Chapter 6: The Unlucky Upgrade
Back in Manhattan
[Earth-Prime Time RESUMED: 11:59 PM, November 20, 1973. Elapsed Time: 00:00:00.1 seconds.]
Thomas snapped back into his three-year-old body. He was lying in his bed, Tony still sleeping, the disassembled remote still clutched in his tiny hand.
He felt the heavy, stifling weight of the seal return, but now, the mind behind the seal was exponentially sharper. He was no longer running on a limited calculator; he had a supercomputer, albeit one operating on a trickle of power.
He focused his Magic Sense. The world instantly shifted. He didn't just see the room; he saw the electric current running through the wires, the faint residual heat signature of the walls, and the minute magicule contamination from the experiments Howard performed daily.
He then turned his new, hyper-efficient mind to the matter at hand—the problem he had been staring at since he was born: the Arc Reactor.
Raphael, Lord of Wisdom. Initiate comprehensive analysis of the schematics for the Stark Industries ARC-I Reactor based on stored memory files.
The newly evolved Skill responded instantly, its response a vast, multi-layered stream of data that no ordinary human mind could process.
[Raphael: Analysis Complete. The ARC-I Reactor is a closed-system energy generation device utilizing Palladium decay. The primary flaw is the instability of the containment field under sustained load, leading to rapid decay of the Palladium core and the release of highly toxic trace isotopes.]
[Optimization Suggestion: The containment field requires a tri-state crystal harmonic resonance emitter and a synthetic core—a modified, non-radioactive substitute for Palladium that can sustain the high-frequency particle bombardment. Recommend: Vibranium or similar hyper-stable composite material.]
Thomas smiled. His two-and-a-half years as an Orc were worth it. He was now three years old, had the best mind in the universe running his processes, and he knew exactly how to fix the main problem that would plague his brother decades later.
He was the smartest person on the planet, and he was still stuck in a crib. Time to start building the legend.
Yo be continued