Chapter 14 – Piper
A/n: Haha, I shocked everyone with the cliffy. Evil author but I loved your reactions. First part of this chapter is Piper's introduction and then we're back into movie.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Yes, Piper and Toni are currently together if that changes it'll probably be to Bruce/Toni but not yet. Just because so many people were asking.
Iron Jedi: Your review helped me make up my mind so there will be no Steve/Toni. Leaning between Piper/Toni and Bruce/Toni right now. I would love Thor/Toni or Clint/Toni because there is like none of either of those but there's Clintasha and Thor/Jane in this story. Hmm… Love you too :) And thanks for the compliments
paisley15: The question will be answered in the chapter itself. Glad you enjoyed.
XxxBellaBellaxxX: Yes, I tricked you all into thinking Piper wouldn't show up :D And yes he will. I always update ASAP and usually the next day, lol
MelodyPotterSnape: Glad you liked the twist, see important note for answer :)
youwannabekate: To be fair to them they didn't know Piper was back but yes poor Piper. Yes it was believable; sorry I was really worried about that scene; I thought it might be OOC
Booklover2526: Prepare for some quick talking from Toni :)
3 Avengers: Don't worry he will be; he's still the Pepper character after all. Although the first major comfort scene for Toni will involve Clint. SPOILERS! :)
LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: Piper not going away :) I don't even think Tony is genuinely an asshole 24/7 so I'm hoping it's still in character. Plus she's allowed to be clever that way after all she's gone through :D Yeah my Toni is a BAMF so… no regrets
Dragones: Thank you and enjoy this one
sjc18: Sorry but its updates every day or longer chapters and everyone seems to want the former more. Glad you love it
Harm Marie: I'm glad
XxXSilverShadowXxX: I'm glad I converted you to liking this type of story and that you're enjoying it :D
"Piper!" Toni exclaimed, "You're supposed to be in DC right now."
"Yeah well the last meeting of the set was cancelled because several of the important board members got food poisoning and since you leant me the private jet I just got on board and came straight home," Piper explained, "now will someone kindly tell me what the hell is going on because it looked like you were talking about the Battle for New York on screen as if it hadn't happened yet."
"Well…" Steve began.
"And I'd rather it wasn't you because I don't know if that footage was real or not but if it was you said some things to my girlfriend that I'm really angry at and I don't want to punch you because I'll probably break my hand," Piper cut in eliciting a chuckle from Clint and an extremely sheepish look from Steve.
"Our latest fight yielded unexpected results," Natasha explained.
"Oh right," Piper said sarcastically, "that explains everything perfectly. Thanks Natalie… oh right Natasha."
Natasha winced a little at the reminder of her deceiving Piper when she had been in her Natalie Rushman persona. She now knew that Toni hadn't been fooled for one second but she sometimes forgot that there were other people than the mark that had been deceived by her. There were other people involved as well and she knew Piper hadn't taken her deception anywhere near as well as Toni had. And Toni hadn't taken it all that well either in a way.
Eventually Toni (with the 'assistance' of Thor) managed to explain the whole scenario with Amora's magic to Piper and told him the basics of all he had missed in the movie so far. Toni was not looking forward to Piper seeing further interactions between herself and Steve. They hadn't exactly been nice to each other but in Piper's opinion some of the things Steve would say would be abject cruelty even if Steve didn't know much about Toni's personal traumas.
When Piper finally had the whole story he looked slightly conflicted about staying with the Team to watch the rest much to Toni's delight but it wasn't meant to last as Clint made a comment about how if Piper left he could keep having two ladies all to himself and Piper promptly sat down in the one empty chair left. (This was awkwardly the one that Toni had left which was next to Bruce who Piper still didn't like very much.) He kept glaring at Clint especially when Toni didn't request a switch. It was only because she didn't want to leave Clint when things got difficult to watch but she knew Piper's thought processes wouldn't be going there.
They sat there for a moment in silence before JARVIS seemed to realise that they were ready to continue watching the movie and he restarted the footage.
Fury stormed into the lab immediately addressing Toni, "what are you doing Miss Stark?"
"Uh, kind of been wondering the same thing about you," Toni retorted.
"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract," Fury snapped clearly warming up for a giant shouting match against Toni but Bruce was the one who replied, "We are. The model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile," Bruce indicated a screen across the room that was clearly tracking something.
"You two are unbelievable," Natasha sighed, "the amount of things you do at once."
