Post by Iron Man - Tony Stark on May 28, 2010 12:20:40 GMT -5
((Author's Warning: Sorry if this is a little TL;DR, but I felt like writing a nice big fight scene, so hopefully some of you will read it and like it, lol))
"Alright, so we'll hit these two banks, load the gold into the truck, and meet back here..." Wasp said, snarling slightly as she looked at the map where the plan was being laid out. "Damn that Stark for pushing me to this..." she whispered under her breath. Her vengeance on the Avengers required funds, and her accounts had been frozen completely. Her access to her company had also been cut off, thanks to that sanctimonious bastard labeling her a criminal. If only those media assholes knew what their precious Avengers had done to her... but no, the public loved their Iron Man, Captain America, Miss Marvel... the ones who'd left her to her death...
Now she was reduced to this. Planning to steal gold from the federal reserve, in an abandoned warehouse district on the outskirts of New York, in a shitty little building. Consorting with filthy scum like these, standing over a map on a rickety table in a damp, cobweb ridden room...
"Something the matter, little lady?" a gruff voice asked from across the table, and a deep chuckle came from the other three as well. Wrecker and his Crew stood there, huge arms crossed over even more massive chests, looking every bit the Norn-stone powered brutes they were. "Because we can always do this one without you... this is kinda what we do." Wrecker continued, his tone decidedly mocking.
Janet van Dyne, a.k.a. Wasp, former member of the Avengers, looked back up and spit him with a vicious glare. "Shut it, Wrecker. And remember who took Hood down and is running this show now. Now one of you assholes go out and get the truck, we need to get this done during the shift change, and while that asshole Stark is still in Casablanca." Tony had made a rather public show of flying off in one of his private jets to check on a new energy production facility or some such, and she wanted that man feeling like an idiot when she pulled this off the second he was gone...
"Alright, fine" Wrecker said, his tone making it clear enough that this was not something he was about to let go of, but he looked to the rest of his Crew. "Piledriver, go get-"
In that instant, Wrecker was both interrupted and drowned out entirely by a massive crash, as the huge armored truck they had been planning to use to transport the gold they were after slammed through the second-floor window and brick wall of the room. It crashed through with little difficulty, moving at an impressive speed as it slammed into all four members of the Crew and shoved them into and through the opposite wall into the main space of the warehouse. The truck itself didn't quite fall through, instead teetering on the edge of the floor, rocking slightly as most of its front half hung out into empty space.
Janet stared, shocked, for only the briefest moment before dropping into a combat stance and snapping her eyes toward the huge hole in the wall, electricity crackling around her hands as she charged her stings. She didn't have long to wait.
"You really thought I was leaving without finishing our business, Janet?" Iron Man's synthesized voice called out, as he swooped down and braked, hitting the floor just hard enough to put a few more cracks in the floor, bending at the knees and then standing. "Oh. And I brought you your truck."
"You piece of shit, Stark..." Janet hissed, pure hate in her eyes, but all she got in return was the glowing blue eyes of Iron Man's expressionless faceplate. It was a moment or two before he spoke.
"I'm going to make you pay for what you've done." he said, quieter than he'd spoken before. Janet's eyes widened, and she held her hands out suddenly, the room brightening by the blinding flash of electricity as she fired at him.
"THAT'S MY LINE!" she screamed at him, pouring energy into the red and gold armor. Arcs of wildly discharging energy snapped out at the concrete occasionally, blasting chunks off it, but Iron Man only staggered back slightly, pulling his arms up, tensing...
"That all you've got, Janet...?" he asked, some pain in his voice, but he moved easily enough, lifting a hand and firing back. Janet cut off her sting and shrunk by reflex, just barely dodging the repulsor bolt that shot past her and blew a hole in the wall behind. She shot towards him, barely larger than an insect, and ducked under his legs before enlarging again, using a sweeping kick to try and take him down. The armor's boots locked into the floor the instant she did, though, and she met with nothing but pain as her leg stopped cold. She didn't stop, though, and kept growing, size doubling and tripling rapidly, then slamming her palm into the armor, and breaking his hold on the floor. The concrete shattered, and Iron Man was sent flying across the room and crashing into the wall, but something else happened, too.
In the instant before she hit him, the drone deployment slots had snapped open, and several of the marble-sized drones dropped out, staying behind as the armor flew away. Janet caught sight of them, and her eyes widened, arm coming up to protect her face as the drones self-destructed. The concussive force of the detonations smashed her into the opposite wall, shattering most of it with her increased size - and then she began to shrink. She might have been doing it herself, but for the silver haze that was still hanging in the air, and the shocked look on her face.
