"Oh shit. Amy I've got to go. I'll talk to you later." Ethan said and hung up with Amy protesting. Quickly finding Clint on his phone he hit dial.
Clint picked up a few seconds later. "Ethan where are you. We've been searching all over!"
He said uncharacteristically seriously.
"It's a long story. I saw the level ten. What the hell happened?" Ethan said trying to stay calm.
Clint took a second to reply. Ethan could here raised vices and people yelling. Clint was obviously in the middle of something "Get down to Briefing Room B. I'll catch you up there." He said before signing off quickly.
Ethan took off running out of his office and down the hallway to the stairs. The elevator would be to slow as Ethan could run faster than it. Dropping down levels so fast the floor numbers seemed to blur. Arriving at the door to the briefing room in less then a minute.
Bursting in he found a full room of people all watching Fury who was standing at the front. The room was built like a university lecture hall and a lot of eyes turned to him as he looked around for Clint.
Spotting him at the front he slid into the row next to him, whispering "what is going on?"
"The Mandarin. He's made his move." Clint said gravely. Ethan was confused, "who the hell is the Mandarin"
"I was going to catch you up but you were going through a lot. He's a terrorist, the best and he's managed to detonate a bomb in New York two days ago. Stark was brought in until his house was blown up yesterday. We think he managed to get out but we are not 100% on that."
"Shit. You should have told me, I could have helped. If Tony is dead what are we going to do?" Ethan said with anger pulsing through him. After being brought up in the dark he hated to be kept there.
"Stark escaped, destroying his house wouldn't stop him but he doesn't matter anymore." Clint said still looking grave.
"What do you mean?" Ethan said confused but Clint just nodded at a screen behind Fury that Ethan hadn't seen. On it there was a picture of a plane with a burning hole in the side. Emblazoned on the side was an American eagle and the words Air Force One.
Shit
Twenty second passed while Ethan processed the information before he managed to hear Fury again.
"I'm putting Agents Jacobs and Barton in charge of search and rescue. We must find him. The last thing we want is the President being executed on television." Fury said with his eyes.
With that Fury made his exit and Clint got up, pulling Ethan to the front win him. "Ok I want two STRIKE teams on full alert status. Rumlow will head alpha and Ethan will take bravo. Be ready to leave with in five minutes of a call. I want everyone else sweeping for any sign of the President or Stark. Report to me any details as soon as you hear them."
Clint was barely finished before Ethan was out of the room and running to a mission control room that had been allocated to them. He smashed his hands on a keyboard until a tracking program that he had designed was pulled up. How would he find the President though, it was four in the evening and he had been missing for just under and hour and there was no trace.
Ethan thought through all the details he knew. Stark had attacked a house in Miami before flying to airforce one. Where would he go now, and what was the next step if the Mandarin's plan. There had to be a wider network otherwise what was the point. Someone must have gotten Mandarin men onto the plane.
And where was Stark and Warmachine now? Ethan knew that if he found them he would find trouble. And trouble would be where the Mandarin is. Ethan started typing, frantically coding a new tracking algorithm to try and trace Stark flight patterns.
It took him an hour to get it ready, Stark was notorious for not wanting to be followed and he hadn't made it easy. With the search for Stark on, Ethan turned his attention back to the Mandarin. Easily bypassing the security on the house he found files with the name Aldridge Killian all over them.
The name didn't ring a bell but after a quick search he found out everything he needed to know. He was a biochemist, leading research into regrowing limbs. It was real philanthropic stuff until Ethan found Killian's SHIELD file. It was massive, with years of reports linking him to experimental drugs called Extremis.
It was nasty stuff, Ethan could barely tell what it would do to a person. At best regrow their limbs, at worst severely mutate the body. If Killian had used it to create an army then there is a huge threat out there. Just before he finished his search through Killian's file one little thing caught his eye.
Killian had made a call to a government mobile. Tracing the number, his eyes widened in shock. He grabbed his phone and called Clint. "You need to get over here now."
Clint ran into the room fifteen seconds later. "What?"
"I found the Mandarin. His name is Aldridge Killian. He's been hiring mercs and performing tests on people for years. Worst thing is though, I found this." Ethan brought up the phone records. "You know what that means."
