"By the way, Sebastian, don't you know how to conjure those portals? Why not just open one and co back directly?"
In the car driven by Happy, Sebastian heard Tony's question and replied, "My magic hasn't reached that level yet. The mages of Kamar-Taj can tap into the power of a higher being to open portals across universes, but I'm only using my own strength and can't manage one that far.
Besides, even if I could, I wouldn't. If I opened one, I'd be forced back. I hadn't learned Asgard's magic yet, so how could I return like that?"
"So, choosing to co back now ans you've learned the magic of that place, right?"
"Though I haven't mastered everything, I've learned plenty. Most importantly, I've studied a set of magic runes that rival the ancient spell-words. Once I've fully grasped them and can blend the two systems, it'll be ti to help you upgrade Mark Ω 1.0 to 2.0."
Hearing this, Tony grinned and said, "Then I'll be looking forward to it."
As they chatted, the car pulled up under Sebastian's building. When Sebastian was about to step out, Tony called him back.
"Sebastian, I've got sothing for you."
Tony reached over to the passenger seat, pulled out a gold-and-red tal tube shaped like a thermos, and handed it to Sebastian, saying, "It took more than a month to design this thing. I combined my skills with your magic technology and finally made it. Take it ho and study it—it should help you out."
"Didn't I tell you before? Armor's not practical for when I'm casting spells."
"Of course I rember. This isn't armor. You'll see when you check it out."
"Alright, I'll take a look. If you made it, it's bound to be good."
Nodding to Tony, Sebastian slipped the tube into his backpack, got out of the car with the backpack and his box, and headed ho alone.
At that ti, Alisha was still at work. By her usual schedule, she wouldn't be back until after 10 p.m. To avoid disrupting her work, Sebastian didn't tell Alisha he was back right away. Instead, he stowed the box and backpack in his room. Seeing the spotless room, unchanged from when he left, Sebastian knew Alisha had kept it tidy. A smile spread across his face, and he started unpacking the backpack and box.
After sorting clothes and other items, he tossed what needed washing into the machine. With that done, Sebastian sat at his desk and pulled out the device Tony gave him.
Sebastian eyed the gold-and-red tal tube, its surface etched with gaps and lines. He spotted a fingerprint lock at one end and pressed his thumb to it. With a beep, the tube sprang to life, splitting into three parts—two large, one small.
The two large parts were the tube's ends, and the small part was its core. The core swiftly reshaped into a tal mask that clung to Sebastian's face. The two larger parts dropped to his feet, morphing into tal boots that covered his feet and most of his calves!
At that mont, a stream of data and descriptions flashed across the mask on Sebastian's face, sowhat like Tony's Iron Man armor but distinct. Sebastian read through them and finally understood what Tony had crafted.
In short, it gave Sebastian boosted jumping and running skills. The boots on his feet allowed short-distance flight. They also had magnetic field control, based on the old Zack armor, letting Sebastian stick to walls or ceilings and even hover briefly. Paired with the mask, underwater movent was a handy extra feature.
Of course, Sebastian's spells could mimic these abilities, so the real gem was the mask. The boots were just a bonus, but the mask held Tony's core tech.
Beyond basic air filtering and scanning, it linked to Jarvis's search and computing power, a huge boost for gathering and analyzing intel, covering Sebastian's weak spots.
The mask's feature Sebastian liked best was its ability to turn invisible and alter appearance. In a pinch, the mask's eyes could fire two high-energy beams, strong enough to swing a fight's outco.
So boot functions might overlap, but the mask's features truly patched up my gaps. At least many of my old issues are solved, especially the scanning and analysis tools, which help the most.
Speaking a command, the mask and boots detached from Sebastian's body, reshaped, and rged back into the gold-and-red tal tube.
The transford mask and boots each had their own energy cores, but the cores were small, lasting only about three days. After that, they needed recharging or swapping. The second-generation micro Arc Reactor could only do so much.
In short, Tony's gift was pretty impressive.
After tinkering with it again, Sebastian flicked his wrist, and the tal tube vanished from his hand with a Evanesco.
Just as Sebastian stood to head to the kitchen for a snack, the front door swung open, and Alisha walked in with a handso man in his thirties.
The mont she stepped inside, Alisha glanced at the swapped shoes by the door, froze for a second, and then shouted, "Sebastian, sweetheart, are you back?"
Hearing Alisha's voice, Sebastian stepped out of his room, hugged Alisha, who hadn't even changed her shoes, and said, "Mom, I'm back."
"You didn't even call when you got ho, and you didn't ntion it in the video call three days ago. We're going to have a talk about this later."
"I wanted to surprise you. I'm hoping you'll go easy on , Mom."
Releasing Sebastian, Alisha looked him up and down and said, "You seem thinner and taller. I couldn't tell on video. It's only seeing you in person that shows the changes."
At that, Sebastian wiped away a bead of sweat. Of course, nothing had changed—it was just a virtual stand-in.
Just as Sebastian was about to reply to Alisha, the man at the door gave a soft cough, drawing both Sebastian's and Alisha's attention.
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