Battle on the Helicarrier

No sooner had Weiss finished taunting them than the fighter jets closed in even tighter, the two sides slowly narrowing the distance in a tug-of-war.

Yet even after entering the fifty-meter attack range, the jets still held back from using their conventional weapons, as if they had some concerns.

"See? There’s a ninety-nine percent chance they won’t fire missiles. We’re on a Helicarrier right now. If they damage it, wouldn’t that count as indirectly sabotaging Project Insight?"

Having transformed into Transformer Mode, Weiss was utterly fearless. It converted radio wave frequencies into normal speech to converse with Steve in the driver’s seat inside its body and Natasha on its palm.

"You make it sound like we’re the villains here." Natasha grumbled irritably.

"Destroying the Helicarrier would indeed solve the problem, but New York City is directly below us. The crash of three Helicarriers would still become a catastrophe." Steve shook his head and analyzed the situation calmly.

"I get it now. No wonder Master said you…" Weiss started bickering, but stopped halfway through.

Steve truly was worthy of being the hero with the strongest humanity and sense of justice. Everything he did put human safety first, making him the complete opposite of Kyle, who fought violence with violence and acted with blunt directness.

Weiss’s original phone body had been made by Howard, its Spark life had been granted by Kyle, and its armor knowledge had been taught by Tony.

The data code within its mechanical soul had deeply imprinted the three men’s ways of dealing with people and their values in life. It felt that there was nothing money and power could not solve.

If there was—then add more money and more power!

As Weiss pondered this, a sudden disturbance in the air sounded behind its head, and warning alarms from its intelligent system blared.

Its massive mechanical body curled forward into a ball, then reacted swiftly with a dazzling roll across the ground.

Boom!

A missile, trailing a fierce tail of flame, shrieked over Weiss’s head and struck the Helicarrier deck not far ahead, exploding in a brilliant yet terrifying cloud of dust and fire.

Weiss swiftly got back on its feet and spread open its partially closed mechanical palm. Natasha, who had been crouching on one knee, rose and straightened up. Firelight reflected in her beautiful eyes, while her scarlet short hair fluttered wildly in the blast wave.

Natasha raised a brow and said of Weiss’s earlier prediction, "That one percent happened. They actually fired missiles without caring about the Helicarrier’s safety."

"Not they. He," Weiss retorted.

A silver fighter jet flew at the very front of the formation. Through its windshield, the pilot inside the cockpit could be seen: a blond young man with a metal mechanical left arm.

Through footage transmitted by the probe on Weiss’s back, Steve saw it as well and could not help saying softly, "It’s Bucky. He still came after us."

Weiss did not care about that. It turned and raised its mechanical arm, the cannon port on its left hand charging briefly before firing a massive laser blast as bright as daylight with a buzzing tremor.

The silver fighter jet sensed the danger and slipped sideways with the agility of an eagle.

The laser blast grazed past its wing and missed, but struck another fighter jet behind it, accidentally destroying it on the spot.

The jet fell trailing thick smoke and became a fireball on the Helicarrier deck. The nearby fighters could only accelerate and veer around it.

Bucky remained cold and ruthless in the cockpit. He rapidly maneuvered the silver fighter jet, then fired two more missiles with a backhanded aim. One from the left and one from the right, they closed in on Weiss.

"They’re coming!" Natasha cried out.

"You don’t need to tell me. I know."

Smoke still rose from the cannon port on its left hand. Weiss retreated several steps and swiftly switched to charging its right hand. Calculating the trajectory and timing precisely, it intercepted both incoming missiles with a single laser blast!

Bang!!!

The missiles and laser blast collided violently in the air between Weiss and the silver fighter jet.

In an instant, the explosive shockwave and light rippled outward like tides, crashing layer upon layer in every direction and shoving everything within fifty meters away.

Within the storm formed by the explosion, even the Helicarrier jolted and sank slightly. The fighter formation in flight stalled and drifted backward, while the unluckier jets were sent tumbling away by the powerful cyclone.

At the same time, a turbulent current surged within the black-and-gray blast cloud, accompanied by the roar of accelerating engine cylinders.

The next instant, a battered little yellow car riddled with bullet holes burst out of the explosion and sped at full throttle toward the boarding area of the Helicarrier deck.

Steve and Natasha sat in the driver’s and passenger seats, respectively, both still stunned.

"How… did we change back?"

Steve was utterly confused. With most of his technological knowledge still stuck in World War II, he found it difficult to understand the practical combat applications of mechanical armor technology.

Natasha took a deep breath and asked, "Exactly. That mechanical energy cannon was so powerful. Why didn’t you take out the fighters behind us first?"

"Two of you, I have some bad news. I’m almost out of power," Weiss explained bluntly.

"What did you say?!"

The two people in the car were stunned. Instinctively, they looked into the rearview mirror, where more than a dozen fighter jets, led by the silver fighter, were continuing through the dust cloud from the explosion and chasing after the car.

It was a race of life and death, as though history were repeating itself.

But this time, on a Helicarrier a thousand meters in the sky, around ten advanced fighter jets were pursuing an old yellow car. This was probably an unprecedented sight in Earth’s history.

"At a time like this, you’re telling us you’re out of power?" Natasha was speechless.

Weiss sighed humanly and said helplessly, "The conversion rate from krypton gold to electrical energy is too low. Combined with the severe energy drain from the unfinished Transformer Mode, even an entire piece of krypton gold was nearly depleted after firing almost ten energy blasts. The fact that I can still maintain car mode instead of reverting to my original form is already pretty good."

"Then what do we…" Steve had not finished speaking when a thud sounded, as if something heavy had landed on the car roof.

Weiss gave them a warning. "A birdman is back."

"Birdman? Is that Sam?" Steve asked in surprise.

"It’s me." A Black man lay sprawled across the roof, wearing sunglasses. He poked his head down in front of the windshield and even tapped the window with a finger.

"Did you find the control console that resets the Helicarrier system?" Steve asked. The chip needed to restart the Helicarrier was still in his hand.

"I found it. It’s directly beneath the Helicarrier beside us, but I don’t have authorization to enter." Sam’s expression was extremely grim as he spoke quickly. "Also, just now, a helicopter carrying the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. flew toward that Helicarrier. Fighter escorts kept me from intercepting it midway."

"You’ve done well."

Steve replied, then urgently asked Weiss, "Do we have any reinforcements?"

"Normally, definitely, but everyone else is currently…"

Weiss’s reply cut off abruptly. Its voice trembled with excitement as it said, "Reinforcements are here!"