"Tony, what's your current blood toxicity level?"
Seeing the symptoms of palladium poisoning even on Tony's neck, Clark activated his X-ray vision to examine his body. What he saw was alarming—Tony's entire system was flooded with palladium.
"You really shouldn't wear the Iron Man suit anymore."
"I don't know, but it's not low," Tony replied casually, showing a disturbing level of indifference toward his condition.
"What blood level? What are you two even talking about?" Rhodey asked, clearly confused and frustrated. "Come on, stop playing guessing games with me, alright?"
Tony glanced at Rhodey but said nothing. His mind was elsewhere—thinking about Pepper Potts. He had helped her join Stark Industries, but once he was gone, he doubted she could hold onto the company alone.
His gaze fell on the Iron Man suits displayed in the showcase. Memories of Monaco, the government pressure, and military threats rushed in. He knew he had to make a concession—just enough to get them off his back, but not enough to cross his line.
A sudden idea sparked in his mind.
"Rhodey, I need to ask you something. Later tonight, I want you to put on the Mark 2 suit. If you can take one of the Iron Man suits back to the government, maybe Congress will finally shut up."
"But Tony, I thought you were against handing over the Iron Man tech?" Rhodey looked puzzled.
"Because I'm running out of time," Tony said quietly. "Clark knows this too."
A hint of sorrow flickered across his face.
"As for the tech—just because you get one of my suits, Rhodey, doesn't mean you have my technology. Even if the military tries to reverse engineer it, they won't figure it out in twenty years." Tony smirked slightly, still proud of his innovation.
"Actually, Tony—" Clark hesitated, debating whether to reveal the truth he knew.
"Clark, don't bother convincing me," Tony interrupted. "Let the government have one suit. And Rhodey, have JARVIS scan your body. We'll need to tweak the Mark 2's dimensions to fit you."
Tony had already made up his mind, and Clark knew he wouldn't be easily swayed.
"Alright," Rhodey nodded. He didn't protest. Secretly, the idea of wearing the suit excited him.
As Rhodey began the fitting process, Tony turned to Clark and said, "Don't come to my birthday party tonight. This might be my last one."
"Don't think like that, Tony," Clark replied calmly. "A guy like you won't go down that easily."
"And besides, of course I'll stay tonight."
"Glad to hear it."
At that same time, Nick Fury received a field report from Natasha Romanoff. The report covered the attacker who used the electrified whips and revealed that the machine had been remotely controlled. It included Natasha's field assessments.
Fury compiled this data—along with earlier reports on Abomination, Iron Monger, and other strange incidents, including the Kree incursion—and submitted the packet to the World Security Council.
He believed this was the perfect moment to finally gain approval for the Avengers Initiative. After all, ordinary military forces and police were no longer sufficient to protect the planet from emerging threats—especially when those threats involved individuals with extraordinary abilities.
With technological advances accelerating, new forms of "superhumans" kept appearing—Captain America, Hulk, Abomination, Iron Man—all born from tech or biological experimentation.
And Fury hadn't forgotten: over two decades ago, the world had narrowly avoided destruction thanks to a female Kryptonian, who had single-handedly destroyed an alien fleet.
That event had planted the seed of the Avengers Initiative in Fury's mind: a team of enhanced individuals, not bound by governments, answering only to the protection of Earth.
Unfortunately, until now, the World Security Council had resisted. They were wary of a group that couldn't be fully controlled. Without their blessing, Fury couldn't officially form the Avengers Initiative.
Worse still, without global endorsement, the Avengers wouldn't be seen as a global defense force—but as a rogue, illegal faction.
Thus far, the Avengers were little more than an idea spoken only in Fury's office.
But after recent events—especially the Monaco robot attack—Fury believed he finally had enough leverage to gain support.
Sure enough, shortly after submitting his report, the Council scheduled a meeting.
"Nick Fury, I hope you can give us a convincing reason to approve the Avengers Initiative. Otherwise, we're not going to sign off," said a stern man in black seated at the center of the council table.
"Of course," Fury responded coolly. "I trust you've reviewed the materials I sent. Let's talk about the Monaco incident. That steel robot was clearly controlled by someone—and that strongly suggests there may be more than one."
He continued, "Then there's the Hulk and Abomination. The latter was a product of Hulk's blood being injected into another human. Our tests on the recovered Abomination specimen show muscle strength far exceeding our current highest-rated steel armor."
"These beings have rendered conventional firearms and missiles virtually useless. And if they appear in a city, we have no realistic response. Unless we're prepared to fire high-yield warheads at our own population centers, we're powerless."
Before Fury could say more, a council member—who looked vaguely South Asian—interjected.
"So, what we need is better weapons. Like Stark's Iron Man suits—or that robot in Monaco."
"If we had those technologies, none of the threats you're describing would be a problem. So Nick Fury, maybe instead of asking us to approve some freelance superhero group, you should focus on extracting Stark's tech."
Fury remained impassive. Once the man had finished speaking, Fury calmly distributed a new report to each council member.
"This is our technical evaluation of Tony Stark's Iron Man armor. Take a look."
"From the first prototype that appeared in June, to the suit presented at the Stark Expo, and now to the one worn in Monaco—Stark has upgraded his tech multiple times in just six months."
"The average cost of a single suit? Approximately $5.1 billion. That's billion with a 'B,' not million."
"And again—this is in just half a year."
Fury paused.
"I think you all understand what that means."
A few of the council members fell silent. The message was clear.
If Stark could innovate that rapidly, then any multi-billion-dollar weapons programs funded by their governments would already be outdated by the time they were deployed.
That was unacceptable to any defense agency on the planet.
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