"Holy crap, I never thought I'd hear an apology out of your mouth. Now that's a rarity."
Hermione looked astonished.
Tony looked frantic. "If you like hearing it, I'll say it ten times a day from now on, but we really don't have time!"
Hermione waved a hand. "Relax, relax. I care a lot more about Pepper than you do. She has people from S.H.I.E.L.D. with her, so she's safe for now."
After a pause, she continued:
"After Pepper found out about Obadiah's scheme, she was worried about you, so she asked me to come check on you. I didn't expect to find you in such a sorry state the moment I arrived. I should've recorded it! Hahahaha!"
This damn brat... Tony's expression stiffened, though he did breathe a sigh of relief.
As long as Pepper was all right.
"In that case, I'm going to settle the score with Obadiah!" A cold glint flashed in Tony's eyes.
Down in the basement, Tony quickly put on his armor with JARVIS's help.
Hermione nodded. She had to admit, the red-and-gold Iron Man Armor looked cool from every angle.
"Are you sure you don't need help?"
Hermione double-checked as she looked at Tony, whose face was the only part of him left exposed.
"This is a fight between adults. Kids should stay out of it. Go back to Pepper and help keep her safe."
Now clad in his Iron Man Armor, Tony's eyes shone with confidence.
Hermione curled her lip.
The skies have cleared, the rain has stopped, and suddenly you think you're hot stuff again.
Who was it doing a Dio impression just a minute ago?
"All right, then. Stay safe. Don't let him beat you like a dog and come crying to me for help."
Hermione hopped onto her Broomstick and sped away.
This damn kid...
Tony's eye twitched as he watched Hermione leave.
Every conversation with her left him feeling half-dead with frustration.
Why was she so sweet to Pepper and so viciously sharp-tongued with him?
If Hermione had known what he was thinking, she would have spat in his face on the spot.
Pepper's a gorgeous woman with a big heart-and a big chest. What are you, some creepy old guy? You want me to be sweet to you? Dream on!
Late that night, a series of thunderous crashes and explosions rang through the skies over New York.
Amid flames and the clang of colliding steel, citizens could see two humanoid suits of armor, one large and one small, locked in a fierce battle in the street.
Pepper, Coulson, and the others watched the towering flames from a distance, worry weighing on them.
They already knew about Obadiah's scheme, and they knew he had built a steel behemoth even larger than Tony's Iron Man Armor.
They were too far away to see what was happening, so none of them knew how the fight was going.
They could only judge its intensity by the sounds.
"Tony, please be all right..." Pepper murmured.
Coulson was helpless as well. It wasn't that S.H.I.E.L.D. lacked the ability to deal with this steel behemoth, but the battle was taking place in the city, with too many civilians nearby. Some of their methods simply weren't an option. All they could do was wait for good news from Tony.
"Pepper, I'm back!"
Hermione's voice came from behind them.
Pepper's face lit up, and she hurried over to Hermione.
Coulson stepped forward with a smile. "Miss Wizard, we meet again."
"I remember you. Your name's Coul... Coul..."
Hermione made a show of thinking hard.
"Coulson."
"Right, right, Coulson!" Hermione clapped her hands.
Coulson smiled faintly, seemingly pleased that Hermione remembered him.
"How's Tony? Is he all right?"
Pepper asked the question that mattered most to her.
"No idea. He's too obsessed with saving face to let me help. He insisted on showing off by himself, so I had to come back."
Hermione folded her arms and leaned against her Broomstick, shrugging helplessly.
Everyone fell silent.
After a while, Pepper suddenly said, "I'm a little worried about Tony. Could we get closer? I want to see how he's doing."
Coulson looked troubled.
It wasn't that he didn't want to. It was simply too difficult. Elite agents or not, they were still flesh and blood, and none of them could withstand even a single blow from Iron Monger. Getting closer was far too dangerous.
It wasn't that they feared death. They were worried they wouldn't be able to protect Pepper.
Pepper turned a pleading gaze toward Hermione.
Hermione nodded. "No problem, but I'm not very good at Apparition yet. Taking someone along on a jump through space could cause an accident, so I'm afraid you'll have to ride this, Pepper."
She patted her Broomstick.
Coulson's eyes instantly widened, and he silently committed the terms "Apparition" and "jump through space" to memory.
That was a lot to take in.
Pepper didn't pay much attention to any of that. She nodded and sat right down.
She had expected it to be uncomfortable, but some sort of special force seemed to hold her in place. It felt just like sitting in a car seat.
"Wait, Miss Wizard!"
Coulson suddenly snapped out of it and shouted.
Miss Wizard's abilities were certainly extraordinary, but judging by the information S.H.I.E.L.D. had collected, none of them seemed particularly suited to combat.
Her only attack, something resembling "cutting," probably wouldn't do any real damage to steel.
He was genuinely worried that Hermione would get caught in the battle between the two suits of armor. If she were injured or killed, it would not only be a major loss for S.H.I.E.L.D., but could also make an enemy of the Wizarding World, with its terrifying power behind her.
Unfortunately, Hermione wasn't about to listen to him. In an instant, the Broomstick carried the two of them soaring into the sky.
Seeing this, Coulson steeled himself and hurried toward the battlefield with his agents.
"Whoo-hoo!"
Experiencing such a thrilling way to fly for the first time, Pepper couldn't help crying out. Once she adjusted, excitement sparkled in her eyes.
"Hermione, look! Tony's over there!"
After only a moment of enjoyment, Pepper turned her attention to finding the battlefield and soon spotted Tony.
Hermione steered her Broomstick closer until they could clearly see the fight.
A massive suit of armor, standing a full two or three stories tall, was exchanging blows with Tony in his Iron Man Armor.
Iron Monger was Obadiah's crude, hulking knockoff of the Iron Man Armor, with the man himself piloting it from inside. The only technologically impressive part was the reactor he had pulled from Tony's chest.
Without that, Iron Monger wouldn't even have been able to move.
The two traded punches and kicks in the street, swinging motorcycles one moment and smashing cars the next, filling the air with deafening clangs.
Iron Monger slammed down a fist, crushing the middle of a bus flat. Shattered glass showered the roadside like torrential rain.
They had managed to create a world where only bystanders got hurt.
Tony took a straight punch head-on and went flying backward, smashing through two walls before coming to a stop. His armor's display blazed red as warning alarms sounded one after another.
"Sir, left arm armor integrity at 37%. Remaining power at 12%."
"I know!"
In the distance, Coulson lowered his binoculars, his expression grim. "That thing's armor is at least three times as thick as Stark's."
Up in the air, Pepper clung tightly to Hermione's waist, her face pale.
"For thirty years, I've been holding you up!"
Obadiah hammered Tony as he roared furiously, "I built this company from nothing! No one's going to stand in my way!"
"Especially not you!"
As he spoke, a missile as thick as a forearm rose from Iron Monger's back and shot toward Tony.
Boom!
Inside his armor, Tony was unharmed, but the blast left him thoroughly dazed. He wobbled in midair and only managed to steady himself and resume flying after considerable effort.
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