Chapter 1
“Jarvis get Igor to steady this thing.” Tony shouted into his head set, head turning to watch as the suit holds the weight of the ship.
Rhodey crouched down to get to his best friends level, a smile playing at his mouth.“This is how you’ve been managing your down time, huh?”
The pair turns to watch the suits battle that's heating up. “Everybody needs a hobby.” Tony points at a group of several suits. “Heartbreaker, help Red Snapper out, will you?” The suits in question work together to fight off three AIM goons that were hanging out on the aforementioned suit, only for Heartbreaker to be thrown off and Red Snapper to have the HUD ripped off, sending both the goon and the suit crashing into an explosive barrel.
Tony jumps into a waiting suit, feeling the metal enclose him. “Nice timing.” He addresses Jarvis.
Rhodey smiles at him, arms spread out, pulsing with energy from the battle. “Oh, yeah. That’s awesome. Give me a suit, okay?”
Tony looks back at his friend, the faceplate already open. “Oh, I’m sorry. They’re only coded to me.”
Rhodeys arms slowly move down. “What does that mean?”
“I got you covered.” Ignoring the confused look of the other man Tony flips the faceplate down and shoots up into the sky to get a notification from Jarvis almost instantly.
“Sir, I’ve located Ms. Potts.” The AI sounded cool and collected as always, even in the heat of battle while controlling thirty plus suits.
“About time!” Tony says, turning as more of Killians fire skinned minions attempt to wreck the suit he’s currently controlling. He blasts through the room where Jarvis has informed him Ms. Potts is in. Shorted out wires are sparking out as the suit turns it’s head with Tony, the glowing eyes looking for the woman he was going to ask to marry him. He attempts to lift the steel beam resulting in the shifting of several pieces of debris and a defining “Stop!” from the lover he felt he failed.
“Stop! Put it down. Put it down, put it down.” Tony does as she wishes, kneeling down to one knee and flipping open the head plate to talk to her.
“See what happens when you hang out with my ex-girlfriends?” He extends a hand as his girlfriend winces.
“You’re such a jerk.” He knows she’s only kidding, even though it hurts a little.
He wiggles his fingers in an inviting gesture. “Yep. We’ll talk about it over dinner.” The metal looming above Pepper creaks and she lets out a sob, but extends her hand to meet the suits. Their fingers are brushing when a glowing hand appears from beneath them, burning through the casing that protects the reactor, twisting and damaging the suit. Tony partly falls, partly is pushed onto his back and is forced to watch as one Aldrich Killian emerges from the ground like some kind of fucked up fire demon phoenix thing.
Aldrich gestures to Tony. “Is this guy bothering you?” Pepper winces as the glowing man jumps up and over debris to approach the immobile suit. He crouches over Tony, pointing one intimidating burning finger over the arc reactor. tony could feel the suit slowly melting away. Aldrich wiggles his fingers. “Oooh. Is it hot in there? Stuck? Feel a little stuck in there?” Tony doesn’t answer. “Like a little turtle, cooking in his turtle suit?”
Pepper watches from the side. “Oh, Tony…” Tony tries not to break eye contact with the man looming over him but still looks over at the woman he thinks he loves.
Killian breaks the train of thought. “She’s watching.” He reminds. tony looks straight up at him. “I think you should close your eyes.” Killian says. “Close your eyes.” Tony continues to refuse and glances at his girlfriend again. “Close your eyes. You don’t want to see this.” When Tony still refuses Killian raises his now glowing arms to presumably knock the reactor in. Tony raises his arm at the last second, the knife he installed as a precaution extending as Killian swings. A pained grunt from Killian comes when the right glowing hand lands ten feet away. Killian gets up as he groans.
“Yea, you take a minute.” Tony says, helpless but to watch as the still hot arm burns a hole through the floor, moving all the debris. Ordering Jarvis to open the suit he was stuck in Tony rolls away, hand involuntarily reaching to check the reactor, finding only mostly superficial burns.
That’s when he notices that not only has Pepper fallen, she’s now moving on one of the sliding metal platforms. He runs out the somehow-intact door to reach her, only to be distracted by yet another goon. He jumps from one ladder to another, letting Jarvis hit the goon with another suit. “Jarvis, give me a suit!” He jumps over a missing floor piece. “Right now!” Climbing up the stairs in front of him Tony meets a suit, jumping to meet it only to have it be hit out of the air by a goon. “Oh come on!”
Tony continues to run down the platform, shouting as he jumps up and over a metal fence that was in his way, landing hard on yet another platform.
“The president is secure. “ Tony nods as his friend reassures him of half the mission’s completion. “I’m clearing the area.”
Tony taps at his ear. “Nice work.” He climbs over the steel beam to reach Pepper. “Pep, I got you! Relax, I got you.” He extends his arm to reach her as she does the same. She screams as the metal holding her shifts. “Just look at me!” The metal continues to move. “Honey, I can’t reach any further and you can’t stay there, all right? You’ve got to let go! You’ve got to let go, I’ll catch you, I promise! He reaches out his arm to reach hers, fingers touching when the metal shifts for the final time, sending Pepper and everything on the platform tumbling down a couple hundred feet. Tony can only watch as she falls into the flaming mess below. He turns his head away so he won’t be reminded of what just transposed before his very eyes only to see Aldrich Killian ascend from the stairs and towards the platform Tony was on.
