Chapter 52: Iron Will (Part 3)

A few days later, Pepper came to pick up the injured Stark from the hospital. The driver carried Pepper and Stark out of the Presbyterian Hospital and drove onto the main road.

Before they had driven far, a violent explosion came from the rear of a car, followed by the sound of throwing smoke grenades. The hissing sound released a cloud of white mist, which soon shrouded everything within the field of vision.

Stark hurriedly pressed Pepper down beside him. The "whoosh-whoosh" sound of bullets was incessant, hitting the bulletproof glass, making the whole car vibrate.

Stark cursed secretly, took out his phone, and was about to call for the armor. Pepper pushed him and said, "Damn it, your injuries haven't healed yet. Call Rhodes first and let him drive the armor!"

Before Stark could refute, Pepper grabbed the phone, hid under the car seat, and called Rhodes, saying, "Tony and I were attacked on the way out of the hospital! Hurry up and call someone for us!"

As soon as her voice fell, a huge vibration sound came from the ground. The sound of heavy objects landing accompanied by mechanical clicking sounds rose around them. Stark looked back. Outside the car window, several huge robots surrounded them.

The driver in the front seat had already been shot. Stark had to crawl into the driver's seat himself. Pepper smoothed her hair and said, "Turn right to the square, support can see us at a glance!"

Fortunately, the quality of Stark's safe car was good. He ignited and accelerated instantly, starting to flee for his life.

He hammered the steering wheel and said, "It's a good thing we were discharged at night!"

Then he looked back and saw five or six big robots chasing behind his butt. Stark said, "I must go out to fight. If they plan to self-destruct here, that would be terrible!"

"This is the city center, and it's not far from the Presbyterian Hospital. Once so many robots self-destruct here, I'm afraid the entire hospital will be razed to the ground!"

The car speed got faster and faster, and Stark couldn't control the car a bit. A drift turn left pitch-black traces on the ground, and the harsh braking sound spread far away.

Seeing that the nearest robot was about to jump onto the car with a leap, Stark heard a "bang" collision sound. A figure swinging in mid-air kicked the robot's head and kicked it away.

Peter landed on the roof with a "bang," poked his head into the driver's cab, and said, "Am I very timely?"

Then he looked up and forward and said quickly, "Hey! Listen! Don't go straight, turn left! There's a traffic jam ahead! If these big guys run over, all the cars will be trampled into scrap iron by them!"

After speaking, he fired another spider web, quickly stuck it to the wall of the building, and then stepped on those robots to shuttle until they were all angered.

One of the robots raised its arm and fired a rocket at him. A booming explosion sounded. Spider-Man was unscathed, but the gate of a shop was blown off. The shop assistant inside was scratched by broken glass. Spider-Man had to rush in and save him quickly.

"It seems that the spider kid is also busy," Stark said. "The commotion these guys made is too big. Someone must go to save people."

Pepper said, "Rhodes must have called Steve and Shiler. Let's take care of ourselves first!"

The wounds on Stark's body were still aching faintly. A few days were not enough for him to fully recover. Then he looked up, and the shadow of a helicopter shrouded the car. Rhodes hung on the door of the helicopter and shouted at him, "Drive south!!! Hurry!!! We can't fight them hand-to-hand here!! That will kill many people!!"

Stark gritted his teeth, twisted the steering wheel hard, and the car darted out to the left, spun around, grazed two road piles, and then slammed into a street corner.

Stark opened the somewhat damaged car door. Pepper was a bit dizzy from the shaking. Stark protected her and got off the car.

Spider-Man directly tore off two huge streetlights with spider webs and then waved one of them, causing no small trouble for those robots. Stark shouted, "Jarvis! Arm!"

Soon, a gold-red armor flew over. After Iron Man completed the arming, he first hugged Pepper and flew to the roof, placing her in a safe place. Immediately after, Rhodes also put on the armor.

This was a small factory that manufactured mechanical parts. But fortunately, because the time was too late, the workers were basically off work, and the security guards who heard the movement had long since fled. When those robots arrived, Iron Man and Rhodes were waiting for them with fists ready.

Little Spider swung over from behind, followed by Captain America. Because those big guys trampled all the way from the city, many people were injured. Little Spider's organizational ability was not very good, so it all relied on Steve to evacuate the crowd.

Although Peter's close-quarters combat skills were not strong enough, he had brute force, was fast and flexible, which made those tin cans dizzy and created a good output environment for Iron Man.

