For the next month, New York was preposterously calm.
Logan had completely entered a retirement mode, and his daily schedule was simple enough to be written on a cigarette pack: at seven in the morning, he was patted awake by Ares’s paws, and he would walk the dog in the park; at noon, he went home to fry two steaks and make do with some whiskey; in the afternoon, he carried fishing gear to the suburban lake to fish, sitting there the entire afternoon; in the evening, he rode his harley to cruise along the coastline, and after getting enough of the evening breeze, he went home to either play games for a while or call Maggie for a quick chat.
The days passed leisurely, just like someone who had retired.
The one with the biggest change was Ares.
In just a few months, this fellow grew wildly as if it had been inflated, its shoulder height surging to eighty-eight centimeters, and its weight heading straight for seventy kilograms, standing in front of people like a half-grown black bear.
Every time he took it out for a walk, the turnback rate was higher than when Logan rode his harley, and people always crowded over to ask what breed it was, and whether it was a crossbred mastiff.
Logan always spoke vaguely every time, saying it was just an ordinary Blue Bay Shepherd.
But he also muttered doubts in his heart.
A normal Blue Bay Shepherd at most had a shoulder height of sixty centimeters and weighed over forty kilograms; the creature in his home obviously exceeded the standard ridiculously.
Could it be that staying with him every day and picking up a little bit of Mutant radiation caused a genetic mutation?
He pinched Ares’s dog face and examined it for a long time, while the latter wagged its tail, its wet tongue licking his hand in a mess, looking silly and foolish, without a shred of the shrewdness of “special genes”.
“Fine, being a bit silly is just being silly,” Logan smiled and rubbed its big head, “As long as it can guard the house, that’s enough.”
This statement was really not wrong.
Although Ares looked fierce, its personality was actually quite gentle, except for being fiercely protective of its master.
Last time Logan took it to a bar, a drunkard picked a quarrel and lunged at Logan, and Ares bolted up immediately, standing there with its eighty-catty body and baring its fangs, scaring the drunkard so much that his drunkenness instantly sobered up, and he fled scrambling and crawling.
Afterwards, Logan rewarded it with a large steak, and this fellow squatted in the corner with the bone in its mouth, chewing with great relish, its tail wagging like a small motor.
That afternoon, Logan carried his fishing gear to the lakeside to fish as usual.
The autumn sunlight was warm, the lake surface shimmered, and the breeze carried the scent of aquatic plants.
He slumped onto the folding chair, put the fishing rod on the bracket, and closed his eyes to rest with a cigar in his mouth.
Ares squatted beside him; initially it lay down obediently, but before long it was attracted by a squirrel in the bushes, its paws scratching the ground, itching to move.
“If you dare to run, I’ll break your legs,” Logan said leisurely without even lifting his eyelids.
Ares’s ears drooped, it whined twice, and reluctantly lay back down, yet its paws were still digging at the dirt one stroke after another.
Logan let out a scoff, and just as he wanted to say something more, his phone suddenly rang.
It was a call from Maggie, saying that Matt had obtained his lawyer’s license today and wanted to invite him to dinner in the evening.
“Alright, you guys pick the place,” Logan agreed with a smile, “And congratulations to our future top lawyer by the way.”
After hanging up the phone, he no longer had the mood to fish, so he packed his things and walked back.
Ares followed closely at his heels, jumping up and down as if it knew they were going to eat something good.
Returning home, he took a shower, changed into clean clothes, and just as he was about to lead the dog out, the news on the television suddenly broke in with an emergency broadcast.
“Attention viewers, we are now broadcasting a breaking news flash! An unidentified giant metal object has appeared near the Stark Industries headquarters in New York, and a fierce conflict is suspected to have occurred! The police have currently cordoned off the scene, and the specific situation remains unclear…”
Logan’s footsteps paused, and he turned his head to look at the television.
The footage was shaking violently, filmed by a passerby with a mobile phone.
