Chapter 22: Chapter 22: Meeting in the Alley
Captain Edward eventually died.
"Damn." Ethan dropped the bandages and looked at the car full of bodies, the Black Bess's engines still shaking slightly, the crimson blood dripping into them, and then Ethan seemed to hear a sigh in the darkness.
"This?" Ethan looked in shock at the Mark tank, the latter already scarred, with several huge bullet holes in the front and pieces being chipped off all over the place, it was logical that the tank would soon be recalled as the battle line advanced and then repaired somehow for a new crew until it was dismantled into scrap metal at the end of the war, as if this was her destiny.
Ethan placed his right hand on the tank's armour, golden flames of psychic energy spread out and wrapped around the entire tank, which he could feel seemed to have a hint of consciousness of its own.
Black Bess, the Mark IV tank that had arrived at the front in 1917, had destroyed dozens of guns, more than a dozen armoured vehicles and wiped out hundreds of German infantry, and now she had three more German-paid Marks and an A7V to add to her record, except that her who had created this record were long gone.
"A machine soul?" After feeling the faint soul pulsing, Ethan thought that it would be better to keep the tank in his own hands, after all, he didn't want the tank's machine soul to suddenly lose its temper one night and take out Buckingham Palace with one shot. (TN: 𝘞𝘦𝘭𝘭... 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘢𝘺.)
"Ethan, what are you doing?" Diana, who had already cleared out the remaining German troops, looked curiously at the tank wrapped in flames.
"Is this your divine power?"
"Something like that. Diana, keep an eye on the men for me." Ethan stilled his breath and concentrated on the power of the Star Torch with all his might, then Diana saw a swirling vortex of energy appear in the present world, a hint of golden lightning spilling out from time to time, then the Mark IV tank was swallowed up a little by the vortex.
After the whole Mark IV was fully loaded in, a sweating Ethan fell to his knees with a pale face.
"Sure enough, it's still too big."
"Ethan, are you all right." Diana, who was on sentry duty, turned her head and saw Ethan, who was struggling on his knees, rushing over and carefully helping the other man up.
Although she didn't know where the tank had been taken by Ethan, she could tell by the look of Ethan that transporting that tank must have been very hard.
"It's fine, just a bit off." Pulling off his mask and then unbuckling his chest armour, Ethan half leaned against the earthen wall.
"Looks like we're going to have to take a little break." Feeling the already dried up psychic energy, Ethan gave an ugly smile.
"I'll carry you over." Without further ado, Diana grabbed Ethan and lifted him onto her shoulders.
"Actually, I think I can walk." Looking at himself, a 6'8" man, being lifted by a woman as easily as if she were carrying a bag, Ethan tried to struggle a little, but it turned out to be in vain.
𝘽𝙚𝙡𝙜𝙞𝙖𝙣 𝙩𝙤𝙬𝙣
A long line of grizzled German prisoners walked through the streets, occasionally being beaten by the Allied soldiers escorting them for being slow, and piles of Allied soldiers mingled with the crowd to search the prisoners for their belongings and personal effects.
Although the officers were not far away, they didn't care about what the soldiers were doing, as long as no one was killed, which the Germans had done much more brutally.
"Medic, get your ass over here." Seeing Ethan being towed over, several ANZAC soldiers who were scavenging for loot immediately kicked their captors out of the way and shouted at the top of their lungs as if their asses were on fire.
"No, I'm fine, just get me something to eat." Ethan waved his hand and gestured for the soldiers to come over, "If you're alright, go and see if that German armoured car over there is alright, the Germans have been poor for a few years now, what's worth robbing here?"
The soldiers led the way and went off, while Ethan sat right on the ruins scanning the prisoners below.
"Mr Lawrence, are you all right." Steve, who had hurried over, was turning into a fan of Ethan's, killing his way through the German lines single-handedly, fighting in close combat and blowing up tanks, that was the ideal spy in his mind.
"It's all right, just rushed too hard and lost my strength." Ethan took the chocolate, stuffed it into his mouth and took a few more sips of water before he got more comfortable.