She fell out of the hole, normal sized again, looking at her hands... she closed her eyes, trying to change her size, and she did start to enlarge, but only for the briefest of moments before she was wracked with sudden pain, and doubled over, coughing up a small amount of blood. "What... what did you do to me!?"
Iron Man tore himself away from his own dent in the wall, rubble falling away as he did, and looked back over towards her. "Hank discovered Pym particles and started using them years ago. Did you really think someone like myself or Reed Richards wouldn't have developed a countermeasure? The nanomachines in those drones build a mesh inside your cells... and they're constructed from a material that is not affected by pym particles. You try to change size, the mesh will resist it. You can imagine the sort of internal damage that might cause..."
"Imagine what THIS might do!" a voice shouted, and Iron Man started turning just as Wrecker crashed through the wall behind him, laughing and swinging his huge crowbar with both hands. There was a tremendous clang of metal meeting metal as the bar hit, and Iron Man was sent rocketing straight through the side wall next to the van, and out into the wide open warehouse. As he was trying to recover from the hit, Thunderball came from above, swinging his ball and chain, striking the armor in the back and sending it shooting straight down to the ground. Just before the impact, though, Bulldozer came from the side, slamming into him and knocking him straight into the waiting arms of Piledriver, who locked the armored Avenger in a full nelson and forced him to the ground, laughing. "Got 'im, Boss!"
Wrecker looked out through the hole Iron Man had made, grinning, and looked back to Wasp. "Well, I think we'll just handle this little problem for you then, and then re-evaluate everyone's position in this organization, shall we?" He turned away from her and leapt out the hole, landing easily and walking over to Iron Man as he was held, the rest of the crew all gathering around, chuckling.
"You think that was it for us, Shellhead?" Wrecker asked, tapping his crowbar on his palm. "Or did you just forget? Either way, this night is looking like a real bonus for us, we'll take down the great Tony Stark himself, AND knock over the Reserve."
Iron Man lifted his helmet, servos whining against the pressure Piledriver was placing on the armor, and looked at Wrecker. "No. I was hoping you would stay out of it.What's between her and I is personal. I'm not interested in fighting cast-offs from Thor's rogues gallery tonight."
Wrecker's eyes widened slightly, then he growled, leaning closer to Iron Man's helmet. "Well, I was gonna say it was business, but now YOU just made it personal, shell - I mean SHIThead! Piledriver! Crush this tin can!"
Piledriver strained visibly as he exerted more pressure, but the armor barely moved, and Tony spoke after a moment. "Your call." Before any of the Crew had time to react to it, he fired both bootjets at maximum power, and the incredible thrust output by the thrusters easily lifted both Iron Man and Piledriver off the ground at more than four gees of acceleration. The force of the armor slamming into the huge man's chest cracked several of Piledriver's ribs, and he grunted, involuntarily loosening his grip slightly. It was loosened even more when the pair crashed into and through the warehouse roof - enough for Iron Man to drive both elbows hard back into the man and knock him clear entirely.
He spun as soon as he was free, planted his boots against the man, and fired again, dousing him in flame and adding still more thrust to his flight, sending him flying well clear of the building even as the Avenger shot back in through the same hole they'd just made. Thunderball's weapon came at him almost immediately, and he altered course sharply, adding a pulse from his repulsors to knock the wrecking ball off course as well, then he curved around, still boosting hard, as he slammed into the man and sent him flying away as well. Bulldozer roared and charged towards him, so Iron Man landed, locked his boots in again, and held both hands out. He fired both palm repulsors and the unibeam in the chest, and the tremendous weight of firepower staggered the rushing villain even in his charge, actually cracking the specially made armor and helmet before the man lost his footing completely and sending him streaking back into a pile of crates, which collapsed atop him.
Meanwhile, Wrecker had used the time to close the gap between himself and Stark, and swung the wrecking bar hard overhand. Stark snapped his hands up, blocking the swing at Wrecker's wrist with crossed arms, body falling into his training from Cap as he fired the bootjets, moving quickly into a thruster-assisted knee kick straight into the huge man's chest. Wrecker was staggered, and Tony clasped both hands together, hammering them down on his skull and driving the man to the ground. Just as he did, Piledriver crashed back through the roof and slammed into him, driving him back to the ground, though this time the hold didn't last nearly as long.
