Tony's mind reverberated with John's golden eyes and all the words he had said.
"But this is nothing strange," Pepper said.
"No, this is the strangest part," Tony clicked on a picture of a model at random.
Jarvis automatically copied the three-dimensional model of the same scale from the picture and displayed it in front of them.
"Pepper, look at this model. The details are well handled. It can be regarded as a very high-quality model. For five hundred dollars, it is worth it, but it came from a ten-year-old child!"
Tony looked at the delicate figure in front of him, his face full of caution. "Unbelievably, some details are handled well!"
With one palm, the projection automatically increased with the movement of his hand.
"The eyes and hair tips, except for the coloring, are cut so carefully. Pepper, this is metal. Although it is a metal with very low hardness, it is not easy to make it this way."
Tony sighed, "And at his speed, it can be done in four days to a week, which is incredible!"
"This does seem strange, but can you prove anything?" Pepper realized this too.
"John is special. I want to see him. Pepper, do you have his contact information?"
"Of course, I will send it to you later!"
"Well, that's great. Well!" Tony raised his eyebrows and looked around.
Pepper was holding the old reactor in her hand. "Don't you want to keep this?"
"Pepper, I have many qualities, but nostalgia is not one of them!"
Pepper glanced at the reactor that was still bright in her hands. "Anything else, Mr. Stark?"
"Nothing, Miss Potts!"
It felt like it was back to the usual atmosphere.
Pepper took the reactor and left, glancing back occasionally, not knowing what she was thinking.
Tony watched Pepper leave and fell silent.
...
Two weeks later.
John completed the entrance exam, and it's summer vacation!!
"Peter!" He hugged Peter, who rushed towards him. "Let's go home!"
Peter, who was in the second year, was now moving to the third year. He took John's hand and they went to John's house together.
Today, Aunt Jenny made a barbecue at home to celebrate John's completion of the exam and invited Aunt May to join the celebration.
The relationship between the two families had been getting better over the past year or so. Peter often came over to eat when he was alone at home.
Aunt May also trusted Peter to be with John and Aunt Jenny, allowing her to work wholeheartedly.
"Peter, what are you going to do during the summer vacation? Do you want to play with me in Los Angeles?" John said, looking at the excited Peter.
"John, I want to go to the amusement park!" Peter said with a smile, looking like a child.
John patted his head, "That's right, he is just a child!"
"Peter, let's see Transformers!"
"Yeah, watching cartoons, Autobots transform!" Peter went to watch TV excitedly.
John smiled and shook his head, wondering what was happening with Tony. Had the Mark One started to be manufactured?
...
Los Angeles, a secret military base.
In the combat flight training base, Rhodes was leading a group of new pilots to visit the fighter jets while explaining.
"In future air combat, will drones or manned aircraft be used? From my experience, no drone can match the directness of a pilot, nor their insight to predict situations in chaos."
Colonel Rhodes looked at the recruits behind him. "This is the pilot's judgment!"
"Colonel, then you don't need a plane. Can the pilot go directly to battle?" A voice came from the side.
Rhodes looked over, with a smile on his face, and introduced to the recruits, "Look who is here, the flying man, Mr. Tony Stark!"
"Speaking of manned combat, you have time to ask him about the time he miscalculated. It was during spring break. Remember, the 1987 spring break." Tony looked at Rhodes seriously and said, "The beautiful girl who slept with you."
"Stop it!" Rhodes said with a smile.
"What's the name of that man?"
"Stop making trouble, they'll take it seriously. Don't be like that." Rhodes couldn't stop laughing.
"Okay, nice to meet you!" Tony greeted them.
Rhodes also said, "Everyone, we want to talk alone. You guys go look around!"
Everyone else left.
Rhodes looked at Tony very happily, "I'm surprised!"
"What are you surprised about?"
"I didn't expect you to come out so quickly and be everywhere."
Tony nodded and looked at Rhodes, "Not only can I come out and be everywhere."
"Really?" Rhodes heard it and knew Tony was looking for him for something.
"Rhodes, I want to do a big project. I came to you to discuss it, hoping you'll join."
Rhodes looked at Tony in front of him, laughing all the time. "Then you have to coax everyone, because the things you said at the press conference were pretty good!"
Tony listened, a little embarrassed. "This is not for the military. I'm not going to... this time is different!"
Rhodes frowned, "What? Are you a humanitarian now?"
"I hope you listen to me."
Tony looked at Rhodes expectantly, hoping he would listen carefully.
But Rhodey, looking seriously at Tony Stark, refused.
"No, all you need is to calm down!"
"I mean it!" Rhodes emphasized, looking at Tony's smiling face.
The smile on Tony's face slowly faded, disappointed and a little incomprehensible, but he still nodded.
"Okay."
"It's nice to see you, Tony." Rhodes looked at Tony, stepped back, and finally turned to leave.
Tony's previously bright eyes dimmed, wondering what he was looking at.
Back in his basement, Tony strengthened his resolve.
At the computer desk, he turned on his computer through the keyboard he designed.
"Are you still there, Jarvis?"
"I'm at your service anytime, sir!"
Tony looked at the armor data model on the three screens in front of him and rubbed his hands.
"Create a new project folder named Mark 2."
"Should these be stored in the central database of Stark Industries?"
Tony used a laser pointer to move the armor model on the computer to the side console, instantly forming a half-person-height armor model, which was scattered into individual parts.
"To be honest, I don't know who to trust now," he said, standing beside the console.
"Save it on my private server first, unless I ask you to change it."
"So this is a secret project, isn't it, sir?" Jarvis replied.
Tony looked at the Mark 1 data model in front of him, opened the armor mask, took out a bunch of simulated data models, and threw them into the data trash can.
"I don't want these to fall into the wrong hands."
He began to streamline the clumsy Mark One, gradually discarding all the cumbersome parts into the trash can, each making a simulated impact sound.
"Maybe I can do something good with my hands!"
After finishing the simplification, with a light stroke, a simple armor model rotated, and the prototype of Mark 2 appeared.