NIP Chapter 606 [3 Chapters Combined into 1] Multi-front Warfare
Chapter 606 [3 Chapters Combined into 1] Multi-front Warfare
Tony's armor thrusters drew a sharp arc in the sky above the West Sector.
From his vantage point, the entire neighborhood looked like an overturned anthill.
Everywhere were panicked crowds fleeing, and car wrecks riddled with holes, smoking and burning, making the roads even more congested.
This made Tony frown and miss Riley even more.
After all, with Riley in charge, even during the massive Chitauri invasion, New York City had never seen such a terrible scene!
Fortunately, although Riley encountered some mishaps, the wealth he had accumulated little by little was far more substantial than that of the Avengers in the original storyline!
Even though Thor is currently not on Earth to escort Amora back to Asgard for trial.
In a sense, Max, a Thor Pro Max version of Thor, has already silently integrated into New York City's underground power grid. At a speed imperceptible to the naked eye, it is gradually transporting the remaining citizens to safety.
Of course, this is still limited by the fact that Max recently presented a public image of himself after being seriously injured and bedridden following a nuclear attack, and was unable to make a public appearance for a short period of time, otherwise he would easily give others a handle to use against him.
Otherwise, given Max's speed, he could have suppressed this mass riot, which was mainly composed of ordinary people, in no time! Even when he returned, the coffee he had poured before leaving was still warm!
Regardless, with Max helping to evacuate the crowd, Tony could finally relax and, following Sheriff Black's instructions, headed straight for the bank that had been hijacked by the criminals.
When Tony arrived above the bank, four modified armored vehicles were blocking the bank entrance.
The back of each vehicle was open, revealing rows of neatly stacked pulse rifles and energy grenade launchers.
The henchmen carrying weapons were also wearing identical bulletproof vests and armbands of the same style. Their well-trained movements made them look less like ruthless and violent desperados and more like a small, professionally trained army.
Several of the men were carrying a large energy cannon that Tony had never seen before out of an armored vehicle.
The cannon barrel is at least half a meter in diameter, and the base is embedded with an energy core that is still glowing. Just by looking at it, you can tell that once this thing is successfully launched, it will definitely be able to blow half a street into the sky with a single shot.
This made Tony, who originally planned to rush in, abandon his reckless plan.
He then instructed Jarvis to transmit the footage to District 13 headquarters in real time, speaking into the communication channel in a tone reminiscent of someone reviewing restaurant decor.
"Gentlemen, here's an update on the situation in the West District. I estimate at least forty armed men, all with upgraded weapons and enough ammunition to fight a small-scale war. By the way, Sheriff Black, after this incident is over, could you check if those bastards at Hammer Industries are still reselling and copying my equipment?"
Jarvis's voice also entered at the opportune moment, revealing the origin of the equipment in the shortest possible time.
"Preliminary spectral analysis indicates that the energy core of these weapons uses a palladium-based power supply architecture highly similar to Stark Industries' previous Arc Reactor, with an output power of approximately 60% of the Mark III Palm Cannon. Furthermore, the firing mechanism of some of the pulse rifles is completely identical to the standard-issue rifles used by Agent Coulson at S.H.I.E.L.D. Sir, these weapons either leaked from our inventory or were obtained by an expert who acquired our design specifications."
"I'll find a way to get rid of them, but I'll be a bit rough around the edges. Remember to send someone over to help me clean up the mess."
Tony toned down his teasing tone, suddenly increased the thrust of the thrusters, and plunged vertically down from a height of 100 meters.
Meanwhile, Jarvis, operating at high speed, helped Tony lock onto all the thugs within his field of vision. They were simply waiting to close the distance sufficiently and reach the optimal firing angle to unleash a volley of fire from the weapon systems, taking them all down and ending the crisis!
However, before Tony could reach his designated firing position, a dark purple energy beam silently shot out from the clouds behind him.
Fortunately, Riley has never been stingy when it comes to treating his own people.
While assisting Tony in developing the Mark II armor, Riley had already handed over to Tony the electronic version of the Spider-Sense algorithm that she had specially created to fulfill Harry's wish, without reservation.
Furthermore, through Tony's continuous in-depth research, the optimized and improved electronic Spider-Sense has become a permanent function of the Mark III armor. This compensates for the fact that the Mark III armor Tony is currently wearing, after being designed to be lightweight for easier carrying, has a significantly reduced defensive performance compared to the Mark II armor.
