Chapter 100 Iron Man’s Kryptonite

“Ding ding ding.”

Saint stopped, and with a raised arm, he tapped on the frozen face plate of Tony Stark’s Iron Man suit. “Lamp man?” he asked.

“Hair gel kid?” came Stark’s distorted voice from within the suit.

Saint tapped the chest of the suit again, “Lamp,” he said simply.

Tony Stark was at a loss for words, “Hair gel kid,” he finally said, “What were you doing chasing me just now?”

“Speaking of that…didn’t you feel like something was off on your chest?” Saint asked.

Tony Stark was speechless once again, struggling to raise his heavy arm to feel his chest, “$hit!” he exclaimed.

“Watch your language…” Saint chided.

Tony Stark’s frustration was evident, “What era is this? The 17th century? I’m disappointed in your sense of humor.”

“Hey, what kind of attitude is that? I just saved your life,” Saint retorted.

“Forget it, I’ve got everything under control. You’re just getting in the way,” Tony Stark said dismissively.

“Is that so?” Saint raised his eyebrows, a hint of amusement in his voice as he nodded, “Sure, why not?”

Tony Stark couldn’t shake off the feeling of unease that washed over him as Saint spoke. And then, as if on cue, he felt a sudden weightlessness take over his entire body. He realized too late that Saint had simply let go of him…

“Oh, for the love of-” Tony Stark tumbled towards the ground, cursing Saint in his head as he frantically searched for the manual release switch on his waist. With a violent twist, the active steel plates on his back and limbs popped out, designed as resistance flaps for emergency deceleration. The suit’s descent slowed dramatically, and with the sudden increase in air resistance, most of the ice inside the suit was scraped away.

With the freezing effects removed, the suit’s internal circuit immediately resumed operation. Tony Stark’s vision lit up (the AI assistant system restarted), and he immediately issued a command for the main and secondary thrusters to operate at full thrust. However, the light emitted from his hands and feet was only at ten percent thrust…

“Jarvis?!” Tony Stark exclaimed in frustration.

Tony Stark gazed at the rapidly approaching ground, his voice trembling with urgency: “Why is the main and secondary propulsion of the suit not working? !”

“Because the Ark reactor in your chest is not providing enough power,” Saint replied coolly.

Tony Stark cursed, “Damned stone! Damned hair gel kid!”

Saint coughed, “Cough! Are you saying you don’t want me to save you?”

Tony Stark backtracked, “I take back what I just said!!!”

“Just a warning,” Saint continued, “It’s about to get rough.”

Tony Stark’s expression twisted in confusion, “What does that mean… Ow! My waist! My waist…”

…

Ten minutes later, as the two flew towards Stark’s mansion, Saint impatiently urged, “Can’t you fly any faster, Stark?”

“Ask your stone,” Stark retorted.

Tony Stark pointed to his chest and grumbled, “If I had 100% energy supply, I could leave you so far behind, you wouldn’t even see my taillights!”

Well, that’s not entirely untrue. Even in the earlier models of the suit, the normal cruising speed of this grandchild is measured in Mach units.

Saint nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders, not wanting to engage in a heated discussion. He knew that when it came to endurance, he was not exactly the fastest superhero out there, and he preferred not to dwell on that topic because a Man shouldn’t talk about endurance casually.

Another ten minutes passed…

“How much further do we have to go?” Tony Stark queried.

“You’ve been here before, haven’t you?” Saint replied coolly.

“So what does that matter?”

“Eh, never mind. Straight line distance, 58 kilometers.”

“What’s your current flight speed?”

“60 kilometers per hour…”

An hour later, Tony Stark’s coastal villa had been transformed into a state-of-the-art underground laboratory.

Saint watched as Tony Stark replaced the Ark reactor in his chest with the help of a team of robotic arms. He couldn’t help but ask, “These two lamps look different, what improvements did you make?”

Tony Stark smirked, “It’s not really an improvement. Essentially, there’s no difference. I just replaced it with one that can change the ‘palladium core’ repeatedly. And if it’s just supplying power to the magnets in my chest, one palladium core can last for over 50 years. So, before my Iron Man suit was completed, I didn’t realize the need for this function.”

“Come here.”

Tony Stark gestured for Saint to join him, holding the reactor that had a Dragon Ball stuck to it. “Control your stone,” he said, “once I pop out the Palladium core, it will soon be sapped of energy. Then, you know what will happen.”

Saint stepped forward, his energy-covered hand enveloping the Dragon Ball, transforming it into an energy state, a ball of light now resting in his palm.

“Good,” Tony Stark said, dropping the new Ark reactor and walking out of the mechanical arm’s encirclement. He looked at the ball of light in Saint’s hand with excitement, rubbing his hands together. “Let me see, what kind of energy is this?”

But Saint was suspicious, “Wait,” he said, taking a step back and giving Tony Stark a skeptical look. “Lamp man, did you forget something?”

Tony Stark looked at him, repeating the promise he had made countless times before, “Let me check, I owe you one.”

Saint nodded, “That’s about right.”

Saint nodded with satisfaction, “Alright, where would you like me to place this?”

Tony Stark hurried into his laboratory, sifting through a pile of disorganized equipment before pulling out a cylindrical object made of a series of interconnected transistors. “Insert your hand here,” he gestured, “And once I power it up, you can release it.”

Saint looked at the device with curiosity, “And what exactly is this?”

“You’re familiar with Tesla, right?” Stark asked.

“Of course, electric cars. Oh, did you remove this from a car?” Saint asked.

Tony Stark let out a sigh, “Never mind that for now.”