AN: I don't own DC/YJ, or Marvel/Iron Man, or anything else.
Chapter Two: "I am Iron Man"
It was early morning within the Stark Tower, where Stane was meeting with some of his scientist about the armored man that was on the news.
"They're calling him Iron Man", one of the scientists in a suit tells Stane as they overlook a holographic image of said Iron Man holding up the train car, "No one seems to know who or what he is or where he went. He disappeared after the incident. It's all over the news."
"All over the news because he saved hundreds of lives by stopping that runaway train", another one in a suit and tie says, "including everyone that was in this building".
"I don't care who he is or what he did", Stane declares with his brows furrowed, he stands from his chair, "All I care about is what he's wearing", holding his ringed hand to the hologram, "Imagine the possibilities: a flying weapons-capable suit of armor. It would revolutionize warfare and make us rich", he looks to the scientists, "I want our top engineers working on this".
The white clothed scientists look to each other before the maskless glasses-wearing one says, "Uh, Mr. Stane, from everything we've seen, the Iron Man armor is more advanced than anything we're working on here".
The masked and goggled scientist goes, "It's years if not decades ahead of current technology".
"What am I even paying you for?", Stane grumbles, "It's not alien tech like those damn beetle armors", he sighs, "Fine, then we get the armor and reverse-engineer it".
The tieless suit wearer then asks, "How are we supposed to find him?"
Stane walks around the desk in thought before the one with the tie sees something behind him outside the window, "Uh, sir, I think I know where he is", and points beyond him.
Surprised, Stane looks to see Iron Man flying outside the window, looking down on him with his arms crossed.
"He's listening to us", Stane remarks to those in his office before loudly asking Iron Man through the window, "Tell me, Iron Man, are you interested in making a lot of money?"
Iron Man raises a fist, tempted to launch one of his micro-missiles, before he is surrounded by news helicopters, looking around in surprise at them suddenly appearing. Crossing his arms again, Iron Man deactivates his repulsor jet boots and then quickly drops before reactivating them and flying away from the two copters.
The guy in the tie walks up to Stane, looking out the window, "Why would he come here?".
"I don't know", Stane grumbles, "But I want that armor right now", placing his ringed hand on the window.
Iron Man is flying through the city with the news helicopters in hot pursuit. He skims along the buildings as one has the camera man focus the camera on him.
"Okay, you want to play?", he asked himself to them, "Let's go", he then hits the boost and zooms ahead.
"Are you getting this?", the reporter asks the camera man.
"Oh yeah", the camera man replied as he focused on the distancing Iron Man.
He puts rounds a corner and buildings, laughing, "Too slow", only for a third helicopter to appear before him. He quickly positions his hands and feet before him to slow down, lightly landing on the copter and pushes himself off, hovering between all three helicopters.
"Are you nuts?", Iron Man angrily asks the news copters, "I could have flown right into you. Stop chasing me", he waves them away, "Someone's going to get hurt if you keep this up".
"He's hacked into our radio frequency", the pilot informs the reporter, as they all heard him through their headsets.
"Iron Man, do you have a statement for the public?", the reporter all but begs the hero, raising her hand to him.
"Yeah", Iron Man states, "I've got boot jets, and you don't", he then flies high and away at sonic speeds, ditching the copters.
Soon After, at Jason's Lab
He has placed his armor into its pod, closing it up as he drinks a soda, while Rhodey chews his ear off.
"You're stressing me out, Jay", Rhodey angrily says to the teen hero.
"Try racing helicopters before breakfast", Jason remarks with a wink, "Now that's stressful". For him, not really due to his time in Gotham and as Robin, but Rhodey doesn't know that.
"Seriously, man", Rhodey places his arms behind his head as he complains, "It's getting hard to cover for you with my mom, though your mom is pretty chill. I...", only for he realized what Jason said, "What? Racing helicopters?", he shakes his head, "Aw, I'm not going to see you on the news again, am I?"
Jason pats Rhodey's shoulder, "Not if you don't watch it", disappointing Rhodey.
The duo then leave the lab with their bags for school, heading out from the warehouse.
