After receiving the order, Jarvis cooperated by controlling the Iron Man Armor as it slowly approached Annie's Quinjet. He then gradually moved above the cockpit, flying in sync with the aircraft at the same speed.
What made Tony's eyes nearly pop out was that he discovered the person piloting the aircraft wasn't a pilot at all! It was a little girl who looked only seven or eight years old, sitting in the copilot's seat! There was a woman who looked more like a pilot in the main pilot's seat beside her, but she didn't have her hands on the controls at all.
"Wow, that's cool! Look at what I found! A little girl flying a combat jet? No wonder, no wonder S.H.I.E.L.D. is getting more and more ridiculous!" After connecting to the Quinjet's public channel, Tony couldn't help complaining.
"Huh?" Seeing Iron Man flying parallel right beside her aircraft's nose, Annie grew curious! She had never seen such a flying metal monster before. It looked like it would be fun to play with, too.
"Auntie Melinda, what's that thing?"
"It looks like Iron Man? A playboy named Tony Stark!" Melinda frowned as she watched Iron Man flying beside them. She had seen reports about him and knew about this Iron Man, but as a traditional woman, she really disliked this dissolute playboy whose scandals never ended.
"Playboy? Is he a bad guy?" Annie didn't understand what the word meant, but she could hear the displeasure in Melinda's voice. So, while curiously staring at the metal man, she continued asking questions.
"That's right! A playboy is a kind of bad guy, especially the one right in front of us!" Melinda nodded firmly, holding back her laughter.
"Hey, lady, be careful or I'll sue you for defamation! But if you agree to have dinner with me, I'll graciously forgive you." Tony Stark also heard their conversation through the public channel connected to the Quinjet. He absolutely disagreed with Melinda defining him as a bad guy!
"Oh, is that so? Then..." Annie ignored the metal monster outside, who was lightly tapping his finger against her cockpit canopy as if he wanted to continue chatting with them.
Her eyes rolled as though she had thought of something fun. Then, with a mischievous grin, she suddenly yanked the control stick. The red Quinjet abruptly rammed into the other party, knocking the metal monster off balance and sending him tumbling downward.
"Danger! Annie, don't!" Seeing Annie recklessly fool around like that, Melinda was startled. Fortunately, the two aircraft had been flying parallel at the same speed. If they had collided head-on, they might have caused an air disaster.
"Whoa~!!"
Caught off guard, Tony Stark was struck. His engine malfunctioned and shut down, causing him to lose power and drop instantly. Fortunately, he was currently in the stratosphere, giving him enough time to troubleshoot the problem.
"Jarvis! Think of something!" Seeing his altitude continue to drop, Tony hurriedly called for Jarvis.
"I'm making adjustments, sir. It will take a little time."
As streams of data continuously swept across the faceplate display, the intelligent program Jarvis calculated at high speed, doing his best to help Tony eliminate the malfunction.
"It's done, sir. The malfunction has been cleared!"
When Jarvis's voice came through, Tony found that he could control the armor again. He quickly adjusted his posture. Energy surged from the engines in his hands and feet, and he finally managed to maintain his altitude.
"Watch out above, sir! Evasive action, now!"
Before Tony Stark could breathe a sigh of relief, Jarvis suddenly issued a warning. Tony looked up and saw the red Quinjet diving toward him like an eagle swooping down on a rabbit.
"Oh, hell!"
Tony Stark hurriedly increased the engine output. The propulsion systems in his hands and feet fired together, shooting him off in another direction as he tried to escape the red aircraft's dive. Tony knew that if he were hit by another dive like that, he would be finished! The armor might even fall apart!
"Haha! I've caught you, metal monster!"
Annie piloted the diving aircraft in hot pursuit of the metal monster ahead. She felt that playing like this was much more interesting than aimlessly flying the jet by herself.
"Where do you think you're going? I've got you." After Tony evaded her dive, Annie swung the control stick. The Quinjet immediately made a 180-degree turn and chased after Iron Man, who had already begun climbing at high speed.
"Annie..." Melinda looked at the little girl beside her, momentarily speechless!
This was far too reckless! She had originally planned to take over the controls directly, but after thinking it over, she felt that giving this playboy a small lesson wasn't necessarily a bad idea. She would watch a little longer first.
"Do you have any ideas, Jarvis?"
After performing several high-load maneuvers in succession, Tony discovered that he still couldn't shake the red aircraft behind him! Thinking about it, he hadn't really provoked them just now, had he? Why were they still refusing to let up? They were both crazy!
"Sir, you can only evade as best you can. The Mark III is not equipped with weapons, so we cannot retaliate." Jarvis had no good solution either. Tony had come out this time to test the armor's performance and hadn't brought any weapons.
