Sue listened to his ramble as she dared to take steps to the elevator. The white tiles were cold as her bare feet lifted and landed against them. She was sure she was being equally as careful as she was when Bruce nearly ripped a part the SHIELD helicarrier. Every thud from her heel made her heart jump and her breaths were shaky. She made it around the edge of the sofa, being nearly inches from Aldrich who turned back to the table to look over her knickknacks.

'You and Pepper are such magnificent women,' he spoke again. 'Yet, you dedicate your lives to Tony Stark. Even Johnny Storm is in debt to the man who would use the love of his life as a human shield. I know that if my sister was the sidekick to someone as selfish as Tony, I'd keep her well away from him.'

The disgust in his voice made Sue clench her fists. It took every part of her strength to not form a forcefield inside Aldrich's chest and slowly expand it. His ribcage would widen, and his heart would be nothing but a pile of mush after the sphere broke free from his insides. It would be a satisfying end to the man who not only destroyed Tony's house, but to the man who took the company that Reed built for the sake of discovery and for good.

'But I guess-' Aldrich turned around and stared directly at Sue's invisible form. '-I'm not Iron Man.'

Sue let out a yelp as his fingers enclosed around her throat. Aldrich smirked at the sound and watched gloriously as The Invisible Woman appeared in his hold. Her gasps for air filled his ears and he closed his eyes to relish in the noise. Sue gripped Aldrich's wrist and tried to pull it away, but the heat from his skin was too hot to touch. Her fingertips were singed, and she caught a glow of an orange vein run through his cheek.

'You could be so good to me. You could advance Extremis to be something even more powerful' he opened his eyes and what usually would be white, was the same bright orange that coursed through his skin. 'But I can see that you're so devoted to Tony, that you're blinded by him.'

Sue forced whatever she could out of her. A rush of the invisible force with the signature blue sheen protruded off Sue and collided with Aldrich. The power threw him back and he crashed into the wall behind, knocking over the table that held the framed photo of Sue and Johnny. Sue took the time to cough and splutter, doubling over to hold her neck. Her throat felt raw and she was still weak from getting out of the hospital only nine hours prior. Her fingertips stung from whatever coarsed through Aldrich Killian, and the man himself created a hole in her wall.

'Where's Pepper? Where's Johnny?' Sue found herself asking. The two left three hours ago and it was only logical to think that Aldrich had dealt with them already.

Aldrich heaved out of the hole, making plaster and wood framing crumble to the floor. His veins glowed a bright orange as his shoulder, that was dislocated from the impact, fixed itself back into place. Sue's eyes widened at the way Aldrich's body healed before her, the culprit being the orange blood that glowed beneath his skin. He rolled his shoulders back and let out a sigh, looking at Sue with a disappointed look.

'Pepper is safe. I'm making her better. She'll be so powerful that she'll never need someone like you or Tony to save-'

Sue didn't let him finish. She thought she could stand and listen if Aldrich were to explain. If Pepper or Johnny were in trouble, she would need some leads in order to find them. But Aldrich's face was so confident and cocky, that she couldn't control herself. The words of making Pepper 'better' didn't sit right with Sue, and she gave into the chill that enased her hands.

Spheres of blue collided with Aldrich. He held up his arms and swatted at each blast, chunks of his flesh being taken out each time. The indents healed in between each force she threw and Sue knew there was no way she could win if the orange glow could heal all his wounds. Her confidence was faltering with each sphere, disk and spike, and Aldrich could tell.

'Is this the first time you've fought without Stark?' Aldrich mocked as he walked forward, swatting away everything Sue threw at him. 'I could make you so much more. You could be the hero. Susan, you could be amazing! You could be the-'

Sue panicked when Aldrich was inches from her and swept her hands to the right. A wave of transparent force hit the man and sent him through the living room. He broke through the panels of glass in the window frames and was sent down to the road below. Sue, who looked away when she sent the blast, whipped around to see three out of five of her windows gone. Shards littered the tiled floor and the summer wind from outside breezed into the house.

She ran to the edge and looked down, seeing Aldrich on the street surrounded by glass. His left leg was abnormally bent, and his back was arched, clearly broken from the fall. He wasn't moving, but when Sue saw the glow of orange rise to his injuries, she knew she wouldn't have long before he woke up.

