It takes a while — though not as long as she thought — but Grace finally lands in Rose Hill, Tennessee.

It's snowing, and she's standing outside of a barn, but she doesn't see the Iron Man suit anywhere. She begins walking around. "Sai? Where's the suit?"

"One moment," Sai replies. Then, "It's not here."

"What do you mean it's not here?"

"This is the location I'd registered for the suit, and I locked onto it. It must've moved since."

"You can't track a moving target?" Grace says. Then, she mutters, "Geez, Dad, you're supposed to be better than this."

"Well, he's been a bit busy..."

"Of course he would program you to defend him."

Suddenly, a new voice joins the conversation. "Hello?"

Grace turns quickly, spotting a boy standing in the snow a few feet away from her. His hair is dark blonde, and, even from here, she can see how blue his eyes are. He's wearing pajamas, and he's shivering with cold. Grace stutters out, "H-Hi."

"Is that... Is that an Iron Man suit?" the boy asks, taking a few steps closer.

Grace doesn't know what to say. She has to be careful; this boy is a stranger. "No..."

"It looks like one."

"Well, it's purple," Grace replies. "Iron Man doesn't wear purple."

The boy nods a little as she's right. He looks up at her — the suit adds a couple inches to her height, and she's pretty sure she's taller than him anyway. "I'm Harley," he says. "Harley Keener."

"I'm..." Grace wracks her brain for a fake name. The Hunger Games worms its way into her thoughts. "Primrose," she finishes.

Harley squints at her suspiciously; she hesitated for far too long. "No, you're not."

"Of-Of course I am," Grace replies. "That's my name. Primrose Everdeen."

"Bullcrap," Harley says, sure he's heard that name somewhere before — and it wasn't connected to Iron Man.

Meanwhile, Grace frantically searches for something to say. "Well, then... your name isn't Harley."

"Of course it is!"

"Then my-"

"Wait," Harley says, finally connecting the dots. "I know who you are. You're her."

"What-?"

"You're Grace Stark."

Grace stops. Her eyes widen, and she shakes her head hurriedly. "N-No, I'm not. Who's Grace Stark? I-I'm not-"

"Well, they only say your name is Grace," Harley says. "But you're definitely Tony's daughter."

Grace, under the suit's mask, raises a brow. He called him Tony. And, yeah, everyone knows Tony Stark's name. But just calling him Tony the way Harley did sounds too informal for a total stranger. "Do you... Do you know him?"

"Yeah," Harley says. "I saved his life. And I helped him fix his suit. It just flew off, so I guess he has it now."

"Where is he?"

"Miami. He's fighting the Mandarin, I think." Grace goes quiet, bile beginning to rise in her throat at the thought of Tony fighting an extremely scary and powerful terrorist — whom he's already threatened. Harley can't see her face, but he can tell she's upset by what he said. "Come on. Let's try to call him."

