Chapter.50 Iron Heart (Middle)

"...托尼现在拒绝见我.我知道他一定很失望.但我希望你能告诉他,空军对他提供给他们的技术不满意,他们想要更多...我的上司约翰逊将军透露,他们想和陆军一起向斯塔克工业施压..."

 

"或者也许他们有更多的阴谋."

 

罗兹在电话里说,席勒问他:"你被排除在权力中心之外吗?为什么?因为你动摇了?

 

罗兹沉默了一会儿,回答说:"不,约翰逊将军从来不信任我,因为我曾经在安德罗将军的指挥下.他们的关系非常糟糕.

 

"所以他强迫你,对吧?"

 

席勒叹了口气,"如果你无法承受压力,你会怎么做?

 

罗兹还没来得及说话,席勒就继续说道:"托尼现在没见到你,和空军没有关系.斯塔克工业内部存在一些内部问题.他需要时间,已经好几天没出门了.

 

罗兹的语气不变,就像他自己一样,总是严肃而僵硬.他说:"我想我们都知道斯塔克工业公司内部并不团结.一定有人勾结军方,而且这个人一定身居高位.

 

他继续说道,"军方获取有关斯塔克工业技术的信息太快了,知道的细节也太多了.这不正常.虽然我现在不知道更多的信息,但我不希望托尼被背叛.

 

"所以你想让我告诉他这件事?但也许你没有想到他已经知道了,这就是为什么它被推迟到现在..."

 

"我知道,他的心太软了,否则他不会因为我而向军方妥协.但这一次很严重.如果他继续这样优柔寡断,就会有大事发生..."

 

就在他们说话的时候,席勒听到了一阵骚动.他转过头,看到窗外有两颗流星从身边掠过.然后,天空中闪过两道耀眼的光芒.一声剧烈的爆炸声在天空的尽头响起.两盏灯纠缠在一起,一起倒下.席勒看着窗外,迅速对着电话说:"...发生了一件大事.

 

席勒挂断电话,化为薄雾,穿过曼哈顿的街道,顺着两盏灯的落点,来到了纽约西区一个废弃的仓库.

 

这个着陆点一定是斯塔克选择的.这是该市罕见的废弃区域.只有在这里登陆才不会伤害公民.

 

席勒慢慢地凝固了自己的身材.还没等他进去,电话又响了.罗兹在电话里急切地说:"给我卫星位置.我马上就去那里.托尼可能需要我的帮助!

 

While holding the phone, Schiller teleports to the roof of the warehouse and looks down.

 

There, Iron Man in red and gold armor is fighting a giant robot.

 

That robot is not the Iron Monger.

 

It is completely black with some gold accents on certain joints, slightly larger than the Iron Monger, but more ferocious.

 

Schiller urges to the phone, "Things have changed, you better come quickly."

 

The battle below is intense. Iron Man is not incapable of defeating the giant robot. However, during the previous fall, he had to bring the robot to a deserted place, so he didn't have time to adjust the landing angle , causing the armor's body on one side to be less agile.

 

This is not like when he deals with street thugs while saving people. Even with Jarvis' intelligent computational system, Iron Man finds it quite difficult to deal with. It seems that the robot is prepared specifically to counter him.

 

Iron Man flies into the air, swoops down low, and hugs the robot's waist, slamming it against the wall. After a loud impact, a large piece of the roof collapses and falls on both of them.

 

Iron Man's situation gets worse. His entire shoulder armor is damaged, and one arm can hardly lift.

 

However, the giant robot is not in a good state either. After being hit hard, it is electrocuted again. A big chunk of the cockpit is knocked off, but there is no pilot inside. It seems to be remotely controlled.

 

Noticing this, Iron Man comes up with a plan to deal with it. He pretends that the armor goes out of control and climbs out of the fallen steel frame on the rooftop, pretending to be defeated on the ground.

 

The giant robot also struggles to climb out of the steel frame. Seeing Iron Man already on the ground, it picks up a steel bar and tries to pierce Iron Man's chest.

 

Just as it leans its entire upper body forward to exert force, Iron Man on the ground suddenly rises, delivering a powerful kick to its knee. Then, an elbow strike hits the head of the robot.

 

The upper body of the giant robot is designed too bulky. Although it is powerful, it inevitably lacks stability. After receiving a heavy elbow strike from Iron Man, it sways and falls to one side.

 

Just when Iron Man is about to use the same tactics again, using electricity and impact to defeat it, the giant robot suddenly emits smoke. Jarvis starts to alarm frantically. Iron Man quickly retreats, but still too slow.

