Chapter 63: Ava and Monaco

Gwen's heart beat wildly as the unknown masked person suddenly appeared in their house. 

She looks at Ryan, but he is calm. The superpower that suddenly appeared didn't bother him at all. The sound of the news coming from the TV gradually lowered.

The superpower asked a question and directed it to Ryan, making Gwen eases up a bit. It seems that the guy knows her boyfriend. 

"Did you enjoy my present?" Ryan said. Gwen doesn't know why, she feels a little annoyed seeing his grin. "What present?" she asks. 

"A bracelet that can store quantum energy. It stabilizes her." He explains to Gwen. 

Ava hears it. She took off her mask in front of the couple, revealing her caramel-like complexion, doe-like eyes, and cute face. 

There is a pool of tears in her eyes. She turned back the bracelet on, making her unable to phase into things again. She turned it off before when she wanted to come here and wears the ghost suits to help her control her power. 

"Why did you help me?" She asks in a low voice. 

"Have a seat first. That was just a trial thing. I haven't optimized it yet. ALBUS, Bring us some tea." He ordered while gesturing to Ava to sit.

"Right away sir," ALBUS replied. 

Ava sits on the perpendicular part of the sofa, facing Ryan and Gwen. In just a minute, a tray carrying a pot of freshly brewed tea floats to the coffee table. 

She is surprised to see the convenience. Pouring a cup of tea for Ava, Ryan explains. "I found out about you a year ago when I hacked into Shield. I was surprised at your condition." 

"It must have been tough for you." He comforted Ava by patting her shoulder.

"Then, I found out that Shield had no interest in curing you." He continues. 

"Impossible!" Ava said. Her voice was shaky. 

"It's true. They trained you to be a weapon. They promised to cure you, right?" He then shows a holographic projection to Ava. 

"So far, I found out that they have promised 23 people to cure whatever it is they are afflicted with. 21 are now dead. One barely alive. And you." It is the true data that he found. 

The guy with the dreadlock/Bonerman that he fights with his V persona is already dead. 

"If you're really under the true Shield, then maybe someone will help," Ryan mutters. 

Ava catches what he is saying. "I'm not under Shield?" 

"You're, but you've been taken over by the Hydra faction inside of Shield." He explained the details about Hydra in Shield. 

"What about my father? Surely he didn't want to use me?" Ava asked. Her emotion is in disarray. 

Ryan said calmly. "Your father is okay. But Hydra purposely keeps him away from you and researching your condition as they are afraid that you will lose your power. After all, you're a perfect weapon for them." 

She will try very hard to complete a mission, as she wants to show that she is worth it for them to help her. Ryan realizes that she is very pitiful. 

Ava is silently processing all of this. She didn't believe him 100%, but now that she pieces it together with her memory, it seems plausible. 

Seeing Ava processing things, Ryan stands up and orders her. "Now, take off your clothes." 

… 

In Shield base where Ava is kept. 

"Have you found her yet! " A short man with a buzz cut and a scar on his cheeks said to his subordinates. 

"Sir, we didn't. But we found something else." His subordinate shows a video of Ava crying while kneeling on the ground. With the angle, they didn't see the bracelets she was wearing. Then, Ava suited up with the Ghost suit and is now gone. 

"How about the tracker in the suit?" the leader asks. 

"Sir, it has been removed." 

"Sound the alarm! She had gone AWOL." The leader then contacted Ava's foster father, Bill Foster to ask him whether Ava is meeting with him. 

"What is her last mission?" The leader asks.

"Her last mission is to bug Tim Knight's house. We checked the bug and it is still there." It is still there. It just does not return true feedback to the base. All of the conversations detected by it are changed by ALBUS.

"Retrace back her steps. Find out why she disappeared!"

…

At that time, Ava is lying on a metal bed wearing only her underwear. This feels normal for her. She didn't remember how many times now that she is tested. 

Some floating orbs are scanning her body condition. A blue laser is analyzing all the parts of her body. The MediOrb by Ryan, his original invention, is helping him collect the data.

