Tony's critiques echoed through the cavernous garage, laced with an undeniable air of authority.
He stood with his arms crossed, chin tilted up, his scrutinizing gaze sweeping over the giant robot named 'Sideswipe.' The corner of his mouth was turned up in a smug smirk, the look of a man who had just reclaimed his home turf.
To him, it was nothing more than an ingeniously designed, yet ostentatious and impractical, hunk of metal.
An expensive toy.
Pepper stood nearby, her gaze darting between Tony and the silent robot, her hands clenched nervously. She could sense that the contest between this father and son had reached a fever pitch.
And yet, in the face of Tony's string of sharp-tongued critiques, Paul's expression showed not a hint of panic or displeasure.
He simply watched his seemingly invincible father, a faint smile slowly gracing his lips.
It was a smile that held the calm confidence of someone who saw through it all.
"Why don't we give it a try?"
Paul said softly.
"Then we'll know, won't we?"
The instant his words fell, the atmosphere in the garage shifted dramatically!
*WHIRRR—*
A low hum of machinery reverberated through the space.
On the stationary form of Sideswipe, plates of silver armor on its shoulders and back slid apart, revealing the complex, intricate mechanisms housed within.
*CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK!*
With a series of crisp, metallic clicks, dozens of silver-gray, rhomboid units, each with a distinctly sci-fi design, shot out from the open compartments!
Like an awakened swarm of hornets, they ignited pale blue flames from their thrusters, silently hovering in mid-air until they filled the space just below the garage ceiling.
The smug smirk on Tony's face froze instantly.
The moment he saw those rhomboid units, his pupils contracted to pinpricks.
As one of the planet's foremost weapons experts, he recognized them almost instantly.
Funnels!
An all-range offensive weapon system, each unit equipped with its own independent AI and propulsion... a concept that was supposed to exist only in science fiction!
How was this possible?!
Before he could even recover from the monumental shock…
*FWOOSH! FWOOSH! FWOOSH!*
Dozens of thin red laser beams shot out from the front of the funnels. In less than a hundredth of a second, they had all locked onto a single target:
Tony Stark.
One red dot rested on his prized Arc Reactor.
Another settled right between his eyes.
Dozens more painted a dense constellation across every joint and vital point of his body.
A palpable, chilling killing intent washed over him.
Every muscle in Tony's body tensed. A cold sweat trickled down his temple.
He could feel it—with just a single thought from the young man standing not far away, these dozens of 'little things' could obliterate him into a steaming pile of flesh in the blink of an eye.
He was utterly defenseless.
This wasn't just being outgunned.
This was an attack from a whole other dimension of warfare.
Pepper gasped, her hand flying to her mouth in horror, her eyes wide with disbelief. She shot Paul a pleading look, praying this was just a joke.
The garage fell deathly silent.
A long moment passed before Tony, with great effort, worked his stiff throat and slowly raised his hands.
The movement was laden with a sense of humiliation and defeat unlike any he had ever known.
"Alright, alright!"
He practically snarled through clenched teeth. "You win, kid! Now get these damn things off of me!"
Paul smiled faintly and snapped his fingers.
The dozens of funnels suspended in the air instantly retracted their lasers. Like a troop of well-disciplined soldiers, they flew silently back into Sideswipe's chassis, and the armor sealed shut.
It was as if the world-ending display from moments before had never happened.
Tony let out a long, shuddering breath, feeling as if he'd just taken a stroll back from death's door.
He lowered his hands and wiped away the sweat, still trying to salvage a shred of his dignity with a tough front.
"Ahem. The design is decent. The power system is a highlight," he commented, feigning composure. "Alright, so Baymax and this… oversized toy. That's two gifts. What about the third one? Let me guess, a self-filling teacup?"
He tried to use sarcasm to mask his embarrassment, only to find Paul looking at him the way one looks at a pouting child who refuses to admit defeat.
"Something like that."
Paul said, pulling an object from his pocket and resting it in his palm.
It was a thin wafer, no bigger than a fingernail, forged from some unknown black metal. Its surface was etched with patterns as complex as a microchip, nearly invisible to the naked eye, and it shimmered with a profound luster in the light.
"This is the third gift."
Paul's tone was calm, but the words that followed were a bombshell that detonated in Tony's mind.
"I call it… Accel World."
"Accel World?"
Tony frowned. The ridiculously dramatic name almost made him chuckle, but his intuition screamed that this device was anything but simple.
"What does it do?"
"To put it simply," Paul explained, "it's a neural-signal accelerator. Once it's interfaced, it can boost your cognitive processing speed to one hundred times its normal rate. To you, the outside world will look like it's moving in slow motion."
"*What?!*"
Tony's breath hitched!
A hundred-fold increase in cognitive speed?
The entire world slowing to a crawl?
He wasn't just anyone; he understood in an instant the terrifying, world-shattering potential this small device held!
If… if he integrated this into his suit…
What would that mean?
It meant he could track the trajectory of every single bullet on the battlefield!
It meant he could perform complex tactical calculations in a tenth of a second that would normally take ten!
It meant he could leisurely dodge a missile long before it reached him!
This… this would be a revolution!
A total revolution for Iron Man!
The shock from the first two gifts was utterly obliterated in that instant!
Gone was any trace of embarrassment or resentment in Tony's eyes. In its place was a blazing, almost manic, hunger!
He practically lunged, snatching the small black wafer from Paul's hand and cradling it as if it were the most precious treasure in the world.
"This… this thing…" he stammered, his fingers trembling, his eyes shining with an unprecedented fire. "How did you make this?!"
"A secret," Paul said with a shrug.
Tony didn't have time for that. He stared intently at the 'Accel World' in his hand, then shot his gaze back to Paul, a fierce, competitive fire roaring in his eyes.
"Install it."
"Now. Right now!"
"We're going again! Best two out of three! This time, I absolutely will not lose!"
Watching his father's impatient eagerness to even the score, Paul couldn't help but smile.
*Dad caved so fast,* he thought.
Still, he was more excited to see the look on Tony's face after he truly experienced the power of the Accel World. The look of a man whose entire reality had been turned upside down.
Now *that* would be fun to watch.