Resolution

"What a shame," Meng Zu thought to himself as he watched. From a height of ten meters, Iron Monger's configuration meant the fall would not even injure him, let alone kill him.

Then Mark III alternated between firing its thrusters to slow down and shutting them off to plummet. In the end, it staggered and crashed onto the rooftop of District 16.

Meng Zu saw flames flare up where Iron Monger had fallen in the distance. Clearly, Iron Monger's operating system had recovered, and it was now activating its thrusters to fly toward Tony.

Thinking he had dealt with Obadiah, Tony began talking to Pepper after landing safely.

"Pepper!"

Hearing Tony's voice through the earpiece, Pepper anxiously asked, "Tony! Oh my God, are you okay?"

Hearing the concern in Pepper's voice, Tony felt warmth spread through his heart. He reassured her, "I'm fine, but my suit is about to run out of power. Once I get it off, I'll come over right away!"

By then, Iron Monger had returned to District 16. Obadiah spotted Meng Zu on the rooftop of another building, but he did not attack him. In his mind, Tony was the greatest threat. He would deal with Meng Zu after taking care of Tony. And Pepper, along with those agents. Everyone present tonight had to die.

Tony had not even noticed his approach and had even removed the right arm piece of his armor. Obadiah piloted Iron Monger down behind Tony with a heavy thud. Hearing the noise behind him, Tony immediately turned around and saw Iron Monger.

Obadiah looked at Tony and said, "That was a nice move!"

At the same time, Iron Monger threw a punch at Tony's head. Tony immediately sealed his faceplate and ducked beneath it. After avoiding the blow, he rose and lifted his left arm, opening his palm to fire a repulsor blast—but nothing happened. Tony froze for a moment before realizing that he had just removed the armor piece on his left hand.

Iron Monger seized the chance and punched Tony away. Tony immediately adjusted his body, got to his feet, and used his thrusters to leap forward in an instant, punching Iron Monger in the head. Unfortunately, it only made Iron Monger turn its head and caused no real damage at all.

Seeing Tony right in front of it, Iron Monger spread its arms and grabbed him in a crushing bear hug.

Iron Monger held Tony tightly and began exerting force with both arms. Tony struggled desperately to break free, but Mark III's strength was simply no match for Iron Monger's. Sparks burst from Mark III's compressed armor. Clearly, Iron Monger intended to finish Tony with this crushing embrace.

Meng Zu, who had been watching from the rooftop, saw Iron Monger and Mark III locked in a stalemate and knew his chance had come. He aimed the M99 at Iron Monger's head and turned the bullets in the magazine into freezing rounds. With a gunshot, the freezing round struck Iron Monger's head. A layer of ice an inch thick formed around the impact point and rapidly spread in every direction.

Caught off guard, Obadiah could no longer worry about Tony. He released him and smashed the ice around his head with his fists. But as soon as he shattered it, more ice spread upward from the layer below. Iron Monger could only keep smashing ice, and eventually, the ice stopped spreading after covering half of its body.

Meng Zu naturally would not just stand there and watch Iron Monger break free. "Bang! Bang! Bang!" Three freezing rounds struck Iron Monger's legs and chest. Ice rapidly spread outward, and before Iron Monger could smash it apart, its entire body had been frozen solid. Its operating system also shut down.

When Iron Monger had suddenly begun icing over, Tony had not rushed in to attack. Iron Monger's crushing hug had damaged all of his weapon systems, and if he got close, who knew whether the ice would spread onto him? Now that Iron Monger had become a giant ice sculpture, he could not help letting out an amazed exclamation. "Wow!"

Tony said to JARVIS, "JARVIS, analyze that. What is it?"

"Mr. Stark, it is an extremely low-temperature form of energy. It spread after striking Mr. Stane."

"What is that energy made of?"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Stark. It cannot be analyzed. It does not match any known form of energy."

"All right."

Pepper's voice came through the helmet. "Tony, are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Where's Stane?"

"He's... he's turned into an ice sculpture." Mark III scanned Iron Monger and discovered that its temperature was dropping lower and lower. Iron Monger had no de-icing system installed, so there was no way it could return to normal under these conditions.

"What? Tony, I'm coming to you right now."

Tony slowly removed Mark III. Pepper arrived on the rooftop at that moment, ran over and hugged him, then immediately checked him from head to toe. "Tony, are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?"

"All right, Pepper. I'm fine."

Meng Zu also came over from the neighboring rooftop. He needed to confirm whether Obadiah was dead. If not, he would have to finish him off.

Seeing Meng Zu appear, Tony's heart tightened. Though Meng Zu had frozen Stane with some unknown method and had technically helped him, Tony had classified Meng Zu as a dangerous person. After Meng Zu had rescued him from the Ten Rings, Tony had investigated his background. JARVIS's deeper research had revealed that aside from his public identities as a mercenary and detective, Meng Zu was also suspected of being an assassin.

Tony had no desire to deal with someone like that, so he quietly pulled Pepper behind him and asked warily, "Why are you here?"

Meng Zu ignored Tony's movement. As he walked toward Iron Monger, he said, "I'm here to kill Obadiah."

Tony said coldly, "Mr. Assassin, how much did someone pay you to kill Stane?"

Obadiah had tried to kill him and Pepper, filling Tony with rage. But no matter what, Obadiah was his godfather, and they had shared thirty years of history. Even if Tony defeated Obadiah, he would not be able to bring himself to kill him. He would only hand him over to the government to stand trial for his crimes.

Now that he had heard Meng Zu had come to kill Obadiah, Tony naturally felt unhappy.

"Tony, don't be like this." Pepper tugged at Tony's arm.

Meng Zu ignored Tony. After examining Iron Monger, he found that it had been completely frozen. More than ten minutes had passed since Iron Monger was frozen. At such low temperatures, even if Obadiah did not freeze to death, he would suffocate.

Hearing movement downstairs, Meng Zu remembered that Pepper had arrived with S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel, including Coulson. He did not want to deal with S.H.I.E.L.D., so he prepared to leave. Before going, however, he said to Tony, "Tony Stark, I saved you just now. I don't want to get involved with government people. You deal with them."

Tony stubbornly replied, "I never asked you to help."

Meng Zu ignored Tony. After saying that, he turned and walked into the darkness, disappearing from sight.