Gabie
III
Usually I enjoy boat rides, I find them calming, but this ride is anything but.
Tony is standing by Rhodes in the back charging his suit with a at battery he stole.
"We gotta make a decision. We can either save the President or Allie. We can't do both."
It's a somber but true fact, one that I hate.
"Sir, I have an update from Malibu. The cranes have finally arrived and the cellar doors are being cleared as we speak," Jarvis reports. Tony smiles and nods to me as if I'll understand what he's doing.
"And what about the suit I'm wearing?"
"The armor is now at ninety-two percent," Jarvis informs. "And the ear plugs are ready sir."
Tony nods and the a compartment with three sets of ear plugs pops out.
"They're high tech, Allie can't deafen you and we can talk to each other," Tony explains and passes a pair to each of us.
"And the power well that's gonna have to do," he mutters and pulls the cords from his suit, setting the battery aside. "Gabie you understand the plan?"
Closing my eyes I go through his thoughts and see the solid plan forming, it's a good one that will save everyone.
"Yes."
Tony steps out of the suit and gestures for me, I take a deep breath and step in, allowing the metal to close around me.
"Good luck."
III
"There's an entrance in the main part of the plane," I observe as Mark 42 nears Air Force One. "The staff seems to be locked in the passengers section."
"You ready to deploy?"
"Hell yeah."
The suit steadily slides open as we near the plane and I allow myself to fall out into the open air. I only fall a few feet before the wind catches me and propels me upward.
The suit and I enter through the blast hole one after the other.
Savin is standing right there, a parachute on his back, and a pilots hat on his head.
"Funny seeing you here," I snark as Mark 42 surges forward to seize him.
"The President. Now," Tony demands.
"He's not here," Savin replies and smirks as his skin heats up.
In his mind I see his cruelty towards Allie and his brutality with the military personnel on this plane.
"Try the jet stream. Speaking of which, go fish," he taunts and, before I can react, presses a detonator and the passengers side door blows out.
All the living people on the plane are immediately thrown out into the open air.
The rage makes me see red.
"Tony step back," I demand. The suit releases Savin and backsteos so we both stand equally as far from Savin.
Raising my hand I nod to the suit which does the same.
"This is for Allie."
In the palm of my hand a fire grows and in the suits a bright light.
In sync we both shoot Savin right in the chest and create a hole where a rib cage and heart would be.
"Walk away from that, you son of a bitch," Tony growls.
His body crumples into a lifeless mess and I exhale sharply.
"Come on Stark we have people to save," I mutter, unaffected by his death.
Promptly the suit and I leap out of the plane and into the open air.
"How many in the air?" Tony asks as we hover watching the screaming people.
"Thirteen, sir."
"How many can I carry?"
"Four, sir."
"Bullshit, we got this," I assure and dive downwards through the air. "Stark get them together!"
The suit nods to me and reaches out, grabbing a flight attendant.
"Slow down, slow down. Relax, what's your name?" Tony coaxes but she whimpers. Luckily he notices her name badge. "Heather." The woman screams in response. "Listen to me. See that guy? I'm gonna swing by and you're just gonna grab him. You got it?"
"Yes!"
"I will electrify your arm, you won't be able to open your hand. You can do this, Heather."
With sharp focus I fly to the furthest passenger and begin pushing them into a smaller air space. By circling and nudging the air I get them closer.
The suit holds Heather who manages to grab onto the leg of one of her male coworkers.
"Easy, see? Eleven more to go."
"Remember that game called Barrel of Monkeys? That's what we're gonna do," Tony announces through the suit.
"Grab onto each other!" I yell.
"Eighteen thousand feet," Jarvis chimes.
"Come on, people! Everybody, grab your monkey!" Tony encourages.
I watch the passengers begin to latch onto each other while allowing myself to fall below all of them.
"Nice!" Tony praises as the chain of people attached to him grows.
"Ten thousand feet."
