The Trouble Tony Planted

While Leon had been immersed in his shamelessly blissful retirement life with Wanda, something unusually interesting happened over at Stark Industries.

Perhaps Captain America's Divine Concealment, along with Leon's long absence from the public eye, had given certain people lurking in the shadows the confidence to rise again.

They regarded Captain America, Leon, as their greatest threat and did not consider Iron Man, Tony—who had already evolved into Steel Superman—a threat at all.

Of course, that was also because they had no idea of Tony's true strength now. After all, no villain had yet been capable of forcing Tony to go all out.

But the cause of this incident had not arisen recently. Tony had planted the seeds of disaster himself long ago. Humans were like that—always making huge mistakes without realizing it.

And the butterfly's first flap behind this incident had occurred in Bern, Switzerland, in 1999...

1999, Bern, Switzerland, New Year's Eve.

Tony, the greatest genius of the twenty-first century, had been invited to an offline gathering of scientists. Happy, still in his prime and a future director but current bodyguard, attended with him.

"There's only half an hour until New Year's. If Leon finds out we threw a New Year's party without inviting him, he'll definitely be mad."

In the dimly lit party venue, scientists gathered in small groups and chatted quietly as they waited for the new year to arrive.

Happy reminded Tony, who was flirting with a pretty female scientist beside him.

"Forget that kid whose brain is stuffed with pantyhose. He's probably showing off his strength on some cover model right now. He has no time to care about his big brother."

"Leon?"

The female scientist became curious when she heard Tony and Happy's conversation.

"Trust me, darling, you wouldn't want to meet