Chapter 40: Chapter 40

The Fastest Man Alive

Chapter 40

Edited By: Joe Lawyer

 

Manhattan New York, New York

Jean Grey aka Phoenix.

Lover, Fighter, Artist.

5 College Degrees and counting.

Host to Cosmic Embodiment Of Life And Rebirth.

Jean zipped her jacket up as she perched on top of one of the skyscrapers that made up the skyline of Manhattan. With a look at her forearm gauntlets, Jean smiled to herself at the new capabilities of her hero suit or outfit, though calling it a 'suit' was a bit of a misnomer. It wasn't just to hide her identity like some comic book hero, but meant to offer significant protection and new capabilities.

Ben had called it her 'Phoenix 2.0' outfit, saying that he had added in upgrades to not only the armor protection, but also the advanced built-in computer systems. Granted, the previous systems were pretty damn advanced before. Everything from the jacket down to the now steel toed boots on her feet contained a new graphene/polymer mix that absorbed kinetic energy . This also enhanced the overall durability allowing her to tank heavier hits but also use more of her personal power. The new upgrades were not foolproof but it was the next best thing until Ben completed his miracle fabric.

A thought brought up the holo-interface on her left gauntlet. The real time, interactive map showed Peter downtown chasing down some mugger or purse snatcher or something. Gwen was in the labs working on some discovery with Susan Storm, but there was no stopping her smile once she located the Black Cat moniker and symbol moving on the map. Felicia had heard about the crew that was making a play for the diamond, and Jean was planning to take them down.

Jean was wondering how she was going to take down this crew of thieves. There were a few new moves that she wanted to try out tonight. The helmet's audio pickups Jean wore amplified a yell and scream for help from her left, so Jean placed her thoughts aside as she stood up. With a smile, Jean threw herself off the skyscraper into the dark night. There was no stopping the air that rushed past and buffeted her body, the feel of the sweat that gathered at her fingertips within her gloves, the potent spike of adrenaline shooting through her veins like fire. Jean loved the rush of it all.

"KAAAAWWW!"

Jean's arms flared out as her legs spread, allowing her body to catch air. The street below her and the building lit up with flickering firelight as the Phoenix made itself known. The rush of the air became mixed with the rush of blood that pumped through her veins as Jean yelled out in triumph.

The large flaming bird that lit up the night slowly faded back into her body as Jean flew through the night, answering the call for justice, that desperate plea for help. With a whoop of joy, Jean ran along the side of a building, in joyful defiance of gravity, to jump off as she took a sharp turn around a corner. Jean's visor flashed red at the edges of her vision. That attracted her attention, allowing Jean to focus in on the now red-highlighted assailants and the gold colored victim as she flew.

The sight that met Jean made her eyes narrow. There was a young woman that was in the process of being carjacked; the lady desperately trying to keep it from happening for some reason. There was a large half-balding man trying to pull the lady out from the front driver's seat, while in the back appeared to be a car seat. The latter was confirmed when the advanced sensors in her phoenix helmet picked up the sound of a baby crying. There was no pause, no hesitation on her part. The smile dropped from Jean's face as she appeared between the lady and her assailant. Everything was frozen within Jean's sight, but that did not deter her from enacting justice.

A palm strike exploded out as Jean thrust her arm into the carjacker's chest blasting him up off of his feet while his arm was still outstretched with the gun he held pointed at the lady. With a snort and a flap of her flaming wings, Jean turned around to face the other man that had his hands on the lady. The weapon in Jean's first victim's hands melted to slag from the proximity to her heat.

This caused him to drop the weapon before it could cause any damage to his hand. With grace and swiftness Jean's other hand shot out into the criminal that had his hands on the woman. The strike caught him under his outstretched arm in the nerve bundle, just as Natasha had taugher her. With her hand within the nerve bundle, Jean acted on instinct flaring her powers once more and shut down the man's motor functions.

At her next breath she looked down at her work, the world came back into focus for her. Jean breathed slowly as the sound of the world brought her out of her rapid retaliation. The lady that she rescued looked at her in awe. Turning her back on the two downed assailants, Jean gave the lady a once over as she inspected her for any wounds. She noticed the bruise along the forearm but also the small gash-like injury to the head that was bleeding steadily.

With a sigh, Jean pressed the button on her vambrace that allows her helmet to recede but kept the lower face mask there to keep her identity mostly hidden. Now Jean's appearance was that of a black-headed ninja with her nose and mouth covered while her bright emerald eyes shined for all the world to see.

With a flick, Jean's hair braid went over the shoulder to lay down her back as she brought up her vambrace for active medical scanning. With the scanner active, Jean sighed a breath of relief once she determined that the lady before her had no internal injuries. With a nod and a soft smile telling the woman that there was nothing worse than the bruise and a few cuts, she put away her scanner. Jean brought out her medical kit but stopped when a flash of inspiration struck her.

Maybe she could use her abilities in a more direct application, the Phoenix was a force for life and rebirth after all. For a moment, Jean stared down at her hands in deep thought. Then with a shrug, she listened to that feeling, that instinct that told her to trust in the Phoenix and its power. Jean's hands glowed a soft red as her Phoenix aura made itself known. To Jean, this suddenly felt like the right way to use her powers. With her arms outstretched, the woman she was helping became engulfed within the warm glow. Jean watched as the wounds sealed themselves shut as her power flowed and healed the damage, as if it was never there in the first place.

Jean couldn't stop the smile that came upon her face from the discovery of her new healing abilities. Once she was finished, Jean turned around to cuff the two criminals. Both of the 'would-be' carjackers were held tightly against an opposing wall within Jean's telepathic grip, so tight that the only movement they were allowed was to breathe. Ben had stressed time and time again that no matter how powerful they were, arrogance, overconfidence, and a lack of caution could be our undoing.

