Chapter 110: The New Mark VI
Telekinesis.
The word landed on Tony and he went still for a moment.
He looked at Natasha with something skeptical in it, then turned to Matthew, with the air of someone trying to verify something. "Matthew. Are you actually a superhuman? Like she just said?"
Matthew, for his part, had been caught genuinely off guard, which surprised even him. He had not known, until this moment, that he had apparently developed a telekinesis ability.
But the ladder had been extended. He was happy to climb it.
"Ah... yes. I am." He said it with complete conviction.
Tony, because it was Matthew, didn't think to apply any skepticism at all. He just looked curious.
"When did it manifest?"
When?
Matthew's mind moved quickly. "Not long ago, actually. Right after the Green Goblin's bomb hit me. My theory is that some kind of switch in the human body gets thrown when you're in enough danger. Whatever the mechanism, that's apparently when it activated."
The answer had no obvious flaws. The goodwill buffer was thick enough that it would absorb almost anything, and nobody could independently verify the timing of an ability's emergence. He could have said it happened five minutes ago and it would have been equally unprovable.
"Is that right." Tony nodded. Then: "Congratulations."
He meant it. Tony wasn't the type who secretly resented a friend's good fortune. Matthew now had something that could keep him alive in a dangerous situation, and Tony was genuinely, uncomplicatedly glad about that.
He turned to Natasha. "And while we're all here, setting aside that whole business of you spying on me inside my own company, I do want to say I'm grateful. Your people helped me find something my father left behind."
"If not for that, I'd probably still be drinking two liters of chlorophyll juice every morning."
He paused. "So. Does that mean you've decided to join the Avengers?"
"No." Tony made an X with both arms. "Gratitude is one thing. Joining is another entirely. Merits and faults don't cancel each other out. I think you're familiar with that principle."
"If something serious happens, I'll show up. But joining your organization." He waved this off. "I'll pass."
He'd complain about it and show up anyway. That was who he was now, after Afghanistan. Whatever came out of his mouth, the substance underneath it had changed.
"Fair enough." Natasha shrugged without particular feeling. "Since my cover's been blown anyway, there's no point staying."
She looked at Matthew. "As for the Avengers Initiative, I'd encourage you to think it over, Mr. Lawrence. We'll be evaluating you at the same time." She stood and straightened her jacket. "Think of it like a job market. Companies assess candidates, but candidates are assessing the company at the same time."
She walked out without looking back.
Tony watched the door close and nudged Matthew with his elbow. "You're not going to say anything? The face alone is worth a comment."
"No need. I already have more than enough attractive women in my life." Matthew's voice was entirely level, as if stating a fact that required no special attention.
"That's different."
"At least the type is different."
"Though I suppose Pepper isn't bad either if you're—"
He stopped.
"Pretend I said nothing."
Tony cut that thread without ceremony, cleared his throat twice, and pivoted deliberately toward more comfortable territory.
"Hey, Matthew." He reached up and clicked the helmet open with a sharp snap, revealing the extremely pleased face underneath. "Noticed anything different about me?"
Matthew looked him over with exaggerated care. "You didn't wash your face this morning?"
"I absolutely washed my face!"
"The change." He raised one hand and tapped the arc reactor on his chest. The pride in his voice had almost nowhere left to go.
"I solved the poisoning problem. Replaced the palladium with a different isotope entirely. It's cleaner, more efficient, and the operational runtime is significantly extended."
"And on top of that, I've integrated Stanavistin directly into the suit. The system runs concurrently with the armor now. Both active at the same time."
Matthew nodded, with the manner of someone whose suspicion had just been confirmed. He'd noticed something slightly different about Tony's suit since he walked in, something he hadn't been able to place. That was what it was. Stanavistin, fully integrated.
His gaze moved across the new armor's lines and he asked, with the ease of a passing thought: "Any plans for what you want to do with the armor next?"
He had his reasons. The Mark series had always evolved under pressure. In Iron Man 1, discovering the Mark II iced over at altitude had produced the Mark III. Stane had made the portability problem impossible to ignore, and that had given the world the Mark V in Iron Man 2. But in this timeline, Whiplash was never going to arrive as an antagonist. Ivan Vanko was already at Osborn Industrial, working for Matthew. Without that particular pressure, Tony's upgrade cycle might stall entirely.
Matthew had no interest in letting that happen.
"Upgrade roadmap..." Tony thought about it briefly. "I've actually considered this."
"The fundamental problem is the tradeoff. Push for portability and you sacrifice defense and firepower. Push for maximum power and defense and portability becomes impossible."
"It's a real headache." He made a small, dissatisfied sound. "The armor works, but I can't sleep in it."
"That said, right now, I think aside from the portability issue, which has always been a problem, there aren't any other serious weaknesses left in this suit."
He raised a hand and knocked twice on the chest plate. Two low, solid thuds.
This armor had been assembled entirely fresh after he completed the new reactor. The weapons systems alone represented a substantial upgrade: the Stanavistin time-slow sync module, a laser capable of cutting through steel in an instant, and eight propulsion grenades.
"This suit is a different beast from anything I've built before. I'd say this new Mark VI could at minimum hold its own against your Nemesis." He said it with the look of someone who had already decided they wanted to find out.
He'd been stopping the occasional crime around the city, but that kind of work had no meaningful ceiling requirements. One punch and done, usually. You couldn't get a real picture of the armor's combat performance from that.
Matthew read the anticipation behind Tony's expression and put on a deliberately unconvinced look. "Is that right? I'll believe it when I see it."
Tony's interest sharpened immediately.
"You don't believe me? Then put it to the test."
"I'll tell you right now, the Mark VI's performance is at a completely different tier from the old Mark II. If something gets damaged in the process, don't come to me with the bill." His confidence in the suit was complete and unqualified.
Matthew's expression eased into something more satisfied.
That was exactly the answer he needed.
Not because he wanted to give Tony a difficult experience. Because Tony needed an upgrade target: something to work toward, something that would pull the next iteration of the armor out of him rather than leaving him satisfied with where things stood now.