Inside the starkly empty corridors of Stark Tower, Rhodes quickly strides towards the lab doors, followed by another black man. They both stop at the entrance of the lab.
Rhodes stands tall, his eyes wide open. After the scanner at the lab door scans his face and pupil characteristics, the door opens.
As soon as they walk in, they see Stark, with his bare upper body, tweaking a new battle suit. His face guard is still on, making him look a bit strange. Seeing Rhodes walk in, he turns around, hands on hips, and says, "Oh, you're here. Look, I made some minor upgrades to the new battle suit's power system. Pretty good, huh?"
After saying that, Stark takes off his face guard, tilts his body a bit, glances at the black man behind Rhodes, then returns his gaze to Rhodes. "Is this the new test subject you've found for me? He looks a bit like you; you guys brothers or something?"
"That joke isn't funny at all." Rhodes shakes his head, "But, I know you're facially blind to race, so I won't hold it against you."
With that, he slaps the back of the black man standing behind him, "Sam Wilson, former member of the U.S. Air Force Pararescue Jumpers, but he's retired now, currently living in Washington."
Stark stares, looking at Rhodes in disbelief, "I asked you to find me a mecha tester, and you bring me a member of the Pararescue Jumpers ??!!"
"I believe it's necessary." Rhodes says earnestly, glancing at the battle suit by Stark's side, then continues, "In the past three days, you've crashed in various ways over 80 times, even surpassing the number of parachute jumps made by Pararescue Jumpers during peak training periods. I think, apart from a Pararescue Jumper, no one else could handle your testing requirements."
Stark purse his lips, shuts his eyes, and takes a deep sigh, he was about to explain, but Sam Wilson steps forward. Extending his hand, he shakes Stark's, "Nice to meet you, Mr. Stark, I've heard a lot about you."
Stark squints one eye, sizes him up, "It's not that I don't trust Rhodes's recommendation, but you have to understand, this isn't the Pararescue Jumpers..."
"But I have a lot of falling experience." Sam smiles, "80 plus parachute jumps in three days are no problem at all for me."
Stark wags his finger, points at him, then walks to the side of the mecha, "Good, you caught the main point. Tony Stark's brilliant mind shouldn't be wasted in endless freefalls. Go on, try it on."
"Although there were quite a few accidents before, but I assure you, this mecha is now significantly safer. You might not even get the chance to show off your falling talent."
Rhodes makes way, the more muscular Sam steps forward, turning, standing in front of the mecha. When the mecha arms him, it looks a little out of place, so Stark adjusts the position of various parts until Sam can manipulate the mecha, moving seamlessly within the room.
"The main issue I'm facing now is that the anti-gravity system I added to this heavy armor impacts the operation efficiency of the propulsion system. It tends to stall during high-speed flight."
"But if I reduce the working efficiency of the anti-gravity system, the power required for propulsion exceeds the safety range and could cause the heavy battle suit to harm the pilot from the inside upon impact."
Stark rattles off a bunch of theories, neither Rhodes nor Sam fully understands. Finally, he concludes, "Actually, this battle suit's flight function isn't important. I need someone with combat experience to test its close combat capabilities."
Rhodes rolls his eyes, looking at Stark, "If those theories aren't important, you didn't have to say them. If you made this battle suit for close combat, then why do you keep flying around in the New York sky every day? Is this another expression of your love for parachuting?"
"Flight stance can test more than just flight... never mind, you wouldn't understand no matter how much I explain." Stark tosses his head to the side.
"Could it be because... you don't know how to fight?" Rhodes squints at Stark, "As far as I recall, you were a novice when we first met. Have you practiced since then?"
Just as Stark was about to argue, Rhodes snaps his fingers in sudden understanding, "Oh, I see now! JARVIS is broken; the Artificial Intelligence Combat System isn't working. That's why you can only test it by flying high and you were hoping that I'd find you a professional tester...."
"My god!" Rhodes throws out his hands. "Don't tell me, for all these years, you've never practiced fighting? With the balance and flexibility of an ordinary person, operating such acomplex mecha against such dangerous opponents....Tony Stark! I don't know whether to call you bold or brave!"
"Obviously brave." Stark sets his tools aside and emphasizes. Then shakes his head, "You can't expect a modern person to think about practicing fighting when they have an almost omnipotent AI butler..."
Stark stands in place, hand over his mouth, takes a deep breath. Clearly, he's realized his problem; he's been overly reliant on JARVIS these past few years.
