They drove down to Miami and pulled up to a mansion surrounded by armed guards.

They hid in bushes and Tony looked for a way in with binoculars.

He gestured for Laura to follow him as she brought out her spear and they leapt over a concrete wall.

They crept up a staircase and saw a guard at the top of it.

Tony used one of his handmade devices to repel the guard down and Laura used the butt end of the spear to knock him out and blasted the other guard over the railing.

Another guard came charging at them but Tony tased him.

He rolled a Christmas tree ornament at two guards by the entrance.

One picked it up but it exploded in his hand while Laura sent blasts at the other guard, knocking him into the fountain.

They snuck inside the house and saw woman lounging around and a guard on the couch.

"Why is it so hot in here? I told you to put it at 68." one of them asked.

"My fault again. Let me tell you something, sweetheart. I am not your personal air con... " he scoffed but Tony used a suit hand to electrocute him in the head.

Tony picked up his gun and the woman used her fingers to make one, clearly delusional.

Laura gestured her to be quiet and she did the same back while smiling.

They snuck through double doors with their weapons aimed.

They saw the setup where The Mandarin recorded his transmissions and carefully walked over to a bed.

They gave each other a nod and walked up to it, seeing a body stirring underneath the blanket.

Tony pulled the blankets off as Laura aimed the spear at the potential Mandarin's neck but it was just two woman.

They gasped but Tony shushed him as a toilet was heard flushing.

They sped walked behind the headboard as The Mandarin walked into the room.

"Well, I wouldn't go in there for 20 minutes." he laughed.

"Now, which one of you is Vanessa?" he asked.

"That's me." a woman replied.

"Ah! Nessie." he threw her a fortune cookie as Tony and Laura gave each other a confused look.

"Did you know that fortune cookies aren't even Chinese?" he chuckled.

"There's some people over here." a woman pointed at the headboard.

"They're made by Americans, based on a Japanese recipe..." he continued.

"Hey!" Tony aimed his gun at him and he put his hands up.

"Bloody hell. Bloody hell." he gasped.

"Don't move." Laura threatened.

"I'm not moving. You want something? Take it. Although the guns are all fake because those wankers wouldn't trust me with the real ones." The Mandarin said while panicking and she looked at him confused.

"What?" she asked dumbfounded.

"Hey, do either of you fancy either of the birds?" he offered the women.

"Heard enough. You're not him. The Mandarin, the real guy! Where? Where's the Mandarin?" Tony yelled.

"Where is he!" Laura aimed her spear at his face.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. He's here. He's here, but he's not here. He's here, but he's not here." he tried explaining while sitting on a chair.

"What do you mean?" Tony demanded.

"It's complicated. Hey, it's complicated." he continued.

"Uncomplicate." Laura hissed.

"Ladies, out. Get out of the bed. Get into the bathroom." she gestured her spear at them to go to it and they rushed in and closed the door.

She saw The Mandarin trying to crawl away but sent a blast right in front of him, stopping him and the woman gasped from behind the door.

"My name is Trevor. Trevor Slattery." he introduced himself.

"What are you? What are you, a decoy? You're a double, right?" Tony asked.

"What, you mean like an understudy? No, absolutely not." he shook his head and Laura pressed the blade at his face, losing her patience.

"Don't hurt the face! I'm an actor." he pleaded.

"You got a minute to live. Fill it with words." she threatened.

"It's just a role. "The Mandarin," see, it's not real." he revealed.

"Then how did you get here, Trevor?" Tony asked.

"Um. Well, I, um, had a little problem with, um, substances. And I ended up, um, doing things, no two ways about it, in the street, that a man shouldn't do." he explained.

"Next?" Tony asked.

"Then, they approached me about the role, and they knew about the drugs." he added.

"What did they say? That they'd get you off them?" Laura asked.

"They said they'd give me more. They gave me things. They gave me this palace. They gave me plastic surgery. They gave me things." he fell asleep and began snoring and Tony and Laura gave each other a look of disbelief.

"Did you just nod off? Hey." he kicked him awake.

"No, and a lovely speedboat. And the thing was, he needed someone to take credit for some accidental explosions." he mimicked explosion sounds as Laura went wide eyed in realization.

"He? Killian?" she asked.

"Killian." he nodded.

"He created you?" Tony asked.

"He created me." he confirmed.

"A cover. Smart." Laura put her spear away, determining Trevor wasn't a threat.

"It fooled me." she admitted.

"Yes. Yes. His think tank thinked it up." Trevor pointed his finger at her.

