I was sick last week. I'm not apologising for not updating last week especially with some of the comments posted on this story (most were worried, some were not very nice, demanding I update) - well GUESS WHAT Molly, Loki Lover, and Fusion Uzumaki, you are very lucky I'm still posting here. I've had some nasty PMs from people this week demanding I update.

Next time I don't update do not hassle me or make comments because your actions will lead directly to me deleting these stories from this website. At least the people over on Archive Of Our Own are a lot nicer and respectful of the author, unlike most of you here who think you are entitled to an update. Here's a thought, though I may say dates at the end of the chapter, it does not guarantee it will happen, so do not get up in arms about it. Think for a moment.

I also left a note in the summary of this story explaining why I hadn't updated. In the future, check the summary.

Understanding the Real Hero: Iron Man 3

Five

An advert is playing on tv but the Mandarin hijacks the satellite broadcasting his emblem across all the tv stations in America. A Government Employee notifies the Vice President who asks whether the President was getting this.

"Why couldn't they trace the signal?" asked Steve. "Locate where the broadcast was coming from and then go in and bring him in?"

"That's what we were doing," explained Rhodey, "unfortunately they kept pinging the location around the world. We couldn't get a firm fix. I kept raiding places which had nothing to do with the Mandarin but we believed they were because the signal kept leading us there. Believe me, we were doing everything we could to track this guy down. They were very good at keeping us away from the real source of the transmissions."

Steve frowned, not liking the implication in Rhodey's explanation.

The President is currently in-flight on-Air Force One. In the cabinet room on the plane, the President watches the broadcast. The Mandarin's face appears on every channel. He addresses the President. "Only two lessons remain and I intend to finish this before Christmas morning. Meet Thomas Richards." The screen zooms out to show a man lying on the floor whilst the Mandarin points a gun at him. "Good strong name. Good strong job. Thomas, here, is an accountant for the Roxxon Oil Corporation." Thomas sobs. "But I'm sure he's a really good guy. I'm going to shoot him in the head, live on your television in thirty seconds."

"No!" Thomas shouts out.

Clint's eye darkened. "Bastard."

Tony wondered whether to tell them that it was all an act. Though he was surprised Natasha and Clint didn't have more information on the Mandarin incident. SHIELD would have definitely been interested in the intel. Though it was reasonable to assume, that since HYDRA had been prevalent within SHIELD's ranks at the time, any information regarding the Mandarin incident had been kept away from anyone who was not of HYDRA loyalty.

The Mandarin continues. "The number for this telephone is in your cell phone. Exciting, isn't it, imagining how it got there? America, if your President calls me in the next half-minute, Tom lives. Go!"

Clint was shaking his head. "No. The outcome would be the same regardless of what the President does."

Rhodey leaned in close to Tony, whispering in his ear. "Should we tell him?"

Tony shook his head, replying quietly. "Nah. They'll find out it was all an act soon."

Wanda seemed conflicted, not having heard Tony and Rhodey's whispered conversation. "I thought it may be fake… now I'm not so sure. This threat seems genuine, a real fear inducing one too."

"Wait…" Steve wondered aloud. "Were you in the Middle East, Rhodey?"

Rhodey inclined his head. "I was."

"If Killian is involved with the broadcasts, then the Mandarin – whether he was real or not – was always in America. They'd led you across the world," reasoned Steve.

"And that's why we couldn't find him…" pointed out Rhodey. "We weren't even on the same continent as the Mandarin. Led astray, all so he could increase his power."

"And get his revenge on the President," muttered Tony quietly.

"That too," acknowledged Rhodey.

The President finds the number in his phone and wants to know how it got there. He is strongly advised to not make the call but President Ellis is determined to make the call. "This is the right thing to go."

The phone rings but the Mandarin doesn't answer as they hear the phone ringing in the video. He waits a few seconds before firing the gun. "There's just one lesson left, President Ellis. So, run away, hide, kiss your children goodbye. Because nothing, not your army, not your red, white and blue attack dog can you save you. I'll see you soon."

Rhodey sat stunned, a little surprised he had been mentioned. "He considered me a red, white and blue attack dog?" He shook his head. "I honestly feel insulted by the insinuation."

The President is shaken. "Tell Rhodes, find this lunatic right now."

A military aide tells him they have tracked the broadcast signal to a possible origin point in Pakistan and the Patriot is ready to strike. President Ellis reaffirms he wants a strike done now.

"This is how Killian caught you, wasn't it?" asked Tony, checking to see if he was remembering events correctly. He made sure the others couldn't hear him.

"It was. The various signals I followed ensured I was eventually led to an area where one of his 'soldiers' were waiting to apprehend me." It still grated Rhodey that he had been led into a trap, one that he hadn't been able to escape from.

