"Who's there?"
After being abruptly awakened by a basin of cold water, Tony jolted up from the ground with a start.
Seeing the basin Eren was still holding and the water droplets still clinging to his face, Tony immediately understood what that bone-chilling sensation was all about.
Wiping his face with his hand, Tony snapped at Eren, "Damn it! Couldn't you find a better way to wake me up?"
Eren casually placed the basin on a nearby shelf before responding lazily, "I tried calling you, but you didn't wake up, so I had to resort to splashing you."
After making that remark, Eren's face turned serious as he continued, "What happened here? Why were all of you unconscious when I opened the basement? Do you remember what happened just now?"
Though Eren's question seemed like an attempt to change the topic, Tony's expression quickly darkened as he recalled the moments before he lost consciousness.
After a few seconds of silence.
Tony spoke with a solemn expression, "I don't know!"
"I heard gunshots upstairs, so I took the gun from Happy and guarded the entrance to the basement. But the moment I positioned myself there, I just... passed out."
Tony paused as his eyes revealed a thoughtful glimmer. Then, sounding uncertain, he added, "Oh, right. Just before I passed out, I felt a cold, eerie sensation. It was right after feeling that chill that I blacked out."
A cold, eerie sensation...
What Tony felt was probably the ominous wind that blew before the strange gray mist descended!
In other words...
They were knocked unconscious by that bizarre gray-black mist.
Eren nodded thoughtfully.
At that moment, Tony suddenly looked at him and asked, "What about that lunatic who was chasing me earlier? Did you take care of him?"
From Tony's perspective.
Since Eren was standing before him safe and sound, the madman who was chasing them was clearly already dealt with.
He was just asking to confirm it.
But Eren's answer left Tony momentarily speechless.
"The guy chasing you?"
"I guess you could say I dealt with him, but now I'm not so sure."
"What do you mean?" Tony asked, puzzled.
"I shot and killed the guy who was chasing you, but just after he died, a strange gray-black mist suddenly appeared. That creepy mist corroded his body into ashes and then swept away his soul before vanishing. So..."
Eren shrugged, "I don't even know if I can say I've truly taken care of that guy."
"Oh, and just before the gray-black mist appeared, I also felt a chilling wind. If I'm not mistaken, that's probably what knocked you all unconscious."
"What? Are you joking?"
Hearing Eren's explanation, Tony's eyes widened in disbelief, "How can something that bizarre even exist in this world?"
"Bizarre?" Eren looked at Tony with a meaningful gaze and said slowly, "Actually, this isn't the first time I've encountered that strange mist."
"The last time, outside your seaside villa, when I shot Obadiah and took the Arc Reactor to save your life, that same eerie mist appeared..."
"Wait!"
Tony abruptly interrupted, "So that Arc Reactor you used back then was taken from Obadiah? But if you killed him, then who was piloting the Iron Monger that showed up later?"
Eren shook his head. "I have no idea. Back then, that same gray mist reduced Obadiah's body to ashes."
"Not long after I saved you, I heard that Obadiah, piloting a giant Iron Monger, was chasing Pepper."
"But according to Joker, after he cut off the Iron Monger's head, there was no one inside. The thing chasing Pepper, in his words, was more like a mechanical lifeform."
"So... I can't be sure whether or not the guy who was just turned to ashes by the gray mist will appear again."
"Plus, Obadiah and now this lunatic—both people who tried to kill you—had their deaths accompanied by this creepy black mist. I think, Tony, while you're busy working on improving your security, you should also consider what connection there might be between that gray-black mist and you."
"Why does it always appear when your enemies die?"
At the end of his statement, Eren shot Tony a deep, meaningful look.
Tony's expression turned incredibly grim after hearing Eren's words.
Who the hell knows what connection that creepy black mist has with him?
If Eren hadn't told him all this today, he wouldn't have known that there was so much going on behind the scenes of what happened with Obadiah.
Back then, after he woke up from the Mad Gaze of the Joker, he found that the fallen Iron Monger was just an empty shell. But at the time, he thought the mysterious Joker had taken Obadiah away.
Who would have thought there was never anyone inside the Iron Monger to begin with?
"Woo-woo-woo-woo..."
Just as Tony's mind was spinning from all this new information, the sound of police sirens echoed from the street outside.
Hearing the sound of police sirens, Eren said to Tony, "Pepper is still bandaging Happy's wounds. The cops upstairs are your problem to deal with. Also, leave me out of it. I really don't want to go through any more police questioning."
"By the way, Happy..."
Mentioning Happy, Tony remembered his loyal bodyguard who had taken a severe hit to his back while trying to get him to safety.
He was about to ask Eren to heal Happy when Eren, as if reading his mind, cut him off and repeated the same explanation he gave Pepper earlier.
But Tony, who had witnessed Eren summon a six-winged angel to heal an entire neighborhood of injured people, didn't believe for a second that Eren couldn't heal Happy.
