Hollow Scars

Tony meandered back to the car he’d rented when he’d arrived in Afghanistan. Traveling to the Middle East, in hostile countries like Afghanistan and Iran he preferred to get his own car or to travel via his Mark suits because he never did know who he could trust and who would leave him bleeding in a ditch with one kidney. Or maybe he was confusing the Middle East with Brazil, he wasn’t sure.

It was a shame because there were so many lovely people that he’d gotten to know in those areas and their peace of mind was being ruined by thugs who hid in the mountains and waited to kidnap unsuspecting visitors and ruin their lives. You very rarely heard about the people who saved lives and did great and benevolent things on the news. For instance, no one had heard about the people who had rescued Scarlett and protected her from harm when they could have just as easily abandoned her and left her to die. Instead all that was reported were acts of terror and horror.

Still, the Middle East wasn’t nearly as safe as walking about in Malibu but very few places were. Tony lived a charmed life. Once back at the hotel located in an area of Afghanistan that was friendly to Americans, Tony walked past the room he’d checked into and made his way to the roof. There was no reason for him to stop back there when he had everything he needed on his person and the rest would come from the local military base he’d made arrangements with. The only reason that he’d returned to the hotel was so he could find a place to don his alter ego without being watched. It was much akin to a super hero ducking into a phone booth to take off his glasses and emerge super human. Somehow even with his status in the papers, Tony didn’t view himself as a super hero. He didn’t wear spandex or a cape, there was nothing mutant or genetically enhanced about him.

Maybe that was what made him such a cocky asshole about the situation when he dealt with SHIELD. How many genetically enhanced mutants did they have at their disposal? And yet Tony felt superior to most of them. How arrogant could one man be? A smirk on his face, Tony emerged on the roof in the hot summer air and triggered the switch on the Mark VII bracelets that would summon his suit to him. It would take mere seconds. He’d made sure that it would be kept safe but also near enough that if trouble snuck up on him, he would be protected within seconds.

As predicted, the folded up metal suit approached the roof as fast as a bullet. It doubled around the building and then scanned Tony’s frame with the bracelets as reference to make sure it landed in all the right places before opening with a metallic hiss. Seconds later hinges turned, locks placed together and each metallic piece of the Iron Man weapon had encompassed his being. It was better than a security blanket, it was a thrill. Tony felt invincible when he had it on, he felt like a better man. Once the screen flickered to life in front of him and began to give him read outs, Tony urged it into the air. The reactor in his chest hummed pleasantly, welcoming the Iron Man suit as an old friend.

Turning to face the hotel he gave it one last look and smiled contently. When he’d checked in he’d used an assumed name. No one should have been looking for him there but he couldn’t help but be paranoid given the circumstances. Scarlett had been right about a few things when she’d been trying desperately to protect him and one of those things had been that she had gotten him far more involved with MedCo than he’d realized. But what would it have mattered? Even if he hadn’t met her and saved her that fateful day in the desert then he would’ve still pursued the company. How did she think he found her in the first place? MedCo was as much his responsibility as it was hers and he was going to make sure she knew that the next time they talked.

When he’d checked into the hotel he’d used the assumed last name of Damien. If Scarlett found out she would never let him live it down but somehow it still brought a smile to his face. Being in love was kind of ridiculous but it was a fun new kind of ridiculous that Tony was unfamiliar with. He was rather enjoying it. Somehow using her last name instead of a false one made him feel closer to her even though he’d left her behind. Maybe she would find the notion romantic. Tony sure did but then again he wasn’t really an expert on romantic gestures. The most romantic thing he’d ever done in his life was save Pepper from being killed by robots that were set to self destruct and even then it wasn’t exactly a Valentine’s Day gift designed to sweep her off of her feet.

With Scarlett things felt different; romance came more naturally. But there would be plenty of time for romance once the two of them had managed to reach the end of the MedCo debacle. He already had several surprises planned for the two of them, but none of it would matter until Scarlett felt safe enough to move on with her life. What if she never did?

Tony ignored the nagging questions in the back of his mind and turned his attention to the matter at hand.

