Colonel James "Rhodey" Rhodes received the frantic, barely coherent call from Pepper. The sheer panic in her voice sliced through his military calm. "What do you mean, him hiring someone to kill Tony? Are you talking about Stane?!"
Rhodes gripped the phone so hard his knuckles turned white. "Okay, okay, where is Tony now? Did you call the police?"
Pepper's voice, though strained, held an edge of dangerous clarity. "I don't know. He didn't answer the phone. Please, Rhodes, go to his house as soon as possible to check on him. I couldn't get through to him after... after I knew."
Pepper, meanwhile, was already in an SUV with Coulson and five heavily armed S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, speeding toward the Stark Industries headquarters and the hidden access point to District 16 to carry out the arrest.
Rhodey slammed his phone down, his expression tense and grim. Tony might be an insufferable jerk sometimes, but he was family. Rhodey ignored every federal speed limit sign in sight, flooring the gas pedal and racing toward Tony's Malibu mansion.
⚙️ The Last Ounce of Will
Tony struggled desperately, painfully, inch by agonizing inch, finally dragging his paralyzed, oxygen-starved body to the massive worktable. He stiffly pulled over the heavy, metal toolbox that sat next to him, using it as a makeshift cushion to try and leverage his failing torso.
Using the last tiny bit of strength he could muster in his fingers, he tried to open the drawer where the new Arc Reactor—his life—was stored, but his fingers, slick with cold sweat, slipped uselessly across the metal handle. He couldn't pull it open.
After struggling for another precious moment, he managed to wedge a paralyzed finger into the edge of the drawer, prying it open by a fraction of an inch, enough to see the glow. But he couldn't push himself up far enough to reach in and grab the reactor.
His limbs went completely limp, and he collapsed with a heavy, wet thud onto the cold ground, his eyes wide and lifeless, fixed on the ceiling. He was spent. The shrapnel was surely on the move now.
Tony didn't give up entirely; the fire of protecting Pepper was still burning in his mind. He just wanted to gather his strength for one last, impossible surge.
Suddenly, a whirring sound caught his attention. The little automated robotic arm he had always affectionately called DUM-E, which he'd dismissed as mostly useless, moved. The little yellow arm, perhaps sensing distress from the residual magnetic field, whirred, reached into the slightly ajar drawer, and gently pulled out the bright, clean second-generation Arc Reactor.
DUM-E's arm offered the glowing core directly to Tony.
Stark stared at the little mechanical appendage, the one he had always dismissed or even actively disliked, panting heavily. The tiny hand still moved slightly, its single camera eye tilted, seemingly unaware of the monumental, life-saving service it had just performed.
A genuine, wet tear rolled down Tony's cheek. "Good boy," he croaked, pushing his last reserve of energy into his working fingers to take the salvation offered by his faithful companion. He shoved the core into the gaping, bleeding hole in his chest.
The moment the reactor clicked into place, a blinding surge of blue-white energy shot through him. The pain was instantly replaced by a powerful, calming magnetic field, pulling the migrating shrapnel back and holding it firmly away from his heart. The paralysis began to recede, and blood immediately rushed back into his face. He took a huge, shuddering gulp of air. He was alive.
Obadiah, oblivious to his monumental failure at the mansion, had already returned to the heart of District 16 with Tony's powerful reactor. He was standing in the center of the vast, cavernous room, admiring his Iron Monger armor—a looming, brutal silhouette of raw power.
He connected the glowing core he had just stolen into the primary socket on the enormous chest plate. A deafening mechanical roar filled the chamber as the Iron Monger's hydraulic systems powered up. Obadiah looked at the activated behemoth and grinned, the blue light reflecting menacingly in his eyes.
A moment later, the S.H.I.E.L.D. team arrived at the gate of District 16. Pepper easily swiped her high-level access ID card, and the outer door slid open.
They found the interior gate marked with the intimidating, hand-stenciled words "District 16," but when Pepper swiped her card twice, the lock remained stubbornly closed.
