Rhodey opened a panel on his forearm bracer, revealing several adjustable screws. Part of Tony's original design that was never removed. Careful not to accidentally crush the finer circuitry, he placed a screwdriver on one of the bolts and gently tightened it, reassured by the sound of a muon beam intensifying. "So, what's the target?" He asked. Coulson placed the jet on autopilot, then stood up and walked back into the cargo area.
"Our target," He said as he charged an I.C.E.R., "Is Hammer Industries. Specifically, their main site in New York City."
"'Hammer'? As in Justin Hammer?" Rhodey repeated. "I thought Tony, Pepper, and I took that guy down way back in 2010."
Coulson pointed to him affirmingly. "And you're right. But I did some digging using Fury's toolbox, and discovered a few things. The Centipede serum from A.I.M. is different from the serum from Hydra, nothing we didn't already know, but when Fitz analysed the serum and found the much higher concentration of the Extremis formula, he missed some of the subtler components, something that F.R.I.D.A.Y. and I double-checked. Turns out, there were several other compounds that A.I.M. couldn't replicate from the original formula."
"Like the Chitari metal," Mike guessed. "Ever since Spider-Man took down the Vulture, all the Chitari components have been collected and stored in the D.O.D.C., aside from those that were already distributed."
"Exactly. So rather than pay the premium for the Chitari metals in the original cocktail, the mystery figure behind this operation substituted in a synthetic substrate of vibranium," Coulson explained. "The same stuff, Rhodes, that you've got in that chestpiece right there."
Rhodey blinked, confused for a moment. Tony's vibranium compound ended up in A.I.M.'s hands? Then he considered what Coulson had said about Hammer industries earlier, and it clicked. "Hammer escaped during the Blip, didn't he?"
"Bingo," Coulson replied. "The escaped convict list from Ryker's Penitentiary in New York confirms it."
Mike spoke up from his jumpseat. "Wait, where was the connection between Hammer and Vibranium?"
"Hammer hired Ivan Vanko, a Russian physicist and the son of Howard Stark's former partner, who helped create the Arc Reactor. Vanko was supposed to build an Iron army for Hammer so he could one-up Tony Stark," Rhodey explained quickly. "We assumed the research self-destructed with the rest of the Iron Army. Hammer must've been able to piece together something in the wreckage, and now that he's on the loose, he's trying to make up the ground he lost in prison."
"Exactly," Coulson finished. "It's not ethical, but there isn't really a more effective way of re-capitalizing on lost profit than selling superpower serum."
Rhodey sighed. "So Justin Hammer is the big figurehead behind A.I.M. now." Coulson gave him a sympathetic shrug. Rhodey turned his attention to the slightly more forgiving night sky as it began pouring rain, dejectedly muttering, "It figures that the first guy Tony and I took down together would be the guy to come back after he died."
"Actually, that fits in with what we know almost perfectly," Mike responded, ignoring the rhetoric. "Hammer wasn't showing his face with Iron Man still in the picture. But now that he's gone, whether it's Spider-Man or War Machine filling his shoes, Hammer no longer has a superhero with sights trained on him." The strange thing, Rhodey realized, is that this was true. War Machine, the mantel he upheld, was so strongly associated with the government that it was hard for him to pursue a personal agenda. And Spider-Man, a rookie superhero, was still getting his legs under him to begin with, and now he was also in hiding. "Or at least, he thinks he doesn't," Mike added.
Rhodey nodded to himself, looking at the super soldier. "Then I'll remind him that Tony's legacy is just as powerful as the man himself."
"Couldn't have said it better," Mike replied. A beat of silence passed, and Mike began fidgeting with the glowing orange and silver implant on his forearm. Rhodey raised an eyebrow in his direction.
"Do you ever regret taking the Centipede serum?" He asked. Mike let out a pained laugh.
"Every day," He said, not taking his eyes off the gadget. When he didn't continue immediately, Rhodey decided he'd let the conversation rest. Then the man spoke.
