Chapter 62: Tony, Frantic for His Wife
Ethan took one look at Tony sprawled on the floor and yanked out a Senzu Bean, shoving it into his mouth.
Miles hovered at his shoulder, face drained of color. He stared at Tony, then at Ethan, not sure what he was supposed to do. Call the police? Was that the move here?
"Mr. Cross — shouldn't we, uh, call the cops?" Miles's voice had a tremor in it. He was rattled.
Ethan didn't answer. His eyes were locked on Tony.
A beat later, Tony's body jerked. Color flooded back into his face. The hole in his chest — the socket that had held the arc reactor — sealed itself up.
Ethan watched with a different kind of worry already creeping in. If he's healed up completely, without the mini arc reactor... is this Tony still going to be Iron Man?
But the second Tony came to, the first word out of his mouth was:
"Pepper. Where's Pepper?"
He didn't care that he'd just been dying. He didn't care how Ethan had gotten in. All he cared about was Pepper — and whether his uncle had gone after her too.
Ethan caught on fast enough. He pulled out his phone and called Pepper.
She picked up on the second ring.
"Ms. Potts, hi, this is Ethan Cro—"
That was as far as he got before Tony grabbed the phone.
"Pepper — are you okay?"
On the other end of the line, Pepper sounded almost frantic with relief. "Tony — are you okay? I'm fine, I'm on my way with the agents. We're going to arrest Obadiah."
"I found the evidence this morning — on his computer. He's been setting you up!"
"Don't go in there." Tony was already trying to sit up. "You're not ready for what he is. Turn around. Go back." Tony knew exactly what Obadiah was — his war machine was finished, and regular people weren't walking out of that fight.
"But we're already at the building." Pepper sounded confused. From her angle, Obadiah was just a man. She had federal agents with her. That was supposed to be enough.
"Just listen to me — get out of there. I'm coming to you. Now."
Tony hung up and was on his feet before the line went dead. Every thought in his head had collapsed into one: get to Pepper.
That left Ethan and Miles staring at each other.
Miles had the look of a man whose day had stopped making sense several hours ago. He'd just been along for the ride, and he was still along for the ride.
Ethan sighed and followed. He'd come out here to talk to Tony. Nice, casual check-in. And of course he'd walked in on the exact hour Obadiah decided to rip the arc reactor out of Tony's chest to power his own tin can.
If Ethan was reading the situation right, they were about thirty minutes out from Iron Man versus Iron Monger.
"So this is how you treat the guy who just saved your life, huh?" Ethan griped from the passenger seat.
But he got it. Tony was a man trying to get to his woman.
"Sorry. I need to get to Pepper." Tony wasn't even really listening. The speedometer climbed.
He was locked in on the road, eyes forward, car tearing down the highway.
Worry had him by the throat. He couldn't let Pepper walk into that. He had to be there first.
"I hear you, I hear you. Marry her already, would you? Man, if I'd known today was gonna turn out like this I would've stayed home. Burned a whole Senzu Bean for nothing." Ethan was muttering now.
From the back seat, Miles had nothing to say. He had spent essentially the entire day in a car. And the guy driving the car had an actual emergency going on. Whatever Miles's situation was, it could wait.
Ethan caught the look on Miles's face and rushed to reassure him. "Hey, hey, it's fine. Once we wrap this up, I'll bring your thing up with Tony. Promise."
Tony could tell, vaguely, that these two had come out here for a reason. He just didn't have the bandwidth. Pepper first.
"Hold on — why are we driving?" Ethan sat up. "Why aren't you suiting up and flying there? That would be like a tenth of the time."
This was not how he remembered the movie going. Pretty sure Tony was supposed to be flying right now.
"You think I don't want to?" Tony's jaw was tight. "Did you notice the chest wound on me is completely healed? How am I supposed to plug in the arc reactor now? I'd have to build a whole new one."
He wanted to suit up. He really did. But whatever miracle had sealed him up had also taken his mount point with it. The suit was going to need a redesign. That was a problem for after.
And speaking of which — after this was over, he and Ethan were going to have a very long conversation about what exactly Ethan had fed him. Because every single time Ethan showed his face, he had something impossible in his pocket.
"So how are you planning to beat your uncle without the suit?" Ethan pressed, frowning.
Tony didn't answer. He just glanced sideways.
And Ethan's stomach dropped.
"Don't look at me like that! Eyes on the road! Eyes on the road!"
He got it instantly.
"Oh, so I'm working pro bono now, is that it? Save your life and clean up your mess? Do you have any idea how much that Senzu Bean you just swallowed is worth? There are four in the entire world and you just ate one!"
"I owe you one." Tony said it flat and serious.
Ethan shut up. Because the truth was, Ethan needed Tony's help too.
Elsewhere, in the deepest room of Obadiah's lab, Obadiah stood with the arc reactor he'd taken from Tony's chest cradled in his hands. His eyes gleamed with something hungry.
He walked, slow and reverent, to his Iron Monger suit. He fitted the precious little reactor into its core mount.
At that same moment, Pepper and a team of agents pulled up outside the lab building.
Pepper had wanted to wait — she'd heard Tony. She was going to wait.
But the agents wouldn't. They were already moving toward the building, and she had no real way to stop them.
The agents blew the blast door with a small breaching charge. The BOOM of it echoed through the whole facility — and it got Obadiah's attention.
He peered through a crack in the door, saw the intruders, and began locking himself into his armor with cold efficiency.
A fight was coming, and there was no stopping it now. Obadiah powered up the Iron Monger. The machine's engines roared to life, the sound rolling through the empty lab.
He watched the intruders through his HUD. There was no hesitation left in his face. Just the decision.
Pepper and the agents stepped carefully into the lab. What they found was a mess of schematics and an empty armor cradle.
"He might already be gone," Pepper whispered.
She understood now, too late, what Tony had been trying to warn her about. She could only pray Obadiah really had already left.
The agents fanned out, weapons raised, sweeping every corner for any trace of him.
Their faces were tight. The rifles in their hands had become the only thing keeping them upright. The air in the lab felt heavy, pressurized — like something was about to happen.
Something did.
A massive shape dropped from above and slammed down right next to Pepper.
Her eyes went wide. She had time for exactly one scream before she spun on her heels — heels she was still wearing — and bolted.
Her heart was hammering. Every step shook.
Behind her, the lab erupted.
The agents' bullets and grenades left streaks of scoring on the Iron Monger's plating — and that was all. None of it slowed him down. None of it mattered. Under the fists of that machine, the agents dropped one by one. Blood on the floor. Pieces of men on the floor.
Pepper alone made it outside.
She was almost there — fingers already going for her phone, already breathing again, already thinking Tony, I have to call Tony —
And behind her, the ground cracked open as the Iron Monger burst up through it.
Pepper turned. Screamed. Backed away.
Obadiah raised the suit's right arm, the gesture almost lazy. His voice came out through the speakers, cold and done with her.
"You've outlived your usefulness."
Pepper's stomach dropped out from under her. There was nowhere left to run.
In front of that machine, she felt like a bug. Something about to be stepped on.
In that moment she regretted it — not listening to Tony. And she wondered, uselessly, whether Tony would be sad for her, after.
And then — from above, from the sky — a voice:
"STANE!!"
Obadiah looked up.
Ethan was suspended in the air, the car hanging from him by nothing but magnetism, and Tony was inside it.
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