Chapter Text
Breathing in and out. It was all Tony could do in his situation as everything was black and no movement from him.
“Jarvis. You there?”
“Partially sir.”
“Need a system diagnostic check on the armor.”
“I am unable to do this. A full reboot of the suit is in order.”
“Anything to get me moving.”
The darkness is finally changed to some rebooting commands and multiple full length sentences and numbers before finally settling on a circle with rebooting under it. While the suit was rebooting Tony remembers just why and how he got himself into this situation.
In the less than cloudy skies Iron Man sours through them.
“He’s already at the temple?”
“Correct sir. He even has Ms. Potts with him.”
“Why Gene? Why?”
The flaps on the back of the suit open on up allowing Iron Man to boost even further through the skies catching the attention of some eyes.
“I must warn you sir that the Mark three is not meant to face the Mandarin.”
“Can it fly? Can it do the basic requirements of movement? If so, it works.”
“But the one thing to take in mind is that the early warning system and the usage of battery in the suit are way different. The suit takes up a lot more battery power than your future suits.”
“I’ll survive.”
He’s shot out of the sky as he talks, forcing him to go all the way down to earth creating a small crater in a forest. After a moment of no movement Iron Man gets a grip of the edge of his small crater forcing him to sigh.
“Don’t laugh.”
“Hahahahahahaha!!!”
“I said-”
“It isn’t me sir.”
Looking up to the source Tony finds the source of the laughter having come from a man in all armor on a flying saw blade and two armored men with special abilities to them.
“Look at what we caught Whiplash. The Tin Man.”
“Can I be the first to knock some bolts out of him? I’ve been itching for a rematch.”
“He’s not soft enough. Let me.”
Getting himself out of the crater Iron Man flies into the air to not be hit but fails as one of Whiplash’s whips attached to his right leg dragging him down to earth. Now finally on solid ground he begins to be dragged, forcing Iron Man to think quickly and shoot Whiplash in the chest.
Now with the whip off his leg he boosts straight into the air dodging a laser beam from Unicorn.
“Stand still!”
“Nah. One last chance before I bring all of you to prison.”
“How about you just die?”
Electrical blasts are shot in his direction forcing Iron Man to dodge it and shoot right on back with his repulsors. Some managed to get a shot in when Unicorn hit him and followed with him was Whiplash wrapping one of his whips around his torso. Another one wraps around his left arm forcing him to slowly go up and down.
“The suit is at Ninety percent sir.”
“Duly noted.”
Seeing Unicorn about to shoot his laser he shoots him prematurely giving Whiplash the ability to drag him low enough. He begins swinging him in a circle forcing Tony to feel dizzy.
“Got any ideas Jarvis?”
“You can’t face Whiplash with those two still awake and alert. High suggestion is to take them out before Whiplash does that.”
“Noted.”
Using the momentum from spinning Iron Man slips free before activating the Repulsar’s in his boots and his hands towards Whiplash knocking him to the ground. Before he could get a moment of rest he dodges a strike from Killer shrike who turns right back to him to attack him. Narrowly dodging the attack Iron Man grabs it only being forced to grab his other arm.
“Not so talkative now are you Iron Man?”
Holding the super villain back he notices Unicorn from the corner of his eye.
“Oh I am. I just like watching you so-called villains fumble to beat a bodyguard.”
“We’ll show you so-called villains!”
Unicorn shoots his beam towards Iron Man but he was able to react in time to force Killer Shrike to trade places with him ejecting a scream from his throat.
“Shrike!”
Unicorn stops letting Iron Man drop Shrike before flying directly at the unicorn looking villain with his fists right in front of him. The duo go flying right through multiple trees before skidding across the ground. Iron Man slowly sits up before sending punch after punch after punch into Unicorn with each forcing him to dent the dirt. Before he could send another, a whip attached around his wrist forcing him to deal with a whole new problem.
“I hate to remind you sir but the suit is not properly prepared Mark three is not capable of tanking Mr. Vanko’s electrical whips. They’ll drain the suit’s power even mor-”
“I realized that.”
The electricity begins shooting up from Whiplash up through his whip but Iron Man halts this in time by shooting a part of the whip, halting the electricity from touching him. Taking the advantage of this, Iron Man shoots three missiles towards Whiplash with only a couple hitting him when Unicorn gets up behind him and locks his hands behind his head.
“Not so protected huh?”
Using his beam Unicorn begins shooting it directly into the back of Iron Man’s suit forcing him to grit his teeth in pain.
