[Third Person Pov]
"The blueprints which you mentioned he stole—were they important?" Peter asked Tony as he swung through the city's concrete jungle, his web-lines slicing clean arcs between towering skyscrapers.
"Of course they're important," Tony scoffed, arrogance dripping from every syllable even through the helmet comms. "I made them. That makes them nothing less than national treasures."
Peter rolled his eyes behind his mask, launching another web with a crisp thwp. "What I was trying to find out is how dangerous these blueprints are if they get into the wrong hands. What are we talking about here—atomic bombs? Roombas? Give me a scale, Stark."
"Nothing too crazy," Tony replied casually, his armored suit streaking alongside Peter with effortless grace. "Standard military arsenal. Repulsion tech, power-core schematics, a few next-gen weapon platforms. But that's not what's important. This is a matter of principle."
"Right, of course," Peter said, voice thick with sarcasm. "Standard military-grade blueprints. Totally not a big deal. Just another Tuesday."
"What is he doing?" Aria's voice cut in, sharp and focused. She patched through a live satellite feed to their HUDs, showing the hulking Iron Monger armor suddenly frozen on a rooftop. "He just stopped dead."
"Good," Tony said. Without another word, his thrusters flared white-hot as he recklessly accelerated forward.
"Tony, wait—!" Peter shouted, but the billionaire was already gone. Peter exchanged a quick glance with Aria, and the two of them poured on speed, webs and silk slicing through the night air.
Tony slammed into the Iron Monger like a meteor, tackling Obadiah Stane right off the rooftop. The impact cracked concrete and sent both armored giants crashing onto the street below.
"What!" Obadiah roared, genuine surprise in his voice. "You managed to survive!? Ha! Well, I can't say I'm surprised anymore. You seem to be developing quite the track record for escaping the impossible."
"It ends here!" He snarled, his fist suddenly shooting upwards in a brutal uppercut that lifted Tony off his feet and hurled him into the side of a building. Glass and steel screamed as Tony groaned, embedding several stories up. He shoved off the wall, palms glowing, and unleashed a powerful repulsor blast that rocked the Iron Monger backward.
While the two titans clashed, Peter and Aria shifted focus to damage control. The streets below were still filled with panicked civilians—cars abandoned, people running for cover, screams echoing between the buildings.
As the first heavy chunks of rubble began to rain down from the damaged rooftop, a young couple froze in the middle of the street, staring upward in horror. Just as the debris was about to crush them, Spider-Man swung in low and fast. He scooped them both up, webs firing from his free hand to yank them clear. "Gotcha! Did someone call a taxi for two!" he called, depositing them safely on a distant sidewalk as the rubble smashed into the asphalt behind them.
Iron Man and the Iron Monger traded blows in the street, each impact ringing out like hammers striking anvils. The ground shook with every collision.
"Why did you do it?!" Tony demanded, voice raw with betrayal. "Was money really more important to you than family? Than everything we built?!"
"Yes!" Obadiah bellowed, extending his massive gauntlet. A roaring storm of fire erupted outward, forcing Tony to jet backward. "You never deserved to be CEO! I was nothing more than a nanny to you while you pissed your life away on toys and woman! The only reason Stark Industries is what it is today is because of me!!"
The flames spread wildly across the street, licking at abandoned vehicles and storefronts. Obadiah pursued Tony into the sky, the two armored figures becoming blazing streaks against the night.
Aria dove in immediately. Her HUD lit up with a rotating dial of webbing options. She selected a fire-suppressant variant and fired rapidly from her web-shooters. Thick, specialized webs blanketed the flames, smothering them in seconds and preventing a larger inferno from erupting.
Not far away, Peter spotted a group of office workers trapped on a collapsing fire escape as shockwaves from the fight rattled the building. "Aria, cover the east side!" he called. He swung in a wide arc, firing multiple webs to reinforce the failing structure while simultaneously grabbing two people at a time, ferrying them down to safety in rapid trips. "Everybody stay calm and beautiful —This is all just a training exercise!"
High-pitched repulsor blasts echoed through the city's night skies like thunderous cracks of lightning, painting the darkness in brilliant streaks of white and gold as Iron Man and the Iron Monger continued their ferocious aerial battle.
"I was never going to be the CEO with you around, so I had to get you out of the picture!" Obadiah snarled, his voice booming through the massive armor.
"It simply had to be done!" he stated coldly, his other gauntlet opening to unleash a rocket that streaked straight toward Tony with a screaming trail of fire.
Smaller rockets erupted from Tony's shoulder pods in response. One collided mid-air with Obadiah's projectile in a deafening explosion that lit up the clouds, while the remaining missiles hammered into the Iron Monger's chest plating, erupting in bright blossoms of flame and force that rocked the larger suit backward.