"You know, I had a life before all… this." He gestured to the plane around them. "I had a wife. A job. A little boy, my son, Ace. We didn't have much, but we were happy. Happy to live our lives out quietly, grow old, see our boy become a man, and then, see his kids grow, too." The scarred man shook his head sadly. "Not anymore."
"What happened?" Rhodey asked. Mike inhaled deeply, seeming to gather his thoughts. Rhodey got the vague impression that he didn't talk about this often, meaning that this fierce cybernetic warrior was offering an olive branch to him. He fully intended to accept.
"There was an accident in the factory," Mike began. "I was able to fix it before it hurt anyone, but I had to put myself in harm's way to do it. I broke two ribs, a hip, and slipped two discs in my spine. The moment the doctor's report came in, I was laid off. No warning. No pension. Only just enough compensation to cover the medical costs. My wife left, and I was in no condition to support my boy. Especially with no hopes of returning to work.
"Then, about a year after that, a young woman named Reyna found me in a daybar. I was in a particularly rough patch then, Ace was at school, so I made the ever so adult decision to 'forget my problems for a while'," Mike let out another single bark of laughter in spite of himself. Rhodey winced. "She told me that she could offer me a second chance. Give me my strength, my life back. I didn't believe she could possibly be telling the truth, so she said, 'alright then. If that's really what you think,' then got up and left me there, with a piece of paper giving me an address. I refused to believe it.
"But, as I became more and more desperate, and more and more things around me kept falling apart, I couldn't stop thinking about what she had said. So I went to the address, and found her waiting in an unmarked car, and with a doctor.
"They put me under, and the next thing I knew, I woke up as if we had never left the car, a Centipede permanently attached to my arm. I was scared. Then I realized the device healed me. Completely. I was far stronger than I ever had been before. I thanked them for giving me the chance no one else would, and they sent me on my way, asking me if I could keep it together. To which I responded, without the shadow of a doubt. 'Yes'.
"I was wrong.
"Less than a month later, I became a walking time bomb, terrorizing and assaulting people. I nearly blew up Union Station and everyone in it. Coulson and the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D. scooped me up and gave me a second chance just in time, but the worst part couldn't be fixed. My boy saw it. I couldn't bear to look him in the eye after that.
"Coulson sent him to go live with his Aunt Mindy, where he's lived ever since. I swore I'd become a hero, just like Captain America and the Avengers. I had to redeem myself in his eyes. When Coulson called a few months later, I thought, foolishly, 'This is it. This is where I prove myself.'. Then Reyna figured out I was alive, took my son hostage, and demanded I hand over Coulson. I had no choice.
"We rescued Ace, I left him with Daisy, who he seemed to trust. But I had to fix what I did, so I ran after Reyna. I had no idea they planned on that. They blew up the fuel tankers that were stopped on the bridge. After a moment of searing pain, everything went black, and I thought I was dead."
Mike paused once again. Rhodey knew how these things went. You had to finish telling the story in order to get it off your chest. He didn't want to pry, but there was a way he could ask without being pushy. "Then what happened?"
"I woke up alone, in a locked cell, missing a leg and with burns all over. Everything hurt, and I didn't know what had become of me. Then I realized they had replaced my eye with a cybernetic one, one they could give me orders through, or kill me with. I became a slave to Hydra. They called me 'Deathlok'."
His eyes started to water as he got to this part, "I did terrible, terrible things, Rhodes. Things I still can't name today. Only by rescuing Ace and getting him out of harm's way did Coulson free me from Hydra's control. I didn't care if they lived or died then. I shot the nearest Hydra agent to me with the most powerful weapons in my arsenal, and went back into S.H.I.E.L.D.. My son went back to my sister. Fitz removed all the self-destruct devices in my parts and pieces, overhauled the parts I kept, and Coulson came to me. 'You want another second chance?' He asked. I said no. 'Good,' he responded. 'How about a first one?' Then he sent me into the field. I became Mike Peterson again, but Deathlok is still a part of me. He always will be.
