The title is from Supernatural lol. Jack (technically the demon Belphegor in Jack's body) holding a hand out and saying "Bad ghost! Bad!" will never not be funny that whole episode was such a fever dream
Chapter 13: Bad Human Glowsticks! Bad!
Aura was absently drumming her fingers on the wheel, wishing that the car in front of her would hurry up.
She knew that they were on an icy freeway late at night and mortals wouldn't feel comfortable going faster speeds, but she had somewhere she wanted to be and was extremely confident in her driving skills.
What could she say? When she was younger and would sneak out of camp with other year-rounders, her favorite thing to do was drive in sparsely populated areas at breakneck speed. A fast processing speed and even faster reaction times mixed with driving means that once you get used to speed, there's no going back. She was normally okay going slower, but currently she was anxious and on a mission.
"I feel like you're not paying attention to the road," Tony said from the passenger seat. His tone was serious but he didn't even look up from the file he was reading, so Aura could tell he didn't care that much.
"I'm paying attention," Aura said.
An opening appeared and Aura took it, increasing her speed to 5 mph above the speed limit.
Aura wasn't looking forward to where they were heading, but she definitely wanted this to be over already.
Tony had given her the rundown in the first ten or so minutes of the drive. All of the Mandarin bombings, of which there were 9, instead of the 3 the public were told about, were triggered by soldiers injected with Extremis.
Tony isn't quite sure what Extremis is, but it lets the user get really hot and set things on fire, and they can't regulate their internal body temperature which leads to them exploding.
While they were in Harley's garage for half an hour or so, Tony had looked through the file he got in the fight against the Extremis soldier he blew up with a microwave. He had realized that the soldiers once worked for AIM, Aldrich Killian's company.
Did Aura know what AIM was or who Aldrich Killian was? No, but it was a big revelation to Tony, so she hoped that it would give them more answers.
AIM was the same company that rebranded Iron Patriot, so after a call with a James Rhodes Tony was able to find a heavy-duty comm sat and got Rhodes's login.
Again, Aura didn't quite understand. But she did know what was needed from her, and that was good enough.
So that was where they were headed. And they were about there, by the looks of it.
"Park here," Tony said, opening the glove box to put the file in.
What he found was the typical contents of a Camp Half-Blood van glove compartment: Candy wrappers, a package of gum, a phone charger, a small first aid kit, a baggie of ambrosia, and several Celestial Bronze knives.
Aura pulled into a spot in the parking lot of an event hall. The sign outside the hall had said, "Miss Chattanooga Christmas Pageant," and the parking lot was currently packed full of attendees and news vans.
Tony, noticing her refusal to acknowledge him, just sighed, slipped the file in the glove compartment on top of everything else, and shut it.
"Alright, Buffy, let's do this," he said, unbuckling and climbing out.
Aura followed suit, locking the van and pocketing the key before she followed Tony through the crowd and into an empty news van.
Tony sat down at the workstation and started pressing buttons and looking at the computer.
Aura sat down cross-legged on the floor in the corner and pulled out her phone. She had several new messages from Kayla and Arson about what she thought she was doing (from Kayla) and advice on taking down the Ten Rings (from Arson).
Aura had already thought of homemade mini bombs and commandeering a big truck to ram into the building, but she had not considered using a flamethrower as a weapon or spraying them in the eyes with a fire extinguisher.
Leave it to Arson to have lots of unique ideas within an hour on how to break into a rich guy's mansion and take down a terrorist group. What were they, fourteen? Aura wondered absentmindedly if she should talk to Kai about giving Arson extra battle tactics training. Right now they were young and inexperienced, but if that situational resourcefulness and creativity was nurtured, it would be an invaluable skill.
Or Arson was just good at thinking of weapons and violent solutions to things. Either way, it could be a very useful skill if given the right knowledge and experience.
Aura's thought process was interrupted by the door to the van opening and a man talking loudly on the phone peering in.
"Excuse me, sir. I don't know who-" The man started, covering his phone microphone with his hand. He cut off sharply when Tony turned around.
The man's mouth hung open, and his eyes went wide.
"Mom, I need to call you back. Something magical is happening," The man whispered into his phone, hanging up quickly and looking back up at Tony excitedly. "Tony Stark is in my van."
Should Aura knock him out? No, right? The man didn't seem to have noticed her yet, so she had a good opportunity to catch him off guard.
The man kept babbling excitedly, Tony trying to calm him down.
"Come in," he whispered. "Close the door!"
The man climbed in hurriedly and closed the door, staring at Tony.
Aura figured she wasn't needed at the moment and went back to looking up Aldrich Killian on her phone, paying attention to both men's tones so she would know if the situation escalated but ignoring the words themselves.
Aura did hear when Tony asked the man to climb on the roof.
"I don't have enough juice," Tony continued. "I need you to jump on the roof… right?"
The man nodded.
"Recalibrate the ISDNs. Pump it up by about 40%," Tony finished.
And Aura stopped paying attention. She only regained interest when Tony started typing rapidly on the computer, a look of solemn anticipation on his face.
She stood up, stretching her arms, and went to look over his shoulder.
Tony used the login he got from James Rhodes to get into AIM. He pulled up a video named Extremis Candidate and Sgt. Chad Davis.
"What would you regard as the defining moment of your life?" The interviewer on screen asked.
"Well, uh, I think that would be the day that I decided not to let my injury beat me," Chad Davis said.
Tony started typing again and opened another file titled Extremis Candidate and Ellen Brandt.
"Will you please state your name for the camera?" The interviewer asked.
"Ellen Brandt," she said. Her left arm was missing.
"Okay. So, the injections are administered periodically," the interviewer said. The camera angle moved to focus on his face.
"Killian," Tony muttered, focused completely on the screen.
Aura also recognized his face, from the quick Google search she had done.
"Addiction will not be tolerated, and those who cannot regulate will be cut from the program," Killian continued.
Stark closed the video and pulled up another labeled Injection Test Phase 1.
Killian was in front of a group of presumed candidates wearing athletic wear. "Once misfits, cripples… You are the next iteration of human evolution."
Tony skipped ahead.
"Alright. Everybody, before we start… I promise you, looking back at your life, there will be nothing as bitter as the memory of that glorious risk you prudently elected to forego. Today is your glory. Let's begin," Killian said.
The cameras showed people getting into standing restraining contraptions, hooked to vital-reading machines, and given injections.
The camera panned to show Ellen Brandt regrowing her arm, glowing from the inside. She screamed in pain.
Her neighbor was also screaming, much louder.
Killian looked at him wildly and started ordering, "We gotta get out of here! We gotta get out of here! Get her out. Get them out of here!"
Everyone left, and the camera stayed on the man still there, glowing brighter and brighter. He started smoking, and almost immediately exploded.
"A bomb isn't a bomb when it's a misfire," Tony said quietly, mostly to himself. "The stuff doesn't always work. Right, pal? It's faulty, but you found a buyer, didn't you? Sold it to the Mandarin. Got you, pal."
Aura wondered if Tony frequently talked to himself. Maybe it was a side effect of being smart and spending a bunch of time inventing things.
Or he was weird and lonely. Who knew.
Tony closed all of the things he opened, taking a deep breath.
"So, we definitely have a mansion to sneak into," Aura said, tapping her arm. "How long's the drive?"
Sorry for the chapter being short! I hoped to make it longer and include the actual mansion invasion, but a bunch of studying for AP World History snuck up on me last minute and I had to rush the ending. I should probably have better time management skills, but oh well, I'm blaming it on AP World History. Happy December everyone! I don't know about you, but I can't wait for Christmas break. I'll have more time to spend writing fanfiction, that's for sure!