A fighter jet streaked through the sky, trailing thick black smoke as it made a beeline for Raiden and Yinsen. The two of them glanced at each other, exchanging a wordless understanding just by mouthing a single word.
Run!
"WuldnahKest!"
"Roaaaaaar!"
In a flash, both of them burst from the jeep like phantom shadows. Raiden was using the Dragon Shout magic, Whirlwind Sprint, which let the user harness the wind and propel themselves at incredible speed.
Meanwhile, Yinsen, who had already mastered his werewolf powers, transformed into one without hesitation and dashed forward in a blur.
"Boom!"
The fighter jet hit the jeep Raiden and Yinsen had just been in with pinpoint accuracy. The explosion sent flames shooting everywhere. Yinsen patted his chest, still shaken—then suddenly realized Raiden was nowhere to be seen. Did Raiden not make it out? No way!
"Raiden? Raiden!" Yinsen called out.
"Over here!" Raiden voice suddenly sounded from behind Yinsen, causing him to turn and look, puzzled.
Etched into a steep cliff wall was the perfect silhouette of a human. The voice had clearly come from within the rocky outline. A moment later, someone squeezed out of the hollow—none other than Raiden.
"Pffft."
Raiden jumped down from the cliff, brushing dust from his battered clothes, which had been torn up even more in the scuffle.
"How'd you end up up there?" Yinsen asked, shifting back into human form at the same time.
Raiden tossed Yinsen a change of clothes from his magical storage and said
"I hate that spell." Then, nodding for emphasis, he added, "You know that spell can't turn, right?"
The biggest flaw of Whirlwind Sprint is just that—it can't take corners, and it doesn't have any brakes, either. If you want to stop, you've got to burn through your own mana to dissipate the wind force behind you.
"Oh, fair enough." Yinsen helped Raiden brush off the rest of the dust and then pointed at the burning wreckage of the plane in front of them.
"But seriously, can anyone explain why that F-22 crashed? That's the top-of-the-line fighter jet for the U.S. military, isn't it? As far as I know, it's never crashed due to an accident. And it's not like there's a war going on around here, right?"
Yinsen wore a puzzled expression.
Raiden leaned on Yinsen shoulder and said, "I think I know the answer."
"Hm?" Yinsen looked at Raiden curiously.
Raiden pointed up at the sky. "The answer's probably still up there."
Yinsen looked up. The sky was clear and cloudless, giving him an unobstructed view. There was nothing to see—not even a parachute! Could the pilot still be in the cockpit?
Yinsen was just about to ask when, suddenly, a parachute blossomed in the sky. He exhaled in relief—until he noticed, racing away from the parachute, a fast-moving streak of red.
"Raiden, what is that? A drone? It looks humanoid?" Thanks to his werewolf-enhanced senses, even in human form Yinsen could clearly make out the outline of the object.
"No, Yinsen. That's not a drone. That's Tony Stark." Raiden replied calmly, still looking up. After all this searching, I've finally found you, Tony.
"What? That can't be Tony. How could Tony possibly be flying? Unless—that's a suit? The Mark 1 suit?" Yinsen started to protest, then a thought hit him, and he pressed for confirmation.
Raiden turned and smiled, nodding.
"That's right. That's the armor the two of us worked on together in that cave."
"Oh my god, that guy's a real genius. How does he—!? I have no idea how he managed that!" Yinsen stared in awe as Tony soared through the air.
"If Tony could build such a powerful suit with scrap in a cave, then is it really so strange that he's capable of this now that he's free?" Raiden asked with a smirk.
Yinsen gazed at the sky in fascination—talent like that was worth being jealous of.
But then Yinsen noticed Tony was getting farther away. He hurriedly turned to Raiden in a panic.
"But Raiden, what do we do now? How do we get his attention? He's about to disappear—come up with something, Raiden!"
"Don't worry, I've got an idea!" Raiden grinned, a ball of fire spinning in his hand.
"Oh no, man, don't tell me you're actually going to do that?" Yinsen gave Raiden a pained, doubtful smile, his eyebrows creasing together in disbelief.
"Trust him. He's Tony Stark—he'll be fine." Raiden reassured Yinsen, tossing the fireball lightly from hand to hand.
Yinsen shook his head with a wry smile, waving a finger in Raiden face.
"No, Raiden. I just doubt you'll even manage to hit him. Besides, he's almost out of sight already."
"Heh, just watch my home run!" Raiden cocked his head at Yinsen, mimicked a baseball player swing, and hurled the fireball with all his might, shouting.
"Go, Pikachu!"
The fireball shot through the sky like a missile.
In the air, Tony was joking around with his friend Rhodey.
"Tony, you owe me an F-22, man! Seriously!" Rhodey griped, laughing into his phone.
"Haha." Tony chuckled. "Sure, sure. But you know, technically that jet crashed into me, right? Hey, want to see my new masterpiece?"
"No, no, the less I know, the better off we both are. How the heck am I supposed to explain this to the media?" Rhodey shot back.
"Fair enough. Maybe just tell them it was an aerial drill? Isn't that the official go-to excuse?" Tony replied easily, not pushing when his friend refused.
Not that he wasn't right—officials do roll out that excuse a lot. It's lame, but it works.
"Easier said than done. They aren't always that—"
"Ah!"
Rhodey was interrupted by a sudden yelp from Tony.
"Hey, what's wrong, Tony? Are you okay?" Rhodey asked anxiously.
"I'm fine, just fine. Someone just set off fireworks for me, that's all. Gotta run, Rhodey. Catch you later!" Tony hung up, leaving Rhodey to shake his head helplessly at the phone.
"Oi, JARVIS, what was that just now? Why didn't you warn me?" Tony exclaimed. The fireball had hit him dead-on; no harm done, but it caught him off-guard.
"Sir, the object gave off no signal and had no tangible form..." JARVIS mechanical voice replied.
"So? Are you telling me a fireball just appeared out of thin air?" Tony asked, confused.
"That's correct, sir. Nothing showed up on radar, but I can access the suit camera feed to trace the fireball origin," JARVIS suggested.
"All right, pull up the footage." Tony hovered in the air, curiosity piqued.
Most importantly, Tony needed to find out where the fireball came from, so he could figure out how to prevent it next time. No way was he going to let an enemy catch him like that again.
"Oh, JARVIS, never mind about the footage." Just a few seconds later, Tony changed his mind.
"Are you certain, sir?" JARVIS asked.
"Yes, I'm sure. I think I know exactly where those fireballs are coming from." Through Tony eyes, another fireball was already streaking toward him from the ground.
Tony easily dodged it and then shot toward the earth—time to find the source.
On the ground, Raiden patted Yinsen on the chest.
"See? Told you he'd come."
"We'll make this a real surprise for him, Raiden," Yinsen laughed.
"Yeah, I just hope his 'hello' isn't to blast us both to pieces," Raiden said, spreading out his arms theatrically.