Chapter 13 – Monster Hunting, 2011

Pepper jumped when J.A.R.V.I.S.' voice announced that there were two LAPD officers standing at the front door. She glanced at Tony's slumbering form and sighed before getting up and going towards the door. "Police officers?" she asked quietly to J.A.R.V.I.S. as she stepped out of the door and heard it slid shut on one an automatic pusher.
"Yes ma'am, they were knocking for fifteen minutes before I alerted you." J.A.R.V.I.S. informed her reluctantly.
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Pepper snapped.
"I was updating my server matrices." J.A.R.V.I.S. replied, "I am sorry, Missus Stark."
Pepper sighed as a reply to his statement and went to the front door, checking her hair and breath briefly before opening it with a polite smile and a cheery, "Good afternoon, officers."

"Good afternoon, ma'am," the first replied, smiling politely, but after so many years of being married to someone like Tony Stark, and being around all the people around him, she had learn to tell when someone was lying, hiding something, or generally uncomfortable. Two out of three was good enough for Pepper. "It would be best if you invited us in, missus Stark." He said eventually.
Pepper regarded them with suspicion, "Can I see some I.D.?" she asked slowly. She watched them pull out their badges, and glanced at the small screen just inside the door as J.A.R.V.I.S. verified their identification.
"My name is Timothy Dugan, this is Daniel Rand," the first officer said, which matched their I.D.'s, their names glowing on the screen.
Pepper looked back at them and smiled, "Come on in," she said and stepped back, pulling the door open wider for them. She showed them into the main lounge, "J.A.R.V.I.S. will make you tea, coffee, whatever you want," she said, as a light turned on over a table in the corner and a coffee machine silently came to life. After this the red-head excused herself to wake Tony up, who shot awake when she said the word "police," and followed her down quickly. As he stepped into the room, he stopped, recognising the first officer from about a week ago. "Officer." He greeted with a nod.

"Mister Stark," Dugan nodded in acknowledgement. "Mister and missus Stark," he said, removing his hat, "You may want to sit down.
Tony thanked Dugan and Rand in a very half-hearted way and disappeared down to his workshop. Pepper sighed, and thanked the officers on his behalf before following Tony down to the workshop in silence.
"Happy?" Tony's voice said clearly as she stepped into the workshop. In a moment of confusion Pepper thought her husband was talking to her, before she heard Happy Hogan's voice respond;
"I'm here, boss," Happy's voice replied through the stand-alone PA system in the workshop, which ran through Tony's personal cell phone.
"I need you to get over here and pick Pepper up, take her to S.H.I. ." Tony said.
"Boss?" Happy asked in a puzzled tone.

Pepper's jaw dropped at what he said, "No!" she said defiantly, "I'm not going anywhere while that...monster has our daughter."
Tony whirled on his wife, causing Pepper to shrink back from him, "It's him, Pep. He's doing this to get back at me."
"Back at you for what?" Pepper asked, and now Tony shrank down as he calmed from his outburst.
"He thinks I stole you, just because he may have met you first." Tony muttered and looked away.
"Boss, I'm on my way, I'll be there in 15 minutes." Happy spoke up slowly, and the line went dead.
Pepper watched as Tony stepped away towards the Iron Man assembly chamber, built into a hidden room against the far wall.
Ten minutes later, Iron Man stepped from the room and looked across at Pepper, who shivered when the glowing blue eyes landed on her. She hated not being about to see people's eyes, be able to read the emotions in them. Especially when it was Tony. She didn't think she'd ever get used to this. She watched as he moved towards the garage entrance tunnel which led up to the driveway.

"Did you?" she spoke up finally.
Iron Man stopped and looked back at her, his head tilting in confusion.
"Did you...steal me?"
The faceplate slid up as Tony sighed, "I didn't know you two had met until our first date." Tony said truthfully, and Pepper nodded slightly.
"Where are you going?" Pepper asked as the faceplate slid back down while Iron Man turned away again.
"I'm going to fly to the Hellicarrier while you and Happy go to New York." Tony's mechanised voice came.
"New York!" Pepper almost yelled in shock.

Iron Man's helmet tilted forward as a nod, "To S.H.I.E.L.D.I" Tony said, "It's the only safe place right now."
Pepper's jaw flapped but Tony had already taken off; the blue glow of the quickly fading repulsor jets turned into car headlights as the two-tone Rolls Royce pulled up in front of Pepper.
A confused-looking Happy Hogan got out of the car, but stood holding onto the body of the machine, glancing from Pepper, to the tunnel behind him in bewilderment.
"I'll explain on the way." Pepper said, rushing to the passenger seat.


