The terrorists remaining at the Statue of Liberty were Killian's earliest recruits.
Empowered by the Extremis, each of them possessed formidable combat strength.
However, it was unfortunate for them that the street heroes who arrived this time each had their own unique skills.
Big Daddy moved with slippery grace, proficient in various assassination techniques and sneak attacks.
Through constant repositioning and kiting, he gave the terrorists no chance for a direct confrontation.
As for Scott, he already possessed the second-generation Ant-Man suit, capable of shrinking to the size of an ant and growing into a hundred-meter giant.
Every move he made carried immense destructive power.
He was considered the main damage dealer in the battle group.
On the other side, Deadpool's healing factor was even faster than the terrorists' Extremis.
Therefore, his combat was the bloodiest and most direct, trading blows and drawing blood with every strike.
Relying on his cancerous, abnormal healing ability, not a single terrorist was a match for him in a one-on-one fight.
As Spider-Man, Quicksilver, and others who had rescued the President and Pepper successively joined the battlefield, although the terrorists had a numerical advantage, their decline was already evident.
Defeat was only a matter of time.
As such, Mike naturally had no need to intervene.
He stood casually to the side, acting as a spectator.
The rescued President, seeing the Healer's leisurely demeanor, initially wanted to approach and build a relationship.
However, Mike clearly had no intention of playing nice with him.
After a couple of perfunctory exchanges, the two fell silent, continuing to watch the show.
And it must be said, regardless of his capabilities, the President was indeed perceptive and composed, knowing not to cause trouble for others.
This made Mike look at him with a bit more respect.
But that was all.
Meanwhile, Tony's fifty-plus new suits' charged attack indeed dealt a heavy blow to Killian.
After being bombarded by laser cannons, almost no part of his body was intact.
He looked exceptionally disheveled.
However, during the subsequent close-quarters combat, the situation seemed to reverse.
Relying on the Extremis's abilities, Killian's injuries gradually healed.
Conversely, Tony, controlling over fifty suits for close-quarters combat simultaneously, appeared somewhat rusty.
And he couldn't fully utilize them... Killian, seizing this opening, used the immense strength granted by the Extremis to smash several Iron Man suits flying in no time.
His expansive movements were like a War God descending.
"Tony, this won't do. Give me access..." Colonel Rhodes called out to Tony.
While having many suits was good, it also made the battlefield chaotic.
Especially the unmanned suits, their movements were not fluid and instead became an obstruction.
"OK!"
Tony also noticed this, so while granting Colonel Rhodes control over the suits, he also relinquished control over the other superfluous suits.
He focused on operating his main battle suit, coordinating with Colonel Rhodes to form a pincer attack on Killian.
Facts proved that suits were merely Assist, and more was not necessarily better.
Subsequently, Tony, abandoning the flashy moves and supported by Colonel Rhodes, repeatedly forced Killian to retreat.
Finally, after a powerful laser cannon blast, Killian, unable to resist, fell to the ground like a rag doll.
Tony stepped forward, grabbed his opponent's neck, and lifted him, saying gleefully, "You scum, weren't you so tough? Now how did you turn into a dead dog?"
When it came to sharp-tongued remarks, Tony had never lost.
Just as he was feeling triumphant, Killian, his face covered in blood, suddenly showed a strange smile.
Then, his body glowed with a dazzling red light, like molten lava.
"Watch out!" Colonel Rhodes, having been burned by lava once before, quickly warned.
But it was still too late.
Killian, having recovered some strength, seized the moment Tony was burned and let go, suddenly lunging forward, enduring several close-range laser blasts from Tony, and tightly embraced the Iron Man suit.
As the temperature of the lava on his body grew hotter and hotter, Tony, just like Colonel Rhodes before him, was forced out of the suit by the intense heat.
Then, like a cycle, Tony, who had just escaped the suit, had his neck seized by Killian, who then lifted him and carried him to the edge of the Statue of Liberty.
"I have to say, you almost succeeded." Killian surveyed the battlefield, noticing that his subordinates had been almost completely annihilated by the street heroes.
But thankfully, his subordinates lost, but Killian had not yet lost.
"I'll give you one last chance. Tell me, are you going to cooperate with me or not?"
With an important hostage in hand again, Killian's situation was still not optimistic.
Almost at the end of his rope, as he spoke, his grip tightened.
Tony was already gasping for air.
Below them was a nearly hundred-meter drop from the Statue of Liberty.
Watching Tony's face turn from white to red, then from red to blue, the street heroes, having finished their respective battles, gathered around, about to rush forward to save him.
"Don't come any closer! If you do, I'll choke him to death! We'll all go down together—" Killian shouted, feigning ferocity, forcing the street heroes back.
A flicker of madness passed through his eyes.
Having a genius like Tony as a burial companion didn't seem like a loss.
