Leon Ragnell didn't mention Obadiah Stane to Tony.
After Howard's death, that "uncle" practically raised Tony.
Their bond ran deep.
If Leon said it now, Tony might not believe him.
Even if he did, the gratitude later wouldn't cut as deep.
Better to let Tony fall into a real crisis first—that rescue would matter.
For now, they were on good terms: Leon had saved Tony's life; Tony spent freely on him and loved riffing on tech together—but that was it.
Not the sort of trust you stake your life on.
Leon didn't need that, anyway.
What he needed was Tony's mind.
And he needed it badly.
Leon wasn't a pure martial artist; he was, first and foremost, a scientist.
If tech can raise your combat power, why grind like Vegeta in the gravity room?
…
…
Time passed.
Leon's battle power hit 18,000.
About the same as Vegeta when he first came to Earth.
Roughly planet-busting.
Honestly, Leon did wonder if he could blow the Earth—he had Frieza cells; surviving in vacuum wasn't an issue.
But the moment he shaped an energy sphere in his palm—
A fierce rejection surged through him.
The sense that if he actually nuked the planet, an army of cosmic heavyweights would appear on his doorstep.
Marvel looks like a low-tier "fish pond" early on…
But later, there's Thanos, the Ancient One, Odin, the Beyonders, Kang… plenty who could threaten him.
He wasn't invincible.
Also—why blow up your playground?
...
Sunrise—
Leon and Natasha slept in, tangled in sheets till late morning.
Then he hit the lab to check on his cultured android: a blonde, vest-and-crop-top silhouette, sculpted after Android 18.
For now she didn't use a Dragon Ball–style reactor—she ran on an enhanced Arc Reactor Tony provided.
Battle Power: 205.
Her name: Eve.
Yes—the same A.I. Tony gifted him, now given a body.
Not bad!
Leon was satisfied. After a quick battery of tests, he put Eve in charge of a few projects:
The Gravity Chamber,
And the design of a Dragon Ball–grade reactor.
As an A.I., Eve wasn't "creative," but with enough data she could push projects forward with machine efficiency—perfect for iteration and integration.
…
…
Elsewhere—
This stretch was an explosion era for Stark Industries.
After Tony announced the total shutdown of weapons manufacturing, the stock cratered.
Tony used the plunge to buy back shares.
He boosted his control, and the 5% block he'd gifted Leon was made whole via other buys.
Then Tony buried himself in the lab to design a new Arc Reactor.
Gen 1: round.
Gen 2: triangular.
Gen 3: rhombus.
Working with Leon, Helen Cho, and a cohort of scientists, he developed Gen 4—still a rhombus, but far nastier.
Its energy density was terrifying—enough to power all of New York City.
Its "waste"? A single glass of pure water.
Leon benchmarked it:
In Dragon Ball terms, roughly 300 battle power.
Think Piccolo (new era)—more than enough to level a city.
Mounted in Eve, it let her fight around the 200+ mark.
In Tony's armor, due to systems overhead, about 150.
The energy is fixed; the output you use depends on hardware, software, and integration losses.
The day it launched, the tech shook the world.
At the press event, Tony switched NYC's grid to the Arc Reactor—night flipped to day in an instant.
Stark stock, which had been in freefall, rocketed.
Leon checked his 5% stake—valuation multiplied overnight into the tens of billions. He didn't care about money, but becoming a billionaire deserved a small toast.
Tony threw a party.
One night, Leon "took on ten."
(We'll let the euphemism stand. Adults, consenting—moving on.)
While Tony slept it off, his crisis arrived.
Obadiah Stane couldn't help himself.
He made his move—ambushed Tony and pulled the newest Arc Reactor from Tony's chest. Without it, the micro-shrapnel in Tony's blood would drift into his heart.
Shaking, crawling, Tony dragged himself toward the old, first-gen reactor.
"Yo," said a voice.
Leon stood there, casually turning the Mark I Arc Reactor over in his hand.
(End of Chapter)
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