Showdown: I Am Iron Man

The bald man thought Tony was trying to flee and threw back his head with a laugh. "Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Tony, you can't escape..."

As he spoke, his armored suit spewed thick black smoke as it relentlessly pursued Tony from behind. The smoke formed a long plume in its wake, clearly visible beneath the city lights.

"Damn, that pollution is way too serious. Don't you people do anything about it?" Apocalypse asked Coulson.

"Uh..." Coulson was speechless. Who had the mood to worry about pollution at a time like this? "That... isn't under our jurisdiction."

Tony flew higher and higher, his power nearly depleted. But there was no way back now. If he could not hold on until the bald man's clunky armor froze over, he would be intercepted and killed in midair.

Thinking of this, Tony glanced down at the ground. I wonder if that monster Tang can jump this high. Probably not. Otherwise, I could just call him to save me.

Without realizing it, Tony had already developed a sense of reliance on Apocalypse. The feeling was subtle enough that even Tony himself had not noticed it.

But Apocalypse, on the ground, received a system notification:

"Ding..."

"Iron Man's trust level has increased. Luck Sharing: 60%."

Fortunately, fate was on his side. At an altitude of a thousand meters, the bald man's armor finally froze over. Just like Tony's previous suit, it lost power and fell straight down.

It finally crashed near Stark Tower.

Tony had no time to celebrate. His armor was out of power, so he could only activate the backup battery and use intermittent reverse thrust to barely land safely on Stark Tower.

Unexpectedly, the moment he landed, the bald man's armor ambushed him from behind and grabbed hold of him.

Taking advantage of his larger armor's superior power, the bald man tried to crush Iron Man to death by brute force!

Tony hurriedly fired decoy flares. They had originally been meant to disrupt missile locks, but now he used them as flashbangs.

And they worked!

The blinding red flares streaked everywhere. The bald man was blinded and could not open his eyes. His grip loosened, allowing Tony to escape.

In the original plot, Tony had lured the bald man to the roof of Stark Tower and had Pepper overload the massive Arc Reactor below, firing a beam of light into the sky to kill him.

But Pepper had already gone far away under Coulson's escort, so things naturally would not follow the original plot.

At this point, Tony had not even considered that plan.

"Tang, my good friend, aren't you going to come help me out?"

Even at a disadvantage, Tony could not hide his playboy nature. Even when asking for help, he had to do it differently.

Apocalypse smiled. "I have a plan. You lure him to the rooftop, and I'll overload the Arc Reactor. We'll use the energy from the overload to take him out. What do you think?"

Tony was speechless. "You're so powerful, so why are you always thinking about wrecking my company's equipment? An Arc Reactor costs a lot of money too."

"Also, you still haven't paid the delivery fee for bringing you back from the desert."

"Fine, fine. Help me finish this, and you can settle it however you want."

Seeing himself locked onto by the bald man again, Tony finally lost his composure and hurriedly called for help.

"Fine."

Looking at the two steel monsters on the rooftop, Apocalypse bent his knees slightly, then launched himself upward with a boom.

"Baldy, let that man go!"

Boom...

The bald man's armor was sent flying by Apocalypse's kick.

Seeing a formidable enemy arrive, the bald man was not worried. He laughed. "Ha ha ha ha! Perfect. Try out my new weapons."

As he spoke, eight weapon systems extended from the armor's shoulders, hands, waist, and legs: miniature missiles, Gatling barrels, and laser emitters.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh... rat-a-tat-tat...

In an instant, countless attacks exploded against Apocalypse, turning into an enormous fireball.

As the barrage continued, the fireball grew larger and larger.

Tony watched from the side, his heart pounding. With firepower this fierce, even wearing armor, he would probably be shaken to death alive. Would Tang be all right?

Then the fireball moved.

Apocalypse walked through the bombardment with steady steps, advancing one step at a time until he stood before the bald man and saw the man's utterly horrified expression.

"Is that it?"

As he spoke, he grabbed a mechanical arm in each hand. With a crack, he tore both arms off at the shoulders.

"Ah..."

The bald man screamed in agony. Along with the mechanical arms, his own arms were torn off as well.

Unmoved, Apocalypse spread his hands forward and ripped away the bald man's chest armor. Then, with another slap, he knocked off the helmet too.

For his own selfish interests, the bald man had sold weapons to violent extremists, causing untold casualties among innocent civilians. Even Tony's kidnapping had been arranged in secret after he leaked the information.

This punishment was already light.

"I'll leave the rest to you," Apocalypse said. "Later, you need to make me a suit of clothes. It has to look good, and it has to withstand bullets and missile strikes."

