It was another boring day, two weeks after since the defeat of the Makluan ship. Defeat of the aliens was successful, but Tony still didn't like the fact that he had lost part of his helmet in the aftermath of the battle. Fortunately, seeing how his face was the new image of Stark International, he couldn't help but smile genuinely as he flew through the air in his Mark 3 iron Man suit. His friends, Rhody and Pepper, were flying along side him, as War Machine and Rescue.
"Hey Rhody," Says Pepper over their private comm's system. "It's been a while since our last big event. Reckon we could do a recon flight over our hometown for at least one more time before dinner?". She flips twice through the air, moving between Rhody and Tony as they flew over San Francisco.
"I don't know the answer to that, Pep," Replied Rhody, turning his head to Tony, who appeared to be staring ahead of himself. "But I bet Tony will. Don't you, Tony?". This snapped Tony out of his train of thought, or lack thereof from his daydreaming.
"What?" Questions Tony, distracted from his daydreams. "Oh, maybe. What was the question again?"
That earned him a giggle from Pepper whilst Rhody just mentally facepalmed, before a crime threat came to over each of their crime scanners.
"This is SFPD, we seem to have a situation down here on 52nd Street, regarding Junior High. An armed crime unit are keeping the students hostage, and appear to have abilities." Spoke the Officer, before the sound of gunshot could be heard over the comm. They all stopped mid-flight to figure out a plan.
"That's our cue." Tony said, a grin on his face as he banked sharply towards the direction the message came from.
"Man, I hate it when he goes off without a plan." Rhody mumbles to himself, forgetting the comm's are still on.
"I heard that!" Replied Tony, making him wince a little. "Besides, I do have a plan. Listen closely..."
Five minutes later they arrived at the scene, yet hid in an alley per Tony's instructions, exactly as Tony finishes explaining the plan one last time.
"Okay, do you understand the plan now?" He said, as his patience begins to fade with time. Which is something he'll need for this plan to work.
"But what if the plan doesn't work, Tony? What if the bad guys know you from the news or something?" Spoke Pepper, worried that he'd get hurt.
"I don't think they'd know. Besides, I've just hacked in to the SFPD and downloaded their criminal records. Turns out they've just escaped the past week, so I have faith that they won't recognise me." Replied Tony, as he used Extremis to remove and send his suit home in exchange for a newer model. The Mark IV.
There was a painful two minute wait, as each suit both were heading straight for their targets at exactly the same time. Upon arrival, Tony peeked around the corner of the alley they were in to see what the situation was so far. He looks further down the road to see the SWAT team coming from the east, when an orb of white forms just behind the police barricade on the other side.
"great. Just, great." Mumbled Tony moodily, who was overheard by the other two.
"What do you mean 'great'?" Asked Rhody, confused. Who looked out into the street whilst the suit appeared out of nowhere, hovering just above the ground. "GENE!"
"Rhody, wait," Said Tony, who had a hand on the suit's chest-piece. "I want to see what he'll do. I have a feeling he isn't here to make things worse. IF things do though, feel free to step right in. I won't stop you." He moves behind the suit, and then pushes the gloves inwards, towards the chest reactor, making the suit morph into a portable suitcase. I may have outsmarted myself again. He thought to himself, mentally smirking.
"Riight... And you expect me to believe tha--" Rhody says, interrupted abruptly, before his suit move backwards a bit in reaction to what he had seen. They both watch him walk out into the road.
"Rho- uh, War Machine, what's wrong?" Asks Tony, no longer in a suit, who taps him on the shoulder. "Did he do something unexpected? as always?" He and Pepper walk out. Tony stays by the side of the road, watching the two of them walk towards the scene that had previously been tense.
The Mandarin had teleported the weapons the normal criminals had to the feet of the officers by the SWAT van, whilst he had teleported most of the crooks into the centre of a ring of officers, with their weapons trained on them.
"Man, screw this!" Shouted one of them, before they began to rapidly vibrate. But they quickly stopped and began to cough strongly, due to the Mandarin reaching his hand out as if to grasp his throat.
