Chapter 48 – No Fly Zone

A/N – I don't think I will ever tire of getting reviews on this story. And I will be very sad when it's over but of course the sequel will be epic too or at least I hope so :D

youwannabekate: I hope that you will enjoy the scene when we get to it :) And it's not weird; call them what you want because you're supposed to have opinions on the story.

nessa11997: You're welcome :)

SparkleNicole: I am really glad that you like it and I hope you like those scenes when they come up :D

shadowwolf64: I'm supremely flattered that you think this deserves awards because it really doesn't :D But I like to think it's quite good. I'm glad that you're starting to like Toni and that you look forward to my updates :D

Dragones: Your review made me smile so thank you :D Glad you love it

babyliss12: Toni and the military is not a good combination. The Avengers are going to need a few extra breaks due to nervous breakdowns and anger trust me :D

LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: I liked writing that moment for Thor although it originally sprang from oh I haven't written him in here yet :D This chapter he will not be happy with them

Post U Later: Indeed some Rhodey is definitely coming up very soon :)

ReenReen: It's a funny image isn't it :D Glad you loved it

XxxBellaBellaxxX: Prepare for some angry Avengers and enjoy!

ReadPaxJoy: I'm glad that the story is helping you feel a little better because I know how it feels when you're sick :D You're welcome :)

"The military are very touchy when anybody but them sends in someone into a crisis zone and they automatically leap to the thought process of considering them an enemy," Natasha informed him although her tone made it clear that she wouldn't approve of their attitude in this case, "it doesn't matter to them that Toni saved those refugees and took out major cogs in the working system of the Ten Rings. They weren't controlling her actions and seeing as they didn't have the technology on hand to rescue those people without casualties they assumed that nobody else did."

"And," Toni chimed in, "if the military knew what I'd developed and I had gotten official permission to go in there is no way they wouldn't have confiscated it for the good of all the minute I touched down. They'd try and replicate it whilst leaving me in the original suit and then they would have found out that they weren't able to do so they would have taken away my version at gun point and tried to find someone else to pilot it. My entire philosophy at the time was that I would never let my more destructive inventions have the potential to be misused for nefarious reasons. Allowing someone working for the military to use the suit would turn the device I built to be a shield into a sword."

"They'd never succeed in piloting it without your lessons," Clint pointed out.

"But they'd probably have destroyed my suit trying before they would have admitted it and given it back to me," Toni pointed out, "of course I would have made a new one by then but going in low profile with it so they wouldn't notice would have severely limited the people I could have helped with the suit."

Steve frowned at the slight directed at the military. He had after all been a part of it for a time and had wanted to enlist for a long time before that had ever become a reality. He desperately wanted the honour of the military to be intact as it had been – relatively – when he had served. Maybe the men (and women) in charge in this day and age would be able to prove the others wrong. He didn't get his hopes up though for so many things had changed and this movie had only shown him that the world had changed since the 40's in ways other than technological innovation. Much more subtle ways such as their attitudes to certain issues. Maybe back in the 1940's Toni would have been reprimanded for going in against orders but hadn't Steve done the same thing to save his men. Toni would probably have gotten more trouble for it because she was a woman. If he had to choose one thing he liked about the changes since his time was the fact that women were now considered just as capable as men and Peggy had probably become more appreciated as she grew older. Plus all the civil rights movements and things that were crimes in his time that had become legal like same sex relationships.

"What the hell was that?" a man in military uniform said alarmed as he watched a target that represented the Iron Man suit crossing a radar screen, "Were we cleared to go in there?" Across the bottom of the screen letters unfolded identifying the location as 'Edwards Air Force Base, California.'

"So we do get to find out how the military reacted," Bruce said not looking forward to what he felt sure he was about to witness. He had no pleasant experiences with the military in his past seeing as most of the people there only wanted one of two things from him. One was for him to allow them to experiment on him and the second type just wanted him to stand there whilst they executed him. It was hard to put his faith in the system that was 'protecting' their country when it couldn't be bothered with researching ways to help a citizen who admittedly was a potential danger. But what would alienating him do other than make the Hulk more prone to attacks which they should have been able to predict as he reacted badly to the situations they put him in.

"No sir," the man monitoring the radar screen told him quickly, "they were using human shields. We never got the green light."

"And here goes the military freaking out again," Bruce muttered resentfully. Sure they would find it a little worrying that someone had interfered and could have possibly gotten the hostages killed. That he understood because innocent lives were certainly worth worrying about. But the first thing that they should have done was contact someone in Afghanistan who knew what was going on and could confirm that there were no civilian casualties as a result of the intervention. There had to be at least some of the watching on if they were waiting for a green light because they'd want to be nearby to get in as soon as they were allowed to. But from his experiences they were probably about to make an attack on Toni without investigating all of the facts involved.

