Disclaimer:I do not own anything pertaining to Marvel Comics or Iron Man, or anything else related to this material of which I written about. All rights are reserved by the original owners.
Author's Note: This chapter is pretty much straight action – YES! Haven't had one of those in a while. My dear readers, I'm sorry I took so long in posting; this month has been crazy. I hope you enjoy this very long chapter.
Chapter 11 – Where It All Began
Hours and countries passed by faster than Julia expected. It was all so surreal, like the best flying dream ever; except she had to keep reminding herself that it was real. The earth was so beautiful at thirty-eight thousand feet – the greens and browns of the land and the striking contrast of the dark blue water. She and Tony soared through the clouds above it all, free from everything. The sunrise never looked as pure as it did now.
"Approaching Afghanistan," the accented voice of Jarvis informed them.
Tony spoke for the first time in a while. "We'll begin descending now."
They slowed their speed a bit and started dropping in altitude. Coming in undetected was important; so far they had been able to avoid detection by other military scanners along the route, but this was an active area.
"Hey Yinsen, are you there?" Tony spoke to the man still sitting in his Malibu workshop.
There was a pause, then he appeared on the screen in both of their helmet displays. "I'm here." The doctor looked groggy, he'd probably been sleeping. "Are you in Afghanistan yet?"
"Just arrived. Listen, I don't want you to see or hear any of this, so I'm going to-"
He interrupted, something he rarely did. "Tony I need to see Gulmira, it's my home."
"And I don't want you to see it like this. You've got to trust us."
Yinsen gazed at Julia's image, silently asking her if she agreed.
"We'll contact you when we're done here, then you can see it."
His face was grief-stricken, but he was showing signs of relenting. "Alright. Just, be careful."
"Get some rest, Yinsen. We've got to get started," Tony said, and ended the call.
"What's the plan?" she asked him.
"Save the civilians, destroy all the weaponry the Ten Rings have."
It was straightforward, but there was no telling what things would be like on the ground. "This is a hotspot for the air force – our base was always trying to get intel on this area – we'll have to get in and out before they detect us. And Tony, you haven't been in combat like this, so it's going to be a shock."
"I can handle it."
"I know what I'm talking about. Don't let your anger control you or you won't be able to think clearly. Remember: take deep breaths. If you feel like you're going to start panicking-"
"I'm not going to panic," he cut in.
"Everybody does, it's nothing to be embarrassed about. I have many times." Julia's mind did a quick flashback to all of the missions she'd done when she was last in the country; fear was not a stranger to her. "Panic can feel like a cold hand wrapping around your chest, suffocating you, causing you to lose focus. Don't give into that impulse. Suppress that feeling. We want to get out of this alive."
Maybe she was saying this more for herself than for him. When they had fought out of the cave, Tony was able to charge into the fray. He'd killed people. Julia had never talked with him about that. Maybe he was more ready for what they were about to do than she realized.
"Are you ready for this?" he asked.
"I don't know… but when the shooting starts it'll all come back."
"I guess you don't ever forget."
"No, not really."
They were nearly in sight of the village. Smoke rose from Gulmira, staining the sky a dirty grey. Julia could feel her heart hammering inside the metal suit.
"Pick your targets," Tony told her.
She was able to zoom in the visuals and identify the people below as either aggressors or villagers. Yinsen's hometown looked like a war zone in every sense of the term; crumbling buildings were riddled with bullet holes, people desperately trying to flee the merciless terrorists, fires burning out of control. Outside of one building it looked as though an execution was about to take place, right in front of screaming women and children.
"There," she said, praying that they would make it in time.
"Here we go."
It was like something clicked inside of her; suddenly all other thoughts and emotions were pushed into the background, her mind focused sharply on what had to be done, the adrenaline of combat pulsed through her. Stark and Ramirez landed in tandem in the middle of the killing ground and they rapidly dispatched the terrorists around them, sending men flying into surrounding buildings. In front of a couple trucks, the remaining terrorists held guns to the heads of the women and children.
