It took the usually unflappable inventor a full thirty seconds to finally respond to my statement.
"Are you fucking serious?" He asked, his eyes wide. "Where the hell did you find an ingot of vibranium? Do you have any idea how much money this is worth? No, of course you do, or you wouldn't have done your whole dramatic reveal thing."
"Of course I do." I confirmed with a smile and a shrug.
Of course my issue wasn't not knowing what it was worth. My issue was knowing if anyone would recognize the name or not. Thankfully it seemed they did.
"I'm not really looking to sell it per say. Money really isn't an issue at this point."
"Sounds to me like you're looking to trade." He pointed out.
"It's possible." I said with a smile before shifting to a more serious look "I want you to help me build something."
"Really? Going to be all dramatic about that too?" He asked, rolling his eyes before looking back down at the vibranium. "You know one of the dumbest things my dad ever did was gather all the vibranium he could find and build it into a shield? The things we have been able to learn from the tiny amount we have found since then…"
"It's a versatile metal. Unfortunately all I've been using it for is to reinforce my armor."
"Wait, you did your combining thing with vibranium? How much did you use? Where the hell did you get it?"
"A few dozen ingots." I explained, smirking now. "And I have as much as I need."
"As much as…" Tony made a critical face for a moment, looking at me suspiciously. "You fucked with reality again, didn't you."
"I absolutely did."
"Alright, I'll bite." He said, throwing the ingot back to me, which I caught and put down on the counter. "What do you need help building?"
"Well, honestly, at this point I have most of my problems solved." I admitted. "My armor is… well I won't say unstoppable but I consider it sufficient for now. Money problems are solved, and I have access to intel and other resources through Shield. I'm pretty stable in most areas. Which leaves nothing else to do but expand and experiment."
"You're bored." Tony said, smirking now. "You're looking for the next project because you're bored."
"Not really, not yet at least. I'm just looking for the next project. I have a few planned out ideas, some of which are kind of depending on Shield to… well they need some-"
"You realize I know about Hydra already right?" Tony said with a smirk. "Jarvis hacks the pentagon daily and makes a list of everything I need to know. Shield is a bit more challenging but once Hydra came in his report I got curious. Why do you think I was so adamant about getting my armor running before I let you work your voodoo?"
"Huh… Alright, that's fair. Then you know about…?"
"That you de-aged Peggy Carter and she is running around with the all American popsicle? Yes, I know." Stark said, turning to tap on the computer behind him.
He worked for a moment before pulling up cell phone camera footage of Steve, Bucky and Peggy, along with a few Shield agents storming a building. The footage zoomed in on Steve and Peggy's faces.
"I recognized them pretty quickly. Dad idolized Steve Rogers and Peggy worked with him on a daily basis. I got an invitation to her retirement party." He said, turning back to look at me. "Not a very big leap from someone finding the fountain of youth and someone offering to heal my chest within the next few weeks. How did you do it by the way?"
"You mean how did I de-age her? The same amulet that fixed your chest." I said, rubbing my face. "I can't believe I forgot to make her a face changing mask. Please don't spread that around."
"…Does that mean I'm younger than Pepper now?" Tony asked, continuing when I gave him a harsh look. "I won't… as long as Pepper and I get some of the good stuff when I start seeing grays."
"Thank you." I said, purposely not answering his unspoken question. I honestly hadn't figured out if I was going to offer that to people beyond Peggy, even people I was close to. I didn't know if the world was ready for immortality.
"So what kind of projects are you looking for now?" Tony asked, sitting down in his computer chair, spinning it around to face me.
"Well I could use your help with one idea…"
By the time Ema and I left Tony and Pepper's home it was almost one in the morning. We had eaten with the couple before Stark and I returned down into his workshop to talk about more of my ideas and eventually hammer out a deal. The inventor promised to help me with one of the most promising plans, agreeing to call in a few days when he was done. In exchange for producing the foundation for my idea, Stark would get two ingots of vibranium, one of which already I left with him.
