Chapter 10
Tony couldn’t believe this was happening. One of his closest friends was in the hospital because of some new villain of the month. He had noticed the Mandarin bombings, but the sheer fact that he was trying to get his life back on track meant that he was forced to trust the actual authorities to handle this. And now Happy was in the hospital.
Being in the hospital was not a new experience for him, especially in his line of work. But somehow, in between all this, he believed his friends would remain immune to the effects of his lifestyle. Seeing his friend on a hospital bed was a rude but necessary awakening. He had to get back in the game; he was done being bullied into a corner.
Percy had more than once volunteered to accompany him. He had refused, stating he couldn’t take it if Percy was somehow a target too. Seeing his anxious state, his boyfriend had really wanted to come but folded under his albeit weak arguments, probably because he could sense his need to have some control.
He probably should have let Percy come. He doesn’t know what possessed him to announce his address to the media.
Actually, he does. It was a reaction to seeing his friend hurt. It was getting slightly difficult to remember that when he was getting chewed out by said boyfriend, though.
"Not once did you think that maybe you could actually get hurt, you arrogant asshole!”
Ah, so we’re still here then.
“What would the rest of us do if you were injured? Ever stopped to think of that?”
It would be more impactful if Percy stood in one place while explaining in depth why he was an idiot, instead of packing for whatever apocalypse he was expecting. Really, one would think he did these things all the time or something.
"You always do things like this, and you..."
No, he didn’t! But he guessed now wasn’t the time to try to defend his position.
Just then, Jarvis announced that someone had entered the premises.
“Sorry, I'm going to go see who came.”
literally saved by the bell!
He didn’t really think the terrorist walked in through the front door, because one, JARVIS wouldn’t have let him, and two, it was already established that the mandarin was an invertebrate.
Suiting up still, he asked Jarvis, "Are we still at "ding-dong"? We're supposed to be on total security lockdown. Come on, I threatened a terrorist. Who is that?”
“There's only so much I can do, sir, when you give the world's press your home address.”
At the entrance was Maya, an acquaintance from his party days, someone who would be exactly his type if it weren’t for the pissed-off Revenette currently fuming upstairs.
"Right, that's fine.” He didn't want the scientist, no matter how pretty, any closer to Percy. “You're not the Mandarin, are you? Are you?”
She snorted “You don't remember. Why am I not surprised?”
He did not have time for this: “Don't take it personally; I don't remember what I had for breakfast.”
“Gluten-free waffles, sir.” Very helpful JARVIS
Surprisingly, she also looked done. “Okay, look, I need to be alone with you. Somewhere, not here, it's urgent.”
Deciding to get this over with, he led her inside.
“Normally, I'd go for that sort of thing, but now I'm in a committed relationship.”
just to see two bags dropping down from the balcony, followed by his boyfriend. What happened to taking stairs? It was one entire floor that he jumped down from!
“It's...with him,” he said, still shocked.
“Tony, is somebody there?” Percy asked asif what he did was completely normal
“Yeah, it's Maya Hansen.” Tony said, recovering quickly “ Old botanist pal that I used to know, barely.”
Looking at her,he asked “What are you doing here?”
Dropping her amused smile, she said seriously “I read the papers, and, frankly, I don't think you'll last the week.”
“I'll be fine.” He has to be; there is no other choice.
“I'm sorry. With Happy in the hospital, I didn't know we were expecting guests.” He could hear the restrained anger in Percy’s voice.
"We weren't.” damage control
“No, I…”
“And old girlfriends!” Ah, he was feeling particularly vicious.
“She's not really.”
“No, not really. It was just one night.” They both tried to interject.
Visibly trying to calm himself, Percy turned to Tony.
“We're going out of town.”
"Okay, we've been through this. Nope.” He couldn’t protect them anywhere else; why wouldn’t Percy understand?!
Just then Maya interjected, “Guys, can we um..."
“What?” He asked, irritated.
“Do we need to worry about that?” She asked, pointing to an oncoming projectile.
Tony only had time to send his suit to cover his partner before chaos. Blinking his eyes open, he saw the mess around him. Maya was lying unconscious to the side, under some debris, and Percy was covering him, almost like it was his first instinct.
“I’m going to get her out of here; you are going to follow in another one of your suits." Percy said, keeping a surprisingly level head for someone with no prior experience with all this.
For the millionth time, Tony wondered how Percy could be like this.
“Anthony?” Percy asked, seemingly not the first time he was trying to get his attention.
“Yeah, yeah, let’s do that,” he said, already standing up to ask JARVIS to deploy another one of his suits.
“Sir, the lab is completely destroyed; none of the other suits are functional.”
Well, Shit!
The helicopters weren’t stopping, and he was running out of options!
“Sir, Dr.Jackson is clear of the structure,” JARVIS suddenly said from above, and just in time too, he immediately motioned for his suit to get to him. Finally, he could retaliate properly.
