American comics: Praising the sun, starting from Gotham!

Author Soul Valley personally recommends: I hope you enjoy the story of "American Comics: Praise the Sun Starting from Gotham!"

California.

Night is always accompanied by the sea breeze, but to Tony Stark tonight, it felt like the cold breath of death.

Obadiah Stan, a man Tony considered his mentor, had just taken not only the pizza, but also the Arc Reactor that kept Tony alive.

Without his power source, Iron Man is no stronger than a sickly, immobile man.

His shirt was soaked with cold sweat and clung tightly to his skin.

He struggled with all his might, crawling bit by bit towards the last chance of survival.

He crawled toward the outdated junk that was framed by Little Chili and placed on the table.

three.

Normally, this would just be a fleeting moment of Tony showing off his dance moves, but now it's a trench between life and death.

Tony's vision began to blur, and the lack of oxygen to his brain even caused him to hallucinate.

He thought he heard the glass vibrating, as if someone was knocking on the glass from the outside and greeting him, but he knew that was impossible, since the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooked the sky.

Perhaps it was his heart pounding against his chest, or perhaps it was the knocking of death?

Finally, his trembling fingers touched the edge of the table. With just one more push, he could reclaim his heart.

But that damned bit of strength seemed to be not enough at the last moment.

His hand slipped limply to the ground, where the glass box engraved with Tony Stark's heart gleamed mockingly, seemingly separated from Tony by an entire galaxy.

Just as despair was about to consume this genius's mind, he tried to muster one last bit of strength.

A golden light appeared.

The pure golden light illuminated the scene of death as if it were a sacred temple.

At that moment, Tony truly believed he had seen God.

Or perhaps Death?

He strained to turn his eyes toward the floor-to-ceiling window that served as both a wall and a window.

There was only one luminous man floating in the air, radiating light from his entire body.

Is the archangel like this now?

The man was wearing a trench coat that looked like it was woven from light, and a golden sunflower was incongruously perched on his shoulder.

The man outside the window noticed Tony's dying gaze.

He first straightened his collar and gave a polite smile.

The man simply extended a finger and tapped lightly on the glass.

"Tap, tap."

The next second, the entire floor-to-ceiling window silently disintegrated into a shower of shimmering powder.

The powder didn't even touch the ground before it was vaporized by the high-temperature aura emanating from the man, leaving not a trace.

The night wind swept in, but it couldn't take away the golden glow that suddenly filled the room.

As the light and shadow faded, the golden figure floated into the room, hovering above the table containing the old reactor, less than two meters above Tony Stark's pale face.

He looked at this usually arrogant and domineering tycoon.

Sunflower Ivy stretched out a leaf and made a sarcastic remark.

"This is the metal man you're looking for? Why does he look even less robust than a mimosa plant?"

Xiu En ignored Xiao Hua's complaints. He bent down slightly, his pupils meeting Tony's unfocused gaze.

His tone was as relaxed as if he were asking a neighbor for candy.

"Good evening, Mr. Stark. It seems you're undertaking some kind of special floor-cleaning campaign?"

He pointed to the old reactor that Tony could easily reach with a slight lift of his hand, and flashed a bright smile.

"While it's impolite to disturb others' rest, this window is really an eyesore. Would you like some kind of expensive on-site assistance?"

Shuen picked up the glass ring engraved with "Tony Stark has a heart" as if he were picking up a blueberry cookie.

"To ruin yourself like this for such a piece of junk with only 15% energy output efficiency."

He clicked his tongue and held the reactor, which was flashing a faint blue light, up to his eyes, so close that the magnetic coils inside were reflected in his vision.

Tony lay prone on the floor, his vision shrinking to the size of a pinhead in black and white.

His lungs were malfunctioning, and his heart was counting down the last beat.

But this did not prevent him from sending out his final cry for help.

"Give me……"

Tony forced out a weak breath, his hand, covered in cold sweat, desperately reaching into the air, trying to grasp at that last glimmer of hope.

"For you? Oh, of course."

Xiu En revealed an extremely bright and wicked smile.