"The pathology of a serial killer. The manipulation of Western iconography. Ready for another lesson? Blah, blah, blah." Trevor offered them cans of beer and Laura smacked it out of his hand, spilling it on the floor.

"No. Of course, it was my performance that brought the Mandarin to life." he clarified.

"Your performance? Where people died?" Tony asked unamused.

"No, they didn't." he said confused and Laura and Tony gave him a confused look.

"Look around you. "The costumes, green screen. Honestly, I wasn't on location for half this stuff. And when I was, it was movie magic, love." he rambled as Savin snuck up behind Laura and knocked her out.

Tony turned around, hearing him, but Savin was able to subdue him with relative ease and knock him in the head.

"Ok, Trevor, what did you tell them?" he asked.

"I didn't tell them anything." he answered.

"Nothing?" he asked again.

"No." he shook his head. "

You should have pressed the panic button." he reminded him.

"Well, I panicked but I handled it."

Laura woke up, in a basement of some sort, tied to a chair, as she heard Tony and Maya talking.

She still felt her spear strapped to her waist underneath her hoodie and sighed with relief.

"Idiots." she mumbled, interrupting them.

"Are you ok?" he asked with concern.

"I think so." she checked over herself but thought back to Nat saying she might end up tied to a chair.

"Nat is going to be so smug when I tell her this." she muttered.

"Good you're awake. I thought Savin hit you too hard. Wouldn't want a damaged product." Maya smirked at her and she tried jumping the chair over to them angrily.

"So, here you are 13 years later, in a dungeon." Tony continued their conversation.

"No." she argued.

"Yeah." he stated.

"No, you're in a dungeon. I'm free to go." she clarified.

"Yeah?" Maya sighed and walked over to him.

"A lot has happened, Tony. But I'm close. Extremis is practically stabilized." she countered.

"It's not even close! This is wrong and you have no idea what you're messing with!" Laura shouted angrily.

"I'm on the street. People are going bang. They're painting the walls. Maya, you're kidding yourself." Tony whispered.

"Then help me fix it." she showed him the "You Know Who I Am" note he left in Bern 1999 with the equation he wrote on the back of it.

"Did I do that?" he asked confused.

"Yes." she answered.

"I remember the night, not the morning. Is this what you've been chasing around?" he asked.

"You don't remember?" she asked annoyed.

"I can't help you. You used to have a moral psychology. You used to have ideals. You wanted to help people. Now look at you. I get to wake up every morning with someone who still has their soul. Get us out of here. Come on." Maya looked complicated but Killian walked in.

"You know what my old man used to say to me? One of his favorite of many sayings... "The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese."

"Worst saying ever." Laura spat and he looked over at her amused.

"You're not still pissed off about the Switzerland thing, are you?" Tony asked him sarcastically.

"How can I be pissed at you, Tony? I'm here to thank you. You gave me the greatest gift that anybody's ever given me. Desperation. If you think back to Switzerland, you said you'd meet me on the rooftop, right? Well, for the first 20 minutes, I actually thought you'd show up. And the next hour... I considered taking that one-step shortcut to the lobby. If you know what I mean." he indicated.

"Would have done the world a favor if you did." Laura hissed.

"Ooh, we all can't be as lucky as you. To have Tony Stark walk into their life and give them everything they wanted. But as I looked out over that city, nobody knew I was there, nobody could see me, no one was even looking. I had a thought that would guide me for years to come. Anonymity, Tony. Thanks to you, it's been my mantra ever since. Right? You simply rule from behind the scenes. Because the second you give evil a face, a bin Laden, a Gaddafi, a Mandarin, you hand the people a target." he explained his plan.

"You're something else." Laura rolled her eyes.

"You have met him, I assume?" he asked her.

"Yeah, worst terrorist ever. I was expecting a Bin Laden. Severely disappointed." she said genuinely disappointed in not taking down one.

"I know he's a little over the top sometimes. It's not entirely my fault. He has a tenden... He's a stage actor. They say his Lear was the toast of Croydon, wherever that is. Anyway, the point is, ever since that big dude with the hammer fell out of the sky, subtlety has kind of had its day." he explained.

"What's next for you in your world?" Tony asked.

"Well, I wanted to repay you the selfsame gift that you so graciously imparted to me." he rolled three balls forwards and they stop, projecting an image of Pepper fighting Extremis in her body.

Laura hopped the chair angrily over to him as Tony pulled at his bindings.

"Let go of her right now I swear to God..." she threatened.

