Taking Jessica with him, Ron headed to a new villa Tony Stark had recently purchased in New York.
Tony Stark truly lived up to his reputation as a spendthrift. Although this villa couldn't compare to the City of Freedom villa in Los Angeles, this one in New York was still incredibly luxurious. It was also built by the sea, and it lacked none of the advanced technological equipment found in the other villa. Aside from its exterior, it was practically a replica of the City of Freedom villa.
However, Tony Stark wasn't particularly fond of this villa because too many people knew about this place. His birthday party this year was held here. So, comparatively, Tony still preferred to stay in the Stark Industries building; at least it would be more comfortable there than here.
"Welcome, Mr. Ron. I am J.A.R.V.I.S., Mr. Stark's intelligent butler. Mr. Stark has been waiting for you for a long time. Please come in."
Arriving at the villa's entrance, a small robot greeted Ron and Jessica with a gentle voice.
"Is it alright if she comes in with me?" Ron pointed to Jessica beside him and asked J.A.R.V.I.S.
"Mr. Stark said that anyone Mr. Ron brings is welcome and may enter freely," J.A.R.V.I.S. replied.
"That's good." Ron smiled and, together with Jessica, followed J.A.R.V.I.S. inside.
As they entered the villa, Ron noticed that Tony had already transformed it into a chaotic mess. Many wires had been haphazardly connected, and several large holes had been dug into the villa's walls. A massive pipe ran directly from these holes down to the villa's basement.
"It seems the basic work is done, and you're almost ready to experiment with the new element!"
Ron smiled and approached Tony, who was diligently working in the basement, saying, "Hey, tech genius, these things look good, huh? How's the research coming along? Any breakthroughs?"
"Yes." Tony gave Ron a complicated look, speaking somewhat coolly.
Ever since Tony learned about Ron's hidden identity as Skywalker from Nick Fury, he felt a barrier had formed between them. Although their relationship wasn't particularly close before, he hadn't felt this way.
Tony, of course, didn't believe Nick Fury's words immediately. He upgraded J.A.R.V.I.S.'s intelligence and then had J.A.R.V.I.S. search for all information regarding Skywalker, Spider-Man, and Gem Girl. Only then did he realize that Nick Fury had indeed not lied.
So Tony had been pondering, trying to figure out Ron's true purpose in approaching him. After several days of thinking, Tony still couldn't come up with an answer.
Tony's intuition was usually very accurate; if someone had ill intentions towards him, Tony would sense it immediately. But with Ron, Tony felt absolutely nothing.
Although Ron often embarrassed him and deliberately brought up the million-dollar issue to make him lose face, Tony genuinely didn't feel any malice from Ron, not even a trace.
So what was Ron's real objective? To have him help Source restore its life-sustaining energy, or to invite him to join the Guardians Alliance?
Although he hadn't known Ron for long, Tony was certain that Ron's thought process was far from simple.
To verify his thoughts, Tony didn't wait for Ron to speak. He pointed to Jessica, who was standing idly by, unable to keep still, her eyes darting everywhere, and said,
"Jessica is the superhero Gem Girl from the Guardians Alliance, right? And you, Ron, you must be Skywalker, who appeared during the Hulk incident a few months ago, right?"
"That's right, you actually guessed it! It seems a tech genius isn't just high in technological talent, but also has good insight into these matters."
Hearing Tony's words, Ron wasn't surprised. Tony knowing his Skywalker identity was inevitable, merely a matter of time. This was not strange.
Upon receiving Ron's affirmative answer, Tony suddenly felt a significant weight lifted from his heart. This suggested that Ron perhaps never intended to hide it from him, but simply found it inconvenient to tell him the truth.
Tony didn't have many friends; Rhode from the Department of Defense was one. And through their interactions over this period, Tony had gradually come to consider Ron a friend. He didn't want all of this to be false.
Thinking this, Tony continued to test his hypothesis, asking, "Well, if that's the case, I'm very curious, Ron, what is your purpose in approaching me? Do you want me to join your Guardians Alliance?"
Hearing Tony's words, Ron smiled, then pulled out the badge with the winged emblem from his pocket, placed it before Tony, and said with a grin,
"That's right, I want you to join the Guardians Alliance! How about it? You even get a badge for joining the Guardians Alliance, pretty cool, huh?"
"Uh..." Tony was flustered. After all that, it turns out Ron, your true purpose in approaching me and doing all these things, really was to get me to join some Guardians Alliance!
However, even though his initial assumption was wrong, for some reason, Tony no longer felt that sense of estrangement he had before.
Although Ron had a motive, it was a simple one: he just wanted him to join the Guardians Alliance. This wasn't such a big deal, so why was he thinking about it so complicatedly?
In an instant, Tony returned to his previous carefree self, smiling confidently.
"So, in that case, Ron, was that S.H.I.E.L.D. agent really sent by you? You're letting go of such a big, sexy woman, are you really gay?"
"This topic again..." Ron rolled his eyes helplessly and retorted, "Of course not. You know I like Miss Potts, so what I'm doing is, of course, to better snatch Miss Potts away, isn't it?"
"Shit!" Tony cursed, "Ron, get that sexy agent out of here! I'm telling you, Pepper will always be mine, mine! Got it?"
"Oh? Didn't you want to give Miss Potts to me before? How come you suddenly care about her now? Could it be...?" Seeing Tony's agitated expression, Ron exclaimed, "Oh?"
"That's right, I've found a new element to replace the palladium in the Arc Reactor! As soon as the research is successful, combined with your inhibitor, I can get rid of palladium poisoning. This way, I won't die, so why would I give Pepper to you? Am I sick?"
Tony smiled triumphantly, pointing to the large pipe in the basement, and said.
"Was it researched from Source's energy?"
Because he had already guessed this would be the case, Ron showed no emotional fluctuations. So he feigned an excited expression and asked.
"This..." Hearing this, Tony became a bit awkward: "Ron, to be honest, I haven't successfully researched Source's energy source yet. The new element I found was left to me by my father years ago and has little to do with Source. But Ron, rest assured, I will definitely solve Source's problem; I will absolutely not break my promise!"
"Alright." Ron pretended to be a little disappointed and asked, "So, how's your new element research coming along? Has it been successful?"
"It's almost successful." Tony pointed to the last remaining large pipe on the ground that hadn't been installed yet and said, "Come on, Ron, and Jessica over there, lend a hand. Help me install this."
"Oh, oh, I'm coming." Jessica, who was fumbling around with the technological equipment in the basement, responded and then, as per Tony's request, ran over. She effortlessly picked up the large pipe from the ground with one hand and asked Tony,
"I'm helping, Iron Man! Where do you want me to install this large pipe? Tell me, and I'll put it right there for you!"
"Uh..." Tony was a little speechless. How could he have forgotten that Ron and Jessica were both powerful superhumans...?