"Now," Spoke the deep voice of the Mandarin, which could only be from an in-suit voice changer. "If any of you are thinking of anything similar, these officers would like to take you to prison."
"But no prison can hold us." Spoke a French criminal. "You don't realise we're all differently affected right?"
"Oh I know," Gene replied, grinning behind the mask. "Besides, I think S.H.I.E.L.D. knows a few things about holding Metahumans in a prison." They're about to object, when Gene teleports them to the Helicarrier, each in their own cells.
All the officers around them edge closer to the Mandarin, whilst War-Machine, Res-Q and Tony all sneak inside. Once inside, Tony goes about with untying the students and teachers, before handing Res-Q his 'suit'-case in the reception area.
"Good thing no-one was hurt." Speaks Res-Q, before a hidden Super decides to show themselves, holding the head-master hostage. With a flick of the wrist, he grunts in pain, as he hits the floor whilst being flung down the corridor towards the Digital Courses room 'DC-52'. Res-Q flies off to help him, leaving Tony exposed to the super. But he has his suitcase. It's colour and styling is a bit obvious, but the darkened corridor helps hide the colour scheme.
"Oh look, you were trying to help one escape," Spoke the Super, who sounded feminine. "I bet you're pleased. Now i have another person to hurt." She looks back towards Res-Q, giving Tony time to put on his new suit.
"Actually," He says, towards the Super, making her turn to look at him. " I think you'd probably regret trying to mess with me." He places his foot into the back of the suitcase, followed by his hands to pull it up his body. He places it on his chest as the suit attaches to each of his body parts. Pulling his hands apart, the suit morphs and wraps around his arms, as the chest-piece links around to his back, placing components up his neck, and the mask snaps in place.
After the process is complete, Iron-Man steps forward once, standing is his usual hero pose. The corridor seems to have lightened up, or maybe the lighting just seems to have fixed itself. The Super looks frightened, as well as seeing who it was that had been part of the suit. But then they telepathically read Tony's mind.
"Well," responded the Super excitedly. "With what I now know, I will tell the world who you are!"
"Yeah, good luck with that." Replied Tony, his voice sounding older. "They already know."
The Super's eyes widened a bit, but then she yelled, becoming angry and mentally picked my up from the floor and threw me out the front of the building, surprisingly into a squad car. Tony was a bit dazed, but after regaining his senses a bit, Gene was nowhere in sight. typical. He thought, at the same time that a weird portal began to slowly appear further down the street. War-Machine flew over, followed by Res-Q from inside the building.
"Iron-Man! Are you okay?" Shouted Rhody as he landed, jogging over to his side. Tony got up, scratching the side of his helmet as if to scratch his head.
"Yeah I'm fine," He replied, before he remembered something. "There's a Super inside. They have ESP and Telekinesis."
"Tele-what now?" Said Res-Q, flying slowly out of the hole the Super and Tony made from confronting each other.
"Res-Q, MOVE!" Yelled Tony, but in doing so distracted her for just long enough to be squashed by the force of something invisible. The Super slowly walked out from behind Res-Q, moving her by the power of thought.
"If you want to take me down, you'll have to go through her, first." Said the Super, grinning.
Two streets down, a blur of red and black appears out of nowhere, running straight for the Super. In just over a second, a blur of red and black, with yellow lightning, ran straight at the Super, grabbed her, phased her through the wall of a holding truck, phases the material so it blocks her abilities, dropping Pepper in the process. The blur then disappears in a streak of yellow, red and black before time speeds back up. Being the only one unaware of what just happened, Pepper drops to the floor with a sigh of relief.
"Whatwas THAT?" Said both Tony and Rhody, as Pepper began to stand up.
"Uh, my head." She gets up from the ground, her hand holding the side of her helmet as if to comfort her head. "Wha- What just happened?"
All three of them have the exact facial expressions.
One being shock. The other...
Confusion.