Pepper was sitting on the big, soft couch, watching the bright colors on the television screen. The sounds from the TV filled the quiet room. She was so focused on her show that she did not hear the first time Tony spoke to her.
"What?" Pepper asked, turning her head away from the screen. She looked at Tony with a confused expression on her face.
"I said how big are your hands?" Tony repeated his strange question. He stood near the doorway, his face looking a little pale and serious.
"What do you mean?" Pepper felt a small wave of puzzlement. Tony often said odd things, but this question seemed especially weird. She could not understand what he was thinking about.
"Come down and do me a favor," Tony said. His voice was low and he sounded like he needed help right away.
Pepper felt a little bad for leaving her guest alone. She turned to Lin Yu, who was sitting quietly in a chair nearby. "Sorry, Tony told me to go to the basement." she said to him.
Lin Yu had been watching the whole conversation quietly. A small, knowing smile appeared on his lips. He understood why Tony needed Pepper. He was sure Tony needed her to help change the powerful blue light in his chest. "Well, it's okay." Lin Yu said in a friendly voice. "I am just going to go out for a stroll. Let me say hello to Tony."
"Well, I will." Pepper nodded. She gave a small, polite smile and then walked quickly towards the stairs that led down to the basement.
"I am going out." Lin Yu also said to the empty room. He stood up and stretched his arms. He thought about going outside to see more of this new world.
Lin Yu had spent the entire last night learning about this world. He used his small, powerful computer, which he called Xiao Ai. He searched through the world's internet for many hours. He found that this world seemed mostly normal, except for one big difference. The X-Men were real and people knew about them. Maybe other amazing people had not shown up yet. He thought it was because he had arrived in this world at an early time.
For example, the Hulk. In the order of events, Tony had not yet built his Mark 3 suit and officially become Iron Man. The Hulk appeared after Iron Man. So, Dr. Banner probably had not turned into the big green monster yet.
Also, Captain America was most likely still frozen deep in ice. The god named Thor had not come to Earth. The young hero called Spider-Man had not appeared either. But Lin Yu did find a boy named Peter Parker on the internet. The boy was in elementary school in Queens, New York. This Peter was the young version, and it would probably be years before he became Spider-Man.
He also found no news of a team called the Fantastic Four. Maybe they did not exist in this world, or they would appear much later.
Today, Lin Yu decided he would visit the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters. He wanted to meet the famous Professor X. He wanted to see if this professor was the young one or the old one. This would help him understand which version of the X-Men story he was in.
Lin Yu did not use his super speed to get there. He was feeling a little bored and had no hurry. He thought a slow walk would be nice. So he left Tony's big house and started walking down the street like a normal person.
As he walked, Lin Yu used his special power, the power of reality. He made three sharp metal claws appear on each of his hands. The metal was a special alloy called Elman. It was very strong. He dragged the claws along the things he passed by the curb. He scratched the tall weeds, the bark of the street trees, and the wooden telephone poles. His behavior looked like that of a bored child walking home from school, hitting a stick against everything. It seemed very silly.
The Elman alloy claws were incredibly sharp. They cut through everything Lin Yu touched without any effort. Of course, Lin Yu was not a bad person. He did not want to ruin the city. The moment he walked past a scratched tree or a cut weed, he used his red reality power again. He fixed the damage instantly, making everything look perfect once more.
After walking with no real direction for almost an hour, Lin Yu's stomach began to feel empty. He decided it was time to eat. He used his super speed for just a moment. In a blur, he arrived at a different city block. The air here smelled of cooked meat and fried food. He went to a small restaurant and bought a large hamburger and a big cup of soda, which people sometimes call happy water. He started walking again, taking big bites of his food and sips of his sweet drink.
Not far from where Lin Yu was walking, a tall bridge for cars stretched over the road. On the guardrail of this bridge sat a very strange man. He wore a full body suit that was bright red. Two long knives were strapped to his back. Next to him on the rail sat a small machine that played music, like a radio, and two pens. The machine was playing loud, fast music with strong and violent words.
The man's body moved back and forth with the beat of the music. His feet shook nervously. He was also drawing on a piece of paper. If you stood behind him, you would see his drawing. It was a cartoon version of himself, holding two guns. The guns were pointed at another cartoon person. The other person had a word bubble near his head that said, "Hey. I am Francis."
The man in red muttered along with the music. "If beauty can kill, you are a submachine gun and a shotgun."
He was completely lost in his own world. Suddenly, he looked up at the empty air as if he saw something there. He began to speak to nothing. "Oh. Oh, hello." he said.
"I understand. You must be wondering, whose balls did I kneel and lick in exchange for a movie starring me?" he asked the invisible person.
"I cannot tell you. But his name rhymes with golden anal wolf. I can tell you that those two Aussie balls under him are still pretty handsome." he said with a crazy laugh.
"Stop talking. I am going to get my face treated." The man in red looked down from the bridge at the road below. He saw a line of cars and motorcycles driving together down the street. He knew they were bad people. "There are still a few bad guys to kill." he told the air.
"Go all out." he yelled.
The weird man in the red suit took a very deep breath. He pushed himself off the guardrail and jumped down from the high bridge.
"Boom." He fell straight down. He crashed right through the glass sunroof of a car that was driving below. His body landed inside the car. The car shook violently from the impact. It swerved and smashed hard into the car next to it, pushing that car into the concrete guardrail with a loud crunch of metal.