2: S.H.I.E.L.D.
2: S.H.I.E.L.D.
Under Tony and Yinsen’s stunned gazes, Roy opened his mouth and breathed out a stream of orange-yellow flames.
At first, the stream was only as thick as a finger.
But as it traveled farther, it expanded explosively into a fan-shaped sea of fire dozens of meters wide, descending from the sky and engulfing nearly half the valley.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
The missiles and artillery shells struck by the Majestic Destroyer Flame detonated one after another.
Thunderous explosions immediately echoed throughout the valley.
An ordinary Fire Style: Majestic Destroyer Flame wouldn’t possess this kind of destructive power.
The reason Roy’s version was so devastating was simple.
What he was using was the Uchiha Madara version of Fire Style: Majestic Destroyer Flame.
Before the explosions in the valley could spread any further, Roy stopped the technique and controlled the sand cloud beneath them, flying away from the valley.
Tony and Yinsen stared back at the explosions, unable to calm themselves for quite some time.
They already knew Roy was a superhuman.
Even so, watching him breathe fire like some legendary dragon had still left them thoroughly shocked.
Roy ignored their reactions.
After flying more than ten kilometers on the sand cloud, he brought it down onto the desert.
The sand cloud didn’t consume much chakra.
Roy had more than enough chakra to fly all the way to the U.S.
military base.
But he had no intention of doing that.
If nothing unexpected happened, the explosions in the valley should already have caught the military’s attention.
In other words, all they had to do was wait here.
“Why did we stop flying?” “Can’t you fly long distances?” Tony immediately asked after they landed in the desert.
“No.
I’m just lazy and don’t feel like wasting the effort.” Roy replied.
Then he took several items out of his system storage.
A large outdoor parasol.
Three reclining beach chairs.
A portable cooler.
And a pair of sunglasses.
Roy put on the sunglasses and sat down in one of the beach chairs.
Then he opened the cooler beside him and pulled out a chilled can of beer.
“If you want one, grab it yourselves.” Roy said to Tony and Yinsen.
Tony looked over the things Roy had suddenly produced.
“Is that another one of your superpowers?” “Yes.” Roy answered.
The system storage wasn’t actually a superpower.
It was merely the storage function that came with the system.
But Roy saw no reason to tell Tony the truth.
Tony sat down beside him, took two beers from the cooler, and handed one to Yinsen.
Then he popped open the tab and took several deep gulps.
Refreshing!
For the first time in his life, Tony Stark—who had been born with a silver spoon in his mouth—discovered that cheap beer could taste this good when it was ice-cold.
“You’re planning to wait here for the military to come, aren’t you?” Tony wasn’t stupid.
He quickly figured out what Roy was thinking.
“That’s right.” Roy nodded.
“Aren’t you worried that once the military learns you’re a superhuman, they’ll send people to capture you?” Tony continued.
Hearing that, Roy smiled.
“The U.S.
government and military aren’t as powerful as you think.” “Right now, I might not be capable of completely wiping the United States off the map.” “But turning the government’s and military’s senior leadership rosters into death lists wouldn’t be difficult.” “Come to think of it, after the military and S.H.I.E.L.D.
learned I was a superhuman, they once tried to secretly capture me.” “But after seeing what I was capable of, they abandoned the idea and paid me a rather substantial sum in compensation.” S.H.I.E.L.D.?
What department was that?
Tony immediately frowned.
Although Stark Industries mainly cooperated with the military, Tony was also a famous American entrepreneur and billionaire.
Naturally, he had plenty of dealings with the government as well.
Yet he’d never heard of an organization called S.H.I.E.L.D.
“What department is S.H.I.E.L.D.?” Tony asked.
“You’ll find out eventually.” Roy leaned back in his beach chair.
Time slowly passed.
Less than half an hour later, the roar of helicopter rotors came from the distant sky.
Roy took off his sunglasses and looked toward the sound.
Two Black Hawk helicopters appeared in his field of vision.
After confirming that the people approaching were U.S.
military personnel, he stood up and put the sunglasses, beach chairs, cooler, and parasol back into his system storage.
Under their gazes, the two Black Hawks, drawn here by the explosions in the valley, quickly landed nearby.
Colonel Rhodes led a squad of fully armed soldiers toward Tony and Yinsen.
When he reached Tony, Rhodes said, “Still planning to ride in your Funvee?” Tony smiled without replying.
Rhodes looked over Roy and Yinsen standing beside him.
“And these two are?” Tony didn’t hesitate and briefly introduced Roy and Yinsen.
After hearing the explanation, Rhodes immediately frowned and looked at Roy with obvious vigilance.
There wasn’t much to say about Yinsen.
One glance was enough to tell that, like Tony, he’d been an unfortunate kidnapping victim.
Roy, however, was another matter.
Rhodes wasn’t surprised that Pepper Potts had secretly hired someone to rescue Tony.
After all, Pepper was Tony’s personal assistant and one of the very few people who had truly earned his trust.
What Rhodes hadn’t expected was for the person she’d hired to be a private investigator.
A mere private investigator had accomplished what the military had failed to do for three entire months.
He had accurately located Tony and rescued him single-handedly.
No matter how Rhodes looked at it, something about that was deeply wrong.
Although he had no idea how Roy had accomplished it, this clearly wasn’t the right time to interrogate him about it.
“Let’s head back to base first.” Rhodes said to Tony.
“All right.” Tony nodded.
An hour later.
At the U.S.
military base.
Tony and Yinsen were taken to the infirmary for medical examinations.
As for Roy— Rhodes brought him to a small room a little over ten square meters in size.
There was barely any furniture inside.
Just a table and two chairs.
There was no sign on the door, but the moment Roy saw the setup, he knew exactly what kind of room this was.
An interrogation room.
Under Rhodes’ watchful gaze, Roy calmly sat down.
“You’re definitely not just a private investigator.” “Who exactly are you?” Rhodes sat across from Roy and questioned him seriously.
“I really am a private investigator.” “It’s just that my range of services is much broader than you imagine.” “And my fees are considerably higher.” “As for who I really am…” “I’m not trying to provoke you, but with your current level of clearance, you don’t have access to the classified military files concerning my identity.” “If you insist on digging into it, the only thing you’ll accomplish is damaging your own career.” Roy spoke at an unhurried pace.
Rhodes’ expression immediately turned extremely ugly.
Before bringing Roy into this room, Rhodes had specifically searched the military database for information on him.
And what he’d found was a single message: Insufficient clearance.
Access denied.
Roy paid no attention to Rhodes’ dark expression and continued, “Let me tell you what’s going to happen next so you can prepare yourself.” “Very soon, someone is going to knock on that door and call you outside.” “After that, you’ll be taken to meet someone whose military rank or official position is far above yours.” “First, he’ll congratulate you for bringing Tony Stark back to the base alive and preserving the military’s reputation.” “You’ll receive an appropriate commendation.” “Then he’ll become very serious and tell you not to conduct any investigation into me without authorization from your superiors.” “You’ll ask why and explain your suspicions.” “For example, that I might secretly be working with the terrorists.” “Or that I might even be the mastermind behind the entire kidnapping.” “He’ll interrupt you.” “And then, with an extremely serious expression, he’ll tell you…” “‘That’s an order!'” “And in the end, you’ll have no choice but to obey.” Rhodes fell silent.
Not long afterward— Just as Roy had predicted— A knock sounded at the door.