We traced the Iron Patriot to an airplane that we could intercept above the beach. Rhodes called the craft Air Force One. It was transporting the president, Rhodey explained, he was originally going to be there to accompany him as a safety precaution. According to Tony, Killian had likely sent one of his super soldiers to kidnap President Ellis. One of his fiery, Extremis powered super soldiers.
I had never faced anyone like that before, and the last and only time I'd fought someone with powers I'd lost. The pain in my arms and the restricting scars that covered them was a reminder of that. Pendragon gave my shoulder a squeeze and reminded me that he was going to stay by me. He wasn't going to run anymore, he was going to protect me. I playfully told him off, saying that I could hold my own, but it made me feel better that I wouldn't be fighting alone like I had with Loki.
When we got as close to the intercept point as we could get, we dropped anchor and Tony prepared his remotely controlled suit to fly up and foil Killian's plans. That is, if we weren't too late already. The Patriot was, according to the tracker, still onboard Air Force One. I strained my eyes, trying to pick out the speck of a plane in the distance.
"Hey, he's leaving," Tony said, "We gotta get up there." The suit took off, blasting its way towards the jet. Pendragon looked at me with a worried glance.
"If he's leaving, then the crew…" He said, trailing off. I realized he was right. These guys had no intention of ensuring that the rest of the people on that plane would be able to land safely. At least one person would get sucked out.
"I see him," Tony said, before he smashed the buttons on the controller. I wasn't sure, but I assumed he was fighting. "The president! Now!" He said, before straining. The next thing I knew, a cloud of smoke and fire erupted at the tail end of the plane. Tony gasped, struggling with the controls.
"Jack!" Pendragon called, moving quickly towards the back of the boat, "We gotta be ready to catch them!" In the distance, I saw specks falling from the trail of smoke. People. I nodded, and followed Pen into the water as the sound of the explosion reached us at last.
I felt the transformation bubble around me, but I didn't wait until my tail formed to propel myself through the water. When my legs fused, I pumped my tail as fast as I could go. I rocketed forward, thankful for the incredible speed in which I had been blessed. In the corner of my eye, I saw Pendragon at my side. I looked up, trying to gauge where the falling crew would land. We slowed ourselves and surfaced.
The suit flew overhead, and I watched in horror as half of the plane exploded. The falling crew began to grab onto each other, and to the suit, forming a long chain. Then they propelled forward, the suit slowing their descent as best as the could. He was trying to alter the direction to minimize the impact.
Pendragon and I swam under them, keeping up with their movement. We grasped for as large an area as we could, lifting a large cushion of water and gelling it to better absorb the impact. The suit angled it's trajectory to try and land on our pillow.
"They're too fast," Pendragon shouted, "Stretch it!" A few feet skidded over the water as the suit began to slow down even further. One by one, the crew let go, sliding and bouncing onto the cushion of gel that Pendragon and I had made. The crew began to cheer and cry in relief. Nearby boats moved towards our makeshift island as the rescued crew members hugged and comforted each other. We lifted sections of gel into stairs, allowing them to climb more easily onto the boats. When they were all boarded, Pendragon and I forced water into the mound of jelly, dissolving it with ease.
"Let's head back to the boat," I said with a smile, "We've saved some bystanders, but there's a lot more work to be done." Pendragon nodded in agreement, and we dove back under the water.
We surfaced just behind the small yacht that we had been generously donated in time to see Tony give us a smile from the deck. Rhodey peered curiously over the edge as we approached the side. Pendragon and I each lifted a column of water, giving us the ability to pull ourselves into the boat with ease. Rhodey looked between us a Tony a few times as we dried out our tails, jumping back when we glowed with magic and turned human again.
"Mermaids?" He asked, a little dumbfounded as we climbed to our feet, "Tony did you know about this?" Tony gave him a smile and began to congratulate us on the floating jelly pillow we used as a watery catcher's mitt. Rhodes looked uncomfortable, as Tony went back to tracking the location of the Patriot. He had discovered that the suit had been used as a ferry of sorts, the super soldier had stuffed President Ellis inside and sent it off to Killian. He also said that it's likely that Pepper would be there as well.
Following the suit, the boat took off as max speed, bouncing roughly on the waves. Rhodey approached Pendragon and I with a few questions about ourselves, and the whole merpeople thing.
"So, mermaids," He said in what he must have intended to be a casual tone, "You guys can control water?"
"Mer-people," Pendragon corrected, "and yes, we can control water. We can also force it into various states by adjusting the movement of the molecules." Rhodes tilted his head, a little confused. I rolled my eyes at his overly scientific explanation, and pulled a small sphere of water into the air, holding it in front of me for a demonstration. The first one I showed him was freezing the bubble.
