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: Um…surprise? Here's a new chapter!


Chapter Seven: Revealed

He walked up the sidewalk towards the building, not too quickly but not noticeably slow. He made sure not to meet anyone else's eye, mounting the large marble steps and strolling inside. The inside of the bank was a breath of fresh air after the warm temperature outside.

It was obvious that the bank was about to close, because many of the tellers had closed down and gone home. Only a few remained, finishing with the last customers of the day.

He stood in the corner, beside a potted plant, and surveyed the situation. He only paused there a few seconds before taking action. He pressed a button on the side of his discreet backpack, and the glistening Iron Man armor sprang out to cover his entire body.

Tony Stark stepped from behind the potted plant, fired up his repulsors, and started shooting. Everyone inside the bank began to scream.


Gene shook his head, still smirking at the shocked looks on Pepper and Rhodey's faces. He slowly pulled himself up onto his elbows. "I never would have figured that out, but thanks for the tip, Potts," he said dryly, in a voice lined with obvious pain.

"But…how?" Rhodey demanded in a weak voice, feeling slightly lightheaded. He'd experienced way too many shocks in such a short amount of time tonight, and wasn't quite able to wrap his head around this startling new revelation yet.

Pepper was shaking her head, ends of her hair slapping against her face. "I don't understand, Gene. How can you be the Mandarin? I mean, no offense or anything, but you're pretty much the last guy I'd ever suspect."

"That's how I've kept it secret for so long," he pointed out. "I apparently did a better job than Stark with his identity."

Eyes widening, Pepper thought back to their brunch earlier in the day. It felt like an eternity had passed since then. "I'd almost forgotten. You told me at the café that you knew about Tony!"

"What?" Rhodey demanded. "Why didn't you tell me, Pepper?"

"I sort of forgot. A lot's happened since then," she said defensively.

"Would you two mind leaving now? I'm busy dying right now," Gene interrupted darkly. When the others turned to look at him, they saw that his small smirk had vanished, leaving behind a grimace of pain. The pool of blood around his arm seemed to have grown considerably.

"Don't be stupid. We're not going to just leave you here," the redhead snapped fiercely.

"I don't see why not. You have your hands full with the Stark situation. Don't you need to go beg him to be your friends again?" he sneered, though it was evident his heart wasn't in it.

Rhodey frowned, and took a step away from the crumpled Gene. "Come on, Pepper. Let's get out of here."

"Have both of you been taking stupid pills today?" Pepper cried, exasperated. "He's just trying to get you mad so you'll leave, Rhodey. He doesn't mean it. Now come over here and help me." She bent over and grabbed Gene's shoulders. She tried her best to haul him to his feet, groaning with the strain. "Could you be any heavier, Gene?"

Gene didn't answer, his face shiny with sweat.

Rhodey hurried over and easily lifted Gene to his feet. Throwing Gene's good arm around his shoulders, he glanced up and down the dark hallway. "Where can we go to get you cleaned up?"

"Down there," Gene muttered, licking his lips as he tried to make his voice come out louder. "First door on the left."

"You heard him. This way!" Pepper raced down the hallway, leaving Rhodey to drag Gene's limp body without any help. She found the right door and pushed it wide open, then stepped inside and located the light switch.

The small room appeared to be where Gene slept. A small bed with worn blankets was in one corner, while a chipped porcelain sink and medicine cabinet took up the other. There was also a small dresser, a wooden chair, and a rickety lamp, but not much else.

Grabbing a faded washcloth from the edge of the sink, Pepper wet it down as Rhodey dragged Gene into the room. He unceremoniously lowered Gene to the bed, then stepped back. Gene leaned against the wall behind the bed and closed his eyes; he seemed very weak.

Pepper hesitantly stepped over to the bed and dabbed at a cut on his cheek, which was bleeding only slightly. "Couldn't you afford more stuff, since you're the Mandarin?" she asked uncertainly. "I mean, you're in charge of the Tong and everything, right?"

He muttered something, barely moving his lips.

"What did you say?"

"Old habits die hard. This is where my stepfather let me stay after my mother died," he said emotionlessly.

