Hi all,
I have slowly started to now work on AOU... It is very slow progress and at present, it is looking more likely that I will have another posting break after I've finished posting this one. Very sorry everyone, but it is hard working on these stories and maintaining the pace. But it is the only way this series will be finished, as working on this series when I'm not feeling it, doesn't produce good results. It will all depend on how far I've gotten by the end of this story being posted as to how long any posting break will be.
Thank you for all the support in your reviews for the last chapter! It means a lot to me!
I hope you are all well and staying safe!
Understanding the Real Hero: Iron Man 3
Six
It's still the middle of the night and Tony is driving along the road talking to Harley over the phone. He asks the kid to give him a full report. Harley tells him is still eating the candy and if Tony wanted him to keep on eating it. Tony queries how much has he had. Harley responds with two or three bowls. Tony asks whether Harley can still see straight. Harley replies that he sort of can. Tony informs him that means he is fine and he wants to be connected to JARVIS and asks his AI how he is.
"Not sure telling Harley that he's fine after eating a large number of sweets is a good thing…" frowned Sam. "Especially if he is having trouble seeing straight."
"Eating sweets didn't do me any harm," retorted Tony.
Rhodey smirked. "I would beg to differ on that."
Tony glared at his friend. "So much for long-term friendship."
Rhodey barked loudly.
"It's totally fine, sir. I seem to do quite well for a stretch, and then at the end of the sentence I say the wrong cranberry. And, sir, you were right. Once I factored in available AIM downlink facilities, I was able to pinpoint the Mandarin's broadcast signal."
"Where are we talking? Far East, Europe, North Africa, Iran, Pakistan, Syria? Where is it?" Tony reeled off a list of locations.
JARVIS's actual answer surprises Tony. "Actually, sir, it's in Miami."
"Wow, it really was close," said Sam.
"Okay, kid, I'm gonna have to walk you through rebooting JARVIS's speech drive, but not right now. Harley, where is he really? Just look on the screen and tell me where it is."
"The fact JARVIS said 'cranberry' instead of 'word' made me believe he'd substituted 'Miami' for somewhere else," explained Tony. "I was wrong to make that assumption."
Harley looks at the location on his laptop. "Um, it does say Miami, Florida."
"Okay, first things first, I need the armour. Where are we at with it?"
"Uh, it's not charging," said Harley.
Tony immediately stomps on the breaks and pulls over, having quite a visible panic attack, breathing heavily, hands shaking.
Rhodey reached across and patted Tony on the back. "I really should have been there for you instead of chasing phantoms in the Middle East."
Tony shook of Rhodey's comforting gesture. "I'm fine." He acknowledged the events on the screen. "Maybe not fine there but I'm OK now, alright?"
Rhodey reluctantly withdrew his hand from Tony's back.
"Actually, sir, it is charging, but the power source is questionable. It may not succeed in revitalising the Mark 42," interjected JARVIS.
"What's questionable about electricity? All right? It's my suit, and I can't… I'm not gonna… I don't wanna…" He is breathing heavier and heavier. "Oh, God, not again!"
Harley quietly calls his name.
"Kid's gonna make it worse…" guessed Clint. "He'll say something he shouldn't do and it will make you spiral down further."
Tony put his head in his hands, ignoring Rhodey's concerned look. He was fine. Fine. Fine. Fine. Wasn't he?
Tony gets out of the car, looking terrified.
"Are you having another attack? I didn't even mention New York," said Harley over the phone.
Imagery of the alien army in the portal flashed in Tony's minds eye. He scrunched his eyes shut, trying to ignore it.
"Tony?" Steve asked quietly. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine!" retorted Tony, rubbing his eyes with the palms of his hands. He didn't need to have a panic attack here, right in front of his former team! He'd dealt with this plenty of times before. He didn't see why this panic attack on screen was setting him off now! Stop it!
"Breathe, Tony," suggested Rhodey quietly.