"This armor is seriously incredible", Jason compliments his own work, "I may have outgeniused myself", he pumps his arms in excitement, "You should take it out for a spin"
"No", Rhodey stops walking, "that's not the point", wagging his finger at him, "the point is, I- you- you can't- That's- maybe", he stuttered as he realized what Jason said this time.
Elsewhere
Within the lair of the Mandarin, the armored leader in question was looking at a photo of Iron Man as his men inform him of what happened.
"Master, the Iron Man was seen once more at Stark Tower", saif the one that kneeled before him while the others kneeled down the steps to his throne.
"Stane believes this armored fool can prevent me from seizing the Makluan Ring?", the Mandarin asks incredulously, "That ring belongs to the Mandarin by right", he tosses the photo away, with it landing at the feet of a teenage boy, around Jason's age.
He wore yellow pants, black shoes, and a red long-sleeve shirt that had the sleeves pushed up to his forearms, with a yellow dragon printed on the chest. He was of asian descent and had short stylish hair.
"You should be careful, Mandarin", the teen states, "This Iron Man may not be working for Stane", showing disinterest but calling out the Mandarin on his shit.
"Tong, leave us", the Mandarin says and his men leaves the room, save for the teen.
The Mandarin stands form his throne and grabs the teen by the throat, "Be silent", before tossing him back and taking off his helmet to reveal and grey haired chinese, "I will not be questioned in front of my men".
"I didn't mean any disrespect, stepfather", the teen bows, though still uncaring of the man before him.
The Mandarin huffs, "What you meant means nothing. Shang-Chi, I am told you now call yourself Shaun Li. Pathetic. You are weak, corrupted by the West like your mother was".
Shang-Chi clenches his fists in anger at the Mandarin's words about his mother.
"Question me again, and you will join her", the Mandarin threatens.
"My mother was a Li, I am a Li", Shang-Chi states, "You, Zhang, are not, and if you were smart, you would listen to me".
"I wear the ring of the Mandarin", Zhang tells him, "not you. You are a child, and worse, a fool. You will never know what true power is".
'At least I don't need a ring for power', Shang-Chi thinks, glancing to the hoto of Iron Man on the ground
At Tomorrow Academy
As Jason and Rhodey walked the halls of their school, they hear everybody talking about Iron Man inn excitement, causing Rhodey to high-five Jason at the coolness of it all.
They stop by Rhodey's locker and he gathers his books.
"Hey, don't you need to get your books?", Rhodey asks Jason as he closes his locker, since Jason was just leaning against the lockers next to him.
"I memorized them", Jason declares.
"I hate you", Rhodey remarks in good nature as he repositions his bag around his shoulder.
"I want to head back to Stark Tower", Jason shares, "try to get more dirt on Stane. We know the Earthmovers are being weaponized. We just have to figure out a way to stop it".
"It's a military experiment", they hear Pepper say, and they are horrified to see her standing next to them.
"Ah, Pepper", Rhodey yells out before calming, "what are you talking about?"
"Iron Man", she hunches a little in excitement with a smile, "Isn't he great?", she stands up but is moving her arms erratically, "Anyway, my dad told me in strictest confidence that the FBI thinks Iron Man is part of a military experiment", she moans, "Oh, red is my favorite color", despite the fact the redhead was known for wearing pink.
They then hear a slam of a locker and see a big teen with a buzz cut wearing a green basketball uniform, "Whoa, you've got it all wrong, Pepper", the teen says as he approaches them, "Everyone knows the truth about Iron Man", causing Rhodey's eyes to widen while Jason was chill, "He's a robot, some kind of advanced A.I. from the future."
Rhodey sighs with a shake of his head, "Do you even know what A.I. stands for?"
"Yeah, I do", the teen says before looking around in thought before back looking to Rhodey, "Shut up", and leaves.
"Happy Hogan: Not the next Einstein", Rhodey remarks as he and the other two teens smile good-heartedly about the teen.
"Now, what were you guys saying about getting dirt on Obadiah Stane?", Pepper asks the duo.
Later, on the roof
"That totally stinks", Pepper yells in indignation at what she heard, "I mean, you invent all this great stuff, and now Stane is selling it off as weapons? That's horrible!", she shifts her eyes, "Not illegal, mind you, but still horrible", she drinks from her mega size slushie.
