Tony is in a racing suit, a group of people following him. He jumps the fence to get onto the track.
"You're an idiot." Bucky said. Tony's antics reminded him a bit of pre-serum Steve who was always getting himself into fights.
This is playing on TV behind Justin who's still talking to Christine. Hammer says that he loves Tony and Tony loves him, he says that they aren't competitors and that him being out of the picture created a lot of opportunities for Hammer Industries.
"This guy." Peter sighed.
He turns around to watch the TV and says that everything he and Tony do is healthy competition.
Tony, who's on TV, asks what the purpose of having a racecar is if he doesn't drive it.
"Are you trying to get yourself killed!?" Howard shouted.
Hammer asks if Tony's driving.
"What does it look like." Tony asked.
"Tony... now would be a good time not to talk." Rhodey said.
Pepper is sitting at a table alone watching this she calls for Natasha using the name Natalie and asks her what she knows about Tony driving.
Natasha says that its the first she's heard of it.
Pepper says that it cant happen.
Natasha asks how she can help.
Pepper tells her to get Happy.
"Really overdoing it on the politeness aren't you Nat?" Clint asked. Natasha glared at him.
Justin is still talking to Christine, who doesn't look like she's paying much attention. Hammer tells her that he and Tony aren't competitive.
Christine asks him to excuse her.
Hammer asks her to read him what she wrote.
She says she will after and that she needs to make a phone call.
Hammer asks her where she's going.
She says she'll be back.
"What is she doing?" Gamora asked herself.
Tony starts revving his engine. The race starts. Ivan is shown, dressed like the rest of the pit crew, walking along side the track.
"Oh no."
It cuts back to the race.
Pepper is watching it on the TV.
Ivan walks onto the track.
Pepper looks scared as she watches.
Hammer makes his way to the front of a crowd and watches.
Ivan rips open his shirt and his arc reactor starts powering up.
"Oh shit."
He powers up his weapon and it burns some of his shirt off. He slices part of a car in half, the car crashes.
Happy walks into the room holding a red case, Pepper runs to him and they get in a car.
"What is so special about the case?" Valkyrie asked.
"You'll see." Tony said.
Happy drives onto the race track, going in the opposite direction of all the cars.
Tony drives up to where Ivan is. Ivan slices part of the car off and the car flips he starts advancing toward Tony. Tony takes off his helmet. A few cars come up behind Ivan, they crash into one another.
Happy and Pepper are still driving Pepper says to giver her the case.
Happy tells her to take it.
Pepper asks where the key is.
Happy says its in his pocket.
"This is anxiety inducing." Ned whispered to Peter.
Ivan slices another part of the car off, looking for Tony but he's not there. Tony comes up behind him and hits him on the head with a piece of metal. Ivan wacks him with one of his lightning strips a few times. Tony runs toward another car, but falls down. He notices the car is leaking gas so he stays there, waiting. Ivan walks toward him, smacking his lightning ropes on the ground. He gets close, Tony quickly rolls away as Ivan hits the car and it explodes.
"That was a smart move." Natasha observes.
Tony notices his sleeve is on fire, he beats it out. Happy drives up behind Ivan. Tony sees and jumps onto the fence, Happy hits Ivan with his car.
"Hit me! Hit me with your car!" Shuri yelled. T'Challa looked at her, worried and confused. Peter, Ned and MJ laughed.
Tony hops down from the fence Happy asks if he's okay.
Pepper is screaming in the background.
Tony says he is and asks Happy who he was aiming for.
Happy says he was trying to scare Ivan.
Pepper asks Tony is he's out of his mind.
"Yes." Everyone answered.
Tony says they need better security.
Pepper tells him to get in the car.
Tony says he was attacked.
"To be fair, you probably wouldn't have been attacked if you didn't decide to drive." Thor said.
He says they need better security.
Happy tells him to get in the car.
Tony says that the lack of security measures is embarrassing and he walks behind the car to get in on the other side. Ivan cuts the door in half. Happy repeatedly slams into him. Tony says to hit him again. Pepper struggles to hand Tony the case.
"Chaos."
Ivan starts hitting the car with his lightning whips. He slices a side of the car off. Pepper throws him the case and it is revealed to be a suit.
"So that's what the case was." Scott commented.
Tony suits up and kicks the car away. He tries to shoot at Ivan, but Ivan hits him. Tony shoots at him a few times. Ivan tangles his lightning whips on Tony's neck and arms, then throws him to the side using the whips as leverage. Tony starts to tangle himself in the whips and walks toward Ivan, punches him and uses the whips to throw him to the ground.
"Use his own weapon against him, nice." Thor said.
He walks over to him, and pulls the arc reactor out. Police start to lift Ivan and take him away. Ivan spits blood at him and tells Tony that he loses. Tony crushes the arc reactor.
"What does he mean by 'You'll lose'?" T'Challa asked.
"He knew something, not sure how he knew but- yeah." Tony answered, vaguely
Hammer is still watching this in TV, he smirks.