I knew I was way over paying for his help, considering that I could sell that single ingot for around thirty six million dollars, according to Stark himself. That said, I didn't mind much considering that for now Stark seemed to be relatively sane and determined to be a good guy, with no hint of the near insane control freak he was in most of his comics. He did drink a bit too much before, during and after dinner, but his medical scan hadn't said anything about alcoholism, at least not yet.
The following morning Ema and I started a round trip around the country, flying to and distributing my teleport pads to several new cities. By the end of the next day I had three landing pads in New York, and one in Washington DC, Chicago, Austin, Los Angeles, St Louis, Denver, Las Vegas, Miami, Honolulu, Seattle and Salt Lake City. We used the travel time to find our new top speeds, which ended up being just around Mach three. Content that I could now reach anywhere in the United States in a few minutes, I made another batch of landing pads, this one attached to a stretchy leather band I could wear around my bicep.
During the day I worked on smaller projects, mostly getting my production capabilities even further into the ridiculous by starting to duplicate and stack the UCM's, as well producing some basic materials and doing some shopping for my upcoming project. While I was doing that Ema was fly around the world, dropping off landing pads. Pretty soon I could get to any place on the planet in thirty minutes max. I ended up having to make a map of all the places I could travel to to keep track. Being able to fly at mach three was very useful.
By the time Ema was done distributing landing pads all over the world, Tony was done with his project.
"It looks good." I said, walking around the humanoid robot shell he designed and fabricated for me. "How much did it cost to make?"
"A few million." Tony responded with a shrug. "Most of it is made from parts I already had around for the suit, save a few actuators that I had to customize to work properly. It's just a shell remember, nothing up top, not yet at least."
The robot was about five feet tall and stood ramrod straight. Its frame was simple and looked vaguely skeleton-like, with bulkier joints and a vaguely V shaped head. It was actually shockingly similar to a T-800 from Terminator in some ways, though not quite as intimidating.
"And its closed state?" I asked, prompting Tony to give it a verbal command.
The robot shivered slightly in place as its pistons and actuators unlocked. It shifted in place before slowly folding itself up. It wasn't nearly as impressive as what I could do with some transformation cards, but plenty impressive for normal restrictions. In the end it was small enough to fit into my UCM, which is what really mattered. When it finally stopped moving its body tucked and folded into an approximate two foot cube.
"It's exactly what I needed." I said, watching as it began standing back up after another command from Tony. "And it doesn't have any way whatsoever to connect wirelessly?"
"Nope, it's completely isolated. It doesn't even have a radio. The only way to update its programming is to pull this, download whatever you want to it and put it back in place." He said, handing me a small square cartridge. "It has the absolute bare bones [programming right now. It's basically only a few steps ahead of Dum-E."
Tony spent the next hour showing me how to insert and remove the cartridge, how to remove the robot's limbs and how to access, charge, remove and replace its power source, which was a pretty unimpressive lithium ion battery. After he was done explaining everything I carded it, examining its concepts in detail. A humanoid robot, with no hint of intelligence or method of control, it was a remarkably simple item. I couldn't help but smile as I pulled out a second ingot of vibranium and passed it to Tony.
"You earned this, just try not to advertise that you have it. Might want to cover it in a layer of a different metal or something if you use it in your armor."
"Pfft there is no way I'm wasting this in armor plating." He said, placing it down on the counter.
A short conversation and an even shorter flight later and Ema and I were back at the quarry, the UCM already scanning the robot shell in its folded form.
"Why did he just let you leave like that?" Ema asked, floating around as she scrolled through the quad stacked UCM's control screen. "I mean… as basic as it is, it's still a robot platform."
"If I had to guess? Because he assumed he would be my only source if I wanted new ones, and that it's not that advanced. I could have gotten something from half a dozen different places. I bet Hammer industries would have given me a dozen drones for half an ingot of vibranium. " I explained with a shrug. "Tony wasn't kidding when he said that the important part was missing. Making a bipedal robot isn't the hard part, programming one to interact with the world with any sort of proficiency is."
