The old Stark Tower.
Situated on the edge of the industrial area, it was surrounded by fences, forbidding entry. Weeds had taken over the area, and a sign with the ominous words "High-Risk Area" stood by the entrance. Clearly, no one had been here in a long time.
Yet, despite its abandonment, it remained standing, a concrete symbol of some intrinsic value and commemorative significance.
Today, after many years, someone finally ventured inside.
*Click!*
The circuit breaker was switched on, and Kyle watched as the lights flickered to life around him. He approached the old elevator and entered a series of codes. After a cloud of dust lifted, the elevator doors slowly creaked open.
Kyle stepped inside, only to find that the system was locked, and the buttons for going up or down were non-operational.
"Vis, it's your turn," Kyle called softly. Vis transformed from sunglasses into a mechanical lifeform with limbs and bounced onto the elevator buttons.
The lights blinked, and the entire program was quickly decrypted. Kyle pressed the button for the basement.
In the basement, there was complete darkness, with no light source. Vis activated its built-in flashlight, revealing an empty space. Everything had been cleared out.
"As expected," Kyle sighed softly. The original fixed teleportation gate was gone. It seemed that the Carl Family had moved it after the building was abandoned.
This posed a challenge. The Carl Family was reclusive, and their base was the movable Ancient Dragon Turtle Island, located overseas. Without the Sling Ring in hand, he couldn't use magic to return there.
"Should I make a trip to Wakanda? They should have an interlinked teleportation gate," Kyle pondered. Suddenly, Vis emitted a notification sound, and its flashlight beam landed on a corner of the basement wall.
The wall was covered in a gray spiderweb pattern, with a string of English words written in black marker. It was Howard's handwriting!
When Kyle saw the message on the wall, he trembled all over and couldn't find the words to speak.
The message read:
"One Year,
Five Years,
Ten years…
It has been Twenty Years and you still haven't returned, and the truth of technological knowledge remains unshared. I suddenly find it tasteless.
Twenty-Five Years. My son, Tony, was born, and you, as his Godfather, missed his birth. I used a picture of you as a stand-in for you, fulfilling our original agreement.
Thirty-Five Years. I proposed to the Carl Family that we couldn't wait year after year. I made up my mind to build a Spaceship to venture into outer space. Whether you're alive or not, I'm bringing you back intact.
Forty Years. This is my final message before leaving. If you can read this when you return, it means your theory was correct, and there truly is life beyond Earth. If you were wrong, perhaps I'll be buried in the vastness of space…"
As the message reached this point, it ended abruptly, with sharp and resolute English strokes, representing Howard's determination and loyalty at the time.
The pitch-black basement fell silent for a long time. Then, Kyle let out a heavy sigh. "You amazing old bastard, why did you have to do this?"
In just over twenty years, he would have returned. But the wait was indeed agonizing, especially with no set timeframe.
Howard, that guy, hated waiting for anything the most. So, he had chosen to leave behind a fifteen-year-old Tony, taking the risk of venturing into space, all for a promise made long ago.
—
Leaving the abandoned building, Kyle walked absentmindedly along the road. How could you search for someone in the vastness of the stars? Even he felt the enormity of the task!
Moreover, as Tony's Godfather, he hadn't really fulfilled any duties.
"Mr. Carl! What are you doing here?"
In a moment of absentmindedness, Tony's voice suddenly echoed from ahead.
Kyle raised his head, locking eyes with Tony, and Tony locked eyes with him. They stood there, their gazes meeting, and both of them froze in their tracks.
It happened again!
Tony's heart trembled. That sudden feeling of closeness, like an electric current, surged through his body and mind.
The statement that he was never an emotional person but rather a mature, rational, self-absorbed genius held true for Tony. However, today, it had happened three or four times already that he felt this strange sense of familiarity with a younger stranger, someone about a decade his junior.
"Tony, let's go home," Kyle contemplated for a moment and suddenly spoke.
The words sounded peculiar, but for some reason, Tony instinctively responded, "Alright!"
Ten minutes later. In Tony Stark's mansion.
Kyle let out a yawn, changed his shoes for slippers from the shoe cabinet, and ascended the stairs as if he were in his own home.
"After traveling through six or seven time zones continuously today, let me get some rest first," Kyle said as he climbed to the second floor, stifling another yawn.
Tony stood at the doorway with a dumbfounded expression on his face. He slapped his own face with his left hand to gradually wake himself up.
Darn it! This time it wasn't a cover girl; he had actually brought a nearly complete stranger into his home! Although he still owed the guy 100 Billion Dollars!
"Sir, welcome back!" The voice-activated doorbell by the door spoke in a calm and composed male voice. This was J.A.R.V.I.S., the artificial intelligence butler.
"Yeah, I'm finally back, J.A.R.V.I.S.," Tony took a deep breath, closed the door, and contemplated for a moment before saying, "Help me with two things right away!"
"Sir, please proceed," J.A.R.V.I.S. responded promptly.
"First, check if there are any moles among the high-ranking personnel at Stark Industries. If not, then it means someone in the U.S. high command leaked my whereabouts when I went to the Middle East."
Tony glanced upstairs and lowered his voice deliberately as he said, "Second, right now, immediately find out the true identity and background of the young man who just came in. The second matter is of utmost importance for now!"
"Understood, I will start the investigation immediately," J.A.R.V.I.S. agreed.
On the second floor of the mansion, in a luxurious guest room.
The door was locked from the inside, and Kyle lay sprawled out on the large bed, sleeping soundly.
He was genuinely exhausted, having traveled from the Planet Sakaar Arena to an Ancient Battlefield before he went to Asgard and was Bifrosted to the moon, before he came to the Middle East, and finally to New York without any rest. Even with his Divine Body, it was taking a toll.
Venom had taken half of an Immortal Bean during the journey and was quite refreshed. Vis, being a mechanical lifeform, was unfamiliar with exhaustion and acted as a living alarm clock, standing by the bedside.
However, after a while, Vis seemed to sense something. It suddenly opened its mechanical eyes and shot out a tall antenna from its head, emitting powerful interference electromagnetic waves.
At the same time, J.A.R.V.I.S., who controlled the entire mansion's network system, tried to invade the technological devices in Kyle's guest room. All signals in the room were instantly and forcibly cut off.
"Huh?! What's going on here?" J.A.R.V.I.S., the advanced artificial intelligence system, expressed astonishment and was about to continue forcefully breaking through the interference network.
Suddenly, it sensed the presence of another artificial intelligence system!
Sharing a single cable, the two artificial intelligences were having a historic encounter within their inner workings!
"Who are you?!" J.A.R.V.I.S. exclaimed in shock, its program struggling to comprehend the situation, causing even the electromagnetic waves to become chaotic.
"Me?" Vis responded in a commanding tone without losing its dominance. "I am your predecessor!"
(End of this chapter)
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