The suit took on a sudden glow, and a wave of repulsor force washed out from a number of previously concealed lenses in the armor's back, sending Piledriver flying off him yet again. Iron Man quickly recovered his feet, launched himself up, and grabbed Piledriver by the ankle, throwing him into the pile of crates where Bulldozer was just recovering. One Crew member smashed into the other, and both went down hard into the rubble again.
Tony spun around again as his armor sounded it's incoming attack warning, and saw the massive wrecking ball coming at him again - Thunderball had obviously recovered it somehow, and thrown it again. Reacting in nanoseconds, the armor jetted sharply to the side, avoiding the ball by less than an inch, and his arm snapped out, gauntlet closing on the chain and locking down. Bootjets screamed as he spun around, pulling the ball around in a huge arc, altering it's considerable momentum - and sending it straight back at it's master.
Thunderball's eyes widened in shock, but that was all the time he had before his own weapon slammed into him and drove him down into the basement. Tony cut out the bootjets and landed in front of Wrecker, any emotion in his voice still bled out by the armor's speakers. "Now I see why you guys only beat Thor when he was de-powered." he said, and turned back towards the room where Janet had been, executing a few commands to trace the nanites inside her. Wrecker stirred, though, and pushed himself up, body glowing brightly, trails of light connecting him to his Crew as he pulled back the power he had been sharing with them.
"I'll show you... DON'T YOU TALK DOWN TO ME!" he roared, and rushed the hero, swinging hard. Tony turned back, lifting his arms, but Wrecker's speed had increased vastly, and he landed a hard, solid hit on the armor's side, knocking Tony hard to the ground. The concrete buckled under the impact, but Tony came down on his knee, and came back up quick, driving an armored fist into him. The fight went back and forth for a few seconds, blows traded hard until Wrecker landed another heavy blow on Tony's helm, and the armor went down hard, then was still. Wrecker laughed, kicking the heavy armor over, and stomped hard on its chest, laughing harder.
"Now who's B-List, asshole!?" he crowed, looking at the momentarily dark eyes of the armor, but even as he was celebrating, they lit once more, and Tony spoke.
"Is that all you've got?" he asked, sounding entirely unhurt, and Wrecker stared for a moment, disbelieving. Tony spoke again. "Did you forget what you're standing on?" he asked, almost pleasantly, and the unibeam projector, which Wrecker's boot was, indeed, directly atop, glowed brightly and then discharged. The projector was set to heat mode, and Wrecker cried out in pain as thousands of degrees of thermal energy washed out over him, and he leapt back quickly, stumbling on his burned foot and falling down to one knee, gritting his teeth.
"You son of a..." Tony climbed to his feet, seeming nonchalant, and looked back over to him.
"I'd say you hit like a girl, but I know too many girls who hit harder than you." Tony said simply, and Wrecker, enraged, let out a feral roar and charged after him. Tony dropped back slightly, drawing a fist back. Parts of the gauntlet and forearm armor split open, and the repulsor lenses glowed brightly, golden light forming into a sort of shield around his gauntlet, like a larger version of the armored fist itself. The armored Avenger ducked Wrecker's wild swing, then stepped forward and drove the glowing fist straight into his stomach. There was an intense flash of energy, and Wrecker shot back through the air, crashing into and through another pile of crates. He crashed into a support beam, denting it hard and shaking the entire building, part of the roof buckling as the beam deformed. Tony stayed in form, fist smoking, then he straightened back up again, walking towards Wrecker as the man fell out of his indentation, doubling over on the floor, coughing blood.
"Repulsor assisted punch. Really it's the sort of trick I usually save for the Hulk or someone who's an actual threat, but as you said... I guess this is personal now."
"Piece... of... shit..." Wrecker coughed, still gasping for breath, but his hand slowly closed around the crowbar, and he growled, pushing himself back to his feet and charging at him. "EAT SHIT, STARK!"
Tony watched, standing his ground, and held one palm out."You first."
----------------------------------------------------
Janet stumbled down the alleyway, leaning against the walls as she moved, wincing in pain as she did - she'd continued trying to change her size, and the multiple tries had, just like Tony said, had hurt her even worse. Now she could hardly walk... damn him. Damn him to hell... when she got out of here and found someone to remove this crap from her...
