3: A Meeting of the Minds
Now: Avengers Tower
"At least you had the right response when he panicked," Bruce commended me. By this point, I was stretched out on a lounger and Bruce was perched in a chair. It was nearly a psychiatrist-patient setup, but thankfully he wasn't that kind of doctor. "If he'd listened to you, it might not have been that bad the later times."
"If Mina was right when she told me how hiding out with Tony in Rose Hill had been, he got even worse," I grumbled. "So at least I tried before the other attacks happened."
"…so then why weren't you around?"
"That's later in the story, not by a lot, but, y'know, later," I told him. "Geez, I'm telling you the story, I just have to get all the events in line."
"Okay, okay," Bruce agreed, raising his hands in surrender. "So, you left the bar after Tony, headed elsewhere…"
"Right. Hap called right before Tony freaked, and I figured there's only one other person who could help me get him to, well, talk it out. So I headed over to the company to get a quick meeting with the other CEO…."
Then: Stark Industries, Los Angeles
"And here's your badge!" Hap insisted as he got a metal clip over a flap of my biker jacket, the V designating me as a visitor glaring off my chest. I looked down at it, then up at him.
"…you can't be serious."
"Hey, new security protocols, you don't like it you can talk to Pepper when you get back home," he pointed out, and I scowled a bit as I tugged off my shades. I had a feeling that Hap being head of security for Stark Industries, while a great post for him that saved his masculine pride from forever being Iron Man's bodyguard, was not going over well with the rest of the staff. This theory proved correct when Hap walked me into the main offices; people tried to move away from him, and everywhere he went he tapped his own badge, as if reminding everyone else they'd better have their badges on, too. Oh, boy.
"Somehow I think you might've been happier staying with Tony, Hogan," I quipped right before I caught sight of a white suit and red-gold hair pulled up in a ponytail. Either Hap hadn't heard me or elected to ignore me, because he strode right for the other CEO of Stark Industries and Tony's year-and-a-half-steady girlfriend Pepper Potts. I shot ahead of Hap, since he was ignoring me, and I lightly rapped my fingers on Pepper's shoulders. She jumped in alarm and turned, but I beamed innocently, which made her laugh.
"Andy, good to see you again," Pepper sighed, giving me a tight hug. I returned it, making sure to remind myself she was practically my sister-in-law now, which was actually really nice. "So, what, you got leave from your things out east?"
"Only until New Year's," I told her briskly. "I have a super-romantic boyfriend who wants to be super-romantic with me at midnight."
It made Pepper laugh again, though Happy seemed to not approve of the girl-chat. Still, we walked like sisters and co-CEOs would, arm in arm, though honestly our styles were so incongruous it was hard to stay that close. I was working on building up to trying to tell her about Tony's panic attack at the bar, but she beat me to talking.
"Look, Andy, I have a four o'clock I really need to deal with; if it's urgent you can sit in," Pepper sighed as we headed for her office. "Just this is going to be really awkward for me…"
"You? Awkward?" I asked, brows rising into my fringe. "And how is that?"
"I knew this guy before, and, ah, he kept asking me out," Pepper mumbled quietly, obviously avoiding Hap overhearing. She looked at me meaningfully as she pushed the door open, and I got the idea quickly. This meeting was a fellow that, knowing Hap and knowing Tony, was going to make an awkward and uncomfortable conversation when we both got home. I twisted my lips sympathetically, but as Pepper moved out of my line of sight and into her office I saw her appointment and stopped dead when I saw his face and I recognized him.
Here's a serious self-dating exercise. Tony graduated MIT at fifteen, and I was twelve at the time, somewhere between my freshman and sophomore years. This is late seventies, early eighties. So when I'm sixteen or seventeen, mid-eighties or so, working on my grad thesis and really making a ton of headway in computer programming and cyberwarfare, I somehow land a meeting with a fellow named Aldrich Killian. He's looking to start up a think tank and wants me in it. Plus he seems to think I'm really cute even though I'm not quite legal. I turned him down for two reasons. The technical one: I like working alone. I don't collaborate. The not-so-technical one: Killian was a young man with a lot of old-man problems. I wasn't going out with him ever in my life.
Come back to the present. There I am, now leader of the Avengers and a full-time SHIELD agent, and standing in front of me is a guy with dark blonde hair, completely straight back, no limp, no cane, Hollywood-grade straight white teeth. But his face is the exact same face.
"Pepper, it's good to see you," Aldrich Killian said by way of greeting, seeing Pepper first, and then smirking at me. "Andy, what a surprise, it's been a long time."
"Killian?!" both me and Pepper ask in unison, then we glanced at each other. Oooooh that was weird. Um. Note to self: never ever tell Tony that this guy asked both me and Pepper out way long time ago.
