Bruce's eyes widened, gazing unbelievingly at the towering monster before him. Could this possibly be Aisha?!
What on earth had her dad been up to?!!
Bruce was somewhat amazed that he could still have such wild thoughts under these circumstances. But within the few seconds he had been lost in thought, the giant yellow creature had demolished two mechas with a couple of bites, crunching through the metal parts.
Bruce sighed with relief. Thank God for Aisha. Otherwise, there was no way he could have taken on any of those mechas. Judging from the current situation, Stark was definitely out for blood.
However, he soon got a glimpse of Stark's real game plan.
Just as the yellow beast had demolished two mechas, another one, its eyes glowing red, charged at them. It seemed set on executing a suicide attack.
The yellow beast flapped its wings, taking Bruce back into the sky and avoiding the explosion. But as Bruce looked back, he saw numerous dark spots surging on the horizon.
Wait a moment... the horizon?
Bruce gawked at the flat horizon in shock. Clinging onto the claw of the yellow beast, he forced his body to turn 180 degrees for a look at the horizon behind him, only to be taken aback.
Where was San Francisco? Where was the Golden Gate Bridge???
They were in some flatland area, or more like a well-preserved nature reserve, but certainly not a city, nothing like the outskirts of San Francisco.
Where on earth were they?
Seeing another version of himself earlier had made Bruce suspect that the timeline in the mysterious space within the dense fog was jumbled up. Now he was completely certain, they had been transported somewhere else after exiting the fog, a place that seemed light-years away from their entry point.
Aisha, having reverted to her original Parallax form, was also taken aback by the enormous mecha army.
Something wasn't right. Hadn't they simply broken into Stark Group's network and released Stark's backup consciousness? Was this some kind of massive grudge?
Moreover, Aisha released the backup consciousness of the righteous Iron Man. Shouldn't the evil and righteous Iron Men be locked in bloody combat? How could they have so many troops to spare for attacking them?
But when Aisha took a moment to survey their surroundings, she realized, great, they were back on the East Coast.
This place couldn't possibly be the West Coast of America. They had to be in the northeastern part of the states. Aisha glanced rightward. Wasn't this Lake Ontario? How did they end up in Canada???
But such geographical conundrums didn't matter right now. The robot army was going berserk, clearly intent on wreaking havoc and eliminating all living creatures in their path, much like a locust infestation.
Aisha suspected they were simply caught in the crossfire, but she couldn't be sure. Facing such a momentum, fighting back wasn't an option. It was time to run.
As a matter of fact, Aisha, in her Parallax form, could hold out for quite some time. She was even confident about taking the first wave of attack. But it wasn't worth it.
For Iron Man, his mecha army was endless, always ready for replenishment. But the Parallax needed fear as its energy source. Aisha estimated that within a 20-kilometer radius, apart from her and Bruce, there were no living humans to draw energy from.
So in the end, she would certainly be worn out by the relentless mecha army. And if they didn't run now, they wouldn't have a choice anymore when things got out of hand.
Aisha made a decisive move, grabbed Bruce and fled, transforming back into a little girl to conserve energy. They couldn't afford to consider which way to go. Their primary aim was to avoid the areas heavily bombarded, to fly as far and as fast as they could.
While maneuvering in the air, Aisha couldn't help but think that something was off. Even if the White Can had managed to spare some resources to catch them, this wouldn't be the ideal approach.
That evil Stark couldn't possibly know about her abilities. Everything they had achieved so far was something Batman could probably do, and most Batmen didn't have superpowers.
It would have been more effective to lock their car doors with nanotech invasion while they were driving, or just plant a bomb in their car for a surprise attack. This large-scale offensive actually offered them chances to escape and hide.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. Several rockets whizzed past Aisha, who maneuvered smoothly to dodge them, ensuring that Bruce wasn't thrown about too much.
Just then, the mechas whirling in the sky all halted for a moment, turning simultaneously to look in a certain direction.
Aisha didn't have the luxury to wonder why they stopped. She grabbed Bruce by the shoulders and made a break for it. They zipped right through a gap in the crowd of mechas and flew off into the distance.
In the midst of their escape, Bruce glanced back to see all the mechas flying towards a particular direction. If his eyes weren't tricking him, the dense fog rising on the horizon was chilling and ethereal, much like what he had encountered before.
Niagara Falls town, Ontario, Canada, November 11, 9:00 PM.
A car emerged from the thick fog once again, stopping under a streetlight. Coulson got out of the car, glanced around, and found that they had returned to Maple Avenue.
Could the entrance to parallel universe be fixed?
Just as he was pondering this, Coulson looked up and saw a flickering light on the nearby road.
