We're at the second to last full chapter! Yay!
That being said, hopefully everything will work out and fit nicely. If this goes well it should wet your appetite for the big finale :)
I'm pretty excited to get into the last bit, so I'll make sure you guys don't have to wait too long for the next chapter.
Chapter 9: Destiny
It's finished.
The Mark 3 armor was finally repaired and fully battle ready. He had no actual idea why half of the features were built in anymore, but there must have been a good reason for including them.
Whipping out his Stark-Pod, he began writing a message to his friends. The genius had hopes that they would understand why he didn't immediately come back for them, despite him no longer knowing that for himself. He had to see them again.
He had almost finished his message when an emergency alert started broadcasting from all of his devices.
xXxXx
"Queens is currently experiencing a huge power outage as a man described only as 'a devil in black samurai armor' tears through the streets, seemingly searching for something. Police have tried approaching the man, but anyone caught within a block's radius has been instantly enslaved by some form of mind control. The city has been caught in major destruction with only one question: where is Iron Man?"
xXxXx
"Where is Iron Man?"
The city... I have to stop this.
"Mark 3, deploy."
Rising from the ground, small silver hexagonal plates began throwing themselves at the inventor, and as every square inch of him started to reflect silver, the plates flipped themselves inside out to form a familiar red and yellow color scheme. When all of the main body armor was attached, the helmet rose up from the table and clasped itself down overtop of his head. As a finishing touch, the back of the helmet flipped the faceplate over to sit in front of his face, and slid back with a snap.
This isn't over Gene.
xXxXx
"Where is it?!" the short fuse of the maniac had burnt out. He wanted the ring, NOW.
"Gene, this isn't worth it."
The flames from the armored Avenger's repulsers slowly died down as he dropped to the ground, ready to confront his adversary.
"This is my birthright, Stark! You and your father... both too arrogant to see that nothing can come between me from my destiny!"
"Gene, look at yourself... look what all this power is doing to you!"
"What this power is doing to me? It has given me the strength to fix whatever I want... control whatever I want! You betrayed me Stark! I only wanted what I deserved!"
With that, the hands of the Mandarin started to glow.
xXxXx
"T-T-To-Tony?" the redhead stuttered, trying to regain some slight composure at the sight of the hero on the screen of her Stark-Pod.
"Tony... alive...? It can't be... Tony... he's alive...?"
xXxXx
The power hungry menace was attempting to hit him with everything he had, but the villain could not defend against the Makluan disruptors that the genius had left for himself prior to his mind wipe. Every beam had been neutralized before it could reach it's mark, assuming Tony hadn't managed to simply dodge the attack. Turning his jets to full power, Iron Man propelled himself directly towards his enemy and with a swift uppercut, he managed to send the one true Mandarin flying into the distance.
xXxXx
The girl had assembled the purple and silver armor around herself piece by piece. When she had locked in the final piece, she activated her repulsers and flew towards the scene of the battle.
xXxXx
The golden goliath saw a figure approach from the distant skyline. The more he looked towards the stranger's distinct magenta flight trail, the more familiar it looked...
"I've felt this way for a long time, but I just wasn't sure what it really was... until the day that Andros showed up."
Just say it.
"I know you're still dating Happy... but I..."
Inhaling deeply and eyeing his friend to ensure she was still listening, he spoke the words.
"Pepper, I love you."
The feeling of a split forming in his brain began to return. The memories were coming back.
xXxXx
The injured tyrant could not understand.
I have nine rings... how could he beat me?!
His left hand became drawn to the ground before him. The final ring.
xXxXx
The champion collapsed to the ground and began scratching into his helmet as the pain became unbearable, more so than he had ever felt before.
"MAKE IT STOP!"
The crippled teenager's last sight was the Rescue armor landing. His mind had had enough.
"H-h-hhhheelpp... m-meeee..."
Then everything went black.
xXxXx
The dark form looked towards the crowd forming around their "protector" and knew they were too preoccupied to notice what was about to be done. The shadow raised his brightly gleaming fingers, and out of the ground before him came the last Makluan Temple.
"The final ring... it will be mine."
Chapter 10: Hands of the Mandarin - Coming soon