"Yes, it's me; but, please, call me Aldrich," Killian replied amicably. I schooled my face into an instant frown as I stepped inside. Okay, I needed to know why he was here and get dirt on what he'd been up to at least for the past decade. Hap tried to be protective of us, but I carefully pushed him back. I could keep an eye on Pepper, and, knowing Hap or Tony, they'd be on Skype within five minutes.
Pepper got inside and settled behind Killian, and I made sure the door was closed, thought that was more so I could have a quick murmur to Mina.
"Get me any info you can dig up on Aldrich Killian, now," I hissed at her, "because I have a bad feeling about all this."
"Going!" Mina agreed without much gripe; I wasn't surprised that she was looking into this long before I had asked her to. "You listen to what he wants, I'll crosscheck, okay?"
"Good play," I complimented her before turning back around. Killian offered me a smile as I sat down to listen to his pitch.
After offering a snide comment about President Willis (who I voted for because he was making sure Rhodey got to play sans bureaucracy) and his dislike of potentially dangerous biotech research, he presented a holographic livestream of his brain, which was really awkward. Although he invited the both of us up onto the table to look, I stayed right where I was, frowning at him and waiting for the pitch.
"Now, here's what I want you to see," Killian finally stated, pulling the image and zooming in on a dark little circle near the back, ringed with what, to my eyes, looked like red-glowing fiber optic cables. "This is essentially an empty slot in the brain, but it indicates that our brains, our very DNA, is destined to be upgraded. That is what Extremis can do."
Run search: Extremis, AIM, Aldrich Killian, I silently enounced so I could safely let my attention wander while I helped Mina with the search. I rammed solidly into AIM's firewall and would have cursed had the lights not come back on and Pepper and Killian had stepped back down onto the floor and settled. I put on my best sphinx-face, camouflaging my frown with my hand while I let the search go. Killian was going to be looking for monetary support if he couldn't get a government grant, and the best place to go for that kind of money was, of course, Stark Industries.
"Now, I approached Tony about joining AIM…thirteen years ago," Killian noted as he and Pepper settled and I sensed his final pitch coming up. "He turned me down, but, now that there's two different geniuses sharing the throne –"
"One of them is already saying no," I snapped brusquely, which made Killian pause hesitantly, as if confused by my outright rejection. Pepper quickly picked up the slack.
"I can see why you would want to come to us, Aldrich, but this sounds extremely weaponizable," Pepper clarified, which got something dark to flicker in Killian's eyes. Now that was new. The old Killian would have accepted a no, at least for a little while. "Not to mention Tony –"
"…Tony. Of course," Killian began tightly, but I jumped in before he got to ragging on Tony. No one but me or Pepper got to say bad things about Tony and get away with it.
"In case you didn't realize, Killian, but four years ago Tony and I were kidnapped for a new Stark missile system," I began warningly. "After three months and a whole lot of hell, we got out by the skin of our teeth, and the first thing Tony said was no more. Stark Industries doesn't make weapons anymore. Period. Since he's still the controlling stockholder and I have half of the CEO-ship, his line holds. The answer is no."
Killian's eyes flashed darkly, and I immediately went on alert. Killian-of-earlier-acquaintance would have accepted a hard no, maybe been a bit of a kicked puppy over it, but accepted it. This Killian made me certain that, one way or another, he was going to find a way to get what he wanted. But he held his cool and managed a smile, getting up as if accepting surrender.
"I can't say I'm not disappointed," he insisted after Pepper and I walked him out of the building. I was a little bit behind him so I could safely scowl as darkly as I could, and it got a good bit darker when he suddenly kissed Pepper's cheek, very close to her ear, and then walked away towards his fancy Land Rover with his various guards. I crossed my arms in disgust.
"I think I'm going to hate that man," I stated firmly, and Pepper nearly jumped out of her skin to hear my voice. That would have to be addressed. "Like my creepiness index didn't shoot through the roof after hearing his spiel."
Happy came up next to me, and Pepper managed a very uncomfortable, distracted smile. She mumbled something about heading inside to get something, but once she was inside I glanced at Hap. He was already snapping a picture of the Land Rover's plates, and I nodded in satisfaction.
"You get a hit, call me and don't go in alone," I told him firmly.
"Sweet of you, Andy," Hap replied in his usual light tone, but the dark flicker in his eyes betrayed his relative unease and wariness. I just gave him a warm pat on the shoulder before heading off to my bike and wait for Pepper to start on back home. At least she had a car phone, right?
Luckily for me, we were both able to talk and drive at the same time, and I warned her about Tony's panic attack as we cruised up the PCH. She was as startled and worried as I was, and I sighed in relief as we both pulled up to the house…though those tacky decorations I had feared had a hinting as I killed the engine of my bike and eased off my helmet. Pepper came out of her car as we both stared up at the giant tan rabbit bearing a tag reading MERRY CHRISTMAS, PEPPER.
