Chapter 43: Chapter 43: Ivan's Death and Tony's Confession

It seemed Ivan had actively sought them out. Luke glanced sideways at Tony. "Do we just fight our way out?" 

Tony looked at Pepper, motioning for the nearby police officers to escort her deeper inside the facility to hide. The ten Shadow Ninjas Luke had secretly assigned to Pepper stopped hiding in her shadow, emerging into the open to form a protective perimeter around her. 

With Pepper secured, Tony looked visibly relieved, as if a massive weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He glanced at Rhodey, who was still pinned face-down on the stage by the Troll Ninjas, and then turned to Luke. 

"Make sure you send me a copy of those photos later. I want them for my personal collection." 

Rhodey rolled his eyes hard, but since his suit was locked and his faceplate was down, nobody could see it. 

Leaving two Troll Ninjas behind to keep Rhodey pinned, Luke ignited his flight boots and followed Tony out of the pavilion. 

"So... where is he?" Luke hovered in the air, scanning the empty plaza outside the Expo. There wasn't a single person in sight—not even the usually suicidal paparazzi trying to get a scoop. 

So where did that arrogant voice come from? 

Luke looked around in confusion until he heard a low, mechanical hum coming from above. 

"What the hell?" Luke muttered, staring at the sky. Rows upon rows of glowing thrusters and Arc Reactors illuminated the night. 

'Just how many drones did Ivan build?! Why would Hammer authorize the mass production of this many unproven prototypes?!' 

Hovering high above them, Ivan Vanko opened his external loudspeakers. 

"I improved the cycle rate, Stark! Thank you for your advice!" Ivan's distorted voice boomed down. "As for you... my new arm is quite powerful! It allowed me to easily deal with a few of those 'babysitters' you left behind!" 

Tony exchanged a dark look with Luke before snapping his faceplate shut. 

"So you came all this way just to thank us? Are the robots behind you just a cheering section?" 

Ivan glanced back at his drone army. "Indeed. You could call them... an audience." 

Ivan himself didn't move, but the dozens of Hammer Drones received his silent command. They immediately dove toward the ground, opening fire with everything they had. 

Tony instantly initiated evasive maneuvers, dodging a barrage of micro-missiles. But he quickly realized the drones weren't actually aiming at him. 

"Luke!" 

Tony watched in horror as the entire drone army focused fire entirely on Luke. But he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw a thick, spherical barrier of pitch-black energy effortlessly absorbing the hail of bullets and missiles around Luke. 

Suddenly, a massive, heavily armored figure plummeted from the sky directly above Tony. 

BOOM! 

A colossal metal fist slammed brutally into Tony, sending the Mark VI flying across the plaza. Tony crashed through an exterior concrete wall and tumbled across a manicured lawn before finally coming to a stop. 

"Why is the physical output of these clunky mechs so high?! Have they never heard of a streamlined, intelligent armor design?!" Tony groaned, looking at the structural integrity warnings flashing across his HUD. 

"Looks like you're taking a beating down there, but it might take me a minute to come help you!" Luke called out, staring up at the swarm of hovering drones keeping him pinned down. 

With a mental command, over a thousand Shadow Ninjas materialized on the rooftops around the plaza. A massive, dense cloud of razor-sharp shurikens blotted out the sky, flying toward the drones. 

However, the shurikens simply sparked and bounced harmlessly off the drones' thick armor plating. Luke frowned. The shurikens were the Shadowkhan's only viable anti-air weapon, but they were useless against heavily armored targets. 

Why didn't Luke just blast them out of the sky with dark energy? Because the 'Sniper' variant drones were hovering just outside his effective range, keeping their high-caliber rifles trained directly on his energy shield. The moment he dropped his shield to launch an attack, they would blow a hole through him. His mortal reaction speed still wasn't fast enough to dodge hypersonic sniper rounds. 

Watching Ivan relentlessly chase Tony around the plaza, Luke tried to help by summoning a squad of Razor Claws to intercept the massive Whiplash armor. 

But Ivan had heavily upgraded his suit. The moment the Razor Claws got close, Ivan triggered an omnidirectional electrical discharge. A massive burst of high-voltage plasma erupted from his armor, instantly electrocuting and dispelling the magical constructs. 

Ivan turned his massive mechanical head toward Luke and laughed mockingly. 

Turning his attention back to Tony, Ivan lashed out with his twin plasma whips. The electrified cables wrapped tightly around Tony's waist. The heavy retraction winches on Ivan's shoulders screamed as they violently reeled Tony in. 

Grabbing Tony by the shoulder plate with one massive mechanical hand, Ivan forcefully slammed the Mark VI into the concrete and pinned it down. 

