When the Iron Man final battle mission had just triggered, Lin Xiao had come to the large patch of bushes opposite Obadiah's mansion. Nearly an hour had passed now. He was watching what was happening inside Obadiah's mansion through the system panel. On-screen, Iron Monger had just taken off from a concealed exit in the underground garage. The thing was a size larger than he had imagined, with heavy armor welded all over it. The exhaust flames from its thrusters lit up half the yard.
"Doupao, this guy's a lot beefier than in the movie."
"Ding-Obadiah Stane's Iron Monger Armor was reverse-engineered from a complete Mark I. In the original storyline, Iron Monger was modified from wreckage. In this timeline, Iron Monger's overall performance has increased by approximately forty to fifty percent."
Lin Xiao closed the surveillance feed and called Tony. The call connected after a single ring.
"What?" There was a clear trace of impatience in Tony's voice.
"The old bastard's coming for you."
"I know. JARVIS just intercepted the signal from him deploying his armor." Tony paused. "You're pretty well-informed."
"No kidding. Who do you think I am? Get ready. I'm going to collect evidence against that old fox and carry out justice on Heaven's behalf while I'm at it. Just stall him for a while."
Before Tony could say anything else, Lin Xiao hung up. He opened his system inventory and began changing.
Lin Xiao wrapped the gaudy Arab headscarf over his face, leaving only his eyes exposed. Next came the brown wig. He put it on and pressed it down firmly, making sure it wouldn't fail him at a crucial moment. He set the sunglasses snugly on his nose, then pulled on the loose robe. In an instant, he went from a handsome man in a suit to a fierce Middle Eastern bandit who looked as though he had emerged from some unknown bazaar. "Super Earthling" was back for a limited time.
He pulled a flag out of his system inventory as well. He had made it himself that day from an old bedsheet and a mop handle. Eight large, crooked Chinese characters had been brushed onto it in red paint-"Carry out Heaven's justice, rob the rich to help the poor."
"Ding-Host, the distortion of the lettering on your flag has exceeded normal human aesthetic tolerances."
"It's called art. You wouldn't understand."
Lin Xiao hoisted the flag onto his shoulder and checked himself over one last time. Only then did he rise from the bushes and stride toward Obadiah's mansion.
Meanwhile, in the skies over New York.
Tony Stark hovered above the clouds, the Mark III's red-and-gold armor gleaming coldly in the moonlight. JARVIS had already projected Iron Monger's real-time position onto his faceplate display-the lumbering hunk of metal was flying toward him at high speed, its thrusters' heat signature blazing like a moving sun in infrared.
"Sir, the target is four kilometers away and closing rapidly."
"I see him." Tony flexed his fingers, and the miniature missile racks beneath his shoulder armor slowly unfolded. "JARVIS, what did you say he named himself? Iron Monger? Sounds like an attention-seeking clown."
"Sir, you must not underestimate him. His armor weighs approximately three times as much as yours, and its weapons configuration remains unknown. I recommend keeping your dis-"
"Recommendation rejected."
Just then, an iron-gray figure tore through the clouds and charged straight at Tony. Iron Monger's full form was laid bare beneath the moonlight. Every joint on the thing was covered in heavy supplementary armor. Two multibarrel autocannons sat on its shoulders, and a short-range missile hung from its right arm. It looked less like someone wearing armor and more like someone had dismantled a main battle tank and welded it onto himself.
"Tony!" Obadiah's voice came through Iron Monger's speakers, filled with irrepressible excitement and madness. "You finally crawled out of your shell! I was thinking I'd have to put in a little effort to drag you out if you didn't."
"Shut up, old man. Want a taste of the little treat I brought you?" Tony raised his right arm, the energy indicator for his repulsor beam instantly charging to maximum. "You attention-seeking clown. That armor of yours is ugly as hell."
Iron Monger moved. Obadiah's armor might have been cumbersome, but its thrusters produced astonishing thrust-both heavy thrusters ignited at once, sending the massive iron-gray body hurtling toward Tony at a speed that defied the laws of physics. Tony dodged sideways. Iron Monger's shoulder scraped across his chest plate with a piercing screech of metal, throwing off a shower of sparks.
"Sir, the surface of your left arm armor has sustained minor scratches."
"I'll bill him for the repairs later."
Tony turned his wrists and fired both repulsors simultaneously, striking Iron Monger square in the back. The beams hit the heavy supplementary armor and erupted into two dazzling bursts of white light. But when the light faded, all they had left on Iron Monger's back armor were two blackened dents.
"Tony, your toy guns don't work on me." Obadiah turned around. The multibarrel autocannons on his shoulders began spinning, and a moment later, a torrential rain of bullets poured toward Tony.
