Obadiah: I Have an 8 A.M. Shift?

The open-air bar on the top floor of the hotel.

Today, it was open only for Obadiah and the guests he had invited.

By the time Leon and Tony arrived, Obadiah had already been waiting for quite a while.

The daylilies had gone cold, but Obadiah seemed to have anticipated it. He had ordered chilled dishes and desserts that Tony and Leon liked.

The candlelight on the table swayed in the breeze, illuminating Obadiah's bald old face with its half-smile.

"Hey, Tony, Leon, my good boys. You really kept this old man waiting."

Seeing Tony and Leon arrive, Obadiah greeted them familiarly.

"Couldn't be helped. We're just that enduring," Leon teased with a smile.

Tony picked up where he left off. "Obie, you really should've called a few young models to keep you company while you waited."

"Oh, please. With these old bones of mine, give me a break, kid. I still want to live a few more years." After warmly hugging Leon, Obadiah patted Tony on the shoulder.

"That's true."

"If you can live, who wouldn't want a few more years?"

Leon spread his hands.

"Sit, sit. I ordered all your favorites."

Obadiah warmly invited them over. "Thank God for bringing you back to my side. Ever since Howard and Maria—Tony and Leon's mother—died in that accident, you two are all I have left."

"Haha, we really should thank God."

"Where's Pepper? Why didn't she come with you?"

"Something came up. You know how it is, she's always busy."

"That's fine. What matters is that you two brothers came."

The three of them sat around the candlelit white round table, just like an ordinary family gathering.

"Ahh~"

Leon eagerly picked up a dinner knife, cut off a small piece of cold roast beef, and put it into his mouth with a silver fork.

But after only chewing twice, he suddenly froze.

"What's wrong?"

"Doesn't it suit your taste?"

Obadiah, who had been watching the two brothers eat, immediately noticed Leon's abnormality and asked with "concern."

"No."

"It's just so delicious, the aftertaste hits hard!"

After giving that simple reply, Leon seemed to have gone mad with hunger, sweeping every bit of food from the table into his stomach like a hurricane through fallen leaves.

He did not even spare Tony's portion.

At this sight.

Tony and Obadiah, neither of whom had taken a bite yet, were left dumbfounded.

"Burp~"

"!!!"

After letting out a satisfied burp, Leon suddenly widened his eyes, clutched his throat with both hands, and began foaming at the mouth as if he had been poisoned.

Then his eyes rolled back, his head collapsed onto the round table, and he stopped moving.

"Leon? Leon!"

"Obie, your food... ugh! It's... poisoned..."

Only 2.5 seconds passed from Leon being poisoned to his "death." Tony had not reacted at all. By the time he realized the food was poisoned, Leon seemed beyond saving.

He was just about to turn and question Obadiah.

Bzz—

Obadiah held down a small device resembling a car key fob and an egg-shaped switch. A specific frequency of infrasound was released, veins bulged on Tony's neck, and he was instantly paralyzed, unable to resist.

"What a greedy little brat."

"You could've gone just as easily, Tony."

"Hm?"

Obadiah pushed Leon's "corpse," intending to take his seat and speak to Tony face-to-face, only to discover that he could not move him at all. It was like trying to push a human-shaped iron block, absurdly heavy.

He could only give up.

Instead, he sat across from Leon and Tony and began the classic villain monologue.

"Do you remember this, Tony?" Obadiah took out the Bluetooth earbud in his ear for soundproofing, then waved the little device in his hand at Tony.

"This is the portable infrasound weapon you developed. It was never approved for production by the government because infrasound spreads indiscriminately, but it's pretty useful, isn't it?"

"What a shame, Tony."

"Why did you and Leon have to come back?"

"If you had just died like that, it would've been better for both you and me. There wouldn't be all this trouble now."

"The media downstairs will never guess why I called them here today."

"After all, who would have thought that the Stark brothers, who had only just escaped death, would be murdered by assassins today under such public attention?"

"And I, Obadiah Stane, will take complete control of Stark Industries!"

