A/N Hi, again! I can't say too much- spoilers- but this story is set to pick up a few months after the series end and seeks to explore one of the loose ends left by the writers. A certain escape is shown that never has a resolution in the show, so here is my interpretation of the following events. I hope you enjoy!
IM:AA doesn't belong to me.
"What type of tie should I wear with my tux?"
Pepper glances at Tony quizzically from where she sits in the comm chair. He has his neck craned, peering at her expectantly over his shoulder, holograms of a few selections of ties at his fingertips.
"What for?" she asks, pausing the game she'd been playing on her phone and pushing herself up out of the seat. Tony chuckles as if it should be obvious, turning back to the images as she approaches.
"For prom. Duh."
"You're going to prom?" Pepper asks with wide eyes. Tony shoots her a bewildered expression, pausing unsurely at the keyboard.
"Well... yeah. Aren't you? Because I thought..." Tony gasps as Pepper lurches forward, clasping a hand to his mouth and muffling his words.
"No, no, you can't do it like that! You have to ask me! And it has to be cute. Like with flowers or something." Pepper releases him and steps back, beaming at him and toeing the floor with a scuffed shoe.
"I- I have to ask you? Isn't it obvious that we're already-"
"Shh, it's just a thing. You have to do it."
"Ah. This is one of those girl things, isn't it?" Pepper shoots him another wide smile in answer. "Okay, then. What did you have in mind?"
"Just look up "promposals." I'm sure you'll get some ideas."
Tony rolls his eyes as he carelessly swipes away the holograms, shoving his hands in his pockets. It seemed ridiculous to him that he should have to ask Pepper to prom when they were already dating, but he knew as well that the occasion meant a lot to her- if any of her incessant chatter about dresses and dancing were to mean anything. Maybe she just wanted to follow out her childhood fantasies or something.
Tony glances over at the unit where his Mark II armour was housed. It seemed fair enough to ask when he himself had been living his own fantasies with the creation of the Iron Man armour.
"If only there was a pretty girl around that I could ask to prom in such a spectacular display of romance and affection," Tony says with as much bravado as he can muster, quirking a brow at her. Pepper socks him in the shoulder. He rubs his arm with a laugh.
"We'll see who's laughing when you have to debate tomorrow on congressional authority for your final exam." That effectively silences him. Tony had been dreading the AP debate's final exam for weeks- although he had no preparation to show for it. Obviously. "Anyway," Pepper says smugly, knowing she'd won that round, "I want to take out the Rescue armour for a quick spin. Just to test out the software update you gave it."
"The update was routine. The enhancements were minuscule, if at all noticeable. There's no need..." He trails off, noticing the hopeful glint in her eyes. "Right, you just want an excuse to take it out, huh?"
"Yes, please! Aw, thanks Tony, you're the best!" Pepper hugs him quickly and then practically sprints over to the armour dock where the purple armour still stands, like a silent sentinel watching over them. Tony huffs but smiles all the same. He knows he can never stay upset with her so he doesn't even try.
"Be careful! I don't want to have to come peel you off any billboards or pay the city for damages."
"Uh-huh, yeah, okay." The mask is already sliding over her face, her voice distorted as she chirps, "Got it, thanks! See you in a bit, Tony!"
"See ya, Pep." Tony waves as Pepper rockets off to terrorise some pigeons or scare some suits in their skyrise apartments. He'd be lying if he'd said he didn't plan to keep tabs on her whereabouts with the location system implanted in all the armours. Not that he didn't trust her, or find her incapable, but she was still practically in the infancy stages of flying as Rescue. Better to be safe than sorry, if the incident with Happy Hogan had taught him anything.
A few minutes later, a beep from the communication system alerts him of an oncoming message. Pepper's chipper voice echoes through the armoury as she says, "By the way, black tie and black Converse!" Tony grins to himself, although he isn't sure why.
He's about to pull out some schematics he's working on for an upgrade for the Hulk-buster armour when he hears the noise -kshh- of the entrance of the armoury depressurising. He glances over, expecting Rhodey, but startles at the sight of Pepper strolling in, smiling at him.
His spine stiffens as he straightens up, glancing from her to the empty armour port. Pepper had left less than ten minutes ago in her suit.
"Hey, Tony!" Pepper says, waving at him as she walks over. Tony backs away slowly, swallowing thickly. "What's up?"
"Who are you?" he says, struggling to keep his voice even. "Why are you here?" Pepper feigns shock at the accusing tone, holding her hands up defensively and stopping a few feet shy of him. Tony feels his muscles tensing for a fight.
"It's me, silly. Who else?"
"Pepper literally just flew out in her armour." His voices quiets to a low growl. "Who are you?"