“Jarvis, did Scarlett ever get back to me?” Tony flew around the hotel high in the air to get his bearings. He was unfamiliar with the territory and the desert all looked the same to him. Flying enhanced the thrill he’d gotten from donning the suit. Sometimes he found it hard to believe that he’d created something so magnificent. Then he’d realized of course he did, he was mother fuckin’ Tony Stark, and patted himself on the back proudly.

“I’m afraid not, sir.” Jarvis spoke clearly in his ear, flashing several things on the screen along with the message he’d sent earlier to the woman in the bottom left corner. “I’ve taken the directions from the doctor at the hospital and programmed them into our systems. The facility alongside the mountains has been located and I’m scanning now. It appears there are at least a dozen men inside and they have easy access to weaponry. I recommend stealth and caution. Perhaps we should use the stealth mode just to be careful?”

“Yeah, a black and red suit isn’t going to stick out a bit in the bright brown desert. I think I’ll stick with this even if the sun is setting soon. If I’m going to stick out like a sore thumb, I’m going to look bad ass doing it.”

“Is the stealth armor not bad ass enough for you, sir?”

“I really don’t appreciate your tone right now.” Tony flew toward the coordinates on the screen in front of him and read over the text he’d sent to Scarlett apologizing for having left and telling her to stay safe. Why hadn’t she responded? Was she that angry with him? How many times had she left him alone and sad in a hotel and she was angry with him? For all Tony knew she wasn’t angry or hurt in the least. There was only one way for him to find out exactly what she was feeling and that would be to talk to her. “Give her a ring, will you?” Tony muttered. He didn’t want to be the clingy or overbearing lover but he was worried. After what they’d been through in the last month he had every right to be, he thought.

The phone rang inside the helmet of the Mark VII and continued to do so endlessly. It seemed she didn’t have any sort of voicemail set up, or that he knew how to access, so Tony hung up and kept flying toward the building through the clear skies of the desert. It was very unlikely that he’d arrived unnoticed but he didn’t much care. Short of miraculous technology Tony was sure he was the strongest thing in the desert.

“Should I try her again, sir?” Jarvis somehow managed to sound concerned and he wondered if Jarvis actually reflected his own emotions in a way. He’d never considered before that the computer system might tie in directly to his state of mind. It certainly wasn’t how he’d programmed it to behave.

“Just send her a text message saying that I hope she’s staying out of trouble, alright? And to call me when she gets the chance.” Tony sighed and then the phone interface typed what he’d instructed and slid off to the side, only to reappear if he got a response or phone call from anyone. Soon he’d be face to face with the people who had tortured Scarlett so terribly that she’d taken months to heal and was suffering from post traumatic stress a year after all had been said and done. Clenching his fists, Tony’s neck started to ache. He hadn’t realized how tense his shoulders had become just thinking about what he wanted to do as revenge for the atrocities they’d committed.

“Sir, might I make a small recommendation?” Jarvis enlarged Tony’s heart rate that had jumped as he obviously dwelled on what was about to be done. With too little sleep, too much coffee and a giant ball of stress building in his mind, Tony was a ticking time bomb waiting to explode. He hadn’t felt that much rage in a very long time, not since he’d been emotionally compromised after what had happened to him in Afghanistan. His chest hurt, the reactor burned and he ignored Jarvis’ warning since he was well aware of what he was getting at. “I’m going to say it whether or not you agree.”

“Then why ask me, Jarvis?” Tony exhaled deeply in an attempt to sooth the ache in his back.

“Courtesy.” Before Tony could object to the response, Jarvis continued on thoughtfully. “I recommend that you put your emotions aside this time and not let them get the best of you. You might do something you will later regret.”

“Put my emotions aside, when the hell did you become my shrink?” Tony snapped, but then cooled down as he slowed his flight through the desert. Jarvis wasn’t wrong, but he didn’t want him to be right either. This wasn’t like fighting for nameless souls of the innocent. It wasn’t like fighting even for himself or for Pepper. It was fighting for Scarlett. And it was a fight she had tried to keep him out of to keep him safe. How did anyone expect him to keep his emotions out of it? “You heard what was done to her, Jarvis. I had you record the whole damn thing. Her feet were mangled and that wasn’t the worst of it. That doctor… he had memories of things I can only imagine and you expect me to keep my cool?”

