Hi guys, I know many hated what happened in the last chapter. You disliked the fact that despite the MC being a reincarnator he did something only a real kid would do, but I hope this chapter clarifies why I wrote the last chapter that way.
The morning at Tonys private school in Los Angeles was a blur of english, history, some religion and of course PE, finally with most of recess and luch being filled with kids discussing their weekend plans. For Tony, however, the world felt less...bright? If that makes sense, like something wasn't quite right today. He sat in his match class, his pencil hovering over a workbook that remained blank despite everyone around him writing down the words on the white board infront of them. Beside him, Rhodey was diligently taking notes on multiplication and subtraction, but every few seconds, he would cast a worried side-eye at his best friend.
Tony couldn't think about math. He was thinking about the device gifted to him by the OAA. He was thinking about the weight of his choice when he gave it to Howard, the pressure of the decision he had made, and the way the device was designed specifically for him, who knows what would happen if someone else tried using it.
'Pros and cons,' Tony thought, his mind automatically generating a mental spreadsheet.
Pros: The device was in a high-security lab at home. Howard Stark was arguably the smartest man on the planet (for now). If anyone could contain a potential singularity, it was the man who helped end World War II by helping create its first super soldier.
Cons: The list was a mile long and could only be written in red.
Tony's hand shook. He was a reincarnator and a Tony Stark mega fan. He knew about the "Sacred Timeline" and the "Multiverse." He knew that in the MCU, Howard and Maria Stark died on a dark road in 1991 because Hydra wanted a suitcase full of the copy of the super soldier serum his old man managed to create. He knew that Arnim Zola's digital ghost was currently sleeping inside S.H.I.E.L.D.'s mainframe like a parasite. By showing Howard the device, he had risked revealing its existence to Hydra. After all Howard was a leader of shield, hell he was part of the three who created the organisation and if he knew Howard, then this was a really bad idea now that he thinks about it.
"I'm an idiot," Tony cursed himself." I panicked like a ten-year-old because I AM a ten-year-old." He thought to himself dread and panic slowly rising up in his chest.
He had seen the look in Howard's eyes and it wasn't scientific curiosity but the look of a man who saw a way to win a contest that hadn't even started yet. Howard was like a version of Tony Stark from the early comics—the man who believed that enough steel and enough fire could solve any human problem. He was a "futurist" who was willing to gamble the present for a hypothetical tomorrow even if it meant dooming the world in the process.
"Tony," Rhodey whispered, nudging his arm. "The teacher asked you a question."
Tony blinked, looking up at the chalkboard. "The answer is 144," he said tonelessly, without even looking at the equation. Honestly all the teach was doing was challenging students to remember their multiplication problems.
The teacher paused, blinked, and went back to writing a different question before calling someone else up. Tony didn't care. He was picturing the basement lab. He was imagining Howard's hands on the brass casing. He was imagining the "One Above All" watching from above, wondering why the boy who he personally gifted for his birthday had handed his greatest gift over to a man who specialized in building better ways to kill people.
Meanwhile deep beneath the Malibu estate, the air was freezing, chilled by industrial-grade cooling units that were currently struggling to maintain the room's temperature. Howard Stark had stripped down to his undershirt, his skin glistening with sweat despite the cold.
The device sat on a vibration-dampening pedestal, surrounded by high-frequency lasers and magnetic resonance scanners.
"My god," Howard breathed, his voice echoing in the sterile bunker.
He had successfully bypassed the biometric locks. Not by breaking them, but by tricking the device into thinking it was under a maintenance cycle. It was a gamble that would have terrified Tony, but Howard thrived on the edge of catastrophe and lucky for him it worked. He had used a concentrated beam of ionized particles to ease the casing open, and what he found inside made the Cosmic Cube look like a primitive battery.
For as long as he could remember there was only one source of power equal or below this source of energy, only the Cube—a relic of pure, unadulterated power that Hydra had used to vaporize soldiers in the 40s. Howard had studied the Cube. He had read the blueprints of the weapons Johann Schmidt Aka Red Skull had built.
But this core? It was completely different. The energy it generated wasn't raw unfiltered power but structured like an equation. It was sophisticated beyond anything Howard had ever dreamt of. The metallurgy of the inner gears existed outside the periodic table. The "wires" were actually microscopic glass tubes filled with a fluid that pulsed with golden light.
"It's like a living engine," Howard whispered.
With the precision of a master surgeon, Howard used a pair of specialized robotic arms to extract the energy core—a small, humming cylinder of amber light—from the brass shell. The moment it was removed, the lab's emergency lights flared. The power leaking from the core was so immense that it began to backfeed into the mansion's grid the second it was removed from its casing.
Howard however didn't stop. He wouldn't, not when he grew closer to his goal. He was possessed by the same fever that had driven the Red Skull back in the day. He saw the potential for a new class of weaponry—to truly create gods that would fight for the american people and weapons that could protect the world from threats they weren't prepared to handle. He saw a handheld rifle that could disintegrate a tank. He saw a plane that could cross the Atlantic in minutes.
