A/N: And here we go, another lengthy update. :D Trying to keep the flow and energy up as much as possible for you all.

I'm so pleased/relieved with the response to all of this showdown stuff and I'm glad it seems to be working for folks. It was a big gamble on my part and I'm happy it seems to be paying off so far. One of my reviewers mentioned about who would build a nuclear laboratory on a fault line with nearby volcanic fields... well, unfortunately the US government would because the LANL is a real place and is situated exactly near both of those things. Fingers crossed nothing ever does go wrong there. I'm sure there are multiple fail safes in place, but still, it kinda makes you a little toey if you think about it too much.

Okay, I know you're all probably anxious to see what comes next and we did leave Pepper, Happy and Lewis in a pretty precarious position... so I guess we'd better see what happens next, hmm?

Thanks for reading as always, guys. :D

Chapter Sixty-Two

3... 2... 1...

Pepper tensed but as the seconds ticked by and nothing happened, she opened her eyes and looked around, confused. She stood up as the realisation that the implosion wasn't happening, a mixture of emotions running through her. While she was happy not to be dead, this also meant that Tony and the others were still in deep danger.

Hammer too seemed to realise they weren't going to die just yet as he unsteady climbed to his feet, a dawning look of joy on his face. "I'm alive!" he exclaimed in delight. Hammer hurried over to where Pepper was standing and threw his arms around her in a hug of celebratory happiness. "Thank God, I'm alive!"

Pepper didn't even have to think about it. She balled her fist and drew it back, ramming it into Hammer's midsection without hesitation. He crumbled over, the breath leaving his lungs in a noisy hiss.

oooOOOOooo

3... 2... 1...

Tony was at the ready, waiting for the nano-bots to relinquish control of his suit, but the moment never came. "Jarvis?" he snapped. "What's happening, why don't I have control?"

"The implosion never happened, sir," said the apologetic Jarvis.

Tony's mind was whirling at a great speed, trying to work out what had gone wrong when Ghost chose that moment to walk out onto the roof.

She walked up to him and smiled. "Face mask," she ordered the nano-bots and Tony's Iron Man mask slid back to reveal his face. Ghost observed it in satisfaction. "I wanted to see the expression on your face," she noted and nodded. "That was pretty much how I imagined it." Ghost arched an eyebrow. "As you can see, Mr. Stark, I still retain full control of the nano-bots and by extension, your suit. Did you really think we didn't know about your fail safe? The nano-pedes have infiltrated all systems within the Avengers' Tower and we know all of its secrets."

Tony's jaw hardened, but he didn't speak, just glared at her.

"Hammer was short sighted enough to happily allow the demolition of the Tower and relinquish control of the Avengers but I'm not." Ghost looked disdainful. "He thought it was enough your reputation would be in shreds and the Avengers would be backed into a corner in having to fight the Defenders and the military."

"But you didn't," ground out Tony.

"Let's just say I don't like to leave things to chance," she said coolly. "Retaining control of the Avengers means I'm assured of the outcome of this upcoming war and I also have the perfect scapegoats to hang the fallout on."

"And what kind of fallout are we talking about here?" Tony asked sharply.

"That's really no concern of yours, Mr. Stark, I just wanted you to understand that there is no way out of this. I have covered every possible contingency. Your fate is sealed."

"You know what they say about pride coming before a fall," said Tony darkly.

Ghost leaned in closer, holding his gaze steadily. "I do believe you're on the wrong end of that idiom, Mr. Stark. You thought you were untouchable, that your genius would always win out in the end. You took your dominance as a God given right in controlling everything around you. Look around you now." She swept a hand at the immobile Avengers and the approaching army. "This is your fall, Mr. Stark, not mine." Ghost straightened up. "Visor, close," she ordered the nano-bots and once again Tony was sealed inside of his suit. Ghost half-smiled. "Kind of ironic that one of your precious Iron Man suits is going to end up being your tomb, Mr. Stark, but then, I suspect you always knew that was the way things were going to end."

"It's not over yet," he warned her, pushing down his anger so that the woman wouldn't see that she'd gotten to him.

"It is for you and for everyone you care about." Ghost turned on her heel and walked up to Natasha. "Black Widow, stand guard at the nuclear weapons, be ready to activate them when I give the command."

Natasha didn't answer, just immediately moved to comply, heading towards the door leading off the roof.

"Activating those weapons is going to be suicide," Tony warned her. "You're going to kill yourself in the process, Ghost."

Ghost gave him a disinterested look. "I appreciate your concern for my well being, Mr. Stark, but let me worry about the details."

"Whatever your endgame here is, is it really worth killing millions of people for?" asked Tony angrily.

Ghost looked straight at him. "Yes," she said simply before walking away.

oooOOOOooo

Hammer looked up at Pepper with hurt-filled eyes as he tried to suck in his next breath. "Why did you do that?" Hammer whined.