He barely remembered anything of the fight—just flashes of helicopters and fire. Landing in Tennessee was a blessing in disguise, though he could have gone without the trouble of crashing. Meeting Harley was another thing he would have to thank his luck for. That kid reminded him of himself in some ways, and he can’t say he regrets it. He’d have to go back once this shitshow was over; maybe get him acquainted with Percy.
Now that he finally had an idea about what was going on, and after seeing all that Extremis was capable of, he missed Percy like a missing limb. During the New York attack, the man was there with him throughout, even if he wasn’t there physically. Now he did not know where Percy was; he had no means to contact him; he was on a super tight schedule, and Percy probably thought he was dead. Again.
He was starting to see a trend here.
Reaching Miami and meeting the 'Mandarin, aka Trevor, was anticlimactic. Getting caught unaware was really starting to get on his nerves. Waking up to Maya was not helping matters.
“It's just like old times, huh?” Maya said, smirking. Something about the set of her face seemed fragile.
“Oh, yeah. with zip ties. It's a ball.” He said, deciding to play along.
“It wasn't my idea.” She said she was trying to justify herself to him.
“Okay. So you took Killian's card.” He asked, trying to piece things together.
"I took his money.”
He was slowly getting worried about his boyfriend. Last time he saw him, he was with Maya, and now she is siding with Killian. He could only hope Percy was safe.
She goes on, "A lot has happened, Tony. But I'm close. The extremis is practically stabilized.”
Her conviction scares him, especially because, as someone working on it, she had to know how unstable it is.
“I’M TELLING YOU IT ISN’T! I'm on the street. People are going bang. They're painting the walls. Maya, you're kidding yourself.”
“Then help me fix it.” She says, almost desperate.
“I can't help you. You used to have a moral psychology. You used to have ideals. You wanted to help people. Now look at you. I get to wake up every morning with someone who still has their soul. Get me out of here. Come on.” He says he is unable to control how uncomfortable he is with this situation.
Of course, Killian had to walk in just then.
"You're not still pissed off about the Switzerland thing, are you?” He tried to play at being unbothered.
“How can I be pissed at you, Tony? I'm here to thank you. You gave me the greatest gift that anybody's ever given me. Desperation. If you think back to Switzerland, you said you'd meet me on the rooftop, right? Well, for the first 20 minutes, I actually thought you'd show up. And the next hour... I considered taking that one-step shortcut to the lobby. If you know what I mean, But as I looked out over that city, nobody knew I was there; nobody could see me; no one was even looking. I had a thought that would guide me for years to come. Anonymity, Tony. Thanks to you, it's been my mantra ever since. Right? You simply rule from behind the scenes. Because the second you give evil a face—a bin Laden, a Gaddafi, a Mandarin—you hand the people a target.”
He wishes he had given him those 20 minutes; then maybe they wouldn’t be here now.
“What's next for you in your world?” he asked, trying to find out more.
"Well, I wanted to repay you for the same gift that you so graciously imparted to me.”
He had a bad feeling about this, and he soon found out why.
There are no words to describe the helplessness you feel when you see a loved one in pain, and there are no words to describe the overwhelming sense of despair that consumes you. It's as if your heart is being squeezed, and every fiber of your being wants to take away their suffering. But he couldn’t do anything but watch as the love of his life was writhing in what he could only assume was agony. He was glowing, and his body, which Tony remembers better than his own, was tense and full of scars he was just seeing. Tony was paralyzed by the sight of his suffering.
Watching his face in glee, the monster continued, “Desperation. Now, this is live. I'm not sure if you can tell, but at this moment, the body is trying to decide whether to accept Extremis or just give up. And if it gives up, I have to say, the detonation is quite spectacular.”
He couldn’t listen anymore; nightmarish images of Percy detonating filled his mind.
“But until that point, it's really just a lot of pain.” Killian walked forward and clamped his hand around Tony’s neck. "We haven't even talked about salary yet. What kind of perk package are you thinking of?”
Tony wanted to smash his arrogant face. He wanted to torture Killian so badly that it would make what Percy was going through look like a joke. The thought of making Killian suffer brought a twisted satisfaction.
“Let him go," he heard Maya say as if through a haze.
"What are you doing?” Killian asked, only sounding mildly irritated.
"1200 CCs. A dose half of this size, I'm dead.” She said, holding up an injector to her neck.
“It's times like this that my temper is somewhat tested. Maya, give me the injector.”
"If I die, Killian, what happens to your soldiers? What happens to your product?” She said she was climbing up the stairs slowly.
"What happens to you? What happens if you go too hot?” She continued, probably believing she had the upper hand.
A resounding bang sounded in the basement. Tony couldn’t believe what happened.
It seemed like neither could Maya, despite being the one who got shot.
"The good news is, a high-level position has just been vacated.” The man said it without missing a beat.
"You are a maniac.”
“No, I'm a visionary. But I do own a maniac. And he takes the stage tonight.” He said he was walking out, his steps echoing in the dingy basement.
Oh god, he thought, what was he going to do?