And that was when the wall just ahead of her exploded. Wrecker came through it first, the much larger man being propelled by the red and gold armored man with his elbow against the criminal's throat. The two crashed into the ground, Tony holding him down until he was convinced the man was unconscious, then he pulled his arm back, still standing on the man's chest as he looked back over to Janet. "I believe we still have something to finish." he said simply, stepping off the man and walking towards Janet, who began backing away, fear in her eyes.
"Tony..."
"I'm not 'Tony' to you anymore!" he snapped, volume increasing significantly, and Janet's eyes widened. "You break into the mansion... kill Jackson and Porter... you try to kill Valkyrie and I..." he said, listing the deaths as he stalked towards her, and she backed away. "And then you kill Jarvis... he'd gone out, sure you'd never... died, probably believing even as his heart stopped that there was a trick, that you'd never turn on us, on HIM, like that! You've become everything we fought against, for all these years... and worse." He held his palm out, and the repulsor glowed brightly, whining loudly as it charged up to max power. "Goodbye, Janet... no... Janet did die. You're just some monster Hood created... Not human at all... another clay golem..." He started though, a moment later, as an image of Jarvis flashed before him... that sad look whenever Tony had come back from a bender... when he'd gone overboard with the team...
"And if I killed you I'd be just as bad." Tony lowered his hand, the repulsor powering down, and Janet slumped against the wall, panting as her fear relaxed, or apparently so.
"The police and SHIELD are on the way already. They'll handle you. I'm through with it... our business is done." He turned away, and started walking away a bit before he began plotting a flight path home...
"Far from it, Stark...." Janet hissed, and Tony turned his head, just in time to see her snap a sort of golden bracelet over her right wrist - she'd already put one on her left. As soon as she had, she cut loose with her stings again, and this time Tony's armor seized up, and he dropped to his knees, fighting a cry of pain. Janet laughed, pushing herself up to her feet as she pumped energy into him - the stings didn't look like electricity anymore, but much more focused, and the light of Tony's repulsor lenses flickered wildly, as did his internal displays.
"Did you think after all these years, someone like Hank wouldn't have come up with a way to mess with YOU!? Where do you think he's been all this time? Do you really think that fool would be able to resist me coming back to him? Idiot! You've always been the most arrogant of us, Stark... coming here alone? And I'm going to kill you for it! Watch you die like you all watched me!"
Tony seemed to be still for a moment or two, fighting with his armor's overloaded systems, mind racing. Beta particle interference... Hank always WAS good with those sorts of things... overloading the generator, disabling my ability to detach the outer layer and ground the charge... Post-extremis, Stark... not the armor, it's you she's disrupting... section off, divert the charge... It took him a few seconds, almost an eternity to his accelerated mind, but he was able to divert the majority of the charge somewhere constructive - if she was screwing with his generator, he'd just use her power... He scanned the maintenance records, locked in on a nearby underground line, and and fired one repulsor beam, punching a hole deep enough for him to reach down and grab it, punching through the insulation and locking into the charge. He cut the outer conductive shell of the armor from the rest of the system, using the plating as a conductor, and an ionizing pulse from his own systems to establish a proper channel between himself and Janet - the electricity arced straight through the air and back to Janet, where they went right to the most conductive item - the bracelets, which were linked directly into her bioelectric 'wasp stings'. The immense current cooked the flesh almost instantly, and she screamed, tortured, then fell back, stings cutting off immediately as she clutched her hands to her chest.
Tony released the cable and stood slowly, armor smoking, and he looked back over to her as police cars rolled up, officers rushing in. "Should have told Hank to consider that I've been upgrading..." He looked up to the officer in the lead, then, as they looked between the two Avengers. "Make sure she makes it to SHIELD custody. She can't change size, and I very much doubt her stings will be working for a long time." He turned away then and continued on down the alleyway as the officers gathered Janet Van Dyne up and cuffed her while she wept...
--------------------------------------------
Tony kept walking for a few minutes, then he stopped and turned his head, faceplate snapping up as he did. "Were you the one who showed me those images?" he asked, apparently to the air, but the wall glowed blue, and Stephen Strange stepped out of it, his expression somber.
"Had I not, you may have gone too far, Tony Stark..." he said softly, watching the billionaire's blue eyes.
Tony looked at him evenly for a moment, then he closed his eyes and looked away. "I appreciate it. You'll see about undoing whatever Hood did to her?"
"Of course, my friend." Strange replied, nodding, and Tony nodded once more as well.
"Thanks. Got some other things to take care of. See you around..." The faceplate snapped back down, and Tony Stark shot back up into the sky. Strange spent another few moments watching, then nodded his head once more, drawing a symbol in the air.
