The Iron Man armor landed abruptly, the sheer kinetic force cracking the pavement of the pavilion.
The surrounding crowd, which had been cheering wildly just a moment before, froze. The armor's gauntlets rose, and the distinct, high-pitched whine of the palm repulsors charging echoed across the plaza.
Instantly, the festive atmosphere evaporated. Even the most oblivious bystander could sense the lethal tension radiating from the armored Avenger.
"Pepper!" Tony's mechanically amplified voice boomed, directed entirely at the hulking, tattooed man standing perfectly still in the crowd. "Where is she?!"
The white light from the palm cannons flared brighter, but Tony didn't fire. There were still thousands of innocent onlookers packed into the square; a stray blast could cause a massacre.
Inside the helmet, Tony's gaze was incredibly sharp, his heart hammering against his chest.
Facing the glowing, lethal threat of the Iron Man armor, Ivan Vanko showed not a single hint of panic. He simply chewed on his toothpick, making no move to answer the question.
Seeing the Russian's utter defiance, an anxious, furious Tony lowered his arms. The heavy armor took a thudding step forward, its mechanical fists clenching tight.
"I asked you a question—"
Before Tony could finish, a blinding flash of blue electrical plasma ignited across Ivan Vanko's body.
The raw, unshielded energy instantly incinerated the dirty jumpsuit he wore, burning it to ash. With the outer clothing gone, the crude, heavy-duty mechanical exoskeleton strapped to Vanko's torso was clearly exposed.
Tony stopped dead in his tracks.
In the center of Vanko's chest, a crude but unmistakable Arc Reactor pulsed with blinding white light. Power surged through the exoskeleton, feeding into two heavy metal cables trailing on the ground. The whips began to crackle and glow with lethal, superheated plasma.
"You thief!" Tony roared, the sight overriding his usual tactical restraint. In Tony Stark's heart, Pepper Potts was his absolute priority, but the Arc Reactor—his family's legacy and his literal lifeblood—was a close second. "Where did you get that technology?!"
Vanko, the primary suspect in Pepper's disappearance, was standing there wearing stolen Stark tech.
Tony exploded with rage.
The repulsors whined to maximum capacity. Twin blasts of concussive plasma flew from the gauntlets, streaking directly toward Vanko.
The Russian's response was terrifyingly simple. With a flick of his wrists, he swung the superheated plasma whips directly into the path of the repulsor blasts. The immense, concentrated energy of the whips sliced right through the concussive beams, neutralizing them mid-air with a loud, hissing CRACK.
No explosion. Just raw energy canceling out raw energy.
The moment the energy sparked, mass panic ensued. The crowd finally realized this was not a choreographed Expo performance. Thousands of people screamed, scattering and trampling each other to flee the plaza.
The confrontation resumed instantly. Tony raised his arms to fire again, but Vanko had no intention of giving him the luxury of range.
CRACK!
A glowing whip lashed out, smashing directly into Iron Man's forearm and violently interrupting the repulsor charge.
The distance between them was too close. Close-quarters melee combat against a weapon designed to slice through metal was not a winning scenario.
Vanko advanced, swinging the dual whips relentlessly. Every strike left a sparking, blackened scorch mark across Tony's pristine armor.
However, for Tony Stark inside the suit, the impacts were jarring but not lethal. The cutting power of Vanko's whips was devastating against ordinary iron or steel, but the Mark IV armor was forged entirely from a Gold-Titanium alloy, vastly improving its thermal resistance and structural integrity.
Seeing that standing his ground was a tactical disadvantage, Tony diverted power to his boot thrusters. He rocketed fifty feet into the air, instantly breaking the engagement range.
The scene entered a tense stalemate. The plasma whips were strictly limited by their physical length; Vanko couldn't reach Tony in mid-air. The Russian could only pace on the ground, cracking his whips against the pavement and leaving deep, molten gashes in the concrete.
Hovering safely above, Tony had access to his entire aerial arsenal. He could obliterate the plaza. But he needed Vanko alive. He needed to know where Pepper was.
