I'M NOT DEAD! Sorry, but I could only work on this chapter here and there, and it dragged out, and now it's been almost three weeks since I've updated... I'm sorry, guys.
Please note: I have previously stated that the travel time to SI New York HQ from NYC is about an hour and the facility is north of NYC, but... I didn't think that through... will you forgive me that I changed it?
Strangely, I don't own anything Marvel-related.
The song for this chapter is "Warriors" by Imagine Dragons.
IRON MAN: PART 6: WE ARE THE WARRIORS
Tony paced around the lab, schemes running through his mind, wondering if his mom was going to come home any time soon. If she came back to the house without him here, she would throw a fit. Glancing furtively at the door, the genius sat down impatiently, debating whether to call Maria. The TV, which he hadn't bothered to turn off before the ill-fated party, displayed yet another story on its glaring screen.
"The 15-mile hike to the outskirts of Gulmira can only be described as a descent into hell, into a modern day Heart of Darkness."
Here was something worth covering. Tony glanced at the display, his attention becoming fixated on it as he caught a glimpse of the horrors that these people, innocent people, were forced to go through.
"Simple farmers and herders from peaceful villages have been driven from their homes, displaced from their lands by warlords emboldened by a new-found power. Villagers have been forced to take shelter in whatever crude dwellings they can find in the ruins of other villages, or here in the remnants of an old Soviet smelting plant."
People were suffering, while he was here, in his basement lab, waiting for his mother to get back from a New York party.
"Recent violence has been attributed to a group of foreign fighters referred to by locals as the Ten Rings. As you can see, these men are heavily armed and on a mission. A mission that could prove fatal to anyone who stands in their way. With no political will or international pressure, there's very little hope for these refugees."
No international pressure to save someone's life from terrorists. What had the world come to? Tony got up, angrily jamming on one of his flight stabilizers.
"Around me, a woman begging for news on her husband, who was kidnapped by insurgents, either forced to join their militia…"
Tony fired, searing a black stain across the polished concrete wall. Turning, in what he fancied to be a superhero motion, he blasted again, this time harder, carving a shallow depression into the thick rock. A final turn brought him to a glass panel. He stared at his face; the face of Tony Stark, boy genius, billionaire, who only cared about his popularity, his safety, and maybe his mother.
One blast in Tony Stark's face shattered that image.
Oblivious to the genius's rage, the TV droned on, covering a story that no one was going to do anything about. "Desperate refugees clutch yellowed photographs, holding them up to anyone who will stop. A child's simple question, 'Where are my mother and father?' There's very little hope for these refugees, refugees who can only wonder who, if anyone, will help."
Storming over, Tony shook his head. Maria Stark could worry about her son, for all he cared. No one should go through what he had. Someone was going to help those refugees, mark his words.
Not Tony Stark.
The Iron Man.
The suit covered Tony, the plating coating him in shining gold and glowing red. A thick glass panel covered the ARC reactor, blurring the glow so that it seemed to be a single bulb. Tugging his arms out of the robotic ones, he raised his head as the helmet was hooked around it, and the face-mask snapped down, encasing him completely in metal.
Taking off, the genius curved up the driveway once more, bursting above the clouds in an instant. Tony carefully toggled the extra boost, and the suit responded, breaking the sound barrier as he sped towards his target.
Farewell, Mom. Don't weep. Tony was going to prove his worth.
Hours later, as Tony was wondering when his mother would call him, he caught a glimpse of a shockwave that seemed very familiar. A Jericho. Coasting closer, he caught sight of a woefully small town, nestled in a valley. Already he could pick out people running in terror, as well as people running in the name of terror. As a family was ripped apart by Bearded Man, the father held at gunpoint while his son screamed, Tony gritted his teeth. Now or never.
Quickly losing altitude, he fell to the surface, the terrorists gazing up at his form in awe. The Iron Man landed, twisted up its head, and poised itself.
The man who had been holding the civilian at gunpoint opened fire upon the metal form, but the Iron Man stepped forward, punching the terrorist a little too hard and sending him flying into the second story of a half-demolished building. Turning without regret, Tony raised his right arm, firing a repulsor blast at a man and throwing him back, the concrete behind him crumbling. As men screamed and fired around him, a blast issued from his left hand and another terrorist fell back, unmoving. A double blast toppled a man over a crate of missiles.