In the night, two huge steel figures wrestled together in the plaza in front of Stark Tower, and the sound of collision shook people’s eardrums painfully even across the screen.
One of them was silver and red, with a slender figure, obviously Tony’s mark iii; the other was grayish-black, bulkier by a circle, with frighteningly thick cannon barrels, which was precisely Obadiah’s iron monger. This chapter was taken from novelping(.)com without permission.
“Oh, they actually started fighting,” Logan raised his eyebrows.
Far from being anxious, he instead sat on the sofa with great interest and picked up the remote control to turn up the volume.
Ares also crowded over, squatting beside him, tilting its head to stare at the two metal lumps on the television, letting out low whimpers in its mouth.
The battle situation on the television was fierce.
Relying on its large size and thick armor, iron monger punched mark iii blow by blow, each strike sparking fiercely.
Tony maneuvered the armor to dodge flexibly, his repulsor rays continuously blasting at the opponent’s chest, but iron monger’s armor had obviously been thickened, and when the beams hit it, they only left a scorch mark, completely unable to break the defense.
“Stupid, huh?” Logan held a cigar in his mouth and bantered, “You only looked after your own upgrades, never thinking that others would also copy your homework?”
He picked up the whiskey beside him and took a sip, treating it like watching a boxing match, and casually added a critique: “This punch was too slow, dodge to the left… Yes, kick his knee! So stupid, the armor was built in vain, you don’t even know how to break a combo.”
In the footage, Tony was clearly at a disadvantage.
Obadiah originally came from a military industry background; the iron monger built by copying the foundation of mark i had firepower and armor that completely crushed mark iii, and coupled with his ruthless strikes aiming at vital points every time, Tony fought with his hands and feet tied.
What was more troublesome was Pepper.
The news quickly cut to the footage inside the building, with sirens mixed with screams, saying that armed men had broken into the reactor engine room.
Logan raised his eyebrows.
Without even thinking, he knew that Obadiah wanted to cut off Tony’s retreat and deal with Pepper along the way.
“Playing dirty, huh?” Logan touched his chin, watching Tony noticeably distracted on television and taking a punch, the armor slamming heavily onto a car, causing the car door to cave right in.
He wasn’t worried about Pepper having an accident at all.
This woman looked gentle, but her temper was tougher than anyone’s; once pushed to the limit, there was no telling who would deal with whom.
Besides, no matter how wild Tony was, it was impossible for him to let Pepper actually get hurt.
Sure enough, after just a few minutes, a dazzling white light suddenly lit up on the top floor of Stark Tower, followed by a loud explosion, and iron monger’s movements halted abruptly, as if interfered with by something.
Seizing the opportunity, Tony sprayed fire from the soles of his feet and soared straight up into the high sky.
iron monger was not to be outdone and closely pursued upward.
“Yo, he even knows to lure him to high altitudes,” Logan smiled, “Not too stupid.”
He remembered that in the original work, iron monger’s armor did not consider the high-altitude icing problem, and it would jam once reaching a low-temperature environment.
Tony intended to use the environmental advantage to counter-kill.
The television footage followed the aerial photography helicopter upwards.
The two steel figures flew higher and higher, soon burrowing into the clouds.
Before long, iron monger’s movements were seen to become slower and slower, a layer of white frost formed on its surface, and the thrusters intermittently emitted fire.
“Here it comes, here it comes, the classic scene,” Logan straightened up a bit, full of interest.
Obadiah also discovered something was wrong and roared furiously, yet he couldn’t control the armor from falling down. Get faster updates on novelping.com.
Seizing the opportunity, Tony turned around and fired a repulsor blast, slamming fiercely into iron monger’s chest reactor.
“Boom——!!!”
The huge explosion shook people’s scalps numb even across the screen.
iron monger fell from high altitude like a piece of scrap iron, slamming heavily onto the roof of the reactor engine room of Stark Tower, accompanied by another earth-shattering loud noise.