Tony struggled frantically, but the inherent flaw of his sleek, form-fitting armor design became apparent. While Tony's suit utilized incredibly precise, highly efficient micro-servos to enhance his strength, it simply couldn't overpower the raw, brute-force hydraulic output of Ivan's massive, oversized mech suit. 

A secondary locking mechanism deployed from Ivan's gauntlet, allowing him to easily pin Tony to the ground with just one arm, freeing up his other hand. 

"Did you know? Thanks to you cutting off my arm, I was forced to upgrade to a much more... precise prosthetic," Ivan gloated. 

To Tony's horror, several intricate, high-speed cutting tools and laser scalpels deployed from Ivan's cybernetic arm. Guided by the mechanical limb, the tools immediately began precisely slicing through the structural seams and locking joints of the Mark VI armor. 

Watching his armor's integrity rapidly dropping on his HUD, Tony struggled desperately, but he was completely immobilized. 

"Luke, how are things looking on your end?! I could really use some backup! Ivan is literally performing open-heart surgery on my armor, and I don't think he's trying to remove the shrapnel!" 

Looking at the sky still swarming with drones, Luke gritted his teeth. "You're going to have to hold on a little longer! These guys are keeping me pinned!" 

'Just how stupid is Justin Hammer?! Did he literally bankrupt his entire company just to build this many drones?! There are way more of them here than in the movie!' 

"I brought some backup," Natasha's voice suddenly interrupted the comms. 

"Who? Coulson? I don't think throwing a taser at this guy is going to help me right now!" Tony yelled, watching Ivan's laser scalpel slice through his chest plate, mere millimeters from his Arc Reactor. 

Ivan stared down at Tony, treating him like a crab hiding in a thick shell. Ivan had meticulously analyzed the combat footage of Tony and Luke in Monaco and Harlem. He deduced that Luke primarily relied on energy projection and summoning supernatural monsters. Tony, on the other hand, had relatively low offensive output but incredibly high defense; you could shoot him in the face with a tank shell and he'd survive. 

So, Ivan had specifically designed his new Whiplash armor to act as a giant can opener—designed to meticulously peel Tony out of his impenetrable shell! 

Suddenly, a massive, gunmetal-grey figure rocketed out of the pavilion. Sparks of electricity arced across its chassis, but it didn't seem to care. 

Without slowing down, the War Machine slammed shoulder-first into the Whiplash armor, violently knocking Ivan off Tony. 

"Honestly, Tony, you need to upgrade my weapons!" Rhodey yelled over the comms. 

"You got free?! Damn, your timing is impeccable!" Tony laughed in relief. 

Rhodey sighed. "Yeah, well, my guns were completely dismantled by Luke's giant shadow monsters earlier. So theoretically, my only offensive output right now is these two fists." 

Rhodey hopped from side to side, testing the War Machine's weight like a boxer. 

"You really think punching that massive mech is going to work?" Tony did a quick diagnostic check on his damaged armor and sighed. "Looks like even together we can't beat him in a fistfight. We should probably go help Luke thin out the drones first." 

Ivan stabilized his massive armor and roared, "You are not going anywhere!" 

Twin micro-missiles launched from the Whiplash armor's shoulders, locking onto Tony and Rhodey. 

"Oh crap! Please tell me those aren't the 'Ex-Wives'!" Rhodey yelled, instantly executing evasive maneuvers alongside Tony. 

"What the hell is an Ex-Wife?!" Tony yelled, watching the two missiles arc through the air. 

"Hammer Industries' 'masterpiece'. Or at least, that's what he claimed! He said it was a smart-bunker-buster that could level a fortress and recite poetry while doing it!" 

Tony scoffed. He severely doubted anything Justin Hammer built was 'smart.' A second later, JARVIS proved him right. 

"Incoming projectiles approaching from the rear, Sir." 

Tony glanced backward. The two 'Ex-Wives' had completely ignored their evasive maneuvers and were looping back around, tracking them perfectly. 

"Watch out!" Tony instantly engaged his thrusters, narrowly dodging the missile locked onto him. But Rhodey, lacking an advanced AI like JARVIS to calculate the trajectory, was struck squarely in the back by the second missile. 

Ping. 

The missile hit Rhodey's armor, sparked pathetically like a cheap firecracker, and then harmlessly bounced off, falling onto the pavement with a dull thud. 

"...I don't think I blew up?" Rhodey said hesitantly, having broken into a cold sweat for absolutely nothing. 

"Looks like Hammer's tech is just as reliable as always," Tony sighed in relief, watching the other 'Ex-Wife' loop around for another pass at him. 

"Honestly, I think Hammer Industries would have better luck building self-driving cars," Tony quipped, launching a flare to successfully distract and detonate the missile. 

BOOM! 

The massive explosion shattered windows for blocks and sent a shockwave that nearly knocked Tony out of the air. Tony stared at the fireball in genuine shock. 'Okay, so the payload is actually terrifying. If that had hit me, it probably would have breached my damaged armor.' 

