Identity Exposed

"Was it really Pym Particles?"

After returning to his mansion, Tony Stark had J.A.R.V.I.S. search through the records and found information on the technology capable of enlarging and shrinking objects.

"But hadn't that stubborn old man always been hostile toward Stark Industries?"

Dr. Henry Jonathan Pym, also known as Hank Pym, had once discovered a subatomic particle capable of altering an object's size. He had named it the Pym Particle after himself and founded his own company—Pym Technologies.

However, the old man seemed to have a grudge against Tony Stark's father, Howard Stark. He had never shown Tony a friendly face during their several meetings and had even criticized Stark Industries in the media.

Given Tony Stark's pride, he naturally had no favorable impression of Hank Pym either.

"Could he be that old man's child? But that doesn't make sense. If he were part of the Pym family, he shouldn't be so friendly toward me."

Although Kraft had beaten him senseless, Tony Stark could tell that the other party had not actually harbored much hostility toward him...

Well, there had been a little.

But that slight malice was no more than the level of a brat's prank. It really did not seem like the attitude that Hank Pym's descendants, who supposedly viewed him as an enemy, should have had.

Stark had also specifically looked into it. Dr. Pym had only one adult daughter and one student. Apart from them, he had no other juniors, let alone any underage ones.

"Huh. Didn't expect this old guy's daughter to be quite pretty."

When he saw Hope van Dyne's photo, Tony Stark could not help whistling.

"Then that kid probably has nothing to do with old man Pym," Stark muttered as he stroked his chin. "Right, Pym Particles were merely discovered by that old man first. Since he could discover them, someone else naturally could too."

Although he had misunderstood the source of Kraft's size-changing ability, Tony Stark's overall line of reasoning had not been wrong.

After ruling out the possibility that he was Dr. Pym's descendant, Stark began searching for information on notable young geniuses.

Naturally, that included Kraft, the chief designer of Dream Toy Company.

And in Tony Stark's mind, Kraft remained the prime suspect. There were obviously others who seemed more suspicious, yet for some reason Stark was convinced that he had been the pilot of that ridiculous puppet mech. Even he found that intuition a little strange.

Maybe it was because he was a loyal customer of that kid's products?

After listing Kraft as his primary suspect, the more Stark analyzed things, the more certain he became that it was him...

A genius teenager, from a wealthy family, living in New York—and most importantly, judging by the pile of bizarre gadgets on Kraft's Clever Hands Channel, the kid clearly had an unconventional mind. It was perfectly reasonable, then, for him to build a puppet-shaped exoskeleton armor.

His prankish behavior also had an explanation. It was no secret that Kraft Lee held certain prejudices against people who were not yellow-skinned. Tony Stark had J.A.R.V.I.S. look into it casually and learned the whole story. Although the information had been processed by Martin Lee, it was enough to support Stark's guess.

However, although Tony Stark had basically confirmed Kraft's identity, he had no intention of exposing him. Kraft had broken through his firewall without taking the intrusion any further, so Stark naturally had to respect the other party's privacy. Since Kraft did not want his identity exposed, Stark would not reveal it on his own initiative.

Of course, that also had something to do with Kraft's age. If Kraft had been an adult, Tony Stark would not have been so good-tempered.

Kraft still did not know that Tony Stark had guessed his identity. After returning to his workshop, he excitedly started doing somersaults.

Although Kraft was not a Tony Stark fan, he acknowledged the playboy's professional skill. Not to mention that Stark had created an exoskeleton mech that was no less impressive than Kraft's Dream creations. Being able to beat up a Stark like that was more than enough to make Kraft excited.

Of course, once the excitement faded, Kraft also felt a little shaken. Ever since he had made himself a whole pile of equipment in the miniature factory, he had become somewhat overconfident. He did not think himself invincible, but he had looked down on those so-called tech companies. Tony Stark's Iron Man suit, however, made him calm down again.

It might have looked like he had chased Tony Stark around and beaten him up today, but Kraft did not believe that Iron Man suit was all it had to offer. Tony Stark had not even painted it, and it barely had any weapons equipped. Clearly, the armor was only an early version. With Stark's genius, as well as Stark Industries' money and weapons manufacturing behind him, improving that suit's combat strength would be far too easy.

And Tony Stark was merely one relatively famous scientist. There were countless scientists in the world on the same level as him, as well as research teams funded by various countries and organizations. Who knew whether other masters of black technology were hiding in the shadows?

Leaving everything else aside, wasn't Hulk a living example?

In addition, Kraft had discovered one of his own weaknesses—his physical abilities could not keep up.

Once the pace of battle reached a certain level, Kraft's reactions could no longer keep up. He could basically only rely on Angela and Haro's assistance. He figured Tony Stark was probably much the same. It did not have much of an impact, but it still lacked flexibility.

And there was no sense of participation...

If Kraft had not wanted to experience the fun of piloting a mech, why bother making mechs that needed a pilot? He could have just made autonomous robots and left them under artificial intelligence control. In the end, he was still only a fifteen-year-old boy.

There was also the matter of stamina. If Tony Stark had not called for a stop back then, Kraft would not have lasted much longer either. Artificial intelligence handled the controls, but the λ-Driver system used emotional energy. Kraft had to remain focused the entire time, or Botai-kun's punches would not have had much power.

Not to mention that Kraft had to shout every now and then to stir up his emotions, which also consumed quite a bit of stamina...

"Emmmm... Angela, make me a training plan first."

Kraft thought it over for a long time, but he still could not persuade himself to research human enhancement. The shadow from his childhood was not so easily overcome, so he could only settle for the next best thing.

After the two "scientists" who had mastered black technology held a cordial and friendly exchange in private, they both put the little matter behind them. However, it caught the attention of an intelligence organization whose current name was still long and tongue-twisting.

After all, Tony Stark had not made any effort to hide himself when he had flown around the skies over New York. Since Kraft could discover him, S.H.I.E.L.D., as an intelligence organization, naturally could as well.

What was more, Kraft had later set off such a conspicuous firework.

Fortunately, Tony Stark's mansion was remote enough. The few cameras that might have captured footage of the scene had also been hacked by Angela. Thus, S.H.I.E.L.D. only knew that Stark had built an iron man for now, while Kraft's existence had not been exposed.

"Keep a close watch on Tony Stark's movements at all times!"

The former and current directors of S.H.I.E.L.D. issued exactly the same order to their subordinates.