AN: Sorry this one took me so long. I've been working on several projects at this point.
Tony Stark had Five Nightmares. The first was that his recent past would escalate, to the point where he would get so wrapped up in Iron Man that Pepper would get fed up with him and leave, along with everything else he had. His First Nightmare was that he would go too far.
His Second Nightmare was that he wouldn't go far enough. That even Iron Man would not be enough to protect the people he cared about.
Happy had followed Killian's guy for half the night, and was starting to wonder if his instincts were wrong. He'd placed a call to the Office and got the guy's name. Eric Saven.
The longer they drove, the more discouraged Happy got about the whole hunt. Eventually though, Saven had left his black SUV, and proceeded through Hollywood on foot. Happy had followed, leaving his car behind. He wondered briefly if the man he was tracking had spotted him.
Saven had kept walking until he'd reached a bench near a hotdog stand outside of Mann's Chinese Theatre. He sat down, just relaxing... And the instant he did so, someone else came running over to join him.
Saven rolled his eyes at the newcomer, and produced a small metal case from his jacket. He put it on the bench between them; not looking at it, or at the eager man beside him.
Happy had chauffeured Tony Stark through too many parties for too many years. More than a few of those parties had dealt with illegal substances. There was no way he didn't recognize what was going on.
Ah, so... Aldrich Killian the billionaire is buddies with a drug dealer, huh?
Happy snapped a photo, and tried to blend in. The stocky ex-boxer in a tailored suit was going to stand out in most circumstances, and a location like this, filled with faux-pagodas and rickshaws only served to make him more obvious. Happy took up position at a rickshaw styled table that sold sunglasses in various styles, and kept watching the proceedings over his shoulder in the mirror.
The Buyer was a nervous, twitching wreck. He grabbed at the small case like a man possessed; and Saven looked vaguely disgusted. Happy took careful notes on his phone, all of which was uploading in real time to the Stark Industries Servers.
The Buyer was grasping the sleeve of Killian's man with desperate need. The Dealer brushed him off and spoke quietly, and quickly.
There was a momentary red glow from the Buyer, and Happy blinked, unsure of what he';d just seen. For a second, it looked like a dark red light was playing over his skin, but there was no sign of where it came from...
The Buyer put his purchase in his mouth instantly. Happy gave him only a passing glance, more focused on Eric Saven. But even with his focus elsewhere, he started listing illicit substances in his head. It wasn't a pill, it was too secretive for a pot-brownie, Killian's too high-brow for cheap and easy drugs... Designer drug? Killian's a genetic designer...
Happy kept pace with his original target. Saven was standing in the middle of the square, casually unbuttoning the top three buttons of his white dress shirt. He turned around and smiled a cold, cruel smile...
...and he was staring straight at Happy Hogan.
Happy knew he wasn't as smart as Tony Stark. Stark usually carried nine topics in his head at a time. But even so, in the same moment, three things dawned on Hogan at the same time.
The first thought, as he saw that predatory smirk, was that Eric Saven must have known he was being followed.
The second thought, which struck him just as he heard the people around him start to scream, was that this must have been a trap.
Feeling like he was moving in slow motion, Happy spun to follow the sound of the screaming. Those that weren't running already were looking back at the buyer. The man was glowing. Not like he was excited or energized; but as though he was on fire... Except Happy couldn't see any flame.
The Buyer was doubled over, and screaming hysterically, as though his body was exploding, inch by inch, as he wrapped his arms around his middle; trying to keep an unholy eruption inside him somehow.
The Buyer threw back his head and roared, as his eyes seemed to shine outward with a horrific inner blaze. Unholy yellow light seemed to pour from his eyes, his mouth... The Buyers skin cracked and opened like lava was breaking through as the people around him shrieked at the impossible, unnatural sight...
The third thought that Happy came to, as he was faced with a sudden wall of unbearable heat, was that Saven hadn't even tried to run, and he was still standing there, laughing...
The heat was nothing compared to the explosion, and Happy felt his body get ripped apart as the Buyer himself exploded with enough force to swallow the entire plaza and everyone in it.
Pepper had only lost her legendary knack for taking things in her stride a total of five times. All of them because of Tony Stark. The first was when Tony had been abducted in Afghanistan.
The second time was two days after he got back, when he needed her to replace the Arc Reactor in his chest. She hadn't said anything given the circumstances, but she had never played a game of 'Operation' in her life.
