It was already nighttime, and the music was loud at the Expo.

Damian was sitting with his family and Pepper, who had arrived with Natasha.

Damian was chatting with his daughters, trying to entertain them as they were getting bored waiting.

At that moment, the lights dimmed, and a man entered the stage.

Damian immediately recognized him as Justin Hammer.

Justin advanced to the podium, greeting the audience and performing a dance.

Pepper sighed mockingly.

"Ladies and gentlemen, for a long time, this country has put its brave men and women at risk. Then came Iron Man, and we thought the days of death were over," Justin said, looking at the audience.

"Unfortunately, the country didn't have access to this technology."

"That's not fair, and I think it's wrong for all the soldiers who have died," 

"However, it was a great innovation that captured the world's attention. Now, even other countries have their army of suits," Justin continued.

"That's why, ladies and gentlemen, today I present to you the new face of our country's armed forces," Justin said, extending his arms as he stepped back.

"The Hammer drones," Justin declared, pointing with one arm.

"Army!" Justin shouted, and the music started playing as the floor opened up, revealing eight armored suits with cannons on their backs.

"Naval!" Justin exclaimed as another platform rose, carrying robots with missile launchers on their shoulders.

"Air Force!" Justin shouted and sleek-looking suits with weapons on their backs elevated.

"Marines!" Justin yelled again as camouflaged robots emerged.

"This is better than cheerleaders," Justin mocked Tony.

Justin cheered excitedly, appearing to be having the time of his life, making fun of Tony.

"Despite our advanced technology, there should always be a man at the forefront. That's why I present to you the prototype of a suit capable of responding to multiple situations, and its pilot, Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes," Justin said, pointing to a central location where a black suit with a Gatling gun on its shoulder ascended.

The modified suit was much larger and had added armor in some places. Its hands and shoulders carried large bulges with weapons.

"What?!" Pepper exclaimed, almost standing up, not believing that they would use one of Tony's suits to present other suits.

"They look a bit ugly," Carol commented, looking at the suits.

"Ours are prettier," Alice agreed, nodding cutely.

"For the country and his-" Justin was interrupted by a low buzzing sound coming from the distance.

Looking in the distance, he saw Tony coming straight toward them. He couldn't help feeling a bit scared, but quickly composed himself, knowing that he had many suits behind him.

Tony accelerated toward the platform and landed smoothly. He immediately located Pepper, Damian, and his family, which reassured him about their safety.

Inside his helmet, Tony couldn't help but frown at seeing that the suit he had given to Rhodes had been modified and clearly equipped with Hammer's robots.

This would complicate things as Rhodes would probably be against him as well.

He also couldn't help getting upset at seeing what they had done to his suit. There was no more room for weapons, or they would have added more.

"What poor taste," Tony murmured as he walked toward Justin.

"Tell me, where is Ivan?" Tony asked directly even though he already knew the answer

"Who? What are you doing here?" Justin asked, trying to act nonchalant.

"Tony, the system is compromised," Rhodes quickly said as his Gatling gun pointed at Tony.

Tony immediately turned on guard, seeing all the suits aiming at him.

"Alright, let's settle this outside," Tony said, activating his thrusters and flying away.

All the suits immediately fired at Tony, shattering the glass roof.

Rhodes and the aerial suits also activated their flight mechanisms before going after Tony.

However, only the aerial suits could keep up with Tony.

When Rhodes was a few meters above the ground, his suit suddenly shut down, and he fell to the ground.

"Damn it," Rhodes muttered, everything was dark, and he couldn't move, fortunately, he wasn't claustrophobic.

Damian watched everything happen, and as soon as the glass started falling, he made sure it wasn't lethal to anyone.

Even so, there was a lot of chaos, and everyone ran out of the place.

The remaining suits on the platform started descending and heading outside.

Glancing at Laura, she nodded before taking the weapon on her back.

Walking forward with the weapon in one hand and pointing it down, she approached the first robot and extended her fingers as if they were claws, pushing them toward the robot's reactor.

Her fingers generated small points of energy that pierced the armor before she clenched her fist and broke the reactor.

Laura's suit was special; her right glove could generate plasma blades, either a complete blade from the wrist or small blades on her fingers.

"Should we run?" Pepper asked worriedly, unconsciously covering her stomach.

