The era of American comics begins

Chapter 247 Anxiety (fourth update)
"Tony, Tony?"

Tony Stark woke up with a splitting headache, feeling like his head had been churned into a big mess.He sat up dazedly, patted his forehead, and tried hard to restore the focusing function of his eyes.After he barely got used to the glaring white light, he finally judged from the messy mechanical devices and circuit boards in front of him that this was his experiment table.

He remembered.He has spent almost the past 72 hours working in the laboratory, and he has been continuously awake until all the functions of his body no longer allow him to stay awake.

He subconsciously glanced at his watch and found that he had unconsciously fallen asleep for four hours.He glanced to the side again, and saw Steve Rogers standing beside him in a white short-sleeved shirt, looking at him suspiciously.

"Are you all right, Tony?" he asked.

"I'm fine." Tony waved his hands, stood up shaking his body, and rubbed his eyes.

"Is something wrong, Captain?"

"Christmas party, you said it was going to be a carnival. Everyone's already in the building." Rogers shrugged. "You remember that, don't you?"

"Oh, yes, the party. Of course, I remember." Tony smacked his forehead. "Just... wait, is it Christmas?"

"Today is December 24th, Christmas Eve." Rogers frowned, "You don't seem to be in a good condition. Maybe you can continue to rest here, and we can too"

"What? No, not at all. I'm fine, look."

As he spoke, he walked out from the lab table, as if he wanted to prove with actions that his condition was suitable for a party.Rogers frowned as he watched his frivolous steps as if they were about to float.

"Seriously, when was the last time you slept, Tony?"

Before Tony could answer, Jarvis' voice sounded very timely: "The last time Mr. Stark fell asleep was 72 hours ago."

"I didn't ask you to talk too much, Jarvis." Tony said displeased.

"You should pay more attention to rest. Anyway."

"Okay, I know." Tony got rid of the criticism and education from the "political commissar" a little impatiently, walked quickly to the bathroom, and said directly to the guest, "You go back and wait with the others, I will come after I wash my face .”

It should be said that it is worthy of Stark's style. The entire top floor of the Avengers Building on Christmas Eve activated the optical camouflage setting, and the roof became transparent.The snowflakes fluttered like goose feathers and fell slowly, sliding down the transparent roof one by one, and the night sky was clear.

Most of the Avengers were already there when Tony entered.There were Steve Rogers, Sam Wilson (Falcon), Colonel James Lord (War Machine).The special agent duo of Natasha and Clint were also present.Spider-Man is temporarily absent, because he has to spend Christmas Eve with Aunt May, but he should join in later when Aunt May falls asleep.

Thor, the god of thunder, also returned to the atrium after finishing the aftermath of Loki's previous affairs. This time, his main task was to retrieve the destroyer armor.So today he also had a rare opportunity to participate in this Christmas party, and even enthusiastically brought the thousand-year-old fine wine that is a specialty of Asgard God's Domain (but most people chose to stay away from it and did not dare to try it).

Tony was particularly moody today.He only had a symbolic chat with the people present at the meeting, and he didn't even talk much with his best friend Rhodes, and then he sat on the sofa alone and didn't speak.

It's certainly quite an anomaly, nothing like Tony Stark at a party.

Rogers sat down beside him.

"No energy?" He put a glass of wine on the table in front of Tony.

"If you haven't closed your eyes for 72 hours, you will do the same." Tony lay back on the sofa without touching the glass, and changed his words, "Oh, when I didn't say it, I knew you wouldn't."

Rogers looked at him with a serious expression as if he was on business: "It's not that simple. You have always had something on your mind, and it has become serious since you went to God's Realm with Thor before. It has something to do with that, Right? What did you guys go through there?"

The Avengers probably knew that Iron Man and Thor had a two-person trip to God's Domain ten days ago, and they roughly heard about Loki's attempt to usurp the throne and was successfully stopped in the end.But both of them describe the matter rather vaguely, and they also understate the process of fighting Loki.But ever since Tony came back that time, he always looked absent-minded, wishing he could spend 24 hours in the laboratory.It was obvious to Rogers that the experience wasn't as simple as they'd been passing it off.

"It's nothing."

"I asked Thor, but he didn't mention the details. He just said that you fought well and fought very well"

"Excellent? An excellent fighter who lay dead all the time?" Tony laughed mockingly. The difference from the past was that this time he was mocking himself.

Rogers closed his mouth and looked at him for a while.

"So that's why?" he asked. "You get frustrated, your confidence takes a hit. That's why you're stuck in the lab trying to come up with something new?"

hit?Yes, he was hit, and not just once.

Before, he naively thought that Iron Man's technology was the dawn of world peace, and he thought that he could solve all problems by wearing armor and becoming Iron Man.But soon he found out that he was wrong.The cruel reality and successive powerful enemies shattered his fantasies time and time again, and trampled his overwhelming confidence to pieces.

It started with Aldrich Killian, the self-proclaimed "Ultimate Creature" who defeated his armor head-on for the first time, making him realize for the first time that Iron Man's armor is not invincible.Then he encounters the Kree robots, the Thor of Asgard, and then an alien army.Then came the Hulk who ran away in the Avengers Building, and finally there was Loki who faced Asgard before.

Every defeat made him further realize the inadequacy of Iron Man's technology, and he was forced to see the reality that Iron Man is far from enough to deal with those real threats.

Oh, by the way, and Ultron, the creation he thought he designed to solve troubles, turned out to be troubles themselves, and surprisingly lingered.Ultron also appears to have stolen some incredible armor from Asgard, which Thor described to him as an "impossible to block" armor.

"You can't carry the world on your shoulders, Tony." Rogers enlightened, "After all, you are only a human being, and there is a limit to what a person can do."

"Oh, really? But I knew there was another human being who also relied on individual armor to fight, but he was ten times stronger than Iron Man. No, a hundred times stronger."

Rogers shook his head: "Fighting is not just about guns and equipment, Tony. The fighter itself is equally important."

Tony stood up from the sofa and said loudly: "Okay, this is not about fighting. Times are changing, captain, the good days when you can win battles with spirit and will are long gone back."

He stopped just in time to realize that his loud voice was attracting too much unwanted attention.He didn't want to say anything more, he felt tired.Tony turned his head, left the venue quickly under the gaze of everyone, and headed towards his laboratory again.

Power, this is what the current Iron Man needs most, and it is also what the current Avengers need most.

He needs a lot more power than he has now.

(End of this chapter)