Chapter 212: Tony: Feel the Power of Technology
Aboard the transport vehicle, Steve and the others had their hands and feet bound in specialized restraints. Escape was out of the question at this point. Even basic movement was difficult.
To make sure none of them slipped away during transport, Soldier Boy had come along personally as an escort.
Inside the vehicle, he pulled a special cigarette case from his pocket, drew one out, lit it slowly, and leaned back against the seat, thoroughly relaxed.
"Hey, Steve, want one? Specially made. Works great for superhumans." Soldier Boy waved the cigarette in offering.
Steve looked at the cigarette held out toward him and was quiet for a long moment before speaking. "What exactly do you mean by 'specially made'?"
"Specially made? It just means..."
"It means what's packed in there isn't tobacco. It's weed." Natasha cut in. "I can already smell it."
"Never would've guessed the war-hero poster boy Vought used to sell as the face of the anti-Nazi effort was actually like this behind closed doors."
"Like this?" Soldier Boy raised an eyebrow. "Come on. I've got a superhuman body and superhuman tolerance. This stuff does less to me than a regular cigarette does to an ordinary person."
"Should I really be holding myself to the same standard as a normal person, just because I happen to be a superhuman?"
He offered the cigarette to Steve again, and Steve turned him down flat, without hesitation.
Seeing that Steve wasn't on board with his lifestyle either, Soldier Boy tucked the cigarette back into his pocket, entirely unbothered. "We're both super soldiers. Not trying it is honestly a waste."
"I'd be the one wasting something, if I tried it." Steve said it flatly.
"Also, you and I aren't the same kind of people. Don't measure everyone else by your own standard."
Hearing that, Soldier Boy laughed instead of getting angry.
He slowly exhaled a stream of smoke, his eyes, glinting with something mocking, moving up and down over Steve.
"Two different kinds of people?" He tucked the cigarette back into the corner of his mouth. "Come on, Steve."
"We're cut from the exact same cloth..."
"You and I are both drug-made 'super soldiers,' both government products, both trotted out to strike poses for propaganda reels."
"The only difference is I stopped bothering to pretend." Soldier Boy's gaze drifted over to settle on Carter.
Something particular caught his attention about her, something with a name.
Age.
"Keep your filthy eyes to yourself."
"Or I'll gouge them out." Carter's voice was flat, edged with cold.
Soldier Boy ignored the warning entirely, his eyes still crawling over her.
Time slipped by second by second, the convoy rolling steadily forward.
Maria Hill, disguised as one of the escort personnel, kept glancing sideways at Soldier Boy from behind the cover of her visor, careful not to be noticed.
This is a problem, Agent Hill thought to herself.
Her assignment was to find some way to get Steve, Carter, and Natasha out. But with Soldier Boy riding along as escort, that assignment had just gotten a lot harder.
Sweat beaded along her back. Her mind raced through options.
Some amount of time later, something that could barely be called a plan surfaced in her head.
At this point, it was really the only option left.
With that decided, Hill discreetly tapped the toe of her boot against Steve's combat boot.
Soldier Boy, still busy admiring Carter, hadn't noticed the movement at all.
Feeling the tap against his boot, Steve's brow drew together slightly, and he looked toward Hill with some confusion in his eyes.
But when he saw her, using her gear as cover, silently counting down with her fingers, "3, 2, 1," Steve finally understood.
Now.
Hill didn't say a word. What her hands did next confirmed exactly what she'd meant.
Shhhk—
The high-voltage stun baton snapped out of Hill's grip in an instant and pressed directly against Soldier Boy's neck.
At the same moment, Steve sprang up off his seat like a coiled spring and drove his head straight into Soldier Boy's jaw.
Seeing Steve make his move, Carter wasn't about to hold back either. She threw herself backward across her seat and slammed both bound feet into Soldier Boy's chest.
In an instant, the inside of the vehicle descended into chaos.
The sudden, coordinated attack caught Soldier Boy completely off guard, and Steve's headbutt sent the cigarette in his mouth straight down his throat, setting off a fit of coughing.
Seizing the opening, Hill immediately pulled out a plasma cutting pen and started working to free Steve and the others from their restraints.
But the process didn't go as smoothly as hoped.
Before Hill could get Steve's ankle shackles open, Soldier Boy had already recovered.
Gathering his full strength, he slammed a punch into Carter that drove her against the vehicle door, then whipped his leg up and drove a kick straight into Hill's ribs.
Even with a body far tougher than an ordinary person's, the sheer weight behind that kick was enough to crack Hill's ribs outright.
"Fuck. Didn't expect a mole to be riding along with the rest of you." Soldier Boy spat, his eyes turning vicious as they landed on Hill. "There's nothing I hate more than a mole."