"And you as well, Tony Stark." he said, before turning and disappearing into the portal again.
"Alright, so we'll hit these two banks, load the gold into the truck, and meet back here..." Wasp said, snarling slightly as she looked at the map where the plan was being laid out. "Damn that Stark for pushing me to this..." she whispered under her breath. Her vengeance on the Avengers required funds, and her accounts had been frozen completely. Her access to her company had also been cut off, thanks to that sanctimonious bastard labeling her a criminal. If only those media assholes knew what their precious Avengers had done to her... but no, the public loved their Iron Man, Captain America, Miss Marvel... the ones who'd left her to her death...
Now she was reduced to this. Planning to steal gold from the federal reserve, in an abandoned warehouse district on the outskirts of New York, in a shitty little building. Consorting with filthy scum like these, standing over a map on a rickety table in a damp, cobweb ridden room...
"Something the matter, little lady?" a gruff voice asked from across the table, and a deep chuckle came from the other three as well. Wrecker and his Crew stood there, huge arms crossed over even more massive chests, looking every bit the Norn-stone powered brutes they were. "Because we can always do this one without you... this is kinda what we do." Wrecker continued, his tone decidedly mocking.
Janet van Dyne, a.k.a. Wasp, former member of the Avengers, looked back up and spit him with a vicious glare. "Shut it, Wrecker. And remember who took Hood down and is running this show now. Now one of you assholes go out and get the truck, we need to get this done during the shift change, and while that asshole Stark is still in Casablanca." Tony had made a rather public show of flying off in one of his private jets to check on a new energy production facility or some such, and she wanted that man feeling like an idiot when she pulled this off the second he was gone...
"Alright, fine" Wrecker said, his tone making it clear enough that this was not something he was about to let go of, but he looked to the rest of his Crew. "Piledriver, go get-"
In that instant, Wrecker was both interrupted and drowned out entirely by a massive crash, as the huge armored truck they had been planning to use to transport the gold they were after slammed through the second-floor window and brick wall of the room. It crashed through with little difficulty, moving at an impressive speed as it slammed into all four members of the Crew and shoved them into and through the opposite wall into the main space of the warehouse. The truck itself didn't quite fall through, instead teetering on the edge of the floor, rocking slightly as most of its front half hung out into empty space.
Janet stared, shocked, for only the briefest moment before dropping into a combat stance and snapping her eyes toward the huge hole in the wall, electricity crackling around her hands as she charged her stings. She didn't have long to wait.
"You really thought I was leaving without finishing our business, Janet?" Iron Man's synthesized voice called out, as he swooped down and braked, hitting the floor just hard enough to put a few more cracks in the floor, bending at the knees and then standing. "Oh. And I brought you your truck."
"You piece of shit, Stark..." Janet hissed, pure hate in her eyes, but all she got in return was the glowing blue eyes of Iron Man's expressionless faceplate. It was a moment or two before he spoke.
"I'm going to make you pay for what you've done." he said, quieter than he'd spoken before. Janet's eyes widened, and she held her hands out suddenly, the room brightening by the blinding flash of electricity as she fired at him.
"THAT'S MY LINE!" she screamed at him, pouring energy into the red and gold armor. Arcs of wildly discharging energy snapped out at the concrete occasionally, blasting chunks off it, but Iron Man only staggered back slightly, pulling his arms up, tensing...
"That all you've got, Janet...?" he asked, some pain in his voice, but he moved easily enough, lifting a hand and firing back. Janet cut off her sting and shrunk by reflex, just barely dodging the repulsor bolt that shot past her and blew a hole in the wall behind. She shot towards him, barely larger than an insect, and ducked under his legs before enlarging again, using a sweeping kick to try and take him down. The armor's boots locked into the floor the instant she did, though, and she met with nothing but pain as her leg stopped cold. She didn't stop, though, and kept growing, size doubling and tripling rapidly, then slamming her palm into the armor, and breaking his hold on the floor. The concrete shattered, and Iron Man was sent flying across the room and crashing into the wall, but something else happened, too.
In the instant before she hit him, the drone deployment slots had snapped open, and several of the marble-sized drones dropped out, staying behind as the armor flew away. Janet caught sight of them, and her eyes widened, arm coming up to protect her face as the drones self-destructed. The concussive force of the detonations smashed her into the opposite wall, shattering most of it with her increased size - and then she began to shrink. She might have been doing it herself, but for the silver haze that was still hanging in the air, and the shocked look on her face.
