I can't even...oh my God. 38 reviews for chapter three? Are you serious? I could totally cry right now. You guys are amazing. Seriously. I NEVER would have thought this story would have gotten the positive feed back it has. I want to thank each and every one of you, from the bottom of my heart. I hope I can keep delivering chapters that are up to your expectations! LOVE YOU ALL. ^_^
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I'm sorry this takes so long, I've been in summer school getting my minor and it gets so crazy and hectic...
Oh! I also started a Bruce x Fem!Tony story, a Meeting of the Minds, for those who like the idea and want to check it out. There's only one chapter up so far, but I'm working on an update for that as well.
P.S. I've tried to keep the infamous 'argument' scene as close to the original as possible from memory with Fem!Tony's spin on it, so I hope you all enjoy! It was so much harder to reproduce that I originally thought.
On the outside, Toni Stark appeared to be nigh unshakeable in any given situation. She had been through damn near everything in her not-too-terribly-long life, from Howard's drunken rampages to Obie's dark turn and her subsequent capture by a terrorist cell to just having to to deal with a heart that didn't really...well...function.
Not without the positively garish reactor implanted in her chest.
Yes, she'd heard all the hush-hush comments from the likes of Christian Dior to Yves Saint Laurent about the arc reactor and the various other ways she 'ruined' their gowns, and she didn't appreciate it.
Pfft, who cared anyway? It wasn't like she was a super model. She was Toni Fucking Stark, genius and super hero.
...It would be nice to feel pretty and feminine (and less like a bad science project) for once, though.
Anyway...
With all that being said, that didn't mean she was unshakeable on the inside in these situations. Particularly, Toni hated confrontation, even though she seemed to be the cause of a great deal (her mouth tended to run away with her emotions...sometimes) of the incidents she had been involved in.
From experience, being the small-ish woman she was, confrontation meant things typically were not going to work out for her. She was a fit female, yes, the suit didn't pilot itself. However, she wasn't a woman that could really do a whole hell of a lot of damage in a physical altercation.
Not without the Iron Man suit, anyway. She wasn't Wonder Woman. Or Natasha.
Presently, the genius' brilliant mind was pounding against her skull. She was white-knuckling a corner table in the lab and silently pleading with herself not to be sick or pass out. Toni was incredibly worried about Bruce and a potential Hulk-out, as he seemed to be even worse for wear than her. The fact that he was suspiciously close to and protective of Loki's scepter ever-so-slightly freaked Toni the fuck out.
That definitely wasn't Bruce she'd met earlier. Something was really wrong, and she had all beliefs it had to do with that scepter. In addition, Fury doing his best at 'politely' (Toni almost snorted, as if he could be polite) calling her out on her little hacking endeavor did not help her anxieties, either.
"Just exactly what the hell have you been doing, Ms. Stark?"
Toni shrugged nonchalantly, still gripping the table. "No offense, but I'm kinda wondering the same about you."
"I assumed you were tracking the tesseract." He didn't bother to hide his irritation with her. Just her, she highly doubted he'd want to piss off Bruce.
"We are. When the scanner gets a hit we'll have the cube within a half mile." Thank God, at least someone on this ship had her back.
"Yeah! And you'll have your little cube back, no muss, no fuss." The look Fury sent her way spoke volumes. He couldn't kill her, right? She was too high profile...right?
Toni figured at this point that, no, today really couldn't get much worse than this.
As if on cue, Stars, Stripes and Apple Pie came bursting back into the lab with some bad SyFy Original Movie-esque weapon and tossed it up on the table in front of everyone.
Scratch that, today could get worse. Much, much worse.
Without missing a beat, the blonde spoke, deep voice tinged with anger.
"S.H.I.E.L.D's planning to use the tesseract to make HYDRA weapons." He paused for a split second, turning to Toni. "Sorry, computer was a little slow for me."
...Dick.
Despite her over medicated, exhausted state, the genius managed a sneer and an eye roll.
"Look, just because we're gathering all this information on the tesseract does not mean that–"
The computer beeped at that moment and Toni let out a laugh. "I'm sorry, Nick." She turned the screen to him. "What were you saying?"
Busted.
Toni saw that Spangles was visibly disgusted. "I was right after all. The world hasn't changed a bit." The genius frowned. She honestly didn't like that he, out of everyone involved in this, had been lied to. He didn't deserve that.