Spinning towards the clamor of voices, Tony raised his hands - but ceased in his attack when he took in the sight. Four men were standing with civilians, guns to the innocent people's heads, yelling at the Iron Man in whatever language it was that they spoke and he didn't speak. It was enough to get the message. Slowly lowering his gauntlets, Tony rolled his fingers inward, and the Iron Man suit responded by powering down the repulsors. The HUD got to work, identifying the civilians and targeting the hostiles. Small panels opened up on the shoulders of the suit, and bullets flew out, killing each gun-wielder instantly. Tony took down the weapons and stood at attention.
"Papa!" exclaimed the boy from before, running forward. Father and son embraced, Tony looking on, a muddle of emotions in his mind. He was happy that the family was reunited, sure, but jealousy wasn't absent from his thoughts. How many times had he wished that he could do the same, embrace his father, be comforted?
The father glanced up, and gave a tentative smile to the hulking figure. "I am Ho Yinsen, sir, and I cannot give you enough thanks."
Tony jolted a little at the name; right here was the man who had saved him, who had put that infernal device in his chest. Now he was free, with his family.
No more time was permitted for sentimentality, as his suit alerted him to motion behind an obscuring wall. He walked over, Yinsen's son watching in awe. Don't be so awed, I'm just your age, he thought to himself. Punching through the thick concrete, the Iron Man grabbed a shoulder and jerked back, pulling none other than Bearded Man through the wall.
He threw the despicable man to the ground in front of the newly freed citizens of Gulmira and uttered, his voice distorted by the helmet, "He's all yours."
Launching into the sky, the Iron Man soared, victorious, away from the liberated little town. Tony pondered what this turn of events would mean for his future.
Well, here he was. He was the fighter who saved the town from becoming nothing more than dust. He couldn't turn away from this path now, or he would never forgive himself.
He just had to be Superman, didn't he?
Turning his head, Tony zoomed in on a point of a destroyed city on his HUD, finding an image of the Jericho superimposed on the screen. Before he could stream down and right his wrong, however, a small blast suddenly hit his side. Hurtling down, Tony let out a grunt as the Iron Man crashed headlong in front of a tank, which had evidently been the source of the blast. He planted a hand down and pushed himself up, aware that the suit was damaged and streaked. Why must I always break my new toys?
Standing up, Tony braced himself, dodging easily to the right as another missile flew at him. He raised his arm, and a tiny rocket popped out of the edge of the red gauntlet. It flew towards the offending tank, and when he affirmed its position, Tony turned and walked away.
Behind him, the tank disappeared in a fiery explosion of light and sound.
Walking down the decimated street, bullets rained down on the armored figure. The Iron Man paid no mind, as he reached the square where the Jericho resided, in all of its horrific glory. Rising up, Tony braced himself, then let out a full blast from both of his repulsors, aimed straight at the missile.
And oh, did it feel so good when it burst apart in a golden explosion, nothing more than a sparkler in front of Tony's biggest firework. The Iron Man.
Farewell, weapons, Tony thought as he rose back up, breathing heavily from the adrenaline, turning homeward. I won't sit on a throne of innocent bodies any longer.
A ringtone filled Tony's ears, enticing him to notice it, to lose himself in whoever was calling. Focusing on the ringtone, the genius sighed as he recognized it as none other than Rhodey's. Of all the times… well, he had no real choice but to answer. It was only around midnight East Coast time, Rhodey knew he would still be up, one way or another. Maybe not on the other side of the world, but coherent enough to answer the phone. "Answer it, JARVIS," Tony instructed reluctantly. When the call started, he smiled, trying to make his voice sound happy. "Hello?"
"Tony?" answered Rhodey's voice, clearly annoyed.
Tony quickly responded with a distraction, knowing he had to stall his older friend. "Who is this?"
"It's Rhodes," was the terse response. Oh, Mr. LC was in a bad mood right now.
Continuing to take up time, Tony quirked an eyebrow (though Rhodey couldn't see that) and asked, "Sorry, who? Please speak up."
Rhodey sighed, done playing games. "I said, it's Rhodes. What in the hell is that noise?"
Tony's thoughts scrambled, not expecting stoic Rhodey to make demands right off the bat. "Oh, well, I'm driving with the top down."
