At the Sky Base, Tony commandeered Dreykov's former office as his personal lab during the renovation. He punched through the metal walls around it, replacing them with glass, claiming that being able to see the outside scenery from all directions would inspire his creativity.
Blake wasn't sure how much this would actually boost Tony's inspiration, but so far, the only "invention" worthy of the name was a pair of pants that wouldn't tear when Banner transformed.
Today, it was finally Blake's turn.
He donned a pair of knee-high socks made of some unknown material, handed to him by Banner.
There was also a pair of long gloves that reached to his elbows.
Both the socks and gloves had multiple wires running through them.
Tony stood at the console, typing rapidly on the keyboard.
"Get ready, I'll count to three. Blake, you're going to unleash flames from where your hands and feet are covered, got it?"
"Got it!"
Blake obediently nodded, mimicking Tony's take-off stance: feet together, palms facing down.
"3...2...1!"
As Tony counted down, Blake released flames from his body, enveloping his arms and calves.
Tony pressed some button, and in the next moment, Blake's flames vanished, absorbed entirely by the gloves and socks.
All the energy was collected and redirected to his palms and soles.
Blake immediately felt a growing counterforce under his hands and feet.
He started feeling a bit weightless.
"Tony, why does it feel like the power is too low? I can't seem to lift off," Blake muttered in frustration.
"That's because your flames are too dispersed. To be precise, your fire powers are too weak—at least for now. But you're lucky; you met me, and of course, Banner, who deserves around 21%—maybe 25%—of the credit. Get ready, hold still!"
Data from Blake's flames scrolled quickly across the screen in front of Tony, showing temperature, reactive force from the flame jets, energy conversion rates for the boosters, and so on.
"Alright! Now, relax your whole body. I'll count to three, hold this position, and trust me—you're about to experience flight!"
Blake nodded, excited.
Then he saw Tony tapping a few more keys quickly and pressing the Enter key hard.
"Whoosh!"
Suddenly, a powerful thrust surged from his palms and soles, and Blake shot forward like a deflated balloon, carving a graceful arc through the air as he smashed through the lab door and flew out.
"JARVIS, remind me next time to keep the door open—it's such a hassle to fix," Tony said.
The socks and gloves Tony had provided Blake were made of some unknown material, but Tony mentioned they were single-use items, meant to collect data on Blake's flames.
The goal was to maximize Blake's propulsion with minimal effort.
So…
The second attempt saw the boosters suddenly burst into flames, but they burned out instantly, and Blake crashed headfirst into a nearby refrigerator.
On the third attempt, he shattered a toilet tank with his head, narrowly missing an accidental head wash.
Tony was laughing so hard he doubled over, and even the usually serious Banner had a hint of a teasing smile on his face.
Seeing Blake turn his head toward him, Banner quickly pretended to busy himself, looking down.
Blake suspected Tony was doing it on purpose, but he had no proof. Especially when he was on the brink of receiving a flight suit, Blake chose to yield.
Eventually, after Blake ended up with his head lodged in the lab's ceiling panels, his neck awkwardly hanging there while Tony took several pictures, Tony finally had JARVIS create a finished suit.
Blake's armor didn't have as many circuits or energy systems as Tony's. Aside from a lot of energy converters and a few boosters inside, it didn't contain any other complicated features.
This made Blake's suit lighter and slimmer compared to Tony's current Mark series.
Given Blake's natural durability and the protective quality of his combat suit, Tony essentially removed every feature from the suit except for energy conversion and flight.
The suit was made of a thin layer of golden titanium alloy, lacking the bulkiness of Tony's own armor. It looked closer to Spider-Man's later suits or Black Panther's armor.
It was a black full-body suit, with Tony's signature touch of opulence: every edge had a golden trim.
On each shoulder, there was a small golden character "Blake," adding a touch of vintage flair to the armor.
Aside from the lack of a helmet, the suit's back had four retractable wings, which was an addition compared to the Mark series.
When Blake released flames from his whole body, the wings would automatically deploy, and the flames from other parts of his body would channel into these four boosters, greatly enhancing the suit's mobility.
Before designing this suit, Tony had been researching the Mark 7 armor's auto-tracking and auto-wear features. Due to the complexity of his own armor, that research was still ongoing, which turned out to be advantageous for Blake.
With two wristbands, all Blake had to do was take out the suit and spread his arms, and the suit would automatically open and fit around his body based on the position of the wristbands.
To enable this feature, Tony added an Arc Reactor to Blake's suit as a backup power source and for energy use when tracking Blake's location.
This was a very thorough consideration.
However, since Blake had a space-storage ability, he probably wouldn't use this feature often—mostly just for opening and closing the suit when wearing it.
"Top speed is Mach 2. If you switch to the Arc Reactor, you could reach up to Mach 4 at the limit. Blake, this is the fastest suit I've ever built," Tony's voice came through the earpiece as Blake did countless loops in the sky, reluctantly returning to the base.
"Right now, your flames haven't reached the maximum capacity of the boosters and energy converters. As your flames get stronger, the suit's speed can increase further," Tony said after checking all the parameters.
*******************************************
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The World Security Council.
This organization, founded under the leadership of several Western powers, has indeed maintained some regional stability to a certain extent.
However, it remains a coalition bound by regional interests.
That's also why, in the movie, Nick Fury followed Captain America's advice.
While eliminating Hydra, they also disbanded S.H.I.E.L.D.
Furthermore, they handed over the massive intelligence network of S.H.I.E.L.D., led by Agent Hill, to the Avengers.
Even though S.H.I.E.L.D. was later reformed, it was almost entirely detached from Earth's political factors.
