War Machine rocketed towards New York City. Rhodey’s armor tried to track Tony, but just received static in response. Tony had disabled tracking. His last words were to get to New York and see how Pepper’s doing. Rhodey wasn’t sure what Tony was about to do, but he hoped it wasn’t anything rash.

“Talk to me, Hap,” he said, his armor putting in a call to Happy Hogan’s cell phone. “What’s Pepper’s status?”

“She was left here by some of Bastion’s Sentinels, but the docs don’t know what to make of her. She’s stable at least, but we need someone with more skills than these guys. Should we call Hank Pym?”

“Out on the west coast? No guarantee he’ll get to her in case of an emergency,” said War Machine. “See if you can reach Hank McCoy at the Xavier Institute. The X-Men have experience with this kinda stuff. Meanwhile, I’ll see if I can get in touch with some help of my own.”

“Rhodey…this is bad, isn’t it? Yer not tellin’ me everythin’, here.”

“Hap, I need you to focus on contacting McCoy. Pepper needs you to be strong for her right now, okay?”

“Yeah, but after the miscarriage…”

“Hogan, focus,” said War Machine once again, in a much firmer tone.

“Where the hell’s Tony anyway? He should be here by now.”

“I…I don’t know,” said War Machine. “Let’s just tackle one problem at a time.”

Rhodey broke the connection as he increased his thruster speed en route to New York. Happy was right, there was a lot more Rhodey wasn’t telling him. Rhodey had his own experience being bonded to a machine and he’s read the SHIELD reports on the Prime Sentinel technology. No matter what happened, Pepper would be changed forever after this event.

He also couldn’t deny that he was worried about Tony. The look in his eyes after he left Stark Enterprises Dallas branch was one Rhodey had only seen a few times. It was a look of complete and utter rage. There was no telling what Tony would do in that state. And because he disabled the tracking signal, that meant he was going to do something he didn’t want Rhodey involved in.

He couldn’t worry about that now, though. Pepper was the priority. He opened up another call, this one through a highly-classified, highly-encrypted SHIELD communications satellite. “Bill, this is Rhodey. I need a favor. I need you to get to the following hospital. We’ve got an incident that needs to be addressed.”

CRITICAL

Part I

By Dino Pollard

[Tony, I know you can hear me.]

“Not a good time, Maria.”

Maria was Stark’s latest AI companion, equipped within the Iron Man armor. After Jocasta’s disappearance, Tony briefly replaced her with an AI called Friday, which proved to have some bugs. Maria was an evolution of Friday.

[Despite disabling tracking, I’m still getting pings from the VTR battle suit. Rhodey seems intent on finding your location.]

“He’s not getting it. I told him to look after Pepper.”

[And what are you going to do?]

The billionaire playboy offered no response, just continued flying above the skies at his top speed.

[Tony?]

“Maria, I designed you to be smarter than this. You know very well I’m going after Bastion.”

[Tony, that could be a suicide mission. The Prime Sentinel technology is highly advanced and if you go right into the belly of the beast, the probability of your survival, let alone your success, is—]

“I know the math, Maria. The last time I left a loose end, it was Ayisha, whose attack on Pepper caused her miscarriage. I’m not taking any more chances. Not when my friends are at risk.” Tony’s voice seemed to drop an octave as he spoke his next words. “You were designed to help me, so I expect you to start helping, understood?”

[…yes, Mr. Stark. I understand. How may I serve you?]

“Good. While Bastion showed us the video feed of Pepper’s infection, I made sure to analyze the frequency of the transmission. I want you to ping that frequency, find his location.”

[Very well. Although I feel it is also my duty to inform you that your artificial heart has gone some time without a recharge.]

“Noted. Now bring up the GPS and show me where I can find Bastion.”

New York

Happy sat by Pepper’s bedside in her hospital room. She lay unconscious, but he gripped her hand in his and held it up to his face. His eyes were tired.

“Hey baby, it’s me. I don’t know if you can hear me or not, but it’s worth a try,” he said. “The docs can’t figure out what’s goin’ on inside you. That Bastion character, he infected you with somethin’. Some kinda virus an’ they’ve got no idea how to fight it. But don’t worry, doll. Rhodey’s on his way, he’s gotten in touch with someone who can help. So I need you t’ stay with me, okay? ‘Cause this washed-up ol’ pug, well he’s not much of anythin’ without you.”

