Stark's New Armor

The old TV in the repair shop buzzed, static flickering across the screen. Lin Mo stood on an oil drum to adjust the antenna, the metal can groaning beneath his feet. Physical Enhancement let him keep his balance with ease. With a light flick of his fingers, the picture suddenly cleared—a silver-and-red torrent of metal tore through the desert sky, blue flames blasting from its thrusters and ripping apart the heat haze beneath the sun like a burning meteor.

"Holy crap!" Ted sprang off the toolbox, the wrench in his hand clattering to the floor. "That thing is insanely cool! Ten times cooler than those robots we saw at Stark Industries last time!" He pressed his face close to the screen, nearly smacking his nose against the glass. "Look at that shine—it has to be Titanium Alloy! And those missiles, whoosh, they're gone!"

On the television, Tony Stark hovered in midair in the Mark 3 Armor. His faceplate slowly opened, revealing his signature roguish grin. "Ladies and gentlemen, this is what you call a commuter vehicle." The moment he finished speaking, the armor shot upward. As it broke through the clouds, the thrusters erupted in blinding blue light, turning the entire desert into something out of a sci-fi movie.

Peter pushed up his slipping glasses. His notebook was already filled with sketches. "The thrusters use Arc Reactor energy conversion technology. Their efficiency is 300% higher than traditional jet engines, and the stability of the Antigravity Device..." He suddenly stopped and looked up at Lin Mo. "Brother Lin Mo, do you think this kind of propulsion system could be civilianized? Like... putting it on a bicycle?"

Lin Mo did not answer. His eyes stayed fixed on the thruster nozzles on the screen. The shape of those blue flames felt familiar—far too much like the energy fluctuations from that stone in New Mexico when it heated up. He instinctively touched his pocket. The fragment he had dug out of the woods lay quietly inside. Ever since discovering that it could interfere with circuits, he had wrapped it layer after layer in a tin box, occasionally taking it out to inspect it. He had never expected it to react like this.

"Look, look, it can transform too!" Ted slapped Lin Mo on the shoulder hard enough to crack walnuts. "The shoulder parts can open up—there have to be machine guns hidden inside! And the knees definitely have shock absorbers, or it would've fallen apart jumping from that high up..."

But Lin Mo's thoughts were on the stone. His wristband suddenly vibrated, faint as the flutter of mosquito wings. Without changing expression, he rolled up his sleeve. A line of tiny text flashed across the pale blue screen, then vanished: [High-energy reaction detected. Resonating with Asgard fragment.]

His heart clenched. Resonating? He quietly pulled out the tin box, but the instant his fingertips touched its metal surface, he jerked his hand back. It was much hotter than when he had buried it in the woods last time. The paint on the box had begun to scorch, and a faint red glow leaked from within.

"What's wrong?" Peter noticed his movement and leaned closer. "What is that? It's so hot." The boy's fingers had barely approached before he flinched from the heat. "Is... is that the stone from New Mexico?"

"Yeah." Lin Mo shoved the tin box into the very bottom of the toolbox and covered it with several oil-stained rags. "Probably TV signal interference." He pressed the power button, and the screen instantly went black, leaving behind only a ghostly afterimage of static.

Ted complained, "Hey! I wasn't done watching! Did the armor blow up aliens in the end or not?"

"There were no aliens. He was testing new functions." Lin Mo crouched down and pretended to inspect the toolbox, feeling the stone's temperature through the tin box. It was still rising, like he had tucked a red-hot branding iron against his body. He remembered what Martha had said: the stone carried the sinister taint of a divine artifact. It seemed she had been right.

"What kind of function could be cooler than fighting aliens?" Ted refused to let it go, pulling a wrinkled lollipop from his pocket. "I bet it can turn into a sports car. I saw that in a comic once..."