Jason and Rhodey look to each other before Jason goes, "I...", but stops at Pepper holding her hand up to him.
"But if you invented all this stuff", Pepper continues, "you can univent it", she takes another sip, "Ah. Here's what we do: Break into Stark International", the boys glance at each other, "Jason can override the security systems. Rhodey, you're on lookout. I'll take out the night shift guards, while Jason finds everything he's invented and set it to blow!"
"Really?", Jason asks with a raised eyebrow, not believing in the scheme.
Pepper laughs before covering her mouth, "No, we'd seriously go to jail. I just wanted to be positive", she smiles before going downtrodden, "There's really nothing you can do."
Jason scowls in anger while Rhodey rubs his head and says, "You can stop cheering Jason up now, Pepper".
"Thanks", Jason thanks her.
Pepper looks up, "So this super laser thingy you invented, did it look like a big, giant metal monster about, uh, ten stories tall?", and the boys follow her gaze to see the Earthmover being transported overhead by two transport helicopters. Pepper sees Jason's look of horror and says, "Guess so".
Later, in class
"And so after you've taken the square root of the resulting sum", the teacher goes, with Happy rubbing his head in discomfort, "you're left with the solution for Y, which allows you to..."..
Pepper leans over and whispers to Rhodey from behind her laptop in the lecture hall, "Okay, so I know I just met Jason and all, but he's been in the bathroom a really long time".
"Um, he's coming back, right?", Happy asks them in a panic, "Other people have to go too, you know?"
Pepper tries not to laugh at him as she covers her mouth.
"I'm sure he's going as fast as he can", Rhodey tells them.
Jason is actually all the way to his lab already and suiting up into his armor then being launched through the pod system.
He then race through the city, zooming pass and in between buildings, unknowing over the Mandarin's hideout.
Within Mandarin's Hideout
"Mandarin, I have news", one of the Tongs rush forward to the throne of the Mandarin, "Our informant within Stark International reports that Stane is on the move, and he has the ring with him".
The Mandarin leans forward, "Good".
At the Test Site
The Earthmover stood tall in the weapons testing area with many targets spread around. The Earthmover activates, splitting open to reveal its laser and it fires at a concrete barrier, leaving a circular hole through it and the targets, along with the ground beyond it. It turns to the side and fires at a Stark Tank, superheating it and the tank explodes.
Stane and his buyers watch from a bunker near the edge at the top of the testing area.
"Well, gentlemen?", Stane asks the three men.
One man turns to him, "A very pretty light show, Mr. Stane, but meaningless", holding his hands behind his back as he looks to the Earthmover, "Our enemies rarely stand still and wait to be destroyed".
"You promised a demonstration in combat conditions", another foreign military man says to Stane.
"What would you like me to do, stage an invasion?", Stane angrily demands, "You see what it can do. I-", but a beeping goes off.
"Sir...", one of the guards calls out to Stane.
"What?", Stane asks as he approaches him at the console of the facility.
"Something has violated the testing ground airspace", he informs Stane, pointing at a blip on the radar.
They soon have a camera investigate, only to see Iron Man fly pass it.
"It's- It's Iron Man, sir", the militaristic guard states.
Stane looks to the military buyers with a smile, "Gentlemen, phase two of the demonstration is about to begin", planning to use Iron Man to sell the Earthmover.
The Rhodes' House
Rhodey had rushed home after school, quickly entering his room, tossing his bag aside, sitting at his computer console and putting on his headphones.
"Jay... Jay, are you there?", Rhodey calls out into the mic.
"Rhodey, I won't lie to you. I'm not in the bathroom", Iron Man says over the comms in his helmet as he flies into the test site with the Earthmover walking around.
"No kidding", Rhodey remarks over the comm, "You went after the Earthmover, didn't ya?"
"Maybe", Iron Man says in an innocent tone as he circles said machine, "I'm patching you into the testing ground security systems now. See if you can see anything".
"Hang on, it's coming up", Rhodey says as his computer loads the information.
Iron Man looks around with the info from his HUD, "I'm gonna check it out", he says and flies up before the Earthmover.
