(MCU) Arcs Collide: Chapter 24 – Pull Back in a Heat

Chapter 24 – Pull Back in a Heat

Summary: Someone with a big head messing with their escape and now Tony have to take on an army. Only one way out and its trough, but what will be the price?

Tony had to rub his eyes twice before he could believe what he was seeing. Come on, he’d seen some weird stuff since getting into this whole superhero business. He literally knew a teenage girl who could punch the air and open a window into multiple realities. One of his best friends could turn from a tiny man into a raging, huge green monster. Hell, two of his friends were considered gods, and his girlfriend had alien blood in her.

Still, all of those paled in comparison to what was in front of him now. Tony was looking at a huge floating head. The head had a familiar face he couldn’t place in his current state of mind, grinning widely while using a green hover chair (can it even be called a chair if the man doesn’t sit in it?). What the hell do you even call it when a head is simply set on a chair? His little hands were twitching in excitement, but his legs hung limply, and Tony doubted that even if they still worked, they were getting much use. What Tony found interesting was the metal band around the man’s forehead with a crystal in its center.

Tony heard a gasp from behind him, and Hope called out, choked and shocked, “Darren?!”

The man (Can he still be called that?) tilted his head, which meant his entire body—which meant his chair—to look around Tony at Hope. With a huge smile and a cheerful tone, he said, “Hi, Hope. I see you found your mom. Congratulations.”

Hope just shook her head and asked, still in shock, “What happened to you, Darren?”

The head’s smile faded and was replaced by a frown as he responded in anger, “I thought you knew, Hope. Scott Lang happened, and the boss saved me. It’s MODOK these days.”

The name finally rang the right bell in Tony’s mind. He turned to look at Hope and asked, half surprised and half exhausted, “Darren? As in Darren Cross, former CEO of Pym Tech? The guy who wore that Yellowjacket suit? The guy Scott said he killed because the crazy guy tried to kill Cassie?”

Hope was still staring in shock at the floating head, but she nodded in confirmation to Tony.

The genius groaned and then whined—yes, actually whined—“What the hell is it with people who are supposed to be dead and keep popping up at the worst times?!” Then his voice turned flat, and he stated, “If somehow Howard pops up out of nowhere, I am done. I’m retiring to my private island, and you can all shove it.”

“Dr. Stark, a pleasure,” the voice of the head called cheerfully behind him. Tony caught the proud smile of Aunt Janet before he turned back toward the floating annoyance and saw his smile back in place. “I can’t believe the Iron Man himself graced us with his presence. The boss will be thrilled—he’s a huge fan.”

Tony let out another heavy sigh before he muttered, “What the hell is it with genocidal warlords and me?” Then he raised his voice and shot back at Cross, “Sorry, can’t say the same after what I’ve heard about him.”

Cross kept smiling and dismissed it, saying, “Don’t worry. Once you’re on those ships, we’ll take you to meet him. I’m pretty sure he can impress even you.”

Tony whistled before jabbing at the floating head, “And the media says I have a big head. Don’t worry, pal—I’ll make sure your picture is on the cover of People magazine.”

Cross frowned again before commenting flatly, “You really are an asshole.”

Tony heard a hiss from behind him; he forgot that Aunt Janet was always protective of him. But he ignored it and gave his best shark-like media smirk before responding, “The biggest in every world. Can you sign my card? I’m three for three right now.”

Cross clenched his tiny fist before hissing, “Let’s see how long you can keep this attitude, Stark.”

The floating head used his tiny fist to motion the soldiers to advance on them. Tony’s and Hope’s helmets closed immediately, and Tony used the comms to tell Hope the plan without being overheard. “Hope, start equipping Auntie’s suit with the particles. I’ll take them on.”

Hope’s voice was outraged. “Tony, I can’t let you face all of them alone! There are two of us, and I feel like now it’s time to work together, not split our forces.”

Tony crouched, ready to take flight, as he shot back at her, “Our main objective right now is to get Auntie ready and get the hell out of here. We’re not in the position to take on an entire army by ourselves! So do what I told you, and I’ll cover you for as long as I can!”

Aunt Janet probably heard what he said or Hope informed her because he could hear through the comms her voice asking in fear, “What do you mean, cover us? Is he going to be bait?! He can’t outfly all of them!”

Tony smirked and used the thrusters in his legs to push himself off the ground. Once he was high enough, a few compartments in the back opened, and a series of missiles launched toward the ground where he stood.

