Once Zod realized that hell creatures had no cells, no genes, none of that, he lost interest.
Because he couldn't understand them.
That made things easy for the Ancient One. With Zod guarding her, not even a worm underground could disturb her.
After using the power of the divine dragon to step into Skyfather level, Zod actually didn't value that power quite as much anymore.
In Zod's eyes, the divine dragon power was merely a tool for dealing with the mystic side. What mattered most was his own strength.
Suddenly, Zod felt the entire hell dimension shake.
Then he saw the Ancient One rise into the air without warning, and one arcane magic circle after another unfolded around her.
"It's done," the Ancient One said to Zod.
The two of them passed through a portal and returned to Kamar-Taj. Zod saw the Ancient One holding a crystal ball in her right hand, with a miniature model sealed inside.
She flipped her hand, and both the crystal ball and the model vanished.
"Then I'll be leaving first, Ancient One," Zod said.
"Zod, I don't have much time left, so…" The Ancient One hesitated, stopping mid-sentence, but she knew Zod Hess would understand what she meant.
Zod didn't turn around. He paused for a moment, then disappeared.
The moment he reappeared, Black Queen contacted him.
After Stark Industries went bankrupt and shut down, Tony Stark hadn't given up. He quickly founded "New Stark Industries."
This time, though, his "New Stark Industries" didn't have a weapons division. He was focusing on new energy and other fields.
However, over the last five days, Black Queen detected an unidentified flying object above Tony Stark's villa reaching speeds over Mach 2. It was "unidentified" in name only. Based on the detection results from Blade Tech Industries' three world-leading satellites, the 10K ultra-clear footage showed Black Queen exactly what it was.
An Iron Man suit.
Tony Stark hadn't quit. He still built the armor, he just had no intention of selling it.
"Keep a close eye on him. He'll probably run off to Afghanistan to play hero," Zod said immediately.
Tony Stark had looked into the changes that happened during the year and more he was gone. Zod Hess's world-shaking inventions blew his mind, like the magnetic-beam fusion reactor. It had higher output than the palladium cold fusion reactor, lasted longer, and didn't require frequent element replacement.
The AIDS miracle drug went without saying.
But what shocked Tony Stark the most was probably superheroes.
Whether it was the Fantastic Three, the webbing in New York's Queens, or Zod Hess's Dark Knight, it all gave Tony Stark the feeling that his path wasn't lonely.
On top of that, after seeing the Ten Rings' atrocities in Afghanistan lately, Tony Stark, having finished a flight test a few nights ago, decided to go to Afghanistan to deal with the Ten Rings and the terrorists who had kidnapped him.
The Mark III Iron Man suit gave Tony Stark more than enough confidence.
After all, the Mark III's material was a gold-titanium alloy, and his version used Blade Tech Industries' secondary Krypton-gold.
Stark Industries might have gone bankrupt, but Tony Stark himself was still very rich. He still had a lot of weapon patents bringing in money.
So even though secondary Krypton-gold had risen to ten thousand dollars per gram, Tony Stark still bought quite a lot.
After suiting up inside his villa, Tony Stark took off immediately.
He was going to Afghanistan to deliver justice!
"Sir, we've been locked onto," JARVIS said suddenly.
"How is that possible, JARVIS? No one can lock onto me…"
Before he could finish, two flame-trailing tails appeared behind him.
"This is U.S. airspace. Unidentified aircraft ahead, land immediately!"
"I repeat, land immediately, or we will open fire!"
Tony Stark's face went dark.
"Damn it, it's the Air Force War Machines!"
"Sir, we are locked. Their War Machine systems are more advanced than me. I can't hack them," JARVIS warned quickly, basically telling him not to stubbornly resist.
Behind the two War Machines, their back-mounted cannons rose into position and aimed at Tony Stark.
"Sir!"
"OK, I surrender!" Tony raised both hands.
A short while later, Tony Stark was escorted down by the two War Machines, one on each side, and landed at an Air Force base.
"What is this? A War Machine invented by the Chinese?" The base colonel examined the gold-and-red armor. This wasn't Zod Hess's style. The colors looked like a Chinese palette. Had China finally reverse-engineered their own War Machine?
"I request to see Colonel Rhodes," Tony Stark said, opening his faceplate.
"So it's you, Tony Stark," the colonel said. He looked surprised, yet somehow not.
Before Tony disappeared, he had already built a War Machine and claimed he'd challenge Zod Hess. Then nothing happened.
Over time, a year passed, and everyone forgot about him. They only remembered Zod Hess's War Machines.
No one expected Tony Stark to actually build an Iron Man suit.
In that case, the meaning was completely different.
Tony did get his wish and met Rhodes, but Rhodes also gave him bad news.
The U.S. military had its eyes on his Iron Man suit.
"Why?" Tony asked bitterly. "Don't they already have Zod Hess's War Machines?"
"You know this." Rhodes explained. "The President doesn't want Zod Hess to become a monopoly. He wants to break Zod Hess's one-man dominance."
Rhodes had been completely confused when he first got the message that Tony had been detained at an Air Force base. What was Tony doing to get himself arrested like that? For a second, Rhodes even wondered if Tony had flirted with some commander's daughter.
He rushed over by helicopter, only to learn the truth.
Tony Stark had developed an Iron Man suit, didn't file any reports, and tried to fly out of the country.
That was obviously impossible.
With War Machines basically fully deployed now, Tony was discovered instantly, and the rest followed.
"Troy Stark built an Iron Man suit, and the Air Force detained him?"
Elsewhere, S.H.I.E.L.D. also received the news.
Nick Fury thought, as expected of Tony Stark, the only genius of this era who might be able to catch up to Zod Hess.
And he also understood the United States' intentions.
America was drooling over the Iron Man suit.
Hydra was excited too. Over the last year and more, the strategic value and potential of the War Machines had been perfectly demonstrated. Super soldiers, Winter Soldiers, none of them smelled as good as War Machines.
/-\
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