After John's "thoughtful" reassurance, Tony's mild anxiety grew even worse.
With the Mandarin constantly spreading terror lately, he became even more obsessed with building armor.
There was no denying that Tony had extraordinary qualities that allowed him to become Iron Man.
His stamina, for instance, was genuinely impressive.
Far better than a certain author who had to collapse after writing a few thousand words. That someone was very envious.
He slept for an hour or two, ran until he dry-heaved during the day, then came home with enough energy to build armor and research Chitauri technology on the side.
Even the most hardcore grinder would have dropped to his knees and begged Tony to take him as a son.
Once Tony woke up, he stopped trying to sleep. He went into the Underground Laboratory and started building armor.
Only he could treat something like this as a pastime to relieve anxiety, burning money on suit after suit.
Pepper Potts knew nothing about it. Tony, that master of time management, always managed to conceal his anxiety from her.
As he built armor with a vengeance, the year gradually drew to a close.
In the Laboratory, Tony held an injection gun, biting down on a towel as he injected miniature sensors into his arm.
"Miniature sensor installation complete."
"As you wish, sir," his considerate butler JARVIS said. "I've also prepared a safety briefing for you to ignore."
Wiping the blood from his arm with the towel, Tony raised an eyebrow. "Of course I'll ignore it."
"All right, let's begin."
Tony told Dami, the mechanical arm wearing a custom "Big Dummy" hat, to sweep the floor.
On his way past a Wooden Dummy, he even practiced a sequence of strikes.
"Sir, you haven't rested in seventy-two hours," JARVIS said, expressing his concern.
Tony