Obadiah's anger simmered as he watched the news, his jaw clenched. But rather than let it consume him, he took a deep breath, forcing himself to remain calm. His mind worked quickly, calculating his next move.
"Sooner or later, that little piece of armor... I'll get my hands on it," he mumbled under his breath, his tone full of coldness and certainty.
A slow, twisted smile crept onto his face. "After all, I'm your father figure, Tony," Obadiah chuckled darkly, confident that the day would come when Tony, willingly or not, would hand over his Iron Man suit. For now, all he had to do was wait for the right moment.
On the other hand, Tony returned home after decimating an entire battalion of terrorists armed with weapons, tanks, and even his own creations of mass destruction. As he stepped into his workshop, still in disbelief over what had just happened, he looked down at his hands—specifically at the dragon-maw-shaped gauntlets that had unleashed an immense power.
"This... thing is beyond powerful," Tony thought, still processing the sheer devastation they had caused.
"Yes, sir. According to the data, if the temperature isn't controlled, it could reach levels comparable to the surface of the sun and could potentially ignite the atmosphere," Jarvis said, his voice calm but warning.
Tony sighed, wiping the sweat from his forehead. "Yeah, I got that, Jarvis... I've gotta be more careful with these things."
The memories of the battle flashed through his mind. The way the gauntlets melted through armored tanks like butter, the way they incinerated everything in their path—it was too much power, even for him.
***
A Few Hours Earlier
As Tony rocketed away from his mansion, the Iron Man suit hummed around him, the powerful thrusters propelling him effortlessly through the air. His destination: a remote, war-torn region where terrorists were wreaking havoc. The air was tense as he neared, the chaotic sounds of gunfire and screams reaching his ears through the suit's audio systems.
When he arrived, the scene before him was pure horror. A father, desperately shielding his family, was brutally executed right in front of them. Tony's fists clenched within the suit, rage flooding his senses. Without hesitation, he extended his arm, intending to neutralize the attacker with a standard repulsor blast. But something else happened—something far more devastating.
The dragon maw-shaped gauntlets, glowing with an ominous blue hue, unleashed a torrent of hellfire. Blue flames burst from his hand like an unleashed beast, swallowing the terrorist whole in an instant. The intense heat was so overwhelming that the man's body disintegrated, leaving nothing but a blackened skeleton that crumbled to ash.
Stunned silence followed as the rest of the terrorists froze, eyes wide in terror. The family cowered behind the smoldering remains, too afraid to even scream.
One of the terrorists, the leader of the group, Abu Barkaar, finally broke the silence. His voice trembled as he demanded, "Who... who are you?"
Tony's eyes narrowed behind the helmet. His voice was cold, "I am Iron Man."
In that moment, the blue hellfire erupted again, this time with even greater fury. The flames shot forward like a tidal wave, consuming everything in their path—tanks, buildings, and terrorists alike. It was as if the gauntlets had a mind of their own, seeking out anything that dared stand in Tony's way. The air itself seemed to burn as the blue fire raged, reducing the terrorists to nothing but ash, their screams cut short in the inferno.
Within moments, the once chaotic battlefield was a wasteland of smoldering ash and molten steel. The flames flickered out, leaving a haunting silence in their wake.
Tony stood there, the blue glow of his gauntlets slowly fading. The villagers, still shaken by the events, looked at him with a mixture of fear and awe. Amidst the crowd, a small child broke free from his family's grasp and ran towards Tony, despite their desperate attempts to stop him. The boy simply wanted to thank the man who had saved them. Tony glanced down at the child and gave a solemn nod before turning away and taking off into the sky.
As he soared through the air, Tony couldn't resist the urge to test the power of Ifrit. He activated it, and instantly, his entire body became engulfed in a blur of fiery energy, transforming him into a blazing comet streaking across the sky. Fighter jets scrambled to intercept him, but Tony left them far behind in seconds.
The pilots could hardly believe their eyes. "We lost the target!" one of them exclaimed in disbelief. The others confirmed the same, sending the command center into confusion as they tried to figure out just what this unknown flying object was and how it could move so fast.
Meanwhile, inside the suit, Tony was struggling. "Too fast... too fast," he muttered to himself as he tried to control the intense flames generated by Ifrit. But it was no use. The power was overwhelming, delaying his arrival back home by several hours as he fought to regain control.
Finally, after a relentless struggle, Tony managed to understand Ifrit's workings. "Hmm... it listens to me—or rather, to my emotions," he mumbled to himself, realizing that the power responded directly to his state of mind. Calm and collected, he descended toward his Malibu mansion, the flames receding as he landed with a soft thud.
Tony stood still for a moment, taking in everything that had happened. He had gained control, but the sheer power of Ifrit was something he would have to carefully navigate from now on.
***
"Jarvis, remove the suit," Tony commanded. The robotic arms of his workshop swiftly descended, beginning the process of unscrewing and dismantling the Iron Man Mark 2 suit from his body.
But then, without warning, Ifrit hummed to life again, its power surging through the gauntlets. Tony felt a sinking feeling in his gut, fearing that his mansion might also be at risk of incineration. However, instead of unleashing destructive flames, something entirely unexpected happened—the Mark 2 suit, the very armor Tony had meticulously crafted, began to crumble into Blue particles. Blue particles danced around him, the armor disintegrating piece by piece, and being absorbed by the Hellfire Gauntlets.
Tony stood there, now without his suit, staring at his hands in disbelief. The gauntlets remained intact, glowing faintly with energy, but the suit he had spent so much time perfecting was gone, absorbed into the mystical metal of Ifrit.
"What the hell did you give me, Garcia?" Tony muttered to himself, his mind racing. He wondered if this was some highly advanced neurotech with nano-technology beyond anything he had ever seen. Whatever it was, it had just consumed his entire suit in mere moments, leaving him with more questions than answers.
****
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'My Charity System Made me Too OP'
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