Attack

Under the night sky, Las Vegas glittered with neon, a dazzling city of indulgence.

Harry Osborn drove his car toward the Global Excellence Award ceremony at an unhurried pace.

Soothing music played through the car stereo, but his mind was occupied with something else.

The Global Excellence Award... Thanks to his cancer treatment drug, he was probably going to win it.

Given Tony Stark's personality, he probably wouldn't show up just to play runner-up.

But in a few days, Tony Stark would still be heading back to the Middle East...

Just then, a figure up ahead strode through the traffic with a model's swagger and stopped in the middle of the street.

The person wore a mask, and the metallic gleam of a mechanical arm stood out in particular.

He turned, raised his hand, and pointed the dark muzzle of the grenade launcher at Harry's car.

Harry's pupils contracted sharply.

That getup, that metal arm... Captain America's best buddy, Bucky Barnes!

By now, he should be Hydra's top assassin—the Winter Soldier.

Wait?! Was he after me?!

Harry cursed inwardly and wrenched the steering wheel into a sharp turn.

But the Winter Soldier... Why would Hydra be targeting him?

The Osborn Group? Or had his secret partnership with Stryker been exposed?

Or was it the Symbiote research he'd given Coulson?

Or had they decided, like they had with Howard Stark, that he posed a threat to Hydra?

In the blink of an eye, countless thoughts flashed through Harry's mind.

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

Harry had no time to think. Several grenades streaked toward him, trailing flames.

The deafening explosions engulfed Harry's car in fire, turning it into a burning heap of scrap metal.

The blast wave rippled outward. Nearby vehicles were tossed aside as if by an invisible giant hand, and people screamed in terror and scattered. Chaos reigned.

The Winter Soldier coldly watched the burning car, then fired two more grenades.

After that, he put away the grenade launcher, turned, and prepared to leave...

But at the instant he turned around,

a tall, dark figure slowly rose from the raging flames.

Its shape resembled Guyver III from Kryonaut, its grotesque Bio-Armor covering it from head to toe. The surface glinted like metal, yet had an eerie, organic texture.

It was X-Kryonaut I, the result of Harry's countless hours of painstaking, secret work!

[All systems ready. Visual neural link established. Sensory synchronization complete...]

[Prometheus I]'s cold synthetic voice rang directly in Harry's mind.

"Begin recording combat data."

Harry's voice came through the Bio-Armor with a faint metallic edge.

He rolled his neck, feeling the surging power of the Bio-Armor, and fixed his gaze on the Winter Soldier, who was about to leave.

As the first opponent for X-Kryonaut, the Winter Soldier would do.

Harry strode forward, his steps thudding against the ground as he steadily closed in on the Winter Soldier.

The Winter Soldier whipped around. When he saw the black monster emerge from the flames, a flicker of shock crossed his eyes.

What was that thing?

Was that... the target?

Though he had no idea what the alien-looking monster was, the Winter Soldier's battle-honed instincts told him he was facing a lethal threat.

Without hesitation, he raised his assault rifle and unleashed a hail of bullets at Harry.

"Ratatatatat!"

A dense storm of bullets poured down on X-Kryonaut's black armor.

Then something bizarre happened.

Bullets powerful enough to tear through steel struck the surface of X-Kryonaut and seemed to hit an invisible barrier, their kinetic energy instantly absorbed.

The bullets clattered to the ground in a heap of scrap metal, without leaving so much as a mark on the Bio-Armor.

This was the mutant ability of the X-Men's Black King, Sebastian Shaw: absorbing energy of any kind, storing it, and releasing it!

The Winter Soldier's pupils contracted sharply.

Physical attacks didn't work?

He promptly discarded his rifle. His gaze hardened as he swung his gleaming metal arm with a roar that tore through the air, smashing it toward Harry's head.

The blow was powerful enough to shatter stone!

Harry didn't dodge.

In the next instant, a silvery-white metallic sheen spread rapidly over X-Kryonaut's black surface, transforming it into something as hard as the toughest alloy.

The X-Men's Colossus's mutant ability!

"Clang!"

A deafening metallic impact rang out.

X-Kryonaut easily blocked the Winter Soldier's powerful mechanical arm, and the tremendous recoil made him stagger.

