Laura was flying alongside Tony at top speed in the night sky, racing towards the Expo.

"I hate you!" she screamed over the wind as they flew through the clouds.

"I know!" he replied through the comms.

"This thing doesn't even fit me!" she pointed out while struggling to maintain her position inside the suit.

"It wasn't built for you." he pointed out.

"So what's the plan?" she asked.

"We gotta the people out of there. Whatever Vanko is planning can't be good." he suggested and she nodded.

"We should alert Rhodey as well. He does have one of your suits now." she added.

"There's no time!" he said and she looked up to see the lights of the Manhattan skyline appear on the horizon.

The two went supersonic right as Hammer's presentation began.


At the main stage of the expo, Hammer was dancing awkwardly onto the stage with the pavilion filled with thousands of people watching on with Pepper and Nat amongst them.

"Yeah. That's what I'm talking about. Thanks for coming. Ladies and gentlemen, for far too long, this country has had to place its brave men and women in harm's way, but then the Iron Man arrived, and we thought the days of losing lives were behind us. Sadly, that technology was kept out of reach. That's not fair. That's not right. And it's just too bad." Hammer said at the podium in the middle.

"Regardless, it was an impressive innovation, one that grabbed the headlines the world over. Well, today, my friends, the press is faced with quite a difficult problem. They are about to run out of ink!" he announced.

A few people clapped while two expo workers rushed to push the podium away.

"Get that out of here. Ladies and gentlemen, today I present to you the new face of the United States military. The Hammer drone!" suit like drones representing each branch of the military behind him.

"Army! Navy! Air Force! Marines! Yeah! Yeah! Woo! That's a hell of a lot better than some cheerleaders, let me tell you. But as revolutionary as this technology is, there will always be a need for man to be present in the theatre of war Ladies and gentlemen, today I am proud to present to you the very first prototype in the Variable Threat Response Battle Suit and its pilot, Air Force Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes!" the spotlights shined onto the front of the stage as Rhodey rose up in the suit he stole.

The grey suit itself armed with Hammer weapons along with a big gun mounted on his shoulder.

He saluted to the crowd, causing all of the drones to salute as well and Hammer saluted back.

"For America and its allies, Hammer Industries is reporting for…" Hammer began but the sound of thrusters got everyone's attention.

They all looked back to see Laura and Tony flying overhead.

They flew down through the hole in the glass roof and Laura hovered above the stage before landing hard on it.

She was catching her breath as everyone got up and cheered loudly for them.

"We got trouble Rhodey!" she warned.

"Laura what are you doing…" he asked surprised.

"All these people are in danger. We gotta get them out of here. You gotta trust me for the next five minutes." Tony alerted as the two stood beside him.

"Tony, there are civilians present. I'm here on orders. Let's not do this right now." Rhodey pleaded.

"Give them a wave." the three casually waved to the cheering crowd.

"Rhodey, we think Hammer is working with Vanko." Laura warned.

"Vanko's alive?" he asked confused.

Laura marched up to Hammer and opened up her helmet.

"Where is he?" she demanded.

"What?" he denied.

"Where's Vanko!" Tony asked forcefully.

"What are the two of you doing here?" he asked unamused.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Rhodey alerted as his HUD began to arm itself.

They turned back to see his big gun point at the crowd and Laura put her helmet back on.

"Rhodey is that you!" she exclaimed.

"No, I'm not doing that. That's not me. I can't move. I'm locked up. I'm locked up!" he shouted.

His HUD targeted Tony and Laura and the dozens of other drones behind them aimed at the crowd, silencing them.

"Get out of here. Go! This whole system's been compromised." Rhodey warned.

"Let's take it outside." Tony told Laura.

"Let's crash this party!" she said and she and Tony took off vertically with her right behind him.

All of the drones began shooting their automatic weapons upwards towards them, shattering the glass roof onto the crowd below.

The thrusters on Rhodey's suit and the drones were engaged, chasing after Laura and Tony.


The two were trying to lead the drones away from the expo while Laura was trying to break into the Hammer operating system remotely.

"JARVIS I need to break into the Hammer mainframe to shut down the drones and Rhodey!" she asked.

"Yes, Ms." he said while the two flew higher and higher above the expo grounds.

"Tony Tony, I'm locked on. I have target lock!" Rhodey warned.

"On what?" he asked.

"On you!" his big gun began firing at him while the three were barrel rolling.

"Laura, on your six!" Rhodey shouted as the drones began firing at her, striking her suit.

"Copy!" she flew in low by the UFO shaped towers, causing the drones to shoot through the windows with all the people still inside.

