Tony expertly controlled the armor, waving to the two riders below and then making a clear, universal gesture to stop. However, Ilyana had no intention of pulling over. She leaned forward, urging her new companion on. "Artemis, keep speeding up! Let's leave that guy in the dust!"
Tony was still gesturing, hoping to have a chat with the two of them, when he saw the man in the passenger seat turn his head toward him. The man wore a smile that Tony felt was unnervingly familiar. Then, the man raised his hand and flicked something at him. It appeared to be a simple card.
The card seemed to exist outside the normal flow of the world, completely unaffected by the violent airflow as it flew directly onto Tony's mask, completely blocking his vision.
Tony peeled the paper off his faceplate and looked for the two riders again, only to find that they had vanished.
"Jarvis, where are they?"
"Sir, they have suddenly accelerated to Mach 1.32 and are heading east toward Queens."
"Jarvis, catch up!"
"I'm sorry, sir. The Mark II is an experimental model. Our jet propulsion system was not designed to handle the current flight conditions. My calculations indicate it is impossible to catch up."
Tony looked at the card in his hand, and his expression became strange. He now had another business card of this kind, and he also remembered why that smile seemed so familiar. "It's another one from the 'Different' dance hall," he muttered. "Looks like I need to find a chance to go and pay them a visit."
He whispered a few more words to himself and then instructed Jarvis, "Forget about that mysterious guy for now, Jarvis. Let's fly up and see what our real limits are."
"Yes, sir."
Tony had always wanted to visit the mysterious organization that had saved him, but he had been incredibly busy recently. He had just returned from Afghanistan, become entangled with aliens, and was completely engrossed in designing his new armor. He simply hadn't found the time.
The Iron Armor suddenly changed direction and rocketed toward the sky. Without any restrictions, the suit quickly exceeded the cruising altitude of commercial airliners and continued its ascent to about 70,000 feet.
"What's the altitude record for the SR-71 Blackbird?" Tony asked, a thrill coursing through him.
"The altitude record for the SR-71 Blackbird is eighty-five thousand feet, sir," Jarvis quickly replied.
"Records are meant to be broken! Come on!"
After flying for a bit longer, Tony noticed something unusual. He felt that the joints of the armor were becoming increasingly difficult to move.
"Sir, ice formation at this altitude poses a significant safety hazard," Jarvis warned.
"Keep going!" Tony was so exhilarated that he completely ignored what Jarvis had said. Suddenly, the jet device on his foot made a sputtering sound and, after a burst of sparks, stopped working entirely.
Immediately afterward, all the equipment inside the armor shut down, and he could no longer contact Jarvis. The extreme low temperature at high altitude had caused a critical failure in the armor's power system.
"Oh, this is not good."
After rising for another moment on pure momentum, Tony began to plummet toward the ground in a dead-weight free fall.
"Jarvis, open the flaps! Break the ice! Jarvis! Jarvis!"
After calling out several times without a response, Tony realized that Jarvis had also been disconnected.
"Shit!"
He tried to manually activate a switch on his side to open the side wings of the armor and resolve the crisis, but because of the thick layer of ice on the surface of the armor, his hands couldn't move. He couldn't reach the switch.
"It must be that being kidnapped has made me weaker!"
Finally, when he was not too far from the ground, he managed to force the wing open. The ice shattered, and the armor's system quickly rebooted.
"It's too late at this height!"
After a quick, terrifying estimate of his altitude, Tony knew he was still going to hit the ground.
"Jarvis, get us to the sea!"
Jarvis came back online. "Yes, sir." Landing in the ocean was the only option Tony could think of. His current position was not far from the coast, and it was possible he could make it over the water before impact.
"Warning! Warning! An unidentified object is approaching!"
"What?" Tony was completely baffled. Besides himself, a certified genius, what other flying objects could there be in the sky above New York?
Suddenly, he felt his armor being struck by something massive. He was sent tumbling over and over before finally hitting the ground with a deafening metal collision sound.
Tony opened his mask and couldn't help but vomit. The uncontrolled descent had been far too exciting.
"Human, are you alright? I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots."
Tony slowly recovered and looked up toward the source of the deep, resonant voice. What caught his eye was a pair of red and blue mechanical legs that were at least three or four meters tall. Looking further up, Tony saw a mechanical head half the size of his entire body looking down at him, its mechanical eyes retracting slightly as they emitted a soft blue light.
"Thank you so much, big guy," Tony managed to say, taking off his helmet completely and lying on the ground in thanks. "I was just about to test the suit's aquatic landing capabilities. Involuntarily."
Optimus Prime tilted his massive metal head. This human was different from all the others he had met since arriving on Earth. He was very special. "Human, you are not surprised. You seem to understand me."
"Big guy, my name is Tony Stark. You can call me Mr. Stark. Ratchet told me about you, Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots."
At this time, headlights approached from the distance. It was an ambulance and a black pickup truck. The two vehicles came to a stop in front of Tony and Optimus Prime, and with a symphony of creaking mechanical transformations, they morphed into their Autobot forms. It was Ambulance and Ironhide.
The ambulance-bot spoke to Tony, who was still lying on the ground. "Tony, I knew something would happen to you. Luckily, Optimus Prime arrived in time and caught you."
"Ratchet, thanks, but I also had a way to land safely. I just hadn't used it yet," the arrogant Tony replied, refusing to admit that he would have likely crashed into the sea without Optimus Prime's intervention. He then turned to look at Ironhide and asked, "Who's this walking armory?"
"Walking armory?" Ratchet was stunned for a moment before realizing Tony was talking about Ironhide. He introduced him to Tony. "Tony, this is Ironhide, our weapons expert. He is a battle-hardened warrior."
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Walking Armory," Tony said with a grin. "Your weapons look great!" Ironhide was equipped with a large number of gun barrels, which was why Tony had given him the new nickname.
"Nice to meet you, Iron Man," Ironhide responded in a deep, gravelly voice. He was an Autobot of few words.
In Tony's laboratory, the ceiling that had been previously broken by Tony had been repaired by Ratchet, but Tony had already opened another hole next to it. Of course, this time it wasn't a wall he had hit, but Optimus Prime was simply too big to get in without making a new entrance.
Tony sat in his large office chair and asked the three Autobots, "So, the Decepticons came to Earth to find something called the Allspark. What's the point? Is it your spiritual totem or something?"
Optimus Prime, who was curled up to fit inside the lab, nodded his head. "You can understand it that way, but it is also different. The Allspark is a physical entity, the source and destination of all our souls. It can provide us with energy and can also create more of our own kind."
Tony pondered this for a moment and then asked a critical question: "What does it mean to create your own kind?"
"Electronic and mechanical equipment will be activated and transformed into Cybertronians after being exposed to the power of the Allspark," Optimus Prime answered. "The Decepticons are likely planning to use the Allspark to create a large army and provoke a massive war." It was not a good guess.