Looking at that smile, Tony was now certain that this person was neither an angel nor the Grim Reaper.

Xiu En felt the smell was really Although the energy density is a bit low, it has a unique flavor.

He forcibly suppressed the instinct to throw the thing directly into his mouth, and Xiu En flipped his wrist.

"Snap!"

The reactor was driven directly into the hole in Tony's chest.

In that instant, a wisp of pure, golden energy overflowed from Xiu En's fingertips and forcefully rushed into Tony's already stopped heart ventricle along the metal contacts, acting as a pacemaker a hundred times more powerful than any defibrillator.

"cough--!!"

Take a deep breath.

Tony's ashen face, pale from suffocation, instantly flushed an unnatural red.

He jolted violently on the floor as if electrocuted, then arched his back sharply, gulping in air.

"That's right, breathe, even if the taste isn't great."

The golden voice rang out above Tony's head.

Before this billionaire, who had just escaped death, could fully open his eyes, he felt something being chewed.

Tony struggled to prop himself up, and the magnetic ring on his chest began to operate steadily again, giving him the strength to lift his head.

The scene that caught his eye almost caused his heart, which had just recovered, to stop beating again.

The man was sitting on the table, holding the glass display case that had just been used to house the reactor.

That was a gift box that Little Chili gave him!

Then, like eating potato chips, he took a big bite and ate more than half of it. Can this person really eat something like this?

"The lead content is a bit too high, but the texture is very crispy."

Xiu En quickly stuffed the rest of the base into his mouth, making a crunching sound that sent chills down Tony's spine. His Adam's apple bobbed, and he looked at Tony with a look of lingering satisfaction.

"What exactly are you?"

Tony leaned against a pillar, trying to calm his racing heart.

He looked at the shards of glass on the ground, then at the reactor on his chest that was operating at a higher efficiency than usual, even a bit overheated. His scientific views, built up over many years, were collapsing and being rebuilt.

"Your savior? Or your creditor? Call me whatever you like."

Xiu En dusted off the glass shards from his hands, jumped off the table, and swept the hem of his trench coat across the mess on the floor.

Ivy's clone peeked out from Shuen's shoulder, its golden leaves pointing towards the doorway. Tony swore he saw a plant rolling its eyes.

"Stop talking nonsense. That big guy who stole your stuff is driving his Iron Man and is about to blow you and the whole neighborhood to smithereens. If you don't want to lose your core a second time, I suggest you start wearing your Iron Underwear right now."

"Obadia!"

Tony's eyes turned cold.

The fear between life and death faded, leaving only the flames of anger and revenge.

"Rhodes will arrive in about five minutes. Before that, someone needs to stop that madman."

He struggled to his feet, and the clumsy mechanical hand in the room finally reacted, holding a fire extinguisher and circling around helplessly.

Looking at Tony's eyes, which had regained their vitality, Xiu En nodded in satisfaction.

"Very energetic. As a dessert before the first meal, this performance is acceptable."

A flash of golden light.

This luminous figure, who illuminated the room like a vault, vanished into thin air in such an irresponsible manner, leaving only a single sentence echoing in the garage, carrying with it a certain unsettling appetite for Tony.

"Don't die, Iron Man. Your new armor looks like a good main course. I want to see who's tougher, the Iron Monger or you."

Looking at the empty room before him, where not even a shard of glass remained, Tony gritted his teeth. A sense of crisis compelled him to immediately press the button to don his MK3 armor.

The robotic arm swung around, its golden-red titanium alloy armor plates covering his still throbbing body with a series of snapping sounds.

But he knew that in this world, on this night, besides terrorists and traitors, something even more uncontrollable and dangerous had descended.

That thing saved him.

Are they also waiting to eat him?

"Jarvis, set all the energy to the thrusters. We have work to do."

Meanwhile, a corner of the Stark Industrial Complex.

A gigantic steel monster that should have been created solely for killing and commercial gain.

Iron Monger!

He has just started his fusion reactor.

Above that heavy shadow, a golden sunflower was blooming in the clouds, and two souls from another world were looking forward to this top-level mechanical beast fighting performance.

