Chapter 41 – Hot-Rod Red

A/n: Once again; you guys are all really awesome and I hope you read AoA and enjoyed it :) I know ReadPaxJoy did which is the main thing; oh and by the way ReadPaxJoy you totally got added to the dictionary with the amount of times I was typing your name :)

nessa11997: You're welcome :)

youwannabekate: I know right; I want it to be real :D I'm glad you like that part because I can picture Toni's expressions in my head for that scene and it makes me chuckle.

ReadPaxJoy: I'm glad you like the character progression in the previous chapter as I'm trying to make it realistic. And the team caring about Toni/y always gives me mega feels. And I'm really glad you liked AoA it was for you after all :D The next one is technically not a side story because it's AU to this story but it will still be fun.

McGriddle96: You totally shouldn't stay up just to read this story! Kind of a hypocrite though I normally stay up to nearly 5am to write it. I'm glad you're enjoying it and I'm mega flattered by your unhealthy sleeping habits :D

whitetigerwolf: Hey, again! I'm glad that you enjoyed it.

XxxBellaBellaxxX: I'm glad you liked it :D

paisley15: Yep, Dummy is amazing :) I love him. Yeah, I know I'm excited too. And also laughing because Darren Criss predicted the sequel and the basics of what it would be about ages before the news came out.

LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: Lazy person :D Toni needs to buy more furniture period because I don't think anything in that room will be safe after seeing some of the things in later movies.

Post U Later: Indeed they are :D

Harm Marie: I'm glad :)

Toni now back in her normal ensemble of a tank top and leggings kicked her mechanics creeper board out of the way concentrating on holding an ice pack to her head.

"How badly was your head injured?" Bruce said abruptly breaking off his laughter suddenly. The previous events didn't seem as funny now when he considered that they had resulted in an injury. The others also now looked more worried than amused and looking at her as if they would be able to spot permanent damage from the fall. They seemed to be forgetting that she had fallen much further on missions and only had Bruce to patch her up afterwards and she had still come out with very few injuries because the suit had protected her from the sheer force of the impact.

"It didn't even break the skin," Toni said rolling her eyes, "It was just slightly bruised and I had a headache for about half an hour before it faded away and I was completely fine afterwards. You need to stop worrying about me; I don't often get injured and when I do it isn't even that bad."

"Actually we do," Steve told her but before he could make his next point Toni interrupted with a sharp, "and don't you dare make this about missions Rogers because the only time I should technically have sat out of a battle and it wasn't just you worrying about me unnecessarily was the time that all of us should have sat out and yet we all kept going."

"You were worse than the rest of us," Steve muttered. It was technically true seeing as at one point Toni had been forced to dispose of the trashed armour she had been wearing and summon a new one only during the time that took she had taken several serious hits and had been pretty badly injured. However being able to deal with more than the other two non-super powered Avengers Toni had pushed through it and compared to the others was actually dealing with a lower percentage of pain on her personal scale. The battle had only ended when an explosion had taken out the villain's high ground and put him back on even footing with the Avengers and he had been seriously outnumbered. Now that Steve thought about it that was probably Toni's suit exploding because of the safety measure installed in them and that was something else they owed Toni for.

"We're not using it as an excuse to get rid of you on missions," Clint told her, "to be brutally honest we need you on the bigger ones and even on covert missions you're useful for causing a distraction when we need one. But it reduces our effectiveness as a team if we're constantly worrying that a team member being injured and not telling us and we're a TEAM so we're supposed to worry about each other."

The team were for once relieved that Clint was blunt by nature as it seemed to be the only thing that had gotten through to Toni as she genuinely seemed taken aback by the comment. Which was in itself not necessarily a good thing because it was seriously worrying that Toni couldn't even believe that someone was worried about her.

She picked up the coffee that Piper had left for her earlier and then stopped abruptly when she spotted the package that had been beneath it which had a sticky note attached to it that said, 'From Piper.' Curious Toni ripped off the wrapping paper and revealed a glass box with her old reactor framed by a sign that said 'Proof That Toni Stark Has A Heart,' and she couldn't stop smiling.

"I've seen that before," Bruce realised, "although it looked slightly different."

"Yeah, well the one I have now is the second version," Toni said quietly, "it's still the same arc reactor but the design is slightly different. I had to change it up a bit when that one got damaged."

"I thought you said you weren't nostalgic," Natasha said knowingly. She knew why Toni had rebuilt the present Piper had given her but she wanted Toni to admit to it in front of the team.

"Yeah well it was the first present I got since Peggy left," Toni said nonchalantly as if that would make it less of a big deal, "I'm not really that nostalgic but I keep all of my presents it's just that I don't really get any so I don't end up keeping much."

