Seeing the lightning flickering and leaping within the thundercloud Pierce had unleashed, Tony knew very well that it contained extremely powerful offensive energy.
He had no intention of using the mechanical giant—something he had temporarily created by combining the Machine Memory's power with various materials—to directly withstand the terrifying lightning within that cloud.
So Tony first fired missiles directly at the thundercloud, hoping to use the powerful shockwaves from the explosions to disperse it.
Although the missiles did hit the cloud, the fiery shockwaves from the explosions failed to stir up any real disturbance at all, and were effortlessly swallowed up by the raging lightning.
Tony's eyebrows twitched as he realized that the thundercloud Pierce had summoned could not be dealt with in the same way as an ordinary cloud mass.
Immediately, he drove the power of the Arc Reactor, combining it with the energy of the Mechanical Memory, and unleashed a thick, powerful energy beam straight at the thundercloud.
As the beam swept across it, a massive gap did indeed open up in the cloud. Lightning continuously leapt and crashed against Tony's energy beam, the two forces locked in a fierce struggle, neither yielding to the other.
Naturally, Pierce had no intention of standing by and watching Tony defend against his attack so easily.
He once again activated the power of the Weather Memory. Surging streams of electricity appeared in both his hands, spraying and coursing like raging rivers, and were injected directly into the thundercloud, reinforcing and replenishing its energy.
With Pierce's power flowing into it, the thundercloud rapidly expanded. The portions that had been annihilated by Tony's energy beam were instantly restored, and the cloud now carried the deafening roar of howling gales.
The thundercloud stretched with uncanny agility, as if it were alive, winding its way around Tony's beam and probing toward him.
Wind and clouds intertwined—ever-changing, formless, and unpredictable.
Sensing the change in the thundercloud, Tony realized that his attacks would be difficult to land effectively, and immediately changed tactics.
Under the power of the Machine Memory, the mechanical giant's arm transformed into a massive electric fan, blasting fierce winds toward the thundercloud that was closing in on him.
Seeing Tony instantly create such a gigantic fan to disperse the cloud, Pierce was momentarily surprised.
But he quickly recovered and let out a scornful laugh. "Your ability is indeed quite unusual, but the power of the Weather Memory is far more than just this."
As his words fell, a tornado suddenly rose around the thundercloud. Lightning mixed into the swirling storm, forming a drill-like vortex that pushed against the wind Tony was generating, boring straight toward him.
The fan blades Tony had hastily constructed were the first to be struck by the lightning tornado. The entire structure was instantly shredded by the combined might of lightning and gale-force winds.
Watching the thunderous tornado effortlessly destroy the mechanical giant's right hand, Tony felt a chill in his heart. He tried to maneuver the mechanical giant backward to avoid its edge.
However, the lightning hurricane latched onto the giant directly. The tornado wrapped around the mechanical giant's right arm, generating an immense vortex of suction that completely immobilized it.
At the same time, countless thick arcs of lightning coiled and leapt toward every part of the mechanical giant, wreaking havoc and tearing apart its overall structure.
Realizing that maintaining the mechanical giant would only leave him vulnerable to the lightning, Tony made a decisive call and cut off the Mechanical Memory's control over it.
The entire mechanical giant instantly disintegrated. Tony shot out from within it in his Iron Man armor, shedding the shell like a cicada escaping its husk and narrowly evading Pierce's terrifying lightning assault.
But before Tony could even catch his breath, a sudden sense of danger flared in his mind.
"I knew you'd use a trick like that to dodge my attack, so I was already waiting right here," Pierce's voice sounded from nearby. Before Tony could react, a bone-chilling cold swept over him.
In the blink of an eye, half his body was frozen solid. Tony immediately retreated at maximum speed, pulling away to create distance.
"How is this possible?! How did you suddenly appear over there?" Tony demanded, his expression dark as he looked at the ice encasing part of his body.
Just moments ago, Pierce had clearly been positioned some distance away. There was no way he should have been able to appear beside him instantly.
Pierce smiled smugly but didn't answer. Instead, he raised his right hand and gave a casual wave.
Then his figure vanished outright.
Tony's eyes lit up. "Optical camouflage—some kind of invisibility!"
"So the Weather Memory allows control over all kinds of natural meteorological phenomena?
That's why the abilities are so diverse—lightning, gales, flames, rainbow light… What a terrifying Memory."
As Tony spoke, trying to lure Pierce into responding, he simultaneously had JARVIS scan the surrounding environment, searching for Pierce's location.
"Sir, target located," JARVIS reported.
Tony glanced at the image JARVIS projected before his eyes. His heart stirred, but outwardly he showed no reaction, pretending to be completely unguarded.
When Pierce closed in to a certain distance, Tony suddenly exploded into action. Missiles and energy cannons fired simultaneously at Pierce.
Pierce was hit head-on by Tony's barrage. The powerful explosions blasted him backward.
"You were actually able to detect my disguise?" Pierce asked calmly, seemingly unharmed despite taking the attack.
Tony snorted. "Even if you can manipulate rainbow light to eliminate reflections, hide your form, and even block infrared so thermal imaging doesn't work—
I still have energy-detection systems. No matter how well you hide, the energy you carry can't fool my sensors.
In other words, your invisibility is useless in front of me."
As Tony explained this to Pierce, he also used the Mechanical Memory's power to make the attached machinery release massive amounts of heat, melting the ice encasing his body.
"Stalling for time?" Pierce chuckled knowingly as he watched Tony shatter the remaining ice, clearly unconcerned.
Tony's heart skipped a beat as a realization struck him, and he immediately shifted his perspective.
The Hydra agents had taken advantage of the time Tony and Pierce were fighting to rescue their captured comrades.
The heavily battered S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were in no condition to stop them.
In truth, Pierce's objective from the very beginning had simply been to hold Tony back. He never needed to defeat him—so long as the Hydra agents could get their people out, that was enough. That was why he didn't mind trading words with Tony at all.
"Damn it!" Tony cursed and moved to rush toward the retreating Hydra agents, only to be blocked by Pierce's lightning and flames.
"Tony Stark, you're not getting past me," Pierce said calmly as he continuously unleashed lightning, fire, and ice spikes to restrain Tony. "Don't waste your effort."
Watching the Hydra agents withdraw in an orderly fashion, Tony desperately wanted to intervene.
But under Pierce's relentless and overwhelming assault, he simply couldn't spare the attention. Spread too thin, he could only watch helplessly as they escaped.
(End of Chapter)