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*****
Fini swallowed hard as he looked at the thirty-plus iron suits standing before him. He suddenly felt a strong urge to beat up his teammates first.
After graduation, he had poured a massive amount of time into researching the Mind Scepter, immediately followed by the trip to Wakanda to deal with the Tesseract. As a result, he still hadn't gathered enough experience for his eighth skill extraction. His primary reason for coming after Killian today was to farm enough experience points to finally max out that bar.
He looked longingly at the Mark series armors beginning their flight patterns, but Fini ultimately suppressed his darker impulses. If he actually beat those suits into scrap metal right now, Tony would definitely fight him to the death.
Half an hour passed quickly. Rhodey had somehow successfully persuaded the President. Clad in the armor formerly known as War Machine—now rebranded as the Iron Patriot—he arrived in Miami and linked up with Fini and Tony.
Standing outside a villa, Rhodey surveyed the surroundings and asked dubiously, "Is it really here? This doesn't look like a terrorist base. Are we sure we have the right place?"
Tony shook his head, signaling Jarvis to keep the other thirty-some suits hidden for now. "Impossible. The video signal was broadcast from this exact location. Even if they aren't here, this place is connected to them."
Rhodey trusted Tony's technical expertise. He nodded and followed up, "So what's the plan? We just charge in?"
"I'll head in first to scout things out," Fini said, wary of any potential traps.
"I'm with you," Tony said immediately. He stepped out of his current suit, had Jarvis pilot another one over, and suited up. Then, before the surprised eyes of Fini and Rhodey, his silhouette gradually faded into nothingness.
"Whoa!"
Rhodey's eyes filled with envy, while Fini was slightly caught off guard. "When did you build a stealth suit?"
"I've built so many, I can't even keep track. A few months ago, maybe?"
Even without seeing Tony's face, the smug, cocky tone of his voice made it easy for Fini and Rhodey to imagine the self-satisfied grin he was wearing.
"You guys aren't going to just start the fight without me, are you?" Rhodey asked, worried they might leave him in the dust. "How about we just rush in together and take them by surprise?"
"Don't be ridiculous," Fini said, shooting Rhodey an exasperated look. He gave a serious instruction: "If the Mandarin is inside, your priority is to take him into custody to fulfill your mission. Leave the rest to us."
While the War Machine armor had undergone significant upgrades, it was still far behind Tony's latest tech. Fini wasn't entirely comfortable leaving Rhodey in the middle of a high-intensity brawl with Extremis soldiers.
"I feel like I'm just the errand boy here," Rhodey grumbled. He used to be called War Machine; now, in front of Fini and Tony, he felt like a child who needed constant protection.
"Alright, alright. Just stay here on standby. We're heading in."
The sun was beginning to set. Fini wanted to wrap this up quickly, so he activated the invisibility mode of 'Incursio'.
The only awkward part was that since both he and Tony were invisible, they couldn't see each other. They had to speak out loud just to keep track of one another.
"I'll take the left, you start from the right. We meet back here in ten minutes," Fini suggested, seeing no need for them to bunch up.
"Deal," Tony agreed.
The two began their infiltration, leaving Rhodey alone. He reached out his hand, waving it through the empty air as he whispered cautiously, "Gone? Are you guys gone already?"
It was a very ordinary villa with no visible traps. Aside from a group of black-clad bodyguards patrolling the grounds, there was nothing special about it. Fini slipped inside easily under his veil of invisibility.
Fini looked around. The messy environment looked like it hadn't been cleaned in a while. Most of the rooms were empty, with only a few showing signs of habitation.
He moved deep into the villa and soon came across professional filming equipment. Voices drifted from a nearby room.
"Hey, hey! I need beer, and I need a pair of twins. You promised me—you said after every shoot, my requirements would be met!"
"Shut up. Wait two more days and they'll be sent over."
Fini crept closer and looked at the two men speaking. One was a bald man in a leather jacket who looked quite menacing. The other was a short man with a full, bushy beard. He looked timid and submissive, looking quite frightened.
However, anyone in New York who had watched television lately would recognize him instantly.
It was the Mandarin, the man currently famous across the entire country.
"Seems like Killian isn't here," Fini noted. Finding the Mandarin was a relief, but he wasn't particularly happy about it. His main targets were Killian and his Extremis-enhanced subordinates.
Finding out the Mandarin was just an actor would put the public at ease and give Rhodey a win, but it wouldn't help Fini's experience bar.
Fini didn't act immediately. After another ten minutes of scouting the area, he returned to the meeting spot. He found Rhodey squatting on the ground, boredly poking at ants with a twig while muttering complaints to himself.
"What was wrong with 'War Machine'? Focus groups didn't like it? I don't see anyone liking the new one either. Big deal, you can turn invisible. Firepower is what matters most!"
He poked another ant.
"Pfft!"
Fini couldn't help but laugh, which startled Rhodey so much he dropped the twig and immediately deployed his weapon systems, scanning the area.
"Fini? Tony?" Rhodey asked tentatively. "You guys back?"
"Actually, being invisible is a pretty big deal," Fini said, deactivating his stealth beside Rhodey and patting his shoulder. "For what it's worth, I think 'War Machine' sounds cooler, too."
Rhodey silently retracted his weapons, making a mental note to tell the researchers to add anti-stealth sensors to his suit as soon as he got back.
Soon, Tony returned safely and began to share his intelligence.
"I saw the Mandarin," Tony said, frowning as he looked at Fini. "But something felt... off about him."
"That's normal," Fini said, understanding Tony's confusion. "He's just an actor. Killian is using him to draw all the attention so he can operate from the shadows."
Both Tony and Rhodey froze.
Even though Fini had told them Killian was the mastermind, they hadn't expected the Mandarin to be a complete fraud.
"So what now? Even if we catch him, the bombings won't stop." Rhodey's expression was grim. As a military man, he knew the casualty counts from these attacks better than anyone.
"How about this: Tony and I will stay here and find a way to lure Killian out. Rhodey, you take the Mandarin back first. If we don't manage to catch Killian today, you can announce the Mandarin's capture to the media. That will ruin their narrative and likely prevent them from carrying out more random bombings, at least in the short term."
Fini thought for a moment and proposed the plan.
(End of Chapter)