"Don't look at me like that. Holy Light Healing has limited uses. Even I can't use that power constantly. Besides, someone must have seen Happy's wounds when he carried you in. Right now, it's better to send him to the nearest hospital for treatment."
"I see. So, you're holding back, huh?"
Tony gave Eren a resentful look.
Before Eren could roll his eyes, Tony glanced at Pepper, who was still focused on bandaging Happy's wounds, and then said to Eren, "You said earlier that the lunatic chasing me might come back, right? I have a favor to ask. Can you look after Pepper until that maniac shows up again? I don't want her to get hurt, especially because of me."
Seeing Tony's pleading expression, Eren rolled his eyes.
"Aunt Pepper is my family. I don't need someone like you, an outsider, asking me to do that."
"An outsider?"
Tony stared at Eren's disdainful expression, inwardly fuming.
"If it wasn't for that maniac interrupting my confession to Pepper tonight, you'd be calling me uncle right now, you little brat!"
"Just you wait. As soon as this mess is sorted out, I'll confess to Pepper as fast as possible. Then we'll see if you still call me an outsider."
"Hmph! Outsider? When the time comes, you'll have to call me uncle!"
························
After Pepper's emergency call.
The attack on Tony Stark immediately caught the attention of the NYPD.
Within minutes, more than a dozen police cars surrounded Eren's house, sealing it off completely.
And their numbers were still increasing rapidly.
Among the vehicles were several heavily armed SWAT trucks.
As for the officer in charge of this operation, it was none other than Eren's old acquaintance—George Stacy.
When Eren saw the man speaking with Tony Stark from a distance, he was a bit surprised.
After all, this was Chinatown, not George's usual jurisdiction.
Shouldn't the police from Chinatown's precinct be handling this?
What Eren didn't know was that George Stacy had recently become the NYPD's rising star due to the textile factory incident. So, when news of Tony Stark's attack came in, the NYPD's higher-ups immediately thought of George to lead the rescue.
····································
At the same time.
After receiving Pepper's emergency call, S.H.I.E.L.D. also got wind of Stark's attack.
As the world's first publicly known superhero, Tony Stark was a key figure of interest for Fury.
He was also an essential part of Fury's plan for the Avengers Initiative.
So, upon hearing of Tony Stark's attack, Fury, who was already preparing to head to New York to speak with Captain America, immediately used his authority to requisition an armed helicopter from S.H.I.E.L.D.
The helicopter landed on the rooftop of the Triskelion's main building.
It was about to take off to New York as quickly as possible with Fury onboard.
························
About ten minutes later.
With the rapid rotation of the helicopter's blades, it steadily rose into the air.
After reaching the designated altitude, the pilot adjusted the helicopter's direction and flew toward New York.
High above in the upper floors of the Triskelion.
Alexander Pierce stood in front of the large floor-to-ceiling window, raising his wine glass to the helicopter flying off in the distance.
"Goodbye, Fury."
After Fury came to him, hoping he would delay the Insight Project, Pierce immediately realized that Fury might have discovered something.
Given Fury's paranoid nature, if he thoroughly investigated the Insight Project, all of Hydra's efforts and carefully laid plans could go to waste.
So, even though Pierce pretended to agree to Fury's request to convince the World Security Council to postpone the project, he was already planning Fury's assassination.
"The Insight Project is about to begin, and Hydra's vision of ruling the world is within reach. I can't let anyone ruin what I've spent my life striving for."
Sipping his wine, Pierce took out a remote control from his pocket and aimed it at the helicopter glinting in the night sky. He pressed the red button.
"Beep..."
Along with an electronic beep, a remote-controlled bomb, specially camouflaged to blend perfectly with the helicopter's fuel tank, suddenly emitted a flashing red light.
"Boom!"
With a thunderous explosion, a massive fireball ignited in the sky not far from the Triskelion.
The helicopter, along with its fuel tank, was blown apart in a dazzling display of fiery destruction, lighting up the night sky above the Triskelion like a brilliant firework.
The enormous disturbance caused by the explosion triggered a piercing alarm within S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters.
And when news spread that Fury had been on that helicopter, the silence within the Triskelion quickly turned into a chaotic uproar.
Just as everyone was panicking and clueless about what to do.
A grim-faced Alexander Pierce walked into the control room and shouted at the disorganized agents, "What are you all panicking for?!"
Using the authority of his former role as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Pierce quickly stabilized the chaotic scene.
He then issued a series of rapid orders.
"Immediately send a team to recover the wreckage of the helicopter. Spare no effort to search for... survivors."
"If you find anyone alive, provide them with the best medical treatment available. I need to know what exactly happened with this explosion."
"And no matter what, find Fury. Dead or alive, I want to see him!"
"As the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., he cannot just die so mysteriously."
(End of Chapter)
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