Aldrich looks down at the burning mess. “A shame. I would have caught her.”
Tony say nothing, but charges forward with a blank but slowly nearing furious look on his face. Killian charges forward as well, but Tony slides under his legs as he jumps up to punch him. Tony is suddenly encased by a new suit, punching and using his repulsors to best make Killian feel some of the pain he was. Just when he thinks he has a leg up on the other man Tony is sent flying backwards onto yet another platform. Aldrich jumps down as well, leaning over the suit as he reels back for a devastating punch.
“Eject.” Tony says to Jarvis, tensing as he does. Tony flies off the platform, falling towards the ground when another suit encases him. He immediately shoots upwards, taking Aldrich from the feet and drops him on the nearest metal stand he finds, rolling back and away from the heat emanating from his enemy. Killian no longer has a shirt, and his tattoos are clearly visible as his chest glows bright orange. Tony fires a repulsor after repulsor blast with Killian dodging every one and hopes that this all will end soon. Kilian takes slashes out of the suit with his burning fingers. Tony sends him reeling back and takes the head shot but Aldrich ducks and comes back forward. Tony attempts again but his hand is twisted by Aldrich and he ends up shooting himself in the face, sending him reeling off the platform only to stay up by the steadying support of his back repulsors, designed exactly for this kind of event. The suit jumps back into the fight, aggressively combating Aldrich’s quick movements. Tony loses the suits right leg but continues to fight, getting himself flipped and on his knees in seconds.
“Well here we are. On the roof.” Aldrich holds Tonys arms above him. The HUD fuzzes but Tony still manages to eject before his suit is cut in half by an angry red arm. He falls on his back, the air knocked out of his lungs as he turns to see a distant light growing closer.
“Mark 42 inbound.” The ever faithful Jarvis supplies.
Tony swears. “I’ll be damned. The prodigal son returns.” He says even as the suit obviously wavers. The hero turns onto his knee, arm shooting backward to summon the suit forward. He doesn’t watch, but hears as the suit hits something and falls into several pieces. “Whatever.”
Aldrich looks down at the fallen hero, a smug look in his eyes. “You really didn’t deserve her, Tony.” Tony looks like he’s gonna say something but stays silent instead. “It’s a pity. I was so close to having her perfect.”
Tony reels back as the glowing man jumps down with ease. He throws his hands up in an innocent gesture. “Okay, okay, wait, wait, wait!” He shouts as Killian continues to approach. “Slow down, slow down.” Killian stops to listen, power still emanating from his core. “You’re right,” Tony says “I don’t deserve her.” He pauses. “Here’s where you’re wrong. She was already perfect.” And with that he turns, initiating the sequence to summon the individual pies of Mark 42, sending them to incapacitate Aldrich.
Tony turns to look out at the ocean, “Jarvis, do me a favor and blow mark 42.”
Jarvis wasn't one to sound worried, but the voice he used was definitely worried when he replied. “Sir! You are too close to mark 42, I can not do that without potential harm to your person!”
Tony shouted back as he slid down the support structure of the ship. “Jarvis now is not the time to argue! Override Alpha code Beta Turn Hinz Up Jim Blue! Do it!” Even as he gave the order Tony knew their was no going back. Even as he jumped further away from the blast he knew their was no going back and allowed himself to be consumed by the heat and the darkness, only to be caught by another suit.
The suit was missing several key functions and succeeded only in dropping Tony on the deck of the ship. The suit was burning up and he quickly disposed of it, shaking with pent up energy as he attempted to protect his head from falling debris. He watched as the helmet of one of his older suits dropped in front of him, the eyes glowing a fiery orange before the helmet split in two. Tony scoffs before turning his attention to the creaking metal to his left. He watches as the man he thought was dead emerges, glowing brighter than he’s seen him before. Aldrich Killian appears before him and Tony attempts to scurry away.
“No more false faces,” Aldrich says, his distorted face giving his voice an odd quality. “You said you wanted the Mandarin.” He pauses, burned skin pulsing. “You’re looking right at him. It was always me Tony. Right from the start. I am the Mandarin!”
Tony’s eyes flash to movement from the side and for a brief second Tony sees the woman he thought he loved before Steve emerged into his life, her red hair flying in all directions as her skin glows the same orange as the enemy. Then she took a metal pole and swung into the glowing figure that was looming over Tony, sending both Tony and Aldrich flying into the black water that was filled with debris and bodies of AIM goons and Tony’s suits.
Pepper let out a hoarse scream as she watched the man she has known for so long fly into the water, his head slamming against the metal poles separating the boat and the water. She was stuck knowing there was no way she could rescue him, just as he couldn't have rescued her.