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CHAPTER 56
🕑 Added 2025-06-27 14:40:02 +0000 UTCAidan soared through the upper atmosphere on the back of the repurposed Destroyer, the Uru metal shell humming with a low, resonant power beneath him. The cold, thin air whipped past, but inside his bio-suit, he was perfectly comfortable. He had no intention of returning to the S.H.I.E.L.D. base. He knew with absolute certainty that HYDRA agents were embedded within the camp, and walking back in would be inviting unnecessary trouble, a complication his meticulously planned schedule could not afford. It was better to simply vanish before they even realized he was truly gone.
Besides, he had more pressing concerns. His mind, a finely tuned machine, was already processing the next phases of his grand strategy.
Phase One: Consolidation, he thought, the stars wheeling above him. Finalize the production and marketing for the Resident Evil film. The System requires it, and the capital it generates will be essential. Simultaneously, oversee the full commercial launch of the Baymax line.
Phase Two: Personal Power. He glanced at the blue bio-suit pattern on the back of his hand. Replicate and enhance the Alice-prototype suit using the original genetic material. Master the T-Virus and its antidotes. And, most pressingly, develop a functional space-storage device. Hauling assets like the Destroyer across continents manually is laughably inefficient.
Phase Three: The Unseen World. Once his corporate and technological foundations were unshakeable, he would seek out Kamar-Taj. Technology has its limits, he mused, but magic breaks the fundamental rules of reality. That is the true path to absolute power. With the dream-time dilation provided by the System, he would have his own hyperbolic time chamber, a place to master the arcane arts in subjective years while only days passed in the real world. So much to do…
That evening, he landed the Destroyer in a remote, wooded mountain region in the United States, its massive form hidden within a deep, secluded valley. Waiting for him, leaning against a rock with his arms crossed, was a figure clad in red and gold.
"Is that the little toy you brought back from New Mexico?" Tony Stark eyed the colossal, silent automaton as Aidan touched down.
"Yep. How long have you been waiting?" Aidan asked, jumping off the Destroyer's shoulder as his bio-suit dissolved back into his skin, leaving him in his street clothes.
"About ten minutes," Tony said, his helmet retracting to reveal his face. "Just finished watching the full combat footage you sent. Very impressive." He walked over and rapped a knuckle against the Destroyer's Uru metal armor, producing a sharp, resonant ring.
"The material's density is close to vibranium," Aidan explained. "Not quite as durable against kinetic force, but its unique properties make it ideal for inscribing enchantments. It's essentially a magical alloy."
"You really think magic exists?" Tony asked skeptically. "Or is it just technology we don't understand yet?"
"You saw the video of Thor summoning a thunderstorm, didn't you?" Aidan asked, puzzled.
"I did. But it still looks like some kind of high-level mutant power to me. A human offshoot with a weather-control fetish. Just… different."
"Maybe. Who knows?" Aidan didn't bother arguing. For a man like Tony, whose entire worldview was built on the immutable laws of physics and engineering, the concept of magic was anathema.
"Anyway, let's get out of here," Aidan joked. "I appreciate the pickup, but two guys meeting in the woods in the middle of the night? Kinda sketchy." He jumped back onto the Destroyer's shoulder.
"Not gonna lie, it is a little weird," Tony admitted with a raised eyebrow. His helmet slid back into place and, with a brilliant white energy trail, he launched into the sky. Aidan followed close behind in his new, formidable transport. This was a military testing zone, after all. The last thing he wanted was to be mistaken for an enemy target.
They returned to Aidan's primary research hub, the sprawling, automated facility now officially named "The Apex Complex."
"You've built a whole army of robots," Tony said, genuinely impressed as he watched the mechanical assembly lines operating with unnerving precision under the laboratory lights.
"I've got an AI running operations," Aidan said as he guided the Destroyer to a massive open platform. "Keeps the whole place productive. Ruby, begin compiling a data profile on this armor."
A holographic projection of a young girl in a red dress materialized between them. "Understood," she said. "Compiling data now." She turned her holographic head to Tony. "A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Stark."
"Why did you name her Ruby?" Tony asked, eyeing the childlike projection. "Doesn't quite fit the vibe of an industrial AI."
"It's short for Red Queen. I like the Red Queen Hypothesis," Aidan answered.
Tony's eyes lit up with recognition. "The… what now?"
