Chapter 126: The Battle of New York Ends
"Is that a nuclear missile? Cool! I've never seen one before," Peter said, looking up.
"It will be even cooler if it explodes," Rhodey replied.
Silas leaned against the wall, watching Tony carrying the missile. He actually wanted to point out that the Shadowkhan could have been ordered to fly the missile into the wormhole using jetpacks. Even if the Shadowkhan died, they could be resurrected, and there was no "good magic" in this world to counter them.
"J.A.R.V.I.S., try to contact Pepper for me," Tony gritted his teeth. The energy meter in the lower left corner showed critically low power. There was a high chance that once his energy was depleted, he wouldn't be able to return.
"Contacting Ms. Potts..." J.A.R.V.I.S. dialed the call.
Beep beep~ Beep beep~
"Hello, Tony?" Pepper answered the phone.
"Hi~ How are you feeling?" The words Tony intended to say changed the moment they left his mouth. He didn't want Pepper to worry.
"Feeling? Do you mean as CEO? It's really tiring." Pepper was clearly unaware of Tony's predicament.
"Is that so? What are you planning to eat for lunch?" Tony's voice became slightly rushed as he neared the wormhole.
"Wait, Tony! Are you trying to tell me something?" Pepper noticed Tony's strange behavior. Whenever Tony had something serious to tell her, he always liked to ramble about trivial things.
Tony reached the outer atmosphere and quickly opened the Avengers' channel, shouting, "Now! Close the wormhole!"
Earth
Natasha, holding the Scepter, gritted her teeth and plunged it into the Tesseract. Boom! The Mind Stone inside the Scepter disrupted the Tesseract's energy, causing it to destabilize. The beam of light emitted by the Tesseract slowly vanished, and the wormhole in the sky, deprived of the Tesseract's energy supply, began to close.
Tony saw the Chitauri fleet, let go of the nuclear missile, and was about to say something, but his suit's energy ran out. The call with Pepper was cut off, and the lights in the Iron Man mask's eyes dimmed, plunging into darkness.
Vaguely, Tony saw his father, Howard Stark. "Hi~"
Tony's consciousness began to drift into sleep. Suddenly, a green light shot out, tied around Tony's waist, and pulled him back instantly. This green light was a magic rope, which had been magically modified to possess unlimited extension capability. The other end was held by Little Black.
Tony was yanked out just as the wormhole closed. Earth's gravity returned to pull him down, and Tony fell straight toward the ground.
Peter shot a web, leaped up, caught Tony mid-air, and gently placed him on the ground. Peter tapped Tony's mask. "Hey! Mr. Stark, how are you feeling?!"
Bang! Bang!
The Hulk, holding Barton and Natasha in his hands and carrying Steve on his back, leaped down. Thor and Rhodey followed closely. Everyone gathered around Tony, surrounding him.
"Mr. Stark, he..." Peter said, quite saddened.
"Hmm..." The Hulk silently looked at Tony.
Steve placed a hand on Peter's shoulder. "In war, some heroes must be sacrificed."
"Oh! Wait a minute!" Thor seemed to remember something and extended his hand.
"Agh!" A scream came from afar. Bang! Bang! Bang! Mjolnir, along with Loki attached to it, came flying to the spot, having traversed many obstacles along the way.
It turned out that Thor, afraid Loki would be defenseless and harassed by the Chitauri army, had bound Mjolnir to one of Loki's hands. This prevented Loki from escaping while giving him some ability to fight back.
"I hate this," Loki said, covered in dust. He looked utterly disheveled and filthy.
"My apologies." Thor untied the hammer from Loki's hand, handed Loki over to Steve, and then crouched down beside Tony. Thor looked at Tony's chest, and with the hammer crackling with electricity, he gently tapped Tony's chest.
"Ha-hoo!" Tony instantly opened his eyes, taking a deep breath. His chest rose and fell as he looked around. "Is it time for barbecue?"
"Haha! I knew it!" Thor, seeing Tony wake up, looked like a child, raising his hands high as if asking for praise.
"How did I lose to this idiot..." Loki turned his face away. He couldn't figure out where he had failed.
Everyone smiled when they saw Tony wake up. They were comrades who had fought side-by-side, and no one wanted the other to die.
"Mr. Stark!" Peter hugged Tony excitedly.
Tony, confused, hugged Peter back and said, "There's no need to be so dramatic about barbecue."
"He's just thinking that if you died, no one would buy us barbecue," Rhodey interjected from the side.
"I thought I'd have to find a new boss," Natasha said, smiling and bracing her waist.
"No, you were fired a long time ago, Agent Romanoff," Tony teased, laughing.
"Roar~ Roar!" The Hulk enthusiastically thumped his chest.
"Alright, big guy, you definitely get your share," Tony promised.
"Time to get up," Steve offered his hand.
Tony took Steve's hand and stood up, shaking his head. "I heard there's an Arabian restaurant with good food. Let's go there."
"Sounds great," Steve said, putting his shield on his back.
Barton put away his bow. "Then let's go."
"Hey! Wait a minute!" Tony suddenly called out to Silas and Little Black, who were preparing to leave.
Silas and Little Black turned around, looking at Tony with confusion.
"Aren't you two joining us for dinner?" Tony had learned from his exchange with Natasha that Silas and Little Black were the ones who saved him.
Little Black and Silas looked at each other and nodded in agreement. Silas wanted to confirm whether the restaurant was truly bad, and Little Black could eat food.
Arabian Restaurant
"Meow!" A cat, enclosed in a green cat carrier backpack, angrily glared at the Avengers. "Are you going to eat some, Loki?" Thor said, smiling as he cut a slice of grilled meat and dangled it in front of Loki.
This cat was Loki. While waiting for the food, Silas had quietly absorbed the transformation power of the Monkey Talisman. He then turned the constantly disruptive Loki into a cat, preventing S.H.I.E.L.D. from taking him away. Loki was desperate when he was turned into a cat. He could change back, but given the divine power within him, it would take three days to expel the Monkey Talisman's transformation effect. This was a new discovery for Silas: as long as the transformed target possessed a power similar to divinity, they could slowly expel the Monkey Talisman's transformation power. The time required depended on the individual's strength.
"Hmm... this barbecue is certainly unique," Thor took a bite while smiling, but then his expression instantly turned serious.
The others had similar reactions. The taste was apparently not as good as they had imagined. Tony, in particular, looked down awkwardly, as it had been his suggestion to eat at this restaurant.
"This barbecue tastes like crap—though I've never eaten crap, I bet it tastes worse than crap," Rhodey said, spitting out a piece of the grilled meat.
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