Ana was driving her car down the road.

Jax was in the passenger seat.

Tony was in the backseat, going through the file.

"What's it say?" Jax asked.

"Just a lot of stuff that I don't get," Tony answered. "I don't know what MIA means in this case, what the code's for, any of it."

Ana held her hand toward him. "Let me see."

"Hey, hey, hey," Tony told her. "Eyes on the road. We're precious cargo."

Ana rolled her eyes, taking the file from Tony, looking it over. She looked at the paper with MIA, flipping it over, reading it as AIM.

    🚀      

Rhodey was in Pakistan, suited up as Iron Patriot, walking in, looking at the people inside. "Don't move." His phone rang. "Uh... Hang on a second." He answered the phone. "Hello?"

Jax was on the other line, his phone on speaker. "You ever have a chick straddling you, and you look up, and suddenly she's glowing from the inside out, kind of a bright orange?"

"Yeah, I've had that," Rhodey told him sarcastically. "Who is this?"

"It's us, pal," Tony told him. Rhodey started to smile. "Now, last time I went missing, if I remember correctly, you came looking for me. This time, my son and his girlfriend go missing with me, and you don't. What are you doing?"

"A little knock-and-talk, making friends in Pakistan," Rhodey answered. "What are you doing?"

"Your redesign, your big rebrand, that was AIM, right?" Ana asked.

"Yeah," Rhodey answered.

"I'm gonna find a heavy-duty comm sat right now," Ana told him. "I need your login."

"It's the same as it's always been, 'WarMachine68'," Rhodey told them.

"And password, please," Ana told him. 

"Why should I tell you?" Rhodey asked. "I know through what the world knows you as, Ana. I don't know you personally."

"Look, you can give me the password, or I can hack in myself," Ana told him. "I'm really good at hacking into things."

"It's not the '80s," Tony told them. "Nobody says 'hack' any more. Rhodey, just give her your login."

Rhodey sighed. "'WAR MACHINE ROX' with an X in all caps."

A man laughed.

Rhodey aimed his gun at the group.

Jax laughed.

Rhodey nodded. "Yeah, okay."

Jax smiled. "That is so much better than 'Iron Patriot'."

    🚀      

Tony, Jax and Ana were in the hotel.

Ana was at her computer, typing in Rhodey's login, accessing his AIM account, bringing up a video of Killian and Savin.

"What would you regard as the defining moment of your life?" Killian asked.

"Well, uh, I think that would be the day I decided not to let my injury beat me," Savin answered.

Ana pulled up a video of Killian and Brandt.

"Will you please state your name for the camera?" Killian asked.

"Ellen Brandt," Brandt answered.

"Okay," Killian told her. "So, the injections are administered periodically. Addiction will not be tolerated. And those who cannot regulate will be cut from the program."

Ana brought up another video.

Killian was giving a speech to Savin, Brandt, Davis, Taggart and others."Once misfits, cripples, you are the next iteration of human evolution."

Ana continued to type, bringing up a box saying: 

Project Extremis 

Injections Tests

Phase 01 

06 / 25 / 09

Killian was on screen. "All right, everybody, before we start, I promise you, looking back at your life, there will be nothing as bitter as the memory of that glorious risk you prudently elected to forego." There were several clips of the subjects being injected. "Today is your glory. Let's begin." All the test subjects were glowing with red, screaming in pain. "We gotta get out of here! We gotta get out of here! Get her out! Get them out of here!"

One of the test subjects exploded.

"A bomb is not a bomb when it's a misfire," Jax told them.

"That's what happened with Taggart, in the explosion," Ana told them. "They couldn't find Taggart's body."

"The stuff doesn't always work, right?" Tony asked. "It's faulty, because he found a buy, didn't he?"

Ana nodded. "Sold it to the Mandarin."

    🚀      

After dark, Ana, Jax and Tony were in the hotel.

"Once I factored in available AIM down/ink facilities, I was able to pinpoint the Mandarin's broadcast signal," Ana told them.

"What are we talking?" Jax asked. "Far East, Europe, North Africa, Iran, Pakistan, Syria? Where is it?"

"Actually, it's in Miami," Ana answered.

"Okay, first things first, we need the armor," Tony told them. "The suits got a little banged up during the explosion, but now, they are a go."

Ana stood. "So, let's go."

    🚀      

It was the next day.

Ana, Jax and Tony were outside the house where they had traced the signal, suited up.

Ana was spying on the house through binoculars.

Tony and Jax  flew up to the guards outside the gate, slamming their heads against the fountain or shooting light rays to make them fall unconscious.

Ana walked up the stairs toward a guard that aimed a gun at Jax, throwing a wire around his leg, pulling the wire to pull his leg out from underneath him, making the guard fall.

They walked inside.

    🚀      

A woman was sitting inside with a man. "Why is it so hot in here? I told you to put it at 68."

The man scoffed. "My fault again. Let me tell you something, sweetheart. I am not your personal air con--"

Ana stepped up behind the man, slamming his head against the table, making him fall unconscious.

The woman smiled, pointing at Ana.

Ana put a finger to her lips, backing away out of the room.

