Superman from the comics: Starting with the Black Robe

Chapter 314 The Iron Man of the Past, the Doctor Doom of the Future

Chapter 314 The Iron Man of the Past, the Doctor Doom of the Future

Outside the energy shield, the cyborg Iron Man and Boruto were locked in a life-or-death struggle. Less than ten seconds had passed, but for Tony, it felt like an eternity.

Despite his panic, Tony's hands moved steadily and quickly assembled the teleportation beacon.

Now all he has to do is pray that the other side can detect the signal he is sending.

After completing all this, Tony discovered that the situation outside the shield had also changed significantly.

Without Doctor Strange's cover, the cyborg Tony suffered an even more complete defeat than before.

His prized war machines had withstood the test of several interstellar wars, but they were defeated by the structurally different destruction robots.

This is normal. The core structure of Amozzo is one of the most ingenious ideas Tony has ever seen. Imitation of superpowers is just the most basic way of using it. Amozzo can self-program and adapt to evolve, making it far more flexible than Tony's other inanimate object, the War Machine.

Doctor Doom used the same trick again, unceremoniously slicing down Tony's body with an energy beam. This time, the angle was different, and it struck the life support system directly.

Dark red liquid seeped from the wound; it was unclear whether it was life-sustaining fluid or blood. The cyborg Tony groaned, his breath growing weaker. "Enough! Stop forcing me to do more pointless killing."

That's what he said, but Doctor Doom's hands didn't stop moving at all. Energy ripples lit up in his hands, and he was about to end this parallel universe version of Iron Man on the spot.

"You are irrelevant."

Strictly speaking, the three parties present are all different versions of "Tony," one of whom is his future self who becomes a supervillain, which makes Tony feel powerless.

Although he is somewhat narcissistic, dissolute, and a bit arrogant, he still has a clear understanding of the attitudes of those around him.

For example, among the hundreds or thousands of Spider-Men in the Spider-Legion, more than half of them don't like to associate with him; to be precise, they really dislike "Iron Man."

Especially now that he's heard about all the horrific things Tony, the cyborg from this universe, has done, Tony has started to have some doubts.

It's really not easy to become someone bad enough that Spider-Man hates. Does that mean that most Iron Man characters are destined to become just a detestable villain and scoundrel?

Damn it, Tony's plan for the future is to become a star in the spotlight, smoothly lead the earth into a new era, and then die happily in the bed of any lover in his old age!

Seeing that one "Tony" was about to kill another cyborg "Mouni," Tony, standing inside the protective shield, felt it necessary to intervene:

"You dare!"

There has already been too much bloodshed; he doesn't want to see anyone else die.

Tony burst out of the protective shield and pushed the reactor to maximum power. The Amozzo armor was firing at full power, forcing Doctor Doom to retreat.

After snatching the defeated cyborg Iron Man from the retreating Doctor Doom, Tony commanded Jarvis of this universe to send him back to his workbench so he could focus entirely on dealing with Doctor Doom.

The present Tony versus the future Tony is essentially a losing battle.

Tony wouldn't expect his dark version of himself to waste his entire future on dogs.

However, it cannot be said that the outcome of this battle is certain death, because Tony realized an important issue: he is the present, and the other party is the future. In other words, in the other party's eyes, Tony is the 'past', and he himself is the 'present'.

Will killing your past self affect your present self?

The core power consumption of the armor reached a new high, and Tony's offensive became increasingly fierce. Although Doctor Doom was able to perfectly deflect each attack, it was clear that he was feeling constrained.

The other party couldn't kill Tony as ruthlessly as they would another Iron Man who was unrelated to them; killing Tony would also threaten the other party's existence.

"I am you from the past. If I didn't exist, you couldn't exist either—so you couldn't possibly kill me, right?"

Realizing this, Tony felt much more relaxed and, without any further reservations, immediately launched into a verbal sparring session:

"If that's the case, why can't you just leave and go home to your mother? Wait, no—"

Sometimes, you have to be careful about the context and the person you're talking to. After Tony said those words, he wasn't sure if he had hurt the other person, but he felt a pang of guilt.

Tony Stark, the Iron Man, lost his parents in a car accident a long time ago, and he has no mother, either now or in the future.

