Capítulo 53: Stark, You’re Finished!
A few kilometers away from the Stark Expo, there was a hemispherical bio-dome with the word Oracle emblazoned on its exterior—the logo of Oracle Corporation.
In the Iron Man movies, Oracle's logo appeared frequently.
Some speculate that Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle, was the inspiration for Tony Stark, even though Iron Man debuted in 1963, and Ellison founded Oracle in 1977.
In reality, Tony Stark's true inspiration was Howard Hughes, the protagonist played by Leonardo DiCaprio in The Aviator. Rumor has it Hughes had 164 girlfriends, covering nearly every Hollywood goddess of his era.
But none of that matters here. The focus is Oracle's bio-dome, the main battleground for Iron Man 2's final showdown.
When Su Ye arrived near the site in his Batmobile, Iron Man was still putting on a stunt show in the sky, leading the Iron Soldiers on a high-speed chase.
Throughout the chase, Iron Man executed low-altitude flights, sharp turns, sudden stops, and evasive maneuvers, causing the pursuing airborne Iron Soldiers to repeatedly crash into walls.
The resulting trail of sparks and explosions lit up New York's night sky like a premature Christmas celebration.
But unlike Christmas's joyful ambiance, tonight's fireworks brought disaster wherever they fell, like vengeful spirits chasing their prey.
Numerous buildings were destroyed, parking lots under bridges were obliterated by missiles, and countless vehicles and pedestrians on the streets were caught in the crossfire.
The direct and indirect economic losses and casualties were almost incalculable.
This often makes it difficult to distinguish between saving lives and causing harm.
Saving a murderer is still saving a life, but if that murderer causes more deaths, saving them could mean harming others.
Earlier, Spider-Man rescuing Iron Man from the exhibition hall could hardly be called wrong, no matter who you ask.
A superstar hero like Iron Man, who could "single-handedly maintain world peace," crashing and burning in the exhibition hall would have been an immeasurable loss to the world.
Forget everything else—if Thanos shows up, who's going to deliver that crucial snap?
But once Iron Man left the hall, he was bound to be chased by the Iron Soldiers, leading to a wider-scale disaster for New York's citizens.
For the victims caught in the crossfire, it might've been better if Iron Man had just died in the exhibition hall.
And who should they blame? Iron Man, or Spider-Man, who saved him?
In the movies, such events can be glossed over—omit the casualties, and it's as if no one died. But in the real world, someone must seek justice for the victims. Who will do that? The law?
As long as crooked lawyers exist, the law will side with the wealthy.
In a free society, it's the capitalists who enjoy freedom, not the common folk.
In a world where justice is controlled by capital, someone needs to step up, using unconventional methods to help the common people achieve the justice they might never otherwise obtain.
Yes, this was the backstory Su Ye created for his version of Batman.
It was certainly different from the original Dark Knight, who bore the burden of Gotham's safety alone.
Su Ye's Batman didn't need to carry any burdens; he just needed a reasonable—preferably noble-sounding—excuse to beat people up.
While Iron Man and his pursuers were still en route, Su Ye jumped into the Oracle Bio-Dome and began setting things up.
Meanwhile, Black Widow—despite Happy's car being totaled and her time delayed by Su Ye—managed to commandeer a motorcycle and weaved through the gridlocked traffic, arriving at Hammer Industries on schedule.
What followed was a dazzling fight sequence: she stormed the enemy's lair solo, taking down Hammer Industries' security forces with nothing but her skills and two legs. The action was spectacular.
The only pity? No audience to witness it.
By the time Black Widow breached Hammer Industries' control room, the Iron Soldiers from the army, navy, and marines had already taken flight, joining the chase for Iron Man.
While these soldiers weren't as adept at aerial combat as the Air Force Iron Soldiers, flying was still a basic skill for all of them.
Although Black Widow managed to reprogram War Machine in time, preventing him from battling Iron Man, the army and navy Iron Soldiers still made it to the bio-dome, surrounding the two heroes.
Iron Man and War Machine teamed up to face over twenty Iron Soldiers. It was clear this would be a grueling battle of attrition.
And indeed, it was.
Iron Man had taken such a severe beating earlier that many of his weapons were now useless. War Machine wasn't much better; being used as a makeshift flail by Su Ye had damaged many of his systems.
Their current combat effectiveness was likely less than 50% of their peak.
Worst of all, Iron Man's laser weapon was damaged, leaving him without his powerful AoE sweeping attack.
Thus, the 2v20+ battle was intensely drawn out.
In shooting mode, things were somewhat manageable. Hammer Industries' weaponry, as evidenced by the "Ex-Wife" missile, was unreliable. Without concentrated fire, breaking through Iron Man and War Machine's armor was difficult.
Additionally, Iron Man's uncanny ability to sidestep missiles at close range rendered most ranged attacks useless.
As the battle wore on, both sides exhausted their ammunition and had to resort to hand-to-hand combat. At this point, the numerical superiority of the Iron Soldiers became evident.
The two "Gundams" (Iron Man and War Machine) were surrounded by a swarm of "Zakus" (Iron Soldiers), relentlessly beaten down. It was, essentially, a chaotic melee.
War Machine knelt on one knee, raising his arms to shield his head as he desperately fended off the Iron Soldiers' blows. He shouted to Iron Man beside him.
"Tony! My power's running low, and my armor's heavily damaged. We can't keep this up—we'll get beaten to death here!"
On the other side, Tony Stark inside the Iron Man suit wore a frustrated expression.
"I know, but there's nothing we can do—they've got us outnumbered!"
Earlier, they had tried to escape by flying, but barely a meter off the ground, the Iron Soldiers had grabbed them and slammed them back down.
If no one came to their aid soon, they were truly doomed.
"Where's Spider-Man? Did he hide, or actually go home? If I'd known, I would've been nicer to him…"
Tony Stark couldn't help but sigh internally.
At that moment, a figure descended from the sky.
"Stark, you're finished!"
The mask opened, and Ivan Vanko's grating voice echoed.
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