"So Tony's got some help, but that doesn't mean he's out of the woods yet." Qrow stated.
"Right. He has to get to the bottom of this Rose Hill thing." Yang agreed.
"And do it while trying to stay under the radar of the bad guys so he doesn't lose the element of surprise." Cinder pointed out.
"Not to mention, I doubt Tony being dead is going to do much to stop the Mandarin." Glynda added.
"And what if he has another panic attack?" Emerald questioned.
"Oh, man. I don't like this. There's too much going on! How's Tony gonna handle this?" Ruby asked worriedly.
"By staying strong and smart. That's what he always does." Blake said with a smile.
"I just hope there's some action this time." Neo said hopefully.
"Same!" Nora agreed as Katana continued the video.
Back at Tony's house, which was now surrounded by emergency rescue and news reporters, Pepper stood alone and looked out across the ocean. She saw one of Tony's shattered Iron Man helmets and pulled it towards her, her forehead resting against the helmet's. She saw a red flashing light inside the helmet and as she put the helmet on, she receives the message Tony had left her earlier.
"Oh, good. She knows Tony's alive now." Ruby said.
"Yeah, but she's not gonna like what the message has to say." Emerald stated.
"She'll understand. He tried to destroy her and Tony both. She must recognize the threat and knows that Tony must end it." Ozpin stated.
"Stark Secure Server. Retinal scan: Verified." The female computer voice acknowledged.
"Pepper, it's me." Tony's voice came through, to which Pepper gasped and smiled. "I've got a lot of apologies to make and not a lot of time. So first off, I'm so sorry I put you in harm's way. That was selfish and stupid and it won't happen again." His message replayed.
"Knowing him, that will be quite difficult." Weiss said unsurely.
"He's a superhero, danger comes with his job. It did even back when he was a weapons dealer." Blake told her white-haired partner.
"What ultimately matters is that he prepares and comes up with things that can protect himself and Pepper. They have more than enough of everything else in their life, the main thing they need now is security." Glynda voiced her beliefs.
Later that night, Pepper was driving Maya home. "Why were you at the house tonight? What was so important that you had to speak to Tony?" Pepper questioned
Maya took a beat to answer, but finally did. "I think that my boss is working for the Mandarin. So if you still want to talk about it, I suggest that we get ourselves someplace safe." She explained.
"Is there any place that's safe from the Mandarin. He wasn't afraid to attack a superhero's house. I wouldn't want to think of what other lengths he's willing to go to." Pyrrha pointed out.
"True, but Tony also gave the Mandarin his address. As long as they don't know where they went, they should be safe." Ren pointed out.
"Unless Killian has a way to find out where she is. He could have bugged a car, given her jewelry that has a tracking device or disguised some kind of tracker chip implanted from a doctor at work." Neo added. Roman had even once had the crazy idea to have a chip planted in her butt so he'd always be able to easily locate her. That's when Roman started needing a cane, after how badly Neo beat him.
"Your boss works for the Mandarin, you think? But Tony says you're a botanist, so..." Pepper said, uncertain about the claim.
"That figures. What I actually am is a biological DNA coder running a team of forty out of a privately-funded think tank, but sure you can call me a botanist." Maya corrected.
"Think Tank..." Everyone realized.
"Back in Switzerland, he wanted Tony and Maya to join his think-tank." Winter noted.
"So that's how Killian got his hands on Extremis." Jaune said angrily.
"And why they blow up if something goes wrong. Her formula had a 'glitch'. I guess in all this time, they still haven't fixed it." Cinder pointed out.
"Eh... They've adjusted it. It's not AS big of a problem as it was before, but like you saw with Taggert, some issues still arise. But you'll come to find those are a lot rarer than it seems." Katana warned them.
"This boss of yours, does he have a name?" Pepper asked.
"Yeah, Aldrich Killian." Maya confirmed as Pepper looked at her in shock.
"Well, if we didn't know before, now we know." Qrow said simply.
"Now if only Pepper could relay this information to Tony. If he found Killian, he'd find the Mandarin." Ironwood explained.
"You're more right than even you think, James." Katana confirmed, leaving everyone confused.
"Either way, the Mandarin's going down!" Nora cheered.
Killian was then seen talking on the phone to Savin.
"Well, we took the house down, sir..." Savin began.
"Mmhmm." The businessman acknowledged.
"But there's no sign of a body." The grunt explained.
"They know Tony is alive!" Penny said worriedly.
"So much for that element of surprise, then." Coco said looking to Cinder.
