Dawn of New Change

PREVIOUSLY ON: Dawn of New Change

Taeyong and Tony, after stealing an AIM car and driving through the country, manage to get back to Miami where apparently, the Mandarin resides. They infiltrate the ‘house’ he lives in and are faced with a possibly high, Trevor Slattery, who is an actor doing the performance of a lifetime. Turns out, Mandarin is a concept, it doesn’t really exist.

It’s all just a ploy to cover up the real people behind the terrorist attacks, AIM. 

Taeyong woke up with a banging headache at the very back of his skull and to the smell of sour milk and something burning. He whined tiredly, rolling over on the mattress he was laying on and opened one eye. “Trevor?” he called, linking slowly and looking back at the British actor/Mandarin impersonator. “What are you doin?”

“Shh!” Threvor called, opening a can of something and drinking it vigorously whilst his eyes stayed on something in the corner of the room. Taeyong lifted his head and turned to see that a soccer game was on. “How are you? You’ve been knocked out for the better part of an hour,” Trevor said, holding out another can for Taeyong to take.

The younger boy groaned as he sat up and blinked blearily around the ‘backstage’ room. “I’m fine, my head hurts,” he whispered. He took the can and opened it carefully, wincing at how loud the crack of the metal opening was. He sniffed the juice inside and almost retched there, it wasn’t the most pleasant of smells. “What is it?” he asked.

“Have you never had a beer before?” Trevor asked, sitting up and grinning at Taeyong.

Taeyong shook his head, tentatively bringing the can of beer to his lips, “it’s alcoholic isn’t it?”

“I can’t believe I get to see someone have their first sip of beer!” Trevor exclaimed. “Go on, try it!”

“Bu-but I’m underage!” Taeyong said, still looking down at the can.

Trevor’s brows furrowed, “how old are you?”

“Thirteen,” he muttered.

“Oh- you’re a baby-”

“What? No!” Taeyong shouted, hands holding his beer can defensively. “I’m thirteen so technically a teen.”

Trevor gave a helpless sort of shrug, “sorry kid. I’m old now, everyone under twenty is basically a baby to me. But thirteen is pretty much the standard in Europe to drink. What’s the drinking age over here then?”

“Twenty-one,” Taeyong said timidly. He brought the drink to his lips and took the smallest of sips immediately spitting it back into the can and choking. Taeyong put the can down and tried to wipe at his tongue whilst Trevor roared with laughter.

“Yeah, it always tastes like piss when you start out. You’ll like it when you’re older,” he grinned.

Taeyong gave Trevor a shaky smile, “say Mister Slattery?”

“Yes?”

“Do you know how to get out of here?” he asked, finally taking a shaky stand up. He rubbed the back of his head and looked around the room. It still smelt like someone was shoving something sharp and dry down his throat.

“Ahh sorry about that. I’m not allowed out of here too, if that makes you feel any better?”

Taeyong gave a shrug, “not really. Thanks anyway,” he wobbled over to the lounge chair and sat down heavily, whilst he looked back at the TV screen. There was some sort of game between England and another country. Maybe it was the World Cup? Taeyong didn’t really know, the air felt twinged with something rotting but he closed his eyes.

“I’m going to rest for a bit Trevor.”

“Alright lad, good boy now-”

Taeyong tuned the man out and lay on the longue chair, closing his eyes slowly.

***

Tony was both mad at himself and Aldrich Killian. Or rather the entirety of A.I.M. now that he had the full picture. Really everything. One giant, steamy, evil villain monologue from Killian about his plan for the President and drug work. It was intense, a few people were hurt and well… Maya was dead.

Shot in front of Tony and bam! Another person who died for Tony, another name to add onto his conscious. Tony was cable tied to a rusting, metal bed post and had two guards stationed right in front of him with no one else doing rounds. Maya’s body was taken away and Aldrich was already on his way to get to the President.

He had part of a plan in his head, with the little information that he was given.

- Pepper was taken and being experimented on, using EXTREMIS

- Taeyong was with Trevor Slattery, Killian didn’t think about the consequences of putting his son in a place with little to no security, so Tony wasn’t too happy about that

- Rhodey was somewhere in this giant mansion he was trapped in

- his Iron Man suit in Haechan’s garage was charging and he needed it

Indefinitely.

It was when the watch on Tony’s wrist started to beep did he let out a little smile. That was wiped off quickly when one of the guards took it off his wrist, looking down at the little device. “Hey! Not mine,” he said. “Careful, it’s a limited edition,” he said over the constant beeping of the alarm. “You break, you pay for it.”

He huffed, watching the man throw the small watch onto the ground and stomp on it. The alarm stopped and Tony scoffed, “look at that… you broke it.”

“Look I didn’t want to do this, but I’m giving you a chance to run away,” Tony told his guards. They had the audacity to scoff, finding his warning amusing, as they turned back to each other. “I’m warning, I won’t kill you- if you just put your guns down and leave right now.”

“Uh huh,” one of the guards said, smirking. “And how you gonna do that?”

“You’re tied to a bedpost,” the other said, tilting his gun up and aiming it at the cable ties around Tony's wrists.

“Oh you’re asking for it… Now!” Tony pushed his hands out in a gesture to mimic his repulsors. Right about now is when his suit would come flying and extending itself onto his body… except that didn’t happen. “Uh…”

“Yes?” the guard said, grinning now. “Please, show us.”

“I’m telling you I won’t go easy!” Tony threatened, pushing his hands against the zip ties and trying to summon his suit again. He could feel the buzz of the chips inside his arms just vibrate but nothing happened. Tony sighed, “this… this is kind of embarrassing.”

“Yeah,” the other nodded, shrugging slightly.

“Look,” Tony said, pushing his hands out against the zip ties for the fourth time. “I will- performance issues you know?”