Rhodey stared down at the dud missile sitting by his feet and quickly flew away. 

"You know, they really are exactly like an ex-wife. You never know what she's going to do, or whether she's going to explode or not." 

Even Ivan seemed momentarily embarrassed by the dud. Those weren't special modifications he had made for Rhodey; those were standard-issue Hammer Industries missiles. 

"Why would you ever partner with that idiot?" Tony yelled, firing a concentrated repulsor blast at Ivan. 

Ivan casually swatted the blast away with his plasma whip. Tony followed up with several micro-missiles, but they merely dented the Whiplash armor's thick outer plating. 

"This turtle shell is ridiculously thick. Armor-piercing rounds aren't going to cut it," Tony groaned. "Luke! You're probably the only one with enough firepower to crack this thing open! Are you done up there?!" 

Luke looked up at the sky. There were only a handful of drones left hovering around his shield. He breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn't expected it to take this long to clear the skies. 

"Almost done! Just hold him off a little longer!" Luke yelled back. He sincerely hoped he could unlock a flying Shadowkhan variant soon, because fighting airborne enemies as a ground unit was incredibly frustrating. 2

Suddenly, the remaining drones stopped firing. Luke assumed they had run out of ammunition, but instead of retreating, the drones initiated a kamikaze dive, accelerating straight toward his energy shield. 

"A suicide charge?" Luke prepared to command his ninjas to intercept them, but he noticed the Arc Reactors on the drones' chests were glowing a blinding, unstable red, pulsing rapidly like a countdown. 

Glancing around, Luke realized that every single destroyed drone scattered across the plaza was also glowing red and beeping ominously. 

"Oh, sh—!" Luke instantly dismissed his shield and shadow-stepped directly into the Dark Dimension. 1

Dozens of Arc Reactors violently detonated simultaneously. The massive, overlapping plasma explosions completely vaporized the plaza, annihilating everything within the blast radius. 

"LUKE! Are you okay?!" Tony yelled frantically, turning toward the massive fireball. 

But before he could fly over, a series of identical explosions ripped through the main Expo pavilion! 

"PEPPER!" Tony screamed in absolute terror. He remembered Pepper was still hiding inside! 

Suddenly, JARVIS highlighted a group of figures standing on the roof of a nearby building safely outside the blast zone. 

JARVIS magnified the image. To Tony's immense relief, he saw Pepper standing there, perfectly safe, surrounded by Luke's Shadow Ninjas who had clearly teleported her away just in time. 

"Damn right I'm okay! But seriously, 'bros before hoes' doesn't apply to you, does it?!" Luke's annoyed voice crackled through the comms. 

"I'm heading your way right now! And I am going to punch Ivan right in his ugly face!" 

Luke was genuinely furious now. He had completely abandoned his initial plan to leave Ivan's corpse intact for S.H.I.E.L.D. to study. 

"Save a punch for me!" Tony growled, his eyes burning with rage. Ivan had nearly given him two heart attacks tonight! 

"Mind if I join the line?" Rhodey cracked his metallic knuckles, eager for payback. 

"First come, first served!" Luke yelled, materializing in the air next to Tony and Rhodey. He glared down at Ivan. 

"It's time for a righteous beatdown! But honestly, considering how pissed we are, this is probably going to violate the Geneva Conventions!" 2

Luke waved his hand. The Shadow army completely surrounded Ivan, launching an all-out, coordinated assault. 

Countless Shadow Ninjas threw themselves at the massive mech. While many were instantly vaporized by the plasma whips, the Arc Reactor's energy output had limits. Eventually, sheer numbers overwhelmed the defenses. Ninjas swarmed over Ivan's armor, frantically stabbing and prying at the thick metal plating with their katanas. 

Ivan tried to ignite his thrusters to escape into the air, but Tony and Rhodey simultaneously dive-bombed him from above, violently slamming him back down into the cratered asphalt. 

'Trying to run?!' Luke sneered. He wasn't going to let Ivan play anymore. 

Luke gathered a massive concentration of dark energy in his hands and unleashed a continuous, highly concentrated beam directly at the Whiplash armor. 

The sheer kinetic force and corrosive power of the dark energy violently pinned Ivan to the ground, grinding his armor into the dirt. However, specifically to ensure he could still punch Ivan in the face later, Luke carefully controlled the output, suppressing the mech without completely disintegrating it. 

With Ivan pinned, a Troll Ninja charged forward, raising its boulder-sized fists and hammering them brutally onto the mech's chest plate. 

Even the incredibly durable Whiplash armor began to buckle and cave in under the Troll's sheer physical strength. Several more Trolls joined the fray, treating Ivan to the exact same brutal, full-body 'massage' they had given the Abomination. 

