"Mhm." Tony forced a smile. "No one wants to lie to an angel fallen into the mortal world, believe me."

"Then tell me… alright…"

In the end, Pepper didn't press further, because she understood Tony Stark too well.

The more you forced him, the less honest he became. For some things, asking Tony himself was worse than quietly asking JARVIS when Tony wasn't around.

So Pepper quietly shifted the topic.

"That man last night?"

"The one who can fly in the sky and has more strength than your armor. Is he your superhero buddy?"

Pepper picked a good entry point and asked.

Mentioning Heisenberg made Tony turn serious immediately.

He fell silent for a while, then shook his head.

"Buddy is a long way off. He might even become an enemy."

"Hm?" Pepper didn't understand. "You didn't look like enemies last night."

"Only last night." Tony's expression sank. "He… there's no mercy in his eyes. We're not the same kind of people."

Tony clapped his hands, and the TV turned on.

The news channel was excitedly running anything related to Heisenberg.

Including Whiplash being killed by Heisenberg, and Iron Man being pressed back into the car by Heisenberg.

Tony didn't care about how embarrassing it was that Heisenberg had subdued him last night.

He pulled out the clip of Heisenberg killing Whiplash and replayed it again and again.

"If it were me, I'd only defeat him, then send him to prison so he gets the punishment he deserves under the law."

"But Heisenberg…"

Tony shook his head hard again.

"He doesn't care at all."

After that, Tony sat back down on the couch, pressing the back of his head firmly into the cushion.

He didn't know if it was thinking of Heisenberg or the hangover, but his head hurt badly.

Pepper pressed her lips together, walked over quietly, and massaged Tony's forehead.

With the warmth his lover gave him, Tony forced himself to continue.

"Superman. We've all read those comics."

"But no matter how much you love that hero in the comics, nobody wants an invincible god among men to appear in reality."

"Especially when Heisenberg isn't Superman at all. He doesn't have Superman's compassion and kindness toward Earthlings."

"At best, he's an Injustice Superman."

"And I have to admit, for Earth, an Injustice Superman is far more terrifying than Superman."

/-\ 

Enjoying the story? Want to read ahead? 

Support the novel and unlock early access to unreleased chapters! 

~ +20 Advanced Chapters Available on Patreon! (+1 Chapter daily) 

https://p-atreon.com/Its_Zack 

(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access Patreon normally) 

More Chapters