Disclaimer: Unfortunately, Iron Man: Armored Adventures isn't mine. Not even Tony (or Gene! D:), belong to me. The rights ultimately belong to Marvel, so there. :D Don't try to sue me, got that? I'm not making even a single cent off this story.

A/N: Thanks so much to those who reviewed! :D


Chapter Five: Battle

Feet pounding on the pavement, Pepper ran. She raced along the sidewalk, lungs burning and chest aching, dodging pedestrians who were too rude to leap out of the way as she barreled towards them. Just up ahead, she could see the towering building that was Stark International, high above all other buildings in this area of the city. She kept her gaze firmly focused on the noticeable landmark, not exactly watching the ground moving swiftly beneath her feet. So she didn't see the crack in the sidewalk until it was too late, and ended up on her hands and knees, blood oozing from her torn palms.

"Pepper!" came a familiar voice. She looked up just as Rhodey rushed out of the crowd and knelt beside her, gingerly helping her to her feet. He gawked at the blood coming from her wounded hands, and swallowed hard. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, fine," she answered impatiently, rubbing her bloody hands against the sides of her pants. "So, did you see him? Did you see Tony?" She couldn't keep the anticipation out of her voice, staring excitedly at him as she waited for his reply.

Rhodey shifted awkwardly, not meeting her gaze. "Er…yes. I saw him. And I, um, wanted to apologize. For not believing you when you said you saw," he glanced furtively over his shoulder, like he thought someone might be eavesdropping on them, "Iron Man. He confessed that you'd seen him, and well…" More like casually announced it, but Rhodey didn't mention that little fact.

Pepper waved her hand, carelessly dismissing his apology. It didn't really matter to her that he hadn't believed her then. He believed her now, and that was what mattered. "Well, how is he? Why aren't you with him right now? Why didn't you call me?"

He swallowed again, hard. "Pepper…Tony isn't exactly himself right now," he said softly, taking her by the arm. He guided her out of the middle of the sidewalk, getting them out of the way of the many New Yorkers rushing busily past.

"What do you mean, he's not himself?" she demanded, jerking her arm away from his grip and planting both hands on her hips. "Did you see Tony or not?"

Rhodey shook his head grimly. "Don't you remember how he treated you outside that café?" he asked quietly.

"He didn't…how did you know about that?" Pepper wanted to know, frowning suspiciously. For a moment, she wondered if she'd somehow gotten amnesia when she'd fainted.

"Gene told me," he answered. "But the point is, Tony isn't the same guy we knew two years ago, Pepper. He's changed. And I'm not exactly sure it's for the better."

Pepper's face fell, and she felt slightly nauseous. "Tell me what happened," she ordered in a hard voice.

Looking nervous, Rhodey did as she asked and gave her the abridged version of what had happened between he and Tony. By the time he finished, Pepper was staring at him with a horrified expression plainly written upon her face. "…and then he told me not to come back, or I'd be sorry. Something about putting a watch out and setting the guards on me if I was sighted too close to Stark International." Rhodey paused, regret heavy on his voice when he spoke again. "Then I…left."

Pepper's jaw tightened, lips forming a white line. "Are you sure that was Tony?" she asked coldly, wild thoughts of clones and aliens and being possessed filling her head. "He sounds like a completely different person."

"From what Gene told me, it was the same when you two met him," Rhodey replied solemnly.

"How could he treat you like that?" Pepper raged, both hands clenching into fists. "He's your friend, your best friend! And he was acting like you were nothing more than dirt under his arrogant feet!"

Rhodey looked with surprise at the slight redhead; he had never imagined that he would hear her talking like that about Tony, not after he had become her obsession these past two years. But then, before his friend had been kidnapped, he had never imagined that would happen, either. "Pepper–"

"I mean, at first I thought that maybe he had been changed by whatever had happened to him while he was missing. But even after being through a trying experience, Tony would never treat you like that, Rhodey!"

"No," he answered quietly, bowing his head.

Pepper hesitated, biting her lip. "Did you see…did you see his scars?"

"What scars?" Rhodey asked her, surprised.

"I grabbed his arm when he started to walk off from Gene and I, and his sleeve came up. There were scars all over his shoulder, and probably his back. Even Gene got a little freaked out by them." Pepper shrugged, seeming to be calming down a little as she slipped back into the hard shell she had become since Tony's vanishing act. "Those definitely weren't there before he went missing. We would have noticed."

