A/N Thank you Anna Katari (I'm glad you enjoyed it! Hopefully this chapter doesn't disappoint.) and SilverPedals1402 (Hey, thank you! Hopefully I met your expectations with this chapter, haha. Will Tony survive? We'll see, we'll see... And it always bothered me that Whitney's story arc was left open in the way it was. It honestly made me hopeful for a season three, back in the day, haha.) for commenting! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. More notes at the bottom.
IM:AA does not belong to me. Sadly. Season three, where you at?
"Pepper! Did you-"
"I already got the alert, Rhodey," Pepper says curtly as she answers the call. She's zooming above the city like a rocket, pushing her armour to the limit trying to reach the armoury as fast as she can. "Something about gunfire in the armoury, and now Tony won't pick up. He always picks up, Rhodey. I'm worried."
"What's your ETA? I was on my way there already. I'll be there in five."
"I might beat you. I'm in my Rescue armour."
Pepper is trying not to worry herself too much with possible horrific scenarios, but worrying is one of the things she does best. Who knows about the location of the armoury, besides Team Iron Man and Howard Stark? Ghost? He definitely had reason to want Tony dead, now that he no longer had the blackmail of his secret identity to hold over his head. Was there anyone else?
"Rhodey, who else knows about the location of the armoury, besides us?"
"Let's see." Rhodey is quiet for a moment, presumably mulling the question over. "Ghost, for one. Arthur Parks. I suppose MODOC, but he's dead. Uh... Whitney Stane, but she's in SHIELD isolation."
"Think it was Ghost? Oh, no, it was, wasn't it? Oh, God, Rhodey, if it was Ghost-"
"Pepper, stop freaking out. Look, I'm pulling up, okay? I'll see you when you get here."
"Okay-" The calls disconnects as Rhodey hangs up. Worrying her lower lip between her teeth, Pepper begs her suit to hasten although she's already reached the propulsion system's maximum speed. Terrifying scenes of what could be happening to Tony continue to haunt her as she flies.
When she arrives less than a minute later, she is concerned to see that Rhodey is standing outside the armoury entrance, head bowed over his phone's screen. Pepper lands beside him, prompting him to look up at her with wide eyes.
"Pepper..." he says, his voice fragile as glass, and that's when she knows for certain the nightmare is real.
"Why are you standing out here?" she asks shakily. "We need to go help him!"
"We can't get in. We've been locked out."
Ignoring him, Pepper stomps over to the retinal scanner, her mask sliding back to allow the scanner to reach her. A brilliant flash of red light later and the electronic voice of the computer is stating in that droll monotone, "Access denied." Pepper turns back to her friend, unable to keep her face implacable as fear breaks through; it doesn't comfort her to see that Rhodey looks equally distressed, if not more so.
"Rhodey, what's going on?"
Rhodey pockets his phone before Pepper can demand to see it- which she was certainly about to. "I just watched the security footage," Rhodey says, taking a deep breath to steel himself for whatever bad news he's about to divulge. "It's the only thing I can get to. The armoury is on lock-down. Whitney- Madame Masque- she..." Rhodey looks crestfallen, turning away from Pepper. "She shot him, Pepper, and we can't get to him."
Pepper shakes her head, already refusing to believe what she's hearing. Whitney Stane was here? And she- she shot him? That little... Pepper pinches the bridge of her nose, trying to focus on the situation at hand. She'd always said that she performed well under pressure, and now more than ever was the time for her to demonstrate that. Rhodey, usually the clear-headed and logical thinker of the three, clearly isn't operating on all six-cylinders at the moment from whatever he saw on those tapes. Right now it's up to her. "We can get his dad, see if he can hack the computer and get us inside. Or we can just bust in."
"His dad might could get past Tony's crazy freaking security system in a few hours, or days, but we don't have that kind of time. Even if we had my War Machine armour, Pepper, we couldn't get inside. It's sealed up like a vault. I helped Tony test it myself."