"Oh, I don't think so. Now, this is live. I'm not sure if you can tell, but at this moment the body is trying to decide whether to accept Extremis or just give up. And if it gives up, I have to say, the detonation is quite spectacular. But until that point, it's really just a lot of pain. We haven't even talked salary yet." he grabbed Tony by the neck and Laura looked over at Maya confused.

"What kind of perk package are you thinking of?" Killian began to glow.

"Let him go!" Maya demanded while aiming an injector at her neck.

"Hold on, hold on. Maya..." he turned around.

"I said, let him go!" she demanded.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"1200 CCs. A dose half of this size, I'm dead." she threatened.

"It's times like this my temper is tested somewhat. Maya, give me the injector." he began walking towards her.

"If I die, Killian, what happens to your soldiers? What happens to your product?" she asked while backing away.

"We're not doing this, ok?" he tried defusing the situation.

"What happens to you? What happens if you go too hot?" she reminded him.

Killian looked back at Tony then over at Laura as he shot Maya in the chest.

"Holy shit!" Laura gasped in shock.

"The good news is a high level position has just been vacated." Killian joked.

"You are a maniac." Tony said stunned.

"No, I'm a visionary. But I do own a maniac. And he takes the stage tonight." he walked out and met up with Savin.

"Once we get the Patriot installed, it will take me nine or 10 minutes for the takedown." he explained.

"Well, that's great, but the last time I looked there was somebody inside of it." he said as they walked into a room with Rhodey in his suit as men tried cutting their way inside.

"Afternoon, gentlemen. Hello, Colonel. Step aside." he began heating up his hands and placed them on Rhodey's suit.

"Oh! We'll get you out of there. Don't worry." Rhodey began to get hot inside.

"You'll damage the armor." Savin warned.

"Yes, I will. But you can fix it, right? I'm gonna take the Chinook to base camp. And I want Potts with me." he ordered.

"She's still in Phase Two." Savin replied.

"You're not going deaf, are you?" he repeated himself.

Back in the dungeon, Laura and Tony were still tied up as guards watched them while a watch beeped.

"Careful, there. It's a limited edition." Tony warned the guard who picked up Harley's sisters watch and began messing with it.

"Hey, uh, Ponytail Express. What's the mileage count between Tennessee and Miami?" he asked.

"832 miles." he answered.

"Very nice." Tony complimented.

"I'm good like that. Can you, uh, stop that?" he asked about the watch.

"Break it, you bought it." Tony threatened but he smashed the watch.

"I think I bought it." the guard smirked.

"Ok, that wasn't mine to give away. That belongs to my friend's sister. And that's why I'm gonna kill you first." he threatened.

"And I'll kill you next." Laura taunted the pony tail guard.

"You're tied to a chair. What are you gonna do to me?" he dismissed.

"You'll see." she said smugly, just waiting for the right time.

"This!" Tony gestured his zip tied hands at them and nothing happened.

Meanwhile, Rhodey's suit was getting dangerously hot and glitching out.

"Are you coming out?" Killian asked as he was panting and sweating.

"Do not open. Do not open. Don't open! Don't open! All right. Let's go." the front of the suit opened and he jumped out and punched Savin, knocking him into a table.

Killian's face glowed and he breathed fire at Rhodey, shocking him.

"You, you breathe fire? Ok." Savin knocked him out.

"It's a glorious day, Savin. This time tomorrow, I'll have the West's most powerful leader in one hand, and the world's most feared terrorist in the other. I'll own the war on terror. Create supply and demand. For you, for your brothers and sisters."

"Trust me, you're gonna be in a puddle of blood on the ground in five, four, three... Come on! Two..." Tony continued to threaten the guards.

"How did we get this shift?" one of them asked annoyed.

"All right, I'm gonna give you a chance to escape. Put down your weapons. Tie yourselves to those chairs. I'll let you live. In five, four, bang!" he yelled.

"Wow. That was..." the guard smirked.

"You should be dead." Laura glared at him.

"I am just beyond terrified." he mocked.

"Here it comes. Three, four…" Tony contused.

"Shut up." he ordered.

"Five, four, three, two, one!" a suit hand flew through the window and attached to his hand, arm.

"Told you." he blasted the guard into a desk.

Laura got on her feet, charged at the guard running towards her, swept his legs with the legs of the chair, leapt off him, flipped backwards, and smashed the chair, breaking it on top of him, setting her free

. Another suit piece attached to Tony's foot as he freed himself as he and Laura aimed their weapons at the door.

"Where's the rest?" he asked her and she shrugged her shoulders.

Back in Tennessee, Harley walked over to the window and saw the shed door banging against the lock.

