Legacy of Bats & Iron

Sixteen: Betrayals & Closing the Circle

Clark and Steve were spending time together as both Toni and Brianna had gotten into the frame of mind that everything was being hacked. The fact that SHIELD was becoming prevalent in their lives and that Agent Coulson had come it was not making them feel safe.

"Why would SHIELD want to be involved?" Clark asked Steve.

"I don't know, they have not been involved since the Richard incident," Steve told him, his fist clenched still remembering the man. He knew that he was the biological father but the way that he had gone about it still made him sick and knowing that SHIELD had been involved in something like that.

"I know from Brianna that its under new management sort of speak,"

"You're talking about Director Fury actually being Director this time," Steve said. It was something that Howard had found out after Agent Coulson had appeared on their doorstep to let them know that something wasn't right.

"Yes," Clark said. "I think this might be more than that though,"

"So, you're in the same camp as Howard and Martha," Steve said.

"Yes, we have been hearing that Stark tech has been going to terrorist organizations, who else is going to be giving them, access," Clark said.

"Brianna is looking into who made the call for the kidnapping," Steve told him. He hadn't had any mind for the past few weeks had been helping Toni with everything that had happened and dealing as well with the PSD that came with something like this. They had to keep Penny over with Brianna for the time being as Toni did not feel capable and safe for her daughter. It hurt both and it sort of gave Toni an understanding of what Martha had done, but she was not sending Penny to no boarding school. It helped that Penny kept seeing them over the computer and always came to see them. To Penny, she was just having sleepovers with her best friend.

"She is and I don't want to think about the consequence when she finds the person responsible," Clark said. "We also had to deal with that thing in Harlem,"

"You're talking, about the big green monster that came out, I spoke to Charles to ask him if it had been one of theirs that had lost control, he mentioned that it wasn't," Steve told him.

"I also wanted to know about Toni's new bodyguard?" Clark mentioned drinking some of the water. Steve turned to look at his friend.

"The Iron Man, I didn't know it was going to go attack those terrorists," Steve told him but at the same time he looked the other way. As he knew who was inside the suit and it had been a fight with Toni.

"Is not like he did something terrible about it," Clark told him surprising Steve. "Just tell Toni to be careful and knows that we don't kill unless its incredibly necessary,"

"I know," Steve told him. He knew that Clark had been suffering from when he had to kill Zod after he tried to kill Brianna and Rachel.

"I really suck at lying," Steve told Clark.

"Not really, but Brianna got it out of Toni," Clark said. "What does worry me is that our close friend will try to harm Toni,"

#

A Few Months Later

Clarks words seemed to be prophetic as the moment Steve had to leave Toni alone because Nick Fury had sent an alarm that Howard was in danger and Toni, I had sent him over there. Well it didn't help the relationship later, when it was your daughter looking at her Mother almost dying on the ground. The man that they had trusted almost harming Penny as well trying to stop Toni from doing anything. Toni was not taking it well as she fought Obadiah in the streets of LA.

"Penny, Toni!" Steve screamed. He saw the hole in the roof and Penny was hiding behind Dummy. He ran up to her and saw that she had bruise on her face, and it was big enough for him to know that she had been hurt.

"Papa!" Penny said crying running his way.

"Are you alright, where is your Mom?" Steve asked carrying his little girl.

"Uncle Obe attacked her, he took her heart!" Penny told him. Steve looked up and tried to see where all the issues were.

#

SHIELD had tried to take control of the situation, they wanted to seem like Obadiah had just died in an accident. Howard was not been so kind about this, the man had tried to kill his daughter and granddaughter. Agent Coulson was currently trying not to make this harder than it needed to be. He had sort of being dragged into the elder Starks office as Mrs. Rogers had been with her family all morning and the Captain had not allowed anyone to come near his wife unless it was family.

"Mr. Stark, this will be for the best," Coulson said to him. Trying to convince the man to go with the story was terrible as he was going to be the one to give the speech.

"No, it's not."

"You of all people know that certain things cannot be…"

"I know a lot about the world Agent Coulson, you don't need to tell me," Howard told him.

"What Howard is trying to tell you Agent Coulson, is that we will not be mousled," he turned to see Mrs. Wayne moving her chair toward him. "I believe you understand that our daughter was hurt in this act,"

"I understand, but your daughter also killed a man," Agent Coulson said trying to use it as a leverage.

"She killed no one, her bodyguard did and since the bodyguard is a machine," Marth told him narrowing her eyes. "If you are trying to threaten Antonia with legal action, I can assure you that we've played this game before,"

Agent Coulson stood silent, as he knew that he had lost. He was standing with the two biggest players in the world. Who the world did not know if they were involved romantically, but told him that they would fight to keep their family safe?

"If we tell the world the truth it will cause a panic," Agent Coulson said.

"Agent Coulson, we are not going to hide that there were mistakes in this world," Martha said. "It will cause more problem if someone goes as a saint, when they aren't,"

"We also don't want to fake sadness, when we don't want to," Howard said. The plan SHIELD had was stupid and he was finally healing the relationship with his daughter and he was not going to put it in danger. Agent Coulson sighed because he knew that he had lost, and he knew the sigh on his ear told him that Director Fury knew that was the case.

#

Later that week Toni was finally back to normal or what normal could be said. She had just walked over to see Penny and made sure she was sleeping soundly in their home. She was walking her house making sure that everything was okay, she was beginning to believe that she would have to return to New York soon. She heard a noise and moved to get one of her gloves in her hands. She knew that she was not the only one to hear the weird noise as she heard Steve come with her side and the Shield in his hand. They walked into the living room to see someone standing there.

"Captain, Mrs. Roger-Stark," The voice was something they hadn't heard before.

"Who are you?" Steve asked.

"I know that you know of the world out there, but it's time you come out of the shadows and see the world the way it is," Director Fury told them.

#

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