"If it weren't for a mole in my old unit, the Soviets wouldn't have had me for anywhere near as long as they did."
With that, Soldier Boy grabbed Hill by the throat.
Just as he was about to snap her neck, a figure slammed in through the side of the vehicle first, hitting Soldier Boy like a torpedo and blasting him clean out of the car.
"Oh, Soldier Boy! Didn't that bald guy kick you out of the Avengers?"
"So what happened, no place left to go, and you just ended up joining that scumbag operation, HYDRA?"
Tony hovered in the air, a mocking edge on his face.
As he spoke, a cluster of micro-missiles launched from his shoulder mounts, tearing the still-moving convoy apart.
"JARVIS, get their electronic restraints open."
"Right away, sir—"
At the words, the electronic shackles on Steve and the others' bodies popped open instantly, freeing them.
"Hey, Steve, don't just stand there."
"I've got this jerk covered. The rest of you get moving toward SHIELD—" Tony's voice reached Steve and the others, snapping them out of it, and they moved immediately.
But—
"How exactly are we supposed to get there?"
"We can't exactly run the whole way." Steve looked at Tony. "Stark, do you have some kind of armor set aside for us? Something to get us there fast?"
"...Steve, you really are high maintenance."
"But hey, guess that's what happens when you're the guy I keep beating."
"Fine! Let me show you the beauty of technology!"
"And no, I'm not talking about the kind of armor you're picturing."
The words had barely left his mouth.
A neutral, mechanical voice rang out across the street.
"Titan is completing satellite descent. Please clear the area."
"Titan is completing satellite descent. Please clear the area."
Everyone looked up toward the sound.
A massive shape came into view above them.
BOOM!!
A hulking mech, painted in military green, dropped out of the sky and slammed a crater into the street.
Before anyone could react, its hatch snapped open and, without ceremony, it scooped the whole group inside and into the cockpit.
The moment that was done, the Titan didn't linger. Its thrusters kicked on with a roar, and in the blink of an eye it had covered a hundred meters.
Watching the shape shrink rapidly into the distance, Soldier Boy's face turned distinctly grim.
Fuck. He'd let the thing get away.
And it had gotten away that fast.
Whatever else could be said for Soldier Boy's physical stats, among the strongest in the world of The Boys, speed was his weakest category.
His running speed didn't even match a sprinter's.
So against something that had simply vanished in a blur, there was no way for him to keep up.
He turned toward Tony, hovering in midair, was quiet for a moment, then crooked a finger at him. "Get down here. I've got something to say to you."
Tony: "..."
"If I actually came down there, my IQ would probably drop below a ripe banana's."
He kept his eyes fixed on Soldier Boy, still standing where he was. "Isn't it obvious? You can't fly. I can."
"I currently hold air superiority. All you've got left is the pleasure of getting hit."
"So right now, you're basically just a punching bag that can't move. You don't get a seat at the negotiating table."
As he said it, Tony leveled his palm at Soldier Boy.
The silver-white symbiote armor wrapped around his hand shifted, reshaping itself into the outline of a railgun.
On the ground, Soldier Boy looked at the railgun in Tony's hand and didn't hesitate for a second. He turned and ran.
Of course, in his own eyes, this wasn't running away. This was a tactical retreat.
Watching Soldier Boy dive headlong into the crowded shopping district, something clicked uneasily in Tony's mind.
The guy was sharper than he looked. He knew perfectly well Tony wouldn't risk a wide-area weapon in a crowded civilian zone.
If nothing else, that alone proved being the villain was a whole lot easier than being the hero.
Still, to keep Soldier Boy from circling back to interfere with Steve and the others, Tony flew after him anyway.
On the other side, Soldier Boy plowed straight through a crowd of shoppers and into the revolving door of a supermarket.
The glass of the revolving door threw back a reflection of his grim face, and behind him, hovering in midair, Tony Stark.
The silver-white symbiote armor caught the sunlight with a hard, cold gleam, radiating high-tech polish.
"Not bad speed on you..."
Tony's voice carried through the external speaker, dripping with lazy mockery.
"I figured all you super soldiers were the same type as Captain America, the stand-and-fight kind. Turns out you're the type who ducks into a grocery store instead."
"What, planning to buy me off with some snacks?"
Soldier Boy didn't answer the taunt.
He barreled through the revolving door into the store, his shoulder sweeping products off the shelves in every direction, chip bags and cans bursting open in a mess across the floor.
The customers inside hadn't even registered what was happening before they saw a wall of muscle charging in like an enraged bull, followed a second later by someone flying in fully encased in silver-white armor.
Screaming erupted instantly.
"Oh my god!"
"Is someone shooting?!"
"Run!"
