Tony walked alone in the desert, his exposed arms covered in bloodstains that had already dried under the scorching sun.
He had taken off his tattered jacket and used it to cover his head to prevent heatstroke, but the relentless sun and the searing heat of the desert surface had already left him severely dehydrated.
Thirst, exhaustion, dizziness, blurred vision... Tony wanted to lie down and rest... but he couldn't... Yinsen and Raiden were still waiting for him.
Stay strong!
Keep going...
"Hush!"
Tony fell.
He lay on the ground...
So tired.
Wind?
This breeze feels so soothing...
Sound?
The sound of helicopter blades!
Tony struggled to push himself up with his hands, looking around—nothing!
A hallucination?
Could it be a hallucination?
No!
In Tony field of vision, two helicopters roared across the desert horizon.
Tony waved his arms, using the last ounce of his strength to shout! He laughed! Every cell in his body seemed to come alive at that moment!
The helicopters came to a halt, landing right in front of Tony.
Before the aircraft even touched the ground, several figures hurriedly jumped out.
A familiar figure—it was Rhodes!
Colonel Rhodes, accompanied by a few soldiers, ran up to Tony.
Seeing Tony kneeling in the desert, Rhodes patted his shoulder and said, "Having fun, buddy?"
Tony shook his head with a smile, tears streaming down the corners of his eyes.
Rhodes was momentarily at a loss. Even the words he had planned to say seemed to vanish in that moment... This was the first time he had seen Tony cry. He was Tony Stark! The great, one-of-a-kind Tony Stark... How could he cry?
All Rhodes could do was kneel beside Tony, patting his shoulder, and say, "Next time... you have to come with me... okay?"
Tony took a moment to calm his emotions, then grasped Rhodes hand and said, "Take me back, take me back!"
"Alright, Tony, I'll take you back. We're going home," Rhodes said repeatedly, looking at Tony.
"No, not home. To that cave, that desert! The place where the explosion happened!" Tony pointed in the direction he had escaped from.
Rhodes looked at the agitated Tony, confused but still nodding in agreement.
The two helicopters returned to the cave that had been devastated by the explosion. On the way back, Tony kept drinking water while staring out the window. He was afraid, afraid that Yinsen and Raiden were already dead.
When they arrived at the cave, Tony didn't let anyone help him. He searched through every corpse by himself.
Not them.
Not them.
Not them!
Thank goodness!
No sign of Yinsen or Raiden!
Tony smiled as he looked around. Nothing. This was the best outcome.
At that moment, a soldier ran up to Rhodes and reported,
"Sir, we found tire tracks at the base of the hill. It seems someone drove away from here after the explosion."
Rhodes turned to Tony and said, "Tony, maybe your friends have already left."
Tony nodded, dazed. it's good that they left, it's good that they left!
Rhodes walked over to Tony, seeing his friend in such a state. He wrapped his arms around him, patting his back, and said,
"Let's go home, let's go home."
Tony nodded in Rhodes arms... It was time to go home... As long as Tony confirmed that Raiden and Yinsen were alive, he could rest easy.
Raiden had already demonstrated enough miraculous feats. Although Tony couldn't fully comprehend those things at the moment, he believed in Raiden.
He believed that as long as he stood in the most conspicuous place now, Raiden would definitely find a way to bring Yinsen to him.
Afterward, Tony boarded a plane back to New York. He still had some important matters to attend to.
.....
"My passion! It's like a fire, burning across the desert—ert—ert—"
"Raiden, can you stop singing? I want to sleep."
"Can't my beautiful voice help you fall asleep? Oh no, Yinsen, your standards are too high."
Good heavens!
Yinsen shook his head helplessly. Who knew what Raiden was singing? The language was incomprehensible, the melody was unrecognizable, and the key was that his tone-deaf voice was like a deadly curse.
With Raiden skills honed over countless years, even foreigners—and sometimes even himself—couldn't understand what he was singing.
At this moment, Raiden and Yinsen were driving a "borrowed" Jeep, wearing "found" clothes, with a pile of discarded firearms in the back seat. They had been driving through the desert for a whole day.
Raiden had been singing all day, as if that unusual spell had unlocked some hidden special attribute of his... like a KTV god?
