"So, Happy's gonna go spy on that Savin guy. I wonder how that's gonna work out?" Emerald wondered.
"My guess would be horribly." Weiss voiced her opinion.
"Hopefully, it will just be nothing and just Happy being goofy and paranoid again." Ruby said hopefully.
"I'd like to say you're right, Ruby... But I'm just not sure." Pyrrha said worriedly.
"We also have Tony and his panic attacks to worry about." Qrow added.
"Yeah. That's gonna be rough. He needs to talk to someone about that." Jaune agreed.
"UGH! If we don't start right now, I'm gonna have a panic attack!" Nora declared, starting the movie back up.
Later, Pepper returned to Tony's home. As she got out of the car, she saw a large stuffed rabbit outside the house that Tony had bought for her as a gift.
"Hey, Velvet! I didn't know you were in the movie!" Yang teased.
"Yang!" Blake shouted in shock.
"The hell are you saying about my girl, Xiao Long?" Coco said as her eyes narrowed at the blonde brawler.
"What? The giant bunny sorta looks cute like Velvet and has her color scheme, right?" Yang asked them. "What did you think I meant?"
"Nice recovery, Yang." Cinder said as she smirked at Yang while Blake and Coco struggled to come up with a response and Velvet just blushed at the compliment and imagined her doing something similar for Coco. [1]
She walked inside. "I'm sorry I'm late. I was... What the...? What is that?!" She asked as she noticed Tony sat in his Iron Man suit on the couch.
"You're wearing this in the house now? What is that, like Mark 15?" Pepper asked.
Tony looked at the small number marked 42 on the suit. "Uh...yeah. Something like that. You know everybody needs a hobby." He told her.
"Oh and you have to wear your hobby in the living room?" She questioned.
"That is just absurd." Glynda scoffed.
"I definitely wouldn't call that romantic." Velvet said, disappointed after the great start-up with the giant bunny.
"Especially if what I'm thinking is true." Neo said, a bit suspicious.
"It may be interesting at first, but surely she's seen these suits enough for the novelty to wear off." Winter stated.
Tony rose and walked toward her. "Just breakin' it in. You know, it's always a little pinchy in the gooey bag at first, so." He explained as he shook his ass and Pepper laughed.
Several audience members groaned at this. "We SO did not need to hear that!" Weiss cried out.
"I also never want to hear the male body part referred to like that again." Pyrrha added.
"Actually, armor does not quote-unquote 'break in' or get resized. Tony should get a better understanding of his body's exact dimensions in order to prevent such pinching, or at least give himself a couple extra centimeters of space." Penny explained.
"Oh hey, did you see your Christmas present?" He asked.
"Yes, I did. I...I don't know how I could have missed that Christmas present. Is it gonna fit through the door?" Pepper questioned as she sat down. She noticed several drawings from children of Tony as Iron Man and couldn't help but smile.
"Well actually, uh...it's a good question. I got a team of guys comin' tomorrow, they're gonna blow out that wall." Tony told her his plan.
"Okay." She agreed, used to Tony's craziness by now.
"You're really going to destroy the wall of your home to fit in a stuffed toy she'll probably never interact with?" Ironwood questioned.
"Exactly. It's a stuffed animal. It should be easy to just cram through the doorway." Jaune said.
"But then they might rip it." Nora told him.
"Then it can be sewn up." Ren stated.
"So, uh...tense? Good day?" Tony asked as he walked up behind her and started massaging her shoulders. "Ooh shoulders, a little knotty. Naughty girl. I don't wanna harp on this, but did you like the custom rabbit?" He asked.
"Did I like it?" Pepper questioned once again.
"Nailed it, right?" Tony asked.
"Wow. I appreciate the thought very much." Pepper said as she turned to face Tony. She rose from her seat and stood close to him. "So why don't you lift up that face mask and give me a kiss?" She suggested.
Tony knocked the metal helmet on his head. "Huh. Yup, dammit. No can do. You wanna just kiss it on the..." He offered.
"Tony Stark turning down a kiss? Something's going on here." Emerald said suspiciously.
"Why wouldn't he want to kiss Pepper? He's acting funny." Ruby declared, equally suspicious.
"And that, Rubes, is what you call 'blowing off a date'." Qrow told his youngest niece.
