Chapter 53 – Obadiah in Afghanistan

A/N – Trying to make chapters gradually longer again but god I am so tired :) Which is weird for me because I never get tired. It's Monday now and I've had no reply from XxXSilverShadowXxX so Amara Calla you're next in line for getting a oneshot in this verse :) And we reached number 600 so XxxBellaBellaxxX I also owe you one :D The next prize is something that you have to get creative with; tell me what you would do to Obie if he was still alive/you were an Avenger. I'll pick my favourite and you'll win a oneshot :) You can submit one entry per review and all those submitted before 700 reviews will count.

youwannabekate: I'm glad you liked that line :) I love making what is usually a hyperbole come true :D Righteous indignation is so fun to write :) He's not quite going to Hulk out yet but it's going to have to happen at some point isn't it. I'm trying to mix it up a little with introspection in some chapters being heavier than in others :) Glad you liked it

LianaDare8: More reactions in this chapter :) Enjoy!

Post U Later: Yes, I had to give them the laugh because the next scenes are emotionally devastating. I would say that lucky would be somewhat of an understatement in this case :)

ReadPaxJoy: I am really glad that you liked the chapter and happy belated birthday to you :) Glad you liked your pseudo present and a very warm welcome back.

babyliss12: Indeed it has :) Thoroughly going to enjoy writing the next section :D ~#Takes 15%#~

LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: Feel free to join in on cursing Obie and join the contest for another oneshot :) Hope you like the scenes

ladynarutochan: Don't Gibbs-slap me that's mean and I might stop updating so quickly :) And yes I did just play that card. Enjoy!

writergirl85: Yep, public bad guy Obie is finally here :D There's a few of the things they say about him in this chapter and I will think about doing an outtake but I'm really busy.

XxxBellaBellaxxX: Glad you liked it and I hope you enjoy this one! Get thinking about your oneshot :D

nessa11997: You're welcome :)

ReenReen: Aww, I'm really glad that I haven't disappointed you so far :D Enjoy!

Harm Marie: I'm glad :)

Peeves' best friend: I appreciate that you still like this story but I would suggest that you don't read this story if you can't appreciate that this is my take on the character because you probably won't like where I take the story. Toni is NOT Tony and I have made that very clear; there are so many different things that could have changed Tony's life if he had made a different decision and Toni made some of them. And Tony does prepare for things in canon otherwise the research on the thermonuclear astrophysics would never have happened.

Toni's immediate concern was the man on the sofa next to her because Bruce looked dangerously close to hulking out as his skin began to acquire a distinctly green tint. She knew that if he hulked out at this it really didn't bode well for later on and she didn't particularly want a destroyed living room to fix up after the final repairs on the tower had finally been completed to her liking. She knew that the others would probably end up causing at least some property damage in their fits of anger but Bruce was the most destructive when he was the jolly green giant.

Thor was probably next in line on that list because he was producing a lot of lightning in his anger which was scorching the armchair that he occupied quite severely. That one was probably going to need to be replaced by the end of this movie. She didn't see the point of replacing the armchair right away however seeing as he would probably ruin the new one once they got to the part where Obie had betrayed her again by attempting to kill her in person… twice.

She wasn't so worried about the others who were merely throwing curses around threatening Obie's life and health even though the man was already dead. She wasn't sure she wanted to get in the way of their venting though because she doubted many of them could distinguish between her and someone who deserved their anger at this point. Of course she would know logically that they weren't shouting at her and calling her all of those things if they did turn them on her unintentionally due to getting caught up in their rage but she wasn't sure her psyche could take more insults from people she saw as friends even if they didn't mean them. She was quite enjoying the cursing actually as Steve was proving that he could swear quite adequately as his super strength finally managed to ruin her armchair. Normally she would have made the pair who were ruining her furniture pay to buy new ones to go into storage whilst she dragged the ones that were in storage into the room. But to be honest she found their anger quite flattering as nobody had ever been that angry on her behalf before as far as she could remember. And seeing as she could remember a fair way back it was likely that nobody had ever been that angry on her behalf. She doubted anything too bad (other than the neglect from her father) had happened to her up to the age of one and a half.

Clint, Phil and Natasha's curses were more colourful as you would expect of people from this century who had travelled around a lot and spent a lot of time around people of the vilest sort. Natasha had also reverted to her mother tongue to curse Obie with Russian cutting clearly through the other yells making Toni chuckle a little for she understood every word. Some of the things that Natasha was threatening to do to Obie were not anything that even Toni would repeat in any form of 'civilized society.' She did quite like the sound of lowering Obie into a pit of scorpions and then injecting him with the antidote before doing it again though. It was almost a shame that the others couldn't do anything about him seeing as he had already passed away.

