Chapter 37: The Battle of the Vacancy

Obadiah felt the subtle vibrations transmitted through the armor's exquisite drive system, along with the external environment displayed on the cabin monitors.

For the first time, he experienced what superhuman strength truly was. The custom armor tore through the restraints that had not yet been uninstalled, ripping apart the steel junctions with brute force and breaking free from its mount.

At that moment, Coulson finally opened the heavy door that Obadiah had locked with his clearance credentials, and they finally stepped into the subterranean laboratory.

Yet, there was no sign of Obadiah.

"Ms. Potts, it seems his secret weapon has not been activated yet. It sounds quite quiet in here."

"I hope so, Mr. Coulson, but we still haven't seen Obadiah..."

"Leave the rest to us, Ms. Potts. You should head back from here—"

Bang!

Before Coulson could finish telling Pepper to evacuate, a deafening explosion interrupted their conversation. A massive sound of buckling metal reverberated throughout the underground laboratory. Upon catching sight of the terrifying and ferocious silhouette of the Iron Monger, the agents brought by Coulson immediately opened fire while scrambling for cover.

However, those pistol bullets were no different than sugar cubes against the thick armor of the Iron Monger, failing to leave even a single scratch.

Without a shred of mercy, the Iron Monger swept its arm and instantly batted away one of the agents. The sheer force nearly snapped his body in half as he collapsed limply to the side.

"Damn it, Ms. Potts, fall back!"

While shouting, Coulson fired at the Iron Monger, attempting to draw its attention, but Obadiah seemed entirely uninterested in these S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.

fueled by adrenaline, Obadiah felt an unprecedented surge of excitement. This war machine seemed to grant him the illusion of youth restored.

"Pepper Potts!"

He shouted her full name, sounding like a deranged psychopath as he charged toward her, amplified by the Iron Monger's slightly distorted loudspeaker system.

Even though Pepper was close to the heavy door, catching up to her was an effortless task. Those iron boots smashed through the floorboards, every movement emitting a deathly, heavy thud.

Pepper screamed as she sprinted toward the exit, but the massive frame of the Iron Monger became wedged between the doorframe and the concrete. Obadiah watched with irritation as Pepper escaped. At that critical juncture, Stark Industries' robust security protocols actually proved effective.

By blocking the Iron Monger, the barriers allowed Pepper to flee all the way out of Stark Tower.

Just as she thought she had successfully escaped and let out a sigh of relief, Pepper noticed the nearby concrete ground suddenly fracture open. The Iron Monger clawed its way out from beneath, its indigo optical sensors staring at her coldly.

"Where do you think you're going, Pepper Potts? I still have to send you to reunite with Tony Stark!"

"Tony? What did you do to Tony!"

"That punk simply crossed the line too many times. I sent him to reunite with Howard, and now I'm sending you to join Tony Stark!"

Obadiah's voice was clearly fraught with emotion; he despised both Tony and Pepper, and the rotary cannon in the armor's grasp was already spooling up.

The armor's targeting system had locked onto Pepper. No matter how she ran, it was impossible for her to evade Obadiah Stane's attack.

Once the rotary cannon on the Iron Monger's wrist opened fire, Pepper would instantly be reduced to a bloody mist, vanishing from the world.

"Obadiah, have you lost your mind? You know how important you are in Tony's eyes!"

"Me? He merely squandered my patience with reckless abandon. I built this company from the ground up, and Tony Stark is nothing more than a parasite reaping the rewards!"

Clearly, Pepper could not comprehend why Obadiah would harbor the thought of assassinating Tony, nor could she understand why he was acting so hysterically now.

Yet, people consumed by greed always share the same unreasonable demeanor; some simply manage to conceal it better.

Pepper stared at Obadiah's minigun and ultimately closed her eyes, resigning herself to her fate.

However, seconds later, the event she imagined did not occur. Pepper Potts did not turn into red dust; she was still standing safely right where she was.

The sensation of surviving a catastrophe quickly drained her strength. Panting heavily, her legs buckled beneath her, causing her to collapse to the ground. Then, she saw the Iron Monger armor continuously retreating, as if being pummeled by an invisible heavy object.

A series of sonic booms echoed continuously off the metal armor. Pepper rubbed her eyes, sensing that something was trading blows with the Iron Monger, except she could not see it.

"Ms. Potts! Get up, I'll take you somewhere safe."

Coulson rushed over right on cue. Obadiah, consumed entirely by rage upon seeing Pepper, had completely ignored him. Aside from the initial agent who had taken the brunt of the attack, the rest of the agents sustained no severe injuries.