A few sparks from the palm cannon caused a small-scale explosion. Iron Man shuttled quickly among those huge robots, and Rhodes also knocked down two robots. He shouted, "This won't work! If they self-destruct together! None of us can escape!"

"This is not right, not right at all..." Stark reacted only now. "These robots are definitely not Obadiah's work. Even if he took away the core energy, he couldn't make so many robots in such a short time. This requires a complete military industry chain. Stark's military production line is all in Pepper's hands. Obadiah couldn't have hidden it from her and produced so many in one breath..."

Just as he finished speaking, one of the big robots hit by his palm cannon rushed toward him. Spider-Man shouted on the other side, "Hide quickly!!! There is danger!!!"

Iron Man's armor power was turned to the maximum, a rapid pull-up, a loud "Boom!!" sound, and another scorched big crater was blown out on the spot.

"It's a good thing I modified the jet propulsion, otherwise I couldn't resist such a big impact."

As he spoke, he dived down again, quickly hugged a robot and threw it out. This time Iron Man learned to be smart. After throwing it out, he immediately turned around and flew back. Sure enough, soon there was another violent explosion sound.

Stark reacted quickly, but Steve behind him was not so lucky. He used his shield to block the aftermath of the impact, but he was still blown into a somersault.

"Damn it! What are these things!"

Iron Man floated in mid-air, looking at the scorched wreckage on the ground, and said, "I recognize it, that's the No. 7 part before modification. It's the version I gave to the military..."

He looked back at Rhodes who was still fighting with the robots, silently pulled the armor high, and then went to deal with the next enemy.

Continuous explosion sounds rose, but other robots joined the battle. This place was almost blown into ruins.

It had to be said that such tactics were very effective. Massive explosions were always accompanied by strong impacts, making several people busy dealing with them. And what was more cunning was that once a robot wanted to escape this war zone, the superheroes had to take the initiative to chase them and catch them. Otherwise, once they self-destructed in the residential area, that would be terrible.

Although Iron Man gradually figured out the pattern, the interval between the two attacks was too short. He didn't have time to improve the armor to deal with this kind of suicide infantry. Two consecutive explosions sounded, Iron Man was blown away, and the armor emitted a series of sparks.

Seeing him miss, four or five robots surrounded him instantly, and they didn't intend to fight Iron Man hand-to-hand. Their purpose was only one, which was to use the explosion to blow him to death.

Just when the red light on the chest of the first robot lit up, the ground vibrated again. A violent roaring sound rose. A huge arm grabbed the robot and threw it out at once, letting it hit the wall and explode.

A steel monster two sizes larger than these self-destructing robots appeared. Iron Man crawled up from the ground and flew into mid-air. He said, "Hell, what is this again? Where did they get so many robots from?!!"

The steel monster directly tore a self-destructing robot into two halves and dug out the bomb on its chest. Rhodes was also stunned. He said, "What's going on? Why are they fighting among themselves?!"

"Can't you see it yet?! They are not the same group of people!" Captain America shouted.

The situation on the field was extremely complicated now. The superheroes had to deal with those self-destructing robots to prevent them from rushing out to explode, and that steel monster seemed to just want to tear these robots apart.

Iron Man didn't know who to hit for a while, and Spider-Man didn't care at all, treating everyone as an enemy, using spider webs to trip the self-destructing robots while also giving the steel monster a punch.

Not long after, the self-destructing robots were basically solved, either thrown out to explode or dug out of the bombs.

They just breathed a sigh of relief when they saw another huge figure appear on the roof of the building opposite. An enlarged version of a self-destructing robot jumped down, also with black and gold paint, but the body size was more than three times larger than Iron Man's armor, making a huge roar when landing.

"My God, what is this again? I have never seen so many robots in my life!" Peter said. "Are they still a family of three?"

Captain America walked over with his shield and said, "If that's really the case, then judging from the body size, you know who the son is."

"You didn't keep the agreement between us!" the robot that just jumped down made a sound.

"It was you who played me..." that steel monster also said. Obviously, these two robots were piloted by someone.

Stark showed a shocked expression. He and Rhodes said almost in unison, "Uncle Obadiah!", "General Johnson!"

But before they could ask clearly what was going on, the two huge steel robots were entangled together.

It could be seen that although these two robots were very strong, the two pilots were obviously unskilled. They were all using hooligan boxing methods to fight—you give me a punch, I give you a punch.

