Senju Haruto didn't need to lift a finger.
Optimus Prime alone crushed the Iron Monger with his bare hands.
Stane's flesh and blood were mangled together with the twisted scrap of his armor, filling the air with the stench of blood and iron.
Iron Monger—
Dead.
Stark collapsed onto the ground, his arc reactor completely drained. He no longer had the power to fly away. After his battle with Stane, both his body and spirit were exhausted. Now, seeing his enemy destroyed, his heart eased slightly.
But this was far from over.
In the original Iron Man storyline, the situation ended neatly. The military was kept at bay by Colonel Rhodes, and S.H.I.E.L.D. only sent Agent Coulson to manage the incident. With minimal destruction and the Iron Monger's fall into the arc reactor explosion, the matter closed.
Then Stark declared that iconic line:
I am Iron Man.
But this time…
With Haruto's intervention, the military took the situation far more seriously. Rhodes' authority wasn't enough to stop them.
Trained soldiers were already rushing to the scene. Armed helicopters circled above.
And through the intelligence network, Director Fury himself had taken notice. His attention locked not on Stark or Stane—but on Senju Haruto, the very kind of superhuman he had been searching for.
"What the hell is that thing?"
The Army was first to arrive, locking down the entire district.
As shocking as Haruto was, it was Optimus Prime who drew every eye.
"Is this some kind of top-secret tech from Japan?" one soldier muttered, unable to believe what he was seeing. To him, aside from the U.S. military, only Japan could possibly build such a mechanical giant.
Within moments, weapons were raised across the line, and calls for air support flooded the comms.
Facing an unknown power like this, no soldier dared act rashly.
"It's the military," Stark muttered, glancing around before warning Haruto.
But he wasn't surprised.
The sheer commotion—Optimus Prime appearing out of thin air—there was no way the Department of Defense would ignore it.
From Stark's perspective, it was obvious: they weren't here to protect anyone. They were here to seize Haruto's technology.
Unexpected, yet inevitable.
"Fortunately, they don't know the truth about you," Stark said, breathing deeply as he pushed himself off the ground. He moved to stand beside Haruto, spreading his hands.
"Do a little trick and get us out of here."
By trick, Stark meant Haruto's portal.
Whatever forces the military or even S.H.I.E.L.D. sent, they knew nothing of magic. They couldn't hold Haruto against his will.
Just as Stark said: one portal, and they could vanish without a trace.
It would be as if they'd never been here at all.
And since Haruto wasn't even of this world, there was no chance of anyone uncovering his identity.
To both the military and S.H.I.E.L.D., he was nothing less than a living enigma.
Yes.
One portal was all it would take.
That should have been the end of it.
"…Interesting."
But Haruto's lips curled into a faint, mischievous smile.
"Whoever you are, drop your weapons and raise your hands!"
The stern, commanding voice came from the east.
Haruto and Stark turned to see a white-haired officer shouting through a loudspeaker, demanding their surrender.
Haruto, as a traveler between worlds, instantly recognized the man.
General Thunderbolt Ross.
At this point in the timeline, he had yet to discover Banner's whereabouts.
Interested in Optimus, are you? Haruto thought.
Ross wasn't obsessed with Banner himself, nor the Hulk as a person. What consumed him was power.
He hunted Hulk for one reason: the serum in his blood, a chance to replicate it and forge an army of super-soldiers. To expand America's military might.
The Hulk serum was one form of power.
But Optimus Prime—a living mechanical titan—was another.
Ross had just watched Optimus crush Iron Monger like a tin can. That image alone was enough to burn itself into his ambition.
"Are you trying to start a war?" Ross's voice dropped as Haruto and Stark refused to comply.
Though unexpected, Ross had the authority to mobilize tens of thousands of troops if necessary.
And this wasn't a matter of small-time terrorists.
This was a kind of technological force the world had never seen.
It wasn't just Ross who wanted it—everyone above him would want it even more.
In such matters, restrictions and rules could be set aside.
As the commander on the front lines, Ross's words carried absolute weight.
His orders were greenlit, no questions asked.
Already, beyond the soldiers sealing off the block, armored vehicles and tanks were moving into position.
If Haruto and Stark cooperated, all would go smoothly.
If not, Ross had no qualms about igniting a localized war to seize Optimus Prime.
With their legions of scientists, he was confident America could reverse-engineer the machine.
"This is your last chance," Ross declared, voice sharp as steel.
Air support and ground forces were en route.
Against them, Haruto had only one machine on his side.
With such overwhelming superiority, Ross couldn't even imagine losing.
"You're not going to use your trick?" Stark asked, unable to hold back.
If his armor hadn't been drained of energy, he wouldn't have cared about Ross—he would have flown off already.
But now, he had no choice but to rely on Haruto's portal.
Otherwise, his identity as Stark would be exposed.
Later, at the press conference, he would indeed reveal himself as Iron Man. But for now, he hadn't yet made that decision.
So he had no intention of outing himself.
But Haruto ignored him.
Slowly, he began to speak, his voice laced with magic.
It carried far stronger than any loudspeaker, reaching every soldier's ears with perfect clarity.
"Ross… you know nothing of war."
His tone was low, unyielding.
Neither Ross nor his soldiers even registered in Haruto's eyes.
"…That man…"
High above, in a helicopter, Fury watched the scene unfold.
Through advanced optics, he confirmed it: Haruto was the superhuman he had been searching for.
But in Fury's chest, unease stirred.
Ross might hold high rank, but his intelligence paled compared to what Fury knew.
Against Haruto's incomprehensible power, Ross truly might not understand… just how little he knew of war.