[Manhattan - 5th Avenue]
The streets of Manhattan were littered with the wreckage of battle.
S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents moved methodically through the debris, loading the decapitated Bronze Soldiers into containment vehicles. Even without their heads, the heavy armor and the mystery of their sudden, explosive acceleration made them invaluable subjects for R&D.
High above the street, Iron Man hovered.
"J.A.R.V.I.S., how much juice is left in the suit?"
"Sir, current power reserves are at nineteen percent," the AI's crisp voice replied in Tony's ear. "Based on your current energy consumption rate, you can maintain combat parameters for exactly five minutes and thirty-two seconds."
"More than enough," Tony smirked inside the helmet. "Highlight the stragglers. Let's wrap this up."
Tony threw his hands back and went into a steep dive.
Now that the fatal flaw of the Bronze Soldiers was exposed, the fight had turned into a mop-up operation. Tony skimmed just inches above the asphalt, his arm-mounted cutting lasers deploying with a high-pitched whine.
He didn't stop to brawl. He just flew past them.
Hiss. Slice. Clatter.
In one fluid pass, the last four standing Bronze Soldiers were decapitated, their heavy bodies collapsing onto the pavement.
Tony pulled up, ascending rapidly to circle the Manhattan blocks one last time. J.A.R.V.I.S. ran a thermal and kinetic sweep.
"Area clear, sir."
Tony pivoted in mid-air and landed with a heavy metallic thud on the roof of a nearby brownstone.
"Clint, right?" Tony asked, his faceplate flipping up. "Are you the Commander here now?"
Hawkeye leaned casually against the rooftop parapet, lowering his bow. "Temporary Commander, technically. The real Commander just stole a bike to go chase a suspicious SUV."
Tony rolled his eyes. 'Cap and his vintage sense of duty.'
"Well, temporary Commander," Tony announced, not asking for permission, "the mooks are cleared out. I'm taking one of these bronze corpses back to Malibu with me."
Hawkeye just shrugged. He was an archer, not a babysitter for eccentric billionaires. Rather than argue with the man who had just saved their defensive line, he figured it was easier to let Nick Fury deal with the paperwork later.
"Pepper, you copy?" Tony spoke into his internal comms. "Send a transport over to pick up my new trophy. I want it under lockdown."
"On it, Boss," Pepper's voice came through, sounding relieved that he was alive. "I'll handle the logistics."
Tony reached up and unlatched his helmet, pulling it completely off. He shook his head, sweat flying from his dark hair into the cool morning air.
"Note to self: upgrade the internal ventilation system," Tony muttered. "J.A.R.V.I.S., log that."
"Logged, sir."
Hawkeye tossed a plastic water bottle from a nearby S.H.I.E.L.D. supply crate. Tony caught it effortlessly.
"Hard work, big hero," Hawkeye noted dryly.
"Hero? Please. Not a fan of the 'H' word," Tony took a long swig of water. "Some piece-of-shit politicians tried to use that word to put me on a leash. I prefer 'Billionaire.' 'Genius.' 'Playboy.' Any of those work better."
Hawkeye smiled helplessly. He had fired a quiver's worth of custom arrows and nearly died three times today, but he couldn't beat Stark in a battle of words.
"This is a great sniper nest, by the way," Tony continued, gesturing to the edge of the roof. "If you set up a camera up here, you could've sold the footage to the Bugle. You'd be swimming in bonuses."
Before Hawkeye could formulate a retort, a sudden, violent shift in the air pressure made both men stop.
A fierce, howling wind whipped across the rooftops.
In the distance, a massive cloud of dust was kicking up, moving from far to near at an impossible speed. It was barreling straight down the avenue, heading directly for their position.
"All units, alert!" Hawkeye barked into his comms, instantly knocking an arrow and drawing his bowstring taut.
Tony didn't hesitate. He jammed his helmet back on. The faceplate slammed shut, sealing him in armor.
Down on the street, the S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents dropped the corpses they were hauling. They scrambled behind their barricades and flipped-over patrol cars, raising their rifles toward the approaching storm.
The gale hit the block a second later.
The wind was violent, carrying chunks of asphalt, dirt, and glass. The sheer force of the shockwave knocked several Agents off their feet.
As the dust slowly began to settle, the Agents lowered their arms from their faces and looked up.
A figure was hovering in mid-air.
It wore ancient armor, identical in make to the Bronze Soldiers they had just fought, but the aura radiating from it was entirely different. It was majestic. Ancient.
Fierce winds swirled around the General, keeping him suspended in the sky. He made no aggressive movements. He simply turned his helmeted head, scanning the battlefield below.
The moment the General's glowing crimson eyes swept over them, every single person on the block broke out in a cold sweat.
It was a primal, suffocating pressure.
'What is this?' Tony thought, his heart hammering against his arc reactor. 'I can't breathe.'
It had nothing to do with superpowers or technology. It was the biological terror of a rabbit being stared down by an apex predator. The sheer weight of the entity's gaze pinned them to the spot.
"I think we're in trouble..." Tony panted, the suit's life-support systems working overtime to regulate his vitals.
Unlike the mindless grunts on the ground, this being was thinking. It was assessing them. It possessed absolute, terrifying wisdom.
The Bronze General opened his mouth.
A sound resonated, not just in the air, but inside their skulls. It was an ancient, commanding language that manipulated the very laws of physics.
"Yanling: No Dust Land."
Word Spirit: Domain of Absolute Repulsion.
Hearing those words, the hairs on Hawkeye's arms stood up. Tony's HUD instantly flashed red with proximity and pressure warnings.
The General wasn't just a machine. He was a sorcerer.
A spherical, invisible domain of kinetic energy expanded from the General's body at the speed of sound.
Down on the street, the screech of rending metal and the sickening crunch of concrete reached the rooftop.
Hawkeye sprinted to the ledge, Tony right beside him.
They looked down at the S.H.I.E.L.D. defensive line.
"No!!" Hawkeye screamed.
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