Outside the launch silo below the cliffside villa.
Wearing the Mark 3 and hovering in midair, Tony waited with boredom, complaining internally, *What is that kid doing?
What’s taking him so long…*
Just then—
*Swoosh—*
A rush of wind whistled from the open launch silo, and Leon shot out aboard the Jet Glider, accelerating into the distance without stopping for a moment.
“Hey, that’s a provocation!”
Tony raised an eyebrow behind his helmet.
The thrusters in the palms and soles of his Iron Man armor surged with power as he gave chase.
The two brothers flew after each other like a pair of playful birds, reveling in the open sky.
Leon simply wanted to test the Jet Glider’s acceleration and G-force tolerance.
Thirteen seconds later, when he hit its top speed of Mach 5 and felt far more comfortable than he usually did driving a car, he began to slow down, waiting for Tony, who was falling further and further behind.
Before long, Tony caught up and grumbled, “Did you do that on purpose, kid?”
“Is it my fault you couldn’t keep up?” Leon shrugged, continuing his low-key flex.
“I thought the Mark 3 could fly this fast, too.”
“Not even in your dreams,” Tony rolled his eyes.
“Mach 2.5 is the absolute limit for what’s currently possible.”
“Given the same technological support, a large motorcycle like the Jet Glider can just stack performance materials to its heart’s content.
But when applying that to armor, there’s a lot more I have to consider.”
“After all, the suit is designed to be worn by a human.
I have to maximize its limited space to achieve the best performance-to-cost ratio, striking a balance between weapon systems, power systems, and various auxiliary systems.”
When Tony started talking about his armor, he tended to ramble, and Leon quietly acted as his audience with a sense of gratitude.
“So why don’t you build an unmanned one?” Leon asked out of curiosity.
“Good question.
I asked Rhodes a similar question before,” Tony replied.
“He said no matter how well an unmanned fighter performs, it can’t match a human’s adaptability on the fly.
So AI can only serve as an auxiliary to humans, and ultimate decisions must be left to humans.”
“I think he has a point.
After all, AI was created by humans, so it should never stand above humanity.
Maybe in the future I’ll build some uncrewed Iron Man suits to act as bodyguards and guards for the company, but my own suit has to be the strongest.”
“Fair point,” Leon nodded, thinking to himself: *I hope when you whimsically create Ultron in the future, you’ll still hold onto this original intention.*
“Speaking of which, how did you get the Vibranium for my shield, bro?
Only a tiny handful of people knew that Wakanda produced Vibranium, and Leon and Tony happened to be two of them.
“What do you mean money can’t buy it?
That just means the people trying to buy it weren’t rich enough.
If it were me…” Tony paused, then conceded, “Uh, fine, money really couldn’t buy it.”
“Those Wakandan locals are so stubborn and unreasonable.
Every single one of them walks around with their nose in the air, thinking they’re somebody.”
Tony grew annoyed just talking about Wakanda.
“Then how did you get the Vibranium for the shield?” Leon asked, as the image of a heavily bearded middleman popped into his head—Marvel’s designated Vibranium supplier, Ulysses Klaue.
If Tony’s source was Klaue, Leon planned to buy another batch through him, saving himself the trouble of hunting down connections on the black market.
“Even though those guys in Wakanda are arrogant as hell, their old king, T’Chaka, is actually pretty nice,” Tony explained.
“When he heard I just wanted to buy Vibranium to make a shield, he waved his hand and agreed to provide raw Vibranium for free.”
“Free things are usually the most expensive,” Leon pressed.
“So, what was the catch?”
If someone asked why he questioned it—well, a free system surely had strings attached, so he should prepare to be sold out by it.
Nonsense.
For a system this simple, useful, and conscientious, even if it actually sold Leon out, he would still sing its praises.
“I really can’t fool you,” Tony chuckled.
“King T’Chaka said his youngest daughter, Shuri, really loves modern high-tech gadgets, and asked me to bring her along the next time Stark Industries holds a tech expo.”
“Is that so…” Leon fell into thought.
Tony might only have a partial understanding, but Leon, who possessed memories from his past life, knew the truth clearly.
On the surface, Wakanda looked like an outdated, conservative primitive tribe, but backed by a Vibranium vein, their technological level was actually centuries ahead of the outside world.
Yet, despite such advanced technology, they ultimately used it to fight primitive hand-to-hand battles.
Although traditional customs accounted for most of it, it was still somewhat laughable.
Leon didn’t understand it, but he respected it.
Aside from the little-known Vibranium, Wakanda possessed another “local specialty” almost entirely unknown to outsiders—the Heart-Shaped Herb that birthed the superhero Black Panther.
With just those two things, Leon would have to make a trip to Wakanda sooner or later.
As for whether it would be a physical infiltration or another method, that depended on whether they would show him respect.
“Wait!” Tony flew a circle around the Jet Glider and noticed a few streaks of blue and purple spray paint on the vehicle’s body.
He said, somewhat speechlessly, “Don’t tell me you made me freeze in the cold wind for a quarter of an hour just to spray paint a few lines like a kid playing house?”
Before Leon could answer, the Jet Glider executed a drift on the spot, and the tail flame blew the unprepared Tony backward.
Immediately after, Arcee’s proud, sultry voice echoed through the comms of Tony’s helmet: “Who’s playing house?”
Uh-oh…
Arcee was angry.
Because judging from Arcee’s performance just now, she wasn’t an emotionless, cold machine; she simply disliked talking and was a bit introverted.
“Shit?!”
“What the hell?!”
“She can talk?!”
“Leon!!!”
Taken completely off guard, Tony was startled by Arcee’s sudden voice.
His flying posture distorted, causing him to lose balance and enter a 720-degree tailspin toward the ocean.
Too lazy to save himself, he called straight out to Leon.
“I’m coming!” Leon called back immediately.
Under the brilliant glow of Arcee’s white headlights, which were wide with surprise, he opened the top canopy and leaped out of the Jet Glider’s cockpit.
A golden light flashed from Leon’s eyes, palms, and soles as he rapidly gave chase toward Tony.
A moment later, Leon caught up to Tony right before he hit the water, hooking his arms under the Mark 3’s armpits and carrying him across the ocean’s surface for a distance, kicking up a huge spray of waves.
Then, they soared straight into the sky, chasing after Arcee.
However, Leon and Tony maintained a careful distance from Arcee.
She seemed to want to be alone for a bit.
Tony’s joke had merely been the fuse; the drastic change in her worldview was the real reason Arcee wanted quiet.
*Everyone…
is dead…*
*I’m the only one left…*
*Do cyber widows get depressed too?* Following behind Arcee, Leon pondered for a moment, then spoke to Tony, whom he was holding: “Bro, can you fly any faster?
Put some muscle into it.”
Leon roughly understood Arcee’s current mood; what she needed was someone to guide her through it.
“This is the fastest I can go!” Tony yelled.
“You have no idea how heavy you are!
What’s going on with the Jet Glider?
JARVIS!
JARVIS!”
“Give me an explanation, stop right now!”
“Sir, I am currently unable to control the Jet Glider,” JARVIS dutifully explained with a slight hint of resentment in his tone.
“The intelligent AI named ‘Arcee’ that Master Leon brought back has kicked me out of the system.”
“Say what??”
“You can pick up an AI off the street??”
Tony felt like he couldn’t understand a single word JARVIS was saying.