During their battle in front of
Stark Enterprises,
Iron Man has remotely shut down
War Machine's armor—and then to his surprise,
Rhodey gets up and slugs him.
Tony had done this before (
IRON MAN #192) and Rhodey is insulted that Tony didn't think he would remember it. The brutal bashing continues as the
Mandarin watches via the
Heart of Darkness, gloating as he dispatches his
Avatars to wreak havoc in Hong Kong. The armor battle gets brutal and is being covered by TV news so that
Jim Rhodes' colleagues at
Worldwatch,
Rebecca Bergier,
Ranald Jeffries, and
Travis Berkeley, can see the latest scandal their associate War Machine is bringing on the firm. At Stark,
Bethany Cabe is fed up with the latest development and takes action as
Mrs. Arbogast,
Felix Alvarez, and
Abe Zimmer watch in confusion. While Tony and Rhodey are having flashbacks to previous adventures (their first meeting in
#144 and Tony's rescue of Rhodey in
#216), Bethany fires an EMP rifle paralyzing both sets of armor and trapping the heroes inside. She tells them they have six minutes to work it out until the pulse wears off. But at this point the Mandarin appears, takes hold of both of them and teleports away, laughing....
Story continues in
FORCE WORKS #6.
Give that special marvelite a timely gift