After a quick stop in a store, the name of which I didn't even get to see, and two full carts we pulled into a hotel. Tony insisted I sleep and try to get some rest but I knew I wouldn't be able to not only because of the situation we were in, you know just preparing to fight the Mandarin, but because I would have felt guilty to get some sleep when I knew Tony would stay up working on his little inventions by himself.
So here we were, many hours into the night, 3 or maybe 4 am? Who knows. I was sitting in front of Tony, on the other side of the bed as I tried my best to weld wires together on a white fabric glove, while Tony put together some sort of taser. Though I wasn't sleepy anymore, the feeling having left my body after nearly managing to get me, silence was something I'd been hating as of lately. It allowed me to overthink everything and right now with everything happening, and a certain article in a particular wizarding newspaper, I knew that wasn't the best for me, so I started to try and make some small talk.
"The Tony Stark working with materials simple mortals have access to, who would have thought, huh?" I try to joke, and though a hint of a smile forms on his face he shakes his head.
"Everyone knows that, duh." He flips the little taser-like device in his hand as he continues to work on it. "Have you forgotten the legend of Mark 1?"
"The what?" I looked up to see him, which was a bad idea because I burned myself with the welder. "Shit." I mutter, bringing my burned finger to my mouth instinctively.
"Wait, you've never heard of it?" For a moment I thought he was making fun of me, but he was genuinely surprised.
"Nope." I say, and go back to welding. "Plan on telling me, or are you just going to keep that surprised look on your face?"
"It's the story of how I built my first suit." He says, and looks concentrated as he resumes his work on the taser, but I can almost see his mind is wandering off somewhere in his memories.
"So, what was so great that people call it the 'legend of Mark 1'? Like, do people actually call it that?" I ask. His hands working on the taser stop, and he looks at me.
"Okay, perhaps not everyone." He admits, chucking. "But they do know it. I was kidnapped, everyone thought I was dead."
"Ah, much like this." I point out to our very own situation ironically.
"Yeah, only difference is I actually thought I was gonna die". He says. I don't really know how to respond so I choose to keep quiet instead. After a long dramatic pause Tony puts down the device he was working on, and picks up a set of cables I'm not sure I know the purpose of before speaking again. "So, a few years ago Stark Industries used to sell weapons. I was on a campaing in Afghanistan doing a demonstration of a missile and long story short I got kidnapped by this group on the orders of an old friend and..." He had started to speak faster by the end, until he stopped himself, letting the cables fall in front of him bringing his hands to his face as he let out a frustrated sigh.
"Hey." I say, putting down the welder to make sure I don't burn myself again. "I'ts okay, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to. Wouldn't want you to have another panic attack, right?" I try to joke, but he looks dead serious as he lets his hands fall in front of him again.
"No, I want to tell you." He concluded, and picked up the cables again. "I was put in this cave-like cell, and they wanted me to build a new missile they could use. I had lost hope in ever coming back home, but a friend helped me remember the important stuff to stay focused."
"Friend?" I can see he is just fiddling with the cables because he's nervous, not really because he is doing anything with them, but I decide not to mention it.
"I owe him my life." He is looking at the cables in his hand but I know by the look in his eyes his mind is somewhere else. "He was being kidnapped there too. He gave me hope, and I managed to trick the kidnappers into thinking I was cooperating but instead I was building an armour, something that would help us escape."
"How long did that take?"
"Three months. Yinsen didn't make it out alive, he knew he wouldn't, but he made me realize things. He made me see I had been wasting my life away- "He cut himself off, shaking his head before continuing. "What I mean, kiddo, is I had a lot of time to think, to remember. And though most choices I had made seemed stupid there was the one thing I will always regret."
"Me." I say, lowering my face. "My parents made sure I knew how much you regretted me. That you hated me, that that's why you turned my mother away."
"I was scared, but I didn't regret anything at all. I never could regret having you." He reached one hand to me and pulled some hair away from my face, and I looked at him not being able to hide away my glossed over eyes. "But I made the stupidest choice of my life by turning your mom away, yes. The guilt was eating me alive and I hadn't even realized how much until I was in that cave. It's the one choice I will always regret the most."
We've been over this before, but it still hurts. Every time I think about it, I can't help but wonder how different my life would have been, how I wouldn't have had to go through all the things I did. That hurts, and I'm not sure it'll ever not hurt.
"So I promised myself something. I promised that I was going to get out of there, and when I did I was going to find you. My search started from the very day I got back home, after Rhodey found me in the desert. And I never stopped looking, even though I had no clue where to start from, until I found you."
"Or more like I found you." The tears remaining in my eyes flowed down my cheeks as he lightly laughed.
"Yeah, you found me first." His gaze settles in my eyes, and he dries the fallen tears from my face with his thumb. "And I'm never letting you go again. That's why I'm so keen on finding the Mandarin, because he threathens the people I love, and no one threathens my little girl."
"We're going to find him." I say, my voice reflecting the determination I was feeling.
"We are."
"And we'll make him pay for Happy."
"We will." He confirms once again. "It's time we show him who's boss."
_____
We spent the rest of the night talking as we worked making the small little things like bombs and tasers. He told me of how he'd piss off Happy by racing with him in a sort of competition of who could go from the mansion to the Stark Industries building, or how Rhodey always had his back when Tony was way too drunk to give an acceptance speech. I, on the other hand, told him about countless times when my friends and I would mess with the first years and would always get away with it, or how we'd spend all year getting points (mostly given to us by Snape) just to have the house cup getting stolen from us by Dumbledore giving it away to Gryffindor.
Anyway, we were back on the road before the sun even started to rise, and after a couple cups of coffee and a seemingly endless road we had finally arrived at the mansion in Miami, the Mandarin's headquarters.
I raised my hand up to Tony, signalling the number three, to tell him how many guards I'd seen when casting the revelio charm.
"You go left, I'll go right." He mouthed, and we climbed off the tree. We climb over the wall, and as I fall I take a last glance to see him as he quickly walks to the stairs on the right.
Wand in hand I try to run as quietly as I can, passing by many bushes and decorative trees, until I see two guards speaking to each other just a couple of trees away from me.
"Petrificus totallus!" I whisper-yell, pointing my wand at the guy closest to me.
"Hey!" The other guard yells as his friend falls petrified to the floor.
"Silencio!" I whisper again, a bit louder this time, just as the guard tries yelling. "Desmaius!" It hits him square in the chest making him fly back a few feet, until he fell motionless.
I run past them, and up a flight of stairs, just in time to see Tony shooting a guy with a nail gun.
"Hey." He says quietly when he sees me. "You had any trouble back there?"
"None." I smile, and we walk to the main entrance of the mansion. "Do you think-" I started to ask him but was quickly cut off when he raised a finger to his mouth as he shushed me. "Okay, sorry." I whisper.
I saw him make a face as he looked around the inside of the house, and that's when I noticed a woman passed out in a billiard table.
"Looks like someone had fun." I whisper, earning a look from Tony. I just raised my hands in a 'sorry' manner.
