But then he understood—because he saw Clark shove his left hand into Rhodey's chest like it was made of tofu, and pull out the Arc Reactor from the Iron Patriot suit.
Poor Rhodey didn't even get a single shot off before he "got his lunchbox."
"Ratatatat!"
Just as Clark finished with Rhodey, the other Iron Soldiers—under Ivan's control—opened fire, spraying bullets at Clark with their machine guns.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
The bullets struck Clark with a metallic ringing sound, as if hitting solid steel. But after just a few shots, the robots lost sight of Clark entirely.
As Ivan frantically tried to locate him through the bots' sensors, Clark suddenly appeared behind one of the robots, shoved his hand through its chest, and yanked out its Arc Reactor.
Ever since the Monaco incident, Clark had known that Ivan Vanko's robots could explode. So just before the attack, he had used his telescopic vision to scan the structure of the new models—and noticed these didn't contain visible explosives.
He didn't see any of the usual detonators used for self-destruct. But Clark didn't believe Vanko would just change his nature like that. There had to be a self-destruct mechanism, possibly hidden.
After thinking it over, Clark realized the Arc Reactor itself was likely the biggest bomb. If it exploded, it would be like a miniature nuclear device.
So Clark concluded: Ivan must have embedded the self-destruct within the reactors in the bots' chests. That's why Clark decided to go around ripping out the reactors. He figured: no power source, no detonation.
Sure enough, once the reactor was removed, each robot instantly powered down, without showing any signs of self-destruction.
While Clark was tearing through the bots, Tony—now suited up in Mark VI—flew over New York.
"Sir, we've been targeted," J.A.R.V.I.S. warned.
"Mercy?"
BOOM!
Before Tony could even react, a missile slammed into him mid-air.
The attacker was the blond bodyguard—the one Ivan had nearly killed earlier. Now, he was flying in a makeshift Iron Suit. This suit was one Ivan had originally built in Russia, but Justin Hammer had forcibly taken it. Since Ivan didn't use it in Monaco, it had remained intact.
But the suit had clearly been upgraded. For one, it now had two shoulder-mounted missile pods—and it was from those pods that a Sidewinder missile had just fired, knocking Tony out of the sky. It was Hammer's best weapon, with lock-on guidance. Tony had no chance to dodge in time.
WHAM!
The missile impact knocked Tony from the sky. He plummeted hundreds of meters before crashing into the ground.
Realizing that his bots were no match for Clark—they were being shredded with a single punch—Vanko had dispatched the blond bodyguard in that old iron suit, instructing him to intercept Tony. And so far, the result was satisfying: Tony was down.
As Tony lay grounded, the bodyguard landed in front of him.
Ivan had told him: "Kill Tony Stark and I'll let you live."And to ensure obedience, he'd installed a camera and a self-destruct device in the suit. If the bodyguard disobeyed, boom.
But as the blond man approached, he noticed something alarming—despite taking a direct missile hit, Iron Man's armor only looked a bit scuffed. The Mark VI hadn't really taken any damage.
This shocked the bodyguard—he'd watched the missile hit. That Sidewinder was the strongest weapon he had.
"Die!"
Panicking, the blond man unloaded all his remaining ammunition, spraying Tony with everything he had. The fear of being blown up if he failed drove him mad.
He'd already narrowly survived working under the maniac Ivan Vanko—he wasn't about to die now.
Tony, for his part, didn't recognize the guy, but quickly deduced this was the attacker who shot him down.
The missile made sense—if properly aimed, even Mark VI could be hit. But Tony also knew Ivan's suit was a shoddy, handmade prototype, weaker than his own Mark V, let alone the upgraded Mark VI.
So Tony took off, darting through the air with a series of slick maneuvers, dodging all incoming projectiles.
Realizing he was outmatched, the blond bodyguard turned to flee. With no weapons left, facing Iron Man head-on was suicide.
BOOM!
Before he could get far, Tony blasted the ground in front of him with a repulsor blast, landing directly in the path.
The man froze. One more step and he would've been vaporized.
"Where is Ivan Vanko?"Tony could tell—this guy had to know where Ivan was.
"I…"
The man hesitated. If he spoke, Iron Man would kill him. But if he stayed silent, Vanko's remote self-destruct would.
Beep-beep.
Just then, the Arc Reactor on his chest began to flash.
"Oh no! I didn't say anything! Don't do this!"
Seeing the flashing light, the man panicked. But Tony had already figured it out.
Without another word, he shot into the sky, distancing himself fast.
BOOM!
Right as Tony got clear, the Arc Reactor on the man's chest detonated, blowing him apart.
"Damn it!"
Tony cursed. Another possible lead, gone.
Thinking about the chaos still unfolding inside the expo, Tony re-engaged his jet boosters and flew straight toward the venue.
"Sir, something is flying toward us. Energy levels extremely high."
J.A.R.V.I.S. had detected something with a power signature similar to Iron Man armor.
Before Tony could process that info, the unknown suit had already closed in.
Tony veered to dodge—but to his shock, two electrified whips extended from the suit's arms and lashed at him.
There was no time to dodge—Tony was caught.
CRASH!
Dragged by the whips, Tony was slammed into the ground like a hammer hitting a nail.
"Nice to meet you, Tony."
As the new Iron Suit landed, the helmet retracted, revealing the smug, scarred face of Ivan Vanko.
"Terrible meeting, honestly."
Tony activated a shoulder-mounted mini-gun, aiming it at Vanko.
But just like the bullets against Clark earlier, they had no effect. Vanko's armor shrugged them off, and he charged forward.
Up close, Vanko lashed out with his whip.
BOOM!
Unlike the first time they fought, this whip attack was now fully powered. It pierced Tony's armor, cracking the plating on his chest.
If Tony hadn't jerked his head at the last second, the next strike might've taken it clean off.
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