Chapter 46: Obsessions Part 2
Vanguard's jaw set. "Winter Guard, attack!"
Blitzwolfer threw his hands up. "Whoa. Hey. Big guy. Look at me." Ursa Major swung his head down. "This is Iron Man's fault. He started it. Hit him."
The yellow eyes didn't move. "Do you yield?"
Blitzwolfer's ears flattened. He looked left, looked right, looked up. "Uh… yes?"
"Very well." Ursa Major turned and lumbered toward Iron Man.
Blitzwolfer stared at his own hands. "That worked?"
#
Overhead, Tony banked hard. Stabilizers shifted with a click-thrum as JARVIS threw a red band on the HUD.
"JARVIS, analyze that armor. Before three hundred pounds of bear gets creative with my paint."
"Unable, sir. External sensors remain off-line. Facility interference is degrading input by sixty-three percent."
"Sixty-three." Tony rolled inverted. Ursa Major's paw swept past, scraped the left gauntlet, and missed. Tony climbed. "So you're a hood ornament."
"I prefer selectively functional, sir."
"Fantastic."
#
Vanguard planted himself in Steve's path, hammer rising slow and deliberate. "Walk away, Captain. Before you and your teammates are hurt." A beat. "Or worse."
Steve's shield came up, weight shifting back. He measured the hammer's angle, the set of the man's shoulders. "Can't do that."
Vanguard swung.
Steve caught it square and the vibranium rang out across the courtyard. The impact shoved him back a full step, boot heels cutting furrows in the ice.
He used it, spinning with the momentum, and drove the shield's edge into Vanguard's ribs.
He felt it in his wrist.
Vanguard held his ground, and swept the hammer low. Faster than the first swing.
Steve was already jumping, shield angled down. The clang rolled out. He landed in a crouch, one hand in the snow. "You're good."
Vanguard raised the hammer.
#
Titanium Man turned toward Iron Man, servos whining. "Are you insane, Iron Man? We both want the same thing here. The Crimson Dynamo behind bars, in a cell, where he belongs!"
Tony circled, repulsors trained on the heavier suit. "Is that right? Then answer this, and answer it straight. Where'd you get that armor?"
He fired again. Titanium Man braced. "That's none of your-"
"Wrong answer." Tony fired. A concentrated repulsor blast caught Titanium Man in the chest plate.
The blast washed over his armor in ripples of dissipating energy. He didn't even rock back. "You'll have to do better than that!"
Titanium Man closed the distance in two strides, grabbed Tony by the forearm, and swung him. Tony hit the ground, rolled, and came up with both palms raised.
"JARVIS, structural integrity report."
"Left gauntlet at eighty-four percent. Right gauntlet nominal. Chest repulsor output unrestricted."
"Good enough."
"Oh, I've got plenty more where that came from." Tony's targeting system highlighted the knee joints. "Because I'm seeing a lot of Dynamo in that tin can you're wearing. And that means it's mine."
"You want to talk about the armor?" Titanium Man spread his arms wide. "Fine. Talk." He fired both shoulder-mounted cannons simultaneously.
#
Wasp streaked toward Darkstar in a wide arc, looking for an angle. Darkstar stood apart from the fighting, arms loose, watching everything at once.
Darkstar raised a hand. Shadowy energy boiled out and slammed into Wasp.
"AAAAHH!"
Wasp spun out of control, caught in it, unable to shrink or steer. The dark energy wrapped around her like chains, pulling her down. She fired her bio-electric stings but they dissipated into the shadows without effect.
"JAN!!" Hank shouted.
Hank expanded into Giant-Man and lunged for Darkstar, one huge hand reaching. His footsteps shook the ground as he closed the distance in three massive strides.
"No! Stay away!" Darkstar let Wasp drop and redirected the energy into Hank's arm.
The shadows coiled around his bicep and forearm, constricting. Hank grabbed at them with his other hand but his fingers passed through the energy. He gritted his teeth and pushed forward anyway, trying to reach Darkstar despite the resistance.
Wasp caught herself ten feet from the ground, hovering unsteadily. Her wings buzzed erratically. "Ugh. What is that? It felt like getting buried alive."
Hank staggered as the energy tightened around his arm. The darkness began spreading up toward his shoulder. His eyes widened. "Some kind of energy manipulation. Maybe extra-dimensional."
"Amazing?!" Jan stared at him. Then she shot upward, electricity crackling at both fists. "Hank. It tried to eat me."
Darkstar tilted her head. "You are resilient. Unexpectedly so."