"No, they weren't," Rhodey agreed musingly. Now that he was getting over the disbelief of what Tony had said and done to him, he was starting to feel just the littlest bit concerned. Something was up with Tony, and whatever it was, it wasn't good.

Pepper was frowning, seeming to be deep in thought. "Rhodey, I'm going to break into Stark International. Tonight," she said unexpectedly, in a tone much too loud for Rhodey's peace of mind.

"What?" he yelped, quickly glancing around to see if anyone was nefariously listening in on their conversation. "Pepper, you can't! Not only is that impossible, but it's also very stupid. Tony is Iron Man, remember?" He didn't say it, but it was obvious what he was thinking: Tony could crush her with a single blast from one of his repulsors.

"I've changed a lot since the old days, Rhodey, and I've learned a few tricks of my own," Pepper said firmly, raising her chin defiantly. She made no attempt to lower her voice, despite Rhodey's obvious dismay at her loud tones. "Besides, you're forgetting something very important. Tony may be Iron Man, but you're War Machine. Don't you think that evens the odds a little?"

Rhodey didn't really like the way this conversation was going. Even if he was War Machine, he didn't have nearly as much experience as Tony did with the Iron Man armor. And for all he knew, Tony could have learned a few new tricks while he was away. "Pepper, breaking into Stark International would be suicide!" he hissed, trying in vain to get her to see his point of view on the dangerous situation.

"Yeah, but it's our only chance, Rhodey. Our only chance to find out what happened to our best friend, what changed him. Why he…disappeared." Her voice broke, and she awkwardly cleared her throat and glanced away.

Rhodey couldn't stand the look of raw pain on the redhead's face as she stared blankly down at her shoes, and swallowed hard. Ignoring thoughts of Iron Man beating him into the carpet, he cleared his throat. "All right," he said, already feeling like he'd said the wrong thing as he said it.

Pepper's head snapped up so fast that she nearly gave herself whiplash. "What did you say?" she asked quickly, unable to keep the excitement from her voice.

Rhodey smiled slightly, overwhelmingly pleased to hear the enthusiasm the old Pepper had constantly shown in her voice. "I said all right," he repeated, feeling a little braver just to see the ecstatic look on his friend's face. He hadn't seen her look like that for a very long time. "I'll do it. I'll– " he paused and looked furtively around them one more time, " –break into Stark International with you tonight."

Pepper squealed, throwing herself at him and nearly strangling him as she gave him a big hug. Then, seeming to realize what she was doing, she pulled back and straightened her rumpled clothes as best she could, composing herself. "Thanks," she muttered darkly. "Now, why don't we go back to your place and make plans for tonight?"

Rhodey nodded, trying not to feel deflated at how quickly she had slipped into her hard shell again. He started walking in the general direction of his apartment, Pepper softly announcing battle plans and speaking of him hacking into building schematics of Stark International on his laptop.

Neither of them noticed the dark-haired figure, wearing a pair of absurdly yellow pants, who stood in the shadows mere feet from where they had previously been talking.


Darkness had fallen over New York City. The only thing holding back the blackness was the hundreds of thousands of lights sparkling all across the city. Most people tried their best to stay within the reach of these lights, to better their chances or staying safe from muggers and the like. But two figures didn't, choosing instead to fly high above the city, then land on the roof of Stark International.

"Alarm sensors deactivated," Rhodey said, his voice strangely distorted and deepened by the armor's disguise mechanisms. He frowned at the transparent building schematics that had popped up on the inside of his helmet, initiating a scan for life signs inside the building. "Okay, it looks like nearly everyone's gone home," he reported to his black-clad companion. "We've got five security guards in all, spread out on various levels. And it looks like Tony's inside his office."

"He seems overly confident," Pepper muttered darkly, touching the side of her visor and activating her night vision. She didn't bother telling Rhodey that she could just as easily pick up the life signs as he could, not wanting to damage his fragile male ego. "Stane always had guards to spare on both the night and day shifts."

She swallowed hard at the thought of Tony, heart started to pound against the inside of her chest. They were so close to seeing him again. And despite how he had acted when they'd met outside the café, and how badly he'd allegedly treated Rhodey, she still ached to see him. The pain in his eyes that morning had been all too clear to her, even though Gene denied seeing it. Something was wrong, and she was going to help him. No matter what.

"Yeah, well, he's Iron Man," War Machine answered bluntly. "He doesn't really need the extra guards." Pausing, he turned around to look at her, armor clanking quietly. "Pepper, are you sure you want to do this?"

