Stark’s New Armor

After a series of maneuvers, Black Charcoal Head Nick Fury arranged for Level Seven agent Black Widow Natasha Romanoff to be placed by Little Pepper Pepper’s side.

It was not that he did not want to place someone near Stark, but the playboy had recently been holed up at home, tinkering with who knew what. There was simply no chance to get close to him, so this would have to do for now.

As the former director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and one of Hydra’s leaders, Alexander Pierce stopped making unnecessary moves after learning of Nick Fury’s actions. Whatever intelligence Fury uncovered, he could share it anyway, so why waste the effort?

Unaware that someone had set their sights on him, Tony Stark was upgrading his Iron Man suit at home.

More precisely, he was making a new one.

The first issue Mark III needed to solve was high-altitude freezing, which was not difficult for Stark.

Then there was firepower, which was no problem for former arms dealer Tony Stark either.

Next, he needed to solve the sound-filtering issue that had been making his head buzz. Stark first had Jarvis add a layer of soundproofing cotton inside the suit. Calculations showed it might still be somewhat noisy, so to be safe, he added a layer of shock-absorbing cushioning material as well.

However, the addition of those two layers made Mark III look much bulkier. Though it was not as bloated as Mark I, it was still a big hunk of armor. If they were added only inside the helmet, it would instead turn into a strange design with an especially large head.

"Hmm… This is a little different from what I had in mind…"

Compared to that bulky design, Tony Stark preferred the sleek, fitted design of Mark II.

After considering it repeatedly, Stark removed the relatively thick soundproofing cotton. He decided to develop an anti-brat armor separately later and install the soundproofing design on that.

"Sir, I think you could try Vibranium."

Jarvis suddenly offered a reminder.

"Oh! Right!"

Stark slapped his forehead. He had forgotten about Wakanda. Vibranium was expensive, but that meant nothing to Tony Stark.

"Do we have any in stock?"

"You previously purchased some for experiments, and there is still a little left," Jarvis replied in his usual measured manner. "It is not enough to make an entire Iron Man suit, but I think you could incorporate it only into the helmet, sir."

"Buy another ton or two first. If it isn’t enough, we’ll deal with it then."

With a grand wave of his hand, the filthy rich Tony Stark happily had Jarvis place the order.

"My apologies, sir. Wakandan Vibranium is sold in limited quantities. It can also be purchased from smugglers, but the available quantity cannot be determined at present."

"Then buy as much as you can. Get whatever you can get."

Stark did not care. As long as there was enough for him to make armor, that was fine.

As for Mark III, he could only incorporate Vibranium into some of its more important parts for now, while making do with titanium alloy elsewhere. Stark planned to start on Mark IV once the new Vibranium arrived.

He, Tony Stark, was not short on money.

The design work continued.

He also needed to address close-quarters combat. Tony Stark not only loaded Mark III with a massive amount of martial arts data, but also equipped its limbs with small thrusters that could independently adjust their angles to increase the striking power of every movement.

"Let’s add an electric shock device too!"

Thinking of the strange power attached to Botakun’s soft, flimsy fists, Tony Stark snapped his fingers and said to Jarvis.

Finally came the paint job. "Low-key" Tony Stark drew inspiration from his vintage car and chose a "plain" red-and-gold color scheme for Mark III.

"Very well. This will take approximately five hours."

After all the designs were complete, Jarvis gave him the manufacturing time. At that moment, Stark saw a news report on television about a reception hosted by him, one he knew nothing about.

He heard the reporter on the television saying, "No one expects him to show up."

So Stark decided to attend this mysterious reception at the last minute.

However, when he arrived at the reception in high spirits, he received news that soured his mood—Stark Industries was still selling weapons abroad, and the buyers were the very terrorists who had attacked him in the Middle East.

After returning to his mansion, Stark decided to put on Mark III and personally head to the Middle East to deal with those terrorists.

"Kraft, Stark has appeared again."

After getting beaten up by Tony Stark, Kraft had set special alerts for his Tin Man. So the moment the Iron Man suit appeared over New York, Angela reported it to Kraft.

"Pant… pant… Wh-what’s going on?"

Kraft, who was following his training plan and had locked himself inside the Shatter the Cauldrons Treadmill, asked between gasps.

"Unable to determine for now," Angela said, switching to the radar display and projecting the screen onto the wall in front of Kraft. "Preliminary estimates suggest that his destination should be Gemira Town in the Middle East."

As she spoke, Angela played recent news about Gemira Town for Kraft.

"S-so… he’s… pant… going to… pant… fight terror-terrorists…?"

Kraft was so out of breath that he could barely speak. He braced both hands against the bars of the cage, sweat pouring down his face.

"By the way, Angela, can you… can you help me… turn this thing off first… pant… I’ll make it up later…"

"Sorry, Kraft. Your treadmill is not connected to the network, so I cannot control it. Also, you only need to hold on for another four minutes and thirty-seven seconds to finish."

Kraft: "Fuck!"

I must have had water in my brain when I made such an inhuman treadmill!

Four minutes later, an exhausted Kraft crawled out of the Shatter the Cauldrons Treadmill.

"Energy replenishment, energy replenishment."

Haro thoughtfully ran over to him, holding up a can of energy drink.

After resting on the floor for a while, Kraft got back up. As he drank the energy drink Haro had brought him, he slowly paced around the laboratory.

"Where is Stark now?"

"The target has already left America," Angela said, bringing up the radar display again. A small dot of light was moving toward the Mediterranean at a speed visible to the naked eye. "If our estimate is correct, he should reach his destination in roughly three hours."

"He’s pretty fast."

Kraft took a gulp of energy drink. When he had fought Stark before, Stark had not displayed such a fast movement speed. Then again, with Stark’s arrogant personality, constantly running away was not his style either.

"So he’s planning to get revenge on the people who kidnapped him?"

Kraft did not believe Tony Stark had put on an Iron Man suit in the middle of the night and flown to the Middle East to introduce new equipment to those so-called freedom fighters, or to provide after-sales service…

No, maybe that did count as after-sales service?

After all, they were "online friends" who had arranged a fight. Kraft raised his energy drink toward the small dot on the screen.

"May victory be yours."

In the movies, Black Widow was assigned to Stark only in the second installment. But as mentioned before, S.H.I.E.L.D. had noticed Stark ahead of time, so naturally Black Widow’s assignment had to be moved up as well.

Mark III’s speed did not have any concrete data. In the movie, it did not shake off the F-22, but it was slightly faster than the F-22, so I calculated it at roughly Mach 3.

The phrase "may victory be yours" should exist only in Japanese, though it seems to have been adapted from ancient Chinese. Since it sounded more imposing, I used it anyway. After all, Kraft was supposed to be a language master.