Tony froze at Nova's words, his eyes darting toward the rocket launchers and crates nearby. Sure enough—every single one bore the Stark Industries logo. The color drained from his face. His jaw clenched, but he had no defense—no words. Just bitter silence as the truth stared him down.
Happy muttered under his breath, "Oh, my god…" while Yinsen gave Tony a grim, knowing look.
Nova didn't wait for a reply. He exhaled once, rolling his shoulders, then broke into a run.
The terrorists panicked. "Fire!" Raza roared.
Gunfire erupted, the air screaming with bullets—but none made it. Every round shredded itself into fine dust before touching Nova or the men behind him. The desert breeze carried the metallic ash away, like sand slipping through fingers.
Then a deep whoosh cut through the chaos. A missile streaked straight toward him, smoke trailing, warhead gleaming under the sun.
Nova's eyes followed it calmly. His arm snapped up, hand closing around the nose cone just as it reached him. The sheer force tore dust clouds around his body, but he stood firm.
For the first time, a faint grin tugged at his lips. Always wanted to do this.
With a single heave, he spun and hurled the missile back. It screamed through the air and slammed into the nearest truck, detonating in a violent blossom of fire and steel. The explosion ripped through the convoy, hurling men and debris in every direction.
Screams erupted. Terrorists scrambled, firing wildly, some dropping their weapons in shock.
Nova hit their line a heartbeat later.
The first man didn't even have time to raise his rifle before Nova's fist caved his skull inward with a wet crack. He collapsed instantly, lifeless.
Another tried swinging the butt of his AK. Nova seized his arm, snapped it backward at the elbow, and drove his knee up into the man's jaw, shattering bone and teeth in a spray of red.
A third pulled the pin on a grenade in desperation. Nova kicked him square in the chest, sending him flying back into a cluster of his own men. The grenade went off mid-air, turning them into a cloud of shredded flesh and fire.
RPG rounds whooshed from the ridge. Nova didn't even dodge—he was already moving. One streaked past him, missing, the other he intercepted mid-sprint. He caught it like a spear, spun, and drove it through the man who fired it, impaling him into the dirt before it exploded. The shockwave consumed the ridge in flames.
The battlefield was chaos—screams, fire, the acrid stench of blood and burning fuel. Trucks flipped from chain explosions, men fled in every direction, only to be dragged back into the storm of fists and bone-breaking violence.
Nova fought without pause, every strike brutal and efficient. A skull crushed here, a spine snapped there, bodies hurled into each other like sacks of meat. Blood soaked the sand, the ground littered with corpses and broken weapons—all bearing the same Stark Industries insignia.
Behind him, Tony and the others stood frozen, horror and awe mixing on their faces as they watched a one-man army dismantle an entire battalion.
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The battlefield was silent now—silent except for the crackle of fire and the groans of the dying. Smoke curled into the sky, carrying with it the stench of charred flesh and burning oil. The desert floor was a graveyard of broken bodies, shattered weapons, and scattered crates, all stamped with the same logo: Stark Industries.
Nova stood in the center, chest rising and falling steadily, his clothes torn and spattered with blood that wasn't his. Around him, twisted remnants of trucks still burned, ammo cooked off in sharp pops inside ruined crates.
He had left no survivors—almost.
A broken voice croaked from the sand.
"W-Wait! Please!"
Nova turned his head. Raza, the bald warlord, crawled out from behind a half-destroyed Humvee. His leg bent at an unnatural angle, face half-burned, eyes wide with terror. The same man who had barked orders and sent waves of men to their deaths was now nothing but a trembling animal.
"Spare me," he rasped, holding his hands up, shaking. "I… I can help you. I know who gave the order. I know the one behind Stark's kidnapping!"
He coughed, blood spilling down his lips as he tried to crawl closer. "You want the truth? I'll tell you everything. Names, locations, proof. Just… just let me live."
