Gulmira
The armour goes speeding through the clouds, briefly passing by the screen before going supersonic and breaking the sound barrier, leaving a thin trail of white behind it.
Rocket groaned with longing at the speed of the suit on screen. Quill rolled his eyes, sending an exasperated, apologetic look in Tony’s direction.
In Gulmira (which, true to Yinsen's words, is really quite small), groups of men, women, and children run screaming for their lives as terrorists invade their village. In the distance, missiles (not unlike the ones from the Jericho test) can be seen flying into the mountains, the explosions shaking the ground and kicking up dust and dirt.
“That’s horrible.” Steve winced.
“No Shit,” muttered Scott, a look of horrified disgust on his face at the screen.
The villagers run with their hands above their heads in surrender as they're ushered out of their homes. One family is actually driven back inside by two men with guns, one of them kicking the door in and open firing into the house, effectively silencing their screams.
Tony grimaced, although this was a long time ago, the guilt was there, fresh as always.
An explosion rings from one house, smoke spewing out the entryway. People are shot, kicked, and shoved around the streets, even lined up to await either recruitment or execution.
“Now would be a great time to show up Tony.” Bruce looked at the screen worried.
“I’ll be there soon, I have excellent timing,” Tony smirked, but no humour was in his eyes.
A familiar face enters the shot; the man who had first addressed Tony when he had woken up in the cave. He was shouting orders to his men, who were loading cases into their vehicles and rounding up families.
Tony scowled, at the screen. Most everyone else did too. None more than Rhodey and Peter, also Vision but any scowl was astronomical for him.
One family is pushed along as a whole, refusing to release one another. The father is hit especially hard in the back, sending them tumbling to the ground. When the leader sees the man, he shouts to his men, "That one there! Grab that dog! Put him with the others."
“Assholes.” Quill looked disgusted.
The father was immediately ripped away, ready to be lined up for execution with the other men while his children and his wife screamed. One of his sons broke away from his mother's grip and started running for his father, screaming for his Papa.
Natasha swore to herself in Russian.
“Earth is really quite messed up,” commented Brunnhilde.
“Most places are messed up.” Loki rolled his eyes slightly.
His father broke away from his captor's grip as well, rushing for his son and gripping him in a hug. He tries desperately to usher him away, back to the imagined safety of his mother's arms, but the boy is having none of it.
“Any time now Tones…” Rhodey murmured, glancing at the man.
The main spokesman walks up to the pair, obviously annoyed and outraged as he shouts, "What the hell is this?!" He reaches for the boy, ripping him out of his father's arms and throwing him to one of his lower henchmen. He and another man hold the father back, throwing him to the ground where it's easier to beat him.
“These men are despicable,” Wanda growled, pushing her thoughts firmly away from her past and her parent's deaths.
“Agreed,” Vision softly said. Wanda smiled grimly at him, a flash of hope in her chest at the acknowledgement.
The man's wife, now reunited with her both her children, screams for him, almost certainly begging them to stop their brutal kicking of her husband. The children join in, too, the boy from before shouting out as tears roll down his cheeks.
Everyone was ferociously glaring at the screen now.
Finally getting bored with it, the leader gives one final kick and gestures for his henchmen to get the father on his knees while he himself saunters away, "Shoot this dog! You're all incompetent."
“No,” Thor cried, “Friend Anthony, please arrive.”
The man's family continued to yell for him, his son screaming, "PAPA! PAPA!"
The henchman is yelling now, too, only he's demanding that the father turns his head.
Just before he pulls the trigger, there's a gust of wind as a figure descends from the sky, landing on the hard ground with a metal 'clang,' one knee bent and hands back.
The flight stabilizers cut out, and the armour rises to its' full height, towering over the men who have turned to look. After the initial shock of their unexpected visitor, there are sounds of gunfire, but the bullets only ricochet off the gold titanium alloy.
Cheers filled the room at the appearance.
“You got that timing thing right.” Rhodey smiled at Tony, who was staring grimly at the screen, they were in that situation because of me…
“Stop it, Mr Stark.” Peter flicked the man’s shoulder. “What you’re thinking is clear on your face, so stop it.”
“You got it, kid.” Tony sighed, not believing he actually could.
Tony turns to face the "brave" shooter, winding up a punch in the action and slamming his metal-clad fist into the man's chest, sending him up and into a concrete wall with enough force to dent it.
