章 17: Showdown: I am Iron Man

(A/N:-1700+ words)

The bald man thought Tony was going to run away, so he laughed maniacally, "Ha~ha~ha~ha~ha~ha~, Tony, you can't run away..."

As he spoke, the bald mecha emitted thick black smoke and chased after Tony. The thick smoke formed a column behind him, clearly visible under the city lights.

"Damn, this pollution is too serious. You don't care?" Alex said to Coulson.

"Uh..." Coulson was speechless. Who would be in the mood to care about pollution at this time? "This...is not our responsibility."

Tony flew higher and higher, and his power was almost exhausted. There was no way out at this point. If he couldn't hold on until the big bald mecha froze, he would be intercepted in mid-air.

Thinking of this, Tony glanced at the ground and thought, "I don't know if Alex, a monster, can jump so high. I'm afraid he can't. Otherwise, I'd ask him to save me."

Unknowingly, Tony had become dependent on Alex, but the feeling was so subtle that even he was not aware of it.

But Alex on the ground received a system prompt:

"Ding..."

"Iron Man's trust level increases and his luck is shared by 60%."

At an altitude of thousands of meters, the big bald mecha finally froze and lost power, falling straight down. It crashed near Stark Tower.

Tony had no time to celebrate. At this time, the suit ran out of power, so he had to activate the backup power, using intermittent reverse jets to barely land safely in Stark Tower.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he landed, he was attacked from behind by the big bald mecha, which hugged him directly. The bald man tried to strangle Iron Man to death using the power advantage of his mecha.

Tony hurriedly launched decoy bombs, which were originally used to interfere with missile locking but now served as flash bombs.

It worked!

The dazzling red flash bombs flew all over the sky, blinding the bald man. As soon as his grip loosened, Tony escaped.

In the original plot, Tony lured the bald man to the top floor of Stark Tower and asked Pepper to overload the large Ark reactor downstairs to send out a laser that shot into the sky, killing the bald man. But at this time, Pepper had gone far under Coulson's escort, so the plan couldn't proceed as originally intended.

"Alex, my good friend, why don't you come over and help me?" Tony called out.

Even though Tony was at a disadvantage, he couldn't hide his playboy character. Even when he asked for help, he did it with flair.

Alex smiled and said, "I have a plan: You lead him to the top floor, I'll overload the Ark reactor, and use the energy generated by the overload to kill him. How about it?"

Tony was speechless, "You're so powerful, why do you want to destroy my company's equipment? The Ark reactor costs a lot of money."

"By the way, after I rescued you from the desert, you haven't paid the takeout bill yet."

"Okay, okay, help me finish it. It's up to you how you want to tie it."

Seeing that the bald man was targeting him again, Tony could no longer remain calm and hurriedly asked for help.

"Alright."

Looking at the two steel monsters on the top floor, Alex slightly bent his legs and ejected with a bang.

"Bald guy, let that man go!"

"Boom..."

The bald mecha was kicked away by Alex.

Seeing a powerful enemy, the bald man was not worried and said with a smile, "Ha~ha~ha~ha~, good timing, try my new weapon."

As he spoke, eight weapon systems stretched out from the mecha's shoulders, hands, waist, and legs, including small missiles, Gatling barrels, and laser tubes.

"Whoosh... whoosh... whoosh..., click, click, click..."

In an instant, countless firepower exploded on Alex, creating a huge fireball. As the firepower continued to output, the fireball grew larger.

Tony watched in fear. With such fierce firepower, even if he were wearing armor, he would probably be shocked to death. Would Alex be okay?

At this time, the fireball moved. Alex endured the bombardment with steady steps, walking up to the bald man step by step. He saw the horrified expression on the bald man's face.

"Is this all?" Alex asked as he grabbed a mechanical arm with one hand. With a click, the mechanical arm was pulled off along with the bald man's shoulder.

"Ah..." The bald man screamed in pain as his arm was torn off along with the mechanical limb.

Unmoved, Alex pushed forward with both hands, tearing off the bald man's breastplate. With another pat, the helmet flew away.

For his own selfish gain, the bald man sold weapons to violent elements, causing countless deaths and injuries to innocent civilians. He even leaked information and secretly arranged Tony's kidnapping.

This punishment was considered light.

"I'll leave the rest to you," Alex said. "By the way, you need to make clothes for me. Not only do they need to be handsome, but they also need to withstand bullet and missile bombardment."

