The moment he finished speaking.
The two brothers sprang into action, working together to clear out the terrorists remaining in the camp.
On Luca's side, it was a one-man show of overwhelming superiority.
He floated in midair, moving at incredible speed.
Instead of using wide-area energy blasts, he fired repeatedly with both hands, fingertip-sized blue beams harvesting enemy lives.
Some enemies tried to hide behind rocks or jeeps, only to be pierced straight through along with their cover.
"Ten! I've taken out ten!" Luca called out from the sky.
Tony's side was pure, violent spectacle.
He charged straight into the crowd with heavy strides, heedless of everything.
Bullets clanged against him.
He strode up to an enemy and swung one massive arm, smashing the man more than ten meters away.
Then flames erupted from both arms, turning every enemy who tried to surround him into a burning torch.
"Twelve! I'm at twelve! You're too slow, Luca! Are you flying so high you've run out of oxygen?" Tony shouted back as he swung his iron fists.
"You're padding your numbers! I saw a few of them run away in fright and fall to their deaths. How do those count as kills? I'm already at fifteen!" Luca exposed him without mercy.
The two of them cut down enemies like grass while trading jabs.
A few short minutes later.
The camp fell quiet.
Burning and ruined tents were everywhere.
Other than the two brothers, not a single terrorist could be seen standing.
Black smoke was also rising from Tony's armor.
The flamethrower's fuel was completely exhausted, and several of the suit's joints had jammed, producing a grating screech whenever he walked.
Luca flew over, but didn't land.
He deliberately stopped in midair a meter above the ground, just high enough to be eye level with Tony in his towering armor.
As if he wanted to crane his neck to talk to his arrogant older brother.
"I won. You were the slowest." Luca folded his arms and looked at Tony smugly.
"Two more ran into a ravine to the west. You missed them."
Tony was someone who absolutely refused to admit defeat.
He opened his faceplate and came up with a high-sounding excuse.
"That's where you're wrong."
"I slowed down because I had to turn back and check that Yinsen was safe. If not for that, I'd have left you in the dust ages ago. I won. Get ready to give up drinking for a month."
Luca rolled his eyes.
"Tony, your skin is thicker than that layer of scrap metal."
Neither would back down as they glared at each other. Then they both burst out laughing.
Tony gazed at his younger brother, who was right in front of him, his eyes full of curiosity and inquiry.
"So, do you have time to tell me now? What exactly happened after they took you away? How did you end up like this? You can fly and fire those blue... energy blasts?"
Tony fired off questions in rapid succession.
Luca hated showing weakness in front of others more than anything.
He would never tell Tony what he had been through.
So he put on a brave front.
"That's the beauty of biology, big brother."
"You spent every day hammering iron in a cave, while I became the base's chief executive officer."
"I bet you didn't know those guys hollowed out the mountain and built a very luxurious high-tech laboratory."
"I studied Dad's old super-soldier research there and made a few improvements while I was at it, turning it into a serum that could only be injected into me."
Luca began explaining his plan to save himself to Tony.
"I injected the serum into my body, then deliberately pretended the experiment had failed. That idiot leader had me taken to the edge of a cliff to be shot. Then I was exposed to sunlight. Sunlight is the key to activating the genes. It's that simple."
Luca spread his hands as though he were talking about something trivial.
"Well? Wasn't that plan a lot smarter than spending every day in the dark hammering sheet metal and smelling sweat?"
Tony listened quietly to Luca's account.
But he wasn't stupid.
Though Luca spoke lightly of it, Tony could guess.
Over those two months, Luca must have faced dangerous life-and-death trials.
If one step of the plan had gone wrong, Luca would be a corpse at the bottom of the cliff now.
Tony suddenly took two steps forward.
He reached out with his heavy, massive arms and pulled Luca into an embrace.
The armor made Tony's movements very clumsy.
The embrace looked quite comical.
An Iron Man trailing black smoke, hugging a human in a white lab coat.
Luca had been about to continue talking, but the sudden interruption left him stunned for a moment.
But he didn't struggle.
"I'm just glad you're okay."
Tony's voice was a little hoarse, no longer flippant.
"Your plan to save yourself... was good. Not as perfect as my armor, but at least you're out."
Hearing that.
Luca felt a surge of emotion.
He and Tony were each other's closest family.
And the bond of relying on each other was something no one could replace.
Luca patted the back of the armor and chuckled.
"Of course. I'm a Stark. How could something this small possibly kill me?"
Tony released him and smiled too.
"That's right. We're Starks."
Just as the brothers were enjoying this rare moment of warmth.
A somewhat awkward voice came from the pile of rocks behind them.
"All right, Mr. Starks. Please forgive me for interrupting your brotherly bonding. But shouldn't we get out of here before we celebrate?"
The two looked back.
It was Yinsen.
Only after the gunfire and explosions outside had stopped did he cautiously emerge from behind cover.
Seeing that Yinsen was safe, Tony immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
Though he didn't say it, he was actually very grateful to the doctor who had saved his life.
Yinsen walked up to them and greeted Luca, traces of shock still in his eyes.
"Long time no see, Luca. It looks like you don't need rescuing anymore. You're more dangerous than anyone else here now."
Luca descended from the air and shook Yinsen's hand.
"Long time no see, Yinsen. Thank you for taking care of this ill-tempered little mustache in the cave. Once we're back in New York, I'll arrange the best medical laboratory for you."
"Damn it, who are you calling a little mustache?" Tony immediately shot back.
Yinsen smiled, then his expression turned serious.
"Thank you. But we have to leave immediately and find help. After all the commotion we just made, we'll be in trouble if people from their other bases come running."
Tony agreed wholeheartedly and began to complain, tapping his iron shell.
"Yinsen's right. Let's get out of this hellhole. My power's almost gone, it's stuffy and hot in here, and my clothes are soaked through. It's like a steamer. I can't wait to eat a cheeseburger."
Hearing that the two were ready to leave.
Luca nodded in agreement.
But he suddenly turned and looked deep into the mountain, toward the base inside that he had just escaped from.
"We do need to leave. But before that, there's one more thing we haven't done."
Tony paused and asked in confusion.
"What? Did you leave a souvenir in there?"
Luca's gaze turned ice-cold.
"I'm going into the base in the mountain to deal with the rest of those guys. Most importantly..."
Luca paused and turned to Tony.
"Tony, our kidnapping was definitely no accident."
"They knew our movements ahead of time. They even knew where we were going to demonstrate the weapons."
"I'm going to check their database and see if I can find out who ordered our kidnapping. Whoever it is, we absolutely can't let them get away with it."
Hearing that.
Tony dropped his carefree manner, and his expression turned serious.
Yes.
If they couldn't identify the mastermind, they would still be in danger even after returning to New York.
"You're right." Tony's muffled voice came from behind his faceplate.
"We do need to find those guys. The Stark Family doesn't have a habit of taking a loss lying down."