The first floor of Stark Tower had descended into absolute chaos.
Happy Hogan was fighting with everything he had to hold back the swarming reporters, but it was a losing battle for one man alone.
"Mr. Stark! How do we know this isn't just an excuse to stonewall the public?" Eddie Brock, taking advantage of his youth and athleticism, squeezed his way to the very front. He looked as if he wanted to shove his microphone directly into Tony's mouth.
This time, Tony Stark didn't ignore him. Instead, he signaled for the frenzied reporters to settle down.
"Jarvis?" Tony called out.
"At your service, Sir," the AI's voice immediately echoed through the lobby of Stark Tower.
As Jarvis spoke, the floor panels beneath Tony Stark slid open horizontally. Seven or eight mechanical arms rose from the sub-floor, systematically attaching pieces of armor to Tony's body.
Clang! Click! Clack!
The flashes from the cameras—held by photographers or perched on their shoulders—never stopped firing. They no longer cared about interviewing Tony; they were too busy desperately capturing every single second of the red-and-gold Mark IV being assembled onto his frame.
These photos would circulate through various media outlets at lightning speed, spreading to every corner of the world via newspapers, television, and the internet.
Amidst the crisp sound of metal meeting metal, Tony Stark finished donning the Mark IV. He looked down at the reporters below, the corners of his mouth turning upward.
"Good luck, gentlemen."
Thud!
The metallic faceplate slammed shut. Tony Stark rose into the air, grazing the scalps of the reporters as he flew out of Stark Tower, vanishing into the clouds in the blink of an eye.
The reporters all scrambled outside in pursuit. Eddie Brock, who had been at the very front, now found himself at the back of the pack. He didn't mind, however. He hurriedly opened his camera and scrolled through the shots he had just taken.
"Nobody got closer to Iron Man than me. This is first-hand intel!"
"Once I manage to snap a photo of Batman, I'll definitely make a name for myself again!"
Eddie laughed as he followed the crowd out of Stark Tower, completely failing to notice two figures in suits standing nearby, watching him pass.
These two were Batman and Happy Hogan.
Once Tony Stark put on the suit and confirmed his identity as Iron Man, there was no longer any need for Happy to hold back the crowd. These were reporters, not obsessive fans; they cared more about what Tony said and did than getting close enough to touch him.
Furthermore, with Tony flying into the clouds, most of the reporters had rushed back to file their stories, leaving only a small group behind to pepper Pepper Potts with questions.
Batman and Happy stood side-by-side, both wearing smiles. Happy joked, "Peter, do you know who the saddest person is now that Tony has gone public?"
Maintaining his Peter Parker persona, Batman pretended to think for a moment before answering, "Pepper? It can't be you, can it?"
"No, it is me!" Happy said, his face a mask of mock grief. "Now that he's gone public, no one is ever going to ask me, 'Happy, are you actually Iron Man, Tony's mysterious bodyguard?' ever again."
Batman looked Happy's protruding belly up and down. "Happy, I'm guessing very few people asked you that to begin with."
Happy ignored the jab at his physique, shifting to a mischievous grin. "Then do you know who will be the happiest from today onward?"
"The models who once spent the night with Tony," Batman replied.
The two men shared a knowing look and laughed.
Two hours later, on the top floor of Stark Tower, Tony Stark had stepped out of the Mark IV and was buried under a mountain of blueprints and tools.
He had temporarily pushed aside the global frenzy regarding his identity as Iron Man.
Tony knew that while he looked glamorous on the surface, the battle against the dinosaurs—even though it wasn't a high-intensity fight—had exposed too many flaws.
Aside from two anti-armor missiles and the full-power chest unibeam, he lacked efficient offensive options.
Aside from the Mark IV he was wearing, he had no spare suits to swap into if his primary armor was damaged in combat.
The suit itself wasn't portable; it required mechanical arms for assistance...
In Tony Stark's eyes, the Mark IV was already obsolete. He needed to start working on a portable suit: the Mark V.
"Tony, this isn't what we agreed on." Pepper came up to the penthouse, setting a cup of coffee down beside him. "I need you to tell me, clearly and from the beginning, exactly what was going through your head every second before you stood on that podium and said those words."
Tony Stark lifted his head from the blueprints, his tone casual. "Relax, Pepper. It's not that bad. We just saved a fortune on public relations."
Pepper looked like she wanted to scream, but her upbringing and poise kept her from doing so. She simply raised her voice:
"Not that bad?"
"Tony, you just put a target on all of our backs! The Board of Directors is going to eat me alive tomorrow! The NYPD and that S.H.I.E.L.D. agency have already called a thousand times!"
Tony Stark picked up the coffee, blew on it, and took a small sip. Seeing Pepper's eyebrows arched in fury, he couldn't help but chuckle.
"Miss Potts, not going public would have been the real disaster for me. Could you really accept me having two completely different faces, two personalities, and even two different voices depending on whether I was in the suit or out of it?"
"It would have driven me crazy."
"Besides, everything Iron Man has done—attacking the Baxter Building, blowing up a helicopter, the buildings and public property accidentally damaged while fighting dinosaurs..."
"I have to stand up and take responsibility using my own face and my own name. This is my redemption, Pepper. Do you understand?"
Pepper's anger slowly began to deflate. Looking at Tony, her heart softened.
In the past, Tony had been a heavy drinker, but never as severely as he had been these past two months. He had been drinking almost every waking moment.
But now, there wasn't a drop of alcohol near him. He was drinking the coffee she had just brought him.
"I understand," Pepper said. "But at least next time you make a decision, try to discuss it with me—or even Peter."
"Of course," Tony promised.
The two locked eyes, their faces drawing closer until they finally kissed.
A few minutes later, they pulled apart. Just as they were lost in the moment, an untimely voice chimed in from the side:
"I feel a bit weird here. You two look like two seals fighting over a grape."
Both Pepper and Tony jumped. "Damn it!"
Tony recovered quickly, rubbing his lips and acting as if nothing had happened. Pepper, however, was flustered, her eyes darting around as she stammered out an explanation.
"We were, uh, just discussing..."
"You don't need to explain, I heard it all." The man who had appeared on the top floor was none other than Colonel Rhodes.
As the military officer previously responsible for weapons procurement between Stark Industries and the U.S. military, Rhodey had hopped on a private jet to New York the second he saw the "Iron Man" reveal in the media.
He had come with a mission from the military: to attempt to purchase a prototype of the "Iron Man" armor.
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