"Uh-huh." Pepper voiced her doubt.
"The facial slit?" He suggested.
"Well, why don't I run down to the garage and see if I can't find a crowbar to shimmy that thing open?" She stated.
"Crowbar. Yeah." Tony said awkwardly as Pepper started walking towards his lab. "Oh, except there's been a...uh...a radiation leak." He told her.
"I'll take my chances." Pepper countered.
Ironwood groaned at this. "Why must people always do that?! We have safety procedures set in place for a reason! And then they ignore them and get hurt or sick, they blame the people for their own stupidity!" Ironwood complained.
"Indeed. Surely, putting up with a MINOR inconvenience for a small amount of time defeats the prospect of death or grave injury. You'd think with past examples to go off of, people would learn." Ozpin agreed. For obvious reasons, sickness was a very sensitive subject for him.
"Oh, you're preaching to the choir right now." Katana told them.
"That's risky." Tony warned as Pepper walked down the stairs to Tony's lab. "At least let me get you like a Hazmat suit or a Geiger counter or something like that." He offered as he followed her.
Pepper saw Tony was in fact not in his Iron Man suit, but in the lab exercising as he remotely controlled the suit, which followed Pepper into the lab. "Busted." Tony declared (along with Ruby and Yang).
"This is a new level of lame." Pepper said in disappointment.
"Sorry." He apologized.
Pepper noticed the food tray in the corner. "You ate without me, already? On date night?" She demanded.
"Oh, man. That's one of the mistakes you NEVER make." Coco groaned, remembering the time she had missed a date with Velvet because she got too caught up with shopping and wound up getting some take-out. After that night, the ping pong paddle with Velvet's name on it had Coco's name on the other side of it. She tried her hardest to not notice the glare the bunny girl was giving her. [2]
"Especially not for something like working out... Or a shopping spree." Velvet said pointedly.
"He is TOTALLY sleeping on the couch tonight." Blake said, although sounded a bit disappointed by this. Gosh, I wonder why?
"He was just..." Tony began, referring to Mark 42 suit.
"You mean you?" She questioned.
"Well, yeah. I just mean we were just...just hosting you while I finished up a little work." He explained.
"Uh-huh." She said, not buying it.
"And yes, I had a quick bite. I didn't know if you were comin' home or if you were having drinks with Aldrich Killian." Tony explained as the Mark 42 turned its face toward her, as if to look at her accusingly.
Everyone either gasped or facepalmed at the accusation. "Tony, buddy, stop talking! You're gonna ruin your whole relationship with this woman!" Qrow told him.
"At this rate, he'll be lucky if he's sleeping in this house." Cinder said in response to Blake's claim of sleeping on the couch.
"Well, it's still his property. He has not married Pepper yet, so she has no authority to kick him out. Unfortunately. I certainly would have." Winter declared.
"It's kind of funny even the suit is questioning her, though." Nora admitted with a giggle.
"What?" She asked.
"What?" He countered.
"Aldrich Killian? What are you checking up on me?" She demanded.
"Happy was concerned." He defended, trying to take the blame off himself.
"You were completely spying on her." Weiss confirmed.
"He did ask Happy to show him what she was doing. That would certainly qualify as spying." Penny agreed.
"Happy did make it sound worse than it was, but Tony still jumped to conclusions entirely too fast." Ren stated.
"No, you're spying on me." Pepper accused.
"I wasn't..." Tony denied.
"I'm going to bed." Pepper told him and turned and started walking off.
"Hold on. Come on. Pep." He called after her as she started walking upstairs. "Hey, I admit it! My fault. Sorry." He declared, at which point, Pepper stopped and looked at him. "I'm a piping hot mess. It's been going on for a while, I haven't said anything." He explained as Pepper walked back down. "Nothing's been the same since New York." He admitted.
"Oh really? Well, I didn't notice that, at all." Pepper said sarcastically.
"She could certainly be more sensitive or concerned about this. Your dear friend and lover is clearly struggling and telling you his problems, yet she's mocking the situation." Glynda said angrily. [3]
"She's still upset about him spying on her, Glynda. You're certainly right, but she has yet to understand the extent of his problems." Ozpin reminded her.