That's why, even though the attack came without any warning, Jarvis immediately sensed the danger and, while alerting Tony, automatically increased the power of the Mark 3's thrusters. With the increased thrust, Jarvis flipped over in mid-air.
The dark purple beam grazed past Tony's left shoulder armor. It was so close that a brief purple static flash appeared on his mask's display, but it didn't cause Tony the slightest real damage!
However, the enemy who launched the attack in secret seemed to have anticipated this and had given his subordinates the battle orders in advance.
So before Tony could even catch his breath, the dozens of henchmen who were carrying weapons on the ground grabbed whatever was nearby and scattered in an orderly fashion.
The next second, guided by the enemy, the henchmen who had located Tony's position simultaneously turned their guns on him.
Pulse rifles, energy grenade launchers, and even that large energy cannon that hadn't been unloaded from the armored vehicle...
In an instant, all the thugs unleashed a barrage of fire at Tony. Dozens of energy beams of varying sizes shot in from different angles simultaneously, weaving together a dense network of fire that completely covered the airspace where Tony was located.
Even with the guidance of his electronic Spider-Sense, Tony managed to barely dodge the dense barrage of bullets by constantly changing direction—dodge left, dodge right, climb, and dive. Any stragglers that did manage to escape would collide with Tony's repulsive beams, exploding into bursts of energy sparks in the air.
But this would inevitably distract Tony.
By the time Tony finally managed to deal with the barrage of fire and tried to find the culprit who had attacked him from the air, the enemy had already changed their hiding place under the cover of clouds.
Even during this process, they continued to harass Tony with long-range attacks from time to time, and would change positions after firing one shot.
The back-and-forth tug-of-war tactics revolved around a guerrilla strategy that aimed to utterly humiliate Tony, even if it didn't actually harm him!
"Damn it, that cowardly turtle..."
After a while, Tony, besieged on all sides, watched as the Mark 3's overall stats continued to decline, and couldn't help but grit his teeth and curse.
After weighing the pros and cons, Tony, whose primary goal was ultimately to rescue the hostages rather than to fight, decided to stop engaging in a protracted struggle with the elusive guy.
He first raised his hand, pretending to fire a repulsive beam, feinting. This caused the enemy, who was originally planning to continue attacking, to instinctively enter a dodging state.
Taking advantage of this brief opening, Tony pushed his thrusters to their limit. He rapidly swooped down, taking advantage of the thugs who were gradually advancing downwards, even running out of cover and chasing Tony with guns!
"..."
In that instant, the enemy who saw Tony's actions realized that he had been tricked by Tony.
However, given that he was a step slower and his armor was already inferior to Tony's, catching up with Tony was clearly impossible.
However, he did not give up and continued to strive to catch up.
As it broke through the clouds and revealed its true form for the first time—its overall armor design leaned towards a humanoid beetle—it launched six small missiles at the area below!
However, the missiles were not targeting Tony. Instead, they were aimed at the bank lobby where, at that very moment, a large number of hostages were still being held!
Without a doubt, this is a shameless tactic of moral blackmail...
Is Tony only thinking about saving himself and prioritizing dealing with the henchmen? Or is he, as a "superhero," willing to risk his life for these complete strangers?
"Damn it... Jarvis! Activate Overload!"
The answer to this question had already taken shape the day Tony fled the Middle East.
Even sensing the other party's evil intentions, Tony, gritting his teeth and cursing, did not hesitate for a moment. Resolutely ignoring the echoing alarms in his ears, he pushed the thrusters to their maximum output, abruptly changing the trajectory of the dive from its unstoppable momentum to a near 90-degree turn, blocking the missiles' path!
During this time, thanks to Jarvis's quick reaction ability, Tony, who fired the repulsion cannon continuously, managed to destroy five missiles in mid-air before they could damage the bank!
With Jarvis's precise calculations, he stretched out his hands and firmly grasped the last missile!
"Hey! Let's get some Brazilian girls!"
But just as Tony's lips curled up, he raised the missile, its propulsion exhausted and lying obediently in his palm, and mocked the figure above him.
Unexpectedly, these words were like some kind of spell, causing Tony to be astonished to find that the small missile in his hand was flashing a dazzling blue light as soon as he finished speaking!
The next second, before Tony could even realize something was wrong, he had time to throw the small missile.
A blue-white energy pulse suddenly exploded outwards from the missile. A visible ripple spread outwards rapidly, instantly engulfing Tony.
This caused Tony's mask display to go completely black after a piercing electrical shriek. The Arc Reactor's energy output curve also plummeted with Jarvis's final alarm.