Behind Nova, Tony finally found his voice, but it was hollow. "Leave him... alive." His gaze flicked to the ruined weapons, then to Raza, and for once, the genius billionaire looked like a man cornered by ghosts of his own making.
Yinsen stayed silent. Happy muttered something under his breath, too quiet to catch.
Nova walked toward Raza, each step deliberate, his boots crunching over sand mixed with blood and shell casings. He crouched down in front of the bald man, eyes unreadable.
Raza flinched, babbling faster. "Please—I can give you everything. Every detail. The mastermind… the money trail… the shipments—"
Nova ignored the desperation in his tone and tilted his head slightly, there went his plan—make a trade with Stark for the name of the mastermind. He shouldn't have let his little fantasy of playing as 'Hulk', the god Physical strength, he should have killed this Rasa guy early. But since it had come to this, regret was useless.
With a flick of Nova's hand, Raza's body lifted off the sand, weightless, drifting helplessly in the air like a ragdoll. Nova turned his back on him and started toward Stark and the others. Raza floated behind, gasping, eyes darting with animal panic.
They moved back to the room where Tony and Yinsen had once been held captive. The iron door creaked open, and the smell of rust and smoke still lingered. Inside, three mutants the terrorists had captured lay sprawled on the floor, still unconscious, chained but alive.
Nova stopped in the center of the room, arms folded. His expression didn't change as Raza, still floating, began to spill the truth.
"It was… it was Obadiah Stane," Raza stammered. "The man who runs Stark Industries when you're away. He's the one who ordered your kidnapping, Stark. He made the deal with us himself. Paid for everything. Weapons… intel… all of it came from him."
For a moment, silence.
Tony's jaw tightened, but he didn't explode—he had known deep down, even if he hadn't admitted it. His shoulders sagged, as if the words were confirmation of the betrayal already burning in the back of his mind.
Happy, on the other hand, looked like he'd been slapped. "Obie? No… no way. He raised you, Tony. He—he's family." His fists clenched, eyes flicking between Stark and the floating Raza, disbelief written all over his face.
Raza saw the doubt and scrambled to make himself sound convincing. "You don't believe me? Fine! I—I can prove it. I have evidence. A recording of the meeting. He was here. He sat right there in this very room!" He pointed frantically at the scarred table in the corner. "Bring me a laptop—I'll show you."
Happy hesitated, torn between disgust and practicality, then stormed out without a word. Minutes later, he returned with a dented laptop scavenged from the wreckage. He dropped it onto the table with a thud.
Raza nearly fumbled it with his trembling hands, but Nova lowered him just enough to operate it. Fingers shaking, he typed in a password, navigated through hidden folders, then pulled up a grainy video file.
The screen flickered to life.
Obadiah Stane appeared, larger than life despite the low resolution, shaking hands with Raza himself. His voice was unmistakable.
"Ensure Stark doesn't make it back alive. Once you have the scraps, I'll handle the rest. Stark Industries will profit either way."
The sound of that voice in such a place hit Tony harder than any weapon could. He stared at the screen, face pale, his eyes dark with something between fury and heartbreak.
Happy's lips moved, but no words came. He finally slammed his fist on the table, rattling the laptop. "That son of a bitch."
The video ended. The silence that followed was heavier than any gunfire.
Nova's gaze lingered on Stark, then on the trembling Raza. "Well," he said coldly, "guess he wasn't lying after all."
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→ 30 REVIEWS= 3 BONUS CHAPTER's
→ 200 POWER STONES= 1 BONUS CHAPTER
→ 400 POWER STONES= 2 BONUS CHAPTER's
CURRENT PROGRESS:↓
– FIRST OBJECTIVE:- 24/30 REVIEWS
– SECOND OBJECTIVE- 206/200 P.S ✓
– THIRD OBJECTIVE- /400 P.S
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CHAPTER:- [90 - AFTERMATH] IS AVAILABLE ON MY P@TREON.