Iron Man

Chapter 10: Needle In A Haystack

She was lying in a box. She couldn't see anything, but it must be how a corpse would feel she thought. "If it could feel," she giggled to herself.

She had only recently awoken and had no idea how long she had been unconscious. Unfortunately she remembered everything that that happened to her since Paris and she felt the giggles breaking free of her lips once more.

She had little sense of anything, including whether she was lying down or standing up. If she had to guess, she would have said lying down, but that was little more than a guess. The box she was in was acting exactly like a sensory deprivation tank and she had heard stories that people couldn't stay sane in them for long.

She tried to hold to the thought that Tony - HER Tony - would rescue her. The problem was that brought up the memories of the other Tony and they nauseated her.

She tried something else, she thought about Iron Man. He would be her knight in shining armor and rescue her. Just like he'd rescued so many others.

Tony Stark looked out of the eye slits in his Iron Man armor and considered his options. Below him lay the ruins of the Mandarin's castle, which he found, after a quick check of his armor's GPS system, was located on mainland China. His double from another timeline had told him that he had been 'enjoying' the company of Tony's longtime friend Pepper Potts, and that he had put her somewhere for 'safe keeping'. He shuddered as he considered what she might have gone through at the hands of his double.

"That could so easily be me," he thought to himself.

Tony ruthlessly subdued the feelings of self-hate and disgust that were coursing through him. "I've already cost several people their lives today, if I don't get moving, I'll add Pepper to that list," he mentally chastised himself.

Accessing his armor's internal systems he used the Sub-space Communicator and was almost instantaneously speaking with the sentient computer system he had downloaded into his home.

"Jocasta, I need you to access all hotel records in Hong Kong that either Tony Stark or James Rhodes might have stayed in during the past week. Include all apartments in that too please."

"Working on it, but you realize we never made you reservations..."

"I know Jocasta, it's a very long story. Let me know as soon as you find something."



With another mental command, he cut the connection and went back to surveying the ruins below.

Tony brought up his sensor options and began to run through them one after another. The largest sign of life that he could detect was no bigger than a rabbit. That meant that if Pepper had been in the castle she was most likely dead. He thought back over the comments that his double had made, and came to the conclusion that it was unlikely that she had been brought there.

Tony tried to gauge the point that he had escaped from and then called his most powerful weapon online. From this distance the pulse bolts would blow a hole through to the sub-levels with ease. The difficult part was not doing too much damage.

He followed the barrage of pulse bolts downwards and without waiting for the dust to settle he emerged into the lower levels of the castle. He discovered that the damage was extensive and he wondered for a second if what he sought was going to have survived the destruction.

He activated the locator within his armor and to his relief he got a response from only 100 feet away. He began to move towards the direction the signal was coming from, manually throwing debris behind him. He closed in on his target rapidly. Lifting another piece of fallen masonry he looked down at the remains of another suit of Iron Man armor.

Steeling himself, Tony reached out and pulled the armor, and the body it still held, out from under the pillar that had fallen on it. Carefully, so as not to cause any more damage to the suit, he reached around and activated the release catch on the helmet. He pulled the helmet loose and stood looking into the charred face of his long time friend Jim Rhodes - or at least his double from the alternate timeline.

Detaching a cable from his own suit, he plugged it into a port on the back of the helmet he had just claimed. The data that began to filter in showed that the other suit was several levels below the one that he was now wearing. He quickly scrolled past that information, though he downloaded into his own system was later analysis.

Finally he accessed the information he was searching for, all the time muttering "Too slow, too slow..".

The log files that he used on his own armor were present in the suit that his double had created. He mainly used these for analysis of the armor's performance but they also provided a history of the actions of the wearer and this was what he was looking for.

Accessing the GPS system once more he began to overlay the routing information he was receiving from the other suit. Looking at the display, Tony realized that he still had his work cut out to find his friend. Looking at the display he began to attempt to eliminate certain of the routes that appeared to be simple scouting as the same route was traversed several times within a matter of minutes. That still left nearly a dozen places that he needed to check, all of which were in Hong Kong.

He quickly came to a conclusion over his next course of action, but not before the audio receptors in his helmet picked up the groaning sounds from above. The structure was 

beginning to protest the damage done to it, and he estimated that he had little time to exit before the whole place came tumbling down. He looked down at the suit of armor at his feet and was about to reach down to activate its self-destruction sequence when another loud screech and a pile of debris rained down on him. A particular large piece drove Iron Man to his knees.