As the energy supply was cut off, the charging indicator light on the palm cannon, along with the indicator light on the mask representing the eyes, quickly dimmed from a dazzling milky white to a deathly gray.
The thrusters shut down, the navigation system failed, and only a hissing static remained on the communication channel…
In less than half a second, Tony watched helplessly as his Mark III, a set of unparalleled high-tech armor, turned into a heavy, unshakeable lump of iron!
Finally, accompanied by a sweeping feeling of weightlessness, Tony's flesh and blood body was uncontrollably plummeting from a height of hundreds of meters!
……
Meanwhile, on another battlefield...
……
Wearing the nanotech suit crafted by Riley and wielding his iconic vibranium shield, Steve stood at the street corner. The five-pointed star on the shield flickered in and out of view amidst the distant flashes of fire from an explosion.
His gaze passed over the shattered glass and overturned car wrecks on the ground and landed on the Presbyterian Hospital building across the street.
It is one of the largest comprehensive hospitals in the United States, with more than 2,500 beds, more than 4,000 physicians, and more than 20,000 employees. The hospital is divided into six main medical areas, covering all medical fields from pediatrics to cardiac surgery.
At this moment, this sacred place, which should have been a place for saving lives and snatching people from the clutches of death, was sealed off by at least three hundred fully armed thugs.
Footage taken from the helicopter shows the main entrance's revolving door twisted and deformed by the explosion, the glass curtain wall of the emergency room shattered, and several burning ambulances lying across the parking lot entrance, their flames still crackling in the night wind.
What's even more heartbreaking is that, according to the results of Justice's scan, apart from the underground morgue, every floor has a number of hostages being held hostage—from newborns still in incubators to critically ill patients with tubes inserted into the ICU—all trapped in this medical labyrinth occupied by a brutal mob.
Even more alarming was that these thugs, just like the group Tony had seen, were all wearing identical bulletproof vests and armbands. From their gun-wielding postures to their patrol routes, everything exuded a chilling aura of professional training.
They occupied the hospital's outer parking lot, emergency access road, and all ground-level entrances and exits, and set up fixed sentry posts at the intersections of corridors on each floor. Each sentry post had at least two people, and patrols were conducted every few minutes, with intervals accurate to the second.
Justice even detected snipers scattered in some inconspicuous corners. Taking advantage of their pre-positioned optimal defensive positions, their high ground and low elevation provided enough firing angles to cover the entire hospital!
This undoubtedly makes the rescue operation that everyone is about to embark on even more difficult!
"Gentlemen, the situation at the Elders' Hospital is worse than we anticipated... Black Cat, Little Snake, how's the situation on your end?"
Fortunately, everyone has their own area of expertise.
Steve, usually mild-mannered, didn't act rashly at this moment and insist on a frontal assault. Instead, he weighed his rifle in his hand, skillfully removed the magazine, and after completing the pre-attack checks, asked Felicia, who had already begun her operation, a question over the communicator.
"Everything went smoothly, Captain, I'm in."
As she spoke, Felicia was silently climbing up the outer wall of the fire escape in the east wing of the hospital.
Riley designed a nanosuit specifically for her, which not only included Spider-Man-like adhesion capabilities, but also took into account Felicia's infiltration skills. By reducing the number of lethal weapons, the space freed up was used to install an optical stealth module.
Therefore, even before approaching the hospital's perimeter, the color-changing nanomaterials on the suit's surface automatically adjusted their refractive index under the midday sun, coinciding with the activation of the optical cloaking module. This allowed Felicia's entire figure to blend seamlessly into her surroundings.
At this very moment, even if a criminal happened to look up in her direction, he would only see an empty fire escape ladder and a few wisps of dust blown by the wind.
Of course, if there were only a few, or even a dozen or twenty, thugs, Felicia, with her invisibility ability, could easily resolve the crisis by herself.
However, the number of three hundred armed criminals presents a significant challenge. Any unexpected incident that could enrage these desperate individuals could inevitably result in numerous innocent casualties.
So much so that during the infiltration, even when she was several times so close to the criminals that she could have easily taken them down with a single hand, Felicia could only consider the bigger picture, suppress her restless heart, and continue climbing.
"I'm all ready and can move out at any time."
Meanwhile, the little snake, taking advantage of its slender and flexible body, had already crawled into an abandoned ventilation duct entrance in the hospital's basement.
