"Haha, the secret must not be leaked," Lock said with a faint smirk.
"Why didn't you just grab him?" Tony asked.
"If I grabbed him now, how would we save Pepper Potts? Let's follow him instead."
Tony's expression shifted in realization. "Alright. I'll track him."
He brought up a holographic display, which quickly highlighted the signal from Obadiah Stane's car.
In truth, Lock didn't need the tracker to guess where Stane was headed — back to Stark Industries — but preventing any "butterfly effects" meant tailing him directly was safer.
Tony suited up and blasted into the night sky.
Just then, Rhodey called over comms. "Tony, Pepper just contacted me to say she was sending five agents to your company. Now her phone's dead. Any idea what's going on?"
"It's Stane. Pepper's probably confronting him. I'm heading there now."
"Want me to do anything?"
"Clear the airspace. If you see something flying, don't interfere. And if you spot someone… jumping around up there, don't mess with him either."
"Uh… jumping?" Rhodey sounded confused. Aircraft, sure — Tony had the tech. But a man leaping through the night sky? And Tony warned the military not to touch him? Who exactly could the U.S. military not afford to offend?
Lock didn't hear the conversation. For safety and accuracy, he limited his jumps to a few hundred meters, quickly rising and falling through the dark like a ghost.
Tony, on the other hand, was anything but subtle. The jet flames from his repulsors lit up the night sky, instantly picked up by military radar. Fortunately, he'd warned them ahead of time, or they would've scrambled fighters to intercept.
Obadiah's luxury sedan screeched to a halt in front of Stark Industries. He left the door open and rushed inside.
"Lock," Tony's voice came over comms, "infrared scan says Pepper's in the basement — surrounded by a dozen armed men. And yeah… those are Stark security. I'll handle Stane myself; family ties. You get Pepper out."
"Understood. Be careful. His suit might match yours in raw power."
They split up.
Lock followed the building schematics Tony had sent and made for the sublevels. On the first basement floor, he found several armed agents moving cautiously, led by none other than Phil Coulson.
"Hey, Coulson."
The agents instantly swung their rifles toward him.
"Who are you?" Coulson asked sharply.
"You don't know me? Fury never told you?" Lock was mildly surprised. His fight with Hulk and the Abomination in New York should've been in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s files. Fury had locked the clearance tight.
Coulson's voice was steady. "Sir, I don't care who you are. Step back, or we'll treat you as a threat."
"If you keep standing around, Pepper's rescue will take forever."
Lock strode past them. Coulson barked, "Fire!"
A burst of rounds slammed into Lock's leg. He ignored them, stepped hard —
BOOM!
The floor collapsed. Another stomp, another floor gone. In under five seconds, he was on the lowest basement level.
Gunfire erupted — Stark's security, now in Stane's pocket. Lock didn't dodge. He closed the distance in one step, ripped an MP5 from a guard's hands, and crushed it like tin foil.
One guard earned a harsher response — Lock clamped a massive hand around his neck, lifted him off the ground, and with a twist, dislocated every joint in his body. The man crumpled, unable to move.
Bullets rained again, stinging but harmless. Annoyed, Lock slammed both fists into the floor.
ROAR!
The shockwave hurled every armed guard into the walls, leaving them unconscious.
Pepper was locked inside a storage room. "Stand against the wall," Lock called. "I'm breaking the door."
BANG! The steel door flew across the hall and dented the opposite wall.
"Tony sent me. You alright?"
"I'm fine. Where is he?"
"Taking care of Stane. Let's move."
He wrapped an arm around her waist and vaulted upward, landing right in front of Coulson and his team.
Lock's gaze hardened at the rifles aimed at him. "You want to try that again?"
Coulson quickly signaled his men to lower their weapons. The man in front of him had just shrugged off hundreds of rounds without a scratch — and he'd saved Pepper.
"Thank you for your help," Coulson said. "Miss Potts, let's get you out."
A deep, metallic crash echoed from outside — Tony's fight had moved into the streets.
The scene outside Stark Industries was chaotic. Cars lay wrecked, civilians screamed, and the battle between Tony and Stane's Iron Monger suit had torn through a highway, wrecking dozens of vehicles.
Tony had just saved a mother and child from a crushed sedan, but the move left him open. Stane's modulated voice boomed from within his armor:
"For years, I've held this company together while you partied your life away. And now you want to take my work from me?"
Massive mechanical legs slammed down on Tony's prone armor. His suit held, but every hit rattled him.
Stane hurled him through a bus, then fired a missile into it. The explosion launched Tony into the air. Only his armor's integrity kept him alive.
Military observers picked up the commotion, but Rhodes cut in fast. "This is an exercise. Maintain watch only."
Tony was on the defensive — his suit was superior in tech, but Stane's was built to kill, and the battlefield wasn't in his favor.
"Jarvis, maximum lift power!" Tony ordered.
"Sir, you're at fifteen percent power—"
"I said, do it!"
White-hot flames burst from his boots as the Iron Man suit rocketed skyward.