Plot Developments

Seeing Wang Bert about to leave, Little Pepper hurriedly stood up and said, "Mr. Wang, won't you stay and look around? Tony has lots of impressive high-tech stuff!"

Tony immediately grew a little nervous. He did not want Wang Bert to see the nearly finished Mark Two, because he planned to use it to thoroughly shock him.

How dare he say his armor was ugly and useless? If he did not win back his dignity, was he still Tony Stark? Wang Bert glanced at Tony and smiled. "Not for now. Maybe another time."

"Tony, we'll be going. Thank you for the Wellington Steak."

Carter also stood up. Tony hurriedly rose and gave her a hug. Carter whispered into his ear, "Watch out for Obadiah!"

"What?"

Tony was greatly shaken. What did Aunt Carter mean by telling him to watch out for Obadiah? Could Obadiah be trying to harm him? That was impossible. Obadiah had always treated him well and helped him, while Tony regarded him as half a father—granted, Tony often made Obadiah clean up his messes, but was it not only natural for a father to clean up after his son?

Carter said no more. She nodded to Little Pepper, then turned and followed Wang Bert out. She had not driven today, so she was catching a ride with Wang Bert! In the car, Carter asked Wang Bert, "Blood God, do you actually know how to read faces, or are you faking it?"

"You want to ask whether Captain America is really dead, right?"

Wang Bert smiled. "How about this, Ms. Carter? Let's talk science."

Carter was speechless. He had just been acting like some mystical charlatan, and now he wanted to talk science? Wang Bert said, "Some time ago, I bought five sets of equipment on the black market. If I'm not mistaken, they were freezing devices from the Former Soviet Union's Winter Soldier Program!"

Carter was stunned. "The Winter Soldier Program? The program that imitated Steve? Didn't it fail?"

"Half failure, half success."

Wang Bert said, "The Enhanced they created were mentally unstable, so they used special equipment to erase the Winter Soldiers' memories. Then they placed them in Cryo Pods and released them when they were needed for missions!"

"They treated them entirely as tools!"

Carter snorted coldly. Wang Bert smiled. "America has done plenty of the same things. The pot should not call the kettle black. Anyway, the equipment I bought was from the Winter Soldier Program. I tested it. After freezing and thawing rabbits, they were still alive!"

"You mean Steve might have been frozen after falling into the icy sea, just like the Winter Soldier?"

Carter asked, "But that seems unlikely, doesn't it? The temperature in nature isn't the same as the temperature inside the equipment!"

"You never found Captain America back then, which means he was deep within the Arctic Circle, where the temperature is much lower than elsewhere!"

Wang Bert said, "Besides, you are overlooking Captain America's physique. He is definitely different from ordinary people."

"So Steve really might not be dead?"

Carter became excited. She could choose not to believe theology, but they were discussing science now!

Wang Bert smiled. "Scientifically speaking, there is a high probability. Theologically speaking, he is definitely alive!"

"That's wonderful!"

Carter was so delighted that she almost lost her composure. However, she quickly calmed down and said, "Blood God, I want to send people to the Arctic Circle to search for Steve!"

"Sure. I'll approve funding for you to go there under the name of a scientific expedition."

Wang Bert said, "But do not be too impatient. If the time has not come, Captain America may not appear."

Carter did not understand. "The time?"

Wang Bert said in a mystic tone, "God's righteous people never appear without reason!"

What Peggy Carter said at the gathering made Tony very uneasy. Coupled with the fact that he had not gone out for many days, he decided to get some fresh air. He got into his sports car and headed to Manhattan for a charity dinner! At the banquet, Tony learned from a female reporter he had slept with that Stark Industries weapons had appeared in the hands of Terrorists again, and that they had devastated Yinsen's hometown, Gomera! Tony was furious and went to Obadiah for an explanation, only to learn from him that he had been kicked out by the Board of Directors—and that Obadiah had proposed it!

Tony never imagined that Obadiah, whom he regarded as half a father, would do this to him. He returned home in a daze and searched for news from the Middle East. The blood-soaked devastation of Gomera made him reach a decision! He was going to destroy Stark Industries weapons. He would never allow his Stark Industries to commit evil again! Yinsen fully supported him, since it was his hometown that had been ravaged!

