Chapter 88: Wasn’t It the Iron Fist?
This was a fire door.
A slab of iron more than eight inches thick, fully capable of withstanding a directed blast beneath a certain yield, it had split the dragon-bone fossil sealed by Iron Fist and the basement levels of the building into two separate worlds.
"You have nowhere left to run, Immortal Iron Fist!"
A voice rang out in fluent Mandarin. A former member of the Hand once loyal to Madame Gao charged at Old Wang, firing as he came, his face twisted as he shouted, "Come on, kill us, make us your sacrifices, let the Beast descend in full, turn this whole world into a slaughterhouse, into the Beast's hunting ground! The entire universe will be buried with us, including Kunlun hidden beyond the cosmos!"
"Noisy!"
Old Wang snorted, raised his left hand, extended his middle finger, pressed downward, and pointed at the man.
Destroy the universe?
Who gave you that confidence?
Who gave you the courage to say something like that?
Did you think this was some power-system-collapsed anime?
With a glance to lock on and a command from Old Wang, the gold-titanium-alloy claws launched, streaking along a path the naked eye could not catch, and pierced the man's throat.
Less than two seconds later, they flew back to their original position.
"This... impossible!" The man clutched at his throat, but could not staunch the blood pouring out. His eyes began to lose focus, his heart stopped, and he crashed to the ground.
Precision guidance system: another high-tech feature of the titanium-alloy gauntlet!
"Anything is possible. If you don't believe me, ask Li Ning!"
Old Wang raised his right hand and spread all five fingers.
Ten gold-titanium claws fired.
Two seconds later, every enemy within fifty meters was dead.
More enemies surged in from farther away, but it was too late.
If not for the gauntlets being so small, with batteries nowhere near the capacity of an arc reactor, those ten gold-titanium claws alone would have let Old Wang slaughter every enemy here to the last.
"What a pity, not the wolf man's adamantium..."
"When Tony gets back, I need to figure out how to scam a few arc reactors out of him. Not many. A few thousand will do..."
Old Wang turned and raised his left hand.
The titanium-alloy gauntlet detached automatically, subtly reshaping itself as it clung to his forearm.
It was indeed a very fine and valuable piece of equipment, but because it used titanium alloy and gold-titanium alloy—"ordinary materials"—rather than the "aetherium" and "profitium" commonly favored by legendary gear, it fell far short in hardness, strength, and in its capacity to bear and channel energy.
In truth, it was not really suited to a monk.
Compared with it, Old Wang preferred the "Hand of the Deceiver" he had looted from Kil'jaeden, and the "Grip of Mannoroth" treasured by the Eredar twins.
Some skills could not be used with titanium-alloy gauntlets, not because they were impossible, but because he feared destroying the gauntlet itself.
Before power sufficiently vast and energy sufficiently savage, titanium alloy and gold-titanium alloy were as thin and brittle as printing paper.
All his internal force gathered in his left palm and was driven out slowly.
Then, the instant palm met fire door, a force ten times greater than Madame Gao's struck the barrier.
The lock shifted out of alignment;
the steel warped;
the door swung open.
Old Wang strolled in at his leisure, as though entering the back garden of his own home, and the fire door shut itself behind him.
It blocked more than a hundred Hand members charging in after him.
Boom!
At that moment, three grenades and two rockets flew toward Old Wang, followed by a prepared heavy machine gun and a shotgun.
Hundreds upon thousands of rounds poured down.
A mass of explosives detonated with a roar.
The wall collapsed, and reinforced concrete buried Old Wang beneath it.
...
...
Through the earpiece came the violent blast, the machine gun and shotgun fire, the sound of walls collapsing. Black Widow's heart clenched hard.
Master Wang had fallen for it!
"I said he shouldn't have rushed in like that. The Hand must have been prepared; charging straight in was no different from suicide!"
Black Widow vaulted forward in a scissor kick and took out the Hand ninja guarding the explosives, then said urgently, "Master Wang? Master Wang? How are you? Do you need backup?"
No answer.
Her heart jumped into her throat.
That lazy, formidable fat man... had he died? Blown apart by explosives?
If he was dead, who would connect with the Immortal Iron Fist? Who would connect with Kunlun?
Was SHIELD's ally gone just like that?
And with it, my hope of cultivating chi and becoming a kung fu master?
"Don't worry. Everything is under control. Wang said this was the best way, the fastest way, to make sure the Hand couldn't kill any more people, to keep the Beast from bringing down more of its power, and to keep Black Sky from becoming too powerful."
Skye's voice came through, calm but faintly trembling. "The blast wave and electromagnetic interference knocked out the receiver temporarily. Fitz and Simmons didn't even think of that—bad review. Just do your jobs. Don't worry about Wang. He's Wang. Nothing will happen to him!"
Skye's gaze was steady.
No one knew Old Wang better than she did.
If the whole world were to be destroyed and only one person survived, that person would surely be my king!
Perhaps one day,
the Mississippi will flow backward,
Mount Everest will collapse,
the Antarctic ice sheet will melt,
the stars in the sky will fall,
but Wang will not die.
Thunder may roll in winter and snow may fall in summer, heaven and earth may merge, but my king...
absolutely!
will!
not!
die!
Black Widow did not know where Skye drew such confidence. Master Wang was not Captain America or the Immortal Iron Fist; how could he possibly withstand an explosion and gunfire of that magnitude...
Wait.
Immortal Iron Fist?
Everything that had happened over the past month rose in her mind. Certain causal threads, obscured by suggestion and speculation, became clear as the mist lifted; at last a thin membrane was pierced, and the truth squeezed out like milk. Black Widow understood everything.
"Yes, you guessed right. Wang is Iron Fist."
Thinking of her conversation with Old Wang, Skye grew even more confident. "He never said he wasn't Iron Fist. You all just assumed it yourselves... Agent Romanoff, you should hurry. Don't wait until he has wiped out the Hand's four fingers and Black Sky while you still haven't finished your mission."
Wang had said that after drinking so much Azeroth Essence Wine, his strength had risen to a new level. Even if certain things leaked out, it did not matter; he had the confidence to face any danger.
At last, Black Widow relaxed.
She remembered the masked, slightly plump figure at the Roxxon power plant. She remembered that bolt of azure lightning like a thunderclap from a clear sky. She remembered the Winter Soldier, hurled away by a single palm strike and then torn from his mechanical arm by brute force. And she remembered the iron shoulder that had borne her up.
As though it could shoulder sun and moon, carry mountains and rivers.
That fist which had grievously wounded the Winter Soldier...
wasn't that Iron Fist?
...
...
Firestone Base.
Skye tapped a key and switched to another private channel.
A channel of only two people.
"Robbie, have you reached the designated location?"
"The plan has changed. Forget about those Hand people... I know that without your help, more SHIELD agents will die, but what does that have to do with me?"
"Wang needs your help!"
"Shut up, Spirit of Vengeance! If you dare rebel, I'll put your information on the internet right now and see whether SHIELD finds you first, or Hydra, or the New York Sanctum, or Sorcerer Supreme Ancient One!"
...
...
Somewhere outside the building.
A Dodge Charger sat parked by the roadside, and the Spirit of Vengeance muttered inside Robbie's mind:
"That damned Beast has absorbed a lot of power. Right now... I may not be able to beat it!"
PS1: In SHIELD, Ghost Rider performed rather unremarkably, nowhere near the blazing-hot Johnny.
PS2: In the comics, Ghost Rider once possessed Daredevil and utterly beat him down; Spider-Man, Iron Fist, Wolverine, and a whole host of other superheroes were also abused along with him.