'Huh… why do I keep having the same dream?'
Howard jerked awake, drenched in cold sweat. In the nightmare he and Maria were throttled by a man with a mechanical arm covering his face. The dream didn't end there: he saw his good-for-nothing son captured, an arc reactor—Howard's own invention—embedded in his chest. Then, as a helpless spectator, he watched his most trusted partner Obadiah Stane betray the boy before the vision cut off.
'Was that a prophetic dream?'
A brilliant scientist and consummate playboy, he knew the reckless youth in the dream was unmistakably his own flesh and blood.
'Obadiah… time for a little test.'
He hadn't intended to believe the dream, yet his wayward son was worrisome enough already.
'What's wrong, dear?'
Maria woke to the acrid smell of cigarette smoke. It was rare for the man who never dared smoke in front of her to sit at the bedside puffing away; she could feel his anxiety.
'Darling… it looks like we need to "disappear" from this world for a while.'
Howard gazed tenderly at the woman he loved most. His own Death he could accept, but seeing her killed by that metal-armed monster in the dream—he couldn't allow it. He had to eliminate the threat.
'I'll follow your lead.'
To ordinary eyes his behavior might seem insane, yet she understood him perfectly. Minor matters were her domain; major ones, his—always.
Neither of them noticed the mysterious rune on Howard's neck slowly fade. In her room Artoria nodded in satisfaction; Howard had made his move. She trusted his intellect—even Tony, as Iron Man, had been guided by lessons from a father dead ten years. Howard Stark was no fool.
One month later Artoria stared at two near-perfect synthetic bodies, amazed. Leave it to Marvel's black-tech—still years before the 2000s, yet Howard had pulled it off. Truly worthy of the 'Shit-da-ke' nickname. However he'd done it, the androids were indistinguishable from real people—utterly admirable.
"My dear little princess, it's your 6th birthday these past two days. Why are you unhappy? Did that boy bully you? As your brother, I'll teach him how to behave."
"It's nothing. I just forgot how old you are now?"
Looking at the young and vigorous Tony before her, Artoria asked curiously. She remembered from Iron Man's files that this guy wouldn't have that long-planned car accident until he was twenty-one.
"That's truly heartbreaking. Isn't my twentieth birthday just three months after yours?"
On the surface, he acted like a complete goofball. This guy had one persona in public and another in front of his family. However, this was probably his true face!
"Alright! I won't forget in the future."
While saying that, Artoria thought to herself that there was still one year left, almost time to start moving. She was currently eyeing one of the most powerful cheats in this world—the 'sentinel serum'. It would be best to get it as early as possible. Recently, she had been searching for an addict named 'Robert Reynolds'. As long as she found him, she wouldn't be far from the sentinel serum. The power of a million exploding suns sounded so tempting. With this thing, she would even dare to wrestle with Thanos once he gathered all six Infinity Stones. But for now, it was just a thought; even if she really had it, she wouldn't quite dare to use it yet. Who knew if she had the protagonist's aura? If she drank the sentinel serum and just exploded, she would bring shame to all transmigrators.
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