Taking out a set of flex cuffs from her tool belt, Jean summoned the two assailants over and cuffed them to the nearest lamp pole. This way, they couldn't escape and the police would be able to recover them both, Alfred having already called them for pickup. A quick scan both telepathically and telekinetically confirmed the two possessed no other weapons or tools with which to escape or harm anyone else. Truthfully, she should have done that minutes ago, and Ben and Natalia would surely admonish her if they knew of her mistake.

"Thank you, Phoenix," the woman said, with so much feeling and warmth in her voice that it moved her deeply. "You saved my baby."

"I'm just doing what I can, ma'am," Jean replied shakily before levitating herself into the air. As she turned around, Jean noticed a few people with their phones out, obviously recording her save. With a nod to the onlookers, Jean flew higher before flaring her aura upwards to show the world the power of the Phoenix as she took off across the Manhattan skyline.

While she was flying, Jean got the message that she was hoping for from Alfred.

It would seem that Felicia was already waiting outside of the place that was housing the diamond. While she was waiting for Jean, a crew had already begun the process of stealing the priceless jewel. Felicia had sent her the okay to come crashing into them in their getaway truck and gift wrap them for the police. The plan was to let the diamond be taken into police custody and for Felicia to steal it from their evidence room. Felicia even had a decoy 'gem' she planned to replace the diamond with before leaving the New York City Police Department Headquarters. Hopefully the police would think the thieves had switched it prior to being captured.

With a flap of her wings, Jean's direction changed as she shot off into the night to bring justice to professional jewel thieves, well, at least the ones she didn't like, she thought with a laugh.

Ben was not a proponent of their hero personas fighting non-violent crime like this, rightly arguing that that was a job for the real police and sticking our 'illegal vigilante' noses into that field would be much harder to justify without real lives on the line. Even private citizens had the right to defend themselves and others after all, even with lethal force, when facing egregious bodily harm or death. It would also be a waste of their time as it had too little impact on the public's perception of metahumans and could easily go the other way, but in this case she'd make an exception.

O.o.o - o.O.o - o.o.O

Los Angeles, Malibu

Red Hood (currently) aka Benjamin Blake.

23 Degrees and Counting Attempting to Outperform Bruce Wayne.

Lover, Fighter, Golfs With a 2 Handicap.

Caution: Loves OverKill.

Current Assignment: Save Tony's Ass.

When I had told Tony Stark to burn rubber, I had forgotten just how much power my battle tank had access to. Tony ran over two guys in armor and right into the side of a building across the street, stopping us in place, but thankfully not getting stuck.

"Sorry, sorry, didn't know she had so much kick!" Tony yelled back with a wince. The kinetic shields had kicked in upon impact, causing the car's safety features to auto-activate in order to protect its occupants, activating each seat's individual force field.

"Activate the flight control, left side of the dash. The green button with wings Tony, once active the paddle shifters are as follows: left brings us down and right brings us up into the sky. Now get us out of here!" I yelled with exasperation as I turned around in the gunner's position. As we rolled out of the side of the building, I noticed our attackers had closed in on our position.

"Shredder Rifle activate!"

With those words, the right-hand side of my position opened up, allowing more nano-particles to flow and create my weapon. The weapon platform, which I had dubbed 'the shredder', was a next-generation pulse laser rifle. In the housing of the rifle sat an artificial crystal energy capacitor that stored energy within the housing chamber. The interior of the crystal allowed the beams to bounce around, increasing the ultimate intensity and beam power.

Once the energy reached critical, this energy was fired down the barrel at a target at virtually the speed of light. Even against heavy armor, it would leave a heap of molten metal slag in its wake. It was a supremely deadly weapon that even Tony Stark, back when he designed weapons, would have been in awe of.

Right now, this deadly rifle was mounted on a turret that would allow a full rotation and a 360 degree arc of fire. My HUD lit up directly, after connecting my suit's systems with my flying tank of a car to take advantage of its systems and sensors, highlighting the furthest target, providing range, elevation, and other targeting information.

That guy had gotten no further than raising his weapon to fire on us before I gunned him down where he stood, the shredder rifle practically ripping the dude apart. That seemed to set everything into motion as they all jumped or ran for cover. The Iron Monger, though, did no such thing. He came barreling down on our position while Tony was driving us in circles.

I was firing at everything and everyone with hostile intent, and no one and nothing was safe, not even the thankfully closed and empty taco stand across the street, of course that was an unfortunate accident. Hopefully they had metahuman fight collateral damage insurance, which I swear to God was a real thing in this dimension.

No shit.

I fired directly into the Iron Monger's chest as he bore down on our position. I was hoping it would be enough to punch through his thick armor and kill the pilot/operator, hopefully ending this before a cliche epic hero/villain showdown was required. Yet, he got his arm up in front to block the superheated pulses, keeping himself alive, but probably seriously injuring him.

Click!

Sending a mental command, the harness that had kept me locked safely in the gun turret released, and I needed that harness to steady my aim and deal with Tony's crazy ass driving. I jumped onto the top of the roof, the magnetic grips within my soles activating to keep me from falling right off.

"Increase gravimetrics!"

With this command the car's gravity stabilizers powered up even further, which helped keep the thing from flipping over because of hard turns, flight, or, you know, having a boss battle on top of it. Set too high and adventurous driving became seriously difficult and its top speed dropped significantly.

I barked as my fist met the Iron Monger's. I couldn't use my real speed, lest the Lightspeed and the Red Hood persona be outed as being one and the same, but nothing said I couldn't use my incredible strength. Everyone was on tenterhooks as a shockwave of air and force blew out from where our fists had connected.