"How do they know he wasn't just buried underneath all the rubble! After all, we saw something wrap around his neck and drag him down. He only got out of there because of JARVIS." Velvet pointed out, trying to think of any excuse about Tony's demise as if the bad guys could hear her.
"Your reasoning is quite sound, Miss Scarlatina, but I think you've forgotten this is a movie and they cannot hear you." Glynda reminded her, causing the bunny girl to blush.
"I see." Killian said in understanding.
"No Stark." Savin finished.
"I have to go." The boss said as he rose from his seat and walked towards another room. "The Master is about to record and he's a little... Well, you know how he gets. Keep your appointment tonight and call me when it's done." He instructed as he walked into a room which had been set up as a set with all of Mandarin's props in place and camera crew ready to record Mandarin's message. "Alright everybody. No talking and no eye contact, unless you wanna get shot in the face." He warned them all as the Mandarin arrived with his entourage and entered the house.
"I've heard of hostile work environments before, but that's... That's a bit extreme." Jaune said nervously.
"They're working for a malicious terrorist. It comes with the territory, I suppose." Pyrrha stated.
"I don't know. I was with the White Fang and I don't remember ever having issues like that around Sienna Khan." Blake said uncertainly. It's like they didn't trust the guards or film crew with some information.
"The Master is travelling." A look-out for the terrorist alerted as the Mandarin arrived on set and took a sit, he looked at Killian.
"Well then. What are we waiting for?" The Mandarin asked.
"Oh, great. What's his plan this time? He's gonna claim he personally showed up and kicked Tony's ass?" Yang questioned.
"Well, they were his forces, so I wouldn't put it past him to take their credit for it." Ironwood stated.
"I don't know what else he could do to top that. Killing Iron Man is a pretty high bar to clear." Emerald agreed.
"Oh, I think you'll be surprised." Katana told her.
In Rose Hills, Tennessee, Tony and Harley walked in town at night.
"The sandwich was fair, the spring was a little rusty, the rest of the materials, I'll make do. By the way, when you said your sister had a watch, I was kinda hoping for something a little more mature than that." Tony said as he pulled his sleeve up, revealing that he was wearing a little girl's pink Dora the Explorer watch, Harley laughed.
Everyone laughed at this. "That's a little girl's watch!" Nora laughed.
"Even Ruby isn't childish enough to wear something like that!" Weiss giggled, ignoring Ruby's "Hey!".
"So, who's the kid on the watch?" Qrow asked.
"Dora the Explorer, she had a show where she went on adventures, talking to the audience and teaching them a handful of Spanish words." Katana explained.
Glynda sighed contentedly, placing her hands on one knee. "I miss the days of educational cartoons, or ones that had strong, clear life or moral messages... Instead of now where they're all based on toilet humor or rear end jokes." She said. Katana placed a hand one Glynda's hands as a sign of agreement on a level words couldn't explain.
"She's six! Anyway, it's limited edition. When can we talk about New York?" Harley asked.
"Maybe never, relax about it." The Iron Avenger shot down the idea.
"What about The Avengers, can you talk about them?" The boy tried again.
"I don't know, later. Hey kid, give me a little space." Tony requested as they stopped and Tony looked at the remains of the local explosion site that he came to investigate. "What's the official story here? What happened?" He asked.
"I guess this guy named Chad Davis, used to live roundabouts, won a bunch of medals in the army. One day, folks said he went crazy and made, you know, a bomb. Then he blew himself up right here." Harley explained as Tony looked around at the remains.
"Unless he was given some of Extremis, as well. It's earlier than the Mandarin, but not before Maya made Extremis and gave it to Killian. It must have been back in a more vulnerable stage." Ozpin theorized.
"And they dragged a military veterans name through the mud for something he had no control over. Shameful." Winter stated.
"They needed some kind of story. That's the one that probably made the most sense. Sucks for him, he was made into a scapegoat." Neo said.
"Six people died, right?" Tony asked.
"Yeah." Harley confirmed.
"Including Chad Davis?" The billionaire added to his question.
"Yeah." Harley confirmed once more as Tony kept looking around at the remains of the explosion site.
"That doesn't make any sense. There's only five shadows." Jaune noted.
"If the explosion came directly from Davis like it did with the other man, there would be no shadow to burn, everything around him was scorched to absolute nothingness." Ren stated.
"The others were just far enough away where they were still vaporized, but left behind a shadow. Even the smallest difference matters when dealing with huge explosions." Blake added.