"Trying," grated out Tony, annoyed at himself for his reaction. He could feel all the eyes of the others on him. His heart was beginning to slow. The panic that had started to settle in his stomach was lifting. He felt a little better. Brushing the hair out of his eyes, he plastered a fake smile on his face and boldly told them he was fine and they had nothing to worry about.
Steve nor Rhodey looked convinced but they didn't push him any further, which Tony was extremely grateful for.
Tony gasped. "Right, and then you said it by name while denying having said it!"
Harley feels guilty.
Tony sinks to the ground, crossing his arms over his chest. "God, what am I gonna do?"
"Just breathe," advised Harley. "Really, just breathe. You're a mechanic, right?"
"Now he's saying the right thing!" cheered Sam, the mood a little sullen after witnessing Tony's in-person panic attack in the room.
Tony replied quietly. "I told you he got better at it."
Tony agreed. "Right."
"You said so," added Harley.
"Yes, I did."
"Why don't you just build something?" suggested Harley.
Bruce nodded eagerly. "That seems sensible. It's what helped Tony before, though building the number of suits you did was unhealthy…"
"Building things helped keep me calm, keep me focused so I wasn't thinking about my problems," sighed Tony, sounding a bit weary.
Those words seem to have a calming effect on Tony. Ideas swarm into his head and he rose to his feet, sounding more in control of his anxiety. "Okay. Thanks, kid." He gets back in the car and puts his cap back on.
"You just… got up and carried on as if the last few minutes hadn't just happened," noted Wanda, though she shouldn't be surprised by Tony's actions. He seemed to have that affinity to put things behind him quickly, no matter how badly they affected him.
Tony shrugged. "I had to. I had something on my mind that was helping me keep control again. Even the thought of designing something new was enough to put my demons at rest, even if it was only for a little while." He had a lot better days now but sometimes – like just then – the memories hit him again and he suffered a setback.
He hoped one day to beat it altogether.
Tony is in a shop buying supplies. He has two trolleys load full of supplies. He is disguised with sunglasses and a hood and hat. Then he sits in a hotel room where he is busy creating a crude version of his Iron Man hand gauntlet. He is also making other small bombs in glasses.
Clint shook his head amused. "How were you not recognised?"
"Mr. Stark was supposed to be dead, if you recall," suggested Vision.
"You'd be surprised how easy it is for me to blend in when I want to," said Tony. "Now… when I'm out with Pepper and we are trying to be incognito… It is a lot harder. Who would expect to find a presumedly dead Tony Stark shopping in an electrical warehouse?" He folded his arms across his chest, as if that answered that query. "Probably no one."
In Miami, Tony drives to the location JARVIS and Harley had given him. It is a large white mansion by the river. Guards patrol the estate but Tony is ready to make his way in. He observes from a distance before making a running jump at a wall. He clambers over and runs across the grounds to a first set of steps where he pulls one of the guards down with a bit of rope and then darts another guard in the neck. He knees another guard and then tasers a fourth, knocking them all out cold.
Natasha whistled, pleased with how stealthy and tactical Tony was being. "You know, if you weren't Iron Man, you could potentially be a great SHIELD agent in the making."
Tony raised his eyebrows and promptly shot her down. "Err… no thanks. I prefer being the man in the can." He pointed to the screen. "Besides, I was improvising with materials usually reserved for other uses."
He throws a blue Christmas bauble on the ground between two guards at a fountain. One leans down to pick it up only for it to explode in his face. Tony runs up the steps shooting the second guy who lands in the fountain face-first. Tony drops another bauble in the fountain which explodes.
"How novel," commented Sam. "Different way of constructing bombs, using Christmas baubles. I'm not sure I will look at them in the same way again."
Tony sneaks into a house and sees a woman asleep on a table. Another woman is lying on a sofa with a man sitting at a desk. She asks him why it is so hot in here. He begins to explain that he isn't her personal air con but Tony sneaks up behind him and places his gloved hand on his head, electrocuting him. He grabs the man's gun from the table, silently telling the woman to stay silent. She is happy to oblige and makes gun shooting movements with her hands.