"Of course I am," the redhead snapped. "This is Tony we're talking about, not some psychotic super criminal."

"That's not what it seemed like earlier," he muttered bitterly.

Pepper didn't answer, ignoring his negative comment. "According to these schematics, the defenses are weakest on the third floor," she told him, scanning the plans that showed up on the inside of her visor. "So let's go." Leaving him behind, she raced lightly towards the edge of the roof, feet pounding on the concrete. She heard him take flight behind her, just as she launched herself off the roof, activating her jetpack seconds later.

It only took about five or six seconds to drift down to the correct window, following a red mark on the inside of her visor. Then she aimed a strong kick at the bulletproof glass, at the same time activating the lasers that were imbedded in the leather bottoms of her boots. The glass shattered easily before her kick even came close to hitting the window, and her momentum carried her through the gaping hole and into the building.

Pepper landed in an easy crouch, regaining her balance, then straightened. War Machine landed behind her with a solid-sounding thud, posture easily distinguishable, even through the bulky armor, as somewhere between irritation and concern. "Come on; this way," she said, to keep him from making some absurd remark about her safety. She'd been doing this for two whole years, and was pretty sure that she knew what she was doing by now.

The pair of them walked through the dimly-lighted corridor, Pepper with a catlike grace and Rhodey with metallic clanking sounds. Neither of them said anything for several minutes as they navigated their way through the maze-like tunnel, aiming for where the elevator was supposedly located.

"Don't you think it's a little strange?" War Machine finally asked in his deep voice.

Not bothering to look over her shoulder, Pepper asked softly, "What?" Her thoughts were mostly on finding Tony right now, so she didn't pay much attention to his cryptic question.

"That an alarm didn't sound, when you broke the glass earlier. You did it before I could jam the signal, but nothing happened."

"Maybe the alarm system has faulty wiring in this sector," she replied, still not giving her reply much thought. Who cared if the building needed an alarm upgrade? What mattered right now was finding Tony and talking some sense into him.

"I doubt it," War Machine responded, a frown very obvious in his voice. "Pepper, I think something could be…there's a guard coming this way, just ahead," he said abruptly, concentrating on the task at hand. He had only just picked up the guard's life sign, and it was blinking steadily right around the corner in the hallway before them.

"No problem. Just grab my arm," Pepper said quickly, reaching at and pulling Rhodey off to the side of the wide corridor. Then, making sure that she was still touching the armor, she used her free hand to touch a button on her opposite arm. Both she and Rhodey's images flickered, then unexpectedly vanished, unable to be picked up by the naked eye. This cloaking technology, adapted from the one Iron Man himself had possessed, had gotten her out of several sticky situations since she'd first adapted and installed it seven months earlier.

A guard appeared from around the corner, his expression teetering on boredom and apprehension. He paused, eyes sweeping over the area, then reached for a small device dangling from his belt. Touching the screen, he looked at it for several seconds, then looked up again. Pressing a button, he then spoke into it, "Sir, I'm picking up a disturbance in Sector 8.7-3. The readings are coming from out of my position, an outer wall, by the looks of it. Do you want me to investigate, sir?"

"No. Return to your original position and hold your post until I otherwise say so. No matter what happens. And tell the others to do the same."

Pepper felt a sudden jolt as she recognized Tony's voice, and looked towards where she knew the invisible War Machine was standing at her side.

"Yes, sir. Understood, sir," the guard said politely. Stowing the device back into his belt, he muttered something unsavory under his breath and walked back down the hallway, out of sight.

Pepper waited until his footsteps faded away, then deactivated the cloaking device. Taking her hand from the now-visible War Machine's arm, she swallowed hard. "That…that was…" she began in a shaking voice.

"Tony. I know," Rhodey finished for her, not sounding very happy.

As though on cue, the faint lighting above flickered once then went out, plunging them into absolute blackness. If it hadn't been for their night vision, both of them would have been hopelessly lost in the void of darkness.

"I think he knows we're here," War Machine stated flatly, flexing his mechanical arm.

Pepper shot him a warning look, then started walking again. "We're nearly to the elevator," was all that she said.

They reached the elevator in only a few minutes, finding the doors standing wide open. A faint light flickered inside the lift, and Rhodey's sensors deduced that emergency power had been rerouted to the elevator, to keep it running even though all the other lights were out.

"Do you think he's waiting for us?" Pepper asked, feeling a wild excitement brewing inside her as she stepped without pause into the waiting elevator.