"In New York. At midnight. With cops everywhere who don't give a damn who you are and will arrest you anyway," deadpanned the lieutenant colonel.
Tony winced, mumbling, "Out in the country?"
Rhodey, not buying the feeble excuse, still dropped the subject in favor of his main focus. "Listen, I need your help right now."
"That's funny, I could have used your help a couple times recently," Tony answered, trying to slip away from the question.
Sliding right back, Rhodey responded, "Yeah, well, speaking of funny, we've got a weapons depot that was just blown up a few clicks from where you were held captive."
Dammit. They must not have noticed his presence until after the explosions, a courtesy of the suit's small size. Since they clearly hadn't sent it out themselves, and because it was so close to, well, there, they guessed who the most likely offender was.
Well, they guessed right.
Not that he was going to tell them that.
"Well, that must be a hot spot," responded Tony, realizing that his slight pause must have been suspicious, and resolving not to overthink things (too much, anyway). "Sounds like someone stepped in and did your job for you, huh?"
"Why are you out of breath, Tony?" quietly asked the airman, ignoring Tony's blusters.
Tony was regretting this more and more. "I'm not, I was just jogging in that canyon up north." Wait, he shouldn't have denied that he was out of breath, he was clearly out of breath, oh God…
"I thought you were driving," observed Rhodey.
Oops. "Right, I was driving… from the canyon, where I was jogging."*
Rhodey dropped the subject again, instead opting for a more direct approach with, "You sure you don't have any tech in the area that I should know about?"
Tony was tired of this - both of them knew that Tony wasn't going to answer truthfully. "Nope!"
Rhodey paused, evidently trying to pull apart the statement. As a mumbled voice cut in through the background, he sighed, responding with, "OK, good, 'cause I'm staring at one right now, and it's about to be blown to kingdom come."
Oh, shit.
Two F-22 Raptors rose up behind the Iron Man, their throbbing engines filling Tony's ears. If Rhodey hadn't suspected anything before, the sudden increase in volume would definitely tip him off. "That's my exit!" he exclaimed, not bothering to come up with an excuse. He ended the call just as the planes started to come up on him, forcing him to roll to the side. The Raptors mirrored the motion, although their turns were much wider.
Tony knew the customary procedure with this type of thing, having been exposed to the weapons industry for all of his life. They would try for radio contact (which he didn't have) and if the threat didn't respond, they were all clear to engage. As the suit leveled out, Tony toggled the supersonic flight feature, quipping "Hit it!" and the suit blazed out, speeding faster and faster. He could imagine the Air Force's reaction perfectly, right down to the missile JARVIS reported incoming, and fast.
"Flares!" he called out, and the Iron Man suit responded, sending little red bursts back at the warhead. Thrown outwards by the resulting blast, he cursed himself for not thinking this through. The already battered suit would only take so much more damage; he was lucky that the flares weren't damaged by his fall back in the devastated city, as some of his other systems surely were. A sense of deja-vu struck him as the repulsors sputtered and he lost altitude, before they recovered and he sped off again, the F-22s following like unhappy girlfriends.
No way the supersonics had lasted through that blast. Double shit.
As blasts issued from the lead plane, Tony tried to dodge them, but the maneuverability of the suit served no use when he was directly in front of his attacker. The genius gasped as projectiles hit his boots, jostling him and degrading his agility even further; he needed a better plan, before he went the same way the Jericho had.
"Deploy flaps!" he cried out, trying to buy some time, and the flaps actually worked this time around; his forward motion almost ceased. As the pilots zoomed past him, he grabbed onto a wing and held on as he shot forward again, maneuvering himself below the belly of the plane, where they couldn't see him. Now that he was off the radar, he just had to wait until… what? He couldn't get off in the air without them seeing him, and they would definitely notice if he went all the way back to the base with them. Not his most thought-out plan, by far.
Not that the whole debacle was well-thought-out in the first place.
As Tony thought more and more, he realized that he was in an impossible position. There was no stealth mode on his armor yet, let alone reflecting panels or Bat-cloaks or anything like that. He couldn't destroy the planes - these were good men, fighting for the same cause that he was. He still couldn't contact them - he didn't have a radio wired in.
He was probably going to regret this decision in about an hour, when he got back to New York, but he wouldn't regret being alive, after all.
"Call Rhodey," he murmured to JARVIS.
