Tony Stark / Iron Man and Jackson "Jax" Stark / Gold Strike were in the basement of their mansion, working on new developments.

Jax was putting devices into his wrist.

"Jax, can I ask just a few hours to calibrate--" Tony started.

"No," Jax answered, putting in another device. "48. Micro-repeater implanting sequence complete."

"I also prepared a safety briefing for you to entirely ignore," Tony told him.

"Which I will," Jax told him. "All right, let's do this." Dummy was sweeping up a mess. "Dummy. Hi, Dummy. How did you get that cap on your head? You earned it. Hey. Hey!" Jax walked closer. "What are you doing out of the corner? You know what you did. Blood on my mat. Handle it."

"Jax, may I remind you that you've been awake for nearly 72 hours?" Tony asked. 

Jax ignored him, looking into the camera on Dummy's head, making a few boxing moves. He looked at the suits on the wall. "Focus up, ladies. Good evening, and welcome to the birthing suite. I am pleased to announce the imminent arrival of your bouncing, badass baby brother." He looked at Dummy. "Start tight and then swing wide. Stamp date and time."

Tony sighed. "Mark 42. Autonomous prehensile propulsion suit test. Initialize sequence."

"Jarvis, drop my needle," Jax told him.

Funky Christmas music started to play from a nearby record player.

Jax made a few dancing moves. He held his hand toward pieces of his Gold Strike suit on the table.

Nothing happened.

Jax hit against the devices in his wrist, holding his hand toward the pieces of the suit.

Gold Strike's glove soared up from the table, onto Jax's hand, along with a few other arm and shoulder pieces.

Tony was surprised that it had worked.

Jax smirked, holding his other arm toward the pieces of the suit.

Gold Strike's other glove and shoulder pieces soared toward Jax's arm, latching on. 

Jax laughed. "All right, I think we got this. Send them all."

The leg pieces of Gold Strike's suit soared closer, latching on.

A piece soared past Jax, breaking glass behind him.

"Probably a little less fast," Tony told him. "Slow it down. Slow it down..." A piece soared toward Jax's head. Jax ducked. "Just a little bit."

Other pieces of the suit soared toward Jax, latching on.

Another piece hit him in the back a little too hard, almost making him fall.

Jax flew up a little bit to stay up from the floor. "Cool it, will you, Jarvis" He landed on the floor. All the pieces of the suit aside for the mask piece attached themselves to Jax. The mask piece hit the record player, making it stop. It turned to Jax. Jax beckoned to it. "Come on. I ain't scared of you." The mask turned around, soaring toward Jax. Jax flipped through the air, receiving it in the face without harm, landing on the floor in a crouch. "I'm the best."

Tony hit a button on the holographic computer.

A piece of suit soared at Jax from behind, hitting him hard enough to make him fall to the floor and make all of the pieces fall off of him to the floor.

Tony chuckled. "As always, Jax, a great pleasure watching you work."

Jax sat up. "Yeah, yeah. I know you sent that thing to knock me down. Screw you, too."

"You know, 72 hours is a long time between siestas," Tony told him. 

"Oh, that's why you hit me?" Jax asked in complaint. "Daddy wants his son to get some sleep?" He stood, walking toward the TV. "Nah. I'll pass. I wanna see what's on TV."

Jax turned on the TV.

The Mandarin was on the TV. "Some people call me a terrorist. I consider myself a teacher. America. Ready for another lesson? In 1864, in Sand Creek, Colorado, the US military waited until the friendly Cheyenne braves had all gone hunting. Waited to attack and slaughter the families left behind and claim their land. 39 hours ago, the Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait was attacked. I... I... I did that. A quaint military church filled with wives and children, of course. The soldiers were out on manoeuvres. The braves were away. President Ellis. You continue to resist my attempts to educate you, sir. And now you've missed me again. You know who I am. You don't know where I am. And you'll never see me coming."

The news came on. "Now that we seem to be back, let's recap some of the frightening developments. American airwaves were hijacked. The nation remains on high alert. All attempts to find the Mandarin have so far proved unsuccessful."