Tony lowered his hands. "I'm selecting targets individually."
Within the blink of an eye, precision shots launched from anti-personnel guns on his shoulders – the terrorists dropped harmlessly. A little boy ran over and embraced his father, who had nearly been to put to death, but Stark and Ramirez couldn't dwell on the touching moment.
"I saw Bakaar here," Julia said, referring to one of their former captors.
"I've got him." Tony thrust his hand into a nearby wall and yanked Bakaar through it, tossing him in front of the crowd of villagers. "He's all yours," he told them as he and Julia rose into the air.
The first task was to clear the area they were currently in. Starting with a couple trucks carrying ammunition, Julia was able to learn how to control the blasts from the repulsors in the palms of her suit. Initially flinching from the searing heat of the resulting explosion, she realized that she hadn't felt a thing. Even when more of the armed terrorists opened fire on the two of them, the bullets from the automatic rifles virtually bounced off. The men had taken cover behind a building, but they might as well have been standing out in the open. The suit's scanners illuminated the targets on the screen and Julia got a chance to test out her own anti-personnel guns. When she came across a truck with a fifty-cal machine gun on it, she tried the wrist-launched missile on her left arm. She hadn't realized it was an anti-tank missile. The blast could have cleared a street.
"Overkill, don't you think?" Tony remarked with some dark humour.
"I keep forgetting that this is your weapons tech – all your stuff is overkill."
"I'm not picking up much else; all the vehicles are disabled and the villagers will be able to handle any of the Ten Rings men who are left."
"On to the weapons depot then. Lead the way."
Tony soared high and fast over the ridge that offered protection for the encampment the Ten Rings had established. It was bigger than she'd anticipated. Her scanners suddenly flashed red.
"Incoming..." was all she was able to say before a tank shot took Stark clear out of the sky. Julia swerved in a downward turn, and narrowly avoided getting hit by him or the following two rounds. "Tony!" she yelled, watching him make a devastating landing.
Before she could get down there, the Mark-J got pelted with a volley from a high caliber machine gun. Even her nearly impenetrable suit had a breaking point, and she wasn't about to find out what that was today. Julia dove and tried to get out of the sights of the gun barrel before launching a counter-attack. She paused behind a building; a step to the right would put her into the line of fire. In a matter of moments, there could be numerous opponents coming around both sides to flush her out. Julia leaned her head against the wall behind her, then turned stared at it – with ease Tony had been able to put a fist through one like it. What was stopping her? With a kick that she would normally use to breach doors Julia smashed through the wall and charged through the deserted building. Her outstretched palm blasted away the next wall before she could reach it, and she rocketed through the hole. The gunners weren't expecting that maneuver. She grabbed the gun barrel and pulled it back till it bent, then fiercely took down the fleeing terrorists.
Picking up Tony's signal, Ramirez located him marching down a street. Behind him a tank stood at the other end, about to scorch the earth he walked on. What was he doing out in the open? As if in response, the tank exploded a second later. He nodded when he saw her, and she didn't know which was more frightening – the suit's glowing eyes or the menacing glare on his face inside the helmet.
"Julia, they've got Jericho missiles. We need to destroy those and that will take out everything else."
"Got it."
The weapons cache was full of them; it wouldn't take much to decimate this place. She followed Tony's lead in ignoring to smaller arms shots and concentrating fire on the larger weaponry. A strong repulsor blast seemed to be all that was needed. Most of the depot was smoking or on fire in a matter of minutes, something that might have taken a ground team of soldiers an hour to do.
"They're moving in on both sides."
"You got my back, Ramirez?"
"Right behind you."
"Let's clear a path out of here."
They stretched out both of their hands and cut down the advancing terrorists.
"Two vehicle-mounted fifty-cals on my one o'clock."