"Go ahead and give it a poke," I said, "It's safe, just cold." Rhodes gave the surface a quick tap, before making an impressed sounding noise. Then I thawed it and forced it to heat up, bubbles breaking the surface of the ball as steam began to rise from it. At this point Tony approached us with an update. It was going to take a very long time for us to reach the harbour that Killian's big boat was at, and he'd already ordered Jarvis to begin sending in reinforcements from Malibu.
"Good," I said, "We're going to need all the firepower we can get." We broke apart to prepare ourselves for the upcoming fight, Rhodey began cleaning his gun, and Pendragon and I practiced our offensive and defensive moves using water we lifted from the ocean. I drew my inspiration from a TV show called 'Avatar', and those fancy moves that the people with water powers used. Waterbenders, I think they're called. I had only seen a little bit, and I regretted not studying it more.
Luckily, Tony let us use his phone to watch a few segments of the show to get an idea of the fighting styles they used, then we went back to practicing. Trying to channel Katara helped a lot, especially that move with all of the ice shards. It was a little tricky getting the right shape down, but it was going to be very handy in a few hours. Content with our new moves, Pendragon and I retreated below deck to eat and rest. We're going to need it our strength.
It was already dark out when we approached the boat. A massive oil tanker that had been all over the news several years ago for an oil spill, the Norco. Accord to Tony, it was out of commission, awaiting either repair or demolition. In the meantime, it loomed ahead like a dead relic from a time long ago. We shut off the engine as we approached under the cover of the night, Pendragon and I pushing the boat by way of our powers. We guided it to a concealed part of the docks and tied it off, knowing we would probably need it later. If we make it out alive, that is.
With Rhodes in the lead, we made our way to the ship, hiding in shadows and avoiding the various guards hired by Killian. He and Tony had their guns at the ready, and I uttered a thank you to whichever divine force there might be for the rainwater covering the ground. Ducking behind a large metal tote, Rhodey peered out at the deck.
"My god," He muttered, "They got him strung up like a christmas tree! Looks like they're going to set the oil on fire and burn him alive! It's a public execution!" I peeked over the tote and covered my mouth in shock and awe. He was hanging by both hands in the Iron Patriot suit above a massive electric evergreen tree. Like a burning angel topper.
"It's like a viking funeral," Tony commented, disgusted by the real Mandarin's actions.
"It's death by oil," I added, "We have to get him down before they light him up, we can't extinguish oil fires but we can distract the guards." Tony sent me a worried look.
"We stick together for now," Rhodes ordered, and I nodded in response, "Tony, get your gun up. You cover my six o'clock, watch my highs and lows." Tony readied his weapon and we moved towards the tanker. It would have gone well if one of the lookouts hadn't spotted us.
Tony and Rhodey fired several shots at the lookout, squinting in the large light they had pointed our way. I grabbed several puddles of water, froze them into dozens of tiny icy needles, and sent them rocketing in the direction of the gunfire. The light bulb shattered and the lookout collapsed. I repressed the nausea rising in my stomach, knowing that I probably just killed a human being. But like with New York, I told myself that it's life or death, either I kill them, or they kill me and rain destruction upon innocents. But am I doing the right thing?
I shook the thoughts of morality from my mind, I can't afford to be distracted in war. The gunshots had alerted the others of our intrusion, and an alarm blared a warning about hostiles. About us. Behind another steel crate, Tony and Rhodes fumbled with their magazines, arguing about cross compatibility of the clips. Pendragon peered overtop, then ducked back down looked stressed.
"There's three guys and one girl coming down, Extremis soldiers. They're probably armed." He said, and the men stopped their bickering. I heard the loud thuds of boots landing heavily on metal. With his gun out, Rhodes stood slowly. Pen and I followed, readying numerous ice shards and spears. There were more now, several soldiers with a worrying orange glow in their cheeks and other guards with guns pointed in our direction.
"We could really use some backup right now," Rhodey muttered. Tony agreed, with a hint of smugness in his voice. He nodded to our left and I turned to see a small light in the distance, splitting into over a dozen lights. "Is that?" He trailed off in awe.
"It is." Tony smiled, relieved at the timing. Iron Man suits, so many that I couldn't even count them, were coming to our aid. They were a variety of shapes and sizes, with all sorts of different purposes. Tony's insomnia and need to tinker as a distraction was really coming in handy lately. When the suits arrived, they lined up into an impressive array of air support, forming a massive circle around the the ship The armed guards had turned their attention away from us, aiming instead at the suits. Tony patted Rhodes and Pendragon on their shoulders and smiled. "Merry Christmas, buddy."