"You think she would've noticed the issue earlier, though." Ruby said, wondering how Pepper could ignore something like this.
"She's the CEO of a massive company, Ruby. That probably takes up most of the time she has." Weiss told her.
"You experience things and then they're over and you still can't explain 'em. Gods, aliens, other dimensions. I...I'm just a man in a can. The only reason I haven't cracked up is probably because you moved in. Which is great. I love you, I'm lucky. But, honey, I can't sleep. You go to bed, I come down here. I do what I know, I tinker." He explained, before he paused for a moment and sat down.
"But sleep is vital for continued existing! Without it, your mental state will deteriorate and your body cannot properly rest and recover!" Penny cried out in concern.
"He needs to do something about this, now. Sleep pills, warm milk, something to keep him knocked out for a few hours." Emerald said in concern.
"Still, it's sweet that he's doing all this to try and protect Pepper." Neo stated, remembering that Roman only agreed to work with Cinder to protect himself and Neo.
"But threat is imminent and I have to protect the one thing that I can't live without. That's you. My suits, they're uh..." He tried to explain to her.
"What threat is he talking about?" Jaune asked in concern.
"He must be talking about Thanos and his forces. Tony knows he destroyed one ship, but he could never possibly know how many are out there." Pyrrha explained.
"And it's a threat he knows next to nothing about. So there's no way he could ever be prepared enough to deal with it." Cinder added.
"Very good point, Cinder." Katana praised.
"Machines." She told him.
"They're part of me." He insisted.
"A distraction." She added.
"Maybe." He admitted. Pepper walked towards Tony and they held each other. He rested his head against her chest and she removed his headband that controlled the Iron Man suits.
"His suits are vital pieces of machinery that helped save the planet three times and counting!" Ironwood snapped.
"I'm not sure about the entire planet in the case of the first two, general, but certainly in the Avengers." Weiss said.
"Well, certainly if Obadiah was allowed to mass-produce Iron Man suits and double dealt them like he did with Stark weaponry, the world would have fallen to chaos in a war between these suits, sister. It would have been catastrophic. And who knows what else Vanko may have done if he'd been allowed to live. No matter how much Pepper may dislike it, those suits are vital." Winter defended the general.
"I'm gonna take a shower." She told him.
"Okay." He said.
Pepper turned to walk off, then stopped and looked at him. "And you're gonna join me." She added.
"Better." He agreed.
"Definitely better." Blake said with a blush.
Yang smirked at this. "They're the ones taking a shower, but it looks like our kitty cat is the one getting wet!" She laughed.
"Blake, you seriously need to get your mating instincts under control." Velvet whispered to her.
Later that night, as Tony and Pepper were sleeping, Tony started having nightmares about when he was in New York with The Avengers and had to get rid of the nuke in space.
"Tony is now showing severe signs of PTSD. As previously stated, he's been awake for 72 hours, which is a symptom and exacerbating factor mental disorders and falls into difficulty sleeping, coupled with nightmares when he does manage to sleep and seems to be slightly detached from Pepper." Penny said in concern.
"He needs some help. And fast. I've seen too many Huntsmen go down a bad road because of this. Especially Tai." Qrow said sadly, thinking of his brother-in-law.
Pepper woke up and started to shake Tony awake. "Tony! Tony! Tony! Tony..." She called repeatedly, trying to free Tony from his nightmare. Suddenly Pepper was grabbed and shoved off Tony by Mark 42 suit.
Everyone jumped and let out small screams at this. "What the!? I thought Tony needed that headband thing to control the suit!" Weiss cried out.
"Perhaps in order to see what it sees, but he has the micro-repeaters in his arms and everything to call and control it." Blake realized.
"That doesn't matter right now! He needs to get it away from Pepper!" Pyrrha cried out. In the initial moment of shock, she had even tried to use her semblance to push the suit away, much to her embarrassment.
this woke Tony, who sprang to his feet. "Power down!" He commanded the suit. The armor shut down and Tony hit it, making its pieces fall apart. He looked over at Pepper, who was in shock. "I must have called it in my sleep. That's not supposed to happen. I'll recalibrate the sensors. Can we just... Just let me... Just let me catch my breath, okay?" He asked as Pepper rose and started to leave. "Don't go, alright? Pepper?" Tony pleaded with her.