Watching his HUD flash with critical structural failure warnings and feeling the excruciating pain of the buckling armor crushing his ribs, Ivan roared in fury. 

But unlike the Abomination, Ivan couldn't rely on a magical, mid-battle mutation. His only option was to initiate a total reactor purge. He released the entire remaining energy payload of his Arc Reactor in a single, omnidirectional shockwave, instantly vaporizing the Shadowkhan pinning him down. 

Luke smirked, watching the reactor on Ivan's chest go completely dark. Without power, Ivan was nothing but a crippled man trapped in a heavy metal coffin. 

Luke ordered the next wave of Shadow Ninjas to move in and finish the job. 

But surprisingly, Ivan manually triggered the emergency release latches on his armor. The thick chest plating hissed and popped open. Ivan hauled his upper body out of the cockpit, though his cybernetic legs remained hopelessly pinned inside the crushed metal. 

"What are you doing now?" Tony hovered nearby, thoroughly confused by Ivan's suicidal action. 

"I would rather end this myself than let you slowly peel me out of this shell!" Ivan spat blood, glaring up at Tony with pure, unadulterated hatred. "Give me a quick death!" 

"You don't get to choose how this ends!" Tony growled. He landed heavily in front of the crippled Russian, fully intending to drag him out and beat him senseless before handing him over to the authorities. 

But as Tony approached, Ivan didn't flinch. Instead, he started laughing maniacally. 

"You are still so foolish, Stark! Did you really think my arm was the only thing I replaced?!" 

Tony froze, a terrible sense of foreboding washing over him. He looked down at Ivan's pinned cybernetic legs. 

A terrifying, high-frequency hum began vibrating from Ivan's mechanical limbs. Tony watched in horror as the cybernetic legs rapidly began to glow with unstable, blinding white light. 

Ivan was initiating a self-destruct sequence built directly into his own prosthetics! 

The massive plasma explosion instantly vaporized Ivan and rapidly expanded outward, perfectly positioned to engulf Tony. 

There was no time to dodge! 

Tony braced himself, preparing to test the absolute limits of the Mark VI's structural integrity— 

Suddenly, a pair of hands grabbed Tony's shoulders from behind. A wave of pitch-black energy completely obscured his vision... 

"TONY!" Pepper screamed in absolute agony, watching from the distant rooftop as the massive plasma explosion completely consumed the area where Tony had been standing. 

Tears streamed down her face as her knees gave out, and she collapsed backward. 

"It seems you're crying for me again." 

A pair of strong arms caught her before she hit the roof. A highly familiar, arrogant voice whispered in her ear. 

"Tony?!" 

Pepper whipped around, staring in shock at Tony, who was standing there in his battered armor, looking at her with deep affection. 

"You're not calling me 'Boss' anymore?" Tony smirked softly. 

Unable to contain her emotions, Pepper threw her arms around his neck, and the two kissed passionately, completely oblivious to their surroundings. 

"They look like two seals fighting over a grape," a highly critical voice ruined the romantic atmosphere, accompanied by the rapid clicking of a camera shutter. 

Rhodey, standing nearby, sighed heavily. Watching Luke mercilessly photograph the intimate moment, Rhodey suddenly remembered the humiliating photos Luke had taken of him pinned under the shadow monsters. Rhodey's face darkened, though no one could tell in the dark night. 

"Hehe," Luke chuckled, lowering his camera. "Hey Tony, maybe you should use this opportunity to—" 

Luke casually drew a Sling Ring portal back to his LA apartment and forcefully dragged Rhodey through it with him, leaving the couple completely alone on the roof. 

Watching the portal snap shut, Tony shook his head in amusement. 

During that split second before the explosion, Luke had forcefully dragged Tony into the Dark Dimension. However, because Tony wasn't actively shielded by dark energy, his armor had immediately begun to rapidly corrode from the ambient dimension's atmosphere. Thankfully, Luke had instantly pulled him back out to the real world on the rooftop, otherwise, Tony might have ended up missing a few limbs himself. 

Looking at Pepper, who was still staring in bewildered shock at where the magical portal had just vanished, Tony gently cupped her face, drawing her attention back to him. 

"So... after everything we've been through... are you still willing to stay by my side? To help me?" Tony asked, his voice unusually vulnerable. 

Fresh tears welled up in Pepper's eyes. She smiled radiantly and nodded. "Yes. I am." 

Tony gently wiped her tears away with his thumb. "Actually, I spent the entire day making a highly detailed, color-coded flowchart for this. I wanted it to have a proper 'sense of ceremony.' If you want, we can pretend this didn't happen and I can try again later." 

Pepper laughed softly, shaking her head. "Right now is perfect, Tony. I just want to hear you say it." 

Tony looked deeply into her expectant eyes and gently took her hands in his. 

"I love you, Pepper." 

"I love you too, Tony."