The sudden turn of events left all the spectators completely baffled.
While the audience was clueless, Tony saw everything clearly.
That's because Blake was standing on the rooftop, waving at Tony with half a PVC pipe he had somehow ripped off from an unknown ventilation shaft.
Tony had put so much effort into creating a portable suit of armor, only for this guy to end up saving him instead.
But then again, without the armor, Tony knew he wasn't much of a fighter.
With a helpless expression, Tony sat beside the wreckage of the race car, gasping for breath.
"Boom!"
The ground beside him shattered as Blake leaped down from the rooftop, landing right next to Tony.
"Wow!!!!"
The crowd on both sides of the track erupted in cheers.
Many of the spectators were fans of the Tony-Blake duo, and seeing them together again caused them to scream in excitement.
"Get up already. There are a lot of people up there calling your name. Don't tell me you wet your pants from fear? By the way, I was afraid I might miss, so I ripped out quite a few PVC pipes from the rooftop. I'm not paying for those."
Blake extended his right hand to Tony.
Just as he helped Tony up from the ground, a screeching sound of brakes filled the air.
Happy pulled up in the car, with Pepper in tow, and they arrived next to Tony.
Seeing Blake standing there and Tony seemingly unharmed, both of them let out a sigh of relief.
"You might want to start taking a shower with this next time, boss!"
Happy tossed the Mark 5 suitcase next to Tony.
"I'll seriously consider it. I can't let this guy steal the spotlight every time, can I? What a shame for my first racing career!"
Tony picked up the suitcase and glanced toward the direction where Ivan Vanko had passed out.
The appearance of another miniature Arc Reactor gave Tony a sense of crisis, and he also found it incredibly unbelievable.
He was confident that his technology was uncrackable, at least not within the next few years.
So he was very eager to see how that reactor differed from his own.
But before he could take a closer look, Ivan Vanko, who had been unconscious, suddenly staggered to his feet.
With a whip, he slashed at them, slicing the car Happy had driven in half.
The whip perfectly split the vehicle, separating Pepper in the back seat from Happy in the front.
"Ahhhhh!!!!"
Pepper let out an ear-piercing scream.
Tony, however, was thrilled.
"Finally, it's my turn. You protect them; I'll handle him! Next time, try to grab an iron pipe instead."
Blake shrugged. He had been in a bit of a hurry earlier, and finding something suitable had taken a while. It wasn't easy to spot something like a PVC pipe from such a distance, and who would have guessed that guy would wake up so quickly after being knocked out? What kind of constitution was that?
After giving those instructions, Tony placed the Mark 5 suitcase on the ground, stepped on it to trigger the mechanism, and pulled up on the handles.
The suit's main body automatically attached to his body, with other parts quickly extending and locking into place, covering him entirely.
As Tony completed his transformation in style, Happy and Pepper had already gotten out of the car, with Blake shielding them behind him.
A white light flashed inside Tony's helmet as the suit fully activated.
He extended a foot and kicked the half-destroyed car out of the way.
By this point, Ivan Vanko was no longer much of a threat. The earlier attack was purely instinctive.
In reality, he was severely disoriented, struggling to focus his vision, and was swaying on the spot, trying to maintain his balance.
Tony was just about to fire his laser cannon at the enemy when suddenly, someone climbed up the wire fence behind Ivan Vanko.
The person held a brick that they had somehow found and pried loose.
Leaping up, they grabbed the top of the fence with one hand, pushed off forcefully with their legs, and vaulted over the more than two-meter-high fence. As they fell, they swung their right hand, smashing the brick squarely on top of Ivan Vanko's head.
The person was strong, and combined with the force of falling from over two meters high, the brick shattered into pieces on Vanko's head.
Already unsteady on his feet, Ivan Vanko collapsed to the ground with a loud thud.
"I didn't know you were already here. I ran all this way, and it was worth it. When you defeat an enemy, you must make sure they're completely incapacitated, or else you might regret it."
"Hello, Tin Man, I'm Thor, a friend of Blake's. You don't need to thank me!"
The one who had appeared was indeed Thor, who had initially rushed down to help. After knocking out Ivan Vanko, he gave a brief lecture and introduced himself.
Tony's raised hand, with the laser cannon ready to fire, suddenly dimmed.
"I wasn't planning on thanking you. I was just wondering why I bothered putting on the armor in the first place," Tony said, looking up at the sky with a wistful expression.
...
By the time the police arrived, Ivan Vanko was still unconscious, and the Arc Reactor on his chest had been crushed into pieces by Tony.
The race had completely stopped, and a large crowd of reporters swarmed onto the track.
They all pointed their cameras at Blake and Tony.
"It's great to see you two together again, and you even defeated a criminal using high-tech weapons. Would you mind striking a peace sign so we can take a truly iconic photo for tomorrow's magazine cover?"
The fastest reporter, who had nearly reached them before speaking, quickly made her request.
This female reporter was a fan of the Tony-Blake duo. Last time, the headline photo was actually a composite of the two taken separately. If she could get a picture of them together this time, the magazine's sales would skyrocket, and the thought of it filled her with excitement.
The overly excited reporter didn't notice the expressions on the two men's faces. She eagerly pulled out a small camera, wanting to capture her own personal shot in addition to the ones the staff would take.
Without asking for Blake and Tony's permission, she started counting down, camera aimed at them.
"Peace sign, please! Thanks! Okay, 1! 2! 3! Cheese!"
In response, her camera captured two middle fingers pointed straight at the sky, accompanied by both of them simultaneously shouting.
"Bitch!"
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