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Antarctica—isolated and covered in ice year-round.
Suddenly, a figure shot across the sky like a meteor, breaking the silence as it crashed into the freezing ice cliffs.
Inside a massive ice cave nearly a hundred meters deep, Tony Stark—dragged here against his will—was casually dumped onto the ground.
"Mr. Tony Stark," Peter said slowly, "I regret to inform you… you've been kidna—"
"Urgh…"
But Tony couldn't even get a word out. His stomach churned violently.
Sure, he had always dreamed of flying—soaring freely through the skies using his own creations.
But right now? He was just a regular guy… who happened to get extreme motion sickness from supersonic speeds.
"Blaaargh—"
Peter watched Tony collapse and throw up his guts, but didn't stop him. After all…
Getting yanked from zero to several times the speed of sound in a matter of seconds would wreck just about anybody.
Several minutes later, Tony finally finished puking up everything he had in his stomach.
"Thanks for waiting, Mr… Superman, what were you about to say just now?"
Tony sat weakly on the floor, looking up at this strange guy in front of him—this so-called Superman. He had no idea why this guy had dragged him here.
Snicker.
But what greeted him was a pair of eyes glowing deeper and deeper red.
"Fuck, are you trying to kill me?"
Tony rolled awkwardly on the ground to dodge the blazing red laser gaze. Then, standing up, he cursed loudly.
Without much thought, the vomit Tony had just thrown up—reeking with a strong, nasty stench—was instantly burned to ashes.
Peter's eyes were still glowing red as he stared hard at Tony's grim face and said in a low voice, "I'm honored to inform you: you've been kidnapped."
"If you don't figure out your position soon, the next laser might not hit where you want it to."
"Alright, alright, I surrender. You're the boss now."
Tony watched Peter's red eyes scan him all over, eventually settling on a certain secret spot. Quickly, Tony raised his hands to surrender.
"So, Mr. Great Superman, what exactly did you kidnap me for? It can't be money, right?"
Tony asked cautiously, secretly hoping the answer would be yes.
After all, money was important to him—but not that important.
"Money? Does that stuff mean anything to me?"
Sadly, Peter clearly wasn't holding Tony hostage for cash.
"Then what is it? Women? Fame? Power? If it's power, I can throw money at it, help you campaign for president…"
Suddenly, a cold wind blew. Tony realized he'd rushed out without thinking and was still in his pajamas.
Seeing the expressionless face in front of him, Tony crossed his arms and shivered, continuing, "Besides myself, I can give you anything you want…"
"Ahem, you wouldn't really be doing this for me…"
Like he'd just realized something, Tony suddenly felt less cold—but a certain part of him tightened up.
"I want you… to share the knowledge in your mind."
Hearing that, Tony finally relaxed.
"Help me build a suit of armor, and build here… my lonely fortress!"
It was a night full of joy.
Obadiah Stane, having finished his plan, with dreams of soon controlling all of Stark Industries, fell asleep early.
Ding ding ding…
But the sudden ringing phone shattered his sweet dream.
He slowly sat up, took a sip from a fine wine on the bedside table, cleared his slightly sore throat, and finally picked up the phone.
"What? Tony's been kidnapped?"
Fighting the urge to laugh out loud at such a moment, Obadiah was shocked and exclaimed into the phone.
"Alright, I'm coming over now."
"Am I still dreaming?"
After hanging up, the smile on Obadiah's face became impossible to control. At that moment, he was completely immersed in the happiness of his dream coming true.
"Wait, I only sent my plan out this afternoon, and they finished it tonight?"
Soon, Obadiah felt something was off.
He had only sent a cooperation plan to his private buyers in the afternoon—there was no way it would be done by night.
If they had that kind of power, they'd have stormed the White House already.
Plus, this didn't match their plan at all.
"No, I have to see this with my own eyes!"
The next moment, with no trace of a smile left, Obadiah hurriedly got up and rushed toward Tony's luxury villa.
Meanwhile, at the Malibu villa—
Countless soldiers in uniform, guns loaded, surrounded the entire villa.
Several fighter jets patrolled overhead, sweeping the area like a carpet search.
Inside, numerous intelligence agents in black suits and white gloves searched for any clues left behind.
But inside the villa, they found no sign of any outsiders.
Of course, this excluded two magazine cover models already taken for questioning.
"Pepper, what's going on? How did Tony just disappear all of a sudden?"
A black man in an Air Force pilot uniform barged into the villa, immediately asking Pepper.
"Colonel Rhodes, I don't know either. I only found out Mr. Stark was missing after Jarvis sent an urgent alert."
Pepper's face was pale—things happened so fast, she didn't even have time to put on makeup.
"What exactly happened? How did Tony just vanish like that?"
Before they could talk more, another figure appeared at the villa's door and shouted loudly from outside, clearly anxious and worried.
"Mr. Stane, you're here."
"Pepper Potts, what's going on? As the president's assistant, why didn't you keep an eye on Tony?"
Obadiah came in and immediately grilled Pepper with sharp words.
"Sorry, Mr. Stane, you know Mr. Stark doesn't like being disturbed at night."
Pepper was pretty helpless about it — everyone knew Tony's playboy personality all too well.
"Alright, now's not the time to point fingers. Finding Tony is what really matters," Colonel James Rhodes said, stepping in to ease the tension between them.
"J.A.R.V.I.S., any leads on your end?"
Rhodes called out, hoping for some special clue.
"Sorry, Colonel Rhodes, none of the surveillance cameras caught anyone breaking into the villa. Even the satellite radar above the place didn't detect any intrusion," came J.A.R.V.I.S.'s calm but serious voice.
"Mr. Stark just disappeared into thin air!" The magnetic tone in J.A.R.V.I.S.'s voice made everyone uneasy.
"No video, no radar trace… so what, was Tony kidnapped by some demon or something?" Obadiah's face twisted in anger and worry — he seemed to be going a little crazy over Tony's disappearance.
"Wait, could it be…" Pepper suddenly spoke up hesitantly, as if she'd just had a thought.
"....."