“I did hear every word, sir and I saw her suffering just as you did.”

“What would you do, huh? If it was you and our roles were reversed?” Tony knew that arguing with a computer system he created was almost pointless, but he couldn’t help himself. Jarvis didn’t respond and silenced overhead. The heart monitor in the corner slowed and Tony managed to finally unclench. Stressing over it would do him no good. He’d end up drinking the night away after he was done and unfortunately that seemed to be a returning bad habit he couldn’t quite kick.

“I would blast them all to hell.” Jarvis finally replied, sounding more somber than he usually did. Tony smirked and shook his head. Somehow knowing that even his computer, that was still apparently filled with amorous thoughts of Scarlett, would lose rationality in the current situation calmed him. Before Tony could make a snarky remark about Jarvis needing to see a computer shrink, a whistling sound behind him drew his attention. Just as he turned to see what was pursuing him a metallic rocket crashed into his suit, exploded and sent the Mark VII soaring downward where it slammed hard into the sand below.

The consequent blow formed a crater in the sand the size of a small house. Then the sand slid down into the crater half burying the suit before Tony could gather his bearings. Back on his feet and unburied in an instant, Tony accelerated the thrusters and flew back into the sky, doing a flip as he corrected the suit. In the sand below he left a spray of glass since the boosters had been so hot they’d melted the sand when he’d taken off again.

“What the hell was that?”

“It appears to have been a rocket.”

“Why didn’t I see it on radar is what I meant Jarvis?” Jarvis didn’t immediately respond to Tony who kept his eyes peeled on the scenery in front of him. Hearing the second telltale whistle he’d learned to recognize over time, Tony turned off the boosters and let the suit fall a few feet before turning them back on and watched as another rocket flew overhead. “Talk to me!”

“Oops.”

“Oops? What the hell does oops mean? I’m not Jeff Goldblum, tell me what happened!”

“Oops means that the radar appears to be malfunctioning.”

“Well, fix it.” Tony gritted his teeth as the facility below came into view. The old warehouse looked like it had some work recently done but was still in an overall state of disrepair. There were tents strewn along the outer walls and leading to the mountains close behind where Tony was sure there had to be people and weapons hiding beneath. Somewhere inside of that building or inside of the mountain Scarlett had been held and tortured.

Why was he wasting his time? He should blow the place to the kingdom come instead of showing the mercy. They hadn’t shown Scarlett any mercy as far as he knew. People like that, who would torture another human being, were scum and deserved what they got in return.

But then again if he leveled the place he wouldn’t get any of the answers he so sorely sought. If he was ever going to help Scarlett break free of the mental hold her past had on her, he had to know what happened and why. Who had hired those men to hurt her and why had they done it? Why hadn’t they continued pursuit of her after she’d escaped and started working again? Tony needed to know.

“Jarvis, non-lethal mode.” The computer didn’t respond but instead showed the radar on the screen as proof that it had been repaired. Dodging a blow from behind, Tony urged the Mark VII high into the air, flipped it upside down and shot through the sky like a rocket toward the facility. The dozen or so men that had been located by Jarvis at first glance were standing around behind shields and hiding inside doorways with weapons aimed at the Mark. He could feel the blows of several gunshots hitting the metal and deflecting off of him, either denting his armor or shattering the bullets themselves into pieces.

“Are you sure?”

“I need to speak with them. They’ll be less compelled to talk if they’re dead.” Tony grimaced. At once things on his screen turned from red to blue. While he was still under attack, he knew that he could handle it rather easily. Radar still showed him oncoming attacks and pinpointed where the blows were coming from but now Tony wouldn’t be able to fire missiles or bullets in the heat of the moment. As much as he wanted blood for what had been done to Scarlett, he wanted to get to the bottom of it even more. If anyone had the right to get revenge it was Scarlett. Tony had no place to do so.

