["Let's have a moment alone." Rhodes waved his hand to dismiss the others, then patted Tony on the shoulder with a smile. "I have to say, I didn't expect it—I swear, I really didn't expect you to recover this fast!"]
["I can only walk right now," Tony replied calmly.]
["Really?" Rhodes crossed his arms, giving him a skeptical look.]
["Yeah," Tony said before his expression turned serious. "Rhodey, I'm working on something big." ]
["I came here to find you. Come with me!"]
[Rhodes nodded involuntarily, smiling. "You really got everyone riled up back there! I mean, that incredible performance at the press conference? You're amazing!"]
["This isn't military business, Rhodey! I... can't! This is different," Tony said firmly, emphasizing each word.]
["What? You actually turned into a humanitarian?" Rhodey tilted his head, giving Tony a strange look.]
["Listen to me carefully—" Tony started to explain, but Rhodes cut him off.]
["No! You need to think before you act! I'm serious, Tony!"]
[Tony narrowed his eyes at Rhodes, then smiled slightly and nodded. "Okay."]
["Nice talking to you, Tony." Rhodes turned and left, leaving Tony standing alone, muttering to himself, "Thank you."]
"So that's what you were trying to tell me back then? You wanted me to be part of the armor project?" Rhodes sighed over the phone.
Even though he now had the Mark II, and Tony had upgraded it for him, it was still nowhere near the Mark Destroyer I that Tony had developed at this point.
That suit was something Tony had worked on with Banner after studying the Destroyer armor. His current focus was making it easier to wear. Because of the different materials used, several key functions couldn't be implemented the way he wanted.
This was a pure combat and destruction-focused suit, but the problem was—putting it on was inconvenient. Right now, Tony still needed robotic arms to assist him in wearing it. He was working on developing a remote-controlled auto-assembly system to make equipping the suit more efficient.
On the call, Tony admitted that he did want Rhodey to be involved back then, but unfortunately, Rhodey hadn't taken him seriously at the time and didn't even listen to the full explanation.
[In his Malibu villa, Tony sat at his computer, deep in thought. "Jarvis, you awake?"]
["At your service, sir," Jarvis responded instantly.]
["I want to start a new project file. Code name—Mark II," Tony said calmly as he studied the design on his screen.]
["Should I store it in Stark Industries' central database?" Jarvis asked.]
["I don't know who to trust right now," Tony muttered. "For now, store everything on my private server."]
[Before he could uncover who was selling his weapons to the Ten Rings, Tony knew he couldn't trust anyone. He projected an image of the Mark I suit onto his table.]
["Is this a top-secret project?" Jarvis asked curiously.]
[Tony deleted the impractical aspects of the Mark I design and responded, "I just don't want this ending up in the wrong hands. Maybe… it's better if I keep it under my control."]
[Meanwhile, in the desert where Tony had escaped, a group of men were sifting through the sand, searching for the remains of the Mark I armor. Most of its fragments were buried deep beneath the surface.]
[One of them suddenly shouted, "Yusuf! We found it!"]
[As their leader approached, the camera panned up to reveal his face—it was Raza. He hadn't died in the cave collapse. Instead, he bore ugly scars across his head and face, a lasting reminder of what had happened.]
[One of his men handed him the Mark I mask. Raza took it in his hands, staring at it in a daze, lost in thought.]
[Back at Tony's workshop, he was designing the boots for the new Mark II armor. His small robotic assistant, Dum-E, clumsily tried to help, earning Tony's complaints about how useless it was.]
[After finishing the boot thruster design, Tony couldn't wait any longer. He decided to test it immediately. Activating the video recording function, he stepped back to the center of his workspace.]
["Okay! No more mistakes this time. Stabilizing at half a meter above the ground—manually controlled."]
[Tony stretched his legs slightly. "Alright, initiating hand controls… Smooth start… Let's see if 10% thrust is stable. Okay… 3… 2… 1—!"]
[The moment the countdown ended, Tony activated the thrusters—and immediately blasted backward, slamming hard into the ceiling before crashing to the floor.]
[As he lay there groaning, the fire-extinguishing robot seized the opportunity and mercilessly sprayed a massive cloud of foam at him.]
"Oh! No way! You actually played this part?" Tony groaned, covering his face.
Rhodey smirked. "You never calculated the thruster power, did you?"
"How was I supposed to know?!" Tony rolled his eyes. "I thought I was being careful—I only used 10% power! And still got launched like that!"
"Haha! Good thing it didn't kill you, or the world would've lost its savior before you even got started!" Rhodes laughed. He glanced at Banner, who was struggling not to laugh himself.
Meanwhile, in another universe, little Peter Parker turned to Aunt May with a puzzled expression. "Why did Uncle Tony just launch himself into the wall?"
Tony, of course, had long reluctantly accepted the title of Uncle Spider-Man.
Aunt May hesitated for a moment before responding, "Because he didn't test it properly first. Remember, Peter—always be careful when doing experiments."
Little Peter nodded earnestly.
"Hahaha!!! That's embarrassing!" First Gen Spider-Man burst out laughing at Tony's expense. Seeing the genius billionaire slam into a wall like that was just too good.
"Yeah! And that was only 10% thrust! Imagine if he'd gone full power," First Gen Gwen giggled.
Then, noticing Peter's smug look, she smirked and teased, "Wait… haven't you done something just like this before?"
Peter's laughter immediately stopped. "Uh…"
["The original Peter Parker, do you like to laugh?"]
The sudden narrator's voice made him freeze in place.
["You've made plenty of embarrassing mistakes yourself. Back then, I spared you some dignity, but now? Seems like I don't need to anymore."]
["Once we finish Tony Stark's story, we'll be showing your journey—before you became Spider-Man. Let's see if you'll still be laughing then…"]
"W-Wait! NO! Please—please don't!" First Gen Spider-Man immediately begged for mercy.
He definitely didn't want his high school days—especially the bullying—to be shown to the entire multiverse.
Unfortunately, his pleas didn't matter.
Gwen, on the other hand, suddenly became extremely curious. "Ohhh, Peter! What exactly happened to you before you became Spider-Man?"
Meanwhile, across the multiverse, countless people began eagerly looking forward to it.
Even Second Gen Spider-Man widened his eyes in excitement. "Hold on! Why did my embarrassing moments get aired, but his didn't?! I need to see this!"
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