When the call patched through, he gave a quick but tired "Hey Rhodey, it's me," but before he could admit to what was going on, Rhodey quipped, "It's who?"
Grinding his teeth, Tony repeated, "I'm sorry, it is me. You asked, what you were asking about is me."
"No, see, this isn't a game!" Rhodey shouted, misinterpreting Tony's confession. "You do not send civilian equipment into my active war zone -"
"This is not a piece of equipment!" Tony exclaimed, his pitch climbing a little as he worried what would happen if the current chain of events continued. "I'm in it. It's a suit. It's me!"
Rhodey's intake of breath was audible over the raspy connection, and Tony screwed his eyes shut as an unknown voice asked in the background Rhodey, you got anything for me? Oh, this was definitely not going well. "You need to tell them to disengage, I'm hiding but it won't last long. Please, Rhodey!"
Over the phone connection, he heard a garble of words, and the plane he was on banked, exposing its underbelly to the view of the other pilot. The man's eyes widened, and Tony could make a couple bets as to what he was saying, especially when the Raptor that the Iron Man was gripping started to twist in midair. He was slipping - he tried to hold on but he couldn't - he shouted, Rhodey answered but he couldn't make anything out - then he was off, flying backwards, straight into the wing of the trailing F-22.
Triple shit.
As he tried to regain balance and speed, Tony watched the plane fall, exploding just after a seat came bursting out. The pilot was OK for the time being, but Tony had a bad feeling - which grew worse as the seat continued to fall to the ground without a parachute coming up. Groaning, he turned and arched back to the falling man.
Over the phone, Tony heard several jumbled words - the call was still going, but Rhodey probably wasn't holding the phone. "Major… don't know… shooting at…"
When the remaining Raptor looped back around, Tony knew that Rhodey's plea had been in vain. JARVIS helped enormously by voicing, "You've been reengaged. Execute evasive maneuver."
"I know! Keep going!" exclaimed Tony - he wasn't about to let this man die. The Air Force would be even more pissed. Reaching the level of the falling man, he punched the chute container, hearing a satisfying clang as the thin metal was torn through by his gauntlet. The chute sprang out, and as Tony glided away, the seat slowed in its descent. The man was safe.
As cheers came over the call, Tony did some loop-the-loops to work off his adrenaline, noting that the other Raptor was no longer focused on him. Flying victoriously homeward, he waited more than a little apprehensively as the audio from the call thudded, Rhodey picking up the phone again. "Tony, you still there?" he asked, clearly worried.
"Hey, thanks," Tony quipped.
Rhodey took in a deep breath. "Oh, my God, you crazy son of a bitch!"
Tony laughed, the way he had when Pepper had replaced his ARC reactor, as Rhodey took a few deep breaths. Finally, the Lieutenant Colonel deadpanned, "You owe me a plane. You know that, right?"
"Well, technically he hit me," noted Tony, pleased as the suit automatically pulled up a simulation of the crash over Rhodey's contact image. "Are you going to come over and see what I'm working on? It can be like a Tony and Pepper study session."
"No, no, no, no, no!" exclaimed the airman. "The less I know the better! If I know for sure you're risking your life, your mom's gonna find out." Tony pouted a little, since he really wanted to share the suit with someone at least, but didn't protest as his friend continued. "Now what am I supposed to tell the press?"
Tony grimaced; he was mildly annoyed with the press on his best days. On his worst? They were worse than Mr. Freeze's puns. "Training exercise. Isn't that the usual BS?"
Rhodey shook his head. "It's not that simple."
"An unfortunate accident involving an F-22 Raptor training exercise occurred earlier today," Rhodey's voice blared from the TV in Tony's lab, which he had forgotten to turn off. "I am pleased to report that the pilot was not injured. As for the unexpected turn of events on the ground in Gulmira, it is still unclear who or what intervened, but I can assure you that the United States government was not involved."
Tony groaned as the robotic arms tried to remove his suit. He hadn't really thought ahead, and now he was stuck with unsynced arms, trying to remove the suit, on a Sunday afternoon, while his mother was somewhere upstairs. The midday New York sun shone weakly through the grilled windows, as the genius tried to wiggle around to speed up the process, but only slowed it down as a result.
"Hey!" he cried out, as an arm pinched his leg. "Cut that out!"
