New Element

After Coulson left, Iron Man spent a day going through the files, but made no progress.

"Tang, let's go to the company and see Pepper Potts. I have some things to tell her," Iron Man said.

Apocalypse thought to himself, It's finally happening.

Iron Man drove while Apocalypse sat comfortably in the passenger seat. Ever since gaining three times the Hulk's strength, he had barely ridden in cars.

The sports cars he had envied so much in his previous life no longer stirred his heart in the slightest.

Iron Man stopped at a fruit stand by the road and bought two boxes of strawberries. He did not pay; instead, he took off his watch and handed it to the fruit vendor.

The fruit vendor was delighted and accepted the watch.

Even if it were fake, it was worth far more than two boxes of strawberries. Besides, the famous man standing before him was Tony Stark, Iron Man. He was constantly on television; everyone knew him. There was no way the watch could be fake.

That watch alone was worth half a farm.

When they arrived at the company, Iron Man had come with a heavy heart, intending to arrange some final affairs, but Pepper Potts knew nothing of it.

"Pepper, I brought you some fruit."

When she saw Iron Man bringing over strawberries, she said angrily, "Do you know that out of all fruits, strawberries are the only thing I'm allergic to? You're always so self-centered. You never think about others or consider their feelings."

Iron Man felt deeply guilty and fell silent. At this critical moment between life and death, he realized that the person he cared about most and could not let go of was Pepper Potts.

He had only wanted to buy some fruit as a small gesture, yet he did not even know what the person he cared about most liked to eat.

It seemed he truly had spent too little time thinking about Pepper Potts.

In the original plot, their relationship began changing in Iron Man 2.

Apocalypse handed over a box of kiwis and said, "The strawberries are for me. Tony bought these for you."

"Really?" Pepper Potts did not quite believe it.

"Look, I've already eaten more than half a box of strawberries. If Tony had bought them for you, would he have let me eat them?" Apocalypse said.

Iron Man gave Apocalypse a strange look. He understood Apocalypse less and less. This Eastern man always seemed to help him whenever he faced a problem.

He even knew what Pepper Potts would and would not eat. Did he know everything?

"Ding!"

"Iron Man's trust has increased to 75%."

Apocalypse had not expected that casually resolving their awkwardness with such a small gesture would increase Iron Man's favor toward him.

It seemed Pepper Potts held an even more important place in Iron Man's heart than she appeared to.

As expected, they were destined to become a married couple.

After hearing Apocalypse's explanation, Pepper Potts said to Iron Man with mock annoyance, "You did that on purpose to upset me, didn't you?"

Apocalypse said, "Don't you know Tony's personality? How could he bring himself to do something so sweet? He wanted to, but couldn't put aside his pride. He had to drag me here to be his shield without even considering my feelings."

Those words dispelled Pepper Potts's doubts. Her anger turned to delight, and her heart immediately felt sweet.

The man she had secretly loved for so long had finally shown that he cared. Her years of silent devotion and waiting had not been in vain.

Iron Man, meanwhile, shot Apocalypse a sidelong glance. Tang was too good at this. No wonder he had won over Natasha Rushman with just a few words last time. Who was the real playboy here?

No, he knew Pepper Potts too well. I can't let him steal my woman.

So, without any politeness, he drove Apocalypse out and stayed alone with Pepper Potts.

Apocalypse had no idea what they discussed. After a while, Pepper Potts left with a glowing face to handle company business.

Ever since they had taken down the bald Stane, someone had needed to manage the company. Iron Man practically never handled corporate affairs, so all the actual work fell onto Pepper Potts, leaving her overwhelmed.

Seeing Pepper Potts's expression as she walked out, Apocalypse asked, "Tony, you still haven't told her the truth, have you?"

Iron Man sighed. "I... don't know how to say it."

Having been a carefree playboy for so long, Iron Man found himself unable to express such heavy matters.

Apocalypse wondered whether he should find another opportunity to help them.

In the original plot, Iron Man would wander around the office before eventually taking the city model in the corner back to the laboratory, where he would discover a New Element within it.

This was the inheritance Iron Man's father had left him.

Apocalypse watched Iron Man sit listlessly in his office chair, showing no intention of examining the city model.

If he had not come along, this might have become another branching point caused by the butterfly effect.

Seeing that Iron Man was about to leave, Apocalypse had no choice but to remind him, "Aren't you going to look around here and see whether you can find anything new?"

Iron Man said, "All the company's technical information is in my head. What could possibly be here?"

"Is that so?"

Apocalypse had no choice but to pick up the city model. "Tell me, what do you see?"