Tony pushed his thrusters to maximum and shot straight upward. Bullets swept after the soles of his feet, several grazing his left leg armor and leaving bullet marks across its surface. He somersaulted through the air and dropped behind Iron Monger. His shoulder missile rack sprang open, and a miniature missile streaked toward the back of Iron Monger's neck, trailing white exhaust.
The missile hit. The explosion lit up half the street.
But when the smoke cleared, Iron Monger had merely stumbled forward. The armor at the back of its neck had been blasted open, exposing a dense tangle of wiring and hydraulic lines underneath, but Obadiah's voice remained as steady as though nothing had happened. "Nice fireworks show. Got anything else?"
Iron Monger's counterattack came even faster. The short-range missile on its right arm launched. Tony dodged sideways, and the missile exploded five meters behind him, the shock wave flipping him halfway over in midair. Before he could steady himself, Iron Monger was already in front of him. Its two hydraulically boosted mechanical arms seized his shoulders and forced him downward.
"You think building a toy suit means you can stand against me? When Howard and I built our first engine in a garage, you weren't even a cell!"
Locked together, the two plunged from two thousand meters up. The lights on the ground drew closer and brighter. Tony could feel his armor's shell beginning to creak under the pressure of the hydraulic arms, the sound setting his teeth on edge. JARVIS was frantically reporting armor damage figures, but Tony wasn't listening. He was waiting for an opening.
With less than three hundred meters left before the ground, Tony pushed his thrusters to their limit. All four thrusters on the Mark III's back ignited simultaneously, their thrust instantly overcoming Iron Monger's downward force. He violently broke free of Obadiah's grip, flipped in midair, planted both feet on Iron Monger's chest, and fired both repulsors point-blank. Together with the recoil from his thrusters, the blast sent him shooting back into the sky like a cannonball. The reaction force from the shove and blasts slammed Iron Monger into the ground, plowing a furrow over ten meters long.
Tony steadied himself high in the air and looked down as Iron Monger climbed out of the rubble, as though that last blow had done no meaningful damage.
"Sir, that maneuver has raised your left leg thruster's temperature beyond the safe threshold. I recommend-"
"Recommendation rejected."
"Sir-"
"JARVIS, haven't you noticed something?" Tony took a breath, watching Iron Monger below as the corner of his mouth curved upward. "He's still going all out against me after a fall like that. That means he can afford a battle of attrition even less than I can."
Outside Obadiah's mansion.
Lin Xiao planted his "Carry out Heaven's justice" flag in the ground, driving the pole more than ten centimeters into the lawn.
The two bodyguards in black suits at the entrance froze for several seconds, then drew their guns together. "Who are you? Get out of here! Or we'll shoot!"
"Relax." Lin Xiao picked at his ear and continued forward. "I'm not here to cause trouble. Your boss is out, so I'm here to help clear out some things he won't need anymore. What's that called again-right, recycling unwanted items."
"Hands up!" the bodyguard on the left roared, aiming his gun at Lin Xiao's chest.
Lin Xiao sighed. "I tried being reasonable, but you wouldn't listen."
He took a step forward. Both bodyguards fired at once. The bullets struck his robe, tearing more than a dozen smoking holes through it, but Lin Xiao paid them no mind and kept walking.
The two bodyguards exchanged a glance, each seeing a trace of fear in the other's eyes, but they still mustered their courage and charged.
A few seconds later, Lin Xiao looked at the two unconscious men on the ground and shook his head in disappointment. He pulled the flag out of the lawn, hoisted it onto his shoulder, pushed open the half-open front door, and strode into Obadiah Stane's mansion. The instant he entered, countless infrared sights trained on him, and shouts of attack rang out from inside, but Lin Xiao paid them no mind.
"Doupao, where's the vault?"
"Ding-Reconnaissance indicates it is on the target mansion's second basement level, at the end of the east corridor."
"Got it."
Elsewhere, Iron Monger had just climbed out of the rubble and was preparing to reignite its thrusters and take off when Obadiah received a series of urgent alarms. It was the highest-level alarm he had set, one that would trigger under only one circumstance-someone was breaking into his private vault. Impossible. Impossible. How could this happen?
Obadiah froze for an instant. Just that one instant.
Tony seized the opportunity.
A shoulder cannon blast struck Iron Monger square in the chest, right where a missile had previously hit. The supplementary armor had already been stripped thinner there, and this blast widened the cracks all around. Obadiah toppled backward, smashing through three ornamental trees before coming to a stop.
"Sir, a direct hit. The target's chest armor integrity has decreased by approximately forty percent."
