"Still want to steal my car? Come on! Try stealing it now!" Only at the very end did Natasha draw her pistol and point it at a burly man's head.
After intimidating the restless crowd, she holstered the pistol, swung a leg over Arcee in motorcycle form, and waved to Bumblebee. "Let's go!"
Arcee led the way, while Bumblebee carried the two children. They did not go to Washington, D.C. Instead, they headed south through Texas to take temporary shelter at one of Weyland Corporation's bases.
Not every passerby possessed the combat power of Natasha, Arcee, Bumblebee, and the Divine Dragon. Chaos was breaking out in every corner of the world. It was hard to say whether more Earthlings were killed by the Selorians or by other Earthlings in the chaos.
This Earth was no longer the same Earth the Selorians had invaded last time. After that disaster, countries around the world had all prepared corresponding emergency plans and countermeasures.
Iron Man had destroyed more than a dozen Tripods in Los Angeles. The Fantastic Four and the X-Men had taken down about the same number of enemies in New York City.
Bella's policy of "an AT4 in every household" had been extremely successful. The resistance from New Yorkers was especially fierce. Rockets filled the sky, battering the Tripods into complete disarray.
Militaries around the world also mobilized immediately, but chaos and death were still unavoidable.
"Can anyone tell me where the enemy came from? Is our early-warning system really this useless?"
Inside the Pentagon, Benjamin Asher loudly questioned the generals under him.
The generals were speechless. How the hell were they supposed to know where the enemy had come from?
Benjamin Asher loosened his tie. The heavy pressure made it a little hard for him to breathe.
He looked toward a display screen and asked, "Mr. Weyland, do you have any further intelligence? You previously said the enemy only had a few spacecraft."
006 was still using his Peter Weyland identity. With a serious expression, he replied, "Mr. President, according to our analysis, the enemy actually entered Earth long ago. Those alien spacecraft merely transmitted an attack protocol to the ground. We intercepted one copy of that protocol, and decryption went fairly smoothly."
Benjamin Asher's face was grave. "What does the protocol say?"
"Kill every Earthling, then sell Earth to some interstellar pirates or whatever. At least that's how I understand it."
Several Department of Defense generals immediately asked for the details. 006 did not hide anything and directly transmitted the original document and the translated file to the Department of Defense.
One Army chief of staff asked, "Mr. Weyland, you said they've been on Earth this whole time? Where were they hiding?"
"In sewers, subway stations, city utility tunnels—places like that. Before activation, they're very small. Once activated, they become those thirty-meter-tall Tripods. We still can't understand what kind of technology this is," 006 answered conservatively.
"Technology, technology..." Benjamin Asher muttered twice, then turned to the other side. "Miss Potts, has Mr. Stark sent any news? The enemy is despicable. They're slaughtering civilians. Can we track them with missiles and wipe out all the enemies at once, or at least most of them?"
Pepper Potts was nowhere near as calm as 006 when facing the President of the United States. Anyone who claimed the president was merely a servant of the people was talking nonsense. A president carried the authority of the office!
Only half a year ago, Pepper had still been a personal assistant. After Obadiah Stane's death, Tony Stark had forcibly promoted her to CEO. Her confidence was badly lacking, and after stumbling through several hesitant sounds, she still failed to say anything important.
"I'll explain." Tony Stark contacted the Pentagon through the built-in communicator in his Iron Man armor. First, he casually greeted 006 as though no one else were there.
"Hey, Peter."
"Hey, Tony."
Violent explosions could be heard from Tony Stark's side. He was fighting while explaining the enemy situation to the Pentagon.
"The enemy's equipment is crude and their firepower is only average, but... but—die!" He smashed a Tripod's head apart with one punch. At the same time, he transmitted footage captured by his helmet cameras to the Department of Defense so everyone could see it.
He pulled an alien out of the Tripod's cockpit. It had long, thin arms and legs, milky-white skin, and a slightly oversized head.
No one was unfamiliar with them. These were the same Selorians who had invaded Earth before. At most, they were wearing a different set of armor this time.
"Same enemy as last time, just wearing a new skin... As for missiles, I can adjust a few parameters and make the blast shockwave stronger..." With aliens attacking his own doorstep, Stark no longer bothered talking about how his company did not make missiles.
"You actually built a backdoor into the missiles? You've been hiding information this important from us?" Several Army generals were very unhappy.
Tony Stark's tone was flippant and extremely punchable. "You never asked me."
Benjamin Asher stopped the argument before it could begin. "Increasing missile power is a good idea, but I need more weapons. Every minute and every second we spend in this meeting, ordinary people are dying. I need your help!"
This time, not only the generals and 006 but even Stark fell silent. That demand was a little too much. No one could think of a good solution on such short notice.
Elsewhere, Tony Stark repeatedly examined the Selorian corpse for a while before saying, "Looks like this guy modified part of his genes to make it easier to control the Tripod. Peter, I'm sending you a set of data. Have your people take a look."
Tony Stark understood bioengineering too, but he was busy fighting monsters! He had no time to think it through. 006 had plenty of scientists researching biochemical viruses and biological genetics. Once they received the data, a whole group analyzed it, and ten minutes later they sent Benjamin Asher some rather shocking news.
"Mr. President, our... our scientists believe the enemy will automatically die after one day. Microorganisms in our air will kill them... We don't know why they made these adjustments. It seems that in order to control those Tripods, they completely sacrificed their immune systems."
Even 006 himself was not very confident as he said this. Benjamin Asher and the generals in the Department of Defense were even more astonished. How much did these Selorians hate Earthlings? They would die after one day. Was this a suicide attack?
The Department of Defense also found several experts to study the matter. The experimental results were very clear: these enemies could survive in Earth's atmosphere for no more than two days!
"Are they insane, or did someone set them up? Is this how an intelligent species thinks?" an Air Force lieutenant general asked the room. Unfortunately, no one knew the answer.