Tony and Rhodes parked the speed boat off to the side and had to swim onto the large boat that lay before them. Dripping wet, they hauled themselves out of the water and sloshed around for a few minutes before deeming each other dry enough to move on without being detected.
Both of them hid behind a couple large storage bins, equip with a gun in both their hands.
Peaking around the side of the storage container, Rhodes watched as the crew set the stage for the television broadcast that was about to occur, focusing the lights on the President of the United States who was dressed in the Iron Patriot suit and was dangling from a few chains above a huge tank of oil.
"Oh my God..." Rhodes breathed before laying back against the container beside Tony who was keeping watch on their rear ends. "He's strung up above the oil tanker. They're going to light him up!"
"Oh man. Viking funeral. Public execution." Tony muttered, his gun still raised as his dark eyes scanned their surroundings.
"Death by oil." Rhodey added before exchanging a look with Tony who in return nodded. Both of them rose and scrambled behind the fork lift that was passing before running up a set of stairs.
"Broadcast will commence shortly. Take final positions." A message was blasted over the PA system. They came to the top of the stairs and both the boys watched as a few bolts of lightning flashed across the sky, followed by a quiet thundering. The clouds above the boat were turning very slowly yet the rotation was still evident in the dark clouds.
Tony and Rhodey exchanged a look. Sam was definitely around.
"Is your gun up?" Rhodes already had his arm raised, both hands tightly clutching the gun in his possession. Tony's wasn't.
"Yup." He quickly raised his arm, holding the black gun in one hand, still a little nervous about this whole infiltration mission. "What do I do?"
"Stay on my 6. Cover high and don't shoot me in the back." Rhodey instructed as they slunk along in the shadows.
"High? Back? Alright." Tony waved his gun around slightly, trying to keep both their backsides covered. Someone above suddenly shot at the both of them with a machine gun. Rhodes and Tony ducked back into the shadows before firing at the man, taking cover behind a few crates after completely missing the guy shooting at them.
"See that? Nailed it."
"Yeah, you really killed the glass..." Rhodes muttered, his tone heavily sarcastic.
"I was aiming for the bulb? You can't hit a bulb from this distance!" Tony panted before Rhodes stood back up before taking aim and firing at the large spotting light right beside the man with the machine gun. It broke with one shot and Rhodes sat back down beside Tony, a smug look on his face.
"All personnel: We have hostiles on East Unit 12." Came over the PA again and men began shouting as they headed to find the aforementioned hostiles.
"I'm out. You got any extra magazines?" Tony asked after checking his gun to see that it had ran out of bullets.
"They're not universal, Tony."
"I know what I'm doing. I make this stuff. Give me another one!" Tony demanded, trying to take Rhodey's gun.
"I don't have on that fits that gun!" He insisted, swatting Tony's hand away.
"You've got like five of them!" Stark continued to protest but stopped after a moment, figuring that all this arguing wasn't going to save the two female prisoners. "Alright. Here's what I'm going to do. Save my spot." Tony quickly stood up to look over the grate before quickly sitting back down.
"What did you see?" Tony paused.
"To fast. Nothing." Stark said once he was seated by his friend once more. "Here we go!" He said before standing up so that he could examine the playing field. However, what he saw made him a bit nervous.
"Three guys. One girl. All armed." He dropped back down beside Rhodes. Both of them stood up, seeing that the four hot heads were armed and ready to take them on, their eyes shimmering in the darkness due to their hot internal body temperatures.
"God, I'd kill for some armor right now!" Rhodes said as he looked over the area before them, knowing that they were cornered and outnumbered.
"You're right. We need backup..." Tony muttered, knowing that their odds weren't looking good.
"Lots of it." Rhodey agreed. Tony was looking off into the distance before his eyes caught hold of something. Something wonderful.
"You know what?" His friend only looked back at him before Tony nodded in the direction he had been looking. If you looked closely, you could see a few lights flying towards them.
"Is-Is that?"
"Yup."
"Are those?"
"Yeah."
Both men stood and watched with amazement as Mark 8 through 41 came zooming into view before coming to a halt, all of them simply hovering in the air, waiting for a command. And the suit at the head of the column: Mark 0
"Merry Christmas, buddy..." Stark said, patting his friends shoulder as he only gaped at the sheer number of suits before him. It was like Christmas.
"J.A.R.V.I.S.? Target Extremis heat signatures. Disable with extreme prejudice." Tony commanded, smiling slightly as he did so. Oh, yes. It was time for his revenge.
"Yes, sir." Came calling back through all the suits.
"What are you waiting for? It's Christmas!" Tony asked before spreading his arms wide in the motion for them to attack. "Take them to church!" And with that the suits began their assault on the Extremis soldiers but when Stark watched the black suit fly by, Tony pointed at it. "Hey, you! Mark 0!?" The nearly invisible suit stopped and looked at him with it's glowing eyes. "Find your Phantom." He commanded and the suit simply turned and flew off without another thought.
