Chapter 2650

The car soon reached the vicinity of the beach; this was a famous hotel's private beach, and Stark had already reserved a spot. Those who wanted to swim — Stark, Peter, Steve, and Bobby — went to the changing rooms to change into swim trunks, while those with no interest in getting in the water, like Strange and Shiler, ordered drinks at the bar and headed for the lounge chairs.

"You have to promise me you won't tell anyone." Strange walked beside Shiler on the beach, one foot deep, one foot shallow, lowering his voice. "This is a big deal; you absolutely must promise me."

"I can't give you any guarantee, because the one who ultimately breaks that guarantee won't be me." Shiler tilted his head to glance at him and said, "You're not the kind of person who can hide their feelings for long; you can't do it."

"I certainly can." Strange said, "Don't lump me together with those variants. My mind is clear; I know the priorities and urgencies of things..."

"Hope so." Shiler took a sip of the ice-cold juice, but his face wore an expression of "I have absolutely no hope."

The sky by the sea was even bluer; by now it was nearly noon and the sunlight more vicious. Shiler huddled under the umbrella watching that group of people on the beach shouting and carrying on.

It seemed Steve proposed a surfing competition, and Stark had never been weak in this kind of contest. Peter was clearly not too at ease about Stark, and also grabbed a surfboard to follow along.

The place they were at was a bay. Looking east, there was a stretch of horizon where sea met sky; looking west a bit, there was another beach. That one wasn't a private beach; there were more people, and because the distance was fairly close, quite a few people were watching this side.

Stark, this arrogant maniac — accurately speaking, a narcissistic personality disorder patient — was the typical type who goes crazy when people are watching. Other people's gazes were the best fuel for him. If one word had to describe him, it would unquestionably be "show-off."

He didn't even lie on the surfboard to warm up or conserve energy; before the big waves even arrived, he was already standing on it, showing off his quite decent recent fitness results.

But of course, no matter how much he worked out, he couldn't compare to Steve, nor even to Peter and Bobby — after all, those two still had youth on their side.

Stark mentally compared the physiques of the several of them, clearly a bit dissatisfied with his own. Although he held his own in height, his muscle mass was insufficient, his muscle definition nowhere near as distinct as the others', and from afar he simply lacked the presence of the other few.

Since that was the case, he would conquer them with technical moves. Stark had properly practiced surfing; he refused to believe that a few cool flips and spins wouldn't attract everyone's gaze.

But the heavens didn't cooperate. Today, although the wind was strong, this bay never produced any big waves. Instead, the opposite bay had one big wave after another, eliciting screams.

Seeing that the fun was running out, Stark was naturally unhappy. He waved a hand and said, "Let's go, we're heading to the other side. The waves are too small here."

"Better not, Tony." Peter said with some worry, "Surfing in high winds is dangerous to begin with, and this isn't a designated surfing area. Among us, only you don't have superpowers..."

Stark wouldn't listen to that; he practically sprang up like someone had stepped on his tail. Not wanting to argue with the few behind him, he hugged his surfboard and walked that way.

Steve shook his head helplessly and said, "He's practically old enough to be a dad, and still this childish. I really need to have a good talk with Howard..."

No choice; the other few could only risk their lives to accompany the gentleman — or rather, this gentleman Stark insisted on risking his life to accompany the few superhumans. Naturally they had to go keep an eye on things; otherwise if he really got knocked unconscious by a wave it would be trouble.

This beach was too quiet; Shiler and Strange sitting there were also bored, so they simply followed behind the group, crossing a street selling water gear to reach the opposite beach.

Immediately someone recognized Iron Man and Captain America, crowding forward desperately for autographs. A group of bikini-clad beauties sitting at tables not far from the entrance kept whistling at Peter and Bobby; the two fled in panic, and several tables of ladies burst into lively laughter.

Normally Stark would still be in the mood to interact with his fans a bit, but today he was holding his breath, determined to beat the others at surfing. Seeing the wind dying down and the waves not very big either, he had to seize the last chance, so he merely perfunctorily dealt with a couple of sentences and rushed toward the beach.

"I swear I really wasn't blowing off fans." Stark in the backstage interview spread his hands forward and said, "The way they put it is really too much. I came all this way for a vacation; how can I not enjoy a bit of my own life?"

"And after I finished surfing, I plunged into the crowd. Not only did I sign for every single one of them, I also cooperated with them for videos and photos. This even delayed my lunch, and I didn't complain at all. I really don't know how they can say I'm pulling a diva act."

"Besides, Steve didn't pay them any attention either. Does Captain America have diplomatic immunity? Or is his smiling face just more lethal than mine?"

"Tony overlooked one thing." Peter in the backstage interview room folded his hands in front of him and said, "He's had a lot of scandal reports in the past, or rather the vast majority of entertainment reports about him aren't very positive. Many people know he has a bad temper and is always impatient."

