"Hehe! Without me, you'd be getting chased by fighter jets again!" Rhodey grinned smugly at Tony.
"Yeah, yeah! Thanks, man!" Tony raised his glass in a toast.
"You're welcome!" Rhodey responded with satisfaction, downing his drink in one gulp.
"Tony, weren't you even a little afraid you'd fall to your death?" Banner asked curiously.
Tony shrugged. "Didn't have much of a choice, did I? It was a gamble—but trust me, I did calculate it!"
[Tony and Obadiah ascended higher and higher into the sky. Jarvis's voice reported, "Energy levels at 13%." Still, Tony continued climbing.]
[As they climbed, Iron Monger's armor was already coated in frost, though Obadiah hadn't noticed yet.]
["Energy levels at 7%!" The warning became more frequent, even causing the old reactor to flicker.]
["Display status on screen—mute voice alerts!" Tony commanded, prioritizing power conservation.]
[As energy dwindled and Tony's flight slowed, Iron Monger caught up and grabbed onto his leg.]
[Obadiah clamped his fingers around Tony's neck, sneering, "You had a good idea, Tony! But my suit is superior in every way!"]
[But Tony remained calm. "Tell me something—how'd you solve the freezing problem?"]
[Obadiah's grin faltered. "Freezing… problem?" His eyes darted to his suit's HUD, only to find the screens had gone dark. His entire system was unresponsive.]
["Here, let me help you check it out!" Tony quipped, freeing one arm and punching Obadiah's helmet hard.]
[Iron Monger spiraled downward like a kite with a snapped string.]
[Tony watched him plummet when suddenly, Jarvis's voice warned: "2% energy remaining."]
[Then Tony's own suit lost power, and he too began free-falling.]
["Engage emergency backup power!"]
[For several agonizing seconds, Tony plunged uncontrollably. Finally, he reignited his thrusters, stabilizing himself just enough to slow his descent. With calculated boosts and free-falls, he managed to land on the roof of Stark Tower.]
[As soon as he touched down, he contacted Pepper.]
[Hearing his voice, she immediately shouted, "Tony! Oh my god! Are you okay?!"]
["I'm almost out of power! I need to take this thing off—I'll be down in a minute!"]
[Before Tony could finish speaking, Iron Monger suddenly appeared behind him.]
[He had survived the fall.]
[Tony barely had time to react as Obadiah smirked, "Well done, Tony."]
[Quickly, Tony snapped his helmet shut just as Obadiah swung a punch. He dodged, raising his arm to fire a repulsor blast, but—nothing happened.]
[He had just removed the armor plating from his left hand. His palm was completely exposed.]
[Before he could react, Obadiah's fist connected. Tony spun mid-air, crashing dangerously close to the edge of Stark Tower.]
[Tony barely regained his footing before launching a desperate counterattack. He struck Obadiah with full force—but the blow barely dented the Iron Monger suit.]
[Instead, Obadiah seized him by the waist and began to crush him in a bone-crushing grip. One by one, Tony's weapons systems failed under the immense pressure.]
["Flares!!!" Tony shouted.]
[Instantly, his suit deployed high-heat flares. The intense burst of heat momentarily disoriented Obadiah, forcing him to release his grip.]
[Obadiah staggered back, screaming in pain, as Iron Monger's systems flickered from the interference.]
[By the time he recovered, Tony had vanished. "Smart move, Tony!"]
[Tony crouched behind a pillar, breathing heavily as he whispered to Pepper through the comms. "This isn't working. We have to overload the reactor and blow the roof off!"]
[Pepper's voice crackled in response. "And how exactly do you plan to do that?"]
["You're going to do it. Head to the central control console and activate all circuits! Once I'm off the roof, hit the main circuit button. That'll cause a power surge, frying everything!"]
"Wow! That's kinda similar to how I defeated Max shown in the screen!" 2nd Gen Spider-Man said, thinking back to his battle with Electro.
"There's a slight difference," Gwen noted. "Tony is using an explosion to take out Obadiah. You just channeled all the energy into Max. The execution is different, but the concept is similar."
"Yeah, yeah—I know! I'm just saying the method is kinda close!" 2nd Gen Spider-Man nodded.
[Pepper cautiously stepped into the Arc Reactor control room. The glass doors were shattered beyond recognition.]
["Alright, I'm here!"]
["Good. Don't press anything until I'm clear of the roof! I need to hold him off a little longer."]
[Tony lunged at Iron Monger from behind, scanning for a weak point in his armor.]
["Go to hell!!!"]
[He grabbed a critical power cable at the neck of the Iron Monger suit and yanked it out with all his strength.]
[Obadiah's vision systems instantly failed. His screens went completely black.]
[Blinded, he thrashed wildly, trying to locate Tony, but his movements became erratic.]
[Still, Obadiah managed to grab him and hurled him onto the glass roof of the control room.]
[Emerging from the Iron Monger cockpit, Obadiah glared at Tony and chuckled. "I've never been a fan of this tech stuff—but I have to admit…"]
["I love your armor."]
[He reached down and ripped Tony's helmet off.]
[Then, with crushing force, he crushed the mask into scrap metal.]
[Tony, gasping for breath, barely lifted his head to see Obadiah sneering down at him.]
["You've finally surpassed yourself, Tony! Your father would be proud."]
[Tony struggled to one knee, while below, Pepper finished setting up the overload sequence.]
["Tony! It's ready! Get off the roof!"]
[Obadiah leveled the machine gun on his arm at Tony.]
[Tony instinctively deployed a small energy shield to block the incoming rounds. But the coverage was too small—bullets tore through the air, grazing his suit.]
[Realizing the shield was too risky, Tony later upgraded it to a larger defense mechanism.]
[Suddenly, the glass beneath Tony cracked under the pressure.]
[With a deafening shatter, Tony began plummeting through the collapsing structure—barely grabbing onto the railing in time.]
[Pepper, watching from below, let out a terrified scream, covering her head as shards of glass rained down.]
...
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