"They can't do that! It's his stuff!" Eri argued.

"Yeah! They can't just waltz into his home and steal his property!" Mei agreed.

"They can if they deem it necessary. Remember, Iron Man is not official law enforcement. He still technically qualifies as a vigilante. And Stark no longer has public opinion to hide behind. There is nothing preventing the government from being able to confiscate his suits." Nezu said.

"You said nobody else would possess this technology for 20 years. Well, guess what? Somebody else had it yesterday. It's not theoretical anymore." Rhodey continued.

(0:48:00 - 0:48:09)

"Yeah, I can see how that would look bad." Mina said.

"Especially when everyone is counting on you to protect them. As a hero, when you tell people that there is nothing to worry about, they expect you to be right." All Might said.

"The fact that Stark was proven wrong so quickly just gives people even more of a reason to start doubting him." Kurogiri said.

Tony still didn't respond. Rhodey approached him and placed a hand on their shoulder.

"Are you listening to me?" Rhodey asked.

Tony just gave him an exhausted look.

"Are you okay?" Rhodey asked, now a little concerned for his friend.

"...Let's go." Tony finally spoke as he began exiting the car.

However, the moment Tony stood, he nearly fell to his knees. Rhodey quickly rushed to his side and helped him up.

"You alright?" Rhodey asked, now even more concerned.

"Yeah, I should get to my desk." Tony answered.

(0:48:09 - 0:48:28)

The audience frowned. It was just one thing after another. Whiplash partnering up with Justin Hammer, the public beginning to lose faith in Iron Man, the government trying to take Stark's suits, and Stark's condition getting worse and worse. There was just no end to the bad news.

"The beginning of this film felt so bright and hopeful. But now, I feel like we're at the complete opposite of where we started." Uraraka said.

"At the start of this, we got to see Iron Man at his peak. He was unrivaled. He brought peace to the world. He was his world's greatest hero. But now, we're seeing him at his lowest point. It's been proven that he isn't invincible, the peace he's created is starting to fall apart, and the world is beginning to lose faith in his abilities as a hero. And to top it all off, he's struggling with an illness that even he can't cure." Izuku summarized.

"That is pretty rough." Toga said.

"The last time we saw him at this low of a point was back when the Ten Rings captured him." Sero said.

"And it's only gonna get worse from here. Especially now that Whiplash is free." Todoroki said.

Rhodey helped Tony walk over to his desk. Tony then asked him to open the box containing the palladium and to give him one. While Rhodey did as Tony asked, Tony removed the Arc Reactor from his chest and removed the palladium core from the Arc Reactor.

"Is that supposed to be smoking?" Rhodey questioned the now used and burnt palladium core.

"If you must know, it's neutron damage. It's from the reactor wall." Tony explained as he handed the Arc Reactor and the used palladium core to Rhodey.

"You had this in your body?" Rhodey questioned.

Tony did not respond.

"And how about the high-tech crossword puzzle on your neck?" Rhodey pointed out the dark, vein-like lines on Tony's neck.

"Road rash." Tony answered, not willing to tell Rhodey about his illness.

Rhodey didn't buy it, but chose to not press on the matter. He replaced the palladium core and handed the Arc Reactor back to Tony, who thanked him before putting the Arc Reactor back in their chest.

(0:48:28 - 0:49:08)

"Come on. You won't even tell your best friend?" Kirishima asked.

"You have to tell someone. This isn't something that you can just keep to yourself." Toru said.

Tony grabbed a bottle of the green liquid he had been drinking to stave off the symptoms. He looked at Rhodey, who was silently staring at him, seemingly analyzing him.

"What are you looking at?" Tony asked.

"I'm looking at you." Rhodey answered. "You wanna do this whole lone gunslinger act and it's unnecessary. You don't have to do this alone." He insisted.

"You know, I wish I could believe that. I really do. But you've gotta trust me. Contrary to popular belief, I know exactly what I'm doing." Tony claimed.

Rhodey stood silently, not knowing what to do with Tony at this point.

(0:49:08 - 0:49:38)

"Can one man protect the world?" Trixter's words echoed through everyone's minds.

This is what Trixter meant. Stark can't protect the whole world by himself. But he believes he has to. He believes that he is the only one who can do this job. The only one who can keep people safe. He has people that want to help him, but he doesn't think they can. He truly believes that he has to do everything alone.

Many of the heroes understand that feeling. But none understand it as much as All Might does.

All Might has always understood the importance of teamwork. The value of having the support of his fellow heroes. But in the end, when push comes to shove, All Might is alone. Because he is the only person who can truly keep everyone safe. That is the burden of those who wield One For All. In the end, the fight for peace and justice rests entirely in All Might's hands. Everyone else...? They simply can't keep up.

"Talk about arrogant." Trixter rolled their eyes.

Most of the audience assumed that Trixter was talking about Stark. But All Might had a feeling they were talking about him.

______________________________________

At Hammer Industries, Justin Hammer and his butler, Jack, were giving Ivan a brief tour.

"This is where we do it. This is my humble abode. You can work in absolute peace. Must be fun to be dead, right? No pressure." Hammer joked.

