"You didn't sleep long," Gemma heard Obadiah say as she came to. Her head was aching as she noticed her surroundings. She was in the back seat of a car with tinted windows, two men on either side of her. The men had hand guns on their laps. Everything started to come back: the terrorist video, Obadiah's betrayal, her father's paralysed face as the arc reactor was removed from his body. Her father! She imagined the worst; he could be dead right now. Trying to not think about it, she asked, "How long was I out?"
"About thirty minutes," Obadiah replied. He wasn't driving the car, but was in the passenger seat. The car stopped slowly, and Obadiah got out of the car, and opened the car door to the left of her. The man to left got out, and Obadiah grabbed her arm and pulled her out. The light of day made her headache worse, but she realized that she was at the Stark Industries factory. Obadiah had a tight grip on her arm and the man that had been to her right was standing behind her. "Listen," Obadiah spoke in a low voice, looking her right in the eyes. "We are going to walk into the factory, and if you scream or say anything, Mr. Ranford," he looked up at the man who was standing behind her, "will kill you."
She nodded slowly, biting her bottom lip. "Good," he said with a smile, then lead her into the building. The man who ushered her- Mr. Ranford, stayed close behind her, concealing the gun at her back. "Good evening Miss Stark, Mr. Stane," the receptionist chirped. Gemma smiled and nodded. They soon arrived at a large steel door. Section 16 was stained across it in bold black letters. Obadiah swiped his company card on the lock, and the door opened with a hydraulic click.
The room was massive and gray with fluorescent lights hanging down from the ceiling. In the middle of the room, there was a platform with from what she could tell, something giant and metal in the center. Obadiah strode up on the platform and grabbed a pair and handcuffs from the dashboard and tossed then to Mr. Ranford. "Cuff her to the railing," he ordered. Mr. Ranford roughly dragged her up the stairs of the platform and attached the handcuffs to her wrists around the railing. She could now clearly see what the metal thing was. She gasped when she realized it was the suit from the file. It looked almost exactly like the schematics of the first suit Tony had shown her. "Oh my god," she breathed. "Isn't it beautiful?" He admired his work. "Oh, please," she spat softly, looking away. He sighed. "Gemma… This could revolutionize the weapons industry; it will help the company. Get it back on its feet."
Gemma clenched her fists. "My father wanted the suit to be used for good! To protect humanity! Not to destroy it!" The handcuffs made a clinking noise against the metal railing. "If these suits get into the wrong hands, the results would be horrifying!"
"Oh Gemma, just as selfish as your father," Obadiah held his hand up to slap her, but one of the other men caught his attention. "Sir, it appears that Miss Potts is outside along with several agents," the man told him. Gemma was relieved that Pepper wasn't dead, like Obadiah had claimed. "Get the suit ready," he ordered the man and reached for something off the dashboard. It was a rolled of duct tape and he ripped off a short strip. Gemma tried to yell Pepper's name but the tape was quickly placed over her mouth. Obadiah then got into the suit. It booted up a lot quieter then she'd thought it would, and unhooked itself from the chains. It stomped off until she couldn't see it anymore.
Gemma was trying to slip her wrists out from the cuffs when there was a small explosion from the door. She whipped her head around and saw Pepper and Agent Coulson come in along with about five other agents. She screamed through the tape and Pepper's eyes widened with alarm. "Oh my god, Gemma!" She ran up the platform and ripped the tape off her mouth. "Are you okay?" She asked as Agent Coulson undid the handcuffs. Gemma nodded and then gave Pepper a big hug. "It's going to be okay, it's going to be okay," Pepper soothed. "Do you know where he went?"