As Obadiah began to plummet from the sky, one of the rockets went wide—turning into a dangerous stray shot hurtling toward the crowded streets below.
"He shoots—!" Peter exclaimed, launching an impact web with pinpoint accuracy. The sticky projectile struck the explosive rocket and detonated it harmlessly high above the buildings. "—And he scores!!"
"Careful where you throw those things, tin man," Peter playfully chastised over the comms. "You'll poke someone's eye out!" Tony ignored the jab, already pressing the attack.
Obadiah crashed into the elevated highway with a heavy, earth-shaking thud, carving a deep crater into the asphalt. Debris flew everywhere—chunks of concrete, twisted and shattered pavement exploding outward. He groaned for a moment, lying in the wreckage, before pushing himself up with a metallic screech.
Just then, a family sedan screeched to a halt right beneath him, its tires smoking. Inside, a terrified family of four stared up in horror—parents wide-eyed, children screaming—as the hulking Iron Monger slowly turned its helmeted head toward them.
He reached down with massive hands, grabbing the full-size vehicle and lifting it effortlessly over his head. "I have wasted over thirty years of my life in that company," Obadiah shouted, voice dripping with years of resentment, "only to always be second place to nothing more than a man-child!" He adjusted his grip on the car, clearly intending to use it as a weapon against Tony.
Aria came flying in at the absolute last second. With a single focused touch on the vehicle, she activated her tactile telekinesis, gently but powerfully prying the family car free from Obadiah's crushing grasp and leaving him empty-handed and off-balance.
Tony's thrusters flared brilliantly as he charged forward, grabbing the Iron Monger and rocketing both of them back into the skies, carrying the struggling villain higher and higher.
Meanwhile, Aria carefully lowered the family sedan back onto the highway, setting it down as gently as if it were made of glass. "Everyone okay?" she asked warmly, flashing two thumbs up, doing her best to reassure them.
The children in the back seat pressed their faces to the window, staring at her in pure awe and wonder, while their mother gripped the steering wheel with trembling hands and managed a shaky nod while she mouthed a silent "thank you."
Peter swung by on her opposite side in a graceful arc. "You can pose for a picture and sign autographs later," he teased, landing briefly on a nearby overpass. "Let's go!"
"I wasn't posing!" Aria shouted after him as she took off, flying just above him. He leapt from the overpass, grabbed her outstretched hand mid-air, and the two of them soared together after the dueling armored figures. "I was reassuring them!"
The pursuit led them over Stark Industries itself—the gleaming complex that had been the source of Tony and Obadiah's greatest fortunes and deepest problems. The lights of the sprawling facility flickered far below like a distant constellation.
"I hope in the end it was all worth it," Tony shouted as they tore through the air, still locked in combat.
"It will be once you're dead!" the Iron Monger roared. His heavy punches slammed repeatedly into Tony's helmet, making the HUD glitch and flicker with warning icons.
Obadiah wrapped his massive arms around Tony in a crushing bear hug, squeezing with terrifying strength. Tony cried out in pain as the joints of his suit groaned and creaked under the immense pressure, warning of damages appeared within his visions, painting the inside of his helmet red.
"Jarvis, thrusters—full throttle!" Tony ordered through gritted teeth. The repulsors exploded with raw power, sending both armored warriors hurtling upward like a fighter jet breaking the sound barrier.
"Hahahaha!" the Iron Monger laughed maniacally. "Don't even think about escaping! I'm not letting you go!"
"That's kinda what I was hoping for," Tony grinned beneath his mask. As they climbed into the freezing upper atmosphere, the Iron Monger's suit began to ice over, frost rapidly coating the metal exterior.
"W-What?" Obadiah stammered. His breath became visible inside the helmet as his own HUD flickered and glitched. "Wait—wait—wait!"
"Don't start getting cold feet now, 'Uncle' Stane," Tony scoffed, using the title with mocking venom. "Isn't this what you wanted? To be at the top?"
Tony broke free from the weakening embrace with a powerful shove, sending the Iron Monger tumbling through the air. As he watched Obadiah spiral downward, Tony steadied himself. "Jarvis, give me a status update."
A holographic schematic of his suit materialized in front of him, with several critical sections glowing urgent red. "The repulsor tech along your palms has been critically damaged and are no longer operational," Jarvis reported calmly. "Additionally, your stunt of maximizing the thrusters has depleted your energy levels to less than a quarter."
************************************************
+5 advance Chapters on: patreon.com/Shadow_D_Monarch3