It could only be said that Tony's personality, to outsiders, was indeed not endearing and easily drew hatred.
The deadly kind.
"Help..."
Tony, whose life was flashing before his eyes, used his last resort, calling out for help to Mike, who was watching from a distance.
"As expected of a genius, he can even lose a perfectly good revenge match..."
Mike grumbled inwardly about Tony's unreliability, while his hands were not slow, gathering a ball of magic.
Just then, someone was even faster than him.
Pepper, worried about Tony's safety, had somehow transformed into a blazing inferno, rushing to Killian's side, violently breaking his arm, and then swooping down to grab the falling Tony.
She staged a grand spectacle of a damsel saving the hero.
The entire process was incredibly smooth and full of violence.
Killian, still defiant, dragged his broken arm, attempting to attack Pepper. However, before he could act, he was bound in place by a pure white whip of magic.
"No, it shouldn't be like this!!!..."
Killian, his cause lost, his face extremely distorted, and his emotions becoming exceptionally unstable, with the Extremis on the verge of going out of control.
Finally, with a loud bang, Killian, covered in lava, exploded into countless pieces like an overloaded furnace.
This was one of the drawbacks of the Extremis: it could cause self-destruction if the user's emotions became unstable and led to a loss of control.
"Quite a temper, huh?"
Mike grumbled, then withdrew his hand.
His harvest this time was also quite good. Although the Extremis had significant drawbacks, its energy was definitely abundant.
The combined hundreds of terrorists, all in all, contributed tens of millions of energy points to him.
In total, it was no less than what an average magic apprentice at Kamar-Taj contributed.
"Calm down, Pepper!"
On the other side, Tony was also startled by Killian's self-destruction.
Especially when he noticed that the flames on Pepper's body also showed signs of being out of control, he became even more alarmed.
Pepper's current state indicated that she had likely been injected with the Extremis by Killian earlier.
This serum couldn't be said to be bad, but everyone who had been injected with it seemed to come to a bad end.
Tony was already thinking about whether to ask Mike again later to help Pepper remove the Extremis from her body.
"What's wrong? Did I burn you?" Pepper, awakened by the shout, gradually calmed down.
Then, with a slight exertion of strength, she lifted Tony, as if he were a vegetable, from the edge of the statue.
This was the feeling of power.
Previously, Pepper could only silently watch Iron Man from behind, but now, with her newfound super strength, she could finally help Tony.
To be honest, Pepper quite liked this feeling.
"No, I love your passion." Tony said cheesy sweet nothings, stepping forward to embrace Pepper.
Feeling Tony's sincerity brought Pepper immense peace of mind, and the heat on her body gradually dissipated.
Finally, the two leaned against each other, sitting on the edge of the statue.
"Are we a couple now?"
"Of course not, you haven't confessed to me yet."
"Really? Then, Ms. Pepper, will you be my girlfriend?"
"..."
As their lips drew closer, Tony quietly activated his control bracelet, sending the striking Mark suits into the sky one after another.
Then, against the night sky, they exploded into a magnificent display of fireworks.
"Damn rich people! I hate this feeling..." Watching Tony use his suits as a romantic fireworks backdrop, Colonel Rhodes felt a heart-wrenching pain.
Those were all money!!!
"Can someone tell me why we're standing here eating dog food?" Deadpool, also acting as a backdrop, couldn't help but complain.
"Uh, I don't know either. I just saw everyone else doing it..." Spider-Man looked around, eventually joining the crowd in staring at the couple nearby.
As for why the others were staring at Tony, it was probably because they were awestruck by his immense wealth.
Only Tony could do something as absurd as spending over fifty million dollars on fireworks.
"Everyone, thank you for this rescue. I will publicly commend you afterward..." The well-traveled President, after his initial surprise, once again tried to connect with the street heroes.
The President had just witnessed the combat prowess of the street heroes firsthand.
If he could win them over, he might be able to form a second "Avengers" team.
"No need for thanks, can we get money instead?" Deadpool interrupted the President's speech.
Compared to verbal praise, Deadpool preferred something more tangible.
Big Daddy, Ant-Man, The Punisher, and others, though they said nothing, their expressions showed that they shared Deadpool's sentiments.
"No problem, given your heroic performance, there will definitely be bonuses issued afterward." The President, whose speech was interrupted, wasn't disheartened.
A bit of money was nothing to the President.
"Nice, I'm starting to like you." Deadpool cheered.
The others also smiled upon hearing about the bonuses.
"I always feel like something's missing?" On the other side, Quicksilver, who had no concept of money, surveyed the area and felt something was off.
But he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was.
Meanwhile, Mike had, at some unknown point, settled into the dining room of his villa, enjoying a delicious dinner with Scarlet Witch and Hit-Girl.
After all, eating a feast was much more comfortable than eating dog food.