Pepper stepped back and looked down at him in disbelief. "You're kidding, right?"

Once again Hammer clambered unsteadily to his feet, leaning on her desk with one arm to steady himself. "Come on, Pepper, so we've got a little bad history between us, it doesn't mean you have to be ungracious."

"That bad history was you trying to kill me and it was only a few minutes ago," she snapped. "So, yeah, I'm going to be a bit ungracious about it."

"Look," said Hammer indignantly, "I'm the victim here too, you know." Pepper's fist balled again and Hammer hastily backed up. "Don't hit me again, okay?"

"Nothing about this okay," Pepper threw back at him angrily. "And you're not a victim, you're an idiot!"

Hammer straightened up and smoothed down his coat jacket. "I think name calling is a bit childish at this point."

Pepper looked away and tried to compose herself when all she wanted to do was hit him again and again but then she didn't want to waste the energy on a man like Hammer. "I'm getting out of here, I have to shut down the arc reactor." She sent Hammer a determined look. "And you're going to help me."

Hammer straightened his glasses. "Yeah, that's not going to happen. I'm going to stay here where it's nice and safe."

Pepper folded her arms in front of herself. "And who says you're safe here?" she pointed out. "This Ghost person clearly stopped the detonation of the arc reactor because she wants to retain control of the Avengers. She's been a step ahead of you the whole way and you think she's just going to let you live, is that it? Ghost doesn't seem like a person who likes to leave loose ends and you're definitely that, Hammer."

Hammer looked concerned. "I don't think Ghost would kill me."

"You didn't think she'd turn on you either," said Pepper impatiently. "And weren't you planning on killing her at some point?"

"Well, yes," admitted Hammer blithely, "but that's entirely different."

Pepper gritted her teeth in annoyance at the other man's narcissism. "Where did you even find this lunatic anyway?"

Hammer looked happy to be talking about himself. "Interesting story that. I hand-picked her myself. She turned up at the prison, just after I was incarcerated, wanting to let me know she was a fan of my work and telling me she believed in my innocence. I hired her on the spot as my personal assistant." Hammer smiled and seemed to have momentarily forgotten how bad of a choice that had turned out to be. "Ghost is my Pepper Potts, if you will. I quickly found out she was quite brilliant and put her to work on realising my ultimate dreams of self-vindication."

"So, she found you," interpreted Pepper flatly.

Hammer looked taken aback. "Ah, no, I found her."

"Any idiot can see Ghost came to visit you with the intent on getting access to your resources," said Pepper impatiently. "Which she did when you made her your personal assistant."

"That isn't what happened," said Hammer but he didn't look very sure now.

"Of course it was," said Pepper tersely. "The woman used you while letting you think you were using her. You played right into her hands and I'm pretty certain she doesn't have any use for you anymore, and that doesn't mean good news for you."

Hammer pouted as Pepper's words seemed to finally sink in. "This is all so unfair."

Pepper's lips thinned, not interested in Hammer's pity party. "Do you have any idea what her game plan might be?" She eyed him disapprovingly. "What was yours?"

"Just to take down the Avengers and emotionally devastate Tony Stark with the loss of you so that he became an empty shell of a man in constant agony. I'd make him watch me take up residence in the White House as the beloved saviour of the American people before ultimately killing him but only after he knew that I was better in him in every possible way." He shrugged. "You know, nothing too big."

"How can you be even more of an idiot then what I already think you are?" Pepper asked incredulously. "That plan was evil and sick!"

"It was what I was owed," Hammer defended himself unapologetically. "Aren't you sick of Tony Stark always winning, of him never suffering any consequences in his life and always thinking he's God's gift to the universe? Aren't there moments when you'd like to see the guy taken down a peg or two?" Hammer didn't wait for an answer. "I know there are Pepper, don't lie to me. I was just doing what you secretly wish you could do. I know what it's like to always be an afterthought in the great Tony Stark's life and I know you understand where I'm coming from. Admit it."

Pepper's mouth had dropped open as she struggled to follow Hammer's insane reasoning. "You're delusional," she ground out at last.

He jabbed a triumphant finger at her. "And I'm not hearing you disagreeing with me."

"Whatever rambling self-justifications you want to tell yourself, just leave me out of them," Pepper threw back at him. "I believe in Tony, I always have and I know he's going to work out a way to take down this Ghost and I'm going to do everything in my power to help him." Her cell phone rang and she answered it quickly. "Tony?"

"It's Lewis, are you alright? Where are you?"

"I'm in my office and I'm fine," she replied hastily. "Where are you?"

"Happy and I are in the garage but we're having a bit of trouble getting to you. The security system is malfunctioning and firing on us."