Ryan, with a red mark on both his cheeks, is monitoring the progress in a panel nearby. All of Ava's data is displayed there.

The red mark is from Gwen pulling his cheeks as he uses ambiguous wording and confuses a woman. She is also a little jealous of his interest in the girl. 

"A young girl comes into your house at night, after you have given her a present to make her life better. Then, you ask her to take off her clothes. Are you planning to be a Sugar Daddy?"  She said sarcastically. 

Gwen is acting as his assistant in analyzing the data. She is holding a tablet and is arranging the procedure for Ava.

"What's the last part?" Ryan asks innocently. 

"Sugar Daddy," Gwen answered, thinking he didn't catch it.

"Only the last part," He said. 

"Daddy?" She is confused. 

"Yes, I am your daddy." He kisses her cheek and continues working. Gwen just rolled her eyes at him. 

He goes to Ava and hands her some of Gwen's clothes. She wears it, covering up her toned physique. 

"Are you prepared for the results?" Ryan asked after analyzing for a while. Ava nodded her head to answer the question. 

"You have only 7 years to live. After that, your body won't be able to take it anymore." He said solemnly. 

Ava drops her head. Gwen goes to hug her. While she helped in the examination before, she learns about Ava's condition and her pain. 

"Well, that is before you meet me. The bracelet can help you live longer until you become old and without pain. But it won't cure you of your condition." He added making Ava look back up. 

"You have been harnessing quantum energy from the Quantum Realm involuntarily to maintain your condition. It's also the thing that is keeping you alive. But as you grow older, it won't be enough for you." He explains the details of her condition. 

"I have calculated the rate of your body using quantum energy from the bracelet. I have siphoned off energy from the Quantum Realm for about a year to make the bracelet you're wearing now. However, the energy will be used up in a month." 

"So after a month, the pain will come back?" Ava asks worriedly. 

"Yes, you need to change the bracelet every month. Consider it a medicine you have to take." Ryan goes to a storage area beneath his working table and takes out a box. It's filled with 15 bracelets of the same kind. 

"I have to recharge it once you use it. So come back will ya" He smiles at Ava. The girl is almost smitten by his smile. Gwen is wary of the atmosphere, but she doesn't say anything.

"Why… Why do you want to help me?" She doesn't understand why the guy is being so nice to her. 

Even Gwen is interested. Ryan thinks for a while before he answers. 

"I don't have a reason. If I can help, then I will. You being cute also plays a part maybe." He teases. 

Ava's eyes widened. Gwen's eyes narrowed. 'I don't care if he is doing a good thing. He's dead' She thought.

"Hahaha, now Ava, what are you going to do next? Are you going to go back to the chamber?" He asks Ava, moving on from the topic. 

To be honest, he was curious about her when he learned about her before. He asked around in the group chat and found out what was going on with her. 

He also knows about her suffering from the chat. The Ant-Man 2 plot doesn't make sense to him.'Both can be saved with the Quantum Tunnel, why did you need to fight?'

"I… don't…know… I am indebted to my father, I need to save him from the place." She answered with determination. 

"After that?" He asks again. 

".... Maybe I'll go see the world?" She is not sure. She had spent most of her life in the glass chamber. She did learn Shield academic skills, mostly agent knowledge. 

They talked for a while and came to a certain agreement. Ryan will help her with some things. Such as a new ID, a disguise, and so on. If there is an expert to make some disappear in the world. It's him.

"How can I repay you?" Ava feels a little guilty. It's like she is taking advantage of his kindness. Ryan patted her head. "There is no need to repay me." 

Gwen mutters alone. "That's the duty of the richest man in the world. To save a damsel in distress." 

Ryan hears it with his enhanced hearing. He goes to Gwen and whispers to her ear, " You're the only damsel I need."

Before Ava left, she asked, "Why didn't you expose Hydra?" 

"It's not the right time. Don't worry, you will get your revenge on them for tricking you. But you need to wait in a long line to do that." Ryan said. 

" Are you also waiting in line?" Ava realizes something. 