"That the Vice President conspired to kidnap the President. Shit, I'd do anything for a simply mission right now. I'm sending Rumlow to bring him in." Suddenly red flashing lights started blaring all around the centre console. Ethan was back typing at his computer. "I found them, they're twenty minutes out on an abandoned oil rig. It's connect to shore but it's going to be tight getting out there." He said whilst getting up.
"Get the president back alive, that's number one priority." Clint said as Ethan took of running. He made it to the hanger in under three minutes, managing to change into his combat vest and trousers in less than a minute.
Running onboard the Quinjet, the ramp closed behind him and the bird took of immediately. Looking around Ethan saw his team staring back at him. James was sitting closest to the door but Ethan barely recognised the rest. It was odd to see James properly knitted out for a fight. He had is rifle ready in his hands and was checking it's firing mechanism. Next to James sat a small woman whom Ethan had never seen before. She was small with eyes that flitted around the room like a nervous twitch.
Opposite them sat a man who looked exactly like you would expect an agent to look like. He had a sharp face except for his uneasy expression. He looked young but Ethan didn't question it. He didn't have time to worry about his team. Ethan recognised the last guy on the jet. It was the guy who had had Oliver on his shoulders back at HQ. He had learnt that the guy was called Stewie but everyone seemed to call him Dozer.
Ethan could imagine why, he looked like he could demolish a house just be pushing against it. Walking to the front of the plane he pulled a screen out from a side panel and expanded the image on it.
"Ok, here is where we're going. It's an abandoned dock yard. UAV shows several hostile signatures. With reports of what the Extremis can do, I'm not taking any chance so don't hold back. We are going in on the ground, pulling out the VIP and we are getting out of there. Only then will we double back to take out hostiles. Understood?" Ethan said officiously. When he got four nods back he sat down and started checking his equipment.
Ten minutes out he suddenly felt dizzy. He gasped as his vision went black and he suddenly saw metal platform. It formed a square and the Iron Patriot armour was hanging from wires in the middle. Looking at the face Ethan saw the President.
Just as suddenly as it had came, it left and Ethan felt rough. It felt like the power had been forced into him and he coughed at the eerie feeling it gave him. It was another vision,it had to be. He had just seen the future, or a possible future. He knew where to go know, what to do.
Three minutes out he stood up again and pulled his staff out from across his back. He could do more damage with it than with a rifle but he grabbed one anyway and slung it across his shoulder. His team all readied up. James had his sniper rifle. The lady, who called herself Twitch, had a small rifle which she carried easily. Ethan saw a small screen strapped to her wrist and guessed she must be the teams tech expert.
Dozer picked up a massive SAW, the barrel of which was about the same size as Ethan's arm. Loading it with a drum of bullets he looked like he could rip through an army. The perfect looking agent was called Neil. He had only just gotten out of the academy and this was his first proper op.
"You need a code name." James said standing at the back of the jet as it made a fast decent towards the rig. Ethan could see small jets of flame and explosions as Iron Man flew around shooting at people who seemed to be firing balls of fire back at him.
"Well you better come up with one fast. We're twenty seconds out." Ethan said readying himself. The back of the jet opened and Ethan jumped. The others would wait for ropes to drop letting them fall slowly to the floor but Ethan didn't waste time.
He landed with a smash of the ground and looked up. Two men were standing nearby and had shocked expressions. They hadn't seen them coming, the jet's stealth mode worked at least. A second later they had recovered and both of them opened their mouths wide.
Ethan just managed to move his staff in the way and power up a shield around it before fire shot at him. Ethan felt the incredible heat as it singed his arms but the shield held and gave him the chance to leap at the men the second the fire stopped. Launching himself across the ten metre gap he released the blades on the end of his staff and honed their edge with his power.
The Plasma cut right through them as Ethan landed, slicing the arm of the first man before stabbing his chest and swinging his blade around to impale the second man's throat. Ethan looked behind him to see his team all in a line watching him open mouthed.
"Now that's spooky." Neil said in awe.
Ethan smiled, twirling his staff. "That's it. Spooks can be your code name."
Spooks moaned slightly and said, "but that's a shit na- HOLY CRAP that guy just moved." Ethan span around to see the guy he impaled in the throat stand up. The wound looked like molten lava but was sealing itself closed.
