𝐀 𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐎 𝐎𝐅 𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐘-𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐃𝐄 vehicles drove down the desert stretch of the Kunar Province with nothing but miles and miles of sand on either side. It took every bit of Alexander Potts's willpower to restrain himself from banging his head against the back of his car seat as AC/DC's "Back in Black" blared from the radio on the ground. It was bad enough that he'd been forced to join the Stark family on their little business demonstration; however, sitting between Tony Stark and the soldier to his left was worse. With the exception of the music and the occasional clinking of ice in Stark's drink, the drive had been relatively silent.

"I feel like you're driving me to a court-martial. This is crazy. What did I do?" Stark broke the tension within the vehicle as he tried to get some response and then looked over at the soldier sitting beside Alex. "I feel like you're going to pull over and snuff me. What, you're not allowed to talk? Hey, Forrest!"

"We can talk, sir."

The soldier was immediately silent again. Tony swirled his drink. "Oh, I see. So it's personal?"

"I'd like to think so," Alex muttered inaudibly under his breath.

"You say something, Al?"

Although he glowered at the nickname, Alex shook his head. The soldier driving spoke up, providing a reason for the silence. "You intimidate them."

"Good God, you're a woman," Tony exclaimed in shock. If he wasn't his boss, Alex would have knocked him upside the head. However, Stark didn't stop there, "I honestly... I couldn't have called that. I mean, I'd apologize, but isn't that what we're going for here? I thought of you as a soldier first."

"I'm an airman," she corrected.

"Well you have, actually, excellent bone structure, there. I'm kind of having a hard time not looking at you now. Is that weird?" The soldiers laughed at Tony's question, which he quickly encouraged. "Come on, it's okay, laugh."

"Sir." The soldier sitting shotgun hesitated. "I have a question to ask."

"Yes, please."

"Is it true you went twelve for twelve with last year's Maxim cover models?"

Alex rolled his eyes, but Tony grinned. "That is an excellent question. Yes and no. March and I had a scheduling conflict, but fortunately, the Christmas cover was twins. Anything else?" The soldier beside Alex raised his hand. "You're kidding me with the hand up, right?"

The soldier quickly put his hand down. "Is it cool if I take a picture with you?"

"Yes. It's very cool." The soldier pulled out his camera and handed it up to the soldier sitting in the front seat. Alex frowned as he was suddenly more squished than before between Stark and the soldier. "I don't want to see this on your MySpace page." The soldier threw up a peace sign as he posed, but Tony shook his head. "Please, no gang signs. No, throw it up. I'm kidding. Yeah, peace. I love peace. I'd be out of a job with peace."

"Come on. Hurry up," the soldier urged, "Just click it. Don't change any settings. Just click it."

The camera flashed, but so did the vehicle ahead of them as it went up in flames. They weren't given any time to process what had happened as gunfire rained down on the remaining vehicles.

"What's going on?" Tony asked, panic creeping into his voice.

"Contact left!" The driver shouted to alert the others.

"What have we got?" Tony asked again, trying to get some sort of answer.

The driver threw open her door and stepped out to confront their attackers; however, she was immediately shot down. The soldier sitting in the passenger seat looked back and shouted out an order. "Jimmy, stay with Stark!"

Jimmy looked over at Stark; however, as more gunfire was heard, Alex took over and pulled Stark toward the ground of the vehicle. It was like second nature as he put his own body on the line without a second thought. Although the two had their differences, none of it mattered the second that either of their lives became endangered. Alex had a job to do and he intended to keep his clean record. A firm look crossed his face as his command was nonnegotiable. "Stay down!"

The soldier from the front seat exited the vehicle, but was also shot down. Jimmy swore under his breath, "Son of a bitch!"

The remaining soldier checked to make sure his weapon was loaded before opening the door to get out of the vehicle. Tony called for his attention. "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! Give me a gun!"

"Belay that order!" Alex shouted even though Jimmy had no intention of actually listening.

"Stay here!" Jimmy instructed. But as he turned back around, he was gunned down too. Dozens of holes pierced the hull of the vehicle. Alex's heart stopped and he slowly slumped to the ground as blood soaked through his issued Stark Industries uniform as if the bullet-proof vest he'd been wearing had done nothing to protect him.

He could feel his eyes start to roll back in his head as his nervous system processed the excruciating pain of the bullets that riddled his body. His ears rang, echoing the sound of the car door opening then slamming shut. He didn't have the strength to turn his head, but he weakly managed to twitch a finger and part his lips to utter a single word. "Tony..."

The car suddenly rocked and his sight tunnel-visioned. There was a pinprick of light that called to him, but as he reached out the world grew colder; however, there wasn't a way to turn back. He was past the point of no return as his grasp on reality faded and his consciousness drifted with it.