Rise of the Mandarin- Chapter Six

[spc6grl]

Rise of the Mandarin

Chapter Six

The Mandarin sat on his throne, tapping his fingers against the armrest. The nine remaining members of the Ten Rings stood lined up in front of him. They stood up straight, but held their heads down, scared to even glance at their master.

“So, let me get this straight,” the Mandarin began, rising off his throne, and walking down the stairs to them. “With all the resources available to you all, not one of you have been able to locate Mr. Yong?” He stood in front of them all, and scanned his head back and forth, waiting for an answer. No one said anything. All of them just stood there, not saying a word. The Mandarin nodded his head, turned back around, and began to walk back up to his throne. They all sighed in relief as they watched their master ascend back up to his throne, but that relief was short lived when he stopped one step short of his throne. The next thing they knew, their master was airborne, and the moment his feet hit the ground, he focused his energy on brutally beating them. Heads collided with each other, arms and legs were broken, knees and shoulders were dislocated; this was the worst he had ever lashed out on them. Once every single one of them was down, the Mandarin looked around at each one of them. He was breathing heavily, but more so from his anger, rather than from the lashing he just gave his minions. “This is the last time you fools disappoint me,” he growled with each breath he took. He pulled out his blade from underneath his rope. “Who would like to die first?” he asked them.

“Master, please,” a female voice said sweetly from the shadows. The Mandarin turned and watched the masked woman, clad in metal armor from head to toe, walk forward to announce her presence. “I've told you once, and I'll say it again, never send a man to do a woman's job.” They all could hear the self-satisfaction in her voice. The Mandarin lowered his knife, and for the first time it seemed, he was actually happy.

“The Iron Maiden,” he said with a sigh of relief. “I hope you have at least succeeded in your mission.” She laughed.

“I have more than succeeded.” With that, she forcefully pulled on the chain that she had been holding in her hand, and the person who was on the other end of it stumbled into the light, and collapsed to the ground.

“Once again, my dear, you have out done yourself,” he said, walking over to them.

“Master, I am very happy you are pleased with me,” she said, walking up to him and bowing before him. “I live to serve you.” The Mandarin stopped in front of her, and gently placed a hand on her chin, and raised it so she would look at him.

“I am always pleased with you, Maiden,” he said softly. She raised the chain to him with both hands, as if offering a sacrifice. He took it from her, and wrapped it around his hand. She then reached into her suit, and pulled out a smaller chain and held it in front of him.

“He also had this on him.” The Mandarin just stared at what was being held in front of him. Slowly, he reached his hand over, and grasped the ring on the end of the chain. He looked at it and caressed it with his other hand, silently thanking whatever supernatural being that was favoring him. He looked back to Iron Maiden, and helped her to stand up.

“You have done well, my dear,” he said. He turned around and glanced back to his ‘fallen’ subordinates. “You all should thank her, she saved every single one of you from dying tonight.” With that said, he focused his attention to the man tangled up in the chain. “Mr. Yong. I must say, you are most definitely a hard man to contact,” he said while walking over to him. He came up to the man, and kneeled down beside him. Mr. Yong had his face down to the floor, not wanting to look at the ridiculous mask he was wearing. “What? You have nothing to say to your master?” he asked him. Mr. Yong turned his face to him, and glared at him.

“You are not my master,” he said, knowing that these words would be certain death for him. The Mandarin was honestly taken aback by his brave words, and he had to laugh. He stood up and began walking away.

“You are a very courageous man, Yong. I like that.” He walked over to his minions and threw the chain down to one of them. “Take him to see his wife, but do not let them leave, not yet anyway.” The minion nodded his head, and slowly stood up and walked away, dragging the chain and Mr. Yong behind him. “The rest of you may go now and patch up your wounds; I'm suddenly in a good mood.” He walked up to his throne and watched them limp away into the shadows. When all of them had left, the only person who remained was Iron Maiden. “Come to me, my dear,” he said motioning with his fingers for her to come to him. She held her head up high and walked up to him, and kneeled at his feet. He leaned forward and gently placed a hand on her head; well, he actually placed his hand on the helmet she was wearing, but she got the gesture. “I trust your original mission went well?” he asked her, sitting back. She looked up to him and stood up. She reached into her suit once again, and pulled out a flash drive.

“Everything we need about the reactor is on this drive,” she said, handing it to him.