"What like still for all intents and purposes working intensively for Stark Industries?" Piper butted in and Toni had a feeling this next speech was going to get people stressing about her unnecessarily, "so going to galas, fundraisers, board meetings (when I can talk her into them), press conferences and running the R&D department. Plus being Iron Man so maintaining that suit," here his tone took on a form of distaste, he wasn't fond of Toni risking her life in the suit, "recovering from the battles you get involved in as well as actually fighting them, and on top of that she runs tech for you guys so she renovates the Tower to give you rooms, develops and produces equipment for you as well as things you just feel like having one day, sparring and doing training exercises that you still think she isn't fully capable of, having to sit through Fury's debriefings, running the press coverage for you as well seeing as none of the rest of you has experience with it, damage control, writing up the reports SHIELD insists on, emergency repairs after battle on your gear plus all the stuff Thor, Bruce and Steve break in the tower itself, making new tech for SHIELD, preventing people stealing her tech, attempting to blast the remainder of Stark Industries weaponry from the planet's surface and doing tech upgrades on comm links."
Once he had finished ranting the others all turned to Toni who simply shrugged, "I said I had to work until I literally dropped to get rest right, well it takes a lot to drop me. My brain does about six things at once anyway. Piper makes it sound worse than it actually is."
Steve thought that her explanations sounded plausible but that didn't mean he wasn't going to find any way possible to cut down her work load because it sounded insane.
"Yeah, then you get your Cube back," Toni said with a slight scoff on the word 'your', "no muss, no fuss," the screen bleeped and she turned back to it, "what is 'Phase 2?'"
There was a loud bang as a gun was slammed down on a lab table and Steve spoke angrily, "Phase 2 is SHIELD uses the Cube to make weapons. Sorry, computer was moving a little slow for me."
"I was trying to apologise for not believing you earlier but didn't know how to say it especially with Fury in the room," Steve muttered quietly.
"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract," Fury said attempting to save the situation, "This does not mean that we're making…"
Toni however intervened and scuppered his plan, "I'm sorry, Nick," she spun the screen around which had obviously finished hacking into SHIELD's systems and was displaying schematics, "What were you lying?"
"I was wrong, Director," Steve said bitterly, "the world hasn't changed a bit," as he was saying this both Thor and Natasha entered the lab assembling all of the current Avengers.
"Did you know about this?" Bruce asked Natasha clearly upset.
Natasha was muttering into her hands things about her actions here being stupid and while Toni agreed she nudged Clint and got him to comfort her because Natasha was her friend no matter what mistakes she had made.
"You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" Natasha asked coldly.
"I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed," Bruce scoffed.
"Loki is manipulating you," Natasha warned.
"No, he didn't succeed but as I figured it out I became his back-up plan," Natasha snapped angry at herself. She should have realised that her actions were escalating the situation which didn't help the unease in the room between Toni and Steve.
"And you've been doing what, exactly?" Bruce asked incredulously.
"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you," Natasha pointed out.
"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy," Bruce said walking over to the screen Toni had the weapons display on, "I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."
"Because of him," Fury relented pointing at Thor.
"Me?" Thor questioned clearly unsure how the conversation had somehow ended up being related to him.
"I can see the logic I guess but just no to nuclear deterrents in general," Toni sighed.
Toni turned her eyes narrowing as she obviously came to a conclusion as to why this was related to Thor and didn't like it. Fury began to make a speech, "Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that levelled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned."
"My people want nothing but peace with your planet," Thor said trying to reason with Fury.
"But you're not the only people out there, are you?" Fury retorted, "And you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, that can't be controlled," as he said this he gave Toni a specific look.
"Why was Fury looking at you upon saying this Lady S-Toni?" Thor said correcting his slip of the tongue quicker this time.
"Because he knows that I'm smart and that's something they can't match by inventing another super serum," Toni said quietly as if she didn't want to admit to it.
"Like you controlled the Cube?" Steve asked.
"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies," Thor accused, "It is a signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war."
"A higher form?" Steve questioned but his comment was ignored in favour of Fury's next, "You forced our hand. We had to come up with something."
"A nuclear deterrent," Toni snapped out, "Because that always calms everything right down."
"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark," Fury jibed.
Toni flinched as she heard this comment for the second time. She hated it when people brought up the person she was before Afghanistan. The woman who had everything and yet nothing because she had done her best to atone for her crimes and nobody would let her get over it.
"Now I want to join in on punching Fury," Piper seethed as that remark had been a serious low blow from Fury who knew about Toni's crusade to rid the world of her weapons technology.
"I'm sure if she still made weapons, Stark would be neck-deep…" Steve began.
"Okay, Steve, we got over this but you have to give me one chance to say this," Toni said her tone dangerously close to the one Natasha used when she was pissed off, "yes, I used to be weapons developer. But SO DID MY FATHER! And for some reason he can do no wrong in your eyes while I just kept messing up. My father helped invent the atomic bomb which killed between 180 and 290 thousand people most of whom did nothing to Americans and were completely innocent. So why am I the monster and he's the hero?"