The members of Coulson's team immediately got out of the car and approached the area, illuminating the way with their emergency flashlights. They encountered a group of people standing on the adjacent lawn, with several cars parked on both sides of the highway.
As Coulson switched his flashlight, a man with a big beard wearing a cone hat approached and bellowed, "Hey, are you a rookie? Turn off that flashlight, it'll affect us filming Indian Ghost."
"Who are you? What are you doing here?"
"Are you a cop or a tourist? Regardless, we're ghost experts, here to capture signals of Indian ghosts, and we're going to catch it."
Coulson slightly opened his mouth, reached for the hem of his suit, and folded his hands on his hips, "I won't lie, indeed I'm a tourist, but I'm here precisely because of the recent ghostly rumors associated with Niagara Falls."
"That's good taste," a thin, brown-haired woman walked over, crossing her arms and said, "I'll bet that this ghost is not just a regular one, perhaps it's a tribe of Indians, who were exterminated during a war with European immigrants. Before dying, they turned themselves into a curse using a special ritual."
"Hey Lena, what nonsense are you talking about? It's clearly a group of Indian shepherd ghosts, who got lost in the mountains due to the fog. They brought the fog here to make us feel their suffering from death," responded the bearded, chubby man.
Between Lena and Big Beard, one believed it was ghosts, the other swore it was a curse. Either way, they both agreed that the Indians were to blame.
Coulson rubbed his hands together, making an interested gesture, and took out two cigarettes. He lit both and handed one each to Big Beard and Lena, "Enough of the chat, we're a journalistic team here. Our boss needs some explosive photos, you know what I mean."
"You've found the right people," Lean Lena snapped her fingers, pointing at Coulson, "I will conduct a special ceremony to capture the essence of the curse shortly. Soon, you will see how powerful this curse is..."
Just as she finished speaking, Coulson noticed a hint of blue light appearing at the edge of the skyline. On closer inspection, he realized that it was fog forming under the moonlight.
"Niagara Falls, the falls!" Big Beard shouted from behind them, bustled past, "I'm local, that's the direction of the falls. The ghost has appeared, let's go!!"
They rushed to the lit-up campsite, where Big Beard and two other locals began packing up their gear. Lena gave Coulson an apologetic look, nodded, and then went back to her motorhome to get ready for the journey ahead.
"Should we go on, boss?" May asked, standing behind Coulson. He stared at the fog under the moonlight that appeared as a silver screen, thinking of the living people he had seen in the fog realm before.
Will he come across him there? Will he be a tourist who mistakenly entered like his team? Will the mysterious fog guest appear again?
"What are the odds of encountering supernatural events twice in one hour?" Coulson asked his assistant, but he was also asking himself.
"If you want to go, we will." Simmons tapped the roof of car, "We came here specifically for this. Even if we encounter it twice within an hour, we can collect more data."
"I agree." Fitz handled his device and played with the buttons on it, "We can't rely on the satellite dish style of those paranormal enthusiasts."
Seeing the team's enthusiasm, Coulson didn't hesitate. With a wave of his hand, the four got into the car and headed for their original destination, Niagara Falls.
What they encountered in the fog realm was treated as an accident, a hiccup. Apart from drawing conclusions about time-space distortions, they didn't think much about it.
Soon, they reached the vicinity of the falls – from the Canadian side, one gets a complete view. They followed a small forest path. After a few steps, they could almost see the entire grandeur of the falls.
Niagara was derived from an Indian language "thunder of waters." It was believed the sound echoed thunder, hence, beings who had not seen the waterfall, namely the Indians, didn't understand the source of this loud roaring sound and thought it was the snore of the god of thunder, hence named the place the "thunder's echo."
Coulson had heard about this legend before, so he thought this fog may be truly related to the Indians. Just as he was in thought, he heard loud noises coming from behind.
He turned around to be blinded by the bright car lights and flashlight beams. A dense crowd of hundreds of people were walking towards them.
A large number of paranormal enthusiasts had arrived. It seemed that the fog near Niagara Falls was a great opportunity to capture paranormal photos or videos, so they all charged up with their cameras.
Coulson and his team even got interviewed by a journalist. The journalist almost stuck the camera lens onto Coulson's nose and rapidly fired questions, "Hello, are you a local? Is it the first time you've seen this? Do you really think it's the Indian's trick?"
As Coulson opened his mouth to speak, he saw a tall, thin figure walking uphill on the curvy road.
Coulson pushed the journalist away and rushed towards the figure. As he got closer, he slowed his pace.
The tall figure in a black duster heard footsteps, slowed and turned his head. Underneath the brim of his hat, the pair of light brown eyes appeared even brighter under the moonlight filtering through the leaves.