Iron Man knocked War Machine back before Black Widow confirmed that he was safe at last and in control of his own armor, before also complimenting Stark on his new element which had now stopped his palladium poisoning, causing Pepper Potts to confront Stark for not telling her he was dying. While Potts had Justin Hammer arrested, Stark helped Rhodes back onto his feet.
Knowing that the last remaining Hammer Drones would be coming to their location, both Iron Man and War Machine then set out a plan to battle them, however this only led to an argument between the two friends over who should take the better position in the area, with both of them arguing that they had the superior armor and skills. However before they could make up their minds, the Drones then arrived and surrounded Iron Man and War Machine, with nowhere to escape to, the pair donned their own helmets and prepared for battle, firing their weapons at the attacking Drones which outnumbered them.
As the battle then commenced, Iron Man and War Machine found that although they could easily defeat each Drone, the numbers began to overwhelm them. While War Machine used his impressive weaponry provided by Hammer Industries to destroy the attackers, Iron Man used his top of the range armor to fight back and destroy multiple targets at once, eventually using his laser attack to slice all of the remaining Drones in half and finally win the fight.
Eliminating the other drones, Iron Man and War Machine were then informed by Black Widow that they had a new enemy coming in, who she warned appeared to be much stronger than all of the previous drones. This was revealed to be Whiplash in his new, more powerful suit of Armor. Attempting to kill Whiplash before the fight could even begin, War Machine armed the Ex-Wife Missile, only for it to fail and not even dent the armor, with Iron Man then noting that it was clearly a Hammer Industries weapon due to it being useless in battle.
Iron Man then engaged in a fierce battle with Whiplash, with himself and War Machine throwing all they had at defeating him or maybe damaging his armor enough to cause him to surrender. However they both found that not only was Whiplash's armor too strong, but he had improved his whips to the point they were more dangerous than ever before and they both soon found themselves overpowered by Vanko's improved technology as well as weapons.
Whiplash soon managed to gain the upper hand in the battle when he succeeded in wrapping his electrified whips around Iron Man and War Machine's throats and slowly tightening them, hoping to break their necks. With no other choice, Iron Man called on War Machine to use the technique they discovered during the Duel at Tony Stark's Mansion and fired their own repulsor rays at each other, triggering an explosion in front of Vanko and knocking them all back.
Recovering from the shockwave and getting back onto their feet, Iron Man and War Machine found Ivan Vanko lying on the battlefield, with not only his new Whiplash Armor but his own body damaged beyond repair. Too injured to continue the fight, Vanko claimed that Stark had in fact lost this fight before he ignited his and all of his drones' self-destruct bombs, including one in his own armor. Knowing that these Drones were littered across Stark Expo since he had shot many of them out of the sky, Iron Man then flew to rescue anybody remaining there before they exploded and caused major casualties.
Iron Man raced to save Pepper Potts amid the series of explosions, pulling her away just in time. Seeing the chaos that Stark brought with him, Potts quit her position as CEO of Stark Industries, but Stark only teased her about the concept of leaving him before she and Stark kissed each other. Rhodes revealed he was there before he departed with the Mark II armor without serious objection from Stark, leaving them where Stark refused to accept her resignation.