"Tony?"

Maya Hansen was a little surprised to see Stark appear in front of him again.

"Your desperate situation?"

"yes, I came across one of yours, and it's great, I must admit."

Tony said calmly.

"He's strong, and he's fast, and I barely had a chance to operate the armor in fact, I probably should have died."

He glanced at his hands, looking a little strange.

"At that time I thought I was dead."

Maya looked at him cautiously.

"But you look so good now." "I don't even see any injuries. ”

Tony was silent for a few seconds.

I think I met him."

"Who?"

"The Giant of Light, the one that appeared in New York."

This time, Maya couldn't hide her surprise.

"That.' Ultraman'? ”

"That's an unregistered name on the internet, but you can say so." Tony said calmly, "Maybe it's just my pre-death hallucinations, maybe it's just. I can't say it. I didn't really see each other, but I could feel something pulling me just as I was about to breathe.

I just dimly felt that there was some kind of force at work, as if there was a sudden light in the utter darkness, and in the light it was the posture of the giant."

"It's insane." Maya frowned, "Even if he's real, even if he really just happened to pass by. Why did he save you? I mean, the prevailing view right now is that he's an alien, isn't it? ”

Tony pondered for a moment, and suddenly slowly unbuttoned his shirt, revealing his upper body.

And the striking curved reactor on his chest, the symbol of Iron Man, and what he lives on.

"You've probably heard of this." He pointed to his chest.

"I've heard of it," Maya recalls, "and it says on TV you've been wearing it since you came out of the cave." That's what keeps you alive, right? ”

"yes. I got a little souvenir in the war zone, a piece of shrapnel. He pointed to his chest, "All the time, it's crawling towards my heart."

The arc reactor is not only the core of Iron Man, it also takes on magnet-like work. As long as it is still working, the shrapnel will not sink deeper, and I will not die from it. ”

"I'm very. Sorry to hear that, Tony. Maya clasped her hands.

"No, because that's a thing of the past." Tony said.

"What?"

"Like I said, I almost died earlier today and someone saved me." Tony said seriously, "Do you know what happened after that?" I had Warframe do me a full body check-up, and it showed that I was perfectly healthy.

In fact, it's the healthiest time of the last decade. I was at my best in all my physical metrics, and the shrapnel was gone. ”

Maya frowned: "Wait, what do you mean?" You mean."

"I mean, that man not only saved my life, but with a casual wave of his hand, he healed a wound that the world's cutting-edge medicine could not do."

Maya was stunned: "Are you sure?" ”

"I'm sure I've never felt better than I have ever felt like I have now. I felt like he was saying something to me. What is Iron Man. ”

"What is it?"

But Tony shook his head and didn't answer directly.

"That's exactly what I want to know if I have the opportunity to meet him again and what he is and what he is for. But before that."

Tony changed the subject and looked at Maya solemnly.

"I need your desperate situation."

"What?" Maya was stunned, "Are you saying that desperate data is needed to study coping strategies?" I've already given you what I have.

But as I said, Killian received some outside assistance. He won't tell us who the mysterious allies are, but after what they've done, the desperate situation is no longer the desperate one I originally developed."

"No, I mean to say, I need you to inject me into a desperate situation."

This time Maya was really almost jumping in shock.

"Are you crazy?"

Tony continued to himself.

"When I first saw your desperate design, I knew it was what I needed, but I didn't make up my mind. But after fighting it myself and feeling it for myself, I'm sure now.

Desperate is a biosynthetic machine, and I'm just a man in armor. I've exhausted all means, every time I design a new model, every system upgrade I try to make the armor faster, but not fast enough.

And the idea of desperation, it allows the armor to connect directly to my brain. Who knows? In the future, I may be able to invent brain TV technology, and everyone will definitely go crazy about it. ”

He even had the heart to joke with this.

But Maya Hansen couldn't laugh at it: "But my desperate situation still has unsolved problems." You've seen the data and you know that there's a risk of overheating and you're going to explode."

"Then let's solve the problem together." "I solved your problem in just one morning more than a decade ago, right?" Or after a hangover. ”

Maya was silent.

Indeed, she mentioned her research topic in 1999 when she spent the night with Tony. When Tony left in the morning, he scribbled the formula on the back of a business card, and solved the problem that had been bothering her for a long time.

He's a conceited bastard, but he's also an undoubted cross-generational genius.

"But even then, the injections still come with huge risks." She shook her head, "All of the previous test subjects, although most of them were physically disabled, most of them had been front-line soldiers, or they were very strong."

"And I've just been healed by a mysterious being, and my body hasn't been rejuvenated like this in a long time." Tony said.

Maya: "."

"Besides, we can adjust to desperate situations and lighten the load. I don't need to be hot, I don't need to breathe fire, I don't need a lot of physical strength. "So I don't need a desperate situation to help me grow new organs, I just need to be part of the armor myself." ”

Maya Hansen was silent for a while.

"You're crazy." She said again.

"Maybe. But do you know what my biggest nightmare is? ”

"What?"

"Iron Man becomes obsolete, obsolete, replaced. It became cheap, everyone could do it, and the worst part was that the new model was not developed by me. ”

"There's no one to replace."

"Exoskeleton technology? Maybe yes. But the people we want to compare are no longer the industry leaders on the planet. Tony shook his head, "Look at New York." Aliens, giant wormholes, starfleets.

Then came a glowing giant, and with a wave of his hand, easily wiped out our helpless fleet. ”

Maya suddenly: "I seem to understand a little"

"That's it." Tony said in a deep voice, "This is our earth, our world, Maya. It's a time of rapid change, and I need to be able to keep up with the changes.

They say I'm a scientist of the future, someone who creates the future for the world. So I have to carry this and plan for the future of everybody, and it's up to me to do it, you know? ”

Maya seemed to have never seen such a serious Tony in her memory, and it was the first time she had seen such a determined gaze.

"Okay, I got it."

Maya Hansen rubbed the bridge of her nose and let out a sigh.

"I'll inject you into a desperate situation."

(End of chapter)