He began to draw energy from the core using a modified version of the Hydra extraction protocols something he had tinkered with and added his own Stark flair. But he had failed to realize that the core wasn't just different from the cosmic cube by the way it generated energy but also in the way it fed it. By trying to draw whisps of its power for weapons, he had pierced into a barrier that one shouldn't ever meddle in.
"The power levels are climbing," Howard noted, his eyes wide behind his goggles. "It's at 200%... 400%... it's not stopping."
A faint, high-pitched whine began to fill the room. A crimson tint began to bleed into the amber light of the core. Howard's skin began to itch—a sign of high-intensity radiation—but his sensors, oddly enough, remained silent. The device was emitting an energy that his human-made tools couldn't even detect. No trace of gamma radiation, alpha or beta radiation detected so it couldn't have been that.
"I need to check the bio-readings," Howard muttered, his hand trembling as he adjusted a dial. "The radiation... if it's affecting me, it could be affecting the whole house."
He thought of Tony. He thought of the "Baymax" health-care companion Tony and he had built together, a literal home doctor if he's ever seen one.
"I need that bot," Howard said, his voice tight.
He stood up, locking the lab door behind him with a series of heavy, magnetic bolts. He needed to grab the Baymax unit from Tony's room to run a diagnostic on his own vital signs before he continued the extraction. He was moving fast, his mind a blur of "Stark Industries" stock projections and the destructive beauty of the crimson light.
School had finally finished and Tony had said goodbye to Rhodey before rushing out the front gates to the black Sedan his family had sent to pick him up like always. The ride back home was irritating, not in anyway the fault of the drive or the driver but in the time it was taking to get back home. And all he could do to calm down was tap his finger against the glass while picturing what may have already happened at home. But as luck would have it, he managed to make the trip without causing much trouble. The car pulled into the driveway just as the sun began to dip toward the horizon.
"I have to go to the lab," Tony said the moment the car stopped, not even waiting for Jarvis who he saw walk out the front door of his home to open the car door for him. He opened the side door and ran out leaving his back behind.
"Tony, how was your da-" Maria called out, but Tony was already a blur, sprinting toward the house.
" I wonder what's gotten into him?" she asked herself and Jarvis who looked eqaully as confused while holding Tonys school bag.
Tony quickly ran to his bedroom and began ruffling through his desk draws, " where is it? Where is it damnit !?" he shoved blue prints and tools aside before finally finding the device he was looking for it.
He felt it. He felt it in the soles of his feet. The ground was vibrating. A low-frequency hum was coursing through the very foundations of his home.
Tony didn't go to the basement through the study. He knew a maintenance hatch in the pantry that led to the sub-levels. He was small, fast, and driven by a terror that only a man who had died once before could feel.
He reached the basement level just as he heard Howard's heavy footsteps in the study above, moving toward the stairs. Tony ducked behind a stack of shipping crates, his heart hammering. He watched as his father—looking disheveled, frantic, and wild-eyed—unlocked the main lab door, threw the Baymax medical pack onto a chair, and then turned back toward the stairs.
"Howard!" his mother's voice echoed from above. "Howard, come here! I need you to help with the groceries !"
" Can't Jarvis do it ?"
Tony heard his father's confused reply, followed by the sound of the heavy study door closing.
This was his chance.
Tony sprinted to the lab door. Howard, in his haste, hadn't turned on the deadbolts, relying only on the magnetic lock. Tony pulled a small, palm-sized hacking device—something he'd built using old computer parts—and jammed it into the keypad.
Click!
The door hissed open.
Tony stepped inside, and the air nearly knocked him unconscious. The smell of ozone was so thick it tasted like metal. The center of the room was burning up from the energy core, which was now suspended in a containment field. But it stopped being amber. It was a violent, jagged crimson color that pulsed in a way that made his blood run cold.
"No, no, no..." Tony whispered, looking at the monitors.
Howard had been trying to siphon the energy into a prototype weapon casing. The extraction wires were glowing white-hot. The cores power was too great though, the energy it was producing was leaking out in larger quantities, and the original containor meant to hold it was damaged, clearly by Howards tinkering from before.
Tony ran to the pedestal, his hands flying over the console. "Computer, abort extraction! Safe-mode shutdown, now!"
"Access Denied," the cold, mechanical voice of the lab computer replied. "Director Authorization Required."
"I am the Director's son! Authorize!" Tony screamed, but it was no use.
Behind him, the Baymax pack—the soft, white robot Tony had built to save lives—began to inflate automatically, its sensors triggered by the massive energy spike in the room.
"Hello," Baymax's calm, robotic voice chirped. "I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion. I have detected a spike in your adrenaline levels. On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?"
"Ten, Baymax! My stress is at a ten!" Tony shouted, trying to manually disconnect the extraction wires.
Suddenly, a heavy clunk echoed through the room. The magnetic bolts on the door engaged from the outside.
