"I wonder how Mr. Stark is doing now? If Mr. Mike were here, it would be great; he would definitely bring Mr. Stark back safely…"
After seeing Pepper into her room, Daredevil and Spider-Man decided to stay in the living room to ensure the terrorists wouldn't make a surprise return attack.
The oppressive atmosphere made Spider-Man mutter to himself.
"Shh, quiet." Daredevil, who was resting on the sofa, suddenly made a shushing gesture.
"What's wrong…?" Thinking he had disturbed Daredevil, Spider-Man apologized, "Sorry, I get like this when I'm nervous. Am I talking too much…?"
Then, Peter noticed that Daredevil, who was still wearing sunglasses late at night, seemed particularly serious.
So he quickly covered his mouth, signaling that he wouldn't speak anymore.
"Don't you think it's too quiet?" Daredevil twitched his ears.
"Isn't quiet good?" Spider-Man, finally able to speak again, felt much more at ease.
"That's not what I mean." Daredevil shook his head, about to explain, but then suddenly seemed to remember something and immediately got up and walked towards Pepper's room.
After knocking a few times and getting no response, Daredevil, not thinking twice, forcefully kicked the door open.
"P-Pepper is gone!" Spider-Man, who had also followed, found the room empty and his expression turned to surprise.
Meanwhile, Daredevil, with his [Super Senses], followed the scent in the room to the window.
"That woman named Maya is very likely in league with the terrorists…" Facing the cool breeze blowing in through the window, Daredevil's expression gradually became grave.
If Maya was also a terrorist, then this incident would undoubtedly become even more complicated.
"How could this be? Does that mean Pepper is in great danger…?" Spider-Man, startled by Daredevil's guess, looked at the wide-open window and immediately leaped out.
After several climbs, he reached the rooftop.
But in the deep darkness of the night, he found nothing.
This meant that Pepper, who had been talking to everyone just a moment ago, had completely vanished.
Without a trace…
Undeterred, Spider-Man swung out a distance with his webs, but still found nothing.
When he returned to the room dejectedly, he saw Daredevil holding a discarded syringe.
"We're in big trouble." Daredevil, who had smelled Maya's scent on the syringe, became even more certain of his suspicions. He then told the returning Spider-Man, "Quickly contact Deadpool and the others. It looks like our plan needs to change."
…
Meanwhile, Tony, in the outskirts of Tennessee, was quite lucky. Before he froze completely, he found an uninhabited container house.
It saved him on that cold, snowy night.
After violently opening the door, he was met with a messy pile of trash.
After finally turning on the only light in the room, Tony found that while it was messy, it was fully equipped.
Most of the trash he had seen earlier was recyclable, and it was organized in a chaotic but orderly way, clearly having been sorted by someone.
Most importantly, Tony found a charging port, and his Iron Man suit finally had a place to recharge.
Later, Tony also found some nearly expired hot dogs, bread, and other cheap food on a cabinet that looked like a kitchen counter.
"Saved!"
Although the environment here was terrible, it was definitely much better than when Tony was attacked in Afghanistan previously.
When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
After wolfing down the nearly expired food, Tony, full and satisfied, found a few old clothes in a pile of recyclable trash to put on for warmth.
Finally, he glanced at his suit charging nearby, and Tony, exhausted from the day, lay down on the small wooden bed in the middle of the house and fell into a peaceful sleep.
Time came to the next morning, as the first ray of sunlight shone on Tony's face.
Feeling an itch in his nose, he opened his eyes and suddenly realized that a handgun was pointed at his forehead.
This discovery nearly scared the soul out of Tony.
In a stress response, he quickly rolled to the ground, grabbing nearby clutter to counterattack.
It was only then that Tony saw the person who had startled him was a child of about ten years old.
And the weapon in the child's hand was a toy gun.
"Who are you?" Tony awkwardly put down the stuffed teddy bear he had grabbed.
"I'm Harry." The child also seemed startled by Tony's series of actions, then realized he was the owner of the house.
emboldened by the toy gun in his hand, Harry asked again seriously, "Who exactly are you? Why are you in my house?"
Besides the stuffed toy Tony had grabbed, there were many other discarded toys in the container house, all found items.
They were all things a child would like.
This all indicated that this was Harry's little den.
"So this is your home. It seems you're not doing very well…" Tony's expression relaxed after confirming the little guy in front of him was harmless.
Then, Tony, guessing the child in front of him was probably an orphan, didn't continue with his sharp tongue and changed the subject, saying, "As for who I am, have you ever heard of Iron Man?"
"Iron Man? Of course I know him. I heard he's a superhero who saved many innocent civilians." Harry was at an age where he idolized heroes.
When he spoke of Iron Man's heroic deeds, his eyes seemed to sparkle.
"That's right, I am Iron Man, Tony Stark." Being admired felt good, especially when it came from a cute child.
Tony pointed to the Iron Man suit charging nearby, a hint of pride in his voice, "See that? That's my Iron Man suit."
Perhaps it was Tony's friendly attitude, as Harry immediately relaxed, then ran to the Iron Man suit to observe it, excitedly saying, "It's so cool! Can you make it move?"
The Iron Man suit's cool appearance was incomparable to ordinary toys.
Its appeal to a little guy like Harry was absolutely 100 percent.
"Of course!" Tony was infected by the little guy's excitement and walked to the Iron Man suit with a smile.
Then he realized that overnight, the suit had only charged less than twenty percent of its energy.
"Sorry, if you want to see the real Iron Man, you might have to wait a little longer."
Twenty percent energy was enough for Tony to fly back to New York.
However, Tony hadn't forgotten that he was still being targeted by a group of terrorists.
To avoid bringing danger to Pepper, he decided to first deal with the terrorist problem before returning to New York to rendezvous with Pepper.
Therefore, keeping the Iron Man suit fully charged was very necessary.
"Is that so?" Harry was a little disappointed that he couldn't see the moving Iron Man suit immediately, but then the little guy asked hopefully, "Then, when the suit is fully charged, can you help me drive away those bad guys in town?"
"Of course, but you have to tell me first, who are those bad guys?" Tony agreed nonchalantly.
He figured that people who would bully an orphan were probably just local thugs or ruffians.
"I heard the adults in town say that those bad guys seem to be a group of foreign terrorists who built a very large manor on the east side of town…" Harry thought hard, "They have a kind of potion that can turn people into monsters. People injected with it will burst into flames and then explode…"
"Because of this, many people in town have died."
As the little guy spoke, Tony's expression changed from indifferent to increasingly serious.
"I seem to have some impression of this situation, the Extremis… I think that's what it's called." Tony, seemingly grasping something, then fell into deep thought.
His attack this time was not without a trace.
Initially, it was because Happy accidentally stumbled upon terrorists selling the Extremis.
Then he was retaliated against by that group of terrorists and was seriously injured.
Afterward, Tony, upon learning that his driver and bodyguard Happy had been bullied, out of indignation, publicly challenged and declared war on that group of terrorists.
And then, Tony was attacked at his private villa in Malibu.
If Tony's memory wasn't mistaken, some of the terrorists who attacked Happy and him also seemed to burst into flames.
"Can you describe in detail what the flames on those people looked like?" Tony, connecting everything, became agitated.
In this situation, it was a case of enemies meeting on a narrow road.
Tony hadn't expected that he would accidentally stumble upon an unexpected gain.
"Forget it, just take me to town to see." Tony, having a goal, saw the little guy's hesitant demeanor and immediately decided on his next course of action.
A child's description might be inaccurate, so the safest way was to see it with his own eyes.
Whether the terrorists from the two locations were the same group.
If so, what Tony needed to do next would become simple.
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.