The fight had been chaos from the beginning, but with the new rules that the accord put up, they could only be called if it was chaos. This was no exception, in fact it was even worse than normal. The man had started by attacking New York, creating explosions and knocking down buildings. Tony, Vision, and Rhodey responded immediately while Peter helped evacuate the citizens.

As they followed after their new enemy, Tony turned on his coms and declared,"No attacking, just try and distract him. We need to figure out how to subdue his powers before he can get near civilians again."

After gaining affirmative responses, Tony flew forward, staring at the yellow glow that surrounded the figure with utter confusion. "Friday, can you analyze that glow?" He asked, causing data to instantly appear on the screen.

"Of course, boss," The AI responded,"I'll start analyzing it right away." Tony silently thanked his creation before flying back into the battle.

Thankfully, they had managed to chase the man off the mainland and over the ocean, but he was continuing to go farther out to sea. Something seems suspicious.. About how willing he was to let them force him out to sea.

Finally, the man stopped, returning to a standing position. The staff within his hands was suddenly pointed at all of them, sending blasts of the yellow light towards them. The three scrambled out of the way, taking different positions around the figure. From his closer position, Tony could see his eyes were glowing the same color, before being thrown back in order to avoid another blast.

Something about the powers he is using.. Where have I see this before? He thought curiously, dodging another blast as he shot back with his repulsor. His mind flew into action, desperately trying to remember what made it so familiar..

It doesn't make sense.. I've only ever seen abilities like this with people who were exposed to.. Suddenly, everything clicked in his mind. "The Tesseract.." He whispered.

"Tony?" Rhodey worriedly called,"What did you say?!" The genius jolted out of his thoughts, scrambling to a stop and looking over the group.

All his logic seemed to fade away from him, his mind flashing back to all the horror the tesseract had caused. Loki, the Chitauri, HYDRA, Ultron… His mind was clawing, screaming, desperately begging for it all to end. No more! No more! I have to get it away from him!

Tony flew forward, slamming into the man who had been focused on Vision. He jerked out, yelling violent as he scrambled to hold on to the staff. Rhodey and Vision attempted to fly forward, desperate to help their friend, but the yellow lights continued to explode and shoot out in different areas. They pulled away, narrowly avoiding each blast.

They continued to fly around, desperately dodging and looking for a way in. But the two kept fighting, the man trying to keep Tony from grabbing hold of the stone while Tony looked for any way to get it.

Suddenly, the man lifted the staff, pressing it against Tony. Just as it began to glow, Tony grabbed the top of it with one metal hand. "Tony! Stop!" Rhodey yelled desperately, flying forward to separate the two, but he was too late.

Suddenly, a huge explosion of light filled his vision. The impact sent Rhodey and Vision flying back, scrambling to regain their flight before they could fall into the vast ocean below. Rhodey's blurred eyes struggled to regain sight after the blast that invaded it, while all the sensors in the War Machine screeched out and struggled to stay online.

When his vision finally cleared, he saw a large cloud of nearly translucent smoke that was slowly descending down towards the water below. But the yellow glow was gone, as were the two men who had been battling just moments before.

Terror balled up in Rhodey's gut as he stared out at the vast . "T-Tony?! TONY?!" He cried, his wide brown eyes frantically scanning the ocean for any sign of his best friend. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw red. Quickly turning around, he caught sight of the man they had just been battling moment ago. His body was covered with blood, body parts floating around. Rhodey couldn't tell if he was breathing, but he didn't care. If he had gotten that injured from the explosion.. Then what happened to Tony?!

"Rhodes, look," A monotone voice softly called, causing the man to whip around just in time to see something floating up to the surface of the water. Tony! Rhodey instantly thought, lifting his faceplate, flying down in order to help his best friend back to shore. As he got closer though, he realized what it was.

Floating out of the water was not his best friend.. It was broken shards of the Iron Man suit, with water soaked blood flowing down into it. Horror sent Rhodey's stomach dropping, as he whispered,"No… NO!"

He whipped around towards the android, who was staring at the shards of metal with wide eyes. "Vision!" He cried,"W-we have to call Ross! Get a ship out here! He can't be dead! We can find him!"

Vision quickly grabbed the colonel and firmly said,"Rhodey, we have to go back to the city to help. We just have to accept that Tony isn't coming back."

Rhodey wanted to argue, to claim that Tony may have survived, but with the condition that bastard was in, he didn't know if he could have. He lowered his head, tears beginning to fall from his eyes, before he wrenched his eyes into flight.

"Let's go," He whispered, bursting into flight back towards New York. He didn't look back, he couldn't look back.

He couldn't face the reality that his best friend was gone forever.

It was hours later, in the darkness of the ocean, that two gentle glows could be seen. One was a dull yellow, while the other was a bright blue shine. There, unmoving on his side, was the unconscious form of Tony Stark.

Suddenly, his eyes twitched, a groan escaping him as he began to shift. His hands went to his eyes, desperately trying to rub out the throbbing pain he felt. What happened..? He wondered. I was fighting.. Everything hurt… And then what? It didn't feel like he was in the hospital. Where am I?

Finally, the genius managed to force his heavy eyelids open. Instead of the bright lights and white walls of the hospital, he found himself staring at the rippling water above him, and the fish floating around him. I'm underwater..? He thought, confusion filling his overloaded brain.

Suddenly, the dam broke, and Tony felt panic explode through him. I'M DROWNING! He thought in horror, Afghanistan painfully coming back into his mind once more. Tony instantly began thrashing, throwing himself around in attempt to reach the surface.

It took several moments for Tony to realize that he wasn't choking on the water. In fact, he was breathing just fine. He froze, before beginning to breathe in and out. Again, he was breathing .perfectly. He frowned deeply, his hands rubbing at his temples while he desperately tried to understand what was going on.

As the genius continued rubbing, he realized that there was a strange feeling on his hands. Tony frowned, pulling them back, and looking at them. His brown eyes widened, staring at the sight of blue specs on his hands. Scales? He croaked internally, his brain beginning to panic again. Why do I have scales?!

Tony frantically began to rub down his arms, feeling speckles of scales all the way down. This doesn't make sense! Why would I have these?! But as he tried to sit up, he froze. Then, the genius realized something he hadn't noticed earlier.

He couldn't feel his legs.

When Tony's wide brown eyes turned to look down at his lower body, desperately looking for what the next anomaly could possibly be, he realized that the reason he couldn't feel them was because he didn't have any.

What he did have, however, was a long, blue mermaid tail.