"Jason, no, wait", Rhodey calls out, "They're watching you".
"Huh?", Jason turns to where the bunker was in the distance to see Stane looking at him.
"Fire", Stane commands and someone swipes on the touchscreen keyboard on the console, causing the Earthmover to split it's top ad activate the laser.
A small beam comes out and hits Iron Man, sending him flying back, skipping roughly on the ground before stopping, clawing at the ground to assist the stop.
The Earthmover stomps towards him as he gets to his feet.
"Really?", Iron Man comments at the attacks before seeing one of the size feet coming for him, "Oh, boy", and he raises his arms in an instinctive self-defense as it lands on him.
The Earthmover stops moving but Iron Man begins to lift up the foot with his mechanically enhanced strength, using his jet boots to lift it higher before flying out from under it and flies up high.
"Jason, are you okay?", Rhodey panically asks in worry.
"My- that thing tried to kill me", Jason states about his invention.
"Just get out of there, now!", Rhodey insists.
"No... I can't", Iron Man tells him as he surveys the Earthmover with his HUD focused on it, "Pepper was right. I invented those lasers. I can univent them... by blasting them apart", his helmet's eyes seemed to glow brighter, "I can do this, Rhodey, no problem".
However, he then sees two more Earthmovers rise up from under the testing sight via four shuttered shafts labeled 4-2-1-3, they were from the shafts marked 4 and 3.
"Yeah, okay", Iron Man breathes, "now, that's a problem", as he is surrounded by three massive weaponized Earthmovers, and all three fire their lasers at him.
He activates his Arc Energy Shield Force Field to block the attacks, but it can't last as he hasn't perfected the tech for it.
"Jason!", Rhodey yells out in his headset, "Get out of there, move!"
"I can't. They're everywhere", Iron Man tells him, struggling with his shield.
Rhodey watches on via the security cameras before getting an idea, "Cut your boot jets. Do it now", remembering what he did on the news.
Seeing no other choice, Iron Man does so, getting out of the tri-beam attack. He activates his boots again, dodging the random fire of the lasers.
"They're trying to get around you again", Rhodey informs Iron Man.
"They keep shooting at me", Iron Man complains as he goes between the legs and around the bodies of the Earthmovers.
"Well, shoot back!", Rhodey yells out.
"Oh, right", Iron Man remembers his additions to this armor. Using his Repulsor flight stabilizers in his palms as a hand cannon, now known as a Repulsor Blast when in segments and Repulsor Beams when a leaser, at the laser cannon of one of he Earthmovers.
He fires between the three of them while scoping for any weaknesses he can exploit, as the blasts weren't doing much damage.
Rhodey was sharing any info he can before his door opens.
"Hi", Pepper greets.
"Ahh", Rhodey yells out as he turns to her, quickly powering his computer system off so she can't see what's going on, "Don't you knock?", taking his headset off, "And how did you even get in th-?"
"The front door was open", Pepper replies, as Rhodey had left it open in his hurry, "You totally took off after school, and Jason never came back", leaning against a metal shelf, "Did he seriously cut school again? Oh, he is going to get expelled", she leans over him and his computer, "What are you doing, and where's Jason?"
Back at the site, Iron Man was still firing his Repulsor Blasts at the giant bots.
"Rhodey, you still there?", Iron Man asks in his helmet, doding both Laser beams and laser blasts before one clips him and he flies back again.
He rights himself though and continues to fly around the Earthmovers before he stops mid-air as he notices something in the Earthmover.
"What?", Iron Man utters in horror at the sight before him of the exposed electricity on his designs, "Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. You unbelievable idiots. What did you do?".
Within the bunker, as the three military men of different nations overlook the battle, Stane and his head scientist for the project overlook the soldier at the console as an alarm blared.
"Uh, sir... Mr Stane", the soldier notifies Stane, "the laser array on the alpha Earthmover. the weapons systems are on automatic targeting, but something is wrong".
"So fix it", Stane tells the soldier and scientist.
The scientist reviews the info before saying, "Mr Stane, the laser array was designed by Jason Stark. The designs were... well, we never truly understood some of the aspects of it", as the computer shows that the Earthmover was going critical, "It's overloading, and I don't know how to stop it", as Stane shook in rage, "It's going to explode".