"My father left this to me. Back then, he said the future was within this city, but he was limited by the era and could not make it happen. I always thought he meant the city's architecture..."

Before he could finish, Iron Man immediately noticed something.

With Apocalypse's hint and his own genius, he quickly sensed that there was something unusual about the city model before him.

He then pulled off the covering completely, becoming more excited the longer he looked.

"Tang, there's no equipment here. Help me take this back to the laboratory. I need to study it further."

Suddenly, he stopped and looked at Apocalypse. "Tang, how did you know? You knew all along, didn't you? Why didn't you just tell me? Did you want me to discover it myself?"

Apocalypse merely smiled without answering. Even if Iron Man racked his brains, he would never understand that Apocalypse had watched his entire life unfold in another world.

Iron Man stepped forward and gave Apocalypse a fierce hug. "Tang, if I were thirty years younger, I'd definitely believe you were an angel sent to protect me."

"What about now?"

"Now I think you're more like a delivery guy."

"Get lost..."

Soon, several large pieces of the city model were brought back to the laboratory.

Iron Man activated the holographic display and began continuously extracting the model's key data, removing the noise bit by bit.

With Apocalypse's explicit guidance, Iron Man decoded it faster than in the original plot.

Finally, with a wave of both hands, an elemental model that continuously released energy appeared in the holographic display.

"Perfect, Tang. This element is simply perfect. I can't believe it! It brilliantly bypasses the contradiction that nuclear elements must be radioactive. It's a work of genius. This element is like the sun, releasing endless energy."

"Why did my father invent such a powerful New Element but never tell me?"

"Precisely because it was so powerful, he did not dare tell you," Apocalypse said.

When Iron Man's parents died, he had still been underage, only half-grown. Naturally, Howard Stark could not casually reveal such important information to his son. He had not even told S.H.I.E.L.D.

He had probably intended to tell Iron Man everything once he became an adult, but unfortunately, an accident happened first.

"Tang, I need to build a Miniature Particle Accelerator. Help me."

A standard particle accelerator was usually dozens of kilometers long, accelerating particles to near light speed before smashing them together to explore the universe's deeper truths.

However, Iron Man only needed to transform palladium into another element through energy conversion, so there was no need for anything so complicated.

In the original plot, Iron Man had built this Miniature Particle Accelerator entirely by himself. Now that he had Apocalypse as free labor, he was happy to take it easy, and the efficiency increased greatly.

Before long, a circular Miniature Particle Accelerator dozens of meters long was completed.

Apocalypse also saw the prototype of Captain America's shield, which Iron Man had used as a brick in the original plot. Captain America's shield had been forged by Tony's father, Howard.

The real shield was probably sleeping in a land of ice and snow, just like Captain America himself.

"Good. Success or failure depends on this."

Iron Man activated the particle accelerator. Massive amounts of energy rapidly gathered within a laser device. Reflected through a prism, the laser slowly moved, slicing everything in its path in two.

Even some experimental Iron Man armor was no exception. One could imagine how terrifying that energy was.

Apocalypse felt that even his body could not withstand the laser. He would probably be cut apart. It seemed there were still quite a few things in this world capable of hurting him; he absolutely could not be careless.

"Hiss... Hiss... Hiss..."

Enhanced by the prism, the laser's energy struck the palladium element. At once, the element began to pulse violently, continuously emitting dazzling light.

Before long, the violent reaction ended. The light grew weaker and weaker, and the palladium element suddenly became gentle. A new Miniature Arc Reactor took shape!

"So easily?" Iron Man could hardly believe it.

Apocalypse stepped forward. He did not understand science and could not see anything unusual.

But he could sense that the energy level inside was more than ten times stronger than the Arc Reactor in Iron Man's chest.

This meant the New Element had succeeded. It was cleaner and more powerful. This was the future Iron Heart!

"Thank you, Tang," Iron Man said solemnly.

Apocalypse said, "It was nothing more than a small effort on my part. You should thank your father. It was the technological legacy he left behind that saved your life."

"Ding!"

Another system notification sounded in Apocalypse's mind. Iron Man's trust had increased again.

Iron Man said, "Although I don't know what your purpose is, you've saved me again and again. I, Tony Stark, will not forget this debt."

Apocalypse and Iron Man opened a bottle of champagne and held a small celebration.

Just then, the phone rang.

Just as Apocalypse had expected, it was Ivan calling. With the materials and equipment provided by Hammer Industries, his genius had finally found room to shine.

Ivan said arrogantly over the phone, "Stark, I made it dual-cycle. It's more powerful. Everything you did to my family, I'll take it back within forty minutes!"