Chapter 39: Barrels of Monkey
Unknown POV:
There was a knock on my door.
"Come in," I said.
One of my soldiers entered.
"Don't waste my time," I said as I fiddled with the little knife I have.
He looked at me in fear but quickly regained his emotionless face back.
"I'm not intending to, boss. But SHIELD is trying to track us down." He reported to me.
Interesting. I stood up from my chair and walked up to him.
"Let them," I said.
"But sir-" he tried to argue but I cut him off.
"By tomorrow we would have SHIELD's greatest agent. We'll brain wash her and make her go up against them. Mostly with Extremis in her system, she'll be almost undefeated. We'll have her kill her friends. What have I got to fear?" I smirked.
"What if this all fails?" He asked.
I clenched my jaws and glared at him.
"Are you saying that I'm going to fail?!" I asked raising my voice.
His eyes widened as he repeatedly shook his head.
"No boss, but there are possibilities that Killian can fail you," He said.
"Then I'll kill him." I shrugged.
Tony's POV:
I somehow managed to escape from that dungeon, find my friend Rhodey, and interrogate Trevor once again. We took his lovely speedboat and we started heading to where he said Pepper might be.
"If he's right about the location, we're 20 minutes from where Riley is." Said Rhodey looking at the ship's GPS.
The thought of her being so close but yet so far makes my heart beat uncontrollably.
"Regardless, we still have to figure out this Vice President thing, right?" Asked Rhodey.
I took out my phone and dialled the VP.
"Wonder who I'm calling right now? Oh its the Vice President."
"Hello?" A voice answered after about 3 rings.
I put it on speaker so that Rhodey could also hear.
"Sir, this is Tony Stark," I replied.
"Welcome back to the land of the living, Mr Stark," he greeted somewhat mockingly.
"We believe that you are about to be drawn into the Mandarin campaign. We gotta get you somewhere safe as soon as possible." I said urgently, not having time for jokes.
"Mr. Stark, I'm about to eat honey roast ham, surrounded by the agencies finest." He said.
"The President's safe on Air Force One with Colonel Rhodes. I think we're good here." He added.
"Sir this is Colonel Rhodes. They're using the Iron Patriot as a Trojan Horse. They're gonna somehow take out the President. We have to immediately alert that plane." Said Rhodey.
"Okay, I'm on it. I'll have security lock it down. If need be, they can have F-22's in the air in thirty seconds." The Vice President said in a serious business like tone.
"Thank you Colonel."
"Rhodes and Stark out," said Rhodey before hanging up.
"We gotta make a decision. We can either save Riley or The President. We can't do both." Said Rhodey.
I felt my heart ache.
"Sir, I have an update from Malibu," Jarvis interrupted.
"The cranes have finally arrived, and doors are being cleared as we speak," he informed me.
Rhodey looks at me confused.
"And what about the suit I'm wearing?" I asked.
"The armor is now at ninety two percent," Jarvis replied.
I pulled out the wire that was hooked on my suit to a car battery.
"That's going have to do," I said with determination.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By the time I got to where the President's plane, I found out it was already compromised but there were still people in the plane. I see Savin, Killian's most trusted men, look out the window.
I took this opportunity and shoot him with my repulsor. I flew inside the plane and I threw Savin to a wall. I pinned him against the wall and I pointed my hand at him ready to fire my repulsor at his face. He began to glow.
"The President." I demanded. "Now."
Savin grinned. "He's not here," he said calmly.
Savin gripped my wrist with his glowing red hot hand. I groaned as he tried twisting my wrist.
"Try the jet stream?" He asked taking out a detonator.
"Speaking of which, go fish," he said as he pressed down the detonator.
I hear a bomb explode and people yelling as they fall out of the plane. I attempted to grab Savin again but he caught both my wrist and tried gripping my wrist as hard as he can towards my chest. I struggled from his strong burning grip.
"Do you really still have hope that you'll win this fight, Tony? You still have hope to save your dear girlfriend? Well it's too late because she's all Killian's now." He said with a sinister smirk.
I felt my blood boil.
"Ahh!!!" I screamed in rage.
I broke out of his grip and Savin through his chest with my repulsor beam. He looks at me in shock as he collapsed on the ground.
"Walk away from that you son of a bitch," I grumbled.
I jumped out of the plane hurriedly and I see a lot of people still in the air screaming their heads off.
"How many in the air?" I asked Jarvis hurriedly.
"Thirteen sir," he answered.
"How many can I carry?" I asked.
"Four sir," she said.
Shit. Okay, think Tony. Lightbulb! I dove to the nearest person to me which was a stewardess. She was screaming her head off. I got hold of her and tried slowing her down. But she keeps panicking causing both of us to fall faster.
"Slow down. Slow down. Relax. What's your name?" I asked trying to calm her down.
I glanced at her name tag and found her name.
"Heather?" She nod her head.
"Listen to me. See that guy?" I asked looking towards the nearest person, which was a man.
"I'm gonna swing by, your just gonna grab him got it?" I told her.
"WHAT?" She asked as I dove for towards the man.
"I'll electrify your arm. You won't be able to open your hand. We can do this, Heather." I said.
Heather nod her head. She reached for the guy but missed but succeeded on grabbing him by the ankle on the second try.
"Easy, see. Eleven more to go." I flew to the next person and someone successfully grabbed her.
"Remember the game 'Barrel of Monkeys'? That's what we're going to do!" I told them.
"Eight thousand feet," Jarvis warned as I see the ground coming closer.
"Come on people! Everyone! Grab your monkey!" I encouraged them.
A few more grabbed each other's hands.
"Nice!" I exclaimed.
We can actually make it.
"Ten thousand feet," Jarvis warned.
More and more clasped hands together.
"One thousand feet," Jarvis warned.
Shit. We still have one more to go. I flew towards the man as fast as I can.
"Four hundred feet." Almost there.
"Two hundred feet."
"He's a chunky monkey. Let's get him." I encouraged them.
"Hello," I greeted the man who looked frightened to death.
Right before we hit the the ocean a man grabbed the another man's hand. Fuck yeah! I slowed down a bit and dropped all of them safely in the water. I hope they can swim. I turned around as I checked up on them and I see they're all okay. All of them were cheering.
"Nice work guys!" I congratulated them.
"Excellent! Good team effort, all around! Go us! Alright Jarvis. But it's only half done. We've still gotta get Riley-" I was cut off when a bus crashed into my suit.
(Back in the boat)
I grimaced and sighed.
"Well that came outta no where. Wow." I said as I took off my headset that I used to control my suit.
"Give me some good news man." I pleaded.
Rhodey has been watching my suit rescue the people with binoculars.
"I think they all made it." He told me.
"Thank god." I said in relief.
"Yeah, but I missed the President."
"You couldn't save the President with the suit. How are you going to save Riley without it?" Rhodey asked me.
"Uh, say Jarvis, is it that time?" I asked Jarvis.
"The House Party Protocol, sir?" Jarvis asked.
"Correct."
"I believe it can be arranged. House Party Protocol initiated." Jarvis answered.
I smirked. We're almost there Riley, just keep hanging on.