"Time to get out of here. I'm going to hit these missiles."
"I've got you covered."
Rockets taking them vertical, Julia had her back to him as he powered up one final shot. The launcher that held merely three Jericho missiles had the most powerful explosion yet. Stark and Ramirez raced out ahead of the fireball and up into the open skies.
"We're done here," Tony announced. "Jarvis, plot us a course home."
"Right away, sir."
"I really wanted to find Raza," Julia spoke the name of the Ten Rings leader through a tight jaw.
"So did I, but the military is going to pick this up soon."
"I know…"
They looked at each other in the internal display.
"How was it?" she asked. It was a vague question, but it was the best she could come up with for what they had done.
Tony gave her a tired half-smile. "Just like you imagined."
They both boosted the rockets, suddenly eager to get home. Julia was determined not to let herself think about the events in Gulmira until then; she had to concentrate on flying.
"Hey, my phone's ringing," Tony said.
"What? You've got your cell phone hooked up to the suit?"
"Well, of course. I need to be able to take calls when I'm out."
"Who is it?"
"Rhodes… uh oh. I have to take this."
"Patch me in, but no audio from me."
Tony answered the call. "Hello?"
The voice of Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes filled Julia's helmet. "Tony?" The ambient sound of speeding through the air was making lots of distortion.
"Who's this?"
"It's Rhodes."
"Sorry, hello?"
"I said, it's Rhodes."
"Speak up please."
Rhodes was sounding a little annoyed by this point. "What in the heck is that noise?"
"I'm just driving with the top down."
"Well I need your help right now."
There was sarcasm in Stark's voice. "It's funny how that works, huh?"
"Yeah, speaking of funny we've got a weapons depot that was just blown up a few clicks from where you were being held captive."
"Well, uh, that's a hotspot," Tony replied between breaths, the stain of flight making regular conversation a little difficult. "Sounds like someone stepped in and did your job for you."
"Why are you sounding out of breath, Tony?"
"I'm not; I was just jogging in the canyon."
"I thought you were driving…" Rhodes was getting suspicious.
"Right, I was driving… to the canyon… where I'm going to jog."
Julia would have smacked her palm to her forehead had she not been rocketing through the atmosphere. Could he be telling a more obvious lie? Something far more pressing came up on her display – incoming fighter jets. "Jarvis, alert Tony."
"Mr. Stark has been notified," the A.I. informed her.
"You sure you don't have any tech in that area I should know about?" the lieutenant colonel asked.
"Nope!"
"Ok good, 'cause I'm staring at one right now and it's about to be blown to kingdom come."
"That's my exit!" Tony ended the call abruptly. "Julia, right!"
They barrel rolled to the right as the fighter jets closed in on them.
"We need to get some space between us so that we've got room to maneuver," she told him.
"Incoming transmission from F-22 fighter jet," Jarvis announced.
"Ignore it," Stark replied.
"They're going to engage us," Julia warned.
"We can't start talking to them."
An alert about the F-22s about to reach supersonic flight appeared on their viewscreens.
"You're kidding!" he exclaimed.
"What did I say?"
"Alright then, let's do this!"
The Mark III and Mark-J broke the sound barrier, but two missiles came right after them.
"Flares!" Tony yelled.
Julia did the same; she didn't even know he'd installed that function. A sharp turn up allowed her to gain the altitude needed to avoid the imminent explosion, but Stark stayed on his horizontal course. The shock wave thrust him forward and then he started to freefall.
"Tony, you okay?"
"Fine. The suit kinda cut out but I'm still online."
"The jets broke formation. We've each got one on our tail, so look alive."
Even with some fancy flying, neither of them could shake the fighters. That was the bad thing about being up in the air like this – there was no where to hide. The one on Tony opened fire, pelting him with several rounds.
"Deploy flaps," he yelled.