I manage to create a cushion of air beneath the people, it slows their fall.
"Six thousand feet."
"Come on, people!" Tony calls. Another flight attendant promptly falls onto the back of the suit as the person on the end of the chain attempts to grab a larger man.
"Come on, come on, come on!" Tony and I hiss.
"One thousand feet. Four hundred feet. Two hundred feet, sir."
Looking down I see water coming up fast, I gotta bring the water up to them.
Inhaling deeply I concentrate on the water beneath and pull my hands up, the weight pulls down in me but I manage to raise a large amount of water upwards. The huge amount makes my muscles strain and a pained scream leaves my throat in spite of myself. My shoulder
"It's a chunky monkey, let's get him," Tony shouts and finally the last person on the chain grabs ahold of the ankle belonging to the larger man.
Abruptly the risen water splashes onto the passengers and Mark 42 releases them into it.
Mark 42 stops and looks down as I slowly lower the risen water back to the regular water level, my muscles screaming as I do.
A second later all the passengers heads splash up and they begin cheering.
"Nice work, guys. Excellent. Good team effort all around. Go us!" Tony proclaims and the suit starts backwards flying.
"Alright, Jarvis, but it's only half done, we still gotta get Allie-"
A loud horn drowns out Tony and a truck slams into the suit, knocking it to pieces on the ground.
"Shit," I swear.
"That came out of nowhere," Tony mutters and I roll my eyes.
"Yeah I'm taking the com out and flying back without the broken pieces of your dreams," I huff and pull the earpieces out. I slide the pair into my pocket incase I need them to protect myself from Allie's screams.
Still shaking my head at the suit I propel myself through the air as fast as I can towards the location.
III
Allie
III
A renewed burning jolts me drown my exhaustive slumber, he's injecting me again.
"Hi," he says and I turn my head away.
"You think he's gonna help you...he won't," I state blearily, everything is blurring together. "Torturing me won't help you get his support, he'll just kill you."
"Having you here is not just to motivate Tony Stark, you're also my trophy. My Extremis Queen, I'm thinking your new alias could be Ember Queen or something like that," he explains and twirls a piece of my hair in his fingers. "The Mandarin and Ember Queen, doesn't sound bad."
It sounds awful to me, just disgusting. And the name isn't even a good one.
The sound of his voice is overcome by a jet stream and then the arrival of the Iron Patriot. I dare not get my hopes up, I know that's not Rhodes.
The suit walks up to Killian and the face plate opens to reveal the president.
"Good evening, sir," Aldrich greets and the suit opens. The president falls out and into his knees.
"Mr President, so nice to meet you, wish it was under better circumstances. I'm Sir-" Killian slaps a hand over my mouth, silencing me.
"She's Queen Ember, Siren is dead." Its a callous statement and it makes the presidents eyes widen. "Anyway welcome aboard, Mr. President."
By aboard he means the Roxxon Norco oil-drilling platform. It's the perfect set for his performance.
"Ever hear of an elephant graveyard?" Aldrich inquires and wraps a heated arm around the president. The president only scowls. "Well, two years ago, the elephant in the room was this scow."
"This is the Roxxon Norco," the president observes.
"And of course you'll remember that when she spilled a million gallons of crude off Pensacola, thanks to you, not one fat cat saw a day in court."
"What do you want from me?" the president snaps back.
"Uh...nothing, sir. I just needed a reason to kill you that would play well on TV," Killian deadpans and I flinch.
How could someone lack even the base amounts of human empathy?
"You see, I've moved on. I've found myself a new political patron, and at this time tomorrow, he'll have your job."
Yet another sunister surprise, the vice president is in Killian's pocket.
"String him up."
Killian throws me a wink and a smile that makes my stomach twist before stalking off.
His guards step forward and drag the struggling president from my sight.
"Come on!!" I hiss in anger and yank at my restraints again.
Things are getting worse.