With no leads and Tony gone, Sue would have to find Pepper and Johnny herself. Aldrich would soon be on her tail, and she wasn't sure if she could face him alone, again. So, Sue's first stop was James Rhodes' house.

---

Tony woke up after a blunt force hit the back of his head. He found where The Mandarin broadcasted from and was surprised to find the location was in Miami. Harley helped charge the Iron Man suit he left in the shed the boy had in his backyard. Tony went to Miami with some DIY weapons, taking out security guards and finding the man who called himself The Mandarin. However, he was just a man named Trevor, who was an actor. Trevor was a drunk who was paid an extortionate amount of money and luxuries to portray a terrorist. Tony, like everyone, had been fooled.

The last thing Tony remembered was the splitting pain in the back of his head, before he passed out. He awoke to find that was tied to a bedframe that was sat upright in a basement. Dried blood painted the side of his brow and his head pounded. The room was fuzzy at first, but the light from a large window brought Tony's consciousness back. Through the window, he could see what seemed to be trees and grass. The basement was large and Maya Hansen, one of the last people he saw before his house was destroyed, tried to convince him what they were doing was good.

'I can't help you,' Tony sighed at the women he first met over ten years ago. 'You used to have a moral psychology. You used to have ideals. You wanted to help people. Now look at you. I get to wake up every morning with someone who still has their soul. Get me out of here. Come on.'

Before Maya could respond, Aldrich Killian entered the basement. His injuries were healed from his run-in with Susan Storm, and he stood with his confident smirk on his face. Tony, like Sue, wasn't surprised to see that he was the man behind everything. He found out that Chad Davies, the man who blew himself up in Rose Hills, Tennessee, had been recruited by AIM to participate in an experiment. AIM is the company Aldrich Killian ran, which specialised in something called Extremis. Chad Davies and other recruitments all had a common trait that AIM were experimenting, and that was physical deformities. Extremis enhanced its host to be near superhuman and would allow them to regrow lost limbs and heal almost any injury. The only downside was that it wasn't compatible with all genetic makeups, and the incompatibility usually resulted in disasterous detonantions.

'You know what my old man used to say to me?' Aldrich spoke as he descended the stairs into the basement. 'One of his favourites of many sayings, 'the early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.''

Tony went back and forth with Aldrich. His stalling and gathering of information led him to think about what he left behind in Malibu. Killian was obviously planning to take him out since the beginning. Happy told Tony that the man had been at Pepper's office showing her his 'big brain', and he knew that Sue signed over her company to him. Aldrich planned everything, and with Tony out of the city, the two women he cared about the most had to be next on his list.

'What's next for you in the world?' Tony asked to try and change the subject.

'Well, I wanted to repay you the selfsame gift that you so graciously imparted to me,' Aldrich threw a trio of silver balls across the cement floor. 'Desperation.'

A hologram appeared in the air and filled the room with a scene of Pepper Potts. She was strapped to a vertical board as her head rolled around in agony. Extremis flowed through her veins in its bright orange glow and tears ran down Pepper's face. Tony's face dropped at the sight of his best friend in pain and he had to look away from the painful clip. Being one of the most important people in his life, Pepper was suffering because of his demons.

'Now, this is live,' Aldrich pointed up and Tony felt another anxiety attack building up. '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. Now, the one that I'm eager to see the results from, is from The Human Torch.'

The hologram changed from Pepper to Johnny Storm. The man was curled up in a corner of what looked like a freezer, the camera filming from a high position to make him appear small and weak. He wore nothing but a pair of athletic shorts and his arms that held his knees against his chest quivered from the extreme chill and from the pain. Extremis slithered beneath his skin and his eyes scrunched shut, frosty breaths smoking out from his clenched teeth.

'We haven't experimented with someone like Storm before, but the reaction between Johnny's radiation and Extremis could be catastrophic. But if his body accepts it, he will be unstoppable,' Aldrich shook his head with a grin. 'We, of course, had to take precautions. Storm had quite the flaming issue, so our freezing room was the best place for him.'