    🚀      

Tony and Jax found the Mandarin in a room, walking closer.

The Mandarin looked scared to see them, speaking with an English accent. "Bloody hell. Bloody hell."

"Don't move," Jax told him.

"I'm not moving," the Mandarin told them. "You want something? Take it. Although, the guns are all fake because those wankers wouldn't trust me with the real ones."

"What?" Jax asked.

"Heard enough," Tony told him. "You're not him. The Mandarin, the real guy. Where? Where's the Mandarin? Where is he?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," the Mandarin told them. "Hey's here. He's here, but he's not here." Ana walked in. "He's here, but he's not here."

"What do you mean?" Jax asked.

"It's complicated," the Mandarin told them. "Hey, it's complicated."

"It is?" Ana asked sarcastically.

The Mandarin nodded. "It's complicated."

"Uncomplicate it," Jax told him. "Sit. Speak."

The Mandarin sat down. "My name is Trevor. Trevor Slattery."

"What are you?" Tony asked. "What are you, a decoy? You're a double, right?"

"What, you mean like an understudy?" Trevor asked. "No, absolutely not." Ana aimed her gun at him. Trevor jumped. "Don't hurt the face! I'm an actor."

"You got a minute to live," Ana told him. "Fill it with words."

"It's just a role," Trevor told them. "'The Mandarin', see, it's not real."

"Then how did you get here, Trevor?" Ana asked.

"Well, I, um, had a little problem with, um, substances," Trevor told them. "And I ended up doing things, no two ways about it, in the street, that a man shouldn't do."

"Next," Ana told him.

"Then, they approached me about the role, and they knew about the drugs," Trevor told them.

"What did they say?" Jax asked. "They'd get you off them?"

"They said they'd give me more," Trevor answered. "They gave me things. They gave me this palace. They gave me plastic surgery. They gave me things."

Trevor started to snore.

"Did you just nod off?" Jax asked. He kicked his leg. "Hey."

Trevor looked up. "No, and a lovely speedboat. And the thing was, he needed someone to take credit for some accidental explosions."

Trevor mimicked an explosion.

"'He'?" Ana repeated. "Killian?"

"Killian," Trevor answered.

"He created you?" Ana asked.

"He created me," Trevor answered.

Ana lowered her gun. "Custom-made terror threat."

Trevor pointed at Ana. "Yes. Yes. His think tank thinked it up." He stood, walking toward the table to pour himself a drink. "The pathology of a serial killer. The manipulation of Western iconography. Ready for another lesson? Blah, blah, blah. Of course, it was my performance that brought the Mandarin to life."

"Your performance?" Tony repeated. "Where people died?"

"No, they didn't," Trevor told them. "Look around you. The costumes, green screen. Honestly, I wasn't on location for half this stuff. And when I was, it was movie magic."

"I'm sorry, but I got a best friend who's in a coma, and he might not wake up," Tony told him. "So, you're gonna have to answer for that. You're still going down, pal."

Trevor turned away, pressing a button on the dresser.

Ana walked closer. "What was that? What did you just hit?"

"A panic button," Trevor answered.

Killian and Savin walked in.

Tony and Jax turned to face them, holding their hands toward them to ready light rays. 

Killian and Savin grabbed Tony and Jax's hands, using heat in their palms to disable their suits for a moments at a time, the heat making them groan in pain.

Ana turned to face them, aiming a gun at them.

Savin aimed a gun at Ana before she could get a shot. 

"You know what my father used to say?" Killian asked. "One of his favorite sayings. 'The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese'."

"You're not still pissed off about the Switzerland thing, are you?" Tony asked.

"How can I be pissed at you, Tony?" Killian asked. "I'm here to thank you. You gave me the greatest gift that anybody's ever given me. Desperation. If you think back to Switzerland, you said you'd meet me on the rooftop, right? Well, for the first 20 minutes, I actually thought you'd show up. And the next hour, I considered taking that one-step shortcut to the lobby. If you know what I mean."

"Honestly, I'm still trying to figure out what happened to the first mouse," Jax told him.

"But as I looked out over that city, nobody knew I was there, nobody could see me, no one was even looking," Killian told them. "I had a thought that would guide me for years to come. Anonymity. Thanks to you, it's been my mantra ever since." He looked at Savin. "Right? You simply rule from behind the scenes. Because the second you give evil a face, a bin Laden, a Gaddafi, a Mandarin, you hand the people a target."

"You're something else," Ana told him.

"Ever since that big dude with the hammer fell out of the sky, subtlety has kind of had its day," Killian told them.

"What's next for you in your world?" Tony asked. 

"Well, I wanted to repay you the selfsame gift that you so graciously imparted to me," Killian told him, taking out three orbs, rolling them over the floor into a triangle, turning on a hologram of Pepper in a sports bar and yoga pants, restrained to a table, glowing with red. "Desperation. Now, this is live. I'm not sure if you can tell, but at this moment, the body is trying to decide whether to accept Extremis or just give up. And if it gives up, I have to say, the detonation is quite spectacular. But, until that point, it's really just a lot of pain." 

Tony and Jax could barely look at the hologram because they could see Pepper's pain. 