The third time was several weeks later, when she had almost kissed him, and was struck by the sudden and irrefutable realization that she was crazy in love with her boss, and had been for a while.
The fourth time was two days after that; presented with the sight of bullet-holes in a half-worn Iron Man suit. Something that nobody else in the world had known about at the time.
The fifth time was months afterward, when Stark had suddenly named her CEO.
At all points in between, Pepper had relied on Happy Hogan. Even when the boss was missing, and even when she'd gotten word that he was coming home alive and well. Happy had been her rock, whenever she needed protection from Hurricane Stark. A dynamic that hadn't changed even after she had broken his heart.
Pepper didn't know where Happy had summoned that kind of pure goodness, but she knew the world needed more people like Happy Hogan.
Today she felt like she'd been hit with a freight train. And the one thing she wanted to do was talk to Happy.
Tony came downstairs, rubbing his head with a groan. "Hey. Slept through my alarm." He said when he saw her on the loveseat with her feet curled up under her. "I'm sorry again about last night. I'm going to fix it, I promise." He got close enough to notice her expression. "What's wrong? Is it about last-"
"There's been an attack." Pepper choked out, tears streaming down her face.
Stark was on alert instantly. "The Military? The Offices?"
Pepper said nothing.
"New York?" Tony asked. "The Tower? Information please!"
"Mann's Chinese Theatre." Pepper broke down sobbing again.
"Hollywood Boulevard?" Tony blurted in disbelief and came over to hold her. She buried her face against the edge of his Arc Reactor and held on tight. "Why? Are you sure it wasn't just an accident? A pipe burst, or something?"
At this moment she envied him completely. Because he didn't know, and she did. And she knew that the moment she told him, he'd be on another Crusade.
"Tony." Pepper slid her hands up his chest to press her fingertips over his mouth, silencing him. "Tony... Happy was there."
Tony froze like a statue. "What?"
Pepper sniffed. "Happy was caught in the blast. I don't know what he was doing there, but the-"
"No." Tony shook his head. "Nono. I told him to stay at the Office and to cover things there." He whipped out his phone and hit the speed-dial. "I told him! H-he's at the office!"
The number you have dialed is out of service.
"Tony..." Pepper said softly.
"Happy's my friend, Pepper. He's at the Office!" Tony insisted and tried the phone again.
The number you have dialed is out of service.
Long silence. Pepper slid a hand down his arm and clasped the phone; taking it from him gently.
Tony chewed his lip a moment. "Are you okay?"
She nodded automatically, before shaking her head 'no', with a sigh.
He held her tight. "I love you."
"Love you." She said into his neck.
Tony broke the hug. "Which hospital is he in?"
Pepper's face crumpled. "He's not in a hospital, Tony."
Tony looked confused for the first time in a long time. "What? Why not?"
Pepper sniffed. "Tony... Happy's dead."
The Broadcast opened with the Banner of the Ten Rings. This time it was a straight black icon over a bright red background. It actually hurt to look at.
Another rapid fire series of intimidating images, everything from news clips to candid shots of death and destruction...
And then the picture promptly settled on The Man himself. The Warlord slammed his fist down on a Fortune Cookie. There were four more in the row.
"True Story about Fortune Cookies." The unspeakably powerful voice began. "You think they are Chinese. You call them Chinese..."
Slam. Another cookie crushed under The Mandarin's fist.
"The Fortune Cookie is, in fact, an American Invention." The Mandarin pronounced.
Slam. Another cookie crushed.
"Which is why they are... hollow; filled with empty promises about the future... and leave a bad taste in the mouth." The Mandarin's hypnotic eyes bored into the camera, a glare so intense that it made an entire nation full of viewers look away first.
Slam. The fist came down again.
"Last Night, I destroyed another cheap American knockoff of an older and wiser culture. In this case, the Chinese Theatre of Hollywood Boulevard. I did that."
Another quick series of images. Some of them were of Mandarin himself shooting at a portrait of President Ellis. Another in the same instant of a dozen children running forward to embrace him.
"Mister President, I know this must be getting frustrating." The Mandarin said politely into the camera. "But don't worry, my work as your teacher, and this season of Terror, is all coming to an end." He smirked. "Graduation Day."
The screen flashed with one image of terrible fire, and then another, and then another...
Until finally; there was nothing but the Banner of the Ten Rings.