"It's not a malfunction," Pepper filled him in. "The building is being controlled externally by a woman called Ghost. The Tower has been infiltrated by some kind of nano-technology and it's taken over the arc reactor which is in turn controlling the nano-bots which the Avengers are infected with. She's controlling them all. Hammer was behind the whole thing and is with me now. He wants to kill Tony and the Avengers."

"Hammer is with you?" asked Lewis in horror. "What's he doing?"

Pepper looked over at where Hammer was dabbing at his bloody nose. "Bleeding," she offered up casually.

Lewis' tone was urgent. "Are you alright? Did he hurt you?"

"I told you, I'm fine, but we have to save the Avengers. We have to shut down the arc reactor." Pepper looked up at the ceiling. "And I think I have a way of doing that."

oooOOOOooo

Lewis hung up and turned to a worried Happy. They were both hiding behind his car now.

"Tell me I didn't just hear you say Hammer is with Pepper," Happy requested of him grimly.

"She seems to have him under control," said Lewis regretfully, "but yeah, I'm not loving the scenario either." He quickly filled Happy in on the situation.

"So, we need to get to the arc reactor," Happy summarised.

Lewis nodded. "And we're a lot closer being in the garage. The arc reactor is on the next floor, Pepper is on the twentieth floor, it's going to take her time to get down to it, especially if the elevators are out of the question."

Happy peeked his head over the top of the car and was rewarded with a laser burst for his troubles. He ducked down again quickly. "Yeah, but we've got our own issues," he pointed out.

"When I took the security detail job for Pepper, I made sure I had a comprehensive understanding of all of the security stand bys in the Tower," said Lewis. "These lasers are heat sensitive, they're picking up our body heat and focusing in on that."

"We need to take them out," observed Happy. "We can't make it to the stairs or the elevator while they're working."

"I know where the control box is." He pointed over the left of the elevator, where there was a box mounted on the wall. One of us just needs to pull the fuse."

"The pulling the fuse is no problem, the not being fried on the way to doing it, that's more of an issue." Happy motioned at the lasers mounted above the elevator. "Even if we both take a run at it, we're too far away, it'll have time to take us both out."

Lewis looked around to see what they could use to help them get there. "If we drive up in one of the cars-"

"The laser is going to blow them up," Happy finished. "An exploding car will ignite the rest of the cars down here and I don't fancy being around if that happens, not to mention what it's going to do to the infrastructure of the Tower."

Lewis' brow was furrowed in concentration. "There has to be a way out of this." He caught sight of a trolley used for unloading suitcases over in the corner of the garage, an idea coming to him. "I have a plan." He looked at Happy. "You're not going to like it," he predicted.

Happy rolled his eyes. "Yeah, didn't see that coming."

oooOOOOooo

Tony watched the military forces taking up a defensive line in front of the LANL. There had to be at least five thousand soldiers marshalling in front of them, along with various tanks and Tony could see rocket launches being set up. Surely they weren't going to be desperate enough to launch rockets at a nuclear facility? Tony knew it was more likely their intent to be able to shoot up into the air considering half of the Avengers could fly, but it still made him very uneasy to have that much fire power near a nuclear stockpile. "Damn it," he muttered, "how did they get so many troops here so quickly?"

Fury had the answer. "We got unlucky, they were doing manoeuvres nearby and there are more on the way, including air support."

"These people are going to get themselves killed," Tony worried. "I couldn't take out the arc reactor, Ghost still has control of the Avengers."

"So I see."

Tony blew out a frustrated breath. There had to be a way out of this, there had to be. "Think, damn it, think," he ordered himself.

oooOOOOooo

Abner Jenkins was doing the final checks of his Beetle armour, making sure he was ready for the job ahead. He and the rest of the Defenders were on a military carrier, being ferried to Los Alamos and they were minutes away from their target. Abner was excited to go up against the Avengers and really test his metal. He didn't know why the Avengers were doing this, but he did know the Defenders were the ones to stop them.

"Little man," grunted Alexis as he was hunkered down on one of the benches, "stand still. You move too much."

"I'm checking my suit," responded Abner. "I like to be prepared."

"Rhino always prepared," said Alexis proudly, pounding on his chest and indicating his in-built armour.

Abner looked him over. "Yeah, but can you ever find a suit that fits?"

Rhino's eyes narrowed menacingly. "You make joke at Alexis' expense. Alexis no like."

"Shut up, you two," Blizzard admonished them. "We've got an incoming from the boss lady."

A holographic image of Ghost appeared in front of them all and she instantly had their attention. "Are you all suited up and ready?"

"Born ready, Ghost," said Abner happily, "you should know that by now."

Ghost ignored his familiarity. "We'll begin the attack on the Avengers as soon as you are in position. Keep the battle in plain sight and make sure you head to the underground bunkers when I give you the word."

Ghost had already told them about the underground nuclear bunkers in a previous communication but he wasn't sure why they were going to need them. "Isn't the idea to stop the Avengers setting off the nuclear weapons?" he asked hesitantly.