By the end of this speech Toni's voice hadn't risen by a single decibel but the effect was even worse because her tone was cold and low and sent shivers up the team's spines especially Steve who was the target of her anger. Steve couldn't seem to form words and eventually Toni motioned for JARVIS to restart the movie.
"Wait, wait! Hold on. How is this now about me?" Toni queried.
"I'm sorry, isn't everything?" Steve jibed.
Piper's glare which was directed at Steve merely intensified with this comment. The super soldier was in for a rough ride.
"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor said.
"Excuse me," Fury said offended, "did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?"
"If they could have they would have," Bruce said, "they seem to think that's their duty."
"Action taken to prevent an attack does often end up causing one," Clint admitted already planning his resignation speech. He didn't need to be a SHIELD agent anymore now that he was in the Avengers. And it was not like they had money issues seeing as Toni practically made them take the money she offered.
"You treat your champions with such mistrust," Thor said as an argument between Toni and Steve blossomed in the background.
"Are you boys really that naïve?" Natasha asked, "SHIELD monitors potential threats."
"Captain America's on threat watch," Bruce scoffed.
"We all are," Natasha confirmed.
"Yes and that is precisely the problem with SHIELD's system," Toni said, "they expect us to work with them and trust them but do not offer the same courtesy to us. And then they wonder why we don't like them very much."
"Wait, you're on that list?" Toni jibed, "Are you above or below angry bees?"
"Stark, so help me God, if you make one more wisecrack…" Steve threatened.
"Threat! Verbal threat. I feel threatened," Toni was heard to say as the sceptre was shown shining brighter as the group argued.
"I wasn't really threatening you seriously," Steve said slightly ashamed, "I'd never hit a woman over something as trivial as words."
"Doesn't excuse the fact that you said it," Piper spat out.
"Show some respect," Steve snapped.
"Respect what?" Toni asked as the arguments throughout the room escalated.
On a plane flying towards the helicarrier a read out of the sceptre on the central screen on the dashboard. "Transport Six-Six-Bravo," said a female agent over the plane's radio, "please relay confirm codes. I've got you on the computer, but not on the day log. What is your haul? Over."
"Arms and ammunition. Over," the pilot replied.
"Half-truth," Toni acknowledged knowing what had been aboard the plane.
The soldiers in the back of the plane were making final preparations for what they were about to do as Clint picked up his bow and flicked his wrist to make it functional.
"You speak of control, yet you court chaos," Thor pointed out.
"That's his M.O., isn't it?" Bruce asked rhetorically, "I mean, what are we, a team? No, we're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're… we're a time bomb."
"Uncomfortable truth," Piper observed, "Fury's going to lash out at that because he won't want to admit to it."
"You need to step away," Fury snapped even though Bruce was notably the calmest person in the room at that point.
"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Toni asked clearly puzzled.
"You know damn well why. Back off," Steve said brushing Toni's hand off his shoulder.
"Last time I offered contact that day," Toni snorted leaving Steve feeling even guiltier.
"I'm starting to want you to make me," Toni snapped clearly at the end of her tether.
"Yeah. Big woman in a suit of armour," Steve said coldly, "Take that off, what are you?"
"Even I thought that was cold," Natasha said clearly just as impressed by Steve's actions as Piper was. Piper's fists were clenched but he seemed to be attempting to reconcile the Steve that Toni often talked about now to the one who appeared to be trash talking his girlfriend.
"Genius, billionaire, socialite, philanthropist," Toni said simply.
"I know people with none of that worth ten of you," Steve said plainly, "I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the person to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."
Bruce had actually resorted to putting an arm on Piper's arm just in case he launched himself from his chair at Steve as that simply wouldn't end well.
"I got the wrong end of the stick," Steve said bashfully, "okay, Toni rubbed me the wrong way and I know that's not really an excuse for the things that I said and it never will but it's the only one I have. I've already apologised to Toni and she told me to stop doing so only earlier today so I can't do anything else about it."
"I think I would just cut the wire," Toni told him.
"Even if it's the only thing that's keeping you up," Piper butted in, "I'm still counting your suicidal moves Toni."
"Seriously," Toni said exasperatedly, "I calculate everything and there's always a chance."
"Just not always a big one," Bruce chimed in not making the situation any better for Toni.
"Always a way out," Steve said with a sarcastic smile.
"I know that's not what she meant," Steve shouted before anyone could tell him off again.
"You know you may not be a threat but you better stop pretending to be a hero," Steve said darkly.
"That was the worst one," Toni said matter-of-factly trying to make out that his comments didn't still get to her.
"A hero? Like you?" Toni said finally snapping completely, "You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."
"I get mean when I get mad," Toni said by way of explanation for her comment.
A/n: And this is the latest one yet :D Sorry guys