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Hearing Pepper's name, Tony Stark flustered for a moment, then quickly asked:
"What happened? How long have you been offline?"
He had suspected earlier that Obadiah Stane was hiding something from him, so he had Pepper Potts search Obadiah Stane's computer for evidence. Now, after this incident, Tony Stark had a bad feeling.
"Sir, I was offline for 43 minutes. During this time, Ms. Pepper Potts called and left multiple messages saying she found a video of the Ten Rings Gang on Obadiah's computer, revealing he orchestrated your kidnapping in Afghanistan. Her last message, a few minutes ago, said she and several special department personnel were being chased by a large robot. According to Stark Industries' surveillance, the robot is your Mark I armor, but it has been modified."
Jarvis quickly recounted what had happened during the time Tony Stark was unconscious.
"Fuck!" Tony Stark cursed anxiously, "Did you notify the New York Police Department?"
"Sir, the moment Ms. Pepper Potts was attacked by the robot, I called the Police. The Police have already rushed over, and I also notified your good friend, Colonel Rhodes."
"Tell Rhodes to bring more people, Jarvis, can the mark III still be used?"
Tony Stark looked back at the mark III's wreckage on the lab bench, feeling it was unusable.
"Sir, the mark III is severely damaged and needs to be repaired before it can be used." Jarvis confirmed Tony Stark's guess.
"Damn Smurf and Goblin!"
Tony Stark felt the problems were all due to those two psychopaths; they were the ones who messed up his armor like this.
He paced a few steps in place then asked Jarvis:
"Jarvis, how long until the Mark II can be assembled?"
"Sir, the Mark II can be assembled within three minutes."
"Start assembly now, and also check how much energy this reactor still has."
"Sir, the original Arc Reactor in your chest has 30% energy remaining."
Out of necessity, Tony Stark could only choose to use the Mark II, which had many flaws, to rush over.
Picking up the strange card that had floated under the lab bench, Tony Stark traced the patterns on it with his finger, pondering the identity and purpose of the man named Lionel.
"Sir, the Mark II is assembled."
"Hmm."
Tony Stark hummed, placing the card in his jacket pocket, "Alright, prepare, pinpoint Pepper's location, and fly there at full power."
---
Phil Coulson felt things had been truly terrible lately. Ever since the demon summoned by The Hand descended upon New York a few weeks ago, he had been assigned by the Director to find out which faction helped The Hand summon the demon and what their motives were. He began navigating New York's underground factions, searching for clues.
During the day, he searched for information and handled incidents, while at night, he talked with Gangs. Phil Coulson believed that now he wouldn't need to adjust to time zones anywhere on Earth; he had already started working twenty-four hours a day, sleeping whenever he could.
Fortunately, his work wasn't in vain. A few days ago, he confirmed that the Vampire faction that helped The Hand that day was a branch led by Deacon Frost. According to the intelligence he gathered, Frost's Vampire faction was developing rapidly, subtly becoming the leading Vampire in New York and even most of the United States.
He tried to contact this Vampire faction. Originally, with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s influence, it should have been easy to establish communication and obtain intelligence, as no faction wanted to openly conflict with S.H.I.E.L.D. But for some unknown reason, the Vampires suddenly became unyielding, causing him to hit a wall several times, and he even almost got eaten by the Vampires like a snack.
Here, Nick Fury actually had to take the blame. Nick Fury always managed Agent assignments with an information compartmentalization system; each Agent only needed to know the relevant information, and other details were not disclosed. This meant Phil Coulson had no idea that Deacon Frost was a spy placed by S.H.I.E.L.D. among the Vampires, so he didn't notice Deacon Frost's abnormality, only finding his attitude strange.
Just as Phil Coulson reported the intelligence he had gathered to headquarters, hoping to request some assistance from headquarters, Nick Fury assigned him a temporary mission. The reason was that Phil Coulson was the only S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent in New York with a high enough clearance to execute this temporary mission.
The mission to investigate the Vampire secret was only halfway complete. Phil Coulson had wanted to decline this temporary mission, as he had already been busy for several weeks, and he was unwilling to hand it over to others just like that.
But Director Nick Fury said this temporary mission was very important, and no one else could do it. Phil Coulson, accustomed to being a workhorse, no longer refused and could only accept the mission to contact Tony Stark and find out the real reason for his escape from Afghanistan.
However, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s model worker, Phil Coulson, hit another wall. The mission had been going on for almost a week, and he hadn't even found an opportunity to communicate with Stark, making veteran Agent Phil Coulson even start to doubt his own abilities, as three consecutive missions had not gone very smoothly.
Tony Stark had completely become a hands-off boss, delegating all of Stark Industries' affairs, big and small, to Pepper Potts and Obadiah Stane, while he hid in his Villa, doing who knows what. Actually, S.H.I.E.L.D. probably knew what Tony Stark was doing, as they had detected unidentified flying objects flying out of Stark's Villa a few days prior.
Of course, Phil Coulson wasn't without any progress. Tony Stark's secretary, Pepper, was still very understanding and had been very cooperative with Phil Coulson's investigation, at least on the surface.
However, events unfolded beyond Phil Coulson's expectations. He was there to investigate a wealthy magnate and initially thought he wouldn't encounter anything dangerous, at most a troublesome mission, as Tony Stark's difficult personality was well-known, so a challenging mission was normal.
"But who can tell me what's going on with this big robot behind us!?"
Phil Coulson, gun in hand, ran frantically with Pepper Potts, followed by Agent Dak, a newcomer who had been on missions with him before. While fleeing for their lives, he occasionally turned back to fire a few shots in retaliation, trying to slow down the Iron Monger chasing them.
But handgun bullets striking the Iron Monger's thick armor were as ridiculous and futile as Hakimi fighting Optimus Prime. The bullets only sparked on the armor's surface, having no effect whatsoever.
No, they did have some effect; Obadiah Stane inside the Iron Monger became even more excited. He grew more confident in this armor, believing that as long as he thoroughly understood the technology within the armor, an even more powerful business empire would beckon to him, and this business empire would no longer be named Stark, but Obadiah Stane.