Chapter 19: The Stark Family’s Extraterrestrial Visitors
Tony the Iron Man, 10880 Malibu Shores, California. Stark's Smart Villa
This is a fantastic building that looks like a flying saucer and is full of post-modern science fiction style. It is located on a cliff on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. The entire villa is built suspended next to the cliff, overlooking the sparkling vast sea. You can enjoy the magnificent sea view while sitting at home. Especially when the sunset on the Pacific Ocean reflects the twilight from the waves, the scenery is even more magnificent and indescribable.
However, the only one who can appreciate such beautiful scenery is Tony as the owner. Stark, and Pepper "Pepper" as half the hostess. There are only a few visitors in Potts. Because his villa is so empty, apart from the owner, there is not even a housekeeper or servant. Daily cleaning, maintenance and daily living are all taken care of by the smart housekeeper program "Jarvis" and a bunch of robots.
In the past few months, Iron Man Tony has been hiding in the underground laboratory in his California ocean view villa, rarely going out, leaving the company completely to "Pepper Potts", and he ***** Continuously develop various new Mark series Iron Man armors.
At this time, his basement was filled with a variety of Mark armors. There are those that have been painted and coated, and there are also bare metals with a pure metallic color and nothing painted on. This dazzling collection is Tony's proud achievement during this period. Although the performance of these latest works still cannot satisfy the picky Tony, these are the dazzling crystallization of his pursuit of perfect works. For stronger combat effectiveness and more effective targeting, Tony. Stark has designed many types of special models to deal with different enemies in different environments. From the Mark 7 suit used in the Battle of Manhattan, it has been upgraded and improved in one go to the current Mark 42 propelled automatic navigation combat suit. Clothes.
Since the battle against aliens in Manhattan, New York, Iron Man Tony. Stark clearly has a sense of anxiety. He feels that the world is far crazier than he imagined, and his future enemies are more dangerous than he imagined. When he was slowly upgrading his Mark armor and feeling complacent about his identity as Iron Man, the evil god Loki and his teammates from the Avengers taught him a crucial lesson: the dangers of this world are not Not just from Earth, and not just the enemies he had used the Mark suit to deal with.
Therefore, out of an inexplicable sense of anxiety and crisis, he spent this period of time staying in the studio of his villa to engage in an arms race. You could argue that these feelings are part of some kind of anxiety disorder and that you should see a psychiatrist instead. But once they exist, they are difficult to eliminate themselves.
In the eyes of the arrogant and conceited Tony, this inexplicable anxiety is more like a prophecy, an oracle, or apocalypse, reminding him, the "son of destiny," not to slack off and urging him to go all out. to cope with new challenges - now, a new challenge finally appears!
The leader of a terrorist organization named "The Mandarin" suddenly emerged, causing bombing attacks everywhere in the Middle East battlefield and the United States. If it's just like this, then it's nothing. Anyway, the crime rate in the United States in this world has always been extremely high, especially in New York, where even superpower crimes are common. Everyone is used to living a life of killing and killing all day long. . And Tony didn't care too much about this matter at first. If any criminal with a slightly more brutal nature would trouble Iron Man to do voluntary labor, then what would the federal government do for food?
However, in the latest bombing attack claimed by the "Mandarin", Tony. Stark's former personal bodyguard Habi was also unfortunately attacked and is now lying on the hospital bed, tightly wrapped in bandages. Although there is no real life-threatening danger for the time being, it cannot be said to be completely out of danger, nor can anyone feel completely at ease. No one knows whether he can be as active and active as usual.
This made Tony feel very heavy, as if there was a ball of anger burning in his heart. For a person like him who is extremely proud and arrogant, anyone who dares to provoke him or provoke the people he values around him is a hateful enemy who will arouse his high anger.
Harpy, who has been with Tony for more than ten years, is not as important as Pepper Pepper. Boz's place in his heart. But it's only a slight difference - there are only a handful of people close to him who can be recognized and valued by this arrogant genius, and every one of them is precious.
From Tony's perspective, this means a declaration of war on his Iron Man! They must know the wrath of Iron Man! !
