C177 Mandarin

Want to read ahead of what I've posted so far? Go to my patreòn and get early access chapters.

As of tonight, the patreòn will be 3 chapters ahead.

https://www.patreón.com/AlienWarlord

Get on Discord https://discord.gg/JhVeZn5)

——————————

[Ten Rings Bomb TLC Chinese Theatre?]

"Huh? Isn't that in the city?" Peter muttered as he came to a realization. 'Is it time for Iron Man 3 already?'

"Peter?" MJ asks as she stops alongside him. "What's wrong?"

"Hmm?" Peter looked up and showed her the article on his phone "There was a bombing last night."

"That's horrible..." MJ says as she reads how many people were injured and killed in the incident. "We should have been there."

Hearing her say that, Peter knew that he had to put a stop to that line of thinking right away, as it wasn't healthy.

"Come here." Peter pulls her aside and out of hearing range of the surrounding students.

"What?" MJ asks in confusion.

"Listen, we can't stop every bad thing in the world or even this city from happening." Peter says as he sees a conflicted look appear on MJ's face.

"We can try..." MJ counters.

"Yes, but never feel guilty about incidents like this. We can't always be in the right place at the right time, ready to stop whatever catastrophe or crime that's ever going to happen. It's not possible." Peter explains.

"I wasn't feeling guilty..." MJ lies through her teeth.

"Yes, you were." Peter says and before she could argue further, the bell rang signaling everyone to get to their classes.

"Let's just go to class..." MJ says as she storms off.

As the hallway emptied, Peter took out his phone and hit a button.

"Jarvis, get me everything you can on the bombing that took place this morning." Peter orders.

"Yes, sir."

————————————————

"Some people call me a terrorist, I consider myself a teacher. America, are you ready for another lesson?" Peter watched a video of a bearded and balding white man in an ornate robe giving a speech on his phone.

[Insert picture of the Fake Mandarin here]

"In 1864 in Sand Creek Colorado the U.S. military waited until the friendly Cheyenne braves all went hunting, waited to attack and slaughter their families that were left behind, and claim their land. Thirty-nine hours ago the Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait was attacked." Looking into the camera for a brief moment, the Mandarin paused before continuing.

"I did that." He admitted easily. "A quaint military church filled with wives and children, of course. The soldiers were out on maneuvers, the braves were away so to speak. President Obama, you continue to resist my attempts to educate you, sir. Now, you've missed me again. You know who I am, you don't know where I am, and you'll never see me coming..."

Peter sat at a lunch table with MJ beside him and Ned sat across with a tray piled high with food.

"I still can't get used to seeing you eat so much, Ned." MJ commented.

"I need it..." Ned shrugs as he starts stuffing his face.

Peter just finished watching the most recent video released by the Mandarin, as he waited to see if another one like it would surface, taking credit for the recent bombing in his city.

'I wonder if the real Mandarin has found out about this yet?' Peter wondered.

The man in the videos, which have just started cycling around the news, was nothing more than a failing drug-addicted actor, who was hired to play a part by a man named Aldrich Killian.

Doctor Aldrich Killian is the founder and CEO of Advanced Idea Mechanics or AIM for short.

When Tony refused to join in his research, Killian joined up with Maya Hansen, who happens to be an old one night stand of Tony's. Together they developed Extremis, an advanced form of genetic manipulation using nanotechnology, which was originally created by Ms. Hansen before Killian even joined her.

Extremis was built to grant the human body the ability to heal and regenerate from physical damage, deformities, and even psychological damage. This also includes the regrowth of severed limbs in a very short time span, various physical enhancements as well as an exothermic ability.

Heat manipulation.

However, the subjects whose bodies rejected the treatment, which was pretty much all of them, would sooner or later explode due to a glitch in the Extremis code.

In time, Killian amassed a group of Extremis-enhanced soldiers under his command, as he would target disabled soldiers for illegal human experiments and later hire them as assassins and bodyguards, which he would use to further his and AIMs standing in the world.

