"I am Iron Man!"
Tony Stark's words rocked the media. They also undid all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s previous efforts to conceal his identity. James Rhodes's expression of astonishment, the frustration of Phil Coulson and the others, and the reporters' initial surprise, followed by their excitement, formed a clever group composition.
However, Tony Stark didn't care at all about what storm he caused. He just wanted to deal with these things as soon as possible so that he could have time to do some real work.
For example, technical review?
Tony returned to his California villa and went straight to his messy underground laboratory.
"Jarvis." Tony called as he walked down the stairs.
"Please give your orders." Jarvis's male voice sounded.
"Import the data from the Mark II into the database for review." Tony opened his hands and pulled out a series of virtual projection screens in front of the workbench. On the screens were the Mark II, Iron Monger, and Snoke in his black and white mecha suit.
"Let's remove Iron Monger's data first." Tony took Iron Monger's screen in his hand, crumpled it into a ball like a piece of paper, and then threw it into a trash can that appeared out of thin air.
"Perform data analysis on this black and white mechanical suit and disassemble its structure," Tony ordered.
At Tony's gesture, the black and white mechanical suit leaped off the screen, revealed in a magnified 3D image. Jarvis, dedicating considerable computing power, began disassembling and recreating the suit's components. The progress bar edged forward as the suit's components disassembled on screen. However, midway through the process, both the 3D image and the progress bar turned red.
The word "failure" also appeared on the screen.
Tony cursed under his breath.
"Fast forward last night's battle video to the first time the enemy appears." Tony ordered in a different way.
The virtual stereoscopic projection instantly updated, switching to a replay of last night's battle footage. Because it was accessing the Mark II's recorded field of view, many of the scenes weren't full-scale views, but rather replays from Tony's own perspective within the Mark II. Thus, the first scene to appear in the black and white mechanical suit was a shot of Iron Monger firing a missile at the black and white mechanical suit.
And the picture is a bit blurry and bumpy because Tony is moving at high speed.
"Fill and stabilize the frame," Tony ordered.
Jarvis carried out Tony's order without hesitation. Using the image program Tony had specially made for him and investing a large amount of computing power, the somewhat blurry and bumpy picture quickly became clearer and smoother at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Stop!" Tony said as he saw the screen enter a certain scene.
The screen stopped, and Tony saw the black curtain of Iron Monger's mechanical suit unfold as a laser-guided missile neared its target. It looked as if a piece of the entire image had been cut out, a dark patch obscuring the suit's silhouette from the image.
"Play," Tony started again, then quickly stopped himself, commanding, "Stop, this is the picture. Extract the picture you just paused and put it next to the one you're currently pausing."
Jarvis faithfully carried out Tony's orders, quickly presenting the two images before and after to Tony.
One of them shows a black and white mechanical battle suit opening a black curtain, and the other one shows a black and white mechanical battle suit holding a missile that has misfired and turned into a dud.
"Is there more data and information in the Mark II's database that was scanned at that time?" Tony crossed his chest with one hand and supported his chin with the other, looking at the screen in thought.
"A strong energy reaction was detected when the unknown iron suit opened the black curtain." Jarvis prompted.
"Electromagnetic pulse?" Tony first put forward a guess, then immediately denied it after looking at the picture, "No, it's not. Mark's suit and the surrounding electronic equipment are not affected. Is it a new weapon that I don't understand yet?" Tony thought thoughtfully.
"It's an unknown energy reaction barrier." Jarvis could only give an answer based on the existing data.
"Continue playing the video." Tony frowned and thought for a moment, then asked Jarvis to continue playing the image.
The next paused scene is divided into four parts. The first is Iron Monger's huge steel body running in front of the black and white mechanical battle suit and punching it hard by inertia; the second is the transformation of the structure of the black and white mechanical battle suit's foot parts; the third is the black and white mechanical battle suit standing firmly under the blow of Iron Monger's fist; the last fourth part is the energy flowing like veins in the metal lines on the unknown body, and the punch knocks Iron Monger back and sends him flying in a bent state.
"The Mark II's feet have a gripping structure. Can it do this?" Tony had just finished speaking when Jarvis switched to a GIF of the Mark II being tossed and punched by Iron Monger. Tony Stark covered his eyes, unable to bear the sight, and shouted at Jarvis.
"Good boy, turn it off! Turn it off! Turn it off now!"
"Bring up the blueprints of Iron Monger." Tony Stark looked at Iron Monger's huge steel body that could be described as a powerful fighting machine, and thought about the output power of his second-generation palladium reactor, and soon he came to a conclusion.
"It's made of a better alloy than the TI-0450-ZT and TI-2217-FZ, offering greater protection and shock absorption, and possessing certain kinetic energy absorption properties. Its overall structure and shock absorption measures are also superior to the Mark II." Tony Stark frowned. This was almost entirely inferior. Perhaps the other party's energy system wasn't as good as his second-generation arc reactor? Or perhaps their intelligence system wasn't as good as his own Jarvis? Tony tried to focus on the Mark II's advantages.
Forcing him to admit his inferior skills was more painful than killing him. Especially since he had thought the Iron Man suit was his unique technology, his greatest invention to date, only to discover that someone else's Iron Man suit technology was more mature and superior. Even more terrifying, the unknown controller of the mechanical suit saved him!
The footage continued playing. Tony, who had been reviewing the situation following Jarvis's data analysis, was ultimately forced to admit that while the opponent's energy technology might not necessarily surpass his arc reactor technology, it wasn't necessarily inferior either. The close-quarters combat skills and agility displayed by the opponent's mechanical form during the battle were particularly impressive, almost like a real person mastering martial arts. This clearly proved that the opponent's intelligent control system was also quite advanced, at least in terms of its smoothness, comparable to that of Jarvis, who assisted him in controlling the Mark suit.
Even more terrifying, and something Tony didn't want to admit, was that the opponent's mecha was clearly more responsive than he, even with Jarvis's assistance. Even if the difference in speed wasn't huge, Tony knew that if he were to get close, he'd end up like Iron Monger, completely overwhelmed by that little bit of speed and unable to fight back.
It's not just a matter of human reaction, it's also a matter of computing power of intelligent systems!
Even if it's just a little bit off, it's really one and one. If you can't beat it, you can't beat it.
A glass of water was handed to the somewhat dazed Tony by a robotic arm. Tony took it and drank it in big gulps. The desire to win in his heart had been aroused.
Give up?
That's impossible.
He wants to upgrade his Mark suit, Jarvis's intelligent program, and the technology of the Iron Suit. He must surpass that unknown machine!
PS: Sometimes I feel helpless. Yesterday I was really concise and didn't think about watering down my writing. Otherwise, I would have written several chapters about battles. Although I am not good at writing battles, the collection of battle descriptions has increased significantly.
Why don't you depict Tony being surprised or anything like that during the fight? I don't think it makes sense. Someone's beating you half to death, and then someone comes to your aid, and instead of going to help, you're saying, "What a great new guy!" Shouldn't you focus on defeating the enemy with your helper before your energy runs out? That's what a good teammate is! It doesn't fit Tony's character to be dwelling on the helper's skills at this point. Even a tsundere and foul-mouthed Tony wouldn't do that or say that in public.
So my initial plan was to briefly showcase the suit's technology and combat effectiveness, quickly transitioning to a review to support this technical comparison. However, some readers seem quite dissatisfied. If you don't like this approach, I'll reconsider it next time.
Yesterday's reporter's post was necessary; otherwise, it would have felt fragmented. I think that's the case. Writing a book is truly difficult these days, and I hope everyone will support it. Suggestions are welcome, and the author will listen. But don't let it undermine your confidence.