“No responses yet.” Jarvis spoke about communication with the woman before Tony had the chance to bring it up.

“Starting to worry.” Tony growled between his clenched jaw and aimed his repulsors at the building in front of him while he artfully guided the Mark VII to avoid blow after blow from standard caliber weapons being fired at him. People were screaming down below, orders to take in regards to how to approach Tony. He could hear Jarvis translating in the background but heard nothing of note yet other than that Iron Man was there and assaulting them.

“I used the global positioning system located in her phone sir and have tracked her to South Africa.”

“Why would she be back there?” Tony cocked a curious eyebrow, firing his repulsors at one of the windows and breaking the frame so that the man who was reloading his weapon behind it would be knocked back by the force and unable to continue using that vantage point against him.

“I don’t know but it appears she’s somewhere near the coast and hasn’t moved in hours.” Jarvis had apparently been watching Scarlett’s coordinates for much longer than he had only seconds ago admitted. “I’m becoming concerned.”

“We’ll worry about it after someone isn’t, you know, pointing guns at us.” Tony furrowed his brow and just barely managed to grab onto a rocket being shot at him, using the force of it to move above it. Still holding the rocket, Tony turned it around and propelled it toward the mountains, far away from where he was sure there were people hiding inside of it. It exploded in the distance with a loud horrible bang. “Time to take out these rockets.”

Tony flew at break neck speed toward the ground and the mortars that were attached to the concrete foundation of the warehouse and aimed at him.

“Charge lasers.” Whispering orders beneath his breath, Tony crashed onto the ground in front of the mortars, grabbed onto one and let the lasers in his hands actually melt the metal into a steaming heap of useless junk. Turning quickly on his heels he aimed the same laser at the mortar across the way and watched it burst into flames.

Just as he was about to take the third and final mortar out he felt the reverberation of bullets being unloaded into the back of his suit. A man, looking panicked was reloading his weapon and firing clip after clip of ammunition at the Mark VII in hopes of disabling the Iron Man weapon.

“Damnit, that’s really annoying!” Tony stumbled backwards as the impact of the ammunition shook the suit and made his ears ring. Finally Tony grabbed the gun right out of the thug’s hand. He then fell back in fear before removing another gun from a holster on his side. Crushing the first gun in his hand like a fly, Tony grabbed the second and then took a play out of Scarlett’s book and swung it at the man’s head where he then fell unconscious. The fear in his eyes had been something different than Tony had expected. He wasn’t used to seeing that sort of fear in a man’s eyes when he was on a mission. All he’d wanted was to save his own life, not to cause Tony harm and so Tony flew off, leaving him there to rest and stay out of harm’s way for the remainder of the battle.

Squealing tires and the revving of an engine behind him made Tony alert. Circling the building and approaching it again he saw that two jeeps had been driven away from the mountainside and were in hot pursuit of him. Heavier ammunition from high powered rifles threw Tony off course and he had to spin around to regain his equilibrium. Tony channeled his power into his thrusters and flew toward the first jeep that panicked once they realized Tony wasn’t stopping and put the car into reverse. There were three men on board, two armed and the other driving. Each looked fearful and so Tony grabbed onto the front of the jeep and pulled to combat the backward force. The tires spun uselessly in the sand until finally the transmission stalled and the engine died.

Tony then aimed his lasers at the tires, propped the car up and struggled to lift it off the ground. He then dragged it through the air and on top of the warehouse where he dropped it on the roof. After that he pulled each of the three men out of the jeep, grabbed the guns they’d abandoned as they ran from him and destroyed each of them so they wouldn’t be able to do him any harm when he left them on the roof.

About to fly away from the building, Tony was sent soaring over it by another rocket having not noticed it on the radar until it was too late. Everything went dark inside of the helmet temporarily before booting back up seconds later. The enhancements he’d made had forced the suit to reboot quicker than Tony could have imagined. In the back of the second jeep had been a rocket launcher that was being reloaded for a second blow. The men inside looked less afraid than the ones he’d previously dealt with, in fact they seemed angry.

