Seeing Tony suddenly at a loss for words, Shiratori Riku tilted his head.
"Tony, what is it? Constipated? Aside from palladium poisoning, your body looks fine to me."
Tony blinked, gathered himself, and decided to speak up.
"To thank you for the warning that gave me hope against palladium toxicity, I built you a custom suit."
Riku's eyes lit up. "Oh? Really? You are thoughtful, Tony. Bring it out, let me see."
Tony tapped his wrist. A display pedestal rose from the floor, revealing a black suit of armor.
It was worthy of a day's nonstop work. Matte black plating, gold veins like molten lava, a design both clean and powerful.
"Well? Not bad, right? I made it with the best materials I have."
Riku flickered to the podium and, with God's Ten-Billion Power, sharpened his vision to dissect the build.
"Not bad. Within your limits, you pushed the materials to their peak. A few fine details still need refinement."
He touched the armor.
At once the suit seemed to breathe, rising and falling. Its structure reshaped itself, slag bubbling up and drifting away. As waste purged, the heavy profile thinned.
Riku produced a piece of vibranium and tossed it in.
A wondrous sight followed. The metal slid in like a stone into water, merging silk-smooth with the suit.
His palm twisted and turned, and the armor was tempered again and again.
When the ripples stilled, a new suit stood revealed.
It kept the black base, but the gold lines had become a royal violet. The gloom of the old finish had shifted toward a sly, elegant sheen.
"Now that is right. That matches my taste."
Tony, watching from behind, was stunned.
He had never seen armor reworked like this. If Riku called himself a god, this performance certainly fit the boast.
Even in shock, he did not forget to have JARVIS rescan.
"Sir, overall metrics exceed the prior build by more than an order of magnitude."
Tony doubted his ears.
"What? How is that even...?"
"Do not get hung up. Makes sense. I added a slab of vibranium to fit me better," Riku said. "So of course the numbers beat your version."
"Also, I tuned at molecular granularity and drove overhead down to near zero. That is why the metrics jumped."
Tony felt relief at first.
Ah, vibranium. That explains it.
Then the back half hit him like a truck.
Molecular granularity? Overhead near zero?
Are you writing poetry?
Riku ignored Tony's bruised pride and set a palm on the suit.
The new armor flowed over his body like water, muscle-slick and seamless.
He had not only boosted the stats, but woven in nanotech. No more drawn-out assembly.
The suit traced every line of his frame, black making him look even more upright and cut, violet lines adding poise and wicked charm.
"Whatever else, Tony, your taste is flawless," Riku said. "You knew this face is too handsome to hide, so no mask, just let it shine. Good call. Thumbs up."
Fresh from the blow, Tony was speechless at the praise.
Who wants to see that punchable face?
He had left off the faceplate on purpose to make Riku trip over the same problem Tony once had. No such luck.
"Mm? Someone nearby is making trouble. Perfect test run for the new suit."
"Tony, I will go on ahead. Catch up when you can. Bye."
He bent his knees and drifted toward the window. The glass rippled like water around him, not a shard falling, as he slipped into the night.
Tony watched the retreating silhouette and could not help a soft sigh.
"Terrifying guy. But I am even more excited now," he murmured. "Divine Talent, huh? Let us see whether your talent wins, or my brain does."
"JARVIS, suit me up. If we are late, we will miss the show."
"Right away, sir."
Riku's earlier ping pointed to a bank in Queens.
By the time he arrived, the entrance and streets around it were a wreck.
Peter Parker was already on scene, frowning at a hulking freak that looked like he had escaped from a gym.
The brute towered at least two and a half meters. Muscle bulges had burst his skin, exposing blood-red fibers. With the pointed, oversized cranium, he looked exactly like a juiced-up training legend gone wrong.
"Hey, buddy, you really need to calm down. We can talk this out," Peter said, loosing a web to blind the thing.
The creature, whom Peter dubbed "Arno," ripped away the webbing with a roar and swung a fist.
Peter vaulted aside. The pavement where he had stood shattered into a crater several meters long with a single blow.