Chapter 554

For Ross and the Vice President, the crisis was effectively over.

For Tony and the others, however, there was still one very important piece of business left.

Their small boat was racing across the water toward an abandoned shipyard on the Miami coast. That was where Killian had been holding Pepper and the others.

That had been the plan from the beginning. Tony would remotely control his armor and use it to stop Killian from kidnapping the President while everyone else headed for Pepper’s location by boat. Two objectives, handled simultaneously.

Things had gone very differently from the original plan, but the outcome was what mattered. The President was safe. Killian was dead.

Now they could focus entirely on the rescue.

Rhodey wasn’t nearly as optimistic.

"Your armor is in pieces," he said to Tony, concern written plainly across his face. "How exactly are we supposed to rescue Pepper?"

His eyes shifted toward the two people standing at the bow.

Captain America stood there with his usual imposing calm, while Peggy Carter looked equally composed.

"Don’t get me wrong. Having these two with us is a huge advantage. But we’re heading straight into Killian’s last stronghold. He probably concentrated all his remaining forces there. This is going to be one hell of a fight."

Rhodey had already run the numbers in his head.

If the intelligence Tony had obtained from Killian was accurate, there were at least fifty Extremis-enhanced soldiers inside the shipyard, possibly along with ordinary mercenaries.

Their own side was badly outnumbered.

Rhodey was a trained soldier, but compared to an Extremis-enhanced combatant, his physical abilities were nowhere close. Tony was brilliant, but without his armor, even Rhodey was more useful in a fight.

That left Captain America and Peggy as their only real heavy hitters.

Two people against fifty Extremis soldiers.

Rhodey didn’t like those odds.

As far as he knew, Captain America might be able to handle five or six Extremis soldiers simultaneously. Push the number much higher than that, and even Steve could be overwhelmed.

And then what?

Was Peggy supposed to carry the other forty-five?

That didn’t exactly inspire confidence.

Tony, on the other hand, looked completely unconcerned.

"First, I have no idea how strong my aunt is now. For all I know, she could walk in there and flatten the entire place by herself."

He paused.

"Second..."

A mysterious smile appeared on his face.

"Who told you I only have one suit of armor?"

Rhodey stared at him.

Tony tapped the Bluetooth earpiece in his ear.

"JARVIS, how’s everything looking?"

"Sir, the House Party Protocol is ready for activation."

"Perfect. Start it."

Tony’s smile widened.

Back at Tony’s mansion, or what remained of it, a concealed door suddenly opened on the balcony.

Beyond it was a shaft descending into absolute darkness.

Then the lights came on.

One after another.

Dozens of armored figures stood waiting below.

A moment later, roughly thirty or forty suits of Iron Man armor shot out through the opening and rocketed toward Miami.

During the period when Tony’s anxiety had kept him awake night after night, he hadn’t spent those sleepless hours lying in bed staring at the ceiling.

He had poured all that restless energy into the one thing that made him feel safer.

Building armor.

A lot of armor.

And now his insomnia was finally paying dividends.

"You had backup this whole time?" Rhodey asked.

He knew Tony well enough to expect a few tricks hidden up his sleeve. Still, the revelation didn’t ease his concern.

"That backup had better get here fast. Killian is dead now. That means nobody is left to order those people to kill Pepper and the others, but it could also push those unstable lunatics into doing something even crazier."

The Extremis soldiers were all Killian’s creations.

They didn’t worship him the way they might have worshiped their creator in some religious sense, but they knew one crucial fact: without the medication Killian regularly provided, their bodies could eventually explode.

If word of Killian’s death reached them, what would they do once they realized their own deaths were inevitable?

Would they surrender immediately and beg Tony Stark for a cure?

Or would they decide that if they were going to die anyway, they might as well take everyone around them with them?

"Don’t worry about that," Tony said with a grin. "Someone already got there ahead of us. He might have everything under control by now."

He suddenly narrowed his eyes.

Something seemed to occur to him.

Tony snatched Rhodey’s phone out of his hand.

"I need to make a call."

He stepped outside the cabin and carefully closed the door behind him. After checking to make sure nobody else was around, he dialed Evenson.

The phone rang.

And rang.

And rang.

Finally, Evenson answered.

"What do you want?"

His voice was distinctly irritated.

Tony lowered his voice.

"I just wanted to check on your rescue operation. How far along are you?"

He glanced nervously toward the cabin door.

"I’m in the shipyard’s control room," Evenson replied. "Pepper and the others are right beside me."

Tony went quiet for a moment.

"So..."

His tone was impossible to read.

"Things are going pretty smoothly?"

"If you hadn’t called me, they would be."

Evenson sounded profoundly unimpressed.

Two guards lay dead at his feet, their life force completely drained.

Beyond the control room, more than twenty Extremis soldiers were charging toward him, their bodies blazing orange-red as they flipped and bounded across the shipyard.

Evenson looked at them.

Then at the phone.

Then back at them.

He was beginning to regret answering.

He had arrived near the shipyard quite some time ago, but he hadn’t immediately stormed inside to rescue Pepper and the others.

That wasn’t his style.

Charging headfirst into a massive battle was even less appealing.