The crowd scattered outward from Soldier Boy and Tony like water rippling out from a thrown stone.
A mother clutching her child screamed and ducked behind the checkout counter. Two teenagers in school uniforms dropped their drinks and bolted for the exit. The cashier practically fell off his stool, scrambling on hands and knees toward the staff corridor.
The whole scene dissolved into chaos.
And in the middle of that chaos, Tony noticed a few opportunists quietly taking advantage of the moment to loot the store.
On any normal day he'd have said something to stop it. But this was an emergency, so Tony settled for having JARVIS issue a warning instead.
Shhhk—
Several red laser dots landed squarely on their chests, and the sight of it froze them mid-motion, whatever they were carrying spilling out of their hands onto the floor.
Seeing the tactic work, Tony gave a satisfied nod.
Meanwhile, Soldier Boy used the chaos to slam through the double doors marked "Employees Only" toward the back of the store, tearing the entire door assembly off its hinges and sending it crashing into the wall with a heavy thud.
He ducked into the emergency stairwell beyond, dim and lit only by the green glow of the emergency lighting.
Tony flew in close behind, his armor's thrusters humming low in the cramped space.
The corridor was tight, the concrete walls on either side nearly brushing his shoulder plates, and the low pipes overhead forced him to duck his head slightly.
"JARVIS, scan the environment."
"Sir, the corridor is one point five meters wide, two point one meters high."
"Using thrusters at your current position carries a seventy-three percent chance of structural damage. Recommend switching to ground combat mode." JARVIS's voice was as level as a weather report.
"...Sounds like someone's deliberately trying to drag me down to ground level, then."
"Since you clearly want a close-quarters brawl this badly, I'll happily give you one."
"JARVIS, switch to melee combat mode."
"And go ahead and bring up Sanwiston when the situation calls for it. I want him to know exactly how little his so-called super soldier status means to me."
Tony's feet touched down, the armor's thrusters folding back into place.
He looked into the pitch-black corridor ahead and, without hesitation, stepped forward.
But he'd barely taken a few steps before a shadow dropped down suddenly overhead—
Soldier Boy launched himself down from the landing above.
His right elbow was raised high, the veins on his forehead standing out.
That kind of terrifying physical output, combined with gravity's acceleration, made the strike genuinely dangerous.
If that hit landed clean, even the symbiote armor's cushioning layer would likely still deliver a concussion straight through.
Feeling the movement above him, Tony's pupils contracted sharply.
His brain hadn't even had time to react before Soldier Boy's attack was already on top of him.
But compared to a human brain, artificial intelligence reacted faster.
"Sanwiston. Activate."
The instant that level, mechanical voice registered in Tony's ears, the whole world seemed to hit a slow-motion switch.
Soldier Boy's snarling face froze in midair.
The hairs on his forearm stood rigid, the muscle fibers beneath the skin pulled taut like rope, and even the green glow of the emergency light seemed to turn into a still, frozen pool.
Tony Stark, meanwhile, moved at his normal speed inside that frozen world.
"...JARVIS, plot his attack trajectory."
The words had barely left his mouth before a red arc appeared on his HUD, marking the projected point of impact and the likely follow-up paths Soldier Boy's elbow might take.
"Feel the technology."
Tony watched Soldier Boy falling toward him and shifted his stance back, just slightly.
The next instant, Soldier Boy's elbow grazed past his shoulder plate.
At the same moment, Tony's right fist drove straight into Soldier Boy's fully exposed ribs, taking full advantage of the opening.
The punch carried tremendous force, but even so, it felt like hitting a sheet of rubber-wrapped steel plate.
Before Soldier Boy could react, Tony struck again.
A knee straight into his stomach!
Bang!
Soldier Boy's body curled reflexively against the sudden pain.
Taking advantage of the opening, Tony raised his elbow high.
Then brought it down hard against the back of Soldier Boy's skull!
BOOM!
Time resumed its normal flow.
Soldier Boy's body dropped onto the concrete floor like a torn sack of grain, the impact kicking dust half a meter into the air.
Between the elbow to the back of his head and his forehead slamming into the ground right after, his ears were ringing and stars burst across his vision.
He couldn't even process what had just happened.
He'd been in mid-lunge, right on top of Tony, his elbow practically already on that damned helmet, and the next second he was face-down on the ground?
"You—!"
Soldier Boy had just started pushing himself up when Tony's heel came down on his back.
Not a light stomp, either. A full-force press assisted by the thrusters, driving Soldier Boy's half-risen upper body straight back down onto the ground.
The concrete cracked open under the pressure.
Soldier Boy's face was pinned against the broken rubble, looking thoroughly wrecked.
"How's it feel, Soldier Boy?" Tony's voice came through the helmet, carrying the cold edge that only came through electronically.
