Later that morning, Laura groaned as she woke up and slowly looked around.
She realized she was in the passenger seat of a moving car while her head was leaning on the window.
She looked down at her pair of jeans as the memories came back.
It was her moving car!
She shifted off it while lifting her hands up but realized that they were handcuffed.
"Good. You're awake." she heard Nat's voice.
She looked over to see her driving and she glanced over to her who changed a gear with the paddle.
"You're fired…" she stated unamused.
"That's not up to you." Nat replied.
She looked up to see them driving down a boulevard and Nat looking outward.
Instantly she opened her glovebox to reach for her small Glock but it was empty.
She glared to Nat who was just shaking her head.
"You're not a threat to me." she simply replied.
Laura narrowed her eyes at her.
"You know this is the type of crap on why I rejected you assholes in the first place!" she spat while lifting up her cuffed hands.
"I gave you plenty of warnings not to resist my orders. You attempted to flee, after my many warnings, which was a weak attempt if you can call it that…" she insulted and Laura glared back at her.
"So you gave me no choice but to subdue you which was simple enough." Nat held up her cuff and ignited the electric shocker on it.
"So you tased me and stole my car?" she asked angrily.
"You failed to comply. And the car was a matter of convivence. I'm bringing you to Mr. Stark right now." Nat said simply.
"Because you apprehended me without a warrant or my consent." she seethed.
"As I said. It wasn't my first call." Nat simply said.
"So, what am I under arrest?" she mocked.
"No. You're needed." Nat answered.
"Needed? By who?" she asked, kinda curious.
"You'll find out. We're here." Nat said while pulling into parking lot of Randy's Donuts.
Laura frowned, seeing other unmarked Shield cars in the lot as she pulled into a spot.
She got out and opened the door for her.
Laura shuffled out of it and Nat brought out a key.
"What are we doing in Inglewood?" she asked confused while looking around.
"I'm going to take the cuffs off of you. Don't attempt to run away this time. You won't make it out of my grasp." Nat warned.
"I'm not gonna give you the satisfaction this time." she said angrily while holding up her wrists.
Nat ignored her jab and uncuffed her wrists.
"Mr. Stark is inside. Along with someone you're already acquainted with." Nat hinted.
"Acquaintance?" she frowned.
Nat gestured her head towards the entrance and she rolled her eyes.
She walked towards it with Nat behind her and opened the door.
"Ah, Watson. Thank you for joining us." Fury greeted her and Tony turned around.
"Watson? What are you doing here?" he asked surprised.
"I was detained, stunned, and dragged out of my house against my will! And why am I not surprised to see you here?" she spat at Fury while walking to sit down next to Tony in the booth.
He was still looking back at Nat, looking up and down at her.
"Watson, Stark. I want you to meet Agent Romanoff." Fury introduced her.
"Figured as much." Laura muttered while she sat down next to Fury.
"Hi…" Tony sighed.
"I'm a SHIELD shadow. Once we knew you were ill, I was tasked to you by Director Fury." she told Tony.
"So why drag me into all of this?" Laura asked unamused.
"Because you are involved in this Watson. Stark…" Fury began but she put her hand up.
"I know. Is being poisoned by palladium. I figured it out. Thanks for telling me by the way…" she said while glaring at Tony who sighed.
"I didn't want you to worry about it. Or Pepper. I…" he began but she interrupted him.
"Tony Why didn't you tell me! Don't you realize we could have worked together like we always to try and find a cure!" she exclaimed.
"Trust me, I know. I've been looking for a suitable replacement for palladium. I've tried every combination, every permutation of every known element." he told her and she frowned.
"This still doesn't explain why you guys are involved in this." she said while pointing at Fury and Nat.
"Because Watson he and You have become a problem, a problem I have to deal with. He made you and his girl in charge of his company, he's giving away all of his stuff. You let your friend fly away with your suit. Now, if I didn't know better…" he said but Tony interrupted him.
"You don't know better. I didn't give it to him. He took it." he corrected.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. He took it? You're Iron Man and he just took it? The little brother walked in there, kicked your ass and took your suit? Is that possible?" he asked Nat.