As we were quietly walking around the house we heard someone talking.
"Why is it so hot in here?" Said a clearly drunk woman. "I told you to put it at 68."
We saw her sitting on a couch, talking to a man who had his back facing us. He scoffed before he answered her.
"My fault again. Let me tell you something, sweetheart. I am not your personal air con-" He was cut off by Tony, who put was hearing the glove I'd helped weld together, putting it on the man's head and electrocuting him. The man fell to the table in front of him with a loud thud, and Tony reached over to grab his gun.
"Pew pew." The drunk woman put her hands imitating a gun and pointed to him, mimicking the shot sounds. Tony just signalled for her to stay quiet, while I rolled my eyes.
"Stay behind me." He whispered, as he opened a door, pointing the gun in front of him, as I too pointed my wand.
The room was filled with tech things, cables and TVs, displaying the Mandarin videos that had been going around. Walking through the room, filled with garbage and graffitied walls, we got to the other end, which had big lights, cameras and things pointing to a bed.
Carefully we walked to be standing right in front of the bed, the two of us with our weapons pointing to the people clearly hiding under the sheets. I casted a levitating charm, starting to lift the sheets until I tugged on them, only to reveal two women.
"What the fuck?" I mouthed, and Tony quickly tried to shush them. I couldn't tell who was more surprised, if them or him. Then, we heard a toilet flushing and quickly turned to face and point at the door next to us. I turn to look at Tony and we shared the same look, hide.
He backed up against the wall, shielding himself with the headboard while I, in a panic, threw myself under the bed.
"Well, I wouldn't go in there for 20 minutes." Said the man as he stepped out, closing the door behind him. The accent just didn't match up.
I saw his feet walk in front of the bed and then around it, to the other side of the 'room'.
"Now, which one of you is Vanessa?." He asked.
The bed croaked over me as one of them moved.
"That's me."
"Nessie!." He threw her something. "Did you know that fortune cookies aren't even Chinese?"
"There's people hiding." The other one said.
"They're made by Americans, based on a Japanese recipe." I turned to see Tony walking towards the guy so I took it as my cue to get out as well.
"Hey!" I heard Tony say as I was making my way out from under the bed, but I didn't calculate it well and moved my head up before I should have, slamming my head on the bed frame.
"Son of a bitch." I say, getting up, with one hand pointing my wand at the guy and the other on my hand.
"Bloody hell. Bloody hell." The Mandarin said, raising his hands next to his head.
"Don't move." Tony told him.
"Yeah, don't fucking move!" I say, mostly angry by the hit on my head.
"I'm not moving. You want something? Take it." He answered. "Although the guns are all fake because those wankers wouldn't trust me with the real ones.
"What?" I say.
"Hey, do you fancy either of the birds?" He asked Tony.
"Heard enough." Tony finally says. "You're not him. The Mandarin, the real guy." He readied the gun. "Where?" He yelled. "Where's the Mandarin? Where is he?"
He tried running out of the room but I pointed at him with my wand, setting on fire the end of his cloak.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa." He screamed as he stepped on it to put it out. "He's here." He backed until he was sitting on a chair. "He's here, but he's not here. He's here, but he's not here." He repeated.
"What do you mean?" Tony walks up to him, pointing the gun at his face.
"Explain yourself, now!" I yell, also walking up to him.
"It's complicated. Hey, it's complicated."
"It is." Tony wasn't joking, the anger was written all over his face.
"It's complicated." He repeated.
"Well, uncomplicate it, asshole." I say.
"Ladies, out. Get out of the bed, get in the bathroom." At hearing Tony say that they wasted no time.
"Ew." "Oh, Jesus." The two of them said when they locked themselves in the bathroom.
While they did that and Tony was distracted, the Mandarin started crawling away.
"Tony." I said, getting his attention, and when he saw him he shot to the floor in front of him.
He screamed, as did the women in the bathroom, and he quickly turned around and got back on the chair.
"My name is Trevor. Trevor Slattery." He finally said.
"What are you?" Tony asked. "What are you, a decoy? You're a double, right?"
"What, you mean like an understudy?" Trevor said, completely offended. "No, absolutely not." Tony then pointed the gun again to Trevor's face. "Don't hurt the face! I'm an actor."
"Salazar's sake, this shit gets weirder by the minute." I say.
"You got a minute to live. Fill it with words."
"It's just a role." Trevor speaks quickly after Tony's threat. "'The Mandarin' see, it's not real."
"Then how did you get here, Trevor?"
"He's lying." I say. "Want me to get the words out of him?" Walking slowly up to where he was sitting, raising my wand up to his face just to be stopped by Tony putting his hand on my wand and lowering it down, accepting my defeat I put my wand in my pocket.
"No need, he's going to tell us the truth, am I right?"
"Yes, yes! I um... Well, I, um, had a little problem with, uh, substances. And I ended up doing things, no two ways about it, in the street, that a man shouldn't do."
"Next?"
"Then, they approached me about the role, and they knew about the drugs."
"What did they say? They'd get you off them?" Tony asked.
"Said they'd give me more."
"Seems like a bloody good deal if you ask me." I say, and the two of them turned to look at me. "Kidding!" I raise my hands.
"They gave me things. They gave me this palace! They gave me plastic surgery. They gave me things..." He closed his eyes, and immediately started snoring.
"Did you just nod off? Hey!" He kicked Trevor.
"No!" He woke up. "And a lovely speedboat. And the thing was, he needed someone to take credit for some accidental explosions." He opened his hands mimicking a bomb.
"'He?'" I asked. And Tony looked frustrated.
"Killian?" He asked.
"Killian!"
"He created you?"
"He created me."
"Custom-made terror threat."
"Yes! Yes!" Trevor looked mad as he pointed at Tony and got up and towards a desk to pick up something. "His think tank thinked it up. 'The pathology of a serial killer'." He started talking with the accent. "'The manipulation of Western iconography.' Ready for another lesson? Blah, blah, blah." He turned and raised one hand, offering us a beer. "Of course, it was my performance that brought the Mandarin to life."
"Your performance?" I repeat.
"Where people died?" Tony asked.
"No, they didn't." Trevor said. "Look around you. The costumes, green screen. Honestly, I wasn't on location for half this stuff. And when I was, it was movie magic, love."
"I'm sorry, but I got a best friend who's in a coma and he might not wake up, so you're gonna have to answer for that. You're still going down, pal. You're under-" When I saw the guy approaching behind him it was too late.
"Tony!" He turned to face the guy and he tried raising the hand with the gun, but the dude caught it and hit him in the face, knocking him out. It was the same guy I thought we had killed back in Tennessee.
"You fucking cunt!" I yelled and jumped stepping over the bed and onto him.
He grabbed me as I fell, and I tried to punch him but he grabbed my hand and pushed back with one hand holding it, bringing the other hand up to my neck and starting to choke me.
"Let me go!" I tried screaming, but no matter how much I scratched his hands and tried to tear them apart he wouldn't let go, so I impulsively did the only thing I could think of, I stuck my fingers in his eyes.
