The Mark 2 prototype was eventually handed over, a painful and weighted decision Tony Stark made under immense pressure from multiple sides.
The pressure didn't just come from the high-sounding 'national security' and 'technological regulation' rhetoric of the Pentagon and the Senate. More realistically, the vast business empire of Stark Industries wasn't built on the Iron Man brand alone. The 're-evaluation' of defense contracts, 'procedural delays' in international clean energy projects, and 'inquiries' from the Securities and Exchange Commission... these precise 'attentions' coming from all directions left Pepper Potts exhausted through countless late nights. Tony could ignore his own reputation, but he couldn't stand by and watch the legacy his father left behind be hamstrung because he refused to compromise.
What finally made him relent was James "Rhodey" Rhodes, his best friend, wearing his Air Force Lieutenant Colonel uniform, sitting across from him with a soldier's bluntness and a friend's sincerity.
"Tony, they won't stop," Rhodey's voice was low, his eyes filled with complex emotions. "Either you give it to them, or they'll find every way to 'take' it from you—in a much uglier, mutually destructive way. Hammer and those behind him are fanning the flames; they want the technology, and they want you to fall."
Tony swirled his glass, remaining silent.
"Give me one set," Rhodey leaned forward, his eyes burning. "Not the latest, not even the strongest. Give me a version you can accept, and I'll pilot it. I promise you, on my honor as a soldier and our twenty-year friendship, it will only be used for the right missions, to protect those who need protecting. I'll be the firewall between you and those bureaucrats, and I'll prove through action that having this technology in the right hands is far better than locking it in a safe or letting it fall into the hands of someone like Hammer."
He looked at Tony, his tone carrying a hint of earnestness: "I know you don't trust them, and I don't entirely either. But at least you trust me, right? Let me be the first pilot of this 'War Machine.' If one day they try to use it for something dirty, I'll be the first to object. And if... if it really comes to the worst, at least with the set you gave me, you can ensure it won't turn its barrel toward innocent people, right?"
Tony remained silent for a long time. Outside the window were the never-extinguishing lights of New York. He remembered the cave in Afghanistan, remembered Rhodey flying a fighter jet trying to draw away the enemy, remembered this guy bailing him out of ridiculous parties countless times, and remembered the never-fading belief in 'protection' in his eyes.
"Mark 2," Tony finally spoke, his voice somewhat raspy. "The prototype, high-energy palladium reactor, basic weapon systems. I'll give you a restricted operating core, Jarvis's auxiliary permissions set to the minimum, but the basic safety protocols and flight stability systems will be complete. And..." He looked Rhodey straight in the eye, "I'll leave a backdoor. Not to control you, Rhodey, but to ensure that if one day someone tries to bypass you, or if you... are no longer who you are now, I can prevent the worst from happening. You accept these terms, and it's yours."
Rhodes didn't hesitate for a second, nodding heavily: "I accept. Thanks, Tony."
"Don't thank me." Tony turned around, his back to him, looking out the window. "I'm just choosing a... less disgusting option. Don't make me regret this, brother."
The deal was struck in silence. The Mark 2 was handed over discreetly. Rhodes began adaptive training, and Hammer Industries, as Tony expected, extended its reach under the guise of 'technical support.'
Two weeks later, the top floor of Stark Tower in New York.
Tony was in his weekly encrypted video call with Artoria, exchanging the latest analysis on Ivan Vanko's possible hiding places and suspicions regarding certain raw material purchases by Hammer Industries.
Suddenly, Pepper pushed open the door with some urgency, holding a tablet: "Tony! Hammer Industries' emergency global press conference is being broadcast live!"
Tony and Artoria in the video both paused. Tony took the tablet, and Artoria signaled Minerva to tune the living room TV to the news channel.
The screen cut to the luxurious press hall at Hammer Industries headquarters, large enough to hold over a thousand people. Justin Hammer, in a bright purple suit, stood before a massive holographic projection screen, his face flushed with excitement and glowing under the spotlights. The hall was packed; besides a sea of media, the front rows were filled with men and women in Military uniforms or formal suits, looking serious—clearly Military representatives and government officials.
"Ladies and gentlemen! Distinguished guests!" Hammer's voice came through the top-tier sound system with an exaggerated, inflammatory passion. "Today, Hammer Industries opens a new chapter in Military technology! An era of swarms, intelligence, and absolute power! We firmly believe that true security stems from replicable, reliable, and absolutely controllable systems, not from some unpredictable individual!"
With a wave of his arm, the massive screen behind him lit up, playing a meticulously edited promotional video: in a dimly lit testing ground, dozens of humanoid machines nearly three meters tall, with rugged lines and matte dark gray paint, marched forward in a neat, heavy, and unified gait. Their heads were integrated sensor arrays, and their shoulders, arms, and backs were mounted with various weapons like rotary cannons, grenade launchers, and micro-missile pods. On their chests, a circular device larger than Tony's reactor, flickering with an unstable blue-white light, was particularly conspicuous.
"Introducing—the 'Hammer Drones,' the 'Defender' series!" Hammer announced loudly as a massive 3D model and performance parameters appeared on the screen. "Fully autonomous combat units! Swarm intelligence network control! Equipped with our company's epoch-making 'Fortress' type high-energy power core! Possessing unparalleled firepower, protection, and battlefield dominance!"
The screen switched to a simulated combat scenario where the Hammer Drones opened fire in a rain of bullets, made rapid assaults crashing through obstacles, and even demonstrated simple tactical coordination. The visual impact was immense.