Yinsen, sitting in the passenger seat, not only endured the noise but also had to keep turning his head to look at Raiden. He wasn't entirely sure if Raiden could see the road through that fluttering beard, but thankfully, it was the desert, and there was nothing to crash into.
"Yinsen, are you sure this is the right direction? Why haven't we gotten out of the desert after driving for so long?" Raiden asked in confusion. They hadn't seen a single trace of human activity along the way.
Yinsen took out the map and glanced at it, saying irritably,
"If you could drive straight in one direction, we would have been out of here by now!"
"Uh, haha," Raiden laughed awkwardly. Along the way, perhaps because they had finally escaped that place, Raiden seemed very excited. Plus, the constant interaction between his body and the energy in the air had filled him with strength again.
Under the combined influence of his mental and physical state, Raiden had been singing and driving aimlessly all day. Fortunately, the car had plenty of fuel.
"Yinsen, pass me some water."
Yinsen picked up the water bottle, easily handed it to Raiden, but it felt light. He opened it and found it was empty.
Yinsen shook his head, turned around, and looked at the back seat. There, amidst the pile of firearms, a water sphere was spinning and condensing in mid-air, seemingly growing bit by bit.
Yinsen inserted the mouth of the bottle into the water sphere, and the sphere immediately flowed into the bottle. He handed the half-filled bottle to Raiden, who shook it, took a sip, and said,
"After all that effort, this is all we got? This desert is a bit lacking in water. We should replenish it."
If it weren't lacking water, would it even be called a desert?
Yinsen lay back in his chair, eyes closed, and said, "Just drive properly. Once we're out of the desert, you can have as much water as you want! Stop singing already! There might not be any water later, so let me get some sleep first."
With that, Yinsen drifted off to sleep, and Raiden finally closed his mouth. After all, thirst was something hard to endure.
But wasn't what just happened something truly miraculous? A floating water orb in the air, a water orb in the desert.
At first, Yinsen couldn't believe it. This was something that belonged to the realm of gods—a divine miracle!
When they were escaping the cave, Yinsen had been too focused on fleeing and too tense to pay much attention, even if he had seen it, he hadn't given it much thought.
But after leaving the cave, in the car, Raiden repeatedly conjured flames and water orbs, which left Yinsen utterly astonished.
Later, Raiden explained to Yinsen that he was actually a mage. After being imprisoned in the cave, he had lost his powers and only recently regained them.
A mage? For Yinsen, a scientist, this was something utterly inconceivable.
But Yinsen trusted Raiden. He had complete faith in him, and after a day, he gradually grew accustomed to such miraculous occurrences.
"Hey, Yinsen," Raiden called out while nudging Yinsen, who was sound asleep in the chair.
"What is it?" Yinsen rubbed his eyes, put on his glasses, and asked.
"Look ahead! Isn't that a town?"
Yinsen immediately perked up. In the pitch-black desert night, a small town filled with lights appeared on the distant horizon.
Raiden and Yinsen exchanged glances, both of their eyes filled with joy. Raiden immediately floored the gas, speeding toward it, the wheels kicking up countless grains of sand.
In front of the town's bar, Raiden sat in the driver's seat, rubbing his hands together and occasionally patting Yinsen chest.
"Yinsen, are you ready?" Raiden said excitedly, his eyes burning with a flame called fighting spirit—though in this case, it was the spirit for drinking.
Yinsen looked at Raiden helplessly. He had no idea how this guy did it. Did he have a built-in navigation system? As soon as they entered the town, he had directly found the bar.
"Raiden, we don't have any money."
"We've got this!"
Raiden turned around and picked up a rifle from the back seat.
"Hey, hey, hey, Raiden, we can't do that! We're not like those guys!" Yinsen scolded nervously.
Raiden rolled his eyes at him—through his thick fur. More importantly, even though Yinsen couldn't see Raiden eyes, he felt it... This was probably what they called a telepathic connection, right?
"What I meant was, we'll take the guns in and trade them for drinks. That's fine, isn't it?" Raiden picked up two rifles, tossed one to Yinsen, and got out of the car.
Yinsen sat in the passenger seat, holding the gun, hesitating as he watched Raiden's back.
"Come on, Yinsen, let's go!" Raiden turned around and waved at him.
Shaking his head, Yinsen got out of the car and followed. After surviving such an ordeal, they deserved to drink themselves into oblivion.