"Sir, I recommend that you lower your altitude. The Mark III's high-altitude performance has no advantage over the Quinjet."
"Damn it, Jarvis! Next time I go out, make sure you remind me to bring weapons!" Tony hurriedly turned, temporarily evading the aircraft that was rolling into position for another collision.
"Now think of something!"
"I'm trying to reconnect to their communications, sir! Perhaps you could talk things over with them. I've determined that they don't harbor much ill will. Otherwise, they could have used their weapons to shoot you down!"
"Then hurry up!" With another sharp turn to a steep angle, Tony escaped the aircraft's pursuit once again.
He felt that this couldn't continue. His body's strain had already exceeded what he could endure, and the armor's life-support system showed signs of overloading as well. If he kept flying like this, he would suffer internal bleeding!
"Done, sir! I've connected to their channel."
"Hello! Anyone there? Maybe we should talk this over!" Now that he was connected to them, Tony quickly spoke up. He didn't want to keep being tormented like this endlessly.
"No talking! You have to play with me. Otherwise, I'll shoot you down!" Annie was having too much fun to care what the other party thought. When she saw that he was considering quitting, she angrily opened the weapons cover on the control stick, exposing the weapon ports beneath the fuselage as a threat.
"Sir! That's a large-caliber multi-barreled Vulcan Cannon! If they open fire, the Mark III's armor may not withstand it for long." Jarvis detected the anomaly beneath the aircraft and hurriedly warned Tony Stark.
"Oh, hell! Damn it, you're crazy!"
Melinda looked at Annie speechlessly. The Vulcan Cannon wasn't loaded with any ammunition at all, all right? The ammunition bay had been converted into a restroom. Fortunately, it hadn't been installed. Otherwise, Melinda really would have worried that once Annie got carried away, she might fire a few bursts without a second thought. That would have been a disaster!
Since no one could be killed now, Melinda was happy to sit back and watch the show. She already disliked that playboy Tony Stark, so there was no need to risk angering Annie for his sake. Little Annie was having fun, so Melinda would let her play a while longer.
In the end, contrary to everyone's expectations, the chase ended with Iron Man Tony Stark claiming victory.
The reason was that the red Quinjet was now helplessly floating on the surface of the sea. Annie and Melinda were glaring unhappily at the metal monster hovering in the distant sky, while Tony Stark's smug shouting came through the radio equipment.
"Aha~! How's that? Out of fuel, are you? That's what you get for chasing me! That's what you get for playing! Now it's my turn to have fun, right? Ahahaha!"
"Sir, I must remind you that we don't have much energy left either! If we run out of energy and fall into the sea later, we won't be able to float on the surface like them." Seeing that Tony Stark was still wasting energy, Jarvis had no choice but to remind him. Hovering in midair also consumed energy for the Iron Man Suit.
"Don't rush me, Jarvis! Let me show off one more time, then we'll leave!" After saying that, Tony Stark opened the public channel again. "Hey, brat, how about it? Still want to play? Come on, keep ramming me!"
"Sir..."
"All right, all right! Jarvis, stop nagging! We're leaving now!" Tony Stark laughed in midair for a while longer before deciding to run. If he didn't leave, he would run out of energy too.
"Since you two are so pitiful, I'll let you off for now. Finally, here's one last free reminder: I just checked the weather forecast, and there's going to be a torrential rainstorm soon! Hope you remembered to bring an umbrella, ahahaha~!"
Watching Iron Man fly away laughing while Annie sulked beside her, Melinda speechlessly rubbed her forehead. "All right, Annie! Once you've had enough fun, let's go home. Looks like we'll have to call for backup again!"
Melinda shook her head and took out her phone, planning to have headquarters send a boat with some fuel.
The aircraft had already used up a considerable amount of fuel flying from headquarters to New York. After Annie's little adventure, running out of fuel was only natural. Fortunately, they had been flying over the ocean. If they had been over land, they might have crashed just now!
"Hmph! Then let's go back. If we run into him next time, we'll teach him a proper lesson!"
Annie also knew that an aircraft without fuel couldn't fly. There was nothing else she could do for now. It wasn't as though she could fly over and beat up that metal man with magic. Her flight spell was nowhere near as fast as he was!
"By the way! Where's Coulson?" After finishing the call, Melinda finally remembered that something seemed to be missing. She quickly opened the cockpit door and looked toward the rear fuselage compartment. She found Coulson lying unconscious on the sofa, foaming at the mouth with his head hanging downward. Fortunately, his safety belt was still fastened tightly around him!
"Wow! This isn't fun anymore!" Annie blinked and put on an innocent expression.
(Revision 1)
Before you continue