When the dust cleared, there was a small canyon between the girls and the soldiers. But that wasn’t enough. Tony began flying toward the ships that were already taking off so they could create a bridge of sorts for the soldiers. But Tony was ready for that, and his thermal vision was already active.

With thermal vision, he easily found where the power sources were located. Tony aimed first for the ship on the left. He dove beneath it, making it look like he was ignoring the ship in favor of tackling the soldiers. But once he was in the right spot, he turned in the air and shot a powerful missile from his forearm. The blast was strong enough to shake the ship and create a hole all the way to the power source. Tony planned for it to do that. The moment the missile left his forearm, the soldiers beneath him began shooting at his position, so Tony increased his speed, and all the shots missed him and hit the power source, which was enough to cause a chain reaction that destroyed the ship.

Tony immediately launched himself at the second ship. He used his right-hand laser at full power (which allowed for a one-time use) to cut down one of the wings of the ship clean off, knocking it off course. When the ship was in the right position, Tony sent another missile, creating another hole, and then he sent a power repulsor shot that triggered the doom of the group’s air force.

Tony heard the words “Holy shit” through the comms, but he had no idea who said it at the moment.

Instead, Tony focused on evading the laser beams aimed at him and returning fire with his repulsors at the closest soldiers. A couple of times, a group of them tried a more coordinated attack, and Tony retaliated with missiles instead.

The battle began to become hectic in his mind, but Tony knew he had most of the attention on him, and he had to keep it that way. But the soldiers began to close in on him with their shots, so Tony called into his comms, “Hope! What’s going on with Auntie? Are you re—AUH!”

That moment of distraction allowed a couple of the shots to land on their mark, sending Tony crashing to the ground. And damn, it was painful, but he had no time to think about it. He used the back thrusters to get back to his feet and began shooting any soldier that got close to him with his repulsors. Blue lights met purple, and they canceled each other out. Others met their targets on both sides.

It stayed like that for a couple of minutes before a new shadow appeared on the field, and all the soldiers stopped their attack.

Tony turned to see a floating head a couple of meters in front of him with a sinister smile. Tony kept his palm aimed at the soldiers around him, considering them the biggest threat. Then Cross spoke, “I’m impressed—really, I am. For one man to do all of this—exceptional. Your reputation across the entire galaxy is well earned.” Then his smile turned into a smirk, the crystal on his forehead began to glow, and the head said darkly, “But let’s see what you’re capable of without your suit.”

As the beam left the floating head toward him, Tony realized what was going to happen and immediately activated the ‘eject’ emergency protocol. The back of the suit opened, and Tony was thrown out of the suit. A moment later, the purple beam hit the suit, and it fell to the ground stiff with a ‘thud.’

Tony glared up at Cross, and the former man actually looked surprised as he said in a voice full of wonder, “You actually stepped out of the suit?! Wow, Stark, even now you’re still surprising me. But this time with your foolishness. After all, we just need to bring you alive—the condition of your body is less of an issue, so enjoy your fight now.”

The same moment, Hope shouted into his comms, “Tony, her suit’s particle containers were damaged! I’m replacing them with the spares we brought now, but it will take a couple of minutes. Switch with me! I will handle the big head, and you will fix the suit twice as fast!”

Tony considered it for a moment—it would be the rational thing to do—but he promised Hank to protect Hope. No, Hope and Aunt Janet have to get home no matter what.

Tony felt his blood begin to heat up to the point it began to burn. His eyes were stinging a little as well, indicating they were probably glowing again. Tony looked down at his hands and saw the veins in them glowing hot red.

Tony gave a small smile before calling back to Hope, “Stay put and finish what you started. I’ll handle the hostiles. Once the equipment is up, give me a signal and go—no matter what!”

Tony thought Hope was yelling something in the background, but now his focus was completely on the floating head, which looked outraged as he demanded, “Since when do you have superpowers?!”

Tony smirked and responded with his usual asshole attitude, “I’m in the same club as you are, duh. Get almost killed and then improved. Let’s see who took it farther, shall we?”

Cross gritted his teeth, and suddenly a mechanical arm holding another energy weapon came out of the chair and began shooting at Tony.

With his enhanced speed and strength, Tony avoided the shots and ripped the arms from the chair, stepping on the weapon, destroying it.