The sudden drag brought him to near standstill and the jets raced past. The red and gold suit was no where in sight; Julia couldn't even detect him on radar. That wasn't stopping the F-22s from continuing their pursuit on her. She was barely able to stay out of their target zone.
"Julia, you're doing good. I'm calling Rhodey back."
"Where the heck are you? I'm this close to getting pummeled here!"
"I'm holding onto the belly of a jet."
"What? Okay, I can't talk now – I've got to shake these guys."
A moment later she could hear Rhodes' voice again. "Hello?"
"Hi Rhodey, it's me," Tony replied.
"It's who?"
"I'm sorry; it is me. You asked… what you were asking… is me."
Anger flared up in the lieutenant colonel's response. "No, see this isn't a game. You do not send civilian equipment into my active war zone! You understand that?"
"It's not a piece of equipment – I'm in it! It's a suit! It's me!"
The silence on the other end indicated how stunned the other man was.
Meanwhile, Julia opted for a displacement roll – it would move her from the current flight path to a new one where she wasn't in the line of fire. Of course, she wasn't a pilot, so she had only a relative idea of how this was going to work. All it took was for her it arch her body back and let the momentum rocket her through the turn. A glance into her display showed that the F-22s were still on her tail, and a firing solution was imminent.
"Jarvis, I need some defensive maneuvers," she spoke urgently to the A.I. "Did Tony include tactical information in the databanks?"
"Yes, I have strategic aerial combat information at the ready."
Diagrams flashed past on the screen. "What about that one?"
"Rolling scissors. It is risky…" His tone suddenly changed. "Firing solution achieved."
"Crap." Julia's suit was bombarded with gunfire and all kind of warnings started going off. "Okay Jarvis, rollers it is. Walk me through this one." She had no idea what she was doing, but if the instructional imagery on her screen meant anything, at least she wouldn't get shot down. Pulling up into the revolving motion, the jets arched around the other way, this time both of them nearly achieving a clear shot at her.
However, as the pilots shifted the angle of their aircrafts, Stark's hiding spot was revealed. Not being able to see him, the one pilot sent his jet into a gut-wrenching roll to shake him off. Tony lost his grip on the fighter jet and went reeling into the air, hitting the following aircraft and shearing through a wing.
Coming out of the bottom of a turn, Julia realized that the air force no longer in pursuit.
"Incoming debris," Jarvis warned.
"From what?" She had to swerve sharply to avoid the plummeting wreckage of an F-22. "Tony! You're back on radar but I'm seeing a collision course. What's going on up there?"
"Uh, we've just had a bit of an accident."
"I just saw an entire jet going down in flames! That's more than 'a bit'. Did the pilot eject? Wait, I've got him on my radar."
"His chute's not deploying – I'm going after him."
"That other jet's coming in for us."
"Keep him busy!" he ordered, and shot down after the free-falling pilot who was still strapped into his seat.
Jarvis simultaneously alerted Stark and Ramirez; "You've been re-engaged. Execute evasive maneuvers."
"Keep going!" Tony yelled to himself.
Julia decreased her speed and went in a course leading away from the red and gold suit, hoping that the pilot would choose to go after her instead. He took the bait and turned to pursue her. Steadily descending, she aimed to put herself as close to the geography as possible to force the F-22 to abandon the chase.
This distraction allowed Tony to catch up with the pilot and pull the chute. With the man saved, he pulled up in time to avoid crashing into the mountainous terrain himself. With that, the other fighter jet halted its pursuit and turned back towards the air force base.
Pausing in mid-air, Julia let the suit scan for threats. "Is that it? Are we okay?" she asked Stark.
He hadn't actually ended the call with Rhodey, and once more his voice could be heard. "Tony, you still there?"
"Hey! Thanks."
"Oh my gosh, you crazy son of a gun! You owe me a plane, you know that right?"
He chuckled. "Well, technically he hit me. So now are you going to come by and see what I'm working on?"
Rhodes protested strongly; "No, no, no, no – the less I know the better. And what am I supposed to tell the press?"
