[Stark Industries, Workshop Complex]
[Sector 16]
Pepper Potts walked so fast it kicked up wind, with Phil Coulson and five S.H.I.E.L.D. agents following behind her.
Agent Phil had his subordinates use technical means to lock onto Obadiah's location. They were ready to arrest this war profiteer who was smuggling weapons.
After blowing the lock on the door, a production and R&D workshop full of industrial atmosphere appeared before them.
It was pitch-black in here, only the glow of a computer screen lit up a small patch of space.
On it was the design drawing of a brand-new suit of armor, which the passing agents glanced at and dismissed.
In a corner, they quickly found the armor Tony had built in Afganistan.
"Looks like you were right. He built a suit of armor too," Agent Phil's gaze gradually turned serious.
Pepper, who knew Tony and Obadiah well, thought of Obadiah's big, tall build and added, "I think it should be even bigger."
Then Ms. Pepper fully demonstrated her gutsy nature. Clearly unarmed, she was searching for Obadiah, who was hiding somewhere, even more diligently than the agents with guns.
As expected, the unexpected happened.
When Ms. Pepper walked under a crane arm and saw several hanging chains swaying slightly in the air, she couldn't help craning her neck forward to look.
Suddenly, two lights appeared in the darkness, their position rising higher and higher.
Pepper slowly lifted her head and watched the two glowing little lights rise to a great height. Her small mouth parted slightly as she froze in place.
Yes, this was exactly the new combat armor Obadiah had developed and improved based on the armor Tony had built in that cave with Dr. Yinsen to escape the Ten Rings' kidnapping, the Iron Monger.
It was worth mentioning that Obadiah had personally gone to the Ten Rings' territory and recovered all the fragments of Tony's armor from them.
At the same time, once he had what he came for, he mercilessly wiped out the remaining Ten Rings members, whose strength was already greatly diminished.
As the sound of machinery turning rang out, Obadiah, piloting the Iron Monger, lifted a leg and stepped toward Ms. Pepper.
Ms. Pepper finally reacted, let out a scream, and turned to run. Her pencil skirt and high heels from her business suit could not slow down her speed in fleeing for her life.
Unlike Pepper Potts' full-on sprint, the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were clearly much calmer.
Facing the giant mass that was getting closer and closer, they decisively opened fire.
Bang! Bang!
Clang! Clang! Clang!
But it did not pose any threat at all to Obadiah in the armor.
With a few sprays of sparks and a few heavy, crushing punches from the Iron Monger, several S.H.I.E.L.D. agents died heroically in the line of duty.
After a burst of explosions, because the passage was narrow, the Iron Monger missed grabbing Ms. Pepper by a hair's breadth.
Fortunately, the brave Pepper Potts successfully escaped.
———
Flying through the air, Tony Stark sensed that something was wrong.
"How long do you think the Mark 1 can hold out?"
No one knew the reactor and the new armor better than Tony, since he had built them both himself.
The first-generation reactor simply did not have the power to sustain the new armor for long.
Tony wanted a precise readout from Jarvis.
["Energy remaining at 48% and still dropping, sir. This heart was not designed for sustained flight…"]
Remembering how he had blown the valley flat along with Corin back in Afganistan and yet only managed to stay in the air for less than a minute before falling, Tony did not want to experience that feeling of plummeting again.
He could only make it quick.
"Keep me updated at all times."
———
Ms. Pepper finally made it out of the building, and Tony called at that moment:
["Pepper~ you okay?"]
"Obadiah, he's gone crazy! He has a suit of armor too."
Just as Pepper was hurriedly relaying the intel she had gathered to Tony, the ground not far away suddenly bulged, and in an instant, a massive metal figure burst out of it.
"Let's see where you run to now?", Came the mechanical, echoing voice.
Pepper was overwhelmed by the aura of the armor in front of her, and let out a helpless shriek, slowly backing away.
Iron Monger lifted the mechanical arm mounted with a Gatling gun and aimed at Pepper, "You're useless now."