Flames soared into the sky, illuminating half of New York’s night sky.
mark iii wobbled down from the sky, kneeling on one knee.
The surface of the armor was pitted, and the mask was shattered by half, looking extremely disheveled.
The live broadcast screen was in utter chaos; reporters shouted at the top of their lungs, and the sounds of sirens, fire engines, and the exclamations of the populace merged into one.
Logan slowly exhaled a puff of smoke and shook his head: “He who doesn’t listen to the old man’s advice suffers right before his eyes. I told him to strike first earlier, but he simply refused to listen. Now look at this, the company blew up, the armor is ruined, and he almost got himself dragged into it.”
He picked up the phone, found Tony’s number, and dialed it.
It rang for a long time before the other side picked up, with the background sound entirely messy with sirens and human voices.
Tony’s voice was hoarse and exhausted, carrying a bit of heavy panting from just finishing a fight: “What?”
“Nothing much, watching the live broadcast,” Logan leaned against the sofa, the amusement in his tone unable to be hidden at all, “Congratulations, Mr. Stark, the fireworks tonight were quite grandiose, cost a lot of money, didn’t they?”
Tony: “…”
He fell silent for two seconds on the other end, then exploded: “Are you fucking doing this on purpose?! Is it very satisfying to watch me make a fool of myself?”
“Satisfying, why wouldn’t it be satisfying,” Logan laughed openly, “I told you long ago that old bastard Obadiah was dishonest, and asked you to strike first, but you refused to listen and insisted on talking about some legal procedures. How is it now? Before the procedures could be followed, you almost got hammered into scrap iron by someone.”
“I won in the end!” Tony argued stubbornly with his neck stuck out, “He’s dead, I’m alive, that’s enough.”
“Yes, yes, yes, you won,” Logan perfunctorily agreed, “You won indeed, but the armor is shattered as if gnawed by a dog, and the top floor of Stark Tower has been blown through. The repair costs won’t come down without a few hundred million, right? Oh right, is Pepper alright? Don’t just focus on fighting yourself and drag your assistant in.”
Mentioning Pepper, Tony’s tone paused, and his voice dropped a bit: “She’s fine, just suffered a little shock.”
“That’s good,” Logan nodded, and started mocking again, “I thought you’d be saving the damsel in distress, but instead you let a young girl maneuver with thugs in the engine room while you were outside tearing down the house with someone. Tony Stark, your job as a bodyguard is not very good. How about I teach you some time later?”
“Get lost!” Tony cursed ungratefully, coughed twice as if he had choked, “Where are you? Hurry up and come over, there’s a mess of things here, and Pepper can’t handle it alone.”
“Don’t, I’m on vacation,” Logan deliberately put on airs, “The vacation hasn’t ended yet, working overtime requires triple pay, and it must count as a work-related injury. Look at how you fought this battle; there are pieces of broken iron everywhere. What if I get scratched?”
“Triple is triple!” Tony grew anxious, “Hurry up and come over! Stop the nonsense, if you don’t come, your bonus for this month is gone!”
“Tsk, he’s anxious,” Logan let out a scoff, but didn’t tease him anymore, “Alright, alright, wait for it, I’ll arrive shortly. Oh right, remember to have Pepper prepare a late-night snack for me, steak, medium-well. After bustling all night, don’t I need to replenish my physical strength?”
“Got it, got it, hurry up!”
Tony impatiently hung up the phone.
Logan smiled, stuffed the phone back into his pocket, and stood up to pat his pants.
Ares looked up at him, its tail swaying gently.
“Stay obediently at home, I’m going to clean up your boss’s mess,” Logan bent down and rubbed its head, “I’ll bring you bones when I get back.”
Ares seemed to understand, whined twice, and obediently crawled back onto the carpet.
Logan picked up his coat and car keys, and before heading out, he turned back to glance at the television once more.
The news was still rolling and broadcasting, with the camera continuously filming the ruins of Stark Tower, and the anchor excitedly guessing the identity of the ‘Iron Man’.