Hello there! Hopefully the wait wasn't too dreadful, I hadn't gotten any PMs telling me to update lol. I am tired and it is only 11pm here. New semester starting, I have Math 120, Elements to Livestock, and Human Relations. I'm curious on something, how many readers live in NV or FL...and how many went to Metrocon this year? Anyways, enjoy the chapter!
Optimus exvented. Obadiah had almost completely disappeared in the maze of hangers. He could hear sirens getting closer and closer to them as well as the humans in the airport. He activated his comm unit, "Arcee, we need to fall back. Civilians are getting closer."
"Are you kidding me, Optimus?" Arcee responded angrily, "This guy is still out here."
"We cannot afford to be spotted by civilians Arcee. All we can do is hope that the humans can take care of this."
"Optimus. He had no problem with attempting to kill Jack - a child! What makes you think he will hesitate at killing adults?"
Optimus shook his head, "I do not believe he will stay here if he cannot find Jack. Rendezvous back to me", He opened a communication link to the base, "Ratchet, we need a ground bridge now."
Arcee came from around a corner, "And if he does?"
Optimus exvented again and shook his head as the groundbridge opened in front of him, "There are somethings that cannot be predicted."
They went into the portal and stepped out into the silo. The kids and Fowler were waiting for them on the high platforms.
"Did you find him?" Fowler asked professionally.
"No we did not, Agent Fowler." Optimus responded, walking to the middle of the main room.
Arcee glared at the wall, "Surprisingly he could hide with that bulky suit."
Miko blinked, "Well, you guys can hide, can't you? So why shouldn't he be able to?"
"We were made with our bodies, some of us grew into them", Ratchet explained, "Millenia of experience with a natural chassis versus only a few hours in a bulky external skeleton?"
"Cybertronians win." Raf said.
"But exactly why is that guy after Jack?" Miko asked, looking at Jack.
Jack shook his head, "Getting rid of the competition. I need to call my dad to make sure he's alright too."
Fowler nodded, "And you will, but after everything is cleared up. Colonel Rhodes has informed me that someone was coming to take care of Stane."
"Just one guy?" Arcee asked cocking her hip out, "I don't think they know what exactly they're up against."
Jack looked down at his cell phone. Why couldn't he call his dad now? It wasn't like Obadiah can track the phone. Or maybe he could, and that's how he found Jack.
The proximity alarm began ringing and the check showed June's car coming in. The sedan roared in with brakes already screeching. June didn't bother turning the car off as she jumped out and ran to Jack.
"Jack!" She pulled him into a hug before searching him, "Are you alright? Are you hurt? Oh I will kill that father of yours! He promised that nothing would happen while you were gone, and look what happened."
Jack hugged her back, "Mom, I'm fine. Arcee got to Obadiah before he got to me."
June narrowed her eyes, "Obadiah?" Her shoulders rose as she took in a deep breath, "Should never have trusted him."
OoO
Tony hovered over the wreckage. Both civilians and fire fighters were spraying the burning twisted metal. Bodies were being dragged out every now and then. Flesh was either melted to chairs and seatbelts or charred to a crisp, falling apart in the rescuers' hands.
One of them was Jack. His son that he had just saw a few hours ago. It felt like a nightmare. Like he would wake at any moment to Jack or Pepper shaking his shoulder as he slept at a work table. His HUD alerted him to movement on the ground next to the hangers. Several actually. Police were walking around the buildings cautiously with guns halfway drawn.
What caught his attention from the wreck was one cop standing frozen near the back. He was by himself and in a position like he was debating on lifting his gun or warning his colleagues. Moving to the right revealed a 10 foot metal suit that was readying to fire onto the poor cop.
Tony, in justifiable rage, charged, "STANE!"
He flew by the cop and crashed into Obadiah, sending both into a tumbling mess through a building and into a highway. Obadiah was the first to recover once they separated. He looked at Tony who was beginning to get up before grabbing a Jeep that had just avoided collision with him. The family inside began screaming, the mother instinctively reaching over and grabbing the child in the passenger seat.
Obadiah lifted the car up over his head, "I love this suit!"
Tony just barely got to his feet, "Put them down!"
