After a moment, Obadiah popped open the armor's hatch and slowly climbed out.
"What's wrong with him?" Tony asked, landing right next to Luke and watching Obadiah walk forward in stiff, measured steps. "Did you hypnotize him?"
"I don't have the free time to hypnotize people. Just look closely," Luke said with a smirk.
A gleaming katana was pressed firmly against Obadiah's neck. As the older man took slow, careful steps forward, the blade moved with him in perfect sync. Once Obadiah was completely clear of the Iron Monger, the Shadow Ninja holding him hostage fully materialized from the darkness.
"Your guys really are ghosts," Tony said, lowering his repulsor gauntlets with a relieved sigh.
Luke shrugged. "What can I say? They're just that good. Anyway, what do you want to do with Obadiah?"
"Why don't you leave him to us?" Coulson stepped forward from the sidelines.
"And who are you?" Tony frowned at the men in black suits. "Why should I hand Obadiah over to you?"
Coulson pulled out his badge. "We are agents of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. The young man standing next to you happens to be our Security Consultant."
Tony shot Luke a look. The kid really had mentioned working for some ridiculously long-named agency on the flight back.
But Luke just gave him a subtle wink. "Don't worry, my 'Security Consultant' title is basically just a mercenary gig. I'm not really one of them."
Coulson's expression stiffened at Luke casually pulling the rug out from under him, but he quickly recovered. "In truth, we are a government agency that specializes in handling extraordinary events."
Armed with Luke's reassurance, Tony scoffed. "And here I thought the FBI would be handling this."
Tony glanced at the massive Iron Monger suit standing silently behind Obadiah. "I don't care if you take Obadiah, as long as I never have to look at his face again. But let me guess—you want to take the armor, too?"
"Of course," Coulson smiled, his eyes narrowing slightly.
"Absolutely not," Tony said, his face turning dead serious. "This armor has sustained irreversible structural damage. Moving it carelessly could trigger a massive explosion! I can't let you just haul it away."
Taking two quick steps forward, Tony reached into the suit's chest cavity and yanked out his Arc Reactor. He turned back with a bright, innocent smile. "There. I neutralized the threat. Now you can take the armor. You're welcome."
From a quick glance at its internal structure, Tony already knew the suit was reverse-engineered from the scraps of his original Mark I left in the desert. The technology wasn't actually that advanced. As long as he confiscated the Arc Reactor—the literal heart of the machine—he didn't care what they did with the scrap metal. Without the reactor, he seriously doubted this alphabet agency could even get the suit to boot up.
Coulson and his team, completely unaware of this crucial detail, thought they had struck gold. In their minds, taking the suit and its pilot meant S.H.I.E.L.D. could reverse-engineer the Iron Monger and mass-produce it. They had just witnessed the armor's terrifying combat power; if S.H.I.E.L.D. replicated it, their military strength would skyrocket!
Tony watched the agents call in a flatbed truck to haul away Obadiah and the giant metal carcass, casually tossing his Arc Reactor into a protective case.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
At that moment, Rhodey—who had been watching the spectacle from the sidelines—finally ran over. He stared at Tony's sleek armor in utter disbelief. "Is this the 'car' you were driving around recently?"
Tony flashed a grin and struck a few dramatic poses in the suit. "What do you think? Not a bad ride, right?"
"It's incredible. How much for one of these?" Rhodey asked with a laugh.
"This little suit cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Way more expensive than your shiny F-22s," Tony bragged.
"Damn. Still, the combat capability is undeniable. I might be able to convince the DoD to buy a few," Rhodey mused, nodding. As the military's chief liaison for weapons procurement, his occupational instincts had immediately kicked in.
"No, no, no," Tony quickly shut him down. "Stark Industries has officially shut down its weapons division. We aren't selling weapons anymore!"
"Are you sure about that?" Rhodey frowned. "The brass isn't going to tolerate a non-military corporation holding onto a weapon of mass destruction like this. Besides, if Stark Industries isn't selling weapons, what exactly are you going to sell?"
Tony's expression hardened. "I'm never selling weapons again, and I'm not letting anyone take my suit! If they try, I'll literally move out of the country." He held up the glowing Arc Reactor, the blue light reflecting brightly off Rhodey's face. "As for Stark Industries' next flagship product? I think this is it."
"Not a bad idea," Luke nodded in approval. "As long as you don't start a burger franchise, we're good."
"Hey, I can sell clean energy and cheeseburgers at the same time," Tony shot back with a grin.
Bright and early the next morning, Luke rolled out of bed, stepped through a portal directly into a restroom at Stark Industries, and walked out to find the main press room packed to the brim with reporters. Tony, dressed in a sharp suit, was just stepping up to the podium.
Luke smiled. His timing was perfect. Rather than fighting the crowd for a spot, he simply waved a quick hello to Happy and plopped himself right down in the very front row. Ignoring the bizarre looks from professional photographers armed with massive telephoto lenses, Luke casually pulled out his little digital point-and-shoot camera.
Tony, who had been looking rather bored, immediately perked up when he spotted Luke. Seeing the kid tap his little camera with a smirk, Tony shook his head in fond exasperation and kicked off the press conference.
Tony rambled through his prepared alibi, denying any involvement in the previous night's events. Christine Everhart, the Vanity Fair reporter Tony had slept with a few months ago, raised her hand.
"Excuse me, Mr. Stark. Do you really expect us to believe that two of your bodyguards just happened to appear and stop a rogue Stark Industries robot?"
"I know what you're implying," Tony interrupted. "It's fine to question the official statement, but you shouldn't jump to wild conclusions and accuse me of being some kind of... superhero."
"I never said you were a superhero," Christine smiled sweetly. A ripple of laughter went through the press pool; she had completely trapped him.
Tony blinked, stumbling for a second before trying to recover. "Good. Because that would be ridiculous. Completely outlandish."
He looked down at his notes. "I'm... I'm clearly not superhero material. I have a laundry list of character defects, and I've made a lot of high-profile mistakes."
From the side of the podium, Rhodey leaned in, whispering for him to just stick to the cards. But Tony's eyes drifted to the front row, locking onto Luke.
Luke flashed a grin and raised his camera, ready for the shot.
Tony nodded slightly. He glanced down at the prepared cards one last time, paused, and looked back at Luke. Meeting the kid's expectant gaze, Tony raised his head and looked out at the sea of reporters.
"I am Iron Man."
Click.
Luke captured the historic moment flawlessly, the digital screen showing Tony's unwavering, resolute expression.
The entire room erupted into pandemonium. Dozens of reporters leaped out of their seats, rushing the stage and screaming questions.
Luke chuckled, snapping two more quick photos of the chaos before turning to leave. But over the deafening noise, Christine Everhart shouted another question.
"And what about the other person with you last night?! Was he one of your bodyguards?"
Luke froze, a sudden sense of impending doom washing over him. He snapped his head back to the stage and saw a highly vindictive, wicked smirk spread across Tony's face.
"Oh, definitely not a bodyguard," Tony announced into the microphone. "You could call him my sidekick. He's also a superhero, though I'm afraid I can't reveal his real name. But I'm incredibly proud to introduce him to the world right now—the Lord of the Shadows!"
The media frenzy somehow multiplied, the room basically exploding with flashbulbs and shouting. Tony shot Luke a devastatingly smug wink, then calmly walked off the stage, escorted by his security detail.