In the banquet hall, Pepper stared without blinking at the television screen.
The shirtless man standing in the middle of the track was swinging two crackling electric whips. The glowing circular device on his chest was identical to the one in Tony's chest.
Pepper's heart clenched as though seized by a hand. She knew that this man, who clearly looked like trouble, had come for Tony. With that thought, she turned toward Happy.
Happy knew exactly what he needed to do. He lifted the "briefcase" in his hand, signaling that it was here.
The two rushed out of the banquet hall. A black Rolls-Royce was parked outside the entrance. Happy yanked open the driver's door, and Pepper slipped into the back seat. Before she had even settled down, the engine had already started.
The Rolls-Royce smashed through the barrier gate leading onto the track, and the black sedan plunged onto the racetrack, driving against traffic.
The man holding the electric whips stood in the middle of the bend. Not far away, a white race car was hurtling toward him at over two hundred kilometers per hour. Behind the wheel was Tony, still completely unaware of what was happening ahead.
As Ivan Vanko saw Tony's white race car approach, he raised his left hand and cracked his whip.
"Boom—!"
The front end of the race car was split apart, its two front wheels tearing away with it. The entire vehicle lost balance and flew into the air under the force of its momentum.
The race car completed a full rotation in midair before slamming heavily onto the track. Metal and carbon-fiber fragments scattered everywhere. Then the car continued rolling, crashed into the guardrail, and finally came to a stop upside down at the edge of the track.
Peter abruptly rose to