Tony is reading over some files in the car as he drives. He's muttering Happy's name. He remembers something and grabs the piece of paper from the folder that was the medical assessment for suitability for MIA. Tony turns the paper over and realises its AIM.

"That's when you realised Killian could be involved, right?" Bruce queried.

"Exactly. I hadn't considered his involvement before but I remembered AIM was his 'think-tank' so it stood to reason he was the one directly involved with these bombings and potentially linked to the Mandarin," answered Tony. "I knew I had to explore further."

Rhodey, in his Iron Patriot armour, kicks down a door and marches forward, startling the people inside. He yells at them to not move as he points a loaded gun at the people inside. His phone starts to ring. "Uh… Hang on a second. Hello?"

"Awkward," sniggered Clint.

Tony doesn't even say hello. "You ever have a chick straddling you and you look up and suddenly she's glowing from the inside out, kind of a bright orange?"

"Yeah, I've had that. Who is this?"

Rhodey groaned at his ridiculous response to Tony's equally ridiculous question. "I really should have considered my response better."

"Did you really not recognise Tony's voice?" Bucky looked surprised.

"The line wasn't that great," replied Rhodey." And I was in the middle of a mission when the call came through. Really, I shouldn't have answered, but I did."

"Why did you answer if you're not supposed to take personal calls?" asked Steve.

"I think I wanted to know who was calling me on a personal line from a number I didn't recognise," shrugged Rhodey. "Wouldn't you want to know, Steve?"

Steve couldn't argue with that logic.

"It's me, pal." Rhodey smiles as he recognises Tony's voice. "Now, last time I went missing, if I remember correctly, you came looking for me. What are you doing?"

"A little knock-and-talk, making friends in Pakistan. What are you doing?"

"Your redesign, your big rebrand, that was AIM, right?" Tony asks.

Rhodey confirmed it was.

Sam's eyes widened as he realised the implications with that information. "Oh…"

"I'm gonna find a heavy-duty comm sat right now. I need your login," said Tony.

Rhodey sighed. "It's the same as it's always been, 'WarMachine68'."

Tony asks for the password.

"Well, look, I gotta change it every time you hack in, Tony."

"If you're just going to keep on letting Stark use your password, is it really hacking?" queried Clint.

"A very good point!" agreed Tony. "Technically, not hacking if I'm given the password and permission to access the account."

"Unfortunately, each time Tony logged in to confidential records, the system was notified and I had to keep on changing my password. It's easier to say you were hacked rather than allow your best friend access to your accounts," shrugged Rhodey. "If I hadn't let Tony in, he would have properly hacked into the system. My higher-ups did figure out I was giving Tony permission to use my account, so when I explained to them, he would still be able to hack in, they agreed I could just give him my password, providing I changed it after he was done. Effectively, Tony had to ask permission each time. It's a flawed system but one which works."

"It's not the 80's, nobody says "hack" anymore. Give me your login."

Rhodey sighs again. "'WAR MACHINE ROX' with an X all caps."

Tony laughs, as does the men Rhodey has cornered in the building they're in. He merely points a bigger gun at them and they all hold up their hands again.

Sam smirked. "I like that. Only Tony can laugh, but the others get threatened."

"That is so much better than "Iron Patriot."" Tony skids the car around and he drives back on himself.

Tony stood up from his seat. "Okay, I need to know. How many of us prefer Iron Patriot over War Machine?" His eyes swept over the audience. "Anyone?" His eyes flickered to Steve. "Rogers? Not you?"

Steve frowned. "Why would you think I'd prefer Iron Patriot?" He felt a little bit offended that Tony would believe it.

"Erm, wow," Tony whistled, surprised at Steve. "Captain America is patriotic, values the American way… much like Iron Patriot was designed to be."

Steve paused in the response he had been forming in his head. "I… honestly never saw the similarities." It surprised him because it seemed so obvious now. "In answer to your previous question…. Maybe when I first became Captain America, I would have said yes to Iron Patriot. But now… not so much."

Tony inclined his head. "Fair enough." He sat back down.

There is a Pageant going on which is being covered by the media. Tony slinks his way through the crowd until he finds a van which is unmanned and he gets inside. He sees an old man holding up a 10 to one of the women onscreen before he switches the screen off. Tony connects the laptop up to the equipment inside and finds the internet connection isn't the best.

"Breaking and entering, Stark…" teased Natasha.

Tony shrugged. "It was for a good cause."

The door to the van opens and a man, who is on the phone, sees Tony in his van and starts to ask him who he is before Tony turns around and raises a finger to his lips, asking him to keep quiet.

The cameraman gets excited. "Mom, I need to call you back. Something magical is happening." He ends the call, clambering inside the van. "Tony Stark is in my van."