With clenched fists, another arm came out of the opposite side of the chair. This time it was a blade with a purple energy layer on its edges. This arm moved smoother and faster than the first one. Thanks to Carol’s training, Tony knew how to handle his enhanced reflexes and work with them. He managed not to get caught by the blade and, with a combo of jump and dive, he managed to use the blade to cut its own arm before he stepped on and destroyed the blade.

Cross was pissed off, and he began screaming, “I am the perfect killing machine!” Suddenly, six arms came out at once—three out of each side. On each side, there was one blade, one gun, and one cannon. Then he went on to scream in rage, “If you don’t want to live, Stark, then I will give you death!”

Then Tony was attacked by everything at once.

He had to jump out of the way of two cannon shots. Both left a small crater in the ground they hit. The small beams of laser were coming faster, and it was harder to escape them. But then there were the blades as well, which moved just as fast as the first one.

Between all three of those combined, Tony had no way to rip the arms away from the chair or to reach the weapons and destroy them. All Tony could do was dodge the attacks, which was getting tricky.

But then he heard Carol’s voice in his head. She’d said it in one of their training sessions: “We’re here to advance your control of your strength, but don’t forget that in the battlefield, pure strength is not always enough. Your best asset will always be your brilliant mind. Don’t become another Captain America.”

Tony’s eyes reignited with fire, and this time it wasn’t due to the Extremis. Tony used his legs to push himself backward out of the reach of the floating psychotic head.

His eyes scanned his opponent as he kept throwing attacks at Tony, floating closer with each moment. And then Tony’s eyes narrowed as he found his solution.

Cross’s fingers kept flying through the buttons on the armrests. Tony had a plan. It was a bad one, but it would put an end to the maniac.

Tony once again used his super strength to push himself forward at great speed. He managed to slip through the arms and sent both his palms on the edges of the armrests where all the buttons were, and he began to push heat through his palms.

Smoke and sparks began coming out from beneath his palms, and Cross began shouting, “What are you doing?! Stop it!”

One of the blades managed to come down and slice a gash through Tony’s gut, but Tony closed his eyes and ignored the pain even when he began feeling increasing heat in that area.

With a final spark, the arms began going limp. But because his eyes were closed, Tony missed the cannon that managed to position itself for a direct hit, and it released its shot a moment before it went limp.

Tony was hit full force in his shoulder, creating a hole through and through. The force from the shot sent Tony crashing to the ground a couple of meters away.

Tony was pretty sure he heard shouting. Heat began spreading across his entire right shoulder and was already decreasing in his midsection.

A moment later, he heard Hope’s voice crying, “Tony! Tony! Tonyyyyy! We’re ready! Come on, get up, and let’s get the hell away.”

All Tony could manage to do was groan, “Go.”

A sound between a sob and a fury-filled scream came out of his comms, “Not without you! COME ON!”

Tony felt the heat in his shoulder start spreading across his entire body again, and he felt the energy coming back to him.

After many grunts, Tony managed to stand back up. He looked to see Cross no longer floating but stuck in his static chair, unable to do anything but laugh and call out, “I killed Iron Man! I killed Iron Man...”

With another grunt, Tony took a step forward. The head stopped laughing and looked at Tony with pure outrage for a moment, scanning his shoulder and gut.

Now Tony himself looked down at his shoulder. His black shirt was mostly gone by now, but both his shoulder and gut were in one piece without any evidence that they were ever damaged.

Tony blinked, but his attention returned to the head when Cross began screaming, “WTF?! I stabbed you! I shot you! How don’t you have even a bruise? Are you immortal now?!”

Tony smirked at the twisted man and simply replied, “I am Tony Fucking Stark. And don’t forget it.”

Cross’s eyes landed on the arc reactor, now without anything covering it, and with a twisted look, he began charging his electro forehead beam. Using enhanced speed, Tony punched through the crystal, destroying it and knocking the giant head out.

He turned in time for Hope to tackle him with a hug. She pulled back and then slapped him as hard as she could while shouting, “What the hell was that?!”

Tony felt the hairs on his neck standing and quickly said, “Later. We need to get the hell out of here before this Conqueror comes for us personally.”

Aunt Janet nodded quickly. “I agree.”

With a sigh, Hope reached for her belt. So did Aunt Janet, and Tony reached for the new dial around his reactor. All of them turned the dial.

Tony’s arc reactor’s frame began glowing with an orange light, and a moment later, he was on his way with both women.