Wait, what?
Fury remained unfazed at the childish behavior, just as annoyed as ever. To add to the already volatile mix of egos, in came Natasha and Thor.
Perfect.
Bruce instantly turned to Natasha, accusing look fixed into place. "You know about any of this?"
The Widow remained cool and collected. "You wanna think about removing yourself from here, doctor?"
He scoffed. "I was already pretty well removed back in Calcutta."
"Loki's in your head, Dr. Banner. He's manipulating you." It was at that moment that Toni was glad that Natasha had never been a hostage negotiator. The thought almost made her snicker out loud.
"And you haven't been? Your tactics aren't that different." Burn. Toni laughed a little. Who'd have thought Banner would've had it in him?
If he got to the Black Widow, though, she didn't show it. "You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you."
He shot an annoyed look her way. "...And I'm not leaving because you're suddenly twitchy."
Toni was thankful for the lull in the heated conversation, but she didn't expect anything that came next. Bruce walked over to one of the screens and turned it, almost a little too angrily, pointing at the weapon schematic JARVIS had found. "Now, I want to know what S.H.I.E.L.D wants to do with weapons of mass destruction."
Fury paused, and actually looked as if he was just a little dumbstruck. If Toni hadn't had the practice of hiding her emotions so well, she was sure her eyebrows would have shot up, possibly off of her forehead at the current clusterfuck.
She never thought she'd see the day Fury would be attempting to tread lightly with someone.
"It's because of him." He pointed at Thor.
"Me? But I don't mean harm to anyone. My people want peace." The Asgardian had a genuinely hurt look crossing his features. Toni almost felt a little sorry for Point Break. He hadn't come off as a bad guy.
...Dumb as a doornail, yes, but not a bad guy.
Whether he noticed Thor's discomfort, Toni wasn't sure, but the S.H.I.E.L.D director didn't miss a beat this time. "Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly...hilariously...outgunned."
The argument began to spiral out of control, with everyone throwing in their two cents. Toni, surprisingly, stayed mostly quiet save for a few typical, smart ass comments.
That did the trick. No one seemed to notice her plight, save for one Captain America, who had barely taken his eyes off of her. He had not failed to miss how weak the dark haired woman looked, more so now than when Dr. Banner was checking her out.
The next thing Toni's ears caught was Natasha's unsurprising defense of the agency's tactics. The redhead simply and boldly stated that 'S.H.I.E.L.D monitors potential threats'.
She almost gagged. Brainwashed, much?
Banner chimed in again, in disbelief. "Captain America is on a potential threat watch list?"
That runaway mouth? Yeah... It had been (mostly) in check for just a little too long. She couldn't resist, sick or not. The billionaire ended up smacking Spangles on the bicep, quickly getting his attention and causing him to raise a brow at her.
Jesus Christ he was solid. Her hand actually hurt. Shockingly, though, she suppressed the wave of dirty thoughts that came to mind.
"You're on that list? Are you above or below angry bees?" She looked at him as innocently as possible.
The Captain only pinched his nose and sighed at her. "I swear to God, Ms. Stark..." She could get under his skin like no other. What had happened to make her such a defensive person? Her personality was such a mask.
"Oooh! Golden Boy swore! Life as we know it is about to end." She spared no amount of sarcasm.
Steve just looked at her blankly, exasperated with her attitude. "And you wonder why no one likes you, Miss Stark? You're the most obnoxious person I've ever met."
That was complete and utter bullshit. People did like her, damn it! She had Pepper and Happy and Rhodey and...erm...well... that was it.
Toni glared back at him. She wasn't even going to admit to herself how honest he was and how deeply that cut. He just read her, as plain as day, and frankly it scared her. If this man, this legend, this idol her fath– Howard helped create had so much distaste for her, then she was going to make him absolutely hate her. There would be no gray area.
Toni Stark was excellent at pushing people far, far away.
Fury interrupted the argument. "This was our way of getting some control back on our side."
Thor didn't seem too pleased at the explanation. "You speak of control, yet you court chaos."
"You forced our hand, we had to come up with something." The S.H.I.E.L.D. Director was grim in his reply.
Toni was appalled at Fury's logic. "So...that's your answer? A nuclear deterrent? I mean, that always calms everything right down." She crossed her arms and leaned against the table for support.
Fury didn't hesitate firing right back at her. "Remind me again how you made your fortune?"
