Lynn dusted off his hands and sat up straight again.
"Oh, right, Tony."
Tony was standing in front of the holographic projection, adjusting the angle of the thruster nozzles. At the sound of his voice, he tilted his head, his tone impatient. "What is it now?"
"Nothing. Just a friendly reminder." Lynn sounded casual. "If you're planning to test its limits at high altitude, you'd better solve the icing problem first."
Tony's fingers, hovering over the holographic panel, paused almost imperceptibly.
Lynn rose from the couch and stretched his neck. "I don't want to film another crash. Repeating the same scene really isn't much fun."
Tony turned around and folded his arms, his chin slightly raised and his voice full of skepticism. "I'll verify your claim. JARVIS, pull up the intake module's low-temperature tolerance specifications."
Lynn watched him for two seconds, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly. He neither called him out nor asked any questions, simply turning to pat Yinsen on the shoulder. "You two talk tech. I'm heading back."
Yinsen looked up and said gently, "Won't you stay for dinner?"
"No." Lynn raised his hand and traced a light stroke through the air. Orange-red sparks bloomed, tearing open a portal to the warmly lit hall of the New York Sanctum. "Wong's cooking waits for no one, and I don't want to be a third wheel here."
Tony glanced at the portal, his gaze lingering on its sparking edges. His fingertips unconsciously rubbed his forearm, curiosity and wariness hidden in his eyes.
"All right, get going." Tony waved a hand. "I'll call you over to watch when the MK2 takes its test flight."
"I look forward to it." With that, Lynn stepped through the portal, and the sparks contracted and faded away.
Yinsen watched the spot where the portal had vanished, then turned toward Tony's back. "That high-altitude icing he mentioned-have you already included it in the test plan?"
Tony fell silent for half a second, then turned toward the holographic projection, his voice low.
"JARVIS."
"Yes, sir."
"Bring up the complete current design and run a simulation of extreme high-altitude, low-temperature conditions."
"Retrieved, sir. The current modules have not been adapted for extreme cold or frost protection and have not undergone testing under extreme conditions. Shall I generate a supplementary testing and optimization plan?"
Tony stared at the shifting data on the screen, his brow unconsciously tightening. He tapped the edge of the desk twice. "Generate it immediately."
Yinsen lifted his glass and took a sip of water, quietly watching Tony's tense profile.
Over the next few days, Lynn's days grew increasingly agonizing.
The abnormalities affecting him grew more and more severe. They had long since gone beyond occasional sluggish perception and brief memory gaps; even his consciousness and body were beginning to fall out of sync.
The first loss of control happened in the Sanctum library. He was leafing through a volume about the soul and consciousness and had just decided to copy down a passage, only to look down and discover a pen clutched in his hand and the passage already written in his notebook.
The handwriting was his, but he had no memory of writing it. As his fingertips touched the dry ink, a chill ran down his back.
The second time was today. Wong said something to him in the corridor, and he replied as usual. After taking a few steps forward, his mind suddenly went blank. He whipped around, his voice taut as he asked, "Wong, what did you just say?"
Wong looked up at him, his gaze serious and searching. "I said dinner starts at seven today. What's wrong? You haven't seemed right these past couple of days."
"Nothing." Lynn suppressed his panic and shook his head.
As he turned to leave, he could clearly feel Wong's gaze lingering on his back.
The Ancient One had told him to record patterns in the abnormalities. He had already filled nearly half a notebook, but the more he recorded, the more hopeless he felt. I've recorded every single aspect I could label, but no matter how many times I go over them, I can't find even the slightest connection. The abnormalities appeared at random and disappeared at random, with no pattern at all.
The sense of losing control without being able to identify the cause weighed painfully on him. He needed AI more urgently than ever to make sense of these disordered abnormalities.
He lay in bed staring at the ceiling, his eyes open well past midnight. His mind was full of possibilities, but not one held up.
After a sleepless night, he sat on the couch in the Sanctum hall the next morning, his mind filled with broken fragments of memory.
His phone suddenly rang.
He picked it up. Tony Stark's name flashed on the screen. He pressed the answer button, his voice tinged with fatigue.
"Hello."
"Get over here. Right now." Tony spoke rapidly, barely containing his excitement.
"The MK2's finished?"
"You'll know when you get here." Tony hung up immediately.
Lynn looked at the darkened screen, closed his notebook, and tossed it onto the couch. Staying cooped up in the Sanctum wasn't going to yield any answers. He might as well get out for a bit; perhaps his thoughts would become clearer.
He raised his hand and made a light stroke. A portal bloomed in the hall, opening onto the basement laboratory of Tony's mansion, where the floor-to-ceiling windows reflected the midday sunlight.
Tony stood before the central workbench. Yinsen sat beside him, studying the flight parameters on a tablet with a serious expression.
"You're here?" Tony glanced up at him, a flamboyant smile curling his lips. "Watch closely. Today, you'll see some real Stark technology."
"Where's the MK2?" Lynn looked around. The robotic arms were all in their resting positions, and only a few holographic projections shifted above the workbench, displaying flight attitudes and test data.
"In the sealed test chamber." Tony pointed toward the metal doors at the far end of the laboratory. The indicator lights beside them glowed a deep blue. "JARVIS, switch to the live feed from the test chamber."
"Yes, sir."
The central holographic screen lit up. Inside the pure-white, sealed test chamber stood a brand-new suit of armor, completely different from the Mark I's rugged appearance.
The MK2 was streamlined from head to toe, its bright silver alloy gleaming coldly. Every curve had been optimized for aerodynamics, and the Arc Reactor in its chest emitted a steady white light, combining power and beauty.
The Mark II.
Lynn watched the screen in silence for two seconds, then gave a soft whistle. Tony's ears twitched, and his smile deepened, but he straightened his collar with feigned composure.
"This is only the initial prototype. I'll keep upgrading it." Tony swept his fingers across the holographic projection. "I've got JARVIS screening color schemes. I haven't settled on the final version yet, but my initial plan is..."
"Red and gold."
Lynn interrupted lazily, his tone casual yet exceptionally certain.
The smile vanished from Tony's face. His brows drew tight as he turned and fixed Lynn with an unblinking stare, his eyes full of wariness and scrutiny.
Lynn met his gaze, a careless smile curving his lips. He offered no explanation, merely lifting his chin to signal that Tony should continue.
Tony's fingers unconsciously clenched. He wanted to say something, but in the end, he merely snorted, abruptly turned back, and tapped a fingertip to close the color-scheme interface.