"Huh?"
Tony didn't react for a second. He'd truly thought he was dead, and yet… he just got flicked on the forehead?
That crisp clang… that was definitely a high quality helmet.
With that thought, Tony lifted his faceplate and looked at Vincent with a bitter smile.
"You won. Pick any suit you want."
Tony led Vincent into the elevator.
Not long after, they arrived at the level where Tony stored his armors.
One suit after another lay quietly inside glass pods, all of them repaired and preserved. The upgrades and iterations had long stopped keeping up with real combat, so they'd been retired from the battlefield.
Tony stared at them, a hollow stillness in his eyes.
Survival of the fittest. Even among armors, it was the same.
These days, only the Mark VII still fought beside him. The earlier generations slept here, forever.
And wasn't he the same?
Vincent's appearance had forced him to recognize the truth: there was always someone stronger.
Maybe… he wasn't as important as he'd always believed.
Clang. Clang.
Two light taps snapped Tony back to reality.
Vincent patted his shoulder, then stepped forward to examine the suits carefully.
Rows of Iron Man armors stood before him, and for a moment, Vincent felt unreal.
In his previous life, he'd been a Stark fan, eating popcorn while getting hyped watching those battles on screen.
Now he was seeing these suits for real. Not only could he touch them, he could even choose one as his own.
It didn't feel real at all.
But Vincent quickly steadied himself.
Lately, unreal things were basically his daily routine.
After a careful look, Vincent turned and glanced at Tony.
Tony bristled under the look. The moment he realized Vincent's eyes had landed on the armor Tony was wearing, he rejected it immediately.
"This one's out of power."
Vincent nodded. "That's fine. Recharge it."
"It's custom built for me!"
"Also fine. We're about the same height and build."
"It…" Tony started.
"Still fine."
Tony froze.
I haven't even finished my sentence.
A wave of helplessness rose in him.
Who told him to run his mouth and propose that bet?
Why didn't he just have JARVIS lock onto the guy with satellites and blast him off the planet?
Although… whether he could even hit him was a whole other question.
Forget it.
Losing a suit was nothing. Losing his life… that was really losing it.
Seeing Tony's miserable expression, Vincent laughed.
"Relax. I'm just messing with you."
Tony: "????"
I've already made peace with it in my heart and you tell me it was a joke?
Believe it or not, I'll call in a satellite strike right now.
Vincent ignored his glare, turned, and pointed at a suit inside a large glass pod. Its arc reactor was triangular.
"I'll take that one."
Mark VI?
Tony finally exhaled.
The Mark VI was still relatively new.
But the best part was… he didn't need it anymore.
"Sure," Tony said briskly. He stepped forward, ran an iris scan, and spoke as he did.
"When I built the Mark VI, it took a ridiculous amount of work. Aside from standard combat regulation, I upgraded the power source too. I replaced all the palladium, the stuff that's bad for the body, with an element that's good for you. And let me tell you, this new element is amazing. I'm busy every night, but I'm still in top form. Want me to demonstrate?"
Vincent immediately waved both hands. "No. Save that for your girlfriend."
Seriously, was everyone in this country this hospitable?
The iris verification finished.
Tony issued a string of instructions to JARVIS, emphasizing multiple times that this was a "loan."
Vincent looked at him, amused. With money like his, couldn't he be a little more generous?
Tony laughed it off, pretending not to notice the look. He gestured grandly toward the suit.
"Go ahead, put it on and try it. I'm not bragging, but it's warm in winter, cool in summer…"
He was about to keep going when Vincent lifted a hand.
"It's not for me. Hold on a second."
Then, under Tony's stunned gaze, Vincent jumped straight out the window.
Tony rushed over to look.
That was the fiftieth floor.
As far as he knew, even someone with freakish physical conditioning could only jump from a dozen or so floors and maybe survive intact.
Fifty floors?
That was splatter territory.
Boom!
A massive impact rang out below. Through the suit's sensors, Tony saw the ground cracked into a deep crater from Vincent's landing.
Then Vincent vanished from view.
Not long after, the elevator went down, then came back up.
When the doors opened again, Vincent stood there, and beside him was a young woman with clearly foreign features.
Her beauty instantly locked Tony's gaze in place.
He clicked his tongue, impressed.
Damn. She's gorgeous.
Vincent led Autumn Summer forward and pointed at the Mark VI inside the glass pod.
"Try it."
Autumn was still stunned by everything she'd seen.
She understood the world setting of Forbidden Zone No. 8 well enough. The man in front of her was impossible not to recognize.
Iron Man.
Vincent brought her to the open area crowded with mechanical arms, then looked at Tony.
The look basically said: You done staring yet, old man?
Tony coughed awkwardly and issued the command.
The mechanical arms moved at once, pulling parts from storage and assembling the armor onto Autumn.
Only then did Tony understand.
So Vincent hadn't come to "borrow" a suit for himself.
It was for this beauty.
Tony gritted his teeth, fuming.
This bastard was using my armor to pick up girls.
Where's the law? Where's justice?
But then another thought slipped in.
Could this work on Pepper?
Before long, the assembly finished.
Autumn was a bit shorter, so the suit adjusted down a size.
She moved her arms and legs, surprised to find it felt like moving her own body.
Easy. Natural.
"Alright. That's it." Vincent smiled, taking Autumn's hand.
"Sorry for the long interruption. We'll talk next time. If you ever need my help, Mr. Stark, as long as it's within my ability, I won't refuse."
With that, he took Autumn and launched out through the window again, shattering it on the way out.
Tony stared at the wrecked floor to ceiling glass in speechless frustration.
Could you two not use the door?
Ding.
The elevator arrived.
Tony turned, thinking maybe they'd left something behind.
The doors opened, and a balding man stepped out.
"Hello. I'm Phil Coulson, the one you spoke with earlier. It's been a while."
Coulson glanced at the shattered window, then recalled the devastated main hall he'd seen first, and couldn't help asking,
"Stark… did you get robbed?"
Tony looked around at the wreckage and ground his teeth.
"Robbed by force."