"Wait, what?!" The IronMonger questioned out of shock, as I was able to meet his blow head-on with my bare hand and didn't falter even an inch, in fact the metal of his fist has crumpled from the impact. Tony was looking up through the windshield in shock too, but Pepper knew now was definitely not the time for incredulous gawking. She didn't even wait for anyone to get over their shock as she started to beat on Tony's shoulder and screaming 'Drive! Drive! Drive!' in his ear from the back seat. Ignoring them, I thrust my left arm forward and opened up with the flamethrower that sat on my forearm.

Ain't no kill like overkill, baby!

"ARGHHHHH!" IronMonger yelled out as my flames burned on top of the front of his armor. I knew that I had only bought us mere moments, so it was time to bug out while we could.

"Override Sigma 355. Get us in the air and to Tony's Mansion, Alfred."

I really should have done that the moment we got into the car, but I had too much faith in Tony's badass genius persona from all the MCU movies. Hell, I should have known better, especially at this point in the timeline before he really embraces his hero role as Iron Man, but it doesn't matter now, Alfred has the controls.

"A ton of advanced weaponry and tech, and oh, you have an AI too. Why am I even surprised? Are you also a billionaire playboy? We really have to talk and compare notes, buddy," Tony said from the front seat, sounding a bit envious, as he tried to regain some type of control back from the car.

"We can talk later, because right now, Obadiah is trying to kill us all."

"Wait, wait, wait, back up, did you say Obadiah?! As in Obadiah Stane is in that armor and is trying to kill us? Explain that to me! Now!" Tony snapped from the front seat as we flew down the coast.

"Only the highest executives in your company could possibly get access to the very weapons they used to kidnap you with, somehow without you or Jarvis knowing about it, and only one of those people has the motive for it."

"There is that, but also the fact that he explicitly said he threw this party for you, Tony," Raven said as she added in her thoughts on the matter, her eyes continually scanning for threats. Everyone fell silent for a moment as they soaked in that piece of information.

TING! TING! TING!

A grunt was forced out of me as I felt several impacts into my sides, flaring the kinetic shields to visibility.

"INCOMING!"

"I got it. I got it!" Happy yelled as he leaned out the window to get a clear shot. "Ha! Take that!"

I turned to see one of the now flying suits explode. Giving a nod of my own, I hunkered back down to get into my harness when I heard the sound of screaming. Whipping around, I found Happy halfway hanging out of his side of the vehicle.

Shit!

My body moved before I could give it any conscious commands. Out of my utility belt a nano-magnetic tether shot out and connected itself to the roof of my flying tank as I dove over the side to grab under Happy's shoulders. Looking around from my position, I found I was hanging out the right-hand side, as the beach and ocean flew by below. The coastal roads in California were really beautiful and I would love to take a convertible drive with my ladies one day. Shaking my head to clear my mind of these nice, but currently irrelevant thoughts, I hauled up Happy and placed him back into his seat.

The look of gratitude on his face said it all, so that was okay. Placing him in the seat, I did his seatbelt up before tapping him on the shoulder, reassuring him he was ok. I was learning a lot tonight. One such lesson, do not leave new/untrained/unpowered passengers with access to their door locks. Nano-particles are great until someone opens a hole and falls right out during extreme activities. The launcher that Happy was using fell out of his hand with no way to recover the weapon. Thankfully, Alfred had already tasked a response team with its retrieval, with a drone watching it till they arrived. I sure as fuck was not going to fall into the same trap that Tony had and leave behind advanced weapons tech for my enemies to study, reverse engineer, and eventually use against me and my people.

Putting that out of my mind for now, because wasn't it awesome having ultra competent people in my employ who anticipated my needs? I locked down Happy's side of the car for now, so he couldn't get out. Twisting around, I heaved myself up and noticed Raven hanging out her side of the car. Her own tool belt had a harness connected to the side, so I left her to what she was doing, which was shooting back at our pursuers. Two more exploded out of the sky as the third touched down on the back near the trunk space.

Well, shit, now this was turning into the cliche dramatic fight on top of the moving vehicle. Too bad for him, I was not feeling so generous tonight and had zero desire to follow the script. Step by step, he advanced on my position. With each step everyone felt the weight of his suit vibrating the car as he got closer and closer to me, but what grated on my nerves was the smug look of satisfaction and arrogance I could feel practically radiating off him in waves. A right hook was sent my way, which I ignored as I dropped and swept the leg, Karate Kid-style.

The magnetic rig within his boots dragged along, peeling away metal and paint as his legs flew out from beneath his person. As I stood back up from my sudden leg sweep, I lashed out in a straight thrust kick caving in his chest plate. There was nothing else said as he flew off the back of my car and gravity did the rest.

"Sweep the leg, Johnny! Ha!" Tony snarked from the front seat, a big shit eating grin on his face at recognizing my inspiration. I looked over and noticed that Alfred had given him a 360-degree view of what I was doing up top. Ignoring Tony for now, I checked my HUD's minimap and frowned at how many were still on our tail. I pushed those thoughts away as I checked the map and found that we were closing in on Tony's Malibu mansion fast.

"Tony, please tell me you have a bunker or safe room?"

"Yeah, of course, I do," Tony answered from the front seat.

"Good. Alfred, connect Tony to his home system."

"I'll keep Pepper and Happy secure in the bunker while you take care of these assholes who want us dead," Raven said, speaking up from her side of the car as she hung there in her harness, acting like a consummate badass professional.

"Noted."

My shredder rifle sparked to life again, firing again and again, causing our pursuers to fall out of the sky missing some pretty vital pieces of themselves, large holes in them with glowing bright red edges from the power of the pulse laser. Somehow, they kept on coming, and I was certain that the kill count had reached the double digits by now, yet, they kept up the pursuit. That was a lot of advanced armor tech. In the first Iron Man movie Obadiah had only created the one suit of armor based on Tony's design, with this many lying around all over the place the tech was undoubtedly going to be out there in the world unless Tony really stepped up his game and learned from his mistakes. Should I help him? The butterflies were kicking up quite a few hurricanes right now.