Bucky grimaced. "Lucky she's so high or drunk enough that she wouldn't raise the alarm."
Tony nodded. Still, he had dropped his guard a short while later resulting in his own capture by Savin.
Tony makes his way to a room. He pulls off the glove on his hand with his teeth, noticing screens with the Mandarin on it in the room. He seems to be walking through some sort of prop store. Around a corner he finds a bed. There is a lump in the bed and Tony sneaks forward and rips off the covers finding two scantily clad women there. Tony shushes them and then hears the sound of a toilet flushing. He hides behind the bed as a man, looking suspiciously like the Mandarin, walks out of the bathroom, laughing.
"He can't be the Mandarin…" whispered Wanda.
"Well, I wouldn't go in there for twenty minutes! Now, which one of you is Vanessa?"
"Too much detail," winced Bruce.
The girl raises her hand. He asks her if she knew fortune cookies weren't even Chinese and she tries to tell him that there is some guy over here but he ignores her, continuing to tell her that fortune cookies are made by Americans based on a Japanese recipe.
Tony emerges from hiding and points his gun at the Mandarin. The Mandarin raises his hands.
"Bloody hell. Bloody hell."
Wanda knew instantly this man definitely was not the Mandarin. "He is a fake! He's an actor, right?"
Tony briefly nodded. "Yeah. A failed one at that though. I don't think he realised what he had gotten himself into. He seemed rather nonchalant about it all."
"Don't move," warns Tony.
"I'm not moving. You want something? Take it. Although the guns are all fake because those wankers wouldn't trust me with the real ones."
"Good," stated Steve, "fake or not, this guy shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a weapon."
Tony is confused. "What?"
"Hey, do you fancy either of the birds?" The Mandarin indicates the girls in the bed.
"Oh god, he's like you before Afghanistan!" moaned Clint. He glanced at Tony and saw the hurt in his eyes. He sank down further in his seat.
"Clint… that wasn't very nice," noted Steve, disappointment shining in his eyes as he observed Clint.
Tony's gaze hardened. "There are some things about me that you underestimate. In fact, a lot. I never used to trade the women I slept with, with other people, just to keep myself out of trouble. Despite the fact I slept with multiple women over the years, I did treat them all with respect and dignity. I didn't push them to do anything they didn't want to do."
Clint lowered his head, chin down, feeling ashamed for his comment. "Sorry, Tony."
Tony makes sure his gun is loaded before inching forward. "Heard enough. You're not him. The Mandarin, the real guy. Where? Where's the Mandarin? Where is he?"
The man runs around the room and sits in a chair. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. He's here. He's here, but he's not here. He's here, but he's not here."
"What do you mean?" Tony asks.
"It's complicated." The man points at Tony. "Hey, it's complicated."
Tony isn't buying it. "It is?"
Rhodey shook his head, sighing audibly. "It really wasn't that complicated."
"It's complicated," the man reiterates.
"Uncomplicate it," ordered Tony. "Ladies, out. Get out of the bed. Get into the bathroom. Sit." Tony watches as the girls get into the bathroom, wincing in disgust at the smell inside. The man starts to crawl away whilst Tony is momentarily distracted but he soon notices and fires a warning shot on the ground. The women shriek in the bathroom and the man gets to his feet.
"My name is Trevor. Trevor Slattery."
"Definitely not the Mandarin then," grouched Steve. Then he considered the bigger question. "If he isn't the Mandarin – but looks like him – who is he?"
"The Mandarin does exist," explained Tony, "but they stole his name and started to use it to strike fear into the hearts of others. From what I gather, the real Mandarin wasn't best pleased that his name had been stolen by someone and exploited. But this guy, this Trevor, he's pretty much a dead-end actor."
"Could the real Mandarin give us trouble down the line?" frowned Steve.
Tony considered the question but the answer was obvious. "It's always a possibility."
