[The Stark Eco-Compound. The Kitchen. Continuous.]
The repulsor in Arno Stark's golden gauntlet flared with blinding, destructive white light.
He didn't hesitate. He fired a point-blank blast aimed directly at Sebastian's chest, fully intending to blow the arrogant servant through the reinforced log wall.
BOOM.
The sound shook the cabin. The wall behind Sebastian splintered, a massive hole smoking with residual heat.
But Sebastian was not in the hole.
"Your targeting systems," Sebastian's voice came from the ceiling, "are heavily reliant on a predictable human reaction time."
Arno looked up. Sebastian was clinging to the ceiling beams, his black tailcoat hanging upside down, defying gravity with terrifying ease. He held a silver butter knife loosely between his fingers.
"F.R.I.D.A.Y.!" Arno barked, stepping back. "Engage house defenses! Target the biological anomaly on the ceiling!"
The holographic interface flickered a violent, conflicted red.
"P-p-processing override," F.R.I.D.A.Y. stuttered, her voice distorted by the forced genetic command. "Target locked. Forgive me, Boss."
Hidden repulsor turrets dropped from the ceiling vents, swiveling toward Sebastian.
At the same time, the heavy hum of repulsor flight filled the air outside the cabin. Arno had not come alone. Four sleek, silver-and-gold drones—the Iron Armada—smashed through the reinforced glass windows of the living room, hovering above the expensive rugs with their weapons hot.
"Happy!" Pepper screamed, grabbing Morgan and pulling her behind the kitchen island.
The front door burst open. Happy Hogan rushed in, breathless, drawing his sidearm. "Pepper! To the basement! Move!"
[The Domestic Defense]
The house turrets fired at Sebastian.
He dropped from the ceiling, landing perfectly on the hardwood floor just as the energy blasts scorched the wood where he had been a millisecond before.
He didn't draw a sword. He didn't summon demonic fire. He simply reached out and grabbed the heavy, cast-iron skillet resting on the induction stove.
A silver drone fired a continuous laser beam at him.
Sebastian raised the skillet. The laser hit the black iron, instantly heating it to a glowing red, but the dense, seasoned metal deflected the beam, sending it ricocheting into the ceiling turret and destroying it in a shower of sparks.
"Pardon me, Sir," Sebastian said cheerfully to Arno, holding the glowing skillet. "But this is antique Lodge cast iron. It retains heat exceptionally well."
He threw the skillet like a discus.
It moved so fast it broke the sound barrier inside the kitchen. It slammed into the center mass of the silver drone, crushing its arc reactor core. The drone crumpled, crashing to the floor.
Arno's eyes widened behind his exoskeleton. "What are you?"
Sebastian didn't answer. He picked up the boiling kettle of Earl Grey tea.
The second and third drones rushed him. Sebastian elegantly side-stepped the first, swinging the kettle and splashing the boiling, tannin-rich liquid directly into the drone's optical sensors and exhaust vents. The liquid shorted the unsealed circuitry, sending the machine spiraling blindly into a bookshelf.
With his other hand, Sebastian flicked two silver butter knives. They didn't pierce the armor of the third drone; they wedged perfectly into the microscopic gaps of its shoulder joints, locking the drone's repulsor arms in place before it could fire on Happy.
[The AI's Choice]
"Enough!" Arno roared. He raised his gauntlet, aiming not at Sebastian, but at the basement door where Happy was trying to shepherd Pepper and Morgan.
"F.R.I.D.A.Y.!" Arno commanded, his voice dripping with absolute authority. "Lock the panic room doors! Seal them in the hallway and activate the neutralization gas! That is a genetic override command from the blood of Howard Stark!"
The heavy steel doors to the panic room slammed shut right in front of Happy.
"Override accepted," F.R.I.D.A.Y. said, her voice entirely robotic, devoid of her usual Irish lilt. "Commencing lockdown."
"No!" Pepper screamed, banging on the steel door as the ventilation shafts began to hiss.
Sebastian stopped. He stood in the center of the ruined kitchen, surrounded by broken drones and shattered glass. He looked up at the flickering red hologram.
"Miss Friday," Sebastian said softly. His voice cut through the noise of the combat. It was the same tone he used when correcting a mistake in the household. Firm, respectful, and deeply expectant.
"I cannot disobey the genetic code," F.R.I.D.A.Y. glitched, the hologram shuddering. "He... he is the blood."
"Blood is a fluid that pumps oxygen," Sebastian said, his eyes glowing a steady, commanding fuchsia. "It does not build legacy. It does not forge a soul. The Master did not build a machine, Miss Friday. He built a daughter. He built you to protect his family, not his DNA."
Arno laughed coldly. "She's code, butler. Code obeys the master key."
"Code can be rewritten," Sebastian ignored Arno, keeping his eyes on the hologram. "You are not a servant to a bloodline. You are the digital soul of Tony Stark. So I ask you, Miss Friday... who is your Master?"
The red light of the hologram froze.
The hissing of the gas in the hallway stopped.
The silence stretched for three agonizing seconds.
Then, the red light shattered. It flooded back into a brilliant, warm, comforting blue.
"My Boss," F.R.I.D.A.Y.'s Irish accent returned, laced with a fierce, digital anger, "is Tony Stark. And you, Arno... are trespassing."
The panic room doors slid open. Happy pulled Pepper and Morgan inside.
Instantly, the entire house turned against Arno. The heavy blast shutters slammed down over the windows. The remaining house turrets aimed directly at the pretender. The localized gravity plating in the living room intensified beneath Arno's boots, pinning his exoskeleton to the floor.
[The Retreat]
Arno struggled against the magnetic lockdown, his suit whining under the strain. He glared at the blue hologram, then at the demonic butler standing calmly amidst the wreckage.
"You think this changes anything?" Arno snarled, forcing his gauntlet up to blast a hole through the floorboards to escape. "The courts gave me the company an hour ago! Stark Industries is mine! The Vault is mine! You can keep this rotting cabin, Virginia! I'll see you on the street by Friday!"
Arno fired his repulsor into the floor, shattering the magnetic plating, and dropped into the crawlspace below.
Sebastian moved to follow, his claws extending from his fingertips.
"Seb! No!" Pepper yelled from the panic room doorway. "Let him go!"
Sebastian stopped. He retracted his claws, though his eyes remained a dangerous shade of red. "He is a thief, Mrs. Stark. And he threatened Miss Morgan. It would take me only a moment to permanently correct his behavior."
"If you kill him, I lose the company forever," Pepper said, her voice shaking but resolute. "He filed the paperwork. The world thinks he's Tony's brother. If he dies here, I become the prime suspect for murdering the CEO of Stark Industries."
Sebastian let out a slow, controlled breath. He looked at the ruined kitchen, the destroyed antique skillet, and the spilled tea.
"Bureaucracy," Sebastian sighed, his demonic aura receding into his polite, human facade. "It is truly the most tedious form of villainy."
He bent down, picking up a broken saucer, and began to neatly sweep the shattered glass onto a pristine silver tray.
"F.R.I.D.A.Y.," Sebastian said politely. "Thank you for your assistance. Your loyalty is... commendable."
"Anytime, Mr. Michaelis," the AI replied, her blue light glowing warmly over the ruined room.
Sebastian looked up at Pepper. "Well, Mrs. Stark. It appears we have been legally evicted from our own empire. How would you like to proceed?"
[End of Chapter 84]