He walks off into the barn, and Grace, after a moment's hesitation, follows him.

~~~~

Tony walks into the mansion — into Trevor's room — to find Trevor asleep and two guards around him. Tony holds up a hand. "What's this?"

The guards turn, firing at Tony, but Rhodey crashes through the window behind them and fires at them.

By the time they're both down, Trevor is awake. He looks at Tony. "Oh, what have you come as?"

Rhodey walks over and puts his foot on the chair Trevor is sitting in. He points his gun at Trevor's head. "You make a move, and I break your face."

"I never thought people had been hurt," Trevor says hurriedly. "They lied to me."

Rhodey looks at Tony in disbelief. "This is the Mandarin?"

"Yeah, I know, it's... it's embarrassing," Tony replies.

"Hi — Trevor, Trevor Slattery," he says, raising his hand. Rhodey slaps it away, and he continues. "I know I'm shorter in person. A bit smaller — everyone says that. But, um, hey, if you're here to arrest me, there's some people I'd like to roll on. I-"

"Here's how it works, Meryl Streep," Tony says, tired of listening to him. "You tell him where Pepper and Grace are, and he'll stop doing it."

"Doing what?" Trevor asks. Rhodey reaches down, and touches the extremely hot barrel of his gun to Trevor's ear. "Ow! I get it! Ow!" Rhodey takes it away, and he continues. "I don't know about any Pepper or Grace, but I know about the plan."

"Spill."

"Do you know what they did to my suit?" Rhodey asks.

"What? No. But I do know it's happening off the coast. Something to do with a big boat. I can take you there." Then, something happens on the TV behind Rhodey — a soccer match. Trever begins shouting. "Oh! Ole', ole', ole', ole'-!"

"Tony, I'm about to blow his face off," Rhodey says warningly.

Trever continues. "Oh, and this next bit may include the vice president as well. Is that- Is that important?"

"Somewhat," Tony deadpans. He looks at Rhodey and nods him over so they can talk in private. "So?"

"What are we gonna do?" Rhodey asks. "I mean, we don't have any transport."

Then, behind them, Trever opens a can. Tony and Rhodey turn to him. "Hey, Ringo," Tony says, "didn't you say something about a 'lovely speedboat'?"

"Um... yes," Trevor replies after a pause. "Yes, I did. It's, um, it's just outside, on the water — hard to miss. Go ahead and take it."

Tony and Rhodey hurry outside, grab a car battery, then easily find the boat and jump into it. They start it up and begin speeding downstream. Tony connects his suit to the car battery.

"If he's right about the location, we're 20 minutes from where Pepper and Grace are," Tony says.

"You sure he's got Grace, too?" Rhodey replies, his worry increasing tenfold. "I mean, what would he want with her?"

"I don't know. He never told me he had her, but he showed me Pepper. He didn't mention Grace at all. Maya did, but... she never finished."

Rhodey sighs. "But we also have to figure out this vice president thing, right?"

"Right." Tony looks down at his phone. "I wonder who I'm calling right now. Oh! That's the vice president."

The man in question picks up. "Hello?"

"Sir, this is Tony Stark," Tony says into the phone.

"Welcome back to the land of the living."

But Tony doesn't have time for small talk. "We believe you're about to be drawn into the Mandarin campaign. We gotta get you somewhere safe as soon as possible."

"Mr. Stark," the Vice President says, "I'm about to eat honey roast ham surrounded by the Agency's finest. The president's safe on Air Force One with Colonel Rhodes. I think we're good here."

Then, Rhodey takes the phone and says, "Sir, this is Colonel Rhodes. They're using the Iron Patriot as a Trojan horse. They're gonna take out the president somehow. We have to immediately alert that plane."

"Okay, I'm on it," the Vice President replies. "I'll have security lock it down. If need be, they can have F-22s in the air in 30 seconds. Thank you, Colonel."

"Rhodes and Stark out."

But almost as soon as he hangs up, someone else calls. Rhodey looks up at Tony, handing him back the phone. Brows furrowed, Tony answers it. "Hello?"

"Hey," Harley says. "It's me. Harley."

Tony immediately becomes concerned. "Yeah, I could tell by your voice, kid, what's wrong?"

Then, another voice. One he's extremely relieved to hear. "Hi, Dad."

"Grace," he breathes.

"Maya is working for Killian," she hurriedly says. "He took Pepper-"

"I know, sweetheart."

"I tried to save her, but I was too late." Tony can hear the tears in her voice. "I'm so sorry."

"It's okay," Tony reassures her. "It's not your fault. I'm gonna go save her now, okay? I need you to stay with Harley. I'll come get you when all this is over."

Grace nods, though he can't see her. "Okay. And Dad... Maya saved me. She gave me a chance to escape. She might still be on your side."

Tony, reminded of what happened her, only says, "Okay," quietly. He'll tell Grace later. They don't have time. "I gotta go now. I love you, sweetheart."

"I love you, too. Be careful." And with that, she hangs up.

Rhodey, now slightly relieved, looks at Tony. "We gotta make a decision. We can either save the president or Pepper. We can't do both."

"Sir," Jarvis cuts in, "I have an update from Malibu. The cranes have finally arrived, and the cellar doors are being cleared as we speak."

"And what about the suit I'm wearing?" Tony asks.

"The armour is now at 92%."

Tony disconnects his suit from the car battery. "That's gonna have to do."