"It's not supposed to be." Laura mumbled while slouching into the cushion with her arms crossed.
"Well, according to Mr. Stark's database security guidelines, there are redundancies to prevent unauthorized usage." she answered.
Fury gave a "I told you so" look to them and Laura looked over to Tony.
"What do you want from me?" he asked annoyed.
"What do we want from you? What do you want from me?" Fury said as Nat got up from the booth and Laura turned her head around to watch her.
"You have become a problem, a problem I have to deal with. Contrary to your belief, you are not the center of my universe. I have bigger problems than you in the southwest region to deal with…" Fury accused as Laura watched Nat take a from an agent guarding the door and walk back towards them.
"Hit him." Fury said but Laura tried to grab the injection in her hand.
Nat simply grabbed it with her left hand strongly and crushed it as she injected it with her other hand into Tony's neck in one quick movement.
"Ow, ow…" she winced while trying to pry her wrist free from the strong grip.
"You need to stop that." Nat warned her as she turned Tony's neck to see the veins retreating back down his neck while still holding Laura's wrist with the other.
"Oh, God, are gonna steal my kidney and sell it? Could you please not do anything awful for five seconds? What did she just do to me?" he asked concerned.
"What did we just do for you? That's lithium dioxide. It's gonna take the edge off. We're trying to get you back to work." Fury explained.
"So problem solved then?" Laura asked hopefully while Nat let her wrist go.
"It's not a cure, it just abates the symptoms." Nat explained.
"Doesn't look like it's gonna be an easy fix." Fury stated.
"I already told you. I've been trying to find a suitable replacement for palladium." he repeated.
"Well, I'm here to tell you, you haven't tried them all."
Laura and Tony were transported back to his house and surrounded by SHIELD Agents.
The two and Fury were sitting on the deck overlooking the ocean as Fury explained the potential cure.
"That thing in your chest is based on unfinished technology." he told them.
"No, it was finished. It has never been particularly effective until I miniaturized it and put it in my…" Tony began but he interrupted him.
"No. Howard said the arc reactor was the stepping stone to something greater. He was about to kick off an energy race that was gonna dwarf the arms race. He was on to something big, something so big that it was gonna make the nuclear reactor look like a triple-A battery." he explained.
"So how did Vanko have an arc then?" Laura asked curiously.
"Anton Vanko is the other side of that coin. Anton saw it as a way to get rich. When your father found out, he had him deported. When the Russians found out he couldn't deliver they shipped his ass off to Siberia and he spent the next 20 years in a vodka-fueled rage. Not quite the environment you want to raise a kid in, the son you had the misfortune of crossing paths with in Monaco." he answered.
"You told me I hadn't tried everything. What do you mean I haven't tried everything? What haven't I tried?" he asked desperately.
"He said that you were the only person with the means and knowledge to finish what he started." Fury replied.
"He said that?" he asked surprised.
"Are you that guy? Are you? 'Cause if you are, then you can solve the riddle of your heart." Fury hinted and Tony shook his head no.
"I don't know where you get your information, but he wasn't my biggest fan." he said sarcastically and Laura frowned, listening on silently.
"What do you remember about your dad?" Fury asked.
"He was cold, he was calculating. He never told me he loved me. He never even told me he liked me, so it's a little tough for me to digest when you're telling me he said the whole future was riding on me and he's passing it down. I don't get that. You're talking about a guy who's happiest day was when he shipped me off to boarding school." he said bitterly.
"That's not true." Fury argued.
"Well, then, clearly you knew my dad better than I did." he said sarcastically.
"As a matter of fact, I did. He was one of the founding members of SHIELD." Fury revealed while getting up.
"Wait Fury what are you doing?" Laura asked while getting up herself.
"I got a two o clock." he said while looking down at his watch.
Two agents brought a large tote with "Property of H. Stark" on the lid in and placed it by their feet.
"What's this?" she asked him.
"The two of you got this? Right? Right?" he dismissed while walking towards the exit.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait. What's this?" Tony begged while trying to block him.
"Okay, you're good, right?" Fury ignored him.
"No, I'm not good." he shook his head.
"Natasha will remain a floater at Stark with her cover intact. You remember Agent Coulson, right?" Fury asked as he walked in.