"I've just interrogated the POWs, there's probably another regiment of German troops at the German airfield, also it's said that there are three divisions of German troops on our flanks ready to retake the area because the defences have been torn, what do we do?"
"Our objective is Ludendorff's gas factory, as for the Allied troops here, that's for the generals in the rear to worry about. What's more, Colonel Connor is no mediocrity, if we can't beat them, the Allies can withdraw to the previous lines, it doesn't matter if the lines are in our hands or not as long as we take out Ludendorff and leave Germany with no hope of turning the tide completely."
"I understand." Steve nodded, he was the one who was thinking too much.
"Now, we'll take a short break, then change into German clothes, pretend to be the evacuated German high command and go straight to the airport."
"Brilliant." Steve looked at Ethan and it dawned on him, no wonder the Ottomans were being tossed around by Ethan every day, they just couldn't find him, he had learned this trick.
"But the Germans must have been heavily lined up. And those brothers of mine, they don't look like Germans either."
"Just a matter of simple trick." Looking at Ethan's unsuspecting gaze, Steve suddenly felt that something was terribly wrong.
𝘼𝙣 𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙧
A convoy consisting of a German-built armoured car, a Mercedes civilian car, and a Bulldog troop-carrying truck with an iron cross spray-painted on it approached the German lines.
"Who are you, show your papers." The wary German sentry stopped the convoy with his Mauser G-98 rifle in hand.
"Escorting the Colonel and his wife back to their country." The first armoured car opened and down stepped a non-commissioned officer in Storm Commando garb, a Luger pistol sticking out of his chest and an MP-18 submachine gun grasped in his right hand.
"Colonel?" The sentry looked suspiciously at the second vehicle and vaguely saw a German colonel sitting in the passenger seat, with a bejewelled brunette in the back.
"Well." As if sensing the soldier's gaze, the officer grunted in displeasure.
"Sorry, sir, the front line is unknown and we're trying to prevent the enemy from infiltrating the rear." The sentry saluted, then apologised.
"Alright, if you want to check, hurry up." The Storm Commando sergeant waved his hand, then whispered to the sentry, "This colonel has the word Rommel in his name, and his wife is the niece of General Ludendorff, the battle situation at the front is unknown, so the chief sent us to escort him. You must be careful."
"Let them go." Not long ago he had seen Ludendorff shoot an officer who disobeyed his orders and send a bunch of peacemakers from the army who did not want to attack to the gas chambers, and the bodies of those people were still skimming in the mass graves outside the camp.
"Duty calls, please excuse me sir." The sentry was tempted to just let the convoy pass, but orders from his superiors could not be disobeyed or he too would be dead.
Still, the sentry's inspection was quite lax, merely checking the Colonel's papers, not looking at the Colonel's face, before the sentry saw Steve and his buddies tied up in a third car.
"What are these men?"
"Prisoners taken by the Colonel at the front, with the Americans named by General Ludendorff."
The sentry stepped forward to take a closer look and nodded at the sight of the people inside.
"I'm sorry sir, for the delay."
"All right, you did your duty too, I'll commend you to your chief."
The convoy set off again and after crossing the line did not drive towards a nearby city but found a secluded spot to stop.
"Shit, these clothes are too tight." Ethan jumped out of the car, ripped open the collar and took a long breath.
"It's tighter here alright." Steve struggled and bounced up from the bucket of the truck, complaining loudly about how tightly Ethan's men had tied him up.
"Sorry, I'm used to tying up sheep back home in Australia." The ANZAC soldier disguised as a guard on one side scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.
"It's a very good suit, not as good as my battle armour." Diana, dressed in a dark blue dress, stepped out of the car with Ethan's help, then drew her Vulcan sword from the opening in the back of her own dress.
"All right, everyone distribute weapons and keep quiet, this is less than five kilometres from the airfield and we might run into a German patrol. Everyone be careful." As the highest ranking man, Ethan took command.
Then everyone who had finished dressing trotted all the way through the woods and leaned towards the German airfield.
