Synopsis / Summary / Plot
The unnamed armoured villain is flying James Rhodes to kill the previous President. He has given Jim an Iron Patriot armour (Rhodey lost the 1 he was wearing in the Gulf of Mexico). Jim has to obey because his grandfather and niece are hostages, and anyway the villain can control the IP armour.
The villain once again explains that his experiences as a SHIELD agent have made him distrust the motives of politicians, especially the previous administration. Here he specifically mentions being a SHIELD Peacekeeper during the ethnic cleansing in Symkaria.
We know that the armoured villain is working for more powerful people. As we suspected in #1 Mr Fujikawa, who blackmailed Congressman Meyer into withdrawing support for Iron Patriot's new domestic super-hero role, is a major player.
Rhodey doesn't know that niece Lila has escaped her kidnappers. She's now 'borrowed' a laptop from a customer in a coffee shop - judging by the man holding a bloody nose I guess she borrowed it with violence. She has locked herself in a loo to avoid the staff who are concerned about this very young girl with a bullet-grazed leg assaulting their clientele.
The kidnappers, 2 fake cops, have returned to granddad Terrence Rhodes, 1 of them has a grudge against Terrence. He tells him his granddaughter is dead and threatens to cut his ear off.
Some real cops have been called to the coffee shop, but Lila still refuses to come out of the restroom. The whiz-kid has used the laptop to contact an Iron Patriot armour (presumably another 1 Uncle Jim had at home). She remotely flies it into the kidnapper's hideout in time to save Grandpa's ear, and KO's the fake cops. Then she lets Terrence know who's flying the suit before the real cops break in and take her away.
Meanwhile Rhodey and the armoured villain have flown to the ex-President's ranch. The villain stuns all the Secret Service Agents with tasers, then calls Iron Patriot to join him. Streaming the action live to the Internet, the villain enters the ranch and confronts the ex-President. He orders Rhodes to kill him, and takes over the armour (or does he?) to force him to obey.
But then Terrence Rhodes bursts through the wall in the other IP armour.