Chapter 23: Annie's Italian-Style Modified Cannon

Chapter 0023: Annie's Italian Modded Cannon

Tony Stark was testing his Mark IV Iron Man armor at high altitude. This was the fourth suit developed since he publicly announced he was Iron Man, and it featured more functions than the Mark III, with a greater emphasis on combat capabilities.

"Sir, I've detected that red Quinjet again!"

"Where? Why didn't I see it?" Hearing Jarvis's report, Tony Stark hurriedly halted the armor and performed an emergency hover in mid-air. He scanned his surroundings, but the silhouette of that hateful red fighter seemed nowhere to be found in his line of sight.

Tony had a deep, traumatic memory of that nightmare-inducing red Quinjet. After all, anyone who had been chased like a chick by an eagle in a desperate flight for half a day would likely never forget it for the rest of their lives. Although he was the one who ultimately emerged victorious, it was only because he had outlasted the opponent's fuel! In that sense, his victory wasn't exactly glorious.

Because of this, Tony had specifically upgraded the Mark IV's engines and acceleration systems to ensure he could outpace a Quinjet in terms of speed. He had also optimized the weaponry, installing a specialized small-scale EMP missile specifically designed to counter Quinjets. This small-scale battery pulse bomb was a non-lethal weapon, primarily used to paralyze a fighter's electronic instruments to achieve the goal of disabling the aircraft without causing structural damage.

Tony had worked overtime at home for several days to finish the Mark IV, and he only dared to come out for testing after installing sufficient weaponry. After all, the psychological shadow cast by that red Quinjet was far too large; he hadn't dared to venture out without countermeasures. He was afraid that if he encountered it again—and he knew that red fighter had been quite active lately—he would be in trouble.

"At the ten o'clock position, sir! It has activated stealth mode and is approaching. It is less than twelve miles away from you!" As Jarvis reported, he marked the Quinjet's position on the radar interface of the Iron Man HUD, indicating the cloaked aircraft with a small red circle.

Tony Stark thought seriously for a moment, and finally, he adjusted his posture and dove toward the ground! Even though the Mark IV had been optimized, engaging a fighter jet head-on at high altitude would put the armor at a disadvantage. Therefore, his only option for now was to evade. He wouldn't admit he was afraid of that little girl; rather, he was maintaining his gentlemanly conduct by not stooping to the level of a brat! Yes, that was exactly it.

"Damn it! I've been spotted! And it got away?"

Annie knew that the iron monster must have detected them, otherwise, it wouldn't have suddenly sped off so fast! Moreover, it was diving toward the ground while her plane was still in stealth mode and at such a distance; she certainly wouldn't be able to catch it. Regretfully, she had no choice but to give up and, with a sense of grievance, deactivated the Quinjet's stealth mode.

"Annie, oh, you..." Melinda sighed with an amused shake of her head as she looked at Annie.

"Huh? Auntie Melinda! What are those two things?" Annie had only been feeling regretful for a few seconds over losing a fun toy when she suddenly noticed two green dots appearing on the radar, approaching them at high speed.

Hearing Annie's warning, Melinda also looked at the radar with suspicion. It showed two fighter jets! And according to the identification codes, they appeared to be two Quinjets belonging to S.H.I.E.L.D.!

Why were they flying toward her plane at high speed in a combat formation? What was going on? Before Melinda could establish communication to inquire, one of the Quinjets actually fired a missile at them! The radar was filled with glaring red warnings and the urgent sound of lock-on alarms!

"Not good! It's a missile! Evade!"

Melinda shouted urgently! She seized control from Annie and maneuvered the plane into a sharp lateral roll. The incoming missile narrowly grazed the belly of the aircraft, detonating against the proximity fuse a dozen meters ahead. The shockwave from the explosion caused the red "Princess Annie" to shake violently!

Fortunately, Melinda's piloting skills were solid, and she corrected the plane in time; the aircraft did not lose control despite the close-range explosion. However, damage was inevitable. She could already see the wings were peppered with shrapnel and bullet holes.

"Whoa! We're being attacked?" Annie watched the massive fireball formed by the missile explosion not far away. It was obvious! Someone was attacking them! Looking at the power of that explosion, she knew this was absolutely no joke!

"This won't do! Annie! Think of something! Do you have any magical escape spells?!"

Melinda frantically maneuvered the plane to dodge the two pursuing aircraft. Heaven knows how many missiles they had left, and the plane beneath her had absolutely no capability to fight back—all weapons and ammunition had long since been stripped! In this situation, being shot down was only a matter of time, especially since the opponents were using the same model of Quinjet as them! They couldn't outrun them, so she could only pin her hopes on Annie.

"Escape? Why run? They broke my Princess Annie! I won't forgive them!" After a moment of stunned silence, Annie began to get angry. The two planes behind them must be bad guys, and as long as they were bad guys, Annie could burn them!

"Auntie Melinda! You keep flying the plane, I'll shoot them down!"

Annie excitedly flipped open the red weapon cover on the control stick. A targeting screen rose from the console in front of her, and simultaneously, an opening in the fuselage slid back, extending the hidden Vulcan cannon barrels. The cold muzzles of the multi-barrel Vulcan cannon began to rotate at high speed, aiming at the two planes behind them.

