Of course, that wasn’t Luke’s intent.
Pepper and the tycoon were too entangled. Only an idiot would steal Pepper away.
But from what he remembered in his previous life, it seemed that Pepper later took full charge of Stark Industries?
He wasn’t sure from memory, but based on the current development of Stark Industries, Tony, who was obsessed with toys and his superhero identity, clearly wouldn’t let himself be caught up in complicated business affairs.
Pepper was the only person he absolutely trusted to run the company.
From this point of view, Luke didn’t mind fostering favor with Pepper.
Tony was awesome, but Pepper, the keeper of the purse strings, also had terrifying authority.
Besides, Pepper was a million times easier to deal with than Tony, because… she was a woman.
Thus, he decisively slipped away with Pepper in stealth mode.
Ivan Vanko was flying swiftly through the night sky, when he saw Batman suddenly disappear with Pepper on his virtual screen. He was stumped for a moment, before deciding to deal with Tony Stark first.
He actually didn’t care about Batman. Even if the other party had caught him once, it couldn’t compare with Stark’s father’s crime of killing Ivan’s father.
Now that the evil Howard Stark was dead, his son had to pay Ivan back double.
Thinking that, the man in the brand new suit landed in front of Tony and opened his mask. “Stark, we meet again. How have you been?”
There was a smile on his face as he spoke, but it looked especially sinister with the scar under his eyes.
He had deliberately taught the tycoon a lesson last time to let everyone know that he had the ability to design the same thing as Stark.
If the Iron Man suit wasn’t the only one in existence, was Tony still Iron Man?
Sure enough, the situation was as he had expected.
Although Batman suddenly stepped in and grabbed him, being caught had been one of his plans.
As long as someone wanted him to live, he wouldn’t die.
A few days later, people from Hammer Industries stole him from Tony and supplied him with various materials to make the metal armor.
His plan had gone smoothly, and he had the resources to defeat Tony.
The tycoon was never one to pull his punches. Hearing that, he immediately retorted, “Better than you. Where did you get this new outfit? Was Hammer happy to hear you call him your owner, and he made you a new collar?”
But Ivan wasn’t angry.
Hammer Industries wasn’t qualified to turn him into a dog.
Even if Hammer Industries caught him after this, they would still have to obediently supply him with materials. All Ivan would lose at most was his freedom.
Otherwise, who would design metal armor for them and stand up to this young master in front of him? That even more mysterious Batman?
Dream on.
As long as someone else wanted to take on the metal armor, he was their only choice.
As long as he was still valuable, the capitalists who coveted Iron Man’s technology would rush to save him.
Also, he truly wasn’t afraid of death.
If he was afraid of death, he wouldn’t come looking for Tony Stark for revenge. With his skills, he could sell whatever he wanted and live a good life.
He had come to America to let the world know that Tony Stark and his father were shameless thieves who stole his father’s achievements.
The truth was that Ivan was using his life to give the Stark family trouble.
What he wanted was to slap them in the face. He wanted to crush Stark’s name under his feet.
If he really wanted to kill Tony, he didn’t have to give the tycoon any chance at all last time. He could have cut Tony, who wasn’t wearing any armor at the time, in half with his whips.
But what meaning was there in that?
He had already clashed with Iron Man once before, and had gained a partial victory this time.
As for Batman, he didn’t care about him, nor did he hate him.
In any case, he just needed to step on Iron Man and Tony Stark.
When Luke returned after dropping Pepper off, he saw two metal cans pounding each other.
The main hall was in tatters. There were metal bars and broken glass everywhere, and even half the doors had collapsed.
Tony, who had a stronger detection system, sensed Luke’s return ahead of time, and said over the communication channel right away, “Don’t come over. I want to take this guy down myself.”
The tycoon had indeed been slapped hard in the face.
Even Hammer Industries had dared to get involved and stab him in the back.
More importantly, he knew from Colonel Rhodes’s clear “hint” that Hammer Industries was backed by the Department of Defense and some people in the military.
These people had also tipped off Justin Hammer so that he could steal Ivan, which had led to this scene tonight.
Although Hammer Industries would suffer after tonight, Tony had already lost a lot of face.
He was Tony Stark, the most overbearing CEO in America!
Except for the legendary beauty who dared to talk back to the CEO… Hm, other than Pepper, who would dare humiliate him like this?
His thoughts would never clear up if he didn’t beat up Ivan.
Luke didn’t step forward.
Tony no longer wore his main armor, Mark 4, but a new and even stronger Mark 6.
There wasn’t much of a difference between the two models, except that the Mark 6’s combat ability was at least 30% better.
But here was the problem.
A d*ck-measuring contest… Pfft, no, which armor was better? Actually, it was just a matter of opinion.
Ivan’s armor clearly wasn’t as powerful, but he wasn’t a loyal member of the looks department; the armor he made was practical and sturdy.
The Whiplash armor was clearly much sturdier than Tony’s armor, and there was enough space to install a bigger arc reactor.
Sacrificing a bit of space for more power was a small thing for Ivan.
Tony’s various attacks didn’t do much damage to this bear-like suit.
Conversely, Ivan’s plasma whips were clearly more of a hindrance to Tony, and the damage was more obvious.
At that moment, Colonel Rhodes finally couldn’t take it anymore.
He was a soldier.
When Ivan had controlled his suit earlier to fire at Tony, Rhodes’s heart had burned with anger.
Tony said that he would deal with Ivan himself, and Rhodes had agreed.
But he didn’t think it was necessary to play by the rules now that Tony hadn’t been able to take him down after so long.
He was a soldier, and it was his duty to deal with enemies of the state.
Wasn’t this bear-like criminal who made headlines exactly that?
Taking advantage of the moment when Ivan wrapped Tony up with the plasma whip once again to give him an electric shock, Rhodes charged over. “I’ll give you a taste of my ‘Ex-Wife’!”
As he spoke, his armor opened to reveal a small missile launcher on which was a silver missile that looked like a crude pen.
The other three couldn’t help but turn their heads. What? Your ex-wife?