Chapter 17: The Traitor

"What the hell were you thinking?! Fighting an army of terrorists in a war ridden country all by yourself?! Are you trying to get yourself killed?!" Nine, Rani, Claw and Z sat awkwardly in the living room listening to Tony and Pepper yelling at each other downstairs in the workshop or rather Pepper yelling at Tony who's not taking it seriously. Z and Rani try to distract themselves with backgammon to no avail, so they push the board away.

"She's actually taking it better than I thought." Nine said, "I just hope that she can keep this a secret cause Arceus knows what the humans will do to Tony if they find out."

Rani asked a question that's been rattling her brain for the last few days, "Who do you think sold those Stark weapons? Do you know anyone in Tony's company that could do something like this?"

Nine considered this for a moment, "Speaking from 60 years of being inside that building I'd have to guess that it was one of the board members or some lowly worker looking to make extra cash, otherwise who else could approve of that shipping?"

"I can run calculations and variables that will give us a best estimate of who's been dealing weapons behind Tony's back." Z offered.

"I don't know if your calculations can apply to human nature." Nine said doubtfully, "But by all means give it a go." For the next minute Z twitched as the he ran the data and numbers and then he finally stopped moving.

"You are not going to like what I say." Z said uncertainly to Nine who was now more curious.

"Tell me anyway."

"According to my data the person to have most likely sell those weapons in secret…is Obadiah Stane." Rani choked on her bottled water before looking up in shock like the rest.

"Are you absolutely sure your data's correct?" Claw asked, "This is Obie were talking about."

Z explains, "My analysis states that Obadiah is the most likely suspect due to his high position in the company which gives him access to all weapons that have not been destroyed as well as the resources to cover up any shading dealings that he may have made. His finances show that a large transaction was transferred to his business account a few days before the Gulmira attack."

Nine shook her head, "That doesn't prove anything, he's been taking over for Tony for the last few weeks maybe the boards being especially generous to him?" Nine didn't want to believe that Tony's business partner and friend could be involved in something as heinous as this. She's known Obie for a long time and he's ambitious, but that doesn't mean he would sell to terrorists.

"I checked the records and the money came from a shell company that bounces between Madagascar and Switzerland, their trying to cover their tracks

"He did admit to wanting Tony out of his own company." Rani pitched in support of Z's theory making Nine cowl at her, "I'm just stating the facts like Z." Rani defended herself.

"The evidence is pretty damning Nine." Claw was becoming convinced, "You think it's a coincidence that Obadiah was given a large sum of money by an unknown source days before the ten rings use Tony's weapons?" Nine carefully considered his words.

"No." Nine begrudgingly admitted, "but that doesn't mean I fully support your theory." a second later Pepper came out of the workshop looking exhausted from yelling at Tony. They looked at her with sympathy as she walked out of the house, they know that Pepper only wants for Tony to be safe.

"Even if your right how are we gonna bring this theory to Tony?" Rani asked, "It's not like we can tell him."

Z waved her off, "Don't worry, if I know Tony, he's already planning to find the traitor."


The next day Tony, Rani and Z were at the workshop removing the bullets from the armor and repairing the damage done from the Raptors while Nine and Claw were eating breakfast. Rani was drilling in new screws on the neck while Z was inputting new codes when Pepper walked in calmer and more orderly than she was yesterday.

Tony noticed Pepper coming in and stopped what he was doing as well as Rani and Z, "Hey. You busy? You mind if I send you on an errand? I need you to go to my office. You're going to hack into the mainframe and you're going to retrieve all the recent shipping manifests. This is a lock chip." Tony handed Pepper a USB drive that he and Z made last night, "This'll get you in. It's probably under Executive Files. If not, they put it on a ghost drive, in which case you need to look for the lowest numeric heading." Tony went back to his work leaving Pepper dubious.

"And what do you plan to do with this information if I bring it back here?"

"Same drill." Rani and Z pretended to be tinkering with tools to eavesdrop on their soon to be argument, "They've been dealing under the table, and I'm going to stop them. I'm going to find my weapons and destroy them."

Pepper was growing more concerned for her boss, "Tony, you know that I would help you with anything, but I cannot help you if you're going to start all of this again."

"There is nothing except this." His Pokémon could tell that their master was getting agitated by his tone alone, "There's no art opening. There is no benefit. There is nothing to sign. There is the next mission and nothing else." They looked at each other with worry over Tony's state, then they looked at Pepper whose face expressed sadness as well.

"Is that so? Well, then, I quit." She threw the hard drive on the table and started to walk away until Tony's word stopped her.

"You stood by my side all these years while I reaped the benefits of destruction." Tony was incredulous at Pepper, "And now that I'm trying to protect the people that I put in harm's way, you're going to walk out?"

"You're going to kill yourself, Tony. I'm not going to be a part of it."

"I shouldn't be alive, unless it was for a reason." Rani looked at him with sympathy, she understands more than anyone what survivors guilt feels like, "I'm not crazy, Pepper. I just finally know what I have to do. And I know in my heart that it's right." Nine was astounded over Tony's confession and was slowly becoming convinced of his crusade and it looked Pepper was as well when she picked up the drive.

"You're all I have, too, you know." Pepper said before walking away, Nine comforted her master by putting her head on his lap and was stroked gratefully.