"Thanks." Jan cut left and came in fast. "I get that a lot."
She dove at Darkstar from the side, firing rapid bursts of bio-electricity. Darkstar raised her other hand and a wall of shadow formed between them. The blasts struck the barrier and scattered into sparks.
Jan pulled up and banked right. She shrank to half her size mid-flight and slipped through a gap in the barrier. Darkstar tracked her movement but a fraction too slow.
Jan's fist connected with Darkstar's jaw, electricity discharging on impact.
Darkstar's head snapped to the side. She stumbled back two steps. The shadow energy around Hank's arm flickered and loosened.
Hank pulled his arm free and swung his fist down at Darkstar.
Darkstar rolled forward and Hank's fist cratered the pavement where she'd been standing. She came up in a crouch and thrust both hands toward him. Twin streams of dark energy hit Hank center mass.
Hank staggered backward, boots scraping furrows in the street. The energy wrapped around his torso. Hank gasped, the air forced from his lungs.
"Hank!" Jan flew toward Darkstar's back at full speed.
Darkstar didn't turn. A sphere of shadow expanded from her body. Jan flew straight into it. Her scream cut off instantly.
"Jan!" Hank roared. He grabbed the energy around his chest with both hands and pulled. The shadows stretched but held.
The sphere contracted, shrinking to the size of a basketball. It hovered beside Darkstar, silent.
Hank's eyes went wide. "Let her go!" He forced himself forward against the pressure on his chest, one step, then another.
Darkstar's expression remained neutral. "She's not harmed. Stop resisting and I will release-"
The sphere exploded outward. Jan burst free, electricity arcing across her entire body. Her eyes blazed white.
#
Blitzwolfer tore through the snow toward Steve and Vanguard, claws kicking up powder. "Cap! Stop! This is stupid!"
Steve blocked another hammer blow, shield ringing. "You don't think I know that, Ben? It looks like both sides need to burn off steam before we talk again."
Blitzwolfer skidded between them, arms spread. "Seriously? Both of you, just-"
Vanguard's hammer swept across. Blitzwolfer dropped flat as it whistled over him. Steve surged forward and caught Vanguard's arm with the shield.
"Ben, move!" Steve barked.
Blitzwolfer rolled up, ears pinned. "We're both heroes, not-"
Vanguard wrenched his arm free and drove his shield into Steve's chest. Steve's boots carved furrows through the snow as he slid back three feet. He planted his feet and came forward again, low and fast, catching Vanguard at the midsection. They locked up, boots grinding for purchase on the ice underneath the powder.
"You are strong," Vanguard said through clenched teeth, pushing back. "But you are also wrong to be here."
"Not the first time I've been told that," Steve said, and threw his weight sideways, breaking the grip.
Blitzwolfer got between them again. "Both of you, stop! We've got maybe five minutes before someone actually gets hurt!"
Vanguard raised his hammer.
"Don't," Blitzwolfer said flatly. He put both clawed hands up. "I will bite that thing in half. Don't test me."
Vanguard paused.
A shadow fell over him. Ursa Major charged past, thundering toward Iron Man.
Tony dodged. The bear's swipe missed by inches, claws raking empty air.
"JARVIS, anything?"
"Sensors still off-line, sir."
Ursa Major wheeled. For something that large, he moved fast. He came back at Tony with a shoulder charge, and Tony took the hit full in the chest. The suit held, but Tony felt it in his back as he hit the ground and skidded. He fired both repulsors at the snow in front of him to slow down, dug a trench with his heels, and got upright.
"Okay," he said. "You are much bigger than you look."
Ursa Major reared up to full height and roared. The sound rolled across the snowfield.
Tony raised both hands. "I could put you down right now. I don't want to do that."
Titanium Man's heavy steps closed from the other side. "Stop this! We do not wish to fight!"
Tony fired into Titanium Man's chest. The blast scorched but did not bite. "Then answer me. Where'd you get that armor?"
Titanium Man spread his hands out to his sides. "I am not drawing a weapon."
"The armor," Tony repeated. He fired again, same spot, harder. Titanium Man rocked back one step and stopped.
"It was built by Russian engineers using-"
"My technology!" Tony snapped. "It's always my tech. Dynamo, you, all of it!"
"The original designs were-"
"Don't." Tony's voice dropped. "I have been very patient about this for a very long time, and I am done being patient about it."
#
Wasp dove at Darkstar again, anger taking the wheel. "And that's for blasting me with your weird black stuff!"
ZAP. ZAP. ZAP.