"I'm going to sleep downstairs. Tinker with that." Pepper told him as she left the room.
"That was pretty harsh. He was having a nightmare and a panic attack!" Yang snapped.
"And she was likely in a state of shock from the encounter. Neither were in the best headspace." Winter explained.
"But Tony DEFINITELY needs to fix that issue." Jaune stated.
"Uh... Yeah, don't worry. You'll see later that problem gets... resolved." Katana said, not wanting to spoil the suit's destruction
At the Chinese theater in Los Angeles, Aldrich's henchman was seen meeting a man who was sat outside the theater.
"Can you regulate?" Savin questioned.
"Yes, I can regulate." Taggert confirmed.
"Regulate? What's that supposed to mean?" Ruby asked.
"That generally means to control the rate or speed of a process so that it operates properly. But that usually applies to machines, so I have absolutely no idea what context they're referring to." Ironwood stated.
"What is it with these Iron Man movies and throwing at least three stories at you at once? There's a bad guy that needs stopping, Tony's got a personal issue weighing him down, someone's messing around behind Tony's back. Can't we just have one thing going on at once? Like in Captain America or the Avengers?" Yang complained.
"But the thing about all those different things was they all tied together to make the experience more engaging. You gotta work on your patience, kiddo." Qrow told her.
"Are you sure about that?" Savin pressed, making sure the man could indeed "regulate" before he gave him what he wanted.
"Yes." He confirmed once more.
Happy, who had been following Savin, kept an eye on him from a distance. He saw Savin giving Taggert a briefcase. "It's a decent batch. Don't say I never did nothin' for you." Savin told him.
"Sounds like a drug deal." Neo stated.
"So, either Savin is a drug dealer behind Killian's back, or more likely, Killian's in on it and they use this to help fund AIM." Blake theorized.
"We don't even know what it is yet. It's too early to make any solid conclusions." Emerald told them.
"They're certainly not shy about doing this in public. So if it is some form of illegal narcotics, they're not concerned about being caught with them." Glynda noted.
"Thank you...I mean for understanding." Taggert said gratefully.
Savin walked off, then Happy walked towards Taggert and as the man rose to leave, Happy bumped into him, which knocked the briefcase out of Taggert's hand, falling open on to the ground. "I'm sorry, buddy." Happy apologized and helped him put the stuff back in the suitcase. But as he looked at Taggert, he noticed that he was glowing red.
"Pretty clever, Happy. Making it seem like a simple accident while getting what you need. Not bad." Cinder praised.
Everyone was shocked when they saw the man's face glow, though. "Whoa! He's glowing orange! Like he's super hot!" Nora cried out.
"But the human body cannot sustain anywhere near the temperature of becoming incandescent!" Penny shrieked.
"Interesting. And didn't Maya's plant do something similar?" Ozpin asked, everyone's eyes widening in shock as they remembered this.
Hogan started to walk off, taking one of the items from the suitcase, but suddenly Savin bumped into him.
"What are you doin', buddy? You out by yourself? A little date night? Watching your favorite chick flick maybe?" Savin questioned, clearly hostile and suspicious of Happy.
Happy, however, believed he had this all handled. "Yeah, a little movie called 'The Party's Over', starring you and your junkie girlfriend. And here's the ticket." He declared and showed him what he took from Taggert's suitcase.
"Oh, Happy... you were doing so well." Pyrrha groaned.
"Hopefully his fighting has improved since Iron Man 3." Ren stated.
"Or, maybe this Savin guy doesn't know how to fight?" Jaune said hopefully.
"No kidding? That doesn't belong to you." Savin told him as he went to take the item from Hogan's hand, but Happy punched Savin in the face twice. Happy noticed Savin's face glow red and heal. Then Savin grabbed hold of Happy and, with super strength, threw him aside.
Everyone was shocked at this. "Impossible! Happy just damaged his face and at least broke his nose! Healing from that would be impossible without aura!" Weiss cried out.
"The plant!" Blake declared. "We thought Extremis was a lot like Maya's plant! And just like professor Ozpin said, the plant was glowing orange when it regrew the limb Happy broke off!" She remembered.
