As the explosions of the alien hover-chariots echoed from below, Tony Stark snapped back to reality.
Watching those dozen missiles fly right past him had made his skin crawl, even inside the Iron Man suit.
Fortunately, instead of exploding, the missiles had burst into globs of sticky goo, trapping the enemies. He let out a small sigh of relief.
But that didn't diminish his shock one bit.
"Jarvis... what was that?!"
Hearing the hesitation in Tony's voice, Jarvis, the AI butler who knew his creator's behavioral patterns better than anyone, understood the question instantly.
Inside the Iron Man helmet, a virtual targeting circle locked onto the "pencil case" in Luca's hand, and streams of data flooded the display.
Simultaneously, Jarvis's voice provided the answer.
"Sir, there is no match for this weapon in the database. System analysis suggests it is a micro handheld missile launcher. It possesses smart-locking capabilities, and the missiles are filled with a high-viscosity polymer designed to restrain targets."
"However, the missile velocity is relatively slow. At medium range or greater, the Mark armor has a 98.4% interception rate. Overall threat level to you is low."
Now standing upright again, Tony felt a bit embarrassed about flinching earlier. He was still slightly dazed.
"But just now..."
Tony wanted to say that when he first crashed in front of the mother and son, that "micro missile launcher" had been pointed right at his face. That definitely wasn't "medium range."
Besides, the Mark armor's scanners could penetrate surfaces; it should have been able to analyze the "pencil case" before it even deployed.
Why hadn't Jarvis warned him he was in danger?
Before he could finish the thought, Jarvis anticipated the question.
"Sir, your action of manually opening the faceplate interrupted the system analysis."
"..."
Tony's face flushed. After all that, it was his own mistake that made him look like a fool.
Still, Tony being Tony, he doubled down.
"Minor issue! Jarvis, remind me later to add an external obstacle-clearing function to the suit's self-cleaning system!"
"Understood, sir."
After getting Jarvis's confirmation, Tony planned to quickly warn the mother and son to stay safe and then leave.
The battle outside was still raging, after all.
Compared to his bruised ego, stopping the crisis and saving civilians was the priority.
But before he could speak—
The boy who had just put away the "pencil case" suddenly sprinted forward. With incredible speed, he blurred past Tony, rushing toward the hole in the wall.
The boy was fast, but not fast enough to escape the Iron Man suit's visual tracking.
Turning around, Tony saw the boy skid to a halt next to a soccer ball lying near the edge of the hole.
Simultaneously, the boy swung his right leg high behind him, his body stretching out like an eagle, his gaze locked intensely on the distance.
Following the boy's line of sight, Tony saw a hundred-meter-long Leviathan alien warship swimming through the air, "slowly" approaching the building.
Along the way, Chitauri soldiers were leaping from the warship, diving toward the ground.
What is he doing?!
"Beep-beep-beep! Warning! Warning! High energy detected!"
"Scan results! Unknown electrical power module! Memory polymer metal mimicking muscle fibers! Ferrofluid shock-absorption layer! Carbon nanotube fibers..."
Streams of data flashed across Tony's HUD, and Jarvis's warning alarms blared in his ears.
But Tony's attention was completely captivated by the boy with his leg raised high.
A massive burst of electrical sparks erupted from the boy's right foot, accompanied by a faint, rainbow-colored shimmer across the shoe.
In the next instant.
Luca unleashed a violent kick, slamming his foot into the soccer ball.
In the Mark armor's slow-motion replay, the ball distorted wildly upon impact.
The air around the ball compressed, creating a deafening sonic boom.
As the terrifying force was released, the soccer ball shot out like a flaming meteor.
A powerful shockwave blasted outward, churning up debris.
Friction with the air turned the surface of the ball a glowing orange-red, trailing a comet-like tail of fire.
A series of sonic booms exploded along the ball's trajectory.
Windows on nearby skyscrapers shattered from the shockwaves as the ball tore past them.
BOOM!
With a thunderous explosion, the soccer ball smashed squarely into the Leviathan warship.
The biological warship let out a wail of pain.
Under the unparalleled force of the impact, a large section of the ship's outer metal armor was blasted apart.
The entire warship lurched backward in mid-air, knocked off course.
"...Unknown external material reinforcement technology, unknown targeting system, unknown..."
Jarvis continued his analysis.
But Tony just stood there, stunned, his throat bobbing as he swallowed hard.
"Holy—sht!"
ROAR—
A furious roar snapped Tony out of his trance.
Luca's visually spectacular "Violence Soccer" kick looked ferocious, and... well, it was powerful.
But against the sheer mass of the Leviathan, it wasn't quite enough to kill it.
Recovering its balance, the Leviathan roared and charged straight toward their building, faster than before.
With no time to think, Tony activated his thrusters and shot out like a meteor to intercept it.
Thanks to Luca's kick shattering part of the armor, Tony didn't need to waste time breaking through its defenses.
He fired a wrist missile directly into the exposed muscle tissue of the biological warship.
BOOM—
Another massive explosion.
A giant hole was blown open in the Leviathan's body.
Wailing, the beast crashed unsteadily toward the ground, smashing through two more buildings before finally lying still, dead.
"Phew~ It actually worked~?"
Hovering in the air, Tony whistled excitedly.
He hadn't expected that, with the help of "Soccer Kid," the alien warship that had been giving him a headache was taken down so easily.
But seriously, what kind of family is that? Who equips a kid with weapons like that?