The journey home felt both impossibly quick and deeply significant. Stepping away from the high-stakes, hyper-charged life of Tony Stark and the shadowy world of Nick Fury, Leo instantly melted back into the comfortable warmth of his adopted family.
That evening, Leo personally presented the small, carefully selected gifts he'd brought back. For Aunt Jenny, it was a beautiful, subtly intricate piece of jewelry—a delicate silver filigree necklace he had secretly refined and perfected using his metal control abilities.
For Uncle George, it was a custom-made, impossibly complex toolkit, each piece balanced and hardened to perfection—the sort of quality a retired engineer dreamed of.
Later that day, they drove to Peter Parker's house in Queens. Leo, recognizing his small friend's burgeoning fascination with science and heroes, brought him a large box of high-end mechanical toys, complete with schematics and assembly guides.
The true centerpiece, however, was a foot-tall, exquisitely detailed Iron Man model that Leo had crafted himself over a sleepless night in Malibu—a perfect miniature replica of the Mark III, made from highly polished, dense alloys.
Seven-year-old Peter Parker clutched the model as if it were solid gold, his eyes shining with awe, instantly placing it on his bedside table as his most prized possession.
That night, Aunt Jenny finally unleashed her pent-up anxiety. It wasn't true anger, but a profound fear and frustration at his month-long absence. She sat him down and kept scolding Leo, her voice laced with worry, recounting how he had promised to call or return at least once a month, yet had failed to do so for over a month, leaving her worried sick by the sudden silence.
Uncle George was quietly delighted to see this scene of domestic bliss restored. He sat on the well-worn sofa, watching a sports game, holding a slice of pepperoni pizza in his hand, savoring the moment.
Jenny's gentle, worried scolding next to him, combined with Leo's endless stream of sincere apologies and earnest explanations, created a familiar, lively, and utterly comforting atmosphere. Leo knew that this was what he was truly fighting to protect.
The next morning, the promise was fulfilled. A massive Stark Industries flatbed truck, driven by a very tired but stoic Happy Hogan, pulled up to the modest suburban home.
The truck contained several tons of high-quality industrial scrap metal, including large ingots of what looked suspiciously like unfinished gold-titanium alloys, all discreetly labeled "Used Structural Rebar." The sheer volume of the delivery caused Uncle George to scratch his head, but Leo just smiled and directed the unloading into the workshop at the back of the garage.
Happy, after supervising the delivery, pulled a small, incredibly heavy titanium briefcase from the cab.
"Alright, Leo," Happy grunted, handing the innocuous-looking case to the boy. "Tony was very specific about this. Said it was extremely important and had to be delivered personally, no digital records. Why don't you open it and take a look before I head back?" The normally jovial Happy looked curious and a little uneasy about the mysterious suitcase he had been carrying all the way across the country.
Inside the garage, Leo took the case. It was a dense, three-centimeter-thick shell of nearly indestructible alloy, completely featureless. Happy stood back, expecting a complicated fingerprint scanner or retinal lock.
Leo, whose Golden Eyes were subtly activated, scanned the interior. He saw the small, glowing prize within, safely nestled in a vacuum. Strangely, the Palladium Arc Mark II reactor was not in contact with the metal shell; it was suspended by a subtle energy field, leaving a microscopic gap of about one millimeter between it and the inner wall. He knew the only way to open this sealed block was by demonstrating the precise control Tony must have expected.
Happy watched, puzzled. "It doesn't look like it has a keyhole or anything. Tony usually has a big red button somewhere."
Leo ignored the confusion. He placed his left palm flat on the top surface of the metal block and gently focused his will. He didn't press any imaginary switch or input a code. Instead, he reached out with his enhanced metallic control, found the crystalline structure of the metal block, and located the invisible seam where the lid was perfectly sealed. He then exerted an incredibly fine, upward force on the atoms of the lid alone, completely ignoring the lower shell.
The circular top of the metal block rose up straight into the air, slowly and silently, like a lid that had been attached by an invisible hinge and was now defying gravity.