"Yeah. That doesn't make sense." Tony said as he sat next to Harley. "Think about it. Six dead, only five shadows." He told the boy.
"Yeah, people said these shadows are like the mark of souls gone to Heaven. Except the bomb guy, he went to Hell on account of he didn't get a shadow. That's why there's only five." Harley explained.
"Oh, yeah. Because that makes a lot of sense." Emerald said, rolling her eyes.
"Faith makes people believe strange things." Katana stated.
"People should put their rational mind forward first, leave faith back until it's needed." Ironwood declared.
"Hey, everyone comes to a different conclusion. If faith helps you make it, that's your choice." Qrow told him.
"Do you buy that?" Tony questioned.
"That's what everyone says." The boy said, before grinning. "You know what this crater reminds me of?" He asked.
"No idea. I'm not...I don't care." Tony dismissed.
"That giant wormhole, in um...in New York. Does it remind you?" The boy declared, looking up to the sky, before back to Tony.
"Jeez, kid, come on! You've seen how he's acting, that's a touchy subject for him!" Yang scolded.
"He's a little kid. He's going to be curious. He can't help himself, he's talking to essentially his idol." Velvet explained.
"Still, he should be able to realize when he is upsetting his 'idol.'" Coco countered.
"Childhood innocence? Even when I met Ms. Goodwitch, I'd asked for her autograph." Ruby admitted.
Tony froze at this as his nerves seized a bit. "That's manipulative. I don't want to talk about it." He said.
"Are they coming back? The aliens?" Harley asked.
"Maybe. Can you stop? Remember when I told you, that I have an anxiety issue?" Tony said, visibly struggling a bit.
"Well, the first step to recovery is acceptance." Emerald admitted.
"He's practically losing his mind at this point." Weiss said worriedly.
"He's been through hell. Not even a lot of Huntsmen or Huntresses experience what he has, yet they can still end up just as bad. The fact he hasn't fallen apart at this point just proves he's a genius with ridiculous willpower." Qrow explained.
"Heck, sometimes even Roman gets nightmares about the heists we used to pull." Neo admitted.
"Does this subject make you...make you edgy?" The boy asked.
"Yeah, a little bit. Can I just catch my breath for a second?" Tony requested once again.
"Are there bad guys in Rose Hills? Do you...do you need a plastic bag to breathe into? Do you have medication?" Harley asked.
"You have medications for anxiety and such?" Glynda asked.
"We've got medicine for countless different mental health issues. It's just a shame the side effects are almost ten times worse than what they're supposed to treat." Katana explained.
"Still, that may be something worth having Professor Polendina look into." Winter stated.
"Nope." Tony denied.
"Do you need to be on it?" The boy asked again.
"Probably." The billionaire admitted.
"Do you have PTSD?" The questions kept coming from the child.
"I don't think so." Tony denied once again.
"Tony has officially checked off all of the boxes on the checklist associated with PTSD. New York was a traumatic event he was exposed to, he has repeated upsetting nightmares of the event, he's unhappy and somewhat detached from Pepper and Rhodes, along with the aggressive and impulsive behavior from challenging the Mandarin and throwing that reporter's phone, this has been happening for quite a bit longer than a month, it is clearly interfering with his life and preventing him from sleeping and now he is trying VERY hard to avoid talking about New York so as not to trigger memories of the event. Due to the fact Tony is no longer drinking, this isn't due to substance abuse. I can say with almost 100% certainty he has it." Penny declared. [1]
"Thank you for pointing all of that out, Penny. A very astute analysis." Ironwood said.
"Poor Tony." Ruby said sadly, snuggling up to Cinder a bit.
"He's smart, Ruby. I'm sure eventually, he'll get past this." Cinder said, though she looked away with uncertainty. She was decently strong in the mental department, yet she also still had occasional flashbacks and memories of her life with her step-family.
"Are you...are you going completely mental? I can stop, do you want me to stop? Do you want me to stop?" The boy finally realized he was disturbing the inventor.
"Remember when I said to stop doing that? I swear to God, you're going to freak me out!" Tony snapped, looking agitated, before suddenly rising. "Ah man, you did it, didn't you? You happy now?" He demanded.
"What did I say?" Harley asked, before Tony started running off and Harley ran after him. "Hey, wait up! Wait, wait." He called after the billionaire. Tony stopped running and Harley caught up with him. "What the hell was that?" He asked as Tony held some snow against his face in his hands for a moment and then threw the snow at Harley.
"Tony! He is a child!" Ozpin lightly scolded the billionaire.