She pulled a tight arc and came in from below, firing twice more. The blasts hit the barrier dead center.
Darkstar's barrier flickered, but held. Wasp's blasts skittered off it.
"I did not start this!" Darkstar shouted, shaping more energy. She pulled it from the air around her, drawing the darkness into a wide, curved panel that expanded outward. It caught Wasp broadside and sent her spinning.
"Jan!" Giant-Man lunged, but his fingers closed on air. Wasp righted herself twenty feet to the left, shaking her head hard.
"I'm fine!" she snapped. "Do something useful!"
Giant-Man grabbed for Darkstar again and closed on nothing. Darkstar slipped away and reformed higher up.
She was faster at distance. She kept proving that.
"Hank!" Blitzwolfer howled from the ground. He was circling below, tracking the fight with his nose more than his eyes. "You're supposed to be the smart one. Talk them down!"
Giant-Man glanced down. "I'm trying to keep Jan safe!"
Darkstar threw another construct, a flat disc of compressed dark energy that cut the air with a low whine. Giant-Man threw his arm up. The disc shattered against his forearm and left a dark residue that crawled across his skin before fading.
Darkstar's energy snapped around his arm again, tighter this time, winding up past the elbow.
Hank's eyes widened. He stopped pulling against it and stared at the structure of the thing where it pressed against him. The geometry of it. The way it layered.
"The signature is similar to-"
"HANK!"
Wasp hit the construct with everything she had. Both fists, point blank, rapid fire. The energy cracked down the middle and fell apart in dark fragments that dissolved before they hit the street.
Darkstar staggered back three feet in the air. Her breathing was audible now.
Wasp put herself between Darkstar and Giant-Man and held her position, arms raised.
#
Blitzwolfer snarled and sprinted toward Iron Man, weaving around Steve and Vanguard. "Tony! Stand down!"
"Not happening!" Tony juked as Ursa Major lunged again. The bear's jaws closed on air.
Titanium Man fired a concussive blast. Tony twisted, but it clipped his shoulder and sent him spinning.
"Warning: Left stabilizer damaged. Compensating."
Tony righted himself and fired twice at Titanium Man's chest. The blasts connected. Titanium Man staggered back two steps but didn't go down.
Blitzwolfer leaped, shifting midair, and landed on Titanium Man's back. His claws scraped for a hold on the plating.
"Listen to me! This is insane! We're supposed to be on the same side!"
Titanium Man reached back, grasping. "Then tell your Iron Man to stop attacking!"
"I'm trying!" Blitzwolfer hooked his claws into a seam and hauled himself up. "Tony, you're being an idiot!"
On the ground, Steve blocked a hammer swing from Vanguard with his shield. He turned the deflection into a forward push, driving his shoulder into Vanguard's chest and forcing him back. Vanguard planted his feet, grabbed Steve's shield arm, and shoved.
Steve hit the snow on one knee. He was back up in under a second.
Darkstar circled overhead, a disc of black energy building between her palms. She released it. The disc caught Giant-Man across the back and dropped him to all fours.
Wasp darted in fast and low, firing bio-electric blasts at Darkstar's hands. Darkstar pulled back and banked left.
"Hank!" Wasp didn't take her eyes off Darkstar. "Get up!"
Giant-Man pushed himself upright.
Ursa Major turned from Tony and charged Steve instead. Steve sidestepped, got a hand on the bear's shoulder, and used the momentum to redirect him. Ursa Major rolled, came up growling, and turned around.
"Resourceful," he said.
"Thanks." Steve raised his shield again.
A repulsor blast tore past Blitzwolfer. He yelped and sprang off, hitting the snow in a roll.
Tony hovered, arc reactor blazing. "Stay out of this, Ben!"
"No!" Blitzwolfer's howl cut across the battlefield, a sonic blast that rattled armor and shields.
For a heartbeat, everything stopped.
Blitzwolfer stood in the churned snow, chest heaving, eyes bright green.
"Everybody just STOP!"
Steve lowered his shield a fraction. Vanguard's hammer hung mid-swing. Wasp hovered in place. Darkstar's energy wavered.
Giant-Man shrank back down, breathing hard. "Cap! Iron Man! This is pointless! We're the problem here, not them!"
Steve caught Vanguard's hammer and locked it to his shield, forcing him back a step.
Ursa Major rumbled, low and deliberate. "Your Ant-Man speaks the truth, Captain."
Blitzwolfer looked between both teams, claws still flexed, chest heaving. "Tony started this. You all know it. The Winter Guard didn't do anything except ask for what they have a legal right to."
