As a Level 8 agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., Phil Coulson had once been entrusted by Director Nick Fury to assemble a research team to study Howard Stark's relics.
The drug that had once suppressed Tony's palladium poisoning symptoms was developed by the research team he put together.
Agent Coulson could be said to know Howard Stark's relics inside and out.
He knew that the circular metal piece in front of him was something Howard Stark had synthesized by accident.
The research team named it, sound-absorbing steel.
This sound-absorbing steel was forged by mixing precious vibranium with primitive adamantium metal.
Its hardness and shock resistance were second to none, and to this day S.H.I.E.L.D. had been unable to decipher its manufacturing process.
And this sound-absorbing steel had been handed over by Director Fury as a bargaining chip to Cockroach, which made Agent Phil sigh at the waste.
Such a priceless object was now being casually used by Tony to prop up a coil, and he had even helped him do it. This really opened Agent Phil's eyes.
'Worthy of the truly rich Tony.'
"I'm pretty busy. What do you need?"
After confirming that the coil remained level, Tony was getting impatient to start up the particle accelerator. But since Agent Phil was still standing there, he casually asked out of courtesy.
In his mind, he was thinking that no matter what it was, it would have to wait until after he finished developing the new element.
Only then did Coulson remember that he was about to be dispatched to New Mexico. This trip was to say goodbye to Tony.
He knew that in Director Fury's Avengers Initiative, Tony Stark and his Iron Man armor were indispensable.
So before leaving, he wanted to make one last attempt to recruit Tony.
"We need you."
"Yeah, yeah… you really, really need me," Tony brushed him off casually.
"Actually, not that much," Tony's tsundere attitude made Agent Coulson shake his head and leave.
After absentmindedly seeing Agent Coulson off, Tony was finally able to focus on developing the new element.
The reaction coils of the particle accelerator were already in place. All Tony needed to do was inject the massive energy into the carrier of the new element, a triangular special coil.
Tony inserted the final prism into the device and flipped the switch.
Ions were infinitely accelerated within the massive coils, forming a beam of energy.
When JARVIS issued the alert:
["Approaching maximum power!"]
Tony immediately grabbed a large wrench and adjusted the prism's angle.
As the arm gripping the wrench exerted more and more force, muscles bulged.
The energy beam deviated from its original trajectory, and wherever it passed, walls and objects alike were sliced cleanly in half.
Until the beam converged on the triangular carrier coil, emitting a blinding light.
Ding!
Powerful energy flooded into the coil and stabilized, forming a steady state. The triangular shape glowed faintly.
"That was easy."
Ignoring the fact that his mansion had nearly been cut in half, Tony remarked casually.
["Congratulations, sir. You have created a new element."]
JARVIS congratulated Tony.
Tony gently placed the new element into the miniature arc reactor.
He stared at the reactor with a hint of tension, watching to see if it could successfully accept the new core.
———
Meanwhile—
Ivan Vanko was tuning a newly developed improved reactor in a laboratory.
It was worth mentioning that this improvement was something Tony had personally told him back when Ivan was still in prison.
Some might ask, wasn't Ivan arrested and thrown into prison? How was he now free to do research like this?
The truth was that Justin Hammer, CEO of Hammer Industries, had taken a liking to Ivan's talent and had people pull him out.
That's right, political power is just that willful.
Ever since Stark Industries announced it would stop weapons development, Hammer Industries had planned to take its place.
However, they lacked an outstanding R&D talent like Tony.
Ivan Vanko's appearance perfectly filled that gap for Hammer Industries.
Justin Hammer's dream was to create a steel legion made purely of robotic soldiers, then sell it to the military at a high price, thereby establishing an unshakable position in the business world.
He had once bragged in front of Ivan, "As long as you help me build the steel legion, I'll give you everything you want."
Little did he know that in Ivan's eyes, Hammer was just a fool who talked big dreams. His grand ambitions were worthless in front of Ivan, who possessed reactor technology.
Ivan's goal had always been to take revenge on Stark and avenge his father.
Hammer's appearance merely accelerated his plan.
"Happy to be of service, my friend."
Looking at Hammer's ambitious expression, Ivan smiled lightly and agreed.
However, Ivan had secretly kept a card up his sleeve.
Using Hammer Industries' resources, he manufactured lightning whips with even greater power, and he had also planted backdoors deep within all the combat robot systems.
This included the Mark II armor that Rhodey had taken from Tony and had Ivan upgrade and modify.
He could control all of these armors at any time through the backend.
At this point, he finally possessed the strength to face Tony head-on.
This filled Ivan with confidence and arrogance as he dialed Tony's number.
"Everything your father did to my family, I will return it all within forty minutes."
This call sounded the alarm for Tony. The call trace showed the dialing location was Manhattan.
"This guy's about to stir things up."
At the same time, his eyes landed on news of Justin Hammer's upcoming press conference.
"It's there!"
Tony directly slammed the still-untested arc reactor equipped with the new element core into his chest.
As energy surged, the glow from Tony's chest grew brighter and brighter.
He completely ignored JARVIS's warning.
"Whoa! A hint of coconut… and metal…"
———
The news about the Harlem disturbance caused by Abomination on television was quickly replaced by another headline.
Justin Hammer had spent heavily to buy out mainstream media coverage and held a grand launch event, flamboyantly introducing advanced weapons systems to the public.
Watching every channel filled with the Hammer Industries logo, Alyssa snorted disdainfully.
"The boss took down Abomination and saved so many people, and the coverage just disappears like that. There's something shady going on."
On the sofa, Corin was controlling a piece of metal suspended in midair. One moment it became Sun Wukong, the next Nezha, then Wonder Woman.
The small metal sculptures were vivid and lifelike, like exquisite unpainted figurines.
"I didn't expect that the sketch mastery I redeemed on a whim would actually come in handy here."
After a period of practice, Corin was now able to freely control metal deformation into whatever form he imagined.
This had a lot to do with the sketch mastery he had redeemed earlier. After all, sculpture was also a form of art.
Hearing Alyssa's complaints, Corin neither agreed nor disagreed.
The thing he regretted most now was listening to General Ross, changing into military clothes, and exposing himself in front of the cameras.
The overwhelming coverage afterward had all been proclaiming that the Crimson Silver Duke had become a lackey of the military.
This made Corin somewhat dissatisfied.
Fortunately, General Ross knew better. The five hundred million dollars was transferred not long after.
"For the money's sake, I won't argue with you this time."
But a mere five hundred million dollars was still far from enough to further enhance his strength.
Just as Corin was thinking about where to get more money next, he saw Justin Hammer's high-profile launch event on TV. Recalling what Alyssa had just said, his eyes gradually lit up.
"What did you just say?"
It was as if Corin had not heard clearly.
"I said there's something shady. Yes! Absolutely!"
Alyssa was still stuck in her anger.
Ever since she had become intimate with Corin, she had turned into his most steadfast supporter.
"Help me confirm the location of the press conference. I'm heading out…"
Corin suddenly remembered that this press conference seemed like it was going to get very lively. Those rows of seemingly imposing combat armors should be worth quite a bit.
It looked like he could make a quick fortune amid the chaos again, with no follow-up trouble at all.
Opportunities that were basically handing money to himself did not come often.
With a casual motion, he transformed the metal figurine into a pair of thin, fingerless gauntlets.
Putting on the long-missed crimson coat, he flashed out the window in an instant.
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