I Have a Girlfriend in Marvel

Upon hearing Ivan Vanko's voice, Tony Stark and James Rhodes simultaneously darkened their expressions.

If anything can go wrong, it will. They were already under enormous pressure, pinned down by a group of strong male robots, and now Ivan Vanko appeared, making it almost unbearable.

"I gave you forty minutes, but you couldn't even find a hair of mine. Iron Man, you're truly overrated!"

Ivan Vanko's ugly face was full of smugness.

Before the Hammer Industries conference, Ivan Vanko had made a provocative call to Tony Stark, declaring a challenge to avenge his father's forty years of suffering. This was how Stark knew he was alive and why he rushed to the conference.

However, Tony Stark didn't expect that Ivan Vanko had set a trap for him, and it worked perfectly. He was in a dire situation now.

At this moment, Ivan Vanko had waited too long. Since his father's death, he had been preparing for this day. Now, he finally achieved his goal and felt like breaking into a celebratory dance to express his joy.

"Truth be told, you are nothing compared to your father. Your father drove mine to desperation, but you can only struggle feebly in front of me!"

"Tony! Think of something!" James Rhodes' face was pressed against the ground, and he could only call for help through the communicator.

Asking for help wasn't shameful. Without Tony Stark, James Rhodes was nothing.

Tony Stark struggled to lift his head, glaring at Ivan Vanko's arrogant face, and gritted his teeth as he shouted, "Do you think you've won?"

"Otherwise? You think you can turn this around?"

As Ivan Vanko spoke, several more Iron Soldiers advanced and leapt onto Tony Stark and James Rhodes.

"Rhodey!"

This time, before James Rhodes could call for help, Tony Stark shouted first, "You want to be a hero? I need a partner. Raise your hand!"

"What?" James Rhodes looked baffled, but following Stark's command, he obediently raised his hand. He suddenly remembered the time they worked together on the suit in Stark's house.

Back then, they had exchanged similar lines.

The two then reached toward each other in unison, their repulsor beams glowing. As the energy surged and collided, a massive explosion erupted.

Boom!

The powerful shockwave from the explosion blew the Iron Soldiers off them, and the two finally emerged, crawling up from the ground.

"I never want to go through being pinned down like that again!" James Rhodes said, still shaken, then stood back-to-back with Tony Stark, striking a battle-ready pose.

Around them, the Iron Soldiers that had been flung away weren't seriously damaged. They quickly got up and prepared to charge again.

Meanwhile, Ivan Vanko also made his move.

For some reason, Vanko's custom Iron Suit wasn't equipped with heavy long-range weaponry, only two electrified whips.

At first, he might have chosen the whips for portability, but later—did he just get addicted to them?

As the rotary mechanism on his shoulders spun, the two whips extended to six or seven meters, snapping like electric snakes as they lashed toward Iron Man and War Machine.

Snap!

The two quickly rolled aside to dodge the whips, but then they collided with incoming Iron Soldiers.

Clang! Clang!

The two were knocked back to their original spot, ending up back-to-back again.

Iron Man and War Machine had nearly depleted their ammo, with only a small amount of reactor energy left, enough for short-distance flight or low-powered repulsor blasts.

At this point, they couldn't afford to hold back. They raised their hands, aiming their repulsors directly at Vanko's face.

They weren't sure if they could break through his defenses or even hurt him, but even if it was a futile struggle, they had to try—who knows, maybe they could turn things around.

Snap! Snap!

Vanko's whips lashed down again. After a stunning, jaw-dropping, once-in-a-lifetime "Lightning Five-Whip Combo," Iron Man and War Machine's hopes of a comeback were crushed as they were mercilessly pinned down.

Iron Man's neck was ensnared by a whip, and War Machine's chest was pinned under Vanko's heavy boot. It looked like Vanko was about to deliver a perfect double kill.

At that moment, Iron Man suddenly shouted, "Spider-Man, now's the time to act!"

"Right, we still have Spider-Man!" James Rhodes perked up. Earlier, Spider-Man had been swinging him around like a flail.

"What!" Vanko's mask retracted as he looked around warily, but after several seconds, nothing happened. In the distance, there was only the sound of crows cawing.

Caw! Caw! Idiot! Idiot!

"Hah!" Vanko began laughing maniacally again.

"The great Iron Man, calling for Spider-Man's help, and he doesn't even show up! I should've recorded this to show the world Iron Man's ridiculous face!"

"Ridiculous?"

A deep voice interrupted Vanko's laughter, but Tony Stark was puzzled. Whose voice was that? It didn't sound like Spider-Man.

Who could it be? The Green Armored Hero?

The Green Armored Hero's bombing tactics would work, but there was no sign of his glowing green craft either.

Before Stark could ponder further, two black shadows shot down from midair.

Zing! Zing! Sizzle!

The shadows slashed through Vanko's whips. Those whips, which had toyed with Iron Man and War Machine like they were dogs on a leash, fell sparking to the ground.

At the same time, two black bat-shaped projectiles embedded themselves into the ground with a sharp thud.

Are we saved?" Tony Stark and James Rhodes suddenly felt a huge sense of relief.

At that moment, they were no longer world-saving superheroes but helpless lambs waiting for salvation, overwhelmed by the joy of survival.

"Who's there!"

Ivan Vanko angrily shouted toward the direction where the bat-shaped projectiles came from. The remaining Iron Soldiers also turned their weapons and emptied their few remaining bullets in that direction.

That area erupted in a shower of sparks, but no figure could be seen.

At that moment, from another direction, more black bat-shaped projectiles appeared. Several Iron Soldiers who were firing wildly were struck in their chest reactors, sparking violently before collapsing backward, completely powered down.