"What's the distance?"
"About five hundred metres."
"Mortars set up, get ready to support."
Two British-built 2-inch mortars were unloaded by the burly ANZAC soldiers, who then unloaded two boxes of spherical shells that would take up the role of supporting Ethan and the others after the firefight with the Germans.
"Diana, once we fight later, if you spot any sign of Ares, make sure you don't make a move, we'll move together."
"Why, it is my mission to destroy Ares."
"Don't talk about a one-on-one mission with an evil demon like that, let's all go side by side, cannons and machine guns together." Ethan said with a straight face.
"What's more, didn't you say that Ares started the war, so this war should involve us too."
"I understand, but Ares is after all the god of war and powerful, you must be careful."
......…
"Never mind, if one works hard enough, one can turn the tide of war." Ludendorff reassured himself as he looked at the rows of Gotha GV bombers behind him.
The mustard gas bombs had been developed, and the kind of strengthening potion developed by Dr. Elizabeth Maru, the poison doctor, had given him new ideas to create a powerful superhuman army, an army of immense strength that could easily tear apart all enemies, and then the Reich would become the master of the world.
"First step, France, Britain, then America and India." Muttering to himself, Ludendorff was completely unaware of a German armoured car creaking into the airfield.
"Sir, there's been another riot in Berlin." The adjutant knocked on the door and entered the room, dropping off a routine briefing.
"Damn, these ungrateful brutes, the Reich has fed and clothed them and now they are asking the Reich to stop the war instead, these traitors." After a fit of anger, Ludendorff covered his face and gestured for the adjutant to go out, he wanted to be left alone.
"Hello, is General Ludendorff there?" Suddenly, Ludendorff heard a familiar-sounding voice from outside the room.
"Yes, General is in his office."
"Yes, thank you."
Ethan gave a broad smile, then raised his pistol.
"Bang." The adjutant who couldn't believe what was happening fell down covering his chest, then a line of soldiers with MP18s stood out behind Ethan.
"Fire."
The dense stream of bullets instantly knocked the walls apart, and after firing a magazine, Ethan lit himself a cigarette, followed by another volley of grenades flying into the room.
A violent explosion ripped the adobe office apart, sending all sorts of papers and scraps of paper flying everywhere.
"Come on, General, you're being cautious enough to dig trenches in your office, I wonder who that's protecting against?" Ethan tossed the largely unshortened cigarette into the ragged room.
But the room remained deadly silent and Ethan waved his hand, gesturing for the Rangers soldiers to leave to help Steve destroy the factory, leaving himself in place.
"What, the General is afraid to even see me alone?"
It was then that a footstep came from the room, and then a grimy, but refreshed Ludendorff came out of the ruins carrying his own sword.
"Who are you?" Looking at the German uniform the other man was wearing, Ludendorff thought it couldn't be the Junkers at home who had sent him to get rid of him.
"What? Didn't you put a bounty on my head?" Ethan made a shooting motion.
"It's you." Ludendorff opened his mouth and felt phantom pain in his thigh again.
"Have you never seen someone as arrogant as me." Ethan pulled out his pistol, loaded it and opened the safety and pulled the holster in one fluid motion.
"And you have the nerve to come to my place, do you know how many guards I have here, they'll be here in less than three minutes."
"I know, that's why I brought super powerful and sexy long legs, I'm sure your guards are being rubbed on the ground right now." Ethan pointed to the barracks not far away where the fight was going on, then raised his pistol.
"You're finished, General, not only you but your empire will be finished too."
"On what grounds, you British and French are full of air because you have colonies to eat, we are merely trying to expand and gain the resources to feed our citizens."
"I have nothign against that." Ethan pulled the trigger repeatedly and the bullets made several bloody holes in Ludendorff, but the other man merely looked at the holes in his body and did not fall down.
"You underestimate what it means to have power." Ludendorff laughed as he drew his sabre and the fifty-something year old man froze and ran as fast as Bolt to slice it down.
Looking at his opponent's uncharacteristic face, Ethan knew the other man must have taken one of those potions Dr. Maru had given him.
