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"Boom!"
Rhodes was punched away, crashing into a container.
"Rhodes!"
"I'm fine... Damn it! This guy is really strong!"
The Mark 17 Heartbreaker had just landed when an Extremis soldier grabbed its head and forcibly ripped it off the chest plate!
"Sir! Their strength is too great! My drone protocols cannot engage in effective combat!"
"Then don't fight! Blast them to pieces!"
The pulse cannon in the Mark 16 Nightclub's palm began to charge, but a female Extremis soldier rushed in faster, plunging her hand into its reactor!
"Boom—Rumble!!!"
The Nightclub exploded on the spot, turning into a ball of expensive fireworks.
Tony was stunned.
This wasn't a battle; it was a massacre.
"Jarvis! Analyze their weaknesses! Why can't they be killed?!" Tony activated the thrusters on his back, flew into mid-air, and swept the area with his pulse cannons.
"Sir! Their self-healing ability is too strong! Unless... you kill them in one hit!"
"Easier said than done!"
"Bang—!"
"Shit!"
Tony was grabbed from the air by two Extremis soldiers and slammed hard onto the deck.
"Tony!" Killian's voice came from above.
He stood on a crane, dressed in a well-tailored suit, his hair meticulously combed, but his face glowed with a hellish red light from the high temperature.
"Look at you, Tony! You always rely on these toys!"
"Killian!" Tony aimed his unibeam at him, "Where's Pepper?! What have you done to her?!"
"Her? She's evolving, Tony!"
Killian spread his arms, enjoying his masterpiece, "I gave her a gift! A perfection you could never give her!"
"Go to hell!!"
Tony's internal missiles fired, but Killian was faster.
"Whoosh—!"
He breathed out a dragon-like flame, detonating the missiles right as they left their launchers!
"Boom!"
The Impact slammed Tony hard against a container.
"Sir! The House Party Protocol has been completely wiped out! Please disengage from the battlefield as soon as possible!" Jarvis's voice sounded.
Those early models were as fragile as cheap plastic toys in front of these 3000-degree "human blast furnaces."
Coupled with their limited numbers, they couldn't form a large-scale force, leading to their rapid defeat, being melted, torn apart, their wreckage scattered across the deck.
"It's over, Tony."
Killian slowly walked down the stairs, followed by a dozen surviving Extremis soldiers.
They surrounded the fallen Tony Stark like a pack of glowing evil wolves.
Tony tried to stand up, but his damaged armor wouldn't obey.
"Jarvis... eject armor..."
"Permission denied, sir. The chest plate is severely deformed from the Impact."
Tony was trapped in his own "iron coffin."
Killian stepped forward, his palm glowing crimson. He intended to melt Tony's faceplate like opening a can.
"You know, Tony. My biggest regret was choosing to... believe your nonsense." Killian's voice was filled with the pleasure of revenge.
"And now..."
He raised his hand, aiming at Tony's face.
"Farewell, obsolete... futurist."
Tony closed his eyes. "...Pepper."
"Stop."
A voice abruptly echoed across the entire deck.
In the night sky, the man slowly descended.
His golden hair was meticulously combed, and there wasn't a ripple in his azure eyes.
The Stars and Stripes cape billowed behind him without a breeze.
"Homelander..." Tony could barely breathe.
"Wh-what?!" Killian's smile froze.
"You... when did you get here?!"
"Hey, Tony. Colonel Rhodes." Anthony turned and waved at them, as if greeting them in his own backyard, "It seems... your party's gotten a little out of hand?"
"Homelander..." Rhodes crawled out of the container, half of his Mark 12 almost melted.
"You... why are you here?"
"Oh, me?" Anthony pointed to himself, "I'm... saving the World."
He turned sideways.
Everyone, including Killian, saw what was behind him.
Behind Anthony... stood a person.
A man in a well-fitting suit, shaken but completely unharmed.
"P-President?!" Rhodes' jaw nearly dropped.
"Good evening, Colonel." President Ellis swallowed, trying to compose himself.
Tony Stark's brain crashed.
"Wait... wait a minute..."
Tony struggled to stand up, "The President... the President was clearly still up there... We... we came to save him..."
Anthony smiled.
"Tony, Tony... did you think I just arrived?"
He scanned Tony's chest with his X-ray vision.
"Your little heart is beating very fast."
"I arrived twenty minutes ago."
"What?!" Tony and Rhodes exclaimed in unison.
"Just when you two... um... were fumbling around like headless flies." Anthony shrugged, "I flew to the top of that oil tank and untied the President. And, by the way, I told the President a joke."
He turned to the President: "Did you find it funny, Mr. President?"
"...Very... very humorous, Mr. Homelander." President Ellis wiped away cold sweat.
Tony Stark felt the greatest insult of his life.
"So..." Tony pointed at him, trembling with anger, "You motherfucker... after you saved the President... you've been hiding up there... watching us get beaten like dogs?!"
"Woah, Tony, watch your language." Anthony feigned surprise, covering his mouth, "I wasn't watching."
"I call it trust."
"Trust in your ability as avenger."
"You..."
"Tony!" Rhodes grabbed Stark, who was about to explode.
"Enough!!" Killian finally reacted from his shock, pointing coldly at Anthony, "What the hell are you?! You're just a clown in a costume! Kill him!!"
"Die!!"
An Extremis soldier closest to Anthony roared and charged, his body burning with scorching flames, his hands gripping towards Anthony's head like red-hot irons!
Anthony didn't even look at him.
He just... casually, backhanded him.
"Slap—!!!!"
An extremely crisp slap.
That Extremis soldier, who could tear apart Iron Man armor with his bare hands, was... directly slapped, causing his neck to rotate seven hundred and twenty degrees.
"Thud."
The corpse fell, and the entire scene fell silent...
"..." Tony Stark held his breath.
"..." Colonel Rhodes' armor system showed that his heart skipped a beat.
"He... goddamn..." Rhodes whispered.
"Oh, I'm so sorry." Anthony shook his hand in disgust, as if he had touched something unclean, "I hate it when people touch my hair."
"Damn monster..." Killian subtly took a step back.
"No." Anthony shook his head, that "holy" smile returning to his face, "I am Homelander."