He unlocked it, allowing the rest of the suit pieces to fly high into the sky and he watched on amazed.

More guards were coming in as Laura sent a blast at each of them, knocking them down.

Tony used his boot to fly up towards the ceiling and rained bullets upon them.

Laura shot at two guards on top of the stairs and they collapsed over the edge.

She easily bested a few more as Tony engaged in hand to hand combat with the last one and they aimed their weapons down at the reaming guard.

"Honestly, I hate working here. They are so weird." he dropped his weapon and ran out as Laura and Tony waved their fingers goodbye at him.

They began walking out as the rest of the pieces began attaching to him.

"Ah! Better late than never. Not this time. Not the face." he caught the face guard and put it on.

"Phew! It's good to be back. Hello, by the way." he greeted JARVIS.

"Oh, hello, sir." they looked up and saw Rhodey's suit flying away.

"That can't be good." Laura mumbled.

"All personnel, Stark and Watson are loose and somewhere in the compound. Repeat, Stark and Watson are loose and somewhere in the compound!" the P.A. system was heard.

"Well, they know now. Time to Shawshank this joint." Laura said urgently.

"Well, let's go!" she grabbed onto his arm but his stabilizer misfired.

Rhodey managed to break free, knock out a guard and used his phone to call Tony.

"Tony?" he asked.

"Rhodey, tell me that was you in the suit." he replied.

"No. You got yours'?" he asked.

"Uh, kinda. Meet me at the main house there's someone we want you to meet." They broke into the main house and Laura blasted the two guards as Rhodey smashed through the window, expecting guards but saw them already down and over at Laura's spear.

"What the..?" he managed to ask.

"No time to explain." she gestured towards Trevor asleep on the couch.

"You make a move, and I break your face!" Rhodey aimed his gun at him and Laura aimed her spear.

"I never thought people had been hurt. They lied to me." he began panicking.

"This is the Mandarin?" Rhodey asked disappointed.

"Embarrassing isn't it?" Laura shoot her head in disappointment.

"Hi, Trevor. Trevor Slattery. I know I'm shorter in person. A bit smaller. Everyone says that. But, um, hey, if you're here to arrest me, there's some people I'd like to roll on." he rambled nervously.

"Here's how it works, Meryl Streep." Tony ordered.

"Where is Pepper Potts?" Laura began pressing the blade into his cheek.

"Ow, I get it! Ow! That hurt. I get it! I get it! I don't know about any Pepper, but I know about the plan." he revealed.

"Spill." Tony demanded.

"Do you know what they did to my suit?" Rhodey asked.

"What? No. But I do know it's happening off the coast. Something to do with a big boat. I can take you there." he offered.

"Woah!" Trevor shouted at the soccer match on the TV, causing Laura and Rhodey to gasp.

"Ole, ole, ole, ole!" he cheered.

"Tony, I swear to God, I'm gonna blow his face off." he began losing his patience.

"Oh, and this next bit may include the vice president as well. Is that... Is that important?" Trevor added.

"Yeah, a little bit." Laura said sarcastically as they circled up.

"So?" Tony asked.

"What are we gonna do? I mean, we don't have any transport." Rhodey stated.

"Right. Hey, Ringo. Didn't you say something about a "lovely speedboat"?

On a speedboat in the bay the three were trying to come up with a plan.

"If he's right about the location, we're 20 minutes from where Pepper is." Tony suggested.

"But we also have to figure out this vice president thing, right?" Laura argued.

"Right. I wonder who I'm calling right now. Oh! That's the vice president." he said sarcastically and she rolled her eyes.

"As you saw don't piss off the woman with a spear."

In the Veep's house, an agent gave him his ringing phone.

"Thanks. Hello?" he greeted.

"Sir, this is Tony Stark." he greeted.

"Welcome back to the land of the living." the V.P. whispered.

"Sir, this is Laura Watson. We believe you're about to be drawn into the Mandarin campaign. We gotta get you somewhere safe as soon as possible." she warned.

"Ms. Watson. I'm grateful you're ok as well but I'm about to eat honey roast ham, surrounded by the Agency's finest. The President's safe on Air Force One with Colonel Rhodes. I think we're good, here." he began dismissing her.

"Sir, this is Colonel Rhodes. They're using the Iron Patriot as a Trojan horse. They're gonna take out the president somehow. We have to immediately alert that plane." he warned.

"Ok, I'm on it. I'll have security lock it down. If need be, they can have F-22s in the air in 30 seconds. Thank you, Colonel." he reassured them.

"Rhodes, Watson, and Stark out." they ended the call.

