What Matters Isn't the Suit, but the Person

The people who could attend the event were either dignitaries or influential figures, along with many prominent journalists.

If the machines went out of control and wiped them all out, Hammer Industries would likely face retaliation from dozens of factions. Forget the company—even Justin Hammer might not be able to keep his life.

War Machine's expression changed drastically. His helmet immediately closed as he shouted, "Everyone, run!"

As he spoke, he lunged at the nearest Steel Soldier.

"Rat-a-tat-tat..."

Fortunately, he had moved in time. The bullets struck the ceiling, and countless fragments and shards of glass came raining down. The audience descended into chaos as female guests screamed from every direction.

Apocalypse stood in front of Pepper Potts and Black Widow. "Natasha, take Pepper and leave first."

The moment she heard his tone, Black Widow knew Apocalypse was inside the armor. Without hesitation, she grabbed Pepper Potts's hand and ran toward the fire exit.

Bullets struck War Machine's and Apocalypse's armor with a clanging chorus.

Some guests were hit by stray bullets, screaming as they fell to the ground.

Fortunately, the Steel Soldiers' primary targets were not ordinary people. Most of their firepower was focused on War Machine and Apocalypse.

War Machine said, "Tony, save the people first. We can't fight here. There are too many people."

Apocalypse thrust both hands into the ground, and the enormous carpet flew into the air, sweeping toward the Steel Soldiers.

The Steel Soldiers' rotating Gatling guns unleashed a torrent of bullets, shredding the carpet in an instant.

But that brief moment was enough!

Apocalypse pushed off with his feet, triggering a sonic boom from where he stood. With a boom, he was already upon a Steel Soldier.

His hands hooked like claws and ripped out the Steel Soldier's power source. The machine's indicator lights slowly dimmed before it quickly went still.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Using the same method, Apocalypse created more than a dozen sonic booms, and more than a dozen Steel Soldiers were scrapped.

By the time the shredded carpet drifted down from the air, every Steel Soldier in the hall had fallen almost simultaneously.

Meanwhile, War Machine had only just taken down one machine.

That kind of speed!

That kind of destructive power!

War Machine and Hammer were left staring in stunned disbelief!

One was a scientist and arms dealer, while the other was a soldier. They understood better than anyone that within two or three seconds, Apocalypse had accelerated more than a dozen times, reaching the speed of sound instantly every time before coming to an immediate stop.

No machine could withstand such terrifying extreme starts and stops. Even if one could, the human body could never endure those sudden changes in speed.

Hammer muttered, "Impossible! Absolutely impossible! This violates the laws of physics. This can't be real!"

Apocalypse walked over to Hammer. "Tell me. How many Steel Soldiers did you make? Where is Ivan?"

Hammer immediately came to his senses. Ivan had designed and built these machines. There was no need to say more—he had to be the one controlling everything from behind the scenes.

"He's at Hammer Building."

Apocalypse connected to Black Widow's earpiece. "Natasha, did you hear that? The person controlling this is at Hammer Building. It's Ivan, the one I asked you to help me investigate last time. Go take him down. I'll deal with the Steel Soldiers outside."

"Understood! I'm leaving now."

At that moment, hundreds of Steel Soldiers slowly activated inside the weapons factory, their eyes glowing with an eerie blue light.

There had not been enough time. Ivan and Hammer Industries had been unable to manufacture more.

Several hundred Steel Soldiers blasted through the doors and flew into the sky, and the roar of engines instantly filled the heavens.

Only then did Iron Man arrive. He asked, "Things are lively here. What happened?"

War Machine looked at the two suits of armor and asked, "Which one of you is Tony?"

Apocalypse said, "Forget that for now. We need to take down these machines first. Otherwise, who knows how many people will die tonight."

Iron Man said, "Tang, you're fast. You handle destroying the machines. Rhodey and I will provide mobile cover for the crowds. Wherever there's danger, we go."

"Okay!"

The three suits of armor split apart in an instant.

Apocalypse shot straight into the sky, flying toward the densest cluster of Steel Soldiers.

The Steel Soldiers were heading toward the city center, where the crowds were thickest. Once they spread out, even Apocalypse would be unable to stop them quickly, and the casualties would be impossible to count.

Unfortunately for them, they were still in the air!

A sonic boom rang out!

Like a meteor, Apocalypse blocked the torrent of Steel Soldiers and crashed directly into the mass of machines.