“Nah,” the other smirked, “never had that.”

Tony squinted his eyes, “did you just- was that? Jesus,” he muttered, looking down at the ground. His legs were also cabled to the bed post and there wasn’t much wiggle room to even try and snap them open. Where was his suit when he needed it?

“How did I get this shift?” the other muttered.

A whizzing noise started to shoot from somewhere outside. Tony and the other two guards all looked up, just outside of the window and a small red thing seemed to zoom towards them. Tony smirked and held out his hand again, calling on the glove that flew and encased itself around his right hand.

The tension broke the zip tie and Tony quickly shot both guards down before using his metal hand to break out of his restraints. Looking up Tony quickly blasted another repulsor ray at a guard that must have been alerted from the noise. He rolled away from gunshots and looked up to find two more in the dingy basement of his capture.

“Where are-” Tony slid behind some stairs and covered himself whilst the rest of his Iron Man suit flew in. He ran out, under the fire from the guards and jumped into an opening from his suit. He then flew up, grabbed the bedpost and threw it at both guards, watching them crash into the wall on impact. Tony turned and looked down, repulsors ready when the guard quickly let go of his gun.

“Honestly?” he said, dropping his comms and shrugging. “I didn’t even want to be here,” he quickly ran out, making Tony quirk the corner of his lip upward before flying out of his ‘prison’ room. Tony made it outside of the mansion to only be in the line of some more guards that didn’t hesitate to fire at him.

Tony flew into the air and let his suit target all opponents before firing off little missiles from his shoulders and watching them all get hit. “I believe that Colonel Rhodes is coming your way sir,” Jarvis’s familiar voice called over Tony’s comms. If that wasn’t a breath of fresh air. Tony flew back down to the quad of the mansion and opened his mask, schooling a carefree expression on his face when Rhodey eventually found his way over to him.

“Tony?” the man called, a deep furrow set in his brows.

“Hiya Rhodes-” he aimed his repulsor at another guard running at them. “-what? Miss me?”

“Yeah, more like Taeyong,” the man said, already grinning and walking over.

Tony lost his smile at the reminder of his kid, “he’s here.”

“What?!”

“He’s fine,” Tony said. Remembering the hologram Killian showed him of his son and then his girlfriend. “Taeyong’s with the Mandarin-”

“That’s your idea of fine?” Rhodey questioned, walking alongside Tony who was heading in direction of Trevor’s room. “He’s with a terrorist!”

“Not really,” Tony sighed. “The Mandarin- it’s a lot to take in,” he admitted, motioning for the show girls to leave and then kicking down Trevor’s door.

“AARGH! Oh Jesus- oh heck- don’t DO THAT!” Trevor hissed, clutching at his chest. “I almost died,” he stressed, sitting in his little plastic chair and sporting himself a can of Coors. “And I would know, I’ve OD’d a few times,” he said, giving Tony a familiar smile. But the superhero wasn’t even thinking about Trevor, his eyes were on his son, who was currently sleeping on a lounge chair and seemed paler than usual.

“Taeyong,” he called, running over and kneeling beside his son whilst Rhodey started to aim his gun at Trevor of the Mandarin whilst intimidating him. It was going to take a lot, it seemed like the man was high again. “Taeyong?” he whispered, shaking the boy slightly.

“Hmm?” Taeyong groaned, blinking sluggishly and squinting at Tony. “Dad?” he whispered, voice croaky.

“Hiya bud, how you holding up?” he asked, helping Taeyong sit up.

Taeyong was still blinking tiredly, trying to wake himself up before he opened his mouth and said, “beer tastes like piss.”

Tony felt white anger roll in waves over him. He stepped away from Taeyong and aimed his repulsor ray at Trevor. “You gave my kid alcohol?!”

“What- well yeah!” Trevor shrugged, gulping as he made eye contact with Tony’s repulsors. “He said he was a teen!”

“I am,” Taeyong yawned. “It was horrible,” he muttered.

“He’s underage!” Tony shouted.

“I get that- I do!” Trevor said, holding his own can in the air. “The whole American age thing is weird. But you guys are the ones with the guns and booze, it’s hard to keep track of things,” he grinned, eye flitting over to something behind Rhodey. Tony looked back, at a television screen playing football.

“A sip,” Taeyong said, stretching his arms. “My legs feel like jelly,” he mumbled, going to lie down again. Tony quickly went back to his son and lifted him up. Taeyong whined, head falling onto his dad’s shoulder. “I’m so tired,” he said, looking back at Trevor.

“I’m so confused,” Rhodey whispered.

“I’m so done,” Tony muttered. “Yo! Slattery, you know anything about the plan? Where’s Killian? Where is Pepper?”

Rhodey shoved his gun into Trevor’s face, “better start talking. We’re already pissed.”

“Oh! It is happening off the coast!” he told gleefully. “Yeah, something about the Vice President and I don’t know anything about a pepper so sorry for that.”

Tony felt like rolling his eyes.

"WAARGH!"

Taeyong and Rhodey both flinched, watching Trevor's face light up as someone on his TV scored a goal.

"OLLY! OLLY OLLY OLLY!" he sang.

Taeyong sighed, "this is really getting old.”

Tony felt a smirk pull at his lips, “Trevor? You said something about a boat before.” 

NEXT TIME ON: Dawn of New Change

"Yes, okay so do me now," Rhodey said, opening his arms and waiting for a suit. 

Tony and Taeyong stared at each other before looking back at Rhodey. "Sorry," Tony shrugged. "They're coded to me." 

"Yeah!" Taeyong grinned, watching one of his own suits fly towards him. He held out his hands and ran. "Just cover for us!" he yelled, jumping off the railing and landing inside his own armour.