Then, they completely lost it when Savin threw Happy like nothing. "Oh, come on! It makes people super strong, too!? That's overpowered!" Ruby complained.
"And we're not even at the big part that's gonna make Cinder mad yet." Katana added.
"Oh, goodie. That means they can do even more!" Cinder complained.
"But wait... The plant exploded after it regrew that limb. So what about these guys?" Neo asked.
As Savin walked towards Hogan, Taggert began to glow red and turned super hot. "Savin!" Taggert called out to him.
"What?" Savin questioned.
By now, the glow was going through Taggert's whole body and he was clearly becoming unstable. "Help! Help me!" Taggert pleaded, before he suddenly exploded, causing a massive explosion inside the theater, which wounds Happy. As he lied injured, Hogan saw Savin, also glowing red and then healing and walking off as if nothing had happened.
"No way! That's just not possible! A blast like that should have critically injured any of us, even with our auras at maximum! How could he possibly survive that!?" Winter cried out.
"The properties of Extremis must be far more than we initially believed them to be. We saw it capable of healing Savin's broken nose and the limb of a plant. Now to increase one's durability to such levels? Unreal." Penny said in shock and awe.
"At least Happy survived." Velvet said.
"Yeah, but no doubt he's in critical condition. Not to mention, it's only gonna get worse the longer it takes people to get there and find him." Coco added.
Another TV footage from The Mandarin was shown, before the madman spoke.
"Oh, great. This madman again." Winter said angrily.
"Forget him! I wanna know how Happy is!" Nora cried out frantically.
"Hang on, Nora. He may reveal something important." Ren told her.
"True story about fortune cookies. They look Chinese, they sound Chinese, but they're actually an American invention. Which is why they're hollow, full of lies and leave a bad taste in the mouth." The villain explained.
"Cookies?" Ruby asked.
Katana created a plate with two fortune cookies in everyone's lap. "Ordinarily, they have slips of paper with a supposedly philosophical message in them, but I couldn't think of any deep messages for you guys." She said.
Everyone shrugged and tried them, finding them to be tasty and pleasantly crispy. "He's clearly had the wrong kind of cookies. These are pretty good." Cinder admitted, finishing her second one.
"My disciples just destroyed another cheap American knock-off, The Chinese Theater. Mr. President, I know this must be getting frustrating, but this season of terror is drawing to a close. And don't worry, the big one is coming; your graduation." The terrorist declared.
"Well, that's not ominous at all." Blake said.
"But wait. The Chinese Theater was where Happy was. There wasn't any bomb there. That guy just blew up. And it wasn't on purpose." Qrow stated suspiciously.
"So the Mandarin is taking responsibility for whenever that drug goes wrong and people explode? But why?" Jaune asked.
"Exactly. That merely makes the Mandarin out to be a fraud." Pyrrha said.
"True, students. But that's only if anyone uncovers this truth. And how would they possibly figure out it was a human being exploding and not a bomb?" Ozpin questioned.
As Hogan lied in hospital, critically injured, Tony was sat in his room when a nurse walked in to check on Happy.
"Hi." Tony greeted.
"Oh." The nurse yelped in shock.
"Tony, you can't just scare people like that!" Weiss scolded.
"Still, it's nice to see him there to watch over Happy until someone else could." Ruby said with a smile.
"You did good, Happy. Tony's definitely gonna handle it from here!" Yang assured him.
He asked, referring to the TV. "Uh...mind leaving that on?"
"Sure." She agreed as Tony rose from his seat.
"Sunday night's PBS 'Downtown Abbey'. That's his show, he thinks it's elegant." He explained, preparing to leave. He paused for a moment. "One more thing... make sure everyone wears their badges. He's a stickler for that sort of thing, plus my guys won't let anyone in without them." Tony explained, before he finally turned and left.
"Smart to have security looking over him. You can never know if Savin may come back to finish the job." Ironwood stated.
"Aww. That's sweet, he knows his friends' favorite shows." Velvet said with a smile.
"Yeah, but I don't know how much that's gonna help him in a coma." Coco said.
"Actually, Coco, the brains of coma patients still works and functions, so they may actually be able to hear sound in their surroundings." Penny explained.
"Katana, how would you describe this 'Downtown Abbey'? It sounds quite interesting." Glynda said.