Beep... beep... beeeep!

Looking around for the source of the beeping, I was instead greeted with the ground coming at us rapidly.

Ohh, thank sweet baby Stan Lee, we made it.

Tony was the first out of the car, he was already halfway to his front door before pausing and then quickly coming back for Pepper. There was no stopping the snort I released. This caused Tony to glare in my direction for drawing even more attention to his little mistake. I paid him no mind as I had my weapons out for a quick inspection, taking advantage of the brief lull in battle. The last thing I wanted was for my weapon to suffer a systems failure while in the heat of battle, or Stan Lee forbid, for a malfunction to cause this very advanced weapons system to blow up in my hands because of some damage it had taken along the way. While I had all of this firepower in my hands, I had something I wanted to try during this battle.

From my back, I pulled out a Viking-style double-headed battle-ax. This was tailor made for the slaughter that I was going to perform tonight. The shaft could grow or shrink at my command, and so could the double-sided ax head. I couldn't help myself when I created this beast. Aside from the Vega particles that allowed me to change the size as I saw fit, the head of the ax contained a gravity matrix generator allowing me to change the weight as I fought. I also had a shrunk down holoprojector installed within the head that allowed me to project a field of hard light that I planned to use as a shield.

As I was inspecting my weapon, Raven came over and removed my helmet, thankfully the Jason Todd face was still being projected correctly. Before I could ask why, she pulled me in, the kiss she gave me could have taken my breath away if I actually needed to breathe these days.

"I know you like a good fight, but stay safe, ok?" Raven told me softly as she held my face and stared into my eyes intently.

"Always. After Russia, we need to make up for lost time. I don't plan on going anywhere just yet," I whispered back before placing a small kiss on her forehead. Letting her go, I took a step back before donning my helmet once more.

"Protect the VIP, Athena."

Raven gave me a look before putting her helmet on and allowing it to re-apply the environmental seals.

"Of course, Red," Raven practically purred before going over to the car and pulling out one of the shredder rifles that sat within the trunk. Cold sweat ran down my back as I watched Raven walk off with that monster of a weapon. I was almost certain that she wouldn't need that in the bunker, but I still pitied the fool that made it past me tonight.

"Sir, it would seem that the events at the Fireman's Ball have been reported as a terrorist attack. Also, additional enemy combatants are five minutes inbound. The current count is fifteen heat and energy signatures that match those who stood in your path outside the Ball. One energy signature is five times larger than that of the others. I believe this to be the Iron Monger, as you have called him,' Alfred reported discreetly, through my internal comm systems.

Well, shit, that was a lot to digest in one sitting.

"Call in Fury on this one, Alfred. We are going to need to call in another favor. Lets frame the story this way. Stark released an advanced prototype armor of his design to protect the American people. Let's get our media team and any reporter on our payroll to discreetly support that story."

'Of course, sir,' Alfred replied in a clipped tone. I guess even Alfred was feeling the heat. I knew he was supposed to be an AI, but I was certain that he was far more than that now. His 'birth' was only partially through my genius, known technology and programming, a good part of that 'spark of life' came from the speed force itself. And the speed force continued to be a mystery to me in most respects still. Being an "Elder God," according to the Ancient One, didn't exactly make me an instant master of these powers; I suspected that it would require a great deal of time and practice.

Don't even get me started on the question of my mortality. Did I even have a normal human lifespan anymore? My body had been evolving ever since I had been touched by the speed force and it was as far from the human baseline as it was possible to be before becoming something truly alien.

I felt something suddenly. That slight niggle at the back of my neck that forces me to look up and around. My surroundings got all of my undivided attention as I kicked off from my location. My thermals were showing me exactly what I needed to know, and that was incoming enemies set on killing me and Tony.

The leap I took cleared fifty feet, easy, but that paled in comparison with the force I used when I brought my ax down on the head of this unsuspecting trooper. There was no yelling, no battle cry in warning, just swift and brutal power that ended threats ruthlessly and efficiently. The trooper's helmet split down the middle as my ax bit into the kevlar plating. I easily cut through flesh and bones, but I didn't stop there. I pulled the shaft of the ax back while grabbing behind the head. My motions flowed as I twisted the handle into an upswing, cleaving his partner from the groin up and across his chest cutting the whole thing in half with one move.

Turning to my left, I slammed the butt of my ax into the ground and willed the shield to activate with a mental command. The shield springing to life in time to catch all the rounds fired in my direction.

"Run!"

The growl I sent their way had three turning around to flee, but I was already moving. I kicked off with my back foot as I turned my ax sideways. The two closest to me split neatly in half as the third one did a commando roll out of my reach. This only delayed the inevitable as I turned the ax head sideways then enlarged it to an impossible size. As the trooper sprang back to his feet, he was right within my strike range. He didn't know what was happening as I used his entire body like a baseball, my enlarged ax the bat. The pulse of extreme gravity at the moment of impact meant mush was all that was left of him as his body turned into a pink chunky mist that watered Tony's well manicured lawn.

The flash in the air pulled my attention, causing me to move from my location. Someone had launched a rocket at me. My HUD zoomed in, and I grunted at the sight. It would seem that our pursuers were able to catch up, beside the grunts they sent here. Pulling up my vambrace, I sent Alfred a command to cover the roof of the mansion while I took on whoever tried to make it in from land. I knew that they underestimated me, seeing me as the weak link, and I was hoping to take advantage of that flawed thinking. The turret on the top of my vehicle opened fire seemingly on its own, causing one to fall out of the air in a flaming wreck causing the rest to scatter like flies at this unexpected threat. The survivors came in my direction, and I relished the chance to unleash my full strength.