"My card won't open this door," Pepper said anxiously, her hands shaking. "It must be offline or on a separate circuit."
Coulson stopped, remaining unnervingly calm. He took out a round, metallic, frustum-shaped device from his jacket pocket—no bigger than a button—and stuck it precisely onto the digital lock mechanism.
"You'd better take a few steps back, Miss Potts," Coulson advised, his voice still low and steady.
Pepper immediately obeyed, hiding behind the outer wall.
A slight, muffled explosion followed, accompanied by a unique, deep thump as the penetrating force instantly neutralized the lock mechanism, and the door hissed open.
Obadiah, who was inside, heard the muffled shockwave at the door. His eye twitched with sudden rage. He quickly moved to the nearest console, furiously typed a command on the keyboard to finalize the operating program import, and prepared to go forward and suit up.
Rhodes had finally arrived at Tony's house and used his military access codes to gain entry. He called out loudly, "Tony? Tony?! Where are you, you idiot?"
His first thought was the basement. He raced down the stairs to the underground studio, skidding to a halt.
He saw the crumpled figure lying motionless in front of the table, his chest bare and bloody, but with a brand new, furiously bright blue light already pulsing from his sternum.
Rhodes rushed over, helped the still-paralyzed Tony up, and was relieved to find him conscious, breathing heavily but steadily. Tony, whose face was still deathly pale, grabbed Rhodes's arm with a vise grip and asked the only question that mattered.
"Where is Pepper?!"
"She's fine, Tony, calm down! Five agents are with her. They're heading to Stark Industries now to try and arrest Obadiah," Rhodes explained quickly.
Tony's eyes went cold as he recalled Obadiah's predatory smile and his cruel words. He said angrily, his voice raspy from the sonic attack: "Five people are definitely not enough. That suit is too big. He'll chew through them."
He pulled Rhodes to his feet and headed straight for the experimental pedestal, where the Mark III was waiting, ready for its deployment.
In a furious, focused frenzy, the Mark III assembly sequence began. Within just three minutes, the suit was fully donned, its cool, sleek red and gold design and high-tech feel directly fulfilling every childhood dream Rhodey had ever forgotten.
"This is the coolest thing I have ever seen in my life!" Rhodes exclaimed enviously, momentarily forgetting Tony's near-death experience.
"Let's move!"
Tony was only thinking about getting to Pepper's side as quickly as possible. He kicked his custom sports car aside without a second thought, stomped onto the center pedestal, and stood directly under the massive hole he had smashed in the ceiling during his last flight.
Rhodes, recovering from his shock, stammered, "Is there anything else I can—I can do for you?"
The Mark III's faceplate slid down with a final hiss, and Tony's voice was now metallic and synthesized.
"Clear the airspace. Then, wake up that guy in the second-floor room. Tell him to get to Stark Industries, fast."
With that, intense, controlled flames shot out from his hands and feet, and the Mark III—the culmination of his genius and grief—soared into the night sky, instantly transforming into a screaming jet of red and gold.
Rhodes watched Tony's departure, shaking his head in a mixture of envy and amazement. "Damn!"
He turned his head and saw the pure silver Mark II suit standing proudly to the side, its chest cavity empty, awaiting its power source. Looking at the glorious machine, he swallowed hard.
"I'll definitely take you with me next time, baby," he promised the dormant armor.
Rhodey turned and headed upstairs, muttering, "Are there other people in Tony's house? Who's in the second-floor room?"
He checked several guest rooms, finding them empty, then finally opened the last door on the second floor.
He saw a young, shirtless boy, Leo, lying absolutely still on the floor next to the bedside. Broken, gold-infused metal pieces surrounded him, and the dim moonlight shone in, giving the scene an eerie, terrifying glow.
"Is this... that kid from last time? Could Tony be talking about him?" Rhodes was now genuinely unsure, his military training failing to process what he was seeing.
He stepped forward and helped Leo sit up, looking at the boy who was still deeply unconscious.
He quickly listened to Leo's heartbeat; it was strong and powerful, like a miniature locomotive.
