Ultimate Iron Man

Tony frowned. He barely gave out this number. He checked the caller ID. Natasha.

He sighed, answering the call after walking out of the lab.

"Hey," he said, keeping his voice neutral.

"Tony?" Natasha's voice carried concern. "You alive over there?"

He smirked. "Last I checked."

"Well, you haven't called, texted, or dropped by. It's been almost three weeks. I was worried. You are good, right?" She asked, concerned.

Tony knew that Natasha was just curious and faking it all but still found it amusing that she still acted the same. It was nice to talk to someone and have a normal conversation for a change.

"You know me, always busy working on new things and tinkering with my stuff."

"Makes sense. What have you been up to? Found something interesting?" Natasha asked.

"Nope. Nothing interesting," He lied, trying to avoid the topic. "And it's nice to see someone worried about me. Thanks, Nat. I'll swing by at lunchtime tomorrow, okay?"

"Sure, sounds like a plan. Anything special you want to eat, boss?" She teased.

He laughed. "No. Just make me something spicy."

She snickered. "Okay. I'll do that. Have a great night, Tony."

"Night, Natasha," he said, hanging up.

"Arg!" Tony grabbed his head as he stumbled back. He somehow managed to balance himself and sat down on the floor. The pain this time was more intense than the last one. "Ughh!" He groaned, feeling like his head was splitting open. His vision blurred. He reached for the pill bottle in his pocket and took out the pills, but before he could reach his mouth, a sharp jolt of pain hit him like a freight train. He clenched his teeth, dropping the pills to the ground as his body tensed.

He felt his consciousness slipping away and struggled to stay awake. "No... No... Not now." He tried to think of anything to stay awake.

"Boss, do you need help?" Hermes' voice came like a distant whisper.

Tony didn't respond. His mind was too focused on the pain.

The pain. The agony.

"F-fuck!" He grunted through clenched teeth. His body trembled uncontrollably as he tried to force his way through the pain.

After what seemed like an eternity, his eyes closed, and everything went dark.

In the darkness, Tony found himself standing alone on a watery surface. He looked around in confusion. There was nothing around him but a vast sea of water. He took a couple of steps forward, splashing the water with his feet.

"Where the hell am I?" He asked aloud.

"Hello!" A child's voice came from behind.

Startled, Tony quickly turned around and saw a young boy standing before him. He was dressed in simple brown pants, a white shirt, and a brown vest. His hair was messy, but he had a warm smile on his face.

"Who are you?" Tony asked warily.

"You are one interesting individual, aren't you?" The boy replied with a chuckle. "I mean, you know who I am, yet you're still asking questions."

Tony frowned. "What are you talking about?"

"Do you really not know who I am? Are you really that ignorant?" The boy questioned. "Well, it doesn't matter. I guess you'll find out eventually."

Tony furrowed his brows in confusion. He had an idea of who the boy was. It couldn't be, but... "Are you...?"

"Yep. That's right, Tony." The boy nodded. "I'm the one. The Infinity Gem, incurable tumor, and whatever else you call me."

"Since you know everything, why don't you tell me the way to remove you from my head?" Tony asked.

"Know everything about you? Well, that's how it was supposed to happen and you weren't supposed to know about my existence, yet for some reason, your actions so far told me that you already know the future. You have two memories for some reason. I tried to look into that other part, but a higher power stopped me from doing so," The boy explained. "So, I won't probe into that matter."

"I ask again, tell me the way to remove you," Tony asked.

"Do you want to remove me?" The boy questioned back. "Why do you want to get rid of me? Right now, you are the most intelligent human alive on this planet and soon enough, you will be able to surpass every other living being in the universe or even the multiverse. I can also give you power over technology. So, why do you want to get rid of me?"

"What could be more scary than having an Infinity Gem of all the things inside one's head? And as you said, I already know about you, so I know the risks. The pain is almost unbearable, I am losing my sanity and emotions. And if someone discovers that it's in my head, they won't stop until they have it," Tony answered.

