Natasha and Agent Coulson, both in sharp, tactical attire, walked over to Tony, carrying a large, heavy wooden crate.
Nick Fury was already getting up to leave. "I have a two o'clock appointment with a very important government figure, Stark. I'm leaving now. This is a gift from the past."
"Wait, wait, what is this?" Tony scrambled out of the deflated Mark IV armor, suddenly wide awake and genuinely curious.
"You can solve it, right? This is the answer you've been looking for," Fury countered, his tone non-negotiable.
"No, I can't! I don't even know what I'm supposed to unravel inside that box!" Tony pleaded, but Fury was already heading toward the wreckage that used to be his front door.
Fury ignored him completely. "Natasha will continue to work inside Stark Industries, acting as the corporate cleaner. And you remember Agent Coulson, right?"
"Remember him? The man who won't stop talking about Captain America?"
"Tony, remember this." Nick stopped just before stepping out, his one good eye boring into Tony with chilling seriousness. "My eyes will always be on you. Don't be an idiot."
With that final warning, he was gone.
"We've cut off all external communications, Mr. Stark. You can't contact anyone outside this property or the company network for twenty-four hours. Good luck figuring out your father's legacy," Natasha said, her voice completely devoid of the warmth she'd feigned as his assistant, and she followed Fury out.
Agent Coulson, wearing a gentle, disarmingly polite smile, approached Tony.
Tony turned to face the smiling operative. "First, I need to get some real work done. I'll be locked down in the lab for a bit. Don't crowd me."
"Of course, Mr. Stark. But before you get started, it would be even better if you could send someone to Starbucks to buy me some snacks and drinks," Coulson suggested cheerfully.
Coulson's smile didn't waver as he delivered the punchline. "That, however, is not my job description. Chief Fury has ordered me to use any means necessary to keep you here. If you want to leave, or if you try anything overtly stupid, I'll stun you with a high-voltage taser, and then watch 'Super Nanny' while you drool on the floor. Understood?"
"I understand, Agent." Tony looked at the smiling tiger in front of him, acknowledging the threat.
"Enjoy your entertainment tonight, Mr. Stark. I'll be right here." Coulson turned and left the immediate vicinity, maintaining a watchful distance.
Tony looked around the devastated lobby and realized Leo had vanished sometime during Fury's dramatic entrance. He then stared down at the large, heavy wooden crate.
Engraved on the lid, under a thick layer of dust, were two simple words: 'Owned by Howard Stark.'
Meanwhile, Leo and Nick Fury were sitting together in the back of Fury's heavily armored personal car, speeding down the highway away from Malibu.
"Leo, why are you always following Tony Stark? What is your actual purpose? Don't tell me it's just about the money anymore," Fury demanded, his voice low and dangerous.
"He's rich, Nick. That's the entire point. I need a massive, consistent source of metallic resources for my 'cultivation,' and currently, Stark Industries is the only supplier on the planet who won't ask awkward questions." Leo shrugged nonchalantly. "By the way, S.H.I.E.L.D. seems to have some good toys. Can I borrow that Tesseract for a quick look? I promise I'll give it back."
Fury's good eye narrowed into a dangerous slit. "Leo, do you have any information on the 'big green guy'? The Hulk?"
Fury ignored the fact that the secret of the Tesseract, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s top-level secret, had just been casually mentioned.
"Dr. Banner? You shouldn't concern yourself with him. Dr. Banner is already learning how to control the monster inside. With your current tech, you really don't have a way to deal with him, Fury. And he's a victim, not a villain. You should focus on protecting him, not hunting him."
Leo, leaning back in the plush leather seat, continued his unsolicited advice. "Actually, if you're serious about this 'Avengers' team, you could try to recruit the Hulk. He would be an incredibly powerful helper, Nick. Think of the sheer destructive power on your side."
"Oh, so you think the Hulk is... controllable? You think Banner can harness that rage?" Nick Fury seemed genuinely intrigued, his strategic mind already considering the asset.
"There will always be weaknesses. The Hulk is essentially a child fueled by extreme rage. If someone hits him, he will naturally hit back with disproportionate force. He's a creature of anger and destruction, yes, but he also possesses an innate sense of justice—he knows how to distinguish between good and evil, even if he's not subtle about it."
Leo watched as Natasha's car sped past them. "As long as you find the right approach, the right emotional anchor, you can always find a way to work with him. You just need to stop shooting at him."
"Thanks for the assessment."
