As soon as the words left his mouth, the two brothers sprang into action, coordinating to clear out the remaining terrorists in the camp.
On Lucas’s end, it was a one-man show of absolute dimensional suppression.
Floating midair, he moved with lightning speed.
Instead of large-scale energy cannons, he tapped his fingers rapidly, sending beam after beam of blue light, no larger than a fingertip, to harvest the enemies’ lives.
Enemies trying to hide behind rocks or jeeps were pierced clean through along with their cover.
“Ten!
I got ten!” Lucas called out from the sky.
Tony’s side was pure, brutal aesthetic violence.
Taking heavy strides, he charged headlong into the crowd with complete disregard for their numbers.
Bullets clattered uselessly off his armor.
Reaching an enemy, he swung a massive arm, sending the man flying over ten meters away.
Then, flames spewed from both his arms, turning all the enemies attempting to surround him into burning torches.
“Twelve!
I’m at twelve!
You’re too slow, Lucas!
Are you oxygen-deprived up there?” Tony shouted back, swinging his iron fists.
“You’re inflating your numbers!
I saw with my own eyes a few of them ran off scared and fell to their deaths—that doesn’t count as a kill!
I’m already at fifteen!” Lucas exposed him without mercy.
The two traded jabs while mowing down the enemy like grass.
In just a few short minutes, the camp grew quiet.
Tattered, burning tents littered the area.
Aside from the two brothers, not a single terrorist remained standing.
Tony’s suit was also belching black smoke.
The flamethrower’s fuel was completely depleted, and several joints of the suit were jammed, emitting harsh grinding noises with every step.
Lucas flew over from above, but didn’t land on the ground.
He intentionally hovered a meter off the ground, bringing him eye-to-eye with Tony in his bulky suit.
No way was he going to look up to talk to his arrogant big brother.
“I won.
You’re the slowest.” Lucas crossed his arms, looking at Tony with a smug grin.
“There were two more on the west side who ran into the ravine.
You missed them.” Tony was someone who refused to admit defeat under any circumstances.
Opening his faceplate, he pulled out a high-sounding excuse.
“Then you’re wrong.” “I slowed down to turn back and make sure Ho Yinsen was safe.
If not for that, I would’ve left you in the dust long ago.
I won.
Get ready to go sober for a month.” Lucas rolled his eyes.
“Tony, your skin is thicker than that scrap metal.” The two glared at each other, unwilling to give an inch, before bursting into laughter at the same time.
Tony stared at his brother close by, his eyes filled with curiosity and scrutiny.
“So, do you have time to tell me now?
What on earth happened to you after they took you away?
How did you end up like this?
Not only can you fly, but you can fire those blue…
energy cannons?” Tony asked in rapid succession.
Lucas hated showing vulnerability in front of others.
He was never going to tell Tony what he had actually been through.
So he put on a tough front.
“Bro, that’s the charm of biology.” “While you were hammering iron in a cave every day, I became the CEO of this base.” “You probably didn’t know these guys hollowed out the mountain to build a ridiculously luxurious, high-tech lab.” “I studied Dad’s old super-soldier research in there and refined it, turning it into a serum tailored specifically for my injection only.” Lucas began explaining his self-rescue plan to Tony.
“I injected the serum into my body, then deliberately faked an experiment failure.
That idiot leader took me to the edge of the cliff to execute me.
But then I came into contact with sunlight.
Sunlight was the key to activating the genes.
Simple as that.” Lucas spread his hands, as if describing something completely trivial.
“How about it?
Pretty brilliant plan compared to smelling sweat and banging scrap metal in the dark every day, right?” Tony listened quietly until Lucas finished.
But he was no fool.
Though Lucas sounded nonchalant, Tony could guess what had really happened.
Over these two months, Lucas must have gone through life-and-death ordeals.
If a single step had gone wrong, Lucas would be a corpse at the bottom of the cliff right now.
Tony suddenly stepped forward two paces.
Reaching out with his heavy, bulky arms, he pulled Lucas into a hug.
Because of the armor, Tony’s movement was awkwardly stiff.
The embrace looked utterly hilarious.
A tin-man belching black smoke hugging a guy in a lab coat.
Lucas was just about to keep rambling when he was cut off, freezing for a second.
But he didn’t struggle.
“I’m just glad you’re okay.” Tony’s tone was somewhat husky, no longer flippant.
“Your self-rescue plan…
was pretty good.
Not as perfect as my suit, but at least you got out.” Hearing this, a wave of warmth surged in Lucas’s heart.
He and Tony were each other’s closest family.
And the bond of relying on each other was irreplaceable.
Lucas patted the back of the armor with a light chuckle.
“Of course.
I’m a Stark.
As if a minor scene like this could take my life.” Tony released his arms and smiled as well.
“That’s right.
We’re Starks.” Just as the two brothers were enjoying this rare moment of tenderness, a somewhat awkward voice came from the pile of rocks behind them.
“Alright, Messrs.
Stark.
Forgive me for interrupting your brotherly moment, but shouldn’t we get out of this place before celebrating?” The two turned around.
It was Ho Yinsen.
Seeing that the gunfire and explosions outside had stopped, he had cautiously stepped out from behind cover.
Seeing Ho Yinsen safe and sound, Tony let out a sigh of relief.
Though he didn’t voice it, he was deeply grateful to the doctor who had saved his life.
Ho Yinsen walked up to them and greeted Lucas, residual shock still visible in his eyes.
“Long time no see, Lucas.
It seems you don’t need any saving.
You’re more dangerous than anyone here now.” Lucas descended from the air and shook Ho Yinsen’s hand.
“Long time no see, Yinsen.
Thanks for taking care of this foul-tempered mustache in the cave.
Once we’re back in New York, I’ll set you up with the best medical lab.” “Damn it, who are you calling a mustache!” Tony instantly snapped back.
Ho Yinsen smiled before his expression turned serious.
“Thank you.
But we need to leave right now to seek help.
Making such a huge scene, if they have people coming from other outposts, we’ll be in trouble.” Tony complained in agreement, knocking on his iron shell.
“Yinsen’s right.
Let’s get out of this hellhole.
My energy is running out, it’s sweltering inside, my clothes are soaked—it’s like a steamer in here.
I can’t wait to eat a cheeseburger.” Hearing that they were ready to leave, Lucas nodded in agreement.
But he suddenly turned and looked deep into the mountain, back toward the internal base he had just escaped from.
“We do need to leave.
But before that, there’s still one thing we haven’t done.” Tony paused, asking in confusion, “What thing?
Did you leave a souvenir behind?” Lucas’s gaze turned chillingly cold.
“I’m going back into the base to deal with the remaining bastards.
Most importantly…” Lucas paused and turned to look at Tony.
“Tony, our kidnapping was definitely no accident.” “They knew our itinerary in advance and even knew where we were going to demonstrate the weapons.” “I want to check their database and see if I can find out who gave the order to kidnap us.
Whoever it is, we can’t let them off.” Hearing this, Tony dropped his casual attitude, his eyes turning grim.
Indeed.
If they didn’t catch the mastermind behind the scenes, they would still be in danger even after returning to New York.
“You’re right,” Tony’s muffled voice resonated from behind the faceplate.
“We definitely need to find those bastards.
A Stark never swallows a loss in silence.”