18: Test of Strength

A few days later.

It was a rainy day.

The sky was overcast with dark clouds, and the fine rain turned the sea outside Stark's mansion into a mottled pattern.

In the underground garage.

Lyon was wearing a tight-fitting sensory suit, with circular metal plates attached to various parts of his body. Wires extended from the metal plates to a large machine.

"Are you sure this iron block can test my strength?" Lyon asked, flexing his wrists.

Today was the day he and Tony had agreed upon to test his strength and new abilities.

So, at the break of dawn, when the sun managed to squeeze a few rays of light through the gaps in the clouds, Tony eagerly dragged him out of bed.

After washing up and having breakfast, the two of them headed to the underground garage.

On the wall of the garage facing the sea, a circular metal block with a radius of three meters was fixed in place.

This was the tool they would use to test his strength.

"Why do you always use a questioning tone to state a fact?" Tony replied confidently.

He explained, "Half a year ago, after you went to space, I had a feeling that this day would come, so I preemptively built this strength tester here."

"Most of its materials are made from a tungsten alloy I specially synthesized."

"High melting point, high strength, high wear resistance."

"It won't deform under the weight of a million tons, and even a ten-thousand-ton impact in a small point won't damage it."

"The alloy I created during the synthesis process for this tester could be used to build ships that are far ahead of our time."

Tony stood in front of the computer desk. "So don't worry, I can guarantee it won't be damaged by you!"

Lyon still had his doubts. "Tony, do you know that your confident demeanor right now is exactly the same as when we had our contest a few days ago?"

"..." Tony was momentarily at a loss for words. "That's a completely different situation. Anyway, all you need to do is stand in front of the tester, punch with all your might, and leave the rest to me!"

"No, that's not safe," Lyon countered. "At the very least, you should put on your armor first."

Tony smacked his forehead. "I'm over ten meters away from you, and that's still not safe? Since when did you become so self-assured?"

"Put on the armor," Lyon repeated.

"Fine, I'll put it on!" Tony raised his hands in surrender. "As long as it will put our little prince's mind at ease, I'll wear it."

Red light glowed from two bracelets on his wrists.

A few seconds later, a red and gold flying capsule zoomed into the garage and quickly transformed into armor, enveloping Tony.

Mark III—this new suit was crafted by Tony over the past few days, directly replicating Lyon's data. The only difference from the original is that its energy source is not powered by the new element. 

Aside from that, it shares almost all the same functions as the Mark VII from the movie. To put this into perspective, the Mark VII only debuted in the first phase of The Avengers and was incredibly powerful.

(Note: Lyon helped out, which is why it was completed so quickly.)

(Another note: Tony specifically focused on the liquid circulation system and deliberately removed this feature in front of Lyon. Surely, Tony will regret this decision later, falling victim to the "true fragrance" rule.)

"Is this good enough now?" Tony stretched his legs and arms, making a gesture. "I'm looking forward to your performance."

Lyon rolled his eyes in exasperation—Tony even had to copy his lines.

"Let's hope this tester you built is as tough as your words."

Standing in front of the pitch-black tester, Lyon took a deep breath. The air in the basement began to swirl and form gusts of wind.

Tony, who had never seen anything like this before, looked around in astonishment as papers were blown into the air.

Then he saw Lyon slowly squat down, his muscles bulging and tensing, resembling the most perfect stone sculpture.

"Why does this... feel a bit off..." 

Tony stared blankly as Lyon let out a low shout and suddenly threw a punch.

In an instant, the entire underground garage was turned upside down!

Boom!

The deafening roar, as if a missile had exploded right next to his ear, filled Tony's entire world.

Everywhere he looked, there were fragments and dust clouds.

The sudden, violent gust of wind knocked Tony over, and tables and chairs smashed into him, trying to sweep him away into some unknown place.

—If it weren't for Jarvis quickly activating the suit's thrusters, Tony would have been blown right out of the garage.

However, this chaos didn't last long.

After about ten seconds, the feeling of the world collapsing subsided.

The entire underground garage was blanketed in dust, making visibility almost zero.

"*Cough, cough!* What... just happened?" Tony turned off the thrusters and staggered a few steps as he landed on the ground.

Then, he heard Lyon exhale. "fuu~"

Whoosh!!

The wind swept up again, but this time it was much gentler, merely blowing away some of the remaining debris and the dust hanging in the air.

Now, the view was clear.

And Tony's brain froze.

The once minimalist-style basement had now turned into a war-torn ruin reminiscent of Syria.

It was riddled with holes, looking like a dangerous, dilapidated building.

Everything that had once been in the room—glass, machinery, lights—was gone.

The dozen or so limited-edition sports cars parked in the underground garage were also gone.

Even the testing apparatus on the wall, which Tony had believed could withstand almost any impact, was now reduced to a gaping hole.

On the other side of the hole was the misty, rain-soaked sea.

"My God..."

...

The scene shifted to the afternoon.

The location was a grassy field on the outskirts of Los Angeles.

The characters were still Lyon and Tony, the two brothers.

The light rain continued to fall as Lyon, dressed in a shirt, kept hammering away at a huge circular iron block with a loud "clang, clang."

"You said this iron block could withstand my strength!" he complained. "But I didn't even use half of my strength, and it went from a flat shape to a convex one."

"And then it fell into the ocean, so I had to dive to the bottom to fish it out."

"Come on, Lyon."

Tony, standing fifty meters away in his Iron Man suit, was adjusting data on a computer and communicating via radio.

"Not even God could have predicted that your strength would be so ridiculous."

"Who knows how your power has grown so exponentially, even though you've only been absorbing sunlight for half a year."

"Look at those three months you spent sunbathing in Los Angeles."

"In over ninety days, your strength only increased by about four hundred tons."

"Jarvis and I built a model based on that time."

"We predicted that after a while, your strength should be between one thousand and five thousand tons, and your speed shouldn't exceed five Mach."

"Who could have imagined you'd become this strong?"

"And look at that TV show Smallville—Clark Kent was in high school and still couldn't fly, and he'd been soaking up the sun for over ten years!"

Lyon paused what he was doing and pressed his earpiece. "You watched Smallville? I thought it was pretty good, showing Superman's emotional and psychological growth."

"But you probably didn't watch the latter half, did you? Superman's feats later on are pretty outrageous!"

Tony retorted, "But even he didn't get stronger as fast as you did!"

"Well, that might be because I'm already an adult, or maybe it's because soaking up the sun in space is more efficient?" Lyon speculated.

He then punched the testing device again with force. "Alright! The testing device is back to its original shape. So how do we test now?"

_________

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