The girl sighs, folding her arms and watching him now with narrowed eyes. "Well that didn't last long. At least it got me inside." Her disguise melts away, neon pink fading to harsh navy. Pepper's short cropping of ginger hair lengthens and darkens and a golden mask blinks into existence on the intruder's face. She pulls from her belt a long, thin dart-gun as Tony gapes at her.
"Madame Masque- Whitney!" Not good, not good, this was very not good. Tony turns and starts to reach for his armour with Extremis but is interrupted as a sharp pinch stings his upper arm. He gasps through clenched teeth and slaps his hand to the affected site, finding a dart protruding from his skin. Before he can even assess the situation he feels the dart taking root as he loses his connections with the armour, his Computer, and all other tech around him. His mind feels strangely empty and spacious without their presence.
"I've spent the last few weeks disguised as a SHIELD operative. Since you were so kind to flout the name of your power- Extremis- to me during round one, I managed to find out all I needed to know about it." Tony turns to her, cerulean eyes wide and disbelieving. "The concoction in those darts counteracts Extremis. I don't know how. It doesn't matter."
He should have known SHIELD was prepared in the case of Iron Man going dark-side.
He's about to lunge for the armour, hope he can just outrun her, but the unmistakable click of the safety of a gun being released halts him in his tracks. He faces her slowly, hands in fists at his sides. Whitney has taken the mask off, her hair back to its natural blonde colour. In her gloved hands she holds a revolver, her focus unwavering as she brings it to point to his chest.
"Don't," Tony says, not sure what else he can say. All of his other reasons had been exhausted, and fruitless, in the last battle against the youngest Stane.
Whitney ignores him. "I stopped by to see your dear old dad, today," she says innocently, pretending for a moment to be inspecting the hammer mechanism on the gun. She laughs pointedly at Tony's horrified expression, dramatically rolling her eyes. "No, I didn't shoot him. I was going to. I had every intention of coming here and being able to say I'd done it. I couldn't, though. Howard Stark was like a father to me when my own dad was too busy to be."
"We were all like family once," Tony whispers earnestly. "You and me, we didn't have anyone else. We had each other."
"And then you changed that when you put my dad into a coma," Whitney grinds out, her knuckles turning white on the grip. "When you lied to me, when you went behind my back over and over again without me knowing."
"Please, Whitney-" Tony hesitantly starts to take a step closer. Whitney drops the gun's aim just a hair and pulls the trigger.
Tony screams in pain as he drops to his knees, his hands flying to protectively cover his abdomen. Whitney swiftly draws nearer and kicks him onto his back, shooting him again in the stomach. A cry rips involuntarily from the inventor's mouth as he curls in on himself, eyes squeezed tightly in agony.
"You know why a gutshot is often used in revenge-killings?" Whitney circles him as he thrashes, groaning between clenched teeth. Blood ebbs from between his fingers. "It's not the loss of blood that usually kills you, not unless you nick an artery. It's the infection. The death is long and painful. I think it's fitting that you should die in such a personal way. Not from some clean blast from a laser-gun. No, I want you to suffer."
"Wh-Whit..." Tony screams and curls up even tighter when Whitney aims a kick at his stomach. His breathing is ragged and erratic, and he's obviously in anguish, but he's trying to hold back, to withhold the satisfaction from Whitney of seeing him beg and scream and cry. Even in the end, she thinks, he's trying to play hero.
Whitney waits, patiently, as Tony's movements become more and more subdued as he goes into shock and, ultimately, begins to lose consciousness. After a few minutes of spluttering and hacking up blood and bile, blue eyes eventually slip closed and his arms go slack on the armory floor. Whitney smiles. Even if he isn't dead yet, it feels so glad to know she's finally come out on top.
Even if it doesn't make her dad wake up.
Slipping on the mask, her appearance soon mirrors that of the genius lying prone on the floor, save for the wounds. "Computer," she says in a precise copy of Tony's voice, "what protocols do you have for locking down the armoury?"
"Just a few weeks ago, emergency sequence QUARANTINE ISOLATION was programmed into the armoury's system. Commencing this program initiates lock-down of the armoury. Lock-down can be set to a specific allotted amount of time or can be lifted by user Stark, Anthony's order."
"Perfect." The perfect mimicry's lips twist into another demented smile. "Start that, will you?" She turns to leave, sparing only a short glance at the body on the floor, swinging her borrowed hips as she leaves. "Oh, and Computer," she says in Tony's voice, almost as an afterthought. "Take orders only from me from now on."
The armoury doors swoosh closed behind her, leaving Tony Stark, dying and unconscious, alone.
A/N Well, there you go! Chapter one of what will be a two or three chapter story. I already have much of the next chapter written, but I'm still not sure if I'll add the third. I guess we'll see. Oh, and since I couldn't say it at the beginning- for spoiler purposes- the last time we saw Whitney, she was escaping as Madame Masque by pretending to be a SHIELD agent. Let me know what you thought, and what you think is going to happen! Have a great day!