The scene at that time appeared in front of his eyes again. When he visited Habi and walked out of the hospital, a large group of reporters who had received the news were already waiting outside the door. When they saw Tony walking out of the hospital, they all swarmed around him. In order to grab a seat, a female reporter simply kicked out the high-heeled shoes under her feet that were hindering her running. Then she held a microphone in her bare feet and rushed towards Tony with the photographer. The microphone and recorder in his hands were stretched forward with all their strength, almost poking him in the face.
"...Stark..."
"...Mr. Stark, do you think this attack..."
"...Some sources say that this is another terrorist attack. Mr. Stark, what do you think of this..."
"...Mr. Stark..."
"..."
A succession of noisy questions surrounded Tony's ears. Every reporter was asking their own questions quickly, hoping to get even a little response from Tony. However, this time, Tony, who had always been high-profile in the past, did not give them the response they wanted. He just silently lowered his head and walked towards his silver-white sports car not far away. Just when these reporters thought that they were going to return empty-handed this time, and they were all extremely disappointed, Tony, who was walking in front of the car, suddenly stopped and turned around.
Then, Tony wearing sunglasses. Stark looked around silently, and after all the reporters' voices became quiet, he said: "...I do have something to say, and I also want to spread my words through you - —I want to say, whoever orchestrated this attack, you're in big trouble. I'm going to find you and give you what you deserve. Punishment. Or you can save me some effort and come to me directly. It has nothing to do with the government, it is purely a personal grudge! Many people know my address, but in case you don’t know it, I can say it again here. , I live at 10880 Malibu Coast. I’ll find you, or you’ll find me.”
After delivering a personal declaration of war against terrorists, Tony. Stark returned to his sea view villa, using Jarvis's database to restore the scene of the terrorist attack, and analyze and study the evidence that the former personal bodyguard Habi brought back from the explosion site at the risk of his life: a An ordinary looking silver flat triangular block of metal. He thought there must be something here that would allow him to obtain some vital information.
Now, in the empty underground workshop, the intelligent program manager "Jarvis" has used stereoscopic projection to restore the virtual model of the explosion site, and analyzed the composition of the evidence that Habi brought back, and then obtained Some bizarre conclusions were drawn.
"...According to on-site reconstruction calculations, the heat generated by the explosion exceeded 3,000 degrees Celsius, and objects within 12.5 yards from the center of the blast would instantly vaporize. What is strange is that no bomb fragments were found within a three-mile radius of the explosion site... What exactly did the terrorists do? How did they do it? Did they transform themselves into real human bombs and inject liquid explosives into their bodies before detonating them? "
"...The silver flat triangular metal block brought by Mr. Habib is a special alloy with some kind of liquid medicine sealed inside. I did a simple test on it. There is no doubt that it should be some kind of biochemical agent." Weapons. If the biological and chemical weapons found in Mr. Habib are related to this explosion, then we only need to find out its maker to understand the origins of these explosions and the true identity of the Mandarin..."
——The judgment of the smart butler program "Jarvis" is very orderly, but how to find its creator, Iron Man Tony has no clue so far. Moreover, out of a genius' intuition, he also vaguely felt that this mysterious "Mandarin" seemed to be more than just a simple terrorist. The U.S. government’s recent handling of such terrorist attacks also seems a bit inappropriate...
The provocative words he made at the entrance of the hospital were also intended to provoke the person behind the terrorist attack and lure them to fight on his home turf. But after waiting for a few days, there was no movement at all. It seemed that the other party was a person who was good at forbearing, rather than a brave and resourceful man who would not be so easily provoked and jump into his trap immediately.
As a result, I, who had put down my bold words, became a little bit stuck - who knows where the "Mandarin" is?
The awkward feeling of hanging in mid-air made Tony, who was used to being arrogant, very uncomfortable for a while. However, although fighting evil forces is his mission as Iron Man, it is also his duty as a man to make women happy.
On Christmas Eve, he gave "Pepper" Pepper. Poz gave a two-story stuffed rabbit as a Christmas present, but Beauty didn't seem satisfied. So now he has purchased a bigger teddy bear as a New Year's gift for Pepper.
However, it was not until the courier company delivered the giant teddy bear stuffed doll by truck that Tony discovered an unexpected trouble. How to move such a big thing into the house? Not to mention that the door is not big enough, even the height of the living room cannot accommodate it!
