Avengers Legacy: Phase 1

Iron Maiden Part 3

A small, rundown town in the middle of China was where I landed, no one was outside. I opened my mask, to have a look around as Jamie did the same. A gust of wind blew past us, brushing dust in our face, making Jamie sneeze.

"Did you really just sneeze?" I whispered, turning to him.

"What am I meant to do? Hold it in? I have allergies. " he responded, louder.

"I don't really care. Now shut up, this is a terrible stealth mission." I turned back around to be faced with a barrel of a gun.

I grabbed the gun off a guy, throwing it to the ground while I flew up, shooting one of my repulsor beams. While I was in the air, I noticed about five more men closing in on Jamie, all with rifles. He noticed one of them, pulling a knife out on him and stabbed him in the stomach.

The last four guys I shot with guided rockets, so I flew back down to him. "Do you have any idea who or where this guy is?" I asked.

"Yeah, he calls himself the Mandarin and he hunts down some special rings to gain power." He told me, smiling so I smiled back. Suddenly I heard voices, so we followed the trail to a brick house close by. A few bricks were missing, and the windows were smashed. There was no door either.

We hid behind either side of the doorframe , so no one could see us. "Do you really want to end up like your good friend Captain America? He died, similarly to this." A man said. From my angle, the man was in a expensive, black, linen suit, and he had some multicolored rings on one hand. I guessed this was "The Mandarin". I turned to Jamie to discuss a plan, but he was fuming, I could tell even with his mask on.

"Him. I recognise that voice anywhere." he muttered.

"Wait, let's make a plan. How about you cut my dad loose, I run in and throw him these," I pulled out a pair of sunglasses I kept hidden for this exact situation. "Then we take him on, three versus one. Surely he cant take us all." I told him. I looked back at my dad, and I swear I saw him look at me.

Jamie nodded, smiling. "As long as I can kill him." I smiled back, letting him know he can.

"3... 2... 1... Now!"

We both ran into the house as I blasted the man from behind, and Jamie ran past him to my dad. He cut my dad's handcuffs and they both got up. I tossed my dad his sunglasses and he instantly put them on, his suit engulfing his body. Now it was a good fight, three versus one, as we planned.

"Oh, you think you've won? Hah, I was just getting ready." The Mandarin told us, aiming his fist at me. An orange beam shot from his golden ring, straight for me. I closed my eyes, bracing for impact. But it never hit me.

I opened my eyes, to see my dad turn to dust, leaving a pile of ash in front of me. I dropped to the floor, screaming. My father, The Iron Man, was dead. Probably the same way Captain America was killed. I looked up to see Jamie sprinting towards Mandarin, punching him in the face. He flew into the wall while Jamie stood menacingly over him.

"Jamie wait!" I shouted. I was angry, in grief. I stormed over to where they were and aimed a repulsor blast at the Mandarin. But while the beam was charging, two of the rings were glowing. The green and the black ones.

A bolt of lightning shot at us, sending us flying back and suddenly, the room turned too dark to see. When the lights came back, the Mandarin was gone. All that was in his place was a note that read:

Three down, twelve to go.

Confused, Jamie picked up the note and examined it while I walked up to a wall, punching it so hard my knuckles bled through my suit.
"What does this mean?" Jamie told me, passing the note over.
"I don't know, and I don't care right now. We're going home. This mission was a failure. " I told Jamie, not even bothering to look at him.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

After about an hour journey flying, I landed back outside Stark tower. The time looked about 6 in the morning, so my mother would be worrying about me. "Jamie, go home. I'm going to do something privately."

"Wait, Morgan." he turned to me. "I'm so sorry for what happened. I wish I could help." I weakly smiled at him, and grabbed his shoulders.

"You did help. If you wasn't there, then I would have been dead. But, go home, I'll call you if I need to." he nodded and walked away. I think I upset him. 
"F.R.I.D.A.Y, call mom." The Artificial Intelligence did as it was told, and my mother answered.

"Morgan? Is that you?"
"Yeah mom, it's me."

"Please tell me your father is there with you." I started to break down at the mention of him, something my mother picked up on. "Morgan, where is Tony?" She was also getting agitated, I could tell by her voice.

"I'm sorry mom, I couldn't... I couldn't save him." I was full on crying now. I could hear my mother crying through the phone. "I've... I've got to go." I told her as I turned to face the giant building that used to be my father's. Suddenly, an idea popped into my head.

In the penthouse of Stark Tower, I had an idea that my dad was keeping something for times like this. I searched high and low, throughout every bookshelf, I noticed a red book that had multiple copies of the same thing. 'The biology of Tony Stark'. I smiled, of course my dad would have a book about himself. After about another half an hour of searching, I came across an address book with all the phone numbers and addresses of his workers. But what stood out was in the back of the book, a list of Avengers.

Steve Rogers
Thor Odinson
Bruce Banner
Natasha Romanoff-Banner
Wanda Maximoff
Clint Barton
Bucky Barnes
Stephen Strange
Peter Parker
T'challa
Scott Lang
Hope Lang
James Rhodes
Sam Wilson

A list of the Avengers. My father must have used this to contact his crime-fighting pals. Two things stood out on the list though; Steve Rogers has a cross through it, and Thor has no way of being contacted. Then it clicked. There were fifteen names, like on the note. The Mandarin is killing Avengers. But I don't know who else died other than Iron Man and Captain America.