The roads in the Stark Industrial Zone were fragile and cracked under the trampling of the Iron Monger.

The heavy rotary machine gun spat out tongues of fire that tore through the night, blasting the bus, which was being used as cover, into a scrap metal frame.

Tony's MK3 armor's energy readings were already turning red, and he could only rely on his agile small thrusters to move between the containers, like a red-gold beetle struggling to survive.

Above the clouds.

Xiu En sat cross-legged, and somehow found a piece of shrapnel that had flown up from below in his hand. He bit it in half with a crunch.

"The feel of this is not good. This is the difference between mass-produced goods and handmade custom-made products."

He spat out a mouthful of sparking iron filings, looking at the large gray thing below with some disdain.

Although Obadiah's mech looked bulky, the rough solder joints and aesthetically unappealing wiring made it look like it was made from scrap, which made Xiu En lose his appetite.

Ivy's golden leaves shuddered in disgust; she could even smell the nauseating burnt odor below. This kind of industrial violence was clearly not something plants liked.

"I want to eat the core; it's patterned like it tastes like blueberries."

Shuen pointed to the reactor on Iron Monger's chest, which originally belonged to Tony. It was the biggest heat source on the entire battlefield and the only delicacy in Shuen's eyes.

It was at this moment that Tony, driven to the brink, made a decision.

The golden-red figure stopped dodging and instead suddenly increased its altitude, its thrusters spewing out a ghostly blue tail flame as it shot straight into the sky at an altitude of ten thousand meters.

That was an ascent that exceeded the limits of the machine, a desperate gamble.

Obadiah, blinded by rage, fell into the trap.

"Where do you think you're going, Tony!"

The massive Iron Monger started its heavy engine on its feet, following closely behind with overwhelming force.

Even though its weight was several times greater than its opponent's, the thrust-to-weight ratio that burst forth in that instant still allowed it to keep up with Iron Man's trail.

The temperature dropped sharply.

The clouds were pierced in an instant, and the surrounding air went from noisy to thin and deathly silent, with only the roar of the thrusters still echoing.

Just as it was about to break through the stratosphere, the cold-blooded nature of the laws of physics was revealed.

The surface of the Iron Monument, which had not undergone high-altitude anti-icing treatment, began to be rapidly covered with a thick layer of white frost.

The system lags, the observation equipment goes black, and it becomes a pile of scrap metal that is going out of commission high in the air.

"See, I told you that chilled has a unique flavor."

A laugh rang out.

Xiu En, who had been waiting there for a long time, floated to the side of the mech that had lost power and was falling.

Obadiah was frantically restarting the system in the cockpit, his face flushed purple, but through the glare-covered goggles, he saw a golden smiling face pressed against the glass.

Good evening, sir.

Xiu Enbing placed his palm directly on the Iron Monarch's left shoulder armor.

The composite armor plate made a cracking sound.

"I've got my eye on this one. Would you mind if I tried it first?"

Shuen tore off the entire left shoulder of the Iron Monger, which contained a miniature missile launcher, as if breaking off a piece of frozen chocolate.

The break was as smooth as a mirror, and was even instantly sealed off by the high temperature of the divine fire.

Tony smashed the ice off his MK3 helmet and witnessed a scene he would never forget.

The light being who saved him was now nonchalantly gnawing on a piece of armor plate three times the size of himself high in the sky.

Besides eating glass, can he also eat metal?!

"Consider this as payment for the takeout."

Shuen waved the half-armor in his hand at the hovering Iron Man, muttering indistinctly with a satisfied expression.

Meanwhile, having lost the balance of its left shoulder and with its system still malfunctioning, the Iron Monger tumbled and plummeted toward the ground amidst Obadiah's desperate roar.

Gravity has regained control of the battlefield.

"I think that reactor would taste even better, but I suggest you don't just smash it to pieces."

Xiu En's body transformed into a streak of light and swooped downwards.

The appetizers for the main course are finished.

Now, it's time to enjoy the final dinner called Explosion and Ember.