Tony charged his repulsors again, preparing to target Vanko's legs to incapacitate him.
Just then, the HUD inside the helmet flashed red.
"Sir," J.A.R.V.I.S.'s voice cut through the combat alerts. "Priority override. Incoming video call from Ms. Pepper Potts's mobile device."
"Patch it through!" Tony barked, completely ignoring the glowing Russian beneath him.
A transparent holographic projection snapped open on his visor.
However, the face that appeared on the screen was not Pepper's.
It was a face painted with smeared white greasepaint and a horrifying, jagged red smile.
"Joker!" Tony breathed, his blood running completely cold. "Damn it!!"
When the Joker's manic face flickered onto the screen, the fire of Tony's rage was instantly smothered by an ocean of pure, paralyzing dread.
It just had to be him. The one man whose mind operated completely outside the bounds of logic, ransom, or negotiation.
"Tony..." the Joker whispered, leaning into the camera. "Long time no see! Look who I brought to the party!"
In the projection, the Joker tilted the camera, stepping back to reveal the room.
Pepper Potts was tied to a heavy steel chair. She was gagged with duct tape, her eyes wide with frantic, muffled terror.
But what drew Tony's gaze—what made his heart stop completely—was the heavy block of C4 explosive wired directly to her waist. A digital timer was glowing bright red, ticking down relentlessly.
[02:59]
[02:58]
"What do you want?!" Tony screamed frantically, abandoning all composure. "Joker! Tell me, what do you want?! Name your price! Don't you dare hurt Pepper!!"
As the countdown ticked lower, Tony's breathing grew ragged.
"J.A.R.V.I.S., run a trace! Now!"
"Sir, Ms. Potts's GPS signal is localized to an abandoned shipping facility on Staten Island," J.A.R.V.I.S. reported rapidly. "Real-time position locked. At maximum supersonic velocity, we have enough time to reach her before detonation."
'Staten Island. I can make it,' Tony thought, a desperate lifeline of hope taking hold. 'I can save her.'
Just then, the Joker stepped back into the frame, completely blocking Pepper from view. He offered the camera a horrifying, theatrical pout.
"Oh! How impressive!" the Joker mocked, tapping the side of his head. "Are we traced already? Has the genius billionaire pinpointed my location? Looks like I'll have to retreat!"
The Joker leaned in close, his yellow teeth bared in a wicked grin.
"However... before I go, Tony, I really think you should take a look at this."
On the video feed, the Joker raised his other hand. He was holding a second smartphone, aiming its camera at another live feed.
On the second screen was a man, bound to a concrete pillar in a dimly lit room, stripped of his military uniform.
It was a man Tony Stark loved like a brother.
"Rhodey!" Tony gasped. "Damn it, you sick bastard!! You actually—!"
Tony clenched his teeth so hard his jaw popped. He hadn't expected the Joker to orchestrate a bloody massacre at a high-security psychiatric ward just to use Rhodes as a twisted pawn.
Then, Tony saw the red numbers.
Strapped directly to Rhodey's chest was an identical brick of C4. An identical red digital timer was flashing.
[02:40]
[02:39]
Tony felt the air completely leave his lungs. He was suffocating inside his own armor. The sheer, malicious cruelty of the trap hit him like a physical blow.
"I've tucked the good Colonel away in a lovely little warehouse in the North Bronx," the Joker whispered gleefully into the microphone.
Staten Island was at the absolute southern tip of the city. The Bronx was at the absolute northern edge.
'They're in opposite directions,' Tony realized, his mind fracturing under the weight of the impossible physics. 'Even at Mach 3, I can't reach both of them in two and a half minutes. It's impossible.'
"If you want to save him, Tony..." the Joker laughed, a sound like glass grinding against bone. "...you'd better hurry. You only have time to pick one friend."
.....
.....
.....
[AUTHOR NOTE: My some fics are somewhat shadow banned by webnovel like my Naruto fic. Can you guys help me? Just try any other fic of mine and and add to your library if you like them. Have a nice day.]
Support me and read advance chapters on patreon.com/ImmortalDaoWriter