Aftermath (a BH6 crossover)

Chapter Seventy Six: Here's What's Going To Happen

Stark approached the far end of the sports arena with more caution than he might have earlier. Even though he knew he wasn't in any immediate danger, he still kept enough distance that if something went off, it wouldn't immediately incapacitate him. He'd switched frequencies back to listen in on Hiro's friends, but nothing had come up there. At least not on the one they'd used earlier that year during the whole Hydra thing. Maybe they'd switched or were staying out of the way, for now. Not that he needed to worry about that right now.
"Tell me what we're dealing with," the Avenger requested of his AI. "Anything we really need to worry about?"

Whirling images filled the helmet's screen on one side as JARVIS scanned the area, zeroing in on one section of seats. "I have located the bomb," he announced, highlighting the area in the field of vision with a red glow.

Tony's attention diverted to the area with a flick of his eyes as he continued to hover. He quickly scanned through the readouts, which, thankfully indicated no one else was near the bomb. Unfortunately, he couldn't immediately see it as it appeared the thing was under one of the many seats. "Composition?"

"The bomb appears to be similar in structure to the previous ones," JARVIS answered. "Thankfully, I do not detect anything that would indicate it is a dirty bomb. However, it does appear to be active. I am detecting a countdown device."

Iron Man cussed under his breath. It was doubtful they'd be able to get the area cleared before the thing went off. And, if it was indeed like the other bombs, chances were good it had a good radius of expected impact. He'd either have to try and deactivate it or get it out of there before it could go off. "I'm going in," he declared as he changed course to head for the immediate area of the bomb. "Please tell me it's not motion sensitive."

More whirring filled Tony's ears as various scanners activated or were reassigned to get a clearer picture of what they were working with. "As far as I can tell, it is not," the AI informed him.

"Good." Tony landed right in front of the seat in question and quickly bent to retrieve the bomb as carefully as he could. "Looks like we got two minutes," he said out loud as he glanced towards the field. Several bomb squad members were headed his way but he knew they wouldn't get there in time. "Looks I'll have to play hero again today."

He looked for an even area that wasn't a seat and settled for one of the stairs, placing the device on it. "Okay, what am I looking at to deactivate this thing?"

JARVIS put up a schematic of the bomb based off his scans. "It would appear that there are several trip wires you will have to navigate before you can fully deactivate the device," he warned.

Static came over the headset and he tapped his helmet. "Might need to run a diagnostic on this thing," he muttered under his breath.

"Stark."

More static filled the speakers next to his ears as Jack's voice tried to make it through. "Little busy," Stark answered back.

"Got a problem," Jack replied, his voice coming in a little garbled. "Decker's .... A bomb...."

Tony removed the cover from the device in front of him. "Decker's on the field," he answered evenly, trying to not sound too impatient. "I've got the bomb right here. And, if you don't mind, I'm trying to disarm it."

Again, static sounded, louder, almost, than before. "No. Decker's on a land mine!"

His heart seemed to plummet to the ground as realization struck, but there wasn't much he could do as his gauntlet enclosed hands manipulated the circuitry inside the bomb in front of him. That didn't keep a cuss word or two from escaping his lips. "I'd love to go help her," he answered, the train clearly entering his voice as he wished he could wipe away a bead of sweat. "I really do, but I'm kind of in the middle of defusing a bomb that's going to go off in less than a minute and a half or less if I don't take care of it now. Tell her she'll just have to hang tight and not move. I'll be there when and if I can get this taken care of."