Annie had wanted to play like this for a long time; she just hadn't had the chance! Although she had encountered many fighter jets and massive commercial airliners in the sky over the past few days, those couldn't be shot at—Annie was a good girl, after all! Even that iron monster could only be chased around for fun; it wasn't nearly as interesting as having targets she could freely fire upon!

"Annie! Stop playing around! I don't remember our plane being equipped with ammunition!"

Melinda was nearly driven mad with anxiety. S.H.I.E.L.D. planes were actually attacking them! And they were still in hot pursuit? She refused to believe this was a mistake. Her plane's livery was so obvious and it even had friendly identification codes; how could it be a mistake? There must be a massive problem within S.H.I.E.L.D.! Who was it? Who was trying to take them out?

"We don't have ammunition, but I did a little bit of secret modification a few days ago. It doesn't need ammo!" Annie squinted with a mischievous grin.

Earlier, after learning that S.H.I.E.L.D. would not install any weapons or ammunition on her Princess Annie, she had taken advantage of the night to secretly perform a magical modification on the single multi-barrel Vulcan cannon in the fuselage!

Annie had secretly carved a "Blazing Explosion" magic array and an acceleration array onto it. As long as she activated them and supplied enough mana, she could fire! Annie had been secretly proud of this genius idea for a long time. Even dragons could breathe fire; how could her Princess Annie not have weapons?

"Modification? What modification?" Melinda would never believe that an alien little girl could modify a fighter jet. In a situation like this, what kind of joke was this?

Before Melinda could react, Annie pressed the red weapon release button. The multi-barrel Vulcan cannon in the fuselage immediately accelerated its rotation. As a red magic array lit up at the base of the cannon, dozens of compressed fireballs were accelerated by the magic array and shot toward the two Quinjets still in hot pursuit!

Facing dozens of basin-sized fireballs flying straight at them, one of the Quinjets was caught off guard. A fireball instantly struck its cockpit. In the next moment, the entire nose of the aircraft was melted into molten iron, looking as if a monster had taken a massive bite out of it. Having lost power and control, the plane spun wildly, trailing thick smoke, flames, and glowing red molten metal as it plummeted straight toward the ground!

"Oh! Damn it! Curse it!" The pilot of the other aircraft was luckier; he hurriedly adjusted his flight path, narrowly avoiding the dozen or so subsequent fireballs.

In reality, both he and the pilot of the previous jet were members of Hydra embedded within S.H.I.E.L.D. They had been lying low perfectly until they suddenly received orders from above today. Of course, this order didn't come through S.H.I.E.L.D. channels, but through Hydra's internal frequency! The order was to destroy the red Quinjet before them and ensure no survivors were left!

Although they didn't understand why high command would issue such an order during a deep-cover phase, they didn't ask questions. Regardless, the intelligence stated it was merely an unarmed, hollowed-out shell of a jet. They were confident they could complete the mission easily.

However, right now, he really wanted to grab the bastard who issued the order and ask him a question: *This* was what they called "unarmed"? To hell with that! One shot had melted half of a fighter jet! Unarmed? This was clearly state-of-the-art weaponry! It was far more powerful than armor-piercing incendiary rounds; it might even be a new type of energy weapon!

"Good job, Annie!"

Melinda was momentarily stunned, but she didn't dwell on the fact that little Annie had modified weapons without permission. Right now, someone was trying to kill them, and her nickname was "The Iron Cavalry"! She wouldn't just sit there and take a beating! Even if she didn't know what was wrong with S.H.I.E.L.D., taking out the remaining plane in front of her was the right move. If they wanted to move against Melinda, they had to be prepared to be taken down!

"Annie, heads up! Prepare to fire!" Melinda shouted to Annie. The best defense was a good offense!

It was now a one-on-one. Realizing that her side also had weapons, she took advantage of the opponent's momentary panic. She yanked the control stick hard, and the red jet performed a high-speed Cobra maneuver, dodging the tailing position and instantly moving above the remaining Quinjet.

"Roger that! I see it!"

Annie responded, maneuvering the Vulcan cannon to change direction. The targeting reticle on her screen locked onto the back of the fighter jet passing below. The opponent likely realized they were in danger and tried to perform a rapid lateral roll, but unfortunately, they were just a little too late.

Once the reticle was in place, Annie slammed the red firing button. In an instant, another dozen fireballs shot out, all of them striking the back of the Quinjet! With such a high hit rate, the intense heat of the flames instantly melted the aircraft into a scattered mess of molten steel fragments.

"My God! Jarvis? Am I seeing this right?! Is there a civil war in S.H.I.E.L.D.? This is huge news!" Watching the red jet shoot down the two attacking Quinjets, Tony Stark was somewhat dumbfounded.

In fact, Tony hadn't gone far; he had just been hiding carefully under a cloud layer. He had originally planned to wait until the red Quinjet left before continuing his Mark IV testing, but he never expected to witness such a scene!

"Sir, you are not mistaken! Those two aircraft have indeed been destroyed. Based on observations, there are at least two fatalities! No record of the weaponry used by the red Quinjet could be found. It is extremely dangerous! I suggest you leave the area immediately!"