"There's gotta be a command to get inside."
"The only one who can override the lock-down is Tony, and he's out cold." He doesn't say dead. Tony can't be dead. They can't even consider that.
Pepper looks away, brows pinching deep in thought, before she sharply turns to Rhodey. "You said it was Madame Masque. She can open the armoury with that mask."
Rhodey frowns, clearly not sold on the idea. "Pepper, she's the one who shot him in the first place. How are you supposed to convince her to help him?"
"Leave that to me." Pepper's face-plate clanks back into place. "How can I find her?"
"Tony found her last time by tracking the energy signature the mask gave off. He said it was specific only to the type of ore used in the mask."
She has a plan. A questionable one at that, and she isn't sure how she intends to carry it through yet, but it's a plan nonetheless. "Computer, trace the, uh..." Pepper isn't sure what the proper terms are for this command. "Find Madame Masque," she settles on. The armour seems to understand, plotting out a course for her to follow that allegedly leads to the shooter. She turns to Rhodey, her voice modulator muffling her voice as she says, "Go get Howard and get him started on trying to get in. I'm going after the Queen Bee."
Pepper finds Whitney in a secluded section of Central Park. It's late enough that the park has already closed for the night, leaving her alone in eerie silence as she touches down a few hundred feet from the girl.
Whitney's mask is on, a heavy-duty assault laser rifle shouldered as she turns to face Pepper. Pepper is briefly reminded of her adolescent fear of dolls and mannequins before she squashes the thought and lifts one of her gauntlet repulsors, taking aim at the Stane.
"Whitney," she cries out, cursing herself as her voice breaks, "you need to come with me to fix this mess."
Madame Masque, in response, hefts the weapon at her shoulder and fires three shots in quick succession at her. Pepper dodges the first two but takes the third directly in the chest. She winces as she hits the dirt but quickly leaps back up to her feet.
"You know, I'm doing you a favour, Pepper," Whitney coos. "Tony, so not boyfriend material." She takes a few die-sized bombs from her belt and throws them towards Pepper, where they clatter at her feet. This time she deflects the blast with her shields, although a nearby tree is incinerated.
"Whitney, you'll be facing a whole lot more than a bit of jail-time if you let him die. Homicide far outranks attempted homicide in the eyes of Lady Justice, AKA the court." Pepper doesn't return fire yet; she still needs her in one piece. Or at least conscious. "If you grant us access to him, maybe we can cut a deal, get you a more lenient sentence."
"You think I care about prison?" Whitney cries, her voice shrill. "My father is practically dead, all thanks to Tony Stark. Now I'm going to make sure he dies, too." From her belt Whitney pulls out what appears to be a pistol, but it unfolds in her hands to equal the size of a bazooka. Before Pepper can even guess what the contraption is, a beam of green light bursts from it, ensnaring her in its grip. "Stasis field, ripped from the Iron Man specs stolen by Ghost. Neat, huh?"
Pepper screams in irritation, attempting to squirm free of the field- but its hold on her is airtight, and she can't even wiggle a finger. She's seen Tony ensnared in one of these before, when he was fighting SHIELD's mandroids. What was it that he had done to free himself?
"All power to shields for three seconds!" she cries out. As Whitney is aiming a grenade launcher previously slung around her back, Pepper is cocooned in the flickering light of the shields as they blink into existence. It doesn't take long for the shields to burst apart the stasis field with a blinding flash, although the action has severely drained her armour. The grenade is decimated in the explosion.
"Just listen to me-" Pepper tries again, but she is promptly ignored and cut off.
"No, you listen to me! Nothing can replace what he took from me, but this..." Whitney's finger hovers over the trigger. "This comes close."
"Pepper!" Rhodey's voice filters through the comm. link as Pepper gears herself up for another one-sided attack.
"Rhodey! I'm not doing so hot here. She's not listening to me at all, and every time I talk to her she just gets angrier-"
"Pepper!" She is interrupted again, and this time by Howard. "You don't need her, only the mask. If you can take her mask, then you can open the armoury yourself."
