In the end, Tony didn’t fire anyone from HR.
“Rhodes, where were you when I needed you?”
“I thought you hated babysitters?”
The two friends seat at a table for two in some obscure clubhouse in New York. The two friends share a drink as they start badmouthing the government.
“Do you know what happened in the weapons demonstration? It was bad, we got ambushed by Afghans… Government is so useless sometimes… I have a little girl with me… She was 15-years-old, man… And that girl just killed a man… That is on my conscience…”
“You have a 15-year-old girl working for you?”
“…”
After a silence of a minute and a half. Rhodes sneers at Tony for making stupid jokes. They were not even done with their first bottle but his friend is already drunk.
“Ambushed by Afghans is bad enough? You hadn’t seen shit… I got sent to Pakistan to intercept a pickup… I think it was a commie… It was terrible enough, but then, I find myself fighting a bunch of white dunderheads, dark as shit niggas, and a bunch of blathering rednecks… What am I even doing there? Dude, you don’t know what it is like to send missiles to your fellow countrymen. It felt easy for me because I fly a plane though.”
“You are from the military Weapons Development division, what are you doing in Pakistan? Anyways, be careful with that mouth of yours… never knew you could be so racist when drunk… You know, we really are having too much alcohol. Forget a bottle. Maybe if we continue at this pace, we’ll wake up suddenly finding ourselves in prison.”
“You make a fair point, friend…”
The two suddenly fall down, their faces on the table. Spiking their drink was a piece of cake for the operative that has been on the site. With a single phone call, the movers arrive.
Los Angeles. Stark Industries Headquarters. Within a hidden underground basement cell.
When Tony wakes up, he finds himself in a prison cell, and just beside him is Rhodes. He thought he was dreaming so he returns back to sleep. After a few hours, when he cannot sleep anymore as he had too much sleep already, reality comes knocking in his cell.
“This isn’t a dream, Stark… Not even a nightmare…” Greeting Tony is Obadiah’s cruel smile.
“Obie? What are you doing here?” Tony addresses Obadiah with the same familiar nickname he usually and affectionately calls him.
The cell was dark with little light to offer from the window just outside the cell. That doesn’t stop Tony from arriving at the conclusion of Obadiah’s betrayal.
“What is the meaning of this?” Tony shouts only to notice his legs going numb. Drool stretches from his lips. Only now did he notice the paralysis encumbering his body.
Obadiah smiles at this. “The times are changing, Tony…
“Inside your blood is a new product, a paralytic drug that cuts the nerves from your motor senses… It also puts you in a 'high' state, further reducing your conscious intelligence. I am aware bio-chemical weapons are banned, but I cannot help myself… This thing especially one that hinders the intellectual will is amazing. I admit, this is just LSD, but it is an improved version nonetheless…”
“Since when did you invest in something like that? Why do I not know of this?” Tony unclenches and clenches his fist as slowly the feeling of touch returns to him.
Obadiah ignores Tony’s question and goes into his dialogue of fake remorse and inflated ego.
“Forgive my meaningless rants, I am just too… flummoxed… I am so sad to see you go, Tony, and not see this. You see, there is a new weapon that is about to shift the market standard… Stark Industries will be spearheading the creation of this new weapon. While the Jericho missile is great and revolutionary, I am not still satisfied with it... Investing in pharmaceuticals is a poor gamble on my part…”
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“…”
Taking Tony’s silence as a sign, Obadiah continues on with his words with still the same chagrin he has… just like demonstrating in a weapons presentation, Obadiah has this unyielding confidence of the victor.
“Anyways… Do you recall the Arc reactor technology? You told me it doesn’t have any future, I agreed, but to think you’d lie to me… It hurts me Tony… that I have to see you like this… I treated you like family.”
Obadiah carefully scrutinizes Tony’s expression, carefully not missing even a single detail… What he can tell from what he is seeing is that there is confusion in Tony’s eyes. Digging deep into the mental invulnerability Tony is suffering under the influence of LSD, Obadiah starts digging deep.
“When I ordered the hit on you, I was worried that I was killing the golden goose. But, you see, it was just fate that you survived it, leaving one last golden egg to give… Anthony, tell me… Are you aware that your father is actually a thief?”
Tony’s confusion turns to more confusion, then self-doubt… and then realization… If Obadiah is one thing he is not, then that would be an honest person. Obie may be family once, but Obadiah is a liar through and through…
“My father is a thief? You must be joking… If someone is ought to be called a thief, it is you.”