"The Avengers aren't going to set off the nuclear weapons, we are," she offered up coolly.

Abner couldn't help but be shocked. "What?" He looked around at the others but they didn't seem to be registering the same disbelief. "Why are we doing that? Isn't the point to save people's lives?"

"The point is to gain control of the military forces and the only way to do that is to throw them into chaos and have the reeling government hand over control to us," Ghost informed him offhandedly.

"But-but, people are going to die," said Abner, feeling his stomach tighten.

"You joined the Defenders because you wanted the fame, glory, power and fortune that you felt were owed to you," Ghost reminded him. "True greatness isn't achieved without true sacrifice and the way for all of us to secure our power over this country is to first put it at risk, so we can then save it." Ghost looked directly at him with her cold, dead eyes. "We're killing the few to save the many. This government has failed its people and we're going to establish a new order today." Her eyes narrowed. "Do you have a problem with that, Jenkins?"

Abner looked around at the other Defenders who didn't seem the least fazed by this latest revelation. "I guess not," he said slowly, a sick feeling building in his stomach.

"Good," said Ghost, "now get ready, it's almost show time." Her image disappeared as abruptly as it had appeared.

Abner joined the rest of the Defenders as they stood up, ready and waiting at the entrance of the carrier. He put his helmet on to disguise his sudden reluctance to do this.

This was not what he'd signed on for.

oooOOOOooo

Hammer stood looking up at Pepper as she, in turn, stood on her desk, stretching up to the ceiling. "I don't like this plan," he said yet again.

"Shut up," she snapped at him. "You don't get a vote."

"You can't make me come with you," Hammer argued.

"Fine," said Pepper with disinterest as she went up on tip toes to pull out the air conditioning vent cover, "stay here. I'm sure Ghost will appreciate you making it so easy for her men to find you and kill you."

"This is all so unfair," he grumbled.

Pepper sent him a death glare. "If you say that one more time, I'll kill you myself. We're getting into this vent, we're crawling out of this office and to the nearest set of stairs. We're then heading down to the arc reactor and you can tell me how to turn off those damn nano things of yours."

Hammer grimaced. "That may not be so easy."

"You keep telling me you're the master mind behind all of this," said Pepper shortly. "I'm sure you'll figure it out." She grabbed the edge of the vent, grateful for all the work outs for her upper body of late, and pulled herself up into the vent. Pepper crawled into the small, dark space and called back to her unwilling companion. "Hammer, get yourself up here, now! I'm not telling you again."

There was the sound of him clambering up onto her desk as well. "I bet you never tell Tony what to do all the time," she heard him grumble.

"Of course I do," said Pepper sharply, already starting to crawl forward, "why do you think he's still alive."

oooOOOOooo

"Stark, we need a plan," observed Fury. "There are a lot of lives at stake here."

"I know that," said Tony in frustration, "but our arsenal right now kinda amounts to pithy rejoinders and angry looks and quite frankly, that's not cutting it."

"Not quite."

Tony's eyes went wide in amazement as he heard the familiar voice. "Romanoff, is that you?"

"Yes."

"How are you talking to us?" asked a disbelieving Tony. He knew Ghost had ordered her to the armoury and concluded that must be where she was now.

"I changed frequencies when you did, I've been waiting for an opportunity to talk, unobserved."

"But why aren't you affected by the nano-bots?" Tony quizzed her.

There was the briefest of pauses. "I have a few ideas, but none of them are important now. What's important is taking back control of the Avengers and saving lives."

Tony felt a rush of adrenaline at knowing he had someone on the ground on his side. He nodded approvingly, ideas coming to him already. "Alright, now this is party."

oooOOOOooo

Jerry grimaced at the images coming from the security cameras at the Avengers' Tower. He made a reluctant call. "Um, excuse me, ma'am."

"What?"

Her tone was impatient but Jerry knew he had to keep going, the consequences of not relaying what he was seeing being potentially dire. "Ah, ma'am, Mr. Hammer and Ms. Potts have climbed up into the air conditioning ducts and are heading towards the stairwell. I think they're planning on getting to the arc reactor."

"Then stop them."

"Ma'am?"

"Activate the Mach VII suit," she said tersely. "Have it atomise anything which comes in view of the arc reactor."

Jerry's shoulders sagged. More death and destruction. "Yes, ma`am," he complied and pressed a few buttons in front of him. Jerry watched the screen for the cameras located in the lab, as the Mach VII Iron Man suit busted out of its reinforced containment unit and strode purposefully towards the door. Jerry opened the door for it, letting the suit head down to the arc reactor to stand guard. He looked back at Pepper and Hammer crawling along the ducts. Jerry grimaced and shook his head. Those two were heading towards their death and there was nothing he could do about it.

This day seemed set to get worse by the moment with no end in sight...