“The suit is at eighty-two percent sir.”
“I know. Flares!”
The moment those words left his mouth the panels on his hip pop out and begin shooting out flares in a circle blinding Unicorn forcing him to let go of Iron Man. He bumps his head backwards into Unicorn giving him the advantage of elbowing him in the stomach forcing him to cough. With both arms out of his way Iron Man delivers a mean right hook cracking Unicorn’s mask and forcing him to his back.
“Stay down, Unicorn. I need to stop the Mandarin before he does something irre-”
He is interrupted by a tree hitting him to bounce off the side of a tree onto the ground with skids.
“You should be worrying about yourself, tin man.”
Sighing Tony boosts himself backwards while turning leading to a punch into Shrike who is forced to drop the tree. Recovering from the punch, Shrike charges up electricity around it, sending it right into Iron Man’s side. He staggers backwards before dodging the next punch meant for his face and holds it in a crushing grip. He tries to throw his other fist but is met with it being caught and crushed when their eyes finally meet.
“I don’t have to.”
Iron Man head butts Shrike giving him a little way to fall asleep to Tony’s glee. He let Shrike fall to his feet as his breathing slowly began decreasing.
“Time for the Mandarin.”
Two whips wrap around his neck and his left arm but before he could try to pry them off electricity runs right through them into his suit forcing him to scream.
“Nahhh. It’s time for payback. As much as I hate the Stark family you’ve been just as a hindrance as their existence. I’ll tear that armor off your skin and show it to Tony Stark himself!”
“Sir-sir the sui-^@!( sixty-perc&8nt-t-t.”
“EMP JARVIS!”
As his suit was short-circuiting a square showed up providing the information of there being nothing in his arsenal matching the EMP.
“Dammit. Ugh! Jarvis, divert power to the Unibeam.”
As the Unibeam was charging up Tony does everything in his power to thrust right through the pain and grip the whip holding his left arm.
“Fighting back? You do know such a thing as free will to fight back is pointless?”
Even as the pain shot through every fiber of his body and being he turned to his attacker as the electricity illuminated the armor.
“Not as long as I breathe Vanko!”
Facing Whiplash in full view he moves both fists in front of him before separating them as the Unibeam leaves his chest. The beam knocks Whiplash back into a tree as his whips loosened enough from Tony letting the pain disappear. Tony takes enough breaths before looking over his damaged armor.
“Battery?”
“Fifty-one percent sir.”
“That did take a chunk out of my battery.”
“Followed by the unibeam it was bound to happen sir. There’s no way you can save Ms. Potts and face the Mandarin with all six rings in this condition. He’ll even be getting the seventh. It is ill advised to-”
“Duly noted Jarvis. I don’t care too much about it. As long as we have any percent up and running we’re facing Gene.”
Without any more push back Iron Man takes off into the sky leaving the three super villains knocked out. Flying over a mountain soon after he finds himself staring at a huge temple keeping his attention.
“How big is that temple?”
“Sir there is an unknown device on your back.”
“Huh?”
Taking a single peek over his shoulder to which he couldn’t see what was this device had been a single blade from Whiplash’s whips leading to its beeping getting before finally going off. In the temple it was quite peaceful with some spiders knitting their webs as what had been the usual when something alerts them.
Something heavy breaking through the wall and crashing upon the ground with skids. After a while it stops revealing Iron Man motionless with the suit offline.
“So that’s how I ended up here.”
Right on time the reboot finishes lighting up his face with the hud forcing him to blink multiple times.
“The Repulsar system is fully operational in both hands outside of the boots. They took the brunt of the explosion and from the crash took them out. The flares are still usable with only a few cylindricals going off early.”
“Everything else?”
“Either barely functional or still in working condition. I’ll keep going.”
“Nope. How’s the battery?”
The number is shown on his hud as he stands with a slight groan from his mouth when he shuts up when his eyes find the number.
“Fourty percent? If I recall, we had fifty something.”
“Yes. After the fight with the trio. But the flight here, the explosion, and the crash used up the battery. Finally we had to do a reboot quickly.”
Tony presses the button on the side of his helmet opening the yellow mask revealing his face giving him some fresh air.
“Nothing can be so easy can it?”
Shaking his head Tony rubs his eyes when he looks up finding the hole he had come through.
“Do you still have eyes on Gene and Pepper?”
“Yes sir.”
“Let’s get to work then.”
Without needing to be told Jarvis shuts the mask allowing the eye slits to illuminate cyan once again.