10 reviews = bonus chapter
500 gems = bonus chapter
Advanced chapters at:
patreon.com/FanFictionPremium
***
After arriving at the meeting place and giving Masterson all the help I could, I opened YouTube and the first thing that caught my eye was the first position of the recommendations showing the footage of firefighters, police and ambulances surrounding the destroyed Stark house. Watching the video I realised that even without the injury Tony still couldn't help himself and gave his address to the fake Mandarin. Using a secure channel, I called Pepper to explain the situation.***
Having tracked down Air Force One, I immediately opened a portal to the closest location I'd ever visited. Stepping out of the portal, I took to the sky and headed towards the plane. As I approached, the right door of the plane was ripped out by an explosion and due to the depressurisation it flew into the water. A couple of seconds later, people were spilling out of the hole. Being ready for such moments, I had long ago fixed a number of technical devices in my armour and finally they came in handy. Flying up to the first woman who fell out, I took out a small 15×15×1cm square from the compartment and applied it to her back and pressed a button. Five seconds later the woman was wrapped in the harness and leg girths securely fastening her body and releasing the parachute.
After handing out half of the parachutes, Stark came out of the plane and circled around the slowly descending politicians and flew over to me.
-Pierce? - Stark asked, levelling himself with a dark suit of armour.
-No, Margaret Thatcher, you know, in my old age I've got a hankering for a bit of action. - Replied Ryan, angry at the whole situation.
-Ryan, what are you doing here? - Confirming that the suit did not go to the enemy Tony exhaled and decided to find out how Pierce was here.
-When a terrorist on every TV channel announces the beginning of the hunt for the president of your country, you know, you want to make sure that the most important representative of the United States in the political arena is safe. - Said Pierce attaching the parachute to the last man who fell out.
-Then I'll have to disappoint you, they managed to kidnap the president. - Said Tony, hovering next to Pierce, who had stopped in mid-air.
-All right, do you have any information on where they're gonna kill him? - Pierce asked, thinking about the situation a little and acting regretful.
-They have business at the port of Roxon company, but it's better to discuss the whole plan in person. - Said Stark flying towards the small yacht.
-Personally? - Raine asked in a bewildered manner, and then the front of the helmet of the armour slid upwards, revealing an empty suit.
-You've got the remote control, not bad. - Pierce hummed and followed.
***
Hovering a couple of hundred metres above their base, I switched to stealth mode, which, while not perfect, hid me from most of the radar that they would have had when fighting Iron Man. I had stretched the lowest-cost illusion underneath, but considering that nothing but the lights from the rocket engines behind me needed to be hidden, I was nearing zero in terms of energy loss. Of course Tony's "plan" might have been okay... if Rhodes and I had been stupid teenagers who thought speed of attack was more important than its tactical value. But after I pressed Tony, we decided to wait for his suits to arrive, and once they did, we would arrive at the battlefield with his iron army.
I took on the mission to rescue the president, Rhodes would eliminate the soldiers under the extremis with the support of Jarvis and his army, and Tony would rescue Pepper.
Just in case we decided to act simultaneously, because neither I nor Stark and Rhodes did not know how Killian would behave at the loss of his main hostage. So now an army of Stark suits surrounds the port, distracting the enemy. After a beautiful hover and the first shot from a couple of dozen repulsors, one of the suits with the highest manoeuvrability broke through the wall and burst into the room where Pepper was being held. After his actions, I dispelled the illusion and rushed down to the hovering president. Breaking him from his chains, I reached down to the ground and pulled the man out of the Warrior suit.
-Mr President, I think you'd better get away from this place. - Said Pierce, stepping out of his armour and inviting the president to take his place.
-Who are you, son? - Climbing into the new iron cage the man asked.
-Rain Pierce sir, an active member of the Avengers and an agent of the Shield. - Closing the suit and activating the autopilot said Pierce.
After I had glared at the big shot and accomplished all my goals for the day I could finally relax a little and turned and raced up the metal structures of the crane to the very centre of the fight.
As I climbed up I jumped onto the bridge behind the two soldiers pouring rifle fire on Stark's suits. The first soldier, because of the noise of the fire, didn't see me in time and lost his head, while his comrade, who turned to the right, received a rifle shot, which I clutched in the hand of a dead body without removing my finger from the trigger. The blinded soldier didn't live much longer and a second later he too lost his head, which had already started to regenerate. Searching the bodies I picked up a couple of grenades. Running a couple of metres forward I jumped onto a nearby armour and clawed my way to the opposite platform where three modified soldiers were using their firepower to effectively incapacitate the Marks who had decided to fight them in close combat.Pushing off the armour I flew into the fray, the spatial energy dagger I had created on the way up I plunged it into the heart of a soldier standing in the middle of the formation, temporarily incapacitating him I left the grenades next to him and attacked the man who had just torn the mark apart. He had time to notice me, so he successfully defended his head from my jerk, losing only his left arm. But even considering that with the full boost of the serum his arm would have grown back in just a dozen seconds, that was still a very wide window of time for someone fighting me, so it didn't take him long to resist my claws, and he lost his head in the blast from behind. When I turned around, I saw that the platform was badly damaged, and the first enemy was left only scattered bloody fragments. The last soldier had apparently decided to approach me just as the explosion was happening, so he was no longer on the platform and had probably flown down.
