Chapter 146: Iron Man—First Flight
Inside the oceanfront villa's first-floor garage in California.
Crisp metallic clinking filled the air. With mechanical arm assistance, armor plates began covering Tony Stark's body piece by piece, starting from extremities.
Compared to the bulky, crude Mark I from that Middle Eastern cave, Tony Stark wearing the Mark II armor moved with exceptional fluidity.
As the faceplate locked manually into position, white light illuminated Tony Stark's eye areas.
"Heads-up display activated. Importing preferences from local interface. Initiating virtual walk test," Tony Stark issued commands that JARVIS AI executed methodically.
"Importing preferences. Calibrating virtual environment. Checking armor surface," JARVIS AI responded.
Following his words, Tony Stark stood motionless while the silver-gray Mark II armor covering his body shifted and adjusted, continuously testing internal structures, verifying the virtual walk system for potential malfunctions.
Simultaneously, cameras controlled by JARVIS AI focused on Tony Stark, faithfully recording external appearance changes. Any subtle inconsistency would be immediately detected.
But as the clock on the nearby workbench ticked steadily forward, this armor suit that Tony Stark had personally designed and built revealed no inconsistencies or issues requiring adjustment.
"Testing complete. Preparing shutdown for diagnostic—"
JARVIS AI's announcement was immediately interrupted by Tony Stark, who'd developed a new idea.
"No, don't do that yet, JARVIS. Check weather and air traffic control. Monitor ground control frequencies."
"Sir, before actual flight, terabytes of calculations are still required—"
JARVIS AI couldn't finish his sentence before Tony Stark interrupted again.
"JARVIS, sometimes you've got to run before you can walk."
"Ready? Three, two, one—"
Mark II's foot and palm repulsors activated simultaneously, lifting Tony Stark's body steadily into midair.
Then JARVIS AI began rapid calculations, assisting Tony Stark in controlling his posture as his body gradually tilted forward. His form streaked silver light through the garage, rocketing from the entrance toward the pitch-black night sky.
"YEAHHH!"
Tony Stark shouted joyfully. With JARVIS's assistance, flight stabilizers in his arms, legs, and back activated separately, accelerating his flight speed and stabilizing his trajectory.
Initially, Tony's flight speed wasn't particularly fast—merely matching his sports car's velocity.
But gradually, Tony Stark grew dissatisfied with speeds he now considered relatively sluggish. His velocity increased further.
He simultaneously attempted aerial maneuvers replicating aircraft flight techniques, leaving brief spiral contrails of repulsor light across the night sky.
Humanity had never abandoned dreams of soaring independently through the skies. From Adrian Toomes to Tony Stark, they'd each used different methods to take flight.
Tony Stark didn't ascend too high, maintaining merely several hundred meters altitude while constantly monitoring data feedback from countless sensors throughout Mark II.
From La Jolla Shores in San Diego, California to its parent city Los Angeles, Tony Stark needed at least two hours by car.
But under Mark II's continuously accelerating flight, Tony Stark reached Mach One in mere seconds, arriving above Los Angeles within minutes, circling Hollywood Hills.
"Armor curves still need adjustment. Reactor output requires improvement. Suit repulsors need optimization. Flight stabilizers need enhancement. Internal shock absorption requires refinement... Oh, and I need to pee—suit internals need filtration systems added."
Initially the issues weren't obvious, but as Tony Stark's speed increased, his maximum velocity plateaued at Mach One. No matter what he tried, he couldn't break through that sound barrier.
Tony Stark gradually discovered countless areas his armor required improvement. Truthfully, except for the overall concept, everything from beginning to end, inside to outside, needed upgrading.
Having reached his flight speed's critical threshold, Tony Stark entertained another impulse. He altered his trajectory, cutting an angle above Los Angeles before ascending vertically.
"JARVIS, what's the SR-71 Blackbird's flight altitude?" Tony Stark asked.
The SR-71 Blackbird was a supersonic reconnaissance aircraft developed by Lockheed Martin, used for high-altitude, high-speed reconnaissance during the Cold War era. Now retired.
"The record altitude for sustained flight is eighty-five thousand feet—twenty-five thousand nine hundred twenty-nine meters—sir," JARVIS AI responded instantly.
"Records exist to be broken. Let's go!"
Tony Stark's voice brimmed with the joy of a grown man possessing his beloved toy. As the armor's repulsors engaged full power, his body rocketed rapidly toward higher altitude.
The moon hung high overhead.
As altitude increased, Mark II's external armor began accumulating thin frost layers. As Tony Stark climbed higher, the ice gradually thickened.
But Tony Stark couldn't care less right now. Like someone yearning to pluck stars from the sky, he flew directly toward the moon.
Eventually, before even breaking the SR-71's altitude record, Mark II's surface had accumulated thick ice layers. The armor's repulsors began sparking erratically. The white light emanating from the faceplate dimmed.
The next second, he entered freefall.
Greek mythology featured Icarus flying toward the sun, causing the wax bonding his feathers to melt, plummeting to his death.
Now Tony Stark, flying toward the moon, caused his armor to freeze. His body similarly entered freefall, plunging rapidly toward Earth.
"We're icing up, JARVIS! Deploy flaps!" Tony Stark's body tumbled through the air as he shouted desperately. "JARVIS?!"
JARVIS made no sound. The high-altitude cold had caused the armor's internal circuits to malfunction. He could no longer assist Tony Stark.
"JARVIS!"
Desperation edged Tony Stark's voice. But having escaped even that Middle Eastern cave, Tony Stark refused to abandon hope. He manually cleared frost from Mark II, manually deploying the flaps.
WHOOSH!
As back flaps deployed, Tony Stark's descent rapidly decelerated. He'd dropped to within five hundred meters of the ground.
But at that same moment, JARVIS AI began rebooting. The armor's eye lights blazed back to life.
Finally, with mere meters remaining before impact, Tony Stark's leg and hand repulsors reignited, sending him soaring back toward the heavens.
"YEAH! HAHAHAHA!"
Tony Stark cheered loudly. He'd never felt happier in his entire life.