“And what of Black Widow?” he asked, taking the drive from her hand. If she hadn't been wearing a mask herself, he would've seen her grin like the Cheshire Cat.

“In the hospital, with a severe concussion, and possible brain hemorrhaging. It's going to take her a long time to recover, that is if she wakes up,” she said giggling. He stood up and placed his hands on her shoulders.

“You are truly the best thing that has ever happened to me,” he said. She looked at him a moment, and grabbed one of his hands, and brought it to her masked lips, mimicking kissing his hand. “It's time to get changed, my dear, we have a party to attend.”

--

Tony opened the door to the master bedroom fully dressed in his black tux. He looked around and saw a light shining from underneath the bathroom door. He walked over to it and gently knocked on the door.

“Pepper, honey, party time is quickly approaching,” he said through the door.

“I’ll be out in a minute, I’m almost done,” she called through the door. He nodded, like she would’ve seen him. He sighed and placed his hands in his pockets. This is was strange; he was waiting on his date, usually it was the other way around. He glanced over to the table and saw some of her things neatly placed on it. Her gold-chain necklace laid right beside her diamond stud earrings, which laid beside a bottle of perfume. He walked over to the bottle and picked it up. The bottle itself was shaped like a half circle with a clear plastic flower as the lid. He took the lid off and sprayed some of it in the air. He leaned forward and sniffed the scent. The moment the scent reached him, his nostrils flared, his eyes rolled back and his knees weakened. The perfume itself smelt like orchids, but to him it smelt like Pepper; his Pepper. He leaned against the table to support himself and brought the bottle up to his nose, inhaling the scent as if his life depended on it. Then he heard the knob to the bathroom turning. He scrambled for the perfume lid, and quickly sat it back in its place beside her earrings. He stood up straight and crossed his hands together in front of him, and watched her walk out of the bathroom. He bit his bottom lip and looked her up and down. The dress was red (just like his hot rod; he made particularly sure of that), and silk; and it molded to her curves perfectly. It flowed past her hips, and came all the way down, millimeters from the floor. She stood there nervously shaking; she still wasn’t used to Tony looking at her like that, and had to keep reminding herself he was her boyfriend now. “What is it?” she asked, nervous that he would say something negative. His eyebrows rose as he looked at her.

“Oh, um,” he said as he looked down her again. “I have to be honest, Pepper.” She felt a lump rise in her throat.

‘He doesn’t like it, I knew it!’ she screamed at herself. He shook his head.

“My imagination can’t compare to this.” He looked back up to her grinning. She laughed and her shoulders relaxed while the lump in her throat disappeared.

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” she said while walking over to him.

“Trust me, that most definitely was one.” He kept grinning while he took her hands and held them.

“You look very,” she paused to think of a word. “Dashing.” She grinned and Tony rolled his eyes.

“Dashing?” he asked. “Seriously, Pepper. I’m standing here in a black Armani tuxedo no less, and the only word you can think of is ‘dashing’?” he asked. She rolled her eyes up to the ceiling and tried to think of another word.

“How about ‘suave’?” she asked. Tony snorted.

“Who do I look like, Bruce Wayne?” he asked sarcastically. Pepper rolled her eyes.

“‘Debonair’?” she asked, raising her eyebrows.

“Okay, I’m not Clark Gable either.” She sighed.

“I’m just trying to keep your pride in check, that’s all,” she said while letting go of his hands. She began to straighten out his tie, then his jacket; for some reason he didn’t realize it was crooked.

“My pride? How about my ego?” he asked, sounding a little hurt. She grinned and looked back up to him.

“That too.” They stood there for a moment and just stared at each other. “You do look very handsome, Tony,” she whispered. He sighed and cleared his throat.

“Beautiful would be an understatement for you,” he said. She smiled and bit her lips together nervously. “Um,” he looked down nervously and then back up to her. “How about we forget the party, and just stay in tonight?” he asked.

“Tony, I,” she began while shaking her head.

“I know what you’re thinking,” he said while holding a hand up to her to calm her down. “And trust me, once you’ve been to one of these things, you’ve been to them all.”

“But Tony…”

“Why don’t we just order dinner and open up a bottle of champagne and relax for the rest of the night, we do go home tomorrow after all,” he said looking into her eyes, occasionally glancing down to the floor. She blinked a couple of times and stared at him. He placed his hands on her biceps and slowly began to rub them. “Come on, what do you say?” he asked, softly smiling at her.

