My office at Stark Industries was quiet. And it was late past midnight and the cleaning crews had already moved through the lower floors.

  I was sitting at my desk, reviewing the erratic power consumption reports from Sector 16. Obadiah had been diverting massive amounts of energy to a localized grid. He was building something big. The Iron Monger.

  The elevator chimed.

  I didn't look up from the file. "You know, Obie, most people call before visiting this late. Or at least bring a pizza."

  Obadiah Stane walked in. He looked terrible. His suit was impeccable as always, but his eyes said else. He was losing control of the board, of Tony, of the narrative.

  "I tried to call," Obadiah said keeping his paternal tone he used so well on Tony. "You didn't pick up. You've been hard to reach lately, Adrian. Very... insulated."

  He stopped in front of my desk. He didn't sit down.

  "I've been busy cleaning up messes," I said, closing the file. "Tony is back. The stock is stabilizing. We should be celebrating, shouldn't we?"

  Obadiah smiled. It didn't reach his eyes. "Tony... Tony is a tragedy waiting to happen. He's unstable. PTSD. He's going to run this company into the ground with his terrible conscience."

  He reached into his pocket.

  "I can't let that happen," Obadiah sighed, sounding genuinely regretful. "And I can't let you protect him anymore. You hold the proxy, Adrian. You're the deadlock."

  He pulled out a small device. It looked like a sleek, handheld taser with glowing blue nodes. I recognized it immediately. The sonic paralysis device. Short-range, high-frequency. Nasty piece of tech.

  "Nothing personal," Obadiah said. "Just business."

  He pressed the button.

  Hummmmm.

  The air in the room warped. A high-pitched frequency buzzed from the device, targeted directly at my chest.

  In the movie, when he used this on Tony, the effect was instant. The sonic waves hijacked the human nervous system, causing immediate paralysis, agonizing pain, and visible dark veins popping on the face. It was designed to overload biological synapses.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  Obadiah watched me, expecting me to collapse. He expected the drooling, the seizing, the terror.

  I just blinked.

  The sound was annoying like a mosquito buzzing in my ear, but that was it. My nervous system wasn't human. My biology didn't run on the same electrochemical signals that this toy was designed to disrupt. I was a Noble. My body was closer to a singularity than a biological machine.

  Obadiah's smile faltered. He pressed the button harder, cranking the dial to max.

  SCREEEEE.

  The glass of water on my desk shattered. The window behind me developed a spiderweb crack.

  I sighed, reached for a napkin, and wiped a drop of spilled water off the file.

  "Is it supposed to do something else?" I asked calmly. "Or is the plan just to annoy me?"

  Obadiah froze. The color drained from his face. He looked at the device, then at me, then back at the device. He shook it, thinking it was malfunctioning.

  "This... this is impossible," he stammered. "This paralyzes a bull elephant. It shuts down the central nervous system."

  "You're assuming I have one," I said.

  I stood up.

  Obadiah stumbled back, terrified. To him, this wasn't just a failure of technology; it was a violation of reality. He was a man who believed in engineering, in cause and effect. He pushed a button, and people fell. I hadn't fallen.

  I walked around the desk. He tried to back away, but he hit the bookshelf.

  I reached out and gently took the device from his trembling hand. He didn't fight me. He was too paralyzed by fear to move.

  "Technological paralysis," I murmured, inspecting the blue nodes. "Clever. Cruel, but clever."

  I closed my hand.

  Crunch.

  Metal groaned and plastic snapped. Sparks showered down onto the carpet. I crushed the military-grade alloy like it was a soda can, compressing it into a dense ball of junk. I dropped the debris into his suit pocket.

  "You need to work on the frequency," I said, dusting off my hands. "It's a bit pitchy."

  Obadiah was hyperventilating now. He looked at me with wide, wet eyes. "What are you?"

  "I'm the majority shareholder," I said simply. "And I'm very disappointed in you, Obie."

  I could have killed him right there. A flick of my finger, a burst of pressure, and Obadiah Stane would be a stain on the wall. It would be clean. It would save Tony a lot of pain.

  But I stopped.

  If I killed him, Tony wouldn't learn. Tony needed to see the monster Obadiah had become to understand the monster he used to be. He needed to fight the Iron Monger to prove that the suit was more than just a weapon, that the man inside mattered.

  I stepped back, giving him space.

  "Go," I said, my voice low and authoritative.

  Obadiah blinked, confused. "What?"

  "Get out of my office," I said. "Go to the Sector 16 lab. Get your big suit. Because in about an hour, Tony is going to figure out what you did. And he's going to come for you."

  Obadiah stared at me, his mind racing. He realized I wasn't going to call the police. I wasn't going to kill him. I was letting him play his hand.

  "You're crazy," Obadiah whispered. "You're both crazy."

  He scrambled for the door, tripping over his own feet, and practically ran to the elevator.

  I watched the doors close.

  "Run, rabbit," I whispered.

  I walked to the window and looked out at the city lights. I picked up my phone and dialed a number.

  "Happy?" I said when the line clicked. "Yeah. It's Adrian. Do me a favor. Drive over to Tony's house. Check on him. And bring the portable defibrillator. I have a feeling he's going to have a heart problem tonight."

  I hung up. The board was set. The first endgame had begun.