James Rhodes a/k/a Rhodey narrates: Iron Man was trying to quell the rioting workers when he fell from the sky; now the strikers are taking out their anger on this symbol of Tony Stark's organization by beating at the senseless hero....
Elsewhere, villain Kearson DeWitt seizes control of Tony's body and sends Iron Man into the air and then off at sonic speeds, helpless to stop. Rhodey pursues in a helicopter, catches up to Tony and grabs him with the sky-hook. On his way back to the company, he spies another copter following but hasn't the time to deal with it now....
In China, the Mandarin now sits in a palace, master of one-third of the country, and he bickers with his teacher Chen Hsu. The wizard then threatens to reveal his true form (and we see a dragon-like outline in shadow) before the Mandarin apologies and submits to his teacher's wisdom....
Back at the lab, Rhodey runs tests on Tony and they learn that his nervous system is under control by an outside agency. Tony deduces that it was at the time the microchip was implanted that enabled him to recover the use of his legs. Studying a list of companies that had a part in creating the chip for possible enemies, Rhodey spots Marrs Corporation, which owned the copter he spotted following them earlier. Tony decides to confront Desmond and Phoebe Marrs and the only way he can do that is as Iron Man. Against Rhodey's advice, Tony dons the armor and sets out. Arriving at the Marrs building, he detects a large concentration of electronic equipment in the basement and crashes in there. Shellhead lets the staff escape as he begins demolishing the machinery; he is then confronted by DeWitt in a massive purple suit of armor, and with a grudge against Stark. As they square off, DeWitt seizes control of Tony's body again and lets him feel the pain of trying to override....