he jet of light appeared as one large and one small, resembling a big fish chasing a small fish in the dark night. "Hey! Mr. Stark, what a coincidence," Merlin said, noticing the two figures in the distance. They also noticed the approaching Crazy Flame fighter. Merlin casually adjusted the control handle, causing the fighter, which had been parallel to the ground, to pivot until it was perpendicular. Like a nimble firebird, it spiraled around, trailing flames as it followed the duo's spiral route.
"Merlin?" Stark was a bit surprised upon hearing the familiar voice.
"Yeah, it's me. I'm testing out the new fighter today. By the way, your reactor is really handy. One of these days, I'll build my own set of mechas." Merlin added with a playful jab, "Who's that big iron shell behind you? It looks just like the one you wore in the cave, only bigger, fatter, and uglier. It could go toe-to-toe with the Hulk from that big fight a while back."
Stark, watching Merlin's fighter twirl around them like a butterfly and hearing his sarcastic remarks, couldn't help but be a bit speechless. "Alright, Merlin, stop going up. If you keep this up, you'll freeze," Stark quickly said, realizing the danger. "I might need you to wait below to pick me up—I'm running out of power."
"OK!" Merlin responded. He saw the icing sensor start to flash warnings, so he immediately slowed the fighter. High-altitude icing could be fatal to machinery.
Seeing that Merlin's fighter didn't attack but merely circled around them before retreating, Obadiah in the Iron Monger suit also breathed a sigh of relief. The jamming foil countermeasure system on Merlin's fighter had prevented Obadiah from locking on for a missile launch. As Merlin's fighter retreated, Obadiah prepared to retract the missile launcher mounted on his shoulder. However, at that moment, a layer of frost suddenly appeared on the surface of his metal suit, and the missile launcher that was about to retract got stuck halfway.
"Crack! Click!..." The sound of freezing spread rapidly, like an eerie melody. Within seconds, the surface of the Iron Monger's massive body was covered in a layer of ice crystals, and the armor's drive system ceased functioning due to the low temperatures. "Woo..." Without power, the Iron Monger's hulking form groaned and then plummeted straight to the ground like a giant metal bucket.
Iron Man, who had also ascended to a high altitude, managed to avoid surface freezing, but the arc reactor in his chest had been drained. The jets in his feet and palms, positioned as if in a ballet pose, flickered twice before giving out, sending him falling downward.
"Phew!" Merlin's fighter swooped in through the dark night sky, positioning itself beneath Stark. Just as the two were about to make contact, Stark quickly used his backup power to fire a brief burst of energy, pausing mid-air for a moment before landing smoothly on the front of the fighter.
"OK, you came at just the right time, or I would've been the headliner in NY City tomorrow," Stark said, giving an "OK" gesture to Merlin through the glass canopy of the cockpit.
"To be honest, I kinda wanted to see that," Merlin joked with a smile before piloting the fighter in the direction where the Iron Monger had fallen.
"What are you going to do?" Stark clung to the surface of the cockpit and asked, puzzled.
"Just the final hit—John taught me," Merlin replied.
"...You shouldn't hang out with those assassins," Stark muttered, realizing who Merlin was referring to. He adjusted his position, pressing against the nose of the plane as it began its dive. "The guy inside that armor is Obadiah. He's the one who was secretly selling arms through Stark Industries."
Stark only needed to say a few words, as the situation was becoming all too clear.
"A bloody plot," Merlin remarked, chasing after the falling Iron Monger in a steep dive. Once the radar locked onto the target, Merlin didn't hesitate to press the missile launch button.
"You bastard, you're really going to shoot me!" Obadiah's fate was sealed as missiles launched in quick succession, their tail fins cutting through the air as they homed in on the falling Iron Monger.
"Boom boom boom!!!" Blazing fireballs erupted against the dark night sky, lighting up Stark and the fighter in shades of red.
"Hey, hey, hey...what are you doing?" Stark suddenly shouted as a powerful force pushed against his back. The next moment, a fireball appeared directly in front of him. The fighter had accelerated and was heading straight into the heart of the explosion.
"Whoops!" The roaring flames engulfed both the fighter and Stark, but within seconds, the aircraft burst through the fireball like a phoenix rising from the ashes, trailing smoke as it soared back into the night sky.
"Oh my God! You're crazy!" Stark exclaimed as soon as he landed. He flipped open his mask, glaring at Merlin with an annoyed expression. "You actually pushed me into the fire!"
"I went through it too, didn't I?" Merlin replied nonchalantly as he opened the hatch. "Didn't you feel that adrenaline rush when you flew through the flames?"
"No, I felt like I was walking through a burning hell," Stark retorted.
Just then, flaming debris clattered around them, making sharp, metallic sounds as they hit the ground.
"Well... let's forget about cremation," Merlin shrugged. Spotting Happy, Pepper, and the others heading their way, he closed the hatch again. "I'm heading out. I haven't finished testing the fighter plane today."
Without waiting for Stark's response, Merlin took off, disappearing into the night sky.
"Oh my God, Tony, it's so good to see you're okay," Pepper said as she rushed over, glancing briefly at where Merlin's fighter had disappeared before turning her full attention to Stark.
"I'm fine," Stark reassured her. "I just really want a burger."
"Boss, I've got it," Happy chimed in, understanding immediately, and hurried off to make it happen. With that, Stark and Pepper were left alone, sharing a passionate kiss amid the ruined street.
Later, Merlin completed a thrilling extreme test in the tunnel before returning to Merlin Aviation. Once home, he pulled out his notebook and, after checking the time, began to ponder. "Little mute, send the location of the fire source to Optimus Prime and the others," he instructed.
"...And send the location of the frozen Megatron to Starscream," he added.
"Editing information... Message sent," the AI responded.
"How's Professor Connors' progress?" Merlin inquired, shifting his focus to another matter.
The installation of the Canary device is complete, and operations are expected to begin tomorrow night," the AI, Little Mute, reported, displaying the data on the screen.
"Great, we'll just wait until tomorrow... time to take a day off," Merlin said, sending a quick email to his school teacher to excuse himself for the day.
He then turned his attention to recent news, browsing through the updates. "Guys, check this out—it's the Tyrant MK2. Let's put it through a test."
Other posts caught his eye as well: "Recruiting a fleet of Tanks..." and "Finally, I managed to grab the super hot one! Time to show it off...boom!"
Merlin simply shook his head with a smirk as he continued scrolling. "Crazy times," he muttered to himself.
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