I stood up slowly, my feet ached from the running around we had done and my body sore in general from the crazy day we'd had. But, as with all of these crazy adventures we seemed to be taking part in, there was more to be done. Pendragon and I pulled water from the harbor to extinguish all but the oil fires, while Tony and Colonel Rhodes pulled some strings on their phones. President Ellis included. The few remaining suits out of the dozens that had come to our aid returned to Stark Tower in New York.

"Tony," I began, as we waited for government agents to make it to the scene before the media, "Where do you want us to wait for you?" Tony furrowed his brows in confusion.

"What are you talking about?" He asked.

"Pen and I, we really don't want anyone to see us here. We're laying low, remember? The opposite of what you do?"

"Ah, yes," he looked around, "How about you head to the hotel or something and I'll call you later to meet up? Maybe tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow works," Pendragon joined in, "Do you want us to take the boat?" Oh yes, we still had Trevor's little yacht. Tony frowned and squinted his eyes as he considered it.

"Sure, he's going to be arrested, but at least the government can auction it off for charity or something." We nodded and made our way back to the boat.

It took hours to get back to Miami, and we were exhausted by the time we finally fell into bed. Pendragon woke up in the afternoon before I did. He turned the news on quietly, letting me sleep in. Even with his consideration, I was woken up by the bed shifting. He was sitting up to watch the news, so I put my head on his lap and grumbled. He petted my head like he would a cat or dog, which is actually a pretty nice feeling. Now I know why they like it.

"We are on the scene now, where last night Iron Man and the Iron Patriot rescued the president from the Mandarin. It's been discovered that the Mandarin is a creation of Aldrich Killian, founder of the Advanced Idea Mechanics, to send the world into war." I peered over the blanket to watch. The screen switched to a recording of an older man, with white hair, a moustache, and aviator sunglasses. "An employee of the harbor where the battle took place was witness to the struggle."

"It was incredible!" He exclaimed, waving his hands for emphasis, "There were explosions, and fire, and people were glowing orange! And there were some people controlling water! They put out most of the fire!" Pendragon and I exchanged a worried glance.

"Can you describe the people you saw putting out the fires?" The interviewer asked, intrigued.

"Yeah!" the man nodded, "It was amazing! One tall one and one shorter one, a girl I think. They moved their hands like this," He demonstrated, "And the glowing orange guys went flying! They made a big water tentacle!" I muffled a laugh, snorting out of my nose instead. It was funny seeing him get so excited about what was normal for me. I sat up completely, giving up on getting more sleep. This was too interesting.

"Wait until the internet gets a hold of the footage from the security cameras," Pendragon mused, "They're eventually going to discover the connection with New York." I nodded as the screen blipped back to the newscasters.

"I hope they're as clear and in focus as a photo of Bigfoot," I rested my head on his shoulder. Pen smiled and laughed, wrapping his arm around my shoulder.

"Breaking news!" The sound made me jump in surprise.

"We've just received word that the Vice President is being arrested as an accomplice in the plot to have President Ellis executed!" Woah, that's news to me. Footage of the VP being led out of his home was shown on the screen, in the background, I saw Colonel Rhodes. Dude works quickly.

I jumped again when someone rapped on the door. Pendragon got up and peered through the peephole, then unlocked and opened the door. Standing in front of us was a disheveled looking Tony Stark.

"Tony!" I called, waving my hand, "Welcome!" He waved back, taking off his sunglasses. He dropped himself into a chair in the kitchenette and sighed.

"What a crazy night," He groaned, "Pepper is in the hospital while some buddies of mine are looking for a way to get that Extremis stuff out of her."

"So, we can't just wait for it to burn out of her system?" Pendragon asked, pouring a cup of cheap complimentary coffee for Tony. Tony raised his finger to make a point, then put it down.

"Well, that might happen while we're looking," he confessed, taking a sip of the black coffee. He stared at the television, watching the Vice Prez being forced into a police car. The next video was a live feed of Trevor Slattery cheerfully getting arrested. Reporters crowded around him, trying to question him. The smile on his face was enough to know that he was really eating up the attention.

"Well at least he's happy," I smiled. Tony nodded.

"He did say he was a theater actor, this is kind of his thing." I accepted a mug of coffee from Pendragon, light brown with cream and sweetened with sugar. I took a sip, it was just the way I liked it. I thanked Pen and turned to look at Tony again.

"Did you hear about the witness?" I asked, "There was a dock employee, he told the reporter that he saw us." Tony raised his eyebrows.

