Chapter 38: Chapter 38: Whiplash in the Restroom 

"Remind me again why I had to accompany you to this stupid race?" Luke grumbled in exasperation as they walked through the VIP section of the Monaco Grand Prix. 

Tony sighed helplessly. "I originally planned to bring Pepper here. You think I want to be walking around the French Riviera with another guy?" 

"Then why did you piss her off?" Luke glared at him, then sighed as several paparazzi flashes went off around them. He had genuinely intended to keep a low profile and hide from the media, but Tony's recent blunder had resulted in Pepper kicking both of them out of the house. 

Natasha Romanoff suddenly appeared beside them, smoothly handing them two VIP lanyards and gesturing for them to put them on. 

Luke inspected his lanyard. It labeled him as the 'Executive Representative of 67 Mobile Communications.' 1

'At least I'm not listed as Tony's sidekick,' Luke nodded in satisfaction. 

After Tony had finally managed to smooth things over with Pepper on their date, he had immediately turned around and aggressively insisted on transferring Natasha (still operating under the alias 'Natalie Rushman') to become his personal assistant. This incredibly tone-deaf move had instantly reminded Pepper of Tony's old playboy habits. 

Furious, Pepper had basically thrown the paperwork at him, aggressively finalized Natasha's transfer, and then stormed out of the office. Neither of them had seen Pepper since; she had been communicating solely through curt emails and delegating tasks through Natasha. 

Tony's vast experience with women had taught him one absolute truth: never poke the bear when she's already furious. So, to give Pepper some space and pretend he was actually being productive, he had decided to make a highly publicized appearance at the Monaco Grand Prix. However, if given the choice to do it all over again, Tony knew he still would have stubbornly demanded Natasha's transfer. His instincts were screaming that the beautiful assistant was incredibly dangerous, and he absolutely refused to let her stay by Pepper's side. 

Anyway, as long as he brought Luke along, his own safety was absolutely guaranteed. He wasn't worried about the new assistant trying to assassinate him with a bodyguard like that around. 

Guided by Natasha, Tony half-heartedly greeted a few European executives. Suddenly, he spotted someone he absolutely despised. 

"Good luck, buddy. I'm out of here," Luke muttered, immediately turning the other way. 

He saw Justin Hammer approaching with a smug grin. Luke absolutely loathed the flamboyant, incompetent weapons manufacturer; being in the same room as him felt like it actively lowered one's IQ. 

Tony sighed as he watched Luke casually abandon him. A second later, Hammer, dragging a bewildered reporter along, cornered the billionaire. 

Watching from a quiet corner of the VIP lounge, Luke chuckled as he observed the incredibly 'pleasant' conversation between Tony and Hammer. Without him noticing, Natasha quietly slipped into the seat across from him. 

"Did Fury order you to keep an eye on Tony?" Luke asked bluntly, dropping the act. 

Natasha didn't flinch. "Yes. According to our medical profiles, Stark should be experiencing severe, debilitating symptoms of heavy metal poisoning right now. Yet his physical and mental state appear completely stable. I assume you're responsible?" 

"Yeah. Since S.H.I.E.L.D. decided to just sit back and watch, I couldn't exactly let Tony drink himself to death. But my method is just a temporary bandage, not a cure. If you guys actually have a permanent solution for palladium poisoning, I'd highly appreciate it if you shared it. I'm getting tired of playing magical dialysis machine every morning." 

Natasha nodded thoughtfully. That explained why the usually paranoid Tony was acting so normal and why he had practically forced her into his inner circle; he felt protected by Luke. 

The two chatted for a few more minutes, casually taking turns insulting Director Fury's over-complicated, manipulative management style. 

While they were having a pleasant conversation, Tony was definitely not having one. Desperate to escape Hammer's relentless, obnoxious bragging, Tony made a quick excuse and practically sprinted toward the nearest restroom. Surely Hammer wouldn't follow him into the stalls. 

Meanwhile, Luke noticed Hammer turning away from the empty spot Tony had just vacated and locking eyes with him. The obnoxious CEO immediately began marching toward Luke's corner. 

"Hello there! You're that new superhero, right? The 'Lord of Shadows'? I have to admit, I figured it out long before the internet did! Ever since you supposedly killed the Iron Monger and suddenly became best friends with Tony Stark, I knew something was up! You guys seem close, right? Well, let me tell you, Tony and I..." 

Luke stared in sheer disbelief as Hammer began endlessly rambling. 'How did this idiot ever secure military defense contracts? Did he just annoy the generals into submission?!' 

Desperate to escape, Luke gave Natasha an apologetic look and quickly stood up, muttering an excuse about needing to use the restroom. 

Just as Luke was walking toward the men's room, Tony suddenly burst out of the door, his face pale and panicked. 

"Luke! There's a total freak in there!" Tony yelled, scrambling backward. 

Luke paused, completely confused. 'What the hell?' 

BZZZT! 

A glowing, electrified plasma whip violently smashed through the thick wooden restroom door, missing Tony's face by mere inches. 

'Wait a minute! Shouldn't Whiplash be waiting to ambush Tony out on the racetrack?! Why is he in the bathroom?!' 

Luke didn't have time to ponder the butterfly effect. He instantly summoned several Shadow Ninjas and ordered them to grab Tony and physically drag him out of the VIP lounge to safety. 

Seeing a supervillain casually blowing up the restroom, the surrounding elites and executives began screaming in terror and stampeding toward the exits. 

Luke summoned a few more ninjas and ordered them to barricade the shattered restroom door. He figured he could just trap Ivan Vanko inside. The guy's weapons were undeniably powerful, but his 'armor' was basically just an exoskeleton harness over his bare chest. A single good punch from a Troll Ninja would end the fight instantly. 