~~~~

When the suit reaches Air Force One, Tony can see a man — the one he fought in Tennessee — looking out the window. Killian has already attacked, clearly. Tony sneaks the suit onto the ship, then sends one of the hands to the other side of the man and blasts him.

The hand comes back to the suit, then he hits the man from behind. He starts to heat up, but Tony pins him to the wall. "The President. Now."

"He's not here," the man replies. In a few seconds, his heated hand is on the suit's wrist, heating up the armor. Tony can't get out of his grip. "Try the jet stream?" he asks, pulling out a device with his other hand. "Speaking of which, go fish." He presses the button on the device and part of the plane explodes. People are sucked out and begin to fall towards the water — a fall that'll surely kill them from this height.

The man has the suit in both hands now, but Tony manages to maneuver their arms to get a clear shot with the blaster on the suit's chest. He fires, putting a hole through the man's unarmored chest. "Walk away from that one," he says, almost daring him to.

Quickly, Tony busts into the room the people were in, but they're all already out of the plane. So, he flies out, trying to think of a way to save them as quickly as possible.

"How many in the air?" he asks.

"Thirteen, sir," Jarvis replies.

"How many can I carry?"

"Four, sir."

Tony flies down and grabs a woman, getting an idea. She screams. "Slow down," he says. "Slow down, relax. What's your name?" He looks at her name tag; she's a flight attendant. "Heather?" She screams in response. Above them, the plane explodes. Tony looks back at her. "Listen to me. See that guy?" He points. "I'm gonna swing by, you're just gonna grab him. You got it?"

"What?!"

"I'll electrify your arm, you won't be able to open your hand. We can do this, Heather." Then, with some difficulty, Heather grabs onto the man's leg. "Easy, see? Eleven more to go." He addresses the man. "Remember that game called Barrel of Monkeys? That's what we're going to do."

"18,000 feet," Jarvis says.

"Come on, people. Everybody grab your monkey." The man grabs someone, then that person grabs someone else. "Nice."

"10,000 feet," Jarvis says. A woman grabs onto the suit, and Tony grabs onto another man as the people at the end of the chain grab onto others. "6,000 feet."

"Come on, people. Come on, come on, come on!" Tony shouts. The person at the end of the chain grabs someone, then they grab someone else. "Yeah!"

"1, 000 feet," Jarvis says. There's one more man, and he's falling fast. "400 feet... 200 feet, sir."

"He's a chunky monkey, let's get him," Tony says. He gets closer to the man. "Hello." The person at the end of the chain grabs him, and Tony flies up, slowing their fall. Then, he gently sets them all in the water. They all cheer. "Nice work, guys!" Tony says. "Excellent. Good team effort all around. Go us." Tony turns and begins flying the other way, across the highway. "Alright, Jarvis, it's only half-done. We've still got to get Pepper-"

And then the suit is hit by a semi truck.

It breaks apart into pieces, scattered on the pavement.

Tony sighs. He's sitting in a dark room on the speedboat, controlling the suit remotely. "That came out of nowhere."

Rhodey opens the door behind him. "Give me some good news, man."

"I think they all made it."

"Oh, thank-"

"But I missed the president."

Rhodey sighs. "You couldn't save the president with the suit, how are we gonna save Pepper with nothing?"

"Um... Say, Jarvis, is it that time?" Tony asks.

"The House Party Protocol, sir?" Jarvis replies.

"Correct."

"Yes, sir, I think so."