Chapter 21: On the Importance of Aircraft Buoyancy

Upon receiving the command, Jarvis cooperated, controlling the Iron Man armor to slowly approach Annie's Quinjet, eventually matching its speed and flying parallel just above the cockpit.

What made Tony's eyes nearly pop out of his head was discovering that the person operating the plane wasn't a pilot at all! Instead, it was a little girl, perhaps only seven or eight years old, sitting in the co-pilot's seat. There was a woman in the pilot's seat who looked more like a professional, but she didn't have her hands on the controls at all.

"Whoa, cool! Look what I see? A little girl flying a fighter jet? No wonder, no wonder SHIELD is going to hell lately!" Tony began to complain uncontrollably after connecting to the Quinjet's public channel.

"Huh?" Seeing Iron Man flying parallel to her nose, Annie felt curious. She had never seen such a flying tin monster before; it looked like a lot of fun.

"Auntie Melinda, what is that thing?"

"It seems to be Iron Man? A playboy named Tony Stark!" Melinda frowned as she watched Iron Man flying alongside them. She had seen the reports and knew who he was, but as a traditional woman, Melinda strongly disliked this scandal-ridden, profligate playboy.

"Playboy? Is he a bad guy?" Annie didn't understand the meaning of the word, but she sensed the dislike in Melinda's voice. While staring curiously at the metal man, she continued to ask.

"Exactly! A playboy is a type of bad guy, especially this one in front of us!" Melinda nodded affirmatively, suppressing a laugh.

"Hey! Lady, watch it, I'll sue you for defamation! However, if you're willing to agree to dinner with me, I might find it in my heart to forgive you." Tony Stark had also heard their conversation through the connected public channel. He absolutely disagreed with Melinda defining him as a bad guy!

"Is that so? Then..." Annie ignored the metal monster outside, who was lightly tapping on the cockpit glass with his finger as if trying to continue the conversation.

Her eyes darted around as if she had thought of something fun. With a mischievous grin, she suddenly yanked the control stick. The red Quinjet lunged forward toward him, slamming into the metal monster and knocking him off balance, causing him to drop.

"Danger! Annie, don't!" Seeing Annie's reckless behavior, Melinda was startled! Fortunately, they had been flying in parallel; if it had been a head-on collision, it could have resulted in a plane crash.

"Waaaaah~!!"

Caught off guard by the impact, Tony Stark's engines malfunctioned and cut out. Losing power instantly, he began to fall. Fortunately, he was currently in the stratosphere, giving him enough time to troubleshoot the issue.

"Jarvis! Think of something, fast!" Seeing his altitude plummeting, Tony hurriedly called out to Jarvis.

"Adjusting, sir. I need a little time."

As data streams flashed across his faceplate, the intelligent program Jarvis was performing high-speed calculations, working hard to help Tony resolve the malfunction.

"Done, sir. Fault cleared!"

As Jarvis's voice came through, Tony found he could control the armor again. He hurriedly adjusted his posture, with energy torrents erupting from the thrusters in his hands and feet, finally managing to maintain his altitude.

"Watch above! Sir, emergency evasion!"

Before Tony Stark could breathe a sigh of relief, Jarvis suddenly issued an alarm. Tony looked up to see the red Quinjet diving toward him like an eagle swooping down on a rabbit.

"Oh! Dammit!"

Tony Stark hurriedly increased his engine output, engaging the power systems in his limbs to blast off in another direction, attempting to escape the red plane's dive. Tony knew that if he were hit by another dive like that, he would be finished! The armor might even fall apart.

"Haha! Got you, metal monster!"

Annie maneuvered the diving plane, relentlessly pursuing the metal monster ahead. She felt this was much more interesting than flying a jet around aimlessly by herself.

"Where are you going? Caught you!" Having dodged her dive, Annie jerked the control stick, and the Quinjet immediately performed a 180-degree turn to chase after the rapidly ascending Iron Man.

"Annie..." Looking at the little girl beside her, Melinda was momentarily speechless.

This was too reckless! She had originally intended to take over the controls directly, but after thinking it over, she felt that if she just gave this playboy a little lesson, it wouldn't be a bad idea. She decided to wait and see.

"Do you have any ideas, Jarvis?"

After performing several high-load maneuvers, Tony realized he still couldn't shake the red plane behind him! He didn't think he had provoked them that much just now, so why were they being so relentless? They were both crazies!

"Sir, your only option is to try to evade. The Mark III is not equipped with weapons; we cannot fight back." Jarvis had no better solution. After all, Tony had come out this time to test the armor's performance and was not carrying any weapon systems.