"Good point. Pain and losing your emotions and sanity... I agree," The boy said with a grim expression.

He flicked his fingers and the dark world around them changed. Around them played the scene of what happened for the last 20 days. The inhumane experiments Tony performed on those terrorists and his breakthrough with Aegis Serum.

"A lot of things happened, huh?" The boy said as he watched the memories.

Tony touched the side of his head. He doesn't remember everything that he did in his lab, only snippets and the result of success. A thought came to his mind, 'What am I doing? What have I done? Am I becoming the very things I despise?'

"Ah! You finally realized, huh?" The boy sighed. "Well, you're not completely wrong. I mean, you've killed people and experimented on them. And yes, it's a horrible thing to do, but the results are good. Besides, they are bad guys, right? So, what if you mutilated them, experimented on them, or even killed them? They did far worse things than that. It's only fair, they pay for their sins, right? The end result is all that matters, right? The more important question is, what are you going to do now?"

"I shouldn't have killed Reed without knowing if he's the bad guy or not. I could have changed Victor's fate... I could have at least tried, yet I messed up his life. That serum... I could have created that without human experiments. I know I could have!" Tony exclaimed in frustration. "Fuck! I just wanted an excuse... An excuse to test my medical knowledge on humans. The super-intelligence... It's messing up my ability to make rational decisions. I should have taken steps to control myself, yet I didn't..."

"Well, at least you still have some control over your mind to see where you went wrong and what you should do in the future," The boy said. "Don't become the monster you despise. There's still time. You can control my power. All you have to do is focus and hold your urges to abuse that power. You can achieve everything, but you have to keep your sanity, or else you will fall into a deep pit like Reed would have fallen."

Tony frowned as he listened to the boy's words.

"Wait! Reed! So that's the reason you manifested in the first place, right?"

"Correct. We are the existence in charge of maintaining the balance of this reality and universe. Whenever a threat, capable of breaking the balance, arises, we manifest in various forms to counter that threat. However, with Reed dead. This reality's future has shifted drastically. Even we gems can not predict the upcoming threats anymore. Thus manifesting like before is not possible anymore. And that, my host, you should be afraid of... An unknown future where anything could happen. Your actions from here on out will determine the outcome of the future."

Tony thought for a moment before responding. "So, an uncertain future... Huh?! I guess it's better than living my life based on someone else's decisions. And stop trying to shift the conversation. If you can not tell me the process to remove you from my head, you can at least give me something to stop the pain and fix my messed up sanity."

"I am a part of you. Without me you won't survive, just like how you can't survive without air, heart, lungs, brain, or any other important body parts. But I can understand your pain. As days go by my power increases and your mortal body can not withstand my vast energy. You need to evolve. You already know how, but still, I'll give you a clue- Cosmic Rays," The boy explained. "Evolve your body so that my power can completely fuse with you. Then, the pain and this voice will be gone, and your emotions, sanity... Everything will be fixed."

"Cosmic rays?" Tony thought about it for a while and nodded. "I see... That makes sense. So, I want to ask you one final question. Are you real, a manifestation of the gem, or just a hallucination in my head?"

"Ha ha ha. What if I said that I was neither a hallucination nor a real entity? What if I said that you are imagining me all by yourself and you are talking to yourself? Ha ha ha... I guess only you can answer that question, my host. Farewell. We'll talk again," The boy laughed, his voice echoing around.

The watery ground beneath Tony shifted and he fell down into the dark abyss. The next moment, he regained consciousness.

"Boss, are you okay?" Hermes asked.

Tony felt the pain disappear and his body felt energetic. It was like he had a good night's sleep. His mind was clear. He looked at his phone and realized that not even 10 seconds had passed. But it doesn't matter now. He knows what he has to do.

"I'm fine. Get me a coffee," Tony replied.

He got up from the floor and picked up the pills. After putting them into his pocket, he looked back at the two alive terrorists.

"Haaa... What the fuck should I do with them?"

...

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