Chapter 12: Men of Iron

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"Some motherfuckers are always trying to ice skate uphill."

— Blade, (Blade)

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<(Omniscient POV)> 

"Shit, I should have made an extra arc reactor," Tony uttered as he felt the old version of his arc reactor barely keeping up with the power supply of his new suit and keeping him alive at the same time.

But that still didn't stop him. No, he had a job to do and that was to stop Obadiah and show him who the real talent behind Stark Industries was. He also wanted to make sure that his tech was never again abused by people like Obadiah who had sold the very weapons he designed to terrorists and other criminal organizations or dictator-run countries.

That was the reason he was currently flying with absolute anger burning in his eyes to the Stark Industries facility where Obadiah had once again managed to steal the technology behind his armor as well as his arc reactor technology to profit off.

As he came closer to the facility, he could hear the sounds of panic and terror coming from that direction including the sounds of bullet shots and missiles.

"What? Jarvis, please tell me what I am seeing isn't correct. There must be something wrong with the suit's sensors." Tony asked as he looked at the massive armor Obadiah was wearing. The base design looked mostly similar to his own design that he had made back in Afghanistan to escape from the Ten Rings, except for the fact that the armor had a lot of additional upgrades including state-of-the-art kinetic robotic propulsion technology and what looked like massive targetted missile launchers on its back.

"Jarvis, search up if you find anything similar to those design changes in that armor," Tony ordered, positive that Obadiah and his team of mediocre scientists could not come up with those improvements and upgrades in those armor designs themselves. Either they had outside help or they simply stole it from someone.

"Got it, Sir... The upgrades seem to be heavily copied from prototype droids that were being researched under the name, the Sentinel project in the mid-90s by a tech firm called Trask Industries under the leadership of Bolivar Trask, the lead researcher of the project as well as the then-CEO of the company. But after his tragic demise, the company was acquired and merged by Meta Enterprises to boost their AI and robotics research projects although no product or news about the projects had since been released to the public." Jarvis helpfully informed.

"Meta Enterprises? Huh, so are they helping Obadiah as a ploy against Stark Industries, or did Obadiah simply steal their research projects?" Tony wondered aloud.

But he didn't dwell on this line of thought for long as he boosted towards the Iron Monger, deciding to figure everything out later when he was free and when his only secretary was not being chased by a revengeful iron giant.

"This is amazing. This is what true unbridled power feels like, the power that you can only have in the great nation of America." Obadiah Stane laughed like a maniac as he tested out his huge ironmonger armor while shooting bullets all around.

"Well, you know, they say that in America, we also have the right to free speech, but that doesn't mean we have to shout our opinions from the rooftop. It's called the 'right to remain silent,' buddy! So, do me a favor and shut up." Tony landed with a thud in front of the huge Iron Giant.

"Tony Stark, always the man of the hour, always the one stealing my spotlight. I will make you pay for all the times you and your stupid father underestimated me, how you two undermined my talent and I will prove that I am better than you both." Stane showed a bloodthirsty grin as he prepared to attack.

*Swish* a missile, the size of a human arm rushed towards Tony from Stane's arm, which the young Stark skilfully dodged and then released two beams of pulse repulsors towards the huge armored villain.

But alas, they didn't even scratch the Iron Monger's armor as all it did was force Stane to take a step back under the massive force of the beams.

"Carbonadium, Tony. An artificial metal, designed to act as the counterpart of Adamantium. A little gift from our friends back in Russia." Stane grinned. 

"Carbonadium? But they only offered it for the javelin weapon... you sold them the system, even when you knew there was a danger to the US government shutting us down?" Tony realized.

"The government? Hahahaha. Who do you think helps me in shipping the illegal weapons? The government gets the biggest cut among all my sales you know." The overweight smuggler mocked while the gloves of his armor slowly converted into what seemed like a drill.

"Let me guess Meta Enterprises gave that technology to you in exchange for the shares of Stark Industries?" Tony activated his flight thrusters to get the higher ground and get some distance between them. 

"Meta? Those pieces of shit were the ones who poured cold water on my plans. I worked so hard to make you disappear and take control of the company, yet they just swooped in at the most appropriate moment and bought almost every free stock in the market using their connections. But still, it seems they recognized my worth because they approved my vote to cast you out of the CEO position. But, don't worry, once I take care of you, I'll be going after them next. After all, who can stop me once I have an army of these armors." Stane declared haughtily.