Pepper's face slackens with the realisation as she narrowly misses another attack. Why had she not thought of that before? What was it Tony always said about emotions getting the better of rational thinking minds?
"Roger, dodger," she nods, and this time when Whitney attacks she reciprocates.
Repulsors blast from her gauntlets and unibeam as she launches volley after volley towards the girl. Whitney expertly escapes them all- all but the last one, which nicks her arm and leaves a bright red blistering mass on her exposed skin. She cries out in pain, but doesn't waste time blasting Pepper again with the stasis gun. This time Pepper is ready, deflecting the beam before it ever reaches her.
Whitney drops the gun and stumbles backwards, reaching into her pocket for more explosives, but Pepper is faster. She launches forward, grabbing Whitney by the wrist and flying upwards until they're hovering several feet above the ground. Whitney struggles and kicks out at her, fingers scrabbling uselessly against the cold iron fingers holding her.
"What are you going to do? Kill me? You know that means Tony is as good as dead."
"Turns out we don't need you at all," Pepper says coldly, ripping the mask from Whitney's face. The girl gapes at her in surprise, free hand flying to her cheek. "But I'm not going to kill you. I don't stoop to your level."
"Then what are you going to do?" Whitney scowls at her. "You don't have time to drop me off with SHIELD if you want to go save the traitor." Behind the mask, Pepper frowns, seeing the validity to her point. She settles back down onto the ground, releasing Whitney's arm as the girl stares at her in surprise.
"You're right," she concedes, and then winds her arm back to slap Whitney across the face with the back of her glove. Whitney passes out cold on the ground, arms flinging limply to her sides. "Thanks for reminding me."
Pepper rockets off, still clutching tightly to the mask.
At the armoury, she is met by Tony's father and Rhodey; she wastes no times with greetings. Her mask once again slips back to expose her face, only this time she slides the mask on. Though she can still feel the mask clinging to her skin like a damp towel, she also feels herself grow taller, feels added mass to her arms and legs and chest. There's no time to explore the surreal sensation. She steps up to the retinal scanner, and this time it accepts her with a greeting of, "Stark, Anthony, welcome."
"Lift the lock-down, now!" she cries in a voice that is not her own. "Let me inside!"
Three heartbeats later, the armoury doors noisily grind upwards. She tosses the mask to the floor and rushes to the inventor's side, followed closely by Howard and Rhodey.
Trying to ignore the blood staining the floor, she drops to her knees and cradles Tony's upper body in her arms. His head lolls heavily like a sack of potatoes, chin to his chest; his skin is clammy and pallid, and he is shivering and slick with sweat. He doesn't respond as she calls his name, nor does he react when she desperately shakes his shoulders, remaining slack as a rag-doll in her hands.
"Computer, run a bio-scan on him," someone says behind her.
"Anthony's vital signs are weak. User is suffering from the infection peritonitis from a .45 calibre bullet wound to the stomach, as well as from blood loss and fatigue. Immediate surgery required for best chances of survival."
"You heard it," Howard says, a hand on her shoulder startling Pepper out of her reverie. "You need to get him to the hospital, and quickly."
Pepper nods mutely, still too shocked to speak for once in her life. She gathers Tony's limp body into her metallic arms, swallowing past a lump in her throat as her face-plate settles back into place. As she starts the jets and rushes away, Tony trembles in her arms, subconsciously curling closer to her, hands clenched tightly against his chest. His forehead listlessly bumps against her shoulder plate as she flies, keeping her head and shoulders low to protect him from the brunt force of the wind.
A/N Little bit of a cliff-hanger again, but maybe not too bad this time? I hope I wrote the fight scene up-to-par, and I also hope the linear progression of this story isn't too much of a throw. It's definitely going to be three chapters, now, and the third will likely be up soon. I would write it right now if it weren't two hours past midnight here, haha. Hope you enjoyed, and let me know what you think!