She would never admit it, but whenever he looked at her like that, she would absolutely melt. It was as if he was bearing right into her soul with those beautiful brown eyes she had loved from the beginning, but she’d never tell him that either; God forbid she decided to tell him anything else to make his ego grow any bigger than the size it already was. Maybe he already knew it drove her crazy, that’s probably why he did it so much. She had to distract him, she needed to distract him, and she knew just how to.

She sighed and gently rubbed her hands up his chest, and up to his shoulders, lightly pulling him to her. Both sets of eyes closed as their lips met in an eager, but passionate, kiss. They hadn’t kissed each other since that morning, and that had been too long, on both their parts. She placed a hand on the back of his neck to hold him to her, and her other arm wrapped around his shoulder. His arms automatically wrapped around her and almost crushed her to him. His left hand came to rest on the bare skin between her shoulder blades, and the finger tips of his right hand dug into the small of her back and unintentionally bunched the material into his fist as he held her close. Still focusing on moving his lips with hers, he began to nudge his legs with hers, slowly backing her up, and getting closer to the bed. His heart was beginning to pound.

‘Oh my god, I can’t believe it. Finally, this is it,’ he thought as they got closer. The back of her legs came into the contact with the side of the bed, and Tony pulled back slightly to look at her. She blinked a couple of times to regain her focus and softly smiled at him. Slowly, she slid her hands down to the front of his chest, grabbed his lapels, and threw him down to the bed, knocking him out of the trance he was in. Before he could say anything, she straddled his waist, and pinned his hands to the sides of his head. Tony nervously swallowed; he had never seen her like this before, and he kind of liked it. She leaned down as if to kiss him again, and his eyes began to close on their own. However, when he didn’t feel her lips after a second or two his eyes popped back open, and saw that she had stopped just centimeters away. She smirked and leaned back up.

“You owe me a drink, so no.” With that, she got off of him and left the bedroom.

“Pepper!” he yelled to her, obviously frustrated. He sat up and gritted his teeth. “This close,” he mumbled under his breath while holding his thumb and index finger up, showing himself just how close he came to ‘getting some’. He took a couple of breaths and closed his eyes, trying desperately to regain his focus.

“Come on, Tony, we’re gonna be late,” he heard her yell to him.

‘Oh no, she did not just yell at me,’ he thought as he got off the bed and walked into the living room. He straightened up his jacket and watched her reapply her lip gloss. She glanced over to him, then replaced her gloss in her hand bag.

“Alright, let’s go,” she said, then walked to the elevator. Tony rolled his eyes and followed her in. She waited for him to get in before she pressed the ground floor button. The doors closed and she looked over to him. He was standing on the other side of the elevator, putting as much space between them as he possibly could. She sighed and walked over to him. He stared straight in front of him, not wanting to give her the time of day right now for what she did to him in the bedroom. She opened her hand purse, and pulled out a handkerchief. “Here, so you can wipe my lip gloss off your mouth.” Hesitantly, he took it, still not looking at her. He quickly wiped his mouth, and shoved it back to her.

“I am not happy with you right now,” he growled at her.

“Would it make you feel better if I told you I remembered deodorant this time?” she told him, innocently smiling at him. His eyes quickly diverted to her, but then went straight again.

“You’re just trying to change the subject,” he whined while crossing his arms. She giggled.

“So you did like it,” she said sounding proud of herself.

“That is beside the point,” he shot back. The elevator doors opened, and they walked out to the car.

--

By the time they arrived to the party hall, Tony had completely forgotten why he had been mad, mainly because he shared a couple of shots with Pepper. He was about to pour a third, but Pepper took the bottle away from him.

“Look, we’re here, okay? No more until we get inside,” she said while replacing the cap on the bottle. Tony grunted and stuck out his bottom lip. She rolled her eyes and waited for their turn to be let out from the car. There were a few cars in front of them, and when she looked out the rear window she saw an even longer line. She sighed and turned back around, finally getting to see the red carpet in front of the entrance to the hall. Her breath hitched in her throat when she saw just how many photographers were there.

“Pep, what is it?” he asked, placing his hand on top of hers. She quickly looked to him and back at the pandemonium she knew was waiting just for them.

“I, um…” she cleared her throat. “I didn’t realize there were going to be that many photographers when we got here.” Tony looked out the window and saw them. Turning back to her, he smiled.

“You want to walk in separately, is that what you’re saying?”

