Hammer's Payback - Iron Man Fan Fiction (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

Chapter 25

Tony was outnumbered by about twelve to one, and at least half of them had automatic weapons. If he had his armor, that would mean exactly zip. But he didn't have it. He figured the only thing keeping him alive was the fact Hammer took his submarine pilot with him and no one aboard the Villa had any idea how to drive this monstrosity. Tony didn't really know how to drive either, but no one else knew it. Claiming he could do it earned him the cutting of the zip-ties around his wrists and then faking it managed to buy a few more small advantages. He was a bit surprised he got away with shutting off the navigational sonar and telling his captors that the fish-finder was their only sensor.

The Navy had been sporting enough to further his bluff by hightailing it out of range of the inferior instrument, thus giving the bad guys that lovely sense of false security. He highly doubted the nuclear subs would have been so charitable had Rhodey not been able to report the Mark V was out of terrorist hands. But the whole point to the bluff was to give War Machine a chance to get his armored butt down here and get him out. That had been the plan, but once again, Hammer had thrown a wrench (no doubt forged in China of some cheap alloy) into Tony's perfectly brilliant plans by sending not one, but three freaking Russian attack choppers, to keep Rhodey busy.

Actually, that was giving Hammer way too much credit. He probably just called for a taxi. Deshpande was more likely the one who thought Mi-24s with big guns and anti-submarine torpedoes might be prudent. No doubt they were highly pissed when War Machine came to greet them and Hammer didn't show up with the Mark V.

So Rhodey had his hands full and Tony couldn't fault him for it. Pepper, however, with that stubborn streak of hers, was dragging Bob down here anyway. It sounded like she planned to throw the Mark V back into the Villa, like she threw it out of the car in Monaco. But this was nothing like Monaco. The only person anyone had to worry about then had been Vanko, and his attention had been all on Tony. Here, there were a dozen armed terrorists to grab it. After all Tony endured to get it out of their hands, he couldn't believe Pepper was going to give it back. The only thing that could be worse was if she got herself or Bob killed in the process.

Tony had told his captors the "killer whale" following them was a baby looking for mama's teat. Whether they believed it, or even understood his ridiculous lie, was anyone's guess. But even if they did believe it at first, surely, all bets would be off when little Shamu ended up having a metallic docking collar and not a soft pink tongue. No one was going to listen to submarine safety tips and put their guns down when the whale feces hit the prop blade. Bullets were going to fly and he had no idea how to stop them.

Clang! Bob's sub made the whole Villa sway when it coupled. Tony wanted to go down there so much it made his battered face throb all the harder, but he couldn't think of a good enough excuse to get off the bridge. His only chance was to play dumb and hope Bob and Pepper were smart enough not to hand over the Mark V to terrorists. The HAL 9000 Protocol would only keep them from using the armor so long, and if they took his arc reactor too, all was lost. Of course, the Virginia and the Florida would probably blow the Villa out of the water once Tony, Bob, and Pepper were all dead, but that was hardly comforting.

Panicked Arabic shouts echoed all over the sub. They didn't sound very happy. The Translator Guy grabbed Tony and shoved him into a console, face-first. Another man pressed a gun against his ear. They drew his hands behind his back and secured them once again in a zip-tie. Well, this is it. Take my reactor and I'm done.

His captors yelled at each other in Arabic, and then pushed him out the hatch. Surprisingly, his reactor was still in place and they were shoving him toward the docking collar. At least that was his guess, based on memory of the Phoenix blueprints, which he'd studied ages ago in Pepper's apartment. Oh, so more hostage crap. These guys were so predictable.