Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Pepper Potts is investigating the school basement in Broxton, Oklahoma, when her exhausted brain starts hallucinating her dead husband Happy Hogan. She's found some boxing gloves, and he leads her through the process of taking her anger out on a punching bag. (I.e. she remembers how he did it.)
She soon stops, saying fighting isn't her style. But Happy says not from what he's seen lately. She immediately guiltily apologises for sleeping with Tony Stark. But Happy's not bothered about that. He just wants to remind her that she's just busted Maria Hill and Black Widow out of Norman Osborn's clutches with her Rescue armour, retrieving a vital hard drive on the way.
But Pepper also remembers thinking that she never wanted to be a superhero, on the way here. The 3 women had split up after their escape, to make their individual ways to the rendezvous in Broxton. Pepper was flying here in the Rescue suit, alone except for its AI JARVIS.
They were running low on power when they saw a tanker about to collide with a car full of teenagers. Rescue saved the car, but the tanker smashed into a mini-mart, killing the driver and setting fire to the place.
JARVIS alerted the fire brigade, and Rescue broke through the roof of the mart to help 4 detectable survivors. She needed to get everything done before the fire crew arrived, so Osborn's HAMMER don't notice her presence and come to arrest her.
She got 2 people out. But a news copter saw her. HAMMER would be here sooner than she hoped.
She went back in to find the other 2. A man was tending to a badly injured boy. Rescue took the boy out to waiting paramedics, and then headed back for the last person. Her power was nearly out, and HAMMER would be there any second. She found the man again, but he'd been hit by falling debris and was now also in a bad way. She took him to safety too, but then had to run from HAMMER without finding out whether he'll survive.
Back in the present, Pepper sees her glass half empty. She thinks she should have stopped the tanker, or she should have got all 4 people out. But Happy tells her to think of the people she *did* save.
He also says she should forgive herself for her part in having his life support terminated, when there was no hope of his recovery.
Happy fades away, and Pepper continues punishing the punchbag.