novelhk Chapter 137 Shocks Iron Man for a Year
Chapter 137 Shocks Iron Man for a Year
Chapter 137 Shocks Iron Man for a Century
On a sunny Brooklyn afternoon, a long line formed at Frank's hot dog stand. This 60-year-old shop is a New York landmark, famous for its signature sauces and always juicy hot dogs.
Rune was enjoying a delicious hot dog. He had to admit, the hot dogs at this little shop truly lived up to its reputation of over sixty years. The freshly baked sesame bread was a perfect golden brown, encasing sausages seared on a griddle of brown on a hot plate. Caramelized onion slices cascaded over the sausages like a golden waterfall, and the top was generously covered in meat sauce.
One bite, and the smoky pork flavor exploded in your mouth, mingled with the aroma of garlic and pepper. The meat sauce tasted somewhat like the sauce topping for traditional tomato pasta, but it paled in comparison to the deliciousness of the bread and sausage. However, Rune wasn't surprised—it was a new flavor.
Not far away, Tony leaped from the rooftop, his armor's thrusters allowing him to land smoothly in front of the hot dog stand. A gasp and the sound of phones snapping photos erupted from the crowd, and those in line quickly backed away.
"Iron Man!"
"It's Tony Stark!"
"Mr. Stark, could you please sign your autograph?"
Tony removed his mask, revealing his signature confident smile: "Don't be nervous, everyone. I just wanted to try the best hot dogs in New York. By the way, autographs are welcome, but only on clothes!"
Yes, the great Iron Man, Tony Stark, who has saved the world countless times, was deceived by some people, and he almost lost the entire Stark Industries because of it. Fortunately, he won the lawsuit.
Who the hell would have thought someone would hand me an agreement to voluntarily transfer Stark Industries shares for my signature?
At that moment, the stall owner, Frank, shouted to the tall Latino boy beside him, "Franklin, stop staring! Give Mr. Stark a special hot dog!"
Tony sat down next to Rune. Rune looked up and met Tony's eyes. His eyes—Tony held his breath; he seemed to see something terrifying!
Within those dark eye sockets, a pair of vertical pupils contracted like a feline's, making him feel as if the surface of his eyeballs was about to crack. As the distance closed, the details in those eyes became clearer—blood-red runes flickered at the edges of the pupils, constantly changing shape with each blink; the whites of the eyes were actually translucent, revealing writhing black blood vessels beneath, pulsating autonomously like living things.
Tony was horrified to find himself unable to look away. Fortunately, after observing him a few times, Rune refocused on the hot dog in his hand.
Tony swallowed hard and lowered his voice, "I want to talk to you—."
"What shall we talk about?" Rune asked, then said to the manager, "Three more hot dogs, and make mine the same way you make Tony Stark's hot dogs."
Tony sighed. "Let's talk about what you did at Xavier's Academy for Gifted Youngsters. You're supposed to be a mutant too, so why did you clash with them?"
"That wasn't a conflict, Tony," Rune said expectantly, watching the sausages grilling. "It was just a deal."
If I were to actually clash with them, then there would be no Xavier's Academy at this point.
Iron Man fell into a long-absent silence. He had fought alongside those strange beings many times, and had also clashed with the X-Men, so he knew all too well just how powerful those somewhat xenophobic individuals were. He had countless times been grateful that there was still Professor X among the mutants, but right here on the street, someone was claiming at this very moment that they could destroy the entire X-Men's headquarters?
Worst of all, after that little incident, Tony even started to believe that this guy in front of him could actually do it! So he carefully put his mask back on. Then his armor alarm blared so loudly it almost pierced his eardrums, and all the data on the display screen started jumping wildly before turning blood red. He had never seen anything like it before—his own quantum computing system was actually crashing while trying to analyze the being before him.
"Energy reading exceeds the limit!" Friday's voice trailed off. "Unable to be categorized; immediate withdrawal recommended."
The communication suddenly turned into a piercing static noise.
Tony didn't come to his senses until Frank personally handed him the special hot dog. He took the hot dog with trembling hands and took a bite.
"It really is delicious, isn't it?" Tony realized his voice was a little strained as he spoke. "However, since you didn't attack me, may I assume—"
"Of course I have no ill intentions towards you," Rune simply smiled. "In fact, I have no ill intentions towards any ordinary person, superhero, or even some anti-heroes, though the villains might be a different story."
"Sometimes, I really want to cover my ears!" stall owner Frank said angrily. "I don't want to hear this. Why do you all always like to chat at my stall? Now look what's happened, I'm going to be taken to S.H.I.E.L.D. for questioning again. Do you know how much trouble this is?"
Tony sighed.
"This is definitely not the place to talk. Shall we go somewhere else?" Tony said.
Rune calmly replied, "Wait for my hot dog."
As night fell, Tony's armor gleamed coldly in the moonlight in the shadows of the old Brooklyn shipyard. This time, he brought no teammates. From their interactions during the day, Tony had learned at least one thing—Rune harbored no ill will towards him, or even towards the world.
"Energy readings?" Tony asked, scanning the abandoned factory warily despite being in his armor.
"Intensity is increasing 50 meters directly ahead."
Tony walked toward the place they had agreed to meet during the day: "Come out, let's have a serious talk."
Then, strange phenomena began to occur. Tony keenly sensed shadows writhing on the walls, twisting and turning like living things, swallowing up the only light in the abandoned shipyard. The air grew thick, each breath like inhaling icy fog. The ground began to tremble, as if some ancient and malevolent force was awakening.
Then, as Tony watched, a figure appeared. He didn't walk in through the door, nor did he appear out of thin air.
Instead, he was detached from the darkness itself, as if those shadows had conceived him.
"Of course, Tony, we can talk, for example—" Rune approached Iron Man, "the famous Iron Man, why don't you go and sleep with your beautiful women, and instead come to me?"
Tony Stark pursed his lips. "Because I feel like I'm being drawn into an unfathomable vortex. Professor X is demanding all X-Men return to the Institute, effectively locking them out of the gates, and the United Nations is reactivating the Superhero Registration Act—"
"The strangest thing is that just tonight, just a little while before I came to see you, Wakanda also closed its borders and stopped responding to my call."
“Something is changing, something is driving something.” He mustered his courage again and looked directly at Rune. “I need help, and you, you are the only one who has left Xavier’s Academy of Geniuses. I need you to answer one question for me: What exactly did Professor X discover that forced him to close the academy gates and become an ostrich burying its head in the sand?”