Pepper frowned, unsure what to say. To fill the awkward silence, she briskly told Rhodey to get Gene a drink of water. He hurried over to the sink and grabbed a glass from just beside it, then turned the rusty facet.

"Why are you helping me?"

She shrugged, and begun carefully wiping the blood from his arm. "You saved our lives. If it weren't for you, Tony probably would have killed us."

"The question is, why did you help us?" Rhodey handed Gene the glass of water, and he gratefully took a sip. "We may not be total enemies, but we're certainly not the best of friends."

Gene shrugged nonchalantly, grimacing when the movement caused him obvious pain. "It would have been rude to let Stark kill you. And my life would be completely boring without the drama both of you provide."

Pepper pressed down with the rag a little harder than was necessary. "This doesn't look too deep; you should be okay," she said curtly, changing the subject. "Have you got in bandages in the medicine cabinet?"

He nodded.

"Rhodey, could you hand me some of them?"

Rhodey did as she asked, then stood back and watched as she bandaged the wound. "What are you going to do now that we know?"

"Why should I do anything?"

"We could tell someone."

"I doubt it."

Pepper finished with his arm and stepped away, folding her arms. "Don't act like you're the toughest person in the world, Gene. You haven't been through everything Rhodey and I have the past two years. You didn't even care about Tony like we do."

Gene didn't answer, mutely looking away from her fiery gaze.

Rhodey's cell phone rang, and he quickly pulled it from his pocket. Checking the caller ID, he said with surprise, "It's Whitney."

Pepper scowled "Stane? What does she want?"

He shrugged, then pressed send. "Hello?"

"Rhodey? This is Whitney. I have to tell you something about Tony," she blurted out, sounding like she'd been crying. "Something bad. Oh God, I don't know how to tell you this…"

"Whoa, Whitney. Calm down. I've got Pepper and Gene here; let me put you on speakerphone." Rhodey activated the sensitive speakers on his phone, then covered the mouthpiece with his hand and whispered, "Whitney says she's got something to tell us about Tony."

Pepper's lips tightened. "What could she possibly have to say that's even remotely important?"

"We won't know until she tells us." Rhodey removed his hand from the phone and held it up. "Okay, Whitney. What's going on?"

"It's Tony. He's…I was watching, and I saw…"

"Just spit it out already," Pepper ground out, irritated. Nothing that the daughter of Obadiah Stane had to say could be even vaguely worth hearing, in her opinion.

"I saw the last of your fight with Iron Man, and–"

"I thought you said this was about Tony," Rhodey said quickly, in his best I-don't-know-what-you're-talking-about voice.

"You can relax, Rhodey. I know all about Tony's alter ego, and I know that it was you and Pepper who were fighting him tonight," Whitney insisted. "Who else could it have been?"

"How did you find out?" Pepper asked, ignoring the smug look Gene gave her.

"Sorry, but it was really obvious."

"Okay, Whitney," Rhodey interrupted, trying to move things along. "What did you want to tell us?"

"Um…I planted a bug in the office a long time ago, while my father was still working there, so I was watching and listening after the fight. This man in a really expensive suit just appeared in the office and started to talking to Tony."

"What happened then?" Pepper demanded, interested despite herself.

"From…from what I could gather, Tony broke free from some kind of mental control," she went on, voice audibly trembling. "Tony kept calling the man 'Controller'. He was begging the man not to hurt his friends, and he was crying and shaking. It was the worst thing I've ever seen in my whole life."

The room suddenly became very silent as Gene, Pepper, and Rhodey stared at each other. Pepper's legs started shaking, and she fell onto the bed beside Gene as they gave out on her. "Oh my God," she whispered, pressing one hand to her mouth. Tears pooled in her eyes, causing the room to blur in and out of focus. "All this time…the Controller…" The deep scars that she'd seen on Tony's shoulder that morning came to mind, and she bit down hard on her lip to keep from screaming.

Rhodey also felt a bit sick. All the resentment that had been building up against Tony since his reappearance had been for nothing. Tony hadn't actually done any of the things he supposedly had since returning; if what Whitney said was true, then Tony was being forced against his will.

