The Greatest Work

Yinsen held a simple contract still wet with ink and asked, "BOSS, why only have them deliver meals for a month? Do you have some new plan after that month is up?"

Yuri smiled mysteriously, slinging an arm around Yinsen's shoulder. "We'll talk about what happens in a month when the month's over. What you need to do right now is find a suitable set of fangs for our Iron Suit in the shortest time possible."

Evening.

Yinsen called down Yuri, who was busy inscribing magical runes on the second floor, to eat the dinner delivered from Hell's Kitchen together.

Before leaving, he handed Yuri a few blueprints, detailing exactly where which weapons should be installed and which weapons should go where. Yinsen had rented his own place in New York, not far from the small shop—a bike ride of less than ten minutes to get to work.

Yuri watched his employee wobble away on his bicycle, exchanged a greeting with old Rogers sitting at the bookstore entrance, then closed and locked the shop door before returning to the makeshift workshop on the second floor: the armor was essentially finished, just lacking its iconic exterior paint.

He picked up the blueprints Yinsen had designed, checking to see which weapons he could manufacture right now and mount onto the armor.

Reality was harsh; the answer was disappointing.

These ammunition and missiles always required small but essential elements, things Yuri simply couldn't get his hands on at the moment.

"Ring ring..."

Before Yuri's hand even reached his pocket, the call was automatically answered. Tony's voice carried a guilty, sneaky tone: "Open the door quick, I'm right outside the shop!"

Yuri pulled the phone from his pocket, casually grabbed a large cloth to cover the Steam Armor before him, glanced at the time on his phone and the darkening sky outside, and asked with genuine confusion, "Why are you in such a hurry? It's dark now—no one should be able to see you, right?"

Tony paused on the other end, took a couple of small steps forward, the clanking "clang clang" of metal striking metal echoing starkly through the silent, empty street. He silently noted to add sound-dampening features to the soles of his armor, then lightly pressed the doorbell on the glass door twice. "Alright, Yuri, I didn't come alone... uh, or rather, I brought some things with me."

Coming downstairs, Yuri could guess with his toes what he'd brought, but he still feigned ignorance and asked, "So, has generous Tony Stark brought my little shop another missile from twenty years ago that's just a shell?"

Tony fell silent again. He knew the opening gift he'd sent that morning was hardly presentable, but he hadn't expected Yuri to compare it to the Iron Armor he was currently wearing. He pressed the doorbell hard twice and growled, "Those two things aren't even the same concept! What I've brought now can be called the greatest work of my life!"

"Wow~"

Yuri stood behind the one-way glass, thoroughly appreciating the red-and-gold Iron Armor gesticulating wildly on the street, and felt genuine admiration for the man trapped inside by knowledge: a mortal matching Gods in power, not because of the armor on his skin, but because of the weathered soul within years later.

He opened the door and murmured into the still-connected phone, "I wonder if some little girl would still say 'I love you three thousand times' after hearing that..."

"What did you say? Are you blown away by it!"

Tony, wearing the Iron Suit, spun around once in front of the shop, squeezed through the door, and knocked on his glowing helmet. "As long as I've got this on my head, you'll never break into my mind or control my body again. Want to give it a try?"

"NO."

Yuri poked a finger at the bright blue reactor on the Iron Armor's chest: there was an interesting rule in the Marvel universe—anything controllable and beneficial was mostly blue; conversely, things with low controllability and high danger were mostly green.

He opened his phone camera, wrapped an arm around the cold metal armor, and snapped a few "click click" selfies. Afterward, he tapped Tony's iron head and said, "If I'm not mistaken, I'm the first person to see your greatest work, right? How about it, Tony, show your face to commemorate this precious moment?"

The Iron Armor was silent for a moment, then the faceplate slowly lifted.

Tony shot Yuri a disdainful look, feigning impatience. "Hurry up and take it."

"Click click!"

After taking the photos, Yuri headed upstairs first, listening to the "clank clank" footsteps behind him, silently mourning for three seconds the stairs that were bearing a weight no staircase should have to.

The two reached the second floor one after the other. Yuri walked over to the Steam Armor covered by the large cloth and politely let Tony unveil it himself. "Mr. Stark, what you are about to see is Yuri Ambrosius's greatest work."

"Heh."

Tony let out two cold laughs. Mimicking people's words was the worst!

He yanked the cloth down, revealing the seamless Metal Giant once again under the bright lights. Yuri mentally commanded it to split open from the middle, exposing the human-shaped cockpit lined with cushioning rubber.

Tony's eyes flickered. This method of donning the armor was far more convenient than his own Mark I—he had to learn it!

Yuri stepped into the cockpit, and the Metal Giant slowly closed around him. Mysterious runes flashed briefly, and dozens of jets of scalding steam burst from the vents as the giant moved.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!..."

The entire room trembled with each heavy step. Tony twitched the corner of his mouth, suddenly feeling that installing sound-dampening devices on his soles didn't matter anymore. The wall facing the street split open under Yuri's control, moonlight spilling onto his face. Yuri walked steadily toward the opening, and driven by a desire to show off, Tony activated flight mode.

"Whoosh~"

He hovered before the heavy, towering Metal Giant, a hint of mockery in his voice. "If you jump down like that, you'll probably be having tea with the city administration by tomorrow."

Yuri didn't stop. His voice came from inside the Metal Giant. "Tony, if you can confirm that all nearby surveillance is down, I'll generously let you see what a flying Metal Giant looks like."

"Then bring it on."

Tony closed his faceplate and ordered the AI built into his armor, "Jarvis, scan his armor. Find his power source."

"As you wish, sir."

Mysterious runes shimmered with flowing light, thick jets of scalding white steam blasted outward, and the nearly four-meter-tall Metal Giant lowered its head slightly, its massive, heavy body floating into the air as lightly as a fish gliding through water.

"Scan complete. The armor has no centralized power unit. It appears to continuously absorb moisture from the environment and convert it into energy through a mechanism similar to a steam engine."

"Steam engine?!"

Tony stared at the water vapor swirling around the Metal Giant, silent.

Yuri got used to the sensation of flying and, with some excitement, invited Tony to an aerial race. "After that, we can have a friendly spar, see whose work is truly the greatest between the two of us!"

A burst of gunfire and explosions rang out from a distance. Tony and Yuri exchanged a glance. Tony pointed toward the source of the noise. "Then let's see who gets there first and takes care of whatever's causing that racket!"