Still no demands. Tony thought aloud. This guy has to know that the more often he makes these little announcements, the more likely he's going to be caught... He doesn't need press; the whole country is talking about him...
Pepper had left to go see the body... and Tony had stayed behind, setting up the holo-projectors in his garage to work the investigation. "All right." He said aloud. "Let's apply a little intelligence to this. Rhodey said that there were nine attacks, now ten; but the public only knew about three, now four. What if there's more than that?" He chewed his lip. "Put up the Arc Sensor Net."
The map of the world was overlaid instantly with all different lines of readings. Every lightning bolt that struck the earth was recorded. "Now, what did our sensor net pick up from the Hollywood blast?"
Jarvis provided all the readings. The energy output was off the charts, at least, all the civilian and military charts. The only yardstick that lets us measure this at all... and so were the temperature readings.
"There!" Tony pointed. "That's why we didn't pick it up as an Arc Reactor. The temperature is way too high. That's how they hid it." Tony growled under his breath. "How the hell are they transporting anything that hot? Jarvis, has there been any response to our calls?"
"Nobody from SHIELD has returned our repeated requests for background, sir." Jarvis reported coolly. "I have three different levels of contact information for Agents Romanov and Barton; without either one of them responding. Nor has Director Fury."
"What the hell are they up to?" Tony growled. Tears were forming in the corners of his eyes again, and he wiped at them furiously. What? I wasn't even thinking about him then!
Tony turned away from his television, back to the display. "All right, Jarvis. Once more from the top."
Colonel Rhodes as The Iron Patriot had been put in charge of hunting down Mandarin, and had been given broad discretionary powers. Under that authority, he'd given Tony all the information they had about the bombings.
Tony had laid out all the information on a holographic map of the world.
Ten attacks. Tony thought to himself. Blast pattern unknown. Massive light and heat output.
The holographic display was filled with information. Everything from temperature readings, weather pattens, blast patterns, and pictures. Many pictures. In a totally connected world, everyone had eyes on disasters. "Jarvis." Stark reported. "These pictures are all before and after the blast. Do we have any footage of the blast itself?"
"Negative sir." Jarvis reported.
Tony was surprised. "Nothing? Surveillance? Security? Traffic Cameras? Satellites?"
"Regrettably, there were no satellites covering the area at the time of the blast. Local devices all seem to have been wiped clean by the explosion."
Tony paused. "All of them?"
"Unlikely, I'll admit, but no footage has been submitted from any source, civilian or military that involves the explosion."
Tony kept going, threading through the pictures, one after another, after another.
One image made him pause. It was a photo of the blast site. One of the walls left standing had shadows on it. Human shadows. Like Hiroshima. Like New York...
Tony suddenly realized he was about to throw up, and bent double, trying to stop himself from puking all over himself.
God! Why is this happening to me?! Tony raged at himself, gasping for air again.
"Sir, I am directing the Mark 47 helmet and faceplate to you. Without the feeds from the filtration unit, it'll slow your breathing."
Tony was gasping, gulping air, clutching at his chest, when something hurtled toward his face like a lightning bolt, and Tony screeched as his vision suddenly went blank. Oh, no, hell no, don't let me puke in the mask...
But Jarvis was right, and the air was thin without the rest of his suit... It was like breathing into a paper bag. No matter how Tony clawed at the mask over his face, he couldn't quite make it come off... and eventually Tony's breathing slowed.
About a hundred reporters are waiting for my statement. He thought to himself. Wonder what they'd pay for a shot of me facedown on my garage floor, gasping for air through a steel mask over my head?
"I have Colonel Rhodes on the line for you, sir." Jarvis reported unflappably.
"Put him through." Tony groaned, sitting up. He was sitting on the floor, in the middle of the large holo-projection, surrounded by points of destruction.
"Tony." Rhodes said sympathetically. "I'm with Pepper at the Morgue. I'm so sorry."
"You haven't heard the worst of it." Tony said. "I got the information you sent? You were right. There's only one thing that puts out that kind of power. It is an Arc Power Reactor. I did this." His voice dropped to a whisper. "I did this. I made the weapon. I killed him. It's happening all over again!"
Silence.
"Tony." Rhodes said finally. "Why aren't you here?"
"There's nothing more I can do for Happy." Tony said roughly.
Rhodes was silent a moment. "I'm not even going to respond to that." He said finally. "Why aren't you here with Pepper?"