Ryan just smiles at her without answering it. Ava Starr wears her Ghost suit again. She waved at Ryan and phased out of the house. 

Gwen said to Ryan when Ava left." Just curious, how much did a bracelet cost? "

" Are you sure you want to know the answer to that?" He teases.

"Yes. How much?" Gwen readies herself.

"50 million… each…" Ryan smirks.

"..... She must have been the girl of your dreams." Gwen pouted.

"I am not finished. 50 million each for its commercial value, but I make most of the thing myself, so it's very cheap. " He approached her and lifted her into his arms.

"Hey! Unhand me you brute!" Gwen said playfully.

He brings her to their bedroom. "The damsel will be in distress tonight…Wait until almost daybreak. Will be in distress this morning then." He throws her up on the bed.

… 

After their play, Ryan said to Gwen while they are still on the bed with nothing on their body except the blanket. "Stark invited us to the Monaco race today. You want to come?" 

"I don't think I can stand right now." She teases. She thinks for a while. "I don't think I will go. My mother asked me to have lunch with her today. And also…I don't like race cars."

"You will miss a good show." He tried to change her mind, but she didn't want to go. Therefore, he goes alone to Monaco.

He takes a flight to Monaco."Hi Yelena. I thought you quit." He said to the familiar flight attendant.

"I got paid a lot, for very little work. I will come back obviously." Yelena said while pouring him a glass of wine. She also pours one for herself. "The open bar is also why I'm back."

In Monaco. Ryan has popcorn in his hand while sitting in the audience seat. Not even the VIP ones, just ordinary seats. He looks like a tourist having fun instead of someone famous. 

He has a fake beard and wears sunglasses and a baseball cap. He hears the announcement about Tony joining the race. The old man is doing well for a few laps before someone walks onto the race tracks.

"WATCH OUT!" A random woman screams. 

The random man standing in the middle of the road rips off his clothes and reveals an Iron frame.*Bzzz* Ivan Vanko uses his electrified whip and cuts down an F1 car. 

"Vanko is uglier than I expected", Ryan mutters. He is still putting popcorn in his mouth. 

Ivan is standing on the track trying to kill Stark using his whip while the guy is stuck upside down as his race car turned over.

"He must be dabbling in S&M stuff before this. His whip proficiency is good" Ryan is watching it all go down from the audience section. 

All the other crowd screams and runs. But he is still there with a camera. "Let's zoom in on Stark's face." He uses the camera to take a video of the whole thing. He got a few great shots of the Iron man getting beat up. 

Pepper throws Tony the compressed armor, and Tony suits up while Happy, his bodyguard is distracting Vanko. 

"Wait, this seems dangerous." Ivan Vanko is going to kill Happy, something that didn't happen in the movie. 

Ryan picks up a V-shaped metal from the stand. He bends it to a certain shape. "This has a nice weight to it," He said, then he threw it like a boomerang in the air.

To hit Ivan, he needed to throw it at a tricky angle, hence, the boomerang. The metal spins and curves, then it hits Ivan at the back of his head, making him stagger to the front a few steps. 

Ivan looks at the crowd and stands in anger. His head bleeds a little. 

Ryan leans in the metal bars that separated the track and the stand, waving at Ivan trying to take credit for the throw. 

When Ivan found him, his waving hand turned into a middle finger gesture. The other audience near him is dumbfounded by his actions.

By this time Stark already finished suiting up. Tony tries to shoot using his palm cannon, but Vanko uses his whip to direct it elsewhere. 

They fight until Stark nears his distance from Vanko, and throws him down using an over-the-shoulder throw after he grabs the whip. He rips out the arc reactor on Vankos iron frame and shuts him down. 

"Hahaha, You Lose Stark!", Vanko said while being dragged away by the security. Looking at the arc reactor in his hand, Stark knew something was wrong. He crushes the arc reactor. 

"Now it's officially started." Ryan, who was watching the whole thing, walks away and flies back to New York. He knows that Stark will have a conversation with Ivan after this. 