He let out a tired sigh putting his head between his hands. "I have since dedicated my life to S.H.I.E.L.D., and made amends with as many people as I could. It should be enough," Mike shook his head, looking at the clouds. "Not to me."
"Then what do you want?" Rhodey asked.
"To look my son in the eyes again," He answered honestly. "But if he sees me, and I tell him the truth, some part of me knows he'll only see me for the monster I was." He drew another shuddering breath. "I haven't seen him since that night on the bridge."
Rhodey leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees. "Do you at least know that he's doing alright?"
Mike nodded. "Oh, of course. He's in high school now, I think. One of the best in his grade. He's got a girlfriend, good people in his life, and a family that loves and supports him dearly," He said quickly. "He's happy. I don't want to take that away from him by coming back into his life after all these years."
Rhodey sighed. "I'm gonna do the whole tough love thing now, okay? You're afraid your son will hate you for what you did wrong. But in comparison to everything you've done since? You know that you're a good person. You need to tell him that. If he truly cares for you, his father, he'll forgive all of it. On the other hand, if you don't, you'll never have to face him, but you'll regret it for the rest of your life, and he will believe his father abandoned him."
Mike looked up at him, his eyes watering slightly. He sniffed strongly, rubbing his hands together. "I-"
He was suddenly cut off by loud clanging on the roof of the ship. The two of them stood up. "What was that?" Mike demanded.
Coulson looked back at them over his shoulder. "Something's right on top of us!" He announced. Rhodey's helmet closed around him, and the green interface lit up. He marched back to the cargo door, reaching for the red 'open' button.
"Then I'll go deal with it," He stated. As he said this, he slammed the button down, and a furious wind rushed into the jet. Mike suddenly jumped up, strapped on a parachute, and stood beside him.
"Give me a lift onto the roof!" He yelled. Rhodey nodded, Deathlok grabbed ahold of his shoulders, and they fell out into the sky.
Rhodey quickly fired his thrusters, spinning the two of them around and burning back up towards the jet. The rain pelted his mask viciously, distorting some of his finer external sensors and blurring his vision. He swooped around the jetwash of the twin engines and rolled over ahead of the quinjet, catching sight of an armored figure pounding into the surface of the jet. "Mike! Now!" He shouted. Mike let go of the exoskeletal armor, dropping onto the top of the jet and punching the figure in the face. He rolled over, using something in the bottom of his artificial leg to anchor himself to the surface. Rhodey watched the two begin to exchange blows, priming his shoulder cannon and activating the targeting system.
Just as it locked, his suit forced him to the left, narrowly avoiding a sudden lightning bolt. The thundercrack dazed him as F.R.I.D.A.Y. held the suit steady. "Colonel Rhodes, my radar is picking up a third craft nearby!" The AI female told him. He quickly rolled over onto his back, switching to infrared vision. A small dropship, about half the size of their jet, loomed out of the storm above.
"Guys, I've got eyes on an enemy aircraft out here!" He relayed over the comm, pulling back from the Quinjet and behind the new guest.
"I'd bet nine out of ten that's where this guy came from!" Mike shouted in between punches.
"Agreed. Coulson, your orders?" Rhodey asked.
"Engage. We don't want to get captured before we've even made it on site," The S.H.I.E.L.D. agent said firmly.
"Copy," Rhodey responded. He fired his thrusters again, this time accelerating way past the dropship, and turning to begin unloading rounds into it.
"I'll keep this guy busy then!" Mike yelled, followed by a sharp grunt.
After exhausting two magazines of ammunition and barely making a dent, the dropship returned fire with a large missile. Rhodey let out a small sound of surprise as he dodged to the left. It vanished into the night sky. He quickly turned his attention back to the dropship. "F.R.I.D.A.Y., analyze the ship's structure and give me something to work with!"
