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CaveLeather
"Alright... step through here, and you're in the Dimension War I told you about."
In Sokovia, at the transport base outside the Aurantius Weapon Factory, Luca stood with his hands in his pockets, pointing at the portal in front of him with a look of distaste. He was talking to Tony.
"But I'm warning you now. The Dimension War is basically non-stop slaughter. If you can't handle it, just stay in the base and help out with logistics. I'll bring you back the next time the portal opens."
Tony, standing beside him, just clenched his fist slightly. His expression didn't change much.
Seeing this, Luca could only sigh and continue.
"Don't brush this off. Endless killing isn't something normal people can handle. I rarely station regular human soldiers there for long. Even the ones who rotate back often need extensive therapy."
Hearing Luca nagging like a mother hen, Tony finally broke his stoic facade and looked at Luca helplessly.
"Relax... you showed me the data. I'll be careful."
Luca rolled his eyes and muttered under his breath.
"Hmph. If I wasn't afraid Pepper would come crying to me later, I wouldn't bother stopping you from getting yourself killed!"
Although Luca spoke quietly, it was just loud enough for Tony to hear. Tony only twitched the corner of his mouth, his eyes remaining resolute.
Yes, Tony Stark was about to deploy to the Dimension War alongside the reinforcement troops.
This whole situation started back when Luca tried to cheer up a depressed Tony.
Luca thought that after his messy pep talk, Tony would get a good night's sleep and wake up ready for a fresh start.
And on the surface, Tony did seem to return to normal.
He apologized to Pepper, went back to work, and his mood seemed stable. No more zoning out with dead eyes.
But in reality, the guilt, self-blame, and fear of his own powerlessness hadn't gone anywhere.
Pepper was the first to notice.
She accidentally discovered that Tony had been sneaking out in the middle of the night to fight crime.
Okay, he's Iron Man. Fighting crime isn't weird.
What was weird was that he wasn't wearing the suit. He'd just put on a mask and some black tactical gear, then rush in to engage criminals in hand-to-hand combat.
And he was brutal. He'd break bones and knock thieves unconscious without hesitation.
But he was just as brutal on himself. He'd often come home at dawn covered in bruises and cuts.
After a checkup by Baymax, the diagnosis was clear: anxiety, depression, and severe self-destructive tendencies.
Just as Tony was planning to sneak off to the southern front to join the civil war brewing in the US, Luca stepped in and stopped him.
The US was in chaos. The Skrull invasion had ended, but peace hadn't returned.
People didn't trust the government after so many officials turned out to be aliens. But more than that, it seemed like most of the world didn't want the US to recover.
Currently, the US was split into roughly three factions.
First, the relatively stable East Coast, centered around the rebuilding New York City. This included New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, North Carolina, and about a dozen other states.
People here didn't trust the government, but they trusted the Avengers. Captain America, Steve Rogers, still had immense prestige and was practically becoming the de facto leader of the region.
Second, the West Coast, centered around Los Angeles and San Francisco. A new power had risen in California, Washington, and Oregon.
It wasn't fully stable yet, but a group calling themselves the Black Panther Party (no relation to Wakanda... probably) had taken the lead.
Rallying under the banner of Black liberation and democracy, they had gathered a massive armed force of people of color. Armed with some suspiciously advanced tech, they were on the verge of declaring independence.
The third faction wasn't a unified group.
From the Mexican border to Canada (which was also dragged into the chaos), various armed militias had declared independence or were about to. Supported by foreign powers, these groups fought each other as much as the government. But their backers all had one goal: keep the US destabilized.
Friction and open warfare were inevitable.
Stark Industries had pulled most of its assets back to the East Coast.
In this situation, whether Tony went to the battlefield to "suicide by cop" without armor or went to vent his rage in the Iron Man suit, neither was a good look.
"If you want a war, I'll find you a better battlefield to vent on."
That's what Luca told him.
Tony hated demons anyway. Fighting in a civil war would ruin his image, but slaughtering demons in the Dimension War? That was practically community service for the universe.
So, Tony got roped into coming to Sokovia.
And now, he was about to be shipped off as a frontline cannon fodder—a "Teletubby" filling the line.
"Here, open up!"
"Huh? ... Gag ... Cough cough, what was that?!"
Before Tony could react, Luca tossed a capsule into his open mouth.
After coughing a few times, Tony felt a heat spread through his body. His fingertips itched. Then, the sensation passed.
He looked at his fingernails, which seemed slightly sharper. He clenched his fist. aside from feeling a bit stronger and tougher, he didn't feel much different.
"Superpower Capsule—Sabretooth."
"The strength boost is whatever. The main point is the regenerative healing factor. With this, you're basically unkillable."
Luca had plucked plenty of hairs from the supervillains the Skrulls captured. After sorting through them, he picked this one to give Tony some survivability.
"Alright, quit blocking the way. Get in there."