"What happened then?" Gene asked of Whitney calmly, recognizing that he was the only one in the room who was capable of reasonable thought at the moment.

Whitney didn't answer for a minute. "The Controller was talking to Tony about all his plans," she finally whispered. "He plans to use Tony to draw you guys out into the public. Then he's going to make Tony kill you and reveal his own identity."

"Why?" Rhodey croaked, trying to control his jumbled thoughts. "What would the Controller have to gain from any of that?"

"Something about how he wants control of Stark International. And after he's ruined Tony's life and secret identity, he's going to use Iron Man like a puppet. He's going to take over control of the entire country. Rhodey, I think he's completely insane," she added in a small voice.

"We can't let any of this happen," Pepper managed to say, clearing her throat. "We've got to stop the Controller and free Tony."

"And how are we supposed to do that? Tony is too strong, in case you didn't notice when he almost killed both of you earlier," Gene pointed out judiciously.

"He's right. If that Mandarin guy hadn't showed up and saved you, I don't know what would have happened," Whitney spoke up.

Pepper exchanged a glance with Gene, who made no move to tell Whitney about the man behind the Mandarin mask. "So how are we going to do this? There's no way I'm letting the Controller keep Tony in his grasp any longer. Two years is too long," she said firmly, tightly clenching her fists.

Rhodey was frowning. "I never thought I'd say this, but Gene is right. The Iron Man armor is too powerful; I think the Controller must have upgraded it while he held Tony captive." He swallowed hard, trying to get rid of the horrible mental image of Tony being brutally tortured. "We're going to need some new tricks up our sleeves in order to stop the Controller."

"Let me know if there's anything I can do to help," Whitney said.

"I don't know, Whitney," Pepper said dubiously. "We'll see."

"Believe me, I can probably help more than you know," she pressed.

Their conversation was interrupted by a muffled burst of static from across the room.

Pepper jumped to attention, reaching instinctively for a small knife she kept strapped to the back of her left elbow.

"Police scanner. I've got it set for any alerts about high-powered threats," Gene explained calmly. He slowly got to his feet, grimacing, then walked to a small table beside his lamp. He pulled away a rumpled black shirt, which revealed said scanner.

"All units immediately report to Koontz Bank and Trust. There is an armored individual destroying the building. There have been several casualties. Repeat, all units reports to Koontz Bank and Trust on fifty-second street."

Rhodey went pale. "Tony," he realized in a whisper.

"This is it," Whitney blurted out over the phone, sounding horrified. "He's going to try to draw you out tonight!"

"He's killing people," Pepper choked out, not bothering to hide her horror. "Rhodey, we've got to stop him."

He nodded briskly. "We will, Pepper. We will."

"What are you going to do?" Gene asked quietly.

"We're going back to my apartment to pick up the War Machine armor. Then we're going to stop Tony."

"Good luck," Whitney said quietly, sensing the severity of the situation. "And be careful, both of you. I saw how strong the Iron Man armor is."

"We'll be careful," Pepper said. She felt a strange surge of companionship towards Whitney. Maybe she wasn't really as bad as Pepper had always assumed; right now, she seemed pretty decent.

"Thanks for telling us everything, Whitney. We'll tell you what happens." Rhodey hung up and put the phone away. "So what now?"

"Like you said, we'll go and pick up the War Machine armor. Then we'll head to fifty-second street."

Rhodey nodded. "Okay. Come on, Pepper." He started for the door, Pepper close behind him.

"Wait."

"What is it, Gene?" Pepper turned at the sound of his voice. He had taken a step after them, but stopped to flinch in pain when he moved his arm. "If you think you need to go to the hospital, I'm afraid we don't have time to take you there. We've got to get to that bank, before more innocent people are killed."

"No, it's not that. My arm is fine." Gene shifted slightly, so that the rest of his body blocked his bandaged arm from view. "I'm coming with you."

Rhodey was quick to disagree. "I don't think so. You're hurt."

"And you don't think you can trust me." Gene made it into more of a statement than a question, arching a single brow.

"Of course not." But the brief pause before he spoke said everything.