"It is a tight fit, sir," JARVIS responded. As the genius only struggled more, the AI took on an exasperated tone. "Sir, the more you struggle, the more this is going to hurt."
"I designed this to come off," Tony muttered. "This is where a Batsuit is better than an Iron Man suit…" They were probably going to need a crowbar to get this thing off.
Note to self: next time, think procedure through from start to finish, not start to middle.
"Please, try not to move, sir," JARVIS warned. Tony was about to snark back, saying that he was the one being moved around, but a shocked gasp from behind him silenced his thoughts. Guiltily, Tony turned his head to see a floored Pepper, staring at the suit.
After a moment of silence, Tony tried to casually shrug. "Let's face it, there are much worse things you could've caught me doing."
"Are those bullet holes?" squeaked Pepper.
After a lot of explaining, Tony plopped into a chair, thinking out loud. "The weapons, they had to have been sold to the Ten Rings from Stark Industries. Judging from what Obadiah said at the party, he must be involved somehow." Turning to Pepper, he asked, "Where is Obadiah now?"
Pepper shrugged. "Last the press heard, he hopped on a plane somewhere, not long after you left the party. Some meeting with an anonymous buyer."
Tony formulated a plan carefully. "Something's not right, and we're gonna find out what." Glancing at Pepper, he smirked, although grimly. "Can I send you on an errand?"
Hesitantly, the strawberry blonde nodded.
"I need you to go to the Stark Industries offices. Remember where Obadiah's office is? You're going to hack into the mainframe and retrieve all the recent shipping manifests." Reaching towards the desk, he searched through the clutter until he found a tag and a small chip. "Here's a spare scanning tag, it'll get you through any authorized doors. This is a lock chip. It'll get you in. The info'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."
Pepper's face had paled considerably. "And, if by some miracle I manage to make it back here, what will you do with this information?"
Tony shrugged, glancing at the suit. "Same drill. They've been dealing under the table and I'm going to stop them." He sighed, looking out. "I'm going to find my weapons and destroy them."
The strawberry blonde shook her head. "Tony, you know I would help you with anything, but I cannot help you if you're going to start all of this again."
Tony shook his head. "There is nothing except this. There's no gala, no stupid press conference. There's the next mission, and nothing else."
"Tony, I really can't do this!" exclaimed Pepper. "I'm taking Computer Sciences, sure, but I'm not going to be able to do something like this!"
The genius sighed. "You've stood by me like no other friend has before. Your spirit has never died when you're trying to help me, even when it's just a stupid thing like science homework. And now that I'm protecting the people that I put in harm's way, you're going to back out?"
"Tony, you're going to kill yourself," whispered Pepper. "I can't be a part of that."
Tony glanced up at his friend. "I shouldn't be alive, unless it was for a reason. I'm not crazy, Pepper. I just finally know what I have to do. And I know in my heart that it's right."
It did feel right. In that one mission to save those people, where he had been acknowledged by one man, he had felt more righteous then when he came up with a new weapons design and the bureaucrats fell over themselves trying to thank him. The Iron Man could do something that actually helped the world, that didn't bring it closer to the brink.
"Don't worry, Pepper," Tony finished. "This is what I have to do, what I want to do."
The girl looked up to meet his gaze, and Tony caught a glimpse of her wet eyes before she responded, "You're all I have too, you know."
After a few moments, Pepper pointed out, "You do know that a teenager won't be able to get into that building alone, right? No matter how many times I say that I know you, they won't let me get close to Obadiah's office without a responsible adult."
Tony smirked. "That's exactly why I'm calling one in."
"You know that you don't have to do this, Ms. Dowe," Tony reminded over the phone. "This is your choice."
"Tony, don't worry," the teacher responded kindly. "This is for the good of the world, as you said. If I can make a difference, I will gladly help."
"Thank you so much," Tony sighed in relief. Placing his phone back on the table, he glanced over at Pepper. "She'll be by in twenty minutes to pick you up."
The strawberry blonde nodded resolutely. "I'll be careful."
Leaning back, Tony debated this course of action. Although he felt extremely guilty over pulling Ms. Dowe into this, he really had no other option; all the adults he could trust were busy. The righteous-hearted History teacher had agreed to help of her own free will, after all - she knew all of the risks, and still was willing to try and make a difference in the world. Still, he hadn't confessed everything to her. Ms. Dowe had only been told of Obadiah's expected betrayal, and nothing of the ARC or the suit. He was going to have to write who knew what down to keep track of it all.