"One more." Tony aimed at the same spot and charged his repulsor again. Before he could fire, Iron Monger suddenly reignited its thrusters. Their exhaust whipped dust into the air, and the iron-gray figure charged at him at a completely reckless speed. Tony dodged sideways, but Iron Monger's arm still caught his ribs-the hydraulically boosted force transmitted through his armor into his body, sending a sharp pain through his lungs.
Tony was knocked flying and tumbled several times before regaining his balance. Rather than pressing the attack, Iron Monger turned and flew in another direction.
Clutching his ribs, Tony took a breath, then flew up as well, blocking Iron Monger's path.
"What are you looking at?" Tony asked despite knowing the answer, undisguised glee in his voice. "Someone robbing your house?"
"It's that big guy, isn't it?" Obadiah's voice finally changed. His earlier composure was gone, replaced by irrepressible fury. "You're working together, aren't you?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." Tony spread his hands. "But I suggest you go take a look. It's a vault-if the money's gone, you can earn more. But if someone takes certain documents-well, that's a lot more trouble than federal prison."
Obadiah fell silent. Iron Monger's gun barrels remained pointed at Tony, motionless for a long time. Tony knew he was rattled now, so he decided to add fuel to the fire.
"Oh, Mr. Stane, remember what I said in the conference room earlier? I said-you're fired. Now let me add-you've been robbed, too. And out of kindness, I'll tell you one more thing: my good buddy is no saint. He's like a swarm of locusts. He won't leave anything he can loot."
Obadiah remained silent for several seconds, but in the end, he didn't go back. The vault had distracted him, but it had also driven him completely mad-he knew he had no way out now. Tony was right. If those documents were taken, he wouldn't escape even if he killed Tony. But no matter what, he had to make Tony pay today. If he had no way out, then neither would Tony!
Iron Monger activated its self-destruct device.
That was Obadiah's final trump card: a modified tactical nuclear warhead, its charge carefully calculated to give it a lethal radius covering half a city block. The moment the dull electronic beep sounded, a red warning box popped up on Tony's faceplate display.
"Sir, a high-energy nuclear reaction has been detected inside the target. Estimated explosive yield: approximately half a ton. Immediate evacuation is recommended."
Tony hovered in midair, watching Iron Monger charge at him again, and rubbed his nose. I went too far just now! Now Obadiah intended to take him down with him. Tony went full throttle, trying to leave the battlefield, but however much he accelerated, that hunk of metal kept up. For a moment, he sank into despair. What he didn't know was that Obadiah had pushed Iron Monger to full power, expending its last bit of fuel. Its brief burst of speed had reached Mach 1.5. Tony had nowhere to dodge! He sank into utter despair!
At that critical moment, a voice came from the direction of the ground, drawing closer.
"Do not harm my son-"
Tony's pupils abruptly contracted. He knew that voice all too well. He saw a burly man carrying an enormous backpack, his face covered with an Arab headscarf, rushing toward him at a bizarre speed.
Lin Xiao slashed the Blink Dagger forward and appeared in midair. Then he began to spin, pressing his hands together above his head and whirling like a top. The dagger's tip formed a vortex visible to the naked eye in front of him. His whole body became a small horizontal whirlwind, piercing straight through the center of Iron Monger's massive body.
He really did pierce straight through!
The dagger's tip drilled into Iron Monger's chest plate, carrying Lin Xiao's entire body through and out its back!
Lin Xiao emerged from the hole in Iron Monger's back, still spinning, and flew several more meters upward before steadying himself. He held the dagger between his teeth, freeing both hands, and scooped up Tony, who was preparing to take the explosion head-on with his own body, getting as far away as possible from the Iron Monger that was falling out of control.
"Tony! Speed up!"
Tony hurriedly adjusted his armor and flew off with Lin Xiao. A tremendous explosion boomed behind them, followed by wave after wave of shock waves that sent Tony swaying unsteadily. At last, he stabilized and flew out of the danger zone.
In midair, Tony remained silent for several seconds before finally speaking.
"...That spinning thing you did. What move was that?"
Lin Xiao took the dagger out of his mouth and answered the question seriously. "Electric Light Lone Dragon Drill."
"Never heard of it."
"A secret art from Dragon Country. Not taught to outsiders."
Another few seconds of silence passed. Tony spoke again. "That bag on your back. What's in it?"
"Unwanted items from Obadiah's house. Stop asking. I'm distributing things according to work done. Fair and reasonable. You risked your life in the sky, and I gathered evidence on the ground. Nothing wrong with that process, right?"
Tony wanted to argue, but found he didn't even know where to start.
Tony slowly landed at the edge of the docks. In the distance, police sirens were rapidly approaching.