"Are there photos?" He inquired. I shook my head.

"I don't know yet," I admitted, "There may be smudged pictures of us on security cameras at the harbor or the mansion, but they haven't been found yet at least." Pendragon sat down across from Tony.

"If there are clear pictures of Jackie and I," He began, "We'll need to go undercover, which means Jack will have to drop out of school." I coughed, choking on the coffee in surprise. "Are you okay?"

"I'm good," I said, recovering from the shock, "I hadn't thought about that. Yeah, I really don't want to be found out by the media. If they find us, it'll be all too easy for Paparazzi to discover what we really are. That would be really bad for the other merfolk around the world." Tony nodded solemnly, promising to do his best to keep us out of the limelight. Time to get ready to go home.

Tony had ordered a private jet to take him to New York. Pepper would be accompanying him, along with some doctors to monitor her condition. With the photo hounds distracted, it'll be easy for Pendragon and I to catch a regular flight back north. We'd take an inconspicuous car to the Tower while Tony used one of his fancy cars.

The weeks that followed were rather exciting. Both Trevor and the VP were given hefty prison sentences, though Trevor was too happy with the attention to care. Pepper stabilized, partly because the Extremis eventually burned itself out on its own, and partly because Tony helped find a way to make it burn out faster than that.

When she was alright, Tony opted to go through with a major surgery. He decided to have his arc reactor removed, and the shrapnel taken out of his heart. We were surprised, knowing how much he considered the machine to be a part of him.

"You're still a mermaid without your scales," he told me when I asked about it, " Even without the reactor, I'll always be Iron Man." I hugged him with tears in my eyes, and I stood alongside Pepper and Rhodes while we monitored the surgery. He had chosen the Hospital my mom worked at, and requested that she be assigned to him while he recovered for a few days. She was delighted, and agreed to help him the best that she could.

While he was in the hospital, Tony received a call from a hospital in California. Happy Hogan had woken up from his coma, and was making progress in his recovery. A week after Happy woke up, he texted Tony that he had scored a date with one of the nurses.

At the same time, Tony had been discharged from the hospital, and he made a trip back to the west coast. However, he went first to Tennessee. He had told Pendragon and I about the young boy who had helped him when he needed it, and he was planning on upgrading the kid's workshop. I could tell Tony saw a bit of himself in the young tinkerer, and the new potato gun he'd designed for him.

In Malibu, Tony pulled the lost A.I.'s that had been dumped into the ocean when Killian ordered an attack on the mansion. He immediately began to repair his robotic assistants, telling me stories about them when I asked why he was so determined. He reminisced about Dummy, a robot near and dear to his heart, and the process he's gone through creating the first suit.

"Dummy was very liberal with the fire extinguisher," Tony smiled, cleaning salt water from the machine's parts. When Dummy was functional again, Tony moved on to the remaining suits. Out of the several dozen that had arrived at the harbor, only five were left. The rest were too damaged to be repaired, but enough parts were salvageable that he was already planning new suits.

Pepper was now living in the Tower along with Tony, directing Stark Industries from the NYC location. Happy, now in a committed relationship with the nurse, remained working at the California location.

Pendragon and I were safe from the media. The photos recovered from the cameras were too fuzzy to have any identifying features that could out us. Of course, they were linked to the pictures of us from the Battle for New York. Theorists were making all sorts of assumptions, connecting us to events that we weren't even present for. It was actually kind of funny to pick through the theories these people came up with.

It wasn't very long before returned to school with Pen at my side. Since the last time I'd attended my classes, I had snapped at several students and disappeared for several days, no one wanted to bother me. When I came back, my classmates left me alone, even the teachers. I wasn't called on to answer questions in class, and people generally avoided me. I guess the outbursts were enough to show how much I was suffering and no one wanted to make it worse.

Despite the isolation, I was feeling better. My therapist noticed that my mood had improved. I was coping better, and despite the grief and loss I was struggling with, I was making progress. Pen teased me lightly, suggesting that being a hero was helping me do better. To be fair, I thought so too. I guess saving people is therapeutic in a sense, but I wasn't about to confess my involvement with any of it to my therapist. Even so, I wonder what next crazy thing the world is going to throw my way.


Hey guys, just wanted to thank you for your patience and support in regards to my non existent updating schedule. It means a lot to me. I also want to take the time to inform you of my new work in progress, Heart and Soul. It's a Supernatural AU fic, feel free to take a look! Again, thanks for reading and I'll see you next update!