Besides, he’d sensed roughly fifty-three Extremis soldiers inside the facility. Their weaknesses were obvious, and defeating them wouldn’t have been particularly difficult.

The problem was what happened afterward.

Those things could explode with considerable force.

And this was an abandoned shipyard.

There had been no routine maintenance, no safety inspections, and probably no meaningful structural upkeep for years. The place was practically a disaster waiting for an excuse.

Evenson knew very little about structural engineering.

For all he knew, one of those fifty-three Extremis soldiers could be standing directly on a critical support structure.

If several of them exploded at once, the entire building could come down.

Then Pepper and the others might survive Killian’s men only to get crushed by several tons of collapsing steel.

And who exactly was Evenson supposed to complain to about that?

No.

A frontal assault was out.

He would sneak in.

There was nothing strange about that.

Sure, mages these days apparently knew how to swing swords, punch people, and perform Whirlwind like seasoned warriors. But if a Warlock happened to know a little about stealth, why should anyone complain?

...Fine.

That was a joke.

Warlocks weren’t Rogues.

Evenson couldn’t vanish with the flawless subtlety of a professional infiltrator.

But he could summon enough shadow to make himself very difficult to notice.

As long as the surroundings were dark, the guards weren’t paying close attention, and nobody happened to wonder why one particular corner of the building had suddenly become much darker than the rest, sneaking inside wasn’t especially difficult.

Evenson had spent half an hour outside casting spells and preparing for every possible complication.

He had also established a Demonic Portal for a quick retreat.

Then night fell.

He slipped inside.

The sheer size of the shipyard worked in his favor. There were plenty of dark corners, plenty of shadows, and the guards were spread thin.

Evenson made his way through the facility without incident.

Eventually, he reached the main control room.

Two guards were stationed outside.

He silently unleashed Drain Life at full strength.

Both men collapsed without ever realizing what had happened.

That was it.

All Evenson had to do now was move the containment pods holding Pepper and the others through the Demonic Portal.

Then he could leave.

Simple.

Perfect.

Except...

I’m rich.

I’m finally rich!

I can’t waste a single cent!

His phone suddenly began ringing.

Loudly.

Very loudly.

Tony Stark.

The sound carried through the control room.

Evenson’s carefully executed infiltration died on the spot.

The approaching Extremis soldiers immediately noticed.

Evenson gritted his teeth and answered the call.

"Tony! Next time I’m working, could you please not call me?"

"Couldn’t you have put your phone on vibrate?"

Tony’s teasing tone somehow made the situation worse.

Then, apparently realizing that Evenson might actually suffer a stroke, Tony hurriedly changed the subject.

"So you’ve run into trouble? Don’t worry. My reinforcements are almost there. Just hang on!"

Evenson frowned.

Something about Tony’s voice bothered him.

He could understand the urgency. Tony was probably worried about his wife.

But there was something else underneath it.

A hint of excitement.

Was Tony... enjoying this?

"You have reinforcements?"

Evenson glanced toward the approaching enemies.

"I already prepared an emergency escape plan. If your reinforcements aren’t going to arrive quickly, just turn around and go home."

"No."

Tony’s answer came immediately.

"You have to hold out until my reinforcements arrive."

Evenson’s eyebrow twitched.

Tony’s voice rose, almost desperate.

"As long as you can guarantee Pepper and the others stay safe, I don’t care what you do. Stall them. Fight them. Kill every last one of them if you have to. Just wait for my reinforcements!"

Evenson stared at the phone.

What was wrong with Tony?

Had his condition somehow gotten worse?

None of that made any sense.

"What’s gotten into you?"

"Listen!"

Tony sounded genuinely frantic now.

"I’m with my aunt."

A pause.

"And unfortunately, the old lady is extremely unhappy with me."

Tony sounded miserable.

He’d spent the entire day taking one humiliating hit after another. Every time something went wrong, he somehow managed to be right in the middle of it.

But now that the moment had finally arrived when he could make a dramatic entrance...

Someone else had already stolen the spotlight.

"So this is my last chance," Tony said. "If I don’t pull off a spectacular finale and change the way my aunt sees me, I’m going to be lectured to death when I get home."

Evenson was silent.

Tony’s entire argument could be reduced to one simple statement.

If he didn’t show off now, he was a dead man.

"Fine."

Evenson bit his lip.

Against his better judgment, he actually felt a little sorry for Tony.

"I’ll try to stall them. But you’d better hurry."

He hung up.

Then he turned toward the containment pods.

One by one, he kicked them through the Demonic Portal.

With Pepper and the others safely out of the way, Evenson finally turned around.

More than twenty Extremis soldiers were charging toward him, their bodies glowing orange-red as they raced across the shipyard.

Evenson looked down at them.

Then he raised one hand and pointed toward the sky behind them.

"One meteor."

His voice was calm.

"Stella."

The Extremis soldiers looked at him as though he’d finally lost his mind.

Then came the sound.

A shriek of air being torn apart high above them.

They looked up.

Their expressions changed instantly.

A green meteor, wrapped in a long blazing tail, was dropping straight toward them.

And it was getting bigger.

Fast.