AN: Sorry for not giving the last chapter one of these. It's been a heck of a week for me. A massive blizzard hit my state, power went out for around a day, and we were trapped in our development for quite some time. It's cleared up now, and Here I am. My thanks go out to Finnish Toast, Naomi Pictogreen, and DarkDust27 for Favoriting and/or Reviewing my story. My sincere thanks go to you, and the same to any who decide to Favorite of review my story. Please review and provide any insight or advice you want.
Later.
At an Unknown Location
Pain. That was the first thing he felt. Then came the numbness in the rest of his body. The all-encompassing pain overwhelmed most other senses the man had. It flowed through his veins like lava, burning away in his legs. It was though they had been skinned, stripped to the bone, and then salted and roasted.
His eyes barely functioned. The only thing he could see was white. It was everywhere, as though he were trapped inside of a star. The sheer level of light was nearly blinding, yet it seemed to slowly be fading away. He slowly became able to distinguish vague shapes, mere outlines of their true forms.
He was able to recognize the familiar sight of an IV pole, which seemed to be hooked into his body. Next came the outlines of several people, all standing in the back corner of the room, talking. Recognizing that he was in an unfamiliar location with strangers that had left him in pain, he acted. He flailed his legs forward, restraining a yell of pain as he swung himself off the bed. The strangers reacted immediately, grabbing a needle full of blue liquid and rushing towards him with it.
His training proved to be too much for them, even in the state his body was in. He launched a kick at one enemies knee knocking him to the ground, and then delivered an elbow sweep into the others chest. Both were winded which allowed him to swing out his right arm, smashing one of the assailants in the head. He collapsed like a bag of bricks onto the other one, knocking them both out cold on the hard metal floor.
Mattheu tried to leap off this accursed bed. His legs failed to respond to him he realized as his attempts were futile. Ripping off the bloodied sheet laid upon his bed he stopped immediately.
There, lay two clear cuts. Right from his knees down, his legs were gone. It took him several seconds to realize just what they had done. They'd taken his life from him. Never again would he serve France in the GIGN. Never again would he walk like a normal human being. He was forever a cripple it seemed.
He'd frozen completely. He stared at the stubs that once led to his legs. He knew this had to be a dream, that there was no way he'd been this incredibly injured in the short firefights in that run-down building. Then it came to him, those final three shots. Those were the issue here. He hadn't even realized he'd stopped breathing before he was forced to take a very deep breath into his lungs. The air was cool, refreshing almost. He leaned backwards, struggling to keep the tears out of his eyes as the full weight of the situation managed to bear its ugly head down upon him.
He heard the shuffling of feet, before several more nurses entered the room. They glanced in confusion at their 'Unruly' Patient, and the tired doctors on the floor.
"Sorry… about that, you know" He mumbled in English. His voice was tired as it rang out in the room.
The lead nurse seemed to pay no attention to his apology other than her pitying expression she wore as she approached him with the syringe.
Mattheu offered no resistance to her as she injected him with the drugs. They took a few moments to take effect, but it was still quite quick. He was out like a light before he even knew it.
His last memory before his slumber was the horrible image of his Stump leg, and all the horrors it entailed.
He awoke again. His eyes slowly fluttered open as they adjusted to the level of light in the room. Mattheu lifted his head slightly, before a familiar hand pushed him back to the bed.
"Well good morning there Mr. Badass." Her voice whispered, her hand ruffling his hair fondly.
"Ms. Stark?" Mattheu asked, confusion laced throughout his voice. He looked to her, the unspoken question traveling between them.
"You're in my tower, Sarge. As you saw… earlier, there were some complications." She said, looking away sadly.
"You mean my leg, Ms. Stark." He stated more than asked. Toni merely nodded, before looking into his eyes.
"We both lost a part of ourselves in there, Mr. Vasseur." She told him.
Mattheu took a moment to actually look at her. His look of curiosity quickly turned to concern at the sight of her. Her hair was a mess, she looked like she hadn't slept at all, and she was missing her left leg.
"I'm sorry I didn't do good enough, Ms. Stark. I cannot forgive myself for failing to protect you." He said, his voice filled with regret. Toni was having none of it with her response however.
"No! This has nothing to do with you. My leg happened during the ambush. I knew it was doomed from the start." She told him, glancing down at the stub. It was cut at nearly the same place as his, just below the knee.
They looked at each other for a moment before Toni suddenly snapped her fingers. Immediately two nurses entered the room, a Wheelchair trailing behind them.
"We're heading somewhere more private to talk, alright?" She asked, glancing to him for approval.
Mattheu nodded, looking towards the wheelchair with trepidation. He lifted himself up into a sitting position, before lowering himself towards the chair.
Toni smiled at him, before chuckling. "Just as annoyed about this as I was, I see. They had to do a lot of surgery on you, you know. There was a lot of damage left over." Toni told him, before nodding towards the two nurses. They left them in the corridor outside the infirmary, heading back inside. "Follow me. We're heading to the elevator so we can talk in peace." Toni continued, wheeling herself towards the spacious elevator.
Mattheu took a few seconds to get used to the wheelchair, before quickly following suit. He rolled himself into the elevator with Toni, glancing at her before she spoke suddenly.
"My personal floor, JARVIS." She spoke, her head tilted slightly upwards.
Mattheu searched the room with his eyes, but he saw no intercom of any type. He wondered who she was speaking to until a distinctly British accented voice spoke up.
"Of Course, Ms. Stark. Sending you to your private floor now." It said, Its voice reverberating throughout the room. Mattheu tensed up in his rolling chair, but relaxed at the sound of Toni's calming voice.