Steve was naturally the most taken aback by this news because he couldn't understand how the man who had made him his shield and had constantly been making new inventions for the general populace had failed to ever give his daughter a present. He had the distinct feeling that if he said this though Toni would revert to snapping at him and he quite liked Toni being honest with them for once so he decided to let the subject go. He felt like despite her nonchalant exterior that admitting that had dropped at least one of her many masks.

This was an accurate assumption and Toni was silently cursing herself for having done so but she knew that Natasha would notice if she reverted to hiding behind it again (she had no idea if the others would to) and she didn't want to sit through the lecture so she left that mask down. She still had hundreds more before they started getting to the messed up person Toni really was and started wanting to abandon her like everyone else did eventually.

Back in Afghanistan Raza was having his men rebuild the suit that particular arc reactor had powered. Most of the parts seemed to be going in the right place purely because Toni had been forced to leave the plans for it behind when she made her escape.

"I really wish you were able to take those with you," Phil sighed knowing that it wouldn't actually have been possible as the metal hands wouldn't have been able to grip onto the sheets without ripping them and the terrorists were determined enough that they would have reassembled the sheets the same way they were reassembling the suit. And having the paper inside the suit wasn't the solution because Toni had no idea at the time how the suit would move and couldn't risk adding any extra variables.

Toni knowing that Phil understood why she hadn't been able to take them didn't bother getting herself worked up about what he had said. It just wasn't worth it when she was sure they were eventually going to criticise her for other things she had done. Steve had already proved that he was quick to judge earlier on in this movie. Indeed he had been doing that from the moment they had met because he had been internally comparing her to Howard and for a while Toni had hated him for it and for the fact that he actually lived up to the things that Howard always said about him.

Raza simply stood there staring into the blank eyes of the faceplate as if he was contemplating the millions of ways he could get revenge on the suits operator.

"I do not like this man's expression Lady Toni," Thor informed her, "I do not wish him to come after you and seek his revenge."

"If he hasn't done so by now then I don't think he ever will," Toni replied, "he was intimidated by just me in a prototype Iron Man suit which as I have said on many occasions was a pile of walking trash. From the time I spent with them I know they're not the type of organisation who likes being thrown into a situation without a significant amount of Intel unless it's for a very high price. For a revenge plot they'd get all the information they could on me which considering the fact that most aspects of my life are splashed out on the internet for everyone to see is quite an easy feat. So they'll know that now I've got a team who are backing me up in fights and know they don't have a chance against all of us. Unlike SHIELD agents Raza actually has a modicum of common sense."

As the shot zoomed in on the helmet it changed to a shot of an updated version of the helmet as a schematic on one of Toni's many computer screens. "Notes," Toni said in a monotone now with an ice pack strapped to her shoulder as well, "Main transducer feels sluggish at plus 40 altitude. Hull pressurisation is problematic. I'm thinking icing is the probable factor."

"You think," Natasha said bitingly giving Toni an incredulous look. She hated it when her friend made light of a near death experience. Which she seemed to have rather a lot of. This was not good for health of her friends because they nearly killed themselves worrying about her as she recovered and tried to stupidly check herself out of hospital early.

"A very astute observation, ma'am," JARVIS jibed.

As the others began laughing Toni muttered, "sometimes I don't know why I gave JARVIS the ability to be snarky and sarcastic."

"Perhaps, if you intend to visit other planets, we should improve the exosystems," JARVIS continued as Toni inspected her plans for the suit and told JARVIS, "Connect to the sys. co. Have it reconfigure the shell metals. Use the gold titanium alloy from the seraphim tactical satellite."

"So that's what the suit is made of!" Steve exclaimed, "I always thought it couldn't actually be made of iron because I know enough about the properties of metals from being around your father to know that it wouldn't do some of the things your suit is capable of but I didn't understand why they called it an iron suit if that was a case."

"The iron part of the name is just as much of a misnomer as the man part Steve," Toni laughed, "you really shouldn't judge people on what other people call them. The media awarded me that name before I revealed that I was Iron Man. And by that point they were too lazy to even change the Man part of the name to Iron Woman so there was no way they were going to make it Gold-Titanium Alloy Woman. Besides it definitely doesn't have the same ring to it."

"That should ensure a fuselage integrity while maintaining power-to-weight ratio," Toni continued taking a sip of her smoothie, "got it?"

"That thing looks disgusting," Clint said looking like he might be sick just from looking at the green concoction.

'You should try drinking chlorophyll' was Toni's first thought on the matter but she knew she couldn't say that so all she could think of to say instead was, "believe me it tastes even worse than it looks."