The body contained inside the hi-tech suit of armor reacted painfully to this newest assault. Tony Stark had already taken a beating at the hands of the Mandarin and Moonraker and it wasn't appreciating this latest indignity. Forcing himself upright, he glanced at the other suit of armor before activating his boot jets and rocketing upwards.

"Boss? Did you find her yet?"

The voice ringing through Iron Man's receiver was worried and had an edge of panic to it. It belonged to Tony's longtime friend and Pepper's ex-husband, 'Happy' Hogan.

"Happy, I'll find her. I'm heading towards Hong Kong right now trying to triangulate on the information I got out of the other suit. Trust me Happy, I'll find her, OK?"

After a brief moments hesitation, a mumbled "OK" came back through the receiver.

"I'll call when I know something. I need to concentrate on the data right now."

Iron Man abruptly cut the communication, not wanting to hear the hurt in his friends voice anymore. "There are some things that armor won't protect from," he thought, "and guilt is one."

There was a hard edge to his thoughts but he ruthlessly submerged the anger he was feeling. There would be time for that later. He focused once more on the image that was being projected onto his retina to try to make sense of the movements of his doubles suit of armor over the previous few days, all the while rerouting as much power into his boot jets as possible.

She had discovered that the box was not completely soundproof as she could faintly hear voices. She had no idea what they were saying, as they were talking what she presumed was either Chinese or Japanese. She had pounded on the box as much as her limited space would allow, and her throat was raw from screaming, but nothing had happened.

The tears had started to flow then.

Eventually, the tears had slowed and she smiled at the colors that were playing in front of eyes. The reds and golds stood out and they slowly formed themselves into the modern-day knight, Iron Man. She smiled as the hope swelled once more inside her.



"So Tony Stark stayed at the Island Shangri-La hotel in the center of Hong Kong?"

"That is correct Tony, he and two others, Jim Rhodes and Maria Stark booked into the hotel over a week ago and then left two days ago," the voice of Jocasta told Iron Man over their sub-space link.

"Did you find anything else? Is that the only place he stayed? Did he rent any other buildings during that time?"

Jocasta was one of the most sophisticated Artificial Intelligences in existence and was more than capable of emotions. As such she could hear the underlying strain in Tony Stark's voice.

"No, but I will widen the parameters of my searching and add as many other variables as I see logical," she replied. "Are there any other names or locations I should include?"

"The three names you already have would be good starts, and add in anyone with the name of Stark. Also you'd better add Pepper Potts, and anyone else that could be related back to me. As for locations, you can stay with Hong Kong. As you can see from the data I uploaded to you, the activity was all centered on the island."

"I will contact you again when I know more. Good luck."

Once again Tony Stark cut the communication link. He adjusted his trajectory based on the information he had just received to take him to the hotel that 'he' had stayed at."

Pepper Potts tried to look down towards her feet but the cramped container she was in prevented that. Her feet had begun to get cold, and that cold was moving upwards. She wasn't too worried about it though. She knew that her knight was on his way, even now.

She could see him, dressed in golden armor, riding his red-covered steed to the rescue. It wouldn't be long now, she reasoned. She could feel the water beginning to fill the box and that meant the moment of rescue could not be far behind.

Pepper Potts lay her head back and smiled.

Iron Man flew directly into the lobby of the Island Shangri-La hotel causing several guests to have to take immediate action to avoid being hit. He landed in front of the main desk and said, "I need to see the room that Tony Stark stayed in last week."

The clerk behind the desk just looked at the figure in front of him and said nothing.

Iron Man was about to repeat his request once more when a woman emerged from an office behind the desk and said, "We do not..."

She was cut off abruptly as Iron Man said, "You already know who I am, and Mr. Stark has asked me to check the room he stayed at for clues to the kidnapping of one of his associates."



"The hotel knows nothing about a kidnapping and the room has obviously been cleaned. We would..."

Iron Man tuned out the sounds of her voice and opened a sub-space communication channel with Jocasta.

"Which room did they stay in?"

"Room 2601 on the 26th floor."

He closed the circuit and turned and walked towards the elevator. He considered opening the doors and flying up the shaft but restrained himself and pressed the button. Mere moments later the door to an elevator opened and he stepped inside. "Floor 26 please," he informed the startled bellhop.

The bellhop pressed the button before he realized that the duty manager was calling his name. He went to press the open door button when Iron Man grabbed his hand and shook his head.

Moments passed and the elevator stopped on the correct floor. Iron Man stepped out of the elevator and taking note of the room number signs walked towards his destination. He managed to politely knock on the door of room 2601, but when he received no reply he pushed against it and it popped open.