Of course, that's all later on. But ever since Nick Fury took over S.H.I.E.L.D., no matter how serious the security issue was, the members of the World Security Council, who hold high positions in various countries, always met via remote projection.
Except this time.
This time, all six permanent members and twelve deputies of the World Security Council were present.
Along with Alexander Pierce, the chairman, and the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., a full assembly of twenty people, all nearly at the pinnacle of power, gathered in person for this rare meeting.
And the topic of this meeting was not about combating drug dealers or terrorists on a global scale.
It was about the public killing incident by Blake in France.
Of course, that was just a catalyst; the core issue was the rise of the Avengers.
Whether it was incorporating the highly potential intelligence organization, the Red Room, or their multiple cross-border actions against terrorists, these actions all violated the hidden interests of certain countries and politicians.
"We must accelerate the weapon development process using the Tesseract. The security and stability of the world depend on the countries and people in this room, not on Captain America and his group of so-called heroes in strange outfits."
"I have a document here that details how, over the past six months, this so-called Avengers, an unofficial organization, repeatedly ignored sovereign borders to strike terrorists in various countries as they pleased."
"Especially that man, Blake. Not only did he publicly use his superpowers to threaten an entire Senate, but he also committed murder in front of everyone at an auction in the Grand Palais in Paris. For God's sake, I've been harassed to death by those Japanese officials lately!"
Several council members, furious and unstoppable, listed at length the Avengers' transgressions, especially those of Blake, describing them as lawless and out of control.
Nick Fury, however, sat there watching coldly.
Although he didn't entirely agree with some of Blake's actions, he held even greater disdain for these so-called council members, who supposedly worked for world security.
Their dirty minds only cared about public support and their own interests and power.
The more they discussed, the more agitated they became. They absolutely could not tolerate an uncontrolled, independently financed, high-level military organization.
In the end, everyone turned their eyes toward Nick Fury.
"One month, Director Fury. We'll give you one more month. The weapons developed using the Tesseract must reach mass production, to be prioritized for equipping special forces in each country represented here."
"Ladies and gentlemen, I understand your concerns. However, with all due respect, whether it's Blake, Captain Rogers, or Tony Stark, while their actions have crossed boundaries, they have, in a certain sense, worked to maintain world peace, haven't they?"
In fact, some progress had already been made in Tesseract weapon development, but Nick Fury had no intention of handing this technology over to them.
"Director Fury, may I remind you to remember your role? They are, in essence, a group of criminals trampling on the law. Their actions are not sanctioned by any country and are disrupting the world order. I hope you remember that well, and don't forget our deadline—one month!"
One of the council members cast a deep look at Nick Fury.
Everyone in the room was astute enough to know; there was no way S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't have some of their own people embedded within it.
During the Battle of New York, they bypassed Nick Fury and directly ordered a nuclear strike on Manhattan, showing that they definitely have ways to counter Nick Fury.
In California, at the former Project Pegasus Research Facility, now a secret S.H.I.E.L.D. base.
Dr. Erik Selvig, recruited into S.H.I.E.L.D. by Nick Fury, was conducting various data tests on something that looked like a large Arc Reactor.
And at the center of that Arc Reactor-like device was the Cosmic Cube, perfectly square.
This indicated that S.H.I.E.L.D.'s development of the Cosmic Cube was still focused on energy extraction. Weapons created in this way would only be slightly more powerful than traditional gunpowder-based weapons.
The ammunition became pure energy-based, allowing for adjustable power levels in individual weapons.
It was indeed much more advanced, but limited by the material of the weapons and output power, there hadn't been any real-time progress in terms of power.
Nick Fury had endured a lot of pressure in today's meeting, so the first thing he said upon entering was:
"Dr. Selvig, we need to proceed to the third phase of development as soon as possible. We're out of time, and the people upstairs are eager to turn this into a weapon that can counter Iron Man."
Dr. Erik Selvig was slightly stunned upon hearing this. "I must remind you that the energy contained in this thing is beyond your imagination. Rushing into advanced development without proper safeguards could lead to a disaster!"
"Then improve your safeguards, Doctor. Trust me, if we don't hurry, those stupid fools upstairs will undoubtedly assemble their own team to develop the weapon, and *that* would truly lead to disaster!"
Nick Fury had his own considerations. Not to mention the Captain Marvel and alien incident back in 1995.
Even during Thor's last arrival, both the big guy wielding a hammer and the fire-spitting robot possessed the power to destroy cities.
As an Earthling, he wouldn't place his hope for protection on that ridiculous Asgard.
Howard Stark once said something that Nick Fury strongly agreed with:
"Peace is kept by the person with the biggest stick."
Earth needed to have its own big stick to deter those advanced alien civilizations out in the universe.
Nick Fury's words left Dr. Erik Selvig in deep thought.
After a long pause, he finally spoke slowly.
"I can intensify the development, but it has to be done step-by-step. We can increase the risk, but it still has to be within controllable limits, right?"
Nick Fury nodded, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.
Dr. Erik Selvig then continued to bury himself in his work.
However, he had barely started when an ear-piercing alarm sounded from all the instruments.
The energy levels of the Cosmic Cube were climbing rapidly.
"Doctor, is this what you call step-by-step?"
Although not a scientist, Nick Fury understood the values on the computer screen. The energy fluctuations of the Cosmic Cube had spiked nearly twentyfold compared to just a moment ago.
This could hardly be called step-by-step.
"I haven't even started yet?"
Selvig looked up, bewildered.
*******************************************
You can get access to early chapters on patr*on.
If you like my work and you want to support me then you can become my patron on patre*n.
My patr*on account is S_Pandey_0170
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