"You little bitch!" He yelled, finally letting go of me. I kicked his knees trying to make him lose balance but I wasn't strong enough and only managed to anger him more. I was just about to try and get my wand when he grabbed my neck again, but this time he slammed me against the floor.
"Stop!" He slammed my head again, and again and again. I lost count of how many times my head hit the floor, but I felt so dizzy all of a sudden. I don't even know when I passed out.
_____
The sun rays hit me straight in the face, making me wince as I open my eyes. Though I wince more when I realize I'm chained to the wall and try pulling on the chains, and I realize how bad my head hurts. Probably the worst headache I've ever had.
I look around and realize I'm alone in a cell, oh the Deja Vu.
"Argh." I wince trying to pull on the chains again, but then remember how I freed myself from something like this a while ago. Wrapping my hands over the chain I focus as hard as I can in the coldness running through my veins, and when I look to the chains again I see there's even frost covering them. I pull on them one last time. "Fuck." I say when I hit the ground.
I turn around to see the chains I just broke, but I'm surprised by the pool of blue blood on the ground. I raise my left hand to the back of my head to touch the place the idiot slammed against me the floor with.
"Shit." I quickly pull away my hand from the pain, but I felt the sticky blood covering entirely the back of my head and looking over my shoulder I can see it's covering some of my back as well. "I'm gonna make him pay." I look in my back pocket and immediately relief hits me when I feel the handle of my wand. "I'm not losing you." I say, and I point it to the door in front of me. "Bombarda maxima!" The door flies away from the explosion.
"Okay, this place is stupidly big so it's probably gonna take some time to find Tony, but probably if I just look out for-" I stop rambling when I hear sounds on the end of the hallway the opposite way to where I was going, so I turn to see what it is, pointing my wand at whoever could be coming my way. Just as I'm ready to jinx someone, I identify the person walking towards me as Tony.
"Aillie?" He says and the left leg of the armor flies to him, attaching to the rest of the suit he was already wearing.
"Tony?"
"Thank God you're okay." He walks up to me and hugs me, almost crushing me with the Iron Man suit. "Wait a minute- what are you covered in?."
"Blood. That fucking cunt smashed my head against the floor until I passed out. But don't worry, I'm gonna make him pay when I see him." I smirk.
"Wait, what? We gotta get you to a hospital, you're bleeding out." He took a breath.
"I'm gonna be fine and we don't have time for this. I've got super healing or some like that, remember? It's already healing, I'm just covered in blood." He blinks dumbfounded before reacting again.
"Okay, you know what? I believe you. We've got other shit to worry about right now." He starts walking towards to the door at the end of the hallway and I follow him.
"What do you mean? If anything they should be worrying, we're coming for them."
"They've got Pepper."
"What?" I stumble but regain my footing. "How?"
"Don't know, don't care. They've got her and they're experimenting on her. We gotta get to her, now!"
"Okay, I'm right behind you."
If the situation was any different, it would have been amusing seeing the pieces of the suit flying to him and connecting to the rest as he walked. Finally, after making a turn to the left and walking a short flight of stairs we were outside and in the garden of the mansion.
"Not this time. Not the face." Tony says next to me as he prepares for the last part of the suit, the face plate. Just as he was saying the last word, he extends his hand and catches it, turning it around and setting it in place. "Phew! It's good to be back. Hello, by the way." I hear him say and greet Jarvis.
But the sound of a sort of helicopter flying over us caught my attention.
"Where are they going?" I ask him, but see he is looking the other way in the sky, where I can faintly see something flying away.
"That's Rhodey. Let's go." He says. Without warning he takes a step back and runs a few steps forward, jumping and pointing both palms of his hands down as if trying to fly but not getting far up from the ground. "Aw, crap." Again without telling me what he was planning on doing he starts walking, funnily going down some stairs as we walked over back to the main part of the mansion.
"Hey, talk to me." I say, walk next to him but he doesn't seem to listen, instead he talks to someone else.
"Rhodey, tell me that was you in the suit." I can hear him say through the mask.
"No. You got yours?" Rhodey's voice is faint but I can sort of hear him.
"Uh... Mm, kind of. Main house, as fast as you can. There's somebody I'd like you to meet." Tony tells him and starts walking faster while I follow him.
"Revelio." I cast as we approach the house, and can see a couple of men entering one of the rooms pointing guns in front of them. "There's two of them." I tell him.
"Stay behind me." He doesn't wait for a reply and unfortunately also doesn't look back and get to see me rolling my eyes. As if I need him to protect me. Some girls come out of the house running, passing us by as we enter the house. Not really caring that much for making a sound, I quickly follow him as he runs to the room we'd previously found the Mandarin in.
"They're not here, they're in another room." I tell him.
"I know." He barely says, but I figure out what he's doing when he picks out from the multiple boxes of things and computers surrounding the room, picking up a battery and a couple of cables, connecting them to the suit.
"Now can we go?" I say, rolling my eyes again. As we are about to enter the room I'd seen them in, we see a ping pong racket on the floor. Tony picks it up before standing in the doorway.
"What's this? I had winners." He says as he enters the room, and I can see the bullets ricocheting off the suit as I stand just a little behind from the door frame. At the same time Rhodey breaks in through a window, shooting at the two guards.
When the both of them are dead Rhodey gets up from the ground and Tony walks in with me following behind him.
"What have you come up as?" Trevor, who was sitting calmly in a reclining sofa, asks when he sees him in the suit.
"You make a move, and I break your face." Rhodey tells Trevor as he puts a foot on top of the sofa and points him in the face with the gun.
"I never thought people had been hurt. They lied to me." Trevor tries saying, looking at us as we walk closer to him.
"This is the Mandarin?" Rhodey asks us, clearly disappointed.
"Yeah, we know, it's... It's embarrassing." Tony says.
"Agreed. Even Filch was scarier than him." I whisper the last part, knowing they wouldn't understand.
"Hi, Trevor. Trevor Slattery." He holds out his hand to Rhodey, who slaps it away. "I know I'm shorter in person. A bit smaller. Everyone says that. But, um, hey, if you're here to arrest me, there's some people I'd like to roll on-" He gets cut off by me.
"Honestly, shut up."
"Here's how it works, Meryl Streep." Tony says. "You tell him where Pepper is and he'll stop doing it."
"Doing what?" He gets his answer when Rhodey slightly crushes his ear against the sofa with the gun. "Oh! I get it, ow! That hurt. I get it, I get it! I don't know about any Pepper, but I know about the plan."
"Spill it."
"Do you know what they did to my suit?" Rhodey asks.
"What? No." Rhodey lowers down his gun, frustrated and disappointed. "But I do know it's happening off the coast. Something to do with a big boat. I can take you there!" Suddenly he starts screaming, startling the three of us. "Olé, olé, olé, olé!"
"Tony, I swear to God, I'm gonna blow his face off!" Rhodey tells us, immediately getting a reaction from Trevor.
"Oh, and this next bit may include the vice president as well. Is that... Is that important?"
"Somewhat." Says Tony. "No shit." I say.