Wasp landed beside Hank, arms crossed. "He's not wrong."
Tony's helmet turned toward her. "Jan-"
"No, Tony." Her voice was firm. "Ben's right. You attacked them. Not the other way around."
Titanium Man's servos hissed as he straightened. He rolled one shoulder, testing the damage from Tony's repulsor hits. Two dents in the chest plate. He faced Tony directly. "We came in peace. We still wish for peace."
Vanguard met Steve's eyes, hammer still raised but no longer advancing. "We do not wish to be your enemies, Captain America."
Steve held Vanguard's gaze for a long moment. Then he stepped back, shield lowered but ready.
"Iron Man. We need to stand down."
From the snow-covered crater, Dynamo's damaged helmet turned toward the standoff. His visor was cracked across one lens. He had been watching.
"You're right to suspect them, Stark. Who do you think their first recruit was for their Winter Guard? Who do you think designed the Titanium Man armor?"
Tony's HUD locked onto Titanium Man. "Dynamo…"
Titanium Man's visor turned toward him. "He lies. You cannot listen to him…"
Blitzwolfer's ears flattened. "Iron Man, Dynamo is clearly trying to save his own skin."
Steve stepped forward, shield lowered. "Iron Man… they're willing to talk. Let's listen to what they have to say."
"Carefully." Wasp hovered at shoulder height, fists still crackling faintly with bio-electric energy. "And if we don't like what you've got to say… zapping will resume."
Hank rubbed his temples. "Jan… that's not helping."
He turned toward Tony, voice calm but firm. "Iron Man… I know what's going through your head. These people are not the enemy."
Tony's faceplate stayed fixed on Titanium Man. "And what if you're wrong, Hank?" He didn't look away. "You don't know what my tech can do in the wrong hands. I do. I've seen it."
Siancong. Years Ago.
The convoy ground along the jungle road. Diesel smoke, wet vegetation, engine noise.
Tony sat in the back of the second vehicle with Colonel Hardy and two attachés, tablet open across his knees. "Stark Industries Tactical Munitions System, Mark VII," he said, tapping the spec sheet. "Yield-variable payload. Range doubles anything currently in theater. I call it the Jericho." He looked up. "Tomorrow you'll understand why."
Hardy nodded, eyes on the tree line.
Tony stopped. "You're not listening."
"It's a lot of technical jargon, Mr. Stark."
"Right." Tony leaned back, pushed his sunglasses up. "Tomorrow, then."
The lead vehicle went up from underneath. The blast punched the transport sideways and drove Tony's tablet into his face. He grabbed the seat back. Couldn't hold it. His shoulder hit the ground as the driver locked the brakes and the truck fishtailed across the road.
Rifles opened up from both hillsides simultaneously.
The windshield caved. Canvas overhead popped in a fast diagonal line-four holes, five. The soldier beside Tony lurched sideways and dropped against him, heavy and sudden. Tony shoved out from under him and pressed flat against the ground. Another burst raked the canvas above his head.
Hardy was already out the door, low, shouting at someone Tony couldn't see.
"OUT! EVERYBODY OUT!"
"Return fire! Return fire! Get Stark to the treeline, go-"
The colonel threw open the door and tumbled into the ditch. Tony scrambled out after him.
The lead truck was burning. The soldiers who had been riding in it were down or scattered. He could see muzzle flash from the ridge above.
American soldiers returned fire, muzzle flashes lighting the trees. But the ambushers had the high ground. Had the cover. Had the element of surprise.
Tony crawled through mud and undergrowth, trying to stay low. He reached the tree line, ducked behind a teak trunk with sizeable cover and yanked his field radio from his jacket, fumbling with the controls.. 'Come on!'
He keyed the transmitter. Static. He adjusted the frequency. More static. He looked back at the road. Hardy was on one knee behind the burning truck, returning fire with a sidearm. The other soldiers were down. All of them.
Tony tried the radio again. "Mayday, mayday, this is Stark Industries convoy requesting immediate-"
Something detonated ten feet away. The detonation lifted him off his feet and threw him fifteen yards into the undergrowth. He hit the ground chest-first
The world turned white.
'Get up,' he told himself.
He could not get up.
He could hear voices now. Close.
'Get up, Stark.'
Then nothing.
#
He woke to pain in his chest. Deep, radiating.
The smell came next. Damp stone, machine oil, blood.
He was on a cot. Stone ceiling, stone walls, one bulb on a cord. His chest was wrapped thick with bandaging. He tried to sit up and the pain dropped him back flat.