Happy stared in open-mouthed shock. He saw Leo gently pick up the massive, heavy lid and set it aside. A pure, blinding white and blue light shone out from the opening, revealing the iconic miniature arc reactor lying quietly inside.
"Wh-what in the..." Happy stammered, pointing a shaky finger. "That... that little thing. That's the energy core of the Iron Man armor! Tony gave you that? And you opened it with... magic?"
Happy couldn't comprehend it. It was the most technologically sensitive object Stark possessed, and he had just witnessed a child open its secure container with a silent gesture.
After Happy left, he sat in the car, trying to calm his racing heart, and immediately called Tony. "Tony, did you seriously ask me to bring an actual, live energy core to Leo? Did you give him the wrong container? I thought it was a prototype!"
Tony was flying over an African desert, destroying a convoy of illegal weaponry. "Oh, he opened it in front of you?"
"Yes! While I was watching!" Happy exclaimed. "How did he open it? Didn't you put a touch switch or some kind of biometric lock on top? When he pressed it, the cover just silently lifted right up."
"Happy, come back first. That's exactly what I gave to Leo," Tony instructed, hanging up. Moments later, Tony, covered in grit and minor scratches from a close-quarters engagement, returned to his home base.
"Touch switch? Cover? Leo's control is getting stronger and stronger," Tony mused, his own curiosity piqued. He smiled, understanding that the boy's talent was blossoming exactly as he had predicted.
Jarvis helped disassemble the battered Mark III for urgent repair and maintenance, while Tony, energized by the confirmation of Leo's progress, sat down at the computer. He eagerly started to design, the label in the lower right corner of the blueprint reading, 'Mark IV'.
Leo, meanwhile, was back in the garage, carefully examining the metal cap and the glowing reactor. "I couldn't have performed such precise atomic manipulation before," he muttered to himself. "It seems that the intense, two-month micro-operation training, moving tiny particles within the structure of the gold-titanium alloys, has dramatically increased my innate control and sensitivity."
He laughed quietly as he looked at the humming miniature arc reactor.
If he were to draw this immense power from his own household wiring, the whole block, perhaps the whole street, would suffer an instantaneous blackout, and the fragile power lines would melt under such a huge surge of current.
Therefore, the Palladium Arc Mark II reactor, with its enormous energy density and perfect portability, was Leo's absolute best energy source. It was a limitless reservoir for his rapidly expanding abilities.
With tons of high-quality metals now sitting in the corner of his garage, Leo's training speed wouldn't fall too far behind. He could now work on complex, multi-layered metal structures, strengthening his mind and body simultaneously.
In the days and weeks that followed, Tony Stark was inescapable. He frequently appeared on the front pages and covers of every newspaper and magazine globally.
That iconic red and gold steel silhouette was frequently seen streaking across the skies over war-torn regions and areas of international crisis.
The Mark III was constantly dispatched—not to fight armies, but to destroy the supply chains. Tony would appear on a battlefield, surgically destroying all the weapons, equipment, and manufacturing facilities of a given faction.
For a time, the brutal conflicts in many small countries did indeed subside considerably. It became impossible to fight a protracted war when a man in a flying suit could destroy every armored vehicle and weapon depot before a single shot was fired.
Tony just came over, rendered the entire arsenal useless, and flew away. The weapons were neutralized before they were even fully deployed, and all of that was costing the illegal arms dealers a fortune.
Iron Man's image frequently dominated news reports, attracting worldwide attention and sparking a massive, cultural Iron Man craze in the United States. His striking red and gold steel suit earned him a place on Time magazine's Person of the Year list.
A large number of Iron Man merchandise items appeared on the market almost overnight. The iconic mask, mass-produced in cheap plastic, sold out several times over.
Leo, standing outside the high school classroom watching recess, smiled. He watched the childish students on the playground wearing their red and gold plastic masks, running around, making excited "whoosh" sounds as they pretended to fly. Tony Stark was everywhere—on television, in newspapers, on magazines, and in news reports; he had truly become the great, charismatic hero of America.