A second later his head exploded as Dozer's SAW ripped through it. He flew backwards an seemed to stop moving but Ethan couldn't tell if it had actually stopped him. He felt a pull on his arm as the second man tried to grab him before a bullet from James put him down.
"So we've got fire breathing zombie people who won't die. It's just like a video game." Twitch said sounding ecstatic.
"Let's go" Ethan said before he started running towards the small jetty that ran out to the oil rig. At the end of the bridge were two more guards but they were easily taken out by Ethan and Spooks with quick shots to the head. "Get in that tower Scope." Ethan's aid using James nickname.
James ran off, firing a grappling line to get up the tower faster whilst the other four members of the team ran out onto the jetty. They could see the battle raging ahead of them but didn't encounter any more guards. Ethan supposed that they were probably preoccupied by the flying suite of rockets and lasers jetting above their heads.
"Dozer, you hold the jetty, try and keep our exit clear. Twitch and Spooks, find Killian. I'll get the president." Ethan said quickly.
"But the President could be anywhere. How will you find him in this mess." Dozer said logically.
"I already know where he is" Ethan said pointing upwards. "Holy shit." Was all Spooks could say. Just like in his vision the President of the United States was suspended by two wires wearing the Iron Patriot armour.
"Well how are you going to get up there." Spooks said but Ethan barely heard it because he was already running. Reaching the first ledge that would let him climb up to the President he jumped and swung onto the metal grill. He didn't have time to look back to check on his team as he was running again.
Looking up he roughed out a path to the President. It would take another four jumps up levels but there was at least ten fire breathing guards in his way. Pressing the comm unit in his ear he said "James, you reading me?"
"Loud and clear. What do you need?" He said in between shots.
"Oh just for you to clear me a path. Nothing to much." Ethan said as he prepared to jump up to the next level.
"I can take out seven, so you better take out the last three. Go left and then up a level." Ethan started running again. Jumping up a level he was confronted by two guards. He saw three more lying on the ground with large holes in their heads. James really was as good as everyone said. Ethan didn't think he could manage three head shots from that distance in that time.
Leaping forward he twisted in the air, grabbing the head of the first guard, twisting it as he flipped over him Ethan felt his neck pop. Throwing him by the neck, the first guard hit the second causing him to fall backwards off the ledge.
Jumping up another two levels he was finally near the President. Pulling his rifle off his back, Ethan shot the last guard on their side of the rig. Giving himself a second to breath he saw lights flashing in the distance. There were suite flying in over the water, dozens of them. How was Tony controlling so many at once?
Reaching the edge of the ledge Ethan called out. "Sir! Are you ok?"
The President started at his voice, looking around at him. "Jacobs! I'm fine, just get me down from here. Killian said that the suit would explode!"
Ethan looked down, there was a ten story drop below the suite of armour. Looking at the gaps between the pillars a really bad idea came to Ethan. "Dozer, meet me underneath the President."
"What! What are you going to do?" Dozer came back through the comms with his deep voice sounding panicked.
"Don't ask." Ethan said as he took a few steps back. "Ethan, that's the President!" James shouted through the comms.
"I know right, makes it even more fun." Ethan said as he started running. He heard a gasp over his comm as both Dozer and James held their breath. "Jacobs, what are you doing!?"
A second before he leaped even took two shots with his rifle, cracking the chains either side of the President. He swayed slightly but stayed up there until Ethan leaped and caught on to him which caused the chains to snap and they fell.
Holding onto the heavy armour, Ethan flipped them around in mid air so he was on top and pushed out with his power. He attached four cords of Plasma to the Iron Patriot suit and made them to become flexible. Effectively he had attached four bungee cords to the President and was plummeting towards the ground.
Fifteen feet above the cement the cords suddenly became taught. Almost throwing Ethan off and slowing them considerably. Just before they would bound back up Ethan let the chords go and they fell to the ground. They landed hard but a lot slower than they would have if he had just broken the chains.
As they hit the ground Ethan rolled of the suit and coughed on the ground. Using his power so suddenly had taken a lot out of him but he had saved the President at least. A few seconds later Dozer was kneeling over him. "Sir are you ok?"
