Tony Stark had just finished suiting up when, while hovering in midair, he was struck head-on by a shell. He was sent flying backward and crashed directly into the far side of the venue's main stage.
"Damn it, didn't you get them under control?" Tony complained to Luke over the comms as he lay amid a pile of rubble, shaking his head and brushing the debris off himself.
"I only used a backdoor I knew about to bypass the firewall and interfere with their data through an intrusion. Obviously, some tech guy is patching the loophole and fighting me for control," Luke replied through his comm earpiece. Although Justin's software systems were as lousy as his weapons, the software running these big machines was unexpectedly excellent.
This was clearly Ivan Vanko's handiwork.
To be fair, the man simply lacked Stark's background and resources. Otherwise, he might have become another iconic figure in Stark's mold.
More than twenty Iron Soldiers covering every branch of the military—land, sea, and air—stood on the stage. Several of them were firing wildly like they had gone haywire, and their target was clearly Tony. He had no choice but to weave through the air, nimbly dodging the roughly aimed, indiscriminately fired bullets. Unfortunately, people in the venue had already been injured because of it, and some had even died outright.
"I get you, but it's not something we should say out loud." Tony understood perfectly why Luke knew about loopholes in Hammer Military Industries' systems; he often did this sort of thing himself. So he merely mentioned it before changing the subject. "So this probably wasn't an accident? Sorry, could you have someone get Pepper and the others out first?"
"They're well protected by Snoke." Luke glanced at Ina and Pepper, who stood at the center