Are you employees of Stark Industries?" Mike suddenly asked a question.
The armed thugs remained silent.
"Alright, I respect you for being tough men."
Mike still stood behind Skye, continuing to teach her how to shoot, this time aiming at the armed thugs.
Skye hesitated, a flicker of reluctance in her eyes. As mentioned before, killing one's own kind is not something everyone can do easily.
"It's okay, they're wearing bulletproof vests," Mike comforted Skye.
The armed thugs below, however, felt their scalps tingle. Aiming for the head, hitting air; aiming for the body, hitting the head—basic operations for a New Police Officer gunman. They didn't even dare to dodge, fearing that dodging bullets would turn into running into them.
"Wait, wait…" The leader of the armed thugs hesitated.
"I asked you to speak, and you were silent. Now you tell me to wait, and I should wait?" Mike's words sent a chill down the thugs' spines.
Bang!
Skye pulled the trigger.
Ugh!
A thug groaned, dropping to one knee. The bullet hit his thigh, and blood gushed out.
"Very good, this time your recoil control has greatly improved. Again…"
At this moment, sparks suddenly flew in mid-air again, and another sniper bullet was intercepted by Senbonzakura.
"Heh heh, the second shot, you really didn't give up. Not giving up is a good thing…"
With the second shot blocked, Black Widow was relieved this time and focused on observing the pink dust.
Mike chuckled, "Now you can speak, or do you want to bargain? I'm a reasonable person, feel free to say whatever you think, though no matter what you say, I'll pretend I didn't hear it."
Uh… Is that what you call reasonable?
"Ah! Motherf***er, you pretentious jerk, I'll…" One armed thug broke down, cursing and spraying bullets at Mike.
The bullets were naturally all blocked by Senbonzakura. The pink dust transformed into a giant fist, smashing into the chest of the thug who fired.
Just then, the sniper fired a third shot.
"Still trying? Commendable courage." Only then did Mike turn his gaze to the thug who had fired; the latter flew directly out of the exhibition hall, collapsing on the ground and spitting blood. He wasn't dead yet, but it was more terrifying than Death.
"Don't test my patience, because I often forget to bring it out," Mike said calmly, showing no sign of impatience.
But the thug leader was so terrified he was practically trembling. He might have killed many, but it wasn't him who was dying. When the threat of Death was so close, fear was almost instinctive.
"Yes, we are employees of Stark Industries," the thug leader replied truthfully.
It was as Mike expected. When Pepper came to inspect, Stark Industries and S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents would certainly strengthen security immediately. One or two infiltrators might be overlooked, but such a large group of fully armed thugs most likely meant they were already inside the industrial park, perhaps even part of the security personnel.
How many people within Stark Industries could and would want to do this?
One name came to mind: Obadiah.
In fact, Obadiah had always been the prime suspect; this industrial park attack merely confirmed it further.
Mike sighed, Stark and Pepper were truly soft-hearted. If it were him, after Obadiah's downfall, he would immediately cleanse or mark anyone who had been close to Obadiah.
Were there innocent people?
Certainly.
But it could nip many crises in the bud. As the leader of a hundred-billion-dollar corporation, being soft-hearted was irresponsible.
"Forget it, why worry about these things… I'm not a spiritual shareholder of Stark Industries anyway," Mike muttered to himself, glancing at the thugs, "What, you don't want to put down your weapons? All of you, hands on your heads and lie down!"
Mike looked up, through the shattered glass, and gazed into the distance, "It's you."
It turned out the gunman was the same gunman who had ambushed Mike in Hell's Kitchen. His last experience led him to choose a more distant vantage point. In fact, the possession card Mike used was not Zoro, but Momochi Zabuza.
Mike's mission was to protect Pepper, not to pursue the gunman, so he couldn't abandon Pepper, especially with Skye there. In such a situation, no matter how strong his Observation Haki perception was, he could only passively take hits.
Passively taking hits was not Mike's habit.
With the offensive and defensive Senbonzakura, his safety was first guaranteed, so Mike used Momochi Zabuza's possession card.
Just now, behind the curtain, Mike not only used Senbonzakura's Shikai but also a Water clone.
A specially made Water clone, infused with a large amount of chakra.
Ordinary Water clones cannot be too far from the main body, otherwise they will disappear, and Water clones cannot transmit "experience points" to the main body like Shadow clones after Death or chakra depletion.
So it had to be a specially made Water clone.
The gunman fired three shots, all to no avail. He wasn't discouraged and continued to look for an opening.
"Huh!"
The gunman suddenly noticed something unusual about the light ahead. As a sniper, he was particularly sensitive to light. He abandoned his sniper rifle, pushed off the wall, retreated, and held a pistol in each hand.
Clang!
Snipers usually install booby traps on doors, so the Water clone chose to attack from the window. For a ninja who could truly run on walls and roofs, attacking from a window was actually simpler.
He kicked through the glass, jumped into the room, and was met by the dark muzzles of the gunman's two pistols.
The Water clone was prepared, his figure flashed, not retreating but advancing.
Bang bang bang…
The gunman instantly fired, bullets blocking all paths of advance, forcing the Water clone to use his sword to deflect several bullets.
However, his movement stalled.
The gunman had already retreated to the doorway, disarmed the booby trap, and opened the door.
"Heh heh haha." The gunman laughed menacingly, throwing a grenade at the Water clone and closing the door at the same time.
Boom!
An explosion, the blast wave slammed the door against the opposite wall.
The gunman ran frantically, pulling a detonator from his pocket. To eliminate traces afterward, he had also installed C4 explosives in the room. Enough to blow up the room.
The gunman was thinking at this moment why there was a Mike in the exhibition hall and another Mike here.
Twins?
Or superpowers?
Reaching the corner of the corridor, the gunman pressed the detonator. He didn't stop but jumped out of the window, rappelled down using prepared ropes, and escaped on a motorcycle.
Boom!
A more violent explosion.
The room was shattered, broken walls and rubble, raging Fire, thick smoke billowing, and a strange giant Water ball appeared in the hall.
The Water ball encased the Water clone.
Before the explosion, the Water clone had timely used the Water Prison Jutsu to encase himself.
Bang!
The Water ball burst open, and a large amount of Water instantly extinguished the Fire.
The Water clone covered his mouth and nose, found the window, and watched the distant motorcycle. He did not continue the pursuit; even a specially made Water clone could not ignore distance.
"But it doesn't matter."
This time, the gunman was not wearing a helmet or mask, and the Water clone saw his true face.
He might escape for a while, but not forever. As long as he was still in this city, even if it was the ends of the earth, Mike was confident he would find him.