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On the screen,the video continued.
Killian left the room to deal with something else.
[Only Tony and two guards remained in the dungeon.]
[At that moment—]
Beep!
Tony's watch began to ring.
One of the guards picked it up from the table.
[It was a children's watch, decorated with Dora the Explorer stickers.]
Tony said calmly,"Careful. That's a limited edition."
"Hey—you, the guy with the ponytail.How far is it from Tennessee to Miami?"
[Ponytail Man: 832 miles.]
"Good."
The watch kept beeping.
The ponytailed man grew impatient and said to the other guard,"It's annoying. Can you shut it off?"
Tony sounded anxious.
"If you break it, you're paying for it."
[The guard casually tossed the watch to the floor and stomped on it hard.]
The beeping stopped—because the watch was completely destroyed.
The guard looked at Tony provocatively,as if to say: What are you going to do about it?
Tony sighed.
"Well… that actually wasn't my watch.It belongs to my friend's little sister.
"So I guess I'll have to kill you first."
The guards stared at the man strapped to the rack, unable to move, utterly confused.
"What exactly are you going to do?" one of them asked.
"You'll find out," Tony replied.
"You're tied up with plastic restraints!" the guard scoffed.
"I know," Tony said. "That's the plan."
[Then Tony flipped his wrists.]
The two guards froze, unsure what he was trying to pull.
When Mark 42 failed to arrive, Tony tried again.
"I will do it."
He flipped his wrists again.
Nothing happened.
An awkward silence filled the room.
...
Stark Tower.
Happy looked at Tony.
"Tony… your Mark 42 really sucks."
"Isn't it basically an AI idiot?"
Tony nodded.
He couldn't agree more.
Mark 42 was far too rebellious.
When enemies tried to summon him, he ran off to who-knows-where.
At critical moments, it was completely unreliable.
And worse—
The micro-controllers in his arms were clearly a failed design.
Not only were they slow to respond,the wider he moved his arms, the more false summon commands he triggered.
Did that mean he couldn't even stretch?
No.This could never happen again.
If possible—
He wanted to design a new kind of armor.
All he would need to do was point to the arc reactor on his chest.
The armor would deploy from there, spreading across his body layer by layer.
Invisible until activation.Impossible to anticipate.Easy to carry. Easy to summon.
The perfect armor.
The more Tony thought about it, the more excited he became.
He imagined himself wearing it—cutting through enemies effortlessly.
...
Back in the dungeon.
Tony tried again.
"Trust me," he said calmly."You're about to be lying in a pool of blood."
"Five… four… three… come on… two—"
The ponytailed man frowned.
"Why did we hire a clown like this?"
Tony didn't stop.
"Alright. I'll give you a chance to run."
"Drop your weapons. Tie yourselves to the chairs.I'll let you live."
"You have five seconds."
"Four—"
Bang!
The two guards didn't move.They weren't scared at all—if anything, they looked amused.
"You should've run by now," Tony said.
The ponytailed man shrugged.
"Oh really? Guess I was too scared to move."
"I'm coming!" Tony snapped."Three! Four—"
"Shut up!" the man barked.
Tony sped up.
"Five! Four! Three! Two! One!"
Before the guard could speak—
BOOM!
The dungeon glass shattered.
[Mark 42's right arm flew in and locked onto Tony's arm.]
Tony smiled in relief.
"I told you a long time ago."
Before the guards could react—
[A palm repulsor blasted them away.]
Dust filled the air.
Another crash.
[Mark 42's left leg arrived.]
Using the thrusters, Tony kicked the ponytailed man across the room and grabbed his gun.
Now—
Tony was the only one still standing.
He aimed the gun at both men.
But something felt off.
"Why haven't the rest of the parts arrived?"
Scene cut.
A small boy watched his family's shed shake violently.
He ran outside.
The door was locked tight from the outside—something was pounding from within.
The boy pulled out one of the gadgets Tony had given him and blew the lock open.
[The remaining Mark 42 components escaped the shed and flew toward Tony.]
...
Stark Tower.
Tony stared at the tiny shed on the screen.
He almost coughed up blood.
No.No way.
You're telling me—
Mark 42 got trappedin a wooden shed?!
Tony had a thousand complaints ready to explode.
Pepper interrupted him.
"Tony… who is that little boy?"
"Is it like Maya said?Your secret twelve-year-old son?"
Tony waved his hand dismissively.
"Come on, that's impossible."
"He looks six or seven at most."
"He's probably a kid I met in Tennessee."
"But… I clearly like him. A lot."
"I even stored Mark 42 in his shed."
"That means—off-screen, in the future we didn't see—I probably went on an adventure with him."
Tony smiled faintly.
He didn't know why.
Even though the video didn't show them bonding—
From the first moment he saw that boy,he felt an inexplicable sense of goodwill.
And then Tony thought—
If his future self truly mastered modular armor,
He would become Iron Man in the purest sense.
And when he finally retired…
He'd let that boy take up the mantle.
Better than handing it to someone who never understood what it meant.
Not as a replacement—
But as the second Iron Man,after the original had retired… or fallen.