Before she could reply, Captain Rogers cut her off. "I'm sure if she still made weapons, Ms. Stark would be neck deep..."
Toni's blood was practically boiling at that. Apparently she was damned if she did and damned if she didn't in the eyes of society; in the eyes of everyone. She forced herself up off the table, closing the space between her and the super soldier. "Fuck you, Rogers. This isn't about me."
Rogers actually rolled his eyes at her. "I'm sorry, isn't everything?"
Jesus Christ, did her little bit of teasing really piss him off that bad? It wasn't like she was bullying him or anything. He didn't have to retaliate by attacking her character. She really had tried to change over the past few years.
"You're a complete jackass, you know that? No wonder you and dear old dad got along so well, you're just alike." It was hard to control her voice from wavering at the mention of him.
Steve frowned and crossed his arms. "At least your father genuinely did something to help people. You call yourself a hero, but you really only fight for yourself. In reality, you're so self-absorbed and arrogant you don't care who you hurt in the in the process. You'd never lay down on the wire for someone else. He'd be so ashamed of you if he saw you today." Steve regretted the harsh words the instant they rolled off his tongue. The hurt look on her face was enough to let him know that he'd crossed a line of decency that he never should have.
With that, Toni's eyes clouded. She scrubbed at them furiously, desperate not to cry in front of all of these people, in front of Captain Fucking America. "My father was a monster. If you knew the Howard I did, you wouldn't be singing his fucking praises like some awestruck schoolgirl." She knew her voice was cracking, but she didn't really care.
...At that moment, Toni Stark realized that she would be vilified by almost everyone in the room no matter what she did.
...And in that very same moment, Steve Rogers realized that Toni Stark wasn't a 'bully'. She had been definitely been bullied, and he could relate to that. She was hurting under that obnoxious, arrogant, and downright rude facade, but was just too proud to show it. He instantly backed down, guiltier now than ever.
Fury cut the two off before Steve could try and say anything to the Iron Man pilot. "Agent Romanoff, could you escort Dr. Banner back to his–"
Bruce was quick to cut him off. "Oh, no. You rented my room already."
Fury was cautious, hand easing toward his sidearm. "The cell was only..."
And with that, the doctor snapped. "In case you needed to kill me...but you can't! I'd know, I tried. I got low, I didn't see an end, so I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out. So I moved on, I focused on helping other people. I was good until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk. You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?"
Toni stood there, shocked. She never really thought of Bruce as the type to be suicidal. She had contemplated the act a few times herself, when drunk and when sober, but she'd held the doctor to a higher standard than she did her own self...
Steve saw Dr. Banner lift the scepter and immediately made a move to stand in front of Ms. Stark. She might agitate him to no end and thoroughly get under his skin, but she was the only link to the past he had left. Plus, she was only human, and not the healthiest from the looks of it. Again, he could relate.
As calmly as possible, he addressed the angry doctor. "Dr. Banner, please put the scepter down. There's no reason for this."
Bruce looked stunned that he'd actually picked up the alien weapon. It took a second for him to regain his composure. With a humorless laugh he turned to face everyone. "Sorry kids, guess you don't get to see my party trick after all."
Before much else could be said, though, everything went to hell.
The shock wave that ripped through the ship sent an already off-balance Toni flying. She covered her face and head with her arms and squeezed her eyes shut, prepared to slam head first into the tables on the opposite side of the room. The last thing she wanted was to be knocked out cold in the middle of a crisis.
The impact never came, however.
The next thing Toni knew, there was substantial pressure around her lower back and shoulders and her cheek was pressed against something cold. Terrified at the possibility she was was trapped under debris and panic overriding rationality, she jerked her head up and prepared to scream for help (though she kind of doubted anyone would come). She was shocked to find herself staring at a silver star and heard a groan of pain that was much to deep to be her own. It quickly clicked that pressure as coming from two large arms encircling her and that she was resting on something much too warm to be the floor.
Toni found herself blushing for the second time that day.
"...Cap?"
Kind of darker than the other chapters, but it had to be done. I just didn't see Toni and Steve getting along too well right now.
Oh! And for anyone curious/having a hard time imagining Fem!Tony, this is my favorite rendering:
Google "308705815 deviantart" without the quotations. It should be the first result.
Hope you all like this one! Please review! Reviewing gets chapters up faster! And I love to hear what you think. :)
xBreeze