Ethan coughed again as he pushed himself up. "I'm good" looking over at the President he said, "Sir are you ok?"
Dozer him push himself up in the suit but they both tensed as they heard someone running towards them. Ethan pulled out his pistol and levelled it at the man running around the corner but dropped it when he realised that it was James Rhodes. He ran and knelt down next to the President, pressing a button on the back of the suit which opened it up.
Dozer helps pull the President out and Rhodes got into the suit. "Sir are you hurt at all?"
"I'm fine, I'm fine. Colonel Rhodes, get up there and blast the bastards away. If you would pardon my language." Rhodes nodded and blasted off.
"You don't need to apologise sir, I can't even vote yet." Ethan said which got a laugh out of Dozer and the President. "Perhaps we should get you out of here." Ethan said after hearing a loud explosion behind him.
"Perhaps you are right." The President said looking around.
Keying into his comm Ethan said "James, cover our route out."
"I see you, don't worry you've got a clear run to the jetty." James said.
Pulling the President with him he started running back to the jetty. Dozer brought up the rear and they didn't see anyone until they were back on the pier. "Twitch, Spooks. Where are you?"
Crackling gunfire burst over the comm as Twitch yelled into it. "We're pinned down. We can see Killian but he's surrounded by fire breathers."
Ethan felt desperate, his mission was to escort the president to safety but his team was in danger. He looked back at the oil rig when he felt a hand on his shoulder. "Go on son, protect your team." The President said.
"Thank you sir, Dozer get him out of here." Ethan said before powering back onto the rig. Pushing himself to the limit he was running as very high speeds towards Twitch and Spooks' signal. Jumping up to a second floor window he found himself in an office space with small cubicals. Most of them were on fire and Ethan spotted Twitch and Spooks crouching down behind a half wall that went into a kitchen.
Sliding in next to them he said "How's it going?"
"What were you just dropping in. Spooks took a hit on the arm and there are three more of them back there." Twitch said looking exasperated.
Standing up Ethan said "jeez you don't complain much do you." Before using his staff to polevault round the corner, slamming into two guards who were about to come round the corner. Smashing his staff through the first one's head he managed to hit the second without even slowing down. The third guards was further down the hall and he was ready for Ethan.
Breathing fire at the same time Ethan spun his staff the jet of flame hit the shield. Yelling behind him "Go!" He saw Twitch pull Spooks out of the back entrance. Twist his shield so the fire glanced of to the side Ethan pushed out with his power and started spinning the shield.
The fire breather even stopped to watch what he was doing. The disk was spinning like a saw now and Ethan mentally threw it down the hallway and the disk went through the man, slicing him cleanly in half. Ethan walked back down the hallway but turned back when he heard a sizzle behind him.
The man he sliced in half was glowing, both parts of him and it looked bad. Ethan had heard about the explosions and started running reaching the other end of the hallway he found himself in a dead end.
Shit shit shit was all that ran through his mind. He had at most thirty seconds and the wall was pure concrete. Think think think.
Ethan desperately tried to think of a way out but all he could think of was Jiaying saying he was powerful.
Wait. That was it, Jiaying had said that he could become pure energy, maybe that meant...
Ethan took two steps back and ran. Praying for whatever it was worth he jumped at the wall as he heard the explosion behind him. Closing his eyes he felt like he jumped into a bucket of ice before he felt cold air. Opening his eyes again he realised he was outside and falling.
Flipping over he landed with a crunch a story down. He landed just in time to almost be caught on another explosion. Luckily he was still on the ground and the shrapnel mostly passed over his head though a second later flames enveloped him. Ethan jammed his eyes closed and waited for the end but was shocked to not feel any heat.
Opening his eyes again he saw the flames passing over him. His subconscious mind had created a plasma coat around him. It couldn't be more than a centre metre thick and yet it protected him perfectly.
The moment the explosion stopped Ethan flipped himself up and ran over to Tony. He was lying on the ground, his suit completely disintegrated around him. Suddenly he tensed as he saw a glowing figure standing next to Tony with her back to him. Ethan pushed out with his power, grabbing her with lines of plasma he was about to rip her apart when Tony shouted out "ETHAN NO!"
