"You're still as stubborn as ever. Look at that beard you always use to primp, it's grown into weeds."
"You're not doing much better yourself. I didn't know my younger brother had a penchant for walking around topless and showing off." Tony never lost a verbal sparring match.
Or rather, he very much enjoyed bickering and bantering back and forth with Leon.
How to put it? It made him feel very different, giving him a sense of family.
After all, in this world, he only had Leon as a single relative.
"Besides, next time you can consider changing your angle to pick a bone. Hearing my voice inside a spaceship in outer space? Aha, that's not funny at all. Did you forget the fact that sound doesn't travel in a vacuum just half a year after graduating?"
Tony expressed that with his scientific literacy, he saw through Leon's lie in one second.
"So what accident made you come back early? Or did Pepper contact you? Um, is Pepper... doing well?"
"No, she didn't contact me. Perhaps she didn't want me to know you were attacked and facing grim prospects," Leon shook his head.
He explained, "However, I did hear your voice inside the spaceship—you were calling out my name, so I heard it. This is my newly awakened ability."
Tony opened his mouth. "This ability of yours is really unscientific... Sound is produced by vibration, and the transmission limit of this vibration generally won't be too far, let alone in a cosmic vacuum..."
"But the fact is just like that. The unscientific abilities I awakened this time are quite a few. I'll have to let you test me again later."
Leon observed Tony while speaking.
He could see the shrapnel lodged in the arterial valves of Tony's chest cavity.
He sighed. "Tony, you look really not so good. Those terrorists must have tortured you a lot."
He frowned. "The shrapnel pierced the arteries around your heart. You can only use magnetism to temporarily delay the injury, which is completely like a sharp knife hanging over your head at any time... Those damned bastards!"
Tony was stunned for a moment. He saw the chilling look in Leon's eyes, felt somewhat moved in his heart, his lips quivered, and finally he shook his head.
"This little injury is nothing. But you've come just in time. I was preparing to act according to plan and break out tomorrow. But now, we can just slaughter our way out directly, and no longer need to worry about Yinsen's safety."
"Oh! Right, Yinsen!" He suddenly slapped his forehead and stood up with a swish, only then remembering that Yinsen had been quiet for quite a while. "Yinsen, are you alright? You're... Ah, so you're right here?"
Tony wore a slightly awkward smile.
A slightly bald, vest-wearing middle-aged man with a very engineer-like demeanor was quietly standing next to the two of them.
It turned out Yinsen had been not far from the two of them all along.
It was just that Tony's attention had been entirely on Leon just now, completely ignoring Yinsen.
Yinsen spread his hands. "I haven't slept. Actually, when this gentleman dropped from the cave ceiling just now, I was already over here."
Tony awkwardly nodded, chuckled dryly for a few seconds, then grabbed Leon's shoulder to introduce them.
"Yinsen, this is my younger brother, Leon Stark. Leon, this is Yinsen, my... friend. He saved my life." Tony introduced the two to each other.
The two shook hands and greeted one another.
Leon knew Yinsen was a good person. "I didn't expect Tony to be able to make friends in a cave. You must have been taking care of him during this time, otherwise, with his injuries, it wouldn't have been easy to survive."
"Ah no, actually I just..." Yinsen shook his head.
Leon raised a hand to cut him off. "There's no need for too many polite words. Yinsen, you saved Tony, so you're also my friend."
"Right now, what we need to do is fight our way out and send those guys outside to where they belong one by one." Leon's expression was as calm as a lake, but his eyes were filled with fierce thunder and lightning.
"Perhaps we can think of a plan first? Those guys have heavy firepower." Yinsen hesitated slightly.
"A plan? No! No need for a plan!" Tony chimed in.
He proudly walked over to the armor he had built.
He patted the armor. "Look, Leon, this is my masterpiece from the past few months. Even if you didn't come today, tomorrow Yinsen and I could definitely slaughter our way through those guys!"
Leon looked at Tony, who was showing off like a child with a toy, and shook his head helplessly.
"Save your little toy to wear later. I'll walk in front, you guys just follow behind," he said concisely. "I haven't been sunbathing in vain for the past six months."
"A toy? Unbelievable, Leon, I know your academic performance is mediocre and you probably don't understand the greatness of this armor of mine."
Tony couldn't accept his masterpiece being called a toy. "So when you don't understand the situation, you can keep silent first and watch me show you how excellent it is!"
Leon pressed down on Tony's shoulder. "Tony, perhaps your little toy is indeed quite excellent, but I must tell you, I'm wearing this exact pair of pants and flew straight over from a spaceship."
Tony's eyes widened slightly.
Flew all the way back from space purely with his physical body?
And the pants Leon was wearing, which looked like they hadn't been washed in a long time, didn't have a single bit of damage?
Tony knew all too well what that represented.
"What? You, you..." Tony couldn't speak.
It was over. Now his armor really was about the same as a toy.
"So you guys just follow behind me." Leon smiled faintly.
"But before that, there's still one more thing." His gaze swept over, stopping at Tony's chest. "We need to solve the lingering trouble for you first."
"Lingering trouble?" Tony didn't understand for a moment.
But Leon had already made his move.
His figure didn't sway at all. His right hand pressed on Tony's shoulder, while his left hand suddenly became a blur for a fraction of a second.
Then Tony felt a tightness in his chest, and just as a sharp pain was about to strike his heart, it instantly dissipated.
"One, two, three... Quite a bit of shrapnel. Tony, being able to survive an injury like this, you can indeed be said to have strong vitality."
"What are you saying..." Tony instinctively touched his chest.
When he raised his head again.
He saw Leon open his palm, upon which quietly lay a dozen or so scattered, tiny pieces of shrapnel.
"There, I just took the shrapnel out of your chest. Keep these pieces of shrapnel as a souvenir, to commemorate that you suffered a huge change near the age of forty and finally grew up, learning to shoulder responsibility."
Leon shoved the shrapnel from his hand into Tony's, and turned to walk toward the sealed gate of the cave.
In less than a microsecond just now.
He used his Biological Force Field to immobilize the shrapnel inside Tony's body.
Then the fingertips of his left hand sliced tiny wounds across Tony's chest, swiftly removing all the shrapnel.
Afterwards, he used his Heat Vision to staunch the bleeding and heal the wounds for Tony.
The whole set of movements was as smooth as flowing water, as swift as lightning yet as calm as still water.
Even the scene in Tony's eyes didn't change at all.
But when he reacted and touched his chest, the Arc Reactor was still there, yet his clothes somehow had over a dozen tears in them.
"This! This!" Tony's gaze moved back and forth between Leon's palm and the front of his chest, once again unable to speak.
Today Leon had given him too much shock.
So much so that for a moment he didn't even go to refute the fact that he had just been mocked by his younger brother for finally growing up.
"Let's go, it's time to leave." Leon took the lead.
Before you continue