Tony keeps his gun trained on him. "What are you? What are you, a decoy? You're a double, right?"
"What, you mean like an understudy? No, absolutely not."
Tony points the gun at Trevor's face.
"Don't hurt the face! I'm an actor."
Tony is rapidly losing patience. "You've got a minute to live. Fill it with words."
"I was at the point where shooting him would have been my better option," sighed Tony, though he knew if he had simply killed Trevor, they wouldn't have been able to find out where Killian now was.
"It's just a role. "The Mandarin", see, it's not real."
"Then how did you get here, Trevor?" asks Tony.
Trevor sits back on his seat again. "Um. Well, I, um, had a little problem with, um, substances. And I ended up, um doing things, no two ways about it, in the street, that a man shouldn't do."
"Thankfully, he hasn't gone into detail." Clint was relieved about that.
"Next?" Tony hurries him along.
"Then they approached me about the role, and they knew about the drugs."
"What did they say? They'd get you off them?" queried Tony.
"They said they'd give me more! They gave me things. They gave me this palace. They gave me plastic surgery. They gave me things!" Trevor nods off.
"Pretty much he wanted things handed to him on a silver platter and not have to work for his recognition." Sam couldn't like this Trevor Slattery at all.
"Did you just nod off? Hey!" Tony kicks him.
Trevor instantly wakes. "No, and a lovely speedboat. And the thing was, he needed someone to take credit for some accidental explosions." He mimicked explosions with his hands.
"He?" Tony asks. "Killian?"
"Killian," Trevor confirms.
"He created you?" Tony was close to getting to the bottom of this.
"He created me," reiterated Trevor.
"Does that mean Killian is another form of the Mandarin?" Wanda tilted her head to the side, considering the possibilities. "If he was the one to tell this Slattery what to do in this role, then by default, it makes Killian the Mandarin as he is the mastermind. Though he's probably not associated with the real Mandarin."
"It could make him another form of the Mandarin," agreed Tony.
"Custom-made terror threat," growled Tony. He lowered his gun.
"Yes! Yes!" Trevor got up from his chair. "His think tank thinked it up. The pathology of a serial killer. The manipulation of Western iconography. Ready for another lesson? Blah, blah, blah. No. Of course, it was my performance that brought the Mandarin to life." He puts on the Mandarin voice.
Bucky leaned forward, clasping his hands together. "Despite everything, his voice can be convincing and terrifying all at the same time."
"Your performance? Where people died?" Tony sits on a chair.
"He didn't know people were dying for real?" Steve gaped in surprise.
"No, they didn't. Look around you. The costumes, green screen! Honestly, I wasn't on location for half this stuff. And when I was, it was movie magic, love."
Tony gets up and stands in front of Trevor. "I'm sorry, but I got a best friend who's in a coma and he might not wake up. So, you're gonna have to answer for that. You're still going down, pal. You under…" He trials off when he notices Trevor's eyes widen and Tony realises someone is standing behind him.
Thor inches forward. "Turn, Stark!"
Tony whirls and Savin grabs his arm and knocks Tony hard on the head, knocking him unconscious.
"Ow," Tony winced and frowned. "That did hurt."
Savin turns to Trevor. "Okay, Trevor, what did you tell him?"
"I didn't tell him anything."
Rhodey snorted. "You told him everything."
"Nothing?" Savin was suspicious.
"No."
"You should have pressed the panic button." He reminded Trevor.
Trevor opened a can. "Well, I panicked, but then I handled it." He walked off.
"He was lucky I let my guard down," sighed Tony. "Otherwise, he would have been in big trouble. Not that he wasn't already."
Steve concurred.
To be continued...
Please let me know what you think!
These chapters are quite short in comparison to previous stories. This is mainly because there isn't a lot of conversations that the characters can have between each other. There will be more opportunities for these types of conversations with AOU and CW, so chapters will definitely be longer in those stories.
The next chapter will be posted on Sunday 27th June.
Until then,
the-writer1988