The movie only showed that taking the drug would make Ludendorff immensely strong, but now it seemed the effect had the added bonus of tenacity and keen speed.
"I'm sick of you guys getting high on drugs when you don't have the power to fight." Ethan dodged his opponent's attack and cracked the rest of his bullets into his head, but Ludendorff was quicker to react, raising his own saber and deflecting those 9mm bullets.
"Don't struggle, son, victory will surely be ours in the end..." Before Ludendorff could finish his sentence, a war hammer came crashing down, not only breaking his sabre but also smashing his face with a smashing blow.
After the hammer flew back into his hands with his mind control, Ethan let out a heartfelt sigh of admiration, "No wonder so many people love hammers, they feel so good to smash people."
Although Dr. Maru's potion had strengthened his body, Ethan's hammer had shattered his bones.
"Well, no more games, goodbye, Sir General." Ethan flung his war hammer and with a hard blow plus a roundhouse, the body of Ludendorff, whose head was open, spun a hundred and eighty degrees in the air before landing heavily on the ground, blood gushing out and soon staining his uniform red.
"It's over, isn't it?" Ethan thought so, and just as he was about to turn around, a sharp sword suddenly pierced his body.
...... ...... ...
"You ...'re not Diana?" Ethan, who was forcing himself to endure the immense pain, looked at the lich standing behind him and pushed his psychic energy to repair the broken organs and wounds while looking at the other man.
"You're Ares?"
"Hahahahahaha ..." The figure that looked exactly like Diana laughed loudly, then the body changed into Sir Patrick, the British General, Steve, and Ludendorff, whom he had seen before in London, and finally, into a man in hideous armour with a bull-horned helmet of a stout man.
"TE Lawrence, or Ethan Hunt, your existence is a mystery to me, you dare not exist in this world, where do you really come from?" Ares was puzzled, although he was a god of war, he had some sense of destiny, but he could not see through Ethan, especially the hint of divinity that Ethan carried with him, which made him a little wary.
"It doesn't matter where I come from, what matters is that you will soon cease to exist in this world." Feeling the wound finish recovering Ethan wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and raised his war hammer, covered in golden psychic flames, and aimed it at Ares.
"Come on, backstabbing scumbag, fight."
"As you wish." Ares opened his hands and quickly reorganised his two swords, then he crossed them and slashed at Ethan.
Ethan's left hand opened up his psychic shield and let the swords hit the shield and make sparks, while his right hand threw a war hammer to repel his opponent, and then his left hand grabbed a thick piece of wood and smashed it at Ares.
"A small skill." With a flick of his longsword, Ares sliced the wood to pieces, while dozens of flying swords made of a combination of metals stabbed at Ethan at the same time.
"Damn it." Ethan could only pull out the Numinous Barrier once again, and when the flying swords and the Numinous Barrier touched, a huge impact bounced Ethan more than ten metres away.
"Damn it." Knowing that he couldn't beat his opponent head on, Ethan immediately switched tactics and slammed all sorts of weapons and explosives into his opponent, but Ares could fly.
"Fuck." Ethan, who was carrying his EM1 plasma rifle, gritted his teeth and fired his overload rifle directly, the red plasma beam hitting Ares' body before successfully leaving scars on the opponent's armour.
"Peculiar weapon." Ares couldn't help but show his surprise, this was the first time he had seen such a mortal weapon that could hurt him, but so what? It was only a wound, it wasn't like it could cause any fatal injuries.
Ethan, on the other hand, looked at the rifle that had begun to alarm him and slammed it directly at his opponent, then with his head in his hands, he flung himself into the mud, huddled up and prepared for the impact.
Plasma, this is one of the two big killers that Atlas Corporation can currently hold, the other being the electromagnetic railgun technology.
The EM1 rifle derives its energy from four plasma batteries inside the gun, followed by a constraining magnetic field that turns the plasma energy into a long, thin beam. The weapon relies on super-heat to kill, so this weapon suffers from a kind of overheating problem.