"Getting your face ground into the pavement in the one category you're supposed to be good at?"
"Was it worse than what the Soviets did to you back in the day, or does this actually beat that?"
Hearing the taunt, Soldier Boy clenched his jaw and let out a low, animal growl.
His arms surged with sudden force, the muscle swelling until it looked ready to tear straight through his tactical suit's sleeves.
Tony felt a massive force come up through his feet, and the next thing he knew, he'd been forced back two full steps.
Soldier Boy flipped himself upright in the same motion, his back slamming into the corridor wall hard enough to leave a dent in the concrete.
The corner of his mouth was split open, blood dripping from his chin down onto his chest, and there wasn't a trace of mockery left in his eyes. Only pure, undiluted fury.
"Stark. You just pissed me off."
He threw a right hook. Tony leaned aside, the wind off the punch shrieking as it grazed his chest plate.
An elbow strike came next. Then a knee!
Soldier Boy's attacks had no technique behind them at all, purely raw super-soldier instinct unloaded without restraint.
Every strike carried enough force to turn an ordinary person into paste, punching hole after hole into the walls, sending debris flying.
Tony kept dodging.
Sanwiston was still active, and to him, every one of Soldier Boy's punches moved like an old woman doing tai chi in slow motion.
He could see every telltale sign of an attack before it even started, which made dodging effortless.
Tony dodged and countered in the same motion.
Against Soldier Boy's assault, Tony threw a left hook straight into his jaw, snapping his head sharply to one side.
Blood sprayed from his nose, tracing a dark red arc through the air.
Then it was the ribs. The stomach.
With JARVIS's assistance, Tony's strikes landed with perfect precision, every punch and kick finding the most vulnerable point on the human body.
The flank.
Soldier Boy got knocked backward again and again.
It wasn't that he didn't want to counter. He simply couldn't find the opening to do it.
Tony was too fast, fast enough that the instant Soldier Boy threw a punch, Tony had already circled around behind him.
The instant his knee came up, Tony's elbow had already landed on his face first.
Left with no other option, Soldier Boy could only curl up and cover his head defensively.
Two thick arms shielded his head and neck, absorbing Tony's punches as they rained down on him like a storm.
Every hit from the armor left a bruise on his muscle, every punch amplified by the suit to its absolute maximum.
Even Soldier Boy's constitution was starting to reach its limit under this.
Bang—
Under the relentless barrage, his back hit the concrete wall at the end of the corridor. There was nowhere left to retreat.
Tony stood in front of him, his right fist pulling back to his waist, the repulsor in his palm fully charged, glowing with a blinding white light.
"Game over."
BOOM!
The repulsor blast fired point-blank into Soldier Boy's crossed, defensive arms, the shockwave shattering every pipe running along both sides of the corridor, water bursting out in every direction.
The impact sent Soldier Boy's whole body flying, punching through several concrete walls before finally crashing into the warehouse on the far side.
The wooden shelving inside shattered under the impact, cardboard boxes bursting open and scattering their contents across the floor.
Tony lowered his hand, looking at the dust-filled warehouse.
"JARVIS, vitals?"
"Target's vitals are within normal range."
"Heart rate has climbed to 180 beats per minute. Adrenaline levels are rising sharply."
JARVIS paused. "Sir, an abnormal energy buildup has been detected inside the target's chest cavity. The energy level is climbing exponentially."
"...He's about to blow?"
A flicker of seriousness crossed Tony's eyes, his brow drawing sharply together.
A moment later, deep in the dust cloud, a sudden orange-red glow flared to life.
Looking closer made it clear: the light wasn't coming from anywhere else. It was coming from Soldier Boy's chest.
The glow burned straight through his tactical suit, lighting the entire warehouse as bright as day.
At the same time, the temperature inside the warehouse spiked sharply, the edges of the cardboard boxes curling, blackening, and then catching fire outright.
In a flash, Soldier Boy stood in the wreckage, slowly lowering his arms.
"Ohh. Guess I really did piss this one off."
Watching this unfold, Tony muttered the observation under his breath, then without a moment's hesitation, kicked his thrusters into overdrive.
In an instant, he vanished from the warehouse entirely.
And the moment he was gone, a thick column of orange-red energy erupted from Soldier Boy's chest, engulfing the entire warehouse in a single instant.
Every wall, pipe, and shelf in its path vaporized the moment the beam touched it, the air itself letting out an ear-splitting shriek at the contact.
Almost immediately, the warehouse's outer wall blew apart from the inside.
A column of orange-red light shot straight up into the sky, the glow from the burning visible clearly from several kilometers away.
At the same time, the building Soldier Boy was in let out a groan of structural failure under the force of the blast.
And then it began to collapse.
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