Ghost

13

Rhodes was still chasing Tony while Maddie was doing her best to hack the suit. Tony kept her on the line and asked Jarvis to help Maddie break down the Stark software, even though she insisted she didn't need any help.

Hammers bots were everywhere. Shooting at civilians, destroying buildings and cars and spreading like rats. They were everywhere.

While flying over the bots, Tony spots a young boy in an iron man helmet being targeted by a bot. Being the hero he is, Tony swoops down and lands infront of the kid who now had his arm raised as if he was going to blast the bot himself. Shooting down the bot and destroying it Tony turns to the boy with a "Nice work kid" and flys off again, where he is met by Rhodes.

"You got multiples coming in on you" Rhodes yells behind him.

"Let's get this away from the Expo." Tony yells back, turning for Rhodes to follow (not like he had a choice).

Finally away from the expo, Tony flies in circles to keep Rhodes on his tail.

"How we doing Mads?" Tony asked his daughter who was viciously typing away on her keyboard.

"Almost done... I just need this fire wall to break and...." She paused waiting for her access to be granted.

"Dad I'm in!" Maddie cheered. " Rhodes should be good to take control".

"Well done MadDog. Rhodes it's all yours" Tony replied while also giving his friend the go ahead.

Suddenly Nat appears on screen. "Ivan's not here, we need to find him" she tells Tony who in return groans and lands by a lake with Rhodes.

"Well done on the new chest piece by the way. I am reading significant higher output and your vitals all look promising." Nat adds, complimenting Tony's new arc reactor.

"Yes, for the moment, I'm not dying. Thank you." Tony jokes but is quickly interrupted by another voice.

"What do you mean you're not dying? Did you just say you're dying?" Peppers image appears on screen, Tony winces at her voice.

"I was going to tell you. I didn't want to alarm you. But hey I'm not dying anymore" Tony responds, unaware that his daughter was still on the line and was silently listening to the pair.

"You were gonna tell me? You really were dying?" Pepper yelled.

"I was gonna make you an omelette and tell you." Tony responds again.

"Hey, hey. Save it for the honeymoon. You got incoming Tony. Looks like the fight's coming to you." Natasha jumps in.

"Great. Okay" Tony speaks back before mumbling under his breath to Pepper "We could have been in Venice".

Turning to Rhodes Tony retracts his helmet. "They're coming in hot, any second. What's the play?".

"Well, we want to take the high ground, okay? So let's put the biggest gun up on that ridge." Rhodes points behind Tony.

"You go up to. I'll draw them in."

"Don't stay down here. This is the worst place to be." Rhodes points out.

"Okay, you got a spot. Where's mine?"

"It's the kill box, Tony. Okay This is where you go to die."

Now surrounded by Hammer drones, the pair are blasting everywhere. Cautiously watching their backs to avoid jump scares. After defeating them all, Tony and Rhodes look relieved, until Natasha butts in.

"Head up. You got one more drone incoming. This one looks different. The repulsor signature is significantly higher." She yells through, now connected to both suits.

Infront of them, Ivan lands in a full suit. "Good to be back." Ivan scowls, turning on the electronic whips in his grasps. Rhodes shoots at Ivan's reactor, causing a part to come off and fizzle in the water from the lake behind them.

"I've got this" Tony speaks as he shoots at Ivan. The pair both now shooting at Ivan as Ivan tries his best to approach the iron suits and hit them with his whip. Knocking Rhodes to the ground by swiping his feet with the whips. Ivan approach's Rhodes before Tony jumps behind and grabs Ivan's left whip. Causing Ivan to spin around. While Ivan is distracted, Rhodes jumps up and grabs the right whip. Rhodes and Tony both now holding a whip each.

"Rhodes. I could really use a sidekick. Put your hand up." Tony yells at Rhodes, still holding Ivan in his grasp.

" This is your idea?" Rhodes asks as he raises his hand.

"Yep"

"I'm ready. I'm ready. Go, go, go!" And just like that, both the iron man shoot each other's middle just like back at the house, but this time Ivan's in the middle.

After the blast, Ivan falls to the floor, his body unable to withstand the attack it just took.

"You lose" he smirks after spitting out blood. Ivan's eyes go blank as the light on his chest disappears. Ivan's dead.

Suddenly Ivan's reactor stars flashing red, along with all the broken drones around them.

"All these drones are rigged to blow. We gotta get out of here man."

Within an instant, Tony is flying back to the expo to find Pepper. Spotting her below him, he rush's down and grabs her, flying back up before the drone that was laying beside her blows up.

Lowering them both onto a roof, Pepper starts to freak out. "My body, literally, cannot handle the stress. I never know if you're gonna kill yourself or wreak the whole company. I quit. I'm resigning. That's it."

"What did you just say? You're done? That's surprising. No, it's not surprising. I get it. You don't have to make excuses." Tony remarks back, retracting his helmet.

"I'm... I'm... I'm not making any excuses"

"You've taken such good care of me. I've been in a tough spot, but you got me through it, so... Right?"

"Thank you for understanding" Pepper smiles back at him. Before they know it, the two kiss. Although it doesn't last long.

"Eewwww, god just hang up" Maddie groans over the computer. Tony now regretting putting in an upgrade so he can answer calls without the helmet, pulls away from Pepper and speaks back.

"Mads you could have hung up".

"Nu uh, I'm eating chilli heatwave Doritos and my hands are covered in dust. If I get one crumb on Peppers laptop, she will kill me." Maddie shrugs.
" oh and by the way, you didn't happen to mention to me that you were dying!" Maddie yells, her tone going from soft and carefree to loud and worried.

"Mads can we talk about this later, I'm kinda busy" Tony smirks.

"Busy playing tonsil hockey with your Assistant. Yeah I heard".

"Jarvis, hang up" Tony speaks louder.

"What no!" Maddie yells again.

"Goodbye MadDog, pick you up in half an hour k?". And the call ends.