Tony shivered. "I'm to blame, Rhodey. I... I can't face him." Tony confessed. "Even if he's dead, I can't go there and see him."
Rhodes' voice hardened. "Tony. Listen to me. She needs you."
Those three words alone were enough to make Tony stand up straight. "I'm... on the way."
The LAPD was kind enough to have the door guarded when Tony arrived. Rhodes met him in the lobby, even as the press screamed for them both.
"How is she?" Tony asked right off.
"Not that good." Rhodes reported. "She's one of the strongest women I know, partner... But while you were in captivity, she was pretty out of it."
"And Happy kept her together." Tony nodded, shamed. "He was still in love with her, Rhodey. She knew it too. He helped her move in with me, and he was..."
"I know." Rhodes sighed.
They were getting close to the exam room, and Tony put a hand up. "Before we go in there... You're running the hunt for The Mandarin. There's something you should know. Before the New York Invasion... We tracked Loki through a device he had stolen from SHIELD. It emitted a low level radiation field. We tracked it using a scanner that covered most of the planet... After we shut Loki down, I asked Fury to keep that sensor net up; to scan for Arc Fields."
Rhodes grew a few inches taller. "What did you find?"
"Nothing." Tony confessed. "The only Arc Reactors I'm picking up are the ones I already knew about."
"Then the bombings aren't being caused by Stark Tech." Rhodes looked relieved.
"Not so sure. The energy readings from the blast are off the charts. The only chart that can measure it is the one I created to keep track of Arc Reactor outputs. There is literally, nothing else that creates that much juice."
Rhodes scowled. "So is it your tech, or not?"
Tony didn't flinch. "We're about to find out."
He tried to enter the room, and Rhodes stopped him. "Tony. One more thing. Happy is... not pretty. In fact, you might have trouble recognizing him."
Stark steeled himself, and went inside.
Tony had been expecting the bodies... But not so many of them. There were more than twenty of them lined up. They lined the walls of the room, each covered in a sheet. The ninth body in the row had a familiar redhead standing over it, head bent in grief.
Tony made a beeline for Pepper. Twenty bodies. Happy is just another statistic now. He deserved better than that. Tony thought bleakly to himself, as Pepper noticed him coming, and opened her arms to him. He had no trouble meeting her hug with his own, and they held on tight.
Tony looked over her shoulder, down at the table; and shuddered. Rhodes wasn't wrong about the state of the body. "God, Happy." Tony let out a sigh.
Tony turned away from the body of his friend, and looked across the room. Over twenty bodies.
Setting his jaw, Tony went over to the worktable and got a pair of latex gloves.
"What are you doing?" Pepper asked.
Twenty bodies. Eight of them were wearing wristwatches. Three of them were intact. None of them were ticking.
Rhodes came over. "What are you looking for?"
Tony cast about to find something, finally settling on Pepper's guest pass. He unpinned it from her jacket, and brought it over to the nearest victim's watch. The two metal pieces brushed against each other... And stuck together.
Tony nearly fell to his knees. "God forgive me."
Pepper came over, curious. "What is it?"
Rhodes understood. "When Tony and I took down Whiplash? We did it by creating a shockwave. Two repulsor blasts, created by high output electromagnetism. The victims remains have been... magnetized."
"It's why there's no visual records of any of the blasts." Tony whispered. "The magnetic force would have wiped everything electronic in the blast range. An EMP effect. Like you'd get from a nuke... Or an Arc Reactor."
"But you said you hadn't detected any." Rhodes said quickly. "What does this mean? Problems with your sensor net?"
"I checked it before I came here." Tony shook his head. "There are only two options. Either The Mandarin has developed a way to hide an Arc Signature from me, which is damn scary, since I invented it... Or he's got something newer and more dangerous than an Arc Reactor." Tony shook his head. "I don't which is worse, because either I'm responsible for these people getting blown up, including Happy... Or Iron Man just became an antique. As out of date as a Dinosaur."
Rhodes shivered. "I don't know which possibility scares me more."
Tony shook his head. "It's such a stupid waste. What was he even doing there?" He blinked. "In fact, what was he doing there? Of all the random places for him to go, he winds up at the heart of the blast?"
"You think he was targeted?" Rhodes blinked.
"He's my friend. He's my driver, he was my bodyguard for a lot of years... He's been at my side as much as Pepper for a lot of public functions. He's a very visible member of the company. If The Mandarin was targeting..."