"Yeah, a little bit." Rhodey answers. Tony then signals for Rhodey to come closer to us and he does, letting the two of them decide what to do next.
"So?" He says.
"What are we gonna do?"
"Well, we go there and get Pepper back." I answer Rhodey's question.
"I mean, we don't have any transport." He clears up.
"Right."
"Well," I butt in again. "I can take us there, if you're up for apparating."
"What do you mean if we're up for it?" Rhodey asks me.
"Well, it can be hard on the stomach the first couple of times you apparate. And besides, I don't think I've actually ever apparated others with me but I'm confident I can do it." The distrust is written all over both their faces, and Rhodey looks at Tony worriedly as Tony just shakes his head slightly.
"Can't risk it." He tells me, but then looks at Trevor like an idea just came up in his mind. "Hey, Ringo. Didn't you say something about a 'lovely speedboat'?"
_____
About 30 minutes later we were sitting on said speedboat, making our way towards where Trevor had said they would be at.
"You should have just let me apparate us there." I say. Though it's not like I'm scared of boats or the ocean or something, I have to admit I was certainly not a fan of it, and combined with having lost a great amount of blood I was starting to feel dizzy.
"Yeah, well, you said you hadn't taken people with you before and it's not exactly the best time to be experimenting." Tony turned to look at me, and I couldn't tell whether he was just angry about the whole situation or if he was actually that pissed off that I kept pressing on the same thing the whole time we'd been in the speedboat so far.
"Whatever." I roll my eyes and sit down again, closing my eyes and focusing on not throwing up.
"Okay. If he's right about the location, we're 20 minutes from where Pepper is." Tony said, changing back to the most important subject.
"But we also have to figure out this vice president thing, right?" Rhodey asked him. They were standing in front of me, under the little roof of the boat.
"Right." Tony replied. "I wonder who I'm calling right now. Oh! That's the vice president." I rolled my eyes as Rhodey just sighed at him and his antics. We heard the ring sound, patiently waiting until eventually the call was answered.
"Hello?" Said the man on the other line.
"Sir, this is Tony Stark."
"Welcome back to the land of the living." The man said, with a weird tone in his voice.
"We believe you're about to be drawn into the Mandarin campaign. We gotta get you somewhere safe as soon as possible." Tony explained to him quickly.
"Mr. Stark, I'm about to eat honey-roast ham, surrounded by the Agency's finest. The president's safe on Air Force One with Colonel Rhodes. I think we're good here." As soon as he mentioned Rhodey we all exchanged worried glances, quickly re-drawing in our minds our plans.
"Sir, this is Colonel Rhodes." Rhodey spoke, getting closer to Tony. "They're using the Iron Patriot as a Trojan horse. They're gonna take out the president somehow, we have to immediately alert that plane."
"Okay, I'm on it. I'll have security lock it down. If need be, they can have F-22s in the air in 30 seconds." He lowered his voice. Tony and I made eye contact, silently agreeing something was horribly wrong but not saying anything to the vice president.
"Thank you, Colonel." Rhodey said. "Rhodes and Starks out."
"Okay, now what?" I ask when I'm sure they've hung up.
"We gotta make a decision." Rhodey starts. "We can either save the president, or Pepper. We can't do both."
"Sir." Jarvis butted in. "I have an update from Malibu. The cranes have finally arrived, and the cellar doors are being cleared as we speak."
"And what about the suit I'm wearing?" Tony asked.
"The armor is now at 92%." The AI said.
"That's going to have to do." He says, removing the cables he was charging the armor with and throwing them to the ground.
"Okay, so what's the plan then?" I ask, getting up from my seat.
"I'm going there and saving the captain." Tony said.
"You mean we are." I say.
"I'm not actually going, I'm sending just the suit."
"So what? I'm still going."
"I swear if something happens..." He's looking at me like I'm a little child who just broke something important.
"Nothing bad will happen to me, promise." I smile and walk past him, getting my wand out and preparing myself for going back to the fight.
Once he figured out arguing with me was just gonna take time we don't have, he reluctantly agreed to let me go and help. So after a while of flying just behind the suit, we were finally nearing the plane. I looked back at my feet and admired the little disappearing trail of black smoke that was left behind as I flew, one of the few things for which I thank Voldemort for, teaching me how to 'fly' like this.
"Behind me." The robotic voice of Tony said, as I trailed after him. A moment after, the sound of the plane's wall crashing and breaking made itself present as Tony, or well the armor, crashed against the side of it. I enter the plane and soon I'm back on my feet looking as Tony pushes a dude and hits him against a wall, immobilizing him. Then I realize I recognize the face of the dude.
"The president." Tony tells the man as he holds him against the wall with one hand and points at him with the other. "Now."
"He's not here." The dude says, and I walk towards them as I see his hand turning into red lava and going to grab the armor hand that was pressing him back. "Try the jet stream? Speaking of which, go fish." He pushes a button with the other hand, and the whole plane moves to the side suddenly, causing me to lose my balance and fall to my knees as we hear an explosion. Driven by pure anger I get up and run to them.
"You son of a bitch!" I yell, and grab his lava-red hands surrounding them with mine.
"Aillie, no." Tony's robotic voice echoes when I get him free from the dude's grip, who now was busy focusing on me.
"Aillie, yes." I say back. Looking at him in the eye, I furrow my eyebrows as I focus on not letting him burn my hands. All I keep thinking of is cold, frozen ice flowing through my veins and coming out of every pore in my hands. Soon, not only is my hand not burning but I'm also kind of making his hands go back to normal around the places I'm holding, cooling them off.
"Let go of me, you witch." He says as he struggled and tried to get a good grip on me but failing.
"This is for smashing my head against the floor." The cold grows, and soon ice is forming around the palms of my hands, burning him with the cold.
"Stop it." He struggles against me but it's no use for him, though.
"This is for making me break my leg." I hear a thin, sharp icicle grow from the ground up quickly and buring itself on the dude's chest.
A stray tear runs down his face from the pain.
"And this is for my friend." I quickly let go of his hands and instead grab the sides of his head, letting the cold freeze him. I focus on his mind as well as his heart, and soon I can see a thin sheet of ice covering his face and his eyes. Soon, he stops breathing.
"Walk away from that, asshole." I say, and turn away from him, letting him fall to the ground. Tony doesn't say anything, just stares at me. "No time to waste, let's go." That seems to bring him back from the trance, and soon I'm running after him as he flies towards where he heard the explosion coming.
Just as we enter the room, we see the big hole in one of the walls as everything and everyone is flying out of it, getting sucked out of the plane. Tony flies towards the flight attendant who had just fallen through it, and I run toward the edge getting no time to hesitate or think twice about jumping as the air pulls me out of the plane.
There are so many people in the air I can't quite count them, but I see a group of about six or five of them, and try to point at them as I fall next to Tony.
"I've got them!" I yell as loud as I can, but I'm still not sure if he heard me at all. Still, I hold my wand tightly as I let myself turn into smoke and fly towards them.
