The Tale of Two

"Beware the fury of a patient man." -John Dryden

"The finest fury is the most controlled." -Christopher Hitchens, Love, Poverty, and War: Journey and Essays

They spend the last few days in bliss and when Tony leaves, Rikki thinks nothing of it.  When he misses their appointed phone call, she thinks he got caught up in his work.  Something she can understand, especially when she's swimming in open water, so she doesn't make a big deal of it.  She just leaves a message on his phone and goes to make herself lunch.

Everything is fine until she answers her door to the ASIO standing on her doorstep.

"Miss Chadwick, may we enter?"  

Its three men and each one doesn't hesitate to show her their badges and introduce themselves.  One dirty blonde with brown eyes and two brunettes.  One with dark brown eyes and one with blue eyes.  The first one is named Luke Cass, followed by Marcus Douglas, and Riley Wardlaw. They approach her like they're about to deliver a death sentence.

"Tony Stark is missing." 

"What?"

She hadn't been watching the news or anything.  Preferring to stick to Netflix or disc movies.  She turns away from them and hurries back inside to turn on the television.  The news blares out at her.  It wails across the screen in bold letters and fake sympathy.

Her grip on the remote tightens, making the plastic creak. 

Rikki forgot.  

She forgot.

"Miss Chadwick."

The three agents follow her and Cass speaks gently.  Which is good and bad because Rikki isn't some weak wall flower but her temper is and has always been violent.  Right now its smothered by horror and guilt but it will only take one wrong word to get spark her anger.  

"They have him."

"'They' who?" Douglas asks, careful not to raise his voice.

"I don't know.  Just...just they."

What can she say to them?  What can she tell them without making it seem like she's an accomplice? Its not like she can come right out and say she's from another world where Tony Stark is a fictional character or that she was able to cross over because she's a mermaid.  Sweet Mako, she doesn't even remember all of the details! Just bits and pieces that stuck with her because she was never a big fan of comics.  

And she forgot!

Rikki sinks into her couch and tries to hold back a sob.  Its hard.  Rikki was never the one that panicked.  She didn't think about the worse case scenario or the terrible things that could happen to her.  Rikki is Rage.  Rikki Burned. 

There is a reason her first power was heat, fire, and lightening.  Mermaids are closely tied to their first powers and liquid water or ice can be molded and controlled.  But not fire, not Rikki.  Everyone was careful of fire.  People could use it.  People have learned to create and depend on it but they are always careful.  It is so easy for fire to wreak havoc and no matter the containment, fire always wins because that fear and discomfort will always beat out complacency.

Rikki feels that urge now.  To lash out and destroy.  But the fire doesn't come to her because she isn't boxed in or threatened.  There's no one trying to command her.  There is no threat.

The threat is aimed at Tony.

"-we don't negotiate with terrorists."

"What?"

She hadn't realized they were talking.  Rikki doesn't even realize which one of them is talking and even if she did, Rikki knows they won't negotiate with them.  She knows there is no money in all the world that will make them give Tony Stark over.

"There is some speculation about the ones responsible." Cass takes over again. "If it is not terrorists than there may be something we can do.  Is there anyone, anyone at all, that seems like the type to attack Mr. Stark and his military escort?"

Stane.  Obadiah Stane.  Rikki might not be able to tell them his name or why or how.  But she can point them in the right direction.       

"Why don't you check his company?"

Cass focus on her intensifies, gone is the careful agent but his voice is still soft.  Rikki can almost feel the difference in the agents as they shift mindsets.

"Are you implying that someone inside Mr. Stark's company is responsible for his kidnapping?"

Rikki keeps her expression blank.  It takes everything she has not to scream at them.  

"I don't know.  What I am saying is that unless you want to accuss the US military of leaking information on purpose than his company is the first place you should be looking."

They must have seen something.  Rikki isn't the best at poker but she can keep her composure when she has to.  

"Of course."

When they push his head beneath the water his first reaction is to panic.

They hold his head down longer and longer the more he refuses them.  His world blurs at the edges and he isn't in Afghanistan anymore.

Rikki is as beautiful in the ocean as she is on land.  They're in the open sea a little farther out from her home and Tony will admit that the scenary makes her breathtaking to look at.  He can see why sailors would happily follow a mermaid to their deaths.

Tony isn't so big on nature but he can see why it would appeal to her.  With his rebreather, a mask that he planned to give to Rikki for her dives that she doesn't really need, Tony gets to see her in all her mythical glory. 

She turns to him, smiles, and holds his hand.  

Something moves above him and he turns quickly.  They're not alone.  Sharks, he thinking, but no. 

The ocean comes alive around them with a school of dolphins.  The comes close and dance around them.  Rikki, the sly minx, takes his hand and puts on a fin of a dolphin right next to him.  With a jerk, Tony finds himself gliding through the water.  He turns back to see Rikki right on his tail (ha! tail!) and he holds on.  The water all around them is alive with dolphin giggles.

They're playing and he can somehow feel the giddy joy bubbling all around him.

He refuses.

The dolphins don't stay.  Which is fine with Tony because they remind him of his bots at home and he really does need to spend more time with them.  He's been so busy lately that he hasn't even threatened to send DUM-E to a shelter or something.

Rikki swims to his side, a picture of red and gold in a world of blue, with a lazy grin on her face and takes his hand again.  He lets her led, unsure how far out they are and not really caring.  Tony thinks he should be but he's so relaxed. When was the last time he felt his okay?  But this strange world is alive and he can see it.  Squids that look like glowing rocks and fish of every color and size.  There's a hammerhead shark that glides underneath him and off into the blue.  The rest he doesn't know.  He doesn't know anything about these things except they're alive.

