"Rhodey, this isn't looking good." Pepper squeaked. Rhodey looked at the computer screen in shock; Tony was toast on his own. He jumped up out of the seat and prepped the War Machine armour and prepared to get in it. "Rhodey, Pepper? Are you guys there?" Tony's voice ran through the armoury on his armour com systems. Rhodey ran back to the computer chair, "Tony? I'm coming over there your getting the crap beat out of you!"
"No, I'm really not." Tony lied, dodging a missile. He knew this wasn't looking well for him but he had to keep Rhodey away for as long as possible. "Stark, come on at least make this interesting and fight back, it's like playing explosive dodge ball with you!" Stane mocked, Tony jumped up behind him and landed on the back of his neck, he took shots at the helmet, Stane was flapping his arms around trying to get Tony off, in doing so he set off one of his own grenades throwing him and Tony back into a LED billboard, the sparks flying everywhere. "Communication lost. Warning, extensive damage to left repulsor." The armour chirped. He struggled up and was about to fly back down when Obadiah's giant hand grabbed his leg, raising Tony to face him he laughed at the struggling super hero, "Very amusing, Tony. But you know as well as I do that we're not both getting out of this, either you die or I go to jail. Either way you're screwed. If I'm in jail, who is going to run Stark international, maybe I should leave it to the Mandarin, and then when you're 18 he can come and destroy you, given that you know who he is." Tony thought about this, it was lose, lose for him. But win, win for Stane. Iron Monger threw Iron man as hard as he could, causing him to crash into a building a few blocks away. Tony fought back the easy, painless unconsciousness trying to overwhelm him. He got up and flew back to Times Square, not knowing what was in store for him next.
"Commutation lost."
"WHAT! You can't be serious, Pepper take the chair, and I'm going to get him." Rhodey yelled. He was freaking out; it took a fair amount of damage to lost commutations like that. Pepper grabbed him arm, "You can't, if you bring him back here Stane will blow up this house, you bring him to a hospital, point A people find out who Iron Man is and point B you're putting the whole hospital in danger."
"And what do you suggest."
"A distraction," Pepper smiled, "You distract Stane, I'll grab Tony and leave him somewhere safe, we then destroy Stane's armour and have him arrested!" She was beaming now; Rhodey thought about this, it could work.
"Fine but let me call Tony, if I get commutations online again." Rhodey hit the computer and tried all the pass codes he knew hoping one, just one would work.
"You just keep coming back, don't you?" Stane laughed, shooting at Tony again, He put his shields up and thought of a plan. He raised his hands to Stane and the normal repulsor slid back to shoot out tiny bombs, with huge impact. Stane was blown backwards. "Oh, Stark got an upgrade. But your father gave me some upgrades too!" Stane engaged the boot rockets, as he did Tony engaged his bootjets. "Impressed?"
"Not really, if it wasn't stolen or out-of-date technology then maybe, but it is so no." Stane laughed at this.
"Progress Stark. Just because you made it, it doesn't mean it's yours."
"Uh actually it does!" Tony yelled firing a mass of new weapons at Stane. It looked like he was winning, until Stane played dirty. His shoulder pads rose to reveal a wall of explosives then, outstretching his arms more walls of grenades and missiles rose from the huge armour. Tony took a few steps back in shook.
Rhodey finally got communications back up and saw that huge sight of mass destruction, Pepper grabbed Rhodey's Bluetooth, "TONY GET OUT OF THERE NOW!" she yelled, barely containing her fear. Tony couldn't agree more and started to fly off when "WARNING, multiple weapon locks detected. No evasive manoeuvres optional." The armour boomed loudly.
"We're in the middle of New York, hundreds of people could be hurt…computer what's estimated time to reach the ocean with thrusters at maxim capacity?" Tony questioned.
"3 minutes."
"Do it!" Tony yelled, and then flew in the direction of the ocean. Pepper, looked at Rhodey, tears streaming down her face. "We need to get him out of there, but we can't the armour said so!"
"Not if we take out some of the weapons before they can hit Tony!" Rhodey smiled. Both ran for their armours but then Rhodey remembered something Tony said, "Pepper, he didn't want you coming unless we were both about to die."