"Hey Phil. Big surprise to see you here." Laura crossed her arms unimpressed.
"Ms. Watson." he nodded formally.
"And Watson, Stark. Remember. I've got my eye on you." Fury tilted his eyepatch at them before walking out.
Laura frowned but knelt down to open the tote but Nat walked in.
"We've disabled all communications. No contact with the outside world. Good luck." she told them but looked over to Laura.
"I'll hold onto your car. It's slightly faster than the ones SHIELD provides anyways." she said and Laura could see the smugness in her eyes.
"Thanks for that! Thanks for nothing!" she shouted at her but she ignored the jab and followed Fury out.
"Please. First thing, I need a little bodywork. I'll put in a little time at the lab. If we could send one of your goon squad down to The Coffee Bean, Cross Creek, for a Starbucks run, or something like that, that'd be nice." Tony asked Phil.
"I'm not here for that. I've been authorized by Director Fury to use any means necessary to keep you on premises. If you attempt to leave or play any games, I will tase you and watch Supernanny while you drool into the carpet. Okay?" he warned.
"I've already been tased once today but yeah…?" Laura rolled her eyes.
"I think I got it, yeah." Tony nodded.
"Enjoy your evening's entertainment. Ms. Watson" Phil tilted his head towards her and walked out.
Later that night, the two were in the shop, after going over the tote of supplies.
The tote had turned out to be filled with Howard Stark's notes and belongings that SHIELD had.
They had worked all day, trying to find the cure or even a clue at this point but had come up with nothing.
Laura was sleeping on a recliner with the blueprints of Howard's original Arc Reactor sprawled over her.
Tony flipped through his dad's old notebook while a film of him was being played on a projector of him in front of a model of the 1974 Expo.
"Everything is achievable through technology. Better living, robust heath, and for the first time in human history, the possibility of world peace. I'm Howard Stark, and everything you'll need for the future can be found right here. City of the Future? City of Tomorrow? City of… I'm Howard Stark and everything you'll need in the future can be found right here. So, from all of us at Stark Industries, I would like to personally… " he began but a younger Tony was seen picking up one of the buildings on it.
"Tony, what are you doing back there? What is that?" Howard demanding, getting present day Tony's attention.
"Put that back. Put it back where you got it from. Where's your mother? Maria? Go on. Go, go, go, go." a man picked up child Tony and rushed him out of the room.
He sighed while scrolling through the notebook to see a blueprint of the Tesseract but sighed and tossed it away.
He looked back at Laura who shifted slightly in her sleep.
"Tony." Howard's voice got his attention.
"You're too young to understand this right now, so I thought I would put it on film for you. I built this for you. And someday you'll realize that it represents a whole lot more than just people's inventions. It represents my life's work. This is the key to the future. I'm limited by the technology of my time, but one day you'll figure this out. And when you do, you will change the world. What is and always will be my greatest creation is you."
The next day, Laura was speeding in the F1 down the Pacific Coast Highway, following Tony.
She changed a gear and smiled at the sound of the engine but saw him hit the breaks and pull over to a strawberry cart on the cliffside.
She sighed and pulled up to him.
She unstrapped herself and crawled over to the passenger door to open it to him haggling with the vendor.
"What?" he asked her impatiently.
"Pepper is allergic to strawberries. Remember?" she asked sarcastically.
"Right…" he sighed.
"May I suggest flowers?" she quipped and he rolled his eyes.
"Don't think you're keeping my car." he couldn't help but joke and she smiled.
"You'll have to catch me first!" she slammed the door and sped off, burning rubber.
"You're on Watson." he tossed the vendor his watch and sped after her.
They walked into Pepper's office with Tony carrying a large glass vase of lily's for Pepper but her secretary tried blocking them.
"Ms. Potts?" the secretary asked as she was on the phone.
"Relax." Tony waved her off.
"Mr. Stark and Ms. Watson…" she tried again.
"Are here. It's okay Evelyn." Laura reassured her.
"Yes, Ms. Watson." she nodded and walked out.
The two walked up to Pepper who looked up to them silently without amusement.