"So this is how you've been managing your down time?" Rhodes asked as they watched the suits continue to fight off the Extremis guards.
"Everybody needs a hobby!" Tony insisted.
Suddenly hearing yelling and voices coming over the PA system, Sam slowly raised her head to watch a group of people go running out. In the jumble that they were yelling she was able to discern a few certain words.
Hostiles. Suits. Security breech.
"Tony Stark, ladies and gentlemen." She muttered to herself, still buying her time until the opportune moment to strike came. She wasn't back to 100 percent yet but she was getting close. Very close.
Glancing over at Pepper on her left, Sam slowly nodded her head in acknowledgment before resting back on the gurney. Another wave of pain coursed through her and she hissed.
"The Extremis still isn't taking..." One scientist muttered to another, both their eyes locked on the computer screen before them before they glanced sidelong at the brunette.
"What are we going to do?" The other asked and the first one shook his head.
"Judging on the rate that it's mutating and the short fuse of the user, I'm afraid she could blow us all to high heaven at any time." He muttered, both of them glancing at Sam again.
Initiating her best drugged face, Sam's eyes fake rolled back into her skull. She didn't want to get drugged again. She needed her body to be fully functional and awake if she wanted to escape.
A wave of heat sudden spread over her before she knew what was happening.
Opening her eyes, she watched the fire engulf her due to an explosion that had occurred outside. The ringing in her ears was so loud but she didn't have much time to register the new information as her gurney was thrown back from the blast and Pepper lost sight of her in the freshly formed debris that lay scattered about.
Pepper screamed, along with the rest of the staff in the room and then it was dark.
"Nice timing!" Tony complimented as Mark 17 landed behind him before it carefully encased him.
"Oh, yeah! That's awesome! Give me a suit, okay?" The suit now completely enveloped Tony, only leaving his face exposed. Rhodey spread his arms out wide, ready to get his own suit so he could partake in the epic battle below them.
"Oh, I'm sorry. They're only coded to me." His face fell.
"What's that mean?"
"I've gotcha covered!" Tony said before flying off, leaving an exasperated Rhodey in his wake.
"Sir, I've located both Miss Potts and Samantha."
"About time!" Tony shouted at his suit before allowing his AI to take control and lead him to the location on the map pulled up in the display screen before him.
Stepping into the hole in the side of the small lab, Tony looked around and saw what remained of the Extremis laboratory. Off to the side, he noticed something flickering and upon further inspection, he recognized it as the familiar little orb but chose to ignore it when he heard a groan of pain.
Underneath a pile of twisted metal and other machinery, lay Pepper who was lying perfectly still. Tony decided that it would be best to move it off her. When he began to hoist it off her body, the entire thing began to shift, threatening to crush her.
"Stop! Put it down! Put it down!" She warned and Tony complied, slowly lowering the metal structure back onto his girlfriend.
"See what happens when you hang out with my ex girlfriends?" He teased but Pepper wasn't really buying it at the time. She had had a long day and she really just wanted to go home and take a shower. By herself.
"You're such a jerk." She groaned before lying her head back down on the cold metal beneath her.
"Yup. We'll talk about it over dinner." He reached his armored hand out to her and she reached for him. Neither could reach the other and their fingertips only just brushed. Another thought bubbled to the front of his mind. "Where is Sam?" He asked as he glanced back at the flickering orb, almost as if its other half was dying.
"I don't know." Pepper insisted. "She was closer to the explosion than I was." The redhead groaned as she reached for him when a hand suddenly shot out from the metal beneath Stark, taking the suit's arc reactor into its palm.
Using its inhuman strength, it threw him backwards until he lay spread on his back after destroying the core of the suit in its palm.
The metal melted away to reveal none other than Killian who was glowing angrily with heat. "Is this guy bothering you?" He asked Pepper who only whimpered in response as he pulled himself up.
"Don't get up!" He told Stark as he sat down on his hips, straddling him as he pressed his hot finger to Tony's chest. "Oh, is it hot in there?" Tony didn't respond and only chose to glare at him, starting to feel the heat leaking through the metal covering his chest. "Stark feels a little stuck? Like a little turtle? Cooking in his little turtle suit?"
"Tony..." Pepper breathed, risking a glance out the hole in the wall.
Lightning flashed angrily in the sky, causing the night to light up brightly. Thunder rolled loudly around them as the wind whipped about, howling as it tore through the hole in what remained of the small lab, making the room very loud.
Killian didn't notice but Tony sure did and the billionaire let his eyes widen with realization. Shit was about to hit the fan.