Obadiah didn’t take Tony’s comment well as he pushes the cell open with a key. Coming face to face with Tony, Obadiah utters his hateful self-serving words. "For thirty years, I've been holding you up! I built this company up from nothing! Nothing's gonna stand in my way, least of all, you!"
Raising his fist, Obadiah almost attacks Tony but he suppresses his rage. “I won’t hurt you yet, because you are going to make me my Arc reactor…” However, Obadiah is not someone who’ll just let his rage rest. Walking a distance from Tony, he arrives by Rhodes’s side.
With one swift kick to the abdomen, Obadiah gives Rhodes a very rude wake-up call. After that, Obadiah leaves with a word of warning to Tony. “Make sure you make my damn reactor… Your friend dying would be the least of your worries by then.”
“Also, I want you to meet Ivan, the future of Stark Industries…” With his sneering voice echoing in the dark cell, Obadiah finally disappears.
Replacing Obadiah is the silhouette of another, Ivan Antonovich Ivanko.
“…”
Ivan is a very reticent man. He doesn’t like to talk too much, but it doesn’t mean he doesn’t have any feelings. At this very moment, a complicated rage is swimming in his heart.
“You. Going to make it. Arc reactor.”
With his broken English thick with his Russian accent, Ivan brings up a lot of resources to Tony’s cell. The way Tony sees it, there is enough for him to build a dozen Jericho missiles with all of the stuff in front of him.
“What?” Tony’s confusion is apparent… He doesn’t even know that miniaturizing the arc reactor was possible. Tony looks at the Russian whose tattoos adorn almost his whole body.
Seeing Tony’s confusion, Ivan finds himself to be kind enough to offer some words of comfort.
“You are lucky. My employer doesn’t want you dead…”
Ivan’s smirk annoys Tony, but what can he do with the paralytic poison in his veins interfering with his motor abilities… Tony defiantly stares at Ivan. “Arc reactor? Why would I build something that I know wouldn’t do any good to me?”
“It will give you a fighting chance…” Ivan has this apathetic look on him as if he doesn’t care anymore about Tony, the spawn of his father’s mortal enemy. Ivan lifts up his jacket and reveals what seems to be an orb of light.
Tony gets a good look at it only for his heart to proverbially stop beating from shock. “I-is that an Arc reactor?” He recalls the Arc reactor in his factory. The one in Ivan’s hand looks smaller, but to Tony, the telltale signs that it is an Arc reactor capable of immense energy cannot be more obvious in his eyes.
“Build your own. Get working and be prepared. For what you would use this power, it is up to you… Just know that you are not alone… These are my employer’s words…”
Ivan leaves Tony like that.
Rhodes who is now awake because of Obadiah’s kick looks at Ivan’s fading silhouette. “Wait, it was that commie back in Pakistan, wasn’t he?”
…
Obadiah is kicking up a ruckus. It has been some time since he had the repulsor blaster contraption from Stray. He had his scientists and engineers analyze it. While the thing seems to be reusable, the finger-sized Arc reactor inside it is not.
In fact, it was fried… For some reason, Obadiah is thinking that maybe the Stray guy has been conning him. “Ivan, my friend, what do you think about this?” Obadiah directs Ivan, his new best friend, to the very contraption.
“Compact, easy to bring, and beyond my time…” Ivan shortly comments to the finger-sized Arc reactor.
This finger-sized reactor is a thousand times smaller than the big-ass reactor in the middle of the facility. Ivan's eyes land on the ‘original reactor’ that was the basis of the one hiding in his pocket. Transforming the ginormous Arc reactor in front of him into a smaller unit is already an insurmountable task.
Into a finger-sized? That’s too much...
In fact, if not for the ‘mysterious letter’ asking Ivan to beg his father about the technology, he wouldn’t even know about this ‘Arc reactor’ existing.
Ivan feels a buzz in his back pocket. It was his burner phone since arriving here in America. “I am sorry, I have to take this…” Ivan politely addresses Obadiah.
Obadiah nods approvingly as he was in a joyous mood despite the Arc reactor hiccup. In front of him stands an almost three-meter tall iron machine— the Iron Monger personally the designs of Ivan and the many experts on Obadiah’s payroll.
Ivan walks to the building’s rooftop, and takes the call… “This is… Ivan…”
“Good man looks like you are doing well…” On the other end of the phone is Stray munching on some cookies that deliciously match up with his glass of milk.