"He's waiting, all right," War Machine mumbled bitterly, following suit. "He's setting us a trap, Pepper. Can't you see that?"

She didn't answer him as the doors hissed softly closed, and the elevator began to move upward at a rapid pace. The button freshly marked Stark – Office gleamed a bright yellow, showing where their final destination was intended to be. It was plainly obvious that Tony was already busy making changes, even though he had only arrived to claim the company as his own this morning.

Pepper exhaled a shaky breath, leaning against the wall as she suddenly felt weak and nauseous. This was it. Tony was waiting for them just a few floors above, and she could finally be reunited with him. After two years (she definitely wasn't including the encounter earlier that morning; it had to have been some kind of mistake), she was going to be able to hug him and tell him about all the feelings she'd tried so hard to conceal when they'd been 'just friends'. It would be kind of awkward with Rhodey there, not at all like she'd imagined it all this time, but she would have to make do.

The elevator finally came to a stop, after what felt like an eternity, the doors gliding smoothly apart. Pepper was the first one to step out into the hallway, which was just as dark as the rest of the building. She immediately scanned the area ahead as War Machine joined her, brow furrowing. "I can't pick up Tony's life sign, much less his heat signature," she said worriedly.

"Neither can I," War Machine answered gravely, starting forward. "The office must be sealed against possible breaching with this technology; we'd better be really careful, Pepper."

Pepper didn't answer, hurrying past him and feeling her heart rate increase as she neared the invitingly open office door. She didn't even notice the fact that it was actually hanging off the hinges, walking without hesitation through the doorway. She looked eagerly around the room, and was disappointed to find it empty. The large room was completely tidy, except for a few rumpled papers on the ground by the wastebasket.

Rhodey clanked over to the light switch and flipped it up and down several times. The faint clicking sound seemed abnormally loud in the eerie silence. "He's shut off the main breaker," he muttered to Pepper, though she didn't appear to be listening. Mentally cursing himself for agreeing to do this, Rhodey walked over to the desk. He looked down at its cluttered surface, though nothing seemed to really jump out for evidence of what was going on. All the crumpled papers seemed to belong to Stane, along with the half-filled crystal goblet of wine.

"Pepper," he began, face plates sliding easily away to reveal his face beneath them, "I'm really starting to think that this is a bad idea. I don't think that we should–" He was alerted by the familiar purring of Iron Man's armor only seconds before something slammed heavily into his back. He felt the horrible jarring even through his own armor, then flew head-over-heels through the air. He slammed into the wall with a thunderous crash, sheetrock crumpling off and falling to the carpet.

Hearing Pepper's loud gasp of shock, Rhodey forced himself to get back to his feet, even though his body was aching from the hit. Courtesy of his night vision, he stared at the new Iron Man armor, which was utterly unfamiliar to him. The design was basically still the same, though slightly more bulky. And the red was now accented with glistening silver instead of gold, making the suit seem very alien.

"Tony!" Pepper cried, oblivious to Rhodey. She took a hesitant step forward towards the silently hovering suit of armor, then something made her stop. She simply stared at the armor, not entirely sure what to do next.

Iron Man's face plates slid away, revealing Tony's face. His expression was cold, twisted with pure hatred. Something inside Pepper lurched, and she took a frightened step away from him. But she needn't have worried, because his attention was focused completely on Rhodey. "Pathetic," he snarled maliciously. "You're worse than I imagined you, Rhodes. You can't even last two seconds against me."

Pepper tightly clenched her fists, feeling her nails digging into the skin even through her gloves. "Stop it," she said in a hard voice, surprising even herself when her voice didn't shake. Tony turned to look at her, something glittering in his sapphire depths. But it most certainly wasn't fear, which Pepper knew for a fact. "Tony, what's wrong with you? You're acting really different. And how could you do that to Rhodey? He's your best friend–"

"Don't you ever shut up, Potts?" he angrily ground out, repulsors gleaming threateningly.

"Be quiet, Tony," Rhodey snapped warningly, seeing the way Pepper's face fell slightly at his cruel words.

Pepper swallowed hard, determined to continue. She had to get through to him, make him see reason. "Tony, aren't you happy to see m–"

Tony didn't wait for her answer, rushing her in a blast of blue light. She only had time for a strangled squeak before he crashed into her, sending her flying into the glass wall. It cracked behind her limp body as she slid down to the floor, moaning in pain. Dark blood that looked almost black stained the carpet around her as she fought to stay conscious.

