29 Can I hug you?

I will be traveling for two days, so I have set up the automatic release of the Webnovel for this chapter and the next one.

I changed the author's note in the Fanfic description, what do you think?

Love you guys!

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"Tony, you'd better go now, or you'll be sad for not arriving earlier." Yao's voice echoed behind me.

I turned around, surprised. Her process had already finished.

I furrowed my brows at her words, and finally, a light bulb lit up in my head.

"Rocket!!" I exclaimed loudly.

Yao nodded.

I quickly and simply waved my hand, and a portal appeared to the place from which I saw Carol coming.

"Huh?! How did you create a portal so quickly and easily?" Carol asked, surprised.

"I managed. But now I can't talk." I said simply. She knew what I had been working on, so she understood what I meant.

Stepping through the portal, I appeared on a planet that was extremely similar to Earth, but I didn't have time to admire it now.

I looked at a red pyramid rising on the horizon and quickly opened a portal there.

My Iron Man suit appeared at an impressive speed, and my boots harnessed my photon energy and used it for propulsion. Along with my recent time-acceleration power, I was like lightning.

I went through the portal and in the blink of an eye, I was at the pyramid. Information HUDs appeared in my eyes, and I found five lifeforms in a part of the pyramid that was, in fact, a spaceship. One of the lifeforms had a weapon and was about to shoot an unsuspecting one.

Accelerating again, I broke through the spaceship's hull and walls as if they were paper and quickly reached where the lifeforms were. There, I saw an otter with robotic arms that was lying on the ground.

"AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!" The little raccoon, seeing his friend killed, screamed in pain and despair.

"Rocket, Teefs, Floor go now! Rocket, Teefs, Floor go now!" A small rabbit-spider kept repeating in despair. Perhaps she couldn't process what was happening, or perhaps she was trying to call her friend out of pain and escape while they still had time.

Meanwhile, the man I recognized as the High Evolutionary looked at me with disdain and demanded, "Who are you? This is private property. Who do you think you are?" He looked at me like an insect that was bothering him. I was confused if he simply didn't see me blow a hole in the ship, or simply ignored it in his arrogance.

He raised the weapon in his hand and fired at me.

Sparks flew from my armor, but the little damage that occurred was repaired so quickly that it seemed like there wasn't even a scratch.

It seems he doesn't have or just isn't using his telekinetic equipment.

But it makes sense. If he were using it, Rocket would never have caused him so much damage and escaped.

But even if he had, I have the technology to neutralize such devices.

"Sorry, your weapon is useless against me. But how about you test mine? I just took it from some dead Kree, but I didn't like the light show, so I improved it a bit." I said with a serious tone to him, raising my hand in his direction.

Then the nanobots on my wrist formed a ring-like device with grooves, which glowed blue, and levitated the High Evolutionary.

"Huh?!" The High Evolutionary widened his eyes, surprised.

That was the last thing he said before I waved my hand and threw him violently against the wall.

He then slid down the wall, leaving a trail of blood.

"Well, looks good. Thanks for helping me test." I waved and looked at the raccoon who was ignoring everything and still screaming.

I walked over to Rocket, who was still screaming in despair. My helmet opened and I knelt beside him. I placed my hand on Rocket's head and I said, "Don't worry, I'll heal your friend."

He was startled by me suddenly placing my hand on his head, but when he heard me, his eyes lit up with hope.

I placed my hand on the otter's chest, and my Extremis entered her body and quickly began healing the damage that man had caused.

The bastard had aimed at her heart, where the bomb was implanted and exploded. The damage was so severe that the poor thing couldn't even say more than one word before passing out.

Fortunately, I arrived quickly, so she hadn't suffered brain death yet, and I was able to heal her.

But the healing didn't stop at just repairing the damage from the gunshot and explosion.

Her mechanical arms and implants fell away, and real arms began growing rapidly.

Rocket, who saw this, was stunned, then became wildly happy when he saw her eyes twitch and open.

"Lylla!!" Rocket shouted, extremely happy, and ran to help his friend up.

"Rocket! Are you dead too? Is this the Sky?" Lylla opened her eyes and asked, dazed and confused.

Rocket, with a smile, wiped his eyes and nose with his forearm and said, "No, you're alive. Even your arms are healed."

"Arms?" Lylla looked confused and raised her arms. Then she was shocked.

"A-A-Are these really my arms?!" She asked, incredulous.

"If they're not yours, whose would they be?" I looked at the otter and the raccoon and asked, amused.

"Wh-Who are you? Why did you help us?" Rocket left Lylla and stood in front of her, staring at me as he asked.

Even though I had helped, he didn't lower his guard against me. Smart.

"A friend. Now come with me. The people on this ship have done a lot of harm. I have to deal with them." I said, stood up, and walked forward without looking to see if they were following me.

The four animals looked at each other and then finally looked at Rocket.

"... Let's follow him. If he wanted to harm us, he wouldn't have saved Lylla." He said and began to cautiously follow me.

As I walked, where my feet touched, millions of nanobots spread out like waves and infiltrated the ship.

"W-What are these things?" Rocket asked, frightened by the nanobots.

"They're nanobots created by me. They're excellent builders. They can also break down almost any material and use it to build other things." I explained as I walked.

"What's going to happen to us?" Rocket asked cautiously but firmly.

"That will depend." I said seriously.

"Depend on what?" Lylla, who had already composed herself, asked cautiously.

"Depend on what you want to do next." I smiled at them and walked ahead, leaving them puzzled behind.

"What does that mean?" Lylla asked Rocket.

"... I don't know. But I have a good feeling about this. His eyes, when he looks at us, are full of kindness, very different from the High Evolutionary's gaze that sees us as disposable items." Rocket replied after pondering.

Lylla, Floor, and Teefs nodded as they remembered my gaze.

Arriving in the ship's command room, the High Evolutionary's henchmen were all contained by the nanobots.

"Man, dealing with villains is such a hassle. Should I just kill them and be done with it?" I wondered aloud with a bitter face.

The guys who were contained were all scared after hearing me, and they started shaking their heads frantically. Some of them even wet themselves.

"Damn, guys, that's disgusting." I said with disgust, averting my eyes.

"Hmm... Well, I don't want to deal with this. Jarvis, you handle this." I shrugged.

[S-Sir, if you don't give me clear orders, I won't know what to do.] Jarvis said, with a lot of uncertainty in his voice.

"You can do it, J. Just follow your heart... or ask Carol." I said with a playful smile.

Then I turned to Rocket, who was looking at me in surprise.

I looked at him seriously for a few seconds.

And I finally asked:

"Can I hug you?"