"True, sir, but he also seems to be quite smart for his age and should have been aware of how he was disturbing Mr. Stark." Glynda pointed out.
"And besides, it was only a little bit of snow." Coco said with a shrug.
"But Tony should be the bigger person and not blame a child." Velvet said, giving a small glare to Coco.
"Your fault, you spazzed me out. Okay, back to business. Where were we? The guy who died... relatives? Mom? Mrs. Davis, where is she?" Tony questioned.
"Where she always is." The boy told him.
"See, now you're being helpful." Tony said appreciatively.
"Not really. He didn't give you a location." Winter pointed out.
"I'm sure they'll get to it off-screen. Likely, they're trying to build suspense." Pyrrha guessed.
"ANYTHING to get us away from this depressing stuff!" Nora pleaded.
Later, Tony could be seen walking towards a bar and he bumped into a woman. "Sorry." He apologized, before noticing that the woman dropped something. "Lady, this uh..." He called after her as he picked up the item and handed it back to the woman.
"Thank you.." She said as Tony noticed the woman had burn marks on one side of her face.
Everyone winced at this. "That must be quite painful." Ozpin stated.
"Then just imagine what it was like before it healed as much as it did." Ironwood pointed out.
Everyone stopped at this. "Wait... That's a pretty bad burn now, so for it to be that way after some time of healing, it must have been far worse, possibly debilitating." Weiss pointed out.
"So, for it to only look like a minor injury... Could she also have been given Extremis?" Pyrrha wondered.
"Well, we have a thing called skin grafts for the purpose of healing particularly bad wounds, but it would be way more noticeable and she wouldn't be looking nearly as good. Bottom line, you guys are on the right track." Katana explained, before looking away. "Especially after you see what else was wrong with her." She said quietly.
"Nice haircut, suits you." He told her.
"Nice watch." Brandt countered. (Many chuckled at this.)
"Yeah, limited edition." He defended.
"Oh, I don't doubt it." She said, before there was a moment's pause. "Well, have a good evening." She said, before she turned and walked off.
"So, she's definitely gonna be seen again later. And it probably won't be good when it does." Emerald declared.
"They wouldn't show that unless she's going to be important somehow. And there was something to that pause that I didn't like." Blake explained.
"I hate this. All the times before it was usually one guy Tony had to worry about. Now he's got a bunch of guys after him that could come out of nowhere." Velvet said worriedly.
Tony entered the bar and walked up to Mrs. Davis, who sat at table drinking alone. "Mrs. Davis, mind if I join you?" He asked.
"Free country." She said, not seeming to care one way or the other.
"It sure is." He agreed as he sat next to her.
Mrs. Davis looked at Tony for a moment. "Alright. Where'd you like to start? She questioned.
"I just want to say I'm sorry about your loss. I want to know what you think happened." He requested for at least the third time that night.
"Look, I brought your damn file. You take it and go." She told him as she dropped the file in front of him. "Whatever was in here, he wanted no part of it." She declared.
"So she was waiting for someone?" Coco asked.
"It seems like it. And it couldn't have been Tony. He only just showed up and didn't mention anything about calling her or asking for a file." Ren pointed out.
"Then whoever did want the file can't be far behind. And I doubt they'll be happy to see Tony there." Neo said, already preparing herself for something.
Tony opened the file. "Clearly, you're waiting for someone else. Yeah? Supposed to meet somebody here?" He asked.
"Yeah." Mrs. Davis confirmed as Tony looked at the file again and noticed a photo of Taggart next to the photo of Chad.
"Mrs. Davis, your son didn't kill himself, I guarantee you. He didn't kill anyone. Someone used him." Tony explained.
"What?" She asked.
"As a weapon." He added.
"So, both him and Taggert were in the military together. Both were presumably injured and were offered Extremis at some point." Winter realized.
"So, if it goes right, they get super soldiers, like Savin. And if it goes wrong, they get an explosion the Mandarin takes credit for." Nora realized.
"Then its a win for Killian and the Mandarin, regardless of which happens." Glynda added.
"You're not the person who called me after all, are you?" She asked. Suddenly a cell phone was slammed on their table.
"Actually, I am." Brandt declared as Tony looked up and realized it was the woman he bumped into outside the bar. Suddenly, Brandt grabbed hold of Tony's arm and twists it, slamming his head onto the table. Tony managed to quickly grab hold of Chad's dog tags that were on the table.
"I knew it!" Ruby cried out.
"We all knew it, you dolt! Stop trying to take credit!" Weiss asked.