"You're pregnant?" Carol asked, surprised by Pepper's gesture, recalling having done the same thing in many situations.

"We wanted to keep it a secret," Pepper said, smiling somewhat happily despite the situation.

"Don't worry, we're safe," Ana said, approaching Pepper and comforting her.

Laura was already facing the robots, positioning herself at the front to attract as many as possible.

Laura swiftly dodged the shots while firing with her own weapon. When she couldn't dodge, she cut the projectiles with her plasma blade.

Her weapon's shots were really destructive, leaving red-hot holes wherever she fired.

Mostly, she aimed at the reactor or the head, causing them to collapse immediately.

When the robots' shots hit her suit, they only tinkled harmlessly.

Ivan, who was at Hammer Industries, couldn't help cursing inside as he saw that it was almost impossible to take her down. He had already lost several robots and still hadn't dealt with Stark.

He quickly sent an order for a robot to attack Laura while the other suits deployed a propulsor from their backs before taking off.

Laura shot down two more robots before helplessly watching them escape.

She couldn't help looking at Damian disapprovingly for not making the suits fly as she returned to the group.

Pepper looked in awe at the armor. Although she knew that these robots were inferior to Tony's creations, it was still surprising how easily Laura dealt with them. Moreover, the large size of the armor made it truly intimidating.

The three girls approached the fallen robots curiously, examining them.

Alice lifted one of their legs before turning it over and looking at the cannon on its back with curiosity.

Pepper comically opened her mouth when she saw a little girl flipping over a heavy metal suit.

"She..." Pepper said, looking at everyone with doubt, not knowing if she had hallucinated.

"Let's talk about that later," Carol said, laughing lightly. Originally, they wanted to talk to the girls about showing off their strength in front of other people, but Damian flatly refused.

He said his daughters didn't have to stop being themselves for others, as long as they didn't hurt anyone, they could do whatever they wanted.

...

Back to Tony.

He flew out of the Expo while ascending in a certain direction.

"Jarvis?" Tony said as he flew.

"Everything is ready, sir," Jarvis replied.

"Good," Tony nodded as he flew into an artificially created smoke cloud.

The robots followed Tony, flying around and searching for him.

Tony quickly approached the red and gold diamond-shaped combat module; in the center, it had a circular hole and a place to stand.

He had been inspired a bit by Damian's armor for the design.

Tony stood on the object before objects attached to his hands, feet, and back.

In a few seconds, Tony exited the module and flew out of the smoke cloud.

There were several robots surrounding the cloud under Ivan's orders.

When Tony became visible again to the robots, his armor changed. Where his forearms should be, there was only a cylinder that extended to his hand with a large repulsor at the end.

On his back, there was a flight stabilizer to maintain better control in the air.

At his feet, there was an even larger repulsor to maintain speed with the added weight.

"What the hell," Ivan muttered as he ordered all the robots to attack Tony before getting up and going to put on his own armor.

Tony swung back and forth, firing the giant repulsors from his hands, which instantly destroyed the robots, despite the fact that the material they were made of was similar to his own armour.

Tony flew at high speeds with great agility, dodging shots and taking down several robots.

After a few minutes of chasing, he easily destroyed all the robots, finding them too slow and predictable to even touch.

At that moment, he detected more robots coming in his direction.

Looking in that direction, he saw a group of 15 robots flying toward him.

"Sir, an armor has flown out of Hammer Industries and is coming our way," Jarvis informed him.

"Alright, let's finish this quickly, then," Tony said before activating the back thrusters to the max and aiming the hand thrusters at the incoming group of robots.

The hand repulsors made a loud buzz as two large plasma beams shot toward the group.

Fortunately, the back thrusters cushioned the recoil, allowing Tony to guide the beams accurately, destroying all the approaching robots.

The buzz of the repulsors slowly decreased before a click sound, and they detached from his hands and fell to the ground.

"They still need a lot of improvements," Tony murmured, looking at the useless repulsors.

"Jarvis, where is he?" Tony asked.

"He'll arrive in 5 minutes. His armor seems quite heavy, so it's not very fast, but it'll be hard to damage," Jarvis replied, displaying satellite images.

"Hm," Tony said, deep in thought.

"How about a supersonic punch?" Tony suggested with a smile.

"If not done at the right angle, it could have serious consequences," Jarvis analyzed the data.