In the holding cell, Stark is asking where Vanko gets the design for the arc reactor, in which his family is called a liar and a cheater. 

".. If you can make God bleed, people will cease to believe in him... I don't have to kill you, I just need to wait until the world consumes you." Ivan said while smiling, even in his handcuff. 

"And where will you watch this? That's right from a prison cell. I'll send you a bar of soap." Tony said to the Russian.

Ivan smirks while Stark is walking out of the holding cell. He yelled, "And Tony, Palladium in the chest…Very painful way to die." 

...

After that, Tony flies back to Malibu reluctantly. Ivan Vanko is broken out from prison by Justin Hammer. 

Hammer didn't know that all the evidence to throw him to prison had been recorded by a mini spider drone around him. 

Ryan got a call from Tony when the latter landed. "What are you? Captain Boomerang? Why don't you stay after the race?" 

"A race or a beat down?" He said while snickering. "I need to go home to edit some stuff." He replied. Stark feels ominous.

"I didn't lose. Anyway, come to my birthday party, no excuses this time." The other side of the phone fears the editing Ryan will make to torment him. Tony hung up directly after that. 

Tony got the idea to throw the best birthday party ever when he asked the opinion of a certain red-head secretary. Not his secretary, but Pepper's as she is now the CEO of Stark Industry. He changes the CEO after the hearing.

Ryan makes the final touch for Stark's beat-down clip. He then sends it to the guy. Tony at his home curses loudly. 

At his penthouse, Ryan continues his work as usual. The media is going crazy right now. Senator Stern makes a public appearance again, criticizing Stark for his decision not to surrender his suits. 

He also refuted Stark's claim that other countries couldn't make the suit in a short period.

In Ryan's hand, there is a strand of hair. It is Senator Stern's hair. "It's the first time I will try Voodoo." 

He puts the hair inside a voodoo doll. He then twisted the doll's stomach. Senator Stern, who is speaking live at the moment, suddenly feels his stomach is off. 

"Tony Stark has…(He grabs his stomach)...endangered...Arghh!!…"  He screams. The reporter is busy clicking the camera. Then, all of the people there smelled something disgusting.

Senator Stern has shit himself!!! The live broadcast is turned off after the poop is broadcasted to the whole country.

A few days pass by. It's time for Tony's party. Ryan said to Gwen. " I'm sorry. You can't go this time."

"Why not?!" Gwen is flabbergasted. Seeing his complicated expression, she just let the matter go. 

He kisses her forehead and says "I think he might be dying, keep it a secret. I'll tell you all about it later." He didn't plan to keep a secret from Gwen in the first place. 

"Okay… But if I see one scandal about you. No nooky for a month." She threatened. Ryan smirks. "So I have to make today count!" 

"ALBUS, is it ready?" Ryan goes to his lab after Gwen is satisfied.

"Yes sir, the compound can effectively treat palladium poisoning. But if the reactor is still inside his body, it will be useless as the poisoning will occur again." ALBUS replied.

"But it'll give him a few months right?" He is confident with his calculations. He knows that his compound is better than what Shield could come out with.

"Theoretically, Yes."  the AI answers. 

"Then it didn't matter."  Ryan picks up a USB containing the necessary knowledge and a vial of lithium dioxide compound. 

"I'll meet you at the Expo," he says goodbye to Gwen before he flies to Los Angeles. The expo has already started for a few days now. 

Ryan had made an initial appearance after Stark launched the expo, but his invention will be revealed the day before the Hammer Industry presentation. 

This is Pepper's way of giving Ryan some time to prepare, although the action is unnecessary, he still thanked Pepper.

…

In Midtown high. The senior students class gets a transfer student today.

Skye is minding her own business and tuning out what's happening before the transfer student is seated next to her. 

She turns to the transfer student. "Hi, my name is Skye Vera." 

The transfer student took her hand. "Hi, my name is Hannah John-Kamen " She uses her fake name to introduce herself. Ava Starr now officially entered society.

Skye can feel the calloused hand of an expert combatant. "I feel like we can be best friends." She says while grinning.