Double update in honor of Mermaid in Manhattan's third anniversary! Wow, it's been 3 years since I published the first chapter. My writing has grown, and I've become more confident in the story and characters thanks to you lovely people. Thanks for sticking it out through the years.


I grinned in unadulterated delight at our mechanical calvary, then drew myself back into the matter at hand. We were still surrounded by super soldiers and guys with guns. We still had to save the president and Pepper, and we still had to stop Killian by whatever means necessary.

"Jarvis," Tony said to his earpiece, "Target only Extremis heat signatures and neutralize with extreme prejudice." I held my breath and waited for the moment the true fight began.

"Yes, sir," the metallic response echoed as each suit acknowledged their commands. Tony stepped forward raising his arms like he was conducting an orchestra and gave the order. The suits whirled into action immediately. Bullets, propulsion blasts, and missiles flew through the air as the suits targeted only the super soldiers. In the mechanical onslaught, they wouldn't be able to come after us without leaving themselves open to attack. It was chaos in our favor.

An image of the Battle of New York flashed through my mind and I felt like I had been punched in the chest. I staggered slightly, but picked the closest enemy and fired my icicles at them with savage speed. They fell like a frosted porcupine. I can't let myself give in to the fears and nightmares. I won't give myself the chance to. Following my lead, Pendragon also readied several shards.

Before he could let them fly, the boat shook, shifting as one of the suits exploded in a dazzling array of sparks and fire. Tony called in some more backup to hold the ship steady and keep it from rolling over while we were on it. Rhodes and Tony hunkered down out of the fray and called Pendragon and myself over.

"Save your energy," Tony told me, "Let the suits handle it for now." I nodded, and Pendragon gave me a short but firm hug. I knew they had probably seen my stumble earlier, though whether or not they knew it was some kind of PTSD thing, I couldn't tell. Tony started calling out directions, using nicknames to identify the suits. More explosions rocked the rig as over a dozen oil barrels were set alight. The office buildings on top of the rig were damaged too. A suit landed, opening up to allow Tony to climb inside.

"Hey," Rhodes jumped up, "That's pretty great, can you hook me up?" Tony looked at him apologetically.

"Oh, sorry, they're only coded for me." Rhodey frowned.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He asked.

"I've got your back." Tony replied before he blasted off to join the fight. Rhodes grumbled, tucking his gun into the back of his pants. Two suits landed, and Jarvis asked if we wanted a lift.

"Very funny Tony," Rhodes muttered as the suit scooped him up, while Pendragon and I hitched a ride on the second, larger suit. On our way up, an Extremis soldier leapt onto Rhodey's ride, causing it to swerve just enough to slap the super soldier off it's back. It dropped us roughly on the walkway close to where the president was hanging.

"Damnit," I hissed, "There's no puddles up here!" Rhodes readied to fire at a couple approaching soldiers until a large suit came and knocked them off the walkway. Another passing suit blasted them with missiles. Talk about teamwork. More explosions shook the rig, and one of the machines used to load massive tankers started moving. We ran to the end of one of the ropes keeping the president suspended.

"Mr President!" Rhodey shouted. President Ellis looked up wearily at the sound of his voice. "I'm going to get you down from there, just hold on!"

"Colonel," Pendragon said, "We've got company." On our right, an Extremis soldier approached, grinning.

"They still have water in them," I pointed out. Pendragon shot me a look of shock and disgust, but clenched his jaw and nodded. We moved to position ourselves in front of Rhodey, reaching out with one hand each.

The soldier stopped, eyeing us up and down with an amused look on his face. His expression quickly changed to one of fear when he realized that he couldn't move. Pendragon relinquished his hold to me while whirling to catch another approaching soldier. In a quick motion we dragged the soldiers in a circular motion, slamming them into each other so hard we heard a sickening crunch. The broken bodies tumbled down, falling several stories to their demise.

Rhodey, now untargeted by soldiers, pulled off his belt and used it to rappel down to a massive hanging crate. Like industrial sized steel crate. He shot the supporting wires and used it to swing himself to the President. The crate fell to the deck, and something must have caught fire because the entire thing went up in flames. Another well aimed shot released one of the president's hands as he swung out of the path of the billowing fire and smoke.

Pendragon pulled me back into focus as more soldiers came at us. Sadly, super soldier serum doesn't reduce the amount of water in the human body. We sent them flying, and smashing them into each other like violent toddlers with ragdolls.

With Rhodey keeping the president safe and Tony off saving Pepper, Pen and I were on our own. We ran along the walkway, trying to find a way closer to the ocean. All this fire, explosions and heat in general had us desperate for water. We needed more weapons than just the water found in bodies. Suits whizzed overhead, and my heart drummed loudly in my ears.

Thankfully, we only encountered a few people on our way to the deck. It was so easy to get places if you had the ability to literally throw obstacles out of your path. A huge fire raged on the deck, so hot that I could feel the heat from 100 yards away. From here, I couldn't see Rhodes or Tonyt, but I knew that they would be alright. At least, I hoped they would.

Pendragon grabbed the back of my shirt and yanked me backwards as an armed guard sprayed bullets in our direction. Unluckily for him, Pendragon and I were close enough to the water to draw a tube of sorts up. We moved together, emulating the style of the waterbenders. I could see the confusion in the guard's eyes as the watery strand came into view. Confusion turned into terror when the water lunged for him. It grabbed his legs and whipped him back, flinging him some distance out into the water.