Tony felt the rage swell inside of him again. He’d managed to remain distracted during the bulk of the fight thus far but was reminded of how ruthless these people who were seemingly fearful as a group had to have been in order to harm Scarlett the way that they had. Yelling as he caught another rocket and crushed it in his hand before throwing it into the sand, Tony rushed the vehicle and blew the tires the way he had on the one he’d placed on the roof safe out of harm’s way. The jeep skid uncontrollably across the sand as the driver attempted to continue without wheels.

Rushing over the jeep, Tony grabbed onto the rocket launcher and ripped it apart piece by piece before throwing what remained of it back at the man who had been shooting it, sending him flying out of the vehicle and rolling in the dirt. The jeep lost control without its tires and started to barrel roll down a hill in the sand. Reminding himself that he wasn’t going to kill anyone, and just barely at that, Tony hurried around to the other side of the jeep and grabbed the roof of it before flipping it back over upright. He then fired a blast of his repulsor at the engine and watched as it caught aflame. The men in the jeep were glaring at him accusingly, each holding a gun aimed at the armor but hesitant to shoot upon realizing that every other blow had been nearly useless against the impervious armor.

In each of their eyes Tony could see malice. These were the type of men who would do anything for money and power. The doctor had been right; they were nothing more than nasty thugs, clearing their conscience of guilt by giving back to their community and threatening it in the same breath.

It took every bit of Tony’s restraint not to grab each one of them and show them what real pain felt like. He wanted them to hurt the way that Scarlett had hurt. He wanted to make them suffer nightmares, the same nightmares that were so vivid and terrible that Scarlett woke up vomiting and unable to recognize where she was.

But Tony knew he couldn’t do that.

Right now he had to help Scarlett heal and killing these men wouldn’t do that. When all had been said and done, Tony would hand them over to S.H.I.E.L.D. and let them deal with the legal repercussions of what had been done.

A familiar electronic whirring brought Tony back to reality. Turning just in time, Tony saw the gun that he’d first encountered a few weeks prior after having taken Scarlett to dinner for the first time. It was a gun that emitted an electromagnetic pulse that would disable almost every electronic within a certain radius. Tony had rebuilt his suits to combat it and while it still slowed him down it thankfully no longer killed any of his Marks.

Flying quickly up into the air as high as he could go, he heard the familiar reverberation of the gun as it shot off. Tony barely got out of the way in time.

That gun had been created by MedCo. It had been created specifically to fight him. No one else had technology like Tony Stark and while there may have been other uses for it, that weapon stank of MedCo. What the hell did MedCo have to do with these men? The implications were so astounding.

Tony was disheartened that the hunch he’d had while listening to Scarlett’s utterances during her nightmares had been correct. What had MedCo done? What was their involvement in what had happened to her? What did they stand to gain by causing Scarlett that much pain? Had they experimented on her while she’d been imprisoned or had they just been trying to break her so she’d do their bidding? The nightmares that plagued Scarlett would likely haunt her for the rest of her days and it turned out that MedCo was somehow behind it? Tony didn’t have the proof he needed, for all he knew the gun could’ve been purchased from MedCo. After all that was what the corporation did; they were munitions dealers.

But Tony couldn’t fight the rage, not that time. MedCo had sullied his reputation and manipulated the last year of Scarlett’s life. Practically growling and seeing red, Tony dodged blow after electronic blow that the man holding the large and impractical gun aimed at him thanks to Jarvis guiding him to spin around and artfully duck beneath blows. It seemed unable to shoot off the same powerful electromagnetic pulse as it had first done and was instead firing smaller concentrated blows that he was easily able to dodge.

“Jarvis, full power! Full power, I don’t care anymore!” Tony flew around the man holding the gun.

“No.” Jarvis outright refused to do Tony’s bidding. “You are emotionally compromised. You need them for answers you said so yourself.”

“There are no answers that are worth what they did! You see exactly what I see now tell me I’m acting rash!” Tony yelled before jumping on top of the man who was firing at him, being met with a horrified scream. Tony grabbed the weapon, crushed the trigger and threw it behind him like a piece of garbage. Legs on either side of the man in the sand, he grabbed his throat and then lifted him high up in the air. “Take the damn safety off!”