The overload shot, on the other hand, was a very dangerous way to use the plasma rifle, and when the safety lock was removed, the killing power of the plasma rifle increased significantly, but the consequences were also obvious.
The plasma battery could not cool down and would explode, and the power of a single plasma battery explosion was equivalent to several kilograms of black sokin dynamite, and not to mention the scorching energy that would splash everywhere after the explosion.
"Damn you." Carrying his longsword Ares stepped out of the smoke, his armour had been corroded in places by the plasma, after all it wasn't Zeus' heart and soul, Ares' armour was strictly speaking of average quality.
"Bastard, what have you done?" Ares' heart was dripping blood at the moment, his relationship with the gods was poor, so when his armour broke he had to repair it himself, and he had to find his own materials and stuff, in short, he was living a stingy life, otherwise why else would he be hanging around on earth.
Ethan, pulling out the only revolver he had on hand that still had ammunition and snapping it at Ares.
"It's useless, your weapon is scrap metal." With his longsword held high, Ares was ready to give Ethan another hard shot when Diana, who had helped finish dealing with the gas bombs, finally arrived.
Her long legs kicked Ares straight out a few dozen metres before Diana helped Ethan up, "Are you alright?"
"Got slashed, I probably can't hold on anymore if I you won't kiss me." Ethan's intention was to make a joke, but Diana didn't get the snide joke and thought it was true, so. (TN: 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺! 😒)
"Muah~"
"Wait for me here." A blushing Diana carried her shield and Vulcan sword, and with a flourish of her two long legs, she banged Ares in a sonic boom.
And Ethan seized the time to push his psychic energy to make complete repairs to the injuries he had been inflicted earlier on.
"Why, Diana, my sister, why do you have to get involved in this?"
"Sister?" Diana wondered, she hadn't known that her mother and Zeus were having an affair.
"Your father is Zeus. My father is also Zeus, we are family, why can't we join forces." Despite the words, the movements of Ares' hands didn't slow down.
"So what, you have started wars in the world, countless people have died because of you, and now you want to convince me, it's impossible."
"In that case, I have nothing more to say." Ares soared into the sky, then his arms opened and his divine power condensed countless German grenades.
"I must say, human ingenuity is infinite, and these deadly weapons truly fascinate me." Ares laughed as his hands retracted and countless grenades immediately fell free and smashed to the ground.
Diana looked at the mountains of arms and ammunition piled up around her, then grabbed an aerial bomb and smashed it high into the air.
The grenade and bomb collided with a dazzling burst of sparks, and after seeing the attack blocked, Ares tried to get something else going before a golden rope was tied around his foot.
"You think this is going to work on me?" Yanked off, Ares looked at Diana, "You think I started all the wars in the world of men, don't you?"
"You're wrong Diana, this war would have broken out without me, as that man of yours taught you, humans are profit-seeking creatures, and where there is a conflict of interest they will wage war. And I, in a small way, have only helped them."
"Then you're still guilty." Diana tightened her lasso of truth and threw Ares out, and after a few dozen punches and blows, Ares chose to run away.
Wonder Woman gave chase and kicked Ares to the ground, then threw a right and left, and with her Hercules wrist guard, she shattered Ares' horned helmet, revealing the face beneath.
"Humans are not worth saving, just like him." Ares gestured to Ethan, who was lying on the ground gasping for air.
"You think he's good? He has ordered the execution of hundreds of unarmed prisoners of war, look at the world around us, the wars, the plagues, all the evils caused by humans, don't you want to see the world as it was before?"
Seeing Diana stop her fist, Ares was overjoyed and smashed Diana with a fist, then beckoned for an armoured car and smashed it into Diana.
Caught off guard, Diana was smashed squarely in the face, and then the tin on the armoured car began to crumble and roll, before enveloping her personally.
"Since you still don't know any better, I'll just have to destroy you." Ares tightened his bindings, then his hands urged thunder, leaping lightning wrapped around his battle armour, then he raised his hands and aimed them at Diana.