Peter, however, looked thoughtful. "The TV just said the Mark 3 Armor's reactor output is 1.5 times that of the Mark 2 Armor. Energy at that intensity would be enough to affect the surrounding electromagnetic field. Brother Lin Mo, could your stone be reacting to energy at a specific frequency?" He opened his notebook and pointed at the energy waveform chart he had drawn earlier. "Like tuning a radio. You can only receive a signal at the right frequency."

Lin Mo's mind stirred. Peter had a point. Mjolnir itself was a divine artifact. Since the stone had absorbed its energy, it was not strange for it to resonate with Tony's Arc Reactor. After all, both kinds of energy bore traces of alien technology. Looking at the boy's serious profile, Lin Mo suddenly felt that Peter might actually figure out these supernatural phenomena someday.

"Maybe." Lin Mo gave a vague reply and locked the toolbox. "I need to deliver medicine to Grandma Gretchen. You two watch the shop." He grabbed his coat and headed outside, the heat from the tin box seeping through the fabric and stinging his skin.

The late autumn wind whipped fallen leaves into his face like tiny blades. Lin Mo did not head toward Gretchen's house. Instead, he circled around to the woods at the edge of the neighborhood—the place where he had buried the stone before. Using his Phasing Ability, he passed straight through the soil and dug out the tin box from beneath a large rock. The moment he opened it, a wave of heat rushed into his face. The stone glowed red like molten lava, and its surface even seemed to be faintly boiling.

"Damn it." Lin Mo cursed under his breath. If this thing kept burning like this, it would draw S.H.I.E.L.D.'s attention sooner or later. After checking to make sure no one was around, he activated his Phasing Ability and reached three meters into the ground, burying the stone directly there. He placed an even larger rock over it and reinforced the spot with several discarded steel rebars.

Only after finishing did he let out a breath. His wristband had stopped vibrating, and its screen had returned to black. Lin Mo leaned against a tree trunk, catching his breath. The endurance granted by Physical Enhancement kept him from getting too tired, but the irritation in his heart would not fade. Tony's new armor test, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s covert surveillance, and this restless stone—his peaceful days seemed to be getting shattered bit by bit.

On his way back, he passed the neighborhood park and saw Aunt May sitting in the sun with several elderly women, knitting sweaters on a bench. When she spotted Lin Mo, she waved at him. "Little Lin, come sit for a while. I just baked some cookies."

"Not today, Aunt May. There's still work at the shop." Lin Mo smiled and waved back, but his steps stopped. The pattern on the sweater Aunt May was knitting was a silver-and-red robot, complete with a glowing circle on its chest. It looked exactly like Tony's armor.

"Peter drew the design," Aunt May said, holding it up for him to see. "That boy said it's called Iron Man and that it can fly through the sky. Technology is really incredible these days. Even clothes can fly now."

Lin Mo's mouth twitched. "It really is incredible." He suddenly remembered what Peter had said earlier. If thrusters could really be civilianized and mounted on bicycles... Ted would probably ride one straight into the Brooklyn Bridge.

When he returned to the repair shop, Ted and Peter were gathered around an old motorcycle. A printout of the Mark 3 Armor lay spread out on the floor. "Look here," Ted said, pointing at the thruster section. "If we modify the motorcycle's exhaust pipes like this, maybe it can fly too!"

"No," Peter said, shaking his head. "The Arc Reactor's energy density is a thousand times greater than ordinary fuel. A motorcycle engine can't handle that. It'll explode." He picked up a pencil and drew a little fan on the blueprint. "Use this instead—the principle of magnetic levitation. It won't fly very high, but it could lift a few centimeters off the ground."

Lin Mo leaned against the doorframe, watching them, and suddenly found it amusing. Two half-grown boys were studying a printout and trying to build a flying motorcycle, while he, someone who knew the future, was worrying over a burning stone. Maybe ignorance really was bliss. At least they did not have to live in constant fear.

"Quit messing around." Lin Mo walked over and picked up the printout. "That armor uses rare metals. There isn't much of it on Earth. If you're modifying a motorcycle, stick with steel." He pointed at the joint near the thrusters. "The hydraulic system here is worth studying, though. With a few changes, it could improve the motorcycle's shock absorption."