Whilst Toni had been relishing in the reactions of the others Bruce had gotten even closer to hulking out and Toni cursed herself for getting distracted and slid across the couch nearer to him and using as soothing a tone as she could managed told him, "it's okay Bruce! Stane is dead and has been for a while now. There's no point in changing because all you will accomplish is causing a lot of damage to my sitting room and I'd prefer it if that didn't happen again thank you. I'm fine, I'm still here." She had to repeat that sentence over and over again for what felt like hours before Bruce relaxed and the green tint faded from his skin although she couldn't quite get it to disappear from his eyes which gave her a very bad feeling about the state her sitting room would be in by the end of this film. But she had prevented a Hulk out this time around and the others were also beginning to calm down obviously having listened to her speech and realised that Obie was still in fact deceased and all their plotting against him was for naught. Finally JARVIS was able to restart the film and as Toni checked her watch she realised that the ranting against him had lasted nearly half an hour before she had managed to stop it.

Obie looked thoroughly displeased with the Afghani troops he was affiliated with as he walked forward surrounded by his own personal group.

"I'm holding out hope that this ends badly for at least one party," Natasha said with a scowl. To be honest she would prefer it to be the Ten Rings at this point because she already knew that Obie would end up dead and she would prefer a later death for him accompanied by the eradication of the Ten Rings organisation than just Obadiah's death.

"Welcome," Raza said clearly just as pleased as Obie was to be having this conversation as Obie inspected the nasty burn on the side of his head which he explained as being, "Compliments of Toni Stark."

"I'd have been quite happy to give everyone else there one too," Toni said with a sinister smirk, "It's completely free for people who deserve it and I'm pretty sure they all qualify."

"If you'd killed her when you were supposed to, you'd still have a face," Obie said not at all sympathetic to his plight. Collateral damage wasn't something that Obie was really interested as long as it didn't interfere with his plans.

The Avengers weren't exactly happy that they had gotten confirmation that Obie had been the brains behind trying to get Toni killed. Of course the minute he had showed up they had figured out that had to be the case but the fact that they now knew for sure was not of any comfort whatsoever. Everyone in Toni's life seemed to be turning against her one after one and while some of the came back a la Rhodey a lot of them ended up leaving her for good. Even if losing people like Howard and Obie seemed to be for the best it had to hurt Toni at the time even if it was just a little. Maybe more so with Obie who had pretended to her friend and confidant whereas she clearly had nothing but contempt for Howard and had never felt any differently.

"You paid us trinkets to kill a princess," Raza said dangerously clearly not afraid of Obadiah. Or at least not afraid enough to be scared of standing up to him.

"He's making me sound like something out of a Disney movie," Toni muttered upset at being referred to as a princess. If he had to use a metaphor along those lines then he could have at least gone for queen.

"That's why he didn't just let you die from the bomb he set off," Clint realised, "and instead decided to let Yinsen perform the surgery that was going to save you. He knew who you were from the moment you were brought in to prevent you from getting medical attention I presume and he decided that he wanted more out of you. So he decided that before he killed you he would get you to make him the missile so that he could have more power to utilise on civilians he wanted to intimidate and then he would dispose of you like Obadiah wanted. But you ruined the plan and Obie must have been shocked to hear that you were found wandering through the desert."

"Show me the weapon," Obie said ignoring his last statement.

"It's not a weapon," Toni muttered darkly.

Raza seemed to hesitate for a moment before deciding that Obie would get what he came for and telling him, "Come. Leave your guards outside."

Obie indicated that the guards should follow that order and followed Raza into a tent as his guards and the Ten Rings members faced each other obviously sizing each other up.

"I have a feeling one side of that standoff is not going to come out of it in the same state that they went in," Bruce said inspecting the expressions of both sides of the standoff. Personally he hoped it was the Ten Rings because other than the fact that they obviously knew that Obie was in contact with the group he didn't have a personal vendetta with them like he did with the men who had seen fit to torture Toni for three months.

The moment Obie entered the room he spotted the reassembled Mark I Iron Man armour which had probably taken the Ten Rings weeks to reassemble even with Toni's original plans. "Her escape bore unexpected fruit," Raza informed him.

"Not that you could ever make use of that thing again," Toni scoffed.

"Especially since they don't even have the arc reactor to power it," Natasha pointed out, "they'd need to go through Annie to get that and there is no way that she'll just hand it over."

Toni sighed a little at this statement because after all she hadn't exactly handed over the arc reactor no but Obie hadn't let that stop him from getting on his hands on it. She was infinitely glad that arc reactor had burned up with Obie because the thing had been tainted by Obie's affiliation with it just like her piano.