“Ouch.” Clint grinned, glad at the appearance of Iron Man, his distaste for the man ebbing away.
There are more shots, but Tony is quick (not to mention bullet-proof), and turns around to shoot a repulsor blast at the gunman, creating a body-shaped hole in the wall in the process. He moves on to the next man, sending him back and away from harming the civilians.
He shoots another into their newfound stockpile of weapons, sending the cases tumbling over.
“This is oddly satisfying,” Natasha smirked.
As the genius turns to aim his repulsors at the next group of men, he's forced to stop short when he realizes they now have the civilians in their grasp, using them as human shields and aiming guns to their heads.
“Crap.”
They scream in terror, but nonetheless, Tony lowers his arms, flexing his fingers to shut down the blasts that never came.
“Oh my god.” Shuri bit her lip glancing around in worry.
Inside the helmet, the HUD differentiates the civilians from the terrorists so no innocents will get injured. A compartment over each one of the armour's shoulders opens up, firing a quick succession of bullets into the enemy's faces, effectively saving the villagers.
“You really have something for everything.” Stephen sighed.
“The real magic is technology.” insisted Tony.
“Yeah right.” scoffed Stephen. “The real magic is magic.”
“No, the real magic is love,” Quill added in a sing-song voice.
The young boy breaks from his mother's hold once again and rushes back to his father. They grab each other in a hug, the father muttering reassurances as his son gazes up at the metal figure in wonder.
“Must of completely and utterly surprised them.” Rhodey smiled slightly.
“Last thing to expect.” agreed Bruce.
Inside one of the half-destroyed homes, the leader peers out from the side of the wall, only to duck back behind it to frantically dial a number on a clunky old phone. He never gets to finish, though, as he's interrupted by a red-iron fist breaking through the concrete beside his head.
“Shit!”
The hand grabs him, ripping him straight through the wall and tossing him onto the ground at the villagers' feet.
“Take that you bastard!” cackled Rocket hysterically.
“I am Groot!”
He starts up the repulsors again, rising a few feet into the air, "He's all yours," he says to the small gathering of people, before shooting up into the sky, leaving the villagers to glare angrily at the terrorist before them.
“Shame, it would have been fun to see them beat him up.” Loki sighed smirking.
Back in the sky, Tony's HUD locates the Jericho missiles from another nearby raided village.
“Fucking Obie,” Tony growled to himself.
Tony is just starting to head in the Jericho's direction when he's hit by a projectile and shot out of the sky.
There were several startled cries.
The source of the projectile is revealed to be a tank as he plummets to the earth in the background.
“Whoever is in that tank has some damn good aim.” Shuri looked mildly impressed.
“Oh yes, I’m fine by the way,” muttered Tony.
“You’re Tony Stark, if you died from that I would be worried about your intelligence.” Shuri rolled her eyes.
“True.”
Out of the fresh crater in the ground, a metal hand reaches up, and Tony pulls himself to his feet with a robotic whirring sound. The paint job on the armour is now scratched and scorched in nearly every place, but overall the armour is seemingly intact.
“The Iron Man armour looks constantly pissed,” commented Clint.
“That’s the idea bird-brain.” Tony looked smug.
His feet hit the ground with two big thumps as he stands tall to face the tank. It fires another missile at him, but he merely sides steps to avoid getting hit and raises his arm to fire a missile of his own.
“That tank is screwed.” Peter’s mouth twitched.
It hits the tank with a clunk, and he turns away, not at all amused.
Behind him, the missile explodes in a great ball of fire and smoke as he's walking away.
“That is quite possibly the most badass thing I’ve seen.” Peter gazed awestruck at the screen. Tony grinned in triumph.
“You are too easy to please,” Rhodey whispered to Tony, who rolled his eyes.
The men hiding among the rubble begin to fire at him, but still, the bullets do nothing to the well-crafted suit as it rises once again into the air. Spotting the Jericho missiles from the birds-eye view, Tony aims a high powered repulsor blast at the weapon, effectively blowing it to pieces.
“Take that you assholes!” cheered the room is various cries.
Raza and his men are shown driving along the mountain path just as the explosion spreads throughout the terrorist-infested village, not to mention just as Iron Man shoots out through the smoke and into the air.