"Slowly." The voice was calm, accented. "You have had surgery. The bandaging is tight for a reason."
Tony turned his head.
The man beside the cot was around sixty, lean, wire-rimmed glasses, a composed expression. The kind of composed that came from practice. A cable ran from a small device on the table to somewhere beneath Tony's bandages.
"I am Ho Yinsen. Please do not move aggressively. The shrapnel fragments in your chest are not fully removed. I have built a device to keep the remaining pieces from migrating toward your heart, but it requires a stable connection."
Tony looked at him. "What."
"An electromagnet. Battery-powered. It holds the fragments at their current position. Without it, you would die within the hour." Yinsen tilted his head slightly. "I trust you are familiar with the principle."
"I invented an upgrade to the principle." Tony looked down at his chest. He could see the edge of the device where the bandaging gapped-a rough disc pressed against his sternum. His mind, even blunted, worked through it fast. Temporary. Barely functional. But enough. "How long will it last?"
"The battery will last perhaps a week. Maybe less." Yinsen's expression was grim. "But that is not our most immediate problem."
"How long has it been?"
"Three days. You were intermittently conscious during surgery. You are, I should say, very difficult to keep sedated."
"People tell me that."
Tony scanned the cave. Welding torches sat on a metal cart. American rifles stacked against the far wall-M4s, maybe his own company's ammunition.
"Who's running this?"
The door opened.
Wong-Chu was five-six, maybe five-seven. Military jacket pressed flat. He tapped a riding crop against his palm. Two guards filed in behind him and spread to opposite walls without a word.
He spoke. Siancongese came fast.
Yinsen translated. "Wong-Chu. Commands the Red Guerrillas here. Says he knows you. Says your Jericho missile-he's seen the specifications." Yinsen's voice dropped. "Says you'll build weapons now. Whatever he wants. Says your life depends on it."
Tony's teeth pressed together. "Tell him to go to hell."
"Mr. Stark-"
"Tell him."
Yinsen spoke. Wong-Chu's face didn't move. The guard on the left stepped forward and swung his pistol into Tony's temple.
Tony's head snapped sideways. His vision whited out. The electromagnet cord yanked at his chest.
Wong-Chu spoke again.
"Says you don't understand. You're dying. He controls the medical equipment. The food. Water." Yinsen waited. "Says if you refuse, he'll watch the battery run down."
Wong-Chu smiled. Added something.
"Says your weapons made him rich when he sold them. Now you make them for him. Or you die here. Slowly."
Tony looked at Wong-Chu. Wong-Chu looked back.
Tony turned his head toward the wall.
"Fine." He barely got it out. "I'll build your weapons." He paused. "Tell him I need tools."
Yinsen translated. Wong-Chu said something short and left. The guards followed.
"Says tools will be provided. Says he's generous when men cooperate."
Tony lay back. Stared at the ceiling. Water dripped somewhere behind him.
"Yinsen. How long have you been here?"
"Some months."
"And you think he's letting either of us leave."
Silence.
"No."
Yinsen sat on the stool near the cot. Adjusted a wire leading to the electromagnet.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Stark."
Tony didn't move. His chest throbbed where the shrapnel sat. His thoughts wouldn't slow.
"Don't be." He turned his head. Looked at Yinsen. "I said I'd build weapons. Didn't say what kind."
Yinsen blinked. His hands stopped moving.
#
Tony glanced at him. "I'm thinking about a power source."
"A generator?"
"The generator is a starting point." Tony crouched beside one of the crates and began pulling components, sorting by function with the automatic speed of a man thinking faster than his hands could move. "What I need is a miniaturized power unit. Self-contained. Something that can run the magnet without depending on a generator with a fuel supply that Wong-Chu controls."
Yinsen stepped into the room. "And the rest."
Tony looked up.
"You are not going to build weapons," Yinsen said.
"No." Tony showed him an armor design hidden within the various schematic drawings
"You are going to build a suit of armor?" Yinsen looked at the components spread across the workbench. Then he rolled up his sleeves. "Tell me what you need me to do."
#
They worked in the hours between guard rotations and inspections. When a guard came to check their progress, Tony presented partial schematics for weapons that would take months to complete and that he never intended to finish. Yinsen translated requests for additional materials that were, to a non-engineer, perfectly plausible, and which were, to Tony, exactly the components he needed.
The power unit came first. Tony built it small and dense, driven by a repulsor-based reaction he had sketched in a notebook three years ago and never developed. It would power the electromagnet independently. It would power more than that.