"Scanning!" F.R.I.D.A.Y. responded. Rhodey's display lit up, the advanced AI highlighting individual points all across the craft, quickly determining what the result of a strike to the spot would be on the rest of the ship. Finally, a large crosshair appeared on a small chink in between the wing and the fuselage. Rhodey grinned, lightning flashing around him once more.
"Here we go," He muttered to himself. Out of his shoulder appeared a small missile launcher, and, training it on his target, it prepared to launch. The storm flashed around him once again. That's right. Iron Man's gone. But War Machine is still here. He thought triumphantly. Hammer would do well to remember that.
"Rhodes! Look out!" Mike suddenly shouted into the comm over another boom of thunder. Rhodey swiveled around, firing his chest repulsor at whatever was coming his way
Too late.
The missile he had dodged earlier blew mere inches from his chest, scorching the armor and sending him reeling, detonating the missile he was about to fire from his shoulder and sending pieces of equipment and armor spiraling off into the sky. He tumbled away from the jets and into the night, struggling to regain control of the suit before impact. "Come on…" He muttered as the thrusters spluttered. "Come on, damn it!" He shouted. The suit roared back to life, leveling him out and re-pressurizing for high altitude. "Yes!"
He shot upwards, towards where he thought the jets would be. "Coulson, do you copy?" He asked, but got nothing but static. Frowning, he tried again. "Coulson, Mike, respond. Over."
Still nothing.
"This is James Rhodes. Does anybody copy? Over," He said vainly. Nothing but silence greeted him.
He was alone.
"What the hell, Mack!" Sam exclaimed, trying to push his way into the Director's office. Mack stepped out from behind his desk.
"Let him in," Mack instructed. Davis, who had been guarding the door, stepped to the side, and the new Captain swept up in front of him without a second's hesitation.
"We came here for you to help us," He accused. "Instead, we start running your errands, gathering your intel, and then it all turns out that one of your best men, who isn't even a man, initiates an unauthorized assault on an unknown target for unknown reasons. Not only that, but he took the only samples of the Centipede serum with him. If it even qualifies as a him."
"Watch your tone, Captain," Mack responded, his voice razor sharp and deadly. "If you are suggesting that I had some involvement in this act, then you are sorely mistaken. Furthermore, I will remind you that now, and always, Coulson is a person. He is more than an android, and far greater a person than any of us here can hope to be. He has sacrificed himself for the cause- heart, soul, and limb- at least seven times over his career. Tell me, can you match that?"
Sam opened his mouth to reply, but no words came out. Mack continued sternly, "Regardless of faction, Coulson is the most dedicated to this cause that anyone will ever be. Now either you recognize that, and respect his judgement for it, or you can get off my boat."
"I'll do what I and my team see as right," Sam shot back. "If that means taking this boat, or fighting you, don't doubt for a second that I won't do it."
"Well, considering one of your team is currently on Coulson's op, I would think you should choose your words more carefully, or respect your team's choice," Mack stated. Sam's fist clenched by his side.
"I respect my team's choice," He said. Mack nodded firmly. "It's yours that I don't."
Yo-Yo suddenly appeared at his side. Mack let out an internal sigh of relief. Finally, he thought. "The ship's secure. Those guards might have a bit of a headache when the I.C.E.R. bullets wear off, but they should be just fine," She reported. Then her eyes darted back and forth between him and Sam. "Is there a problem here?"
Mack held his glare steady against the new Captain for a moment longer, trying his level best to finish his statement nonverbally. I know you don't trust S.H.I.E.L.D., but right now we have bigger problems than the two of us. He seemed to agree, and they both looked away from each other and at Yo-Yo. "No," He stated. "Captain Wilson and I were having a disagreement on how best to proceed following Coulson's… excursion." As always, Yo-Yo read between the lines, and quietly nodded.
"Okay, well?" She asked. Mack was grateful for her attempt to steer the room to a more productive state. "What've you guys got?"