Another warhammer blast to the head, interrupted from casting Ares looked to Ethan who charged at himself with Diana's shield in his left hand and his warhammer retrieved in his right.
As Ares, who had condensed his longsword to slash down vigorously, prepared to slice his shield and man in two, Ethan spun around and the warhammer smashed into Ares' knee.
"Damn."
Sliding away Ethan turned to battle up, flying shield, flying hammer, both flying in unison, a series of moves that smashed Ares' head.
"I said that's enough." Impatient, Ares radiated lightning in anger, enveloping Ethan in it.
"No." Diana, who felt the destructive power the thunderbolt contained, watched as Ethan's breath grew weaker and weaker in the thunderbolt, her mind recalling images of her opponent training with her, eating ice cream together, and giving lessons to herself, and a steady stream of anger poured out as the trap Ares had used to bind her was broken free.
"You're right about humans, Ares, but you're ignoring the good that they have, the good that they believe they can create."
"That is all a lie. Without us, they would be nothing." Ares withdrew his lightning bolt and once again summoned hundreds of rapiers, along with his own twin swords, and thrust them at Diana.
Looking at the incoming rapiers, Diana didn't dodge or dodge, her Hercules wrist guards intertwined and the shimmering energy leapt to shatter the incoming rapiers and, at the same time, blasted Ares back at a faster speed.
"They are not worthy of your protection." Ares rose from the ground and condensed lightning into a javelin to smash into Diana.
"It has nothing to do with being worthy."
Although he was badly battered by the lightning, Ethan was not in any fear for his life; a large part of the lightning coalescing from Ares' divine power was absorbed by the Star Torch and then transformed, while the rest of the energy kept swimming around inside him, performing strengthening surgery on Ethan.
In a trance, Ethan seemed to see the Star Torch properly, an incomparably large structure with a blazing flame illuminating the entire world, while in the dimly lit firmament, the divine lightning from Ares pulled out an incomparably large vortex of energy, the bottom of which, coincidentally, was just above the Star Torch.
"This?" Ethan opened his right hand, and then a lightning javelin of the same shape coalesced in his hand, except that the colour was golden.
"Is this being absorbed?" Ethan was overjoyed, but it looked like it would take some time for the Star Torch to transform after absorbing Ares' divine power.
"In that case." Ethan snapped his eyes open and saw Diana pressing Ares with great power.
"I'm back on the battlefield." Raising his war hammer with lightning and storm power attached to it, Ethan threw his left lightning javelin, blowing up Ares who had just kicked Diana out of the way.
"Ahem." Ares spat out a mouthful of armour splinters, a flash of fear in his eyes, before getting up and trying to buy Ethan off.
"You like Diana, aren't you?, A new God. How about this? you and I join forces, you get Paradise Island and this woman, and the world, you want wealth, I'll give you wealth, you want power, I'll give you power, how about that?" Ares was talking out of his ass, in short, if you follow him, you'll get a lot of benefits.
"That sounds good." Ethan mused for a moment, then shot a glance at Diana, who was standing aside, "However, I don't think you can meet this condition of mine."
"Oh, what condition?" Ares didn't think so, I'm the second most powerful god under Zeus, how can there be anything I can't do.
"I wish, peace in the world."
"This ..." Ares had a hundred thousand grass horses running through his heart, what was his godhood, war, god of war.
If there was no war, would he be needed then?
"I'm afraid I can't do this one, anything else will do."
Diana and Ethan had pounced on him, a mixed-gender double-team, with Diana occasionally throwing a lasso of truth to control, and then Ethan discharged plus threw his hammer, and after a flurry of output, Ares' armor was in tatters and even his body was showing some tendency to disintegrate.
"No." Ares, who knew that he was bound to lose if he continued to fight, took a deep breath and decided to open up and make a move to decide the winner.
The black clouds tumbled over the airport, blue thunder hovered like a dragon, and as Ares summoned it, an incomparably thick thunderbolt descended from the sky and struck the two.