"I've never seen it. It's a British drama series, so it's probably clever, but I'm the wrong person to ask." Katana told her.
News reporters were all waiting for Tony outside the hospital. "We're awaiting the arrival of Tony Stark. We're hoping he'll give us the reaction... his reaction to the latest attack." One of the reporters explained.
"Of course. The media vultures flock when they believe there's a story to be had, completely uninterested in whether or not the person may be in the mood to talk." Winter said angrily. Even after she greatly distanced herself from Jacques and the SDC, she was constantly approached by news reporters asking for statements on some of Jacques' business practices, explosions of their dust mines or White Fang attacks on the board members.
"And with Happy in such a condition, Tony will no doubt be angry and irrational, the kind of state where he SHOULDN'T be speaking publicly." Weiss agreed with her sister.
"I should mention, another symptom of PTSD is aggressive and impulsive behavior." Penny said nervously.
Tony walked out and all the reporters swarmed toward him. "Mr. Stark! Mr. Stark! Our sources are telling us that this is another Mandarin attack. Anything else you can tell us?" The reporter asked, but Tony ignored the questions and walked toward his car.
"Hey, Mr. Stark! When is somebody gonna kill this guy?" A pushy tabloid reporter questioned. Tony turned to face the reporter. "Just sayin'." He added.
"Whoa, are news reporters really allowed to ask questions that hostile or forward?" Emerald asked.
"It depends on the station. Some companies do a good job remaining unbiased and asking non-leading, informed questions... then you have completely biased stations that are hostile, opinionated, biased and ask pointed or leading questions you cannot answer without sounding like the bad guy." Katana said.
"And yet those seem to be the council's favorites." Ozpin groaned.
"Likely because they're aimed to make the council seem infallible and you the direct opposite, sir." Glynda stated, equally displeased with those stations.
"Oh, man. Tony is totally gonna say the wrong thing here." Neo said, already flinching a bit.
"Is that what you want? Here's a little Holiday greeting I've been wanting to send to the Mandarin. I just didn't know how to phrase it until now. My name is Tony Stark and I'm not afraid of you. I know you're a coward, so I've decided-" He began, before he removed his sunglasses and stared into the phone's camera, "-That you just died, pal. I'm gonna come get the body. There's no politics here; it's just good old-fashioned revenge. There's no Pentagon; it's just you and me. And on the off-chance you're a man, here's my home address: 10-8-80, Malibu Point, 9-0-2-6-5. I'll leave the door unlocked." He declared.
Everyone was shocked at this. "I don't know whether to be impressed by his boldness and forwardness, or dumbfounded by his unbelievably stupid impulsiveness." Cinder stated.
"You fool! Challenging a terrorist is reckless enough, but to actually give him your home address!? You're asking to be assassinated!" Ironwood snapped.
"And besides, Pepper lives with you, too! You're putting her in danger!" Ruby cried out in a panic.
"Yeah, Tony. You messed up BIG TIME with this one." Yang agreed.
He then turned to the reporter. "That's what you wanted, right?" He asked, before took the phone and threw it at a wall. "Bill me." He instructed, before he got in his car and drove off.
"I can't believe Tony would do something this foolish! This puts even his race car antics to shame!" Weiss cried out.
"He's angry and irrational from his friend being hurt, but I ONLY see thing going horribly for him." Ren stated.
"To be honest, wouldn't most of us act the same way?" Ruby asked.
"Oh, yeah. We only went to Mistral in the future because of what Cinder did to Pyrrha." Jaune admitted.
"But at least Tony's getting serious now! We're finally gonna get to see the bad guys get what they deserve!" Ruby declared.
"Yeah! I want some more explosions!" Nora cheered.
"Oh, yeah. Those are definitely coming up soon." Katana said.
"I'm just wondering how Tony will fight his way out of this one." Blake said.
"But oh man! Just imagine how mad Pepper's gonna be!" Neo laughed.
"His position is certainly unenviable now." Winter agreed.
[1] Thanks to church2550 with help for that scene!
[2] Callback! If you don't remember, please reference the watching of Iron Man 2, chapter 3.
[3] Seriously, anyone else think that Pepper was being too harsh with Tony throughout most of the movie?