Before any of us could move though, Tony showed up in his shiny red and gold armor. Damn, did he look damn good in it too. I know I was giving Tony shit about his armor and the various mistakes he'd made, but man was it amazing to see something in real life that I'd once geeked out about in the movies. It was all red and gold titanium plating, state-of-the-art like few things in the world. The armor was sleek, yet bulked out with weapon pods and whatever else Tony was able to think up and somehow fit into the thing.

"Get off my lawn, no loitering allowed," Tony boomed out from his suit. That caused me to facepalm then let out a chuckle.

"Fuck, you're old."

"Don't make me put you in time out, kiddos," Tony quipped as the infamous mini-missile pods popped up from his shoulders firing on several targets. I groaned at how terrible that was, but before I could send a quip back, the soldiers before us opened fire once more. Ignoring the steadily declining energy levels on my shields I twisted around, pushing out the shaft of my ax and watched it sail over a soldier's head as he ducked down. The shaft of the ax had grazed the top of his helmet, and I noticed the widening of his eyes at how close he had come to being broken in half.

Unfortunately for him, I was still within reach. One quick step and a fist to the face later killed him where he had crouched down, his head literally flying off his body from the power of my punch. Picking up the headless body, I turned him into a human shuriken as I tossed him at one of his partners. I heard a crunch as several things obviously broke as they collided. With him out of my hand, I started to pick up more troopers and used them as makeshift clubs, Hulk-style. A rocket was sent my way, causing me to slam the shaft of my ax into the ground then activated a larger force field. This was to protect myself as I took a quick look around for Tony's position. Tony, I found, was using the fucking shield I had loaned him while he took shots at those who were hiding behind some cover.

"What the fuck, Stark! Did you seriously integrate my fucking tech into your armor?"

"No, I took the gift you gave me and gave it a quick upgrade," Tony snarked. While he was speaking, I watched as he launched himself into a group of fighters. The reactor on Tony's chest lit up as he landed. Before they could decide to fire or run, Tony opened up with his chest and both arm repulsors taking them out swiftly.

"No, Stark, that wasn't a gift."

I jumped from where I was with my shields up. The thrusters on my back, with the stabilizers on my legs and feet, activating with a mental command. I landed swiftly, then began to glide across the ground as if I was skating on ice. Pulling back, I added some torque in my swing as I cut two dudes clean in half.

"Come on, it's a house warming present," Tony said into my comms as he came down hard on an armored carrier that pulled up into his driveway. "I invited you into my home and you decided to gift me this nifty kinetic shielding, which I then promptly integrated into my armor. That's a huge compliment from me, really. Ingenious work, by the way, using oscillating particle waves that harden into a solid wall once in contact with anything going faster than mach one."

There was no time for a return comment as I dove out of the way of another armored troop carrier trying to run me over. Getting up and out of the commando roll, I twisted around to kick the side of the truck. The steel plating buckled under my super-powered kick and knocked the APC onto its side, the men inside screaming in terror as they were tossed around. Troopers came stumbling out of the back to round on me with firing weapons. This time I noticed that three of them had heavy armor on similar to what Tony was wearing.

Before anyone could take a shot at me, I was out of their line of sight and at the front of the APC. Shrinking my ax and putting it into storage, I yanked the bumper off the front of the APC before running up and over the top.

"Head's up!"

With the bumper of reinforced steel in my hands, I jumped ten feet into the air before increasing my gravity to slam back down amongst the group of troopers. If I was going to gravity crush, I might as well go 'bumper-to-bumper.' Fuck, did I just make a lame quip/pun in my head Spiderman-style? Yes, best not tell anyone about this.

Everyone within five feet of my location flattened into the ground as I landed amongst them in an explosion of gravitational forces. I picked up the bumper to look at the crushed person beneath my handy work.

"Must you break all of your toys? And where is your stick?" Tony quipped.

Turning around, I found Tony floating over the back of my shoulder with flaming wrecks behind him.

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"It's not a stick."

"Could have fooled me with how phallic it looks and the way you're gently caressing it," Tony snarked as he landed.

"Calling my battle ax a stick is confirming all my fears that you're already too old to be of any use and your cataracts are causing you to see things. Poor Pepper."

"Lame," Tony replied with a huff.

"Like your goatee, you mean?"

"Gasp, you take those blasphemous words back!" Tony replied in the most offended tone he could muster, his index finger pointing at me in feigned offense. I paid him no mind though, because we had some massive incoming. The large heat signature that Alfred told me was inbound was here on my HUD.

Dust and debris were still in the air, so I slowly made my way over to where Tony stood, then got back-to-back with him. While we had our little faux-insult break, Alfred and Jarvis were in constant communication with each other. So I knew Tony was aware that the boss was here. A few more heat signatures showed up, but I was already putting plans together.

"Come on Karate Kid, it's showtime," that was what Tony said before his helmet closed, and he shot up into the sky. There was no stopping me from sighing this time. Why can't he just wait for the plan. The trunk of my vehicle opened up as six canisters of a specialized smoke screen shot in my direction. The smoke was going to cover everyone's field of vision, but it will also double as tear gas for those without the right air filter. I kept my ax where it was because any one of my swings would disperse the smoke.

Flexing my hands and with a SKNIT, I knew I was ready to rumble.

Out of the forearms on my gauntlets came some of the few static aspects of my suit. Four, long, twelve-inch adamantium blades showed from the vambraces, two on each hand. I was going for the predator look when I had first created this design. With the battle that was about to begin, I felt these babies were ready for some field testing. With all four of my blades shaded with a dull grey finish for better stealth, I knew the person that I was sneaking up on would not be catching a glint of light and know I was coming for him.