“Mr. Hogan?”

Happy turned and noticed a tall black man enter the room, wearing a lab coat and a pair of glasses. A second man entered behind him, Happy recognized this second man as Pepper’s doctor.

The tall man held a chart in his hand and walked up to Happy. “We’ve met before. I used to work in Tony Stark’s Baltimore factory as an assistant to Dr. Pym. My name’s Bill Foster.”

“Yeah, I remember you, Doc,” said Happy, shaking Bill’s hand.

“Rhodey called me to consult on your wife’s case, luckily I was in the area.” Bill looked over Pepper’s chart.

“I tried callin’ Dr. McCoy, too. But he’s down in DC for a meeting with Senator Kelly.”

“Then hopefully we won’t need to call on his expertise.” Bill turned to the other doctor. “I want a complete work-up on Ms. Potts. We need blood tests, an MRI, the whole works.”

“We’ve done that, they came up inconclusive.”

“Do them again. I’ve been brought up to speed on this Prime virus, and we’ll need to get moving fast if we’re going to get to the bottom of this.”

Bill turned to Happy. “I’m sorry, Mr. Hogan. But I’m going to have to ask you to wait outside. But I promise you we’ll take good care of her.”

“Thanks, Doc.” Happy leaned over Pepper and gently placed a kiss on her forehead. “The big brains wanna have a look at you, sweetie. I’m gonna be in the waitin’ room, an’ promise I’ll start knockin’ heads if they don’t fix you up.”

Bill offered a reassuring smile as Happy left the room. “I’ll come find you once I’ve got a better idea of what we’re dealing with.”

Happy left the room and made his way to the waiting area. He went to the coffee machine and put in some money. He pushed the buttons for his selection, but the nothing came out. Happy slapped the side of it, but still nothing. His face twisted into anger and he started pounding on it.

“GODDAMN MACHINES! PIECE A’JUNK, RUININ’ EVERYTHING!”

He shook the machine furiously, drawing a lot of attention to himself. One of the orderlies came up to him as a nurse picked up a phone to call security. The orderly tried to approach without incurring Happy’s wrath himself.

“Sir, please just relax! I can—”

Happy turned to the orderly and grabbed him by the collar of his scrubs. He pulled his fist back, prepared to strike. “YOU WANT A PIECE O’ ME, TOO?!”

“HAPPY!”

A strong arm, probably as equally strong as Happy, pulled his fist down. Happy looked to see Rhodey standing behind him. Happy relaxed his arm and released his grip on the orderly. The young man quickly backed away as a security guard entered the room.

“It’s okay, I’ve got it covered,” said Rhodey. “His wife is in a critical condition.”

“Keep him under control, if he gets outta line again, I get the cops involved,” said the guard.

Happy sat down in a chair, elbows resting on his thighs, face buried in his palms with a deep sigh. Rhodey sat next to him and patted him on the back. “She’ll be okay. Bill Foster’s one of the best. If anyone can figure out a way to help Pepper, it’ll be him.”

Happy’s palms ran up his face and through his hair. “It’s not just that. I feel pretty damn helpless right now is all. Tony an’ the Doc both got those big brains, you got the connections that brought the Doc out here, an’ me? What do I got? Only way I know to solve a problem is by punchin’ it. I pushed her away before. Then when things were startin’ to get good again, I crawled into a bottle. An’ now, this happens an’ I can’t do anything about it. The one time I’m not runnin’ away, I’m about as useful as a third tit.”

“All you have to do is be strong for her,” said Rhodey.

“Yeah, I know,” said Happy. “By the by, how’d you get Doc Foster down here so quick? He hasn’t worked at Stark in years.”

“Like you said, I have connections,” said Rhodey. What he wasn’t telling Happy, or any of his co-workers, was that he and Bill (in his identity of Goliath) were members of a black ops team of Avengers sanctioned by Nick Fury and led by Nomad. And it was a secret Rhodey was compelled to keep. Nomad and Fury were operating under the principle of “trust no one,” and as much as Rhodey hated keeping secrets like that, his hands were tied.

Bastion’s signal led Iron Man right to the source of the Sentinel base, buried within the Adirondack mountain range. It made sense, of course. Hiding a Sentinel facility within there would be easy, especially with an artificial intelligence as advanced as Bastion.