"Do you really get to say that? You wanted extra credit for stopping the breach!" Yang told her, causing her to pout.
"Still, sucks to be Tony right now. That's the ultimate case of 'wrong place, wrong time.'" Qrow added.
Suddenly, the Sheriff arrived. "Hey, hey, hey! What's all this about? What the hell's going on here?" He demanded.
"It's called an arrest." Brandt explained as she pushed Tony to the ground and stepped towards the Sheriff. "Sheriff, is it?" She asked.
"Yes ma'am, it is. And you are?" The Sheriff questioned.
"Homeland Security." Brandt explained as she held up her badge. "We good here?" She asked.
"No, we're not good. I need a little more information than that." The Sheriff denied.
"Wow. This may be the first time I've actually rooted for the cops." Neo said.
"Well, hopefully, those times will be a lot more often in the future." Yang declared, giving Neo a small glare.
"But she's with Killian and probably has Extremis. That might make her too dangerous." Velvet said worriedly.
"Well, I think it's a little above your pay grade, Sheriff." Brandt told him.
"Yeah, well, why don't you get on the horn to Nashville and uh...upgrade me?" The Sheriff challenged as Tony gestured to Mrs. Davis to hide the file. She understood and pushed it under the bar.
Brandt had clearly had enough of this. "Alright, you know what? I was hoping to do this the smart way, but uh...the fun way's always good." Tony noticed her hand turning red hot, burning the badge in her hand.
Everyone was shocked at this. "She's heating the badge in her hand!" Winter said.
Ruby gasped at this. "Then that means..." She started.
"I-it's just like Cinder's Scorching Caress." Emerald finished the younger girl's thought, realizing the ability this woman on screen revealed was incredibly similar to her leader/honorary sister's Semblance.
"And if they can all do this, that means all the bad guys with Extremis in this movie have Cinder's semblance!" Ruby finished.
"Oh, come on! My Semblance is amazing, but pretty much every bad guy in the movie has it!? So my Semblance is a dime a dozen in your world!?" Cinder snapped, angry that her semblance, one of the more unique and powerful ones on Remnant, would now be commonplace in this movie. She now officially hated it.
"Deputy, get this woman and..." The Sheriff began, but suddenly, Brandt shoved the hot badge into the Sheriff's face. She then took his gun and shot him while Tony ran out of the bar.
Brandt quickly followed him and eventually, he turned to her. "Hey hot wings, you wanna party? You and me, let's go." Tony challenged, but as he turned to run again, he saw Savin getting out of a car and walking towards him. As Savin got his gun out to shoot at him. Tony ran off and Harley threw a snowball at Savin to make him miss Tony.
"Nice work!" Jaune cheered.
"Thank goodness." Pyrrha said in relief.
"But now he's put himself in serious danger." Glynda pointed out, giving Ruby a stern look, remembering their first meeting as the young reaper saw the glare and hid her face in Cinder's shoulder.
Tony stopped behind a car and saw a man hiding low on the ground. "Crazy, huh?" He asked.
"Yeah." The man agreed.
"Watch this." Tony declared as he smashed into the window of a shop. Brandt slowly followed him, but the deputy came up behind her with his gun. However, she heard the gun load, at which point she turned and snatched the gun out of his hand, turning back to Tony and shooting as he slid behind the bar.
"You're on duty, man! Why isn't your gun loaded!?" Ironwood demanded.
"Still, Tony's not doing half-bad without a suit." Qrow noted.
"But he hasn't done anything to fight back yet. And considering she has Cinder's powers and gun, that's going to be difficult to fight against." Penny said, not noticing the glare the half-maiden sent her way.
Brandt then walked forward and took off her jacket. Tony crouched behind the bar, but turned and saw her right beside him. (Many jumped at this.)
She then grabbed the inventor and pinned him against a wall, punching him, before slamming him into the table. He rolled to get them both on their feet on the other side of the bar, but she once again pinned him to a wall. She then grabbed his face as her hands began to glow. However, Tony managed to break free and spun around the area, getting behind Brandt with his handcuffs against her neck, forcing her to heat up her neck and melt the cuffs enough to weaken them so she wouldn't be strangled, allowing Tony to break free.
"Nice moves!" Coco said.
"Yeah! That's almost exactly what I would do." Neo added.
"You can do it, Tony!" Velvet cheered.
"Yeah! Kick her fiery butt!" Ruby cried out.