He wasn't worried about the potential connections the company had with metahumans. He also had his own connections with certain organizations and the biggest one of them more or less controlled the entire US government along with a lot of other governments around the world.

They were the ones who had handed over some of the research on the Sentinel project along with some of the destroyed parts of the droids back from their clash against Genosha to him in hopes of developing their own version of the Sentinels. However, until now it has almost been impossible for him to build a full working model for the droids that Trask had designed but now with Tony's armor and arc reactor technology, he has done it. He has made the strongest armor, combining the best of both worlds. 

"Here, taste the power of your own weapon," Obadiah yelled as he jumped toward Tony activating his own heavy flight thrusters, punching him in the face, while dealing some serious damage.

However, Obidiah didn't end it there. He held him in one place and kept punching him in the face until half of Tony's mask was destroyed under the continuous assault and the young Stark was bleeding from his nose.

"How do you feel Tony, being able to die at the hands of your own invention?" Stane asked while laughing maniacally as he had already won.

"P-pretty g-good si... since I won't be dying to-today... Jarvis NOW." Tony yelled as the uni-beam on his chest activated and fired at full power, hitting the Iron Monger while forcing Tony himself to fly back at considerable force, way out of Stane's reach.

"Hahaha. Do you think such a meager trick will save you? You will die today Tony for both me and the company." Stane chuckled as he stabilized himself from the impact.

"Yeah, I don't have the mood today. Pepper, light up the fireworks." He said with slight hesitation in his voice.

Immediately, the ground under Stane's feet began to light up in a menacing blue light as it looked like the entire place was going to explode. 

"What? What is happening?... You fuc..." Stane could not complete his words or move away in time as the entire place exploded in a spectacular fashion, even throwing Tony away like a ragdoll.

It was a huge explosion that not only destroyed the entire facility but also everything near it.

"You okay, Tony? Please tell me you aren't dead." Pepper asked panting, a few minutes after she got far enough from the facility.

"... Nope, still alive, somehow," Tony uttered in pain as he tried to stand up. "But, I am still glad to know that you care about me so much." Tony teased even in his current condition.

"Well, I'll miss my employee bonus for this year if you die you know." She huffed even though she had a small smile on her face.

"Yeah, no shit. By the way, I am craving a burger right now. Where do you think the nearest McDonalds AHHHH..." Tony suddenly screamed as he felt a drill pierce through his arm.

As Tony could barely keep his eyes open, he saw Obadiah Stane in his partly destroyed Iron Monger armor standing above him with a victorious expression on his face.

"How?" Tony could not help but ask.

"You seriously thought you defeated me? Did you really think it was that easy? Carbonadium, remember? Destroying this is almost impossible for your low-grade armor or your father's useless invention. And now, it's time for you to die." 

"Shit," Tony muttered to himself as he saw Iron Monger's drill-shaped arm coming towards him in full power.

He closed his eyes in desperation feeling utter powerlessness as he waited for his imminent doom, hoping that at least Pepper had escaped far away from this place and would be safe. Perhaps the Homeland Security people would be able to protect her in case Obadiah went after her. At least, that was what he hoped.

But, the painful death that he was waiting for never came. Instead, when he opened his eyes, he saw Obadiah in a completely frozen position with the same hateful and bloodthirsty expression visible on his face. It was like time had itself stopped for him.

"Huh, what the hell is happening?" Tony asked himself as he looked around, trying to figure out exactly what was happening. He wanted to use this chance to get out of Stane's grasp but unfortunately, his arc reactor was almost completely out of juice and was only barely able to generate enough power to keep the shards from his heart.

"Yare yare, it seems that you have landed yourself in quite a bit of trouble Mr. Stark, I almost feel bad for you. It seems that you can use some help. So how about it..., wanna make a deal?" A familiar figure slowly landed in front of Tony, speaking idly with a unique playfulness in his voice.

"You? What are you doing here, Mr. Sugar baby?" The playboy billionaire asked, sporting a look of utter confusion on his face.

It was then that Tony Stark finally realized that the world might be a lot more complicated than he seemed to imagine before.

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