"Tony is and if you try and stop Stane with no help you will be too!" she said closing her face mask. Both flew off in the direction of Times Square.
"FIRE!" Obadiah yelled, sending hundreds of weapons towards Iron Man. He saw a few missile blown up by a silver blur, grenades crushed by a whoosh of red. "Who's there?" he questioned. Rhodey and Pepper landed on a roof his arms crossed and hers on her hips. Stane laughed, "Awwww! Stark has sidekicks."
"We're not sidekicks, but we are your worst nightmare." War Machine said in his clunky metal voice.
"Let me guess, Iron Soldier and Iron Girl?" Stane laughed,
"Not even close," Pepper chirped, her voice sounded mature and sarcastic, she like her armour voice,
"Oh do enlighten me then!" he jeered,
"War machine…" Rhodey said taking a step forward,
"And Rescue!" Pepper cried, running off the building and blowing up several missiles while engaging bootjets. Rescue, Rhodey liked it.
There weren't as many bombs heading towards him, but Tony still knew this was going to hurt. He saw Stane in the background, and two new figures attacking him, one silver the other red, "Armour engage internal com systems!"
"Engaging!"
"WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING!"
"We're taking down Stane while you think off a plan, distraction is always fun." Pepper said through gritted teeth trying to keep her shields up.
"Pepper? What are you doing her I said…?"
"If Rhodey went in alone he would be toast, and you're welcome for cutting down the missiles!" Tony had totally forgotten about them, he turned his head and had just enough time to activate shields when they hit him. "Multiple system failures," this rang out through all the armours, Rhodey and Pepper listened in shock, "Left repulsor unusable, shields at 3% cardio implant running on back up power, bootjets failing. " Tony went plummeting into the water, Pepper turned quickly to see the splash, "Tony!" Stane saw his opportunity and fired at her back. The pain spread though her back and legs and she fell to the ground. Shaking away the consciousness she tried to get up, there was a huge pain in her leg and damage to the back of her armour. "Rescue, are you OK?" War Machine asked. Before she could answer Stane raised a metal foot and stepped on top of her. "Activate shields!" Pepper screamed.
Tony was sinking further and further into the murky waters, he could feel that there was internal damage, he could feel the warm blood flowing out of him. He could faintly hear the yelling and shooting and the black spots of unconsciousness were speckling over is eyes. With two minutes of oxygen remained he was about to give in until a distress call from Rhodey came in, "Tony? Please be OK, Pepper she's been, I don't know if she got her shields up in time, I need you man, please be ok." Rhodey desperate voice rang through the armour. Pepper was hurt. Tony fought to stay away and fought up to the surface, with the bootjets down he would have to use the roller-skates, he sped up the roads trying just to stay awake until he saw the most horrific thing he ever saw.
Stane had Rhodey pinned against a billboard and it seemed Rhodey was nearly out of weapons. Then he saw her. Pepper was sprawled on the ground her armour sparking and the ark light flickering hopelessly. Her helmet was cracked open and her hair covered most of her face. "Pepper!" Tony said running to her, "Oh no, please, "He raised her head and brushed the hair out of her face. She looked pretty beat up. "Computer how bad is the damage?"
"Rescue damage at 73%, multiple system failures during extensive pressure and weight destroyed shield capabilities and armour gave in." Stane, he had something to do with him. "Rhodey?" Tony whispered into the com,
"I'm, oww, here."
"What did he…?"
"He stepped on her; the weight of his armour there was nothing I could have…" The communications was lost, Tony looked up to see Rhodey shoved through a sparking LED billboard and then he fell and hit the pavement with a crack and a thud. Stane turned to see Tony cradling Pepper. He smiled, "Sorry about that, collateral damage and what not." He laughed Tony raised his left arm to fire then remember there was no life on that side of the armour, he gasped and Stane shot at them both with a weapon he didn't know, but it was the most painful thing he had ever felt. The last thing Tony saw was Pepper's face, still in his arms, looking up at him and smiling, then the blackness finally won