67 American Explosive Freedom

The three prepared for battle as Ivan dropped from the sky.

The resources that Hydra commanded were incomparable to what pittance Hammer Industry could scrounge, so Ivan's armor was much better than the original plot. But it was just in terms of material.

Its energy source was a slightly tweaked version of the old palladium miniature ark reactor.

He might've just liked the whips because his primary armament hadn't changed. It was just longer and thicker, with its energy sparks dazzling even under the midday sun.

"Who are you?"

Ivan asked Fanny the question that many people were dying to know the answer to.

"Guess!"

Fanny chose the answer that would incite the most anger.

Ivan obviously had no time to play a guessing game with Fanny, so he turned at Tony, practically spitting his every word, "Tony, you will die here."

He even opened his helmet, revealing his scarred and worn face.

Fanny was livid at the brazen act of opening an armor piece in the middle of the battlefield. Was Ivan looking down at my damage output?!

"I..."

"Boom!"

A pillar of fire fell from the sky, interrupting Tony's response. He instead stared at Ivan, who was screaming hysterically, his hair burning.

Tony and Rhodes had the same expression under their faceplate.

(o_o")

(O?O)

The two of them turned at Fanny in unison.

Fanny put on an innocent expression, but it was covered by his helmet, so the two could not see it.

"No, see, the early bird gets the worm!" Fanny couldn't help but exclaim in frustration, "Why would you loiter around for half a day listening to what he has to say? He even opened his mask! It was a prime opportunity!"

"But..."

Tony felt a little sorry seeing Ivan who was still screaming even with his helmet closed. How could anyone launch a sneak attack like that? That was against the gentlemen's agreement!

"That makes sense."

However, Rhodes nodded in deep thought and looked like he had learned something. Tony had lost all his eloquent vocabulary.

"You... you..."

It was a pity that he couldn't kill Ivan without a chant. However, this torture looks even worse than death.

Ivan launched a barrage of Crazy Whipping Technique, its fluid movement as majestic as a tiger in the wind. Unfortunately, it was lacking in accuracy.

Probably because of his burned eyes.

"Ah! Ah! Ah! Tony! Tony!"

Despite being burnt by Fanny, the name Ivan shouted in the middle of his pained scream was still Tony. Of course, he probably only knew Tony's name among his three opponents.

"!"

Fanny flew up into the air and shot another blast at Ivan. With his eyes injured, Ivan could only flail around furiously without knowing who had attacked him.

"Too bad."

Rhodes sighed. He didn't know what to do.

Tony, who was beside him, also frowned slightly. He had wanted to ask Ivan who had saved him and helped him create so many robots, but Ivan clearly was in no condition to confess his crimes.

Tony joined the battle, unable to bear watching Fanny torture Ivan like this.

Ivan had recovered a little, allowing him to see the enemy in front of him. If the anger in his heart was given to the Hulk, the resulting explosion might just destroy the earth.

"Tony!"

Ivan roared, keeping his helmet closed this time. Two crackling energy whips shot at Tony.

Unfortunately, this Tony was no longer the same Tony from the original plot. He calmly grabbed Ivan's energy whip.

He had already considered what he needed to do against this kind of weapon since their last confrontation and made the necessary improvement. He no longer feared Ivan's whip.

However, before Tony could make a move.

A crimson array of magic filled the sky, followed by a pillar of flames descending with a booming sound.

Ivan fell.

He would have never predicted this being the consequence of his action.

He barely finished a complete sentence.

With pain, hatred, and reluctance, Ivan's body fell to the ground. He could vaguely hear one last thing:

"Okay, Rhodes, I'll treat you to fried chicken after this!"

Tony felt as if he had eaten a fly as he looked at Ivan's battered form on the ground. It seemed that he had been thoroughly bullied today.

First, he was threatened and ridiculed by Ivan on the phone, and then he was chased by deadly robots. And when he finally confronted Ivan, he was interrupted before saying a word.

He barely mustered his last narcissistic arrogance, but he was interrupted before he could do anything again.

"Hey, gentlemen, are you busy?"

Before Tony could switch into lecture mode and have a good talk with Fanny, a lazed voice interrupted them.

"Natasha?" Tony frowned when he saw the person approaching them. "You shouldn't come here. Where is Pepper?"

"Tony!"

Pepper followed not far behind Natasha.

Just before the two could have a touching reunion and public display of affection, Fanny suddenly heard a series of beeping sounds. His eyes opened wide when he recalled something.

"Tony, these robots might self-destruct!"

"What?"

Tony was stunned for a moment before turning around and looking at Ivan's severely burnt face with his helmet opened. Tony vaguely read Ivan's mouth forming two words:

"You lose!"

Tony looked at the relatively intact robot wreckage beside his feet. The same beeping sound began ringing from its reactor in the chest.

Tony wasted no time rushing to Pepper's side, ignoring her surprised yelp as he grabbed her waist and took off into the air.

As the military personnel with the most actual combat experience, Rhodes was the first to react to Fanny's words. However, his first instinct was to defuse the robots.

Unfortunately, there were just too many wreckages around them. No matter how fast he was, he couldn't defuse all of them, so he had to take off as well.

Fanny was the least lucky of them. He had been the first to realize the situation, but he was the slowest to escape because a figure suddenly grabbed him.

Fanny was at a loss for words seeing Black Widow clinging to him for dear life. He had taken off with Sky Dance immediately after recalling about the self-destruct device. He never expected Natasha would silently jump on him right after he finished talking.

"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!"

Today must have been an extraordinary day in New York, considering the number of explosions.

Fortunately, the less-sophisticated robots were equipped with weaker self-destruct devices compared to the ones produced by Hammer Industry in the original plot.

Moreover, the overwhelming firepower of 'Explosion Magic' had thoroughly eliminated most of the robots. The few that could self-destruct were stragglers that Tony and Rhodes had been hunting down.

Even so, they were still bombs. Fanny sighed as he looked at the bright explosion on the ground akin to inverted fireworks.

"America, the land of the free and explosions!"