Chapter 610
War Machines Save the Day
Just as Peter used a crazy, injury-for-injury style of play to forcefully create a breakthrough for the struggling Spider Squad.
On the other side...
Hit by an EMP bomb, Tony completely lost control of the Mark III and could only watch helplessly as he drew closer and closer to the ground.
Finally, with a dull thud and a noticeable tremor in the ground, Tony plummeted from the sky and crashed heavily to the ground.
Thanks to Tony's shock-absorbing lining, which was powerful enough to defy the law of conservation of energy, Tony only felt slightly dizzy after the impact of the fall. Unlike Rhodey in the original story, he didn't pass out and suffer the tragic fate of being paralyzed from the waist down.
However, this does not mean that Tony's crisis is over.
Having witnessed Tony's fall, and with the armor scan showing that the Mark 3 was offline, the Beetle, which had once provided Tony with power, allowing him to rival gods with a mortal body, had become a humanoid iron coffin restricting Tony's freedom of movement. The Beetle then swiftly descended from the sky, landing steadily in front of Tony.
He looked down at Tony, who lay face up in the ruins, silent.
But I only glanced at it.
Unlike other villains who, when victory was within their grasp, gloated and spouted a lot of nonsense, giving their opponents a chance to turn the tables, the beetle did not.
He raised his right arm, the wrist armor rapidly deforming and reforming, ejecting a high-frequency vibrating cutting blade. He prepared to cleanly and decisively sever Tony's head as irrefutable proof of mission success, and then go to his employer to claim the bounty.
However, before he could swing his cutting blade, a series of dense energy cannons poured down from the high sky above him.
The artillery fire landed with millimeter-level precision. Each shot grazed the edge of Tony's armor, severely damaging the Beetle's limbs and forcing him to his knees. His hands dangled at his sides; he had already missed the perfect opportunity to finish Tony off!
Even the sudden reinforcements, while severely damaging the beetles, still had time to adjust the direction of their cannon fire. This ensured that a portion of the energy beams accurately struck the horde of minions rapidly gathering behind the beetles, preparing to surround Tony!
In an instant, the series of explosions knocked several henchmen to the ground, where they lay groaning in pain, unable to get up for a long time.
The remaining henchmen were then shot in the head one by one by machine gun fire, losing all signs of life on the spot!
In the blink of an eye, the battle, in which the enemy was at a significant disadvantage in numbers, was completely reversed by the newcomer!
This thwarted the beetle's plans, leaving it both surprised and furious. It struggled to raise its head and look in the direction from which the attack had come.
A silver-black steel suit of armor hovered in mid-air. Its appearance clearly showed a connection to the Mark series. However, it had two additional independent fire modules on its shoulders and a row of miniature missile launchers mounted on the outer sides of each arm, making it look more like a mobile arsenal compressed to human size.
Without a doubt, the person who saved Tony in time was Rhodes, who began to operate under the codename "War Machine" while piloting the Mark 2 armor that had been initially modified!
"Sorry, Tony, this new gear was just modified and hasn't had time for real-world testing and further calibration, so I'm a little late."
It was at this moment that Rhodes' voice, transmitted through an encrypted channel, entered Tony's helmet. His tone was a mixture of lingering fear and relief. But quickly, after confirming that Tony was not in mortal danger, and that the Mark III was merely temporarily offline, Rhodes couldn't help but laugh.
"But buddy, you should get up now. Sleeping isn't allowed here... Luckily you finally realized you needed to ask me for help, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get you in time. Of course, I've recorded the entire call and made dozens of backups~"
Without a doubt, as a good brother, Rhodey would not want to see Tony get into trouble.
but……
This doesn't contradict making fun of his good friend's embarrassing situation at all~
"Huh? Wait, what nonsense are you talking about... What do you mean, I asked you for help...?"
Tony paused for a moment upon hearing this, then subconsciously frowned and asked in return.
"You must have misunderstood something. I didn't call you, let alone ask you for help."
Meanwhile, the residual effects of the EMP bomb are gradually fading.
Thanks to Jarvis's emergency repairs, the Mark III's operating system was finally rebooted. As the thrusters spewed flames again, Tony rolled off the ground, kicking up a cloud of gravel and dust, and came to a steady stop beside Rhodey.
The next second, he flipped off his mask, looked at his good brother with a face full of doubt, and said, word by word.
Rhodes paused for a moment, then chuckled, "Come on, Tony, there's nothing shameful about it. Besides, the enemy hasn't been dealt with yet; now's not the time to be stubborn—"
"I told you, I didn't."
Before Rhodes could finish speaking, Tony repeated himself, his tone even more somber than before.
He then retrieved his communication records and sent them to the holographic projection screen on Rhodes' mask.
The screen was filled with call logs and task logs, scrolling one after another.
The most recent messages were all battle reports and dispatch orders he issued to District Thirteen before the battle.
Next, there are Jarvis's automatically recorded EMP impact timestamps and system reboot logs.
From beginning to end, not a single distress signal was sent to Colonel James Rhodes.
Faced with this irrefutable evidence, Rhodes' smile slowly faded.
He opened the communication log of his armor and pulled up the recording that had summoned him there.
The voice coming from inside was unmistakably Tony's own. Even the smallest details, some of which Tony himself hadn't noticed, were reproduced perfectly!
Even from the moment the phone call came in until Tony was hit by the EMP grenade, Rhodey had Tony's real-time location information!
Even the timing of the phone call was perfect, exactly when Sheriff Blake had finished assigning tasks and everyone was preparing to take action!
This left the two of them looking at each other, both seeing deep confusion in each other's eyes.
If it wasn't Tony himself who did it, then who sent the distress signal to Rhodes?
How did he know that Tony would be ambushed and defeated, and that Rhodey's war machine had been modified and was ready for combat, thus setting up this contingency plan in advance?
Even more deadly is...
Neither Tony nor Jarvis realized that their location information had been leaked!
This means that anyone who makes this call, even with the slightest bit of hostility towards Tony or Rhodes, can be easily lured into a deadly trap and manipulated at will!
As a result, Rhodes no longer felt the joy of victory in battle.
Instead, a chill ran through his hands and feet, and he realized that his timely support was less of his own volition and more of that of a puppet being manipulated! Every move he made was part of the other party's calculations!