"Uh, training exercise. Isn't that the usual story?"
"It's not that simple… I'll see what I can do. I've got to go."
"Stay cool Rhodes." There was a pause as he ended the call and activated audio from Julia's suit. "Hey, Ramirez."
"Hello Stark."
"You were brilliant, I love you," he said playfully.
"That was the craziest thing I've ever done – but I'm glad I came along."
"Maybe don't tell Yinsen about the F-22 thing though."
"He'll find out anyways; I don't think we could keep anything from him."
"C'mon, how would he find out?"
"It's uncanny, but he will."
"Let's get home; suddenly I'm starving."
It was mid-afternoon when Ramirez and Stark returned to Malibu; they had been gone for over twelve hours. Only Yinsen had been in the house all of that time, so no explanation as to Tony's whereabouts had been necessary. They decided to continue using the hole in the roof as the point of entry, and with great care Tony and Julia dropped into in workshop. Their suits were dirty and battle-scarred from their mission in Gulmira, giving them a terrifying appearance until they removed their helmets. Yinsen was there to greet them, and gave them a rare, beaming smile.
"I have always thought of myself as a patient person, yet I have been nothing but agitated since you both left," the doctor said. "How did it go?"
"The Ten Rings had turned Gulmira into a weapons depot," Julia explained. "We were successful in freeing the village…"
"And the depot is no more than a crater in the ground," Tony finished her sentence.
"Unbelievable! I'm just happy that you're both alright. Thank you for doing this."
"We only did what had to be done," Julia replied.
"Tony, I saw your friend on the news – the lieutenant colonel in the air force – and he was giving a report on the situation. I can't believe you two destroyed a fighter jet; you're on the same side, you know."
Tony glared at Julia as he spoke. "That was just a misunderstanding."
"It wasn't legal to go there, so we had a bit of an altercation," Julia explained, and smirked back at Tony.
"Ah, I see. Well, let's get you out of those suits. I'm sure you're very tired."
Tony stepped out onto the assembly area. "Ramirez, if you don't mind I'll go first. I need to make sure this works."
"Go for it." She carefully sat on a car jack because the weight of the suit could crush anything lighter.
The mechanical arms extended and started to pull at all the parts of Stark's suit. Getting it on had been much faster and easier; taking it off was proving to be quite difficult.
Yinsen pulled up a chair and sat beside Julia, away from the action. "I don't think there's much I can do. Tony, did you work out a system for removing the suit?"
"To be honest, I didn't really spend much time on that aspect," he muttered. "Hey! Ow! Ah, ah, ah! Julia, stop laughing – you'll be doing the same thing in a moment."
Jarvis' calm British voice tried to reason with him. "Well, it is a tight fit, sir. The more you struggle, the more this is going to hurt."
"Be gentle, it's my first time. I designed this to come off so – OW! Hey!"
"Please try not to move," Jarvis urged him.
In the background, Virginia Potts had come downstairs and walked through the shattered glass that once sealed off the workshop from the rest of the house. Now she wore a look of disbelief on her face as she stared at the scene in front of her. "What's going on here?"
Everyone froze; even the robots ceased in their efforts to remove the suit.
Tony slowly looked over at her. "Let's face it, this is not the worst thing you've caught me doing."
Julia wasn't sure how to react to that quip, but Pepper just ignored it. "Are those bullet holes?" she gasped in horror.
"Ah… yes, that would be correct."
"Tony, what were you doing that you were getting shot at?" she demanded.
"That's a little more difficult to explain…"
For the first time Pepper noticed Julia attired in similar armour. "You too? Somebody tell me what's going on – right now!"
"Pepper, I'd really like to get out of this thing. Keep working, Jarvis. Could you come back in like twenty minutes, or maybe an hour or two?"
She glared furiously at Julia. "Did you put him up to this?"
"Hey, this was my idea!" Tony interjected.