Thus, Iron Man officially appeared in the Mark III. Mark Two had been discarded due to its high-altitude icing problem. He not only destroyed the Terrorists' weapons and beat them until they cried for their mothers, but also got too carried away and had a "date" with the U.S. Military's F22 Raptors, resulting in damages of over a hundred million dollars.

The excited Tony did not know that Wang Bert had secretly recorded some footage of his battle and played it for Vanko Father and Son.

Pointing at the red-and-gold Iron Man, Wang Bert said, "This is Tony Stark's newest creation, the Mark III!"

Although Ivan was deeply shocked, he still cursed loudly, "Only a sissy would use armor like that. It's as thin as paper!"

Anton repeatedly nodded and shouted, "That's right! Only sissies like the Stark Family would use armor like that!"

Wang Bert was speechless. The father and son truly were cut from the same cloth! The Mark III made Vanko Father and Son finally make up their minds. Anton Vanko said, "Blood God, I want to become a Vampire. I hope you keep your promise, and my son and I will keep ours as well. We'll help you design all kinds of things!"

"Don't worry. There has never been a problem with my reputation!"

Wang Bert said with a smile. In truth, he had no intention of deceiving them. If anything, he was a little worried that Ivan would trick him, but with Anton around, there should not be much of a problem.

Besides, did he not still have Blood Concealment? ...

Iron Man's appearance greatly shocked Obadiah, and he personally went to the Middle East to meet Raza, the leader of the Ten Rings Gang!

Obadiah had not come with good intentions, but as soon as he arrived at Raza's base, he wisely abandoned those malicious thoughts because Raza had far more men than him.

"Didn't they say his strength had been greatly reduced? Why does he still have so many people?"

Obadiah was quite puzzled. He left his mercenaries outside and went into the tent to meet Raza. To his surprise, there were two rather strange people inside besides Raza! One was extremely muscular, his body grayish-white like stone. The other was so thin that he seemed to have only bones left, and his gaze was particularly cold and sinister! Raza, whose face had been burned by flames, warmly embraced Obadiah before introducing them. "My friend, they were sent by Mandarin to help me get revenge."

"Mandarin?"

Obadiah was rather surprised. Although he had done plenty of business with the Ten Rings Gang, he had always believed Mandarin was fictional, since legends claimed that he had lived for over a hundred years! Raza did not waste words. He showed Obadiah the Mark I wreckage he had recovered, along with the complete blueprints. He said, "My friend, if you agree to two things, all of this will be yours!"

Obadiah was very interested in the Mark I. "What things?"

Raza said fanatically, "First, once you replicate this, sell some to me. I will use them to conquer the world for Mandarin!"

"That won't be a problem. I am a weapons dealer, after all!"

"Second, my brothers and I are going to your city to seek revenge on Tony Stark and Iron Fist!"

Raza said hatefully, "They will be buried alongside our dead brothers!"

"Revenge!"

The two strange men shouted, glaring fiercely at Obadiah. Obadiah frowned slightly, but after thinking it over, he chose to agree, because he truly did not want to see Tony Stark again.

As for that Iron Fist, he did not know him. Since he was Tony's friend, he might as well deal with him too! "Iron Fist, you're dead!"

Raza touched the New Lightning Symbol Ring on his hand and said with a savage expression.

Once Tony got carried away, he could not stop. He went to the Middle East several more times in succession, and the news was filled with reports about Iron Man, which made him quite pleased. Tony Stark was supposed to be the center of the world's attention!

Tony had not forgotten about Obadiah either. He had Little Pepper take a specially modified USB drive to the chairman's office and hack into the company's mainframe, so they could find out who was selling weapons to the Terrorists! Little Pepper was willing to take risks for Tony. After breaking into the company mainframe, she discovered that Obadiah was secretly building a huge robot called Iron Monger! Little Pepper frowned, then continued searching, and she found a shocking video!

It was a video the Terrorists had sent Obadiah demanding more money—they had not known beforehand that the person they were meant to kill was Tony Stark.

"Obadiah not only sold weapons to Terrorists, he also tried to kill Tony?"

Little Pepper was stunned. She hurriedly copied all the files onto the USB drive. Just then, Obadiah suddenly arrived, and his greeting nearly scared Little Pepper to death! Little Pepper was, after all, the future President. She remained very calm at the crucial moment, chatting with Obadiah while covering the USB drive with a newspaper and setting the screen to its screensaver! Once she felt the copying was nearly complete, Little Pepper left with the USB drive tucked inside the newspaper. The moment she closed the door, she let out a huge sigh of relief. She had been terrified just now!