“No, no,” she quickly said while shaking her head. “I just…”

“Listen,” he said, grabbing her hand and looking her in the eyes. “Just smile, stop and pose, and don’t say anything. That’s what they want you to do.” She nodded. “Follow my lead, okay?”

“Tony, I don’t think…” She didn’t get it out, the door opened and they both heard the crowd outside beckoning for them.

“Let’s do this,” he said. He let go of her hand and exited the car, putting on that famous ‘Tony Stark’ smirk for all of them to see. He turned and held out his hand for her. She took it, and he pulled her out of the car. She was so scared she didn’t even realize he had entwined their fingers, and he was holding her hand very close to his chest. From that point on, she was on autopilot, or manual; she couldn’t tell if her body was cruising along itself, or if it was Tony helping her along. She did hear some questions being asked, but was too busy being blinded by the flashing light bulbs to really care. Finally, they entered the hall.

“Oh my god,” she breathed out.

“I know, I’m glad that’s over, too,” he said. She blinked a couple of times.

“I think my retinas got burnt,” she said, trying to blink the spots away. Tony lightly laughed and continued to guide her to one of the biggest ballrooms he had ever been in. “Wow,” she said.

“I know, I was thinking the same thing. One thing is for sure about the Chinese, they definitely have class.” They looked up to the ceiling and saw at least ten chandeliers. Their gaze came back down and saw a jazz band playing soft but lively music; a few couples had already taken to the dance floor. Everyone else was either up socializing or quietly sitting at their table, patiently waiting for dinner to arrive, which wouldn’t be for another hour or so. “I’m gonna go get us a drink, okay?” She nodded her head and let him go, but he quickly grabbed her hand. “And I will be back this time.” She rolled her eyes.

“Just go, I’ll be waiting right here,” she said, giggling. He let her go and finally walked over to the bar, ordering a scotch for himself and a dry martini with extra olives for Pepper.

‘That’s right, isn’t it? Dry with extra olives, I’m sure of it,’ he thought to himself, double checking his memory. As he waited, two men walked up to the bar, laughing about something. They ordered their drinks and went back to talking.

“So she was hot?” the first man asked.

“Oh man, smoking,” the second one said.

“Man, I envy you,” the first one began again. “You get to bring a different girl home every night; you don’t have to keep banging the same girl every night,” he said, sounding frustrated. Tony smirked because he remembered, just as if it was yesterday, what it was like bringing them home, then letting them go in the morning. Well, he didn’t remember that part; it was always Pepper showing them to the door the morning after.

“Dude, seriously,” the second one started.

‘Dude? Who says ‘dude’ anymore?’ Tony asked himself.

“Being tied down to one woman is too much hassle. Once they see you’re ready to commit to one thing they’ll start talking about moving in, next thing you know they’ll talk about getting married and then you’ll have the baby talk. Trust me, it’s not worth it.” The first one nodded at his friend and then nudged his shoulder.

“Hey, speaking of smoking hot, check out the red head in the fire engine red dress.” Tony’s anger began to flare up.

‘First off, it’s hot rod red. Second, where are those drinks?’

“Ooh man,” he said as he began sucking air through his teeth. “I would love to see what she could do, if you know what I mean.” Tony clenched his jaw and dug his fingers into the bar counter. His face began to burn as he imagined getting in the Iron Man suit and having target practice with the two creeps beside him who were oogling his woman.

“Uh huh, I wonder if I should go talk to her, just to see if she’s one of the easy ones.” Tony heard them laughing. Just as he was about to turn around to them, the bar tender came up and handed him the drinks.

“Here you go sir, I apologize for the wait,” the bartender said to him.

“That’s quite alright,” Tony said to the man, and walking off with the drinks. Tony quickly walked back over to Pepper, without spilling their drinks. She turned around and smiled at him, and held her hand out to take her drink, but Tony didn’t allow her to take it. Instead, he quickly sat them on the small table she was standing next to, and quickly pulled her to him.

“Just one second, honey,” he said, and then crushed her lips with his. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and dipped her sideways, so the guys at the bar could get an eyeful. Tony glanced upwards to see their reactions, and smirked when he got just what he was looking for. They adjusted uncomfortably, and the looks on their faces was that of embarrassment and jealousy. Tony watched them walk off, and brought Pepper back up.

“Wow,” she said, eyes fluttering open and stumbling a little. Tony braced his hands on her arms to steady her. “Where did that come from?” she asked, once she was steady and could see straight.

