Just then, a man in a lab coat came over from a distance and stopped in front of Obadiah.
"Have you solved the power issue for the armor?" Obadiah asked.
Hearing that, the man's face showed helplessness.
Obadiah could already tell the answer wasn't what he wanted. "Get out—useless. If you can't do one simple thing, why am I feeding a bunch of pigs like you?" he snapped.
The man slunk away.
Obadiah stared at the shell of the suit—an empty husk with no "heart"—and his anger spiked.
Tony Stark's abduction by the Ten Rings had been arranged by Obadiah himself. After Tony built the first suit and escaped, the remaining parts were delivered to Obadiah.
Getting those components thrilled him. If he could mass-produce that kind of armor, who in the world could oppose him?
But the massacre Maguire carried out at Oscorp the other day completely changed his mind. Obadiah suddenly felt that ruling the world might not be a great fit; becoming the world's richest man—that was the goal worth chasing.
For now, the unsolved power problem was giving him a headache.
Then a "brilliant" idea flashed through his bald head: if he couldn't build it, he could steal it. He didn't have one—but Tony Stark did. And he could take care of Tony at the same time.
Feeling very clever, Obadiah left and drove straight to Stark Industries.
At that moment, inside Stark Industries, Tony sat heavily on the sofa, face grim.
Earlier that day, he had flown to the Middle East in the armor, back to the place where he'd once been held captive. There, the Ten Rings lorded it over the region—burning, killing, looting. When they started slaughtering a small village, Tony dropped from the sky in the Iron Man armor. The small-time thugs weren't his match; in under a minute, they were all dead.
The weapons the Ten Rings were using turned out to be developed by Stark Industries—yet Tony had never authorized any sales there. Only then did he realize someone inside the company was secretly selling arms behind his back. Seeing so many people die under weapons bearing his name, Tony decided, once and for all, to end Stark Industries' weapons manufacturing.
He returned and called an emergency meeting. During his captivity, Obadiah had been running the company, which made him the prime suspect. Tony sent Pepper Potts to Obadiah's office to investigate.
Inside Obadiah's office, Pepper stared, shocked, at his monitor: video of Tony's abduction by the Ten Rings—and files on Obadiah's secret armor project. Tony's kidnapping had been Obadiah's doing, and he was now developing a terrifying weapon.
Pepper started copying the data to her external drive. Just as the transfer was about to finish, the door opened—bald, imposing Obadiah walked in.
Pepper's face flashed with panic for a heartbeat, then smoothed into a polite smile.
Obadiah didn't suspect anything yet and smiled back. "Of course, no problem."
Pepper casually draped a newspaper over the drive. A second later, the transfer completed. She stood, pretending to pick up the paper as she palmed the drive. "All right, I'm done. I'll get back to work," she said, and headed out.
Watching her quickened pace, Obadiah felt a prickle of doubt. He went to his computer and quickly found the armor plans on the screen. He understood instantly why Pepper had come—and that she was about to report to Tony.
He couldn't wait any longer.
He hurried after her.
Pepper had just stepped out of Obadiah's office when she ran into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s New York agent, Phil Coulson. Relief washed over her. She quickly left with Coulson.
Behind them, Obadiah took in the scene with a cold look, then headed straight for Tony's office.
A few minutes later, Tony was staring intently at his screen when the phone rang. He reached for it—then a lance of pain shot through his back. Obadiah was standing behind him, lowering a sonic paralysis device.
Seeing who it was, Tony understood everything.
"Tony, you really are a disappointment. Why stop weapons development?" Obadiah said coldly. "You're a spoiled playboy—not fit to run Stark Industries. I'm taking your place. I'll acquire Oscorp and become the richest man in the world. As for you, you'll just be a tragic case of 'complications from old injuries.'"
Obadiah slowly pulled the arc reactor from Tony's chest. Without it, the shrapnel in Tony's body began edging toward his heart. Breathing grew hard.
"You can die now, Tony," Obadiah said, turning to leave.
On the table, Tony's phone kept ringing—Pepper's call.
Outside the Stark building, Pepper saw Tony wasn't answering. She told Coulson everything about Obadiah's plan. Coulson frowned. "With just a handful of us, taking on armor comparable to Iron Man's is a fool's dream." He reported to S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ, then hurried with Pepper to Sector 16—Obadiah's armor research site.
They didn't know Obadiah had already gotten there ahead of them.
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