We waited an hour for the UCM's to spit out their first copies before starting to experiment. I combined the cartridge with books on speech, language and conversations, as well as basic psychology, body language, and even a few books on bedside manners for nurses and doctors. I then added a dozen books on first aid, paramedic training, triage and all sorts of other medical knowledge, all focused on in-the-field treatment. When I was done I inserted it back into one of the copies. The robot jerked as its limbs unlocked before it turned to look at me.
"Greetings." It said in a robotic voice. "Are you injured?"
"My hand is a little sore." I said, holding my glove covered hand out to it.
The robot stepped closer before gently taking my hand and removing my glove. It examined me, turning my hand over and checking for anything wrong. Finding nothing it stepped back and looked up at me.
"You are uninjured. If you continue to feel symptoms please notify your doctor as unexplained pain can be a symptom of several deeper issues."
The robot said clearly, before looking around and noticing Ema, who was floating just next to it.
"Greetings. Are you injured?"
"...No." She answered, looking the robot up and down before looking back at me. "Not the brightest bulb in the batch, huh? I'm made of metal, floating and less than six inches across for crying out loud."
"It's just a proof of concept Ema, Just wanted to make sure it would work at all." I assured her, stepping around the robot and pulling it into a card. "Not bad all things considered, it even adopted a slightly more natural pose."
I examined the card for any hints of sentience, nodding in satisfaction when I found none, though its knowledge had grown quite a bit. Satisfied my concept was achievable I knuckled down and got to work.
I started by removing each of the robots arms, combining one with a powerful healing flashlight, augmenting with a copy of my own healing amulet. I combined the other with one of my medical scanners. I pulled the robot apart piece by piece, enhancing, reinforcing and empowering everything I could. I even combined an energy cell with its battery, as well as some powerful multi stacked solar panels to its plating. My final act was to bind it to myself, but instead of using a lock, I used a combination of instruction manuals, a children's book on the importance of obeying those in charge, and a few other bits of electronics and switches. At first I deliberately left out any trace of magic save the healing flashlight now embedded in its left palm, but I soon gave up on that concept when it started getting in the way of how far I could push its design.
When I was finally done two days later I reactivated the robot, standing outside the tent of the quarry. It stood up from its folded form, now fully fleshed out instead of just a robotic skeleton. It still retained its fully robotic look, but between the vibranium, Asgardian alloy, super metal plating and several other additions, it now looked more streamlined and finished. It had a wing pack permanently attached to its back, though it was a basic version that was stuck going under five hundred miles per hour. Its metallic plating, which was smooth and sleek, was painted completely white, with various red accents painted on, a large caduceus staff softly glowing red and blue on its chest and shoulders, signifying its singular purpose.
"Hello" It said, finally standing upright, its face turned to me. Its stance was completely natural, the robot doing its best to seem open and peaceful. "I'm here to help. Are you injured?"
"No." I said simply. "There aren't any injured people here."
"Really?" The robot said before looking around, scanning across the open space before nodding in agreement. "Very well. Please notify me if you become injured."
"Could you do me a favor?" I asked the robot. "Jump in place ten times."
It got into position and started jumping, smoothly following my orders immediately. I spent the rest of the day checking its abilities and obedience, making sure that it would only follow my directions, even if I asked it to damage itself. I would have liked to have made it follow Ema's orders as well, but I couldn't risk adding any sort of electronic control mechanism into it. When I was done putting it through its paces I instructed it to fold up and hibernate, which it promptly did.
"That… was not bad for a few days of work!" I said excitedly, fist bumping Ema before she exited her exosuit. "It seemed to follow my directions pretty well, and not hurting people seems pretty well locked in. I need to test it on other people, but I think we successfully made an autonomous healing robot doctor. The Caduceus Droid."
"...why though?" Ema asked, flying around my head, before floating down and scanning the hibernating robot. "I asked before but you just waved me away."
"This is a Marvel world Ema. We have already had a few small scale fights, but a huge massive conflict will happen eventually. Skrulls, Kree, mutants, inhumans, demons, vampires, the list is fucking endless. Having a bunch of quick healing droids could save hundreds, if not thousands of people who get stuck in the crossfire. " I explained, reaching down and carding the robot once Ema was done scanning it. "Plus…This is still just a proof of concept. I already have ideas for the next few sets."