"I knew there was something off about that guy!" Rocket shouted.
Tony is walking through a hallway, there are three men in suits with him. The guard, in French, says that they ran his prints but they don't have a name.
Tony, in French, asks where they're going.
"You speak French?" Clint asked.
"I speak a few languages, its useful when you're a businessman." Tony responded.
The man, in French, tells him and says that they don't know if Ivan speaks English because he hasn't spoken since he got there.
Tony, in French, says to give him 5 minutes, then he walks in and the door shuts. Ivan is sitting on a bench, barely wearing any clothes, Tony starts walking over and says that Ivan had decent tech but the cycles per second were slow and that he could have doubled the rotations.
"What are you doing, man?" Rhodey asked.
He says that Ivan focused the repulsor energy through plasma channels and that it was effective but inefficient. He says its a passible knock-off and says that he could have made a solid paycheck with some fine tuning, and tells him he could have sold it.
"Why are you giving him ideas?" Hope asked.
Tony sits down and says that it looks like Ivan has friends in low places.
Ivan says Tony comes from a family of thieves and butchers, and that he's trying to rewrite his history like all other guilty men. He tells Tony that he forgets all the lives that the Stark family destroyed.
"My grandfather sold fruit, I hardly think that passes as a thief or butcher." Tony said.
Tony asks Ivan where he got the design.
Ivan says he got it from his father.
Tony glared at Howard. Yet another thing his fathers done that come back to bite him in the ass.
"So this rivalry goes back in the bloodline?" Peter asked. "That's dumb, pushing your problems onto your kids I mean."
Tony says he's never heard of him.
Ivan says that his father is the only reason Tony's alive.
"Part of the reason, he's still alive you mean. Anton didn't do that work by himself." Howard said.
Tony says that the reason he's alive is because Ivan missed his shot.
"You two are talking about two different near death experiences." Wanda mumbled.
Ivan says that if he can make god bleed, people will stop believing in him and that there will be blood in the water and sharks will come. He tells Tony that all he needs to do is sit back and watch the world consume him.
Tony says he'll be watching from a prison cell and tells Ivan he'll send him a bar of soap.
"Don't taunt, do none of you learn your lesson? Taunting makes things worse." Maria said.
Ivan comments about palladium in the chest being a painful way to die.
"I am Groot."
"How did he know that?" Gamora translated.
"I guess he knew that I had the arc reactor in my chest and since he knows how it works and palladium is a toxic element, he figured out that it was poisoning me. Don't know how he knew it was in my chest." Tony said. "No one knew it was in my chest."
Senator Stern is talking about Tony on TV. He says that Monaco proves that Tony doesn't know what he's doing and that he thinks the suit is a toy.
"I'm pretty sure I don't but please continue trying to make your point." Tony said, annoyed.
Tony walks in with a plate in his hand.
Stern says that Tony was sure that the suits didn't exist anywhere else for 5 to 10 years and says that the world is realizing that they exist now.
"Technically... just because one person figured it out doesn't mean that everyone will. And it was by chance that Anton Vanko also worked on the arc reactor, if that wasn't a factor than maybe Stark would've been right about what he said in the courtroom, but I can understand where Stern is coming from, someone else has the technology and Stark was being very reckless in Monaco." Strange said.
Tony mutes the TV and says that Stern should be giving him a medal and sets the plate down and sits across from Pepper.
"He did eventually." Tony said, Rhodey smirked.
Pepper asks what's on the plate. Tony takes the lid off the plate, it is revealed to be a burnt omelet.
"Is that even edible?" Wanda asked.
Pepper asks if he just made it.
Tony asks her where she thinks he's been for the last 3 hours.
"You spent three hours making that?" Rhodey asked, incredulously.
Pepper asks Tony what he's not telling her.
"Just that you're dying!" Pepper said, angrily. "Okay, I did try to tell you at one point but you wouldn't let me!"
Tony says he doesn't want to go home and that they should cancel his birthday party.
"I wish you would have cancelled it." Pepper said. Natasha and Rhodey agreed.
He says that they're in Europe and that its a great place to be healthy.
"Its a great place to die." Pepper muttered.
Pepper says that she doesn't think that now is the right time because they're in a mess.
Tony says that he thinks that now is the best time.
Pepper says that because she's CEO she needs to be there.
Tony says that she's entitled to a leave.
"I don't think that applies when she hasn't even had the job for a week." Peggy commented.
Tony says that they should take time to recharge their batteries and figure everything out.
Pepper says that not everyone runs on batteries.
Tony frowned, feeling oddly hurt by that.
Ivan is in his cell, a police officer brings him a tray of food. He gets up to grab it. There's a note on it that says 'enjoy the potatoes' Ivan picks up the potatoes and it is revealed to be a bomb. The police officer opens the cell and someone else walks in. Ivan notices that the numbers on their shirts are the same. '6219.'
"Wait so, is he about to bust out of prison?" Sam asked.
Ivan knocks the guy out. The police officer leaves a key for him.