"No… Burt… Burt… Burt, listen to me. Don't tell me that we have the best patent lawyers in the country and then not let me pursue this." Pepper spoke about Rhodey stealing Tony's suit as Laura sat down in front of her and Tony sat down next to her, both of them looking guilty.
"Well, then, tell the President to sign an order. We'll talk about it at the Expo. Hammer's giving some presentation tomorrow evening. Will Tony Stark and Laura Watson be there?" she repeated while glaring between them.
"Will I?" Tony asked.
"I'd like to be." Laura muttered.
"No they will not. Bye." she hanged up angrily.
"Listen Pepper I feel like I need to explain myself…" Laura began but Pepper put her hand up.
"Yes you do. I've been trying to call you all day yesterday to help with this mess and all I got was your voicemail." she stated.
"Yes I know. But I can't give an excuse for that but I and Tony have come to apologize…" she gestured to him.
"Look, that goes without saying, and I'm working on that. But I haven't been entirely upfront with you, and I just want to try to make good. See." he held up the vase and placed it on her desk who just stared at him judgingly.
"Do you know how short life is? And if I never got to express… And by the way, this is somewhat revelatory to me. And I don't care… I mean, I care. It would be nice. I'm not expecting you to… Look, here's what I'm trying to say. I'm just gonna say it." he rambled but she interrupted him.
"Let me stop you right here, okay? Because if you say "I" one more time, I'm gonna actually hurl something at your head, I think. I am trying to run a company. Do you have any idea what that entails?" she asked sarcastically.
"Yes." both he and Laura answered at the same time.
They couldn't help but smile at each other while Pepper's patience began to run out.
"Laura can you leave us. I need to talk to Tony. Alone. I'll talk to you later." she asked firmly.
"Yep…" she got up and bolted out of the room.
"Like a child of parents getting a divorce." she joked to herself.
She leaned up against the wall but heard footsteps walking towards her.
She looked over to see Happy and Nat heading towards her.
"Hey Happy." she greeted just him and Nat raised an eyebrow.
"Hey Laura. What are you doing here?" he asked.
"Avoiding divorce court." she joked while pointing back to Pepper's office.
"Ah." he nodded in acknowledgement.
"Well, well, well, Ms. Rushman is it?" she asked while glaring at her.
"Ms. Watson." she simply nodded and walked past her into the office.
She and Happy followed her, getting Tony and Pepper's attention.
"Hi, come on in." Pepper nodded.
"Wheels up in 25 minutes." Nat alerted.
"Thank you." she handed Pepper forms to sign.
"Anything else, boss?" Happy asked her.
"I'm good, Hap." Tony replied.
"No, I'll be just another minute." Pepper told him who nodded.
"I lost both the kids in the divorce." he joked and Laura smiled faintly.
"Say Tony don't you think we should have more extensive background checks here at Stark? With Iron Man and everything else going on we can never be too careful now can we?" she asked while glaring daggers at Nat who warned her silently through her eyes to not say anything else.
"I agree Watson. You never know who may slip on in here." he jested back.
"After all safety is very important to me. It's nice to be SHIELDED…! From any potential threats. What do you think Natalie? It's important to be protected by a SHIELD? Is it not? SHIELDS. SHIELD. SHIELDED. SHIELDING… I've run out of ways to say SHIELD." she said sarcastically while dramatically empathizing "SHIELD"
Pepper missed the hints as Nat narrowed her eyes at her.
"Actually, while you're here maybe you and Natalie could discuss the matter of the personal belongings that are still in Laura's office." she asked Nat.
"Finally!" Laura exclaimed dramatically and Tony rolled his eyes.
"Absolutely." she took the forms back from Pepper who left the room with Happy.
"You couldn't keep your mouth shut could you?" she asked Laura angrily.
"What do you expect? Infiltrating and ruining our lives!" she shouted back to the door.
"Keep it down!" Nat hissed through her teeth.
"Make me…" Laura got up into her face over the desk closely.
"You don't want me to." Nat warned but grabbed her folder.
"Now you can either drive yourselves home or I'll have you collected." she walked swiftly past her and out the room.
"You're good!" Tony shouted back.
"I hate her…" Laura muttered but Tony went wide eyed in realization.