"Tony, your father and I founded Stark Industries. I devoted my entire life to this company, yet in the end, I got less than that useless trash beside you who only knows how to play with women!"

Duang!

"Hiss—fuck!"

"Is his head made of iron?!"

As he grew more agitated.

Obadiah angrily threw a vicious punch at Leon's skull.

Leon's head was completely unharmed, but Obadiah's metacarpal snapped with a crisp crack, breaking outright.

"I didn't want it to come to this,"

"but the existence of you two brothers really made things difficult for me!"

With that said.

Obadiah struggled to put a white glove onto his left hand with his injured right hand, then pulled out a pistol, disengaged the safety, and aimed it at Tony's head.

However.

At that moment.

Leon, who had supposedly "died of poison," came back to life and flipped the table over as he rose!

"Difficult?"

"Then don't do it!"

Bang—

Obadiah fired.

But Leon caught the bullet in one hand and crushed it instantly!

"Y-you! How..." Obadiah stammered.

Leon kindly finished it for him. "How did I not die from the poison?"

"Take a guess."

"I'll guess your mom!"

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Completely losing it, Obadiah emptied the magazine at Tony and Leon.

Leon shielded the paralyzed Tony behind him. Every bullet struck his body, but they were no more than scratches. Leon's clothes merely gained eight holes.

"How is this possible?!"

"What the hell are you, a man or a ghost?!"

Faced with Leon, who had returned from the dead and could not be harmed by bullets, Obadiah collapsed onto the ground in terror. The empty pistol slipped from his hand and skidded to Leon's feet.

Leon bent down and picked it up. Under Obadiah's life-questioning gaze, he kneaded the pistol into a lump as though it were dough, then pressed his palms together and flattened it into an iron disc.

"Stane, you know nothing about power."

Bang!

The iron disc hit the ground.

Along with it fell the last trace of luck in Obadiah's heart.

Now.

He finally understood why Leon had not been killed by the car, and why Tony had escaped from the Ten Rings.

So.

He had been the one kept in the dark all along.

He had not even known that his partner had already created the "ultimate weapon."

"Howard, you bastard! Was this part of your plan too?" Obadiah raged helplessly.

Leon did not quite understand what he was so angry about. Why had he suddenly dragged Leon's father into this?

If Leon knew that Obadiah had already imagined his Steel Body as one of Howard's research achievements, he would probably laugh himself to death on the spot.

"Any last words?"

Leon advanced toward Obadiah step by step.

"..."

Obadiah said nothing. He merely crawled away from Leon on all fours, seemingly trying to escape.

Very soon.

Leon stopped walking.

Because Obadiah had nowhere left to run.

Behind him lay the lights of countless homes, and a drop hundreds of meters high.

At that moment.

Tony happened to recover from the paralysis. Trembling, he walked over to Leon's side, where Leon supported him. Then Tony questioned Obadiah, who had been driven to the brink:

"Why?"

Although he had been paralyzed just now, Tony had remained fully conscious. He had heard every word Obadiah said.

"Why? Hehe!"

Obadiah sneered. "There is no why, Tony!"

"If you stay in that position, you'll destroy yourself sooner or later too. I'll be waiting for you in hell!"

"Alright, alright. Your part is over. Losers exit the stage."

Whoosh—bang!

Leon raised his hand, and light flashed in his palm.

Obadiah was sent flying by the golden impact.

Thirteen seconds later.

A dull splat echoed up from below.

Judging from the sound.

Obadiah had most likely been reduced to a pile of paste.

"Oh, my God!" Tony looked at Leon somewhat speechlessly. "Why did you move so fast? I still had a lot to ask him."

"My fault, huh~"

Leon shrugged indifferently.

By the time Pepper downloaded, printed, and brought over the evidence from Obadiah's office computer proving that he had colluded with the Ten Rings and assassins to murder Tony and Leon.

Leon had already nailed shut Obadiah's coffin, with efficiency off the charts.

All one could say was that plans could never keep up with change.