A shrill electronic beeping woke James up from his sleep, who in a half-asleep state grabbed one of his pillows and threw it at the offending device. It fell off of the table with a soft thud but refused to be silent. Groaning in defeat, he pulled his face out of his pillows and sighed.

"AILA, Turn it off. Please."

An electronic female voice giggled at the request as a red holographic waveform hovered above a futuristic silver wristwatch. AILA, or Artifical Intelligence Logistical Assistant as it's officially called, was an AI James had programmed based on Tony Stark's JAVIS, with the help of Tony himself.

"No can do, Sir. You know as well as I do that you'll just oversleep."

He responded with an unimpressed look before he hauled himself out of bed and went through his morning routine: Breakfast, Teeth, Shower, Dressed and a Quick coffee before he leaves. He was just stepping out of the shower with a towel around his waist as a two-tone electronic chime originated from his phone.

"AILA, Play message."

"Right away, Sir."

The Waveform briefly appeared above his phone before disappearing, replaced by the voice of one Tony Stark himself.

"Hey James, It's Tony. I'm gonna need you to swing by my office at Stark Tower. Me and Rhodey have got something we need to talk to you about. Alright, Catch you later."

The message ended with a single beep, and he raised a single eyebrow as he towel dried his hair. He quickly finished his morning routine and got on his motorcycle. 

A short drive later, he arrived at Stark Tower. Nodding to the security at the desk and smiling at the receptionist. a young woman he had a little bit of a sweet spot for, he quickly made his way to the top of the building, where he was met with the sight of both Tony Stark and James Rhodes with a grim expression... well, grim for Rhodes. Tony looked like he'd eaten some bad shawarma, but was otherwise ok.

"So what's the emergency?"

Tony was the one to answer. "Just got a message from good old Captain America, or at least the old one. Long story short, he needs heroes and, I'll tell you now, we're not them."

"...and this is to do with me, how?"

Rhodes sighed. "We didn't want to have to do this, but I have my family to think about, and Tony isn't exactly ready to get back into that suit either..."

James froze as he attempted to connect the dots. "You can't mean..."

"Yes, we do. We need you to take over from me as War Machine."
[hr]
After a rather hectic verbal battle, James finally relented. He agreed to take over as War Machine until this 'new threat' was dealt with, and then he'd think about it from there. He'd asked Tony about the Iron Man suit, but only received a vague, fanciful answer in typical Tony Stark fashion, something about 'having his own plans for the super-powered tin can'. Now, after getting re-familiarised with the same suit he had spent the last year tinkering on, he was flying out to meet the 'First Avenger' himself and save the world... hopefully without dying in the process.