Tony's eyes were fixed on the screen, his brow furrowing deeper and deeper. The basic movement architecture of those robots, the joint transmission logic, and even some load-bearing design concepts... all bore the heavy shadow of his 'Mark' series, albeit simplified and crudely reinforced! During those two weeks of 'technical support,' Hammer and Ivan Vanko hadn't just installed external interfaces; they had stolen the basic design data of the Mark 2!
But that wasn't what alarmed him most. His gaze focused on the energy cores flickering on the robots' chests. Jarvis quickly provided a preliminary analysis, displayed in a corner of Tony's vision: "Energy readings fluctuating violently, spectral characteristics abnormal, 67% similarity to the failed early palladium reactor model 'Gamma-7,' stability questionable. Recommendation: Extremely dangerous."
"That maniac Vanko..." Tony cursed under his breath. "He miniaturized an unstable experimental reactor but didn't solve the resonance and safety valve issues at all! That thing is a bomb!"
What made his skin crawl even more was Hammer's emphasis—'fully autonomous,''swarm intelligence,' 'absolute control.' Tony quickly scanned the rough results of the radio signal scan from the press conference site that Jarvis synced to the side of the screen: a massive amount of encrypted, high-frequency, oddly formatted data streams were moving between Hammer's presentation stage and the Hammer Drones on static display. This was a control protocol he had never seen before—closed, exclusive, and... seemingly lacking sufficient redundant manual intervention nodes.
"Their master control protocol is a closed, one-way command chain lacking effective 'emergency stop' and 'identity verification' mechanisms," Jarvis added calmly. "If the control signal is jammed or hijacked, or if the built-in friend-or-foe identification logic malfunctions, these units cannot be effectively terminated from the outside."
Tony's pupils contracted suddenly. He looked at the interested expressions of the Military representatives in the audience and at Hammer's smug face, a chill mixed with fury rushing to his head. Hammer, that idiot, in his quest to steal the spotlight and secure contracts, had been seduced by Ivan Vanko into creating a fleet of killing machines with massive firepower, extremely unstable energy sources, and fragile control! And he was going to sell them to the Military to be deployed near urban environments potentially filled with civilians?!
Just then, the press conference entered the 'live demonstration' phase. To showcase their 'intelligence,' Hammer ordered one Hammer Drone to step out of line and perform a 'combat drill' against a remote-controlled target drone.
The Hammer Drone raised its right arm, its rotary cannon beginning to spin and aim. Everything was normal at first. But when the target drone suddenly performed a pre-set emergency evasive maneuver, the Hammer Drone's movement showed a noticeable delay of about 0.5 seconds. Then, its muzzle jerked away, no longer locking onto the target drone, but instead beginning to sway slightly and erratically, scanning toward the audience! Although it was quickly forced back into correction by the control signal and relocked onto the target drone (shredding it), that moment of loss of control and the terrifying sight of the muzzle pointing at the crowd had been captured by high-definition cameras, causing a suppressed gasp and commotion among the audience.
Hammer's face turned pale, but he immediately laughed it off: "Hahaha, it seems our soldier is too eager for real combat! It even wanted to respond to the audience's enthusiasm! This just goes to show its powerful aggressiveness! But rest assured, the safety protocols are absolutely reliable!"
Reliable? Tony watched the sharp data spikes within the Hammer Drone and the several 'Target Lost - Re-acquiring - Protocol Conflict' error logs that Jarvis highlighted during that moment of lost control, and the string in his heart finally snapped.
He couldn't wait any longer. This wasn't commercial competition or a display of technology. This was a precursor to a major safety incident that could turn into a massacre at any moment! Hammer and Vanko couldn't control the monsters they had created!
"Pepper, contact Rhodes, tell him to stay far away from any Hammer Industries testing grounds or equipment immediately, and wait for my word!" Tony spoke rapidly, already rushing toward the interior of the lab. "Artoria, have your people monitor all of Hammer Industries' external communications and energy signals, especially the press conference site and their master control center! Hammer's robots have a problem, a big problem. I'm heading there now!"
"Tony, what do you plan to do?" In the video, Artoria's voice also became serious.
"What am I going to do?" Tony's voice came from the lab, accompanied by the sounds of machinery operating and metal clashing. "I'm going to add a real 'testing phase' to that idiot's 'product launch'! Jarvis, initiate. Target: Hammer Industries press conference! We're going to give those poorly made toys a lesson in 'quality safety' and 'responsibility'!"
Jarvis responded calmly, "Armor status: Ready. Core output: Stable at 100%. Estimated time of arrival over the target: 4 minutes 17 seconds."
In the video call, Artoria nodded to Minerva, who immediately began operating. Little Love's calm voice sounded simultaneously on the encrypted channel: "Locked onto the Hammer Industries press conference site and three suspected master control node communication streams. Energy monitoring focusing. Data syncing to Mr. Stark's armor information system."
Seconds later, the platform atop Stark Tower opened, and a gold-and-red, sleek figure with a chest reactor emitting a stable, pale gold light shot into the sky amidst a deafening sonic boom, trailing a dazzling wake as it sped toward Hammer Industries headquarters!
At the press conference, Hammer was still rambling on about how his Hammer Drones would "change the face of warfare," while some sharp-eyed reporters and audience members had already heard the rapidly approaching whistle from the distance and were looking up.
In the sky, that familiar gold-and-red speck of light was enlarging at an incredible speed.
Hammer's speech stopped abruptly, the smile on his face froze, and a flash of panic appeared in his eyes.
Tony Stark, Iron Man, had arrived uninvited. And what he brought was certainly not congratulations.
A confrontation regarding technological ethics, safety baselines, and mad ambition was about to play out in the most direct and shocking way at this high-profile press conference.
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