"I don't think my dad had this in mind when he let me go find you," I said as I cowered among the bushes behind the Mandarin's base. I squinted at the two-story building, still unable to comprehend that an international terrorist was hiding in a lavish, old-fashioned villa this big (with yachts and everything.)

Tony responded over the communicator in my helmet. "What he doesn't know isn't gonna hurt him."

"Eh, point taken." I watched a pair of perimeter guards walk along the lawn with a customary swagger. "I see a couple guys coming along."

"Be careful!" I just barely managed to hear him before leaping out of the bushes.

I spun quickly in midair, firing one repulsor blast after another and taking both guards by surprise. One went down; the other pulled out his gun. Bullets pattered off my helmet as I wrenched the gun from his grasp and used it to conk him on the head.

As he went down, a shout from the house made me look up. Another guard had seen me from the back porch and was yelling into a sat-phone for backup.

"All units guarding the front door, I need a hand here, we've got an armored intruder at the back entrance and it looks like the Stark kid!"

"Impressive," Tony drawled in my ear. "Now that should get you some attention."

"Tell me about it." I lifted off a couple feet as three more guards ran out of the house. "I can only buy you enough time."

"Moving into position now."

Meanwhile, I turned toward my new opponents and geared up for defense. Tony's plan had been simple—I was the diversion who snuck up on the back lawn, attracting attention to myself with the flashy suit and big guns, better prepared to make some noise while effectively defending myself as all the focus was drawn on me—and away from Tony, who was sneaking into the front door armed with his homemade tools and the element of surprise. A sneaky approach would make it easier for him to get to the Mandarin.

Once I was in, I'd try to find Pepper and Maya. If people thought that was my only agenda, they would definitely be distracted from guarding the Mandarin, leaving the path easier for Tony to clear. In the event that I did find both women, my suit would make it easier for me to transport them out of there quickly and maybe even have enough time to back Tony up in case his end of the plan got nasty.

I had to make sure this was the real plan, several times.

"Are you sure?" I'd asked Tony before suiting up.

"Why would I not be?"

I had shrugged. "This is just new. A couple years ago you would have never put me in such a…dangerous...position."

Tony had just given me a smug smile. "You're not about to chicken out now, are ya?"

"No, sir."

"I thought so." He'd patted me on the shoulder. "I trust you, kid."

That trust, luckily, got me all the way to the back entrance of the villa, leaving several unconscious goons in my wake. Adrenaline coursed through my veins like an old friend and I realized I was feeling…good. Like being in the suit and doing my Iron Girl stuff felt right and natural.

Inside, four or five more guards tried to shoot me, to no effect. I dispatched all of them but one, who I tossed onto a couch (in between two screaming scantily-clad women, God only knows why they were there.) I extended the blade from my gauntlet and held the edge to his throat.

"Oh my God," he gasped, "don't kill me!"

"Unless you don't want a stain on this couch, buddy, you're gonna tell me where your prisoners are," I said. "Come on, the red-headed chick and the botanist lady?"

"What?" His eyes bulged. "I don't know what you—"

Suddenly, a high-pitched scream echoed through the room. That voice sounded blood-curdlingly familiar.

"Pepper!"

She screamed again. I shut the blade away and knocked the guy out with my fist, running toward the source.

"Tony, things are bad, I thought I heard Pepper scream," I said through our communication link. He didn't respond. "Tony?" Screw this, I had to go find Pepper myself. FRANNIE used a sonic tracer to find the source of the sound, a room deep in the house. I turned a corner and found myself in a small, bare parlor. There was a blond man standing there. He was holding a recording device in his hand.

I only had a split second to process it.

"Surprise," said the man smugly, and suddenly two people grabbed me from behind, hard. I screamed as white-hot pain surged through my suit, forcing it open.

As I stumbled out, I realized this was probably the stupidest thing I'd fallen for in my life.