"Put me through to State," ordered the man who was obviously in charge, "They're going to be all over this."

Instantly the room buzzed with conversation as everyone handled their own jobs with as much efficiency as they could manage so that an unknown craft wouldn't get too far into a no fly zone. Cries of, "we got a bogey," and, "wasn't air force?" came through as they tried to determine the origin of Toni's suit.

"At least they're not going for the 'ready, fire, aim,' policy," Steve said eager to point out that they were doing something right in their approach to the situation, "they're trying to find out what's happening."

"That could be a valid point," Phil acknowledged, "but the problem is that once they find out that she is not affiliated with anyone that they're calling up they will have no more time for questions and no more time for trying to find out her intentions. It's military policy for foreign bogeys in no fly zones. Especially in places like Afghanistan which at this point were severe war zones. They're not so bad nowadays."

"You're welcome," muttered Toni quietly although she made sure that it was too quiet for anyone to hear clearly. She didn't really like taking all the credit for doing something so huge which had taken effort from other people as well as her. Plus the fact that she wasn't exactly proud of the sheer amount of deaths on her hands, that yes had been necessary to save lives and help reduce the amount of fighting that needed to be done in those war torn countries but it still weighed a little on her conscience. At least she could still say that she had never intentionally caused the death of an innocent person although of course over the years she hadn't been able to save all those who were innocents in the battles she had fought with or without the Avengers.

"We got the CIA on the line?" the boss asked urgently.

"I've got Langley on the line," one soldier responded, "They want to know if it's us."

"This is not going to end well if every organisation of your world decides to turn against Lady Toni for her good deed," Thor said angrily. The others could tell that this statement was half about how it wouldn't end well for Toni and also half about the fact that it wouldn't end well for anyone who had ordered a strike on Toni because it was in a way a promise that they would come face to face with an angry Thor. Despite his ignorance of many ways Midgardians reacted to things he had gotten the intimidation tactic down as presumably that much hadn't changed between worlds. Nobody wanted to come face to face with an angry Thor and the only one who was perhaps more terrifying was Toni herself because her glare was so cold. But there was no way Toni would stop Thor from getting some satisfaction out of dressing down the men who had tried to shoot her out of the sky but she knew that if she had confessed to Rhodey earlier a lot of the events might have been stopped. But she hadn't trusted him for good reason and she would stick by her decision to this day after what Rhodey did to her.

"No, it definitely is not us, sir," another man chimed in obviously having searched through the records that they were keeping on dispatches and what they had that could infiltrate the village that easily but had drawn a blank as they didn't have the technology or tech know how in their department to do it.

"If it was the army that did it I think the world would have ended," Toni scoffed, "they've never been that efficient as even Steve has to admit."

"Okay," Steve said wondering if he would have met Toni's glare if he had turned out not to agree with her, "I admit that there is no way that the army would get the technology behind the suit which is basically the only thing other than a bomb that could infiltrate a village that small. But nobody else could either."

"True," Toni said sounding proud of her invention as she almost always did when she was talking about the Iron Man suits. The only time it tended to fade was when she had to talk about some of the things she had done with the suit that while necessary still haunted her. So far around any member of the Avengers this had only happened once to Natasha and once in a group meeting where everyone was sharing something.

"It wasn't Navy," came another voice and yet another said, "wasn't Marines."

"I need answers," the boss said getting exasperated that nobody seemed to be behind it and that from his point of view somebody had just risked the lives of the people living in that village for no apparent reason other than they might not like the way the military was handling the situation, "Can I please get eyes on target?"

"That's not going to work," Bruce said with a smile knowing just how fast that suit could go seeing as it wasn't carrying anything other than Toni that wasn't an integral part of the suit. It went far too fast for anyone to get an image of it unless Toni was purposefully slowing down which she wouldn't be doing at that moment.

"Negative, negative," came the answer, "cannot identify."

"Get me Colonel Rhodes from weapons development down here now!" the boss shouted calling for the one person that he thought might just know what was going on in the skies over Afghanistan.

"And here comes Rhodey again," Toni deadpanned as Natasha frowned. She wasn't the fondest of James Rhodes even if he had come through for Toni in the end. The only problem was that she knew the same was true of her and she couldn't really protest as much as the others would be able to because she had betrayed Toni's trust too in a way that was almost worse than anything Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes had done.

A/n: Again I'm still not feeling well so I needed to split this scene :) And I'm so glad that I can get this out for you as short as it is that I'm probably going to stop apologising for short chapters as of now okay because y'all keep telling me not to worry about it after all.