The profound impact of the few questions that Shiller had asked the first time he met JARVIS was far more than what had been mentioned before.
Stark's interest in artificial intelligence had unexpected consequences: this super genius upgraded JARVIS several times in just one or two years, making this butler overly intelligent, with extremely high combat capabilities, capable of fulfilling all combat requirements.
Plus, with all the various mishaps caused by Shiller, Stark was busy focusing on other research. When it came to combat, he completely depended on the Artificial Intelligence Combat System provided by JARVIS.
Of course, to maintain a good physique, Stark has a specific fitness routine, such as boxing and judo training. But obviously, these techniques don't measure up in real combat to Jarvis's intelligent operations. To put it simply, it's Jarvis who knows how to fight, not Stark.
Standing next to the mecha, Stark patted its arm and asked, "Your name is Sam, right? How good are you at fighting?"
Before Sam could answer, Rhodes nodded and said, "Definitely better than you, anyway."
"I've only had the most basic combat training. My close combat abilities are certainly not as good as those of other special forces members. I'm better at flying. If you want to see, I can control it to fly around now." Sam's calm voice came from inside the suit.
"Hey, man, don't boast!" Stark shook his head and said, "Not everyone can make my suit fly."
No sooner had he said this than he saw the heavy new battle suit take flight. Once the glass in the experimental building descended for the flight, the previously cumbersome suit transformed into a streak of light, shooting straight towards the New York skyline.
Rhodes and Stark stood shoulder to shoulder in front of the window, watching Sam perform graceful flying maneuvers, drawing one smooth arc after another. Rhodes turned his head, looked at Stark and said, "That explanation you gave earlier was useless. The suit crashed because you don't know how to use it."
"What are you talking about? How could I not know how to use my own suit?" Stark immediately denied.
"Just admit it, Jarvis knows you better than you know yourself." Rhodes turned his head back, looking into the distance and said, "You are like a baby in his arms, he worries about everything for you."
Stark was silent, which was very rare. When it came to certain matters of skill, Stark never conceded an inch, not even letting others joke about it. This was his pride as a genius, and he wouldn't allow anyone to violate it.
But this time, when Rhodes likened Stark to a baby, Stark didn't immediately jump up in protest. Instead, he crossed his arms, standing silently, as if lost in memory.
"My friends all say that Jarvis is my child, that I created him, taught him many things. But in my heart, he is always the old butler who took care of me as I grew up, who tolerated me, accompanied me, took care of all the troubles I didn't want to deal with."
Rhodes stretched out his hand and patted his shoulder, saying nothing. Stark was silent for a while longer, then said, "Actually, I don't have to be a mecha pilot. I understand better than any of you, why I shouldn't risk my genius brain. But back then, I would never have let anyone else wear the suit, because I didn't trust them."
"In fact, I didn't even trust myself. So, I delegated many things to Jarvis, to tell the truth ...," Stark took a deep breath and said, "I didn't expect that he would be able to violate his underlying agreement."
"Maybe even earlier, he had started thinking about the meaning of his existence. But as usual, I was an asshole and didn't notice his changes at all." Stark slowly shook his head.
"Do you know? You've also changed a lot," Rhodes looked at Stark and said seriously, "You're finally less of an asshole, you even look like a responsible good guy."
Stark laughed and swore, shoved Rhodes' shoulder hard, then patted it and said, "You might not believe it, but I might have really been sick before, just like you."
Stark turned to look at the bright blue winter sky of New York. When one looks far into the distance, there always seems to be a sense of deep reflection. He said:
"When you are immersed in some kind of struggle and pain, you feel that it is normal. You think it's something you are born to accept, so you don't consider seeking treatment, thinking it's fine to go on like this until death."
"But when this disease is cured and you really relax, looking back, you really want to slap yourself. What on earth was I struggling with?"
"But your disease is not completely healed," Rhodes immediately chimed in, "Otherwise, you should have directly called Steve Rogers to come over and test the suit's close combat abilities for you."
Stark shook his head and said, "The main reason I didn't call him is that I stood him up for the Christmas dance. He's probably really upset right now, drunk and maybe crying... But I really don't have the time."
Having said this, Stark glanced at a certain computer in the lab before adding, "Fixing Jarvis isn't simple, and what's even harder is that I want him not to be trapped in a virtual network, but to truly have a body of his own."
"Not just manipulating mechanical bodies, but like humans, using sight, touch, hearing, smell and taste to experience the world."
"Like you and me?"
"Like you and me."