She and Tony led the drones around the stage as other drones began marching towards the fleeing crowd.

They were still engaged in the dog fight but Laura's her showed JARVIS failing to break into Hammer.

"Remote reboot unsuccessful." he warned them.

"Tony I can't break into Hammer's software remotely. I gotta try to fly to his headquarters and do it myself." she suggested while her suit was being repeatedly struck with bullets.

"Good idea! These drones are putting people's lives at risk." he agreed.

The navy drones marched onto the steps of the pavilion and began firing their shoulder mounted rockets at them.

"Incoming!" Tony warned Laura as her HUD highlighted the missiles.

"I got it!" she began blasting multiple of them out of the sky, causing fiery explosions but some were missed and exploded close by the bystanders.

The drones clamped themselves down and began firing their big guns at the targeted Laura and Tony.

They swerved out of the way of the shells and some struck a few of the drones behind them.

The drones began striking the buildings around the fleeing spectators, causing large pieces of rubble to fall on them.

One highlighted a kid in an Iron Man mask and the kid raised his toy hand thruster at it.

The drone aimed its gun at him but Tony flew in between them, blasted the drone backwards, causing the kid to stumble backwards.

"Nice work kid." he took off right as Laura flew overhead with the Rhodey and the drones still chasing and shooting her.

"Laura, you've got multiples coming in on you." he warned.

"Tony we gotta get this away from the expo!" she told him.

"Got it!" the flew upwards and over the Van Wyck expressway.

They flew under the bridge and through the columns at top speed, leading Rhodey and the drones away.

The drones began firing at them again and the two began swerving between the concrete columns.

One of the drones crashed into it but another a group of them peeled away from them.

"Tony, Laura listen. A pack just turned around and is heading back to the expo." Rhodey warned.

"Got it." Laura saw them flying away in her HUD.

Rockets were fired at her but she barrel rolled out of the way, causing them to strike the bridge.

"I'm closing in on you. Ordnance coming in hot Tony. Laura! Watch it." Rhodey said as his big gun began firing at them.

They flew out of the way but the shells hit and blew up the dozens of cars parked below them.

They flew out and high overhead and Laura swerved towards Hammer industries.

"Tony I'm flying towards Hammer!" she alerted.

"Good luck!" he shouted back.


She flew over Queens instantly and landed right outside the front steps of the headquarters, right by Happy and Nat, surprising them.

She opened up her helmet, gasping for breath while kneeling.

"God Laura are you okay?" Happy asked with worry, eyeing her bullet holed ridden suit.

"Yeah. I'm good." she managed to nod and Nat raised an eyebrow in her uniform.

"Once again I'm not surprised to see you here." Laura told her while getting up.

"You'll be grateful I am. Now stay here." she ordered.

"Yeah nice try." she crossed her suit arms.

"I said stay here." Nat repeated while marching up to her.

"Look I need to shut these drones down. And there's only one way to do that." she said while nodding towards the inside.

"Fine." Nat conceded and she smiled faintly.

"Now allow me…" she aimed her palm at the doors and began arming her thruster.

Nat sped walked behind her and she blasted the double doors. A security alarm went and the three ran inside.

"Hey, hey, hey. You can't come in here." a guard said while walking up to them but he spotted Laura in the suit.

He rushed up to her but Happy punched him in the face, hard.

The two were engaged in a fist fight as more guards ran up the hall.

Laura blasted two into the wall and Nat tossed her EMP's towards the other, shocking him to the ground.

"The hell..." Laura asked dumbfounded.

The two ran down the hall and another guard appeared.

Nat swung over a shelf and kicked him hard in the face.

She landed on his body and looked back towards Laura who struggled to keep up.

Laura saw the smugness taunting her in her eyes but another guard came running around the corner.

She ran past her and gave him an upper cut to the chin.

The guard smashed through the ceiling light and his body made a thump sound as it landed on the floor.

Laura tilted her head towards Nat but she leapt over her suit shoulder and swung her legs around an approaching guards neck.

She swung him down and landed in a fighting stance and looked back up towards Laura.

She rolled her eyes and the two ran deeper into the building.

Nat blocked Laura with her arm and the two stopped in place.

She brought out two smoke grenades and tossed it at the unsuspecting guards faces.

Laura blasted the two out of the way but one came running in with a baton.

Nat punched him repeatedly while strangling him but two more ran towards Laura.

She kicked one away down the hall and wrapped her arms around the other's neck.

She crushed it with the suit's strength and he face planted in front of her.