Finally, Ms. Dowe called again, informing the two that she was in front of the house and ready for Pepper. As the strawberry blonde made to leave the lab, Tony laid a hand on her arm and stopped her. Holding out a can of pepper spray, he muttered, "Don't forget this."
Pepper grabbed the can, mumbled a word of thanks, and after a little internal debate, she suddenly kissed his cheek.
Tony felt his cheeks burn hot-rod red as the embarrassed girl made her get-away.
PEPPER POV
As Ms. Dowe's battered Toyota pulled up in front of the Stark Industries headquarters, Pepper carefully handed Tony's spare scanning tag over. "Better hold on to it; it would look less suspicious for an adult to have it."
Ms. Dowe nodded in agreement, her face smoothing over into a mask of polite indifference. Pepper masked her emotions as well, hiding the uncertainty and fear under a business-like persona. The pair walked into the building, trying to act like they belonged, but Pepper wasn't sure how long it would last.
The 9th grader casually led the History teacher down the long hallways, stopping in front of an elevator that led to the higher-ups' offices. Quickly scanning the opening, the duo discretly slipped into the space, and the elevator shot upwards.
Once reaching the top level, Ms. Dowe waited by the elevator in order to keep watch and give Pepper a warning if anyone else came up. Walking down the aisle, Pepper recalled what Tony had told her about these offices, that time she had been here before. R&D… Finances… Mrs. Stark's office… the CEO's office. She gently gripped the half-moon handle, and slid into the room, cat-like and graceful. Sitting down at the computer, the strawberry blonde clicked off the screensaver and was confronted with a locked screen. Pulling out the lock chip, she carefully docked it to the computer. After a brief 'security breach' warning, a page of code opened up and she was granted access. Tony really was a genius. And handsome, and funny, and...
Slow down, Pepper. Focus on the task at hand.
Pepper initiated a brief scan, and a ghost drive was soon found. Eight files popped up, and she curiously investigated them. Two of them held weapons plans, which Pepper glanced at suspiciously before initiating the copying process to the lock chip. The third held odd plans to a suit of armor, a window in front of it marking as 'Sector_16'. What was this? What was Stane up to? Uneasily, Pepper once again initiated the copy process, before clicking the next file.
Her breath hitched as the video started. Men stood in front of a red flag, marked with ten rings encircling crossed swords. Most of the men had guns trained on two prisoners, locked in the center of the shot. One person was much shorter than the other, and had a heavily bandaged chest. A man stood to the side, reading out harsh words from a script.
Pepper actually gasped when the bags were ripped from the prisoner's heads, and the Starks, father and son, stared at the camera, blinking at the harsh sunlight in their faces.
Her friend was right there on the screen, blood seeping through the bandages about his chest, and Stane hadn't done anything? Hadn't released the video, hadn't alerted the army, nothing?
Remembering a smart bit of technology Tony had bragged about, she hesitantly typed in 'TRANSLATE', and a smooth male voice overlaid the video, translating the rapid words into English. "You did not tell us that the targets you paid us to kill were the great Starks. As you can see, Obadiah Stane, your lies and deceptions will cost you dearly. The price to kill Howard and Tony Stark has just gone up."
There was more after that, but Pepper didn't pay any attention, sitting back from the table in some sort of sick fascination. The co-CEO of Stark Industries, Tony's godfather, a man whom Tony had trusted, was the one who had ordered the hit on the Starks. He was the reason that Mr. Stark was dead and Tony had a hole in his chest.
She was so dazed, she almost didn't hear Ms. Dowe's frenzied voice. "Mr. Stane? We had no idea you would be back so early. I believe that there are some papers downstairs for you to sign?" Pepper gulped, initiating the download for the rest of the files. She couldn't leave without this evidence… but then again, she had to leave, period. The strawberry blonde watched the progress bar, urging it to speed up, and the moment that it was complete, the lock chip was safely stowed in her hand, the screensaver was up, the chair was back in its former position, and she was almost sprinting towards the door. Just as she placed her hand on the door pull, the panel swung open and Obadiah Stane was there, staring at her, perplexed.
She wasted no time in pulling out her pepper spray and blasting him, straight in the face.