Looking at the collapsing crane I saw one of the suits pick up Pepper, who was falling, but a moment later it was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade from the side of the stairs that hadn't collapsed yet, and Potts and her armour flew down. Stark, who remained in half of his suit, became enraged and summoned another armour. His current half flew into Aldrich and distracted him long enough for him to don the rather unusual black armour. The suit's left arm was replaced by a special claw with a running mechanism. Grabbing the freed Aldrich with his left hand he activated the mechanism and the man, who had no time to do anything, was whipped back and forth. Because of some freedom in the grip, his body was flying back and forth in the claw, just breaking and I could literally hear the constant crunching of the rib cage, not allowing Kilian to recover enough to come to his senses. But after half a minute of extremely painful shaking and a lot of broken bones over and over again, he was able to grab Stark's arm and damage the mechanism, but that didn't help him much, because a moment later Tony's right armour section opened up in a way that was quite familiar to me, and a red laser beam shot out of it a couple of seconds later, cutting off Aldrich's legs. Stark could have killed him at that point, but I could see he wanted him to suffer.
Flying away from the regenerating body, Tony summoned five more Marks and together they launched a missile salvo at Kilian, who had clearly realised what was coming. Having completely smeared the enemy Tony went down to the place of Pepper's "death".
Jumping down I pointed towards the rubble where Miss Potts had fallen and went next to Tony to help free the girl, but after a couple of steps the metal structures rattled and Pepper came out from under them, glistening because of the internal heat. Stark seeing the living girl immediately got out of the armour, which flew further to crumble the survivors of Kilian's army.
-How are you? - Asked Stark approached Potts and embraced her for a moment, only to bounce away a second later because of the slight burns on her body. But the sensor in Tony's watch lit up red enough for the Mark 42 that flew to Stark's aid to see Pepper as a threat and fired a series of repulsor shots, then tried to engage, giving the creator time to retreat. Stark, already dialing in a cancellation command on his watch, froze as Pepper ripped the armour breastplate in half with fury and then flattened the Mark's helmet with a pair of leg kicks with a highly satisfied look on her face.
-Ah, that feels good. - Potts said, blowing away a lock of hair that was blocking her eye's view.
-"Darling, that was gorgeous. - Said Stark looking at the girl who was starting to cool down.
-Oh, God, where did I get this cruelty? - Pepper began to come round.
-It's okay, you just vented irritation, after all, not every day you fall from thirty metres into the burning flames. - Said Stark approached Potts and gently touched her hand.
-Are you okay? - Asked a worried Pepper.
-Yes, you see, you're already cold. - Said Stark, taking her in his arms.
I did not follow their flirtations further, deciding to step back and check what of the remains of his suits can be discreetly taken away in favour of the poorer millionaires of the planet. As I stepped away from the pair, I saw dozens of exploding suits and literally felt anger rising from within, straight from the core of the animal essence of... hamster. There was no other way to describe such intense rage. And Stark must have noticed something of it in the look I gave him as I turned back quickly.
-Ryan? - Tony asked a little worriedly. Stark felt a chill run down his spine and his friend's bright red eyes didn't conjure up good associations.
-T-Tony. You know, I thought from love to hate is one step, but you proved that friendship also quite easily reverses the polarity of relationships. - Pierce said with a growl, heading towards Stark.
-What are you talking about? - Stepping back a little, Stark asked, and Pepper tensed from the situation.-Not long ago we had a fucking alien invasion and now you've blown up an ARMY of Iron Soldiers in front of my eyes for the sake of a few temporary points in Pepper's eyes! - At the end, Pierce went ballistic.
-Rain, calm down. -I'm just trying to start fresh. - Stark checked his watch, which had begun to malfunction, and realised that the armour wasn't available yet and he had to do it himself.
-Rain I understand you're angry that Tony sometimes... often behaves stupidly, but maybe we'll find out later? - Pepper asked hopefully, feeling a new desire to be rude to her interlocutor and to test her new powers against the Avenger.
-Why are you so calm? It is on the money earned by you he will restore his suits. Or are billionaires allowed to create such an expensive salute?! - Pierce asked with the occasional intimidation skill activated. After his words, Pepper, who was still in a bit of shock over the changes and the events taking place, thought a bit and calculated the number of zeros literally blown up in front of her eyes for the sake of making the words effective. A few seconds later, Anthony Edward Stark could have sworn that there were two pairs of red eyes looking at him, and he couldn't decide in which one he saw the greater bloodlust.
***
Don't forget to donate gems.
And subscribe at:
patreon.com/FanFictionPremium