"Collateral damage, Tony." Obadiah moved closer, planning on bring the vehicle down onto Tony.
"Divert power to chest RT." Tony told JARVIS. The reactor sent out a blast of energy through the chest piece, sending Obadiah backwards and into a parked car. Tony grabbed the Jeep before it hit the ground. The weight and sudden lose of energy brought him down to one knee. He tried to counter balance the car to prevent it from falling upside down.
The mother pressed the accelerator down which helped balance out the car and got the tires on pavement. The problem was that Tony was still holding onto the car, and the mother was practically standing on the pedal.
"Lady!" Tony yelled, trying to hang on. He began slipping, fingers peeling paint off, "No, no, no, no!"
He fell underneath the speeding car and got stuck on the skid plate. He lifted the car up momentarily to free himself. Tony groaned as he stood, head spinning, "Jesus. Worse the June's driving."
Obadiah landed in front of him, plucking a passing motorcycle out from underneath the rider and smacking Tony with it. People were now abandoning their cars. Obadiah kicked Tony's prone form, then picked him up, "For 30 years, I've been holding you up!"
Tony was slammed into the concrete, the shoulder sparking as wires were pinched and cut. The air in his lungs escaped him as Obadiah's foot stomped onto his stomach. He grabbed uselessly at the giant foot.
"I built this company from nothing!"
He grit his teeth when the foot came down again. He tried to roll away so he could stand, but Obadiah grabbed him.
"Nothing is going to stand in my way."
Tony was thrown into the side of a charter bus. He ripped through the side like it was tissue paper.
"Least of all you and your son!"
The bus exploded, sending Tony into the air. Tony flipped like a ragdoll, but saved himself a hard landing by turning on the jets in the feet and hands. He hovered there, staring at Obadiah. It didn't escape him that Obadiah just hinted that he didn't kill Jack.
"Impressive! You've upgraded your armor! I've made some upgrades of my own!" Obadiah shouted. He stood straighter as the pieces of armor around the feet and calves shifted and torrents of flame shot out.
It was slow in lifting off, but with the amount of force those jets were releasing, the weight of the suit wouldn't matter. Tony needed to get a descent head start.
"Sir, it appears that his suit can fly." JARVIS stated.
"Duly noted. Take me to maximum altitude."
"With only 15 percent power, the odds of reaching that height-"
"I know the math! Do it!" Tony took off. His suit was smaller and faster at acceleration. But the power needed to maintain the speed as he got higher into the atmosphere would drain the reactor quickly. Tony hoped that he would make it high enough to where Obadiah's suit would ice over. That is, if Obadiah didn't already think of that.
"13 percent power, sir."
"Climb!"
Not even a minute later, "11 percent."
"Keep going!" He could feel the acceleration faltering.
"Seven percent-"
"Jus tleave it on the screen! Stop telling me!" A warning appeared on his HUD of an approaching threat behind him. Just as the armor on his right leg was bent inward, squeezing and cutting into his leg. Tony was forcefully pulled downwards and spun around.
The glowing blue eye holes of Obadiah's helmet glared down at him as a hand began crushing Tony's midsection. And as Tony tried to pry the fingers off, the other hand wrapped around his neck.
"You had a great idea, Tony, but my suit is more advanced in every way!"
Tony smirked despite having almost no room to breath, "How'd you solve the icing problem?"
"Icing problem?" The suit's power flickered before shutting down.
"Might want to look into it." Tony hit the top of Obadiah's helm with his fist, breaking some of the ice off, but knocking out Obadiah temperarily. Tony watched the giant suit fall back to Earth, the feeling of victory swelling.
Then JARVIS had to ruin it, "Two percent."
The power flickered, causing Tony to drop. He managed to turn the power on various times to help break his fall.
"We are now running on emergency backup power."
Within minutes Tony stumbled into his landing. He made a call to Rhodes, "Rhodey."
"Tony! Are you alright?"
Tony threw off his left glove, "I'm almost out of power. I've got to get out of this thing."
"Did you take care of Obadiah?"
Tony's response was cut short by Obadiah landing behind him,
"Nice try!"