Pepper already had her phone out. "I got three messages from him last night. First one was four hours before the blast. He was reminding me to check the new security updates for the Night Shift."
"He did go a little overboard, didn't he?"
"I got a memo saying Iron Patriot had to be scrubbed down before entering any SI facility." Rhodes snorted.
Pepper was scrolling. "Second message from him, asking me to Tivo Downton Abbey for him, because he... wasn't at home."
"His favorite show. He loved the Sybil-Branson storyline." Tony explained to Rhodes. "A wealthy socialite falls in love with the penniless family driver and they agree to run away together since their love was worth more than money."
Pepper winced. "Wonder what appealed to him about that?" She quipped sarcastically, carefully not looking at her billionaire boyfriend. "Third message... is from the office. It says he uploaded a bunch of images and footage to the SI servers, CC'd to me. It was marked as important." She looked at Tony. "It was uploaded at the same time as the blast."
"And it was on the server, which is at the Office, which means it couldn't get wiped by the blast." Stark was suddenly filled with a dangerous energy. "Good man, Happy Hogan. Pepper, route the upload to Jarvis, right now!"
Stark was already halfway out the door. "Tony?" Rhodes called after him. "Tony wait! Let the LAPD bring the car around to the rear-"
But Stark was gone.
The Press all but attacked Stark as he emerged from the building. Stark was doing a slow boil as they hollered questions.
"Mister Stark! Your friend-"
"Mister Stark, Hogan's death-"
"Mister Stark, any comment on your friend's-"
It was quietly sickening that Happy Hogan's obituary would start and end with the words 'Tony Stark's Friend and Employee.' A small, hot bubble of pure hatred popped somewhere in Stark's brain. Is this what's it's like to be The Hulk?
He was breathing through a straw again, feeling his head and chest in a vise. But this wasn't a panic attack. This wasn't guilt over inventing the damned reactors...
Guilt was strong. Grief was stronger. Rage was Pure Iron.
Don't bite. He told himself. Don't prejudice the investigation; don't make this about you, don't elevate this and turn it into a personal showdown with Mandarin on international television. That's not what you do... But on the other hand, nah.
"Mister Stark, did you send your friend to the target area deliberately?"
Stark froze, turning to face that one. "Whaaaat?!"
"Did you send Hogan to the scene of the blast, because you wanted Iron Man to capture the Mandarin instead of anyone else?" The sleaziest reporter of the lot shoved a recorder in his face. "And if so, why did you hide that fact from the proper authorities?"
We have a winner. Stark's hand flashed out snatched the sleazy reporter's recorder, straight from the slimy hand. "You want a statement? HERE IT IS!"
The assembled members of the press fell into hushed silence.
Tony stepped up to his car, and glared into the television cameras, as if directly into his nemesis' eyes. "This is a little holiday greeting to The Mandarin." He said darkly. "You made two mistakes: One. You pissed me off. And Two: You really pissed me off. So here's the deal: As of the moment you blew up my best friend, you officially became a dead man. You're already a corpse, you just haven't fallen down yet. Anyone standing in the general vicinity of Fu Manchu right now? You're dead too. Run for it, before I come to collect your bodies."
The press were rapt, staring at the raw hatred Tony was dishing into their cameras.
"There's no politics here, no agendas, no Pentagon Military, and screw what your people did to me in Afghanistan." Tony growled, and the camera flashes intensified. "This is just pure, old-fashioned spite. I've fought enough terrorists in my time, and without exception they are all cowards who shout threats, and blow up children from a safe distance. On the off chance you're more of a man than that; here's my home address: It's 1080 Malibu Point; 90265." Stark bared his teeth. "The world isn't big enough to hide from me. Why draw out the inevitable? I'll leave the door open for you. Come And Get Me."
And with that, Stark switched off the recorder, and hurled it straight into the wall.
Before anyone could react, or shout a question, Stark at into the driver's seat and dropped the sports car into gear, leaving an inch of rubber behind.
Pepper and Rhodes were looking at the television in the Lobby, the closest they had come to catching him. They both stared, aghast at the image of Tony's car driving off like a drag racer.
"...he didn't." Pepper breathed. "Tell me he didn't. Tell me that it was just a very vivid hallucination."