Before Little Pepper had even left the company, Obadiah noticed something was wrong and hurried after her. Fortunately, Little Pepper ran into S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Coulson in the lobby. Coulson had been wanting to ask Tony about the exact events in the Middle East. Obadiah did not dare act in front of an agent and could only let them leave!

"At this point, I can only make a desperate gamble!"

Obadiah immediately drove to Tony's villa while calling Raza's group, who had already entered the country. He told them to go to Stark Tower and deal with the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who would soon arrive!

Not long afterward, Obadiah arrived at Tony's home. The unprepared Tony was paralyzed all over by high-tech sonic waves and could not move.

Then, under Tony's shocked and furious gaze, Obadiah used an instrument to remove the Arc Reactor from his chest!

Looking at the beautiful Arc Reactor, Obadiah's eyes were full of intoxication. Such a small thing was enough to drive the entire world mad, and even make the military protect him with all its power! The military was not completely unaware that Obadiah was selling weapons to Terrorists. They were not that incompetent. It was all just about interests!

"Tony, thank you for laying your final golden egg for me. Just wait here and slowly die. What a pity—you even dragged Pepper down with you!"

Obadiah said into Tony's ear, "Tony Stark, I am not your Butler. I never was!"

Tony could neither speak nor move. He could only watch helplessly as Obadiah left, his heart filled with bitterness. I never regarded you as a Butler. I regarded you as half a father!

There were missile fragments in Tony's blood. Without the electromagnet, those fragments would soon enter his heart and kill him. Fortunately, there was someone in the villa whom Obadiah did not know about: Yinsen!

"Tony!"

When Yinsen saw that something had happened to Tony, he quickly took out the previous-generation Arc Reactor and placed it in Tony's chest—the crude one Tony had made in the cave. It still worked, but did not have much power left. It was originally meant to be discarded, but Pepper had kept it as a memento! Once Tony recovered, he immediately called Little Pepper, but no one answered. He was so anxious that he nearly fell over. Without bothering to say much to Yinsen, he equipped the Mark III and flew at full speed toward Stark Tower.

At the same time, in Wang Bert's villa, Ivan looked at the beer, peanuts, and potato chips on the table and asked in confusion, "You called my father and me here just to watch a game together?"

"It's much better than a game. Iron Man versus Iron Monger! I've been waiting for this show for a long time!"

Wang Bert chuckled as he turned on the television. The screen showed the entrance to Stark Industries. He said to Ivan, who was teasing the Sun Conure, "This was filmed by drones. I sent out three in total, so we should be able to watch the whole thing!"

"I know Iron Man is that sissy. Who is Iron Monger?"

Upon hearing that it involved Tony, Ivan and Anton immediately became interested. It was worth mentioning that Anton had already become a Vampire and was no longer as sickly as before, though he still needed some time to fully recover! "You'll find out soon enough!"

Wang Bert smiled. Just then, his phone suddenly rang. He casually answered it, and Nick Fury's voice came from the receiver. "My people were captured by those Middle Eastern Terrorists. They specifically demanded that you, Iron Fist, go!"

"Huh? What does that have to do with me?"

Wang Bert was stunned. "This is within America. Don't tell me you can't even deal with a bunch of Terrorists. I'll really look down on you!"

"Our New York branch assault team has already been wiped out. Bert, S.H.I.E.L.D. has shielded you from quite a bit of pressure lately. I hope you can help save those agents and save Tony!"

Director Fury said, "Consider it after-sales service!"

Wang Bert understood. Director Fury's real reason for calling him was not those agents, but Tony—he wanted Wang Bert to help Tony deal with Obadiah! That black bastard really loved playing these petty tricks!

"Is that so?"

Wang Bert thought for a moment and said, "One favor, how about it?"

Director Fury was silent for a moment. "Fine, but you know my bottom line."

"I'm a law-abiding citizen. What are you worried about?"

Wang Bert sneered. He hung up, stood up, and cursed unhappily, "I wanted to watch a show, but now I have to perform in one. I prepared all those peanuts and potato chips for nothing."