Ana looked at Killian angrily, keeping her gun aimed at Savin because Savin still had his gun aimed at her. "You are a maniac."

"No, I'm a visionary," Killian told them. "But I do own a maniac. And he takes the stage tonight."

  "You think I'm just gonna let you walk out of here?" Ana asked.

"I know you are," Killian answered. "Because it's not only Pepper that we have in our clutches. Colonel Rhodes is somewhere in this building. We're in the process of prying the Iron Patriot suit off of him. You can save him and find Pepper, or you can stop us."

Tony looked at Ana desperately.

Jax looked at Ana, nodding.

Ana sighed, hating this, lowering the gun. She threw the gun into Savin's face, running closer, kicking him in the chest, making him back into the wall, running out, leaving.

Savin tried to go after Ana. Jax grabbed Savin, kicking him in the chest, making him back away.

Killian exhaled a great deal of fire around the room, making the fighting stop.

"You... you breathe fire?" Jax asked. "Okay."

Savin and Killian ran out, leaving.

    🚀      

Ana ran through a corridor, automatic gun drawn.

Many guards ran closer.

Ana shot them all. She burst into the room where they were keeping Rhodey locked up.

Eight guards were in the room.

Ana ran out of ammo, throwing the gun at Guard 1, making him fall. Guard 2 ran closer. Ana punched him in the face. Guard 2 tried to punch her. Ana ducked, sliding past him over the floor, spinning to kick his legs out from underneath him, making him fall, slamming his head against the floor, making him fall unconscious. She stood, running toward Guard 3, kicking him into the wall, making him fall. Guard 4 ran toward her, trying to punch her. Ana ducked, kicking his legs out from underneath him, making him fall to the floor, making him hit his head and fall unconscious. Guard 5 ran toward Ana. Ana jumped up, wrapping her legs around his neck, flipping him to the floor, landing in a crouch next to him, punching him in the face, making him fall unconscious. Guard 6 ran closer. Ana stood, spinning to kick him in the head, making him fall unconscious. Guards 6 and 7 ran close. Ana punched Guard 6 in the face, pushing him into the wall. Guard 7 tried to punch Ana. Ana ducked, punching him in the face, grabbing his arm, twisting it around, flipping him to the ground. Guard 6 drew a knife, trying to stab Ana. Ana raised her hands to block the move, pushing his hands away. Guard 6 tried to stab her. Ana caught his wrist, kicking him in the stomach, flipping him to the floor. Guard 7 tried to get up. Ana threw the knife into his hand, making him groan a scream of pain, kicking both guards in the head, making them fall unconscious. She picked up an unconscious guard's automatic gun.

Guard 8 ran closer, aiming a gun at Ana.

Ana aimed the gun at Guard 8.

Guard 8 stopped, raising his hands in defeat. "Honestly, I hate working here. They are so weird."

Ana waved at him.

Guard 8 ran out of the room, leaving.

Ana walked toward Rhodey. "You okay?"

Rhodey was in shock from seeing her fight like that.

    🚀      

Tony and Jax flew outside the compound, landing on the ground.

Tony looked around. "They're gone."

Jax sighed. "Aw, crap."

Ana and Rhodey walked out of the compound.

They saw Iron Patriot flying into the sky.

    🚀      

Tony, Jax, Ana and Rhodey walked into the room where Trevor was.

Rhodey aimed his gun at Trevor. "You make a move, and I break your face."

"I never thought people had been hurt," Trevor told them. "They lied to me."

Rhodey looked at Tony, Jax and Ana in disbelief. "This is the Mandarin?"

"Yeah, I know," Jax told him. "It's... it's embarrassing."

Trevor offered his hand to Rhodey. "Hi, Trevor. Trevor Slattery." Rhodey slapped his hand. "I know I'm shorter in person. A bit smaller. Everyone says that. But, um, hey, if you're here to arrest me, there's some people I'd like to roll on."

"Here's how it works, Meryl Streep," Tony told him. "You tell me where Pepper is, and she'll stop doing it."

"Doing what?" Trevor asked. Ana put one of her shocking devices to his ears, shocking him, making him groan in pain. "Oh, I get it! Ow!" Ana pulled the device away. "That hurt. I get it, I get it." Jax nodded. "I don't know about any Pepper, but I know about the plan."

"Spill," Ana told him.

"Do you know what they did to my suit?" Rhodey asked.

"What?" Trevor asked. "No." Rhodey rolled his eyes. "But I do know it's happening off the coast. Something to do with a big boat. I can take you there." Trevor looked past them toward the football game on TV, shouting in Ana's ear, making her jump. "Ole, ole, ole, ole!"

"I swear to God, I'm gonna blow his face off," Ana told them.

"Oh, and this next bit may include the vice president as well," Trevor told them. "Is that... is that important?"

"Somewhat," Jax answered with honest sarcasm.

Ana nodded. "Yeah, a little bit."

Jax and Ana walked toward Tony and Rhodey.

"So?" Tony asked.

"Let's go," Ana told them, walking past them, walking out, leaving.

Rhodey looked at Jax. "I can so see why you're into her."

Jax smirked.

They followed Ana.