"Sir, I suggest you lower your altitude. The Mark III's high-altitude performance offers no advantage compared to the Quinjet!"

"Damn it, Jarvis! Next time I go out, make sure to remind me to bring weapons!" Tony hurriedly made a turn, temporarily escaping the collision from the rolling and turning plane.

"Think of something now!"

"I am attempting to reconnect to their communications. Sir! Perhaps you could talk to them properly, because I have detected that they do not possess great malice; otherwise, they could have used weapons to shoot you down!"

"Then hurry up!" With another high-angle emergency turn, Tony escaped the plane's pursuit once again.

He felt that he couldn't keep this up much longer. He felt his body's physical load was exceeding what he could endure, and the armor's life-support system was showing signs of overload. If he kept flying like this, he would end up with internal bleeding!

"Alright! Sir, I have connected to their channel."

"Hey! Is anyone there? Maybe we should have a proper talk!" Since he was connected, Tony quickly spoke up. He didn't want to keep going through this endless ordeal.

"No talk! You have to play with me, otherwise, I'll knock you down!" Annie was having too much fun to care about his thoughts. Seeing his intention to stop, she angrily opened the weapon fire covers on the control stick, revealing the weapon bay openings in the aircraft's belly as a threat.

"Sir! Those are large-caliber Vulcan cannons! If they open fire, the Mark III's armor thickness likely won't hold up for long." Jarvis detected the anomaly under the plane's belly and hurriedly warned Tony Stark.

"Oh! Dammit! You guys are crazy!"

Melinda looked at Annie speechlessly. Those Vulcan cannons weren't even loaded with any ammunition! The ammo bay had basically been turned into a restroom. However, it was a good thing they weren't loaded; otherwise, Melinda would have been truly worried that if Annie went too far, a few stray shots would cause a massive disaster!

Since no one was going to die, Melinda was happy to leisurely watch the spectacle. Regardless, she didn't like that playboy Tony Stark anyway, so there was no need to upset Annie for his sake. Little Annie was having fun, so she would let her play a bit longer.

Ultimately, to everyone's surprise, the chase ended in a victory for Iron Man, Tony Stark.

Because the red Quinjet was now floating helplessly on the surface of the sea. Annie and Melinda were looking irritably at the metal monster hovering in the distance, while Tony Stark's boastful shouting came through the radio.

"Aha~! How's that? Out of fuel, aren't you? Keep chasing me! Keep playing! Now it's my turn to be happy! Ahahaha!"

"Sir, I must remind you that our energy is also running low! If we run out of power and fall into the sea, we won't be able to float on the surface like them." Seeing Tony Stark continuing to waste energy, Jarvis had to remind him. After all, hovering in mid-air also consumed energy.

"Don't worry, Jarvis! Once I finish this round of bragging, I'm leaving immediately!" After saying that, Tony Stark opened the public channel again: "Hey, kid, how's that? Still want to play? Why don't you come and hit me again!"

"Sir..."

"Alright, alright! Jarvis! Don't rush me! I'm leaving right now!" After laughing in mid-air for a while longer, Tony Stark planned to make his escape. If he didn't leave now, he would run out of energy too.

"Since you guys are so pitiful, I'll let you off for now. Finally, let me give you a free tip: I just checked the weather forecast, and a heavy rainstorm is coming! I hope you remembered to bring umbrellas, ahahaha~!"

Watching the laughing Iron Man fly away, and seeing Annie sulking, Melinda wordlessly pressed her hand to her forehead. "Alright, Annie! If you've played enough, let's go home. Looks like we'll have to call for backup again!"

Melinda shook her head and took out her phone, intending to have headquarters send a ship with some fuel.

The plane had already consumed a significant amount of fuel flying from headquarters to New York, and after Annie's antics, running out of fuel was only natural. Fortunately, they were flying over the ocean; if they had been over land, they might have crashed just now!

"Hmph! Then let's go back. Next time I see him, I'll give him a proper beating!"

Annie also knew that a plane without fuel couldn't fly. For now, this was the only option. What else could she do? Use magic to fly back and punch that metal man? Her flight skills were nowhere near as fast as his!

"By the way! Where's Coulson?" After finishing the call, Melinda finally realized something was missing. She hurriedly opened the cockpit door to look into the rear fuselage compartment. She found that Coulson was slumped over on the sofa, unconscious and foaming at the mouth, head down! Fortunately, he was still tightly strapped in with his seatbelt!

"Whoa! This isn't fun anymore!" Annie blinked, pretending to look very innocent.