She moved like a snake, crawling forward through the narrow metal pipes. Every step she took landed precisely on structural support points she had scouted beforehand, utilizing even the slightest indentations and protrusions in the metal plates to her fullest extent. This was to ensure that no one would notice anything amiss during her infiltration.
Finally, guided by the hospital building's internal layout diagram provided by Justice, the snake successfully set up traps at several corners of the hospital corridors. During this process, it gradually infiltrated the hospital's monitoring room. It was simply waiting for Steve's order to take down all the remaining thugs, creating more opportunities for Steve and his team to enter smoothly.
"Very good. Now synchronize the time. In three minutes, Little Snake will take control of the monitoring room. Black Cat, make some noise upstairs to attract the enemy's attention and provide cover..."
"boom--!"
Unfortunately, plans can never keep up with changes.
Just as Steve's brain was racing, planning the next move, a series of disturbing sonic booms, the sound of heavy objects colliding, and a girl's painful groans suddenly erupted from the communication channel.
"Black cat? What happened? Answer me, black cat!"
Steve abruptly straightened up, gripping his shield tightly. From that familiar muffled groan, he knew Felicia was in trouble, and his gaze drifted in her direction. He instinctively began calculating how much force and at what angle he would need to throw the shield from there to get it to Felicia and offer her some assistance.
"Oh dear, look what I caught! A little thief cat that came uninvited!"
At the same time, a sharp, piercing voice, filled with undisguised smugness and mockery, cut in from the communication channel.
"You think you're invisible so I can't see you? You can fool my eyes, but you can't fool my ears, little kitty."
As the conversation progressed, the perspective shifted, bringing us to Felicia's side...
At this very moment, standing arrogantly before Felicia was none other than the supervillain dressed in a terrifying suit!
Undoubtedly, after realizing that he could not fully trust the Black Hand trio, Shendu was forcing them to work for him while further reducing their ability to resist.
As a result, apart from Rasu, who underwent genetic modification to become the "Scorpion" of this universe, Zhou's demon suit and Afen's horror suit were all stripped by the Holy Lord and given to his mysterious partner!
"I'm fine, I just got caught."
Felicia's voice rang out again, trying to remain calm, but her breathing was noticeably more rapid than before.
"Something's not right. I suspect this is a trap. Captain, you guys might have something similar on your side... tsk—!!!"
Before she could finish her sentence, Felicia, who was trying to warn Steve, had to do several backflips to dodge the terrifying sonic attack.
As the battle between the two began, Felicia was too busy to respond to Steve's words for a short time and went offline from the communication channel.
"...Little snake, make your move."
Steve's voice remained calm, and without wasting any time to verbally comfort Felicia, he decisively gave the snake the order to act.
Because he knew that this was an open and unsolvable scheme.
Even if they knew the other side had already set up a trap in the hospital and was just waiting for them to walk in, they still had to bite the bullet and push their way in before all the hostages were rescued!
"clear."
The little snake gave a brief reply, then completely cut off the communication, pulled out a specially made stun gun from its waist, and prepared to take down the few henchmen below.
Just as the little snake was about to pull the trigger, a sharp alarm rang in her ears.
Someone triggered the mechanism she had set up!
No, judging from the noise, someone is deliberately using energy weapons to bombard the traps she set up along the way. They've forcibly broken through her defensive line of mechanisms, which could have delayed her for much longer, using the most brutal methods!
Even more alarming, according to Justice's scan results, at least a dozen armed thugs were closing in on her location.
"As expected, I knew it was impossible for only one to be exposed..."
As the snake muttered to itself, it quickly changed tactics, took a smoke bomb mixed with a powerful anesthetic from its waist, and threw it into the very center of the monitoring room.
The snake immediately slithered back into the ventilation duct and retreated to the upper part of the corridor. With the help of Justice's scanning, after estimating the enemy's arrival time, Justice precisely timed the moment, hacking into the hospital's operational system and activating the fire sprinkler system installed in the corridor, drenching all the arriving reinforcements into a soaking wet mess. Meanwhile, with a smile, Justice aimed at the wet ground and pulled the trigger of the stun gun.
Goodnight~
In an instant, amidst the screams and wails, the fully armed thugs "happily" began to "tap dance" before collapsing to the ground and falling into a peaceful sleep like babies.
Before the little snake could even catch its breath and consider whether it should put on its gas mask and return to the monitoring room, it received a warning from Justice, indicating that more enemies were on their way.
This made the little snake reluctantly give up its idea of pressing its advantage. After a brief moment of thought, it quietly made its way to another area through the ventilation duct.