“Oh, I just,” he began as he leaned down to pick up their drinks. “Missed you, that’s all.” He handed her her drink, and took a long sip from his. Pepper narrowed her eyes in confusion.

“You,” she began, not believing a word he just said. “Missed me?” An eyebrow rose.

“Yep. Did I get it right? Dry with extra olives?” Pepper just stood there, dumbfounded, and watched him try to play this off. He looked into her eyes, and took another drink. “You wanna dance?” Pepper placed a hand on her hip.

“There was a guy at the bar checking me out, wasn’t there?”

“Two of them, actually.” Pepper shook her head.

“Uh huh,” she said, knowing there was an explanation for this sudden public display of affection.

“And I didn’t appreciate the things they were saying about you, okay? I needed to show them that you were already taken,” he explained, taking another drink and looking away from her.

“Tony, green is not your best color.” Tony turned his head back to her to see her smirking.

“Touché, Potts.” He smiled at her and clinked their glasses together. She grinned and finally took a sip of her martini, while both of them turned towards the band, watching and listening to them play. Suddenly, she began to giggle. “What?” he asked, looking to her. She shook her head.

“Oh, it’s nothing, I just thought of something, that’s all.”

“No, tell me, what were you thinking?” he asked while taking another drink. She turned her head to him.

“You’re my knight in shining gold-titanium alloy armor,” she said as she began to giggle. Tony rolled his eyes and looked back to the band, silently laughing at the remark.

“Seriously though, would you like to dance?” he asked, looking at her. She turned back to him and looked at him seriously.

“I would love to dance,” she said.

“Yeah?” he asked, making sure he heard right.

“Yes, I would.”

“Let’s go then.” He grabbed her hand, and just as they were headed to the dance floor…

“Well, well, well, Seals, we meet again.” For the third time that night, Tony’s anger rose again; for a moment he tried to calculate his blood pressure, but was too frustrated at the moment to concentrate on another thing.

“You know, Platypus, you have impeccable timing,” he said, hand still connected with Pepper’s.

“Yeah, I do that on purpose, so I can keep you on your toes,” Rhodey said as he grinned at him and then turned his attention to Pepper.

“Hi, Pepper, you look absolutely stunning,” he said, leaning over to kiss her cheek.

“Thank you, Rhodey. I must say, you don’t look bad yourself. I’ve never seen you in all white before,” she said, kissing his cheek.

“Alright, alright, break it up, you two,” Tony said, slightly pushing Rhodey away from her.

“Tony, what on earth has gotten into you?” Rhodey asked, surprised that his friend would do that.

“Go easy on him, he’s a little touchy right now,” Pepper said softly.

“I am not touchy. I just had to tell a couple of douche bags to back off my woman,” he explained. “I need another drink.” He left them, and walked back over to the bar.

“Pepper, is he okay?” Rhodey asked. She shook her head.

“No, he’s not. It started back at the penthouse. He wanted to stay in, and I sort of teased him and conned him into coming. Then when he heard those guys talking I guess that was the icing on the cake. Don’t take it personal, Rhodey, he’s just a little frustrated right now,” she explained. Rhodey nodded his head.

“Well, it’s good that you made him come; he needs to be here.”

“I know, but he didn’t want to be here,” she said shaking her head, looking guilty.

“Are you feeling sympathy for him?” Rhodey asked jokingly. Pepper rolled her eyes and couldn’t help the smile growing on her face. “Since when did Pepper Potts begin feeling sympathy for anyone, let alone her boss?” he asked her. She looked at him and was about to answer. “Wait, don’t tell me.” He held up a hand for her to stop right there.

“What? I was just going to say…”

“Nope, I don’t want to hear it Pepper. Reason being you’ll probably say something like ‘the moment he put his tongue down my throat’,” he said, trying to quote her in a high squeaky voice. She smacked his arm. “Ow!” he exclaimed, rubbing his arm.

“Serves you right,” she said, grinning at him.

“Pepper, I wanted to throw the first punch tonight,” Tony said as he walked back over to them. All three of them laughed, but it was short lived as the room began to get full.

“Alright, ladies,” Rhodey began. “Once again, I believe it’s show time.” Tony sighed.

“Yep.” Tony took a quick drink, then held out his hand for Pepper. “Let’s do this.” She smiled and took his hand.

“Yes, let’s.”

Chapter Seven