Activating my sound damping field, I moved from my position with swiftness. My first victim... target, was the medic in the back. He was first because I could tell that he was in a lesser form of the combat suit. The suit he wore was closer to an exoskeleton for improved physical abilities, rather than outright protection, like what Tony and I wore.

Putting those thoughts out of my hind, I clamped my left hand around his mouth, crushing in his helmet as I brought his body close to my own. With his body pulled within my silenced domain, I severed his spine and brain stem in multiple places with my blades, giving him a quick, clean, and silent death, which was the only mercy I was willing to give today. I briefly sprinted away with the rapidly cooling corpse in my arms before jumping to the other side and back into the smoke.

BOOM!

BOOOOOM!

With the first explosion, I hunkered down as the world exploded around me. From the sensor readout on my HUD it would seem that Iron Monger had taken the fight to Tony in the sky, and it wasn't going so well. They had flown high into the sky, just as they had in the movies, which was supposed to result in a shutdown of Iron Monger's systems from ice build up. The twist this time was that he also somehow had a fix for that issue. With Tony now on the back foot, he came back down, flying straight towards the ground at full burn with Iron Monger hot on his heels.

Tony was in his grasp up until the last twenty feet or so, before he was able to escape his grip and fly away. Unfortunately, Iron Monger was not so lucky, being much larger and less aerodynamic than Tony's armor. At some point during the flight back down, missiles were launched, but even the sound of the explosive ordinance couldn't overpower the boom of two tons of armor flying at terminal velocity into the ground. Before I could do anything to assist Tony in his boss fight, the guys in the knockoff armor got in my way. On instinct, I lashed out, thrusting my blades through armor plating and flesh, each hand now holding up a corpse.

Keeping an even pace as I glided around on my thrusters, I placed myself in position as I went back into the fray. I didn't know whether Obadiah was paying these fools an obscene amount of money, they were true fanatics, or there was some kind of mind control going on, but none of them chose to run away as I cut them down mercilessly.

"I gotta say, Tony, I love this suit!"

"I gotta ask... Who are you?" Tony asks from his kneeling position.

I couldn't help myself from smacking Tony in the back of his helmet.

"Its Obadiah, you senile old man."

"Close, but no… I'm not Obadiah."

"That's very true, because how can I be there when I'm right here?"

"Well, fuck me sideways with a pineapple on a hot summer day."

Walking up from behind us in an exquisitely well-tailored three-piece suit was Obadiah Stane in all his bald villain glory, looking exactly like a badass Jeff Bridges. It was too bad he was going to die today.

"You are fired, mister detective," Tony quipped as we both watched Obadiah walk into our battle zone. He paused before kicking a helmet that I was sure still contained a person's severed head.

"What do you want from me, huh? I knew the man wanted you dead and yet I still stuck around to help and protect your old porno 'stached ass."

"Relax, no need to cry," Tony huffed. "So who is in the knockoff suit?"

We waited with bated breath as the sound of a hiss from pressure releasing was heard. The front half of the suit opened up, and there, sitting in the pilot's seat, was Boris fucking Bullski.

"Fuck, it's the Titanium Man."

"Wait, you know this guy?" Tony asked, turning in my direction.

"Yeah, a genius for the highest bidder and I'm betting that he was the one to solve the power problem of your suit."

"Damn, you got it in one," Obadiah snarked with a true shark's smile as he took out a hand rolled Cuban cigar from the inside pocket of his suit jacket. "Also, isn't it a little rude that you both have kept your helmets on, while we still have to speak face-to-mask?"

Instantly Tony's faceplate went up with his cocky grin on full display for all the world to see, or a sniper's bullet or snap energy blast to blow his face off. What a fucking dumbass. Looking at him, I couldn't stop the impulse again as I slapped him in the back of the helm, closing it back down, yet again reminding myself that this was a very, very early timeline Tony Stark, before he had matured and gained wisdom and perspective through pain and loss.

"You know, when I hired those terrorists in Afghanistan to kill you, Tony, I should have asked for your head as proof. Could have avoided all this trouble," Obadiah said as he released a breath full of smoke, that infuriating and arrogant grin perpetually on his face. "That was my mistake, Tony, and I'm truly sorry for that. Really, I am. I'm going to do it right this time, though, cut your head off myself, then peel your cold dead corpse out of that armor and take all the secrets it has left. Who knew you had this one last gift to give me before the end, the world's newest and greatest weapon. Unfortunately, you won't be alive to see what I do with it. And, oh Tony, I have plans."

Ignoring the cliche villain monologue that was going down, I gave the mental command to unleash hell.

Two canisters full of napalm exploded on the Titanium Man and Obadiah. The first crashed into the side of the suit as it stood there looming, the jellied gasoline sticking and burning to the metal of the suit. The second canister though, hit Obabiah hard, stumbling him from the force before exploding. The explosion of flames engulfing him within seconds stunning all present as the flesh just melted off his bones. Thankfully the horrific screams of agony were brief.

"Bet you didn't see that coming, jackass."

Tony was stricken with horror and indecision as he looked from me to the burning pile of flesh that used to be his father figure, albeit one that had just admitted to arranging for his assassination and then promising to cut his head off himself this time. After a moment, I watched the conviction solidify within him. "Sweep the leg, Johnny."

Tony flew up while I did a thruster enhanced dash towards the towering behemoth of a titan. This mechanized suit of armor easily stood twenty feet tall, probably weighing easily over five and a half tons. I wanted to flex my strength and pummel it right into the ground, but I had already exposed enough of my abilities tonight. I slid to the right as I pulled out my ax, I circled around the Titan's back, just out of his line of sight as he continued to deal with the fire that was probably slowly cooking him alive, with his armor acting like an oven.