Rhodey stared incredulously at her, and felt something snap inside him as he noticed her cracked visor. With a roar of anger, he flew right at Tony, powerful fists extended in front of him. He didn't bother with using his repulsors, because he wanted to beat Tony into a bloody pulp all on his own for what he'd done to Pepper.

Iron Man turned casually at the last second, holding out a single hand. A blast of blue energy fired from the repulsor imbedded in his metal glove, hitting Rhodey head-on. The latter cried out in pain, toppling backwards in the air and hitting the carpet with an ominous thud that echoed throughout the building. The floor shook precariously, but miraculously held itself together.

"Will you never learn, Rhodes? I told you to stay away, but you just didn't listen." Tony walked nonchalantly towards Rhodey, who was struggling to pull himself up from the floor. "At least that coward Khan has enough sense to leave me alone. But did you? Of course not. You have no idea what you're dealing with here, Rhodes. No idea at all."

Rhodey suddenly found another reserve of strength, and flung himself up again. He launched himself at Tony, managing to catch him by surprise, and crushed him to the floor. Landing on top of him, he aimed blow after blow at Tony's chest. Absurdly enough, Tony didn't struggle. He instead started to laugh, especially when Rhodey didn't aim anything at his exposed face. Somehow, Rhodey just couldn't hit his best friend's face, even after all that had happened.

After nearly thirty seconds, Iron Man moved in a blur of red and silver. He hit Rhodey in the face with a single fist, and Rhodey screamed in agony as he felt blood spurting from his broken nose. He landed in a crumpled heap, and vaguely heard Pepper weakly calling his name.

Tony laughed cruelly, taking his time in getting up. He strode slowly towards Rhodey, armor clanking menacingly with each unhurried movement. "Oh, Rhodes," he said in a hateful voice, leering down at the bloodied young man who had once been his very best friend. "The beauty of this is, I was going to let you live. Even Potts, and maybe even Khan. But you had to come after me, to be heroic and try to figure out what was going on." He smirked, leisurely studying his right repulsor, which gleamed brightly. "But now I've got no choice. I'm going to have to kill both of you now. No way around it, I'm afraid."

Pepper, ignoring the burst of pain in her side, threw herself at Tony's back. As he was so busy gloating, she caught him unaware. Wrapping her arms around his throat, she kicked at him with all her strength, legs flailing wildly.

Tony stiffened with anger, then a buzz of tangible electricity burst from his armor. The electrical current ran through Pepper's body, though she only allowed a gasp to escape through her tightly clenched lips. Arms strangely numb and not obeying her mental commands to hold on, she dropped from him and landed with a small thump on the floor.

Iron Man chuckled without humor, then pulled back and leg and savagely kicked the wilted body at his feet. Pepper cried out as she flew through the air and landed on the desk, papers scattering everywhere. The goblet, which had been shaking precariously, shattered loudly, dark wine dribbling down the side of the desk. Pepper, seeing black spots before her eyes, blinked rapidly and tried to stay awake.

"Leave her alone!" Rhodey managed to choke out, trying to get to his feet. His legs shook feebly, then he dropped back into a pile again, unable to get up.

Ignoring War Machine's feeble attempt at distracting him from his goal, Tony walked quickly over to the desk. Pepper stared up at him through her shattered visor, disbelief very evident in her eyes. How could this be happening? He wouldn't, he couldn't

Rhodey tackled Tony from behind, both of them slamming into the desk and barely missing Pepper. It exploded into pieces beneath them, Pepper going flying as the other two crashed mightily into the floor. Both aimed angry punches at one other as they rolled across the carpet, Rhodey not bothering to hold himself back this time.

This little struggle lasted nearly a minute before Tony blasted Rhodey with his repulsor again, sending him straight into the glass wall. An even larger crack spread through it, the glass making ominous creaking sounds. It was painfully obvious that the wall, even if it was bulletproof, couldn't take another hit like that.

"Well? Aren't you going to get up, Rhodes?" Tony asked tauntingly, offhandedly folding both arms over his chest. "You look like you might have a few seconds of fighting left in you, however pathetic your attempts to beat me might be."

Rhodey felt like a nuclear explosion was going off inside him. His whole body was throbbing and aching, and something wet was flowing steadily down his face and into his mouth as he tried to breathe. Also, one of his eyes had started to swell shut, leaving him very vision impaired. He tried to say something, anything, to get Pepper to run for her life and leave him. But no words came from his lips, only a faint croak.

