Peerless Grass-Cutting

The deluge of text messages kept coming, highlighting the severity of the situation.

Fanny relented to the unending stream of SOS signals and pretended to be unwell; his classmates' suspicious eyes burned his back as he hurriedly left the room. He called Tony after he reached a secluded area.

"I want your help with something!" Tony's impatient voice greeted him as soon as the call connected, "Someone controlled nearly a thousand robots to surround the Stark Building—"

"Wait, how many?"

Fanny was stunned. There were nearly a thousand of them. In the original plot, Hammer Industry had at most made a dozen of each soldier type, adding up to less than a hundred. How could there be a thousand of them now?!

"My estimate is at least seven hundred!"

Tony's voice gradually calmed down, "If we let them destroy the building, the entire United States will fall into chaos. If you can do anything about this, do it quickly."

"I..."

Fanny was a little speechless. Although these robots were definitely not as good as Tony's carefully crafted armor made of top-quality materials, it was still seven or eight hundred. Enough ants could bite an elephant to death!

"I'll go and take a look immediately."

Fanny couldn't afford to ignore this incident. If the US or even just New York fell into anarchy, the future would completely spiral out of control.

Before rushing to the Stark Building, Fanny took a quick trip home and threw the absolutely puzzled Skye to Kamar-Taj.

After that, he equipped the 'Demon Armor Incursio' and opened the portal to Stark Building.

The first thing he saw were rows of armed robots guarding the door, just like security guards, attracting all manners of curious bystanders.

Fanny's sudden appearance caused a surprise-filled commotion.

"Look, silver knight!"

"It's him; he appeared again!"

"Wow, he's so cool!"

It had been a while since the battle, but it was Tony's debut as Iron Man, so many people still remembered him as the extremely mysterious third party.

Fanny had no choice but to fly in order to avoid the people. Only then did he realize that the airspace around the building was crowded with those robots. It was unsurprising that Tony estimated there were at least 700 of them.

"How the fuck did he make all these?!"

Fanny could not help but wonder. It had only been less than two weeks since Ivan disappeared. How could he produce so many robots in such a short time?!

Although their appearance was crude, the weaponry was minimal, and they were a little janky, there were still seven to eight hundred of them.

Fanny fell into deep thought. It was absolutely impossible to reach this level with Hammer Industry's capacity. Or…it could be said that there's only one organization on Earth capable of this feat.

"Hydra's SHIELD!"

Fanny couldn't think of anyone other than Hydra who could help Ivan manufacture so many robots in such a short time. They were the only ones with the technology and resources to achieve this level.

It was a pity that Fanny didn't know about the outrage within Hydra at that moment.

Hydra's secret base.

An old man with a wrinkled face angrily stepped close to the person in front of him and asked, "Do you really think that this is an acceptable diversion?"

The person in front of the old man whispered, "There are some…unexpected situations. He left a secret backdoor in the program and launched all the spare drones prepared for the organization."

"Are you a bunch of pigs?"

The old man was angry enough to shoot the guy in front of him, but he knew that nothing would change even if he did, so he could only order angrily, "Destroy all the records, do not leave any traces. We need to completely abandon that base."

The subordinate trembled at the order. It was not a small base; after all, it was capable of mass-producing so many robots in a short time.

"Activate the self-destruct program on those robots. We can't let him finish what he was trying to do,"

The old man added, not noticing the panic on his subordinate's face upon hearing his order.

"He… He modified the programming after activating the backdoor. We can't control those robots, and the base was locked down."

"Slap!"

The old man slapped his subordinate. He silently thought to transfer the incompetent bastard to a pig farm and climb all the way from the bottom again.

...

Tony was the one who called Fanny, but Fanny traveled through the portal, so he arrived before Tony. He decided against taking any action for the time being, seeing that the robots were also inert. He was rather confused about Ivan's intent.

Pepper had begun to organize the evacuation after receiving Tony's notice, but there were so many people working in that building. In addition, all New Yorkers have "reckless" as their middle name, considerably slowing the evacuation. Even so, Ivan still kept his robots on standby.

Fanny had no idea that it wasn't intentional; Ivan was temporarily unable to control his robots. The primary command center for these robots was in the Hydra base.

He already expected that he wouldn't be able to give complex orders in real time after activating the backdoor, so he gave the robots a simple command to attack Tony before leaving the Hydra base. The robots would only move when Tony entered their detection radius.

Ivan had wanted Tony to witness as all he deemed precious were ground to dust.

Mark 6 was the latest armor Tony designed for the new element reactor. It was more powerful, more durable, and faster in flight.

Fanny didn't have to wait long until a bright streak tore across the sky and stopped beside him.

Before the two of them could speak, the motionless robots all turned their heads to Tony, their scarlet electronic eyes whirring. Then, the robots moved in unison, raising their weapons at the two figures in the sky.

Or rather, at Tony Stark specifically.

Fanny was shocked, but not for long. These robots must have reacted to Tony's arrival.

"Do you have any plans?"

Fanny did not waste any time and quickly asked Tony.

Tony was silent. Since he had rushed over, he hadn't had time to think it through.

Fanny abandoned any thoughts of relying on Tony and immediately said, "Just focus on gathering them together as much as possible!"

"Are you thinking of sending them away?"

"I plan to destroy all of them!"

Fanny replied with a sour mood. His expression hardened. It was fortunate that he had sharply increased his offensive power recently—he wouldn't have any way out otherwise.

Tony did not know what Fanny wanted to do, but he had no choice but to follow the plan for the time being. He soared high, testing the robots' behavior and trying to find Ivan Vanko.

The robots followed as soon as Tony took to the skies, chasing him. The black shadows of the robotic swarm were rather grotesque.

The robots on the ground aimed their weapons and began shooting.

The loud and endless sound of bullets sent the people into a panic. None of them had combat experience, so many of them were paralyzed by fear.

Fanny couldn't help but land and deal with the robots on the ground first.

Against the cheap, mass-produced garbage, Fanny only needed his fist. None of them survived two moves.

The scene was akin to a bizarre grass-cutting implement with peerless efficiency, which made the crowd switch from being frightened to be dumbfounded!