Taking a deep breath, I cut the legs out from under him with my ax. I went for the knees on the suit. This would make it hard for him to recover and move around.

BOOOOOM!

Down came the titan, but before I could celebrate a massive beam of destructive energy came down from the sky, slamming into the chest piece of the titan. Looking up, I was able to catch Tony in all his glory as he unleashed a full-power unibeam. His suit was cracked and scarred in many places, and the paint was peeled and missing in others. Some places even had dings and dents from tonight's fighting that would probably mean getting the suit off later would be quite the adventure, but damn does he look like a hero.

"Uuuurrrrggggghhh!"

The Titanium Man started to rampage around on the spot that he crashed in as he tried to get to his feet.

"Well, shit."

The Titanium Man was beyond angry, and Tony's unibeam hadn't cracked that armor before the beam shut off. From the pockmarked spots, I knew that the shredder couldn't do it either. That would leave me with only one option, the last prototype weapon I was hoping to keep under wraps for as long as I could. This was something I developed for the chitauri invasion, and I did not want to show my hand so soon and thus give people time to develop a countermeasure. Yet, this was probably the only thing that would not only crack the armor, but also kill that asshole inside.

"Override authorized. Code: Capcom vs. Marvel, Proton Edition."

The trunk of my car opened once more, showing a modular canon the size of a guitar case.

"Gimme a hand, Tony."

When I yelled out for Tony I had caught the attention of the Titanium Man. The eerie stillness that he showed was beyond creepy. Damn, did I want this night to be over with. Part of me was wondering if my involvement was even needed. Wouldn't Tony have defeated these fools on his own? Then I remembered how ignominiously Cyclops had died, a major, major main character in his respective mythology. No, I couldn't rely on plot armor in this dimension to keep Tony alive.

By the time I got to the cannon, it had already finished transforming into what I would really need.

The Proton Cannon.

Did I recreate/rip off Iron Man's ultimate move? You bet your sweet ass I did. I had refashioned it into something that I could actually use during the invasion and for any other Big Bads that might come my way, and I was certain that they would. Fully deployed, the cannon was eight feet in length, while four feet in height, and weighed far more than a baseline human could possibly lift. The 'barrel' was actually six barrels that sat in a circle that allowed them to rotate around a fixed point as the cannon fired. The circular ring that spun around produced a stasis field to protect and stabilize the energy beam. This also doubled as a trap for whoever gets caught up in it.

Tony flew over to land beside me as I picked up the massive cannon.

"What the… What the hell is that?!" Tony squeaked as my hands ran across the controls, entering codes and changing the various settings on the weapons platform.

"Prototype Proton cannon… makes a big, big boom."

"That's impossible, there is no way you can weaponize protons within something this... small," Tony huffed as he walked around poking at my cannon. While Tony was dicking around and undoubtedly taking sensor scans, the copycat fuck (which was a bit hypcritical on my part since I had used my future knowledge to recreate his famous arc reactor even before he did), the top half of the Titanium Man was trying to haul ass towards us in a very awkward hand only walk, but his murderous killing intent was crystal clear. With the target data and settings updated, I placed the cannon on my shoulder and prepared to fire.

20%

42%

Azure blue lines along the side of the rifle glowed to life.

68%

83%

Slowly each barrel lit up as power was routed to each one.

92%

96%

The barrels started to rotate as the build-up of power reached critical.

99%

"Power failure. Insufficient charge. Powering down."

"You know… one in five men suffers from dysfunction. I understand they now have pills for that, not that I know for sure as I've never needed them," Tony snarked, and the stony glare I sent his way said it all.

Damn prototype weapons. This is why you spent the time and money testing this shit in a lab, under strictly controlled conditions, BEFORE you put them in the field and needed them to work.

Pulling the cannon off of my shoulder, I undid the latch that held the power housing closed. Best as I could tell visually, it looked like four of the crystal graphene batteries were beyond empty. The cannon had sucked them dry, right down to the bones and the marrow. I bet there wasn't a single electron left in them.

Thum thum thum…

"Shit, shit, shit, work faster! He is coming and not in the good way," Tony quipped as he took up a fighter's stance and fired multiple repulsor blasts into the Titanium Man's faceplate.

"First of all, fuck you. Second, aim this thing while I give it power."

With that, I hauled the weapon back up while jamming my left hand directly into the power housing. I was revving to go as I let the juices flow right into the main capacitor I was holding. The proton cannon charging up with little to no lag.

"I told you. You can't weaponize protons," Tony huffed while taking slow aim. Snorting to himself, Tony watched as the half-a-body moved one hand over the other as he tried to bare down on us both. "So, I just aim and pull the trigger?"

"Pull the fucking trigger you old hippie wannabe."

"Fine, see, I'm pulling the fucking trigger," Tony replied harshly as the light built up in the center. Things slowly built up more and more before the lights condensed down as if it was powering down. "See, you can't weaponize protons..."

Before Tony could say anymore, there was a massive WHOMP! The cannon on my shoulder kicked like a mule knocking him over as all of the power I pumped into it unleashed itself onto the Titanium Man that was now only five feet from us, so we weren't exactly at a safe distance from the target. Tony was knocked clean off his feet and onto his ass while I stood firm holding the weapon in place. The HUD was showing me a live feed of what was going on behind me. I almost laughed at his turtle on his shell look.

The active proton beam, jacketed by an active stasis field, struck the Titanium Man like a bolt of lightning. The armor was the first to go as it slowly melted away bit by bit, yet, I kept on feeding the cannon power. It was a testament to the Titanium Man's genius that he wasn't killed instantly.

