Miami was a welcome change from the frigid, icy weather up north. It was warm, and a soft breeze carried the calls of seagulls and the smell of saltwater to me. I smiled at Pendragon as we left the airport. First things first, we needed a place to put our stuff, at least for now. We could always come back for it later. Pen shot Tony a text that we were in town and would meet him at the coordinates shortly.

We sought out an inexpensive motel as close to the coordinates as we could find and paid for a couple days in advance. Stashing only the barest necessities in a waterproof bag, we grabbed our underwater gps, courtesy of Tony, went straight to the beach. I found a secluded section of shoreline and we ducked quickly into the water. After my clothes vanished and my scales appeared, I took a look around. The water was warm and clear, and I could see an assortment of litter lining the seafloor. Gross. Small fish darted out of our path as we swam towards the coordinates.

The gps led us to a decently sized beachfront mansion, complete with a walled in garden and a private dock. We tucked ourselves under the dock and dried ourselves off. If we were needed on land, we wanted to be available at a moment's notice. We heard muffled sounds coming from inland, and Pen and I exchanged worried glances. We checked our phones to see we had a text from Tony, but there was nothing.

Hours passed and the guards were patrolling even more than they had before. I was feeling antsy, levitating bubbles of water and freezing them to the underside of the dock to pass the time. Tony had told us to wait for him to shout for us, text us, or if we saw pieces of an Iron Man suit fly overhead. But we hadn't received any of the signals or signs.

"Quit slacking!" Came a voice from above, catching Pendragon and I off guard, "The boss is here, he's already dealt with the intruder and shit, if he catches you lazing around on duty you're dead, you know?" Intruder? Pen and I looked at each other worriedly. Intruder? Is Tony still alive at this point?

"Damn, he's here? Did he get the Iron Patriot yet? I've always wanted to see that thing up close."

"What?" Pendragon mouthed at me in surprise, and I grew increasingly concerned. Rhodey, Tony's long time friend and owner of the War Machine, now called the Iron Patriot, was at the Mandarin's base? If he's here, there's some really crazy stuff going on. Really really crazy stuff.

"Yeah, good luck getting close enough to do that. They're still trying to get that guy out of the suit." Oh. That explains what Rhodey's doing here then, they captured him for the suit. But exactly what they're doing to get him out, I can't even begin to guess. And Tony, when is he going to give us the signal? Can he still do that at this point?

At that moment, we heard what sounded like a missile whiz by and shatter some of the glass windows. "What the hell?" the guard asked. Peering through the cracks in the dock, I saw a flash of red and gold. The suit, and the signal.

Pendragon and I reached out to the water and blasted it up through the space between the planks. The guards were sent flying with yelps of alarm. We ducked out on land and peered into the garden. The commotion had attracted another group of armed men, but we had the ocean on our side.

More crashes, gunfire, and explosions sounded from inside the house. Sounds like Tony is fighting too, I thought. I lifted a large blob of water, making it crawl up and over the dock like a slug. The guards fired at the water, but of course, the bullets punched right through. I pictured a monstrous face in my mind, and twisted the water into the shape of a beast. The guards were backing up, and Pendragon decided to gel the blob, making it turn opaque.

Terrified, the men turned tail and bolted. We dropped the blop, letting it sag onto the bricked walkway, and entered the property. Overhead, several more pieces of the Iron Man suit blasted towards the house, so we took off after it. Grabbing water from a fountain, I froze it into a clubbed shape and knocked a lone guard over the head with it.

Out of the corner of my eye I spotted Tony, suited up in red and gold. Following the direction of his eyes, I saw a carrier helicopter flying away, and the Iron Patriot suit heading in a different direction. At least Rhodey got away.

"Hey!" Pendragon called out, waving to get Tony's attention. I ran up to greet him and pulled him into a hug. His suit was super beaten up, and I realized it was the same suit from when his house was attacked.

"Where were you? We were waiting for hours!" I asked, relieved to see him alive.

"Well at least you got the signal, I'll explain later. Come with me." Tony said quickly. I heard a small voice coming from Tony's helmet.

"Rhodey, please tell me that was you in the suit." He said. But apparently it wasn't. "Uh, mm, kinda," He continued, replying to an unknown question. "Meet me at the house, there's someone I want you to meet." Turning to Pendragon and I, he waved for us to follow.

We finally convened inside the house. It was some kind of living room. Rhodey, looking tired and fairly stressed out, was rather surprised to see us.

"Tony, you brought kids here?" He asked in disbelief. I rolled my eyes.

"We need all the help we can get," Tony admitted awkwardly.

"Let's ignore the morals of bringing young adults of legal age to a gunfight and deal with the issue at hand," I interrupted pointedly, thankful that I was basically 18 already. Colonel Rhodes didn't need to know that I wasn't. He sighed, but agreed nonetheless. From behind a door, I heard a shout of joy and celebration, followed by giggling. We all jumped, on edge from the tense nature of our situation.

