บท 217: I Want to See Howard

After discussing the movie with Kara, Russell was about to leave the dressing room when his phone rang.

It was a call from Tony Stark!

What could he be calling for?

Russell looked at the caller ID, a hint of puzzlement on his face. While his relationship with Tony was decent, they didn't interact much in normal circumstances.

After pressing the answer button, Tony's voice came through.

"Do you have some free time now? Is it convenient for you to come to Stark Tower?"

"What's going on?" Russell asked.

"Uh... I've run into some trouble, some trouble I can't solve on my own, and I might need your help," Tony's tone sounded somewhat dejected, nothing like his usual self.

"Sure, I can come over shortly."

Though he didn't know what kind of trouble Tony had encountered, since Tony had proactively called him, Russell didn't mind making a trip.

"Oh, by the way, when you come over, bring your armor with you," Tony added.

Hearing Tony's request, Russell suddenly thought of something. Could it be that Tony wanted to discuss the palladium poisoning issue with him now? Considering the timing, it was about time for Tony to face the palladium poisoning issue.

"Okay!" Russell replied without refusing.

"I'll be waiting at the tower. Just fly over."

With that, Tony hung up the call.

"If there are any issues during the movie production, feel free to let me know," Russell told Kara as he turned to leave.

"Yeah, I got it!" Kara nodded.

However, just as he was about to open the door to leave the dressing room, Russell suddenly remembered something.

"By the way, absolutely no overly revealing scenes, and no kissing or bedroom scenes."

"Tell the director for me, don't play those damn unwritten rules within the crew."

"I don't care how they did things in Hollywood before, but since we're making a movie for Octopus Monster Media now, just stick to making the movie professionally."

Seeing Russell's serious expression, Kara suddenly burst into laughter, her laughter dazzling and flirtatious.

"Don't worry, who do you think I am? I'm Supergirl!"

After saying that, Kara raised her seemingly powerless right fist, which was fair and tender.

"Even Supergirl is a woman, having a bit of craftiness isn't a bad thing."

"Alright, I got it. I'll take care of myself!"

Kara said nonchalantly.

Seeing Kara's carefree attitude, Russell shook his head helplessly. However, he didn't say anything more and left the dressing room directly.

After taking the elevator back to his office, he flew out of the modified window and headed towards Stark Tower.

Octopus Monster Industry and Stark Tower were both located in Midtown Manhattan, with a straight-line distance of only about one kilometer between them.

Within seconds, Russell arrived at Stark Tower and landed in the stylish corridor.

At this moment, Tony, wearing sunglasses, sat on the sofa in the living room, holding a glass of whiskey.

When he saw Russell's arrival, Tony stood up and walked towards him.

"Would you like something to drink?" Tony asked as Russell entered the living room.

"Scotch whiskey," Russell replied directly.

While answering Tony, he used his X-ray vision to observe Tony slightly. As expected, the palladium poisoning had become quite severe for Tony.

The blood vessels around the arc reactor in his chest had swollen like veins, and the strange color was spreading outward. Even farther, it had already reached his neck.

Compared to the "veins" around the arc reactor, the marks on Tony's neck were not very clear, but it was evident that as long as Tony continued to use the arc reactor made of palladium, his death due to palladium poisoning was only a matter of time.

Tony went to the bar in the living room, found a bottle of good Scotch whiskey, and poured a glass for Russell.

Then, he returned to Russell and handed him the glass.

"Let's sit down and talk!"

Tony said to Russell.

"Alright!"

Although Tony was currently wearing sunglasses, it was evident that he hadn't had a good rest in a long time, as his dark circles were quite severe.

After Russell sat down, Tony downed the whiskey in his glass and continued, "Didn't I ask you to bring your armor?"

"If you want to see my armor, I can show it to you anytime."

Upon hearing Russell's words, Tony suddenly paused and quickly assessed Russell.

"It seems like you've found a new way to carry it," Tony said, looking somewhat complicated.

"It's true."

"Alright, let's not talk about this. Why did you ask me to come here?"

Russell took a sip of the whiskey in his glass and asked slowly.

Upon hearing his question, Tony didn't answer immediately. Instead, he sighed and pulled down the collar of his T-shirt, revealing the "veins" around his neck and collarbone.

"As you can see, I'm poisoned, palladium poisoning."

"This thing saved my life in Afghanistan, but now it's slowly taking it away."

Tony pointed to the arc reactor in his chest with his finger.

"For you, this should be an easy problem to solve, right?"

"You just need to find a skilled doctor to remove the bomb fragments from your body, and you'll stop using the arc reactor."

"As far as I know, there are plenty of doctors in the world capable of performing this high-level heart surgery, and with your abilities, you can easily find one."

Russell said slowly.

"That's right, I can find such a doctor, and I've already contacted a few of them."

"But you know, what I want isn't just that," Tony said seriously, looking at Russell.

"I can remove the arc reactor from my chest and install it on the armor as an internal power source."

"But that's just a temporary solution. As long as the armor still uses a palladium-based arc reactor, wearing the armor will still affect me due to palladium exposure. I need a new element to replace palladium."

"I've tried all kinds of elements, and none of them can match the effectiveness of palladium."

At this point, Tony let out a sigh.

"So you want to take a look at the reactor used in my armor?" Russell asked Tony.

"That's right! From the surface, your armor's power source also appears to be an arc reactor."

"But I know it's not a simple arc reactor."

"While I'm not very willing to admit it, the inventor of your suit, Howard, achieved something I couldn't. He didn't just outperform me by a mile; he completely outstripped me."

"I want to meet Howard, and if you promise to let me meet him, I'll do whatever you ask. Even if you want a share of Stark Industries, I can give you half of my shares."

Tony said excitedly.