"Tony?!" Howard's voice screamed through the intercom, thick with a sudden, bone-chilling horror. "Tony, get out of there! Get away from the door!"
"Dad! Open the door! It's going critical!" Tony banged his fists against the reinforced steel.
Outside, Howard Stark was staring at the monitor in the study. He had realized the moment he stepped outside that the "energy" he believed could lead to great discoveries... was reaching critical levels, it was in meltdown. He had run back to the lab to shut the energy inside, after all he had designed his security system after the same system Hydra had used to protect themeselves when they were working with the cosmic cube, only for him to look through the security camera and see his son trapped inside.
"I can't open it!" Howard's voice was broken, a sound of pure, agonizing desperation. "The lockdown is automatic! The core is jamming the override! Tony, move to the back of the room! Hide behind the lead shields!"
" Howard!! I can't find Tony where is he !!?"
" HE'S INSIDE THE LAB!!!"
Howard shouted to his Maria, the women hearing this rushed down to Howards side only to see her son banging against the metal doors trapping him inside.
Maria's voice joined the fray, a high-pitched scream of pure maternal terror. "TONY! MY BABY! HOWARD, OPEN THE DOOR! JARVIS, HELP HIM!"
"I'm trying, Maria! I'm trying!" Howard was throwing his entire weight against the door, his hands clawing at the metal until his fingernails bled. "Tony! Stay with me! I'll get you out! I promise! I'll save you!"
Inside, Tony looked at the core. The crimson light was no longer a glow; it was a sun. The air was beginning to ripple and tear. He looked at Baymax. The robot stepped in front of him, its large, inflatable body acting as a pathetic, beautiful shield.
"I will protect you," Baymax said, its voice steady even as the room began to dissolve into white light.
"Dad..." Tony whispered, looking at the reinforced camera lens. Tears slowly filling his eyes "It's okay." He slowly smiled up at them, it hurt, it scared him but he had died once before. At least this time, he wasn't truly alone. " It'll all be okay".
He tried reasuring them
"TONY!" Howard screamed, a sound that tore through his throat, a sound of a man watching his world vanish. "NO! TONY! I'M SORRY! I'M SO SORRY!"
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!
" TONYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!"
A brilliant, blinding flash of crimson light exploded outwards. Followed by a devastatingly loud boom. The energy wave hit the door, throwing Howard, Jarvis and Maria back across the hallway. The electronics in the house blew out in a shower of sparks.
For a long, terrifying minute, there was only silence.
Then, the emergency power flickered on. The magnetic bolts on the lab door finally gave way with a loud and broken groan.
Howard was the first on his feet. He staggered toward the door, his clothes scorched, his face covered in soot. "Tony?" he croaked. "Tony?"
He rushed to shove the door open but it was too damaged to budge." Jarvis, help me !!!" he shouted in frustration and the butler quickly got back up to his feet. And pushed with Howard both grunting and using all their strength to open the door. And when they did, a silent painful realisation followed.
The lab was gone. The reinforced concrete walls were scorched black, etched with strange, glowing patterns that looked like constellations. The high-tech scanners, the robotic arms, the weapons prototypes—all of it had been vaporized, reduced to fine, gray ash.
In the center of the room, lying on the floor in a small, perfect circle of untouched concrete, was the device that started all this.
The brass casing was back together. The core was safely tucked inside. But it wasn't crimson anymore. And it wasn't amber. It was a deep, pulsating emerald green.
But the room was empty. No signs of life at all.
"Tony?" Maria whispered, stumbling into the room. She looked at the spot where her son had been standing. There was nothing. No Baymax. No Tony. Just a faint, lingering scent of smoke and burnt steel. "Where is he? Howard, where is my baby?"
Jarvis stood in the doorway, his usual composure shattered. His hands shaking violently as he looked at the devastation. "He's... he's not here, Madam."
Maria fell to her knees, a guttural, soul-shattering wail escaping her lungs. It was the sound of a mother whose heart had been ripped out of her chest. She clawed at the ash on the floor, calling his name over and over until her voice was nothing but a rasp.
Howard didn't move. He stood over the emerald device, his shadow long and jagged against the ruins of his ambition. He looked at his hands—the hands that had tried to build a safer world for his family, the hands that had tried to harness power he didn't understand to sell more missiles.To make more money.
He had wanted to expand Stark Industries. He had wanted to be the most powerful man on earth. And in his greed, his arrogance, he had paved the way for the one thing he couldn't fix.
His son was gone. His brilliant, beautiful, terrified little boy was ash and light.
Howard collapsed, his knees hitting the cold floor with a dull thud. He reached out, his fingers hovering over the emerald device, but he couldn't touch it. He couldn't bear to touch the thing that had eaten his life.
"What have I done?" Howard whispered, the words choking him. He looked up at the ceiling, his eyes filled with a hollow, agonizing horror that would never, ever leave him. "What have I done?"
The emerald light pulsed once, a soft, mocking heartbeat in the wreckage of a father's soul.