Tony flew fast cross-country, towards the Hellicarrier, currently in place 50,000 feet above Las Vegas, hidden above the clouds. He ignored almost everything around him, except barrel rolling through the air to avoid to occasional oncoming flock of birds, or commercial air craft. While he was keeping the public's safety in mind, he couldn't waste time flying around airports and no-fly-zones.
Aboard the Hellicarrier, klaxons started to blare as the unidentified object on the radar closed in, and touched down heavily on the deck.
Iron Man had landed.

With one had resting on the deck, on one knee, head bowed. He stood up and looked around as S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents circled him, Stark-Global weapons aimed at him, laser targeting aimed in groups clusters around the miniature ARC reactor and the centre of the faceplate.
Some of them looked round when they heard clapping, and Nick Fury stepped into the makeshift ring of Agents. "Very nice." He said, "I give you a 9 for appearance, 9 for the entrance, but a 3 for timing. Not a good time." He said, and the faceplate of the armour slid up, revealing Tony's face.
Several Agents lowered their weapons slightly, lasers now pointed at the floor, while others kept their guns trained on Tony, until he shot them a death-glare.
"It's Rhodey." Tony said bitterly, "He's got my daughter." He said and his fists tightened, the metal grinding together.
Nick's expression hardened. "Well this changes things." He admitted.
Tony stared him down, while Agents glanced at each other nervously. Nick nodded for Tony to follow him, and strolled cockily over towards the huge lift. Tony followed, metal boots clunking on the deck of the Hellicarrier, otherwise he remained silent.

"How do you know its Rhodes?" Fury asked eventually. "I mean...how do you know?"
"I didn't have to be told to know that it was him, Nick." Tony said, "I know it, with all my heart, my little girl was kidnapped from her high school by Rhodey." Tony said as the lift reached the lowest floor, a huge room filled with computers. It took Tony about 30 seconds to register that this was the War Machine mobile-operations room, with the podium where the assembly robots stood, and a huge screen, which must be about 200 inches, with smaller ones, roughly 90-100 inches each.

Tony removed the helmet and placed it on the desk in the middle of the room, looking up at the huge holographic Earth before him.
"Can you find him?" Fury asked.
Tony nodded and began typing into a keyboard for several minutes, the Earth span above him but he didn't look up. He knew what would be happening a split second before it happened.
On the holographic Earth, white lines and blotches appeared.
"What's that?" Fury asked, arms folded.
"Repulsor signature, both the War Machine suit and this one." He said.
"What this called, by the way?" Fury asked, gesturing to Tony's new colourful suit, "Just so I can put it in my report." He added sarcastically.

"Iron Man."
"Simplistic." Fury nodded, "You were saying...?" he waved for Tony to continute.
Tony glanced up and continued speaking, "The white lines represent the repulsor signature trails around the world. Currently the display is showing trails for both suits, but my suit is using the updated technology that I never gave Rhodey." Tony said, for the first time he was glad he'd never got around to updating the War Machine suit too much.
Although he didn't say anything, Fury too was glad of this fact.
"The happy thing is, that I can alter the perception of the software to pick up the out-dated trail, and find just Rhodey." Tony continued, "Although...the technology actually hasn't been tested yet." He said slowly.
Fury shot him a glare.

"Don't look at me like that, I was busy fighting the guy in Afghanistan, then had to get home, and found spent the night traversing space updating my own hardware and software, then my wife ordered me to sleep." Tony said and looked at Fury, regarding the coloured man with curiosity. "You ever been married, Nicky?"
Fury rolled his eyes, "Got time to joke now, do we?"
Tony grimaced, "No." He said and looked at the holographic Earth as he entered the final commands, hoping his calculations would be correct and the hardware and software changes would work. It was rare for Tony to make a mistake, but this had been rushed. Boy, if Reed could see him now.
After a painstakingly slow 3 and a half minutes, which felt like eternity to Tony, though he knew no such thing existed, but eventually, the only white trails left on the Earth were faded, older, but noticeable.

"Los Angeles." Fury said, seeing the final end of the trail, it circled the globe, from New York City to Los Angeles.
Tony sighed, "Worse." He said, "It's the old Stark-Global weapons factory." He said bitterly. He moved quickly, a grim look on his face as he replaced his helmet, the eyes glowed again.
"Stark," Fury barked after him. "Take a fleet of my best Agents, I'm not letting this go down without S.H.I.E.L.D. being involved.
"You can be as involved as you like. I'm leaving now. If a hair on Maria's head get's injured, you'll wish Rhodey never crossed me." Tony threatened him and took off into the air and out of the large hole in the deck, arching through the air, twirling as he did so, and headed back South-South-West towards Los Angeles.