A Different Path

Race Against Obadiah

The phone call was very unpleasant and unnerving.

Tony's friends watched on in anticipation as Tony talked to Obadiah, staying quiet as possible.

"Obie," the name was like salt on his tongue, "what is it?"

"Tony, my boy, where are you?"

"Going home."

"You were supposed to come to the hospital." He sounded angry.

"I would rather go home. I was fixed up at base."

"Where are you now?"

"Heading to Malibu." He lied.

They were heading to the nearest SI warehouse, which thankfully had a big lab and had a conference room filled with SI records that Rhodey and Pepper could go through.

"I'll be there in three hours." The man hung up.

"He'll be at the mansion in three hours," Tony repeated to the group.

"At least now we have a window of time," Rhodey said.

"Yeah, but what'll happen when I'm not there? Or he gets there early?"

"I'll assign him some work, it will at least slow him down a little," Pepper said. "But what even is he doing? I didn't assign him but one appointment today and it would take an hour, at most."

"I don't know," the genius sighed, "we better work fast."

"Tony," Happy piped up from the driver's seat, "what exactly are we making? And how are you going to do it with one arm?"

The inventor looked at Rhodey with pleading eyes.

"Oh, no." Rhodey was quick to say, "no, no, no. You still have another two days in that sling."

"It was precautionary. I won't do a lot, I just need both hands. Please Rhodey, I need to work fast," he continued to beg.

Rhodey looked to have an inner conflict with himself before sighing. "You better take it easy."

"I know, I know." Tony said, already undoing the straps. He put the thing beside him and rotated his arm. It ached a little, but otherwise he had full function.

Pepper watched him closely, he noticed. Her hands twitched like she unsure of weather to touch him or not, but before he could say anything, Happy stopped the vehicle.

"We're here, bossman."

They got out and headed into the empty warehouse. Pepper and Rhodey detoured into a conference room while Tony, Yinsen, and Happy went into the next door where the lab was.

"Medical equipment is over there, Yins," Tony said, pointing to a cabinet with his left hand while pulling up schematics with his, finally free, right hand.

The genius made a model of the suit he and Yensin built in the cave, pulling hightly detailed plans straight from memory.

"What do you need me to do, boss?" Happy asked.

"Get the metal over there and bring it to the cutter," he said, pointing to large sheets of gold titanium alloy. Happy nodded and began his task.

Tony allowed Yensin to give his chest a brief check over with the help of holographic X-rays (which Yensin was astounded at). "You'll need a new one in a few days," he said.

"I'll get on the schematics right now."

So Tony worked on both the Arc Reactor schematics and the Mark 2 Iron Man suit while Happy carried titanium alloy wherever needed. Yensin excused himself to go help Pepper and Rhodey go through documents.

The suit had thirty minutes left to go (including the add-red paint job) when Pepper hurried in with some files. Her heels clicked at a rapid pace until she practically crushed Tony into a hug. Yensin and Rhodey were right behind her while Happy looked on, confused much like Tony was.

"It was Obadiah," Pepper said hoarsely before clarifying a truth Tony should have expected but somehow didn't. "He.... he paid for your capture."

Happy dropped the metal he was holding.

.

Over the next fifteen minutes, they sat on the floor of the workshop, talking.

Tony and Yensin gave more details of the capture while Rhodey, Yensin, and Pepper laid out the few files they could find.

"This isn't exactly main central for all the paper copies," Pepper said when Tony asked why there were so few. "I tried to look into the database, but now we know what Obadiah has been doing."

"What?" Tony asked. Rhodey's face looked grave.

"He's been destroying all kinds of files. Nothing really specific, just random ones. A lot of weapon contracts, some past and current deals, shady transactions."

Tony nodded. "We'll make do with what we have, those could take time we don't have to restore them all."

"We have key evidence of what happened being set up by Obadiah. We can send the files to the police right before..... whatever you're doing, is done." Pepper said, all buisness now.

"Good."

Her phone suddenly beeped loudly. Looking at it, her face morphed into one of confusion and fear. "Obadiah has taken over sector sixteen. He's coming here, fast."

Tony stood quickly. "Then we better get moving."

"Tony, what exactly are you doing?" Pepper asked, sounding kind of anxious.

The inventor swiped the screen of his hologram again and the wall opened, revealing a red and gold suit.

"This...." he said to his gaping mouthed friends, "..... is the Ironman suit."

A beat of silence.

Then Rhodey exclaimed loudly: "That. Is. So. Cool!"