With his immense strength, he tore countless machines to pieces with every movement. Wreckage rained down from the sky.

War Machine, who was evacuating civilians on the ground, watched Apocalypse tear through the sky like a tiger among sheep. Hammer Industries' machines looked like toys before him, and he could not help swallowing.

"Tony, has your armor technology become this powerful already?"

Tony replied over the comms, "What's impressive isn't the armor. It's the person inside."

Although Iron Man's armor was more advanced than Hammer's, destroying even one machine still took effort. He absolutely could not rip them apart like paper the way Apocalypse did.

"Who is he?"

Iron Man said, "You've met him before."

Colonel Rhodes suddenly realized. "Those two F-22 fighters last time—was he the one who shot them down?"

"Cough... cough... Let's deal with what's in front of us first. We can talk about everything else later."

With the machine swarm in the sky destroyed, Iron Man and War Machine were more than capable of handling the remaining scattered Steel Soldiers.

Apocalypse turned around and flew toward Hammer Building.

Although Black Widow had fought her way through in the original storyline, Apocalypse did not dare let down his guard. He was afraid something might happen to her.

Even Iron Man himself would have died several times from the butterfly effect if Apocalypse had not saved him.

After landing at the entrance, Apocalypse put away his armor.

He found Happy, drenched in sweat, locked in a fierce fight with a bodyguard.

Among ordinary bodyguards, Happy was fairly capable. But compared to superhumans like Black Widow, he was still far too weak.

Apocalypse appeared before the two men and flicked a finger lightly against the bodyguard's head, as though flicking a child's forehead.

The burly man immediately rolled his eyes back and fainted.

Apocalypse had held back. Otherwise, the man's brains would have been splattered out.

Happy panted heavily. "I could've handled him without your help. You should go check on Natasha..."

When he turned around and saw burly men sprawled all over the corridor, Happy swallowed hard. For once, even someone as stubbornly proud as him had nothing to say.

Apocalypse said, "I'll go help Natasha. You get outside and evacuate the people."

"Fine...," Happy said as he watched Apocalypse vanish. Then he muttered under his breath, "Why do I feel like I'm the one who needs help?"

Before long, Apocalypse caught up with Black Widow.

Black Widow had changed into a tight combat suit that fully showed off her graceful figure. Her eyes were fixed ahead, brimming with killing intent. That heroic sight made Apocalypse drool.

But this was not the time for flirting.

Apocalypse suppressed his feelings. By the time the two of them rushed into the control room, several security guards lay unconscious inside, while Ivan had already vanished.

"Natasha, go catch Hammer. Don't let him escape. Tony and I will go after Ivan."

"OK." Black Widow turned and left with crisp, decisive steps.

"Hey... wait a second." Apocalypse had not expected Black Widow to be so decisive when she was in work mode.

He stepped forward, wrapped an arm around Black Widow's waist, and gave her a long kiss before bursting into laughter and leaving.

Black Widow was left standing there with a flushed face. It was impossible to tell whether she was embarrassed or simply short of oxygen after such a long kiss.

Apocalypse put his armor back on and flew toward the botanical garden in the city.

Iron Man had just sent word that an especially enhanced Steel Soldier was pursuing him and War Machine. It was probably Ivan.

By the time Apocalypse arrived, Ivan, War Machine, and Iron Man had already exchanged several rounds in the botanical garden.

The botanical garden had been devastated by lasers, bullets, and all kinds of miniature missiles.

Sure enough, this part of the story had not changed.

Fighting one against two, Ivan had actually suppressed Iron Man and War Machine completely.

Fortunately, Iron Man and War Machine worked well together and kept Ivan pinned down here, preventing further civilian casualties.

Ivan had inherited the temperament of a fighting people. Since his technology was lacking, he simply piled on brute-force upgrades. With dozens of Unmanned Steel Soldiers assisting him, he beat Iron Man and War Machine until they could barely fight back.

In the original storyline, Iron Man first used an area-of-effect laser attack to slice all the unmanned machines into scrap.

Then he and War Machine fired their laser cannons at each other, creating an even more powerful shockwave that defeated Ivan.

Before dying, Ivan detonated every Unmanned Steel Soldier, causing countless casualties.

Naturally, Apocalypse could not allow events to unfold as they had before. First, he wanted to bring Ivan under his command. Second, he could not let Ivan detonate the Unmanned Steel Soldiers that were still outside.