We split up, Tony entering the room using the doorway and Rhodey jumping in through the window. With a couple quick blasts, they took down the guards in the room. Two scantily dressed young women dropped their ping pong paddles and ran past us as we followed Tony. Sitting on a reclining chair, and nursing a cheap beer, was the Mandarin. Rhodes leveled his gun at the Mandarin's face, while the his eyes went wide.

"I never thought people had been hurt. They lied to me," he began calmly in a british accent. He didn't sound like the Mandarin on tv. Is he a body double?

"Ugh" I exclaimed, "He's a fake!" Tony shook his head, then lifted his face plate and rolled his eyes.

"No no no, it's embarrassing," Tony began. The Mandarin lifted his hand for a polite shake and stammered out a greeting.

"Hi, the name's Trevor, Trevor Slattery," He introduced himself, as Rhodey slapped his hand down. "I'm a bit smaller in person, everyone always mentions that…" I raised an eyebrow and looked at Tony for an explanation. He interrupted the Manda- Trevor, who was continuing to blabber on.

"Here's how it works, you tell us where Pepper is and he stops doing that." Pepper's been kidnapped? I glared at Tony in bewilderment.

"Doing what?" Trevor asked. Rhodey held the still smoking barrel of his handgun against Trevor's ear. "Ow! Stop! I get it, I get it!" He shouted, cupping a hand over his red ear. "I don't know about any pepper, but I do know about the plan!"

"Well get on with it!" Pendragon ordered, exasberated.

"You know what they did to my suit?" Rhodey asked. Trevor looked confused.

"What? No." He said, "I do know they're doing… Something… Off the coast. I know it has to do with a big boat." I crossed my arms and glowered at him. The man who wasn't the Mandarin shrunk back, "I can take you there!" He smiled, then looked at the television and burst into loud cheers, making the four of us jump in alarm.

"Tony," Rhodey said angrily, "I swear to god, I'm gonna blow his face off!" That caught Trevor's attention.

"No!" he gasped in fear, "This next bit may include the vice president as well!" We exchanged looks. "Is… Is that important?" We all made noises of confirmation that yes, it is important. We grouped up in a circle to figure out what to do while Trevor returned to watching his soccer game.

"What are we going to do?" Rhodes began, "We don't have any transport."

"Jacqueline and I can easily get out to the big boat he mentioned," Pendragon added, "We're strong enough to pull you guys through the water if you're desperate enough to get there by no other means." Rhodey looked confused, but didn't pursue the topic. Tony turned to look at Trever.

"Hey Ringo," He called over, "Didn't you say something about a lovely speedboat?"

Trevor smiled, "Yes, such a lovely boat!" He agreed. When he realized we wanted it, his face fell. Luckily for him, he didn't try to stop us from taking it anyway. Pendragon and I led the way to the private dock and there the boat was. We piled in and Tony took the controls. At least he could track down where the Iron Patriot suit had gone. He proudly confessed that he'd put a tracer in the suit. Rhodey was a little agitated knowing Tony could track him anywhere in the Patriot suit, but it was a good thing in this instance.

"If he's right about the location, we're about 20 minutes away from where Pepper is." Tony said, pacing nervously. He squeezed the car battery that he'd attached to his suit tighter with frustration. I nodded, holding on tight to the side of the boat. Pendragon and I had squeezed into one of the few spots where the water the boat kicked up wouldn't splash us. We could swim just as fast as this bouncing piece of machinery anyway, but Rhodey didn't know about our fins and we weren't about to try and explain it yet.

"We also have to figure out this vice president thing." Rhodey added. Tony pulled out his cellphone and chose a number from his contacts list. Rhodey looked exasperated, but Tony shrugged and held out the phone.

"Guess who I'm calling, oh look! It's the vice president!" Rhodey, Pendragon, and I all knew Tony well enough not to question why he had the vice president's number saved to his phone. We could guess that said vice president probably didn't even give him the number voluntarily.

The phone call connected, and Rhodey and Tony both huddled over the phone. They gave the V.P. the rundown of the situation, and warned him of the Mandarin's plans. He was thankful for the information, and promised to let the his entourage of Secret Service know. Tony hung up looking relieved that one problem was taken care of.

The next problem was less easily solved. How to rescue both Pepper and the President. Tony only had one beaten up suit, Rhodes pointed out, and they each had one handgun.

"And why are you two here?" He turned to us, "You don't even have any weapons!"

"We're aquamancers, we fought in the Battle of New York," Pendragon said calmly, "The entire ocean is our weapon. They'll be on a boat. You should be worrying about how you will be fighting." Rhodey went quiet for a moment, before agreeing that we were probably prepared enough for the fight ahead. Tony stood off the side, not paying our conversation much mind. He and Jarvis were discussing the availability of his other suits, which were currently blocked by the wreckage of the Malibu mansion.

"Alright, send them over when I give the word," He said, then climbed out of the suit. "We've got an airplane full of people to save." He smiled at us. The suit had a hidden remote control device hidden on it that folded out into a second helmet. The suit put itself together and took off. While the real villain, Aldrich Killian was likely celebrating his impending victory, we were going to bring the real fight straight to him.