Nat looked back towards her but one last one came running around.

She ran passed her and swung her legs around the guards neck and took him down with ease.

"I have so many questions…" Laura said in shock, watching her take down all of those guards and Nat smirked slightly.


Happy and the guard were still fighting out by the entrance but Happy finally managed to land an uppercut at him, flinging him onto his back, knocking him out.

"I got him!" he shouted while covering in sweat.

He looked up to see all of the downed guards covering the hallway in confusion.

He ran down towards the two as Laura was bringing her leg at the door they thought Vanko was behind.

Nat brought out her pistols as she kicked it in.

They marched in with her guns raised to the empty office where Vanko's setup was and two guards were hanging.

"He's gone!" Nat stated.

"Look!" Laura pointed to the setup.

They ran up to it and she began breaking into the firewall.

Nat looked at her eyes glancing all over the screens quickly, getting passed it with ease then up at the screens to see the code in Russian.

"You speak Russian?" she asked surprised and slightly impressed.

"да" she joked in a bad Russian accent.

Nat stared at her without amusement but she resumed to get passed the firewall.

She brought up Rhodey's suit and "System Access" appeared on the screen.

"Yes!" Laura smiled and she shut down Rhodey's suit with ease.

"It helps that Hammer software is shit." she joked to Nat.


He and Tony were fighting in the Japanese Garden as she shut it down and Tony blasted it away.

"Tony…" Laura brought up the video chat and her face appeared in his HUD.

"Yeah?" he greeted.

"Rhodey has control of his suit. I rebooted it." she replied.

"Thank you Watson." he smiled.

"It wasn't just me." she nodded at Nat who's face appeared for him right by her.

"Well done on the new chest piece. I am reading significant higher output and your vitals all look promising." she complimented.

"Yes, for the moment, I'm not dying. Thank you." he said nonchalantly.

"What do you mean you're not dying? Did you just say you're dying?" Pepper asked with worry. while joining the call.

"Is that you? No, I'm not. Not anymore." he tried explaining.

Nat looked at Laura who scratched her head awkwardly.

"What's going on?" Pepper demanded.

"I was going to tell you. I didn't want to alarm you." Tony repeated.

"You were gonna tell me? You really were dying?" Pepper asked alarmed.

"You didn't let me." he tried again.

"Why didn't you tell me that?" she shouted.

"I was gonna make you an omelet and tell you." he said but Laura spotted more drones coming towards him and Rhodey at the garden.

"You got more drones incoming Tony." she warned.

"Great. Pepper?" he asked.

"Are you okay now?" she asked concerned.

"I am fine. Don't be mad. I will formally apologize…" he began but Pepper interrupted him.

"I am mad!"

"…when I'm not fending off a Hammeroid attack." he replied.

"Fine." she conceded.

"We could have been in Venice." he joked.

"Oh please. Wait, Laura did you know about this?" she asked her angrily.

"Uh..." she hanged up awkwardly and glanced over towards Nat.

"So are you still my babysitter or am I in the clear now?" she asked her.

"I'll need to bring you in tomorrow." she answered.

"After what I saw in the hallway I take it I don't have a choice, do I?" Laura asked but smiled at the end.

"No. You do not." Nat smirked back.

Laura glanced up at the screens to see that the drones were taking care of but a drone suddenly appeared on it.

"Tony heads up. You got one more drone incoming. This one looks different… The repulsor signature is significantly higher." she said, seeing that the specs of it were different than the other ones.


He and Rhodey looked up to see the larger suit landing in front of them.

The helmet opened up, revealing Vanko.

"Good to be back."

"This ain't gonna be good." Rhodey said as Vanko brought out his much larger whips.

"I've got something special for this guy. I'm gonna bust his bunker with the Ex-Wife." he said as a bunker busting missile popped out of his suit shoulder.

"With the what?" Tony asked as the missile fired but it bounced of Vanko's suit and fizzled in the creek.

"Hammer tech?" Tony asked smugly.

"Yeah." he sighed.

"I've got this." his HUD highlighted Vanko's face.

Shoulder mounted shells were fired at him but he put his helmet back on and they penetrated his suit.

He struck his whip at them, knocking the two down.

Rhodey fired all of his guns at him but he whipped his big gun in half.

Tony flew above him but Vanko whipped him around the neck and flung him down.

Vanko whipped Rhodey's neck and had the two in his control in the middle of them.

He sent shockwaves of electricity at them, damaging their suits but Tony thought of an idea.

"Rhodes. I got an idea. You want to be a hero?" he hinted through the glitching out HUD.