Harry seized the opening and drove his silver-coated fist into the Winter Soldier's chest.

"Thud!"

The Winter Soldier let out a groan and flew backward as if struck by a speeding train. He slammed into an abandoned car several yards away, crushing its frame inward.

The silvery sheen on X-Kryonaut's surface faded, leaving it black once more.

Then a dazzling crimson light flared in the Bio-Armor's eyes.

Two high-energy particle beams shot from the visor like searing swords, streaking toward the fallen Winter Soldier.

This signature ability belonged to the X-Men's leader, Cyclops!

His special cells could absorb energy from the surroundings and convert it into laser beams...

As the two beams, blazing with terrifying heat, hurtled toward him, alarm bells rang in the Winter Soldier's mind.

He had no time to dodge. In the nick of time, he raised his indestructible metal arm and held it in front of himself.

"Hissssss—!"

The laser beams slammed into his metal arm.

The intense heat instantly turned the metal red-hot, and it twisted with a grating sound.

"Arghhh—!"

The pain was so intense that even the rigorously trained Winter Soldier couldn't stop himself from letting out a bloodcurdling scream.

Just then...

A deadly killing intent suddenly burst from the shadows behind him!

A flash of silver!

Several pairs of gleaming claws silently thrust out from behind Harry and pierced straight through X-Kryonaut's chest!

"Hmm?"

Harry stopped firing the lasers, a flicker of surprise in his eyes.

He spun around and hurled his Bio-Armor-covered fist behind him with tremendous force.

"Bang!"

The attacker grunted as Harry's punch sent her flying. She crashed heavily to the ground.

Only then did Harry get a clear look at his attacker: a woman in a sexy evening gown.

Her hands had turned into razor-sharp metal claws, now smeared with a little of X-Kryonaut's blood.

The cheek Harry had struck was a bloody mess. Strangely, though, the wound writhed and healed before his eyes.

Even more unsettling, beneath the torn flesh there was no white bone, only a metallic skeleton gleaming silver.

The woman stuck out her tongue and licked the blood from her metal claws. Her crimson tongue and icy gaze made her look both eerie and dangerous.

Her eyes were fixed on the wound in Harry's chest.

The gash the claws had torn in X-Kryonaut was writhing and repairing itself at an astonishing speed, healing completely in the blink of an eye.

"Hmm?"

Harry frowned even more deeply as he looked at the woman.

That freakish healing ability, and those Adamantium bones...

Wasn't this Lady Deathstrike, one of William Stryker's Weapon X Program creations?

The problem was, why would that old fox Stryker send someone to attack him?

Their partnership was built on mutual self-interest, but at least on the surface, they were partners.

Besides, he'd provided Stryker with plenty of results. Why would the old man send Lady Deathstrike to kill him?

"Sorry to bother you, but do you know where I can find Mr. Harry Osborn?"

"I'm looking for him about a little thing. A tiny, insignificant little thing..."

Just then, a cheeky, irreverent voice rang out from the edge of the chaotic battlefield.

Harry turned to look without thinking.

A man in a flashy red bodysuit, with two swords strapped to his back, tilted his head and waved at them.

Even with most of his face hidden behind a mask, he gave off an unmistakably unserious air.

"..."

Harry looked at the familiar red figure, and the corner of his mouth twitched.

Deadpool?!

And now Lady Deathstrike, plus the half-dead Winter Soldier.

What was going on tonight?

There were enough people here to make a whole mahjong table!

Harry felt like his brain couldn't keep up.

Just as he was wondering what on earth was happening,

"Whoooosh—!"

The roar of an engine sounded overhead.

Then a black, futuristic-looking plane slowly dropped its optical camouflage and revealed itself.

The X-Men's Blackbird!

The hatch opened, and a burly man in a classic yellow-and-blue suit, a cigar clenched between his teeth, leaped straight down from the sky.

"Thud!"

He landed in a textbook superhero pose, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Those unmistakable metal claws, and that iconic yellow bodysuit.

Wolverine—Logan!

The X-Men were here too?!

What the hell was going on?!

Harry felt his temples throb.

This was the kind of thing they wouldn't even dare put in a movie...

(I think Guyver III looks cooler than the main characters' Guyver I and II...)