(0:49:38 - 0:49:52)

"If only he were actually dead." Bakugo said.

"And Stark doesn't even know that Whiplash is alive, so he doesn't realize that he should prepare for another attack." Spinner said.

Hammer then showed Ivan the Hammer Armor prototypes.

"Here they are. I'm very excited. They're combat ready. I may have done a few miscalculations and rushed the prototype into production. Sue me, I'm enthusiastic." Hammer chuckled.

(0:49:52 - 0:50:00)

"Tell that to the test pilot you nearly killed." Recovery Girl said.

"Cutting corners rarely ends well." Power Loader said.

Ivan approached a nearby terminal and began hacking into it.

"Oh, you don't want to do that. You'll be able to access that as soon as we generate some encrypted pass codes." Hammer said.

Ivan ignored him and easily hacked into the computer terminal within seconds.

"Wow. Okay. Good stuff." Hammer said, surprised that Ivan so easily hacked into his software.

Ivan then said something in Russian.

"Sorry?" Hammer questioned.

"Software shit." Ivan translated.

(0:50:00 - 0:50:32)

The audience chuckled.

"Yeah, that was way too easy." Ojiro said.

"That or Whiplash is just that smart." Melissa said.

"Probably a mixture of both honestly." La Brava said.

Hammer chuckled nervously. "You're good. You really blasted in past the firewall there." He said.

Ivan ignored Hammer and took a closer look at one of the Hammer Armor prototypes.

"Uh... Let me show you where you're gonna be working primarily. Go ahead, take a look." Hammer tried to continue the tour even though Ivan was basically showing himself around at this point.

Ivan began analyzing the head of the armor.

"You know, those are really just for show and tell. They're $125.7 million a pop so..." Hammer said.

(0:50:32 - 0:50:55)

"$125.7 million?! It costs that much just to make one of those suits?!" Uraraka's jaw dropped.

"And his suits barely even work." Kota said.

"That's actually a shockingly low price. A suit on the same level as Stark's would likely cost at least a few billion dollars." Power Loader said.

"Hammer must have cut a lot of corners to make his suits so cheap. And it definitely shows." Melissa said.

"That's cheap?!" Uraraka's jaw dropped even more. How could anyone call that much money cheap?

Ivan suddenly ripped the head of the prototype off to take a look inside.

"Wait! Oh, gosh. Uh..." Hammer rubbed his head in annoyance. "Jesus Christ. Get somebody up here." He whispered to Jack. "Um, that's where the pilot goes. I'm having a tough time finding volunteers." He chuckled.

(0:50:55 - 0:51:09)

"I wonder why." Compress said sarcastically.

"Most people aren't gonna line up to try out your little death trap." Dabi said.

"I volunteer as tribute! No way! I like having a spine, thank you very much." Twice said.

Ivan decided to put the head back and then turned to Hammer.

"What you want them do?" Ivan asked.

"Well, long term, I want them to put me in the Pentagon for the next 25 years. I want to make Iron Man look like an antique. I wanna go to that Stark Expo, I wanna take a dump in Tony's front yard." Hammer answered.

"I can do that. No problem." Ivan chuckled.

"Yeah? Hey, fabulous! I love it. Hey, this is are guy. Didn't I tell you? I had a feeling." Hammer smiled at Jack and Ivan.

(0:51:09 - 0:51:34)

"Hmph. What an idiot." Dabi said.

"You trust that madman at your own peril." Tokoyami said.

"Their interests are aligned for now, but that won't always be the case." Aizawa said.

"Indeed. It's already been made clear that Whiplash doesn't like Hammer. The only reason he has agreed to this partnership is because it benefits him. Once Hammer is no longer of use to him, Whiplash will likely dispose of them." Nezu said.

______________________________________

It was the night of Tony Stark's birthday party. Many guests were arriving at Tony's mansion.

Tony was shown in his bedroom looking at the Arc Reactor in his chest in despair as a hologram showed his current condition.

The hologram listed Tony's palladium poisoning as 89% and estimated that he only has 7 days left to live.

(0:51:34 - 0:51:43)

"No..." Iida said.

"He only has a week left..." Izuku said.

Shigaraki smiled. "Not too much longer now. In just a few days, this world will lose it's one and only hero."

"Well, there's still Banner. At least he'll still be around." Uraraka said.

"Unfortunately, Banner could never fill the void that will be left behind by Stark. He did good against Abomination, but his dangerous power and criminal status make it impossible for him to ever be a proper hero." Aizawa said.

"Just because Banner can't be a hero by your standards doesn't mean he can't be a hero at all. Still though, I will agree that, for the time being, Banner really isn't in any position to be a superhero." Trixter said.

Natalie entered the room, carrying a box of watches. "Do you know which watch you'd like to wear tonight, Mr. Stark?" She asked.

"I'll give them a look." Tony said as he quickly buttoned up his shirt.

Natalie sat the box down on a dresser and began fixing Tony a martini.

"...I should cancel the party, huh?" Tony asked.

"Probably." Natalie answered.

"Yeah. 'Cause it's, um..." Tony began.