"Oh no…" groaned Sam, hanging his head. "He's a… A fan."

Tony tries to deny it.

"I knew you were still alive!"

Tony motions for him to come in and close the door which he does. The cameraman is clearly a fan of Tony as he tells Tony he is his biggest fan.

"Told you," grinned Sam. The man's demure towards Tony had only confirmed he was a fan before it had been confirmed. "He was like an excited child who had unwrapped Tony as a Christmas gift."

Tony blinked. "Not sure I like that imagery…" He shuddered involuntarily.

Clint leaned forward, a sly smile on his face, his eyes glinting devilishly. "What if it was Pepper?"

Tony threw the archer a dirty look. "That would be much better. Are you sure you want verbal confirmation of that, Barton, in case the sensitive imagery offends your eyes?"

"I can cope, Stark," replied Clint, sure in himself.

"First, is this your van? Is anyone else gonna come in?" asks Tony.

"No, no, no. Just us," the man confirms. Tony asks him his name. "Gary." The man seems stunned to be in the presence of Tony Stark. "Can I just say?"

"What do you want?" Tony asks.

"I don't know if you can, but I have, like, patterned my whole look after you. My hair's a little…" Tony tells him its fine. "It's not right 'cause there is no product in it." Tony is starting to get a little impatient. Gary shows him the tattoo he had done of Tony's face. He explains that it's not that accurate as it was made off a doll that he made so they didn't use a picture so it was a little off.

"How were you so patient?" Wanda shook her head, amazed. "I don't think I'd have been able to cope if it had been me."

"Wait for it…" muttered Tony.

Tony grabs the man by the shoulders. "Gary. Listen to me, okay? I don't want to clip your wings, here. We're both a little over-excited. I got an issue. I'm chasing bad guys. I'm trying to grab a little something from some hard-crypt data files. I don't have enough juice. I need you to jump on the roof… Right? Recalibrate the ISDNs. Pump it up by about 40%."

Gary nodded.

"All? It's a mission," added Tony. "Tony needs Gary."

"Smart," praised Bruce. "You're playing on his excitement of meeting you. He's likely to do anything you ask."

"And Gary needs Tony."

Clint pulled a face. "That could be taken completely out of context…" He shuddered.

Tony agreed. "Be quiet about it. Go."

Gary is on the roof and lets Tony know when he has achieved what he has asked. Tony types on the keyboard and accesses the files he needs. He manages to hack into AIMs secure server and brings up videos, one showing Chad Davis who was saying that he wasn't going to let his injury beat him. Tony continues to type and another video shows up of Killian discussing the project with the woman who had attacked Tony in Tennessee. Her name had been Ellen Brandt. She was missing half her left arm.

Killian explains the procedure to her. "So, the injections are administered periodically. Addiction will not be tolerated. And those who cannot regulate will be cut from the programme."

"Meaning he already knew cutting them from the programme meant they'd be exploding…" growled Steve angrily. He clenched his fists.

"It was a means to an end," sighed Tony.

Another video starts playing of the test injections themselves. Killian is talking once more. "Once misfits, cripples… You are the next iteration of human evolution. Everybody, before we start… I promise you, looking back at your life, there will be nothing as bitter as the memory of that glorious risk you prudently elected to forego. Today is your glory – Let's begin!" Tony brings up another video of the injections being performed. The candidates are strapped standing up to slabs with IV's in their arms. Ellen Brandt's arm begins to grow back as she glows red. The other volunteers show the same effects apart from one who is growing too hot and red and is screaming. Killian notices the danger. "We gotta get out of here! We gotta get out of here! Get her out! Get them out of here!"

They all escape just as the volunteer explodes.

"Fuck…" the swear word slipped from Clint's mouth. "And none of the other test subjects felt uneasy about continuing the injections after that?" He gaped, shaking his head in denial at the clear uncaringness of Killian's own actions.

"I think they saw potential in what Extremis could do," theorised Tony. "Wouldn't you be loyal to the guy who gave you your arm back? Or a leg? Or cured your burns? They had their reasons to remain loyal to Killian. We will never understand it ourselves… And most of his followers are dead now. If there are any left, they've slinked away, staying in hiding in the hope they're not discovered."

Tony mutters under his breath. "A bomb is not a bomb when it's a misfire. The stuff doesn't always work. Right, pal? It's faulty, but you found a buyer, didn't you? Sold it to the Mandarin. Got you, pal."

"I'm thinking it may not be as simple as that," mused Sam. "I feel there was a rather high-profile arrest around this time…"

Tony discretely nodded his head, which Sam caught the motion of.

Pepper and Maya are staying in a hotel bedroom. Maya is feeling guilty about her potential involvement with the Mandarin through her boss.

