Watching Tony Get Wrecked

Stark Industries, workshop complex.

District 16.

Pepper Potts strode briskly, followed by Phil Coulson and five S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.

Agent Phil had assigned his subordinates to use technical means to pinpoint Obadiah's location, preparing to arrest this arms-smuggling war profiteer.

After blasting open the lock, they found themselves facing a production and R&D workshop thick with an industrial atmosphere.

The place was pitch-black, with only the glow of computer screens illuminating a small area.

A design blueprint for a brand-new suit of armor was displayed there, but the passing agents dismissed it with disdain.

In a corner, they soon discovered the armor Tony had built in Afghanistan.

"Looks like you were right. He built himself a suit too."

Agent Phil's expression gradually turned grave.

Pepper, who knew both Tony and Obadiah well, recalled Obadiah's massive build and added:

"I think it needs to be even bigger..."

Then Ms. Pepper fully demonstrated just how bold she was. Though unarmed, she searched for the Obadiah hiding somewhere nearby more diligently than the armed agents.

As expected, the unexpected happened.

When Ms. Pepper stepped beneath a crane arm and saw chains hanging down, swaying faintly in the air, she could not help leaning forward curiously to look...

Suddenly, two light sources lit up in the darkness, steadily rising higher.

Pepper slowly raised her head. Watching the two small fluorescent lights rise to an immense height, she parted her lips slightly and froze in place.

That was right. This was the new combat weapon Obadiah had developed and improved based on the armor Tony and Dr. Ethan had built together in a cave after Tony escaped the Ten Rings Gang's kidnapping—Iron Monger.

It was worth mentioning that Obadiah had personally gone to the Ten Rings Gang's territory and recovered every fragment of Tony's armor from their hands.

Then, after getting what he wanted, he ruthlessly wiped out the remaining Ten Rings Gang members, whose strength had already been severely depleted.

As machinery whirred to life, Obadiah controlled Iron Monger and lifted a leg as he approached Ms. Pepper.

Finally snapping out of it, Ms. Pepper cried out and turned to run. Neither her narrow administrative skirt nor her high heels slowed her escape.

Unlike Pepper Potts, who ran for her life, the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were clearly much calmer.

Faced with the colossal figure drawing ever closer, they decisively opened fire.

"Bang! Bang!~"

"Clang~ clang clang~!"

But they posed no threat whatsoever to the armored Obadiah.

Amid sparks and Iron Monger's heavy, powerful punches, several S.H.I.E.L.D. agents died heroically.

After a burst of explosions, Iron Monger nearly caught Ms. Pepper, missing her by mere inches due to the narrow passageway.

Fortunately, the brave Pepper Potts escaped successfully.

Tony Stark, flying through the air, discovered a problem.

"How long do you think Mark 1 can hold out?"

Both the reactor and the new suit of armor had been made by Tony himself. No one understood them better than he did.

The original reactor's power could not sustain the new armor for long.

Tony wanted JARVIS to give him exact figures.

"Energy remaining: 48%," and still dropping, sir. This heart was not designed for sustained flight..."

Remembering how he had once blown up an entire valley along with Su Ming in Afghanistan, only to fall out of the sky less than a minute later, Tony had no desire to experience that kind of high-altitude fall again.

He could only end this quickly!

"Keep me updated."

Ms. Pepper finally ran out of the building when Tony called.

"Pepper~ Are you okay?"

"Obadiah—he's gone crazy! He has a suit of armor too..."

Just as Pepper hurriedly shared the intelligence she had discovered with Tony,

the ground not far away suddenly bulged. In an instant, a gigantic metal figure burst through the earth.

"Let's see where you can run now..." a mechanically distorted voice echoed out.

Intimidated by the imposing armor before her, Ms. Pepper let out a helpless cry and slowly backed away.

Iron Monger raised the mechanical arm fitted with a Gatling gun and aimed it at Pepper.

"You're no longer useful."

The Gatling's barrels began spinning rapidly...

Just when Pepper thought she was doomed this time, a booming voice came from the distant sky.

"Stane—"

Iron Man—Tony Stark—had arrived just in time.

Iron Monger swung his gun around, locked onto the rapidly approaching figure, and unleashed a torrent of bullets.

"Clang~ clang clang..."

"Bang..."

Wearing armor himself, Tony charged straight into Iron Monger through the Gatling fire. The enormous momentum sent them crashing through several walls before they fell onto the road.

Due to its immense size and weight, Iron Monger's armor smashed through the cargo compartment of a large truck before finally coming to a stop.

It undoubtedly triggered a massive chain-reaction traffic accident.

A female driver carrying a car full of children slammed on the brakes and skidded more than ten meters, barely stopping in front of Iron Monger.

How could Obadiah pass up such a handy weapon delivered right to him? He extended his iron arm and lifted the car over his head in the blink of an eye.

Obadiah inside the armor had not actually exerted much force, but the strength enhancement the suit gave him made him incredibly powerful.

"Oh~ I love this armor!"

The woman's and children's screams rang helplessly through the car windows.

"Let them go!"

The excited Iron Monger clearly had no intention of heeding Tony's warning. By now, he had gone completely mad and cared nothing for the innocent lives inside the car.

"That's collateral damage, Tony!"

Seeing Iron Monger about to use the car in his hands as a weapon against him, Tony knew that even if his armor could withstand the blow, the people inside would be turned into dumpling filling on the spot.

"Concentrate the energy in my chest..."

Tony gave JARVIS the command.

"Bzzzt—boom..."

After a brief charge, the energy cannon fired instantly, blasting Iron Monger far away.

The car fell from the air, and Tony caught it steadily.

"Energy remaining: 19%..." JARVIS's mechanical prompt sounded.

Ignoring the rapidly draining energy, Tony gently set the car down...

But now, the female driver's true power was on display.

In her panic, she slammed the accelerator to the floor. The wheels instantly spun up to their limit, and the moment the car touched down, it rammed Iron Man and shot forward.

"Ma'am!!!... Oh... no, no, no..."

Tony shouted as he was about to be dragged beneath the car, trying to make the woman stop. But the car mercilessly ran over Iron Man and sped away in a cloud of dust...

High in the air, Su Ming's collar and black hair whipped wildly in the gale, adding a touch of wildness to his bearing.

His enhanced vision remained locked on Tony. Seeing him save Ms. Pepper's life at the last possible moment, Su Ming silently gave him a thumbs-up.

As expected of a man who had awakened his superhero instincts. At that speed, how had Tony's armor managed to cushion the impact for him?

"Hiss—"

It hurt just watching!

Although the improved armor had some shock-absorption capabilities, Tony's full-throttle emergency collision still nearly made him cough up blood.

Seeing Iron Monger and Tony fall onto a road crowded with traffic, Su Ming waved a hand and followed.

He would not miss this chance to admire two suits of armor fighting at close range.

Landing steadily atop a streetlamp, Su Ming looked over curiously—

Iron Monger had just lifted the car over his head when Tony blasted him away, saving the women and children inside in time.

Then Tony worked so hard to save the car, only for it to ram him away at full speed the instant it touched down.

Even Su Ming felt wronged on Tony's behalf.

"Well then—what driving skills! Let me see... Oh, never mind..."

When Su Ming saw the driver's golden hair clearly, he immediately had no further complaints.

It was not until he saw Tony get run over head-on by the speeding car, sparks spraying everywhere as he rolled several times before ending up sprawled steadily on the ground,

that a sentence surfaced in Su Ming's mind:

"So this counts as watching him get wrecked, right..."