Pepper fidgeted nervously in the elevator waiting to reach her destination, Eddie noticed and tried comforting her by putting his paw on her leg.

Pepper grinned, "Thanks Eddie but the only thing that can calm me down right now is a Valium." Once the ding was heard Pepper regained composure and headed straight to Tony's office with ease and grace.

She stepped inside the grand room and sat behind the desk with Eddie jumping on top, the computer screen showed a login and password so Pepper pulled out the hard drive to insert it in. The screen showed a red security breach pop up but luckily the drive did its magic and gained them access to everything involving the company.

Pepper did as Tony instructed and found the ghost drive in the files, the first two folders showed the schematics of Stark weapons which gave off red flags but the third folder is what really caught their eyes. The folder contained blueprints of what looked like Tony's armor only bigger, the pop up said sector 16.

"Sector 16?" Pepper and Eddie were both confused, "What are you up to, Obadiah?" Pepper moved onto the next folder which was a video link showing a group of masked men around a suited stranger with a sack over his head. They were armed and the leader was speaking in a language Pepper didn't understand, they removed the strangers bag revealing it to be Tony.

Pepper and Eddie stared at the screen wide eyed, she made the audio translate to English to get to the bottom of this.

Soon the man was speaking in English, "You did not tell us that the target you paid us to kill was the great Tony Stark. As you can see, Obadiah Stane..."

Pepper was shocked to say the least, "Oh, my God."

"... your deception and lies will cost you dearly." Pepper hurriedly made copied of the files to send to the hard drive, "The price to kill Tony Stark has just gone up."

"So" Pepper gasped and saw Obadiah on the doorway, Eddie jumped off the desk and stood next to his master to protect her, "what are we going to do about this?" Obadiah circled the large room making Pepper more nervous with every step, he stopped at the bar to pour himself a scotch "I know what you're going through, Pepper. Tony. He always gets the good stuff, doesn't he?" Obadiah gestured to the liquor relaxing Pepper a bit who laughed to keep face, while Stane was distracted she used the newspaper to cover the hard drive attached,

Stane walked toward the desk making Pepper slyly change the computer screen to the screen saver to cover their tracks, "I was so happy when he came home. It was like we got him back from the dead. Now I realize, well, Tony never really did come home, did he? He left a part of himself in that cave. Breaks my heart." Pepper masked her fear and disgust with understanding.

"Well, he's a complicated person." She tried talking to him like it's any other day and that she didn't just find out his treachery, "He's been through a lot. I think he'll be all right."

"You are a very rare woman. Tony doesn't know how lucky he is." Pepper feigned flattery with Eddie being impressed by her acting.

"Thank you. Thanks. I'd better get back there." Pepper stood up and took the newspaper to discretely remove the drive and walked calmly to not raise suspicion.

"Is that today's paper?" Stane's voice froze her on the spot.

"Yes."

"Do you mind?" Stane walked over.

"Not at all." She handed him the paper and kept the drive in her fist.

"Puzzle." Stane explained.

"Of course."

"Take care."

Pepper gladly walked out the office with Eddie by her side, when they were out of Obadiah's sight they started walking in a fast pace. They felt relieved once they reached the lobby and felt ecstatic when that government agent they met at the press conference was sitting on the couch with his Growlithe and Kirlia.

"Ms. Potts? We had an appointment. Did you forget about our appointment?"

"Nope, right now. Come with me." She moved faster and hoped Coulson could keep up, "We're going to have it right now."

He stood up in confusion along with his Pokémon, "Right now?"

"Yeah, walk with me." They all walked toward the driveway.

"Okay." Coulson said worriedly, Pepper and Eddie turned around and felt chills in their spine when they saw Stane staring at them from the second-floor bridge. Luckily, he's not gonna cause a scene and raise eyebrows.

"I'm going to give you the meeting of your life. Your office."


As soon as they entered his office Coulson asked, "All right now will you tell what this is about?" Pepper responded with a flash drive in her hand which Coulson took without question, he attached it to his computer and looked over her findings with Blaze beside him while his Kirlia, Roosevelt, escorted Eddie to the kitchen for poffins.

Coulson observed the shocking findings with a stone like face, "Where did you get these?"

"I made copies from Tony Stark's computer, the files belong to Obadiah Stane." Pepper paced back and forth in anxiety.

"Okay, so far I've got Stark weapons being made recently that shouldn't have been made in the first place, the shipping labels say it was sent to Afghanistan three days before the attack in Gulmira and…" Coulson saw the sector 16 files which left him stunned, they were tracking this man in a armored suit which looked a little like what Stane was working on here, "Do you know anything about sector 16 more specifically where it's at?"

Pepper shook her head, "No, I just found out about it same as you. There's more look at the next folder." Coulson did as instructed and for the first time had a slightly shocked expression when he saw the video, Blaze saw the video as well and was just as shocked.

Coulson picked up his work phone, typed in the numbers and held the phone to his ear, "This Agent Coulson I need any available agents to drive with me to Stark Industries and take Obadiah Stane in for questioning." He immediately hung up and asked Pepper, "Care to take a field trip?" Pepper was confused but nodded her head and the two of them along with their Pokémon exited the office.


AN: I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and I'll have another available sometime this week.