“Sir, I do not recommend you apply any more…”

“They deserve this, Jarvis! They deserve it for what they’ve done! If not to Scarlett then to the people of this place! How many people have they tortured just for money? How do you think they got these guns in the first place? Hurting people, ruining their lives! Do you think I’m going to sit here and make sure they don’t get a little banged up because I need answers? They didn’t think of how anyone felt when they hurt them did they? Why should I give a damn about their well being?”

“Sir, please.”

“Don’t please me! Do you have any idea what they did to her?” Tony was yelling with wide eyes and squeezed harder at the neck of the man in his arms who was clawing desperately at the metallic shell of the Mark VII to no avail.

“No I don’t! And neither do you!” Jarvis argued loudly making Tony finally stop yelling though he was still red in the face. “Scarlett wouldn’t want you to kill these men. She wouldn’t want blood on your hands. Look at them, sir. They are meek and desperate. You were like that once.” Tony stared at the man in his grip and loosened it so he wouldn’t be choking. There was fear and panic in his eyes, just like he had seen amongst every thug that had attacked him.

How terrified must they have been to see Iron Man coming at them full force? Of course they panicked and went into offensive mode. That was all they knew how to do. If anyone understood being defensive and impulsive it was Tony.

Finally setting the man down and taking a deep breath. He’d realized he’d been holding it only once his ears had started to ring. Tony took a step back. Jarvis had been right, but Tony’s head was still spinning. Could he really let these men go unharmed? Back into the air, Tony targeted the men who were still firing at him and took their guns one by one. He dismantled them and threw them back to the ground before flying into the air to survey his surroundings and make sure that he hadn’t missed anything.

There was fevered yelling down below and slowly the men started to gather out front near the warehouse. Some were scraped up but none were seriously injured. Turning to hover in front of them, he held the repulsors in his palms aimed at them but didn’t fire, curious to see what they were planning to do. Six of the twelve men were still holding guns, but after staring at the fearful weapon in front of them they nodded their heads in response to the man who was apparently their leader and placed their guns down in front of them.

Each kicked their gun away. The leader held his hands up at either side of him and watched Iron Man’s reaction obviously hoping his men would follow suit and the fighting would at last be at an end. It took only moments for his men to follow suit, raising their hands defensively. If they had a white flag of surrender, Tony was sure that they would be waving it adamantly in front of him. He was still calming down and could feel the tension inside the pit of his stomach. At this rate he was going to be riddled with ulcers and cysts simply from stress in less than a week.

Lowering his arms slowly but still on the defensive, Tony sat and waited for them to make another move before doing anything. If they wanted to surrender they would have to make a good faith gesture toward Tony proving that they meant him no harm. Why weren’t these people the monsters he had envisioned in his mind? It was true that most monsters were just men with motives but Tony was still surprised by the fear they’d exhibited. Scarlett was the strongest and most formidable woman he knew, besides the Black Widow, and they had rendered her useless and left her for dead.

So why now were they surrendering in front of Iron Man and barely putting up a fight? Were they cowards? He couldn’t blame them for not wanting to make enemies with him. Before he could question their motives further the man who was their leader took a few steps forward, his hands still in the air with a stern but pleading expression on his face. Behind him stood, knees quavering, the man that Tony had nearly choked to death.

“Why are you here?” The man finally yelled through the wind in a thick accent. Tony stared down at them, not willing to yet give them the answer. They had to have known that they would pay for their actions someday. No wicked act went unpunished. “We have no quarrel with the United States of America or with Stark Industries.” He continued on and then bowed his head respectfully and dropped his hands to his sides. “Or the brilliant Tony Stark. We know better than to make such formidable enemies.” Tony flipped the helmet of his suit open once he was sure that he wouldn’t be attacked and studied the group with a stern gaze. His heart was still racing. These men had hurt Scarlett and terribly at that. If they didn’t want to mess with him they shouldn’t have hurt her. Not that they could’ve ever come to that conclusion on their own.