"She's watching..." Aldrich muttered, his hot finger still boring down into the metal of the suit but Stark was only worried about the building storm outside. "I think you should close your eyes." He instructed but Tony only held the glare. "Close your eyes. Close your eyes, you don't want to see this!" Killian said and as he reeled his arm back to end it all, they all stopped as they watched the orb suddenly fly across the room.
Hearing the shrieking of metal, a hand ripped through the solid piece of steel to catch the orb which now shown brightly as it sat in the palm of its owner.
The wind and lightning picked up slightly outside but again, it was completely ignored by Aldrich but not by the other two.
Another hand soon joined the first and the metal shrieked again as it was pried apart to reveal an arm that was soon followed by a pair of bare shoulders.
Puling their self up and out of their once metallic prison, the person stumbled from the wreckage, their body glowing an array of colors. Blue and red were really the more prominent of colors as they clashed on her skin in an internal battle.
The Extremis battled whatever lived inside of her body and neither one appeared to be winning.
"Sam..." Tony muttered in horror as he took in her eyes. This wasn't her normal freak-out-explosion-PMS-cloudy eyes deal. Her eyes weren't cloudy, no, they were glowing in the darkness.
The red continued to flash across her skin, the blue sparks quickly chasing it down and Aldrich chuckled before leaving Tony helpless on the ground with the suit's weight holding him to the floor.
"Looks like my little weapon was finished at the perfect time!" He slowly approached the seemingly peaceful woman who only stood stock still.
"I wouldn't-" Tony started but Killian held a hand up to silence him.
"This is my my greatest creation! This is going to be my ticket to world domination and fame!" Tony watched with uncertainty as the man began reaching out to touch the brunette girl's shoulder, ChatnÃr clutched tightly in her right hand. "And this wonderful creation will get all the credit for killing the invincible Iron Man!"
As soon as he touched her bare shoulder, Sam's other hand snapped to his wrist and clean ripped his arm from the rest of his body in one fluid and easy movement.
Killian howled in pain, clutching the empty place where his arm used to meet his shoulder. Tony couldn't help but snort through his nose.
He had tried to tell him after all.
Without blinking an eye, Sam began to move across the room as she took sight of the storm outside. She dropped the glowing arm to the floor, her face hard as she brushed passed Aldrich.
"Sam!" Tony called after her but she didn't even stop to look at him. Instead, she was distracted with the developing storm outside and an eerie smile ghosted across her lips as if this was her plan the entire time.
Stepping out of the hole in the wall, Sam disappeared out into the blowing winds without even looking back at them.
Killian continued to groan in pain as his arm began to grow back.
"Some weapon of mass destruction you got there..." Tony taunted towards the blonde man and before he could reply, the glowing arm on the floor caused the metal to weaken and Pepper fell down into the newly formed hole with a scream of terror.
Tony quickly ejected himself from the suit before standing and running up the stairs in the lab to see Pepper being hauled away towards a bunch of sharp pieces of metal.
"J.A.R.V.I.S., give me a suit right now!" Stark called as he took off running down a long runway and he vaulted out into the open air, leaping across a large gap.
Just as he was about to leap on a suit, a huge piece of metal that was blowing in the amazingly strong winds slammed into the suit, causing it to fly into a large metal beam supporting the foundation of the entire structure. The suit was destroyed entirely. "Oh, come on!"
Tony continued running until he leapt out onto the another beam and Rhodey alerted him that he had the President and that he was taking him to a safe location.
Running up onto the thing moving with Pepper, he reached up to her, ready to catch her. "I gotcha, relax! I gotta! Just look at me!" He called up to her, both of them reaching out to one another again. "Honey! I can't reach any further and you can't stay there! You gotta let go! You gotta let go, I'll catch you! I promise!" He called up to her and he could see the hope drain from her eyes.
Suddenly the entire thing shifted and Pepper lost her grip on the metal she was holding. With a scream, she fell down into the fire below, her and Tony's fingertips brushing. With wide eyes, he watched as the woman he loved fell down into the blazing inferno below.
He couldn't breath. He couldn't blink. He looked down at the huge fire to see nothing but flames and he couldn't believe it.
Pepper was gone.
"It's a shame... I would have caught her..." Killian said on the other side of the beam that Tony was standing on. He felt his rage continue to build inside him.
It was a known fact that he was going to kill Killian now.
He took off at a face paced walk towards him until they suddenly started running towards each other. Killian jumped up, ready to hit Tony but the billionaire slid underneath him on the metal grating below before he continued running off in hopes of finding a weapon.
A suit landed right before him and it quickly encased Stark before he turned and fired at Killian who turned out to be right behind him. The two went into a fist fight, bits and pieces of Stark's suit being ripped off in the process.
Killian ripped off Tony's suit's arm before Tony punched Killian's hand and it broke the man's wrist. The hot headed man groaned in pain before shoving Tony off the platform they had been standing on.
He fell down onto the platform below them and Killian jumped on him, about to bring his fist down into his chest to end the battle.