"Then why were you drinking it Lady Toni?" Thor said confused.

Toni muttered something that was clearly meant to be inaudible to the team but Bruce was obviously sitting nearby enough that he caught the gist of what she had said and exclaimed, "what do you mean you hadn't eaten much else since the burgers because you got distracted and needed it to boost your energy quickly?"

"I mean exactly what I said," Toni said defensively, "I didn't have the time to eat when I was in the middle of working and when I wasn't it wasn't like I remembered because I just thought of something new I could do. This discussion is over!"

"Yes," JARVIS responded, "Shall I render using proposed specifications?"

"Thrill me," Toni quipped in a monotone.

In the background the television was playing as a newscaster was reporting on some sort of red carpet event, "Tonight's red-hot red carpet is right here at the Disney Concert Hall, where Toni Stark's," suddenly Toni's attention was drawn to the television, "third annual benefit for the Firefighter's Family Feud has become the place to be for LA's high society."

"Oh joy," Toni said sarcastically, "I hate those sort of people coming to my events because they won't stop sucking up to me to try and get exclusive tech or some sort of advert endorsement. That or they try sleeping with me instead which worked more often than being smarmy did although not in the way they wanted because I didn't give them what they wanted. Not so much after I came back from Afghanistan because I knew people would be freaked out by the arc reactor. I haven't actually slept with anyone since."

"Guess it didn't stop the paparazzi from making up rumours that you were sleeping with every supermodel you were seen talking to for more than a minute," Bruce joked.

"Nothing can make the paparazzi stop making up rumours," Toni scoffed, "anyone who tries is completely delusional. You can try and get a restraining order on the most troublesome reporters but the papers just send more so there is really no point to doing it. Just denounce them as quickly as possible and don't bother about the things people say about you; I've been trying to tell people on my staff that for years but they still get outraged with each new falsehood which just adds credibility to their stories."

"JARVIS, we get an invite for that?" Toni asked.

"I have no record of an invitation, ma'am," JARVIS informed her.

"Seriously, is this the whole no public appearances thing again?" Natasha exclaimed, "it's ridiculous and your lack of public appearances are just going to further convince people that you're laid up in bed suffering from PTSD! Obadiah Stane is a complete idiot," Natasha knew this was all she could say without spoiling just how much Stane had messed with Toni especially since she didn't know all the details. She just knew that he had ended up dead and the story was an obvious cover up and on top of that he was extremely creepy.

The woman on the news continued now obviously talking about Toni, "hasn't been seen in public since her bizarre and highly controversial press conference," Toni held her old mask up to her face as pictures from the press conference were shown on the screen, "Some claim she's suffering from posttraumatic stress and has been bedridden for weeks. Whatever the case may be, no one expects an appearance from her tonight."

"They just jinxed it," Steve stated knowing that now Toni knew that was what people thought she would defy Obadiah and turn up at the gala just to spite Stane as well as to show all the people who thought she had a severe case of PTSD that she was fine even if she really wasn't. Plus he knew Toni and while she wasn't really all the things that the papers said she was she loved nothing more than showing arrogant people up and proving that she was better than them.

"The render is complete," JARVIS said bringing up an image of a completely gold suit up on the screen.

"I'm glad you added some red to the suit because that is an eyesore," Clint said wincing before realising that was a potentially bad thing to say if he didn't want to be on the end of a glare from Toni. But Toni simply said, "I agree. I never wore the pure gold one. I didn't even bother making it."

"A little ostentatious, don't you think?" Toni commented.

"What was I thinking?" JARVIS said sarcastically, "You're usually so discrete."

Everyone got a few more laughs at Toni's expense out of this comment. JARVIS was the only one that Toni would let get away with insulting her like that because he did it more playfully than in a way that was full of spite. While some other people might be teasing her as well Toni had never learned to tell the difference, all she knew was that JARVIS couldn't be mean to her because he was programmed so that he couldn't be.

"Tell you what," Toni said as she spotted one of her more flashy cars, "throw a little hot-rod red in there."

"Yes, that should help you keep a low profile," JARVIS quipped but Toni ignored him and took another sip of her smoothie as JARVIS added the red to the render, "the render is complete."

Toni took a look at the now red and gold suit and said, "hey, I like it. Fabricate it. Paint it."

"Commencing automated assembly," JARVIS stated, "Estimated completion time is five hours."

Toni rose from her chair and had a look at her watch before quipping, "Don't wait up for me honey," and leaving the lab.

"And now you have to go and crash your own party," Phil said amused.

A/n: Yep, it's short again and I thought the party would be in this chapter but I realised it really needed at least one chapter as a standalone with no introduction so it will be up tomorrow :D