Tony soldered a connection under a magnifying glass, examined it under the lamp, and set it into the housing. "What's your work, Yinsen? Before this."
"Physics. I was at the Bern Institute. Before that, CalTech. Before that, the University of-" He stopped. "I have a family," he said, in a different tone. "A wife. Two sons. I was on a research trip when my convoy was ambushed. Very similar circumstances to yours."
Tony looked at him.
"I do not know if they are still…" Yinsen stopped again. He folded his hands on the workbench. "I have been here some months, as I told you. Communication is not permitted."
Tony set down the component he was holding. "When we get out," he said, "we'll find them."
Yinsen smiled. "Yes," he said. "When we get out."
#
The armor grew piece by piece, hidden in a false-bottomed crate beneath stacks of salvage.
Tony had spent his career building things that were precise. This wasn't. The plating was thick, cut from salvaged steel, reinforced with components stripped from weapons casings. The joints were overbuilt. He'd compensated with mass where he'd needed tolerance.
The weapon systems were simple. Flamethrower, left forearm. Repulsor emitter, right.
He ran load calculations in the margins of schematics. Revised the weight distribution from memory. Argued with Yinsen over the power routing until they found something that held.
When he looked at it assembled, he set down his tools.
It was the ugliest thing he had ever built, and he was proud of it all.
#
Wong-Chu came early.
The suit was still booting. A red line on the panel crept to the end. Fans spun. Relays clicked. Stark sat wired into the power unit, straps across his ribs, cables running from his chest to the console.
Footsteps thudded in the corridor.
He looked at Yinsen. Yinsen looked back.
"Go," Yinsen said.
"Yinsen-"
"The armor needs more time." Yinsen picked up a length of pipe, tested the weight. "I know what I'm doing."
Tony pushed up from the chair.
"There has to be another-"
"Sit down, Stark." Yinsen reached over Tony's shoulder and pushed him back into the seat. "Don't move."
The door bar scraped. Hinges groaned.
"There is no other way," Yinsen said. He met Tony's eyes. "I have had time to think about this. About what matters." He nodded at the suit. "Go home. Do something useful with it."
He pulled the door open and stepped out.
Shouts came down the corridor. Yinsen's voice cut across them. "Here! Over here!" Boots pounded past the door. A rifle bolt slid home. Then a burst. Another.
That was the last he heard of his brother in arms in that hell hole.
The panel lights went green. The last relay clicked.
Tony stripped the leads from the power unit. He pulled the chest plate in and locked it. The suit settled on his frame. He stood. Motors whined. He walked into the hall.
Men fired. Rounds hit and sparked. He kept moving. He lifted an arm, fired, and men dropped. He drove his shoulder through a wall and kept going.
Present
Stark saw the sweat on his brow as he was pulled back to that time. No one could see the cracks underneath the Iron Man.
Blitzwolfer tilted his head, deadpan. "What have they lied about, Iron Man?"
Steve's voice cut through. "The truth is that you did attack first. Let's talk to them."
Tony's arc reactor dimmed slightly. His shoulders sagged. "Yeah… we could do that…"
Titanium Man's posture eased. The heavy armor lowered its fists. Dynamo stood motionless in the crater, watching.
Tony's repulsors powered down visibly. His fingers uncurled. "…or I could just take my armor back and then talk it out!"
Blitzwolfer threw his arms up. "Seriously?!"
Steve turned. "Tony-"
"It's my tech, Rogers. They took it apart and built-"
From the crater, Dynamo's laughter boomed through external speakers.
"HAHAHAHAHA!!"
The laugh cut off. Missile pods flipped open along his damaged shoulders. Targeting lasers swept across the terrain. Warheads streaked toward Iron Man's back, four of them, tight formation.
Titanium Man moved.
The bulky armor launched forward, servos screaming at full output. He crossed the distance in under a second. He slammed into Iron Man from the side, shoulder first, twisting hard to put his own plating between Tony and the incoming strike. His arms wrapped around Tony's frame and locked.
"Watch out!"
KA-THOOM!
The blast detonated against Titanium Man's chest. Fire and shrapnel tore across the heavy plating. Three of the warheads cooked off in sequence, each one driving the impact deeper into the armor. He flew backward, spinning, trailing smoke and torn metal sheeting.
"Uhnn!"
An explosion detonated nearby as a second wave of debris rained past them, chunks of crater rim blown free by Dynamo's last volley. Tony tucked Titanium Man's arm across his shoulder and stabilized, armor straining against the load. Behind him he could hear Darkstar shouting coordinates, Vanguard calling for a perimeter.