But then again, the other person is your future self, not some outsider. What kind of trash talk could hurt him without hurting yourself?

"Fool, your mother died long ago, just like your father, murdered!"

The future version of Tony, disguised as Doctor Doom, also became annoyed upon hearing this. The dark green energy spell reappeared in his hand, and with one impact, Tony and his body pierced through the entire Stark Tower and crashed into the Manhattan neighborhood.

However, the impact of such an attack on Tony, who was well protected by the Amoghavajra armor, was not as significant as Doctor Doom's words just now. Tony's voice immediately rose eight octaves in pitch:

"You're saying they were murdered?! How could that be?!"

"You would have found out sooner, but..."

Doctor Doom, like a shadowy figure traversing time and space, traversed miles in a single step, landing a foot on Tony's chest, pinning the latter to the ground, rendering him immobile.

"You don't have that chance!"

Doctor Doom is violently breaking into the core of Tony's Amoghavajra armor, which encases his entire body. If nothing unexpected happens, Tony will be disarmed within minutes and become a mortal who can be killed at the slightest touch.

"You just said that my future self can't kill my past self? Wrong! The law of cause and effect doesn't work that way!"

The spell of destruction coalesced in Doctor Doom's hand. No one in the world likes their younger, naive, and idealistic self, and Doctor Doom is no exception:

"Besides, I am not bound by the paradox of cause and effect, nor am I beyond time, while you are nothing but an arrogant and ignorant fool. You know nothing, and you'd better be dead!"

The violent magical energy surge was unleashed by Doctor Doom, leaving Tony completely immobilized under his foot. He could only watch helplessly as this destructive energy wave, whose name he didn't know but could be tentatively called the "Tony's really going to die spell," drew ever closer to him.

"We're doomed!"

Tony had already subconsciously closed his eyes and waited for death, but unexpectedly, the next second a loud bang was heard, and layer upon layer of sound waves that broke the sound barrier swept past Tony's ears.

A fierce wind swept by, and even with Tony's armor sensors, all he could see was a red light carrying Doctor Doom, dressed in a green robe, flying away from the scene.

A strong, powerful hand pulled Tony up. Once he was standing, Tony opened his eyes and saw the familiar bat logo. A huge weight lifted from his shoulders, and he immediately started talking again:

"You're too early. You should have come later. I could have turned the tables on him!"

"The next time you send a message using a beacon, it's best to choose a target terminal that can receive the signal."

Batman, well aware of Tony's stubbornness, completely ignored him. He simply looked around to make sure no civilians were affected before taking Iron Man and flying away from the Manhattan neighborhood, which had become like a war zone.

It's really not the Batman/Superman duo's fault for arriving too late. When Tony, this genius, used the teleportation beacon to send the location coordinates, he chose a receiver that was completely useless:

"Your beacon signal was sent directly to 'Friday,' that AI was completely destroyed in the battle between Superman and Ultron."

On Friday, Tony's carrier was blown to pieces along with Joey by Ultron's Red Sun Fusion; Tony was essentially sending coordinates to a non-existent terminal.

Tony should be grateful that Batman put in a lot of effort in building the teleportation device, and that Parker's clever mind also helped a lot with the location coordinates.

Otherwise, Tony would have had to just put it in the box by now.

Where are we going?

"Go and correct your beacon, redirect the transmission instrument."

In short, it's about bringing in reinforcements from Tony's universe.

This was also part of the initial plan.

According to Superman, Doctor Doom is a genius who is "both scientific and magical," with "scientific" referring to technology and "magic" referring to magic.

The opponent is basically a combination of Zatanna and Lex Luthor, but ten times more dangerous.

While Joey isn't particularly afraid of direct magical damage, the path of magic is, in a serious and unorthodox way.

Throughout his career, Batman has dealt with all sorts of evil spirits in the beautiful and resource-rich city of Gotham. He knows very well that the most troublesome magic is not damage-type spells like fireballs.

Batman, carrying Tony, flew directly to Stark Tower and answered Tony's questions truthfully:

"Superman might not be able to handle Doctor Doom's magic. We need to find some support, especially in terms of magic."