BZZZT! BZZZT! 

Two more blinding arcs of electricity slashed through the wall itself. The plasma whips effortlessly sliced through the concrete and steel reinforcements, instantly vaporizing the Shadow Ninjas guarding the door and reducing them to harmless shadows. 

Watching his ninjas get one-shot, Luke wasn't particularly angry, just surprised. He hadn't expected Vanko's plasma whips to be quite this potent. Then again, those whips were designed to easily slice through the Iron Man armor's specialized gold-titanium alloy, so effortlessly carving through a concrete wall made sense. 

With a furious roar, a massive, muscular figure burst through the crumbling wall and charged directly at Luke. 

Looking at Vanko's incredibly crude setup, Luke was genuinely bewildered by the man's suicidal confidence. 'Why the hell would you charge into a melee fight with no chest armor?! I thought you Russians loved heavy plating! Running around half-naked with electric whips is just insane!' 

Several Shadow Ninjas materialized around Vanko, instantly throwing a barrage of razor-sharp shurikens directly at his exposed chest. 

Sensing the danger, Vanko didn't panic. With a flick of his wrists, he spun the twin plasma whips into a blinding, electrified shield, effortlessly swatting the metallic projectiles out of the air. 

"Are you secretly an Olympic gymnast?!" Luke couldn't help but ask, genuinely impressed by Vanko's agility. 

The man was wielding the lethal, unwieldy plasma whips with such incredible precision and grace that Luke half-expected him to be awarded a gold medal in rhythmic gymnastics. 

Vanko completely ignored the insult. Spotting Tony Stark being dragged out of the lounge by the ninjas, Vanko completely lost interest in Luke. With a roar, he spun around, casually sliced a massive hole through the exterior wall of the lounge with his whips, and charged outside onto the racetrack to pursue his actual target. 

Luke immediately shadow-stepped after him. 

As he reappeared outside, he saw Happy Hogan desperately throwing a red, metallic briefcase at Tony's feet. 

Tony stepped onto the briefcase. In a flurry of rapid, mechanical whirring, the Mark V Suitcase Armor seamlessly unfolded, rapidly wrapping around Tony's body and locking into place. 

Fully suited up, Tony finally found his courage. Glaring furiously at Whiplash through his glowing eye slits, Tony raised both gauntlets and fired twin repulsor blasts. 

With impossible reflexes, Vanko cracked his whips, violently slapping the concussive energy blasts out of the air. 

"He's really good with those whips, isn't he?" Luke commented casually, standing off to the side. 

"Yeah, he is. But with a face like that, he's never going to win a beauty pageant," Tony snarked back, keeping his repulsors raised. 

But as the smoke from the blasts cleared, Tony finally got a good look at Vanko's chest harness. He froze. 

"Hey, freak. What's that glowing thing on your chest?" Tony demanded, his voice tight. 

Vanko looked down at the crude, glowing circle strapped to his chest and grinned, revealing a mouth full of metal teeth. "It's the very thing keeping you alive, Stark." 

"Impossible!" Tony yelled, genuinely shaken. How could his proprietary, highly classified Arc Reactor technology have fallen into the hands of a random Russian terrorist?! 

Furious and determined to get answers, Tony ignited his boot thrusters and charged straight at Vanko. 

Vanko simply smirked. With two precise flicks of his wrists, the plasma whips lashed out, wrapping tightly around Tony's waist and arms. The sheer voltage instantly began frying the Mark V's external plating, which was significantly thinner and less durable than Tony's standard armor. 

With a brutal yank, Vanko used the armor's own momentum against it, violently slamming the airborne Tony directly into the asphalt. 

"Tony!" Luke was shocked. He had been planning to just sit back and watch Tony heroically defeat the villain like in the movie, but the Mark V armor was clearly outmatched. 

He immediately deployed a dozen Shadow Ninjas to swarm Vanko and rescue Tony. 

Seeing the horde of assassins rushing him with drawn katanas, Vanko tried to retract his whips to defend himself. 

But Tony, lying on the ground, furiously grabbed the electrified cables with his gauntlets. Refusing to let go, Tony yanked backward with all his mechanical strength, completely locking Vanko's arms in place and preventing him from recalling his weapons. 

Unable to defend himself, Vanko could only watch as the ninjas closed the distance. 

Schwing! 

Several cold flashes of steel severed the air. In an instant, Vanko's right arm and left leg were cleanly amputated. 

Luke sighed in frustration. He had originally ordered the ninjas to aim for Vanko's neck to instantly end the threat. But because Tony had violently yanked the cables at the exact same moment, Vanko's body had been jerked off-balance, causing the fatal strikes to miss the vital organs and only sever his limbs instead. 

With the villain heavily incapacitated and bleeding out on the asphalt, Luke noticed a massive crowd of tourists and reporters gathering at the edges of the track, frantically snapping photos of the brutal scene. Knowing the fight was over, Luke mentally called off the execution. 

Tony slowly got to his feet, groaning as the damaged Mark V armor sparked and whined. He walked over to the screaming, crippled Vanko and forcefully ripped the crude Arc Reactor right out of the man's chest harness. 

After a quick, furious inspection of the device, Tony crushed the glowing core in his gauntlet. 

Finally realizing it was safe, a squad of heavily armed Monaco police officers rushed onto the track, quickly applying tourniquets and heavily restraining the crippled villain. 

"Are you okay?" Luke asked, walking over to Tony, secretly disappointed he hadn't just instantly executed the villain. 

Tony retracted his faceplate, revealing an incredibly grim, serious expression. 

"Luke," Tony said quietly, staring at the crushed reactor in his hand. "I have a massive problem."