"Obadiah went over there," Gemma pointed to the right of the room, where there was a dark passage way. Several agents started to run in that direction. "He has a suit, a big suit," she told Pepper. Suddenly, there was a loud stomping coming from that part of the room, and agents were running the other way. Gemma and Pepper gasped when Obadiah's suit came into full view. Gemma felt herself running faster than she thought she could, ignoring the bullets coming directly at her. She didn't stop until she was outside the building, Pepper beside her. Pepper's Bluetooth went off. "Tony," she yelled. "Tony are you okay?" Gemma held her breath. "Good. Gemma's fine, she's with me. Obadiah, he's gone insane!" She was continuing to talk to Tony when Gemma noticed the suit rise from the concrete in front of her. Gemma tapped Pepper on the arm without looking at her. She'd didn't see Pepper's reaction, only hearing her shriek as the giant metal suit loomed over them. "Where do you think you're going?" Obadiah's deeper, garbled voice said. The palm of his hand was pointing directly at them. "Your services are no longer required," he boomed.
Gemma was about to start running, but she heard a loud, familiar voice. She turned toward the voice and saw a flash of light knock Obadiah's suit right back through the concrete it came from. It was her father in his suit. She didn't see the two for a while after. She only saw the occasional explosion and heard the faint sounds of Obadiah's voice. What worried her was the fact that Tony wouldn't have enough power because he was most likely using the older arc reactor Pepper ended up saving. Two rays of light in the sky caught her attention. One was thinner and higher, her father's suit, than the second, Obadiah's suit. Tony kept flying higher and higher, almost as if he would go into outer space. Then the lights in Obadiah's suit when out, and it hurdled towards the ground. Tony's lights flickered as he slowly drifted down the night sky and landed on the factory roof. Gemma was relieved when Pepper started to talk to him again on her Bluetooth.
"Tony!" Pepper breathed. "Oh my god, are you okay?" Gemma looked up and saw Obadiah and Tony fighting on the roof. It looked like Obadiah was squishing Tony, then flashes of light came from the suit and he let go. Pepper talked to Tony through the Bluetooth again. "Tony!" There was a pause. "Well how are you going to do that?" Pepper spoke again. She then turned to Gemma and said, "Gemma, I need to go in the factory, stay here. Do not come inside okay?" Gemma nodded with wide eyes. She watched Pepper slowly walk over the shattered glass into the factory. From what she could see, Pepper was pulling down levers and pressing all sorts of buttons. Gemma looked back up at Tony and Obadiah and realized what Pepper was doing. She was going to over load the arc reactor powering the factory. She hoped that Tony would get off the roof in time. Obadiah's voice caught her attention. "Trying to rid the world of weapons, you gave it its best one ever. And now, I'm going to kill you with it." Oh my god. She couldn't lose her father, not now.
"You'll die!" Gemma heard Pepper's screams from inside the factory. Her heart started to beat faster. She could see Obadiah shooting missiles at Tony. She almost tripped as she backed away from the factory, which was now covered in electric waves. Gemma breathed again when she saw Pepper run out towards her. Pepper gave her a big hug, and she hugged back. "Holy crap," Gemma breathed when she saw a huge flash of light coming from the reactor travel to the sky. When the light retreated, she heard crashes, and then there was a huge explosion. The light from the explosion engulfed almost the whole factory. Gemma looked at Pepper and asked, "Where's Dad?"
Pepper gazed at the roof of the ruined factory and then back to Gemma. Her eyes were shiny with tears. "I'm sorry," she said, holding her. Gemma pushed Pepper off, and ran into the factory, Pepper's screams to tell her otherwise becoming more and more distant. She found her way to the roof, being careful to avoid the shattered glass, and hot metal from the explosion. When she finally got to the roof, she gave it a long stare, and then found her father lying on his back in the battered suit. "Are you okay?" Tony asked her when she ran to him. "Am I okay? Are you okay?" she asked choking back tears. "I'm fine, Obadiah and his men endangered your life and took you away my heart almost stopped. I was so scared. You don't think I'd ever leave you, do you?" Gemma chuckled and felt tears coming from her eyes. She hugged him, and he hugged back. The suit was uncomfortable to hug, but she didn't care.
When they went down to meet Pepper, it reminded Gemma of when Tony had come back from Afghanistan. Pepper was standing in front of them, her eyes red. None of them said anything, they just hugged, and everything felt right.