Pulling the limp and exhausted Pepper to her feet, Coulson and a few agents in black escorted her away.

"Obadiah seems to be held up by someone. Let's fall back!"

"What about Tony?"

"We've dispatched a strike team to rescue Tony Stark. You don't need to worry too much about that, Ms. Potts."

As Coulson escorted Pepper to safety, Obadiah's face inside the cockpit was flushed red with fury. He completely failed to spot his opponent's silhouette, enduring what felt entirely like a one-sided beating.

The external armor of the Iron Monger had suffered extensive indentations, its pockmarked surface signaling that the machine could not withstand passive pummeling forever.

"Damn it! Why can't I see him!"

After roaring for a moment, Obadiah remembered that the Iron Monger was specially equipped with multiple imaging systems to handle various battlefield conditions. Upon switching modes, he finally caught sight of Jessica's figure.

"I finally caught you!"

The Iron Monger proved far more agile than its bulky frame suggested. Its massive arms clenched into fists, and the propulsion system, powered by the Arc Reactor, instantly unleashed immense power.

That motorized iron fist struck Jessica with pinpoint accuracy. The ground fractured accordingly, and Stark Industries' R&D laboratory collapsed once more, opening a massive sinkhole through which both figures plummeted.

However, the Prototype Guyver's auxiliary unit quickly allowed Jessica to adjust her posture and land steadily. In contrast, the artificial intelligence of Obadiah's Iron Monger was nowhere near as sophisticated as JARVIS.

It struggled immensely to cope with such a complex combat scenario, and the bulky machine had to fire its thrusters multiple times in mid-air before awkwardly regaining its footing on the ground.

"Who are you! And what on earth is that? Is that one of Tony's new weapons?"

"Hmm, is my time running out?" Jessica asked somewhat absentmindedly, while seemingly inspecting something on her body.

"Time? Are you kidding me, you freak!" Guided by the auxiliary targeting system, Obadiah locked onto Jessica, yet the opponent appeared entirely unphased by the Iron Monger's large-caliber Gatling gun capable of piercing armored vehicles.

The Iron Monger's Gatling gun spat tongues of fire. The deafening roar of the revolving motor and the discharge of ammunition filled the air as a stream of large-caliber armor-piercing tracer rounds converged and blasted toward Jessica.

However, no matter how formidable the firepower, it had to hit its target.

Clearly, Obadiah's auxiliary targeting could not allow the Iron Monger to match the speed of the Prototype Guyver. Since Obadiah was no warrior, he relied entirely on the computer assistance.

As a result, his bullets could never catch up to Jessica's movements, trailing perpetually behind her motion.

Realizing that his minigun could not land a hit, Obadiah maintained his barrage while quickly deploying a micro-missile launcher from his back, attempting to obliterate Jessica with it.

Yet, the moment the missile emerged, the metal ridge on the forehead of Jessica's Guyver armor swiftly fired a high-energy laser, instantly neutralizing Obadiah's miniature rocket.

"You don't seem particularly capable in a fight. I wonder why the Doctor told me to be extra cautious."

The Prototype Guyver worn by Jessica clearly eclipsed the Iron Monger in combat prowess. To Jessica, this clumsy machine seemed hardly more formidable than the Zoanoids Lynn had assigned her to spar against...

"How dare you say that, you damned scientists! Aaaaaah!" Owing to his resentment toward Tony, Obadiah harbored a bizarre aversion to scientists. Just at that moment, the Iron Monger also ran out of Gatling ammunition.

The entire Stark engineering laboratory was now unrecognizable. Ignoring the fact that the Iron Monger was currently out of ammo, he opted to suppress Jessica using raw physical force.

Abandoning the ranged attacks that continuously missed, he charged directly toward Jessica.

Yet, in close-quarters combat, a battle machine that had not broken free from mortal design paradigms still posed no threat whatsoever.

The indigo high-frequency blades extended from Jessica's forearms. Crouching slightly, she effortlessly sidestepped the Iron Monger's attack, after which the high-frequency blade sliced casually through the armor on the Iron Monger's leg.

The next second, the unrefined alloy of the Iron Monger was effortlessly cleaved open, and the massive frame lost its balance without a shred of suspense, toppling heavily to one side.

Obadiah attempted to regain control of his Iron Monger to turn the tide.

However, Jessica had no intention of giving him a chance to recover—especially since he was unqualified both as a warrior and as a technician.