Iron Man froze in mid-air. He didn't know who to help either. Jarvis just helped him do a voice analysis. The person speaking was indeed Obadiah, but what on earth was going on? Were these self-destructing robots really not made by Obadiah? And what was going on with that General Johnson? Could it be that the two of them originally wanted to join forces to deal with him, but had an internal strife???

Iron Man felt that it didn't seem right to help anyone now, so he could only float in mid-air to watch the show.

The steel monster threw a punch, hitting General Johnson's armor. With a "bang," the cockpit panel shattered. General Johnson stepped back and waved his arms, saying, "Howard's little follower! Now you still want to stand up and protect his son! It's really ridiculous. When he wanted to close Stark's military industry department, why didn't he ask his good uncle for his opinion!"

"He never took your hard work seriously, but now you still want to be a security guard for him?! That old Andro was really right back then. The only correct thing Howard, that rotten person, did in his life was to find a watchdog like you!"

The steel monster on the opposite side made no sound. Immediately after, General Johnson stepped back again and said to Rhodes on the other side, "Look, this is your tomorrow! You all like to follow behind Stark, on call. Friends? Heh, if he really took you as a friend, he wouldn't give you some technical data that is already old and outdated!"

"Our friend opposite has been a watchdog for Howard for a lifetime! What did he get? He didn't even dare to resist!"

Rhodes and Stark were just about to speak, but Jarvis issued a violent warning again: "High-energy reaction detected! Please evade immediately! Please evade! Please evade! 3! 2..."

Instantly, another violent mushroom cloud rose. The big guy piloted by General Johnson exploded even more spectacularly. A big crater of hundreds of meters was left on the ground, and half of the factory was blown to pieces.

No one expected him to be so decisive. Iron Man couldn't dodge in time, his armor was almost blown to pieces, and the one Rhodes wore was completely scrapped. The steel monster's defense was quite high, but it seemed it couldn't stand up anymore.

Perhaps General Johnson had made preparations in advance. He was not blown to death while at the center of the self-destruction, but stood up from a safety cabin. He held a remote control in his hand.

"You might think it's over here, on the contrary, this is just the beginning!" General Johnson said.

Stark was hit until his head was bleeding again. He wiped his eyes and helped Rhodes up from the armor. He said, "Your superior's temper is really too irritable."

"Otherwise, how could I be forced to a dead end by him," Rhodes said self-deprecatingly.

"You still don't repent, Colonel Rhodes! Those things Howard once promised Obadiah, none of them were realized. He still only cares about his own son. Little Stark can close the most important military system with one mouth, destroying the hard work of the previous generation for half a lifetime. How ridiculous!"

"For his sake, you refused my request several times and only brought me a set of old and outdated armor technical data, but what did this get in return? You are just a foil for Iron Man. He is glorious, you are unknown, just like Howard and Obadiah..."

"... The barking of a loser," a voice came from the steel monster still lying on the ground.

"We chose old Andro back then because you were too stupid. Decades later, you still haven't changed at all, so I still didn't choose you, idiot."

Obadiah's tone was very slow and light. The tone was completely unlike being on the battlefield, but this made Johnson even more furious.

He gritted his teeth and pressed the remote control hard. Dozens more robots flew over, smaller than those self-destructing robots, but looking more advanced.

"Now you have no armor, and I have," General Johnson said. "Just like old Stark back then, he used his new invention to put me in check, now it's my turn!"

"Cough cough... Decades have passed, and you still haven't figured out one thing," Obadiah's voice came. "A shell of iron is useless at all."

Hearing this, Stark exhaled and slowly relaxed the muscles of his shoulders. He said to himself, "... Maybe he is right, they are all right. Just having a shell of iron is indeed useless, that won't make me feel better at all."

Rhodes stared ahead. Those tall robots made them, empty-handed, appear even shorter. He said, "Stop sighing, don't you think we should think of a way now?"

Stark looked up at the army of robots surrounding them, then he turned his head to look at Rhodes and said:

"Do you think we look like them?"

"No, you are more rotten than your father."

On a piece of wasteland scorched by the explosion, Stark lowered his head and touched his chest. Compared with those huge robots opposite, they appeared thin and weak, but Stark was not in a hurry at all. His tone relaxed, just like chatting with an old friend.

Then, in the pitch-black night, only the faint light of the robots' eyes flickered, like little stars. Stark turned to ask Rhodes: