bookbashuk Chapter 161 The Battle of New York Part 2
Chapter 161 The Battle of New York Part 2
Chapter 161 The Battle of New York Part II
Tony Stark maintained his attack in the air for a full three minutes.
The palm cannon and the concentrated energy beam on the chest fired alternately, and with each pull of the trigger, several Chitauri aircraft would plummet from mid-air, billowing black smoke.
But there were just too many enemies, so many that as soon as he wiped out one wave, the next wave would pour out of the spatial passage.
The percentage icon representing energy reserves in the upper right corner of the head-up display in his helmet kept jumping down, making him feel uneasy.
He immediately crossed his arms in front of his chest, and the armor plates on both forearms snapped open at the same time.
The internal nanostructures began to rapidly recombine, piecing together in a matter of moments into a barrel with a diameter far exceeding that of a conventional palm-sized cannon.
The energy beam from the cannon's muzzle accumulated rapidly, becoming so bright that even the air around it began to exhibit slight thermal distortion.
The moment the energy was fully charged, a beam of azure energy, more than a thousand meters in diameter, shot out from the cannon muzzle and exploded in the sky.
The effect was like a miniature star briefly shining over Manhattan.
Hundreds of Chitauri aircraft in the vicinity were vaporized by the shockwave, leaving no wreckage behind.
The number in the upper right corner of the helmet jumped to ten percent.
Without hesitation, Tony immediately changed direction and swooped down toward the top of Stark Tower.
As the thruster approached the rooftop, it slowed down and reversed its thrust, allowing the feet to land steadily on the rooftop platform.
He immediately spotted Loki slumped in the corner, his legs broken, and a self-destruct collar around his neck.
Loki saw him too, and opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something.
Tony didn't even stop walking; he walked right past Loki and went into the lab.
Jarvis had already initiated the backup power switch procedure ahead of schedule.
This was a contingency plan he had prepared before setting off: a fully charged enhanced backup reactor, locked in a safe under the laboratory floor.
The replacement was completed in about ten seconds.
The energy icon jumped back to 100% and soared into the sky once more.
Just after he took off again, several red distress signals suddenly popped up on the head-up display in his helmet.
He instinctively switched the camera to a scene a few streets away where ordinary citizens were being chased and killed by Zeta Reich soldiers.
The civilians had emptied their shotgun magazines and were frantically reloading as they retreated, while the Zeta Swiss soldiers' aircraft had already locked onto them from above.
Tony did not hesitate.
He abandoned his plan to continue intercepting the Chitauri aircraft from high altitude, instead flipping the thrusters and diving straight down from mid-air.
The palm cannon had already fired before landing, and two precise bursts of fire knocked the foremost Zeta Swiss soldier off the aircraft.
"Iron Man is here!"
He landed at the entrance of the hamburger shop and used the beam of light from his chest to force back several enemies who were flanking him from the other side.
Then he turned around and gestured to the few still-shaken civilians behind him to hurry up and leave.
Just then, a sharp energy pulse suddenly exploded from his side and rear.
The helmet's threat warning was faster than his reaction; the armor on his right arm deployed into an energy shield within fractions of a second, withstanding the pulse blast that came from the side.
The impact lifted him off the ground and sent him flying several meters, crashing into the exterior wall of the hamburger shop and leaving a deep, human-shaped dent in the metal roller shutter.
He pulled himself off the wall, and the moment he landed, he pulled up a replay of the attack's trajectory.
It was a homeless man wearing a tattered military overcoat, squatting at the alley entrance.
He was holding a Zeta Swiss soldier's energy rifle, the muzzle still smoking from the residual heat.
Tony strode up to him, his visor snapping open to reveal a face etched with disbelief and rage: "What are you doing?!"
The homeless man quickly pressed the gun barrel to the ground, flicked his finger off the trigger, his face showing embarrassment and panic, his voice trembling: "I'm sorry, Iron Man—I was just testing where to press to fire this thing, I really didn't mean to, I really didn't—"
Tony stared at the alien rifle in his hand, its muzzle still slightly smoking, opened his mouth, but swallowed back all his anger.
He snatched the gun from the homeless man, flipped it over, and found the safety switch—a touch-sensitive area without any markings; you wouldn't know what it did unless you touched it.
He snapped the safety into the locked position and shoved the gun back into the homeless man's hand.
Use it carefully.
After saying that, he turned and left, the thrusters under his feet reigniting, propelling him from the alleyway back into the air above the street.
Even with this short delay, the situation on the ground has become even more tense.
He saw Steve in mid-air, who had taken over a hastily assembled mixed squad of police and militia.
He was using his vibranium shield to smash the Zeta Swiss soldiers off their aircraft one by one.
Steve's fighting style remains as efficient and concise as ever.
There are no unnecessary dodges, and no fancy combos.
The technique involves using a shield to block attacks, then cutting the edge of the shield into the enemy's abdominal armor, and finally flipping the wrist to smash the enemy's helmet with the shield.
Every move was fatal on the spot, without any hesitation or delay.
Tony landed next to him and blasted two Chitauri soldiers who were trying to flank him with both palms, knocking them to the ground.
"That's enough!" Steve yelled at Tony as he slammed the third enemy away with his shield.
"Can you turn that off?"
Tony's lips twitched downwards.
He certainly wanted to be locked up.
In fact, while on the Helicarrier, he had already tried to have Jarvis remotely shut down the energy device on the top floor of Stark Tower.
But the result is clear: it cannot be done.
A self-sustaining energy feedback loop has been established between the Cosmic Cube and the device built by Dr. Selvig.
Even if the Cosmic Cube were forcibly removed from the device, the spatial passage would not collapse immediately; it had already formed a short-term self-stabilized state.
Jarvis is currently running models frantically in the background, calculating how much reverse energy impact would be needed to completely shut down this channel from the outside.
The calculation is still incomplete and no results have been obtained yet.
Tony hadn't had a chance to translate that sentence into a battlefield briefing version that Steve could understand.
A series of piercing alarms suddenly went off inside his helmet, and the light screen flashed red.
Jarvis's voice reported quickly: "Sir, there is a large target diving straight down toward your position."
"Sir, judging from the target's size, if we don't defend against it, it will be destroyed even if it jumps into the street."