"Regardless of what is happening, we should first eliminate all these out-of-control robots," George said seriously to Tony and Rhodes.
Tony nodded: "That goes without saying, but you don't need to worry too much about that. Ivan Vanko's main goal is very clear, ever since he first attacked me in Monaco. He has shown that he wants revenge against me, against the Stark family, for the alleged injustice against his father."
"Therefore, he will prioritize mobilizing all his forces to deal with me. As long as I am here, he won't let these combat drones run rampant."
"Commissioner Stacy, leave this to Tony and me. You should retreat to a safe area quickly," Rhodes suggested, looking at the damaged G3 Armor on George.
"I'm afraid there's no time for that."
All the combat drones manufactured by Hammer Industries had flown over, surrounding Tony. Rhodes and George were naturally also within the encirclement.
"Looks like I'll have to use the new toy I just installed," Tony murmured, looking at the nearly one hundred combat drones whose weapons were aimed at him.
"Rhodes, Mr. Stacy, duck down and take cover. I'm going to do something powerful."
Rhodes and George saw Tony's armor raise its arms and obeyed, crouching low.
"Activate Laser Ray."
Tony's Iron Man suit arms each fired a high-energy laser. The two beams swept around, instantly cutting all the surrounding robots in half.
"That laser is so cool!" Rhodes looked enviously at Tony's suit, seeing the combat drones completely resolved in moments.
"While the power is strong, the energy consumption is also massive. If I hadn't installed the brand new Arc Reactor, I wouldn't have equipped the Iron Man suit with a laser weapon like this," Tony thought to himself, looking at the warning on his display screen showing energy consumption past the halfway mark.
"Next, we just need to find Ivan, the cause of all this. I'm definitely going to punch him twice," Colonel Rhodes said with a slightly relaxed tone.
"Tony, did you really think this was over?!"
Ivan Vanko, piloting an Iron Man-like suit he manufactured using Hammer Industries' resources, descended from the sky. The two improved electric whips in his hands struck out towards Tony and Rhodes.
"Ivan manufactured an Iron Man like suit too?!" Rhodes exclaimed in surprise, dodging the electric whip attack.
"It's not surprising," Tony said with a grim expression. Ivan certainly had the ability to build an Arc Reactor. Coupled with Hammer Industries' resources, building an Iron Man-like suit was not difficult.
"Tony, leave this to me. Let me blow him up with 'Ex-Wife'," Colonel Rhodes said, still harboring resentment over being manipulated by Ivan like a puppet earlier.
However, "Ex-Wife" hit Ivan's armor like a steel rod, letting out a crisp clank, and then fell to the ground.
"Was that a missile?" George's mouth twitched slightly.
Colonel Rhodes was speechless.
"Made by Hammer Industries?" Tony added insult to injury.
Rhodes nodded silently.
"The farce ends here, Tony Stark! I will utterly defeat you and trample you underfoot."
Ivan swung the electric whips with both hands, lashing out at Tony and Rhodes.
"Watch out, his whips are magnetic!"
Tony and Rhodes tried to dodge the electric whips, but found that the two whips possessed strong magnetism. As soon as they got close to the two Iron Man suits, they automatically latched on.
The electric whips immediately wrapped around Tony and Rhodes, releasing a strong current that affected the internal systems of the suits, restricting the movement of both Rhodes and Tony for a moment.
"You really don't think much of me, do you?" George saw Ivan only focusing on dealing with Rhodes and Tony, completely ignoring him. He smirked coldly, seizing the opportunity to rush forward and punch Ivan in the head.
Ivan was solidly punched in the head by George. Although protected by the steel exterior, his head still rang for a moment.
He truly hadn't expected George, whose G3 Armor was already so damaged, to still be able to move and possess such powerful strength.
Rhodes saw this and exclaimed excitedly: "That's it, punch him hard!"
"Damn it!" Ivan flared up, releasing the electric whip that was restraining Rhodes and viciously swung it at George.
Although George's neural response speed was enhanced by the G3 System AI, allowing him to clearly see the trajectory of the falling whip, his movements couldn't keep up with his reactions due to the severe armor damage. Unable to evade in time, he could only raise his arms to block. He was then struck and sent flying, the outer protective armor on his arms completely shattered.
"The annoying pest should just vanish!"
Ivan aimed directly at George and launched a missile.
"Has the missile system not recovered yet?" Rhodes watched his restarting missile system anxiously.
Suddenly, a light blade slashed from the side, destroying the missile heading toward George.
Seeing his father about to be hit by a missile, Gwen naturally couldn't stand by any longer.
"Stark, is this armor also something you made?" Ivan asked, his tone full of confusion.
"Tony, so you had a secret weapon all along! Why didn't you bring it out sooner?"
"But the design of this armor is too strange, completely different from your usual style. I can't believe you secretly like this kind of style; I never knew that before," Rhodes quipped.
Tony rolled his eyes upon hearing this, too lazy to respond, and asked Gwen with some confusion: "Lazer, why are you here?"
The Rider's armor emitted an androgynous voice: "I was just nearby. Seeing such a huge commotion here, I came to take a look."
Since she didn't want to speak in her original voice in front of her father, fearing exposure, Gwen chose to speak using an electronic synthesis voice.
"How dare you ignore me!" Ivan, however, couldn't tolerate it. What was going on now?!
Tony Stark was actually talking casually with this suddenly appearing armor, completely disregarding him.
Seeing more and more disruptors appearing, Ivan immediately maximized the power and swung a whip toward Tony.
Colonel Rhodes quickly fired his light particle pulse cannons with both hands, blocking Ivan's whip for Tony.
"Hey, you over there, don't just stand around looking! Get over here and help!" Rhodes yelled, awkwardly dodging the electric whip, addressing Gwen who was standing still.
Gwen had originally planned to help Tony Stark defeat this terrorist now that she had revealed herself.
However, she suddenly received a notification from Dan that there was a strong signal of Bugster appearance nearby, causing her to freeze in place, looking around for the Bugster's traces.
"Looks like I've been found." Dan's clone—Genm—suddenly appeared in mid-air.
"What are you doing here, Genm?" Gwen took a defensive stance.
"Naturally, I'm here to cultivate the Bugster Virus and create more interesting games."
"Look, how perfect these are as hosts for cultivating the Bugster Virus," Genm laughed meaningfully, pointing at the panicked and fleeing Expo audience.
He pulled out a game cartridge.
"Dangerous Zombie"
"Buggle Up! Danger! Danger! (Genocide!) Death the crisis! Dangerous Zombie! (Zombie screech)"
The Bugster Virus scattered, and yellow light specks rained down like fine mist. Many fleeing spectators in the distance were instantly infected with the Bugster Virus, collapsing onto the ground and groaning in pain.
"Damn it!" Gwen gritted her teeth, raising her Bow-Blade and aiming to attack Genm.
(End of this chapter)