Looking down at his tattered clothes, he found them far too undignified. He could not end up dressed like a beggar after every fight.

Tony gave a bitter smile. "Even my Iron Man armor might not withstand that. Where am I supposed to find materials that strong?"

Apocalypse patted Tony on the shoulder. "You're a genius. You'll find a way."

By then, sirens were blaring outside as countless United States police officers arrived.

Colonel Rhodes could handle the military, but he could not control the police.

Apocalypse had no interest in dealing with the aftermath.

With Tony's connections, it would be easily handled.

The next day, they held a press conference.

The previous night's battle had affected far too wide an area. It had gone from near the Stark Industries building to the highway, then into the sky. Countless people had been injured, and no one knew how many vehicles had been destroyed. They had to give the public an explanation.

Colonel Rhodes reluctantly lied for Tony and announced to the dozens of reporters below, "Yesterday, the simulated combat systems of two Stark Industries prototype machines malfunctioned, causing them to go out of control. Fortunately, one of Tony's personal bodyguards rescued him in time and stopped the incident. Stark Industries' vice president, Baldy... ahem... Obadiah Stane, unfortunately died in this accident..."

When it was Tony's turn to make a statement, he impatiently read a few lines from the script Coulson had given him.

A beautiful reporter below suddenly interrupted, "Mr. Tony, do you really think we'll believe that bullshit? Rumor has it that a superhero called Iron Man stopped President Stane's rampage in time, and that Iron Man is you?!"

Tony smiled awkwardly. "Don't be ridiculous. What kind of superhero am I? I'm not cut out to be a superhero..."

"Really?" The beautiful reporter wore a provocative expression, a teasing smile at the corner of her lips.

This reporter had once had a one-night stand with Tony. When she woke up at Tony's home, Pepper had brought her a change of clothes and arranged a car for her to leave.

They both understood the rules of the adult world. The woman did not cling, and the man did not linger.

Still, there was a trace of feeling between them.

Provoked like this by his beautiful one-night lover, Tony's playboy instincts could no longer be restrained. In a moment of impulse, he said, "That's right! I am Iron Man!"

The crowd below instantly erupted!

Thus, the superhero who opened the Marvel Universe, who would later save countless lives and battle supervillains—Iron Man—was officially born!

At the same time, it meant that the supervillains were coming!

Apocalypse casually browsed through a few reports about the explosive Iron Man news.

Sure enough, personality determined behavior. Tony had still revealed his identity publicly. It truly fit the attention-seeking side of his playboy personality.

Apocalypse had not deliberately concealed his existence. Nick Fury had done all that for him.

From the three giants' brawl on the streets of New York to the battle at Stark Industries, no information about any of it could be found online.

That saved Apocalypse a lot of trouble.

The lower his profile, the more time he would have to grow.

Since gaining three times the Hulk's strength, Apocalypse's combat skills had improved greatly. However, his fundamental power had not undergone any substantial change.

This forcibly acquired strength seemed incapable of growing through training. It was fundamentally different from the Hulk, who grew stronger the angrier he became.

In the comic world, the Hulk could grow into the Worldbreaker Hulk. But without other opportunities, Apocalypse's strength would remain permanently locked at three times the Hulk's power.

That was far from enough to face the various super bosses of the future.

But Apocalypse had no solution for now. He could only practice combat techniques as part of his daily routine.

After Iron Man announced that he was Iron Man, he gained enormous attention, but he also attracted trouble.

The most immediate trouble came from Stark Industries' archenemy—Hammer Industries. They began accusing Iron Man of endangering national security and tried to force him to hand over the technology behind the Iron Man armor.

Iron Man Tony was invited to debate before Congress. As unruly as ever, he delivered a brilliant argument that earned wave after wave of applause. Hammer Industries' CEO and that fat pig of a politician were extremely unhappy, but there was nothing they could do to Iron Man.

They were facing a wealthy, powerful super-genius. Their wealth and influence had never matched Iron Man's.

They had wanted to use the public attention sparked by the news to force Iron Man to surrender the Iron Man armor technology. Yet their efforts came to nothing, and no one present stood on their side.

In the end, Iron Man concluded the entire debate with an incredibly pretentious line: "I have successfully privatized world peace!"

Clap clap clap clap clap...

Amid the applause, Iron Man departed with flair.

Yet every move he made was being watched by a burly man far away in Siberia.

The burly man wore a white tank top and held a toothpick in his mouth. He stared viciously at Iron Man on the television. The table before him was covered with blueprints—blueprints for the Miniature Arc Reactor designed by Iron Man.