"What?" Laura asked, seeing the look on his face.
He fast walked out and she followed him over to her office.
He dropped the drape over the large model leaning on her bookshelf.
He encircled his eye with his hand, narrowing the globe statue in the middle of it.
"What?" Laura asked confused.
"I… Help me with this…"
Laura followed him back to his house with the large model sticking out of the convertible.
The two of them brought it into the middle of the shop and JARVIS highlighted it for them.
"1974 Stark Expo model scan complete, sir." JARVIS said and Tony lifted the holographic of it and enlarged it.
"How many buildings are there?" he asked.
"Am I to include the Belgium waffle stands?" JARVIS joked and Laura smiled.
"That was rhetorical. Just show me." he spun it around and lifted it vertically.
"What does that look like to you?" he asked Laura.
"An atom?" she replied with eyebrows furrowed.
"In which case the nucleus would be here…" he pointed at the statue in the center.
"Highlight the Unisphere. Lose the footpaths. Get rid of them." he asked.
"What is it you're trying to achieve, sir?" JARVIS asked.
"I'm discovering… Correction. I'm rediscovering a new element, I believe. Lose the landscaping, the shrubbery, the trees." he asked and JARVIS did so.
"Parking lots, exits." Laura followed along, flicking them away.
"Yes, Ms." JARVIS replied.
"Structure the protons and the neutrons using the pavilions as a framework." Tony said as the graphic transformed itself into a blur spherical globe.
He flicked them outwards, revealing the dozens of copies of the new element all around them.
"It's a nucleus…" Laura said in awe while tilting her head around.
"Dad. Dead for almost 20 years, and still taking me to school…" he laughed.
Laura smiled at him and he snapped down the graphic so the element would fit in his hand.
"The proposed element should serve as a viable replacement for palladium." JARVIS confirmed.
"So job done then?" Laura asked hopefully.
"Unfortunately Ms., it is impossible to synthesize." he replied.
"Of course…" she sighed.
"Get ready for a major remodel, fellas. We're back in hardware mode."
Laura took a sledgehammer and swung at the concrete wall.
With all of her strength she busted a large hole into it while Tony used a jackhammer to drill through the ceiling above them from the main floor.
Laura looked up to see cables being dropped between the hole.
"I got them!" she shouted back up at Tony.
"You know what to do!" he shouted back.
She nodded and brought out wooden crates with a forklift.
She pried them open and brought out metal air ducts and began fastening them together.
They clamped each one together, making a miniaturized super collider with the end of it attached to the hole in the wall Laura made.
The two were currently levelling it out with workbenches, stools, and other items they could find around the shop as Phil let himself in.
"I heard you broke the perimeter." he got their attention.
"Yeah… SHIELD must really be slipping if you just figured that out…" Laura jabbed.
"I was doing some stuff." he hinted but spotted something in one of the crates.
"Yeah, well, me too and it worked. Hey, I'm playing for the home team Coulson, you and all your Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. Now, are you gonna let us work or break our balls?" Tony said while gesturing towards Laura who was using a level to measure the collider.
"Still not level." she gave Tony a thumbs down.
He nodded back but Phil lifted up a Shield.
"What's this doing here?" he asked about Captain America's Shield.
"No way!" Laura shrieked and ran over to take it from him.
"You've had this the entire time and never told me!" she exclaimed to Tony.
"Apparently." he shrugged his shoulders.
She strapped it in her arm and got in a fighting stance.
"Not bad right?" she joked and Phil smiled faintly.
"Quit messing with it. Give it to me." Tony asked.
She frowned but gave it to me. This is exactly what I need to make this work. Lift the coil. Go, go. Put your knees into it." he asked Phil to lift up the ducts and he placed the shield between them and a tool cabinet.
"There you go." he placed it back down and Laura leveled it again.
"Perfectly level. As it should be." she gave Tony a thumbs up.
"Now we're buys. What do you want?" Tony asked Phil.
"Nothing. Goodbye. I've been reassigned. Director Fury wants me in New Mexico." he answered.
"You gonna break bad?" Laura joked.
"Not quite." he hinted with a smile and the two shook hands.
"Secret stuff?" Tony asked.