"Hey!" I say to the first person I can reach, holding the man's arm tightly. "Grab someone's arm!" I have no time to check if he heard me but I fly us by another man, and thankfully the first man grabs him. I fly us to the ground as fast as I can, and when I'm just about a couple of feet away from the water I let them go, barely hearing them hit the water as I turn back to catch someone else.
This time, I waste no time in trying to tell the girl who's arm I tightly hold to hold someone else, instead with my other arm I reach out to grab someone else.
"Wait!" I try to tell the first girl as she grabs onto someone else. "No!" I barely say, and I feel myself lose balance. I can't carry this many people.
The adrenaline is the only thing keeping me from screaming along with the people I was carrying as we head towards the ground faster than I would have liked. I let go of the man's arm I was holding on with my left hand, wincing as I hear him fall to the water from higher than I would have liked, but as I'm too focused on him I don't realize how awfully close to the water we were, and by the time I notice I've already fallen in the water with the other two girls.
"Why does this kind of stuff always happens to me?" I say out loud when I've swam back up. Keeping my head above water I try to tell myself not to let the water affect me, instead I focus on Tony who I see 'carrying' a large group of people before letting them all fall to the water. I'm about to fly towards him when I see the suit get hit by a large truck as he was flying carelessly, probably celebrating his little victory. Rolling my eyes I decide it's best to apparate back to the speedboat.
I close my eyes and picture the speedboat, and a moment later I feel everything around me moving in circles before the speedboat is below my feet again, and Rhodey turns to look at me.
"What happened to you?" He tries to contain a laugh when he sees me drenched in water.
"Long story." I shrug. Turning, he opens the door to the little bathroom and I see Tony there.
"Give me some good news, man." Rhodey asks him.
"I think they all made it, right?" He looks at me.
"Yeah."
"Oh, thank God." Rhodey sighs.
"Yeah, but we missed the president." Tony tells him.
"You couldn't save the president with the suit, how are we gonna save Pepper with nothing?" Rhodey turns and walks back to the front of the speedboat.
"Uh... Say, Jarvis, is it that time?" Tony asks out loud.
"The house party protocol, sir?" Jarvis answers.
"Correct." I knew of it, I'd been helping him work on some of the suits and when I asked him where he put the finished suits, after annoying him on end for Salazar knows how long, he finally showed me and told me about the 'protocol' he had come up with.
"All of them?" I ask Tony.
"Yes."
_____
A little over ten minutes later we had now got off the speedboat and were on this sort of pier, surrounded by shipping containers and machines to move them.
"Come on." Rhodey whispers as he leads the way, climbing up the stairs from the part of the pier we had just gotten off from the speedboat. He hid behind this weird big machine after checking there was no one near that could see us. "You're not gonna freak out on me, right?"
"I hope not." Tony said.
"Now." I whisper, as I see the people in front of us at a distance turn away from us. Rhodey runs quietly until he's hiding behind some barrels or some sort, and Tony and I quickly follow him. "Shit." I say as we run a little furh when I see the president wearing the Iron Patriot suit, hanging on from ropes attached to his arms.
"Oh my God." Rhodey whispers too. "He's strung up over the oil tanker. They're gonna light him up, man." He tells Tony when he hides back behind the barrels again.
"Viking funeral. Public execution." Tony says.
"Yeah, death by oil."
"And I thought you muggles were a lot calmer than us." I whisper. A moment later we're running again, trying not to get noticed by the few people walking nearby as we run up some stairs leading up to one of the platforms.
"Is your gun up?" Rhodey asks Tony.
"Yep." He says as he quickly lifts his arm to point with the gun. "What do I do?"
"Stay on my six, cover high and don't shoot me in the back." Rhodey once more leads the way, pointing with the gun in front of him. I'm between the two of them, seeing as they didn't let me have a gun.
"Six, high, back. All right." I roll my eyes at Tony.
"Seriously, you couldn't let me have a gun but he gets to have one?" I tell Rhodey and even though I can't see his face I'm pretty sure he just rolled his eyes. Suddenly, a bullet flies just next to us nearly hitting me. Rhodey is quick to react and shoots the guy who was up on another part of the structure from in front and above us. Tony tries to shoot him too as he pushes me forward to get cover, but he clearly misses all shots.
The bullets ricochet from the metal bars and things around us as we get cover behind a metal structure.
"You see that? Nailed it." Tony says, evidently out of breath.
"You really killed the glass." Rhodey tells him.
"Yeah, old man. Nice job shooting at the stars." I tell him.
"You think I was aiming for the bulb, you can't hit a bulb at this distance." He tells us.
"Sure." I say.
"Oh shut up, Emo Glinda. Think you can do better?" He tells me. I take Rhodey by surprise and grab the gun out of his hand, quickly standing up and turning to point at the lamp.
I fix the gun to point directly at it and shoot once, a second later the bullet hits the bulb and it breaks, exploding and making the dude that was shooting at us have to duck. Ducking again I give the gun back to Rhodey who looks quite surprised.
"You were saying?" I say, smirking. I'm really grateful I remember how to shoot like that, considering the only training I got was by the soldier back in Hydra.
"Okay, how the hell do you know how to use a gun?!" Tony whisper-yells. Just then we were interrupted by an announcement on the speakers all over the place.
"All personnel, we have hostiles on east unit 12." The man said through the speakers. "I repeat, hostiles on east unit 12."
"I'm out." Tony says, looking at his gun. "Give me- give me... You got extra magazines?"
"They're not universal, Tony." Rhodey says.
"I know what I'm doing, I make this stuff. Give me another one."
"Oh for Salazar's sake."
"One of yours." He insists.
"I don't have one that fits that gun."
"You got, like, five of them." Rhodey's clearly getting frustrated and I'm on the verge of just going on my own to try and solve this shit. "Here's what I'm gonna do. Save my spot, ready?" He gets up and almost immediately gets back down sitting next to us again.
"What'd you see?"
"Too fast. Nothing." He takes a breath. "Here we go." He clears his throat as he gets up again.
"Saw something now?" I ask him as he sits back down.
"Three guys, one girl, all armed."
"We can take them." I say confidently, but they don't share the same look as me.
We raise our heads up to see what were facing and Rhodey curses as he points the gun forward when we see the amount of dudes waiting to shoot at us.
"God, I would kill for some armor right now." He says.
"You're right. We need backup."
"Yeah, a bunch."
"No we don't, you've got me." I tell them.
"Need I remind you why your hair is covered in blue blood?" Tony says, sounding more pissed off than he looked.
"He caught me off guard." I say, but back down.
"You know what?" Tony says as he looks into the night sky. Rhodey and I follow his gaze just to see a weird bright star in the distance. Only I know there shouldn't be a star in that place of the sky, and it's getting bigger and brighter.
"Is that..." Rhodey tries to say.
"Yep."
"Took their sweet time." I say, but I can't help but smile widely.
"Are those...?"
"Yeah."
Countless suits make their way towards us, flying until they're flying in formation pointing at the guys that were coming towards us.
"Merry Christmas, buddy." I laugh when Tony says that, and the look of disbelief in Rhodey's face just makes it ten times better.
