Pepper turned around when she heard the rumbling. The asphalt broke, and Obadiah came out of the parking lot in his suit. "Where do you think you're going?" he growled. Pepper screamed. He pulled himself out of the hole and started his weapons up. "Your services are no longer required," he said.
Just then, Tony came zooming in. "Hey!" he yelled as he plowed into Obadiah, knocking him back away from her.
They ended up crashing on the highway, causing a car crash in the process. Obadiah was the first to recover, grabbing a SUV with a mother and her children inside. Tony could hear them screaming. "I love this suit!" "Put them down," Tony ordered. "Collateral damage, Tony," Obadiah said. The repulsors in his hands went down as he told Jarvis, "All power to the chest piece."
The chest piece fired, forcing Obadiah to drop the car as he slammed into another car. Tony caught the SUV, with great effort. "Power reduced to 19%," Jarvis informed him. He groaned and fell to one knee, managing to put the car down. Unfortunately, the freaked out mother had hit the gas and was starting to drive…with Tony still attached to the front. "Lady!" he yelled. He slid under the car and held on a bit, before he could lift the rear up and get out from underneath.
Obadiah came charging at him and grabbed a passing motorcycle to swing at him. Tony flew into a nearby bus. He came and lifted Tony above his head. "Twenty years I've been holding you up," he growled as he threw him to the ground and stomped on him. "I built this company from nothing! Nothing's going to stand in my way." He threw Tony into the bus, crushing it. "Least of all, you!" He fired a missile into the bus.
Tony was thrown up into the air by the explosion. He caught himself with his repulsors just before he hit the ground. "Impressive!" Obadiah laughed. "You've made some upgrades to your armor! I've made some upgrades of my own!" Obadiah started off the ground with crude rockets.
"Sir, it appears that this suit can fly," Jarvis stated. "Duly noted," Tony said, slightly in shock. "Take me to maximum altitude. "With only 15% power, the odds of reaching that are…" "I know the math!" Tony yelled. "Do it!" Tony soared upward, followed by slow but steady Obadiah.
"Sir, I can't believe this, but it's back," a soldier said. "Get me Major Allen," the current commander said. "Scramble the jets!" A soldier picked up the phone and started dialing. He was stopped by Rhodey. "Not necessary people," he announced. "Just a training exercise." The soldier nodded hesitantly and put the phone down.
Tony soared higher, followed by Obadiah's much cruder rockets. "Thirteen percent power, sir," Jarvis informed him. "Climb!" Tony yelled. "Eleven percent," Jarvis said a moment later. "Keep going!" The arc reactor started flickering. "Seven percent power," Jarvis said shakily. "Just leave it on the screen and stop telling me!" Tony ordered.
Tony could see Obadiah's suit beginning to ice up. Obadiah grabbed is ankle and pulled. He grabbed him around the neck and began to choke him. "You had a great idea, Tony, but my suit is more advanced in every way!" Obadiah mocked. Tony tilted his head slightly. "How'd you solve the icing problem?" "Icing problem?" Obadiah repeated as his suit went dark. "Might want to look into it," Tony said, hitting him on the head as he fell.
Tony hovered there for a moment, watching him fall, until Jarvis said quietly, "Two percent." Tony went down. He fell and stopped, then fell and stopped. "We are now running on emergency backup power," Jarvis informed him. He landed on the Stark Industries building.
"Potts," he said. "Tony!" Pepper yelled through her earpiece. "Oh my God, are…are you okay?" "I'm almost out of power, I've got to get out of this thing," he told her as he pulled off one of the gloves. "I'll be right there. We have to find Bee." Just then, Obadiah landed behind him and punched at him. Tony ducked, then tried to fire a repulsor at him…with his bare hand. He looked at it. "Oops," he said as Obadiah sent him flying.
He ran at Obadiah, jumping and punching him in the face. Obadiah caught him and grabbed the back of his suit, starting to rip it apart. "What's the status?" Tony asked Jarvis. "Pressure has been breached," Jarvis said. Obadiah cackled as he listened to Tony's cries. "Flares!" Tony choked out. Obadiah dropped Tony as he was shaken by the flares and blinded by the smoke. "Very clever, Tony," Obadiah said. He began looking around for the billionaire.
Tony connected with Pepper again. "Potts," he said quietly. "Tony!" she exclaimed. "This isn't working, we're going to have to overload the reactor and blast the roof," he whispered. "Well, how are you going to do that?" Pepper asked. "You're gonna do it," Tony said. "Go to the central console, open up all the circuits, when I've give you the all clear you're going to hit the master bypass button. It's gonna fry everything up here. Make sure Bee's not in there."
"Okay," Pepper said shakily. "I'm going in now." "Make sure you wait until I clear the roof," Tony said. "I'll buy you some time."
Pepper began pulling down the levers, opening all the circuits. She looked around. Biela wasn't in the room. She quickly dashed down to Sector Sixteen and saw the agents. They'd found her, and were currently untying her. "You've got to get out now!" she yelled to them. "We're about to blow up this whole building!" The agents looked up at that, and instead of untying her, Agent Coulson and another agent just picked up the chair and ran. "Don't let Obadiah see her!" Pepper warned.
Tony jumped on Obadiah's back. "Oh, there you are," the older man growled. "This looks important!" Tony said, yanking a mass of machinery out of Obadiah's suit. The eyes went dark. He'd cut the optical connection. Obadiah grabbed him and threw him off, taking of his helmet and sending him skidding over the skylight in the center of the roof. He could see Pepper flipping switches, almost done, while the agents were evacuating on the other side of the room. Two of them were carrying Biela. Tony breathed a sigh of relief. She was okay. His daughter was okay.
Obadiah's suit opened up, revealing the man himself. "I never had a taste for this sort of thing!" he yelled. "But I must admit, I'm deeply enjoying the suit!" he said as he crushed Tony's helmet and threw it to him. Tony looked up shakily. "You finally outdid yourself, Tony," Obadiah yelled, stomping ever closer. "It would've made your father proud!"
Tony rose shakily to his feet. "It's ready, Tony!" Pepper called. "Get off the roof!" Obadiah began firing a machine gun at him. He opened up part of his suit as a shield for his face, but that didn't stop the glass he was standing on from breaking, causing him to fall in. He could hear Pepper's screams below. Obadiah raised his machine gun and began firing again, but this time he was aiming at the glass around Tony. There was no place Tony could climb up on. He could hear Pepper screaming again. "Tony!" she yelled.
"How ironic, Tony!" Obadiah mocked. "In trying to rid the world of weapons, you gave it its best one ever!" "Pepper!" Tony yelled. "And now," Obadiah said, "I'm gonna kill you with it." Obadiah fired a missile at him. It missed. "You ripped out my targeting system," Obadiah said. "Time to hit the button!" Tony yelled down to Pepper. "You told me not to!" Pepper yelled back.
"Hold still, you little prick," Obadiah demanded. He shot another missile. It went a bit too far. "Just do it!" Tony yelled. "You'll die!" Pepper yelled back. "Push it!" Tony yelled. Pepper pushed the emergency master bypass button and began running out, her arms over her face. The power surge went up through the reactor and launched Tony away from the skylight. Obadiah caught the full blast, as it traveled through him and into the skies above in a blaze of light and thunder.
Obadiah screamed as he was electrocuted. He fell off the building and into the reactor, causing one of the most massive explosions Tony had ever seen. He rolled away from the skylight to avoid being hit.
He lay on the roof, barely alive, the reactor trying weakly to turn back on. "Tony!" Pepper yelled. "Tony!" Biela added her voice to the fray. The reactor flickered off.