Tony fell back into a kitchen area as Brandt stood up with a smirk as he shook off the glowing orange cuffs. He then noticed a jug of some form of accelerant, which he kicked towards Brandt, before kicking the handcuffs into the leaking trail of liquid, starting a fire. However, Brandt was able to walk through the fire like nothing.
Tony then started up a microwave as she walked into the kitchen. "You walked right into this one, I've dated hotter chicks than you." He told her.
"Ha! Now that's a real BURN!" Yang laughed.
"You ruined his awesome one liner." Jaune pouted.
I'm sure he'll have plenty more in the future." Pyrrha assured him.
"Still, Mr. Stark is being very resourceful with what he has on hand. A lesson we could all stand to learn or remember in the event we are disarmed." Ozpin stated.
Brandt staggered a bit, but smirked and stood back up as Tony ripped out a gas line, allowing gas to seep into the kitchen. "That's all you got? Cheap trick and a cheesy one-liner?" She questioned.
Tony was shown crouched by a table with some microwaves on it. "Sweetheart, that could be the name of my autobiography." He told her, before quickly leaving through the back door. It was then revealed Tony had placed Chad's dog tags in the microwave to create sparks. As the dog tags heated up in the microwave, they started sparking up fire. At that moment, Brandt realized the gas was on and suddenly the shop exploded. From outside, Tony saw Brandt had been launched sky high, wrapped up in electric wires, definitely dead.
"Genius! Tony just made a massive bomb out of a building with the most rudimentary of items!" Penny said in amazement.
"That couldn't have been pleasant." Blake said, wincing slightly.
"But Savin survived an explosion just fine. What's the difference here?" Weiss wondered.
"He was likely further away. That and he didn't land on electrical wires." Ren pointed out.
However, before Tony could relax, he noticed a water tower was leaning slightly. It was then revealed that Savin was superheating one of the legs, melting and weakening the metal, causing it to fall.
Cinder was pissed now. "What the fraklety frick!? What's the deal with that trick!?" She demanded.
"Is that more heat than you can generate, Cinder?" Jaune asked.
"Without the Maiden powers, I would have to say yes." The half-Maiden begrudgingly admitted.
"But remember, Semblances can evolve and become stronger. You never needed the Maiden powers. Your semblance was already more than enough. Especially if you train with and perfect it. I'm sure what these Extremis people are doing would seem like nothing in comparison." Pyrrha said supportively.
Cinder looked down in consideration at this, before nodding. "Thank you, Pyrrha." She said, a bit shocked that the girl who knew for a fact Cinder would have killed her in the future could be so supportive now.
Tony tried to run, but he got caught on a metal fence and the tower fell, which trapped Tony's leg beneath it and some debris. He found that Savin had grabbed Harley. "Let me go!" Harley shouted.
"Help me! Help me!" Savin mocked the boy. As Tony's leg was trapped under some rubble, Savin sat in front of him with Harley sat on his lap. "Hey kid, what would you like for Christmas?" He asked the child.
"Coward! Leave him alone!" Nora shouted.
"Using a child as a hostage to get what you want... This man is truly as vile as the Mandarin himself!" Winter angrily declared.
"Oh, man. I hope Tony really demolishes this guy!" Ruby said in a surprisingly dark tone.
"Mr. Stark, I am so sorry!" Harley apologized.
"Oh. No, no. I think he was trying to say, 'I want my god damn file'." Savin demanded, dropping the act.
"It's not your fault, kid. Remember what I told you about bullies." Tony reminded him. Harley used the gadget Tony gave him earlier to create a blinding flash of light, stunning Savin and allowing him to run away.
"Do you like that, Westworld? That's the thing about smart guys, we always cover our ass." Tony declared as he brought up his hand and revealed his Iron Man suit hand. He fired at Savin and shot him in the head, sending him flying backwards. Tony made his way out of the rubble before leaving.
"Yes!" Everyone shouted together.
"So it was only a flare. Thank goodness." Velvet said in relief.
"But it still proved useful when the time called for it." Ironwood stated.
"I still don't approve of it, but it did prove to be quite the lifesaver." Glynda admitted.
"That was awesome, though! I didn't even realize he had the suit hand with him! It takes REALLY good slight of hand to fool me." Emerald declared.
"If there was one guy who deserved to get his brain blown out, it was that guy." Qrow declared with a smirk.
"And he had another awesome one-liner!" Jaune cheered.
"You're welcome." Harley called after Tony, catching up to him.
"For what? Did I miss something?" Tony questioned.
"Me saving your life" The boy reminded him as if it were obvious.