"Ethan, get out of the way." Diana crossed her arms, flashing her Hercules gauntlets in preparation to absorb the thunderbolt, before she saw Ethan raise his war hammer equally high and very arrogantly gave a middle finger to the thunderbolt.
Ethan, who had been struck squarely by the lightning, frantically squeezed his psychic energy, and the Star Torch, like a long-thirsty traveller in the desert who had seen water, frantically absorbed the energy, then squeezed, purified and transformed it into fuel for the Star Torch.
"What?" Ares panicked after watching Ethan.
"Damn it, go die die die." The essence reorganised itself into two long swords and Ares just slashed at Ethan, who didn't dodge or duck, letting the blades pierce his body before he grabbed Ares' arm.
"It's too cold, how about we warm up a bit?"
"What?"
Shining golden spiritual energy gushed out of Ethan's body like running water, then spread up and wrapped around Ares, and despite Ares pushing his power to fight the flames, they grew stronger and stronger, and it was as if his divine power was the gasoline that helped to ignite them.
"How can this be, I cannot fail." Feeling the power leave him Ares was now questioning his life, could Ethan have been set up by Zeus to kill him along with Diana?
"Kill? Hahahahaha." Ares suddenly burst out laughing, Ethan's power had indeed consumed his divine power, but it was not enough to kill him, "You can't kill me, you're just wasting your effort."
"Oh." Feeling like the Star Torch was getting full Ethan let go of Ares to reveal Diana standing behind him, "Not me? How about her then?"
The same thunderbolt burst out of the Diana's bracelet, enveloping Ares' body, and then, BOOM.
The sky suddenly cleared up and the sun slowly peeked out from the sea.
Ethan looked out and saw that the huge German airfield was in a mess, the German soldiers and pilots stationed here had been wiped out by Ares' AOE and there were no standing buildings at the airfield now.
"Ethan." Diana gathered her equipment and was about to give Ethan a victory hug when she realised that his uniform had been reduced to rags from the battle.
"I'll change first." Feeling the air blow below him.
After changing Ethan and Diana went inside a not so damaged building where Diana asked about him.
"You, are you leaving then?"
"Yeah, but I'll be back to see you." Ethan didn't want to be a slag down, but the Star Torch, which had finished digesting Ares' divine power, was reminding him that it was time to go home.
"Sir, are you all right?" Just as both of were awkwardly unsure of what to say, an SUV drove around the ruins with none other than Steve in it.
Last night Steve and the others had taken the German factory with mortar support, and after setting the bombs, the men had intended to go and support Ethan, but the crackling lightning and hurricane winds that had fallen had prevented them from getting close.
Steve had had to pull out with the men and wait overnight to see the airfield suddenly quiet before driving over.
"Where's Ludendorff?"
"Over here." Ethan lifted the half-formed shortsword and Ludendorff's medal, "Gone, to a better place I believe."
...... ...... ...
"Captain Steve, you say you've taken care of the German factory and killed the German General Ludendorff?"
"Yes, sir."
"And where is Colonel Lawrence? Shouldn't he be here with you to report on the battle?"
"Uh." Steve rubbed his nose in embarrassment as he remembered the man and woman who had just got off the ship and had run away, "Sir, Colonel Lawrence, er, he's gone on a very important mission. So he couldn't come back."
"An important mission? How important is it, that I don't know?"
"Very important, in the sense that our future is at stake."
......
𝙄𝙣 𝙖𝙣 𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙮𝙬𝙖𝙮 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙖𝙥𝙞𝙩𝙖𝙡 𝙤𝙛 𝙎𝙤𝙠𝙤𝙫𝙞𝙖
Ethan carrying his war hammer looked across at a pretty teenage girl with a puppy in her arms who was at a loss for words.
"Uncle, do you know that this look of yours is not good." Wanda chewed bubble gum, stroked the head of the dog in her arms, squinted at the guy in front of her.
"Who are you calling an uncle?"
"You, a bearded dusty face, look at yourself. I am sure, you never had a girlfriend."
"I ..." Ethan shoved the hammer back into his backpack at his feet, ignoring the other party, turned his head and wanted to walk outside the alley. He didn't expect to come back and meet this girl here.