Iron Man strode to the center of the main room of the suite he had entered. He didn't have much time, as he knew he could count on the manager to appear very soon. He boosted the power to his scanning system and activated the custom program he had built into this latest version of his suit. Iron Man turned a full 360 degrees before moving through the other rooms of the suite. Having completed his sweep of the rooms he returned to where he had begun and waited for the scanning software to complete its analysis.

As he was waiting he engaged his mind by attempting to determine what his double would have done with Pepper. The process made him feel dirty, as he needed to try to think as his double would. He tried to think of the exact opposites of his own nature and one of the possibilities that brought up chilled him. Where would he have hidden her?

His thoughts were interrupted firstly by the entrance into the room of what he supposed was the hotel manager and then by his HUD revealing the results of its search. Ignoring the threats coming from the manager's mouth, Iron Man walked back into one of the suites bedrooms and bent to examine the bed. There were definite marks on all four legs, which most likely had come from ropes. Standing up he moved back to the main room and walked over to the large desk. Kneeling down, he reached under the desk and retrieved a piece of paper. It was an invoice for a large box that had been delivered to the room three days previously.

Iron Man turned and addressed the manager who was now almost apoplectic with anger at the treatment he had been receiving. "Please excuse my rudeness. A friend of Mr. Starks is in very grave danger and it has left my manners with something to be desired. What can you tell me about a box that was delivered here last week?"



Iron Man waited as the manager debated with himself about answering the question.

"Please... the information is vital," continued Iron Man.

"This is most irregular," said the manager in a clipped English accent, "A large box, shaped something like a coffin was delivered here to Mr. Stark."

"Where is it now?"

The manager paused, apparently uncertain of how to answer that question. "I don't know," he finally admitted. "It was not part of Mr. Stark's luggage when he departed and we never saw it leave. But as you see it is no longer here."

Iron Man paused before asking his next question as his agile mind turned over the possibilities that the managers answer had brought up.

"Did Mr. Stark's companions leave with him?"

"Mr. Rhodes did, but we did not have the pleasure of saying goodbye to Ms. Stark."

"Thank you," said Iron Man, then he turned and moved towards the large glass doors onto the suites balcony. Opening the door, he stepped out and then ignited his boot jets once more.

Red and gold. Gold and red. Such pretty colors. No wonder her knight had chosen them for his own. Pepper could now feel the water reaching up to her waist and covering her hands. It didn't matter. Iron Man was on his way. She could hear the sound of him approaching. In her minds eye she saw him draw his sword and move in to combat the villains who had placed her here. They would suffer his mighty wrath for their actions. Tony Stark would die. Her knight would see to it for the indignities he had committed to his beloved.

The water continued to rise and Pepper Potts continued to smile at a scene only she could see.

Tony Stark looked at the routes that his counter-part Iron Man had taken and eliminated all the routes that did not originate from the hotel. That left only two. The first was from the day that they had vacated the hotel, and the other on the day previous. Both of which were after the arrival of the box. Tony snarled audibly and looked to see where the routes terminated.

The first route went out to the outlying island of Kau Sai Chau Tsuen. Tony accessed a comm. link and then executed a quick search for information on the island. The only thing he found were two temples on the island and a small fishing village.

He turned his attention to the other route and found that it also went to an outlying island. This time to Tai Tau Chau. He skipped quickly back to his data source and discovered that this one only had a fish farm on it.



Cursing once more in frustration, he calculated the closer of the two and roared off in that direction.

She could hear the roar of the crowd as her knight swept aside all the villains in his path. His lance was unstoppable and as he cleared the last of his enemies she returned the smile of triumph she knew would be under his helm.

Her knight was coming and her smile broadened, but the water had now reached her chin.

Iron Man flew towards the second island. What remained of his patience had been exhausted on the first island. Unless he had missed something, it really had only the fish farm on it. He had been grateful for the universal translator that he had installed into this suit. The people there had not been able to help and a quick trip around the small island had revealed nothing. He had been surprised when they professed no knowledge of the other Iron Man.

In the distance he could see his target growing larger by the second. This must be it, he thought. Using the capabilities of his helmet his amplified the view of the island. There were the two temples, on opposite sides of the island and between them was the village. "Where do I start?" he thought.

"Full E-M scan," he mouthed to his armor, and instantly the view he was looking at was overlaid with the results. Neither temple showed signs of any technology. However, he was surprised by the sophisticated energy readings he was getting from a house in the village. Reviewing the findings more closely he discovered that any standard scan would have failed to detect anything.