"Yeah. A, saved you first. B, thanks, sort of. And C, if you do someone a solid, don't be a yutz, alright? Just play it cool otherwise you come off grandiose." Tony advised.
"You of all people DO NOT get to say that!" Weiss said.
"And you do?" Coco questioned, earning a "Hey!" from the heiress.
"Still, he did a very good job. He deserves some recognition." Penny insisted.
"Unlike you? Admit it, you need me. We're connected." Harley told the billionaire.
"What I need is for you to go home, be with your mom, keep your trap shut, guard the suit and stay connected to the telephone because if I call, you better pick up. Okay, can you feel that? We're done here. Move it out the way or I'm going to run you over." Tony ran through his list of demands.
"Bye kid." Tony as he got in his car. "I'm sorry, kid, you did good." He told the boy.
"So now you're just going to leave me here, like my dad?" Harley asked, guilt-tripping the billionaire.
"Oh, god. The guilt trip." Teams RWBY and JNPR, along with Cinder and Emerald all groaned.
"Is something the matter, everyone?" Penny asked. Rather than answering, they just pointed to Ruby, Neo and Nora, who were doing adorable puppy dog faces. "My metal heart!" She cried out.
"Those puppy eyes... So hard to resist..." Ren stated in horror.
"Yep." Tony confirmed, not even sugarcoating it, before stopping for a beat. "Wait, you're guilt tripping me, aren't you?" He asked.
"I'm cold." Harley complained childishly.
"I can tell." Tony mocked him. "You know how I can tell? Cuz we're connected." He teased, before he drove away.
Everyone laughed at this, except the cinnamon trio: Ruby, Pyrrha and Velvet. "That was so mean, Tony!" Velvet pouted.
"Exactly! It looks freezing there! And this has to be a long way home for him to walk! Especially at night!" Ruby snapped.
"And he's just been through a traumatic event, just like you. That should be another way you're connected!" Pyrrha said in anger.
"It was worth a shot." Harley said.
Savin woke up, coughing and healed from Extremis, his face glowing red.
"OH, COME ON!" Everyone shouted in fury and disbelief.
"Okay, they definitely gave him some better stuff than the others we've seen so far." Qrow said.
"How is Tony gonna be able to stop him if he keeps coming back from everything?" Ruby asked.
"There has to be a limit. Something must be too extreme for him to heal from." Cinder insisted, wishing for this low-level goon to be brought down and stop being better than her.
During an advert, the Mandarin took over the satellite. "Mr. Vice President, I think you should see this." A government employee told the second-in-command.
"Oh god, not again. Is the President getting this?" The Vice-President asked.
"It's insane how often he can do this. Is there no way to gain more protection for their satellites and such?" Ren questioned.
"Or if they do, what does The Mandarin have to get around it?" Yang wondered as well.
"That's the problem with hackers. They always seem to have a way out or a back door, some way to throw people off the trail." Ironwood explained regretfully.
"We just better hope Tony or Rhodes can figure something out to find him soon. And that no one else messes up in the meantime." Blake said.
On a plane, the President looked at a TV is shock. The Mandarin soon came on the screen. "Mr. President. Only two lessons remain and I intend to finish this before Christmas morning. Meet Thomas Richards." The terrorist introduced as the screen zoomed out to show a man lying on the floor while Mandarin pointed a gun at him. "Good strong name. Good strong job. Thomas, here, is an accountant for the Roxxon Oil Corporation." The Mandarin explained as Thomas sobbed. "But I'm sure he's a really good guy. I'm going to shoot him in the head, live on your television in 30 seconds." He declared.
"No!" Thomas pleaded.
"No... You can't..." Weiss said, horrified.
"Oh, gods... I was almost going to do the same thing. Terrify millions of people all over Remnant. I just keep seeing how much of a monster I was becoming." Cinder said in shock.
"But you changed. You're not gonna do it anymore. You've grown. Which is more than we can say about him." Neo told her friend and leader.
"You have NO idea how true that is, Neo." Katana said, thinking of how childish the man behind the persona is.
"Someone has to do something! Someone PLEASE do something!" Penny pleaded.
"The number for this telephone is in your cell phone. Exciting, isn't it, imagining how it got there? America, if your president calls me in the next half-minute, Tom lives. Go!" The Mandarin ordered.
"How did he hack my phone?" The president asked.
"We can't allow terrorists to dictate..." The president's aide told him.
"I have to make this call." The president declared.
"I'd strongly advise against that." His official discouraged the idea.
"Are you kidding me!? That guy's life is on the line!" Nora snapped.