Tony ducked underneath a punch and lifted his left hand up to counter, but forgot that he had just taken that glove off. He was thrown back by another punch, but came back and threw a punch of his own. He used the thrusters on his feet to help propel himself forward and put more force into the hit. The move backfired though when Obadiah grabbed him around his waist and began squeezing.
"Weapons status?" Tony asked as he struggled against the crushing force that was bending most of his suit out of place and some edges began digging into him.
"Repulsors offline. Missiles offline."
Tony's HUD began flashing warnings of pressure breaches. Oil and coolant sprayed across his helmet as tubes were torn.
"Flares!"
A compartment on Tony's hip opened and released several dozen of flares. Obadiah let go of Tony to try to prevent more of the blinding balls of light from coming into his face. Tony hid behind an AC unit, debating on whether he should peek around to keep an eye on Obadiah.
"Rhodes?"
"Tony."
"This isn't working. We're going to have to get some jets out here or use mining equipment."
"I can get some F-22's to you, but I'm not sure on how long it will be."
"Alright. Make sure to withhold the order to shoot till I clear the area. I'll try to buy them some time."
Tony snuck around behind Obadiah. At the right moment, Tony jumped onto Obadiah's back, the HUD target system picking out weak spots in the armor.
"This looks important!" Tony yelled as he stuck his hand between neck plating and pulling out a large bundle of wires. He threw it to the side and tried to hang on and out of grabbing distance. Tony was slung side to side and even almost flipped over Obadiah's head. One of Obadiah hands grabbed his helm and ripped Tony off. The force of the Tony being swung around actually made Tony's helmet come off. Luckily without taking Tony's head with it.
Obadiah's suit separated to show the crazed man inside, "I never had a taste for this sort of thing, but I must admit, I'm deeply enjoying the suit!" He crushed Tony's helmet and tossed the flattened metal at Tony.
Tony exhaled sharply. His arms could hardly hold himself up without shaking uncontrollably.
"You finally outdid yourself, Tony!" Obadiah stalked forward, "You'd have made your father proud!"
Tony shook his head. Like hell he did. He forced himself to stand and glared at Obadiah.
"They're in the area, Tony! Get out of there!" The helmet must still be functional enough to hold that call.
Obadiah began firing at Tony with the machine gun on his right arm. Tony stepped back and raised his right arm, the plating of the arm spread out to protect his unarmored head. The bullets pushed Tony back with each hit until he was trapped by brick wall.
"How ironic, Tony!" Obadiah shouted, "Trying to rid the world of weapons, you gave it its best one ever!"
"Rhodes!"
"And now I'm going to kill you with it!" Obadiah launched a missile that went left and hit 20 feet from Tony, "You ripped out my targeting system!"
Tony breathed small sigh of relief, "Rhodes! Time to do it!"
"Hold still, you little prick." The next missile went up and hit the wall above Tony, causing bricks and debris to fall on him.
"JUST DO IT!"
The third missile hit closer. Tony crouched down to avoid most of the blast. Pieces of brick bounced off and scraped the unprotected areas of him. Tony could barely hear the sound of jet engines coming between the roars of the missiles.
He jumped out of the way of the next missile just in time too. A jet raced by overhead, followed by a large explosion from inside Obadiah's suit. The blast sent Obadiah backwards and Tony was sent down the length of the wall. Flames of the explosion caught his left hand before he was thrown away.
Tony was laying on his back at the end of the forced flight. He could barely move a finger without his muscles protesting with pain. His brain was foggy and slowly his senses were overcome by emptiness.
OoO
It's been a week since then. The event was all over the news and not likely to die down anytime soon. June and Jack were at home sitting at the dinning table with June's cell phone resting in the middle. They were speaking with Pepper on speaker for their daily update on Tony.
"He's doing a lot better. Keeps complaining on how they won't let him go and about the rule of no cell phones in the building. He really does want to talk to you guys."
June smiled, "How's his hand?"
"Still bandaged. I go to see it when the nurse was changing it. Thought I was going to pass out. It is the biggest blister I have ever seen. I'll try to get a picture of it next time and send it so you can see. The doctor says that they may have to pop it soon."
Jack frowned, "If he let them scrub it when he first got there, then it wouldn't be like that."