"Well, make sure we hit at the right angle. I like my arms," Tony joked.

The satellites quickly located Ivan, and Tony locked onto his position on his radar.

Tony immediately began accelerating toward Ivan, quickly reaching speeds he had never achieved before with the three pairs of thrusters.

Ivan couldn't even react as he received a powerful blow to the chest, causing him to lose his breath and start falling.

"Damn, that hurts a bit," Tony said, looking at his arm that had dents on its knuckles.

"Fortunately, the impact was distributed well," Tony smiled before flying behind Ivan, who had fallen in the middle of the street, creating a sizable crater.

When Tony landed near Ivan, there were already some curious onlookers.

"Please, step back, it could be dangerous," Tony said, approaching Ivan carefully.

His armor had a large dent in the shape of a fist just above the reactor.

Tony approached him and analyzed his suit's reactor, neutralizing it.

Now, even if he woke up, he wouldn't be able to move, so Tony grabbed him by the neck before taking off.

Tony arrived at the Expo event area, wanting to see if Damian was still there.

He had already figured out what to do with Ivan.

Killing him in cold blood now that he had defeated him was something he definitely wouldn't do. If he had died during the fight, it would have been different.

He also regretted killing Obadiah after realizing that he could have dealt with him without killing him.

It was definitely a decision made in the heat of the moment where he let the hatred of his betrayal go to his head.

He would simply ask Damian to imprison him in Madripoor. Unlike anywhere else in the world, he couldn't escape from there, and no one had the power to take him out.

When he reached the area, it was filled with police officers talking to Damian's bodyguard.

Pepper was sitting with Damian's family.

They had moved the seats to face each other.

Everyone was already looking at him because of the loud noise he made when he flew.

Tony landed and dropped Ivan to the ground before lifting his helmet and looking at everyone.

"Mr. Stark," a police officer said before glancing at the armor on the ground, which was clearly different.

"What's going on?" Tony asked.

"We want to take these armors, but Mr. Damian's bodyguard didn't allow us. He said that you would decide what would happen when you arrived," the officer explained to Tony.

"Hm, you can take them as soon as I remove something that belongs to me," Tony frowned before nodding.

The armor was no mystery; it was just the reactor that he didn't want to fall into the wrong hands.

"Sir, I don't think that's entirely correct," the officer frowned.

"I can also destroy them and say it happened during the fight," Tony said, looking at the officer.

"I'll make a call," the officer said, stepping away to use his phone.

Tony approached the group before greeting them.

"New toys?" Damian asked, looking at the modules on Tony's back and feet.

"Yes, it's something I've been working on," Tony said before smiling at Pepper.

"Are you okay?" Pepper asked, a bit worried as she checked his armor.

"Don't worry, I don't have a scratch," Tony smiled, subtly hiding his arm.

"Uncle Tony, you look cool in the armor," Ivy said, approaching and examining him closely.

"Of course, I'm the coolest there is," Tony proudly said as he carefully lifted her.

"Daddy is cooler," Ivy said, playfully sticking out her tongue.

"Yes, and Daddy is more handsome too," Alice nodded.

"Aren't you a little young to know that?" Tony asked annoyed as he put Ivy back on the ground, ignoring the mischievous little devils.

"Well, we're leaving," Damian said, getting up.

"Wait, wait," Tony quickly said.

"Help me remove their reactors," Tony said in a low voice, glancing at the police officers and agents.

"Okay," Damian nodded before looking at Laura, who was watching them.

She nodded before extending two fingers and creating an energy blade, quickly removing all the reactors under the sad gaze of the agents before handing them to Tony.

"Thank you," Tony nodded to Laura.

At that moment, Happy arrived with a van, so Tony placed all the reactors in the back before taking Ivan and also putting him in the van before getting in with Pepper and quickly leaving.

Damian didn't stay much longer and left with his entire family. They all had fun watching the robots and then the fight.

Idly, Damian wondered how Frank had fared.

...

"Hello? Anyone?" Rhodes shouted inside his armor; it seemed like everyone had forgotten about him.

"Tony? This isn't funny."

Rhodes tried to shift the weight of the armor to get into a better position, at least lying on his back.

He couldn't help but think that by obeying orders he didn't want to obey, he was getting himself back into a bad situation.

----

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