"Look here!"
Luca pointed at the screen. Tony recognized the person instantly.
"That's the Spot guy you caught before. He's been released too?"
"But where are the spots on his body?"
As Tony voiced his question, JARVIS timely switched the feed to another scene.
On an inconspicuous street next to the Baymax factory...
A black circular hole, about 30 to 40 meters in diameter, was devouring everything around it.
Fleeing vehicles, crumbling buildings, even the ground itself were constantly "falling" into this black hole.
And as this 2D black hole swallowed objects, it was continuously expanding.
"This..."
Tony's brain spun fast. He looked at Luca incredulously.
"You're not suggesting Cap and the others have been swallowed by The Spot?"
Just as Tony said this, a familiar shield flew out of the black hole in the middle of the street.
CLANG.
It hit a falling utility pole by the roadside, then bounced back into the black hole at a bizarre angle.
Tony and Luca looked at each other.
Well, no need to guess anymore. Ten to one, the rest of the Avengers were inside that black hole.
However, neither knew what kind of enemy Steve and the others were facing inside, or why they couldn't get out.
"We have to go back and save them immediately!"
Tony looked at Luca seriously.
But Luca dismissed his concern.
"Wait, you don't even have a suit. What use are you going back?"
Tony's seaside mansion had been destroyed by missiles. Most of his suits were buried under rubble.
And Hydra's missiles were way more powerful than the helicopter missiles Killian used in Iron Man 3. Even the basement was collapsed. It wasn't just a matter of digging them out; who knew how many suits survived intact?
Luca wanted to go back personally because seeing The Spot gave him an idea for rapid multi-location rescue.
Tony going back with him, exposed to the wind, would just be a liability. He should stay here for logistical support.
But just as Luca finished speaking, the sound of jet thrusters came from outside the broken cabin.
Everyone looked out and saw a red-and-gold rectangular "rocket" landing slowly.
The "rocket" shell unfolded rapidly, ejecting various parts that assembled together.
In the blink of an eye, a 5-6 meter tall Anti-Boxer Armor (Veronica) stood before them.
Tony spread his hands, stood up, and walked toward the hole, teasing Luca.
"My ride is here. What about you, kid? Want me to carry you back to New York?"
Actually, Tony had called Veronica the moment he knew the plane was under attack. But his airdrop tech wasn't mature yet—not in accuracy, but in descent speed.
That's why Veronica only arrived now.
But that didn't stop Tony from showing off in front of Luca.
"..."
"Just wait. I'll get a satellite drop system too!"
Of course, that was just talk. Luca didn't lack portable deployment methods; Hoi-Poi Capsules could handle everything.
What Luca lacked was a personal transport vehicle.
So while he said "satellite drop," he was actually thinking about building a convenient VTOL vehicle to store in a capsule.
He had been commanding robots from the rear for so long that he neglected this issue.
Seeing Tony step onto a painted hover platform and enter the Veronica armor comfortably, Luca gave some instructions to Green Bull and the others, then sullenly let Erha pick him up and fly into the sky.
However, once Erha carried Luca out of sight into the air...
Under Tony's astonished gaze, Luca pulled out the [Dehydration Gun], shot himself in the forehead, and turned himself into a cube.
Erha deftly caught the energy cube and the gun, stored them in a secret compartment, waved at the dumbfounded Tony, and flew toward New York at top speed.
Ten minutes later.
For Luca, it was just a blink of an eye.
When he opened his eyes again, he was standing on a New York street. It felt like instant teleportation.
Erha stood beside him. On the other side was Tony in the Veronica armor, looking incredulous.
Luca gave Tony a "look at you, you country bumpkin" expression, then took out another capsule and threw it on the ground.
POOF~
White smoke exploded. The 12-meter-tall [Boxer Mech] appeared.
Luca leaped into the open cockpit in a few steps. Tony was still muttering to himself.
"So, spatial compression can be stacked? Doesn't repeated compression cause structural instability and collapse? Or is it not compression, but beacon transfer..."
"Hey, Tony, stop mumbling! Where is The Spot?"
Inside the Boxer Mech, Luca connected to JARVIS's comm channel and interrupted Tony.
Tony stopped obsessing over the physics and replied quickly.
"He's gone. I had JARVIS track him on the way, but his teleportation is too convenient. We lost him on the surveillance just as we landed."
"But the black hole swallowing the street is still there and expanding. I sent two of Veronica's head modules inside to scout."
"However, the space inside the black hole is massive and full of debris. We haven't found Cap and the others yet."
Tony transferred the feed from inside the black hole to Luca.
As Tony said, it looked like an endless white void. Because it was swallowing buildings, it had become a gigantic labyrinth of ruins, filled with dust and debris falling from the "sky."
Relying on two Veronica spare heads (which could fly and had cameras) to map the entire space quickly was impossible.
Seeing this, Luca smiled slightly~
He swiped a few times on his virtual screen.
Next moment.
Shoulder pods on the [Boxer Mech] opened. Dozens of white, briefcase-like cubes were ejected into the air.
In mid-air, the cubes deployed three pairs of hover wings simultaneously. With a buzzing sound, dozens of briefcase-sized drones formed a formation and flew neatly into the black hole.
"Uh-huh~ With this, we should have enough scout units, right?"