Rhodes already had his phone out. "This is Rhodes, I need a perimeter around Stark's private residence, I need the nearest neighbors evacuated, I need a half mile perimeter around the house. If you have a TV, you just got the address. And five miles airspace. Nobody gets close enough to take a shot, or to make this a circus."
"What are you doing?" Pepper demanded. "We have to get Tony out of there."
"He just threw down one of those damn red and gold gauntlets to The Mandarin, Pepper. I don't know which is worse. That he might just get his wish, or that he'll wait for a hundred years until he gets his way."
Pepper bit her lip. "You'll be there. Iron Man and War Machine together can handle anything."
"It's not War... Never mind. Pepper, I got put in charge of the investigation. If Iron Man just promised to stay at home and wait for the bad guy to come visit, it means he's not going to be out there hunting. My workload just doubled."
Pepper's teeth bared. "I have to get him out of that house."
"You're not going back there." Rhodes said quickly. "He's bulletproof, you're not."
"Should have thought of that sooner." Pepper was already marching.
Stark's sports car came screaming into the garage and skidded to a halt. Tony was out of the car instantly. "Jarvis, do we have the upload from the SI Database?"
"Affirmative sir, and I took the liberty of locking down the house."
"Fine." Tony waved that off. "The upload, is it video?"
"Photographs. Several of them, sir." Jarvis reported.
"All right. Reconstruct Mann's Chinese Theatre in the minutes before the blast. Track everyone in the square however you can. GPS, smartphones, whatever."
The hologram became a ghostly outline of the Theater. There were humanoid shapes moving back and forth, right up to the instant of the blast, where the reconstruction vanished, marking the moment they were blown up.
Stark nodded. "Now do it again, but overlay the photographs Happy gave us. In real time."
The hologram started again, counting down to the blast, only now several sections of the reconstruction were in clear, vivid color. Happy's pictures of the scene were filling in details. Tony pointed. "There! That guy! He wasn't in the reconstruction before!"
"No sir." Jarvis responded. "There was no sign of him, as he wasn't carrying any network capable devices, nor was he in range of any surveillance devices."
"That's a little too convenient." Tony nodded, tasting the solution right in front of him. "Jarvis, run it forward a little."
The countdown to the blast progressed; people moving. Happy's next photo came up. The mystery man was sitting on a bench next to someone in a suit, and they were exchanging a small metal case. The image moved further forward, to show the man open the case and put something in his mouth quickly. "There it is!" Tony growled. "Jarvis, where did the blast originate?"
"Within two feet of that bench, sir. This is not uncommon. Forensic teams have found no sign of debris at any of the sites."
"It was a suicide bombing. He's not close to the blast; he was the detonation point." Tony nodded quickly. "Who gave him the case?"
"The Seller does not appear in any database except our own sir. He was issued with a Stark Industries Guest Pass yesterday afternoon. The name and Identification he gave was Eric Savin; but I am unable to track that name to any other database; meaning it's likely a fake ID."
Tony kept staring at the photo Happy had taken of the deal taking place. "The Buyer. The one that blew himself up. He's wearing dogtags. Any military victims reported in the blast?"
"None sir." Jarvis reported.
"Can you enhance the image enough to read those tags?"
"Working." Jarvis reported, and the image sharpened suddenly. "I'm sorry sir, but I do not have an angle to read the image."
No. Not when I'm this close. "Jarvis. Put up the map again."
The reconstructed crime scene vanished; and was replaced with a holographic map of the world. There were scaled points recording energy outputs, lightning storms... anywhere there was a lot of energy being thrown around. The blast sites were reading a lot higher. "You are correct sir. The heat from the blast was in excess of three thousand degrees Celsius."
"Right." Tony waved. "Now eliminate claimed attacks altogether. Just show me places that have the same signature."
The map went blank, leaving only the high temperature and energy points. Tony grinned. Where there used to be ten points, there were now eleven. The extra mark was in the United States.
"Tennessee... Why didn't anyone report this?" He demanded.
"The blast predates any known Mandarin attack by more than a year, sir." Jarvis did a quick scan of police reports, news reports... And came back with an answer. "It was ruled as a suicide by explosive."
Tony was on his feet instantly. "Who's suicide?"
Jarvis quickly put up the archived front page of the Chattanooga Daily, which had a profile picture of the 'suicide'. It was the Buyer. The same man that Happy had photographed the night before. The man that had blown himself up the night before, more than a year after everyone else had declared him dead.