His HUD flickered. Damage reports scrolled across his left visual field. Structural warnings on his left gauntlet. Thruster output reduced to sixty percent.
Then his sensors locked onto Titanium Man's chest plating and everything else stopped.
"You saved me… why would you-" Tony's eyes widened behind the visor. "Your armor…"
He pulled up the scan and ran it again. The architecture was different. The power routing, the core housing, the field geometry, none of it matched his schematics.
"I… oh no. I-I… that's not my design at all."
Titanium Man's visor dimmed. His voice was weak, distorted. "Iron Man… the power core… it is still unstable. High intensity radiation. A design flaw we discovered too late. It is going to explode."
Tony ran the numbers. The processor cycling took four seconds. He checked the output twice. "What's the blast radius?"
"Several miles… you must run…" A pause. "Please."
Tony's gauntlets locked onto the armor's chest plating. His fingers found the seam at the core housing. He pressed in, located the release points, and set his grip. "I don't think so."
CHUNK!
He ripped the power core free. The housing tore loose with a shriek of metal. The sphere pulsed in his gauntlet, white and yellow, radiation warnings flooding his HUD immediately. Dosimeter readings climbed. The casing was already stressed, hairline fractures running the full circumference.
He let Titanium Man down onto the ground. The Winter Guard was there in seconds, Vanguard dropping to one knee beside the damaged armor.
Tony did not look back.
Thrusters roared at maximum output. Tony shot upward, both hands cupped around the core, climbing faster than he had ever pushed the suit outside of a vacuum. The altimeter in his HUD rolled over quickly. One thousand feet. Two thousand. Five thousand.
Below, the Avengers and Winter Guard watched him ascend. Steve stood with his shield lowered. Blitzwolfer had gone still. Darkstar shielded her eyes against the light.
Higher.
Faster.
The core's casing cracked along three fracture lines at once. Light bled through each one, hard and white. The radiation counter hit critical and the HUD stopped displaying the number.
Tony's jaw clamped tight. His hands were shaking, though he could not tell if it was the armor or him. Probably both. "Come on, come on…"
Fifteen thousand feet. The air was thin. Clouds broke around him.
The core pulsed once, hard.
KRA-KOOOM!
The power core detonated in a massive fireball. The shockwave expanded outward in a perfect sphere, scattering cloud cover across a twenty-mile radius. The sound reached the ground three seconds later as a flat, heavy crack, followed by a rolling pressure wave that knocked Blitzwolfer one step backward and rattled every piece of loose armor plating on the Winter Guard.
On the ground, everyone stared.
Steve did not move. His knuckles were white on the shield.
Blitzwolfer's ears folded flat.
Wasp hovered at shoulder height, both hands over her mouth.
Silence.
Then a dark shape tumbled from the smoke. Red and gold, trailing sparks. Both thrusters dead. Armor blackened across the back and shoulders. The left gauntlet gone from the wrist down.
Tony's vision swam. His HUD was a solid field of red warnings. The audio feed was a wall of static with words breaking through in pieces. He could not feel his left hand. He was not sure if that was the suit or the arm inside it.
"Sorry… Avengers… may have been…"
He tried to fire the repulsors. Nothing.
He tried the boot thrusters. A single burst, uneven, and then nothing.
The ground rushed up fast. Trees. A slope. The crater edge.
"…may have been… wrong…"
His vision went black.
#
Tony's eyes snapped open behind the cracked faceplate. His HUD was a mess of static and red warnings. Every inch of the armor ached.
"Uhnn… being dead… hurts."
Steve knelt beside him, shield resting against his back. "I think he's okay."
Tony tried to sit up. Servo motors whined in protest. "Where's Dynamo?"
Hank shook his head. "He escaped during the explosion."
Wasp hovered overhead, arms crossed. "It was really big."
"It could have been significantly worse."
"That's not the bar I want to clear, Hank."
"No. I know."
Tony pushed himself to one knee. The left leg actuator stuttered. He compensated, leaning into the right side, and got vertical. The armor creaked like a ship hull under pressure.
"Okay." He rolled his left shoulder. Something inside the pauldron ground against itself. "Okay."
Wasp landed beside Steve. "Tony, your faceplate is-"
"I know."
"-cracked in three places."
"I know, Jan."
Steve stood, picking up his shield and sliding his arm through the straps. "JARVIS still online?"