Looking at his tattered clothes, Alex felt unattractive. He couldn't dress like a beggar every time he fought.

Tony smiled bitterly, "Even my steel suit might not withstand it. Where can I find such powerful materials?"

Alex patted Tony on the shoulder and said, "You're a genius; you'll figure it out."

At this time, sirens blared outside, and countless police officers arrived. Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes could control the military, but not the police.

Alex had no interest in dealing with the remaining matters. With Tony's connections, everything could be easily resolved.

The next day, a press conference was held.

Last night's battle had caused widespread destruction, from near the Stark Building to the highway and into the sky. Countless people were injured, and numerous vehicles were destroyed. An explanation was necessary in front of the public.

Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes pinched his nose and lied for Tony, announcing to dozens of reporters, "Yesterday, the simulated combat system of two prototype robots from Stark Company failed, resulting in a rampage. Fortunately, one of Tony's personal bodyguards rescued him in time. Tony was saved, and the accident was prevented. Stark's vice president, Obadiah Stane, died in this accident..."

When it came time for Tony to make a statement, he read a few sentences impatiently according to the script given by Coulson.

A beautiful reporter in the audience suddenly interrupted, "Mr. Stark, do you think we will believe your nonsense? There's a rumor that a superhero named Iron Man stopped Stane's rampage in time. Is that you?"

Tony smiled awkwardly, "Stop talking, I'm not a superhero... I'm not made to be a superhero..."

"Really?" The beautiful reporter looked provocative, with a playful smile on her lips.

This beautiful reporter had had a one-night stand with Tony. When she woke up at Tony's house, Pepper had given her a change of clothes and arranged a car to leave.

Both of them understood the rules of the adult world: the woman didn't pester, and the man didn't linger. However, there was always a trace of affection.

Provoked by his one-night stand, Tony's playboy genes couldn't be suppressed. His brain twitched, and he said, "That's right! I am Iron Man!"

The audience was in an uproar!

At this point, the superhero who opened the Marvel Universe, saved countless lives, and fought against super villains in the future—I am Iron Man—was officially born!

At the same time, it also meant that super villains were coming!

---

Alex browsed through a few of the breaking news articles about Iron Man.

As expected, character determines behavior, and Tony still revealed his identity. This fits with his pushy playboy side.

Alex did not deliberately hide his existence; Fury did all this for him.

From the melee between the Three Giants in the streets of New York to the battle at Stark Corporation, all information about Alex was carefully erased from public records.

This saved Alex a lot of trouble.

The more low-key you are now, the more time you have for your own growth.

From getting three times the power of the Hulk to now, Alex's fighting skills have improved a lot, but his fundamental strength has not changed substantially.

This kind of power obtained by force does not seem to be able to become stronger through cultivation. It is fundamentally different from the fact that the Hulk becomes stronger as he gets angrier.

In the comic book world, the Hulk can grow into the Planet Hulk, and if Alex has no other encounters, his strength will always be locked at three times the strength of the Hulk.

It is not enough to face various super bosses in the future.

But Alex has no choice but to practice some combat skills on a daily basis.

After Iron Man announced that he was Iron Man, he received a lot of attention, but also caused trouble.

The most immediate trouble is that Stark's archrival, Hammer Industries, has begun to accuse Iron Man of endangering national security and wants to force him to hand over the technology of the Iron Suit.

Iron Man Tony was invited to debate in Congress. He was as unruly as ever. The wonderful debate received bursts of applause, which made the CEO of Hammer Industries and the fat politician very unhappy, but they couldn't do anything to Iron Man.

They were facing a rich and powerful super genius, and their financial power was not as good as Iron Man's.

This time, they wanted to use the public attention caused by the news incident to force Iron Man to hand over the technology of the Iron Suit. However, they did not expect that the attempt was in vain. No one at the scene stood on their side.

In the end, Iron Man ended the whole debate with a very pretentious sentence: "I successfully privatized world peace!"

"Pa pa pa pa pa pa pa..."

Amid applause, Iron Man left gracefully.

At this time, his every move was watched by a strong man far away in Siberia.

The strong man was wearing a white vest, holding a toothpick in his mouth, staring fiercely at Iron Man on the TV. The table was covered with drawings, which were obviously the miniature Ark reactor designed by Iron Man.

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