Chad Davis. The living bomb that had killed Happy had a name.
"Well, that looks like a lead to me." Tony said, satisfied.
"Yes sir. I am calculating a flight path to Chattanooga, Tennessee now." Jarvis responded.
The sound of a throat clearing made him glance over his shoulder as Pepper Potts came into the room. Her face was unreadable.
"Pepper." He began, and not for the first time. "I know you're mad, but-"
"Mad?" Pepper said calmly. "Jeez, Tony. I'm not mad. I'm not even surprised." She calmly walked over to the wetbar and poured herself a drink. "You want one? 'Cause it looks like we're staying in tonight."
Oh. We're going with the slow seething kind of anger. Tony thought darkly to himself. That's always worse.
"Look..." Tony began. "I know it doesn't seem like a big move, but think for a minute: All the television hacks? He doesn't need publicity. This is pageantry. He wants..."
"Yes, not a brilliant move." Pepper interrupted as she toasted him. "Oh, by the way... The National Security Council rang. They wanted to know if you were planning to stay home for long. It's only a matter of time before The Mandarin blows something else up; and now that Iron Man is staying on the couch..."
Tony scowled. She was making good points. She always does that. Stupid, flawless logic.
"My god, Tony." Pepper growled. "How can a man with a brain like yours work so closely with super-soldiers and super-spies, to say nothing of supplying the freakin' Pentagon for that many years, only to have learned nothing?"
"Pepper, he's a terrorist. Every terrorist I've fought, and trust me, I've fought more than most people have heard of, they all go hiding behind human shields when the chips are down. And even if he does take me up on it; he's going to come after us sooner or later, we end this quickly, maybe nobody else gets killed."
"Yeah, except you." Pepper shot back. "I lost Happy today, I can't lose you both. And by the way, next time you decide to announce our home address to the world, just remember that I live here too."
Tony spun, as if to fire back... and froze, just looking at her. "Oh." He said slowly, as though what she was saying had just occurred to him. "Right."
Deathly silence.
"Never even thought about that, did you?" Pepper sighed. "I'm going to go start packing. You are going to arm up, and come join me. There's no hotel that will take us, and The Tower is even more public than this place is now..."
"Exactly why I should stay here." Tony said. "Less civilians."
"You mean your neighbors?" Pepper shot back.
"I have a vehicle approaching the front door, sir." Jarvis put in with his typical calm.
They both spun to the smart-glass and watched the feed from Jarvis' security cameras. A rather bland car was driving up slowly.
"It's a rental car sir." Jarvis reported. "According to the online database, this particular license plate was rented out three hours ago by Dr Maya Hansen."
"That name sounds familiar..." Tony said to himself. thinking out loud. Jarvis obligingly put the profile up on the glass. Her details, her picture, her employment history. All Tony needed was the picture. Oh. His eyes flicked to Pepper automatically. Bad.
She glared at him, then at the image of Maya Hansen getting out of her car, and turned on her heel. "I have packing to do."
"I love you?" Tony called after her hopefully. She didn't answer.
Maya had stepped up the front door, half expecting to be intercepted by a repulsor blast before she got within five feet. Nobody challenged her, and she knocked on the glass doors. There was no answer, but she kept knocking, undeterred.
A moment later, the door swung open for her automatically.
Maya came into the house; not reacting as soft blue lights scanned over her from every angle. She came in and did a double take at the huge stuffed rabbit between the staircases; but still looked around. "Hello?"
Iron Man emerged from one of the staircases and moved towards her. "Close enough. His voice scrawled. "You've been cleared for weapons and explosives." The mask opened and Tony looked out at her. "Well. You're not the Mandarin. Are you?"
Maya's mouth became a very thin line; almost a smile. "You don't remember me. I expected as much."
"Of course I remember you Maya." Tony scorned. "My reputation is blown completely out of proportion."
Maya looked him over, eyes lingering a little lower on his suit for just an instant. "Yes. So I discovered the last time we... spoke."
Well, this is going well. Tony thought darkly. The mark 42 opened and he stepped out of it. The Interface was on his face, and so the suit stayed together, standing upright.
"I've actually been trying to get in touch with you for days, but I think your switchboard knows to block calls from female voices automatically." Maya said with a touch of disdain. "Then I turned on the TV and saw breaking news of you announcing where you lived. I'm guessing you won't live here for long, and I need to talk to you alone."