"It's JARVIS. He's an AI I made in college, sort of like a butler for everything I do anywhere." She informed him, smiling as he relaxed. "We're heading somewhere so I can show you… something I've been working on ever since I woke up." She smiled, looking at him brightly.
"And what might this be, Ms. Stark?" Mattheu asked, subtly scanning the elevator for any type of bugs.
"The first prototype of something… amazing." She replied cryptically.
The elevator came to a stop beeping. The dual doors opened quickly, Toni following swiftly behind. She rolled as if she were confined to this chair for her entire life. She had the skill and precision of an expert. The room they entered was large and open, the walls coated with a white gloss. The floor was a very beautiful tile set, rolling over the floor in a colored Mosaic.
The workshop was filled with various mechanical instruments, as well as a StarkTech 'Holo-Manipulator' in the center. Toni snapped her fingers, immediately pulling her hands through the air, manipulating the Holograms as they appeared. Several designs flew by, many weapons, some armors, and a type of rocket. Finally, she stopped her hands, as a cylindrical shape appeared. Toni smiled brightly as she looked at it, glancing back at Mattheu.
"It'll take about a week to manufacture… but we can give you your legs back, Matt." She told him, smiling lightly.
Mattheu just stared. He looked between her and the Hologram in the center of the room, his eyes widened and surprised.
"You… you did all this, in one day?" He asked her, his voice unable to hide his amazement.
Toni looked at him, her eyes filled with confusion first, then a sad understanding next. She glanced at him guiltily before beginning.
"Matt, It's been more than one day, you know. You've been out of it for a week longer than I was. It's been an entire month since France." She informed him, looking away shamefully.
"I wish the doctors had told you when you woke, but you were a bit out of it." She continued, as she fiddled with a few pieces on the hologram.
Mattheu nodded, his mind processing the new information he'd received. He looked to her suddenly, his expression unreadable.
"So why Ms. Stark, would you do this for me?" He asked, his voice betraying him with emotion.
Toni hesitated for only a second before she answered.
"Because I realized what you did. Your buddy, the only other guy you had left with you. He told me what you risked. Being the only two people left, and still committing to the mission? I'd call that stupid if it wasn't what saved my life. I owe you." She confessed, her eyes staring straight into his and hiding nothing.
Mattheu nodded his head understandingly before speaking.
"I want you to know, Ms. Stark, that-" He started, before Toni cut him off.
"If we're gonna be friends, I gotta lay some rules. First, stop calling me 'Miss', it makes me sound old. Second, Don't give me that 'It's My Job' bull because it wasn't. Getting those hostages out, and I was expendable if need be." She told him.
Mattheu just gave her a look of understanding, before speaking again.
"Alright then, Toni. I do want to be your friend, if possible. And now that my old group will no longer take me, would you mind finding me somewhere available? This is all I want from you, if possible." He asked her, hope filling his voice.
Toni just smiled, before gesturing to the set of bio-mechanical legs in the hologram.
"These babies will be done in around a week. Completely experimental, so I have no idea if they'll give you extreme nerve damage. You get to test them out. Workout with them, you know?" She told him, gesturing to the set of prosthetics she'd created.
"I… wow. Thank you, Toni. I'd be happy to try them out. I've only been in this chair for a few minutes but I already hate it." Matt replied, smiling at the genius.
The two continued to talk about the specifics of the legs. Size, Strength, Thickness, Design. All of the above were involved in their talks. Hours seemed to pass by like seconds. Mattheu, in the depths of his mind, was grateful towards Toni. He appreciated her bluntness about the length of time it'd take to finish them. He was happy, at her willingness to conform to his design peculiarities. He watched her change the set of legs, shaping them into a slightly more human shape. She exploded the image over and over again, plucking away at it until it was a bare skeleton, and then quickly shaping it back together in a different shape.
It was twelve hours later, at 8 PM that the door to the workshop opened. A redhead briskly entered, her eyes already locked onto both Toni.
"Antoinette Emily Stark!" She growled, "Why in gods name are you siting in here, working on who knows what? You KNOW you have a Board meeting in half an hour! Halfway across the state, no less!" She all but shouted.
"Pep! Oh, I'm so sorry. I was talking to Mattheu here, the guy from France? We were designing his new walkers. Oh boy, I'm so dead. Please, Don't kill me Pep." She rambled, looking nervously between Pepper and Mattheu.
Pepper got straight up in Toni's Face, staring into her eyes.
"Get your suit on, Toni. And then get straight to the limo. I'll meet you there, because I need to talk to your friend." She ordered. Toni gave no objection as she very nearly sprint out of the room. She disappeared into the elevator, as Pepper rounded around towards Mattheu.
Mattheu was about to speak when he felt arms wrap around him. The woman was hugging him! He awkwardly wrapped his arms around Pepper in return for a moment, before they released each other.
"Thank you, Mr Vasseur. You saved her life at the cost of your body, and you have no idea what that means to me. I love that woman like a sister, and we're so alike in many ways that I think we more or less are. Losing her would have killed me, I'm sure." She nearly cried. Mattheu could see the tears brimming in her eyes as she thought back to losing Toni.
"It… It was my job, Ma'am. I did whatever it took to get her out of there." He confessed.
"Either way, Mr. Vasseur. You've done me such a great service. As I'm sure Toni told you, We'd like to offer you a position here at Stark International. Given your… former occupation, I was thinking of recommending you as an addition to Toni's Security detail? If, you don't mind of course."
Mattheu looked her in the eyes, contemplating her question for but a moment before he answered.
"As soon as these new Legs come in? I'm in, Ms. Potts." He answered. With that out of the way, she presented him with two documents, and a pen.
Signing his name on one, and his initials on another, he was not officially Lead Bodyguard for Toni Stark. His life had just gotten a whole lot more interesting.