"Okay, now what?" I ask with the smile still big in my face. Tony winks and starts talking.
"Jarvis, target EXTREMIS heat signatures. Disable with extreme prejudice." That makes me laugh.
"Yes, sir." A chorus of Jarvis's voice echoes through the sky as it comes out of every suit.
"What are you waiting for? It's Christmas." Tony asks as he takes a step forward before raising his hands open. "Take 'em to church."
Jarvis responds by getting to work, each of the suit targeting a guard and flying towards them, hitting and shooting them with the rays.
"Duck." I say as I see one of the suits flying towards us when it gets destroyed by a group of Killian's guys. We move out of the way just in time and when we turn to see it all I can see is the explosion it causes. Soon explosions are surrounding us and the whole pier starts to move.
"Jarvis, get Igor to steady this thing." Tony tells him. Just then we can hear something stomping towards the metal structure we were in, and mostly see as it practically destroys everything in its way to get to us. Finally, a big light blue armor gets to the base of the structure just as it's about to fall and we're holding on to the metal beams for stability. When the stru gives out the suits steps under it, holding the whole thing on its back.
"This is how you've been managing your down time, huh?" Rhodey asks Tony, the happiness as well as the surprised covering his face.
"Everybody needs a hobby." He answers.
"Glad to say I helped him with some of them!" I say, sitting against a metal bar.
"Heartbreaker, help Red Snapper out, will ya?" Tony says as he looks around at the party going on. I'm truly amazed by the whole thing. This is definitely my favorite protocol.
Just as asked, Heartbreaker flies over to where Red Snapper was, flying with like three dudes on top of it trying to destroy it. Heartbreaker shoots at them, making two of them fall. Sadly, the one that doesn't fall manages to rip off part of the mask, ripping it off from the rest of the suit and causing it to fly off into a container before exploding.
"Ow, man. That was the first one I helped with." I say as debris from it flies all over the place. The initial explosion causes other things to get light up in fire and soon some of the barrels are exploding, flying over and creating a chain reaction. "Shit." I scream, and point at one of the top parts of the structure as it explodes. Just then, a suit flies over to us.
"Nice timing." Tony says, getting in it.
"Oh, yeah. That's awesome. Give me a suit, okay?" Rhodey asks. I know what Tony'll say before he even does. I remember when he told me how Iron Patriot came to be in the first place.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Tony says. "They're only codes to me."
"What does that mean?" Rhodey's smile has been erased.
"I got you covered." The mask of his suit closes just before he jumps off. Just then another suit flies to us and lands, walking towards us.
"Good evening, Colonel." Jarvis's voice is heard from the suit. "Can I give you a lift?" He asks as he hugs around Rhodey.
"Very funny." He hugs the suit, and a second later they fly off.
"Okay, now as for me-" My out-loud rambling gets interrupted when a slightly smaller, light purple suit lands next to me. "What the hell?"
"Welcome, miss Aillie." Jarvis says as the suit opens up. "Please, get in." Hesitantly I do. It feels weird, almost like being caged away in a metal jail. I slightly flinch when the suit closes, and the mask closes down, covering my peripheral vision.
But then it turns on and a lot of things are being displayed on the glasses of the suit for me to see. I understand about half of it, and I'm a little scared to move, when I hear Tony's voice.
"Like your present?" He says.
"Uh... Yeah?" I'm torn, honestly. It's really cool but it's not the right time to be experimenting. "Thought you said they were only coded to you?"
"Yeah, all except for that one. That one's yours. Jarvis will help you if you have any doubts" I can almost hear the smirk in his voice.
"Mine?"
"Merry Christmas, kiddo. Love ya." Suddenly I felt my eyes get watery at him saying that. Clearing my throat first so I would speak clearly I thanked him.
"Thanks, dad." My voice came out small, but I think he heard me nonetheless.
"Wait, you just called me-" He started saying but I interrupted him.
"We don't have time to lose, Tony." I cut him off.
"But you said-"
"Pepper's in danger." That seems to do the trick. It's not that I regret saying it because I don't, but I just got embarrassed and had to finish the conversation.
"Right. But we'll talk about it later." I sigh. I guess that's the best I can do for now.
"Okay, how do I..." I start to move my hands and feet and though I feel weird at first I get more confident when I realize it's more intuitive that I thought it'd be.
"If you want to fly just point down with the hand shooters too for stability, I'll help any way I can if needed." Jarvis told me.
Taking a deep breath, I try to get rid of any doubts. I can do this.
"Okay." I say. "Take me to Pepper." I point my hands down and think of flying up, and whether I did it by myself or Jarvis helped me it doesn't matter, because soon I'm flying. "Great, now where do I- Ah!" I scream as the suit suddenly takes a turn and moves to the right, adjusting the direction as I fly towards one of the structures that had been damaged by the explosions.
"Sorry, miss Aillie. I had to adjust the trajectory to get to Ms. Potts." I hear Jarvis apologetic voice. Before I notice I'm on the structure, and I get in through a hole on one of the walls.
When I'm in I look around and realize the whole thing is destroyed and falling apart. Just a few feet away from me I see Tony, trying to lift some of the debris.
I walk to him to try and help him, but I hear a woman scream.
"Stop!" I hear Pepper's voice from under the debris, and when I get closer I see her being crushed by it. "Put it down. Put it down. Put it down." She repeats, and Tony slowly puts the metal piece back down. He crouches down and I see his mask open.
"See what happens when you hang out with my ex-girlfriends?" He tells her.
"Tony!" I hit him in the shoulder and the suits make a funny sound when they hit. He doesn't acknowledge me but extends his right hand and holds it to Pepper.
"You're such a jerk." She tells him.
"Yep. We'll talk about it over dinner." Pepper tries to reach out and hold his hand but it is evident she can't move much. "Come on. A little more, baby."
"Maybe if I hold up the metal bars and you take her out?" I suggest, not being able to hear her son as she tries to get out. Just then she reaches his hand and I let out a breath of relief, only to let out a gasp of surprise as a hand burns through the ground beneath us and holds onto whatever it can, that being Tony's armor hand. "No!" I try to hold the hand and freeze it, but it manages to rip out the Arc Reactor of the suit, leaving it useless and throwing him back. After that, the person burns a hole through the ground and getting up. "You little fucker!" I yell as I see Killian, and I jump to him, holding him against the ground
Though I got the upper hand by throwing him against the floor, and trying to smack him against it too, the suit wasn't immune to him. I try to resist as much as I can as I see his hands holding the torso of the suit and heating it up, when I feel like I'm about to get cooked alive in the suit it opens up without me doing anything.
"Shit." I say and quickly move away from the suit.
"Is this guy bothering you?" Killian asks Pepper as he gets up. I get up as I see him walking over to Tony, but then a woman comes up from where Killian had climbed up.
"Tony!" I yell when I see Killian practically sitting over him, but as I'm about to walk to him the woman runs to me and tackles me to the ground. "Let go!" I try to hold her hands to prevent her from burning me, but she is quicker.