"Then where were you?"
"Afghanistan."
"What? Why would you go back there?
"There was something we had to resolve, and now it's resolved, and everyone's fine."
"No! Everyone is not fine! You've been on the other side of the planet in the middle of a war zone." Suddenly she gasped. "This has something to do with that statement the air force made this morning! Now it all makes sense…"
"That's their side of the story…"
"But it's true, isn't it? This is some vendetta, some vengeance thing. All this time you three have been down here, you've been working on this to obliterate those terrorists who were holding you captive."
"It's not like that!" Tony protested. "They had my weapons! They were using them on innocent civilians. The military wasn't going in there and we could."
"You nearly got killed, you nearly got Julia killed!"
"No one nearly got killed; we knew what we were doing."
That statement wasn't entirely accurate but Julia wasn't about to dispute that now.
"Tony you are not the air force, just let them do their job!"
"This isn't about military jurisdiction. This is about Stark Industries and Obadiah and the deals they've been doing with terrorists."
"What does Obadiah have to do with any of this? Does he know what you've been up to?"
"He's the one who's been conducting these sales."
"What? No, that's impossible."
"It's the truth, Pepper. And these suits are something he can never know about. It's my responsibility to bring him to justice."
"That's what court is for, Tony. Leave this to the proper authorities…"
"And all the weapons that are still out there, what about those?"
"They aren't worth your life."
"Do you know how many dead people we saw today? What about their lives? Women and children…"
"I can't talk about this anymore, okay?" Pepper held up her hands in resigned manner and started walking away. "This is just too much all at once."
Tony sighed heavily once she left. "Well, let's get out of these suits."
"Maybe I should see how she is," Yinsen suggested. "I can't help with this anyways."
"That's not a bad idea," Julia agreed. "You're kind of the neutral party."
By the time Tony and Julia did manage to get the armour off, the hours of traveling and action hit them like a ton of bricks. Even Tony couldn't bear the thought immediately setting to work fixing and making more upgrades to the suits. They rode the elevator up to the main floor and found Yinsen in the kitchen busily cooking.
"You didn't have to make dinner," Julia protested.
"Nonsense. It's the least I can do. By the way, Ms. Potts has left for the day."
Tony made a grunt to acknowledge the information and hauled himself onto a bar stool alongside the counter.
Yinsen went into doctor mode. "I want both of you to go to bed early tonight, okay? No more long hours in the workshop, just take the night off and rest."
"I think I'll have to crawl to my room," Julia replied.
"And I'll have to crawl upstairs to mine," Tony added.
After dinner, somehow they both managed to reach their respective rooms. Julia had showered and changed in the shop's bathroom and didn't feel like putting on sleepwear. She climbed straight into bed and lay there wrapped in silky sheets. Despite being physically exhausted, she just couldn't fall asleep. Julia eventually got frustrated and tore back the blankets, then paced around the room. She was restless, agitated. Going into the bathroom, she poured herself a glass of water straight from the tap – the carafe beside her bed was empty – and was alarmed to notice her hand trembling quite a bit. The glass slipped from her grasp and she instantly moved to seize it, but it smashed on the counter and her hand closed around shards. Julia dropped them when she felt the glass slice into her skin; as she watched, blood came forth and began to trickle across her palm. That red, life-sustaining liquid she had seen staining the sand and splattered on the walls of buildings. She had seen too much of that in Afghanistan. The combat scenario of the past twenty-four hours went against all the therapy she'd been receiving to help her cope with the lingering post-traumatic stress she was dealing with. In reality, Julia was not ready to go back into any battle. She felt nauseous and weak. Clutching her bleeding hand, she slumped onto the floor in a corner and started sobbing. The suit made her invincible – but she was still just flesh and blood.
A/N: Ramirez and Stark make a pretty slick team, don't you think? That's something you're going to see more of quite soon. Questions & comments can all be directed to the button below.