Make sure to check my Patre.on out if you want to support me and want to read advanced chapters: Patre.on.com/VQuintessence
[20 Chapters in Advance on Patre.on]
...........
Chapter 73: They're Cooking!!
...........
"The big boss…" Tony's eyes twitched. "Dracula? Is every myth just fucking true? What? Now you would say even God exists?"
"Yeah, actually. "Adam nodded, finally looking at him. "After seeing certain things, and based on truths my imaginary friends insist on, I'm operating under the assumption that every major mythos is real. Better safe than incinerated by a millennia-old lord of the undead."
[That's us!]
[Tony's worldview is getting a medieval horror expansion pack.]
["Better safe than incinerated." A solid life philosophy, really. Especially in Marvel.]
[Is there any mythos that isn't actually real in Marvel?]
Tony ran a hand through his hair, letting out a long, weary sigh. "Jesus. The world is… It's fucked up. Mutants, now vampires and demons? Can I assume that aliens and gods exist too?"
"How are we supposed to keep up? I'm starting to feel seriously paranoid. My own AI is running threat assessments for such entities... It's overheating."
Adam smiled, a genuine, warm expression that clashed violently with their conversation.
"Don't overthink it, Tony. This world is beautiful. So much potential. Sure, there's deep, ancient evil skulking about. But you needn't be so serious."
"Learn to face it with a smile. Learn to laugh a little more. Enjoy the process, even when it's atrocious. Then life will brighten, life will become a shroom simulator, fucking exquisite."
Tony stared at him, his mouth twitching. "That… is something a profoundly crazy person would say."
"How can I not overthink it? How do you 'enjoy the process' when everything is actively trying to turn into a Gothic nightmare? Christ, what did HYDRA do to you?"
Adam actually laughed, a bright, unfiltered sound. "Yeah, they really gave it their all trying to break me. But I just laughed it off. Sanity prevailed. Cool, no?"
"Sanity prevailed?" Tony repeated, sarcasm dripping from every syllable. "Cypher, from the moment I met you, it was clear you're operating on a different… firmware. You seem to really hate it when people take pity on you, though."
Adam's smile didn't fade, but his head tilted. "Eh, kinda right. It's one of my pet peeves. Many of my imaginary friends run a whole pity circus for me. It's misplaced and annoying."
He spread his hands, gesturing to himself and the magnificent workshop around them. "How can you pity this? I'm great. Handsome. Smart. The best, really. My backstory is fucking amazing. So entertaining. So funny."
He leaned against the workbench, his tone turning contemplative.
"Honestly, I don't think I suffered that much. I know of countless characters; real, fictional, whatever; who've had it worse."
"There's a reason pain is my first wife, Tony. I love her. So if anything, I should thank HYDRA. They taught me to savor pain, to face the abyss with a grin."
He chuckled as if amused by his own words, "Now I've got a demon king personally tailoring misfortune for me from the shadows, and you know what? It makes me laugh at night."
"My life is a hilarious cosmic show. That's why the pity offends me. They should be cackling along with me, or at least appreciating the cool, fun aesthetic. I love my life and myself. They should learn to enjoy the process a little bit more."
[Pain is his first wife? I can't!]
[He did mention before that trouble is his second wife, but goddamn, I didn't expect him to love pain so much.]
[Mmm, it feels like he's crazier but also saner than expected, don't know how to explain it.]
[I see what he means, though! Like, so many women are like, aww, I wish I could give him a hug, all sorts of pity talk, like chill out.]
[True true, they want to get into his pants.]
[Hey, I want to get into his pants too, but I'm a man, understand him better, so I just always laugh at his jokes even if I don't find them funny, smart, no?]
[Fucking genius.]
[I also understand him. He wants to give us a good, entertaining show, not to trauma dump.]
[True though, there are a lot more tragic characters throughout stories.]
Tony was left speechless. It wasn't bravado. It wasn't a mask. Adam was genuinely, ecstatically in love with the horrific rollercoaster of his own existence.
He was envious; trouble just makes him paranoid and unable to sleep. Where is the pill or acid that can make it so trouble can make him laugh... Fuck.
Also, he mentions his imaginary friends a lot. Tony was curious if it was some kind of mutant bullshit, just craziness, or maybe something like an AI legion?
"Right," Tony finally said, deciding the philosophical minefield was best avoided. "So, you're hunting Dracula. And you need… what, an arc reactor-powered garlic press?"
