Marvel : Super Soldier at the Start

Los Angeles, Malibu Beach.

After returning, Tony Stark only made a brief appearance in front of reporters to announce that Stark Industries would no longer manufacture weapons.

Then he secluded himself in his lab, seeing no one except Pepper Potts, who checked in daily.

He was entirely focused on developing his envisioned suit of armor.

The designs he had created in Afghanistan were brought back and input into the computer.

At this moment, a three-dimensional projection stood before Tony, depicting the MARK 1 suit he had built in the cave with the available resources.

"Jarvis, remove the outer shell, keep the core technology the same, and reapply the new design."

"Yes, sir!"

As Jarvis's voice echoed, the three-dimensional projection in front of Tony began to rotate.

The outer armor parts disappeared one by one.

Then more images of armor components appeared out of thin air.

Around the central arc reactor, they were methodically assembled.

The preliminary modeling of MARK 2 was completed.

"What do you think, Jarvis?" Tony turned the projection, examining it closely from all angles.

"I must say, sir, this work of yours is ahead of its time!"

"I've always been ahead of my time, Jarvis. Place the order for me. I need the first batch of materials delivered as soon as possible."

With the preliminary appearance of the suit settled,

Tony Stark picked up a launcher from the table.

In his vision, this launcher could serve as both a propulsion system and a laser cannon as a conventional weapon.

"It seems I need to replace the reactor immediately. The current one has too low a rotational speed to keep up with the suit's consumption."

Muttering to himself, Tony picked up a brand-new arc reactor from the table.

...

"Good afternoon, Mr. Blake! Mr. Stark is in the lab. I'll notify him that you've arrived!"

Tony originally gave Blake access to the house but not to the underground lab.

The only ones with the password and permission from Jarvis to enter were Pepper Potts and Rhodey.

But now, there was one more.

"Mr. Blake, Mr. Stark says you can go directly downstairs. The basement access is now open to you, and the entrance code is 106!" (This code is real; I specifically watched the scene in Iron Man 1 where Pepper enters the basement.)

When Blake entered the basement, he saw Pepper Potts reaching into Tony Stark's chest.

She pulled out a wet copper wire from inside.

It had to be said, it looked quite disgusting and shocking.

A hole in the chest, and someone reaching inside.

"Oh, damn, what did I just see? Is this a new position you two are trying?"

"Tony, have you entered so many women before that now it's their turn to enter you?"

"Hey!!! Blake, I don't remember you being so cheeky!"

Pepper was initially terrified while doing this, but Blake's teasing quickly put her at ease.

"That's because you don't know him well enough, Pepper. You'll find out in time. Compared to him, I'm as well-behaved as a cow on your uncle's farm!"

Tony had Pepper plug the wires of the new reactor base into his chest, then walked towards Blake.

"Tony, are you planning to stay like this forever? I mean, you don't intend to see a doctor to get the shrapnel removed or anything?" Blake pointed at Tony's chest.

"To be honest, the little nightlight in your chest is pretty cool, but stuffing such a big thing into your body is quite something."

Talking about the arc reactor in his chest, Tony became uncharacteristically serious.

"I'm not going to take it out. This thing saved me—not just my life, but it also defined who I should be moving forward. I need to keep it as a reminder."

"Tony, what should I do with the old one?"

Pepper, still Tony's personal assistant, asked as she was about to head to the basement when Blake came to see Tony. She casually inquired about what to do with the old arc reactor.

"Destroy it, burn it. You know I have many traits, but nostalgia isn't one of them!"

"Okay!" Pepper took the reactor upstairs.

Blake knew she would enclose the old reactor in a transparent case and give it to Tony as a gift.

Moreover, when Obadiah stole the arc reactor from Tony's chest, this old one saved his life at a critical moment.

But now, with Blake in this world, that incident should be avoidable.

Besides, Blake came this time specifically to address this issue.

"Hey, Tony, don't you have anything to ask me about what happened in Afghanistan?"

Watching Pepper go upstairs, Blake was the first to speak.

Even without considering the system and mission issues, the two had known each other for quite some time.

From a personal standpoint, they had indeed become friends.

Aside from the secrets of the system and his transmigration, Blake didn't plan to hide anything from Tony, as that would create a rift between them.

"A couple of days ago, someone came to see me. He was from some intelligence agency with a ridiculously long name. What was it called again? Anyway, he was an agent with a very impressive hairline."

Tony gestured to his forehead to describe the visitor.

"He told me everything about you—your parents' death, how you got the serum, how you met that sexy agent chick, and so on."

"He also said you joined them to save me. But I won't thank you because you deceived me. Your abilities come from the Super Soldier Serum, not some Chinese martial arts. Damn, I even paid you a month's salary."

Tony took out two beers from the fridge and handed one to Blake.

Don't expect Tony Stark to easily say thank you.

But Blake knew, despite Tony's words about being deceived, his eyes were filled with gratitude.

Otherwise, why would he even give him the basement password today?

"Well, you didn't really lose out. You won a few million dollars at the casino because of me. That agent with the impressive hairline told you all that?"

As Blake spoke, an image of Agent Coulson, the always kind agent, appeared in his mind.

"Hmm?"

Tony took a sip of beer and asked in confusion.

"Is there something else you're deceiving me about?"

"No, nothing like that. But it seems he didn't tell you how I found that hidden cave the military couldn't locate for over a month."

"Oh?"

Tony seemed to have thought of something, slightly tilting his head to signal Blake to continue.

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