"...Tony refuses to see me now, I know he must be very disappointed, but I hope you can tell him, the Air Force is not satisfied with the technology he's given them, they want more... my superior, General Johnson, has hinted that they want to join forces with the Army to press the Stark Group..."
"Or maybe they have more conspiracies."
Rhodes said on the phone, and Shiller asked him, "Are you being pushed out of the power center of this circle? Why? Because you wavered?"
Rhodes was silent for a while before saying, "No, General Johnson has never trusted me because I used to work under Old General Andro, and their relationship is very bad."
"So he pushed you out, didn't he?"
Shiller sighed and said, "What will you do if you can't withstand the pressure there?"
Before Rhodes could speak, Shiller said, "Tony is not seeing you now, not because of issues related to the Air Force, but because there are some problems within the Stark Group. He needs time to regroup and hasn't left the house for several days."
Rhodes, whose tone had remained constant, serious and rigid, said, "We all know that the Stark Group is not monolithic, there must be someone in cahoots with the military, and this person must be a higher-up."
He continued, "The military's grasp of Stark Group's technical information is too fast and too detailed, this is abnormal, although I temporarily do not know more information, but I do not want Tony to be betrayed."
"You want me to tell him this? But perhaps you haven't thought that he may have known long ago, the reason for the delay until now..."
"I know, he's too soft-hearted, or he wouldn't have compromised with the military because of me, but this situation is too serious, if he continues to be indecisive, a big problem will definitely occur..."
Just as he was speaking, Shiller heard a noise, he turned his head, seeing two shooting stars across the window, followed by two dazzling lights, piercing through the middle of the sky, a deafening explosion sounded at the end of the sky, combined with two intertwining lights falling, Shiller said into the phone ... "A big problem has already occurred."
Shiller hung up the phone, transformed into a gray mist, traversed the streets of Manhattan, chasing the falling lights until he reached a dilapidated warehouse on the West Side of New York.
This landing spot must have been chosen by Stark, because it is an abandoned urban area; only by falling here can ordinary people be unharmed.
Shiller slowly coalesced, even before he could get inside, his phone rang again. Rhodes, on the other side of the line, anxiously said, "Send me a satellite location, I'm coming over now, Tony may need my help!"
Shiller grabbed his phone while teleported to the roof of the warehouse and looked down.
There, Iron Man, in his golden-red armor, was entwined with a giant robot.
The robot wasn't the Iron Monger.
Its body was a shiny black, with gold accents at some joints. It was larger than the Iron Monger, but more ferocious.
Shiller said into the phone, "There's been a change in plans, you'd better get here quickly."
The battle below was intense. Iron Man was not losing against the giant robot, but during the fall, he had to guide the robot into an uninhabited area, causing him to land awkwardly, causing some loss of flexibility in his one side of the armor.
This wasn't like his usual mechanized combat, fighting thugs while rescuing people. Even with the assistance of the intelligent Jarvis system, Iron Man was struggling to face this foe. It was evident that the robot was built to counter him.
Iron Man flew into the air, made a low diving tackle at the robot's waist, and rammed it into a wall. After a violent impact, a huge chunk of the roof collapsed on the two of them.
Iron Man was in even worse shape, his shoulder armor had suffered some damage and he could barely lift his arm.
But the big guy wasn't doing well either; it had been thrown off balance by the intense tackle and then shocked by electricity. Its cockpit was blown open revealing a lack of pilot, someone must be controlling it remotely.
After discovering this, Iron Man schemed a way to deal with it. He pretended to lose control of the armor, crawled out from the fallen steel frame of the roof, and feigned defeat on the ground.
The large robot also struggled out of the steel frame. Seeing Iron Man already down, it grabbed a steel rod, aiming to thrust it into Iron Man's chest.
As the robot was bending over to exert force, Iron Man explosively rose from the ground, delivering a swift kick to the robot's knee, followed by an elbow strike to the head of the robot.
The upper body of the large robot was so bulky that despite its strength, it was unavoidably unsteady on its feet. After receiving a solid hit from Iron Man, it wobbled and fell to one side.
Just as Iron Man was about to defeat it with his shock and impact combination, the large robot began to emit smoke, Jarvis started to sound frantic alarms, and Iron Man quickly retreated, but he was a step too slow.
