Whiplash in the Restroom

"So why did I have to come to this race with you?" Luke asked Tony helplessly.

Tony was just as helpless. "I wanted to bring Pepper here. I didn't want to come here with a man either."

"Then why did you make Pepper angry?" Luke glanced at the reporters around them constantly taking pictures of him and Tony and sighed. He had wanted to avoid these reporters, but thanks to Tony, Pepper had kicked him out too.

Natasha appeared from the side and handed each of them a badge, gesturing for them to put them on.

Luke looked at his badge. It said he was a representative of some 67 Mobile Company.

At least he wasn't Tony's lackey. Luke nodded.

After Tony had angered Pepper last time, he had actually insisted on taking Natasha as his assistant, bringing back bad memories for Pepper.

Pepper had angrily left Natasha behind and walked out. They hadn't seen her in a long time since then, though she occasionally assigned Tony tasks through Natasha.

Experience told Tony not to provoke an angry woman, so he had come out to show his face and work for the first time in ages. But even given another chance, he would still have taken Natasha, because he felt there was definitely more to this woman than met the eye. He couldn't leave her by Pepper's side.

As long as he brought Luke along, his safety was absolutely guaranteed anyway, so he didn't have to worry about whether the newcomer really had bad intentions.

With Natasha making the introductions, Tony greeted a few people and soon spotted someone he really didn't want to see.

"Good luck. I'm off."

Seeing Hammer approach, Luke quietly walked away. He didn't like this pretentious guy either. He felt like spending time with him would make him stupid.

Tony glanced at the person leaving and sighed as Hammer approached with a reporter.

From a corner, Luke glanced at Hammer and Tony having a "pleasant" conversation and smiled. At some point, Natasha had sat down across from him.

"Did Fury send you to keep an eye on Tony?" Luke asked, looking at Natasha.

"Yes. By all rights, Stark should be suffering from severe poisoning by now, but his mental state and everything else are perfectly normal. Was that your doing?"

"Yes. Since you weren't doing anything, I couldn't just watch Tony give up on himself. But my method only treats the symptoms, not the cause. It would be nice if you could completely resolve his palladium poisoning. I'd be happy to have less work too."

Natasha nodded. No wonder Tony was behaving so normally.

Luke chatted with Natasha for a while, and they took the opportunity to complain about a certain Egghead together.

Their conversation was going swimmingly, and so was the "conversation" over there. Tony soon fled to the restroom to escape Hammer. Surely the guy wouldn't follow him into the restroom too.

Then Luke noticed that Hammer was actually approaching him.

"Hello, are you that superhero, the Shadow Lord? To be honest, I guessed you were the Shadow Lord ages ago, because you suddenly appeared at Tony's side after taking down Iron Monger. It looks like you're very good friends? Tony and I are also..."

Luke watched helplessly as Hammer launched into his spiel. How had this guy managed to take over the military's business? Just because he was gay and had backdoor dealings with those guys?

Luke helplessly apologized to Natasha, then tried to slip away to the restroom too.

Just as Luke got up and headed toward the restroom, Tony ran out in a panic.

"Luke, there's a freak in there!"

Luke was a little bewildered as he watched Tony run out. What was going on?

An Electric Whip tore through the restroom door, nearly hitting Tony.

What the hell? Wasn't this guy supposed to be waiting for Tony on the track? Why was he in the restroom?

Luke quickly summoned some Ninja Soldiers to take Tony somewhere safe outside.

When the people around them saw a supervillain appear, they hurried outside too.

Luke sent out more Ninja Soldiers to surround the restroom door, intending to trap Ivan Vanko inside. After all, the guy merely had some powerful weapons on him. His armor wasn't anything special; one punch would still knock him down.

Two Electric Whips sliced through the wall, sending the surrounding Ninja Soldiers straight back into the shadows.

Luke watched his Ninja Soldiers turn into shadows without feeling a thing. He hadn't expected Whiplash's Electric Whips to be so powerful that they could slice straight through walls. But since they could even penetrate the superalloy used to make the Iron Man Armor, that level of power made sense.

Then a figure charged straight out and lunged at Luke.

Luke glanced at the equipment on the guy's body, puzzled as to how he dared charge straight in like this. Was he really not going to get himself some defensive plating or anything?

Didn't Russians all go for caliber and armor? You're practically running around naked. That's hardly authentic.

Several Ninja Soldiers emerged and hurled a volley of throwing stars. Seeing trouble, Whiplash immediately whirled his whips around, blocking every attack.

"What are you, a gymnast?" Luke couldn't help marveling as he watched Whiplash's nimble whips.

The guy was so good with his whips that Luke felt he could enter a rhythmic gymnastics competition and go straight home with a gold medal.

Whiplash turned to glance at Stark, who had run outside. Rather than tangle with Luke, he turned, sliced open the wall, and ran out.

Luke followed close behind, only to find that Tony had produced a briefcase from somewhere and was stepping on it.

After a series of transformations, the briefcase became a suit of armor.

With his armor on, Tony finally had some confidence. He glared furiously at Whiplash and raised his hands to fire two energy blasts, but Whiplash swung his whips and blocked the attacks.

"He's pretty good with those whips, right?" Luke said to Tony.

"He is, but looking like that, he can forget about entering any competitions."

Tony played along, but soon noticed the lightbulb on Whiplash's chest.

"Hey, freak, what's that on your chest?"

Whiplash looked down and smiled. "The thing that saved your life."

"Impossible!" Tony grew agitated. How could his technology have fallen into someone else's hands?

The thrusters beneath his feet activated, and Tony flew swiftly toward Whiplash, but the two Electric Whips wrapped straight around him. Whiplash grinned and increased the power output, quickly destroying the Mark 5's already thin outer armor.

With a flick of his hand and a deft application of force, he redirected Tony's flight and slammed him into the ground.

"Tony?" Luke had been looking forward to watching Tony beat Whiplash up. He hadn't expected Tony to fare so badly and quickly sent a swarm of Ninja Soldiers to attack Whiplash.

Seeing the blades thrusting toward him, Whiplash tried to release Tony, but Tony grabbed the Electric Whips instead and pulled them toward himself, holding Whiplash in place.

Several long blades slashed at Whiplash, who had nowhere to dodge, severing one of his hands and one of his feet.

Luke felt rather helpless. He had wanted to kill Whiplash outright, but Tony's pull had actually let Whiplash avoid having his vital spots hit.

Whiplash was subdued now. Seeing the crowd nearby starting to take pictures, Luke gave up on finishing him off.

Tony looked at Whiplash lying on the ground, walked over, and ripped the large light off his chest.

After briefly analyzing the device, Tony crushed it in his hand.

Only then did a group of police officers finally dare approach and arrest Whiplash.

"You okay?" After briefly regretting that he hadn't killed the main villain outright, Luke looked at Tony, who was staring into space.

Tony removed his helmet, and Luke saw his grave expression.

"I'm in trouble," Tony said.