"So this is how she did it," Obie said admiring the suit.

"For someone who hates you he sure does put a lot of stock in your work," Steve commented.

"As much as I'm sure he would have hated to admit it, he needed me to run the company because if I hadn't continued sending him designs when my father died in the car accident then the company stocks would have plummeted," Toni informed him, "he needed me but he just would have preferred if I had stayed out of the business side and kept sending him ideas that he could take partial credit for. It was when I stepped out of seclusion and into the spotlight that I became a problem for him."

"This is only a first, crude effort," Raza informed him, "Stark has perfected her design. She has made a masterpiece of death. A man with a dozen of these can rule all of Asia."

"It was far from perfected," Toni scoffed, "that was only the Mark III that he witnessed me piloting. My current model is the Mark X and I still wouldn't call it perfect otherwise I wouldn't still work on it."

"I'm more horrified by the fact that he had designs on ruling Asia," Bruce said, "the last thing the East needed at the time was a psychopath in charge of the continent."

"And you dream of Stark's throne," Raza continued obviously thinking he had hit on something he thought would buy him a new deal with Obadiah Stane, "We have a common enemy," here he wandered over to a table and sat down clearly becoming more relaxed now he had the possibility of making a deal as he poured himself a drink of some sort of tea, "If we are still in business, I will give you these designs as a gift."

"I do not think that reasoning with this Stane and making deals with him will work in the torturer's favour," Thor said obviously very pleased by this fact. He was most keen to see the torturers of Lady Toni meet their inevitable fate as quickly as possible.

"And in turn," Raza said directly to Stane raising his cup, "I hope you'll repay me with the gift of iron soldiers."

Obie made his way over smiling and put his hand on Raza's shoulder in a supposed friendly gesture before opening up a device and activating it as it glowed bright red. A high pitched buzzing came from the device as glowing blue earplugs in Obie's ears became evident just like the veins in Raza's face as he seized up.

Toni tensed at seeing the device that had nearly ended up taking her life away from her. She couldn't help but think that even Raza hasn't quite deserved the torture that device did to you but that thought didn't linger long because she couldn't feel sympathy for that monster for any longer than a second.

"This is the only gift you shall receive," Obie told him in Urdu before switching back to English, "Technology. It's always been your Achilles heel in this part of the world," he began to remove his earplugs now the device was no longer on, "Don't worry. It'll only last for fifteen minutes. That's the least of your problems."

Toni guessed that Obadiah really was sick in more than the ways that she had already known about because he seemed to have a passion for telling his victims that their world was about to fall apart whilst they were paralysed and obviously unable to stop him. That was torture worse than anything the Ten Rings could concoct and she was so glad that he was dead so he couldn't inflict that misery on anybody else.

"That thing is sick," Bruce exclaimed, "paralysis is in some ways worse than death because you live but you're so limited in what you can do. And experiencing that even if it is only for fifteen minutes would be the most horrifying fifteen minutes of your life."

"And the worst part is," Clint chimed in, "that he doesn't give a damn about any of that. In fact he was practically bragging there about the fact that he got one up on Raza. I don't like the guy and it's not like he didn't deserve it but Obadiah is sick for not thinking of something else to use to subdue him."

As Raza sat paralysed only his eyes still capable of any type of movement Obadiah burst from the tent to the sight of his men holding the Ten Rings at gunpoint as they knelt on the sand.

"At least that takes care of them," Bruce said spitefully for once not disgusted that those men would probably meet their deaths because just like any of the invaders who tried to attack Earth and came up against the Avengers they were the type of scum that deserved to die.

"Crate up the armour and the rest of it," Obie told his soldiers as he walked back over to the car that he had arrived in, "All right, let's finish up here." As he walked away the sound of machine gun fire filled the air and the white flashes from the guns darted across the desert floor. Obadiah had just seriously depleted what remained of the Ten Rings force if he hadn't eliminated everyone but Raza.

"He just had to leave Raza alive though," Toni sighed knowing now that the man was probably still out there and if she ever came across him whilst she wasn't with the other Avengers then she really had to watch her back because he had to have enough hate for the entire organisation built up against her by now which he had been unable to act on.

"Set up Sector 16 underneath the arc reactor," Obadiah told someone on the other end of his phone call as his car sped away from the scene, "and I'm going to want this data masked. Recruit our top engineers, I want a prototype right away."

A/N – And we've dealt with Obie so it's back to Toni and Piper for the next chapter. I will see you then and hope I get lots of entries for the contest because who doesn't want to mess with Stane after seeing IM.