Ethan faltered and looked again. The Extremis woman was Pepper, Tony's girlfriend. He let the lines fade and stumbled slightly as his energy faded. He had used his power a lot in the last few minutes and felt completely drained for about the fortieth time in three days.
Ethan felt a hand grab him and pull him back up as Pepper caught him. She was strong, augmented by the Extremis. Ethan could feel the heat pulsing under her skin though it wasn't burning, more like sitting by a warm fire.
"What happened?" Ethan croaked.
"Killian happened. What about the President? Is he safe?" Tony asked sounding exhausted. Ethan nodded and looked back when he heard running. Twitch and Spooks came running around the corner before stopping in front of Ethan.
"Sir, are you ok?." Twitch asked sounding concerned yet. Spooks looked around and locked eyes with Tony. "Oh, oh Mr Stark. Are you hurt?" Ethan rolled his eyes at the sound of awe in Spooks voice.
"Come on, we need to get the President back home." Ethan said pulling Spooks away from his reverent gaise. Twitch stooped to pick up something and Ethan saw that he had almost walked off without his staff. He was in such a state that he had forgotten it.
Catching the staff when she threw it to him he said "thanks before starting to walk away."
Stark called after him "Hey Ethan." Which caused him to stop and look around, "I need to get you down to New York. Trust me when I say you've got to see the new tower. The plans are almost done."
"Keep needing me to save your ass and I may just come." Ethan called back before walking away again. Once they were back on the jetty Spooks managed to say, "We just saved Tony Stark!"
Ethan rolled his eyes again and said "Get over it Spooks, we saved the President as well remember." Once they had reached the shore, Ethan pinged the jet and found it parked just outside the main compound. Walking over Ethan saw the ramp down and Dozer and Scope were waiting for him.
"I though I told you to take off." Ethan said trying to sound official even though he was barely awake.
Dozer looked apologetic when he said, "I tried, he overruled me. Said we left no man behind. I tried to-" Dozer was interrupted by the heavy footfall of someone coming down the ramp.
As the President walked down the ramp all the SHIELD agents stood to attention. The president waved away their formal stance and all of them relaxed. Ethan motioned for the team to get on the jet and they all walked up, dropping their gun off in cases.
The President waited for them all to leave before he said, "Agent Jacobs. I once again find myself in your debt. You do your country proud. I realise now that I made the wrong choice when I ordered you to be put out, how it must have felt to have been abandoned by your country I can't even imagine and for that I apologise. You truly are an amazing man Jacobs."
Ethan felt shocked. He hadn't expect the man to be so blunt with an apology and barely managed to say "Thank you sir." With any dignity. The President gave him a curt I'd before he walked back inside and sat down. Ethan walked on board and tapped the pilot on the shoulder. He wants to fly the bird back because he didn't feel like spending thirty minutes in the tense cargo bay.
Half an hour later Ethan was lowering the jet on the front lawn of the White House. He probably should have gone somewhere more subtle but he didn't feel like prolonging the handover so went direct. It was already past midnight and he just wanted to get home.
Lowering the ramp he accompanied the President down the ramp where they were swarmed by secret service men and presidential aides. Ethan was barraged with questions and even ordered to come inside for a debriefing by some very high ranking General's but he ignored it all and stepped back onto the jet. No one dared follow him onto a SHIELD plane which meant that it was finally quiet after the pilot had taken off again.
Checking his communicator Ethan read a message from Fury. He slumped down in a chair smiling. Scope was watching him and said, "What's so funny?"
"We saved the President and it was only our first mission." James was smiling now too. Twitch and Spooks both leaned in.
"What do you mean sir? Our first mission." Twitch asked.
"Cut the sir stuff. Makes me feel old. I just got a message from Fury, as of today we have all been transferred to a new STRIKE team. Fury gave us Omega as a code name." Ethan said reading off his communicator.
Everyone else looked shocked. "We're a team now!?" Spooks said in awe. Looking back down at his communicator Ethan read out the rest of the message.
"Though individual members may be called upon for missions Omega will operate as a high risk mission response team."
"Sounds like this is gonna be fun." James said with a smirk, whose gonna tell Dozer. They all looked at Dozer who was curled up in the corner with his face pressed up against the bulkhead. He was fast asleep and snoring loudly. They all laughed and Dozer jerked awake.
