"All right, enough chatter. JARVIS, send Riku a message and tell him..."
Before Tony could finish, Shiratori Riku appeared in the lab.
"Good grief, do you know how scary you are?"
Tony jolted so hard that the wrench slipped from his hand.
"My heart cannot take that kind of shock."
Riku grinned at his fluster.
"I come when I want and how I want, free as the wind, you know, bro?"
Tony looked him up and down, hesitant.
"How did you do that? I only said your name and you popped up."
"Hmph. Because I am a god!"
He struck a lofty pose, chin tipped, eyes gleaming with delight.
Watching him clown around, Tony felt a wave of fatigue.
So this is what people feel dealing with an eccentric genius.
To those reporters who call me a weirdo behind my back, some of you owe me an apology.
"Cut it out. I am being serious."
Riku straightened, crossed his arms, and his tone hardened.
"Seems you still do not grasp what godhood means."
"Fine. Today, watch what divine power is."
As he spoke, the device on Tony's wrist flashed red.
"Abnormal energy fluctuation detected."
A crimson spark blossomed at Riku's fingertip.
He pointed lazily into the distance. The spark stretched into a scarlet beam, spearing through Stark Tower's ballistic glass and streaking away.
With a casual wave, a floating screen unfolded beside him.
It showed the beam racing across half of New York and striking an abandoned building beyond the suburbs.
RUMBLE!
Onscreen, a titanic blast rolled out. The derelict vanished in a furnace-white bloom.
Tony shot to his feet, pupils tightening.
"JARVIS, the energy readout."
"Sir, the beam temperature peaked in the hundreds of thousands of Celsius. Its signature closely matches the sun."
Tony's breath hitched, then he forced himself calm and bluffed.
"Nice tech. A laser weapon? Some kind of energy projector?"
Riku did not answer. Instead, he rose slowly into the air. His casual clothes stirred though there was no breeze.
Tony's composure slipped again.
"Antigravity tech?"
Riku smiled and shook his head.
"No. Pure strength."
Before Tony could react, Riku blurred, seized his shoulder, and--
BOOM!
A sonic cloud burst. They shot skyward faster than human eyes could track.
In a blink, Tony found himself on the brink of Earth's orbit.
Below, the blue planet turned in majestic silence.
"Outer space? No, wait-- why am I fine?"
Even shaken, Tony noticed the contradiction.
The higher you go, the colder it gets. He had learned that the hard way.
Yet here, he felt no cold at all. He could breathe as if standing in his living room.
Nonsense. It broke every rule he knew.
"This is impossible..."
Riku's voice sounded in his ear, defying the need for air.
"Because I am shielding you. Otherwise the shock from liftoff alone would have pulped you."
"Now, do you still think I was joking before?"
Tony turned stiffly toward the man who had carried him through the sky like luggage.
He no longer questioned why Riku could speak in vacuum.
"Who are you, really?"
In the sun's blaze, Riku's clothes rippled in nothingness, a halo blazing behind him.
"I have been telling you since we met."
Tony's throat worked. The word scraped out.
"God?"
Riku shrugged, playful.
"Correct, but no prize."
He brought Tony back down.
In the next instant they were in the office again. Tony slumped onto the sofa, fingers trembling.
As a top-tier scientist, he understood exactly what this meant.
Breaking the atmosphere, tanking reentry heat -- these were frontiers human tech still could not master.
"Are you really a god?" Tony's voice was dry.
Riku's gaze grew serious. He considered, then nodded.
"More or less. You can call me a god."
"Like the one from the Bible? All-powerful?"
"For now, close enough. Anything you can imagine, I can do."
He said it with unshakable ease.
Suddenly Tony frowned, a thought striking him.
"So when you competed with me earlier, you were basically cheating?"
Riku's face darkened.
"No. To match wits with a mere mortal like you, why would I need to cheat? My Divine Talent is unbeatable."
Tony stared at the smug, prickly expression.
This guy was no god. He was a powerhouse with the personality of a troll.
Even if he really was a god, there was none of the holy glow from the books. Who talks this much smack?
"All right, you have seen my power. Now tell me, why were you looking for me?"
Tony opened his mouth to quip -- you are all-knowing, right, do you not know why I am here?
Then a second thought hit him. Wait.
If this show-off is that strong, why did I bust my tail for a day without food or sleep to build him a suit?
Was I just making trouble for myself?
Great. I am the idiot here.