"Everything ok, sir?" an agent asked while taking his phone.

"Couldn't be better." he walked over and kissed his daughter on the head, who happened to be an amputee.

Air Force One was at an airport as Ellis walked up to it as Savin landed hard on the ground and began walking up to him, disguised in the suit.

"Colonel Rhodes. Glad to see you could make it, son. I feel safer already." Ellis saluted him and he saluted him back.

Back on the boat, "We gotta make a decision. We can either save the president, or Pepper. We can't do both." Rhodey warned.

"Sir, I have an update from Malibu. The cranes have finally arrived, and the cellar doors are being cleared as we speak." JARVIS spoke up.

"And what about the suit I'm wearing?" he asked.

"The armor is now at 92%." he replied.

"That's going to have to do." he unplugged the suit from a car battery.

Air Force One was in the air as Savin walked the suit down the aisle and two aides brought out a phone to take a picture with him.

He shoved them inside a room and used his hand to melt the door handle.

He walked into the room with Ellis, getting everyone's attention.

"Everything all right, Colonel?" an official asked.

Savin picked up an object on a table and threw it in the guy's chest.

Agents began shooting at him but he took them out with ease.

A bullet ricocheted off the suit arm, piercing the window as Savin threw the last agent into the table, hard.

Ellis and an agent were hiding behind a desk when Savin picked up the agent through it.

Ellis spotted a gun on the floor and crawled over to it but Savin grabbed him by the neck and opened up his face guard, revealing himself.

"It is an honor, Mr. President." he said nonchalantly.

"If you're gonna do it, do it!" Ellis yelled.

"Whoa! Cool your boots, sir. That's not how the Mandarin works."

Later, Savin was strapping up a parachute but Tony blasted him by surprise.

"The President. Now." he pinned him up against the wall.

"He's not here." he grabbed his suit and began to heat it up.

"Try the jet stream? Speaking of which, go fish." he blew a hole in the side of the plane, sucking people out.

Tony and Savin were trying to pin each other down but Tony sent a final blast from his chest piece at him.

"Walk away from that, you son of a bitch." Savin collapsed to the ground.

He hovered over to where the hole was blasted as the last person was sucked out and flew out.

"How many in the air?" he asked.

"Thirteen, sir." JARVIS highlighted them all as they free fell.

"How many can I carry?" he asked.

"Four, sir." he answered.

"Laura, for once I can use you." he flew down and grabbed onto a screaming woman.

"Slow down. Slow down, relax. What's your name? Heather?" he read her nametag.

"Oh, God! No! No!" they saw Air Force One blow up above them.

"Listen to me. See that guy? I'm gonna swing by, you're just gonna grab him. You got it?" he got her attention.

"What? Oh!" he flew down towards him.

"I'll electrify your arm, you won't be able to open your hand. We can do this, Heather." she reached for him and grabbed him.

"Easy, see? Eleven more to go. Remember that game called Barrel of Monkeys? That's what we're going to do." he flew over and the people began forming a chain.

"18,000 feet." JARVIS warned.

"Come on, people. Everybody, grab your monkey.

"Nice." more people grabbed on.

"10,000 feet. 6,000 feet." JARVIS alerted.

"Come on, people. Come on, come on, come on! Yeah!" a woman clung onto his back.

"1,000 feet. 400 feet. 200 feet, sir." Tony flew with two chains of people on both sides of him towards the last falling man.

"He's a chunky monkey, let's get him. Hello." a person grabbed him right before they fell into the water but Tony hovered right above it and carefully dropped them all into it.

"We made it!" a man yelled and they all cheered, relieved.

"Nice work, guys! Excellent. Good team effort all around. Go us. All right, Jarvis. But it's only half-done. We've still got to get Pepper... " he flew right above a bridge and into a truck, smashing the suit to pieces on the street.

"That came out of nowhere. Wow. " he cringed while wearing the headband inside the cabin of the boat they were on.

"So, what's the situation?" she asked with worry.

"I think they all made it." he reassured them.

"Oh, thank God." her and Rhodey sighed with relief.

"Yeah, but I missed the president." Tony warned gravely.

"You couldn't save the president with the suit, how are we gonna save Pepper with nothing?" Rhodey asked.

"Uh... Say, JARVIS, is it that time?" Tony asked.

"The House Party protocol, sir?" he asked.

"Correct." he hinted.

"And don't worry Tony I've got backup." Laura got passed the biometric security on a Kimoyo bead on her bracelet and it glowed purple.

"What have you been working on?" he asked her.

"You'll see."