"Wait so the cop is helping him?" Scott asked.
Ivan sticks the bomb on the wall and unlocks the door. He starts walking down the hallway, the police officer tries to stop him. Ivan punches him and twists his neck. The bomb goes off behind him. Ivan runs down the stairs, he gets surrounded by police officers. One of them puts a sack on his head. They throw him in a van.
"Am I the only one who's like super confused right now?" Peter asked.
The door to the van opens and the sack is ripped off his head. They're in a very white room, there is a plane in the background. Justin Hammer is sitting at a table in the middle of the room.
"Okay, not confused anymore." Peter said to himself.
Hammer welcomes him and says to get the handcuffs off of Ivan and apologizes for them. Someone takes the handcuffs off.
he tells Ivan that he's a huge fan and that he didn't want to make his first impression like that. He introduces himself to Ivan and says he'd like to do business with him. He tells Ivan to eat.
"Wait, what exactly does Hammer want from Ivan?" Ned asked.
A waiter walks over. Hammer says that anything Ivan wants they have. he says that he'll have his desert first and that it was flown in from San Francisco but its an Italian dish. He says that its organic ice cream and that he has a sweet tooth. He says that Ivan has a sweet tooth for Tony.
"Um, that sounds weird." Shuri says.
He tells Ivan that his actions toward Tony spoke to him and that he knew that Ivan knew he was listening.
"Huh?"
He says that he couldn't bear to have Ivan shipped off because it would have been a waste of talent. He tells Ivan that he shouldn't have tried to kill Tony, he should have tried to kill Tony's legacy. He says that he has the resources that Ivan needs and that he'd like to be his benefactor.
"Wait, so he's recruiting Ivan to make something for him to essentially kill your legacy?" Steve asked.
Ivan says something in Russian. Hammer asks if he speaks English and he can get a translator if he doesn't, then asks if Ivan has understood everything that he's says.
Ivan says he has. They do a cheers. Ivan says he wants his bird.
Hammer asks if he wants a bird.
"No he wants his bird." Tony corrected.
Ivan says he wants his bird.
Hammer says he can get him 10 birds.
Ivan says he wants his bird.
Hammer asks if he's talking about a bird he has in Russia.
"Where else would it be?" Sam said.
Pepper and Natasha are sitting on the couch, both are talking on the phone. Pepper says that the fundamentals of the company are still strong after Monaco.
Natasha tells Pepper that the AP wants a quote.
Pepper tells her to fax them.
Rhodey enters and asks where Tony is.
"Someone's in trouble." Clint joked.
Natasha says he doesn't want to be disturbed. Pepper says that he's downstairs.
On the TV, a reporter is talking about Tony, she talks about Tony's erratic behavior and asks if he can still protect them.
Pepper says that the events in Monaco proved that Iron Man never stopped protecting them.
"So people are seeing Monaco two different ways, those being you driving and you beating up Ivan Vanko." Bruce said. "On one hand there was a stupid and reckless decision and on the other you stopped Ivan Vanko."
Tony is in his lab, sitting in a car and looking at holograms of different newspapers referring to Ivan and Anton Vanko. JARVIS says that Anton Vanko was a soviet physicist who defected to the US but was suspected of espionage and deported in 1967. JARVIS says that Ivan is also a physicist was convicted for selling weapons grade plutonium to Pakistan. He says that Ivan served 15 years in Kopeisk prison.
"Wow."
Rhodey puts in a code and enters the lab and tells Tony that he needs to go upstairs and handle the situation. He says that he's been on the phone with the national guard trying to stop them from taking the suits. He reminds Tony that he said no one would have the technology for 20 years.
"Technically, I said 5-10 years."
Rhodey says that someone had the tech yesterday and that its no longer theoretical, he then asks if Tony is even listening.
Tony looks at him, Rhodey asks if he's okay. Tony gets out of the car, he starts to fall Rhodey helps him up and asks if he's alright.
Tony says he heeds to get to his desk. Rhodey holds Tony up as they walk to the desk. Tony tells him to get the cigar box and tells Rhodey that it's palladium. Tony collapses into his chair, Rhodey opens the box.
Tony removes the arc reactor, the core ejects. Rhodey asks if its supposed to be smoking.
"No!" Every scientist in the room shouted.
Tony says its neutron damage from the reactor wall. He hands the arc reactor to Rhodey, he takes the core out and says that Tony had this in his body, then asks about the marks on his neck, calling it a high tech crossword puzzle.
"High tech crossword puzzle?" Pepper asked. "That's the best you could do?"
Tony plays it off as being road rash then takes the arc reactor from Rhodey and puts it back in his chest and thanks him and starts drinking something from a water bottle then asks Rhodey what he's looking at.
Rhodey says he's looking at him and tells him that the lone gunslinger act isn't necessary and that he doesn't need to do it a lone.
"You don't." Rhodey said for good measure.
Tony says he wished he could believe him and tells Rhodey to trust him. He says that contrary to popular belief, he knows what he's doing.
"I really don't think you did." Vision said.