"Our country has an official policy not to negotiate with terrorists, so calling him would technically be giving into his demands and negotiating with him. It'd be a sign of weakness and that we can be coerced under the right circumstances... I think at least." Katana explained.
"Well, thankfully your president was willing to make an exception." Ozpin said in relief.
"He's not the actual president of our nation. And even if he was, his term would certainly be over now. But still, he probably wouldn't have been a bad one. A lot better than the last one, that's for sure." Katana said with a giggle at the end. [2]
"This is the right thing to do." President Ellis insisted as he pressed the call button. The phone rang, but Mandarin didn't answer. He waited for a few seconds before firing the gun.
Everyone was shocked at this. "What?! But, why!? He called the phone!" Ruby asked, breaking into tears.
"Dirty, rotten coward going back on his word!" Winter snapped.
"Even I would have let the guy go! I at least have some standards. If you do what I say, you and your friends get to live." Neo said.
"But... how would that work before you could talk?" Pyrrha asked legitimately.
Neo pulled out her scroll and typed a message. "Text to Speech." The scroll answered.
"There's just one lesson left, President Ellis. So run away, hide, kiss your children goodbye. Because nothing, not your army, not your red, white and blue attack dog, can save you. I'll see you soon." The Mandarin promised darkly.
"What lesson?! He did what you wanted! Was that some kind of test of his humanity!? Because he did what you wanted and you still killed that man! So if that was a lesson, you failed your own test!" Blake snapped.
"It just seems to me like a lesson not to believe the word of a freaky terrorist." Emerald said angrily.
"I truly wish this wasn't the case, but you cannot always take someone's words at face value, children." Glynda said sadly.
"Tell Rhodes, find this lunatic right now." President Ellis declared.
"Sir, we tracked the broadcast signal. We have a possible point of origin in Pakistan and the Patriot is ready to strike." A military aide informed him.
"Good. Strike now while he isn't prepared and bring that madman to justice!" Ironwood declared.
"But think, James. He can scramble their TV signals and even hack phones. What if he's capable of redirecting where these signals come from?" Ozpin noted.
"Considering everything we saw Watts do with all of Atlas' tech and the fact Earth's seems to have more stuff than us, it wouldn't surprise me." Qrow agreed.
"Right now." The president ordered.
"Yes, sir." The military aide agreed.
"I hope Rhodey does get him." Jaune said.
"Yeah. Give him a nice taste of that minigun." Coco agreed with a smirk.
"Someone has to stop him. He's crazy and he has to be stopped. He may be even more evil than Red Skull!" Velvet agreed.
"Sure, let's go with that." Katana said, hiding a smirk, knowing "The Mandarin's" true nature would soon be revealed.
"So, what did you guys think?" Katana asked.
"That the Mandarin is a monster! Maybe worse than the Grimm!" Nora snapped.
"Indeed. Forgive me for taking your phrase, Nora, but I would like nothing more than to break his legs." Pyrrha stated.
"Save one for me!" Weiss declared.
"At least Tony's got some kind of plan now. With those files, he may be able to figure something out." Velvet pointed out the good news.
"But what's he gonna do without his suit or JARVIS?" Emerald questioned.
"If Stark can be called one thing, it's resourceful. Never count him out." Cinder told her.
"But Rhodes also appears to be on the right track. Hopefully, he might be able to stop the Mandarin, then Tony will be safe and be able to go home." Penny stated.
"I'm afraid it's never that easy, Miss Polendina. The Mandarin and his group have proven to be rather tricky adversaries. I doubt anything will be as simple as it seems with them." Ozpin said ominously.
"Let's just see for ourselves, why don't we?" Qrow said, gesturing for Katana to play the next part, to which she obliged.
A/N: Hello, everyone! Thank you all for reading and I hope you're all enjoying this! The parts that focus a lot on Tony's anxiety issues are a bit of a challenge, since the characters only have so much insight on the topic, so it feels a bit OOC have them all comment on it, but having them brush it off makes it seem like they don't care, which is also against their character... So yeah, I'll be happy when we FINALLY get Tony past all these issues.
But good news! It's official! RWBY Chibi is coming back for Season 4 after all this time! And they're bringing a certain fashionista with them!
[1] I actually got this information from a doctor reacting to the movie. Look up Doctor Breaks Down Medical Science in IRON MAN 3 Doctor Reacts for a more in-depth analysis, as well as funny notes about Extremis and such.
[2] PLEASE no flame wars about this, it was a joke. I know during his term he did some good things.