"I didn't do it," I told her as we headed inside, and I groaned as Pepper stammered in surprise. Tony was waiting for the both of us in the living room, but he was wearing his newest suit, one foot propped up on his knee and lounged back comfortably.
"What…what is this?!" Pepper stammered, though she was still trying not to laugh. I shook my head as Tony eased to his feet. "You're wearing it in the house now? What's this one mark fifteen or something?"
"Uh, something like that," Tony replied, and I dared to slip past Jarvis to Tony's armor database and matched the one in front of me to a number: forty-two. Forty-two suits total. He was only at seven six months ago!
Note to self: find Tony a brand new project to work on after this Christmas.
I ignored most of the (semi-awkward for me) banter, diving into the kitchen and manipulating the Keurig machine to give me a nice holiday blend coffee to slurp at before I wandered back into the living room. I nearly blanched when I heard 'crowbar'.
"I don't wanna know!" I barked as I skirted Tony and Pepper to head down for the garage. Maybe I could lock it down against awkward Tony-style romance before either one of them reached the stairs…
"Oh, Andy, uh, bad idea, there's a radiation leak –"
"I'm taking my chances!" I replied sing-song like as I climbed down. I heard Pepper following me, and the Mark XLII following her, but thankfully there was no pileup when I reached the bottom of the stairs and stared. Tony was not in the suit behind me; he was doing pullups, wearing some kind of helmet that was projecting what looked like a suit's HUD over his eyes, while watching the news. Dummy whirred as he presented a plate of nibbles, and Pepper pushed it away.
"This is a new level of lame," Pepper declared, and Tony winced as he lowered himself and turned to us. I looked over at her sympathetically.
"Want me to hold him while you hit him?" I offered.
"Busted," Tony sighed, doing his best to look apologetic.
"You ate without me? On date night?" Pepper asked, and I settled in to watch. Maybe she could get through to him where I couldn't earlier. Some of Tony's apologetic face turned defensive.
"Well we were just, uh, hosting you two," he stammered. "Besides, I mean, I dunno if you guys were at the office or havin' a girls' night plus drinks with Aldrich Killian."
Second note to self: band Tony and Hap from Skype. Pepper and I looked at each other, thoroughly scandalized, and Mark XLII shrugged weakly – very Tony-like.
"You were spying on me!" Pepper snapped.
"Us," I corrected gently.
"That's it, I'm going to bed," Pepper grumbled, turning back for the stairs. I looked at Tony meaningfully, and he grimaced before gathering his nerves.
"Okay, I admit it! I'm a pipin' hot mess!" Tony declared, and I groaned and rested my head on XLII's shoulder. Some way to admit you're screwed up, or to start admitting you're screwed up. But it did make Pepper stop and look back at him. Okay, Tony, better make it good.
"It's been going on for awhile, and I haven't said anything.… Nothin's been the same since New York," he said honestly, sincerely. Okay, good start.
"Oh, really, I hadn't noticed," Pepper noted coolly. Ouch.
"You…experience things, and then they're over, and I still can't explain it," Tony pressed on anyway. "I mean, gods, aliens, other dimensions…and I'm the man in a can. Probably the only reason I haven't cracked up is you sticking around here, which is great. I love you, both of you, I'm lucky, I know."
I quickly shuffled over to him and hugged him around the neck, from the back. That way he could keep talking to Pepper. Tony's hands tightened lovingly around mine.
"But, honey…I can't sleep. You guys go to bed, I come down here, I do what I know. I…tinker. A threat is imminent, and I have to protect the two people I care about most…and that's you two. These – "
"They're suits," Pepper noted quietly.
"…they're a part of me," Tony tried to finish. I snuggled against his neck a bit, but Pepper's reply nearly made me mad at her.
"They're a distraction," she insisted. I shook my head at that, but Tony tensed under my arms a little, as if ashamed.
"…maybe," he replied.
Great. Fantastic. Calling the suits, our shared idea, a distraction, was not a great way to help Tony's new anxiety problem. Something on the to-do list, clarify this to Pepper. As best as possible.
I let go in time for Pepper to come over and hold Tony tightly, and I sighed to myself as I found my coffee. Maybe Tony was worried about the two of us, but I was more worried about him, and I'd do everything I could to keep him safe.
"…I'm going to take a shower," Pepper said quietly after stroking Tony's hair gently for a moment.
"Don't hog it," I noted as I settled in to check over work-like stuff. Pepper chuckled faintly before glancing back at Tony.
"And you're going to join me."
I gagged, loudly, and Tony grinned at me.
"Fine, you two have fun, I'm staying down here, don't tell me anything…"
I did mention they were getting serious.