Tohka Yatogami's: Marvel Journey

"Yaaah!"

Enduring the tremendous suction from the energy sphere, Tohka used all her strength to push it up to the surface. Thankfully, the area above was a street, not a skyscraper.

But just as she breathed a sigh of relief, something unexpected happened. Cars and objects on the street began to move. People who had evacuated to open ground due to the earlier tremors lost their balance—but everyone quickly grabbed onto something nearby, avoiding being pulled upward. Smaller objects, however, weren't so lucky and flew straight toward Tohka.

"Damn it, the energy from this thing is getting stronger."

Seeing the situation around her, and feeling the enormous suction from the sphere, Tohka knew she couldn't delay. She immediately flew toward the nearest coastline.

"Is that...?"

Because he was farther away, Tony wasn't severely affected. At this moment, he also saw the energy sphere Tohka was holding. Even though it was unstable, Tony had to admit that it was generating even more energy in an instant than his arc reactor.

"Looks like Tohka ran into someone interesting. I should go take a look."

Watching with curiosity as Tohka rapidly flew off with the energy sphere, Tony flew in that direction.

Soon, he found the massive hole and—bold as ever—flew right in.

Meanwhile, Tohka paid no attention to what was going on around her.

She flew straight to the coastline with the massive energy sphere and, hovering just above the water, hurled it in.

Instantly, she felt the ocean's temperature rise rapidly.

She quickly activated her shield—there was no way that steam was harmless.

If not for the shield, even if she didn't get burned, she'd be in a very bad state.

"Whew... finally taken care of."

Watching the energy sphere slowly sink into the ocean depths, Tohka could feel the energy within rapidly dissipating—

And eventually vanishing completely.

She knew the incident was finally over.

"It's a shame though... that's enough for a huge pot of boiled fish. Wonder if it's edible."

As she relaxed, Tohka caught a whiff of cooked meat.

She looked down and saw a ton of cooked fish floating on the surface.

But she didn't dare eat any of it.

She couldn't recognize most of them, and she had no idea what her resistance to toxins was like.

If nothing else, she'd probably end up with a bad case of diarrhea.

"Are you okay? Waaaah, you scared me so much today!"

Just then, Miku Izayoi's tearful voice rang out behind her.

She immediately hugged Tohka tightly—rubbing up against her affectionately.

Holding the soft body of the girl in her arms, Tohka finally felt like a true winner in life.

After all, just earlier she'd been bickering with Tony and Pepper...

"Hehe... This version of Tohka really does it for me."

As Tohka hugged her, Miku Izayoi was silently scheming in her heart.

Of course, she wasn't going to say it aloud.

If Tohka ran away again, all would be lost.

Leaving the cuddling duo aside, Tony had already arrived at the scene of the earlier battle.

"Tsk tsk... You were the one behind this, huh?"

Turning on his spotlight, Tony examined the surroundings.

Then he spotted Doctor Octopus, sitting lifelessly on the ground, along with the remains of some equipment.

Tony immediately concluded that this guy had been responsible—he didn't believe for a second that Tohka could create something like this.

"Looks like you failed. Shame there doesn't seem to be any leftover data."

Tohka wouldn't have understood it, but in this field, Tony was one of the top minds in the world.

There were no paper documents left behind due to the incident, but he still gleaned some info.

Then he flew down to the slumped Doctor Octopus.

"Hn... you're Iron Man."

Doc Ock looked at Tony blankly, showing little reaction.

The mechanical arms had influenced him before.

But after Tohka had slammed him into the wall, the chip controlling them was damaged, and he'd regained his rationality.

Still, that didn't mean he'd forgotten everything that happened.

He was very clear about his failure—this had been his long-time goal, after all.

"So, want to come work for me?"

"Sure, your calculations went wrong somewhere, but your concept was brilliant."

"Come under my wing—I'll provide you with the best equipment and materials."

Tony knew the guy was a lunatic—but so were most inventors like them.

He believed he could manage him.

He was practically a lunatic himself when it came to tech.

"Really? You'd support me?"

Hearing Tony's offer, Doc Ock's eyes briefly lit up—then dimmed again.

"No... forget it. I've always been a failure.

My first experiment cost my wife her life.

The second nearly destroyed New York.

If there's a third, it could be even worse—and maybe no one would be able to stop it.

And after today, I'll probably spend most of my life in prison."

"You don't have to worry about that."

"If you work for me, I'll make sure you avoid prison time.

"I have the world's most advanced computers, cutting-edge tech, and all the materials you could want."

"With that, we can take things step-by-step. You don't have to go all-in at once."

"Even if we fail, it'll still be within a controllable range."

Tony was confident in his tech.

As for the legal stuff—he cared even less.

After all, Doc Ock hadn't committed any overt acts of terrorism.

As long as he hired good lawyers and paid some compensation, he could get him out.

"You're serious? ...Alright, I'll do it."

Doc Ock's eyes regained their light.

If he could realize his dream, then nothing else mattered.

"Deal. But buddy... it looks like your mechanical arms are busted."

Tony glanced at the sparking tentacle, unsure.

"Oh right—can you take a look at this arm?

It's been influencing me all this time, magnifying my darker impulses."

Hearing Tony mention it, Doc Ock suddenly remembered—

Tony was a genius in this area.