Tony rushed all the way to his villa, oblivious to the great shock he had brought to the US Military. The high command immediately ordered an investigation to find which unit had acted outside the prescribed strategy.
Tony wasn't intercepted by fighter jets like in the movies; he had listened to Li Yue's advice to add a radar avoidance system to the suit. Moreover, his radar cross-section was too small, and his speed too high to register on even the most accurate military radars.
The military was flying blind. They only knew that explosions had occurred in the terrorist camp, but they had no way of knowing who or what had attacked the camp since the perpetrator quickly disappeared from their radar. They could only defer to Colonel Rhodes from the US Air Force weapons research department to analyze the kind of weapon this threat was.
As expected of Tony's good friend, Rhodes almost instantly suspected Tony. He felt that only a genius scientist like Tony could develop such an advanced weapon. Thus, he immediately contacted Tony.
Tony received the call in midair and made some random excuses to hang up, but Rhodes' keen ears weren't easily fooled. As an air force personnel, the sound of whistling air signature of the high-speed flight was unmistakable for him. However, Rhodes chose to not expose Tony.
Obadiah saw the footage of Tony's armor on the TV and was immediately attacked by anxiety. If this went on, Tony would discover his secret dealings sooner or later. It would surely end with him behind bars.
Obadiah urgently contacted the terrorists to get the Mark I prototype and blueprints that Tony used to escape from the mountain cave. He brought them to be analyzed and developed at the secret sector 16 of Stark Industries.
Perhaps the plot and fate had a certain level of inertia. Despite Tony killing the bald terrorist leader on his way out of the cave, the plot still developed much from the original movie. Obadiah would still become the Iron Monger.
In fact, everything seemed to be developing much to the same plot as the movie. Obadiah kept on building his armor, and Tony kept on using his own to perform heroic deeds. But would the result be the same as in the movie?
Back when Tony had finished his first anti-terrorist mission, Yinsen had told Li Yue and Tony that he wanted to leave. He had seen the miserable state of Gulmira in the news. He was filled with anger that the hometown where he and his family used to live in was desecrated in such a way. His family was already gone, but the memories of that place remained.
(A/N I don't know if Yinsen was telling the truth in his last words for Tony in the movie or if he lied to ease Tony's conscience. Here, I will write with the assumption that they were gone.)
Thus, Yinsen made his decision to return to his hometown and use his medical skills to help the survivors of the war.
Neither Li Yue nor Tony could shake Yinsen's conviction, so they could only respect and support his decision. Tony sent someone to help him return to Gulmira.
Time does not wait for anything or anyone. Tony eventually found out about his uncle's secret dealings. However, due to the lack of concrete evidence, he sent Pepper to snoop around and find Obadiah's dirt—just like in the original plot. Pepper initially disagreed with the missions, but she eventually caved after Tony expressed his true feelings.
Tony also contacted Li Yue in the hopes that Li Yue could protect Pepper.
"Don't worry, Tony. You know about my power; nobody would be able to touch Pepper as long as I'm here," Li Yue confidently replied. Li Yue had expected this exact development and even looked forward to it. It would be very exciting.
Pepper felt a little helpless when she glanced at Li Yue behind her. She felt that Happy would've been better suited for bodyguard duties. At the very least, Happy was much stronger than Li Yue and could give people a sense of security. Li Yue wasn't exactly thin, but he was different.
But Tony had dispatched Li Yue with good intentions, and Pepper couldn't refuse. She obediently brought Li Yue to the company building, leaving him to stay in the first-floor lobby while she proceeded to Obadiah's office.
The first thing Pepper discovered was Obadiah's secret research in Sector 16. Then she found the video about Tony's kidnapping by the terrorist. She was very shocked to find that Tony's instinct was on-point. Obadiah had not only sold firearms to terrorists, but he was also the one who hired the terrorists to assassinate Tony.
Pepper hurriedly copied all of the information to the USB drive Tony gave him. However, Obadiah suddenly appeared from the door. Pepper was so surprised that she almost shrieked, but she wasn't Tony's assistant just because of her pretty face. She suppressed her feelings and quickly regained calm and collected expression. She also covered the USB attached to the computer with a newspaper in a swift and natural movement.
Obadiah had a suspicion about Pepper, so he sneaked to peek at the computer screen. But Pepper was one step ahead; she had already started the copying process and hid the progress bar under another display. Obadiah couldn't find anything unusual without behaving suspiciously himself, so he could only let Pepper go.
When he saw Pepper half-ran out of the office, his doubt resurfaced. He closed the window that Pepper used to hide the progress bar, only to find a notification that the copying process had already finished. Obadiah could only angrily rub at his hairless bald head.
"I had no time to waste," Obadiah thought as he rushed to his secret research sector 16.
But Obadiah's damned underlings couldn't compare to Tony Stark. Even after so long, they hadn't cracked the secret to the miniaturized Arc reactor.
Obadiah's only option would be to turn his eyes at the reactor on Tony's chest.
At the same time, Li Yue was rather depressed to find that he was being targeted. And by SHIELD's premier secret agent, agent Coulson, no less.
Coulson had followed behind Pepper and stole glances at Li Yue ever since they left the Stark Industries complex. Coulson's movements were professional and secretive, but nothing escaped Li Yue's sixth sense.
This new information gave Li Yue a massive headache. From Coulson's attitude, the agent and, by extension, SHIELD seemed to be already aware of Li Yue. Li Yue didn't want to think about this right now, but he was curious about when and how they had noticed him.
This was not Li Yue's fault. How could he have thought that he would be targeted on the second day he came to this world? He also felt that he had very strict secrecy protocols; he almost never revealed his power in front of others.
Only Tony and Yinsen knew his abilities, and they would never betray Li Yue's trust. Li Yue finally gave up thinking about this matter. The group had targeted him already, so there was no point in overthinking the spilled milk. He had thought about an ironclad excuse anyway.
When Coulson heard what Pepper had to say about Obadiah, he immediately called for agents to gather on him, ready to capture Obadiah in sector 16. pepper also called Tony, but as Li Yue expected, Tony didn't pick up the phone. Instead, Obadiah's voice came from Pepper's phone.
Pepper immediately realized that the situation was not good. She immediately called Rhodes, Tony's good friend, to check on Tony in the villa.
Li Yue couldn't help but feel a little helpless. How long had it been since they left the Stark Industries building? And Pepper had only remembered to call Tony.
Obadiah moved incredibly fast. In the time between Pepper and Li Yue going between the Stark Industries building to the Stark research complex, Obadiah had gone to sector 16 and then went to Tony's villa. He even knocked Tony down already.
Rhodes was on his way to Tony's villa. With the help of little Dummy, Tony took his first miniature Arc reactor that he made in the mountain and installed it on his chest, saving his life.
"The final battle is coming," Li Yue thought.