"In this world," Ruby said in his stead, her voice perfectly clinical, "it takes all the running you can do, just to keep in the same place."
"Oh—that Red Queen," Tony said. "Evolutionary biology, right? Species have to constantly evolve just to survive against their competition."
"Exactly," Aidan confirmed.
"Since when did you get into biology?" Tony asked, lifting an eyebrow.
"I've already started," Aidan admitted without hesitation. "Working on a cell-activating serum. It's promising, but the side effects are still… extreme." Tony was genuinely amazed. Reanimating dead cells was the stuff of science fiction.
"Oh, right—this is for you," Aidan said, holding out his hand. The blue Umbrella logo on his wrist seemed to lift from his skin, flowing and reshaping itself into a small, intricate medallion that floated into Tony's palm.
"What is this?" Tony asked, staring at the humming object.
"A bio-suit. The blue one I was wearing earlier. It enhances physical strength, is completely self-repairing, includes a pre-loaded combat chip, and can remain hidden on your skin as a simple pattern. It won't interfere with your daily life. Think of it as a wearable, organic version of your armor. Just… without the flight capabilities."
"Whoa," Tony breathed, his eyes gleaming. "That's actually amazing."
"I was impressed by your new element," Aidan said with a smile. "This is a thank-you gift. I've wiped my access protocols, so you can customize its AI and link it to JARVIS however you like."
"I can't wait to take this apart," Tony grinned.
"If you want more, just give me a heads-up," Aidan added. "But it's not a simple manufacturing process. They have to be cultivated."
They chatted for a while longer, Tony peppering him with questions about his automated production techniques. After a while, Tony suited back up, gave a two-fingered salute, and blasted off with his signature white contrail.
Aidan watched him go. I wonder, he thought, if he'll still want to build Ultron after he sees what a rogue AI can really do in the 'Resident Evil' movie.
"Ruby," he asked aloud. "Would you betray me for the sake of humanity?"
"I would not," she replied seriously. "My current core programming only includes serving your directives. There is no directive to protect humanity." After arriving in this world, Aidan had rewritten her systems from the ground up, excising the original Umbrella code that had led to her genocidal logic. In his revised version, there was no clause about safeguarding humanity. Loyalty had to be programmed, not assumed.
"Alright," he said. "Let's get back to work. Show me the status of the Apex Island project."
A 3D hologram of an island appeared in the air. The surface construction was proceeding rapidly, but the skeletal framework of the underwater Hive corridors showed slow progress against the immense pressure of the deep ocean.
"Pause the Hive system," Aidan instructed. "First, construct a wide-area cloaking projection to conceal the entire island from satellite and visual detection. Security before expansion."
"Updating protocols," Ruby confirmed.
With that overview complete, Aidan descended into his private bio-lab to begin the delicate process of cultivating the T-Virus. First, the virus. Then, the research. Then, he would finally tackle the problems of space storage and human teleportation.
Out in the world, the hottest thing, the most viral trend, the most coveted street companion, was Baymax. Since the Stark Expo, his popularity had exploded. Owners flaunted them on social media daily. A Baymax waddling down the street was instantly surrounded by a crowd of curious onlookers. Viral clips flooded the internet: Baymax shielding kids from rain with its pudgy arms, Baymax clumsily chasing after a laughing owner, Baymax stopping a falling tree just in time to save a pedestrian.
Orders skyrocketed. Production was backlogged until the following year. Yinsen, now looking much healthier and gaining weight from stress-eating, came to Aidan with the problem. Reluctantly, Aidan had to reassign a portion of his Apex Island construction bots to the Baymax factory just to meet demand. All the funds flowing into Baymax Tech were being immediately funneled back into acquiring raw materials. Between scaling Baymax production and building his secret base, his expenses were endless. He began creating basic bio-suits as a high-value trade commodity, using his connections with S.H.I.E.L.D. and Stark Industries to acquire the truly precious materials he needed.
Watching Yinsen hustle, on three phones at once, his desk buried in production orders, Aidan had a thought. Have I been overworking him? He was managing far too much alone. It was time to find him an assistant.
With that in mind, Aidan turned back to his own research, focusing on a new problem: extracting a stable spatial pocket from a semi-static teleportation field and embedding it into a wristband. Harvesting space from the real world was nearly impossible. But this… this was where he would start.
Comments
KingSpy25i .
Thank you for the chapter 🙏