But they were sincere now. They had no quarrels with him and they didn’t want any. It was obvious that they knew they were outnumbered by his machinery.

“There is no hint of deceit in his voice. I believe he is being truthful.” Jarvis quietly spoke through the remainder of the helmet. Nodding his head curtly Tony slowly descended from the sky and got closer to the group of thugs who all leaned back and away, as though at any second he would attack and murder them. Did they have families? Lives away from the gangs and torture? Tony felt a confusing mixture of guilt and rage. Were they trying to fool him?

“I need to speak with you.” Tony finally decided that he would give them the chance to end this peacefully. As much as he wanted vengeance for what was done to Scarlett, he wanted to save her from their current predicament first.

“Then why would you attack us?” The man who he had strangled croaked out. Apparently Tony’s hands had done some real damage. The guilt didn’t subside but it didn’t get worse either.

“Attack you? You shot a rocket at me when I was flying overhead! There’s a Tony Stark shaped crater in the ground a mile out.” Tony waved toward the direction he’d flown in from. The leader of the group turned and gave judgmental looks to each of his men who turned their heads away to escape it. Despite his insistence that they hadn’t done anything to warrant an assault from Iron Man the men didn’t deny that they had started the attack.

“What is it you need from us? We don’t know you so I am unsure what you require.” The man shook his head in confusion.

“There was a woman.” Tony got closer and landed the suit in front of them several feet away, still out of arm’s reach and made sure that Jarvis consistently scanned the perimeter just in case it was all some clever ruse to lure him into a false sense of security. “About a year ago she was held here. You did…”

“I know who you speak about.” The man’s face paled and he hung his head in shame. Scarlett was a sensitive subject there apparently. Had it all been some misunderstanding? Then how would they have gotten their hands on MedCo weaponry? Even if it had been a misunderstanding these men were up to no good. There weren’t companies with pure motives working with MedCo, there just weren’t. The men behind him began to whisper and exchange wary glances, none wanting to acknowledge the lingering questions in the air. “What do you want to know?”

“I need to know what happened.” Tony began but was interrupted by Jarvis who was letting Tony know that the men from the roof had finally made their way down and were on their way to the scene, but were still unarmed and made no attempts to get more weapons.

“We will speak with you and answer questions. But I must implore that you are unarmed as I will also be. I do not want any of my men to suffer.”

“I’m not going anywhere without my suit. Given this sticky situation, you can’t blame me for wanting to be on the safe side. But I promise I won’t hurt anyone. Notice how no one’s dead?” Tony directed power away from the repulsors of his suit and the thrusters. He didn’t need any more violence. He was going to get what he came for.

“I understand. I will take your word for it. From what I understand you have become a good man. Where we once would’ve ambushed you and wished you dead for bringing violence to the world we now welcome you for the changes you’ve made.” Tony was surprised by their kind words. What happened to the part where they were supposed to be nasty thugs?

“Okay, I think. Where should we do this?”

“Please come inside and I will answer any questions you have once I am sure that my men are alright.” Turning away from Tony the leader of the group began firing off orders to the men behind him to presumably take care of the colossal mess that had been made. Tony flipped the helmet of his suit back down and looked at the screen.

“Jarvis, I need you to keep your eye out on the perimeter and let me know if you see any suspicious behavior while I’m there.”

“Already on it, sir.”

“And keep trying to get in touch with Scarlett. I have this… nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach and I can’t tell if I need Pepto or if it’s intuition.”

“Perhaps a bit of both, sir?” Jarvis spoke confidently but in the corner of his vision Tony could see him sending messages to Scarlett’s phone and continuing to update her GPS location every few moments to make sure she hadn’t moved. Had she ditched her phone?

“And Jarvis?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Thanks for helping me keep my cool, you know when… I went all psychopath murderous crazy revenge boyfriend.” Tony smiled weakly.

“You’re welcome.” Jarvis responded.

Tony removed the helmet of his Mark VII Iron Man suit, allowing it to retract back into the remaining armor then marched toward the warehouse where he would be led to have a sit down with the leader of the gang of thieves.

Finally, Tony would get to the bottom of things.