Ellis appeared on screen. "Central to my administration's response to this terrorist event is a newly minted resource. I know him as Colonel James Rhodes." Rhodey in his suit walked in. "The American people will soon know him as the Iron Patriot."

A news anchor appeared. "And how is President Ellis responding? By taking the guy they call War Machine and giving him a paint job. The same suit, but painted red, white and blue. Look at that. And they also renamed him, 'Iron Patriot'. You know, just in case the paint was too subtle."

    🚀        

Rhodey and Tony were sitting at a restaurant the next day.

"Look, it tested well with the focus groups, all right?" Rhodey asked.

Tony spoke gruffly. "'I am Iron Patriot!'" He spoke normally. "It sucks."

"Listen, 'War Machine' was a little too aggressive," Rhodey told him. "All right? This sends a better message."

Jax walked closer. "So, what's really going on? With the Mandarin? Seriously, can we talk about this guy?"

"It's classified information," Rhodey told them. "Okay, there have been nine bombings."

"Nine?" Tony repeated.

"The public only knows about three," Rhodey told them. "But here's the thing. Nobody can ID a device. There's no bomb casings."

"You know we can help," Jax told him. "Just ask. We got tons of new tech, prehensile suits. We got a bomb disposal. It catches explosions in midair."

Tony looked at Rhodey for help.

Rhodey looked at Jax. "When's the last time you got a good night's sleep?"

Jax looked at Tony. "What are you telling him?" 

Tony sighed. "Jax..."

"No, what are you telling him?" Jax asked. 

"Your dad's concerned about you, Jax," Rhodey told him. "I'm concerned about you."

"You two are gonna come at me like that?" Jax asked. "Gossiping like two old ladies."

"No, look, I'm not trying to be a dick..." Rhodey trailed off when he saw a little girl and a little boy walk closer. "Tator."

The girl held a drawing of Iron Man and Gold Strike toward Tony and Jax, with a crayon. "Do you mind signing my drawing?"

"If Richard doesn't mind," Tony answered. Rhodey chuckled. "Are you all right with this, Dick?"

"Yeah," Rhodey answered. "Fine with me."

Tony looked at the girl. "What's your name?"

"Erin," the girl answered.

Tony took the drawing and the crayon, signing his name, looking at the boy. "I loved you in 'A Christmas Story', by the way."

Tony wrote a message to Erin on the drawing.

Rhodey leaned closer to Tony and Jax to whisper to them. "Listen, the Pentagon is scared. After New York, aliens... come on. They need to look strong. Stopping the Mandarin is a priority, but it's not..."

'It's not superhero business," Jax finished.

"No, it's not, quite frankly," Rhodey told them. 

"I get it," Tony told him.

"It's American business," Rhodey told them.

"That's why I said I got it," Tony told him. Jax took the crayon from Tony to sign, pressing too hard, sighing, putting a hand to his head. "Are you okay?"

Jax lowered his hand. "I broke the crayon."

"Are you okay, Jax?" Erin asked.

"Take it easy, Jax," Tony told him.

The boy leaned closer to Jax to whisper to him. "How did you get out of the wormhole?"

Jax stood, overwhelmed with exhaustion.

"Wait a minute," Rhodey told him.

Jax looked at the boy. "What did you say?"

"Jax," Rhodey told him.

Jax walked out of the restaurant, walking through the crowd, stumbling slightly, bumping into people accidentally. "Sorry. I'm just checking on the suit."

Jax walked toward his Gold Strike suit.

The back of the suit opened up.

Jax stepped inside.

The suit closed.

Jax tried to fly, taking a knee to the ground. "Jarvis, what's going on?"

Jarvis: "My diagnosis is that you've experienced a severe anxiety attack."

Jax was in shock. "Me?"

Tony knelt to the ground next to Jax. "Come on, man, this isn't a good look. Open up."

"Sorry, I gotta split," Jax told him, standing.

Tony stood, backing away.

Jax flew away, leaving.