Embers and Warm-Up

California's morning light once again spilled generously across Malibu Beach, but this time, the villa's outline bore an impossible-to-ignore scar.

On one side of the foundation, there was a massive gash violently torn open by rampaging energy. Its edges were blackened concrete and twisted rebar, like a silent exclamation mark recounting last night's brief yet terrifying encounter.

The air still carried the faint smell of ozone and scorched molten rock.

Tony Stark, wearing an oil-stained work vest with dark circles under his eyes, was directing several bulky construction robots and a professional construction crew working around the breach.

Welding sparks flew everywhere, and the roar of heavy machinery shattered the morning quiet. Every now and then, he irritably raked a hand through his hair, pointing at the holographic blueprints while muttering curses.

Rebuilding his home—especially rebuilding it as quickly as possible, while ensuring the structure could withstand any accidents caused by certain "inhuman tenants"—just thinking about that bill made Tony's heart ache.

The terrace had miraculously remained mostly intact. Xiao Han still occupied the prime spot on the lounge chair, like a precisely calibrated Solar Panel, greedily absorbing the morning sunlight. Sunlight fell over him, warmth seeped in, and power silently

circulated, restoring last night's negligible energy expenditure—mainly the "physical labor" of closing the door and the "delicate operation" of keeping out the dust.

Happy had replaced the freezer with a brand-new, higher-capacity one stuffed with Tony Brand ice cream cones in every flavor. At that moment, he was carefully vacuuming up the vitrified crystalline dust that had drifted onto the edge of the terrace last night, moving as lightly as if he were defusing a bomb.

"Hey! You over there! Be careful! Recalibrate that load-bearing beam's stress data three times! I don't want the house collapsing while I'm eating breakfast someday!"

Tony shouted toward the construction crew, his voice hoarse. He rubbed his throbbing temples, his gaze sweeping over the relaxed figure on the terrace as a complicated emotion rose within him.

—This bastard had saved the day, or rather, casually cleaned up some unsightly trash. But this bastard's "souvenir" had also blown a hole in his house! And then there was the unlimited ice cream bill...

He dragged his exhausted steps toward the terrace, deliberately stomping his mud- and ash-covered boots heavily.

"Hey, sunbather!" Tony's voice was thick with a nasal tone and resentment. "The bill for my blown-up house, the bill for fixing it, and your 'emotional distress ice cream expenses' these past few days..." He counted on his fingers, trying to come up with a number that would make him feel better.

Xiao Han did not even lift his eyelids. He merely extended two fingers and precisely plucked a chocolate-coated ice cream cone from the new freezer, slowly tearing open the wrapper. "Noisy." One word, concise and to the point, like pressing Tony's mute button.

Tony's remaining words lodged in his throat, and he rolled his eyes in frustration. Resigned, he walked to the terrace edge and looked down at the busy construction site, trying to distract himself with work. Then, the communicator on his wrist vibrated, and JARVIS's voice sounded directly in his ear.

"Sir, Miss Potts has an urgent communication request. It is from Stark Industries headquarters in New York."

Pepper? Tony's heart tightened, and he immediately answered. "Pepper? What's wrong?" His voice instantly softened with concern.

A holographic image popped up, revealing Pepper Potts before Tony.

She wore a sharp business suit, but even her makeup could not conceal the exhaustion and anxiety in her eyes. Behind her were the floor-to-ceiling windows of Stark Industries' top-floor office, with Manhattan at dawn beyond them.

"Tony!" Pepper spoke urgently. "How are things over there? The news only said there was an explosion in Malibu for unknown reasons. S.H.I.E.L.D. locked down the information, but..."

"I'm fine, Pepper." Tony immediately reassured her, trying to make his expression seem relaxed. "Just... a little accident. The house got a few scratches and is being repaired. Mainly because a certain tenant's 'cosmic delivery' got sent to the wrong place." He glanced toward the lounge chair.

Following his gaze, Pepper also saw Xiao Han and visibly relaxed. She gave him a slight nod in greeting. Xiao Han merely raised the ice cream cone in his hand in response.

"I'm glad you're okay." Pepper exhaled in relief, but her expression quickly turned grave again. "Tony, I contacted you because of New York... Something is wrong here."

"Something wrong?" Tony frowned. "Aliens coming to sightsee again?"

"No, it's man-made." Pepper pulled up an encrypted file. "Do you remember the scientist named Aldrich Killian? The one you stood up at that Swiss conference years ago?"

Tony tried to remember, his brow furrowing deeper. "I vaguely remember... Biotech guy? Talked kind of nervously? What about him?"

"He is now the power behind A.I.M.," Pepper said, her voice carrying a chill. "Over the past few months, there have been numerous bizarre bombing attacks around the world, targeting military and government officials or key facilities.

"The attackers... Their methods are extremely brutal. They seem capable of generating ultra-high temperatures, and the temperatures at the centers of the explosions far exceed conventional explosives. The authorities have blamed a terrorist leader called The Mandarin, but..."