As the armor broke down, the rear emergency exit for the pilot opened up, letting Boris fall out of the cockpit. What I knew and he didn't yet realize, was the stasis field the canon generated to columinate the proton beam. As a secondary effect, anything the beam touched would be trapped in place by the stasis field. His armor and shielding had negated enough of the effect that he was able to get out of his armor, but that wouldn't be enough.

Getting up from my one knee kneeling position, I walked up upon him while continuing to fire. Before long, the Titanium Man and his armor were just gone, leaving nothing but a smoking crater. His body had offered far less resistance to the proton beam than his armor did.

"Alert, power overload in progress. Self destruct in, 3… 2… 1…"

"Son of a bitch!"

The damn cannon decided to overload on me and wanted to take my ass with it. I threw the cannon in the hole in the ground that was once the Titanium Man before jumping back. I knew the forces I was playing with were going to cause a massive boom, and Tony would be lucky to keep his house if this wasn't contained. Once I landed, I slammed a foot into the ground, tapping into the strength force while commanding earth and stone to move in the way I demanded. Reaching into my utility belt, I pulled out a weapon that looked like a universal remote control. Pressing the middle button, I jabbed it towards the mini dome that I made out of the ground.

A blue energy field sprang forth to wrap around the coming explosion, but I knew it wasn't going to be enough. Sliding open the power chamber, I placed a finger directly on the crystal power core and overcharged it with power from the speed force.

BAAABOOOOOMMMM!

The explosion rocked the ground as the cannon went off from the excess power build-up. The ground split in multiple directions and the air heated up severely, instantly withering the grass around the cave opening. The heat kept up for a while before it died back down. I wanted to release the breath I was holding, but I knew that there was a lot more to do tonight.

"I wanna say 'I told you so,'" Tony huffed as he placed a hand on my shoulder. "Then again, that explosion said it all."

"What are you talking about?! It worked! He's dust in the air!"

"Uh huh, but I think a successful weapon design doesn't immediately try to kill its user after only one shot," he snarked back, a gleam in his eye.

"You must not want your goatee anymore, old man."

Tony gave me a smirk as he took a step back, holding his hands up in a placating surrender.

"Thought so."

Bang!

Bang! Bang!

Tony and I shared a look before turning around to run into his Malibu mansion. Well, it used to be a Malibu mansion. Now, though, it looked like it was a home out of old Compton. Bullet holes, bomb holes, broken glass everywhere, the only thing missing was graffiti. Tony's house looked like a shit show now, rather than a picturesque home out of Architectural Digest.

"I can't have anything nice," Tony huffed while ambling awkwardly down the stairs that lead to his garage. Almost like he was bowlegged from riding a horse.

"Dude, why are you walking like you took a huge dump and then realized you were out of toilet paper? You look like a bowlegged cowboy!" I joked, laughing hard at how awkward and ridiculous he looked. "I could sell this shit to the paparazzi and make a killing," I mumbled quietly.

"My focus for this design was supersonic flight, not walking up and down stairs, you jackass!" Tony yelled in an offended manner.

"Blah, blah, blah, is all I hear. You couldn't spare enough processing power to give your armor enough dynamic fine motion control and attenuated servo actuators to navigate something as simple as stairs? Ha! Engineering genius, my ass!"

I knew I shouldn't get so much enjoyment out of fucking with Tony, but damn if it didn't feel good. We came around the final part of the spiral staircase to find dead bodies all over the garage/lab. Each body had two holes in the head with one in the heart signalling this was the work of a professional who was taking no chances. Tony and I walked around the bodies as we went in the direction that they seemed to be heading towards.

Tony must have realized where these guys had been heading when he suddenly took off at a sprint from my side. Instantly my mind put it together without having to ask, the bunker. Before Tony could get more than five steps towards a wall that was behind a display case that held his Harley Davidson motorcycle, Raven made herself known, silently dropping from the ceiling as she landed before Stark in full stealth mode. My HUD had her body outlined in red to help me pinpoint her position and thus avoid any kind of friendly fire situation, but I was certain that Tony couldn't see her or even detect her with his sensors.

The swift palm strike to Tony's chest brought him to a stop. Before Tony could retaliate with any of his own weapons, Raven made herself known. With the stealth field down, Raven turned around to deactivate the traps that she had set up, lest she accidentally kill or maim Tony or me.

"Ohh shit, my poor heart," Tony breathed harshly as he patted himself on the chest. I let out a snort causing Tony to turn around and give me that raised eyebrow look he liked to do.

"Your arc reactor has enough power to keep you alive for fifty lifetimes and when you stop being a scaredy-cat you can always get your ticker fixed."

"Alright lover boy, your lady awaits," Raven said, adding in her own bit. Tony looked at us both before huffing like a grade-A diva. "Sassy," Raven quipped as Tony walked off towards the wall.

"Since he can't hear you, I think his old age is showing."

I noticed the twitch in Tony's step as the wall slid apart, showing that it was a foot and a half of reinforced steel and concrete protecting the safe room that was housed within. Tony was pacing like his suit was on fire, which stopped Raven and I from saying any more as Pepper came running out of the bunker and into his metal arms.

Giving Happy a nod in greeting, I turned around and brought Raven with me as we walked back up the stairs. Raven was about to take off her helmet, but I placed a hand on her forearm to stop her from doing such a thing. My own systems had alerted me that vehicles were pulling up outside the mansion with twenty signatures getting out.

Slowly I made my way back out of Tony's mansion while Raven again went into stealth mode behind me. What I found made me laugh.

"Well I'll be damned if it isn't spy nanny."

---

Shout Out to the awesome Joe Lawyer for doing Beta in this chapter. For those that have seen the vast improvement in grammar in this chapter over the others should tip your hats to such an awesome guy.

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