This all began with Bastion sought out the Extremis Project. That’s what got Tony involved. Incorporating his father’s technology into the Prime Sentinels made it personal. And harming Pepper, one of Tony’s closest friends, that crossed the line. Tony had given Bastion a chance to escape in exchange for Pepper’s life. He promised Bastion that if the Sentinel came after him or his people again, he would hunt Bastion down.

But Stark wasn’t stupid. He’d dealt with enough crazed artificial intelligences in the past to know how they operate. Fear wasn’t something they concerned themselves with, they only cared about the objective. And they would continue to pursue it, particularly if they have an army at their disposal.

Bastion wanted Extremis and he would not give up. So Iron Man decided a pre-emptive strike would serve his purposes better than a reactionary one.

“Maria, I need eyes in the sky,” said Iron Man. “Prepare for Singularity.”

[Mr. Stark, the Singularity has not been properly tested for that sort of application. The range necessary to take out all the Sentinels present would surely include you as well. I am running every potential scenario and not one allows you to escape in time.]

“Who said anything about escaping?”

[Tony…]

“Maria, I was building circuit boards while other kids were playing little league. Do you really think I’d attempt something so extreme without having an out?”

[Then please enlighten me as to the nature of this supposed ‘out.’]

“Maybe if you give me a chance, I could get to it,” said Tony. “Now prep the Singularity and start recording. I’ve got a message I want played once the smoke clears.”

New York

Bill Foster entered the waiting room, causing Rhodey and Happy to immediately stand. He motioned for them to follow. Bill led the pair into one of the smaller rooms and sat down at a computer. On the monitor was the outline of a body with several color spectrums over it.

“These are the results we got after scanning Ms. Potts. The bad news is that this Bastion did begin to infect her with the Prime nano-virus.”

“Aw jeez… you mean she’s gonna turn into one of those…things?” asked Happy.

“Well, there’s good news also,” said Bill. “It turns out, according to these scans, that Bastion made good on his word to halt the conversion process. Although the virus is in her system, it’s dormant. She was only in stage one when the process began and conversion doesn’t really start until stage two.”

“What’s this mean for her?” asked Rhodey.

“She’s at a greater risk for conversion than others, that’s true. But it would require additional components of the virus to be introduced into her system before you’d have to worry about it,” said Bill.

“Can you take it out?” asked Happy.

Bill shook his head. “Unfortunately that’s not an option. In stage one, the virus bonds itself to the host DNA, moving it to the point that the host can’t survive without it. If we tried to remove all traces of the virus, she’d die.”

“So what now?” asked Happy.

“Now, we just let her rest. Her body’s been through a traumatic experience and she needs time to recuperate. But I can assure you that she’ll be fine.”

“Oh thank you, Jesus…” muttered Happy with a sigh of relief. “Doc, can I—?”

Bill nodded. “She’s back in her room, just don’t wake her.”

“Right, no problems there.” Happy left Rhodey and Bill alone. Once he left, Rhodey closed the door once again.

“Rhodey…what you told me about all this…there’s Starktech in Sentinels,” said Bill. “And now Bastion’s after this Extremis project?”

“It’s bad, I know,” said Rhodey.

“We’ve gotta tell Nomad. This is exactly the kind of reason why you were recruited, to find out this information within Stark Enterprises.”

Rhodey sighed. “There’s more. Tony said the company’s never sold anything to Trask. Turns out that’s not really true.”

“You don’t think Tony’s involved with them, do you?”

“I sure as hell hope not. ‘Cause if he is, I dunno what hope our side has,” said Rhodey.

Adirondacks

Smart bombs made an opening and Iron Man plummeted through the ceiling. He slammed to the ground and stood upright, surrounded on all sides by Prime Sentinels. And before him stood their leader, the being called Bastion.

“Mr. Stark,” he said. “I knew you fleshbags were of an inferior intelligence. I just hadn’t realized you would be this inferior. Surely you realize the probability of your escape?”

“I do,” said Iron Man.

“So perhaps we should make a deal,” said Bastion. “Your friend, Ms. Potts. I can reverse the procedure completely and let you walk out of here with your life. Provided you provide me with Extremis.”

“You’re not getting it, Bastion,” said Iron Man. “I’m not here to deal. Pepper’s out of your hands so you can’t use her as a bargaining chip this time. And as for getting out of here alive? That’s exactly what I don’t plan on doing.”

“Very well,” said Bastion. “Execute.”