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As usual, Henry spent his nights at his new secret base in New York, refining the two suits of powered armor—Bullhead and Bunny—according to Gilgamesh's and Thena's requests.
...The names had already been decided.
At this point, there was no way he could refuse to hand ownership over to them.
Besides, while the suit's internal damping system could automatically adjust itself to fit the wearer's physique, that adjustment only had a limited range.
If Henry was roughly a size M, then Gilgamesh was an L, while Thena was an S.
Once the interior had been calibrated and locked into place, none of the three could comfortably wear another person's armor.
So Bullhead and Bunny would most likely become Gilgamesh's and Thena's exclusive equipment.
Thanks to his multifunctional electromagnetic "Magneto Ace" electron microscope, an electric furnace, and plenty of manual shaping, manufacturing the armor and its countless components wasn't nearly as difficult as outsiders imagined.
Although it was nowhere near as fast as when he had still possessed his heat vision and other ocular abilities, Henry had long since adapted to his new methods.
His nanometer-level craftsmanship allowed him to hand-build high-tech powered armor.
With Kryptonian super speed, he couldn't quite finish an entire suit in a single day...
But it wasn't far from that.
Just as Henry had said before, the limiting factor had never been his technical skills.
It was deciding each suit's role and specialization.
At least, lacking sufficient real combat data, he had no idea what actually needed improving.
As for durability...
Honestly, he was strongest when he wasn't wearing armor at all.
So his enthusiasm for building these suits wasn't much different from how he'd once enjoyed collecting model figures before transmigrating.
---
While the Continental Hotel continued making steady progress clearing New York's underground sewer network—encountering Reapers almost daily and even achieving several localized victories—things in Europe were another matter.
Aleksei still hadn't given Henry a definitive answer.
Do I have to source the raw materials for the UV ammunition somewhere outside Europe and North America...?
Just as Henry was pondering the issue, the pink cartoon electronic watch on his wrist suddenly emitted a shrill alarm.
The volume wasn't particularly loud.
Just irritating.
Catherine Hepburn, who also heard it, looked over.
"What's that sound?"
"Oh, Kate. That's the alarm system from my new house. Probably just a mouse triggering one of the building's sensors. I'll go check."
"All right. Be careful."
"Don't worry. It's just a little mouse."
Before leaving, Henry also reminded Hepburn's private nurse.
"Maria, I'll leave everything else to you. Once Skye gets home from school, just explain things to her."
With BB watching over things and Skye around to help, Henry could occasionally slip away without worrying that anything serious would happen.
The truth was...
The alarm wasn't from his house.
It was Aleksei's emergency distress signal.
The moment he stepped outside, Henry activated his super speed and raced straight to the secret base.
---
Recently, whenever they had nothing else to do, Thena and Gilgamesh practically lived there.
On one hand, the base had access to every cable television channel in America, and its projector produced a picture far superior to the large LCD televisions of the era.
The two Eternals had somehow transformed into couch potatoes obsessed with binge-watching TV.
Quite a contrast from how they'd claimed they wanted to find meaningful things to do after settling down in New York.
On the other hand, they could also participate in testing and refining Bullhead and Bunny.
While they couldn't contribute much to the manufacturing itself, their suggestions during testing had significantly accelerated development.
Their eagerness to play with their new toys was no small part of why the two suits had progressed so quickly.
Aleksei's emergency beacon was naturally linked to the base's systems.
The instant he activated it, every computer terminal inside the base displayed warning messages alongside live video feeds.
When Henry arrived at the control room, Gilgamesh and Thena were already there.
Despite being over seven thousand years old—ancient by any definition—the two had picked up computer operation surprisingly quickly during their stay.
Programming and hacking still eluded them.
But ordinary computer use presented no problems anymore.
They'd even started offering Henry suggestions on improving his user interface.
Henry asked,
"Do you know what's happening?"
Gilgamesh laughed.
"Looks like your friend has gotten himself into serious trouble. There are people chasing him everywhere.
"And they don't look human.
"There are werewolves...
"And... hmm... those are vampires, aren't they?"
Watching the live feeds transmitted by Little Duck and the three Sparrow drones—operated by Melina, Natasha, and Yelena and assigned to Aleksei—it was obvious many of the pursuers were moving with speed and agility no ordinary human possessed.
Not to mention the furry creatures whose appearances made their nonhuman identities painfully obvious.
Meanwhile...
The communication channel was filled with Aleksei shouting nonstop in Russian.
Every other sentence was profanity.
He cursed his pursuers.
He cursed Henry for not arriving yet.
For one brief moment...
Henry seriously considered simply watching everything unfold and allowing the Red Guardian's story to end right there.
Instead, he pressed the microphone.
"Aleksei, stop cursing. If you keep it up, I'm not coming to help."
The reply came immediately through the headset.
"You scrawny little bastard! If you chopped off your dick and fed it to an eagle as sausage, it'd only be enough for half a meal! I got into this mess collecting the materials you asked for! Just you try not showing up!"
That was followed by another lengthy stream of Russian profanity.
Listening to it, Henry couldn't help wondering...
If the man still had enough energy to insult him so creatively...
Was the situation really that desperate?
Still...
Since Aleksei had the materials Henry needed, that added another compelling reason to rescue him.
Of course, Henry had no intention of heading into battle unprepared.
He remotely activated the Bear Armor, folding it into its transport configuration.
Then he stepped before the Duck-Leopard Armor (Duck Form) and initiated the equipping sequence.
At the same time, Gilgamesh and Thena walked over to Bullhead and Bunny, pressing their own activation switches.
Henry blinked.
"You're coming too?"
"We're field-testing the armor."
Gilgamesh answered as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
Beside him, Thena simply nodded.
Henry certainly wasn't about to object.
The more allies, the better.
Even if they somehow proved useless—which was practically impossible—their mere presence beat fighting alone.
Besides, neither suit had ever been tested in actual combat.
Why pass up such a perfect opportunity?
---
Fully suited up, the three took turns stepping onto the launch platform.
Henry also secured the folded Bear Armor onto the back of the duck-form suit.
The Bear Armor's transport mode simply retracted several external components into the pilot compartment, significantly reducing its overall size.
It couldn't fold into something as compact as Tony Stark's Mark V, which fit inside a briefcase.
Still...
Compared to its fully deployed form, its volume had been reduced by well over half.
Since it was still daytime in New York, launching three armored figures directly from the rooftop would almost certainly attract unwanted attention.
Instead, the launch tube employed an electromagnetic rail system that accelerated each suit to extreme speeds, catapulting them high into the sky before anyone on the ground had much chance of noticing.
Using anti-gravity devices constructed from Gravitonium, the three suits assembled in the stratosphere...
...then shot eastward.
Their destination:
Europe.
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