The Avengers Initiative (Part 1)

"Tony, do you know how much of a threat leaving him alive would pose to you and the people around you? I'm not afraid, and you might not care either. But what about Pepper? This is war, Tony, not a business game," Xia Yu said as he pulled out his sword.

Tony Stark merely lowered his head without a word. Xia Yu put the sword back in his ring and came over to sit beside him in a daze.

After they had sat there for a few minutes, Xia Yu suddenly slapped his forehead. "At a time like this, the protagonist should have won, and the heroine should have come over to give him a passionate kiss. Why, after we finally beat the bad guy, am I sitting on a rooftop spacing out with an old man like you?"

"That's because you threw Pepper several blocks away. The two of us should be kissing passionately right now. I'm the protagonist," Tony said at last.

"Capitalists really are ungrateful. I defeated this guy. Me! When I got up here, you were clinging to that iron bar and trembling like a poor little white rabbit." Xia Yu pointed at the beam over the atrium.

"That's because the Heart of Xia I was wearing is garbage. That's my equipment." Tony went over and took the miniature Arc Reactor off the Iron Monger.

"I didn't beg you to wear the Heart of Xia. You were the one stupid enough to let someone steal it." As Xia Yu spoke, he took out the Heaven Reliant Sword again and hacked the Iron Monger into a pile of junk, one blow at a time.

By the time Agent Coulson came up with the government people, Tony had already taken the reactor, the Iron Monger was a pile of scrap metal, and Obadiah Stane's body lay beside it.

Tonight had been a joint operation, and Coulson's group even included someone from the United States military. Seeing that there was nothing left for them, the group looked at Xia Yu and Tony in confusion. Coulson knew Xia Yu better than the others did, so he asked, "What happened here, Mr. Xia?"

"Oh, a meteor fell from the sky just now and smashed this bastard up like that," Xia Yu said very seriously.

Naturally, Tony Stark would be the one to deal with the government. His status gave him the confidence for it—enough confidence that he couldn't be bothered to argue with them today, on the grounds that he hadn't had dinner yet!

So the two of them and Pepper Potts went to Xia Yu's home for hot pot. Xia Yu had wanted to bring Coulson along too, but Coulson was busy cleaning up their mess that evening and didn't have a moment to spare.

Xia Yu had no choice but to be a third wheel. Unexpectedly, a surprise awaited him at home: there was another third wheel, though this one looked so dark he seemed impossible to light up.

"Do you think you two are the only superheroes in the world?" Those were the first words Nick Fury spoke as he turned around after Xia Yu got home and switched on the lights.

Honestly, he gave Xia Yu a fright. Xia Yu had known someone was home as soon as the elevator stopped and had thought it was Natasha. He hadn't expected it to be this guy.

"Of course we're not the only two. There's also a big green monster that can transform. He smashed up half of Harlem in New York. I saw it online before you blocked the videos. Do you really think I'd believe the lies the government cooked up afterward?" Xia Yu immediately tore into him. That was what Fury got for hiding in Xia Yu's home with the lights off and scaring him.

Nick Fury said, "Xia, you were a lot friendlier the last time we met. I remember you even made me tea."

Xia Yu rolled his eyes. "You were my customer last time, Nick. Today you're trespassing in my home. I have the right to shoot you dead, Nick."