Breathing? There was no problem, in fact, it was unnaturally slow and efficient.
Rhodes was surprised and, thinking this was some kind of strange sleep, slapped Leo's thigh.
Smack!
Rhodes immediately frowned, his right hand trembling slightly. 'So hard. What the hell? Is his leg made of stone?'
The abrupt impact finally forced Leo's consciousness back to the surface. His eyes twitched.
Leo suddenly opened his eyes. His black pupils were instantly wide and alert. He trembled all over, a deep, residual shock running through him, before his mind registered that the transformation—the horrifying, beautiful ordeal—was finally over.
He let out a deep, internal sigh of relief and finally relaxed, lying freely back down on the ground, staring blankly at the patterns on the ceiling, somewhat dazed and floating.
Rhodey stared at the child in front of him, utterly dumbfounded by the violent reaction and the sudden, complete stillness.
After a long moment, Leo slowly sat up, his body feeling like a newborn star, radiating restrained power. He looked up and roared, a sound of triumph mixed with pure, cathartic release. "This pain was just too damn intense!!"
"Tony asked me to come upstairs to find someone; it should be you, right? He wants you to get to Stark Industries as soon as possible," Rhodes said uncertainly, trying to sound authoritative despite the chaos.
Leo finally grasped the urgency. "What's wrong with Mr. Stark? Why did he leave?"
"Obadiah tried to kill him and stole his core! And Pepper has already led agents to capture him, while Tony is already flying out there—"
"What, tonight?" Leo's eyes widened with horror. He had been so focused on his breakthrough that he hadn't sensed the shift in the timeline.
He quickly threw on a T-shirt and rushed out of the room, not forgetting to grab the golden Arc Reactor he had used for training—and the special wireless headphones from the bedside table.
Rhodes followed quickly, his voice laced with military cynicism. "Let's go, I'll drive you there quickly, although I don't know what use a skinny kid is going to be against a maniac in a suit."
Leo gave Rhodes a strange look, a brief flash of golden light in his eyes. "Colonel Rhodes, with respect, I think I should be faster than you."
He took two quick steps, burst out of the glass gate and onto the balcony. A layer of brilliant, pure golden light surged from his body, coalescing around his feet and hands. In the next instant, he shot straight up into the sky, transforming into a single, breathtaking golden streak that disappeared into the night.
Rhodes chased after him, having just witnessed a literal human boy ascend to the heavens. He rubbed his eyes, thinking he must have imagined the whole thing.
Looking up at the night sky, he could barely make out a faint, distant golden speck of light until it vanished completely.
"What... in God's name... happened?"
Down in the sub-basements, Coulson and his men had already entered the vast, metallic interior of District 16. All six of them drew their pistols and spread out, standing guard, but the chamber was initially empty.
"We walked all the way to the deepest part and found the Mark I that we brought back from the desert," Coulson reported calmly into his radio.
"It seems you were right, Miss Potts. He also made a set of armor."
"I think it should be bigger," Pepper murmured, noticing the immense scale of the Mark I prototype against the sheer size of the room, a size difference that contrasted with the blueprints she had copied. She turned and saw two heavy-duty cables still sparking, recently disconnected.
The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents remained vigilant, patrolling the perimeter of the huge chamber.
Pepper cautiously moved to the side to take a closer look at the sparking cables, but she found an anomaly behind a row of towering iron chains.
Curiosity overriding her fear, she peered inside the shadows. Suddenly, a pair of huge, glowing white mechanical eye sockets appeared from the pitch-black abyss.
The giant figure rapidly rose, accompanied by a deep, terrifying grinding sound of metal on metal, and an immense, brilliant white light shone from its chest.
Pepper screamed, a sound ripped from her soul, and bolted, scrambling away from the mechanical leviathan.
The Iron Monger, a full two meters and eighty centimeters tall and bulked with thick, crude steel, strode out with a crushing mechanical thud, its powerful, white chest beam already charging to chase down the intruders.