"Barely. Running on a secondary backup." Tony's helmet turned toward Vanguard, who stood a few yards away with the Winter Guard. Titanium Man leaned heavily against Ursa Major, one hand pressed flat against his ribs.
Tony walked forward. The gait was uneven. He did not try to hide it. "Look, Vanguard… I'm sorry. This is all my fault."
Vanguard studied him for a long moment. Then nodded once.
"You are right."
He gestured to Titanium Man. "But we were not entirely truthful. The Winter Guard did try and recruit the Dynamo. We realized our mistake quickly, but not before people were hurt."
His voice hardened. "Now we try to make up for that mistake."
Tony glanced at Titanium Man. "How is he?"
"Two cracked ribs," Ursa Major said. His voice was low, careful. "He has had worse."
"He took the brunt of the secondary blast," Darkstar said. She said it without inflection, a statement of fact, not an accusation. But her eyes stayed on Tony.
Tony held her gaze for a moment. Then he looked back at Vanguard. "If your people need medical support, we can help. No conditions attached."
Vanguard was quiet. He looked at Titanium Man, then back at Tony. "We have our own physicians."
"The offer stands." Tony inclined his head. "When next we meet… let us meet as allies."
Vanguard extended his hand. "Agreed."
They shook. Firm. Respectful.
The Winter Guard turned to leave.
Blitzwolfer hesitated, then added, "If it ever turns bad again, if you need help, you know where to find us."
Darkstar blinked at him.
Ursa Major huffed, amused or disbelieving. "You would risk an international incident for mutants you do not know?"
Blitzwolfer flashed a crooked grin. "Wouldn’t be my first."
Darkstar studied him, then dipped her head. "That is… unexpectedly kind."
"Don’t spread it around," Blitzwolfer said. "We’ve already got enough people mad at us."
Steve approached. "I would defend the liberty and justice for my fellow man any day.
Vanguard smirked. "I see why he always liked you."
Ursa Major’s rumble this time was a laugh.
Darkstar glanced back once, nodded to Blitzwolfer, then followed Vanguard into the trees. Ursa Major carried Titanium Man, the heavy armor leaving deep tracks in the snow.
Tony watched them go. Then turned back to the Avengers.
"Guys… I'm sorry. Dynamo… I got blinded. I just had to be the one to take him down."
Blitzwolfer padded forward, fur still smoking faintly from the battle. He slapped a clawed hand on Tony's armored shoulder, gently, for once.
"Hey. We get it. But you're not alone in this, Tony. You've got a team now. Use us."
Steve stepped up beside him. "We all carry burdens. You don't have to shoulder yours by yourself."
Tony's faceplate retracted. His face was bruised, soot-streaked. He managed a tired smile. "It's just… I've seen my technology destroy lives too often. Sometimes I get overwhelmed by it."
Blitzwolfer's ears flicked. "Yeah, well. Welcome to the club. We've all got things that keep us up at night."
Tony let out a breath. "I know. It's just… it takes a lot of getting used to, this 'team' thing."
Wasp flew down and landed on his shoulder. "You'll get there. Eventually."
Tony huffed a quiet laugh. Then his expression darkened. "And now, because of me, Crimson Dynamo is still on the loose…"
Steve picked up his shield. "Then we find him. Together."
Blitzwolfer grinned, fangs showing. "What he said."
Tony looked around at the team. Battered. Exhausted. But standing with him.
He nodded.
"Yeah. Together."
The Northern Coast Of Germany
Sunset burned low over the Baltic Sea. Waves hit jagged rocks beneath a crumbling industrial facility, abandoned and silent.
Inside, rusted machinery and broken concrete surrounded Crimson Dynamo's damaged armor as it sparked and hissed. Ivan Vanko tore off his helmet and threw it against the wall.
"STAAAAAARK!!"
His shout echoed through the structure. He slammed his gauntlet into a support beam, denting the metal.
He paced. "I will make my armor better. More powerful. I will destroy him."
His hands clenched. "I will destroy him even if I have to destroy the Avengers to do it."
Silence.
Then.
"Crimson Dynamo!"
Vanko spun, servos whining. "Shto?"
A woman stepped from the shadows in green and gold. Long black hair framed her face. Magic flickered around her fingertips.
"You wish to destroy the Avengers?"
Another figure emerged behind her. Tall and imposing, draped in purple and gold. A mask covered his face, leaving only cold eyes. He carried himself like a noble.
"We can help."
Vanko's eyes narrowed. His hand drifted toward a weapon, then stopped.
He saw an opening.
His lips curled into a savage grin.
"I am listening."