Kilian's video was a declaration of war.
Tony Stark slowly turned off the video in his hand, his fist gradually clenching, the veins on his hand involuntarily tightening.
Tony Stark never thought that the mastermind would actually be Aldrich Killian, Tony hadn't even considered it would be him.
In fact, Tony Stark did have some impression of Killian; besides those scattered memories, he also remembered that Killian visited Stark Industries Group not long ago.
At that time, Killian and Pepper Potts talked in the office for a long time, and Tony even felt a bit jealous.
Now...
Killian prepared all the traps before confessing to his opponent, clearly wanting Tony to jump into the pre-set trap himself.
"Tony, what do you plan to do?"
Colonel Rhodes glanced at his friend and gently advised, "Don't throw your life away in vain, let's notify the Rear Admiral first, then contact Director Uehara of S.H.I.E.L.D..."
"..."
Tony Stark was silent for a moment, reached out, and grabbed his hair. His mind slowly calmed down from the shock, analyzing the current situation in a low voice: "Rhodes, you can't notify your superior, it will alert Killian..."
After saying that, Tony Stark was silent for a while, then murmured, "Can't notify that guy Uehara either... Alright, let's notify him when we get there and let him be ready to rescue our Mr. President at any time?"
Tony Stark's hand slowly stopped, speaking in a low voice: "That guy only allows the two of us to go... then we'll have to go together first!"
"...Are you crazy?"
Colonel Rhodes' eyes widened a bit.
This is not something the two of them can handle!
Now it's their President who has been kidnapped!
If Killian had only kidnapped Pepper Potts, Colonel Rhodes wouldn't have cared if a few of them went to rescue her, but Killian also kidnapped the President!
This is not the time for heroics!
"Rhodes."
Tony Stark turned to look at Rhodes, slowly reaching out to place a hand on his shoulder: "Trust me... We can rescue them, just the two of us are enough."
Because...
Besides the two of them...
He also has dozens of all kinds of Iron Man suits!
"Time is urgent, there's no time to make a detailed plan..."
Tony Stark, without much thought, directly arranged the task: "When we are about to reach the destination, I'll have Jarvis notify the others... Then I'll go find Pepper, you save the other one."
This plan...
This isn't even a plan at all!
Colonel Rhodes hadn't had time to process it, and Tony was already dragging him to find a means of transportation heading to Kilian's location, which was an oil tanker near the coast of Florida.
An hour later.
Kilian's headquarters.
The country's President was suspended between two high arches.
Kilian stood at the railing of the oil tanker, leisurely fiddling with his phone, casually instructing his subordinates: "Get ready to start the broadcast, every camera should capture everything..."
"Yes."
One by one, the cameras quickly turned on.
The entire United States' television signal was quickly switched over by someone.
"Gentlemen, ladies, Merry Christmas."
Kilian's voice appeared on television, calmly narrating what was about to happen: "This is a challenge to Tony Stark... If he doesn't appear here within five minutes, I will kill our beloved Mr. President."
"Of course..."
"I guess not many people like this idiot President either, so on this Christmas day, I thought I'd simply make him a Christmas gift for everyone."
When Kilian said this, he suddenly let out a light laugh: "A bit of a pity, I can't fit his head in your stockings... Even if I divide his body into countless pieces, it wouldn't fill the stockings of three hundred million people."
Clearly, Kilian was talking about something terrifying...
However, he seemed to speak his cold jokes as if he was unaware.
Every family gathered in their living rooms watching the program on Christmas Eve saw the live broadcast on television, saw Kilian's smile, and couldn't help but feel a little terrified deep in their hearts!
The news of the President being kidnapped and possibly being publicly executed quickly spread throughout the United States!
Tony Stark didn't even need to notify anyone...
The entire United States already knew the news, everyone was going crazy, and Uehara Naraku even received a call from the Security Council requesting him to deploy the Avengers Squad immediately to rescue their President!
Uehara Naraku, of course...
Chose to call Tony Stark first!
No matter what, completing this task of rescuing the President is absolutely impossible, the only thing to do is figure out how to reasonably pin the blame on Tony!
Unfortunately...
The call didn't get through.
The only thing Uehara Naraku could do was probably contact Steve Rogers and Natasha and let them quickly determine Kilian's coordinates, head to the destination, and rescue people.
As for Uehara Naraku, this Director of S.H.I.E.L.D could only sit in a Quinjet while watching this public execution broadcast initiated by Kilian.
To be honest...
There's no way they'll make it in time.
The only thing Uehara Naraku could do was watch the broadcast on the plane while inviting his subordinates for a glass of juice and some popcorn...
Uehara Naraku was just cruising.