Chapter 1: Take a Life, Save a Life

TWO YEARS AGO…

"Iron-Man?" The young women of about 5'5" thought to herself as she peered in through a window to look at her intended target. He wasn't her target though. Which was why she was stunned that he sat at the desk she had a full view of from her position, not her target. Her target was standing next to him. She couldn't take the shot with him in the room. She may have been a skilled assassin, but she wasn't looking to make enemies with the likes of Iron-Man. She was an assassin for hire so to speak. Her targets never mattered as long as she got paid, but she always did her best to stay clear of the "heroes" because she didn't want to be pulled into their mess. Rather she was working for the hero or villain it was always just so complicated. She enjoyed her simple one kill assignments she usually dealt with. But now her task required her to take out Chris Fleten, a CEO for some company she never bother to get the details on, with Iron-Man in the room. As both the men were distracted by whatever they were talking about she pulled the window she was looking through open a crack so she could overhear what was being said…

"Tony, Tony, Tony, It just doesn't work that way." Fleten spoke as he walked up to Iron-Man and pulled the chair out that he was sitting at and stared right into the face of Iron-Man's mask. "Give me the information I need"

Iron-Man stayed silent so Fleten continued, "If you don't give up the information you will die. As we speak your suit is shutting down one part at a time. You have already lost the ability to move. Eventually the arc reactor in your chest will give out and you will die one of the most painful of deaths, still going to stay quiet?"

The women that was silently observing began to realize that Iron-Man was pretty much a prisoner to Fleten. She was about to leave when she heard Iron-Man gasp in pain as his arc reactor started to give out and she noticed the light that the suit usually gave off had died out. She heave a sigh to herself in anger as she pulled the window all the way open and jumped into the room.

Time froze for a moment as Fleten stared at her in surprise and she pulled out her military grade double edged dagger. She lunged at him before he had time to comprehend what was happening. She connected her fist with his jaw. Fleten stumbled back against the wall. The women went in for the next hit, this time with her dagger. She aimed for his throat but Fleten was quicker to recover than she anticipated and he grabbed her arm just in time to prevent her from hitting her mark. He twisted her arm behind her back, trapping her small frame between his desk and himself. He chuckled to himself as the women struggled to overpower the hold he had on her. She used her free hand to tangle it in Fleten's hair and ram his face into the back of her skull. Successfully breaking his nose along with the death grip he had on her. She spun around and pulled Fleten to her before he had a chance to recover from the blow to the face. Fleten realized he had lost his moment of power over her but before he could try to talk his way out of whatever this was the women snapped his neck. She didn't care what he had to say. He was her target and that's all that mattered.

With Fleten dead the women turned to Iron-Man. He had grown quite but she could still hear him take small gasp of breath. She carefully relocated him to a laying down position on his back on the floor. Thankful for the handful of engineering classes she took in college she got the mask and chest parts of the suit off. She watched as the light from the arc reactor flickered. In a panic, she tried to remember everything she learned in those classes. She vaguely remembered a shock of power could rebalance the power within a reactor, but then again, she also remembered it could kill the power completely.

"What am I supposed to do?" She asked him, but all he did in response was to whimper in pain weakly.

She sighed and felt around her pockets for her Taser. After she got it out she opened up the chamber in his chest and looked around for the wire that connected to the power chamber. Once located she connected the wire to her Taser and turned it on for a second on full power. He jerked and arched his back off the ground. He fell back flat on the floor, unmoving. The light in the arc reactor went out. She started to panic. Iron-Man's breath came to a stop. She couldn't think of anything else to do without the equipment you would find in a lab.

She groaned in annoyance at the fact Iron-Man was now dead and the blame would probably be put on her cause everyone is going to be looking for his killer. She pulled herself up off the floor next to iron man and started on the task at hand of cleaning up any sign that she was there. Once she got about two feet away from Iron-Man she heard him take a sharp intake of breath and let out a loud moan in pain. She turned and ran back to him.

Iron-Man slowly opened his eyes and looked up at her. He smiled weakly as he started to talk, "So a mysterious, beautiful women has shown up to save me."

"Well, not exactly," She started, "I was hired to kill Fleten. You just happened to be here. Tell me, how did he get the upper hand, Iron-Man?" She asked with a small smile as she put her hand lightly on his shoulder to keep him lying down when he tried to get up.

"First off, you can call me Tony."

"Okay, Tony, So what happened?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"An EMP that actually works on my suit. I keep meaning to fix that. I guess I have reason to now." Tony explained, "How did it restart?"

"We should get out of here before authorities show up." She said ignoring his question, "Can you walk?"

"Yeah I think so." Tony pushed himself up and she grabbed onto his arm and side to help support him. "Come back with me to New York? So we can discuss what happened here?" He asked with a charming smile.

She looked at him for a moment thinking of how she needed to return to her employer to show proof of kill and get paid but on the other hand Tony would probably hunt her down to find out why he wasn't dead. "I guess I'll go with you. But first can I make a stop?"

"Whatever your employer is paying you I'll pay double for blowing off your employer and giving me the information I want." Tony said as you guys made your way into the elevator.

"This hit was $25,000 so—"She started, but Tony cut her off.

"$50,000 it is then." Tony stated, "Jarvis, you there?"

"Yes, I'm here, Sir." His suit responded

"Good, arrange a privet flight to New York from the nearest airport to us."

"Yes Sir" Jarvis replies as they make their way out of the building.