American comics: Starting with Luke the Maker

Time passed day by day.

Surprisingly, Tony Stark, who used to grace the headlines of various newspapers every day, became unusually quiet after his return. His figure, once seen in major social venues, was now nowhere to be found. Even though these places were still filled with beautiful women and remained high-end hunting grounds for playboys, Tony Stark seemed to have lost interest.

This left many reporters who relied on Tony Stark for their livelihood feeling quite disappointed.

Unable to get interviews, some reporters from tabloid newspapers, under intense pressure from their editors to produce Stark news, simply resorted to their own devices. One interviewed a model who had once had a fleeting romance with Tony, who spoke at length about how much she missed him. Another, with a bit more decency, found a psychologist to deeply analyze the psychological trauma Stark might be experiencing.

So, even though Tony Stark hadn't shown his face in a long time, after the initial few days of silence, he surprisingly reappeared on the pages of many newspapers.

There was no helping it, the public loved to read reports about fallen geniuses or wealthy people with psychological problems. Especially since Tony Stark, like Stark Industries, was currently in the eye of the storm. In the words of media people, it was a hot topic, and anything written about him would attract attention.

As Tony Stark's assistant, Pepper Potts, when attending a social gathering on his behalf, hid herself far away in a corner.

Standing at the balcony railing with a wine glass in her hand, Pepper Potts stared into the distance, seemingly lost in thought. As someone who spent day and night with Tony Stark and could be said to know him best, she now found him to be quite different. When she routinely tried to arrange parties for him, or even arrange beautiful models who matched Tony's aesthetic preferences, she was surprisingly rejected by Tony.

God knows how surprised Pepper Potts was at Tony Stark's rejection! Just like Tony's changes these days. She discovered that the person who was always willful and reckless now had many worries, had become introverted, quiet, and even a little bit steady. This change made Pepper Potts both gratified and panicked.

Gratified that Tony had finally grown up.

Panicked that this growth made her perception of Tony unfamiliar.

Even more terrifying was that she saw the bullet marks on Tony Stark's Iron Man armor! The moment she saw that scene, the suppressed panic in her heart almost instantly swept through her entire body.

"Alone here?"

A somewhat unfamiliar yet familiar female voice interrupted Pepper Potts' wandering thoughts. Disturbed, Pepper Potts frowned and turned to look at the source of the voice. When she saw who it was, a look of surprise flashed across her face.

"Ms. Yina Sandra?"

"Hope I didn't disturb you." Yina Sandra walked to Pepper Potts' side with a smile and stood with her at the balcony railing, smiling.

"Of course not, there are probably countless people at this party who want to talk to you." Pepper Potts didn't understand Yina Sandra's intention, but that didn't stop her from showing some goodwill towards her initiative. After all, in terms of influential figures in recent years, besides her willful boss, the woman in front of her, and Luke Field, who co-founded Heberon Technology, were also among them.

Compared to Justin Hammer, who Tony always looked down on, Tony didn't have anything bad to say about Luke Field, the soul of Heberon Technology. In Pepper Potts' understanding of Tony, it was already very rare to escape his venomous tongue unscathed. Perhaps, it was a technical recognition?

"Are you referring to those people?" Yina Sandra laughed mockingly and pointed to the party below, where circles were clearly defined. The outer circles wanted to get closer to the inner circles, and the inner circles were desperately trying to squeeze into the core circles. And at this party, the one who could be called the core was undoubtedly the man who was currently talking animatedly, the current head of Stark Industries—Obadiah Stane. Everyone revolved around him, and without a certain status and identity, one couldn't even gain a foothold on the periphery of the core circle.

If Yina Sandra went down, she could of course easily create a core circle of her own, or even easily join Obadiah Stane's circle, where she would also be a core figure, just like Obadiah Stane, who was being praised. But what was the point?

Just an outdated person.

"Is Tony Stark alright?" Yina Sandra didn't wait for Pepper's answer, but looked at Pepper and asked after withdrawing her gaze.

"He's doing great, of course." Pepper instinctively put on a practiced fake smile and answered fluently. She had heard this question too many times since Tony Stark's safe return. Those reporters couldn't find Tony, so they often blocked her, who needed to show her face outside, and asked. She now had a conditioned response to this question.

"It has nothing to do with me, I'm asking on behalf of Luke." Seeing the fake smile on Pepper's face, Yina keenly noticed her momentary distance and vigilance, and added an explanation without caring.

"Luke? Luke Field?" Pepper realized that her attitude was too cautious. She was also curious about the person who could safely pass Tony's venomous tongue.

"That's him. He's very concerned about Tony Stark. He even investigated for a while when he disappeared, but unfortunately, he couldn't help much." Yina Sandra lied without batting an eye. During that time, Luke was wholeheartedly immersed in his laboratory, digesting what he had gained after his seclusion, and adding to the technical foundation of Heberon Technology.

The missing Tony Stark?

Sorry, Yina said in her heart, she had never heard Luke mention a word of concern or anything else.

"Thank you very much." Pepper thanked her, not knowing why.

"You're welcome, although nothing could be investigated at the time, there were always some gains. This is a piece of information, you can take it back and show it to Tony Stark, maybe he can find something in it. Remember, only show it to Tony, and only the two of you can know." Yina Sandra secretly stuffed a USB drive into Pepper's empty left hand, tapped her wine glass against the wine glass Pepper was holding in her right hand, and then turned and left.

Her mission to come here today was complete.

PS: Don't worry if you don't understand what I wrote yesterday, it's just the setting. It will be supplemented and explained later.