The barrels of the Gatling spun at high speed.
Just when Pepper thought there was no escaping this time, a booming voice came from high up in the distance.
"STANE!"
Iron Man, Tony Stark, arrived just in time.
Iron Monger swung the gun around, locking onto the rapidly approaching figure, and bullets poured out.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
BOOM!
Also clad in armor, Tony charged straight through the Gatling fire and slammed into the Iron Monger. The immense kinetic energy sent them crashing through several walls before they dropped onto the street.
Because of its huge size and weight, the Iron Monger's armor only stopped after smashing through the cargo compartment of a large truck.
Unsurprisingly, this set off a massive chain collision.
A woman driving a car full of kids slammed the brakes, skidding for more than ten meters before barely stopping in front of the Iron Monger.
There was no way Obadiah would pass up such a handy weapon delivered right to him. He reached out the iron arm and in an instant hoisted the car over his head.
Obadiah inside the armor was not actually using much force, but the strength boost from the armor made him unimaginably powerful.
"Oh~ I love this armor!"
The screams of the woman and children filled the car, their panic pouring through the windows.
"Put them down!"
The excited Iron Monger obviously did not care about Tony's warning. At this point he was completely unhinged and did not see the lives of the innocent people in the car as anything at all.
"This counts as collateral damage, Tony!"
Seeing the Iron Monger about to use the car in his hands as a weapon and smash it down on him, Tony knew that even if his armor could withstand the blow, the people in the car would be turned into dumpling filling on the spot.
"Route all power to the chest…"
Tony gave Jarvis the order.
Bzz!
BOOM!
After a brief charge-up, the energy blast fired instantly, sending the Iron Monger flying.
The car fell from midair and was caught steadily by Tony.
["Energy remaining at 19%…"], Jarvis' mechanical reminder sounded.
Letting the energy drain quickly, Tony gently set the car on the ground.
But the power of the female driver finally showed itself.
In her panic, she stomped the gas to the floor. The wheels spun up to their limit in an instant and, the moment the car hit the ground, it shot forward, ramming Iron Man at full speed.
"Ma'am! Oh! Nooo!"
Seeing himself about to get dragged under the car, Tony shouted, trying to get the driver to stop, but the car still ruthlessly rolled right over Iron Man and sped off in a cloud of dust.
———
Up in the air, Corin's collar and black hair were whipped around wildly by the roaring wind, adding a touch of wildness to him.
With his super vision locked on Tony's figure, seeing him save Ms. Pepper's life at the last second, Corin quietly gave a thumbs-up.
As expected of a man whose superhero instincts had awakened. At that speed, how did Tony's armor even manage to absorb that impact for him?
"Hiss!"
'It hurt just to watch.'
Even though the improved armor had some shock-absorbing capability, Tony, slamming at full power in an emergency, still almost coughed up blood.
Watching the Iron Monger and Tony crash down onto the busy street below, Corin gave a wave of his hand and followed.
He was not going to pass up this chance to enjoy an up-close showdown between two suits of armor.
Landing steadily on top of a streetlight, Corin looked down curiously.
He saw the Iron Monger get blasted away just as it raised the car over its head, saving the women and children inside just in time.
Then he watched Tony struggle to save the car only to get blasted away at full speed the moment it touched down.
Even Corin felt wronged on Tony's behalf for this one.
"Man, this driving skill. Let me see… oh, it's fine now…"
When he saw the driver's golden long hair, Corin instantly had no complaints.
Until he saw Tony get run over front-on by the speeding car, sending up a shower of sparks, tumbling over and over several times before finally laying flat on the ground.
A line popped into Corin's head, "So this counts as me watching him faceplant, right?"
[🥳 New novel guys—"Online Game: SSS-Tier Skills From Scratching Tickets". It is from the same author who wrote "Awoke As a God After Auto-Battling For 100000 Years". Do give it a try and hope you all had a great year.]
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