Chapter 18: Stark Expo part 3

[Third Person's PoV] 

It was Melissa's turn to present her invention. Luckily for her, there were many people around due to Tony's intervention, so they turned towards her presentation when they finished with Tony's... or was it really luck?

Melissa started to present her first weapon. "I'm sure many of you are here to see inventions that could replicate or surpass a person's Quirk. I am here today to see if I can meet your expectations."

Melissa grabbed the first weapon from the display shelf. It looked like a large handgun from a sci-fi movie. It was black with light blue neon lights around the middle.

"Instead of words, I'll first show a demonstration of what it can do." Melissa tapped her watch and a few drones shot up from behind her, flying around.

Thanks to months of practice, Melissa had become a great shot. She pulled the trigger and a light blue energy shot out, hitting a drone. Upon contact, the drone was turned into solid ice and dropped to the ground with a thud.

Everyone was immediately surprised upon seeing that. Melissa shot down more drones from the skies before she began to explain her invention.

"The Cold Gun works by harnessing energy pulses to rapidly extract thermal energy from its targets. Upon activation, it projects a beam of light blue energy that instantly freezes objects upon contact, as you just witnessed with the drones," Melissa elaborated, her voice filled with enthusiasm.

"The technology behind it involves a specialized mechanism that absorbs heat at an incredibly fast rate, cooling the target to subzero temperatures within milliseconds. It's designed for precision and efficiency, capable of immobilizing targets without causing permanent harm," she added, gesturing towards the frozen drones now lying on the ground.

Everyone began to clap, very impressed with her invention. After all, it replicated Ice Quirks.

Even Tony, who was still on his platform, had an impressed look.

Melissa then grabbed the handle of a sword. When she pulled it out, the blade side of the sword was missing, leaving only the back blade.

"I know what some of you may be thinking: what a lackluster sword," she said.

Some chuckled, thinking exactly that, until Melissa pressed a button on the lever of the sword. From the sword, a blue beam of electricity filled out the missing parts.

'She built a lightsaber?' Tony thought, raising an eyebrow with an amused look.

Melissa called forth more drones, and they all came flying towards her. She grabbed the sword with both her small hands and started cutting the drones apart.

There was more applause due to her performance.

"The sharp edge is made purely out of electricity, making it sharper than steel. It utilizes a controlled plasma field confined by magnetic containment to slice effortlessly through conventional barriers and armor," Melissa explained the intricacies of how the weapon worked.

After showcasing the weapons, she went on to present Hero support items. Once she was done, she gave everyone watching a bow. "Thank you all for your time and patience."

There was a round of applause as the audience was very impressed with Melissa, especially considering she was just a young girl able to accomplish so much. This scored a lot of points with the judges present to witness both Tony's and Melissa's exhibitions.

Unfortunately for Melissa and Tony, they had to wait for the judges to tour the entire expo and thoroughly explore each exhibit, as they took their jobs very seriously.

Tony looked towards Melissa and gave her a thumbs up, indicating she did well. Melissa had a small grin and gave him a nod of thanks.

The day soon passed with more people coming to see their exhibits. Eventually, everyone was summoned to a big auditorium. Melissa and Tony sat next to each other as they saw the judges walk towards the podium.

"Be prepared to lose," Melissa said teasingly.

"Oh? Someone is getting a bit of an ego. Maybe they're spending too much time with bad influences," Tony retorted.

"You definitely are a bad influence," Melissa nodded.

Tony scoffed before paying attention as a man with a handlebar mustache walked up ahead of the other judges, one of whom was a woman and another who was a bit chubby.

"I hope everyone had a wonderful time today at the Expo. Let's give every participant a round of applause for their time and effort."

After the round of applause, the man put up a hand to stop it. "Now then, there were many great entries in the Expo this year. Some were unique, some were interesting, and some were even revolutionary. But unfortunately, not everyone can be a winner at the Expo."

"My fellow judges and I took our time to examine and study every invention very thoroughly. We will now announce the top five contestants we have carefully chosen."

"In fifth place, we have…" Tony tuned them out as he didn't really care much and was just interested in hearing his or Melissa's name.

"In fourth place…"

"The top three…"

"Second place goes to…"

It was at that time that Tony raised an eyebrow, since second place didn't belong to either Melissa or him.

"Now, this came as a shock to us, as it will be to you all here today… for the first time in history, we have our first Stark Expo tie!"

'Bullshit,' Tony thought, already figuring it out. Melissa wasn't any different; her eyebrows twitched in annoyance as she knew what was coming.

"The two winners of the Expo are Anthony Stark and Melissa Shield! Anthony Stark's invention, The Baymax, has the potential to help millions of people and could revolutionize healthcare. Meanwhile, Melissa Shield created multiple extraordinary inventions that replicate Quirks and include her remarkable support items."

Both Anthony and Melissa looked at each other, both wearing the same irritated expression.

"Let's give them both a round of applause and welcome them up to the stage to receive their awards!"

As people clapped, Melissa and Tony walked towards the stage, giving each other side glances. They approached the judges, who shook their hands. "Congratulations to the two of you."

They both wore apathetic expressions and gave the most casual speeches they could muster.

After the award ceremony, Tony and Melissa met up with their parents.

"So, did you two enjoy yourselves?" Howard asked.

"No," they both replied, clearly unsatisfied.

"But you both won! That's fantastic," David said with a smile.

Tony and Melissa clicked their tongues and looked to the side, irritated. "There's no such thing as two winners," Melissa said, narrowing her eyes at her father.

Hearing this, Howard laughed loudly. "Hahahaha! She's becoming a Stark now."

David sighed and grumbled to Howard, "Your son is corrupting my daughter. Make him stop."

Howard just put a hand on David's shoulder. "Just embrace it, old friend. Just embrace it."

Maria shook her head and giggled. She watched as Tony put his hands in his pockets and started to walk away, leaning forward a bit. Melissa walked close to him with a pout.

"Where are you two going?" Maria asked.

"Home!" they both said at the same time, clearly still irritated by how everything turned out.

"But there's still more to the Expo," Howard said.

"We're done with the Expo. It's a stupid thing in the first place," Tony grumbled, while Melissa nodded in agreement.

"I mean, we mostly came here for them. If they don't want to be here, we can't really force them," Howard said.

"Nice try. You still need to get some work done around here as you're the owner. Don't worry about the kids; I'll take them home," David said with a scoff, while Howard grumbled at being found out.

"Maybe Tony was right. It is a stupid thing in the first place," Howard mumbled.

Maria rolled her eyes and patted his back. "Don't worry, I'll stay here with you. David, please take care of them until we get home."

David nodded and soon followed after the kids as they ended their trip to the Stark Expo earlier than planned.

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