She grabs both my wrists and pins them to the ground about my head. I can feel the heat as she burns me, and I try to focus on freezing her hands or something but I'm not very successful as the pain is effectively distracting me.
I hear a sizzling not far way and turn my head to see Killian with a burning finger to Tony's chest armor.
"Tony!" I yell and try to kick the woman to the side but she puts a knee to my chest, making all the air come out of my lungs.
"They're watching." Killian tells Tony as he keeps on torturing him. "I think you should close your eyes. Close your eyes."
"Stop!"
"Close your eyes. You don't want to see this." Killian insists, before he raises his left hand to his side and brings it back down to Tony. Tony, however is quicker, and puts his armor arm up, letting a knife come out and making Killian cut his own hand as he brings it down.
"I said let me go!" I tell the woman on top of me, and I close my eyes, letting the pain dissolve away and focusing on the coldness in my veins. I open my eyes again, just as I hear the ice crystals forming around her hands, not enough to cool them down but enough to catch her off guard.
I take my chance and move to the side, getting up quickly and before she could try something again I acted out of instinct, taking out my wand from my jean pocket and pointing it at her.
"Avada Kedavra!" A green light flies to her and she falls back as the light leaves her eyes and the lava-red color of her hands and face fades out.
"Yeah, you take a minute." I hear Tony say, bringing me out from the trance I was in. I look surprised as I see that Killian's hand that had just been cut off starts to burn the ground, and there's nothing to stop it as it almost immediately burns a hole to the ground melting it, and making some of the debris fall. As the debris falls, so does Pepper with it.
"Dad?" I run up to him, and he opens up the suit, quickly getting up and out of it. He doesn't say anything, but looks down as we see the structure Pepper had fallen onto was moving. We share a look before we both run out of the room.
As soon as we're out, I hear a man running to us and Tony soon runs the other way, away from the man. I point my wand towards the man as he ran towards me, and yelled.
"Petrificus totallus!" He stopped in his tracks and fell to the ground as soon as it hit him. I waste no time in turning around and running after where Tony had gone. When I saw where he was though, in the next platform, and figured he had jumped over there I figure I wasn't going to do the same. Instead, I run to the edge of the platform I was in, as close to the edge as I possibly can and look out for Pepper. "Where are you? Where are you?" I repeat as I scan the place. Suddenly I am thrown back by an explosion from the middle of the place.
I get up, and feel blood dripping from the back of my head again, seeing as I hit against a metal bar. Groaning I get up, and am overwhelmed by the fire covering the place. As I look around trying to figure out where to go next I see Rhodey with the president in the Iron Patriot suit, safe and sound just on the side of the explosion. At least they're okay.
I try to focus on finding Pepper, or Tony, and suddenly I see someone on the other side of the place, jumping from a structure up high to a small container being helpe up. That's gotta be them, right?
I close my eyes and focus on them, feeling the familiar swirl as my body is transported. Soon the unstable metal meets my feet and I'm right on the structure under Pepper, who is hanging being held by the debris still. Tony is making his way towards us.
"I'm going to help you, yeah?" I tell her, and soon Tony is next to me, getting on the metal handbars and reaching out to hold her.
"Pep, I got you. Relax, I got you." He tells her.
"Tony the whole thing is falling, we've got to do something now." I say.
"Honey, I can't reach any further and you can't stay there, all right?" He says. "You gotta let go."
"Just do it!" I tell her, but she is way too scared.
"You've got to let go! I'll catch you, I promise!" He repeats. Just then the structure moves, and the debris holding her does as well, falling to the ground and taking her with it. "No!" He screams.
"Pepper!" My throat feels hoarse as I scream her name. Tony reaches out to try to catch her but she is too far. "Arresto momentum!" I try casting, but even if I break her fall she still falls on the center of the explosion, getting engulfed by the flames. "Dad?" I call him but he doesn't react, he's still looking down. "Dad!" My voice breaks.
I didn't know her for a long time, but she was always nice to me. She'd have breakfast ready and always had a conversation subject to talk about and make me feel included. I know she's not my mom and probably was only nice to me because of Tony. But then why do I feel like this? Why are there tears running down my face and getting mixed with the sweat and blood?
I hear footsteps behind us, and when I turn I see Killian, furiously walking towards us.
"Dad, he's here." My voice breaks, but it gains his attention.
"Stay behind me." He says with a full voice, jumping over some metal bars and landing on the structure where Killian was walking in.
"A shame." Killian says to us from the other end of the platform. "I would've caught her." That's the last drop. Tony starts walking towards him and Killian mimicks him, soom they're running to each other.
Killian jumps, putting his glowing fist in front of him ready to hit Tony, but Tonts smarted and he ducks, sliding across the floor and to where Killian previously was, only he doesn't turn back, he keeps on running. He had a last trick up his sleeve, as a suit lands in front of him and hw quickly gets in it, tuening just in time for catching Killian's fist.
"Sectumsempra!" I yell, the curse hitting Killian's back. I smile as hundreds of little cuts appear on his skin, but soon my smile is erased as they all quickly heal and he turns to see me. It did work as a distraction however, and Tony took the chance to try and smash him against the security bars in front of him.
Killian struggled a bit but eventually freed himself and turned to fight Tony. Tony would hit Killian, but Killian would take every opportunity he had to try and rip of pieces of the suit away. A particular good punch to the face seemed to anger Killian more, and he ran to Tony, pushing them both off the structure they were in and to another one just below.
Killian started punching at the suit, and suddenly I saw Tony get ejected from the suit, free falling until he was met with another suit and flew back up, grabbing Killian by the collar and taking him up with him.
I saw them struggle and fight each other when they eventually landed on another structure up and decided to get there.
When I apparated there I saw as the Mark 42 hit on something and landed in pieces behind us as Tony called for it.
"Whatever." He said when the suit broke apart.
"You really didn't deserve her, Tony." Killian said. "It's a pity. I was so close to having her perfect."
"You maniac." I said, getting to Tony as he got up. Killian jumped down towards us.
"Okay, okay, wait, wait, wait! Slow down! Slow down!" Tony told him, taking a step back and grabbing my arm so I too would step back. "You're right, I don't deserve her. Here's where you're wrong." He says and Killian looks satisfied. "She was already perfect."
He took me by surprise as he turned to the armor in pieces, holding his hands up and pointing them towards Killian, making the suit cage him piece by piece.
"Jarvis." Tony calls the AI. "Do me a favor and blow Mark 42."
"No!" Killian screams, literally red with anger, being silences by the mask as it flew to him.
"Jump!" Tony tells me, and jumps himself. I grab my wand and let myself fly, the black smoke covering me as I followed him. I feel calmer as I see him jump into a suit, but I wince when he falls down and hits against one of the metal structures before falling again as the whole thing starts to crumble down.
I land down next to him on the ground, and practically all that's left of the suit he was wearing was one of the boots and one of the arms.
