Under the brilliant starry sky, a stream of red-gold light cut through the night.
Iron Man's armor soared through the night, the propulsion jets' exhaust like burning flames, making the neon lights of the city below seem dim.
"Sir, energy is being rapidly depleted; currently, 32% remains," Jarvis's voice came from inside the helmet.
Tony, hearing this, showed no tension, even rolling his eyes, "You know that, so why aren't you switching the power core?"
Then, a brief silence fell inside the helmet, save for the whistling wind.
"Switching to the suit's internal core."
"Now, accelerate!"
"Yes, Sir."
...The giant reactor of Stark Industries glowed with an eerie blue light. Pepper Potts, her high heels clicking, her eyes filled with terror, stumbled towards the perimeter.
Suddenly, the Bluetooth earpiece she always wore rang.
She pressed the answer button with trembling fingers, almost pressing the earpiece tightly against her ear.
"Pepper?" Tony's slightly hoarse but reassuring voice came through the earpiece.
Her heart, which had been hanging for days, almost leaped out of her chest at this call. Pepper's voice trembled, "Tony! Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, how are yo..."
"Obadiah, he's gone mad!" Pepper interrupted him, panting urgently, her steps not slowing.
"I know. You'd best get out of there quickly!"
"He built a suit." Just as Pepper finished speaking, the ground beneath her feet suddenly vibrated violently.
Her eyes widened in terror as she looked towards the source of the sound.
Amidst the roar, the ground not far away cracked like a spiderweb, concrete chunks flying everywhere.
A colossal figure burst forth from the earth; the cold, metallic humanoid armor slowly rose, its chest Arc Reactor glowing with a blinding blue light.
Obadiah's cold voice, distorted by machinery, emanated from the armor's internal speakers, "Where do you think you're going?"
Pepper stumbled back, her high heel caught in a crack.
She looked up at the Iron Monger, nearly four stories tall, watching its cold, metallic hand slowly clench into a fist. The grinding of gears mixed with her own frantic heartbeat, making her legs feel as soft as if filled with lead.
With a "click," the Iron Monger's right arm's Gatling gun rotated open, its dark muzzle precisely locking onto her trembling figure.
Obadiah's voice, processed by a vocoder, carried a metallic hum, "I no longer require your services."
At this critical moment, a roar that pierced the clouds came from the horizon, "Stane!!!!"
The Iron Monger abruptly turned its head, its dark red optical sensors sweeping across the sky.
The familiar red-gold figure, trailing a burning exhaust, tore through the air, the roar of the armor's thrusters making the air hum.
Obadiah instinctively swiveled his cannon, but before he could lock on, two brilliant blue energy beams had already ripped through the night sky.
Tony's armor's palms crackled with stored arc energy; accompanied by a sharp energy shriek, two continuously charging repulsor rays fired with a roar.
The air blast created by the Impact swept away the debris on the ground. The Iron Monger's massive metallic body crashed back to the ground like a meteorite, creating a crater several meters in diameter in the concrete, as smoke and debris shot into the sky.
It rolled directly onto the road, smashing into a truck's cargo bed and causing a traffic accident on that street.
However, the backlash from the prolonged charge erupted instantly.
Tony felt a tremendous force at his wrists, followed by his body uncontrollably flying backward, tumbling and falling through the air.
With a loud "boom," he crashed head-first into a nearby parked tank. The metallic clang vibrated for a hundred meters around, the tank's armor plating dented and deformed, and sparks flew, crackling on the ground.
Tony groaned; the violent Impact made his vision go dark. He fought off the dizziness, his hands gripping the tank's edge, gritting his teeth as he pulled himself from the twisted metal wreckage.
After shakily standing upright, he shook his head to clear the double vision and turned to look in Pepper's direction.
"Pepper! Get to cover!"
Just as he finished speaking, a screech of brakes came from the nearby road.
He flew up again, heading towards the road from which the sudden braking sound had come.
As soon as he appeared, a black shadow, accompanied by a sharp whooshing sound, flew rapidly towards him through the whistling wind.
His pupils constricted; he instinctively extended a mechanical hand, his metallic knuckles instantly closing.
The immense Impact made his arm's hydraulic system hum under the strain. Looking closely, it was a black car.
The mother driving behind the windshield was pale as a sheet, her hands gripping the steering wheel tightly, her mouth wide open.
Tony figured she must be screaming very loudly... What brand was this car? The sound insulation was pretty good.
In the back seat of the car, a young girl was curled up in her car seat, tears welling in her red eyes.
Tony gritted his teeth. He engaged his leg thrusters, struggling to hover in the air, his hands steadily supporting the violently shaking car, slowly lowering it to the ground.
Fortunately, he had enough energy, which allowed him to set the car down on its side. Otherwise, this mother, who would instinctively step on the gas, would have probably crashed it two miles away.
Watching the car gradually drive away, Tony breathed a sigh of relief, but quickly realized something was wrong.
He spun around abruptly, his pupils contracting.
Not far away, the colossal Iron Monger stood like a mobile metal fortress, raising his right hand.
On his right wrist, the Gatling gun was spinning at high speed, ready to fire at any moment.
"Alright, the game's over."
"Goodbye, Tony."
Tony inwardly cursed, about to activate his armor's thrusters to escape, when the Gatling gun already let out an ear-splitting roar, bullets raining down.
What neither of them noticed was that before the gun fired, a silver-white web shot through the air, sticking with pinpoint accuracy to the Iron Monger's right wrist.
Then, a second before the Iron Monger's gun fired, a powerful pull came. The Iron Monger's massive body was suddenly yanked off course, and the muzzle, originally aimed at Tony, was pulled along with it.
Whizzing bullets grazed Tony's armor, leaving a series of gruesome bullet holes in the building behind him.
The Iron Monger turned its head furiously, only to see a ball of web splattered on his face mask at an incredibly fast speed. The sticky web instantly covered his optical sensors, blurring the giant's vision.
It let out a deafening roar, its metallic hands flailing wildly, trying to tear off the obstructive web from its face.
"Hey, big guy, there's a height limit here!"
---Little Spider's cheerful chatter accompanied the "thwip thwip" sound of his web-shooters.
He flipped agilely in the air, webs flying like silver snakes, each one precisely wrapping around the Iron Monger's mechanical joints. "I'm serious, your outfit is way over the limit! Do you know traffic laws? Being too tall gets you a fine!"
This is also why most people wouldn't suspect Peter Parker is Spider-Man.
Who would have thought that the guy talking nonstop right now would be the shy, timid Peter Parker from everyday life?
If talking nonsense was fined, Aunt Mei would have gone bankrupt long ago.
At this moment, Little Spider seemed to transform into a social Terrorist, simultaneously binding the Iron Monger with webs and chattering endlessly: "I know, I know, you want to cross this road, right? Then take my advice—"
Before he finished speaking, Spider-Man suddenly yanked the web. Under his control, the web tightened abruptly, and the powerful pull made the Iron Monger's massive body lose its balance.
"Then you gotta lie down!"