Tony Stark, You've Been Kidnapped!

Chapter 18: Tony Stark, You've Been Kidnapped!

Antarctica, untouched by human presence, perpetually buried beneath glaciers.

Suddenly, a figure streaked across the skyline, shattering the silence, and plunged straight into the icy peaks.

In an ice cave a hundred meters deep, Peter casually dropped Tony Stark—who had been forcibly brought here—onto the ground, and said to him slowly.

"Mr. Tony Stark, I regret to inform you that you've been kidnap—"

"Ugh..."

But at this moment, Tony Stark couldn't respond to Peter at all; he only felt a churning in his stomach.

Though Tony had once yearned for the sky, dreaming of the day he could soar freely beneath the blue heavens under his own power.

Right now, however, he was just an ordinary man who "got airsick."

"Blegh..."

Watching Tony hunched over on the ground, vomiting until the world spun, Peter didn't force him to stop.

After all, anyone yanked from a standstill to over a dozen times the speed of sound probably wouldn't be much better off.

A full few minutes passed before Tony finally emptied everything his stomach had to offer.

"Sorry for the wait, this... Mr. Superman. What were you about to say?"

Sitting weakly on the ground, Tony looked up at this unfamiliar... Superman, wondering why he had been brought here.

Tss.

But in response, his gaze gradually turned a blazing red.

"Fuck, are you trying to kill me?"

Scrambling clumsily into a roll to dodge the searing Heat Vision, Tony got to his feet and cursed outright.

Casually incinerating Tony's vomit—which reeked with a strong stench—into ash.

Peter's eyes still glowed red as he stared at Tony, whose expression was far from friendly, and continued in a low voice: "I am pleased to inform you that you have been kidnapped."

"If you can't figure out your place, the next laser might not hit where you'd like."

"Alright, alright, I surrender. You're the boss now."

Watching Peter's red eyes sweep over him, finally lingering on a certain private area, Tony quickly raised his hands in surrender.

"So, our great Mr. Superman, why exactly did you kidnap me here? It's not for money, is it?"

Tony asked cautiously, desperately hoping Peter would say yes.

After all, money—though important to him—wasn't that important.

"Money? Does that mean anything to me?"

Unfortunately, Peter naturally hadn't kidnapped him for money.

"Then what for? Women? Fame? Or power? If it's power, I can use money to help you campaign for president..."

Suddenly, a gust of cold wind hit him, and Tony realized he'd "left home" in a hurry, still wearing his pajamas.

Seeing that the man before him still showed no expression, Tony hugged himself, shivering, and continued: "Other than myself, I can give you anything you want..."

"Ahem, you're not really after me..."

As if a thought struck him, Tony suddenly felt less cold, though a certain part of him tightened.

"I want... the knowledge in your head."

Hearing this, Tony finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Help me build a suit of armor, and construct here my very own... Fortress of Solitude!"

It was a night full of joy.

Having completed his plan, Obadiah Stane, lost in fantasies of soon fully controlling Stark Industries, drifted off to sleep early.

"Ring, ring..."

But a sudden phone call shattered his sweet dreams.

Sitting up slowly, he took a sip of the expensive wine from his nightstand, cleared his throat, and finally answered the call.

"What did you say? Tony's been kidnapped?"

Forcing down his inner excitement to keep from laughing out loud at that moment, Obadiah exclaimed into the phone with feigned shock.

"Alright, I'll be right there."

"Am I still dreaming?"

Hanging up, the smile on his face instantly became impossible to contain. In that moment, he was completely immersed in the bliss of his dream coming true.

"Wait—I only sent out my plan this afternoon, and they finished it tonight?"

Soon, Obadiah sensed something was off.

After all, he had only sent the cooperation plan to his private buyer that afternoon—there was no way it could have been completed by tonight.

If they had that kind of capability, they would have already stormed the Presidential Palace.

Besides, this didn't match their plan at all.

"No, I have to go see for myself!"

The next moment, Obadiah, his face stripped of any trace of a smile, scrambled out of bed and rushed toward Tony's luxury villa.

Meanwhile, at the villa in Malibu.

Countless figures in military uniforms, fully armed, surrounded the entire villa.

Several fighter jets circled overhead, conducting a carpet-style search of the area.

Inside the villa, numerous intelligence agents in black suits and white gloves were scouring for any possible clues left behind.

Yet, within the villa, they found not a single trace of an outsider.

Of course, that didn't include the two Magazine Cover Models who had already been taken away for interrogation.

"Pepper, what the hell happened? How did Tony just vanish?"

A black man in an Air Force pilot uniform suddenly burst into the villa, demanding directly of Pepper.

"Colonel Rhodes, I don't know either. I only found out Mr. Stark was missing after receiving an emergency alert from J.A.R.V.I.S."

Pepper's face looked somewhat pale at the moment; the incident had happened so suddenly that she hadn't even had time to put on makeup.

"What the hell is going on? How did Tony just disappear?"

Before the two could continue their conversation, another figure appeared at the villa's entrance, shouting loudly even before stepping inside, as if extremely anxious and worried.

"Mr. Stan, you're here."

"Pepper Potts, what the hell is going on? As the executive assistant, why didn't you keep an eye on Tony?"

Obadiah launched into a sharp interrogation of Pepper the moment he entered.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Stan, but as you know, Mr. Stark doesn't like me disturbing him at night."

Pepper was equally helpless; Tony's playboy nature was well-known to everyone.

"Enough, this isn't the time to assign blame. Finding Tony is what matters most."

Colonel James Rhodes spoke up to ease the tension between the two.

"J.A.R.V.I.S., do you have any leads?"

Then, Rhodes directly called out to J.A.R.V.I.S., hoping to obtain some special clues.

"I'm sorry, Colonel Rhodes. None of the surveillance equipment under my control captured any images of the person who entered the villa. Even the satellite radar above the villa detected no trace of an intrusion."

"Mr. Stark simply vanished into thin air."

J.A.R.V.I.S.'s magnetic voice slowly rang out, but it was hard for everyone to accept.

"No video footage, not even radar detecting any sign of an intruder—so was Tony kidnapped by a demon?"

Obadiah's face suddenly twisted, as if driven mad by Tony's disappearance.

"Wait, could it be..."

Suddenly, as if a thought had struck her, Pepper spoke up uncertainly.