"Conversely, reports about me and Steve always lean positive. People assume I'm just a bookworm who sits in a lab doing research, while Steve is a sunny, cheerful nice guy."

"So this time the audience of the beach report was surprised that I actually have such a good physique and surf pretty well too — naturally lots of positive reviews for me. And Steve didn't do anything too out of line, fitting his consistently polite image."

"But Tony's a bit careless with details. Seeing fans swarm over, he didn't even take off his sunglasses, and in his rush forward he didn't check whether the surfboard he was hugging might hit someone. If I hadn't blocked for him, he really would've knocked down an ordinary person behind him, and he'd be getting flamed across the whole internet..."

Stark hurried to the seaside, and just as a wave receded he was about to get on the board. Steve hurriedly stopped him, saying, "Didn't your coach teach you? When switching to a new stretch of water you have to observe conditions first, then warm up again..."

"Old pedant!" Stark said completely unconcerned, "You warm up then; I'm catching the next wave."

Stark lived up to his training; his lower body was stable, his gaze like a torch. Watching the big wave approach, he didn't panic in the slightest. He drove power from his waist, his back foot stomped down hard, his body lunged forward with the momentum, then his whole body relaxed, waiting for the wave to carry him up.

A standard half-spin, drawing cheers from the beach. But unexpectedly, even more frenzied screams erupted from the other end of the shore. Stark looked over and discovered a figure riding the side peak of that same big wave, pulling an aerial one-and-a-half twist, half-spin landing — cool to an absurd degree.

Steve was still lying on his board slowly paddling. He knew Stark wanted the spotlight and didn't want to stop him, even signaling with his eyes for Peter to stand up later. Peter just pulled Bobby along paddling on the side.

But they didn't stop it; someone else stole the spotlight. Steve looked over, and his superb eyesight let him instantly recognize a group of acquaintances — the young people of the New Warriors team.

The one who just pulled that high-difficulty move was Robert. Stark obviously recognized him too, but right then another big wave came. He gritted his teeth, stomped his foot, yanked hard on the board's front tow rope, and charged straight at the wave.

Peter saw things going wrong and immediately stood up, sliding his board sideways, diving under the sweeping ten-plus-meter-high wave, and scooped up Stark who was about to be smashed down by the wave.

But who knew Robert would perform even better. First a reverse tail slide, then a smooth S-curve carved on the side wall curled up by the wave. After bursting out from the wave's tail, he even leapt to the crest and pulled another big aerial spin, descending together with the wave.

Ten-plus meters of wave sounds scary, but in reality it's not exceptionally high. Still, those gorgeous and spectacular moves drew wave after wave of cheers from the shore.

Stark had a black face from the moment he got ashore. Robert came over to say hi, and Stark just shook his hand off. Robert was a bit baffled, but he hadn't come for Stark anyway — he'd come for Steve and Shiler.

Previously, because of an accident in a certain plan, he thought he had killed Captain America, and the shock gave him a stress disorder. Shiler had been the one looking after him. Later, to make up for his guilt, Steve recruited him into the Avengers' reserve team and kept teaching him various combat skills.

Robert inherently possessed the Speedball ability — he could bounce around in midair like a ball, with mobility even surpassing Captain America's. This ability was practically born for speed and agility sports like surfing. For Stark to insist on competing with him was a bit masochistic.

"I've had it with these mutants!" Stark said angrily in the backstage interview. "They steal the spotlight in all kinds of places! They don't know how to read the room at all!"

"I must clarify once again: I am not a mutant." Robert in the backstage interview had grown his hair long, looking a bit like a rock youth. He said, "This ability was acquired by accident, not inborn. I also went through extremely hard training to master surfing skills. He can't just erase my effort because of my talent."

"Tony Stark is prone to doing this." Strange in the backstage interview sneered, pinching his voice sharp: "Isn't it just being born with a pair of God's hands? Does he still demand I give these freaks more respect?"

The word "freaks" was bleeped out.

Shiler didn't know how they started arguing again. Watching the strong wind about to die down, why not hurry up and surf instead of just holding a surfboard and posing?

Stark was unconvinced and naturally wanted another round. Most people know waves have crests and troughs. When a wave rolls in, one side curls down first, the other side later, which makes it impossible to hold a surfing competition on the open sea because positions can't be fixed.

So having this many people surf simultaneously is very difficult, but Stark insisted on competing, and the others had no way to stop him. Finally Peter looked at Strange and said, "Doctor, why don't you use magic to think of a way to conjure up a few roughly similar waves?"

Strange didn't even glance at Stark.

At this moment, Squirrel Girl from the New Warriors spoke up. "I can help you guys make waves, but you have to promise me — just this one round. I'm starving."

Shiler knew Squirrel Girl's ability was similar to wish-fulfillment; she was an invincible cartoon character. So he also persuaded them: "After all, there are this many tourists; us hogging the middle isn't good either. Hurry up and finish the competition, hurry up and eat."

Stark, Robert, Peter, Steve, and the others all got on their boards.