"Alright, back to the good stuff. I can borrow the Cosmic Cube to play with anytime, right? You can't control its energy yet, so don't be stupid and attract unnecessary attention from hostile space entities. You know I'm not kidding about that."
Leo was already craving the unique metallic energy signature of the Tesseract.
After Leo was dropped off at a safe distance and vanished from sight, Nick Fury sat alone in the car, contemplating the cryptic and terrifying advice he'd just received before his driver finally pulled away.
Meanwhile, inside a highly secure military base.
Rhodes had flown the Mark II back, which was the minimal requirement to satisfy the authorities. However, the military brass were demanding immediate results. They insisted on holding a massive military demonstration at the upcoming Starfield Industrial Exposition and invited the military contractor, Justin Hammer, to immediately upgrade the Mark II into a combat vehicle.
Rhodes, as a high-ranking military officer, could not disobey his superiors' orders. But before Justin Hammer arrived, he had already ordered the removal of the Mark II's breastplate.
He carefully removed the bright, pulsating Arc Reactor from the center of the chest cavity.
"Is that his source of energy? The core of the operation?" a curious Major standing nearby asked.
"Major, this is not a science fair. Focus on installing the weapon systems," Rhodes snapped, his face serious.
"Yes, sir."
Rhodes understood the symbolic and technical significance of the small, glowing device. Tony had emphasized the importance and secrecy of the reactor more than once, and Rhodes would absolutely not allow Justin Hammer or anyone else to peek at it.
Rhodes carefully stored the reactor away before the representatives from Hammer Industries even stepped inside the hangar.
Justin Hammer, still furious over the colossal failure of Ivan Vanko's solid, impractical armor, saw the Mark II for the first time and let out an excited, almost maniacal scream.
"Oh, okay, okay, this is great! Is today my birthday, Colonel?"
Hammer rushed up to the Mark II, his eyes shining with avarice and excitement. "Is this the exact piece of technology I've been thinking about? The one that can make me richer than Stark?"
"Yes, this is the chassis. I want to know what you can do for us, scientifically," Rhodes said, crossing his arms and looking at Hammer coldly, getting straight to the point.
"I'll upgrade your software first, and then—"
"No, no, that's not what I meant, Hammer. I meant firepower. War, weapons, destruction," Rhodes interrupted impatiently.
"Then you've absolutely come to the right person!"
Hammer beamed at Rhodes, chewing violently on the lollipop in his mouth.
He began pulling out weapons from the huge crates his men had brought in, reciting their names like poetry: "Clarich semi-automatic pistol, 9mm... M24 shotgun... Belgian-made FN2000 assault rifle... 40cm caliber grenade..."
Rhodes's gaze remained unchanged, his face clearly showing dissatisfaction.
Hammer, sensing the Colonel's disinterest, pulled out a massive, six-barreled machine gun.
"This is an M134 machine gun, six independent barrels, baby! It fires everything!"
However, Rhodes still frowned, looking unimpressed.
Hammer suddenly grinned and took a small, specialized box from the crate behind him.
"Alright, fine, you want the good stuff. First, have a look at these top-quality Cuban cigars, Cohiba, Montecristo." He opened the box, but instead of cigars, he took out a small, highly advanced missile, no longer than the palm of his hand, and rubbed it affectionately.
"This, Colonel, is a Sidewinder missile, equipped with a Cyclone explosive, containing trimethylolamine. It's enough to destroy an underground bunker."
"And I mean the bunkers hidden even deeper underground." Hammer handed the sleek, deadly missile to Rhodes.
He kept boasting, "If it gets a little smarter, it will be able to write its own books and read them to you at night. This is my Eiffel Tower, my Rachmaninoff Third Symphony, my absolute masterpiece."
He took it back from Rhodes, held it high, and looked at the missile with relish. "I named it 'Ex-Wife.' It's my best damn weapon."
"I want it," Rhodes said, stroking his chin thoughtfully.
"Which one? The gun or the missile?"
"All of it. Put all of it on the suit."
Back at the ruined mansion, Leo had returned to the underground workshop. Tony had just taken a pristine blue blueprint out of Howard Stark's box. The drawing was an original schematic for the Arc Reactor.
Tony casually put it aside, dismissing it as irrelevant to his problem. The rest of the box contained a large number of encrypted notes, a few old journals, and two highly brittle film tapes.
"Leo! Get over here!" Tony yelled, scanning the empty workshop. Leo suddenly appeared, materializing from behind a workbench. "Do you know what Nick Fury meant? What exactly is the new element? Do you know the name?"