"Protego!" I cast a shield as a piece of metal was just about to fall on us, and try to hold his hand to help him up. He doesn't take my help, but slightly sits up as something falls behind me. I turn to see and realize it's the mask from the Mark 42. We stare at it for a moment, before it cracks open revealing it's empty. I let out a breath of relief at that sight.
But then, out of a horror story, Killian walks out from the middle of the flames, fully burned and limping towards us. Tony struggles to back away from him, but I stand my ground, pointing my wand at him.
"No more false faces." Killian says. "You said you wanted the Mandarin. You're looking right at him." His hoarse voice made it even creepier as he got closer. "It was always me, Tony. Right from the start. I am the Mandarin!" He screams and opens his arms.
Neither Tony or I do something, but something suddenly hits Killian, throwing him away. When I look to the side to see what or who it was my eyes get glossy again.
Pepper is standing there, holding a piece of metal and breathing heavily. She lets go of the metal piece as she looked at us, and her body glowed red.
"I got nothing." Tony says dumbfounded. That's something that doesn't happen every day.
Suddenly another suit comes flying at us, towards Killian and Pepper.
"Jarvis, subject at my 12 o'clock is not a target, disengage!" Tony desperately says, but he realizes the earpiece has fallen off.
"Tony? What do we do?" I ask, and get ready to cast a shield for Pepper. And that's exactly what I do when the suit points the repulsor at her and shoots. "Protego!"
Pepper turns back at Tony and looks super pissed.
"What?" He asks. "Oh, what, are you mad at me?" She runs to him, and just when I think she's going to hit him or something she uses his leg to jump of, catching the suit in the air and hitting it, getting her hand through it. She falls back down hitting the ground with her fist and the suit next to her.
She brings her hand back down, and instead of hitting the suit again as I thought she'd do, she puts on the armor hand and turns to Killian, who was running towards her. She shoots at him, throwing him into the air.
Without taking a break she kicks something on the ground to him, a bomb from the suit, and shoots it with the repulsor, making it explode.
"Honey?" Tony calls her as he gets up. I just stand there speechless at what just had happened.
"Oh my God." Pepper says as she turns to us and lets sink in what she just did. "That was really violent."
"That was really badass." I tell her.
"You just scared the devil out of me." Tony tells her. "I thought you were..."
"I was dead. Why? Because I fell 200 feet?" She asks as she walks towards us. "Who's the hot mess now?"
"It's still debatable."
"Tony." I hit him in the shoulder.
"Probably tipping your way a little bit." He continues. "Why don't you dress like this at home? Hmm? Sports bra, the whole deal."
"You know, I think I understand why you don't want to give up the suits." She looks at herself as her arms glow red. "What am I going to complain about now?"
"I'm sure you'll find something." I laugh.
"Yeah, well, it's me. You'll think of something." I agree with Tony. He had been slowly walking up to Pepper, but the moment he tried to hug her she freaked out.
"No, don't touch me!" She yelled.
"Don't worry about it."
"No, I'm gonna burn you."
"No, you're not." He reassured her, holding her arm. "Not hot." He tells her.
"Am I gonna be okay?" She asks.
"No." Tony blantanly says. "You're in a relationship with me. Everything will never be okay." He laughs and so do I. "But I think I can figure this out, yeah."
"And I can show you how to control it in the meantime." I tell her, getting closer to them.
"Yeah." Tony agrees. "I almost had this 20 years ago when I was drunk. I think I can get you better. That's what I do, I fix stuff."
"And, all your distractions?"
"Uh... I'm gonna shave them down a little bit." Sure. "Jarvis, hey." He calls the AI as he had now put back in the earpiece.
We couldn't hear what Jarvis's response was, but I was puzzled with what Tony said next.
"You know what to do. Screw it, it's Christmas. Yes, yes." He pulls Pepper in for a hug, and grabbed my arm to include me in the hug as well.
Suddenly I heard explosions in the sky and when I looked up I realized all the remaining suits were exploding by themselves. Tony kissed Pepper's cheek multiple times before talking again.
"Okay, so far, do you like it?"
"It'll do." She says, making us both laugh.
_____
The remaining of December flew by really quickly. We had moved now to the formerly called Stark Tower, now facing a rebranding as it was being turned into the 'Avengers Tower', getting multiple of the floors transfomed and dedicated for training and living quarters. Though that process was almost over, Tony had yet to send any invites to the rest of the team.
January was a rush, and most of my time was consumed by trying to help Pepper. I was helping her train and meditate so she would have a better control over her newly acquired power, and we had yoga together every morning (though honestly I think she was doing well enough by herself) but we would have training sessions in which I would try to explain to her how I would control my ice powers in hopes it could be useful for her. Most times she could somewhat adapt what I'd tell her to work for her.
And when I wasn't directly training or meditating with her I was in the lab with Tony. At first the plan had been for me to try to help him come up with a solution, but I wasn't nearly as informed in all the subjects needed to be of use. Instead, I took it as a learning opportunity and I would take notes on whatever possible solution Tony came up with, investigating and understanding why it would potentially work, and then studying why it wouldn't and what needed to be changed.
Eventually, after a little bit of tinkering around with formulas, he came up with a viable solution, and after Jarvis made numerous simulations to see every angle and turn it could take, we decided it was the best bet. That's how just a couple of weeks into January Pepper underwent surgery, to rid her body of the substance changing and enhancing her.
When she came out of the anesthesia and could try she no longer was enhanced she was really grateful and relieved. Though I can say I saw a bit of disappointment in her when the training sessions transfomed into self-defense classes instead.
Meanwhile, the first day of February Tony announced to us he was going to get surgery to get every piece of shrapnel out of his body. Pepper was really scared, but I tried to keep my cool as we watched the best doctors money could pay for operate on him. Rhodey came to see him too.
Fortunately, after some of the longest hours of my life Tony was out of surgery, a changed man. He no longer needed the Arc Reactor to support his life. He was free.
Free and with a shit ton of time in his hands, let me tell you. Though he certainly was dedicating more time to Pepper and I, seeing as we now went out as a family to a museum or a restaurant or something of the sort at least once a week, he still had a crazy amount of free time. Time he was taking for doing Salazar knows what, since no matter how much I asked he wouldn't tell me.
I couldn't let that worry me now, though, as I was starting official training to work for SHIELD. That is, of course, behind Tony and Pepper's back, since when I tried to bring the subject up they both were very much against it. Fury knew I didn't agree with them, though, and seeing as I was technically a legal adult in the UK, he allowed me to take the choice myself.
So now, as March was just around the corner, all I had to worry was training and making sure neither Pepper or Tony (specially him) found out about it. So yeah.
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Hi! I'm so sorry for taking so long in updating but here's an extra long chapter for you! I hope you enjoy it, writer's block hit me hard on the second half of Iron Man 3.
Anyway, I have a really really important question for you guys. It's going to play out an important role in the story so choose wisely.
Who do you like more, Steve or Bucky?
I'm making you guys decide because I'm having a really hard time choosing myself so yeah, please help me out lol.
Now that we're out of Iron Man 3 I'm feeling my motivation getting back, so this time for real you can expect updates soon.