"I know. The smaller blisters on his fingers are starting to get blood in them, so they are going to be popped today or tomorrow. They probably will try to drain the big one then too."
June chuckled, "Have fun with that. Those are always fun."
"Please let that be sarcastic." They could hear Pepper begin talking to another person before returning to the phone, "Alright, I need to go. They are going to drain the blisters now, but Tony is refusing it. Rhodey needs Tony to go to an interview later today to verify their claim to the reporters."
"That will be live right?" Jack asked.
Pepper laughed, "Of course it is. It will be at...three 'o clock for us, so it'll be two for you."
"Alright we'll turn the TV on for that then. We'll talk to you later Pepper."
"Yeah. Talk to you two later. Bye."
Jack and June both sat on the couch and tuned in on channel 3. As they waited, June's phone did a tune to tell that it received a text. It was a video from Pepper. It began with showing Tony's face. The cuts, scrapes, and bruises were healing fine. Then the video went down to his hand. It hardly looked like a hand! Most of the large part was covered in a huge yellowed blister. Each segment of his index and middle finger had their own blister that were beginning to show blood on the inside of the yellowing liquid.
They watched as the doctor began cutting small slits in the smaller blisters and wiping away what was seeping out. The doctor explained that he would leave the flappy dead skin on so that there would be some protection to the still growing, new skin. The big blister was the problem though. The scalpel could barely cut it, and when it did it was like cutting threw steak fat. Hardly anything was seeping out of the many cuts made.
June shook her head, "Tony, you idiot."
"Ow! Ow, ow, ow, ow!" Tony said off-screen as the doctor began wrapping the hand up, "You need to give a guy some warning! Or some pain killers!"
"Stop complaining. You wouldn't have needed to go through this if you had let us take care of it before the blisters set in."
The video cut off then. June, who was used to that kind of thing, looked over at Jack who looked a little green, "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, yeah." Jack said in a slightly hurried voice, "Just was kinda..."
"Nasty and disturbing?"
"I didn't think a hand could look like that."
"You would be surprised."
The TV flashed as the news report room was replaced with a crowded conference room. The camera was focused in on Rhodey who was making his statement. His version was that a prototype had gone rogue and the program randomly chose Elko as its destination.
"And now, Mr. Stark has prepared a statement. He will not be taking any questions. Thank you." Rhodey stepped aside for Tony to stand behind the podium.
"Uh-Been a while since I was in front of you." He lifted up a small pile of cards, "I figure I'll stick to the cards this time."
Most of the room chuckled at that.
"There's been speculation that I was involved in the events that occurred on a Elko, Nevada highway and the city's airport-"
"I'm sorry, Mr. Stark, but do you honestly expect us to believe that that was a bodyguard in a suit that conveniently appeared, despite the fact that you-"
Tony cut her off, "I know that it's confusing." June and Jack could tell that he stopped himself from saying more to that sentence, "It is one thing to question the official story, and another entirely to make wild accusations, or insinuate that I'm a superhero."
Jack shook his head, "Oh no...just shut up. Don't say anymore."
"I never said you were a superhero." The woman said with a smug look.
"Didn't?"
"Nope."
"Well, good, because that would be outlandish and fantastic..."
June looked at Jack, "Jack?"
Jack shook his head, "It's nothing Mom."
"-I'm just not the hero type. Clearly. With this laundry list of character defects, all the mistakes I've made, largely public."
Rhodes stepped up to Tony, and whispered something in his ear.
Tony nodded, "Yeah, okay. Yeah." He lifted the cards and began reading, "The truth is..."
Jack groaned and shook his head.
"I am Iron Man."
June turned from the TV, "So what have you two been doing during your stay over there?"
There you have it, chapter 14! Hope you all enjoy it. I really just wanted to get it done before bed, and since it was done I decided to put it up now instead of waiting until Wednesday. Please review or PM me, I do appreciate them. Oh! And the poll is still open!
Tony/June=24
Tony/Pepper=20
Jack/Miko=20
Jack/Natasha=17
June/Fowler=14
Tony/Bruce=2
Jack/Kristen=2 (this was asked by two readers)
Kristen will be making another short appearance, minor or major. It'll happen within the next few chapters.