"Eject!" Tony commanded and the suit launched him out into the open air, only for another suit to catch him.
Flying back up to the platform, Tony tackled Killian and their fight continued, pieces of Tony's suit continuing to get ripped off. Killian's shirt had come off, revealing his chest which was glowing from the fire within.
Two dragon tattoos adorned his chest and they seemed to be breathing fire as the heat inside the man swelled.
And as they both stood back, trying to catch their breath, Tony silently wondered if taking him up this high was a good idea. The wind blew rapidly around them, huge pieces of steel being carried off into a the large vortex around them.
Tony had been wrong. This wasn't a hurricane. This was huge tornado. And they were in the eye.
As the battle continued, Aldrich caught Stark's foot and was about to cut through his leg when the suit ejected the appendage. Out of anger, Killian whacked Tony in the face with his own mechanical leg. The hot headed man than grabbed a hold of Stark, flipping him onto his back.
Tony climbed to his knees in an attempt to get up but Killian grabbed his arm and took a tight hold on his wrist, causing the suit to groan in pain.
"Well, here we are on the roof..." The man said as he beamed down at Stark. Raising his hand up, he made it glow with heat before bringing it down, trying to cut Tony in half. However, Stark was able to eject himself from the suit again before he fell onto his back on a lower platform.
The longer Tony laid there, the more familiar a sound came to be and he looked up to see one last suit fly through the huge wall of the tornado surrounding the vicinity.
"Mark 42 in bound." J.A.R.V.I.S. warned his master who could only grin.
"I'll be damned... The protical son returns." Stark breathed before struggling up onto his knees, throwing one arm out as he waited for the suit to envelop him.
The suit slowed down considerably the closer it got and before it could land, it hit the edge of the rooftop and broke into hundreds of pieces around Tony's feet.
"Whatever." Stark rolled his eyes as Killian raised an eyebrow in amusement.
It just wasn't Stark's day.
"You really didn't deserve her, Tony. Either of them actually. It's a pity. I was so close to having them both perfect..." Tony glanced around momentarily to see the dark clouds of the tornado flicker with lightning and he knew that somewhere in the darkness of the storm, Sam was waiting, controlling the beast that she had under her control.
Killian jumped down onto the same level as Tony who held up his hands in surrender.
"Okay! Okay, wait! Slow down! Slow down! You're right, I don't deserve them!" Tony protested as he silently glanced back at the clouds which continued to churn uncontrollably. "But... here's where you're wrong. They were already perfect."
And with that Killian stepped forward to attack Tony who had bent down and directed Mark 42's pieces at Killian, trapping him. "J.A.R.V.I.S.? Do me a favor and blow Mark 42."
"NO!" Killian screamed but it was quickly cut off as the face mask covered his mouth.
Leaping off the platform they were on, Tony slid down a metal beam until he was a safe distance away and he heard a loud explosion in the background, a smirk pulling on his face. The explosion caused the entire structure to shift and Tony leapt out into the open air, another suit catching him and he was sent spiraling away due to the impact of the explosion.
Coming to rest on solid ground once more, Stark simply lay staring at the sky and he watched as the fire was sucked up into the rotation of the storm.
Bits and pieces of this suit had fallen off as well, leaving Tony with only his shoulder covered so he was unprotected to say the least. Sudden clanking could be heard and Stark sat up from his place and watched as random pieces of Mark 42 rained down from the sky, coming to rest on the ground before him.
The Iron Man helmet bounced along before coming to rest at his feet. Feeling a sense of dread enter his stomach, Tony gazed at the battered thing before the face mask popped off, revealing an empty space where the head should have been. He was able to finally breath a sigh of relief.
So this is only part 1 of the final battle but I didn't want to make the thing one huge chapter. It would seriously have been the end of the story.
Nothing really exciting happened in this chapter, despite the fact that Sam went all Extremis/Lightning rage monster and basically has them all trapped inside a huge fire tornado thing.
But guess what?
I am going to Denver, Colorado tomorrow! I get to visit where Sam and Tony were! Sure, it was just a happy coincidence that happened but I'm psyched!
But you know what that means? I won't be able to write or publish any new chapters for about a week. I'm sad. I write to keep myself normal.
But thanks to all who reviewed! I love you guys! There will probably only be a couple of chapters left because I don't know what to do with Sam and Tony after this story is done. I don't think I'm going to write a Captain America: Winter Soldier story. Sam wouldn't even have that big of a role in it if I did.
This story is kinda short isn't it? It needs something but I don't know what to do with them!
If you guys have any ideas, tell me! The help would be appreciated! So, review!
Love,
Blue
P.S. Did anyone get my Doctor Who reference in the last chapter? If you have, yes they met once by accident. If you want, I could write a One-Shot or something of them meeting. And if I did, would you want it to be 10 or 11?
Just tell me all about it, alright?