"Right. Well. Don't get me wrong Maya, the years have been kinder to you than they have to me, but I'm sort of with someone else at the moment." Tony told her.
"Really?" Maya Hansen blew right past the fact that he did remember her, and waved at the enormous stuffed rabbit. "If only I'd had a big cuddly clue when I walked in. Where is the lady of the manor?"
"Right here." Pepper called from the next floor up, as she threw the overnight bag down a level so that it landed between them. Maya didn't even flinch, which surprised Tony somewhat. Maya looked freaked out about something when she was pounding her fist on the door; but she wasn't jumpy or hyper.
Another overnight bag slammed down next to the first, and Tony heard something inside it smash open. "Oh, sorry." Pepper called from above, but without sympathy. "Remind me, was that your 80 year old scotch, or your $800 cologne?"
Tony winced. He was having a bad day already, and fixing it was going to be difficult enough without one of his thousands of One Night Stands showing up out of the blue. "Tell me there isn't a twelve year old kid I don't know about waiting in your car." He hissed to Maya through his teeth.
"He's thirteen." Maya told him sarcastically. "You spend $800 on cologne?"
Pepper stalked down the stairs and came over. "Hello." She said politely to Maya. "I don't think we've met. How do you know Tony?"
Maya gave them both a sideways look. "I think you can guess."
"No doubt, but we can talk about this on the way to anywhere else." Pepper told them both firmly.
"That's good advice." Maya nodded. "I have a car outside right now, and nobody will connect it to either of you."
"Sounds good." Pepper nodded. "Miss Hansen, you're welcome to come with us if you dare."
"Doctor Hansen." Maya and Tony both corrected.
Pepper glared at Tony.
"What?" He shrugged. "It's kind of a big deal."
Maya had wandered over to the Mark-42, looking it over. "How does this thing handle high heat?" She asked Tony suddenly.
"Well, it is metal." Tony excused. "Most forms of metal expand under heat, but for something like Iron Man, you'd need..." He trailed off, looking at Maya suddenly, curious. "Why do you ask about high level temperatures?"
Maya met his gaze, saying nothing.
"You need to get your bag and come on." Pepper tried not to scream in frustration.
"Hold on." Tony said suddenly. He had frozen, mid-thought, mid-step. He spun on Maya, as though seeing her for the first time since she'd walked in. "Millennium Midnight. I meet Aldrich Killian. He asks me to join his new project, something about hacking the genome. I said no. That same night, you wanted help with telomeres. Thirteen years later, Aldrich Killian shows up with a new product called Extremis, which involves hacking the human genome through Telomere reconstruction... And you show up a day later."
"Well, that took you long enough." Maya sighed explosively. "It's not a coincidence. I came to see you because-" She broke off when she noticed the television. "Is that...?"
Pepper wasn't listening. "Tony, I'm serious. Grab your bag."
"I'm not going anywhere."
"Come with me, or no sex for a month." Pepper said sharply.
"For the sake of National Security, Pepper!"
Maya waved, eyes still on the television screen. "Hey! Hey! You should see thi-"
"Do you see what I have to put up with?" Pepper raged. "I live in a place where a thirty foot stuffed animal is an impulse purchase, and challenging a Terror Kingpin to an arm wrestle seems like a smart move!" Pepper was on the warpath now.
"What? Where do you want to go?" Tony fired back. "Who would you like to stay with? You said yourself no hotel would take us!"
"Hey! Lois and Clark!" Maya roared at them, fed up.
Tony and Pepper looked at her finally.
"Isn't that your house?" Maya was pointing at the television screen.
Sure enough, on the screen, was the Malibu Stark Home, a clear shot. But in the corner was not the tag of local or international news...
In the corner of the live shot was the Icon of the Ten Rings.
Stark spun to look at the window. Three helicopters were coming across the ocean. One with a large mounted camera on the front. Two dark Apache helicopters flanked it, bristling with missiles and cannons. And as they saw the live image on screen, a missile was already streaming in.
"Oh, this is gonna suck." Tony sighed, making the understatement of the week.
Tony Stark had Five Nightmares. The First was that he would go too far, and drive everyone he loved away. The Second Nightmare was that he would not go far enough; and even Iron Man would not be capable of protecting the people he needed to protect.
An instant later, the missiles hit their target.
AN: Hey, I said I'd be putting my own spin on things. Tell me what you think. Read and Review.