So, he could only have the giant teddy bear placed in the small square outside the villa, waiting for Pepper to discover the surprise when he came back.
Unfortunately, just as Tony was wearing the latest Mark 42 Iron Man suit and sitting at the door waiting for the beauty to come home, something suddenly occurred to him. As soon as I looked up, I was even more horrified to see that at the end of the distant clear sky, a bright point of light suddenly appeared at some point, and it quickly became more and more conspicuous... It was a fireball coming from the end of the sky, as if As gorgeous as the aurora, its light is so bright that no one can look directly at it!
What's even more frightening is that this rapidly brightening blazing fireball in the sky seems to be heading straight towards his sea view villa!
"...Oh! God! What is this? A meteorite? No! It's a spaceship!! Where did this spaceship come from?!!!"
He only had time to murmur this sentence to himself. A very small bucket-shaped spaceship fell from the sky with blazing flames and accurately hit the giant teddy bear in the square. Not only did it blow the flammable The puppet was instantly burned to ashes, and a large sunken crater was created on the ground! The earth, rocks and air waves stirred up when it hit the ground even shook the glass windows of the villa to the ground.
The historical wheel or plot trajectory that had already begun to deviate was completely pushed into the ditch at this moment. It was based on the New Year gift Iron Man bought for his girlfriend. A certain naive giant teddy bear was dropped from the sky by a ship. The mini spaceship was smashed into the ground as a start...
At the same time, the secret radar station deployed by S.H.I.E.L.D. nearby also sounded a shrill, highest-level alarm...
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PS: I am shocked to hear that the US military and the White House are at odds with each other in the Middle East, which is comparable to the internal strife in the old Japanese Empire.
The latest revelation released this year revealed the continuous internal fighting between the US military and the CIA in Syria. The outside world has known for a long time that since the Arab Spring, the White House and the military in the United States have obvious differences on Middle East policy. But everyone always thought that it was the black president who was restraining the more radical military hardliners. But the facts are completely opposite: the White House and CIA are the radicals, while the Pentagon is the conservatives who deliberately disrupt the situation and delay it!
The White House insists on funding ISIS and killing Assad first. However, the military insists on killing ISIS and then depending on the situation whether to deal with Assad. The result of the two sides' inability to reach an agreement is that the Americans will start fighting among themselves. As early as when the White House instructed the CIA to join forces with Turkey to fund ISIS, the Pentagon strongly opposed it, believing that the White House's Syria policy was allowing the real enemies of the United States, Al Qaeda and ISIS, to grow. After the opposition failed, starting in the fall of 2013, the US military simply contacted the Russians and Kurds and tried every means to interfere with the CIA sending aid to ISIS through Türkiye.
The previous Syrian crisis in 2013 was actually a conspiracy between the Turkish government and the CIA with the tacit approval of the president. However, the US military refused to take action and directly disclosed the inside secrets to the EU. The White House, which was committed to the war, had no choice but to withdraw its hands because the military was determined not to do so.
Since the Russian army entered the war in Syria, why has the White House always said harsh words, but the US military in the Middle East has not made any major moves? Because everyone in the Pentagon is seriously opposed to interfering in the Syrian war, they are unwilling to confront the Russians in order to help terrorists, and they even support the Russian army in fighting terrorists. The strange incident of spending $500 million to help the Syrian opposition train five "super soldiers" was actually deliberately messed up by the US military. In addition, the U.S. military also used the inside information deployed in Turkey to deal with the CIA and Turkish President Erdogan. The two sides have been fighting fiercely for more than two years.
In short, today's war in Syria, at least the war between the Kurds and ISIS, has become a battle between the Americans and themselves. The White House supports ISIS and Türkiye's religious forces, and the Pentagon supports the Kurds and Türkiye's secular military. On one side, the US military is bombing terrorists indiscriminately, and on the other side, CIA agents provide secret assistance to terrorists. It is completely unclear who is the patriot and who is the traitor. And Turkey is almost torn apart. The current government that advocates religious supremacy, the military that advocates secularism, and the Kurds in the east are supported by the White House and the Pentagon respectively. Both sides have the support of the Americans. A civil war is about to break out: reality is truly stranger than fiction! A belligerent civilian government and a war-weary military! How much imagination does it take to imagine such a weird pattern?