Mack made to reply, but Sam beat him to it. "At the moment, that's the problem. We don't even know what i-" he stopped mid-sentence, catching Mack's glare. "-what his target is. Or was, anyway."
"Right. And he's too smart to leave the transponder on the stolen quinjet active," Mack added.
"Unless he wanted to be followed."
Sam blinked. Mack raised an eyebrow. "Go on…"
"Well, if I know Coulson, he would be sick of just sitting around instead of doing something about the problem. He'd do what a leader does. Take action," She said, looking around the room. Mack followed her line of sight, landing on Fury's toolbox. She crossed the office, picking it up and showing it to the both of them. "And he'd do it with this."
"What is that?" Sam asked.
"A gift from Nick Fury," He explained, picking it out of Yo-Yo's hand. He studied it, confused. "Coulson's prints and biometric ID were erased when he gave it to me. How would he have gotten in?"
"Does it matter? He's smart enough to know that the only systems that don't notify you about their usage are your own. Plus, the toolbox is pretty much the all in one kit for a super spy," She responded. Mack, though he didn't like it, had to agree.
"That still doesn't explain wanting to be followed," Sam muttered.
Yo-Yo crossed her arms smugly. "Well, what does a leader do?" She prompted. Sam sighed, clearly disappointed in something. Mack couldn't figure out what.
"He leads," Sam answered, pinching the bridge of his nose. "That has to be the most someone has made me feel like an elementary school kid in a long time. You're too good at that," He turned to Mack. "She's too good at that."
"Yeah, I know," Mack said, sparing a laugh. "You get used to it."
"Evidently."
"So, what's the plan, boss?" Yo-Yo asked. He considered the question, then addressed the two superheroes before him.
"Alright, Sam I need you to-" He began, but stopped abruptly as the second alarm today began blaring, this time, a different series of tones. "Proximity alarm?"
A massive boom suddenly rocked through the entire ship.
"Sir!" Davis called. Mack ran up to his side, seeing a radar on the table he held. A bright, angry red dot glared up from the screen. "It appeared only a few seconds ago."
"What is it?"
"I have no idea, but whatever it is, it's on a collision course with the carrier, and it's losing altitude fast," He relayed. Mack dashed back into the office, reaching for the intercom when a new voice called his name.
"Director!"
He whirled to find that Simmons and Vision had suddenly joined the crowd that was now in his office. "We were just in the communications center when this thing appeared. I don't know what it is, but it's sending out a distress call over a S.H.I.E.L.D. frequency," She explained. "I think it's one of ours."
Mack's blood suddenly felt cold. "Daisy…" He muttered. Then he grabbed the P.A. "All S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel, this is Director Mackinzie. Evacuate the landing platform and hangar bay. Place fireteams two and six on standby, and prepare the medbay for injuries related to depressurization and burns. Rotate engines 2 and 3 to place the runway in intercept position." The comm became a buzz of confirmations and communication as the entire ship went into emergency mode.
"Wait! Mack! What's happening?" Sam demanded. Mack spun and began marching toward the door, fitting a commlink into his ear.
"It's the Zephyr Three," He said quickly. Then, into the PA once more: "We have confirmed the unidentified object as a S.H.I.E.L.D. vessel on an emergency approach. Be prepared to assist in any form necessary, and try to establish a communication link with this vessel…"
Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't updated the story for a while, but I've been really busy with the end of the first semester and trying to keep my head above the water for about ten other things too, so my life has become very hectic. (Also, writer's block. It happens. It takes a while to get through it) But, I'm back, and I've brought the next chapter of Avengers: Tectonic with me. We've just a couple more to go. Please let me know what you think in the reviews, I'm always happy to hear other opinions and suggestions, and it does really help to know what I could do better and what I'm already doing well on. If you like the fic so far, please, spread the word! Tell your friends! I'd love to hear what they have to say.
Until the next one!