She fell out of the hole, normal sized again, looking at her hands... she closed her eyes, trying to change her size, and she did start to enlarge, but only for the briefest of moments before she was wracked with sudden pain, and doubled over, coughing up a small amount of blood. "What... what did you do to me!?"
Iron Man tore himself away from his own dent in the wall, rubble falling away as he did, and looked back over towards her. "Hank discovered Pym particles and started using them years ago. Did you really think someone like myself or Reed Richards wouldn't have developed a countermeasure? The nanomachines in those drones build a mesh inside your cells... and they're constructed from a material that is not affected by pym particles. You try to change size, the mesh will resist it. You can imagine the sort of internal damage that might cause..."
"Imagine what THIS might do!" a voice shouted, and Iron Man started turning just as Wrecker crashed through the wall behind him, laughing and swinging his huge crowbar with both hands. There was a tremendous clang of metal meeting metal as the bar hit, and Iron Man was sent rocketing straight through the side wall next to the van, and out into the wide open warehouse. As he was trying to recover from the hit, Thunderball came from above, swinging his ball and chain, striking the armor in the back and sending it shooting straight down to the ground. Just before the impact, though, Bulldozer came from the side, slamming into him and knocking him straight into the waiting arms of Piledriver, who locked the armored Avenger in a full nelson and forced him to the ground, laughing. "Got 'im, Boss!"
Wrecker looked out through the hole Iron Man had made, grinning, and looked back to Wasp. "Well, I think we'll just handle this little problem for you then, and then re-evaluate everyone's position in this organization, shall we?" He turned away from her and leapt out the hole, landing easily and walking over to Iron Man as he was held, the rest of the crew all gathering around, chuckling.
"You think that was it for us, Shellhead?" Wrecker asked, tapping his crowbar on his palm. "Or did you just forget? Either way, this night is looking like a real bonus for us, we'll take down the great Tony Stark himself, AND knock over the Reserve."
Iron Man lifted his helmet, servos whining against the pressure Piledriver was placing on the armor, and looked at Wrecker. "No. I was hoping you would stay out of it.What's between her and I is personal. I'm not interested in fighting cast-offs from Thor's rogues gallery tonight."
Wrecker's eyes widened slightly, then he growled, leaning closer to Iron Man's helmet. "Well, I was gonna say it was business, but now YOU just made it personal, shell - I mean SHIThead! Piledriver! Crush this tin can!"
Piledriver strained visibly as he exerted more pressure, but the armor barely moved, and Tony spoke after a moment. "Your call." Before any of the Crew had time to react to it, he fired both bootjets at maximum power, and the incredible thrust output by the thrusters easily lifted both Iron Man and Piledriver off the ground at more than four gees of acceleration. The force of the armor slamming into the huge man's chest cracked several of Piledriver's ribs, and he grunted, involuntarily loosening his grip slightly. It was loosened even more when the pair crashed into and through the warehouse roof - enough for Iron Man to drive both elbows hard back into the man and knock him clear entirely.
He spun as soon as he was free, planted his boots against the man, and fired again, dousing him in flame and adding still more thrust to his flight, sending him flying well clear of the building even as the Avenger shot back in through the same hole they'd just made. Thunderball's weapon came at him almost immediately, and he altered course sharply, adding a pulse from his repulsors to knock the wrecking ball off course as well, then he curved around, still boosting hard, as he slammed into the man and sent him flying away as well. Bulldozer roared and charged towards him, so Iron Man landed, locked his boots in again, and held both hands out. He fired both palm repulsors and the unibeam in the chest, and the tremendous weight of firepower staggered the rushing villain even in his charge, actually cracking the specially made armor and helmet before the man lost his footing completely and sending him streaking back into a pile of crates, which collapsed atop him.
Meanwhile, Wrecker had used the time to close the gap between himself and Stark, and swung the wrecking bar hard overhand. Stark snapped his hands up, blocking the swing at Wrecker's wrist with crossed arms, body falling into his training from Cap as he fired the bootjets, moving quickly into a thruster-assisted knee kick straight into the huge man's chest. Wrecker was staggered, and Tony clasped both hands together, hammering them down on his skull and driving the man to the ground. Just as he did, Piledriver crashed back through the roof and slammed into him, driving him back to the ground, though this time the hold didn't last nearly as long.