Iron Man flies around the legs, blasting them to get the Earthmovers to stop moving.
"Rhodey... Rhodey, where are you?", Iron Man calls out for his friend, "We've got a big problem here", continuing to dodge all the blasts and lasers.
In The Bunker
Stane and his men look at the screen in horror as it shows the Earthmover overloading.
"Shut it down", Stane orders the soldier.
The three military men overhear him.
"Mr stane, is there a problem?", the one of african descent asks him.
Stane turns to them, "No, no, everything is under control".
Suddenly, a white orb appears in the room and it expands to about two meters in diameter.
"Ah, what in the...", Stane remarks as the light dies down to reveal the Mandarin having teleported into their location.
"Stane", says the man in the intimidating armor of ancient yet advanced design.
Back at the Rhodes' home
"Pepper, I already told you", Rhodey explains to the redhead, "Jason's at the school lab. My computer crashed, and he's trying to fix it remotely from over there", Pepper could only look at him in doubt with her arms crossed, "He must have missed class because he lost track of the time... in the lab", he laughs nervously, "He- he- he does that".
"Really? That's weird, because the lab was the first place I checked", Pepper shares, demolishing his lie.
"Crazy, you must have just missed him", Rhodey tries to recover, before looking to his watch, "Oh, man, look at the time. I better get back to fixing this computer", and began ushering Pepper out of his room, "Bye, Pepper".
Pepper stops herself at the door and turns to him, "Oh, wow. You are a terrible liar", brutal honesty, "Fine, I'll go, but you know I'm gonna find out whatever you guys are up to", Rhodey goes to shut his door, "Jason's got a lot going on, doesn't he?".
"You have no idea", Rhodey pants, tired from her antics.
He goes to shut the door again, but she stops it and says, "Oh, does he have a girlfriend?"
"Pepper!", Rhodey yells at her to stop and shuts the door in her face.
Back at the Test Site
Iron Man was continuing to fire on the leg joints to stop the Earthmovers then focus on fixing the flaw to stop the overload.
"Rhodey!", Iron Man calls out for his tech support again.
"Jason, I'm back", Rhodey says over the comms, "and Pepper's outside".
"Alright", Iron Man states, already getting an idea on why he wasn't responding, "Never mind that, we've got big problems. Things are about to go boom unless we can shut down these laser arrays", as he barrel rolls to dodge some more laser attacks.
"Boom? What do you mean, boom?", Rhodey demands.
"Boom, as in all of upstate New York", Iron Man shares with him
"Oh, boom", Rhodey utters in a state of shock, before seeing security running to the main bunker on the cameras
In Said Bunker
the Mandarin approaches Stane and his men as security run down the halls for them. The Mandarin turns to them as though he knows they're coming, unimpressed, before teleporting to them in the halls, clotheslining one mid run. He grabs the face of the other and throws him into the wall.
He walks up to Stane as he holds his hands up in fear.
"Who are you?", Stane asks in fearful awe, "What do you want?"
The Mandarin grabs him by his throat and lifts him into the air, "The ring".
Rhodey was watching all of this on the cameras, "Whoa", he remarks at the sight.
Stane removes the green jeweled ring from his finger and holds it to him, "Take it. Just take it and go", placing it into the Mandarin's open hand and the Mandarin throws him aside.
While that was going on, Iron Man was still flying around the Earthmovers, one has now fallen so he only had to deal with two of them.
"Jason, there's something going on", Rhodey goes to inform, "Someone else is there".
"Hang on", Iron Man stops him, staring down the overloading Earthmover, "I think I know what to do. I think I can stop the laser from going nuclear".
"How?", Rhodey asks with little hope.
"I'll let you know when I'm done", Iron Man tells him, "unless I blow up", and flies straight for the Earthmover.
"What?!", Rhodey yells out.
Iron Man flies straight up the Earthmover till he was over the open top center, "Here we go", and he flies straight down to the exposed core. He gets shocked back with a yell of pain, before bouncing off the nearboy wall and onto the core, being within the arcs of electricity. He groans in pain as his suit of armor takes in the electrical charge as the Earthmover deactivates and the other approaches to fire upon him.