It was easy pickings, as these soldiers would feel beyond indebted to Killian for helping them. In their minds, the army abandoned them, so they would rather join their savior than return there.

He would save his lab rats at their lowest point, turn them into exclusive soldiers, use them for personal gain, and then blame their inevitable fiery deaths on the Ten Rings.

An easy target to use as a smokescreen for his activities, though this action would soon enough draw the attention of the real Ten Rings and they certainly wouldn't be happy.

Especially the Mandarin, who wouldn't take this disrespect lying down for long.

'Truthfully, I could do nothing and let the Mandarin take his revenge.' Peter thought as he and MJ drove home after school. 'Though it's probably best to remove all Extremis research from the playing field...'

If he were to let another group takedown Killian and AIM, then they would likely take all of the Extremis research and materials for themselves, which could cause problems in the future.

'Looks like I'll be getting a new upgrade soon enough...' Peter thought as he dropped MJ off at her house and drove home.

Of course, he would have to work on Extremis and remove the small glitch that causes the explosions to take place, but that shouldn't take him and Tony too long to figure out.

'Maybe getting the original creator on our side would speed up the process...' Peter wondered.

"Sir, I've compiled all the information and camera footage of today's bombing." Jarvis' voice projects from Peter's phone as he pulls into his driveway.

Once again, as his new rust bucket slowed to a stop, the tailpipe shot out a dark black cloud of smoke, drawing the attention of some of his neighbors.

"Good work, Jarvis." Peter says as he ignores everything and walks inside. "Send everything to my laptop."

"Sent, sir."

————————————————

Spending over an hour going over the information and footage provided by Jarvis, Peter found some interesting information that would probably be overlooked by any law enforcement officials performing an investigation on the incident.

First, the bombing happened last night for a reason.

The CEO of a competitor to AIM was attending an event with his family in the theater, which shows a clear motive for this to happen.

"I'm sure that If I look close enough, a lot of these recent Mandarin attacks will show a clear motive like this..." Peter thought out loud as he played a video on his laptop.

A grainy video from a surveillance camera across the street showed the front side entrance of the theater. Seconds into the video playing, the windows and doors of the building broke open in a fiery explosion.

Rewinding before the explosion took place, Peter zoomed in on a certain window, where the silhouette of a man appeared. Putting the video into slow motion and pressing play, Peter watched as the man in the window began to glow, lighting up the window before the inevitable explosion destroyed the place.

'Yep, that's definitely an Extremis explosion.' Peter thought as he hit a button on his phone.

"Yes, sir?" Jarvis asks.

"I need you to compile similar information about every recent Mandarin attack. As long as the Mandarin took credit for it, I want to know everything. We can expand to other incidents afterward." Peter orders.

"On it, sir."

————————————————

That night, while Jarvis worked hard to get Peter what he asked for, another Mandarin video was released, where he dramatically took credit for the bombing in New York.

As the video ended, Peter's phone started going off.

*ring ring ring...*

"Yo." Peter answered as he lay in bed with MJ sleeping soundly beside him.

"So what's going on with the Mandarin? Fury is getting calls from the President, asking for help with the Ten Rings. They don't seem to have any leads." Tony's voice sounds through the phone.

"As I'm sure you know, Jarvis is compiling information for me. Once I have everything, I'll call a meeting and we'll take care of it." Peter replies easily.

"You know something, don't you?" Tony asks as he could sense that Peter was holding something back.

"Yeah, but I need more information to be sure." Peter said as MJ shifts in her sleep and uses his shoulder as a pillow.

"Come on, tell me..." Tony whined like a child as he started complaining about keeping secrets.

'So annoying...' Peter looked between his beautiful girlfriend and his phone before making the right decision and simply hanging up.

Putting his phone on mute, Peter curled up in bed with MJ in his arms. His phone constantly lit up with missed calls as he drifted off to sleep.

A/N: 1535 words

👉DONT FORGET MY STONES!👈

[Gimme dem💎stones💎Or I'll never post another chapter again...😡]