Tony laughed uproariously. "Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic," he announced, shaking his head. "Come on, Rhodes! Get up and fight! Be a man!" He aimed a kick at Rhodey's armored chest, and Rhodey gasped out loud as he clearly felt the shaking blow. Something that felt suspiciously like a rib cracked inside him.

"No, leave him alone!" Pepper cried, unable to make her voice sound as fierce as she would have liked. Tony paid her no attention, pulling his leg back to kick Rhodey again.

Rhodey struggled to sit up, and Tony stopped. Biting back a groan, he heaved himself onto his hands and knees, panting as he tried to breathe through the steady stream of blood. He squinted, trying to make the blurriness in his one good eye go away. It didn't work, so he concentrated simply on getting up. On fighting as best he could to defend Pepper from this maniac wearing his best friend's face.

Rhodey finally managed to stand, staggering weakly towards Pepper. Tony didn't attempt to stop him, though it would have been much too easy, smirking cruelly as he watched his dazed efforts to make it across the room.

Rhodey concentrated on seeming as hopeless as possible, though it wasn't actually that hard. Then, stopping a few yards away from Pepper, who stared up at him with frightened eyes, he turned as quickly as possible and fired both repulsors at Tony. The latter was caught off guard, but managed to fire his own repulsors half a second before the offensive blast hit him.

"Good, Rhodes, very good! Nearly caught me that time!" he cackled madly, intensifying his firing energy.

Rhodey stumbled, nearly falling backwards under the extreme strain as he tried with all his might to keep his repulsors going, to block Tony. He could feel the heat of Tony's attack leaking through his armor, and knew with a sinking heart that he wouldn't survive to see his mother again, to make up for his horrible behavior towards her.

"Armor shields cracking," a pleasant voice informed him inside the War Machine helmet. "Exterior guards down to forty percent and rapidly dropping. Exercise extreme caution."

Rhodey felt his arms start to shake, and knew that Tony had noticed as the attacking blast increased again. Unable to hold up any longer, Iron Man's repulsor energy ate through his own and slammed into him with the force of a freight train. Unable to even make a sound, he flew backwards and vaguely felt himself falling beside Pepper. He heard her shouting insults at Tony and pleading for him to get up and keep fighting, but couldn't for the life of him make himself move. He felt drained, and could feel himself slowly losing consciousness.

"Rhodes, I want you to know something before you die," Tony said pleasantly, taking his time as he advanced on the two of them. "You've made me very angry. So now I'm going to hunt down and very slowly kill Khan. Then I'm going to do the same to Stane and Stane Junior. And I'll be sure to go after everyone you've ever cared about or known, including your sweet mother."

Rhodey felt a burst of rage, but still couldn't manage to get up.

"Well, I would say this has been fun, but it really hasn't," Tony said with pleasure, raising his glove and watching the repulsor flicker as they prepared to fire. "But it has given me something to do, though. And an excuse to redecorate, I suppose. Anyway, enjoy the afterlife."

The repulsor fired loudly, and Rhodey waited to feel the agony of death. But instead, he heard a loud crash, followed by a smaller crash and finally a curious screeching of metal. Then came the sound of Tony cursing colorfully. Opening his eyes, Rhodey stared with amazement at tha Mandarin, who was sprawled in front of them with blood leaking from his mangled arm.

"What's happening?" Pepper whispered in a dazed voice, edging closer to Rhodey.

Before Rhodey could answer her, the angry Tony was aiming again. Apparently gathering a burst of strength, the Mandarin lunged backwards and grabbed both of them by the arms. There was a brilliant flash of white light, and both Pepper and Rhodey squeezed their eyes closed. Then…nothing except blackness.

Pepper opened her eyes, then gasped in amazement as she saw a sky full of coldly twinkling stars above her. She sat up, wincing in pain, then helped the bloodied Rhodey sit up as well. She saw the Mandarin, who was standing silently behind them, make a move as though to help, then pull away again.

It took the two of them several moments to get up, then Rhodey leaned against Pepper and allowed her to support his weight. He glared at the Mandarin, and the four glistening Makluan rings on his clawed fingers. Spitting blood onto the concrete at his feet, he demanded coldly, "Why? Why did you save us?" He knew that his face was clearly revealed for all to see, but didn't really care at the moment.

The Mandarin simply looked at them for several seconds without saying anything, then vanished in a second burst of light, leaving them alone on the rooftop.


Thanks for reading, and be sure to drop me a review if you have the time. :)