"Power system overload", the AI in his suit informs, "energy release required".
He stands as his armor now has arcs of electricity flowing all over it. He flies up from the downed core and aims his body to the remaining Earthmover. His chest piece glows before a large powerful beam fires from his Arc Reactor, blasting straight through the Earthmover and it falls down with a missing core and laser array.
"Yes!", Rhodey cheers, pumping his arms as he stands from his chair.
Iron Man walks away from the wreckage of his handy work, "Not too bad, if I do say so-", only for the white orb of the Mandarin to appear before hum and send him flying back.
"Jason, what was that?", Rhodey calls out to him, "All your systems just went down", he places his hands on the desk as he yells at the monitor, "Jason, can you hear me?", he beings typing at his computer, "Jason, if you can hear me, I'm going to try to stat the reboot sequence.
The Mandarin walks up to the down Iron Man, "The Iron Man, how unimpressive", staring down at him.
"Sorry, have we met?", Iron Ma asks him.
"You may have seen my men before", he tells he teen, "All who defy the Mandarin will be destroyed".
"Good to know", Jason remarks.
The Mandarin looks away in annoyance, "Such arrogance", he lifts his right hand that now had two rings, "Let those be the last words you ever utter", aiming his hand at Iron Man.
"Reboot Complete", his suit's AI informs, and Iron Man immediately sends the Mandarin back with a Repulsor Blast.
The Mandarin rights himself as Iron Man was back on his feet.
"Where did you get those rings", Iron Man demands with a growl to his voice at seeing his father's ring on his finger.
The Mandarin activates his purple ring and an orb of white light surrounds him.
Iron Man flies to it with a growl, "Who are you?", he demands before meeting the edge of the orb and pushing against it as it was a solid field before it released a seismic pulse, sending him flying into the distance.
"Jason... Jason, are you okay?", Rhodey calls out to him, only to receive to reply, "Jason!"
"Ugh, yeah, I'm...", Iron Man goes as he flies back down to where the Earthmovers were.
"Oh, you're alive", Rhodey sighs.
"Hooray for me", Iron Man sarcastically cheers, raising his fist in the air like a celebration.
"Iron Man...", Stane calls out to him as he approaches the armored young hero and stops before him, "You don't want me as an enemy", Iron Man steps to him, "I'll ask you one last time, work for me".
Iron Man stands straight, "Never", and forcefully flies off right before him, causing Stane to cover his eyes from the kickback, before looking after the Iron Man.
Later, Back at the Lab
Rhodey rushes into the darkened lab, "You almost died, man", his voice wavering, "We all almost died because of Stane", and stands next to Jason as they look at the armor in it's pod, "I mean, you saved millions of lives, Jason", he places a hand on Jason's shoulder, "Think about it. This is serious".
Jason is mulling something, "The man in black, The Mandarin, he had my father's Makluan Ring", he looks to the ground, "What he did- the energy he produced, I don't know how to explain it", he looks up to the armor, "My dad was right, Rhodey. These rings, what if they are some form of technology?", he looks into the eyes of his armor, "And this Mandarin had another one".
Mandarin's Hideout
The Mandarin clenches his fist with the two rings, "The rings aren't just a symbol of power, they are power", he looks to his men within the throne room, "And I'm going to find them all", raising his ringed fist into the air.
His men, the Tongs, do the same in turn as a cheer. All the while, his step-son looks on from the shadows with his own plans.
Chapter End
AN: So, Gene Khan is gone from this story, with Shang-Chi replacing him, and he'll be more focused on being strong via his own abilities for instead of acquiring the Makluan Rings, but he will have some of Gene's character traits at first, maybe eventually working with Iron Man against the Mandarin and becoming the hero he is in the movie and comics.
Also, just a reminder, the Iron Man armor for me looks like the Illustrious armor from Crystal Dynamic's Avengers, save for the lights (such the chest light, the eyes, and the repulsor ports on the boots and gloves) being a light blue color like in the movies and shows. You can still imagine any armor you want, that's just the one I'm going off of till he makes new armor.