Jessica's next strike severed the drive system in his arm. Deprived of external transmission assistance, the Iron Monger instantly lost power.

One of its arms hung completely limp and immobile like scrap metal.

"Damn it, damn it! These incompetent fools, why does this machine have so many problems!"

Jessica paid no attention to whatever Obadiah was muttering. Beneath the bio-boosted armor, she smiled brightly—not only because she had flawlessly fulfilled Lynn's instructions, but also because the gear Lynn had given her vastly outclassed this oversized brute.

It was much like a little girl receiving a cherished doll.

Only, the doll Jessica received was of a rather different variety.

Leaning down slightly, Jessica twisted and pried at the Iron Monger's chestplate, smoothly extracting the Arc Reactor.

By this point, the Iron Monger armor had turned into a prison. The connection between the drive system and the Arc Reactor had been completely severed, rendering an armor lacking a multi-directional power supply remarkably easy to neutralize.

"I thought it would be harder. Thanks, old man."

With that, Jessica leaped down from the Iron Monger, tapping its outer shell and producing a crisp, metallic ringing sound.

"This laboratory looks like it's about to collapse, but this hunk of metal of yours seems sturdy enough, so you should be fine. The Doctor specifically instructed me to try not to kill you, so I'll be off. Bye-bye."

Having spoken, Jessica departed Stark Industries, taking the Arc Reactor with her.

When the dust settled, Coulson finally led the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents back into Stark Industries. After securing Pepper, he had turned back to search for Obadiah.

After all, something had clearly been fighting Obadiah earlier, and he needed to return and investigate the cause.

This time, however, S.H.I.E.L.D. came fully prepared. The reinforcing agents carried pulse weapons capable of emitting powerful electromagnetic interference; a direct hit would temporarily paralyze the Iron Monger's drive system.

Though Coulson felt a hint of suspicion regarding S.H.I.E.L.D.'s possession of such gear, mission priority took precedence, and he quickly accepted that S.H.I.E.L.D. indeed had contingency plans concerning Tony Stark.

The laboratory was engulfed in roaring flames, though well-equipped with fire suppression measures. As the agents advanced while extinguishing the fire, they finally located the Iron Monger pinned beneath a tangle of steel rebar.

The armor was radiating intense heat, causing Coulson to wonder whether Obadiah inside was even still alive.

After nearly half an hour of clearing debris, Coulson and his team finally cleared away the surrounding wreckage and excavated Obadiah.

Revealing cross-sections that were unnaturally and impeccably smooth.

---

After some time, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were figuring out how to extract Obadiah from the Iron Monger—dead or alive. Meanwhile, Pepper Potts sat wrapped in a blanket near the entrance of Stark Industries, surrounded by bustling S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.

"What happened to Obadiah?"

"We are currently cutting through the Iron Monger, but our agents detected life signs inside using scanners, so I imagine he isn't dead."

"It's ridiculous. Both Tony and I genuinely believed Obadiah Stane would never do something like this."

Coulson remained silent on the matter. Privately, he suspected Tony Stark had likely deduced that Obadiah was behind these events all along, merely refusing to acknowledge it. Yet, he saw no reason to fabricate falsehoods at this moment, so he steered the conversation elsewhere.

"Ms. Potts, perhaps you should contact Mr. Stark and let him know what happened here."

"Right, Tony might still be tinkering with his suits down in his basement at a time like this. I need to tell him about all this..."

The call went through, and Tony's voice came over the line.

"I'm fine. What do you mean you've arrived? Where are you? Look up at the sky?"

Pepper raised her gaze and saw Tony descending before her in his armor. The faceplate retracted, revealing his expression, which still lingered with lingering dread.

"Goodness, thank you for being safe, Pepper."

Speaking thusly, he stepped toward Pepper and pulled her into an embrace—the woman who mattered most to him now.

"Tony? Why are you here?"

"What about Obadiah?"

"About your uncle... I suppose it's a long story."

Coulson had sensibly stepped aside by then, leaving Tony and Pepper to speak. As Pepper recounted her harrowing encounter, he was relieved that Tony was unharmed, and Obadiah's fit of madness had ultimately failed to bring about the worst-case scenario for either of them.

"Tony, what about you? You said you ran into some trouble, you're not hurt, right?"

"Uh, regarding that..."

"Mr. Stark, if you require a brief debriefing, I have already compiled one to help Ms. Potts quickly process the current situation."

"Shut up, JARVIS, I'll explain it myself."