"What?"

"I could really use a sidekick. Put your hand up." he suggested while doing so.

"This is your idea?" he asked while putting his palm up.

"Yep." he said as his thruster began to charge.

"I'm ready. I'm ready. Go, go, go!" Rhodey shouted and the two sent a blast at Vanko, causing a large explosion that sent a shockwave, shattering the glass of the domed garden.

The two got up and looked down to see Vanko's chest piece power down.

"You lose." he choked out but his chest piece began to alarm red.

All of the other drones began to copy it and the two went wide eyed.

"All these drones are rigged to blow. We gotta get out of here man." Rhodey warned.

"Pepper?" the two took off fast and Tony flew towards her.


After Laura and Nat took care of Hammer, she was flying back towards the expo but her HUD highlighted Rhodey flying away from it.

She flew towards him and the two landed on the roof of an apartment building nearby with the New York skyline in the background.

They landed in the middle of it and opened up their helmets.

"You okay Laura?" he asked with worry.

"All good. I kinda like flying." she smiled.

"You did good back there." he complimented.

"You too. What the…" she and him saw the entire expo grounds being engulfed in fiery explosions.

They saw Tony flying towards them and he landed on the edge of the roof with a disheveled looking Pepper.

She pushed him away from him as he helmet sparked open.

"Oh my God. I can't take this anymore!" she screamed as Laura and Rhodey listened on silently.

"You can't?" he asked.

"I can't take this." she said while out of breath.

"Look at me." he nodded down at his wrecked suit.

"My body, literally, cannot handle the stress. I never know if you're gonna kill yourself or wreak the whole company." she rambled.

"I think I did okay." he said as fire trucks rushed towards the expo behind him.

"I quit. I'm resigning. That's it." she said and Laura frowned.

"What did you just say? You're done? That's surprising. No, it's not surprising. I get it. You don't have to make excuses." he told her.

"I'm… I'm… I'm not making any excuses." she argued.

"You actually were just making excuses. But you don't have to." he acknowledged.

"No, I wasn't making an excuse. I'm actually very justified." she countered.

"Listen. Hey, hey. You deserve better." he nodded.

"Well…" she calmed down.

"You've taken such good care of me. I've been in a tough spot, but you got me through it, so… Right?" he asked.

"Thank you for understanding.

"Yeah, yeah. Let's talk clean-up." he suggested.

"I'll handle the transition. It'll be smooth. We can have Laura take over for me. How does that sound?" she asked and Laura smiled widely.

"Okay. What about the press? Because you only had the job for a week. That's gonna seem…" he asked unsure.

"Well, with you it's like dog years." she accused.

"I know." he stepped towards her.

"I mean, it's like the Presidency." the couple kissed and Laura's smile grew even wider.

"Weird." he smiled.

"No, it's not weird." she shook her head.

"It's okay, right?" he asked hesitantly.

"Yeah." she managed to nod.

"Run that by me again." the two kissed each other again but were interrupted.

"I think its weird." Rhodey got their attention.

"I think its wonderful Rhodey and Pepper I better be your maid of honor at the wedding." Laura joked while pointing at her.

"I had just quit, actually." she began.

"Yeah, so we're not…" Tony said but Rhodey stopped him.

"You don't have to do that. We heard the whole thing." he smiled.

"You should get lost." he replied.

"We were here first Tony. Get a roof." he joked and he and Laura laughed.

"By the way Pepper I accept the position of CEO and willing to start as soon as possible." she smiled widely at her.

"Thank you, Laura. You're gonna do great." she smiled back.

"After all, I think it would be an HR and PR nightmare for the CEO and largest stakeholder to be dating each other now wouldn't it." she joked while pointing between them.

"You should leave. The adults are talking." Tony joked.

"Ha ha." she scoffed.

"The two of you kicked ass back there. Thank you." he said seriously.

"That's what I do!" she smirked.

"You too. Listen, my car got taken out in the explosion, so I'm gonna have to hang on to your suit for a minute, okay?" Rhodey told him.

"Not okay. Not okay with that." he denied.

"It wasn't a question." he put on his helmet and took off vertically into the sky.

"Don't worry Tony, this suit is kinda too wrecked to be salvageable plus its not my style." she reassured him.

"Not your style?" he asked with mock hurt and Pepper smiled.

"Yeah, way to ostentatious. It should come in black and actually fit me but I need a ride so…" her helmet came on and she took off fast towards Brooklyn.

The couple watched her disappear towards the horizon and Tony tilted his head towards Pepper.

"How are you gonna resign if I don't accept?"