Dashing out to a chorus of wheezes, she caught Ms. Dowe by the arm and pulled the History teacher to the elevator. "Come on, we gotta go, we gotta go!" she exclaimed, jumping into the elevator and sending it on its way almost before Ms. Dowe could make it inside.
"Did you find what Tony wanted you to find?" the teacher asked apprehensively.
Pepper shuddered, thinking of the horrible truth that she had found in that data. "I found information, yes, but I don't know if it was what Tony wanted…"
Ms. Dowe frowned, obviously wishing for more details, but she resolved not to ask for them. As the elevator came to a stop on the ground floor, Pepper towed Ms. Dowe out as quickly as she could, knowing that her pepper spray was, in fact, diluted, and would only be debilitating for about five minutes.
They were delayed, however, by the appearance of another teacher, one who had strange, secret-agent type tendencies.
"Phil?" asked Ms. Dowe, confused. Mr. Coulson turned, impeccable in his expensive black suit. He looked confused and a little worried, highly contrasting with Tony's description of him as an unshakable robot.
"Elizabeth? What are you doing here?" Mr. Coulson asked.
Aware of their ever-narrowing time limit, Pepper motioned for them to hurry up. "If you don't mind, Mr. Coulson, either wait here or come with us. We need to get out of here."
Shrugging, the man accompanied them to the Toyota, where Ms. Dowe insisted he get in. Once they were inside, Pepper locked the doors, deemed the location secure, and explained what she had seen on the files, to Ms. Dowe's growing horror and Mr. Coulson's growing reluctance. Surprisingly, the latter pulled out a small laptop and asked politely for the lock chip. She handed it over, and he plugged it in, his Captain America wallpaper soon obscured by the eight files. When the files were opened, Coulson searched through them methodically, checking different blueprints and e-mail copies. After some time, he sat back to ponder these developments, and Pepper did the same.
She focused on the screen, which displayed the blueprints for that suit. Funny, it had a similar basic design to Tony's suit, right down to the… the hole in the chest. Reaching out tentatively to the computer's touch pad, she carefully zoomed in on the notes around it, confirming that the cavity was for an ARC reactor. She had researched ARC reactors after she stuck one in her friend's chest, and as far as she knew, a miniature had been deemed impossible to create. Tony was the first, and probably only, person to create a small enough one…
If Obadiah Stane had this suit, and he hadn't used it yet, he must be waiting for something - a power source. He must know that Tony had the only working power source… and he would stop at nothing to get to his goals, she could see that.
"Tony's in danger," she announced. The two adults glanced at her in confusion, but she resolutely continued. "Look, I can't tell you how exactly I know, but trust me, Stane's going to come after him. We need to warn him..."
"We can't leave now," Coulson responded. "This 'Sector 16' seems to be somewhere within the Stark Industries complex. We need to scope it out, and if Stane comes back here, we need to be ready for him."
Pulling out her phone, Pepper tried to call Tony, but his voicemail came up. "Dammit! Someone needs to check on him." Desperately, the strawberry blonde scrolled through their text string, until she found an 'Emergency Contact' he had sent her. Calling the number, she waited patiently, the teachers anxiously anticipating her answer.
Finally, the other end picked up, and an unfamiliar voice answered, "Rhodes?"
"Hello, Colonel Rhodes," Pepper responded. "I'm Pepper Potts, Tony Stark's friend. There's a situation with Obadiah Stane, and Tony's in danger. Could you check up on him? I'll explain on your way over."
Rhodes seemed to hesitate, but Tony must have mentioned her name at least once, because he finally sighed and told her, "I'm seven minutes away, I'll keep you posted."
Pepper put on a tired smile, thanked him, and ended the call. Turning to the teachers, she asked, "Mr. Coulson? We don't know where to look, plus if Stane does come back soon, he'll need to be dealt with. How would we do that?"
The Calculus teacher studied his watch, then pulled out his phone. "We're not going to do it. My friends are doing it."
*I know that in the movie, Tony screws up a little more with his lie, but I think he can do better than that.
Whew! First POV switch-a-roo! I'm usually good about getting into different character's heads, but I've been so fixated on Tony, it was really hard. Sorry if she seems too much of a copy of Tony's ideas!
Reviews motivate me to update!
See you next time!
~Horseluv