Lynn had only just taken a step forward, the white light barely gathering at his fingertips, when Tony sprang up from the ground.
His thrusters spat out a somewhat unstable stream of white exhaust, carrying him crookedly into the air, straight toward the sky above the Stark Industries plant.
"Trying to run?" Obadiah's deep voice boomed from the loudspeaker.
Iron Monger's leg thrusters ignited, and his enormous dark gray frame rose from the ground, following Tony closely into the clouds.
Lynn stood where he was and looked up, watching the two trails of flame disappear into the sky one after another. The little glow of white light at his fingertips, left with nowhere to go, flickered awkwardly twice.
I was all ready to jump in, and you just flew off?
"Fine, then."
The night sky, the stratosphere. The two suits of armor fought in the thin atmosphere.
Obadiah's voice still carried that same condescending, scolding tone. "You had a good idea, Tony, but my armor is more advanced in every way!"
A row of low-temperature warnings appeared on Tony's faceplate HUD. He patiently waited two seconds, until he saw fine white frost beginning to form around Iron Monger's arm joints, before speaking leisurely. "Really? Then how did you solve the icing problem?"
Obadiah noticeably paused. "Icing problem?"
Before he had finished speaking, ice crystals were already spreading wildly through the seams of Iron Monger's outer armor, eating into the hydraulic lines. His right shoulder joint gave a piercing metallic screech, and his movements visibly slowed. Then his left leg thruster abruptly died as its intake became blocked. A layer of white frost also covered the optical targeting lenses, and Obadiah's view went dark, section by section.
Tony hovered in front of Iron Monger, raised his hand, and rapped his knuckles twice against the frozen helmet. The crisp metallic knocks reached Obadiah's ears clearly.
"You'd better look into that."
The six-meter-tall dark gray frame instantly lost all power, tumbling toward the ground like a piece of scrap metal dropped from high above.
Tony watched him fall, then felt the reactor in his chest flicker twice. The hum of his thrusters suddenly changed pitch. He gritted his teeth and tried to stabilize himself, but his left leg thruster went out completely, and the power to his right palm repulsor was cutting out intermittently.
He began falling too.
On the ground, Lynn looked up into the night sky. A black dot was rapidly growing larger. The red-and-gold armor tumbled down in the moonlight, limbs spread wide.
He quickly raised his hand and opened a portal directly beneath Tony's landing point, orange sparks spreading horizontally. At the same time, he opened a second portal on a parallel plane directly beneath the first, setting its exit above the ground ten meters to his side, facing horizontally forward.
Tony Stark fell into the first portal at free-fall speed and shot out of the second the next moment, skidding more than ten meters before slamming into a wall.
He got up and tapped the reactor in his chest. Its blue-white light steadied a little, but remained much dimmer than usual.
Lifting his faceplate, Tony gasped for breath, his forehead covered in cold sweat. He looked at Lynn approaching and opened his mouth to say something, then swallowed the words and reached to remove his armor.
"Don't take it off," Lynn said.
Tony looked up at him in confusion.
Lynn ignored him, his gaze fixed firmly behind Tony. In the distant wreckage left by Iron Monger's impact, rubble was rolling down. A thick hydraulic arm broke out of the ground, followed by the entire torso.
"...Still have to fight." Lynn looked away, his tone deeply resigned. "Couldn't you give us a little surprise? Dying in that fall would've been nice."
Tony lowered the hand he had been using to remove his armor, and his faceplate closed again. "So sorry there wasn't a surprise."
Iron Monger gave them no chance to continue the discussion. His shoulder-mounted machine gun began spinning.
Tony fired his thrusters and flew off at an angle, skimming past the line of fire.
"JARVIS, assess current combat capability," Tony's voice sounded from behind his faceplate.
"The old reactor has twelve percent energy remaining. Left leg thruster offline. Right shoulder armor damaged. Estimated palm repulsor shots available: three." JARVIS's tone remained steady, but the numbers alone were bad enough.
Lynn flung a fireball that struck the hydraulic line at Iron Monger's knee joint with precision.
Iron Monger staggered, then turned and aimed his optical targeting system at Lynn.
Lynn immediately darted back behind cover and caught his breath with his back against the cold wall.
He wanted to use those powerful offensive spells in the Sanctum's books, but he had spent all this time recording anomalies and had never gotten around to practicing them. Right now, he could only reliably cast the basic ones. Hitting a six-meter-tall hunk of iron with those was no different from shooting a tank with a slingshot.
"Lynn! Can you actually fight or not?" "I can! But I can't hurt him!" Lynn shouted back.
That was already the limit of what Lynn could do. He moved farther to the side, then looked up and exchanged a glance with Tony in midair.
