Tony eventually fell into the trap.
When Obadiah saw Tony return safely, he had a moment of regret.
After all, he had watched Tony grow up and had always played the role of an elder figure in Tony's life.
Although…
Tony had grown into an arrogant and pompous playboy...
But ultimately, up until that point, Obadiah's role had been fairly adequate.
The real problem was that Tony was too good at making money.
At his core, Obadiah was a businessman.
A highly capable businessman.
For money, he was willing to do anything.
That's why so many weapons under Stark Industries were sold all over the world.
Legally, illegally. Openly, covertly.
As long as you paid, Obadiah would sell to you!
Obadiah knew that even though Tony was a carefree playboy, he didn't care much about money or the business. Although Stark Industries was technically Tony's company, and he was the chairman and majority shareholder in charge of the company's decisions, Tony didn't care about any of that. He didn't even want to attend shareholder meetings. Tony preferred Playboy magazine over the company's annual reports.
Because of this, Obadiah had been able to secretly sell so many weapons without Tony's knowledge.
In recent years, under Obadiah's leadership, Stark Industries had made huge sums of money from the weapons Tony created. All that money was soaked in blood!
Tony didn't know any of this, but eventually, he would find out.
Obadiah knew this was inevitable. So he orchestrated a weapons demonstration and, using the excuse of being unwell and unable to attend, sent Tony in his place.
And then everything that followed happened.
…
When Tony returned, Obadiah initially planned to move forward with the next phase of his plan, but then Tony successfully miniaturized the arc reactor, and Obadiah saw a massive business opportunity!
However, Tony then informed him that he would never sell this technology as a product.
That very night, Obadiah, along with his armed forces and mercenaries, secretly went to the site where Tony had been held captive.
He needed to know what had happened there, how Tony had escaped, and how much energy the device in Tony's chest really had!
In that cave, Obadiah witnessed the destruction created by Tony (or rather, Leon).
On one hand, Obadiah recognized the value of the mini arc reactor. On the other hand, he was terrified of Tony's newfound ruthlessness, seeing all the bodies scattered on the ground.
At that moment, Obadiah realized he could no longer afford any illusions.
He quietly took the crude Mark I armor that Tony had discarded and smuggled it back to the U.S.
While he had his company's engineers replicate and enhance the design into a larger suit, Obadiah ran into another unsolvable problem.
"I just want you to make it smaller! That thing already exists! I'm just asking you to miniaturize it! Do you understand?"
Pointing at the large arc reactor left behind by Howard Stark, Obadiah yelled at his company's lead scientist, "Tony managed to do it in a cave with a hammer! I just want you to copy him! Is that so difficult?"
Facing Obadiah's angry outburst, the bespectacled chief scientist shrugged helplessly, "Not everyone is Tony Stark."
The suit was nearly complete, but now Obadiah didn't have the energy source to power it!
Troubled, Obadiah walked to his office.
As soon as he opened the door, he saw someone sitting in his chair.
Pepper Potts, Tony's staunchest supporter. At that moment, Obadiah knew he'd been exposed.
After some casual conversation, Pepper made an excuse to leave.
Once the door closed, Obadiah rushed to his computer.
If Pepper hadn't found the evidence, he wouldn't need to take drastic measures!
Obadiah could still maneuver things, isolate Tony at the next shareholders' meeting, and at worst, walk away with his shares of Stark Industries. He'd still be a rich man.
The computer booted up.
The files being accessed were the very ones he hoped no one would discover.
The message "Download complete" shattered Obadiah's last bit of denial.
"Why did I store such sensitive, incriminating information on this computer?"
At that moment, Obadiah voiced the exact same question as Professor Chen on the other side of the ocean.
But it was too late to ask such things now. Pepper was likely already with the authorities, accompanied by those mysterious agents in black suits.
He had to get the arc reactor, and fast!
…
At Tony's house, Tony sat alone on the couch, worried. He already had a suspect in mind and was almost certain who it was.
But he didn't want to believe it. He couldn't accept that the person who had raised him and been closest to him since his parents' deaths could have done all this.
The phone rang.
Tony picked up his phone and saw who was calling.
It was Pepper.
I hope I'm wrong.
As he answered, he heard a high-pitched, piercing noise through the line.
Then he lost control of his body.
Obadiah, wearing a headset, smugly waved a small device in Tony's face.
"Remember this? Such a genius invention! Too bad the government didn't put it into production."
"A device that can temporarily paralyze enemies is quite useful, isn't it?"
Sitting next to Tony, Obadiah began a classic villain monologue, revealing everything to the hero.
Seeing Tony's wide, helpless eyes, Obadiah felt a rush of pleasure at having complete control. This is always why villains eventually lose.
Removing the "battery" from Tony's chest, Obadiah gloated, "Too bad you won't get to see my suit. It's not as…"
"Conservative."
Patting Tony on the face, Obadiah feigned sympathy, "Too bad you dragged Pepper into this. I had intended to let her live."
With that, he grabbed the arc reactor, left Tony for dead, and hurried off.
…
Tony staggered to his workshop, where there was one more "battery." It had been a gift from Pepper, meant to be destroyed, but now it was his only hope.
He crawled to the desk where the arc reactor was kept, barely able to lift his arm.
Collapsing to the floor, Tony felt his eyelids grow heavy, his limbs weak.
Is this it…?
Suddenly, a robotic arm placed the arc reactor beside Tony!
It was the little robot that had always caused him trouble.
"Good boy!"
Genuinely praising the machine, Tony mustered all his strength to smash the glass case holding the reactor!
He had the battery!
In retrospect, there are definitely some illogical parts of the *Iron Man* plot, like why Pepper was always a step behind Obadiah?!
So I made some tweaks to the movie's storyline. This way, it makes more sense when the protagonist isn't present, and it doesn't affect the viewing experience.
Alright! I'm done talking ←_←
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(End of this chapter)