"You can't be too hard on yourself, Maya. I mean, you gave your research to a think tank," reassured Pepper.

"Yeah, but Killian built that think tank on military contracts," Maya pointed out.

"That's exactly what we used to do," replied Pepper. "So, don't judge yourself."

Maya smiles sadly. "Thank you, Pepper. I really appreciate that."

"Lady Pepper is good at making others feel better," stated Thor. "Like Jane used to be."

Tony considered starting their little 'who was better' game they had played before Ultron had attacked, but decided against it.

Someone edon the door and Pepper walks over and opens the door. Room service pushes in a tray of food but Killian suddenly appears and snaps the neck of the waiter.

Pepper gasps and yells at Maya to run. Killian grabs Pepper by the arm, spins her around and slams her against the wall, holding her by the neck.

Tony nearly leapt out of his seat. Pepper had not gone into detail over how Killian had captured her, only that he had turned up at the place they were staying in and bought her in. She had never said anything about being strangled…

Rhodey gently laid a hand on his shoulder. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah… I'm fine," replied Tony, though he fought to keep himself calm. He couldn't do anything about it anyway as Killian was dead now.

"Hi, Pepper," said Killian, then turns his attention to Maya. "So, you want to tell me why you were at Stark's mansion last night?"

"I'm trying to fix this thing. I didn't know you and the Master were gonna blow the place up," retorted Maya as she approached Killian.

"Just to clear this up, she always knew Killian and the Mandarin were working together? What she told Pepper about thinking it was just…" Wanda asked, leaning forward slightly to look at Tony.

"It was a way to gain her trust," sighed Tony. "Though Maya was a good person… She made bad choices to get her work funded and out in the world."

Pepper is struggling to breathe in Killian's grasp. "Oh, I see. So, you were trying to save Stark when he threatened us?"

"I've told you, Killian, we can use him."

Pepper tries to grab Killian with her left arm but he leans his head out the way. "Pepper. Pepper. Pepper."

"Let her breathe, man!" shouted Clint. "Can't you see you're killing her?"

"I don't think he intended on taking Pepper at that point," considered Tony.

"Look, if we want to launch a product next year, I need Stark. He just lacked a decent incentive. Now, he has one." Maya has given Killian the idea to use Pepper against Tony.

"In a way, Maya saved Pepper's life," pointed out Tony, "but it also gave Killian another idea too…"

Steve looked worriedly at Tony, seeing the dark expression on his face. "What was it?"

"You'll see…" Tony trailed off, not wishing to elaborate any further.

Rhodey flies across the sky in his Iron Patriot armour. He is sent the co-ordinates for a suspected Mandarin broadcast point of origin. Rhodey copies and he flies down into the terrain below, blowing open a door to a sewing factory where women are being forced to work.

"Nobody move!" His range of weapons all point to the women before he realises they are harmless and scared of his entrance. He puts his weapons away as he scans the faces of the women realising none of them are his target. He radios back to base. "Oh. Support Blue-Zero, unless the Mandarin's next attack on the U.S. involves cheaply-made sportswear, I think you messed up again."

"I was getting frustrated by the lack of progress I was making in trying to track down the Mandarin," said Rhodey. "My flippant remarks back to base only increased in frequency with each point of origin being a dud."

Sam smirked. "I can imagine."

The women start to move from their workstations. They seem happy to know Rhodey isn't a threat to them and shake his hand as they pass. Rhodey says he is happy to help them if they weren't free before.

The last woman is viciously shaking his hand and then suddenly her hand glows orange. The heat has disrupted the mechanics of the suit as War Machine falls backwards to the ground. She pulls her hood off revealing a woman whose skin is just glowing orange as it fades. She calls Savin over a comm-unit, telling them that she has acquired the Patriot armour.

"How dare they!" Thor thundered, his eye flashing angrily.

"I couldn't get out of the suit either," explained Rhodey. It had been a terrifying few hours trapped in the suit whilst they had tried to cut it open to get him out of it. At least, once they had finally forced him out of the suit, they hadn't killed him.

"If you want this suit, you're going to have to pry my cold dead body out of it," said Rhodey.

The woman smirks. "That's the plan, Colonel."

"I'm glad they failed," said Steve.

"Failed in what?" asked Rhodey, wondering if Steve realised how close the War Machine suit had been to becoming the President's grave.

"In getting you out of the armour," answered Steve.

Rhodey shook his head. "You should see the rest of the movie before you make assumptions, Steve."

"Oh…" Steve sagged; a bad feeling building in his stomach as he considered the implications of Rhodey's words. He would have to not be so hasty in the future in coming to conclusions.

To be continued...

Please let me know what you think.

the-writer1988