16 Chapter 16: The Mandarin Strikes

Tony is currently working in his facility with Apex/Galen and they are working on improving Tony's designs for his suits.

"Forty six"

"Ow, Forty seven"

{Sir, might I suggest just a few hours to calibrate...}

"No, forty eight. Aghh! Micro-repeater implanting sequence complete"

{Very well sir, I've also put together a safety brief for you to ignore.}

"Which I will."

Galen looks at Tony and chuckles quietly to himself then says to Jarvis.

"Don't worry Jarvis, I already had Cortona download the specs and safety features so I can make sure everything goes smoothly."

"See, there you go. I knew bringing you here was a good idea."

Galen just rolled his eyes and then started inputting something into his holographic display on his arm gauntlet.

"Cortona, measure propulsion specs and ensure that the speed of the propulsion is lowered by at least 45% capacity. Also do a full bio-scan on the micro-repeater implants."

{Yes, Sir. Initializing.... Propulsion speed adjusted, and bio-scan complete.}

"Perfect. Display bio-scan results."

On Galen's holo display it showed that the implants needed at least another 10 minutes to fully integrate with Tony. Galen informed Tony of the scans results and although begrudgingly, Tony waited.

"You really know how to take the fun out of things y'know."

"Hey I wanna see you get knocked on your ass as much as the next guy, but I'd rather not have to deal with the mess if things don't go the way it's supposed to."

Tony smirked then walked to the platform in front of all his suits on display.

"Focus up ladies. Good Evening, and welcome to the birthing suite. I am pleased to announce the imminent arrival of your bouncing badass baby brother. Mark 42 Autonomous prehensile propulsion suit test. Initialize sequence."

The separate pieces of the Mark 42 start to power up and in classic Tony fashion, he needed background music.

"Jarvis, drop my needle"

The record players' needle drops and funky Christmas music starts to play and Tony starts dancing to it while waiting to start the test.

["Hmm, he may be annoying, but I gotta admit, the man can dance."]

The separate pieces started flying towards Tony and started forming his suit. After Tony was able to get the first two pieces on he looked absolutely giddy at the success.

"Alright I think we got this, send em all."

The pieces started coming towards him rapid fire, but thankfully Cortona lowered the speed beforehand so Tony was able to keep up, the last piece, which was the faceplate slowly lifted up and started heading towards Tony, but it was knocked upside-down. Tony did a side flip and the faceplate landed on his face, before he flipped back up and did the superhero landing pose.

He looked up at Galen and said "I'm the best."

["Hmph, showoff."]

After the successful test, Tony and I sat down on the couch with a couple drinks. Tony turned on the television and we both saw 'The Mandarin' in all his glory. He had hacked the television airwaves and broadcasted his message to the world and his thinly-veiled threat towards President Ellis. It showed massive amounts of violence and rioting throughout the message.

{"Some people call me a terrorist. I consider myself a teacher. America. Ready for another lesson? In 1864, in Sand Creek, Colorado, the US military waited, until the friendly Cheyenne Braves had all gone hunting. Waited to attack and slaughter the families left behind. And claim their land. Thirty-nine hours ago, the Ali al-Salam Air Base in Kuwait was attacked. I, I, I did that. A quaint military church, filled with wives and children, of course. The soldiers were out on maneuvers. The 'Braves' were away. President Ellis, you continue to resist my attempts to educate you, sir. And now, you've missed me again. You don't know who I am. You don't know where I am. And you'll never see me coming."}

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(Tony, Galen, and Rhodey in a diner)

Rhodey and Tony were discussing the release of the 'Iron Patriot' President Ellis' response to The Mandarin's message. Tony was sitting at a table making fun of Rhodey's new name. Rhodey defended, explaining that War Machine sounded too aggressive. Then in a rare moment, Tony got serious. He asked about The Mandarin, thinking about how everything has changed since the invasion.

Then two kids walked over and asked for an autograph. As Tony was signing the picture he broke the crayon and as one of the kids whispered something in his ear, he started to freak out. Galen noticed the symptoms of a anxiety attack and immediately grabbed Tony and brought him outside to his suit where Jarvis gave the official diagnosis, that Tony had a severe anxiety attack. Rhodey and Galen watched as Tony flew off.

Galen walked away from Rhodey and said "I'm going after him."

Rhodey tried to stop him but he went invisible and flew off. Galen headed towards Tony's place, but half-way there he remembered Aldrich Killian and his stupid lackey who hurt Happy and made Tony give out his address to the world. So he decided to just go after Happy. Tony will be fine and I have to make sure Happy doesn't get hurt.

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(Later that day at the Chinese Theatre)******

Happy watched as Killian's thug 'Savin' brought a case to a guy who could only be described as a junkie and it seems his drug of choice was EXTREMIS. Happy walked over and managed to get a sample of the drug then Savin bumped into him and Happy told him that he knew what was going on and was going to stop them and he threw one hell of a right hook that broke Savin's nose but Savin instantly healed and threw Happy like a rag doll, through the glass of a store. Before Savin got to do anything else, the junkie started screaming for him to help him. The junkie was glowing bright orange and looked like he was unstable.

The Junkie exploded, destruction was everywhere, bystanders charred silhouettes shown on the walls and Happy was on the ground covered in wounds, it was unknown if he was alive at first but then he looked over and saw the dog tags the junkie was wearing and tried to grab for them but passed out.

Just then Galen landed at the theater to seen of utter destruction.

[Oh god, i was too late. i was supposed to have more time, why did it happen sooner than it was supposed to?!?]

Galen scrambled to find Happy. He looked around until he finally saw him with his hand outstretched towards a set of dog tags which galen left and just grabbed Happy and flew him to a hospital.

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