 

A violent explosion creates a huge mushroom cloud in the warehouse, and the deafening noise can be heard several blocks away. It self-destructs.

 

Obviously, the designer of this giant robot purposefully made its upper body so large.

 

There is a big bomb inside, with considerable power.

 

When Schiller pulls Stark out of the suit, his face is covered in blood. He has at least three broken ribs, and it seems his ankle and arm are fractured as well.

 

Stark himself doesn't have any superpowers. Although his brain is smart, his limbs are clearly lacking.

 

Stark makes an effort to raise his arm and wipes the blood from his eyes. When he sees Schiller, he breathes a sigh of relief and trembles as he says, "In my pocket...my phone...Jarvis can call another suit, go check if there are any around...the explosion is huge..."

 

Obviously, his head has also suffered some impact. Schiller opens his eyelids and finds severe bloodshot eyes. He takes out a small bottle of medicine, pours out a pill, and makes Stark swallow it.

 

The high-strength painkiller works well. Soon, Stark becomes more sober. "It is coming for me. It has a strong targeting ability against my suit, and can even anticipate my movements. I can't believe it..."

 

"Believe what? Believe the person who knows you best might betray you? If you have the time, make more suits, and you can defeat anyone with every suit one punch."

 

"I know, I shouldn't have been hiding in the lab to escape. But I just wanted to digest this fact for a while. I can't be like a zombie devoid of emotions."

 

Stark now appears very pessimistic, with a look of despair on his face.

 

Stark coughs heavily, and a trace of blood flows from the corner of his mouth. Evidently, the impact just now has also affected his respiratory tract. The euphoric feeling brought by the high-strength painkiller surges through his body. He seems panic, murmuring to himself in a low voice.

 

"I knew his friend wouldn't be a good person, just as suck as he is. I thought..."

 

"No, maybe he's right. Stark isn't worth trusting, always disappoint..."

 

Schiller lays Stark's head flat and checks his pulse. He wants to take Stark away directly, but Stark is stubbornly refusing to leave, as if he is drunk.

 

It is obvious that he has little desire to survive at the moment.

 

So Schiller has no choice but to sit cross-legged beside him, with the wreckage of the Iron Man suit beside them. The huge crater caused by the self-destruction of the giant robot is smoking nearby. The entire warehouse is destroyed, covered with broken steel and cement fragments. Everything looks like the ruins of doomsday.

 

Schiller asks Stark, "Actually, Odediah is more like your father than Howard, isn't he?"

 

Stark doesn't answer and seems to have fallen asleep. After a while, he speaks slowly, "When I made the first robot, Obie was very happy. He said I was a genius just like my father."

 

"I always heard my father's name from him. He described him as a perfect person. Intelligent, upright, determined... justicial..."

 

"In my memories, whenever he mentioned Howard's name, it was always with praise and nostalgia."

 

"But later on, I started to dislike hearing that name more and more, so he stopped mentioning it..."

 

Stark's voice is hoarse, and he seems to struggle to speak.

 

"I saw a photo of them together. It was on his desk. They were both young and full of energy..."

 

"Maybe like you and Rhodes," Schiller says.

 

"No, it's different, completely different."

 

"I'm nothing like Howard, not at all. Rhodes wouldn't be like Odediah either. Rhodes and I are completely opposite, and we will never be their replicas, absolutely not..."

 

After that, Stark falls silent, and the effect of the painkiller quickly puts him to sleep.

 

When Rhodes arrives and sees Stark's severe injuries, he angrily hammers the wreckage of the suit. Schiller says to him, "Compared to the physical injuries he has suffered, I think his mental state is a bigger problem now."

 

"You're a psychologist, right? Can't you give him some comfort?"

 

"I am a psychologist, but not God. Obviously, he's in a dead end now. He feels that everything he's going through is retribution. His own retribution, his father's retribution, and Stark Industries' retribution."

 

"He wants to give it all up?"

 

"That's for him to answer. He once said that he would never back down for the sake of his family. But now, it seems he really wants to give it all away."

 

Rhodes turns to look at Stark lying on the ground and insists, "If there's one thing he has to pay, maybe it's for his brilliant brain, for his sensitive heart ."

 

"He said you two are completely opposite." Schiller questions, "He has an iron suit, so what about you?"

 

"Do you have an iron heart?"

 

Rhodes turns back and looks at the wreckage of the suit in front of him without saying anything.