"Ill-timed." Natalie finished.

"Right, sends the wrong message." He agreed.

"Inappropriate." She added as she handed him the martini.

(0:51:43 - 0:52:02)

"About time you realized that." Nighteye said.

"Hopefully he'll do the reasonable thing and cancel the party." Thirteen said.

"But this is his last birthday. He should celebrate it." Tsu said.

"Normally, that would be fine, but this is a really bad time." Aizawa said.

Tony took a sip of his drink before sitting down and requested that Natalie let him look at the watches.

Natalie brought the box over and handed it to Tony. She then sat on the arm of his chair and began applying concealer onto his face to hide his bruises.

Tony stared at Natalie for a moment. "...I gotta say it. It's hard to get a read on you. Where are you from?" He asked.

"Legal." Natalie dodged the question.

(0:52:02 - 0:52:38)

A few in the audience laughed at Natalie's answer.

"She is quite the mysterious woman." Midnight said.

"A little too mysterious if you ask me." Aizawa said.

Aizawa could tell Rushman was dodging Stark's question, but why? What was she trying to hide?

"...Can I ask you a question, hypothetically? Bit odd. If this was your last birthday party you were ever gonna have, how would you celebrate it?" Tony asked Natalie.

Natalie thought for a moment. "I'd do whatever I wanted to do. With whoever I wanted to do it with." She answered.

(0:52:38 - 0:52:58)

"Same." Mina said.

"I think that's pretty much what anyone would want to do." Midnight said.

"Then what's so bad about him throwing one last birthday party?" Toru asked.

"His responsibilities as a hero should come first. And right now, the world is starting to doubt Iron Man. Stark should be trying to make people feel safe again. Throwing a party like this will just make him seem more careless in the eyes of the public." All Might said.

Natalie then finished applying the concealer and left the room.

Tony sighed and gulped down the rest of his margarita, having decided how he wanted to spend his last birthday.

______________________________________

Tony was then shown partying with his guests while wearing the Mark IV Iron Man suit.

Pepper entered the room, surprised to see Iron Man dancing in front of all his guests.

(0:52:58 - 0:53:27)

"He is not partying in the Iron Man armor!" Endeavor said.

"He is." Compress said.

Many in the audience, mostly the heroes and villains, were annoyed by this. The Iron Man armor is not a toy.

"Well, the suit wasn't made for partying, but it is still his. I guess there's nothing wrong with wanting to show it off." Mei tried to justify.

"Partying is one thing. But wearing the Iron Man suit while doing so is something else entirely! Iron Man is not a party trick!" Aizawa said.

Stain could feel his blood boiling.

Outside, Rhodey had just arrived. He was on the phone with his superiors, assuring them that he would handle the Iron Man situation, even promising that Iron Man would be back on watch within 24 hours.

(0:53:27 - 0:53:41)

"Maybe Rhodes will put a stop to this nonsense." Recovery Girl said.

"We can only hope." Nezu said.

Rhodey entered the party and looked around until he spotted Pepper. He greeted her, but she simply responded that she was going to get some air. When Rhodey asked what was wrong, Pepper decided to show him the source of her stress.

"I don't know what to do." Pepper said.

"You gotta be kidding me." Rhodey said as he saw Tony, in the Mark IV and with a beer in hand, stumbling over his own feet.

(0:53:41 - 0:54:02)

"Oh, no... He's drunk too." Inko said.

"This is their Symbol of Peace? A drunken man partying in his war machine?" Shigaraki questioned.

"Okay, I'm all for showing off your babies, but you should do it with a sound mine. Not when you're drunk." Mei said. Even she wouldn't use the Iron Man armor while intoxicated.

Many in the audience became worried. The Iron Man suit is a very dangerous piece of technology. It's not something that Stark should be using while he's drunk.

Stain, meanwhile, felt his rage building more and more.

"That's it. I'm making-" Rhodey began leaving right as Pepper stopped him.

"No, no, no. Don't call anyone." She pleaded.

"Pepper! This is ridiculous! I just stuck my neck out for this guy!" He said.

"I know. I know. I get it. I'm gonna handle it, okay? Just let me handle it." She tried to calm him.

"Handle it. Or I'm gonna have to." He tried to compose himself.

(0:54:02 - 0:54:14)

"Someone better handle it before somebody gets hurt." Kirishima said.

The drunken Tony grabbed a microphone and began speaking to his guests.

"You know, the question I get asked most often is, 'Tony, how do you go to the bathroom in the suit?'" Tony said before pausing for a moment and shutting his eyes. "......Just like that." He said, causing the whole crowd to laugh at the fact that he really just pissed in his suit.

(0:54:14 - 0:54:25)

"Ew! That's so disgusting!" Mineta said.

"And inappropriate!" Iida added.

Pepper then approached the giggling Tony and took the mic from him. "Does this guy know how to throw a party or what?" She said, trying to hide her embarrassment.

The crowd cheered.

"I love you." Tony said.

"Unbelievable! Thank you so much. Tony, we all thank you so much for such a... wonderful night. And we're gonna say good night now, and thank you all for coming." Pepper said, causing the crowd to groan in