I heard crashing and explosions from up above and I watched in alarm as Tony performed a freefall into another suit. Leaning over the railing, I peered up to see a man with orange glowing insides. He turned his attention from Tony to me. I jumped back out of his line of view, and Tony rocketed upwards.

"Do you think he's okay?" I asked Pendragon as we continued to descend. Pendragon made a noise of uncertainty. The remaining suits were still battling with what remained of Killian's super powered army, and Pen and I decided to give them a hand.

"Hey!" I shouted at one young looking man as he finished ripping a suit apart. "You all need to take a chill pill!" He laughed, which I didn't mind. It wasn't the best one liner out there, but I was a bit stressed. His expression changed as his arms and legs began to stiffen and freeze, leaving his core hot enough to make him the target of another suit. The soldier's limbs shattered as the metal smashed into him. Another explosion shook the rig. One of the overhanging supports and offices broke apart, dropping flaming bits of metal. In the corner of my eye, I saw Tony land on the deck, stumbling. I raced down the final set of stairs to where he sprawled on the metal floor.

"Is it over?" I asked as Pendragon and I each grabbed an arm.

"Yeah," Tony said, sounding rather out of it. He leaned heavily on us as we got him standing. I followed his eyes and stared into the bonfire in front of us. In the heart of the flames, I could see someone stagger to their feet.

"Is that?" I asked.

"Killian." Tony confirmed. Aldrich Killian limped towards us, covered in charred flesh, and glowing orange deep in the cracks of his skin. Pendragon and I each raised a hand, but he barely had any water left in his body for us to grab on to. He was running on pure Extremis.

"No more false faces," Killian hissed, his voice cracked with pain and his mouth mangled by the explosions. "You said you wanted the Mandarin, you're looking right at him!" Tony began to back up, pulling us with him to keep some distance between us and mutilated man in front of us. "It was all me Tony," He said, raising his voice into a snarl, "I am the Mandarin!" He raised his arms as he crowed.

I instinctively jerked back as a long metal pole slammed into Killian, knocking him away in a shower of sparks. In front of us stood Pepper, her body glowing orange with super serum. She was breathing heavily, and the pole clattered to the ground. Tony smiled, and sagged in relief. Pepper turned as a suit began to approach us. Tony went for his earpiece to call off Jarvis, but it wasn't there. I let go of his arm and began to run for Pepper, trying to push her out of the way of the propulsion blast. Her skin was hot beneath my hands and we staggered back as the suit just missed us. My skin burned in protest and tears sprang up in my eyes.

"Jack, look out!" Pendragon shouted, as the suit circled around for another try. Pepper grabbed my shoulder and used it as a springboard to intercept the suit as it passed over us. Her fist went straight through the arc reactor in the chest, disabling it with a heavy metallic smash. Tony and Pen jumped back as Pepper and the broken suit landed heavily in front of them.

Pepper grabbed an armed missile and shoved her arm down one of the suit's arms as Killian made an attempt to attack her. She threw him back, kicking the missile in his direction. She blasted the weapon as soon as it stuck his chest, causing another explosion. This time with the Mandarin dead center. Pepper panted, her chest heaving as she came to her senses.

"Honey?" Tony began. She whirled, looking back and forth between Tony and where Killian had been standing. Tony stood up straighter, limping towards his justifiably stressed girlfriend.

"Oh my god," She gasped, "That was really violent." I patted her shoulder, attempting to ignore the sting in my hands. They're probably going to hurt for a while.

"You just scared the devil out of me-" Tony started.

"You thought I was dead?" She said, her voice growing stronger and less uncertain, "Why, because I fell 200 feet?" She wiped sweat off of her forehead as Tony struggled to think of what to say. "Who's the hot mess now?" She smiled.

"Debatable," Tony smiled back, giving her a kiss. Pendragon, no longer helping support Tony, came to give me a hug.

"I think I can see why you don't want to give up the suits," Pepper said wearily, Tony patted her shoulder supportively. "What am I going to complain about now?"

"Well it's me," Tony offered, "I'm sure you'll think of something." As the reunited couple began to discuss how to handle Pepper's Extremis situation, I walked towards a nearby set of stairs and sat down heavily. Pendragon followed, sitting next to me with his arm over my shoulder.

"It's over," I mused, leaning against my boyfriend, "We helped stop another bad guy."

"Yes we did," Pendragon hugged me closer. I reached out towards the water, and pulled a bit towards me. Now that I wasn't in the middle of the deck, I was within range of my hydrokinetic powers to reach. I wrapped my arms in the water, letting it soothe the irritation.

"No, it isn't over yet," I said quietly, "We still have to clean up. Get all this sorted." Pendragon groaned.

"We're staying out of the limelight," He grumbled, "Tony can do what he usually does and we can keep our secret identities a secret." I nodded in silent agreement. First, we needed to figure out how to get home. The last time we were involved in a big hero battle, we were picked up by Shield before the news vans rolled in. I had no idea how we were going to get this one figured out. I'll just have to ask Tony when he's done kissing Pepper.