Chapter 345: Chapter 345: Villain's Last Stand
"Hahaha, is this revenge for Rhodes showing off his shooting skills earlier?"
"Classic stingy Tony Stark, taking his revenge immediately!"
"There are so many of them! These battle armors! They all have different functions!"
When everyone saw that Tony didn't offer Rhodes a suit, they could tell he must have done it on purpose because he was still annoyed about Rhodes' sharpshooting display.
Rhodes stared speechlessly at Tony, who was whistling innocently and looking at the ceiling. Tony casually walked to the other side while whistling, deliberately avoiding Rhodes' gaze.
[Rhodes looked confused as Tony flew away, and then Mark 17 Heartbreaker landed beside him and approached.]
["Good evening, Colonel. Can I offer you a lift?" Then it embraced Rhodes.]
[Rhodes complained unhappily: "Very funny!"]
[The Heartbreaker took off with him in its arms, but halfway through the flight, an Extremis soldier leaped up and grabbed onto its legs.]
[Affected by the sudden weight, Heartbreaker lost its balance, and Rhodes couldn't maintain his grip during the spinning and fell onto a corridor below.]
[Before he could stand up, he spotted two Extremis soldiers rushing toward him, but suddenly a massive suit of armor dropped down and blocked their path.]
[This armor was the Mark 25 Striker, with two enormous arms. It raised its powerful limbs and smashed them down, directly collapsing the walkway beneath them.]
[Two Extremis soldiers were thrown outward by the buckling metal, and Striker shot them both with precision repulsor blasts from its left and right gauntlets. Another armor flew overhead and finished them off with twin repulsor beams.]
[At that moment, Jarvis' voice announced: "Sir! I have located Miss Potts!"]
["About time!" Tony said as he flew to the location marked by Jarvis and entered through the gap previously blown open by the oil barrel explosion.]
[He quickly discovered Pepper pinned beneath debris and hurried over to lift the wreckage trapping her.]
[But as soon as he moved it, the structure shifted and more debris threatened to crush Pepper from another angle. She stopped him urgently: "Stop! Put it down! Put it down!"]
[Tony had no choice but to lower it again. He crouched down, looked at her and quipped: "See what happens when you hang out with my ex-girlfriends?"]
[Pepper closed her eyes, both angry and amused. Tony extended his hand toward her. Pepper cursed: "You're such a jerk!"]
["Okay! We can discuss this over dinner! Come on! Give me your hand, baby!" They both reached out, trying to grasp each other's hands.]
[But just as Tony was about to pull her free, a fiery hand suddenly burst through the floor and pressed directly against the Silver Centurion's chest piece, damaging its arc reactor.]
[Tony was thrown to the ground by Killian and temporarily lost power. Killian crawled out from beneath the flooring and glanced at Pepper.]
["Is this guy bothering you?"]
[Pepper closed her eyes in pain and looked away.]
[Killian quickly approached Tony who was lying immobile on the ground. "Don't get any ideas!"]
[He raised his body temperature, extended a glowing finger, and pressed it against the armor. The metal began to glow brighter as it heated up.]
[Killian looked at Tony with a smug smile: "Getting hot in there? Can't move? Like a little turtle about to be roasted in its shell!"]
[Pepper, still trapped beneath the debris, looked on with concern: "Tony!"]
[Tony took a deep breath. Killian glanced at Pepper, then taunted Tony: "She's watching! I think you should close your eyes... close your eyes!"]
[Tony stared coldly at Killian without saying a word. Killian continued to taunt: "Close your eyes, you don't want to see this!"]
[As he prepared to deliver a killing blow, Tony manually activated a hidden mechanism in the armor. A blade suddenly deployed from the forearm, slicing clean through Killian's arm.]
[Killian howled in pain from the severe injury, but the severed limb quickly began to regenerate under the influence of the Extremis virus.]
[Tony said calmly: "Yeah! Take your time, no rush."]
[The intense pain caused Killian to stagger and fall to the ground. His severed arm melted through the floor, creating a hole that Pepper fell through.]
[Killian found himself partially trapped on a moving conveyor belt below, temporarily immobilized.]
"Oh! My God! I was so scared just now! I thought Killian was going to succeed, but Tony Stark still had a trick up his sleeve!" The first-gen Aunt May exclaimed, so caught up in the moment that she momentarily forgot Tony Stark would survive this encounter. She patted her chest, still looking terrified.
The first-gen Uncle Ben reminded her that Tony Stark wouldn't die like this, so she could relax!
Rhodes, watching Killian lose his advantage by talking too much before being outmaneuvered by Tony, couldn't help but comment: "Why do they always talk so much? How many villains have died because they couldn't stop monologuing?"
"Exactly! Next time I get the upper hand, I'm taking action immediately and not wasting time with speeches that give the enemy a chance to recover!" Tony nodded emphatically. He had seen enough examples of villains being defeated because they talked too much, and he wasn't about to make the same mistake!
"Hahaha! Fortunately, Hulk doesn't have this problem!" Banner laughed from across the room.
"The big green guy doesn't stop to reason with you. He either smashes you or sends you flying!" Rhodes joked. Maya, who was organizing documents nearby, couldn't help but laugh when she overheard the conversation.
[Meanwhile, an Extremis soldier hurled a steel pipe at one of the armors. This suit was Mark 39, Gemini.]
[After being struck, Gemini staggered slightly but quickly recovered. It spun behind the enemy and fired a repulsor blast that knocked him backward.]
[When the soldier fell, he crashed into a control panel, breaking several cables. The massive industrial rollers in the distance immediately began to turn.]
[Tony disengaged from his damaged armor, stood up, and ran to check on Pepper, only to discover she was being carried away by the conveyor system.]
[Tony immediately ran outside, but as he rounded a corner, he spotted an Extremis soldier charging at him from behind. Tony quickly vaulted over a nearby railing.]
[The soldier attempted to follow but was intercepted mid-jump by an armor controlled by Jarvis! Tony ignored the confrontation and focused on locating Pepper.]
[Pepper found herself moving toward a dangerous intersection of conveyor belts. If she didn't escape this position quickly, she would be crushed when the two systems converged!]
[Tony ran desperately, shouting as he went: "Jarvis, give me a suit!" Then he leaped over a broken walkway and sprinted toward Pepper.]
[Jarvis immediately directed Mark 22 Hot Rod toward Tony's position. As Tony jumped from the platform, the armor approached him in mid-air...]
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