While Tony was still being chased around by the aerial drones, he received a communication.
"Hey, Tony, I'm done over here."
Tony felt like he'd been slapped in the face.
He was a firm supporter of [Mechanical Ascension]. Even though he and Atreus were friends, in this big-picture situation, his Iron Man armor was proving ineffective. Didn't that imply that [Mechanical Ascension] was inferior to an extremely trained body? Even though he knew Atreus wasn't human, it didn't stop him from being upset!
However, taking on multiple enemies at once was indeed difficult for Iron Man. After all, he wasn't in his heavy armor configuration. Meanwhile, the opposing side's [War Machine] and a squad of aerial drones were equipped with a massive amount of military-grade weapons.
In terms of firepower, Iron Man was at a clear disadvantage.
Those endless air-to-air combat missiles were nearly impossible to avoid entirely, even with Iron Man's agility. Tony had no choice but to fly quickly under an overpass, using the complex terrain and the thick columns to block the incoming missiles.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
One massive column after another was blasted apart, and the overpass began to sway.
The cars parked under the overpass weren't so lucky either. They were shredded by the drone-mounted machine guns, turning into soaring fireballs in the air.
However, the situation took a turn thanks to someone else. Black Widow single-handedly took down all of Hammer Industries' office building security (if you ignore the fact that Tony's bodyguard, Happy, fought one guard for ten minutes). She hacked into Hammer's system and finally disabled the remote control of [War Machine].
With the two buddies reunited, they retreated to the expo grounds and launched a desperate counterattack against the drones.
Even with [War Machine] on his side, Tony's team was still at a disadvantage.
Then came the arrival of the infamous, one-time-use-only [Laser Cutter] attack!
In a stunning 360-degree laser sweep, the ultra-high-temperature beam effortlessly sliced the aerial drones in half.
A true blink-and-you-miss-it moment!
At this moment, the big villain [Whiplash] made his entrance, piloting his new Whiplash suit, made with Hammer Industries technology.
With its massive size and powered by an Arc Reactor, the upgraded suit wasn't much weaker than Iron Man and [War Machine]. Even during their previous encounter, Ivan, with his older version of the Whiplash armor, had managed to go a few rounds with Tony.
Now, Ivan showed up just as both Tony and Rhodes were severely damaged.
When the machine gun on [War Machine] was cut in half by Whiplash's energy whip, the fight devolved into Whiplash's favorite form of combat: close-quarters brawling.
What a joke!
This was a spectacular mech battle! When all the flashy missiles and machine guns run out, it always comes down to hand-to-hand combat.
As Tony and James were getting beaten like dogs, a somewhat inappropriate voice came over Tony's comm system.
"Yo! Tony, need a hand?"
"Asshole! Get here now!"
"Heh! Just don't blame me for stealing your kill."
"Hurry up! I'm dying here." Tony had no idea that in history, when he and James were pushed to their limits, they would use their Arc Pulse Cannons to create a massive explosion that would destroy Whiplash's suit.
All Tony knew was that Iron Man was in terrible shape, with red warning windows popping up everywhere, driving him mad.
At this less-than-critical "do-or-die" moment, a white Unicorn Gundam suddenly burst out from the sewers.
"What the hell? You again—" Whiplash was absolutely enraged.
His target of revenge was Tony.
As a technical genius, his father Anton Vanko had been exiled by Tony's father, Howard Stark, for trying to exploit the Cosmic Cube for profit. After Anton's death, Ivan vowed to bring down the Stark family in revenge for his father.
Add to that the grudge from losing to Tony at the racetrack, and Ivan was consumed with fury.
He couldn't allow anything to stand in the way of his vengeance against Tony.
When the Unicorn Gundam appeared, Ivan lashed out with his whip.
However, Whiplash was only human. His so-called close-quarters prowess was nothing in the face of someone who was half-god.
The energy whip, which looked incredibly threatening to outsiders, seemed to move in slow motion to Atreus.
It was like how a human might struggle to avoid a snake's bite, but a cat could easily bat it down with its paw.
Speed trumps everything in combat!
With Ivan moving so slowly, Atreus would be embarrassed not to kill him.
In a flashy high-speed zig-zag maneuver, Atreus dodged the incoming energy whip with a bizarre trajectory.
With a quick sidestep, his scorching [Beam Saber] effortlessly sliced through Whiplash's mech, cutting it open at the abdomen.
A fatal blow!
Key point — Atreus was a pro at stealing kills. He even managed to absorb Whiplash's red soul.
And yet, Atreus was kind enough to leave Whiplash enough time to say his final words.
"You've lost!" Whiplash cursed, and as he spoke, his suit, along with all of Hammer's drones that Tony and James had just taken down, began flashing with the telltale red light of activated time bombs.
Tony's eyes widened as he shouted in panic, "Run!"
Iron Man, [War Machine], and the Unicorn Gundam all flew off in different directions at high speed.
"BOOM!"
A series of massive explosions leveled the entire expo grounds.
But that wasn't the key point.
Of course, the one to take the fall for all this would be Justin Hammer and his unfortunate company.
In the aftermath of the incident, the ripples continued to spread.
James, representing the Department of Defense, asked, "Tony, do you know that white mech?"
Tony's face was expressionless: "Nope, never seen it. Why?"
"You're sure? Why would it suddenly help us?"
"Heroes of justice have a mysterious way of coming together, don't they? Last time, I fought alongside Kratos and Batman, but I had no idea who they really were either! Most superheroes keep their identities secret." Tony spoke with a very convincing tone.
This left a lot of bigwigs at the Department of Defense wide awake at night.
To them, the chaos, the explosions, and even the casualties weren't the problem.
They had already settled the question of which drones were superior. But then, a Unicorn Gundam had to show up.
As for why the Gundam didn't have any long-range weapons, that wasn't important. What mattered was its superior mobility, something the clunky drones simply couldn't match.
While the higher-ups were going crazy, Tony ignored it all and began developing his next-generation Iron Man suit.
Meanwhile, in Wayne Manor over in Gotham, Bruce Wayne coldly looked at his rebellious son.
"What are you doing here?"
"Yo, my stubborn old man! Your son brought you a gift." Atreus smiled and opened a large box. Inside was a Hammer Industries ground combat drone with its self-destruct device removed: "All the blueprints are here too. Do with it what you will, righteous Batman."
Bruce remained silent for a long time. "I'll take it."