Iron Man altered his course and angled towards the anomalous readings he was receiving. Moments later he landed outside the small house that was more than it appeared. Cautiously he moved towards the door, aware that several people around were watching him carefully.

As he was about to push the door open his radar detected an incoming object. Reacting to the armors evaluation of the threat he turned and threw up his arm while activating the photon-shield that now resided there. The missile looked to be a simple baton but upon impacting on the shield it exploded. The shield dissipated much of the force and Iron Man looked around for his assailant.

He found that the villagers had left and standing around him were men dressed in what appeared to be ninja costumes although his sensors informed him that their weapons were a little more modern.

"I want the box," he flatly stated.

The 'ninjas' appeared not to care as they began to attack.

Tony growled within the armor and released a wide-angle repulsor blast that took out half his opponents. For many, the simple numbers of assailants would have been troubling. Iron Man 

simply turned the assault systems in his new armor to fully automatic and within moments he was standing by himself once more. He was surprised however when the bodies of his assailants began to turn to a black mist leaving only their clothes behind.

Turning and dismissing the scene as unimportant, he pushed the door of the house open. Inside was a complicated array of equipment, but no box. Tony smashed his hand through the nearest wall and enabled his scanning array once more. That revealed nothing and he stood there in frustration trying to decide what his next course of action was to be.

Suddenly he brought his hand up to his head and smacked himself. He flew outside and followed the tracking information he had been using all along to the place on the island that his double had previously visited.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid," he berated himself as he flew.

He landed on the waterfront area of the village and stood there looking about. Nothing. "Think Tony. Think. Where is she."

Looking once more at the map he had been following, realization slammed into him and he launched himself into the water.

"Gentlemen, and lady, to what do I owe this pleasure?"

The man at the end of the table stood and welcomed his guests. He was in his forties and was shorter than average. His hair was prematurely thinning but other than that he was in good physical shape. He had been surprised when the CEO's of several local businesses had requested this meeting, but his curiosity had also been aroused.

"Jim, it's good to see you. How is the world of design treating you? It appears that Enoch Platas is gaining a reputation." As he spoke he reached out and shook the hand of the younger Latino man that had first entered the room.

The man smiled and shook the proffered hand. "Things have been going well, especially of late. Let me introduce you to Mel Travantis of Seattle Lab, Inc., Hai Hoang of Freeman Welwood and Diana Moffat of the St.Charles Consulting Group. This is John Waak, the CEO of Trade Tech."

The introductions were made and the host of the meeting invited his guests to sit. "What can I do for you all?"

"You can join with us," said the small, slim form of Diana Moffat.

Waak had heard of her and how she had taken the small consulting firm of St.Charles to its current position at the top of its field in the Seattle area. "Join you in what?" was his puzzled question.



"We are 'recruiting' top business people on the West Coast to form a collective. We feel, based on Mr. Suarez recommendation, that you would be a very good 'acquisition'". She gestured towards the Latino man who had made the introduction.

Jim Suarez got up as she gestured to him and started to pace around the room. "Before you say anything John, hear me out. I know that this must be a surprise to you. It was to me, when Diana approached me. But it makes sense. I've now become part of something much greater than I could ever had guessed was possible."

As he talked he continued to walk and ended up behind their host.

John Waak was a businessman. He had dealt with all manner of people over the years, but the way that the Moffat woman had said 'recruiting' and 'acquisition' had made ice run up and down his spine. The words coming out of Jim Suarez's mouth were also causing concern. "I'm not sure that I need to be part of a 'collective'..." he began, but was interrupted as a hand closed over his mouth.

After a brief moment of panic he pushed himself backwards in an attempt to free himself, but found that the strength of the person holding him was way beyond anything he could match. Another arm was now around his neck and was pressing tightly enough to cut off his air supply.

He looked up to see the woman stand up and begin to approach him. "We never said anything about you having a choice."

She watched with amusement as his eyes bulged out even further as she became to change.

Iron Man dragged Pepper from the shattered box that he had dragged from the water. He turned her over onto her stomach and then reached around and began compressing her chest in an attempt to remove the water she had inhaled.

Water began pouring out of her mouth but the she failed to issue the cough that he had hoped for.

When the water stopped coming out, he turned her back onto her stomach. She was breathing on her own, but when he lifted an eyelid there was no recognition there. Quickly, but gently, gathering her into his arms, he activated his boot jets and plotted a course to the closest hospital.

In his heart of hearts, he knew that he had failed one of his oldest friends.