An intense explosion erupted in the warehouse, sending a massive mushroom cloud billowing into the sky. The blasting sound could be heard several blocks away. The robot had self-destructed.
Obviously, the creator of this robot had a reason for making its upper body so large.
There was a large bomb inside with ample power.
When Shiller pulled Stark out of the armor, he was covered in blood, with at least three broken ribs. It seemed his ankle and arm were also fractured.
Tony Stark may well have a highly developed brain, but his limbs were clearly much worse off.
Tony struggled to lift his arm, wiped the blood from his eyes, and saw Shiller. He breathed a sigh of relief and told him, "In my pocket… a phone… Jarvis can call another Iron Man. Go check if there are any people around… The explosion was too big…"
Apparently, his head had also taken a hit. Shiller lifted his eyelids to check; his eyes were heavily bloodshot. He took out a small bottle of medicine and poured out a pill for Tony to swallow.
The high-dose painkiller worked well. Soon after, Tony said, "That guy was after me. He has strong control over my armor and could even anticipate my movements. I still can't believe…"
"Can't believe what? Can't believe that the person who understands you the most might have betrayed you? If you spent your time building more armors instead, you would have won with one punch per man."
"I know, I shouldn't avoid reality by hiding in the lab, but I just wanted to process this. You can't expect me to be as emotionless as a zombie."
The look on Tony's face now was extremely negative; his face was full of despair and loss.
Tony coughed heavily. A drop of blood trickled down the corner of his mouth. The impact had apparently affected his respiratory tract too. The euphoria that the heavy-dose painkillers brought welled up in him. Hypnotized, he muttered,
"I knew his friend wasn't a good guy, just as messed up as him, I initially thought..."
"No, perhaps he was right. Trusting Stark always leads to disappointment…"
Shiller laid Tony's head flat and felt his pulse. His heart rate was somewhat low. Shiller intended to take Tony away directly, but Tony wouldn't budge, as if he were drunk.
It was clear that he didn't have much desire to live.
Thus, Shiller could only sit cross-legged next to him. Nearby, the wreckage of the Iron Man armor lay on the ground, and the explosion crater caused by the self-destructing robot was still smoking in the distance. The entire warehouse was blown to pieces, filled with steel bars and pieces of cement everywhere. It all looked like a scene from the apocalypse.
Shiller asked Tony, "Obadiah was more like a father to you than Howard, wasn't he?"
Tony didn't answer. He looked as if he had fallen asleep. After a while, he slowly said, "When I made my first robot, Uncle Obadiah was very happy. He said I was a genius, just like my father."
"I always heard my father's name from him. He described him as a flawless man: smart, upright, steadfast…and right."
"In my previous memories, whenever he mentioned the name Howard, he was always approving and reminiscing."
"But later, I really started to hate hearing that name, so he never mentioned it again…"
Tony's voice was very hoarse. Taking short breaths, he said:
"I saw a picture of them, right on his desk. They were both very young then and full of vigor…"
"Maybe just like you and Rhodes." Shiller said.
"No, it's not the same. Not at all."
"I am nothing like Howard, and Rhodes would never be like Obadiah. Rhodes and I, we're complete opposites. We would never be copies of them. Never…"
After that, Tony fell silent, and the effects of the painkiller put him into a deep sleep.
When Rhodes arrived, he punched the wreckage of the armor out of anger when he saw Tony's severe injuries. Shiller told him, "Right now, as compared to his physical injuries, I think his mental state is a bigger issue."
"Aren't you a psychiatrist? Can't you counsel him or something?"
"Yes, I'm a psychiatrist, but I'm not God. Clearly, he has reached a dead end now. He thinks everything that happens now is a retribution for his karma, his father's karma, and the Stark Group's karma."
"He wants to give it all up?"
"That you'd have to ask him. He once said he would never back down for his family, but it seems now he really wants to let go."
Rhodes glanced back at Tony lying on the ground and said, "If he had a price to pay, it might be the price for his extraordinary intelligence and his sensitive heart."
"He said you two are completely opposite." Shiller said, "He has an armor, what about you?"
"Do you have a determined heart?"
Rhodes turned back to look at the scrapped armor before him, without saying a word.