[1] Taeyong Lee-Stark and the League of Heroes

24 - The Ending of Another Chapter

PREVIOUSLY ON: League of Superheroes

Tony and Rhodey both blast their repulsors at each other, getting Vanko in the crossfire. When he dies, the drones are all programmed to self-destruct so Tony gets to work flying Pepper away for the damage. When he gets home, it's to a crying and scared Taeyong who needs reassurance that his dad is not dead and not going to leave him.

At the end of it all, Tony Stark is still not considered to be an Avenger. The audacity.

***

Arguably, blasting his repulsors at full force towards Rhodey wasn't the worst thing that Tony did. For one, they did this at his birthday party and survived, so that was good reassurance. And that fact that Ivan Vanko had his whips clasped around both the Iron Man and War Machine suit meant that if anyone was going to have the greatest damage down, it was him.

"You ready?" he shouted over to Rhodey.

"I'm ready. I'm ready, Go, go, go!" Rhodey called back.

"Take it!" Tony and Rhodey's repulsors fired at the same time, meeting Vanko in the crossfire. Tony had to squint at the bright white blast before he got knocked over and fell back from the power. Groaning, the hero sat up and shook his head a little, wincing at the migraine starting to form on the left side of his brain.

Tony stood up shakily and hissed when he felt his entire chest explode in pain, before wobbly walking over to Vanko's dying form. Still lying on the ground and seconds away from death, Vanko smiled in a ghoulish and sinister manner. "You lose," he whispered as his last breath took him. Tony furrowed his brows, before he noticed a red beeping coming from Vanko's suit, when he looked up at Rhodey, the man was already looking at the drones flying around, similar red beeping lights emitted in each other.

"All these drones are rigged top blow. We gotta get out of here man," he said.

"Pepper?" Tony whispered, before flying off back to the Expo. "Jarvis I'm going to need you to locate Pepper for me," Tony commanded. When he got no reply, he felt panic strike him. "J?" Tony cursed before flying lower to the Expo and scanning the empty area for his secretary.

Pepper was still standing outside, a drone was right beside her. When Tony noticed this, he quickly swooped in and grabbed her, hauling her in his arms as the drone exploded and flew to the Expos rooftop. He took off his helmet and stared at her ash stricken face, with a guilty smile.

"Oh my God. I can't take this anymore."

"You can't?"

"I can't take this." Her eyes were wide and body a little crazed with how she tried to shake her hands in the air and calm herself.

Tony stepped forward and took her hands in his metal incased ones, "Look at me."

"My body, literally, cannot handle the stress. I never know if you're gonna kill yourself or wreck the company."

Tony pursed his lips, "I think I did okay-" an explosion was heard somewhere far off behind them. Tony gave a weak smile, "Okay, that was unnecessary."

"I quit. I'm resigning. That's it."

"What did you just say? You're done? That's surprising. No, it's not surprising. I get it. You don't have to make excuses."

Pepper looked taken aback for a second, "I'm... I'm... I'm not making any excuse."

"You actually were making excuses. But you don't have to."

"No I wasn't making an excuse. I'm actually very justified," she said, a quirk in her lips showing that she was amused now.

"Listen. Hey, hey, you deserve better."