"Something like that. Good luck." the two shook hands.
"Bye. Thanks." Tony told him.
"We need you." Phil told Tony seriously.
"Yeah, more than you know." he agreed.
"Not that much…" Phil said while looking at Laura who noticed that but he walked out.
The two put on goggles and Tony inserted the block into the accelerator and Laura turned it on with the element was inside a new arc reactor.
"Initializing prismatic accelerator." JARVIS warned.
Tony twisted the wheel to control it but struggled against the strength.
"Approaching maximum power." JARVIS alerted.
Laura sprinted for the wrench and gave it to Tony who used it as a lever.
The whole room was shaking as the laser broke through the accelerator and began cutting the wall behind it.
Laura cringed but Tony managed to control it into the reactor core.
The element powered on and Laura went wide eyed. T
ony turned off the accelerator and the two shared a look of awe.
They ducked underneath the accelerated and walked up to the triangular shaped element.
"That was easy." Tony joked.
"Congratulations sir. You have created a new element." JARVIS said.
He picked it up with a pair of pliers and placed it inside the arc, powering it on.
"Awesome." Laura said amazed.
"Sir, the reactor has accepted the modified core. I will begin running diagnostics." JARVIS confirmed.
"Hey at least your not dying anymore…" Laura stated the obvious.
"Yeah… I could have handled that better…" he muttered.
"So uh Tony I do have a question to ask…" she began.
"Yeah?"
"So making me COO. Pepper in charge of the whole company was too…" she said obviously and he nodded.
"I wanted my company to be in capable hands. And you Watson have proven that to me more times than I could count." he said sincerely.
She smiled, genuinely touched, and tried fighting back a few tears that came to her eye but rubbed them away.
"We should uh…" she said but sniffed the tears away and Tony clenched her shoulder comfortingly.
"Should get all of this cleaned up…"
Later that afternoon, the two were busy cleaning up the shop but the phone rang.
"Incoming call with a blocked number sir." JARVIS spoke up.
"My phone privilege is reinstated. Lovely. Coulson. How's the Land of Enchantment?" Tony asked.
"Hey, Tony, how you doing? I double cycle." Vanko chuckled from an office with the bodies of two guards hanging from the ceiling and Laura went wide eyed.
"You what?" he frowned.
"Vanko…" she whispered to Tony.
"You told me double cycle's more power. Good advice." Vanko warned while Laura and Tony sped walked to his setup.
"You sound pretty sprightly for a dead guy." Tony tried stalling.
"Trace him buddy…" Laura asked JARVIS after muting the call on the monitor
"Ms."
"Now, the true history of Stark name will be written." Vanko threatened.
"Jarvis, where is he?" Tony asked.
"Accessing the Oracle grid. Eastern Seaboard." he said while zooming in on a satellite view of it.
"What your father did to my family over 40 years, I will do to you in 40 minutes." Vanko warned and Laura unmuted the call.
"Be careful what you wish for. I killed the last guy who tried to cross us! I'm not afraid to kill again!" she shouted.
"Tri-State area. Manhattan and outlying boroughs." JARVIS zoomed in on New York.
"I hope you're ready." Vanko hanged up right after Queens was highlighted on the monitor.
The two shared a look of panic and glanced over to the invitation of Hammer's presentation on another screen.
"How are we gonna get to Queens in an hour?" Laura asked him with panic.
He opened his mouth to respond but glanced over to one of the spare Mark lll's in the glass cases.
"No…" she crossed her arms, knowing what he was implying.
"There's no time to argue. Suit up!" he ordered and looked back to the new arc.
She sighed but bolted towards one of the suits.
"This is crazy. This is crazy…" she mumbled while opening up one of the cases.
Tony picked up the arc and placed it into his chest.
"You want to run some tests, run them. And assemble the suit while you're at it. Put it together now." he ordered JARVIS.
"We are unclear as to the effects." JARVIS warned.
"We don't have time buddy…" Laura said while a holographic scanned her body.
"Laura Watson confirmed." the suit opened itself up down the middle and she took a deep breath.
She stepped up inside it and turned around.
The suit enclosed around her and the HUD came on.
"Let's do this!"
