[The Bronx - Remote Highway]
Inside the stolen SUV, Rhodes glanced up at the rearview mirror.
On the back seat, Pepper lay peacefully unconscious, her hands and feet bound with heavy zip-ties.
"Pepper..." Rhodes whispered, his voice a raspy, disjointed imitation of his former self. "It's because of you and Tony that I became like this. But neither of you care at all about what happened to me."
He reached up, his leather-gloved fingers tracing the jagged, carved scar on his cheek.
"Since that's the case... let's paint on smiling faces together!"
Rhodes withdrew his gaze from the mirror. Thinking about how he would soon turn Pepper into a reflection of his own twisted agony, his scarred mouth couldn't help but curl upward.
On the quiet, empty street, a burst of hysterical, maniacal laughter echoed from the speeding SUV.
[Stark Tower - The Penthouse Lab]
"Sir. Ms. Potts's movements are highly abnormal."
Tony Stark, who had woken from his brief sleep and returned straight to his obsessive tinkering, froze.
If it had been a board meeting alert or a stock fluctuation, Tony would have ignored it outright. But a warning about Pepper made him immediately swipe his hands apart, shattering the holographic projection in front of him.
Ever since the Joker had first terrorized New York, Tony's paranoia had driven him to secretly install military-grade tracking algorithms in the phones of everyone he loved. He needed to be able to react the second they were in danger.
Tony strode toward the lab doors, activating the projection device on his wrist. A transparent GPS map floated before his eyes. The red dot representing Pepper was speeding down a highway.
She was heading north into the Bronx. Nowhere near the villa or the Tower.
"J.A.R.V.I.S.," Tony's voice was dead serious. "Suit up."
Tony stepped onto the circular deployment terrace. Mechanical arms whirred to life from the floor and ceiling, moving with perfect, automated precision. The gold and hot-rod red plating of the Iron Man armor clamped onto his body piece by piece.
The faceplate slammed shut. The eye-slits flared with blinding blue light, and the thrusters in his palms and boots ignited with a deafening whine.
"J.A.R.V.I.S., remotely activate the microphone on Pepper's phone," Tony ordered as he blasted through the deployment tunnel and into the night sky. I need to know what's happening to her!
Inside the helmet, Tony's expression was grim. He knew the unwritten rules of his world. His corporate rivals hated him, but none of them would dare kidnap Pepper. That crossed a line that invited the full, lethal wrath of Iron Man.
The only kind of person who would do this...
An ominous premonition seized his heart. Tony pushed the throttle forward, the armor's repulsors burning white-hot.
A moment later, the audio feed from Pepper's phone connected.
Static hissed over the comms, followed by a burst of unhinged, high-pitched laughter.
"Oh hee hee ha ha!!! Tony! I'm going to make you feel my pain too! Starting with Pepper!!"
'The Joker!' Tony's eyes widened, his pupils dilating with pure, primal rage. 'That bastard!!!'
Hearing that familiar, nightmarish laughter, Tony lost all semblance of composure.
"J.A.R.V.I.S., reroute all auxiliary power to flight thrusters! Accelerate!"
"Sir, the armor's velocity has already reached critical aerodynamic limits," J.A.R.V.I.S. warned. "Increasing speed further will compromise structural integrity."
"I don't care! Accelerate!!" Tony roared.
How could he possibly care about structural risks? Pepper was in the hands of a monster. Tony's mind flashed to the last image he had of Rhodey—the horrific torture his best friend had endured.
'If Pepper becomes like that...' Tony's eyes turned bloodshot.
A sonic boom shattered the air over Manhattan as Iron Man broke the sound barrier.
[The Northern Bronx - Abandoned Safehouse]
In front of a decaying, remote house, the SUV screeched to a sudden halt, leaving long, smoking black skid marks on the cracked asphalt.
"Hey!" Rhodes unbuckled his seatbelt. "I know you're already awake, Pepper."
Rhodes slowly stepped out of the driver's seat and walked to the rear door. He yanked it open, immediately seeing through Pepper's feigned unconsciousness.
Pepper glared at him, her eyes wide with a mix of terror and deep resentment.
Showing absolutely no chivalry, Rhodes grabbed the rope tied around her waist and violently dragged her out of the vehicle. Pepper stumbled, her bound wrists and ankles making it impossible to catch her balance.
"Don't look at me like that," Rhodes scolded playfully, reaching out with both hands to cup her face. "This is what you deserve. Isn't it?"
"What on earth happened to you, Rhodey?" Pepper cried, her voice breaking. "Why have you become like this?!"
Rhodes let go of her face and took two steps back, staring intently at her.
"Like this?" Rhodes tilted his head. He traced two fingers along the jagged, painted scars at the corners of his mouth, stretching his face into a terrifyingly wide smile. "You mean like this?"
Against the backdrop of his greasepaint and the ferocious scars, the smile looked utterly bizarre—a grotesque parody of human emotion.
"I think I'm just fine!" Rhodes laughed, pacing in a small circle. "You know what? During this time away, I've thought a lot. And I've come to a beautiful conclusion. People... as long as they become twisted from enough pain... they become stronger!"
"Oh hee hee ha ha ha ha ha!!"
Rhodes threw his head back, howling at the moon. The more he spoke, the more fractured and crazy the look in his eyes became.
Finally reining in his laughter, he walked back to Pepper's side. He grabbed her by the shoulders and roughly turned her to face the door of the abandoned house.
"Now," Rhodes whispered in her ear. "It's your turn, Pepper. Let's go—"
BOOM!
A blinding flash of white light streaked across the sky, accompanied by the shrieking roar of repulsor engines.
The Iron Man armor slammed into the earth directly between Rhodes and the house, cracking the pavement upon impact.
The moment the armor touched down, Tony had already raised his gauntlets. Two glowing, lethal repulsors whined as they locked onto Rhodes's chest.
"Let her go!" Tony's voice boomed mechanically through the suit's external speakers. "Joker!"
The man in the greasepaint stopped. He looked at the glowing weapons aimed at his heart.
"Joker?"
The manic smile widened.
"You don't even recognize me, Tony?" Rhodes chuckled, his voice dropping an octave. "You make me... so happy!!!"
Under the lethal threat of the Iron Man armor, the man showed absolutely no fear. Instead, he burst into loud, familiar laughter.
Inside the helmet, Tony's HUD zoomed in, analyzing the biometric data and the vocal patterns beneath the sharp laughter.
'Rhodey?!' Tony's breath hitched. 'That's... that's Rhodey!'
"Why?" Tony stammered, the mechanical modulation failing to hide the absolute heartbreak in his voice. "Why did you kidnap Pepper? Rhodey, I've been looking for you!!"
The voice. The silhouette. The posture. It was his best friend.
A crushing weight dropped onto Tony's heart. The glowing white light of the repulsors slowly dimmed with a dying whine. The heavy, armored arms dropped to his sides.
Iron Man would never point his weapons at his own family. Especially not someone who, because of Tony's own failures, had suffered unimaginable torment.
"Rhodey, please," Tony pleaded, opening his armored hands in a gesture of surrender. "Let Pepper go. I can help you. Believe me!"
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