Peter's eyes immediately lit up. "Right! How did I not think of that? Connect the wheels with hydraulic rods, then add springs..." He snatched up his pencil and began writing furiously, muttering, "Damping coefficient, elastic modulus..."

Ted leaned over to look, utterly baffled. "Speak English."

"It means the bike won't bump around as much." Lin Mo patted him on the head and pinned the printout to the wall. "If you want to learn this, study math first. Otherwise, you won't even understand blueprints."

That evening, Carlos suddenly showed up with a bottle of whiskey in hand, his expression grim. "Brother Carlos?" Lin Mo was surprised. The old man had rarely visited since Lin Mo opened the repair shop, claiming that what he did not see could not bother him.

"Did you watch the news?" Carlos set the liquor on the counter, his voice hoarse. "That madman Stark flew his armor over the United States Capitol, saying he was displaying a 'new force for national defense.'" He poured himself a glass and downed it in one gulp. "Something's going to happen sooner or later."

Lin Mo's heart skipped a beat. He knew this was the prelude to Tony publicly revealing his identity as Iron Man, as well as the spark that would speed up the Avengers Initiative. "The military didn't stop him?"

"Stop him? Who would dare?" Carlos sneered. "His father was a guest of honor with the military back then, and now no one can control him. But..." The old man lowered his voice. "I heard from some old friends that S.H.I.E.L.D. has been secretly gathering manpower lately. Seems like they're looking for something."

Lin Mo's fingers tightened. Looking for something? Were they looking for that stone? Or for "special ability users" like him? He remembered when Phil Coulson had come to the repair shop last time. Half an energy detector had been visible in the passenger-side glove compartment. He had not paid it any mind then, but now it all seemed like an obvious clue.

"It has nothing to do with us." Pretending not to care, Lin Mo handed Carlos a bottle of cola. "We fix our cars. If the sky falls, the tall people will hold it up."

Carlos glanced at him without speaking, then poured himself another drink. Outside, night had fully settled in. The streetlights came on, casting the repair shop's shadow long across the ground. Shield lay dozing by the door, its tail occasionally sweeping the floor with a soft rustle. The television had begun replaying the Mark 3 Armor test. The silver-and-red metal stood out sharply against the darkness, like a bomb that could explode at any moment.

Lin Mo sat on the toolbox, looking at Tony Stark's arrogant smile on the screen before touching the wristband on his arm. There were still 256 days until his next check-in. He had no idea what this world would look like by then. Suddenly, he missed the days when he had first crossed over. He had been anxious then, but at least he had not had to deal with this chaotic mess.

"Oh, right," Carlos suddenly said. "There's a batch of scrapped military Jeeps being processed next week. Some of the engines are pretty good. Want them? I can sell them to you cheap."

Lin Mo froze for a moment, then nodded. "Yes. Of course I do." Maybe burying himself in car repairs would let him forget these troubles for a while. At least in the world of wrenches and motor oil, everything followed a traceable logic, unlike alien stones and Iron Man armor, both filled with unknown dangers.

Late at night, Ted and Peter had long since gone home. Lin Mo was the only one left in the repair shop. He turned off the television but did not turn on the lights, sitting in the darkness and staring at the Mark 3 Armor blueprint on the wall. The stone in its tin box was still buried in the woods. He did not know whether it would cause more trouble. The wristband rested silently against his skin like a mute secret.

Lin Mo sighed, stood up, and locked the door. The night wind swept over the ground, carrying fallen leaves with it. In the distance, sirens wailed, accompanied by the faint roar of helicopters—probably the military tracking Tony's armor. He looked up at the sky. There were no stars, only heavy clouds like a massive curtain blocking out every bit of light.

Maybe peace really was only temporary. Lin Mo clenched his fists. The power of Physical Enhancement flowed through his muscles, clearer than ever before. He did not know what he would face in the future, but for now, he had to be ready—whether for himself or for the people around him.