The suit took on a sudden glow, and a wave of repulsor force washed out from a number of previously concealed lenses in the armor's back, sending Piledriver flying off him yet again. Iron Man quickly recovered his feet, launched himself up, and grabbed Piledriver by the ankle, throwing him into the pile of crates where Bulldozer was just recovering. One Crew member smashed into the other, and both went down hard into the rubble again.
Tony spun around again as his armor sounded it's incoming attack warning, and saw the massive wrecking ball coming at him again - Thunderball had obviously recovered it somehow, and thrown it again. Reacting in nanoseconds, the armor jetted sharply to the side, avoiding the ball by less than an inch, and his arm snapped out, gauntlet closing on the chain and locking down. Bootjets screamed as he spun around, pulling the ball around in a huge arc, altering it's considerable momentum - and sending it straight back at it's master.
Thunderball's eyes widened in shock, but that was all the time he had before his own weapon slammed into him and drove him down into the basement. Tony cut out the bootjets and landed in front of Wrecker, any emotion in his voice still bled out by the armor's speakers. "Now I see why you guys only beat Thor when he was de-powered." he said, and turned back towards the room where Janet had been, executing a few commands to trace the nanites inside her. Wrecker stirred, though, and pushed himself up, body glowing brightly, trails of light connecting him to his Crew as he pulled back the power he had been sharing with them.
"I'll show you... DON'T YOU TALK DOWN TO ME!" he roared, and rushed the hero, swinging hard. Tony turned back, lifting his arms, but Wrecker's speed had increased vastly, and he landed a hard, solid hit on the armor's side, knocking Tony hard to the ground. The concrete buckled under the impact, but Tony came down on his knee, and came back up quick, driving an armored fist into him. The fight went back and forth for a few seconds, blows traded hard until Wrecker landed another heavy blow on Tony's helm, and the armor went down hard, then was still. Wrecker laughed, kicking the heavy armor over, and stomped hard on its chest, laughing harder.
"Now who's B-List, asshole!?" he crowed, looking at the momentarily dark eyes of the armor, but even as he was celebrating, they lit once more, and Tony spoke.
"Is that all you've got?" he asked, sounding entirely unhurt, and Wrecker stared for a moment, disbelieving. Tony spoke again. "Did you forget what you're standing on?" he asked, almost pleasantly, and the unibeam projector, which Wrecker's boot was, indeed, directly atop, glowed brightly and then discharged. The projector was set to heat mode, and Wrecker cried out in pain as thousands of degrees of thermal energy washed out over him, and he leapt back quickly, stumbling on his burned foot and falling down to one knee, gritting his teeth.
"You son of a..." Tony climbed to his feet, seeming nonchalant, and looked back over to him.
"I'd say you hit like a girl, but I know too many girls who hit harder than you." Tony said simply, and Wrecker, enraged, let out a feral roar and charged after him. Tony dropped back slightly, drawing a fist back. Parts of the gauntlet and forearm armor split open, and the repulsor lenses glowed brightly, golden light forming into a sort of shield around his gauntlet, like a larger version of the armored fist itself. The armored Avenger ducked Wrecker's wild swing, then stepped forward and drove the glowing fist straight into his stomach. There was an intense flash of energy, and Wrecker shot back through the air, crashing into and through another pile of crates. He crashed into a support beam, denting it hard and shaking the entire building, part of the roof buckling as the beam deformed. Tony stayed in form, fist smoking, then he straightened back up again, walking towards Wrecker as the man fell out of his indentation, doubling over on the floor, coughing blood.
"Repulsor assisted punch. Really it's the sort of trick I usually save for the Hulk or someone who's an actual threat, but as you said... I guess this is personal now."
"Piece... of... shit..." Wrecker coughed, still gasping for breath, but his hand slowly closed around the crowbar, and he growled, pushing himself back to his feet and charging at him. "EAT SHIT, STARK!"
Tony watched, standing his ground, and held one palm out."You first."
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Janet stumbled down the alleyway, leaning against the walls as she moved, wincing in pain as she did - she'd continued trying to change her size, and the multiple tries had, just like Tony said, had hurt her even worse. Now she could hardly walk... damn him. Damn him to hell... when she got out of here and found someone to remove this crap from her...
And that was when the wall just ahead of her exploded. Wrecker came through it first, the much larger man being propelled by the red and gold armored man with his elbow against the criminal's throat. The two crashed into the ground, Tony holding him down until he was convinced the man was unconscious, then he pulled his arm back, still standing on the man's chest as he looked back over to Janet. "I believe we still have something to finish." he said simply, stepping off the man and walking towards Janet, who began backing away, fear in her eyes.
