In the northern districts of Manhattan, from the first street where Abomination appeared all the way to the place where Alaric now stood, five consecutive streets were damaged to varying degrees.
It was the greatest disaster in New York's history, even the military had been mobilized.
Tony was flying through the air, looking down at the mess beneath him, regretting that when he had previously fought Obadiah, he had only destroyed a small part of some buildings, and most of them were Stark company property anyway.
Faced with this unimaginable destructive power, Tony knew there was probably no way to stand up to monsters like Hulk and Abomination.
Even though the materials he had used to make his armor were much harder than a car's chassis, Tony had no confidence he could withstand their blows.
Ssshh!
Tony reached Alaric.
Alaric heard the sound and looked up.
"Why are you here?"
Alaric slowly rose and came up to Tony's altitude.
As for the Abomination below, he was already on his last breath, barely breathing.
The head that Alaric had nearly crushed was slowly beginning to regenerate, and in a few minutes, he would be ready to fight again.
"Khmm, are you done already?" Tony said, realizing he had arrived too late and missed the best part.
If he had known 04 would appear, he would have come earlier. Although he might not have been able to stop the monsters from causing damage, at least he could have held them off for a while.
Tony thought it was a real shame that he had to watch such a scene only through recordings!
...
"Stark and Alaric know each other?!"
Fury saw Tony appear on screen in his suit and at first didn't think much of it, assuming Tony had just come to help.
But when he saw them talking, Fury could no longer remain calm.
"So Stark has known Alaric for a while? And he knows his strength?! Could it be that Alaric is the one who helped him with Obadiah last time? That mysterious mage?!"
Fury's eyes widened suddenly when the truth hit him.
Last time when Coulson returned, he told Fury everything about it, that was the first time the name "mysterious mage" had been mentioned, and Fury immediately opened a file based on that.
Yes, although S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't have a file on Alaric, they did have one on the mysterious mage.
Later, when Tony revealed he was Iron Man, Fury went to visit him, first to invite him to the Avengers Initiative, and second, to find out more about the mysterious mage.
But Tony didn't want to say anything, and aside from revealing his nickname and claiming he might be a mage, he provided no useful information.
Because of that, Fury could only wait for the mysterious mage to appear again.
But now it turned out that Tony and Alaric were actually quite close?
A wave of anger and helplessness rose in Fury's heart angry at Tony's secrecy, but powerless to do anything about it.
"Looks like I'll have to talk to Tony… or leave everything to Natasha."
Fury had long since sent his best agent, Natasha, to infiltrate Stark Industries as Potts's secretary.
While spying on Tony, she was also protecting him.
It was Natasha who discovered that Tony was being poisoned by palladium, and Fury had already wanted to "tie" Tony to him at that point.
...
"Wow! Guys, look! This mysterious man knows Iron Man!!"
"Yeah, yeah!! Incredible!!"
"They're all superheroes!!"
"Iron Man!!"
"Ah! I really want to know who this mysterious guy is!!"
...
Countless spectators began to cheer the moment they saw Iron Man!
As a big star in New York and a famous playboy, Tony had attracted lots of attention even before becoming Iron Man. And when he announced that he was Iron Man, his popularity exploded!
Even his company's stocks, which had dropped due to shutting down the weapons division, suddenly skyrocketed again.
That's why every new public appearance of his was eagerly awaited!
Just like now!
When people saw that this mysterious hero knew Iron Man, the excitement reached its peak, everyone was celebrating!
Especially the journalists, who couldn't wait to get their hands on Tony, shove a microphone in his face and ask who this mysterious hero was!
...
"Superheroes… Can I become one too?"
Gwen was watching the large screen in the square, clenched her fists and spoke in a whisper.
A few days ago, after returning from a visit to the Oscorp lab, Gwen had noticed that something had changed.
Enormous strength, the ability to walk on walls with bare hands, sharpened hearing and vision... all these changes had completely unnerved her, she didn't know what was happening.
Then she remembered, at the Oscorp lab, she had been bitten by a spider!
When she later looked up information about spider abilities, Gwen was shocked to realize everything matched what she was experiencing!
At that moment, Gwen knew, she had mutated!
But she didn't dare tell anyone. Not even her own parents, she was afraid they would think she was a monster!
And that wasn't what Gwen wanted.
Confusion, fear, insecurity, it all overwhelmed her.
Until today, when she was wandering the streets aimlessly and saw the live news broadcast on the big screen.
Watching the monsters rampage and kill innocent people, a desire awakened within her to stop them.
But because of fear, confusion, and lack of experience, she chose to back off and let things unfold on their own.
Until Alaric appeared.
At that moment, Gwen's heart was filled with excitement!
Especially when she heard the crowd cheering around her, a desire and realization stirred within her heart.
"Superheroes..."
Yes, Gwen had made a decision, she would become a superhero!
A superhero who saves others, stops monsters, and receives ovations, just like that mysterious man on the screen!!
...
"Looks like I'm late."
"What did you expect? You're a famous superhero and Iron Man of New York, and you didn't come right away to help?"
Faced with Tony's question, Alaric rolled his eyes.
"Khmm, I couldn't come for private reasons. Besides, this was a military operation, so it wasn't appropriate for me to interfere."
Tony made a brief excuse and didn't want to say in front of the cameras that this had all been a military blunder.
Even though Tony feared nothing, he knew that if the truth were exposed, it would cause massive chaos.
"Alright, I'm going to finish him off first." Alaric nodded.
"By the way, I have a question for you. I'll be waiting on the roof of the building next door," Tony suddenly said.
"Alright."
Alaric nodded, glanced down at Abomination below who had almost completely regenerated and was beginning to rampage again, then raised his right hand.
A beam of light appeared and concentrated in Alaric's palm.
Just as he was about to fire an energy blast and finish off the Abomination, an annoying voice rang out.
"Stop!"
"He's a target of our military, you're not allowed to kill him!!"
Ross shouted.
"Eh… you guys are really annoying. Then let me kill you."