The air was thick with tension, and a palpable killing intent emerged from the shadows.
The nearly invisible red dot locked onto the space between Tony's eyebrows, and in that same instant, the trigger was pulled.
Yet, the anticipated gunshot never came.
"Sir, high-energy sniper trajectory detected. Electromagnetic interference engaged."
J.A.R.V.I.S.'s calm voice echoed in Tony's ear.
Almost simultaneously, a red light flashed in Baymax's normally benign optical sensors. Armor plating on his arm deployed instantly, and a micro-interceptor missile shot out, striking a precise location in the forest.
BOOM!
A muffled explosion, followed by fire and screams, shattered the forest's silence.
"Seems we have some uninvited pests."
Tony scoffed, the relaxed expression on his face vanishing, replaced by an icy resolve. He turned to Yinsen. "Looks like we're going to be delayed for a bit, my friend. Got to take out the trash before we leave."
...
Half an hour later, in a clearing outside the village of Gulmira.
A dozen disarmed members of the Ten Rings knelt on the ground, trembling uncontrollably. They had just witnessed Baymax descend upon them like a god of war, storming their sniper's nest and dismantling their resistance in an instant.
Fear spread through their ranks like a plague.
Tony stood before them, idly tossing a strangely shaped, silver-gray device in his hand. It looked less like a gun and more like a sophisticated scanner, its front end a complex crystalline structure that emitted a soft blue glow.
It was a new weapon from the Paul Mark III armor, an instrument named by Paul himself, and one that sent a slight chill down even Tony's spine—the Dominator.
He said nothing, simply raising the Dominator and letting its cold, blue light sweep slowly over the first captive.
The captive shuddered violently, a dark, wet stain spreading instantly across his pants.
Tony didn't even spare him a glance, his eyes fixed on a miniature holographic screen projected from the side of the Dominator. It displayed the captive's vitals in real-time: heart rate, adrenaline levels, and… a blinking red warning.
"Hiding something?" A cold smirk touched Tony's lips.
He strode forward and, meeting the man's terrified gaze, ripped open his shirt. A crude explosive device was strapped to his chest, now exposed to the open air.
The other captives gasped, instinctively shuffling backward.
Tony moved like lightning. With a light press of a button on the Dominator, a gentle arc of electricity shot out, striking the man's wrist with perfect precision.
The captive felt his wrist go numb, and the hand reaching for the detonator fell limp. He collapsed to the ground, convulsing and foaming at the mouth, completely unconscious.
The entire sequence was fluid and impossibly fast.
The remaining captives were petrified. They stared at the device in Tony's hand, their eyes filled with a primal fear of the unknown. This thing was more terrifying than any gun; it could see right through you.
Standing to the side, Yinsen was just as stunned. He looked from the convulsing man on the ground to the Dominator in Tony's hand, his expression a mixture of awe and confusion.
"Tony… what is this technology?" he couldn't help but ask. "It can analyze a person's physiological data directly? And… administer a non-lethal paralytic?"
"You're half right," Tony said, casually tossing the Dominator as if introducing a new toy. "It's called the Dominator, and it features both non-lethal and lethal functions. Mode One: Non-Lethal Paralyzer. That's what you just saw. It can analyze a subject's Crime Coefficient and also persuade the uncooperative to calm down."
He gestured with the device, his gaze sweeping over the terrified captives as if admiring a flock of lambs for the slaughter.
"Crime Coefficient?" Yinsen frowned. The term made him uneasy.
"A complex but precise algorithm," Tony shrugged. "It scans biometrics, micro-expressions, even predispositions for violence in a person's genetic code to assess their overall threat. Basically, this thing can tell at a glance who's a person and who's just an animal in human skin."
As he spoke, he did something completely unexpected. He tossed the Dominator onto the ground in front of the prisoners.
"There. It's out of juice now," Tony said, spreading his hands with a look of pure innocence. "I'm giving you a chance. Whoever can pick it up and point it at me, I'll let them walk."
The air went still. Every captive stared at the silver-gray device on the ground, their expressions a mix of greed and terror.
Yinsen's face paled. "Tony! Are you insane? That's too dangerous!"
"Don't worry, Yinsen," Tony said, patting his shoulder, his eyes never leaving the prisoners. "Sometimes, you have to give desperate men a little false hope to see what they're really made of."
A burly, bearded man's eyes flashed with a vicious light. He stared hard at Tony, then glanced at Yinsen, his mind clearly racing with calculations.
Suddenly, like a cornered animal, he lunged—not for the Dominator, but for Yinsen, the closest target! He was going for a hostage.
"Yinsen, look out!"
In the instant of Yinsen's surprise, Tony's expression turned to ice. He didn't move a muscle, merely snapped his fingers.
"Mode Two, engage."
WHOOM—!
The Dominator on the ground flared with a blinding red light. A beam, several times thicker than before, erupted from it, enveloping the bearded man as he lunged for Yinsen.
There was no scream, no explosion. In the crimson light, the man's body simply… vanished. As if wiped away by an invisible eraser, he disintegrated from head to toe, vaporizing into a wisp of smoke without leaving so much as a drop of blood.
The light faded, leaving behind nothing but a patch of scorched earth. It was as if the man had never existed.
Silence. A dead, absolute silence fell over the clearing.
Everyone was frozen, stunned by the unimaginable sight. This wasn't killing. This was… erasure.
Yinsen stood rooted to the spot, his back drenched in a cold sweat. He stared at the scorched earth, then at Tony's impassive face, his lips trembling, unable to form a single word.
"Aaargh!"
Finally, one of the prisoners completely broke. He screamed, scrambling on all fours toward the pile of confiscated weapons.
"Kill me! Please! Use a gun! Don't let that thing touch me!"
His panic was a spark in a powder keg. The other prisoners snapped to their senses and scrambled madly for the weapons, preferring to be riddled with bullets than to face the thing that could simply erase a man from existence. It wasn't a weapon; it was a demon's scepter.
The scene devolved into a bizarre, chaotic scramble. A group of terrorists, fighting over a machine gun, begging for the simple mercy of a quick death.
Tony watched the chaos with cold, unwavering eyes. He slowly raised a hand, gesturing toward the frantic mob.
"Time to take out the trash." His voice was cold, like a final judgment delivered from the depths of hell.
"J.A.R.V.I.S., activate Execution Mode Three: Annihilate."
"As you wish, sir."
The Dominator on the ground lit up once more. This time, however, it didn't fire a beam, but instead released a fan-shaped wave of energy that rippled outward.
Wherever the ripple passed, everything in its path—the scrambling prisoners, the cold steel of their weapons, the very ground beneath them—was instantly reduced to its most basic particles and dissipated into the air.
Silent. Utterly silent.
When the energy wave faded, the world seemed to have been purified.
Aside from the unconscious man from the beginning and the single scorched patch of earth marking where the bearded man had stood, the clearing was empty. Not a trace of the other prisoners remained.
They had simply… vanished.
Yinsen stood alone in the silence. A cold wind swept across the now-empty space before him, carrying a bone-deep chill.
He looked at his friend, who stood as if nothing had happened, and for the first time, a look of profound shock and… dread filled his eyes.
He knew, then, that Tony Stark had changed. He was no longer the cavalier arms dealer. He had buried his past with his own hands, and in its place, had forged a weapon capable of judging the entire world.
But when one man holds the god-like power to simply erase another from existence… is he still a man?
A creeping fear of technology spiraling out of control began to wrap itself, like a vine, around Yinsen's heart.