"Red sheet metal?"
Tony raised his hands, aiming his palm cannons at the other side of the ruins.
"I have to correct you, this is called a red and gold color scheme. The pigments are very expensive; it's something a poor wretch like you in cheap, tight-fitting clothes wouldn't understand."
Speedster Johnny tilted his head.
"You're quite stubborn."
He flexed his wrist, and tiny arcs of electricity appeared on the surface of his red suit.
"I've seen you before, flying around in a metal shell, thinking you could save the world. There's a version of you in every universe, and then you all fall down in front of me."
Tony paused for half a second.
" JARVIS, was he just saying that he beat up a parallel universe version of me?"
"Based on semantic analysis, sir, the probability is ninety-three percent."
"Very good."
Tony gave a cold laugh.
"Let him see today the difference between the after-sales service of a genuine product and the experience of a pirated one."
The red light vanished as soon as the words were spoken.
There were no probing actions or foreplay.
Speedster Johnny transformed into a red blur, instantly covering dozens of meters, his fist carrying terrifying kinetic energy as it slammed into the chest of the red-gold armored warrior.
boom!
The air in the command room suddenly exploded.
The Shockwave ripped up rubble from the ground, and several damaged control consoles nearby overturned instantly. An agent slumped against a wall in the distance, his ears ringing from the shock.
Tony didn't fly backwards.
The crimson-gold armor slid back only half a meter before the thrusters on its feet activated in reverse, pinning him firmly to the ground.
Speedster Johnny's smile froze.
His fist was still pressed against the chest of his armor.
The next second, a terrifying recoil force traveled back up my arm.
My entire right arm went numb instantly.
From knuckles to shoulders, it felt like being hammered, with bones and muscles protesting simultaneously.
What is that?
Speedster Johnny's expression changed, and he immediately wanted to retreat.
Tony glanced down at his chest.
There were no scratches on the outer layer of the armor, not even a scratch on the paint.
JARVIS, chest armor status.
"The outer Vibranium composite structure is intact, and the energy buffer layer can withstand 2.7% of the impact."
Tony looked up.
That's it?
Speedster Johnny's expression turned completely cold.
That punch he just threw was enough to pierce an armored vehicle through the middle.
This is how he dealt with those Iron Man in previous universes.
First, bypass the fire lock-on, then punch through the chest reactor.
Simple, direct, and also very entertaining.
This time, however, the other party seemed like a wall that would spew veiled insults.
And it's the really hard kind.
Tony's shoulder armor opened at the same time.
Ring-shaped sound wave generators protruded from various parts of the armor, and the light from the chest reactor suddenly intensified.
"Activate the full-coverage ultrasonic cannon."
"Receive."
An invisible sound wave erupted from around the armor.
This is not a one-way attack.
Instead, it spreads in a spherical pattern without any blind spots, specifically designed to deal with high-speed, close-range targets. The metal fragments in the ruins began to vibrate violently, and shards of glass exploded into powder in mid-air.
Speedster Johnny.
The red afterimage forcefully changed direction amidst the sound waves, each step landing in a gap where the spreading waves had not yet fully closed.
In less than a hundredth of a second, he had already changed direction dozens of times.
The last sound wave grazed his shoulder, and a thin crack instantly appeared on the surface of his suit.
Speedster Johnny dashed out of the edge of the kill zone and stopped behind the overturned control panel.
He glanced down at the wound on his shoulder.
In that instant, he stopped laughing.
Something's wrong with this sheet metal.
The armor is ridiculously tough, and the reaction time is ridiculously fast. What's more troublesome is that the enemy clearly knows how to deal with high-speed targets.
If he had been a fraction slower, his body would have been shattered by the sound waves.
On the other hand, Tony stopped joking.
Inside the visor, red warning messages kept popping up one after another.
Target could not be locked.
Target could not be locked.
The target's movement speed exceeds the current tracking threshold.
Tony stared at the screen full of warnings, and his eye twitched slightly.
" JARVIS, tell me this isn't a system glitch."
"No, sir."
"Then calculate the lead time for me."
"Calculating."
And the result?
"Based on the target's current movement speed, we suggest you fire towards the future, approximately one minute in advance."
Tony fell silent.
" JARVIS, I haven't invented a time machine yet."
"I understand, sir, so I'm lowering the recommended standards."
To what extent should it be reduced?
"Pray."
Tony took a deep breath.
He suddenly missed Chen Mo.
Of course not, it's not that I miss that person's mouth!
Instead, I miss the kind of violent solution where, no matter what kind of enemy comes, you can just grab their head and shove it into the ground.
However, this thought only lasted for a second.
Thinking of this, Tony immediately erased it from his mind.
He would never admit that he needed that guy in the fight.
Speedster Johnny bent down again.
The mockery in his eyes had vanished, replaced by ferocity and irritation.
I take back what I just said.
Tony raised his palm cannon.
Which sentence?
"You're a bit harder to kill than those tin cans."
"Thank you, I will have that phrase engraved on the trophy."
The crimson light exploded once more.
This time, Speedster Johnny didn't rush in a straight line, but instead moved at high speed around the entire command center.
The red afterimage flickered back and forth between the walls, ceiling, and floor, making it impossible to discern its true location with the naked eye.
Tony stood still, weapons fully extended from his shoulders, arms, and back.
One palm-sized cannon shot after another was fired.
The white beams tore through the smoke and dust, but each time they only hit afterimages. Large areas of the walls were charred black, the control console was completely destroyed, and the ground was cut into trenches by the energy beams.
Speedster Johnny entered from the side.
Tony fired a counter-attack.
A crimson light swept past the edge of the beam of light, and a kick landed on the side of the armor.
The armor shifted several meters to the side, and miniature missiles were simultaneously launched from its shoulder.
"Cover-up mode."
A dozen or so miniature missiles flew out, trailing plumes of fire.
Boom boom boom boom!
The explosion covered most of the command center.
Amidst the flames, Speedster Johnny burst through the cracks in the explosion, his red suit bearing several scorch marks, but his speed did not noticeably decrease.
Tony used the recoil from the explosion to pull himself away, and the thrusters on his back spewed out blue-white flames.
" JARVIS, create a new file."
"Target code name?"
Tony watched the red afterimage reappear.
"Speedster, hostile, high risk."
"Remark?"
"Remind me when you get back to build a weapon specifically to deal with these kinds of people."
"Specific direction?"
Tony gritted his teeth.
"The more disgusting, the better."
Speedster Johnny couldn't hear the conversation in the mannequin's pocket.
But he could tell that the opponent was adjusting their tactics.
This made him even more irritable.
He hated this feeling.
Despite having the speed advantage, he couldn't finish the fight in one blow. Even though his opponent couldn't catch him, he was as tough as a ghost.
If this drags on any longer, Nite Owl will definitely laugh at him.
Thinking of this, Speedster Johnny's eyes hardened, and the ground beneath his feet shattered instantly.
The crimson light crashed into the crimson-gold armor.
A palm-sized cannon shot lit up in front of me.
The next moment, a blinding white light burst forth from the center of the ruins.
Red afterimages and beams of energy crisscrossed wildly.
Speedster Johnny kept closing in, only to be forced back by Tony's sonic attacks and missiles. Every time Tony tried to lock onto his target, the other would use even more exaggerated changes of direction to shake him off.
Neither of them could gain the upper hand.
The command center was completely reduced to ruins during their fierce battle.