Tony felt that his test was successful. He managed to collect detailed data on Mark II's performance, and it was flawless. There was nothing he could fault during the flight.
"We did it!" Tony announced to Li Yue and Yinsen immediately after returning to the ground. There were pride, excitement, and indescribable joy in his voice.
Li Yue shared Tony's happiness, but he was already thinking about the next plot.
Tony would probably crash a charity gala soon and learn from a beautiful reporter he had a one-night stand with that his uncle Obadiah was selling Star Industries weapons to terrorists.
Tony would then use the completed, painted, and weaponized Mark III to attack the terrorist group, alerting Obadiah. Obadiah would then obtain the Mark I prototype and blueprint from the terrorist to build his own bigger armor.
After that, Tony and Obadiah would fight on the streets. With Pepper's help, Tony would defeat Obadiah and admit that he was Iron Man in a press conference.
It would be easy for Li Yue to stop Obadiah, but preventing this battle would also prevent Tony from admitting to being Iron Man in the press conference. To keep the plot from deviating too much, Li Yue couldn't stop the fight between Obadiah and Tony.
But the reality is not a movie. Even if all the main plot points progressed the same, without the movie's plot armor, Obadiah's Iron Monger armor could smash Tony to death many times over. To prevent this, Li Yue decided to promote Tony's growth.
"Tony, have you ever thought of making the armor bigger, like..."
A long way away from Li Yue, Nick Fury was sitting in his office, looking through the latest intel that he had just received. His face was expressionless. After thinking for a while, he picked up the phone and sent orders.
"Keep a close eye on the target's every move. Find out his relationship with Tony Stark and his motive for getting close to Tony Stark. Keep it all discreet, but if you see a chance to contact the target, take it."
Nick paused for a moment before continuing, "Find out how Tony Stark escaped the terrorists as soon as possible. Also, find out what he is doing right now. Is he currently developing a new weapon? Report any intel to me directly."
Nick Fury finally hung up the phone. He got up from his chair and walked to a locked safe. He opened the safe with a fingerprint identification and a password dozens of meters long, revealing a lone book simply titled "Avenger." Nick Fury held it for a while but ultimately put it back inside the safe.
A few weeks passed in the blink of an eye. Tony finished a normal day of work that night. He was supposed to have some free time after finishing Mark II in the original plot, but Li Yue's advice and suggestions brought him endless streams of ideas and inspiration. He told Jarvis to paint the Mark II and continued to work on the project in the underground laboratory.
Tony had just solved a hard problem that had bothered him for several days, so his mood was pretty high. He dressed up and prepared to eat out, but his eyes were suddenly caught by the news on the TV about the charity gala held in his name tonight.
Tony hadn't shown his face in public for quite some time. He thought that it would be a good time to go out and relax, as well as showing to the media that Tony Stark was alive and well right now.
"Hey, Li Yue, Yinsen—you two are still playing. What's so fun about playing that game anyway? Flying around in the armor would be so much more fun," Tony commented aloud to Li Yue and Yinsen, who were huddled on the sofa.
Li Yue was bored and asked AIde Jarvis to make a few games. He had been playing with Yinsen for the past few days.
"Hey, either of you wants to go out with me? There's a charity party held in my name tonight, but nobody told me about it for some reason, so I'm going to crash it. There should be a lot of pretty girls at the party; don't you want to go out? Who knows, you might be able to bring some of those girls home." Tony offered to Li Yue and Yinsen with a sleazy look on his face.
"No way; Yinsen and I are different from you. Wherever we go, you'll just take over the girls with your heroic aura," Li Yue rejected. Tony can go wherever he wants to go, but we are just ordinary people.
Yinsen also shook his head at Tony, indicating that he was not interested in what he said.
"Well, your loss. I'm gonna go out and relax; I've been cooped up in the basement all day; I might get moldy if this continues." Tony put on a luxurious three-piece suit and a famous watch before driving straight to the charity gala.
However, Tony returned only two hours later, his face fuming with anger. His eyes were burning in rage.
"You returned early, Mr. Stark. Did something happen?" Yinsen asked Tony with a surprised but serious tone when he saw Tony's gloomy face.
Li Yue knew the reason for Tony's wrath, but he kept his silence, waiting for Tony to explain.
"I just found out that my company is still selling weapons behind my back, even to terrorists," Tony said with a gloomy face, gritting his teeth.
"I see. Then Tony, what do you plan to do?" Li Yue asked.
"I will do what I have to do," Tony replied solemnly, his eyes filled with determination.
Tony then returned to the underground laboratory to put on the steel armor with Jarvis' help. This time, the armor is in its classic red and gold color, Tony's personality in full display.
The armor disappeared into the horizon with a sonic boom.
Flying full speed with his steel armor, Tony quickly approached his destination: the small town of Gulmira, which the terrorists were currently pillaging. It was also Yinsen's hometown.
The sight of Tony descending from the sky in the golden-red steel armor already scared the terrorists shitless. They had never seen anything like this. The humanoid mass of metal approached them step by step as if the deep voice of the god of death demanding their lives.
The terrorists, who had been scared out of their wits, could only shoot their guns mindlessly at the figure, hoping that the deluge of bullets would stop the steel iron man. But to their horror, the bullet ricocheted harmlessly off the metal armor, making distinctive sounds.
Tony could afford to ignore the downpour of bullets hitting his metal armor. With a few long steps, he arrived in front of a terrorist. He sent the terrified terrorist flying with a single punch. The terrorist crashed into a wall and fell to the ground, lifeless.
Tony then turned around to face the rest of the terrorists, raising his arm at them. Energy gathered in his palm before shooting out in a beam that sent more terrorists flying.
Tony quickly dealt with this group of terrorists and threw the leader to the by-standing civilians. It was not hard to imagine what would happen to the leader; his life would definitely end soon in the hands of the enraged civilians.
Tony turned around and flew into the sky, preparing to destroy the weapons on the ground—the Stark Industries weapons that had been illegally sold to the terrorists. Not wanting another group of terrorists to take over the weapon, Tony prepared to destroy them all.
Suddenly, a tank shell slammed to Tony's side—the accuracy of that tank was pretty impressive to hit such a small object up high in the air. Fortunately, the metal armor had protected Tony, despite his fall gouging a large hole in the ground. All that was hurt was the paint job on the armor.
Feeling a little humiliated, Tony fired a missile at the tank. He walked away without looking at the explosion; real men never look back at the explosion.
Ignoring the frantic gunshots from around him, Tony flew back up to the sky before destroying all the Stark Industries weapons with his arm blaster.
His job finished; Tony disappeared back to the horizon.