Countless people sang praises to Iron Man every single day, further elevating Tony Stark's personal status and influence far beyond that of Stark Industries.
Soon, many rival nations and clandestine organizations began desperate, accelerated programs to copy the steel armor.
A particular issue of Time magazine also highlighted the glowing blue reactor on the chest of the Mark III, explaining its function as the ultimate power source.
Many people with ulterior motives, realizing the suit's power stemmed entirely from its engine, shifted their focus to Tony's core energy technology, trying to reach out and steal it.
But let alone replicate the miniature arc reactor, they couldn't even manage to build a successful large-scale, functional Palladium-based reactor. The technology of the Arc Reactor was completely and securely contained within Stark's personal projects and Jarvis's encrypted memory, and not a single detail was leaked.
No one, however, expected that a clean, fully functional Arc Reactor, still glowing brightly, would quietly end up in the custody of an eleven-year-old boy in a suburban garage.
In the first month, Tony, thrilled with his new mission as a crime-fighting industrialist, would call Leo twice more, just to chat and ask for advice on structural integrity. He sent over another backup reactor, along with a few more tons of specialized metal, just to keep Leo busy.
The following month, Leo returned to Malibu to see Tony again, only to miss him entirely because Tony was out flying, saving the world and fulfilling his self-appointed role as an aerial deterrent.
In the third month, now fully rested and with his powers significantly amplified through constant, intensive practice, Leo returned to Stark's house and successfully entered the underground workshop—this time via the front door, just to be polite.
The Mark IV had been completed and assembled. The workshop itself felt different. The walls were now covered in dynamic, moving virtual 3D projections, replacing the old, static blueprints.
Leo watched in awe as Tony, with a flourish, used the upgraded robotic arm system to don the sleek, new suit in just over a minute. The seamless integration and speed were astonishing.
"Leo, check this out!" Tony boasted, the familiar metallic echo of his helmet-voice filling the room. "I modified the shape from the Mark III, significantly reduced its total weight, and increased its flight speed by twenty percent without sacrificing armor density."
He extended a gauntlet and flexed, the mechanical joints moving fluidly. "Crucially, the interior space was increased, and most of the clunky, friction-prone connecting mechanisms of the Mark III were eliminated to prevent the armor from ever locking up again. No more stiff neck."
Tony opened the faceplate, revealing a triumphant grin. "I've joined a system for filtering and recycling bodily fluids—don't ask—and besides all that, I look even more handsome now, don't I?"
Tony went on and on, excitedly detailing every microscopic improvement he'd made to the Mark IV in front of Leo, the boy's calm presence a welcome audience for his genius.
"Mr. Stark, all the external upgrades are incredible, truly evolutionary," Leo finally interrupted, cutting directly to the one technical point that mattered to his own future. "But has the core reactor in your chest been modified? Is the Palladium situation solved?"
Tony snapped his fingers. "Of course! I solved that problem on Day One, Leo. This," he announced, tapping his chest where the bright reactor glowed, "is the brand new Palladium Arc Mark III reactor. I bypassed the toxic buildup by redesigning the energy field and the core element itself. No more slow poisoning! It can directly replace the palladium metal plate, and I have also made a backup. There will definitely be no more problems with the power source."
Tony waved his hand, and a massive, blue, virtual projection appeared directly in front of the two of them, revealing the complex, multi-layered schematic of the brand new, non-toxic reactor.
"However, it hasn't been built yet. The first prototype is running a stabilization simulation, but it should be ready for printing and assembly in the next few days."
Tony clapped his hands lightly, and countless virtual 3D projections of the Mark IV schematics, flight patterns, and weapons systems instantly lit up the entire underground studio.
"Jarvis has been upgraded again, Leo. I completely revamped and improved the entire system in the studio. Now the entire workshop can function as a fully immersive, 360-degree projection interface. Everything is visual now!" Tony declared, gesturing wildly at his new, holographic kingdom. "Welcome to the new lab."