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….
"…You can't just take and rewrite a personality, even the best mental influence will weaken over time and can always fly off at once from some strong shock."
"And what would it take for..." Tony waved his hand in the air, choosing his words and making a final decision on the plan to be executed, "him to become, say, the owner of a mansion in Hawaii with a decent bank account and a couple of shares of Stark Industries?"
"Two hours of work and a transfer to said mansion without the involvement of any agents or emissaries of the US Air Force."
"Excellent!" Tony felt a powerful surge of liveliness and vigor. "And what were you saying about an interesting topic for research?"
"I am currently working on a project for inter-universal travel. The results aren't great yet, but I know for a fact that a portal between parallel universes is possible to build using purely technical means. I thought maybe you'd be interested in poking around this topic in your spare time?"
"Is it definitely possible?"
"One hundred percent. Your reactor, for example, contains a one-way portal to a dimension neighboring our world, thanks to the special physical properties of which you have protection against kinetic damage."
"Tell me..." Stark narrowed his eyes, "what is your relationship with snakes and apples?"
"Well..." a shadow of surprise appeared on Loki's face. "At one time I often turned into a snake, but apples... that's so last century! Nowadays, Cookies rule. Yes, the Dark Side is definitely pro-Cookie," he nodded to himself with a satisfied smile.
"Okay..." Tony's suspicions only strengthened. "Fine, then what exactly do you propose regarding inter-world travel? Oh, and one more question. What do I tell Rhodey when he wakes up?"
"Whatever you want," the guest shrugged. "Even the version where your delirium tremens hit him over the head with an oar, causing him to pass out."
….
A "heart-to-heart" in the female collective didn't happen, Yuriko had driven for more than twelve hours without a break, and even though it wasn't a problem for a regenerator's body, the woman still preferred to use the excuse to crash.
Looking at her, Sarah and Laura did the same.
One night of rest after such intense "adventures" was clearly insufficient to calm the nerves, at least in Sarah's case.
Or maybe she also decided to escape communication with my phantom this way.
The girl continued to be the perfect child, amazing me with her imperturbability, and also winning me over with gazes as attentive as a hammer drill, cast from time to time at Yuriko and my humble self.
No, there wasn't a hint of aggression, but there was an intensity and something... animalistic, which made Laura associate with a little beast whose fur bristled on the scruff of its neck from tension...
I honestly barely restrained myself from adding wolf ears to the top of her head. I even had to dispel the observation illusion so as not to fall into temptation.
I suppose by doing so I admitted my defeat. Or the child decided I admitted my defeat... Actually, I'm not sure Laura perceived this in the context of any competition at all, but the persistent feeling that she went to sleep as the winner didn't let me go for another three hours.
Perfect child... Well, from the God of Intrigue's point of view.
Be that as it may, I wasn't planning to rush anywhere, and decided to organize the first halt about four hours later, turning onto a more rural road than before and spotting the first empty campsite I came across.
The female collective was still dozing, resulting in me being alone with my own mind...
Who said that means completely alone?!
By the way, at that moment I was also reading "The Theory of Explosive Evolution" by C. Xavier in his personal library! That is, I had a book with me, and he who has books is not alone! Well, the past Loki tried to believe that...
Doesn't matter! I was also having semi-drunken conversations with Stark, okay?! Drinking for two, so to speak, to the snoring of the already passed-out third!..
Why does it seem to me that every subsequent self-justification sounds more pathetic than the previous one?
Anyway, having parked, I killed the engine and climbed to inspect the refrigerator.
Not that I strongly believed it would be full in a newly purchased car, but... having lived in America for some time, I learned that there are many quirks and traditions here, including in business.
Specifically, there seemed to be a tradition of giving buyers of such mobile homes small gifts in the form of food.
You know, buy a car and get a free barbecue as a gift.
Alas, either my information was inaccurate, or Yuriko ran into cheapskates, as the refrigerator revealed only a factory plastic pack of six bottles of mineral water.
In short, we had no food. Pity...
What's good about American campsites? They exist. I mean, of course, there are all sorts of hookups there, freeing one from the need to mess with the generator to power the site, and water doesn't need to be spent from the tanks, but I didn't need any of that. There's no meat anyway.
Basically, the rest was simple, unfold a deck chair, dismiss the extra clothes, create a dense illusion of sunglasses, and blissfully sprawl in the sun, turning the water in one of the bottles into cocoa along the way.
The spell formula wasn't very well worked out yet, and my craft didn't stand next to a natural brewed drink of the highest grade, but it could already compete with a couple of instant varieties, which it did quite well, lifting my mood under the light breeze.
And I prefer not to raise the question that tanning in my case is a meaningless endeavor a priori! We men on vacation don't bother with such trifles, and generally, everything is dust except cocoa.
Yes, cocoa is good...
Another hour passed in blissful idleness. Everything was peaceful and wonderful, but then my phantom in Xavier's mansion finished the book, and it suddenly became boring.
Plus Tony was already running out of steam, glancing more and more often at the sleeping Rhodey with hidden envy, so our conversation was clearly coming to an end, and my phantom had to hide somewhere so I wouldn't have to send him by local airlines again.
Ideally, I should have finally attended to the question of how to feed the women, but... Hey! I'm Loki. I can't just take and do everything like a sensible person.
Therefore, instead of a reasonable and logical continuation of the journey and searching for a store, I decided to improve my armor a little with the help of indestructible metal.
A gesture with an effort of will, and the "thermos" appeared, and I pulled the armor out of my pocket dimension as well.
Right now, Erik's talent wouldn't hurt, he's the one who could apply a coating in a truly "thin layer," but lacking a metal-bending mutant at hand, we'll use good old magic.
I could, of course, simply "dip" the armor parts into the liquid metal, but I don't need arthouse lumps.
So, having fenced off the site with a telekinetic barrier impermeable to small particles, I opened the thermos and proceeded to slowly spray adamantium onto the surface of the metal parts of my combat gear.
Magic allowed maintaining the plasticity of adamantium without problems, and the Uru metal was in no hurry to resist the master's will when I started conducting micro-diffusion to bond the layers.
And everything would be fine, but it was slow. I am not a natural telekinetic, and magical telekinesis isn't a third arm that you control easily and instinctively. But the work progressed.
….
Bonus Chapter on every 500 power stones;
If you want to read ahead by 20+ chapters from here you can visit my Patre-on.
[P] [A] [T] [R] [E] [O] [N]
[email protected]/Yggdrasil_Loki