Battle Strategies | Tony Stark [1]

FOURTEEN

As Athena walked out from the bathroom, drying her hair with a towel, she noticed that the house was unusually quiet. She dropped the towel on the ground and listened for any little noise that would indicate that anyone was there. The silence was deafening and Athena frowned as she spoke aloud to JARVIS.

"JARVIS, is Tony still here?" Athena asked.

"Mr Stark wishes me to inform you that he has left for the Stark Expo." JARVIS announced and Athena noted the lack of detail in the statement.

"He wasn't scheduled to go tonight." Athena pointed out. "And did he leave in his suit? Because we haven't finished all the test yet. We don't know all the affects."

Athena raised her eyebrow at the silence that followed, and sighed. She snapped her fingers and her hair styled itself, before she teleported herself to the Stark Expo. She could hear the crowd cheering as she walked around backstage, looking for Pepper.

"Justin Hammer. His presentation will begin shortly in the main pavilion." Athena rolled her eyes at the announcement, or accurately, at the name that was announced. Athena made her way into the main pavilion and quickly spotted Pepper's signature hair. Navigating through the throngs of people, she caught Pepper's attention, who frowned at her presence.

"Athena?" Pepper grabbed Athena's forearm, gently pulling her closer so that they could talk. "What are you doing here?"

"Tony's on his way here." Athena said to Pepper, but also subtly to the red haired spy beside Pepper. Natasha raised her eyebrow at Athena, who continued. "Something must of spooked him."

Pepper opened her mouth to reply but an announcement interrupted her, telling everyone to sit down. Pepper pulled Athena into the seat beside her and Natasha sat on Athena's other side. Music emitted from the speakers around the main pavilion and Justin Hammer entered the stage, doing the most outrageous dance moves Athena had ever witnessed. Despite the horrible dancing, the crowd cheered.

"Yeah. That's what I'm talking about." Justin crooned into his microphone while standing behind the podium, trying to be suave and charming. "Thanks for coming."

"Ladies and gentlemen, for far too long, this country has had to place its brave men and women in harm's way, but then the Iron Man arrived, and we thought the days of losing lives were behind us. Sadly, that technology was kept out of reach. That's not fair. That's not right. And it's just too bad."

"Oh, Lord." Pepper groaned from beside her as Hammer continued.

"Regardless, it was an impressive innovation, one that grabbed the headlines the world over. Well, today, my friends, the press is faced with quite a difficult problem. They are about to run out of ink." Athena grimaced at the terrible attempt of a joke, as the crowd awkwardly laughed.

Two members of the staff run onto the stage and remove the podium from the stage. "Get that out of here. Ladies and gentlemen, today I present to you the new face of the United States military. The Hammer drone."

A recording played on the screens behind him as the drones raised up out of the stage. "Army! Navy! Air Force! Marines! Yeah! Yeah! Woo! That's a hell of a lot better than some cheerleaders, let me tell you."

"But as revolutionary as this technology is, there will always be a need for man to be present in the theatre of war. Ladies and gentlemen, today I am proud to present to you the very first prototype in the Variable Threat Response Battle Suit and its pilot, Air Force Lieutenant, Colonel James Rhodes."

"What?" Both Athena and Pepper gasp in betrayal as Rhodey, the drones and Hammer salute.

"For America and its allies, Hammer Industries is reporting for-" Justin trailed off at the familiar sound of the iron man suit. Athena turned in her seat to watch Tony fly over them and land on the stage, the audience erupting into applause.

"We got trouble." Tony said, marching up to Rhodey.

"Tony, there are civilians present. I'm here on orders. Let's not do this right now." Rhodey warned Tony, unaware of the danger that was approaching.

"Give them a wave." Tony lifted his arm and put the other on his back, and talked quietly. "All these people are in danger. We gotta get them out of here. You gotta trust me for the next five minutes."

"Yeah, I tried that. I got tossed around your house, remember?" Rhodey retorted bitterly.

"Listen, I think he's working with Vanko." Tony told him urgently, but remained calm on the outside.

"Vanko's alive?" Rhodey repeated in shock.

Tony approached Hammer. "Where is he?"

"What?" Hammer asked confused.

"Where's Vanko?" Tony demanded.

"Who?"

"Tell me."

"What are you doing here man?" Hammer growled but something more concerning was happening behind the scenes.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Rhodey chanted as he lost all control of his actions. A large gun folded out from the suit and took aim at Tony.

"Is that you?" Tony asked Rhodey, watching the gun nervously.

"No, I'm not doing that. That's not me. I can't move. I'm locked up. I'm locked up!" Athena's eyes widened as all the drones took aim at Tony, Rhodey demanded that Tony leaves. "Get out of here. Go! This whole system's been compromised."

Tony launched into the air, realising that he had to bring the fight away from the civilians. "Let's take it outside."

The audience screamed as Rhodey and the drones began firing. The glass of the ceiling fell on top of the audience, as they desperately tried to exit the pavilion. Athena stood up as Rhodey took off after Tony and turned to Natasha. "We have to get everyone out of here."

"I have to find Hammer." Natasha informed her, running off before Athena could protest. Athena growled when she saw Pepper running after Natasha. "Fine. I'll do it myself."

"Or I can help."

Athena swirled on her heel and gaped at her step-brother, who never in his life has ever volunteered to help her in any shape or form. "Ares?"

"Oh, don't look so shocked, sister. I was bored." Ares smirked, pulling his sword out. He swung the sword with even more strength than Athena could ever muster up and decapitated a drone with little to no strength. "Come on then. Don't just stand there, fight."

Athena's bracelet unraveled into its spear form and she twirled it before stabbing it into the chest of one of the drones. "Just stay out of my way.