Obadiah roared, and Iron Monger sent Tony flying with a backhanded slap. Tony spun twice in the air, his thrusters barely stabilizing him before he hit a wall. His left leg thruster gave out completely as he landed, and he dropped to one knee, the reactor in his chest dimming further. "Six percent energy remaining."
Iron Monger wasted no time, charging toward Tony with great strides. Tony rolled out of the way of the first punch, but the second followed immediately, cutting off his escape. He could only raise his left arm to block it head-on. The alloy armor on his arm dented and twisted under the heavy blow, and he was sent flying. Before his thrusters could ignite, Iron Monger was already upon him, a hydraulic arm grabbing Tony by the torso and lifting him up.
The enormous mechanical hand closed around Tony's helmet and chest armor and began squeezing. Metal groaned.
Lynn rushed in from the side, pressing his palms together, and a fireball three times larger than the last blasted into Iron Monger's elbow joint.
Iron Monger merely swayed and did not release Tony. Without even turning his head, Obadiah spun up his remaining shoulder-mounted machine gun, driving Lynn back with a spray of bullets.
Lynn's mind suddenly went blank. It was as though something had pressed a pause button on his consciousness from within, and the scene around him began to slow. His body was still charging forward, but his consciousness could no longer feel his hands or feet.
Again?! This time I'm not in the supermarket or the Sanctum. I'm in a fight here, boss! This is seriously going to kill me.
The edges of his vision began to darken, and his consciousness sank into the depths.
Through his faceplate, Tony saw Lynn stop. He stood diagonally behind Iron Monger, still holding the posture of his charge, but his eyes had suddenly become utterly lifeless.
Suddenly, Lynn raised both hands, pointed his fingers toward Iron Monger, and made a gentle slashing motion.
There was no explosion, no beam, no sound. Iron Monger's right arm began disintegrating from the fingertips, the dark gray armor turning inch by inch into particles so fine they were nearly transparent. Each particle shone with a faint silvery glow, like stardust in the cosmos scattered by the wind.
From fingertips to wrist, from wrist to the entire right arm, from the right arm to the torso. Within five seconds, Iron Monger disintegrated layer by layer, from the outside in.
Tony slipped out of the loosened mechanical hand and landed on one knee. He looked up, watching the dark gray armor shell disappear layer by layer, exposing the cockpit inside and Obadiah Stane's terrified face.
Tony did not look back at Lynn. He stood up, tore open the remains of the cockpit, grabbed Obadiah by the collar, and dragged him out of his seat.
Obadiah fell onto the asphalt, knocking the back of his head against it with a muffled grunt.
Tony held one hand against his chest and opened a communications channel with the other. "Pepper, have Coulson bring his people over. Stane's been caught."
Releasing Obadiah's collar, Tony stood up and turned toward Lynn.
He was still standing in the same place, hands hanging at his sides, eyes closed, his expression very calm.
Then his knees buckled, and Tony caught Lynn by the shoulders before he hit the ground.
"...Fuck." Tony Stark closed his eyes, summing up everything he felt at that moment with that one word.
He looked up at the night sky. Iron Monger's remaining wreckage was still dispersing, its pale silver particles slowly rising.
Sirens were approaching from the far end of the plant.
"Tony!" Pepper Potts ran over and stopped in front of him, glancing at the person in his arms. "What happened to him?"
"He passed out."
Tony's voice returned to its usual Stark nonchalance. "I'll explain later. You handle things here. I'm taking him back first."
Without waiting for Pepper's answer, he carried Lynn toward the plant's exit.
Behind him, Coulson was handcuffing Obadiah, while several Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. gathered to secure the scene.
Pepper Potts stood where she was, watching Tony's retreating figure and the unconscious young man in his arms. She pressed her lips together and did not follow.
The seaside villa, in the early hours of the morning.
Tony laid Lynn on the living room sofa and had JARVIS bring up his vital-sign monitoring. Body temperature normal, heart rate normal, respiratory rate normal, brainwave activity normal.
Tony leaned against the wall across from the sofa with his arms folded, staring at Lynn's face and closed eyes. Pieces of broken armor lay scattered at his feet, but he had no inclination to tidy them up.
The scene from earlier kept replaying in his mind: the moment Lynn abruptly stopped, that lifeless look in his eyes.
"Sir, all of Mr. Lynn's readings indicate that he is in a state of deep sleep. There are no signs of external or internal injuries."
JARVIS continued softly, "Judging by the available data, he is simply too tired."
Tony remained silent for quite a while. "...Bring up that surveillance footage. The entire attack on Iron Monger, all sensor data. Save it to my private server and encrypt it."
"Saved, sir."
Tony straightened, pulled over a nearby blanket, and casually tossed it over Lynn. Then he sat in the armchair opposite, propped his feet on the edge of the coffee table, and closed his eyes.