The air over the Stark Industries complex smoked.

  I stood on the roof of the logistics building, directly across from the main Arc Reactor facility. I had taken off my suit jacket and rolled up my sleeves. The wind whipped at my tie.

  On the street below, chaos was unfolding. Cars were swerving to avoid falling debris. People were screaming, running from the massive, hulking shape of the Iron Monger.

  Obadiah Stane was tearing the highway apart. He was huge, clumsy, and terrifyingly powerful. He held a sedan over his head a family trapped inside, screaming and threw it like a baseball.

  Tony, flying on the last dregs of his old reactor's power, barely caught it. He struggled under the weight, his thrusters flickering.

  "Put them down!" Tony yelled, his voice amplified but strained.

  "I love this suit!" Stane roared, his voice booming from external speakers. He fired a rocket from his shoulder.

  It went wide.

  Tony dodged, but the rocket kept going. It arced over the factory gates, heading straight for a cluster of LAPD cruisers and paramedics who had set up a perimeter. They froze, watching death coming toward them.

  I didn't move my feet. I just lifted my right hand.

  Sovereign Authority: Barrier.

  It wasn't a wall of light. It was a distortion in the air, a sudden localized spike in atmospheric density. The rocket hit the invisible space fifty feet above the police cars.

  BOOM.

  The explosion blossomed in mid-air, harmlessly dissipating upward. The shockwave rattled the windows, but the shrapnel bounced off the compressed air like rain hitting a windshield.

  The cops ducked, then looked up, bewildered. They thought it was a malfunction. A dud.

  "Eyes on the road, officers," I muttered.

  Up on the main building, the fight moved to the roof.

  Stane landed with a heavy thud that cracked the concrete. Tony crashed a second later, skidding across the gravel. He was losing. His suit was running on fumes, literally single-digit power percentages. He couldn't fly, he couldn't blast, he could barely stand.

  "You had a great idea, Tony!" Stane taunted, his suit's hydraulics hissing as he stomped forward. "But my suit is more advanced in every way!"

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  He unleashed the gatling gun mounted on his arm.

  BRRRRRRT.

  The sound was a chainsaw of lead. Bullets chewed up the rooftop, turning the HVAC units into swiss cheese.

  Stane was spraying and praying. He didn't care where the bullets went. Hundreds of rounds missed Tony and flew off the edge of the building, raining down toward the freeway interchange below.

  "Sloppy," I hissed.

  I clenched my fist.

  Below, the air over the freeway thickened. The falling bullets hit my "Red Web", a net of kinetic will I had spread over the civilian zone. The heavy caliber rounds lost their momentum instantly, dropping onto the cars like hail instead of piercing through roofs and skulls.

  Drivers swerved, hearing the plink-plink-plink of metal, but no one died.

  On the roof, Stane kicked Tony.

  Tony slid to the edge, his helmet faceplate half-ripped off.

  I took a step forward on my ledge. My instinct was to jump. I could clear the gap. I could land on Stane's back and crush that suit like a soda can. I could end this in three seconds.

  I watched Stane raise his massive metal fist for a killing blow.

  "Tony..." I whispered, my knuckles white as I gripped the parapet. "Move."

  This was the moment. If I stepped in now, I'd be the hero. Tony would be the victim. He needed to win this. He needed to outthink the monster he had helped create.

  Tony didn't try to block. He fired his unibeam directly into Stane's faceplate. It blinded the Iron Monger, buying him a second.

  "Nice," I breathed out.

  Then, Tony blasted off. He shot straight up into the night sky.

  "He's icing him," I realized. "The high-altitude test."

  Stane followed, his thrusters full power. They disappeared into the clouds.

  The roof was quiet for a moment. I looked down at the street. The police were organizing an evacuation. The fire department was rolling in.

  I sat down on the ledge, my legs dangling over the abyss. I checked my vitals. My heart rate was slow, but the constant use of the Authority to shield the city was indeed little taxing.

  A few minutes later, the sonic boom cracked the sky.

  Stane fell. He was a frozen brick, his systems locked up by the ice I had watched Tony battle days ago. He crashed onto the glass roof of the reactor building, shattering it, hanging precariously over the massive arc reactor below.

  Tony landed on a nearby roof, crashing hard. He was out of power. He was done.

  Stane pulled himself out of the hole, shedding the ice. He was furious. He aimed a missile at Tony.

  "Tony!" Pepper's voice screamed over the comms I was monitoring. "Time to overload the reactor!"

  "Do it!" Tony yelled.

  I stood up. This was it. The big finish.

  Pepper hit the button. The roof of the Stark building exploded upward in a pillar of pure blue energy. It engulfed Stane. The Iron Monger suit disintegrated, the man inside screaming as he was vaporized by the very technology he tried to steal.

  The shockwave hit me.

  I didn't block it. I let the wind slam into me, blowing my hair back, feeling the heat of the victory.

  Down below, the building went dark. Stane fell into the reactor, exploding one last time.

  Silence returned to Los Angeles.

  I looked at the smoking hole in the roof where Tony was lying. I could feel his heartbeat. It was weak, fluttering, but it was there.

  "Good job, kid," I said softly to the wind.

  I adjusted my cuffs, picked up my suit jacket from the ground, and dusted it off.

  I turned and walked toward the stairwell. The police would be swarming the place in five minutes. I needed to disappear before the cameras showed up. The Good Shareholder had a board meeting to prepare for in the morning. After all, stock prices were going to be volatile.