Toni was sitting in an office chair in her garage/workshop Sometime later that night. "JARVIS, you up?" She asked.

"For you, Ma'am, always." JARVIS the AI responded.

"Excellent. Well, I'd like to open a new project file, index as Mark II" Toni responded, bringing up a 3-D holographic image of her robotic armor.

"Shall I store this on the Stark Industries Central Database?"

"Actually... no." Toni sighed. "I don't know who to trust right now." She fiddled with the hologram. "Until I specify otherwise, keep everything on my private server." She removed what she deemed unnecessary parts to the armor.

"Working on a top secret project, are we, Ma'am?" The AI asked.

"Yes, I can't afford this winding up in the wrong hands. Like terrorists. Or Justine Hammer. Or the US Army. But I think that in mine, it can actually do some good." She looked at the new design for the armor and nodded in satisfaction.

Some time later, Toni had began work on the armor and was building one of the boots. Helping her was her robot arm DUM-E, who was working next to her.

"Next. Up. Not in the boot, DUM-E. Right here. You got me? Stay put. Nice. You're of no benefit at all." Toni muttered to the robot. "Move down to the toe. I got this end."

DUM-E bumped Toni's hand as she was welding.

"Oh, I'm sorry, am I in your way?" Toni asked. "I said work at the toe. You know what? Screw this. Don't even move. I dont know why I bother keeping you around anymore. You are a tragedy."

DUM-E's hand dropped in disappointment.

Later still, Toni had finished working on the boots. She was wearing them for a test flight and had the rocket controls in her hands.

DUM-E the robot was holding a fire extinguisher in its hand, while another robot, U, was filming on a hand held video camera.

"Okay, let's do this right. Start mark, half a metre, and back and centre. DUM-E, look alive-you're on standby for fire safety. U, roll it. Okay." Toni looked into the camera. "June 16th 2010. I think. I honestly don't know the time. I think it's sometime in the afternoon. If I'm wrong, who cares. This is the first test flight for my top secret project, hey there, Future Toni. We're gonna start off nice and easy and we're gonna see if ten percent thrust capacity achieves lift." She took a deep breath. "Okay. Three, two, one."

Toni was launched into the ceiling from the force of the boots. She fell down to the floor and DUM-E sprayed her in the face with the fire extinguisher.

A few months after starting her project, Toni was working on her armor designs using a 3-D simulation. She zoomed in on the arm.

"Alright, I just need the basic skeleton..." Toni muttered, stripping the simulated metal from the projection. "And that should do it." She nodded. "Yeah. Save this design, JARVIS."

Later that evening, Toni was working on a physical prototype of the arm she had simulated earlier.

"Up two. All right, set that." Toni muttered, tinkering with the arm using a screwdriver.

Pepper walked down into the workshop, carrying food, drink and a medium sized parcel.

"Toni, I've been buzzing you. Did you not hear the intercom?" He asked.

"Yeah, course. Everything's-wait, what?" Toni put down the screwdriver.

"I've been trying to call you for hours. I thought you'd died or something."

"Well, I've been hard at work on a project."

"So I see." Pepper noticed the arm on the table. "And I thought you said you were done making weapons.

"I did say that and yes I am." Toni patted the arm gently. She picked it up and put it on. "It's a flight stabiliser. Completely harmless." She activated it and it quickly threw her from one side of the lab to the other.

"Toni! Oh my god!" Pepper exclaimed.

"I'm fine! I just... honestly didn't think that would happen." Toni said, picking herself up off the floor. "What did you want, again?"

"Obadiah's upstairs." Pepper replied.

"Great!" Toni said sarcastically.

"What would you like me to tell him?" Pepper asked.

"That I'll be right up." Toni looked down at her arm. "Of course."

"Okay. Well, you might wanna come upstairs." Pepper said. "You know, seeing as how Obadiah won't wait forever."

"Yeah. I'll be right up." Toni chuckled sheepishly.

Pepper went upstairs, leaving Toni alone. In the living room, Pepper sighed as he caught sight of Obadiah, who was sitting on the sofa.

"Where is she?" Obadiah asked.

"She said she'll be right up." Pepper said. "I don't know how long that means, in Toni terms, but-"

"It means I'll be right up." Toni said, sprinting up the stairs into the living room, joining Pepper and Obadiah. "Ooh those steps are a killer." From the corner of her eye, she spotted a pizza box. She hummed. "That bad, huh?"

Obadiah let out a chuckle. "Look, Toni, just because I brought pizza back from New York doesn't mean it went bad."

"Sure doesn't." Toni said in a matter of fact tone.

"It didn't go bad, Toni. It just... would have gone better if you were there." Obadiah said with a one sided shrug.

"That would be your fault." Toni said. "See you-you told me to lay low. And that's what I've been doing. I've been laying low, and-"

"No, I told you to lay low to the press, the public." Obadiah's tone changed to one of irritation. "This was a board of directors meeting."

Toni put her head in her hand. "Shit."

"Yeah. Damn right." Obadiah snapped.

"I thought that was next week-"

"It's August already, Toni. Nearly September."

"What happened to June and July?" Toni asked.

"Exactly my point, Toni. You've missed so many of these things now that the board is claiming you have PTSD and they're filing an injunction."

"What's that mean?" Toni asked.

"It means they want to lock you out." Pepper said from the other side of the room.

"That's not fair!" Toni argued. "Just because the stocks dipped forty points, I mean we-"

"Fifty-six and a half." Pepper said.

"It doesn't matter." Toni shook her head. "Doesn't matter. We own the controlling interest in the company."

"Well, you see the board has rights, too." Obadiah said. "And their right is to make the case that you and your new direction isn't in the company's best interest."

"No need to be condescending-I'm being responsible! That's a new direction! A good direction! I've never-the company-I'm-it's on the company's behalf, the being responsible-" Toni stammered. She ground her teeth in irritation. "Can't they see this is great?"

Obadiah sighed. "Oh, come on. Toni."

Toni exhaled loudly. "Screw this noise. I'll be in the shop."

"Toni, listen to me." Obadiah stood up.

Toni stopped in her tracks. "Fine. Go."

"I'm trying to turn this around, but you gotta give me something. Something to pitch to them." Obadiah took a few steps towards Toni and pointed at the arc reactor in her chest.

Toni shook her head furiously and grabbed the pizza. "No. No way. Absolutely not."

"It'll give me a bone to throw the boys in New York!"

"This one stays with me, Obie. So forget it." Toni said, looking hard into Obadiah's eyes.

Obadiah snatched the pizza from Toni. "You think that way, then this stays with me."

"Obie." Toni growled.

Obadiah opened the pizza box. "Okay. Have a piece."

Toni grabbed a piece with one hand and another with the other hand.

"Okay then. Take two." Obadiah closed the box. "So, can I come down there and see what you're doing?" He asked.

Toni said nothing and bit into the pizza. She walked down the stairs and when she was around halfway down, she called up. "Good night, Obie!"