He was too tired to know that Diana wanted to have children, and Ethan had to go and enjoy his victory with the common people. He then gave Diana the oil shares Prince Faisal had given him and came back.
"If I come back and find you've lost everything, you'll be waiting to see how I'll punish you." After dropping these words, Ethan hurriedly ran away, or he would have to be dragged back to Paradise Island to have a baby, no way.
Just as Ethan was about to walk out of the alleyway, suddenly another teenage boy ran out of the alleyway shouting "Wanda, come back home for dinner."
And then he met up with Ethan.
"Wow, Uncle, you look good in that." The youngster drooled and touched the corner of Ethan's coat, "It feels just like the soldier man from company xx, but it's a pity they only make models and don't sell clothes, uncle, where can you buy this suit? How much is it?" (TN: 𝘏𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘊𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘭 𝘜𝘯𝘪𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘞𝘞1)
"Issued by the state, not for sale. Besides, what's so great about these antiques, look at those big guys from Atlas, don't they look good?"
"Those guys, I see them every day, I'm already tired of seeing them." The young man tilted his head and looked at the tall Ethan.
"Tired of it, you're tired of it when you haven't even touched it?"
"If I was old enough, I would have joined the Atlas ..."
"Pietro, you're daydreaming again, I'm going to tell mum." The girl followed Ethan out of the alley and then punched the boy.
"Ouch, Wanda, lighten up, there are outsiders here, give me some face. I'm the man who's going to be a captain in Atlas Forces in the future." The boys were a little embarrassed.
"Captain? The Atlas don't have that position." Ethan was a little amused, generally civilians joined the Atlas mostly in logistics and support positions, basically it was impossible to get into the combat unit.
"Then there will definitely be one dedicated to me in the future, and also, how are you sure that the Atlas don't have this position?"
"Because I'm the boss of the Atlas." Ethan took off his hat and waved his hand at the Atlas convoy coming down the street on patrol, then the soldier immediately opened his car door and was about to salute when Ethan stopped him.
"It's okay, take me to command, and besides, kids, go home and eat."
Looking at the distant convoy and the respectful soldier, Pietro responded that what the other man had said was true.
"Just you wait, I'm sure I'll join the Atlas as the first Captian."
Leaning back in the comfortable leather seat of the six-wheeled armoured vehicle.
"Boss, it's for your phone."
"Ethan, you still remember home?" Before he could pick up the phone, Kate's voice came out.
"Brought you a present." With those words, Ethan signalled for the captain to hang up the communication and then had the armoured car rush to the airport.
Only after getting on the plane and changing into his new one million dollar custom suit did Ethan leisurely open his tablet and flick through the recent news.
"Obadiah's dead? Stark is Iron Man?" Looking at the front page headline from the New York Daily News, Ethan clicked in curiously.
It turned out that since the Abomination War, Stark had felt guilty watching the destruction of the city by the two big guys, so he planned to set up a disaster relief foundation for the widows and injured of those who died, and this foundation also pulled in quite a few giants from other industries in the U.S.
Then the day the foundation was set up, everyone was in Times Square preparing to ring the bell, when Obadiah drove an Iron Monger with a new weapon mounted on it It came down from the sky.
As he was about to settle the score with Stark, the other man pulled out his suitcase, transformed into an iron battle armour and fought Obadiah.
Which then turned into a spherical microwave shield that deflected Iron Monger's missiles.
"He ... copied it. Does the patent office even care." Then when Ethan looked down next, he found that Stark had also copied his drone tactics, with more than a dozen drones the size of footballs flying out of his limousine and cooperating with him in a messy battle with the Iron Monger, before he finally got the better of him and killed Obadiah with the Iron Monger's own sonic cannon on his shoulder.
Then there was the image of a dapper suited Stark with a blank face saying he was Iron Man.
"This ..." Ethan counted up the fight Stark had just had, the shield was theirs, the drones were theirs, and several of the weapons on Obadiah's armor were also those of the Atlas', these guys are pirating in the open.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone