The four super soldiers stood expressionless, their cold gazes resembling those of reptiles, locking onto their targets.
Tony felt as if he were being stared down by four cobras—slimy scales, hissing tongues. The thought sent a shiver through him inside the armor.
"Don't look at me like that. I don't have your girlfriends on my list—or your... mothers?"
*Bang! Bang!*
The response came in the form of two heavy punches.
The four super soldiers split into pairs, charging at Tony and Blake. Blake, curious to see how he measured up against the super soldiers, engaged two of them with only half of his full strength, exchanging blows as they fought.
Tony, however, after his smart remark, took the brunt of two punches, forcing him back several steps. His thrusters flared as he prepared to face off against the two super soldiers head-on.
Blake shouted from the side, "Go after Vanko! Leave them to me!"
Tony, hearing Blake, flicked his armor's arms and accelerated, angling upwards before zooming inside.
Just as the two super soldiers were about to pursue him, Blake took two hits to his back and grabbed the waistband of both soldiers in front of him.
"Come back here!"
With a powerful motion, he slammed them into the ground and continued fighting with the others.
Tony, meanwhile, sped past them and down a corridor. As he reached the door at the end, the lone female super soldier casually stepped out, closing the door behind her. She tauntingly beckoned Tony with a crook of her finger.
This was no time for Tony to be chivalrous. He raised his hand and fired a laser blast at her. The female soldier dodged it, but the blast left a gaping hole in the door behind her.
"Ivan Vanko!" Tony's voice dripped with certainty.
Ivan Vanko looked up, giving Tony a knowing smile before continuing to type furiously on his keyboard.
In the hall outside, one by one, the eyes of Hammer's suits of armor began to glow white.
Tony had no interest in fighting the woman. He prepared to dash past her, just as he had before, to grab Vanko. However, the corridor was too low and narrow, barely enough for two or three people to pass side by side.
As Tony accelerated, the female super soldier leaped up, using the wall as leverage, and grabbed hold of Tony's armored legs. Using the momentum of his still-weak thrusters, she slammed him hard into the ground with a shout.
*Boom!*
Tony's armor crashed down, but the female super soldier didn't hesitate. She immediately stepped forward and aimed a brutal stomp at Tony's chest.
Tony activated his thrusters, shooting flames from both hands and feet, sliding backward several meters before lifting into the air. Hovering, he said, "Alright, now you've made me mad. But since you're a woman, I'll go easy on your face."
Just as he finished, before he could attack, he heard the sound of whistling air behind him. Tony instinctively turned and saw more than ten hulking suits of armor, each larger than his own, charging toward him at high speed.
Meanwhile, back with Blake, he had been fighting for a while and realized the super soldiers weren't as strong or fast as he had expected. In fact, they seemed slightly weaker than he had been at the beginning of his training.
He wasn't sure if it was due to their incomplete absorption of the serum or because they had been frozen in Siberia for too long, leaving them not fully recovered.
After taking several hits, Blake had gauged their strength and was ready to go all out and finish the fight.
Suddenly, the sound of Gatling gun barrels spinning filled the air.
Blake was quite familiar with this sound; he'd played with such guns before in Mexico. Whether firing or stopping, there's always that brief moment when the gun barrels spin.
Just as his brain processed the noise, his body hadn't yet turned to see what was happening when—
"Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!"
A barrage of bullets rained down in a dense swarm. In an instant, Blake felt every inch of his backside riddled with bullets. Who knew how many guns were firing simultaneously to achieve this effect?
Blake watched as one of the super soldiers next to him had their skin and muscles gradually shredded by the relentless barrage, turning into a bloody mess before collapsing to the ground.
The remaining three super soldiers, standing in front of Blake and his fallen comrade, used them as cover. After enduring the first wave of bullets, they quickly dodged to the sides. Although their bodies were hit and blood splattered, they managed to avoid the full impact of the gunfire.
Blake took a few heavy steps forward, feeling sharp pain in every part of his body not covered by his combat suit. His scalp, in particular, felt as though someone had flicked him in the back of the head with iron fingers countless times, leaving him dazed.
"How many bullets did you fire into my back!?"
Almost as if in response, the Gatling gun on one of the nearby suits of armor sputtered twice more, firing the last two bullets it had directly at the back of Blake's head. His head bobbed forward twice like a chicken pecking at grain.
Fortunately, these suits of armor only had small magazines installed, otherwise, Blake would have been riddled with bullets for two full minutes non-stop.
"Are you done? Now it's my turn!"
Hearing the sound of the Gatling gun barrels spinning empty, Blake whipped around. Behind him, at least a dozen suits of armor had stepped forward from where they had been standing against the wall, forming a row. They were undoubtedly the ones who had fired at him.
As Blake turned, the ten suits of armor simultaneously took a step back, while another dozen moved forward, their Gatling guns slowly starting to spin again.
"Still coming at me? Let's see who's faster!"
With a powerful kick from his left leg, Blake shattered the ground beneath him and launched himself like a cannonball toward the group of armored suits.
Meanwhile, Tony was also dealing with a swarm of suits charging through the narrow corridor. Not only was Tony caught off guard, but the female super soldier was also overwhelmed by the sudden rush of armor.
The two of them were knocked around, completely disoriented by the chaos. Amidst the confusion, Tony saw one suit of armor burst into a room, then shoot straight up, smashing through the ceiling and flying outside.
Another suit followed closely, cradling Ivan Vanko, who held a laptop, as they both flew up through the same hole.
"No!"
Tony yelled, trying to find a way to shake off the suits surrounding him. However, all the suits of armor around him suddenly flashed red from their chest reactors and emitted a piercing alarm sound.
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