Pepper projected an intelligence report and several blurry scene photographs. In the photos, the explosion sites displayed an eerie molten state. Metal and concrete had melted like wax, and the remaining energy readings were extremely strange.

"S.H.I.E.L.D.'s intelligence analysis indicates," Pepper continued, "that the energy signatures left behind by these explosions closely match experimental accident reports from an Extremis Virus project at one of Killian's biotech research institutes!

"Fury suspects Killian is the real mastermind! He is using The Mandarin as a cover to conceal the truth—that he is using the Extremis Virus to create super-soldiers and even... human bombs! His goal is revenge!

"He wants revenge for the contempt you showed him back then, and he also wants to use this opportunity to sell that wildly unstable virus technology to the military!"

"Extremis Virus? Human bombs?" Tony's expression instantly turned ugly. "That lunatic! What is he trying to do?!"

"What's even worse," Pepper said, with an almost imperceptible tremor in her voice, "is that Killian... or rather, A.I.M., has been moving very frequently lately, and their targets... seem to be shifting toward people and facilities connected to Stark Industries.

"Justin Hammer of Hammer Industries was attacked on his private yacht last night. The entire ship was burned into a twisted frame of molten metal! He barely escaped by jumping into the sea, but he was badly shaken. And Colonel Rhodes, War Machine, he..."

Pepper was interrupted by another urgent communication request suddenly cutting into Tony's communicator. The signal source read: Colonel Rodney "Rhodey" Rhodes!

Tony immediately accepted it.

"Tony!!!" Rhodey's voice was filled with unprecedented terror and ragged breathing. Behind him came piercing alarms and explosions. "I'm at the Coast Guard base thirty kilometers north of Malibu! We're under attack! Damn it! Those guys aren't human! They... they're on fire! You can't kill them! You can't blow them apart! My armor is barely holding up! Their target... seems to be..."

The communication signal abruptly cut out amid a massive explosion and the screech of tearing metal! Only static remained!

"Rhodey! Rhodey!" Tony shouted into the communicator, his face drained of color.

On the other end, Pepper covered her mouth in the holographic image, her eyes full of terror.

On the terrace, the roar of construction machinery seemed to suddenly fade away. Happy stopped vacuuming and looked nervously at Tony.

Even Xiao Han, who had been resting with his eyes closed, slightly opened them. His black pupils reflected Tony's furious, shocked face and the file in Pepper's holographic image marked "Extremis Virus" and "A.I.M."

Tony spun around, his bloodshot eyes locked onto Xiao Han on the lounge chair. His voice was hoarse with anger and urgency. "You heard all that? That lunatic Killian! He used that damned virus to create walking human bombs! His people are attacking Rhodey! His target is me! Stark Industries! Maybe even..."

He looked at Pepper's image. He did not say the rest, but the meaning was obvious.

Xiao Han unhurriedly finished the last bite of his ice cream cone and flicked the wrapper precisely into the trash can. He stood up as sunlight flowed over him. He looked westward. The rising sun had reached just the right height, and the light was perfect.

"Tony." His voice was calm and unruffled. His gaze swept across Tony's anxious face, then seemed to pierce through empty space and fall upon the unknown chaotic battlefield along the northern coastline.

"Hm?" Tony answered instinctively, his heart pounding wildly.

"Your 'tin can,'" Xiao Han said, nodding toward Tony's oil-stained work vest with a casually teasing tone, "looks like it needs patching again."

He paused, looking northward. A faint curve touched his lips, one that inexplicably reassured Tony. "This time, the opponent seems a little tougher than Loki, that 'cheap magician'...?"

As the words fell, Xiao Han vanished from where he stood without warning.

There was no sonic boom, no afterimage. It was as if he had melted into the sunlight.

On the terrace, only the gently swaying lounge chair, the open freezer, and a lazy trailing voice drifting away on the wind remained.

"Don't let that lunatic... disturb my afternoon sunbathing."

Tony stood there blankly for several seconds before suddenly snapping out of it. He roared into his wrist communicator, "JARVIS! Activate Mark XLII! Destination: North Coast Guard base! Give me the fastest speed possible! And..."

He glanced at Pepper's worried holographic image, his voice lowering. "...Pepper, stay in the safe room on the top floor of Stark Tower. Don't go anywhere! Wait for my message!"

The gold-and-red armor instantly flew in from the direction of the villa garage, separating and assembling in midair before fitting itself precisely over Tony's body! The faceplate closed, and the engines blasted out dazzling blue flames!

"Happy! Guard the house!" Tony's voice came through the armor, filled with resolute fighting spirit. The next second, he became a gold-and-red meteor streaking north toward where Rhodey was in danger!

The terrace fell quiet again. Only Happy remained, gripping the vacuum handle nervously, along with Pepper's worried holographic image and the distant roar of machinery from the construction site, working hard to repair last night's wounds.

The sunlight was still warm, but the air was already filled with the scent of approaching gunpowder. Killian's madness and the flames of the Extremis Virus were silently spreading like shadows. And Sun's Son had quietly stepped into this conflict among mortals.