"I can help you with Stark. You know that three of us would stand a better chance against him than only two."

"No, Gene. Stay here. Tony's our friend, and we can take care of this without any help."

Gene took another step towards them. "Think about this, Rhodes."

"I have."

"Don't be stupid! I can help!"

"I'm not being stupid, Gene. We don't need your help, especially not now!"

Pepper waved at hand at her friend, frowning darkly. "Stop, both of you. That's enough." When they were appropriately silent, she turned to looked Gene in the eyes. He stared unblinkingly back at her, his expression free of any emotions. "He should come," she said abruptly.

"What?" Rhodey demanded. "Are you really serious?"

She nodded. "We can trust him. He saved our lives, and he could have gone to any number of people and revealed our secret identities by now. But he hasn't."

Rhodey looked uncertain. "Are you sure about this?"

"Yeah. Now let's go."

He sighed heavily, and glanced towards Gene. "I'll be watching you."

Gene nodded briskly. "Understood."

"We need to get the Mandarin armor before we leave, right?" Pepper asked him.

"That would probably be wise."

"Okay." Pepper rushed out the door, Gene and Rhodey right behind her.


Whitney stood on the building where she'd made the call to Rhodey, hair fluttering in the wind. Her lips felt dry, and her chest tight, but she knew what she had to do.

She had to go to the bank, and help Pepper and Rhodey stop Iron Man. From what she had heard over the police scanner, innocent lives were being lost. And the Tony she knew would rather die than let that happen. She couldn't imagine what he was feeling now, when he couldn't control his own body. He was standing by and watching his own hands murder people; there couldn't be a more horrible punishment.

Reaching for her mask, Whitney carefully pulled it on. Her hair flickered from blonde to black, and her night vision was automatically activated.

She was ready, and it was only a matter of time before the others would be as well.

Now came the hard part. Stopping the insanely-powerful Tony.


They reached Rhodey's apartment around ten minutes later, rushing inside and slamming the door behind them. Stark jumped eagerly to his feet and wagged his tail, happy to finally see his master again.

Rhodey didn't have the time to pet his dog, and rushed over to the discarded pile of armor near his couch. He frantically began struggling into the various pieces, knowing they needed to hurry and get to the bank.

"This is when you should have armor like mine," Gene noted, fingering the five rings upon the fingers of one of his hands. He had simply activated them before leaving the shop, and the many metal pieces of his armor had vanished again.

"You didn't exactly share those rings with me, so how was I supposed to get armor like yours?" Rhodey grunted breathlessly, pulling on his boot jets.

Pepper was pacing, hands clasped behind her back. "Do you think Tony's still at the bank? Do you think he's killing people right now? Are we going to be too late?" She sounded more like her old self than ever, filled to the brim with nervousness over the coming battle.

Gene reached out and gently touched her shoulder as she passed. She came to a stop and stared at him. "Everything's going to be fine, Potts. Calm down."

"Easy for you to say," Rhodey pointed out. He was nearly finished, with only a few pieces remaining.

"There are three of us, and only one of Stark. He doesn't stand a chance," Gene said, sounding completely sure of himself.

Recognizing his name, Stark the dog leapt up against Gene's leg, yipping enthusiastically.

Gene scowled darkly, mentally willing Rhodey to hurry up. Not because he was in any real hurry to stop Tony, but because he wanted to escape Stark once and for all. Even if it meant running off to a battle that he wasn't very likely to win.

Rhodey slipped on his helmet, activating the gravity stabilizers installed in the armor. "Okay, I'm ready," he voiced, tone several pitches deeper than normal."

Pepper adjusted her face visor, then nodded worriedly. "Me, too."

Gene twisted one of his rings, the shining black armor magically flickering into existence around him. "Let's go rescue Tony," he said in the gravelly voice of the Mandarin. He clanked towards the door, gloved fists clenched with determination. Pepper and Rhodey quickly followed him.

This was it. The final confrontation.


If anyone's still reading this story, reviews would be lovely. And don't worry about waiting a long time for another update, because I've already finished writing the last two chapters! (Please hold your applause. :D)