"But before the research, shouldn't we finish that little race we started earlier?" Henry suddenly said with a mischievous grin.
"Race?" Tony froze for a second, then remembered.
"You mean an hour ago? That doesn't count! You cheated! No honor!"
"Alright, fine, then just take it as you losing that one." Henry had a smug, generous look on his face.
"Now, let's restart. From here to the Malibu villa—whoever gets there first wins. The loser isn't allowed to date women for a whole month. How's that, dare to play?"
"A month?!" Tony's eyes widened instantly.
"Are you insane?! That's way too harsh! That's practically a crime against humanity!"
"Oh really?" Henry raised an eyebrow and looked at him with disdain.
"Sounds to me like you're just scared. Forget it, if you don't dare, I'll take it back. After all, a guy who can only fly with an iron tin can probably couldn't—"
"Damn it! Who said I don't dare?!" Tony was instantly provoked.
"Fine! Let's do it! Come on, little guy, let's start! I'll count to three!"
"One!"
"Two!"
"Thr—"
Before he could even finish saying three, Henry's figure had already turned into a streak of black lightning, vanishing in an instant.
"..."
Tony stared dumbfounded at Henry, who disappeared without a trace.
"F*ck! Again with the cheating! Again with no honor!" He shouted in frustration.
"Jarvis! Full power! Catch that bastard! I'll make him see today who the real big brother is!"
Saying that, Tony also shot forward like a streak of light, desperately chasing after him toward home.
---
In front of the Malibu seaside villa, a sharp sonic boom split the air. A black streak dropped down from the sky—Henry Stark had already arrived ahead of time.
He climbed out of the small crater, dusted off his spotless clothes, and looked around at the empty surroundings.
Shrugging with pride, he spoke smugly,
"Jarvis, did you see that? Race over. I win. Tony didn't even see my taillights. Just proves once again—pay-to-win players will always beat free-to-play scrubs."
"Yes, sir," Jarvis's calm voice answered.
"Based on calculations, Tony's Mark armor has a maximum flight speed of Mach 4 without considering energy consumption. Theoretically, he couldn't possibly catch up to you."
"Oh, really?" Henry spread his hands with an innocent I wasn't even trying look.
"I was holding back just now. Really, that was just a casual fly, not even a warm-up."
"Based on your flight data, your top speed just now reached Mach 10, sir."
"..."
This Jarvis. Why doesn't he understand?
As expected of artificial intelligence—he'll never get human feelings.
Henry didn't argue further. Instead, he cleared his throat and forcibly changed the subject.
He dumped the unconscious Bruce Banner and Blonsky on the soft grass like tossing out two trash bags.
At that moment, another sonic boom split the sky.
A golden-red streak drew a flashy arc in the air before landing with a loud thud. Kneeling theatrically on one knee, Tony Stark landed squarely in front of Henry.
Tony's faceplate lifted, revealing his exasperated expression.
Looking at Henry, he kept muttering, "You bastard, you're not even flying! That was teleportation! Jarvis, I swear he must've secretly installed some kind of illegal warp engine in his suit!"
"Please, Tony, a loss is a loss." Henry shot back mercilessly.
"Is it really that hard to admit you're just a slow-moving tin can? Honestly, even grandma in her scooter drives faster than you. And unlike you, I don't rely on a suit—I don't even have a propulsion system, my dear brother."
"You don't get it! I was savoring the process of flying! Unlike you—just a brainless cannonball charging forward!" Tony snapped back instantly.
Before their bickering could escalate again, the glass doors of the villa silently slid open.
Pepper Potts walked out, dressed sharply in a business suit, tablet in hand, her expression weary but composed.
Jarvis had already notified her earlier that the brothers were returning, per Tony's instructions. Luckily, she didn't have an important evening engagement, so she had rushed back from the company to prepare for the chaos these two troublemakers were sure to bring.
After all, her bosses were both notorious playboys—barely setting foot in the company once a month.
The moment she saw Henry and Tony—and the two unconscious men dumped on the grass—her temples started throbbing violently.
"Oh, look who it is. The world-saving heroes have finally returned?" Her voice was calm, but every word carried restrained fury.
"Bosses, you're finally back. Had fun? Blowing up half of downtown New York, getting plastered on every news outlet worldwide—feeling accomplished?"
"But I'm not happy." Her voice rose sharply.
"You two bastards dumped all the company mess on me! Do you know how many calls I've taken since that damned press conference?! The Pentagon, the White House, the World Security Council... Everyone wants to know if Stark Industries is planning to moonlight as the world's police force! Do I look like your babysitter?!"
She took a deep breath, then jabbed a finger at the unconscious Banner and Blonsky.
"And you even brought them home?! Oh my god! As if things weren't messy enough already?!"
Tony and Henry exchanged a glance and shrugged at the same time.
"Hey, Pepper, relax." Tony's voice softened as he walked toward the doors.
"Look, at least our stock prices must've skyrocketed, right? You should be happy. Proof that my decisions were brilliant as always."
"Exactly." Henry followed in with Banner and Blonsky slung over his shoulders.
"And look, I even brought you two free lab specimens. Think of all the R&D budget I just saved you."
Pepper followed behind them, still muttering complaints, though her tone had noticeably softened.
"The stock price did go up—skyrocketed! All of Wall Street thinks we've discovered alien tech! The company phone lines are jammed, orders are pouring in like snowflakes! I'm going insane!" She rubbed her aching forehead.
"Listen, gentlemen, tomorrow afternoon there has to be another press conference about this incident. Both of you must attend! The government is already pressuring us—they don't want this dragging on."
"Yeah, yeah, we got it."
Tony strolled casually into the living room. With Jarvis's help, the gold-red Mark III armor began detaching piece by piece.
"Press conference? Easy. I'll improvise a few lines on the spot—make the press and government happy, shut them all right up."
Once the armor fully came off, Tony walked to Pepper, opened his arms, and gently hugged her.
"Alright, don't be mad anymore," he whispered softly, warmth in his voice rarely seen.
"You don't have to work so hard."
Pepper froze.
She could feel Tony's strong, steady warmth—the sense of security that hadn't been there before. She could hear the sincerity in his words.
Her exhausted, tightly wound heart seemed to melt a little in that moment.
She said nothing, simply leaned quietly into his arms.
Henry, standing to the side, watched the scene with a grin like a nosy aunt.
Yes, thanks to his matchmaking and well-placed assists, Tony and Pepper's relationship was developing much faster than in the original story.
They weren't officially together yet, but that thin layer of paper was about to be pierced.
Maybe the reason Tony hadn't taken that step earlier was his fear of dying from palladium poisoning. But now that he'd become America's favorite ass-kicker and knew he had a way to survive, his whole outlook had changed.
Thinking of this, Henry secretly made up his mind.
Tomorrow, he'd retrieve his father's old Stark Expo model.
Then he'd synthesize the new element, perform a little surgery on Tony to remove those damn shrapnel pieces, and build him a new, harmless Arc Reactor.
When Pepper finally stepped back, her cheeks were faintly red, and her voice had softened too.
***
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