A shadow lazily swims over head and Tony looks up. 

Above him glides a pair of giant manta rays.  For a moment, just one, he forgets to breath and exhales roughly.  For whatever reason it comes down right over his shoulder and he meets its gaze.  A shiver rolls down his spine at how deep that gaze feels but...but not judging.  It doesn't feel like someone is weighting his soul.  No.  Its just...looking at him.  Seeing him.  It brushes its pectoral fin along his back, just a graze, gentle and...and soothing.

It makes Tony feel incredibly small.  His vision is blurring. He's not crying. He's not. 

Small and peaceful.  Safe.

Tony coughs and turns his head, water spewing from his mouth.  He blinks in a daze.  Yinsen is there in a surprising twist.  Something must have happened.  The terrorists are yelling at each other and spewing a bunch of things he doesn't understand.  He is dragged back to his prison with Yinsen, pale and tired.  But that feeling...

...it stays with him.

It stays. 

She was furious and afraid.

The search has started to die down.  Already the media is asking who will inherit the company and what about this stock or that problem.  Rikki hates it.  The callous disregard.  Tony stark is alive and they were treating his kidnapping like some twist in a reality TV show.  

She spent all this time in Australia under ASIO watch.  She doesn't mind much since she knew Stane was responsible for her boyfriend being kidnapped and pointing the finger at him and the rest of the company board would have put a target on her back.  Rikki still makes it a point to call Tony's friend Rhodey to ask him about the search and Pepper to make sure she isn't alone.

Rikki doesn't know if the other two like her or not but they're important to Tony.  So, she tries to protect them the best she can from the other side of the world. The second month is harder but she holds out. She is still under watch so she stays out of the water.

She still calls Tony's cell.  Every day he's out there, she calls him and leaves a message.  If only to here his stupid voicemail and to remind herself that he isn't dead.  He's missing and he's coming back.  He's coming back alive.

Even if she has to make them keep searching for him. 

"Jarvis." Rikki calls to the AI from her laptop. "Can you help me?"

 "If it is within my capabilities, Miss Chadwick."

"Good. Can you make sure Stane doesn't hear anything about me?"

"You suspect Mr. Stane of foul play, Miss?"

"He's always given me the creeps.  There's also a bunch of other reason but I'll let that for when Tony gets back."

"Of course, Miss.  If your efforts will also aid Sir, than I will act in whatever way possible to assist you."

"Perfect." 

She goes around her bedroom and makes sure her bedroom is blocked out, curtains and all. The less people see of her, especially the agents "protecting" her, the better.  She pulls up a world map and looks it over with a calculating gaze.

"Jarvis." Rikki narrows her eyes, "Show me where Tony was taken."

She's barely finished speaking when the map changes and is manipulated without her input.  Anticipating what she wants, Jarvis zooms into the area Tony disappeared and highlights the area around it by twenty miles.

"Zoom out.  Show me the distance from here and the nearest military base."

Jarvis zooms out and highlights a radius of about forty miles.  He also marks areas of unrest, conflict and territories under command of the military.

Rikki takes it all in with a deep breath.  This is not something she's ever done before but she knew she could.  She had to.  The map gives her a point of reference.  After all, its not the highlighted area that she's aiming for.

She closes her eyes and pulls.

No one knows where it started.  Only that it did.

Slowly, carefully did it all change.  Dark storm clouds form on multiple horizons.  From a distance the storm clouds, flash lightening and booming thunder.

No one really pays it any mind. Not at first.  Its just another surprise storm.  Mother Nature can still surprise people after all.  Except it continues to grow and grow.  It stretches out over the wide oceans and climb high to block out the sun.  The air becomes charged and thick with the smell of ozone.  Cold wind hurls against walls and glass, becoming dangerously harsh and biting.  

It comes from no where.

The massive storm clouds creep upon the landmasses of the world.  No one can tell where it started, which is fortunate for Rikki, but it sends meteorologist reeling and panicking.  Rikki cannot make this storm from nothing.  That would take too much power and energy.  It would take too long for her put it together.  But this isn't her making a storm so much as enhancing a storm already forming.  The world was made from a storm, from violence and unprecedented power.  Rikki could do the same.

She doesn't though.  

People wouldn't survive that sort of event but with this, they have a warning.  She pushes the world's natural progress and gives it power but no direction.  Rikki isn't looking to control it.  She wants it to run wild, to cause chaos and fear.  Everywhere except here, in this place where Tony is missing, where Iron Man is born.

Rikki intends to make sure the world never forgets this, forgets Tony Stark did the impossible.

It takes hours for the clouds to blanket the sky but when they finally do, the world is dark.  The clouds break and a torrent of rain pours from the sky.  Winds unfurl and swell, rising gusts causing any remaining wildlife to scatter and head for cover as wind speeds rises.  Volcanoes cracks and spew fatal methane, lava pouring from crevices in the earth.  

It rains and rains.  North to south.  West to east.  All around the world, it rains and the ground trembles wind wipes through skyscrapers and high rises.  Trees falls and branches break.  Streets and subways start to flood.  The power fails and people are left in the dark. 

People become scared.  For days it goes on and everyone wonders.  Is this it?  Is this the end?  A terror grips the people of the world and it keeps raining.  There are mudslides in California, the Philippines, and parts of Russia.  In Kenya, Mexico, Italy, and Ethiopia, the land is bathed in volcanic fire and ash.  It hits the people of the world than that they are in danger.  This is real.  Their planet spits lightening and fire at them. 

It slowly but surely, threatens to drown them all.

All but one portion in the middle east.  A small segment in the afghan desert where a billionaire went missing.