"Help me finalize the Null's weapon systems," Adam said, gesturing to the suit standing dormant in a charging cradle at the far end of the trailer.
The 'Null' suit was even more imposing up close; the white and black chassis, the six silently coiled arms. "I feel like it isn't destructive enough."
Destructive is the highest priority for Adam right now. He's facing incomprehensible entities, so he naturally has fear of lack of firepower.
Tony's engineer brain instantly engaged, pushing aside existential dread. He approached the suit, whistling softly.
"The arms are a great idea. Redundancy, multi-tasking. I might borrow that. You named it?"
"Null. Cool, yeah?"
"It's pretentious. I love it." Tony pulled up a holographic interface, syncing with the suit's diagnostic feed.
"Alright, let's see… you've got good baseline sensors. Let's widen the spectrum. If these things have heat signatures or emit specific bio-electrical fields, we want to see them in pitch dark through a brick wall."
"Your emitters are brute force. You need variable-output arrays. Sometimes you want a wide-dispersal UV flashbang. Sometimes you want a focused, laser-guided particle beam."
Adam watched, nodding, inputting the changes with his technopathy. "Smart-munition launchers," He suggested. "Stakes with micro-guidance. Holy water gel-packs that explode on contact."
"Kinetic redirection system," Tony countered, pointing to the suit's torso. "If a ten-ton or even hundred-ton vampire hits you, absorbing it sounds like a bad idea; you may be able to channel it into a ground-shockwave."
"But... Not something we can work on quickly, so let's throw the idea in the bin for now and hope vampires don't pack hundred-ton in them."
He circled the suit. "And your thrusters… You have a multivector system, full omni-directional movement through the six mechanical arms. That's cool, but they're so packed with tech that their energy is sacrificed."
"You should really think about setting up thrusters for flight only. They're for travel and speed after all, yours don't have much of it."
For the next hour, the two geniuses; one a futurist born of legacy and industry, the other a chaotic savant forged in a lab and through envy; worked in sync.
The trailer brimmed with activity. Schematics matured. Components were printed, tested, and integrated.
It was a symphony of applied paranoia.
They debated whether plasma temperatures would be efficient against vampires, why the sun works against them, and whether it is replicable.
Then, there was the possibility of silver dust, and the theoretical best frequency to make a vampire's skull resonate until it shattered.
[Tony Stark still rules the technological sides of things. Adam is still behind.]
[Adam has technopathy but not nearly as much time and experience as Tony, so yeah.]
[Notice how Tony just accepts the "imaginary friends" and "demon king" stuff now? He's adapting.]
Finally, as the last modification was flashed to the suit's core, Tony leaned back, wiping grease from his hands onto his already-ruined vest.
"Okay. I think Null just went from 'prototype' to 'nightmare delivery system.' You're still probably going to die, but you'll look spectacular doing it."
Adam powered down the main workbench. "That's the goal, a cool ending." He checked a chronometer. "Time's up. Meeting's in twenty."
"Meeting?" Tony asked. "Who else did you invite to this undead safari?"
"The specialist," Adam said cryptically, changing out of his dirty clothing and moving to the front of the trailer.
He slid into the driver's seat. "Buckle up, Stark. We're about to meet Aura personified."
"Again with the childish words," Tony shook his head in exasperation as he cleaned himself up, "Hope he's actually as cool as you make him to be, or in my eyes, you'll just be sucking up to your high school crush."
"The word Aura will grow on you, trust. Plus, there is always a child in us that never leaves... That sounded kinda wrong, well, whatever, you get what I mean." Adam shrugged.
Tony facepalmed.
With a deep thrum, the truck's engines engaged and drove off, leaving Tony's car behind.
The truck was a fucking machine, and Adam loved it, making him curious if he could create something like Optimus Prime, it's the coolest shit he'd ever seen after all.
[Yes please!]
[Bring Optimus to Marvel!]
[There are some shit that function similarly to transformers in Marvel! Just need to modify and improve it!]
[Guys, we have a mission! Do research and feed Adam info!]
[We must make Project Optimus happen!]
[Imagine Adam with a legion of transformers! So fucking cool!]
[Man, he can even make his techsexual fantasies come true! Let's make it happen!]
[Dude, what?!] [+1]
[I like what u cooking man! Give me some 2B and Android 18!]
[U guys are cooking something, and it smells so fucking good!]
[Make it happen, Adam!!]
...............................
[ 800 Power Stones For An Extra Chapter! ]
[ 1600 Power Stones For Another Extra Chapter! ]
...............................