Iron Man Is Hanged, Let's Release the Nuclear Bomb!

"No, Thor has lost!" Nick Fury reacted instantly. Seeing the Destroyer Armor about to strike Thor, he shouted urgently, "Save him! Don't let that thing kill Thor—otherwise, we're finished!"

Strictly speaking, this was Asgard's internal conflict. It had nothing to do with them.

If Loki's ambitions hadn't grown so dangerously vast—if he weren't eyeing Earth as his next conquest—Fury might've just stood by and watched. But now, with the looming threat of invasion like what they saw in that ominous footage, they couldn't afford to do nothing.

Before Fury even finished speaking, Tony Stark had already flown in, placing himself between the Destroyer Armor and Thor's frozen form.

"Look, I don't usually butt into royal family drama," Tony quipped, hovering in his armor, "but buddy—you owe me for this!"

Without hesitation, he surged forward, repulsors blazing, and bombarded the Destroyer's body with palm blasts.

Boom!

Boom!

Despite the thunderous impact, Tony's attack barely left a scratch on the armor.

"J.A.R.V.I.S, analyze his armor strength!" Tony ordered quickly. "Use the output from my palm cannons—calculate what kind of firepower it would take to break through his defense!"

"Sir, your current weapons can't breach it. You're lacking high-impact capabilities suitable for large-scale targets," J.A.R.V.I.S. replied.

"Damn it!" Tony cursed under his breath. He knew this already.

His armor was designed as light combat gear—more akin to infantry than heavy artillery. But now, he was facing a walking tank without a single anti-tank weapon in his arsenal.

It was the same problem he had encountered when battling Obadiah's Iron Monger—too little firepower, not enough punch. That experience had prompted him to start developing heavy-duty suits like the anti-Hulk, anti-Thor, and anti-Superman armors.

The Destroyer Armor was another beast entirely. Its attack power was monstrous, and its defense seemed nearly impervious. Tony was out of his depth.

"Nick Fury, get your people in there and try to unfreeze Thor. I can't stall for long!" Tony barked through the comms.

Fury snapped out of it and quickly deployed his elite special forces, who rushed in to try to retrieve Thor's frozen body.

But it was too late.

Loki, controlling the Destroyer from afar, noticed the advancing agents. Without hesitation, a massive surge of energy burst from the armor's head.

Boom! Boom!

In a flash, the special agents were vaporized—disintegrated on the spot. The sheer power behind the attack was terrifying, far beyond what anyone had anticipated.

Just moments ago, Thor had withstood it with his body, but for ordinary humans, this blast was instantly fatal.

And now, Tony Stark was in the crosshairs.

Boom!

The next second, Stark was slammed violently into the ground, the shockwave ringing through his armor.

"Ugh, J.A.R.V.I.S, readjust the shock-absorption system!" he groaned. Blood threatened to rise in his throat from the impact.

His suit's buffer systems had been calibrated for fights like the one against Iron Monger—not this. The Destroyer's strength had raised the bar far beyond his current specs.

"Yes, sir," J.A.R.V.I.S replied. "However, I must inform you—this last hit cracked one percent of your chest's core shielding."

"I know I can't beat it!" Tony growled. "But we're out of options!"

Even as he spoke, the Destroyer's head emitted another blinding beam of energy, which smashed into him again.

Boom!

Tony hit the ground hard, struggling even to stand.

"Damn it! He doesn't even have a reactor core—where the hell is all this energy coming from? This makes no sense!" Tony shouted. He tried to escape, but the Destroyer locked onto him, unleashing relentless yellow shockwaves that battered his armor.

"Sir," J.A.R.V.I.S said urgently, "armor fatigue is at 80% of its limit. If you don't retreat now, it will catastrophically fail within 30 seconds."

"Fine! Redirect all energy to propulsion—get me the hell out of here!" Tony shouted.

Frustration consumed him. Since creating the suit, he'd only fought two real opponents. First was Iron Monger, who'd nearly ended him. Now, the Destroyer was absolutely dominating him.

He was a billionaire genius with cutting-edge tech—why did he keep ending up like this?

With one final push, his Mark 3 blasted off the ground and tore through the air at top speed, evading the Destroyer's bombardment by a hair.

And yet, despite using the most advanced alloys available on Earth, he hadn't lasted even a full minute in the fight.

Worse, his attacks hadn't even dented the Destroyer's armor.

"What do we do, sir?" Phil Coulson asked in a tight voice, watching the disaster unfold.

"There's no choice now," Nick Fury said grimly. "Notify the World Security Council. Alert the White House. Get the military ready."

He paused. "And prepare for nuclear deployment."

The thought of using nukes made his head throb, but the stakes left no alternative.

If the Destroyer Armor wasn't stopped soon, it could lay waste to New York—or flatten cities like Los Angeles without resistance.

Completely razed to the ground. That's how deadly this armor was.

And they still didn't know where its energy was coming from. As far as they could tell, it wasn't running out anytime soon.

If they didn't act, it really would be the end.

And of course, the nuclear threat wasn't just to stop the Destroyer—it was a message. A deterrent.

Directed straight at Loki.

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