"Tony..."
"I'm not 'Tony' to you anymore!" he snapped, volume increasing significantly, and Janet's eyes widened. "You break into the mansion... kill Jackson and Porter... you try to kill Valkyrie and I..." he said, listing the deaths as he stalked towards her, and she backed away. "And then you kill Jarvis... he'd gone out, sure you'd never... died, probably believing even as his heart stopped that there was a trick, that you'd never turn on us, on HIM, like that! You've become everything we fought against, for all these years... and worse." He held his palm out, and the repulsor glowed brightly, whining loudly as it charged up to max power. "Goodbye, Janet... no... Janet did die. You're just some monster Hood created... Not human at all... another clay golem..." He started though, a moment later, as an image of Jarvis flashed before him... that sad look whenever Tony had come back from a bender... when he'd gone overboard with the team...
"And if I killed you I'd be just as bad." Tony lowered his hand, the repulsor powering down, and Janet slumped against the wall, panting as her fear relaxed, or apparently so.
"The police and SHIELD are on the way already. They'll handle you. I'm through with it... our business is done." He turned away, and started walking away a bit before he began plotting a flight path home...
"Far from it, Stark...." Janet hissed, and Tony turned his head, just in time to see her snap a sort of golden bracelet over her right wrist - she'd already put one on her left. As soon as she had, she cut loose with her stings again, and this time Tony's armor seized up, and he dropped to his knees, fighting a cry of pain. Janet laughed, pushing herself up to her feet as she pumped energy into him - the stings didn't look like electricity anymore, but much more focused, and the light of Tony's repulsor lenses flickered wildly, as did his internal displays.
"Did you think after all these years, someone like Hank wouldn't have come up with a way to mess with YOU!? Where do you think he's been all this time? Do you really think that fool would be able to resist me coming back to him? Idiot! You've always been the most arrogant of us, Stark... coming here alone? And I'm going to kill you for it! Watch you die like you all watched me!"
Tony seemed to be still for a moment or two, fighting with his armor's overloaded systems, mind racing. Beta particle interference... Hank always WAS good with those sorts of things... overloading the generator, disabling my ability to detach the outer layer and ground the charge... Post-extremis, Stark... not the armor, it's you she's disrupting... section off, divert the charge... It took him a few seconds, almost an eternity to his accelerated mind, but he was able to divert the majority of the charge somewhere constructive - if she was screwing with his generator, he'd just use her power... He scanned the maintenance records, locked in on a nearby underground line, and and fired one repulsor beam, punching a hole deep enough for him to reach down and grab it, punching through the insulation and locking into the charge. He cut the outer conductive shell of the armor from the rest of the system, using the plating as a conductor, and an ionizing pulse from his own systems to establish a proper channel between himself and Janet - the electricity arced straight through the air and back to Janet, where they went right to the most conductive item - the bracelets, which were linked directly into her bioelectric 'wasp stings'. The immense current cooked the flesh almost instantly, and she screamed, tortured, then fell back, stings cutting off immediately as she clutched her hands to her chest.
Tony released the cable and stood slowly, armor smoking, and he looked back over to her as police cars rolled up, officers rushing in. "Should have told Hank to consider that I've been upgrading..." He looked up to the officer in the lead, then, as they looked between the two Avengers. "Make sure she makes it to SHIELD custody. She can't change size, and I very much doubt her stings will be working for a long time." He turned away then and continued on down the alleyway as the officers gathered Janet Van Dyne up and cuffed her while she wept...
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Tony kept walking for a few minutes, then he stopped and turned his head, faceplate snapping up as he did. "Were you the one who showed me those images?" he asked, apparently to the air, but the wall glowed blue, and Stephen Strange stepped out of it, his expression somber.
"Had I not, you may have gone too far, Tony Stark..." he said softly, watching the billionaire's blue eyes.
Tony looked at him evenly for a moment, then he closed his eyes and looked away. "I appreciate it. You'll see about undoing whatever Hood did to her?"
"Of course, my friend." Strange replied, nodding, and Tony nodded once more as well.
"Thanks. Got some other things to take care of. See you around..." The faceplate snapped back down, and Tony Stark shot back up into the sky. Strange spent another few moments watching, then nodded his head once more, drawing a symbol in the air.
"And you as well, Tony Stark." he said, before turning and disappearing into the portal again.
