Chapter 57 – A Close Call
A/n – It feels really good to be back because I really have missed all of you. The flood of emails to my inbox once I posted that last chapter almost made me cry I swear. So thank you all so much! Still waiting for AliseEve to tell me what she wants for a oneshot.
JazzNProwl's sparklingAriaFyre: Late or not it is lovely to have you :) I'm glad you liked that section and I hope you enjoy this chapter.
HockyGal09: Thank you! Good to hear from you again :)
Frostfire613: I've seen it and it was amazing :) I only just saw it a couple of days ago so I'm still on an MCU high.
XxxBellaBellaxxX: Thank you :) Glad you liked the chapter
TwilightNewMoonEclipseMidnight: Hope you like the chapter :D
Gleek221: That's very flattering, I'm glad that you were looking forward to it.
Alexandria-reid-Winchester: I'm relatively okay don't worry about me :) I'm sure the ninja monkeys would have enjoyed that and I wouldn't have minded even though the opinions of people who are cowardly enough to hate on anon actually make me laugh.
Ashtree1165: It's so sweet to hear that so many people were worried about me because I never expected it. Glad you liked it and I hope I do that scene justice for you.
Virgo A. Reisling: I'm so glad that you still like this story. I was kind of worried that because of the gap it would be awkward to read. It's nice to know that it wasn't.
ReadPaxJoy: So glad that you liked it :) I had to have Bruce hulk out at some point didn't I? :D
SparkleNicole: I'm so glad that it lived up to your expectations. I was so worried about it.
chibi heishi: I'm always so relieved when someone likes Thor because it's him that I am the most scared will be OOC because I'm never sure quite how to write him. I'm happy that you liked the rest as well :D
Post U Later: I'm so glad that you liked it! Those are the two pairings in the sequels so I'm glad they're coming across well. I have no idea what they would be called so I'll just keep calling them Science Bros in my head.
LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books: Glad to be back :D And glad that you enjoyed the chapter.
Booklover2526: I'm really glad that you liked it and it is very good to be back.
Guest: So you're the mind-reading one :D I'm looking forward to writing Thor's reaction to the Toni/Natasha/Sif friendship. I see your point and I'm glad you were so polite about it but I just don't like Betty's character and I never have so I can't pair her up with Bruce in my stories.
Dragones: Thank you :)
ccsakurahime: So glad it exceeded your expectations.
LianaDare8: I can't really put IM3 in because it isn't canon for this story although it was incredible.
psycholady141: I'm really glad that you like it and thank you very much.
princessabbie10: It's good to be back and thank you that means a lot :)
ladynarutochan: Thank you very much :D It would be a lot of fun to punch Obadiah in the face :)
CatherineS: I don't think he'll be in this story primarily because I don't think I can bring anyone else in. But he will definitely appear in the sequels for sure.
youwannabekate: And the award for the most enthusiastic response goes to… KATE! Heya :) It's good to be back
TricksterOfPanem: So glad that you liked it.
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Harm Marie: I'm glad
ThatOneFan: I'm glad that while you're not the biggest fan of what I've done with Piper that you understand my motivations for making him that way. That means a lot to me because I sometimes wonder if I made that clear enough. Thank you for your comment about the relationship issue because what I'm trying to establish is close friendships first. This isn't the romance part of the story and I'm glad that seems to be coming across to you. Yes I am, and yes they're in order. I figured that other than Avengers Assemble that is the chronological order in the MCU universe. CA is a bit iffy but it ends the closest to Avengers Assemble :) Hope you continue to enjoy this story
Bubblesturtles: I'm really glad that you liked the chapter and the story in general :D And you are very welcome :)
nessa11997: I'm glad you liked it and it was your favourite :D This one is shorter but I hope you still enjoy it.
Upon seeing how tense all of the other people in the room were Toni racked her brain to try and come up with something she could say to calm them down at least a little. Obviously the fact that she was still alive wasn't enough because she had reiterated that fact many a time and it seemed to only be a temporary solution. She thought at least Bruce, Phil, Natasha and Clint would have enough sense to realise that nothing terrible had happened to her if she was sitting right there. Especially since Phil had seen her shortly after this during the incident at Stark Industries. Finally she settled on saying, "you know this particular part will be over soon so you don't need to glare at the screen to get it to stop."
It wasn't the most eloquent way she could have put it but it seemed to lessen the glares for now so it was an improvement at least. As long as she could get her television through the next few minutes it would probably outlast the rest of the movies. Not that she thought in any way that hers was going to be the worst movie of the lot. She was sure the others had gone through things that were just as bad but if they managed to get through this she hoped that her appliances would be relatively safe. As safe as they could be with Thor around anyway. She still hadn't completely forgiven him for Addy yet. She might… eventually.
The scene changed to show a shot of the Malibu cityscape before zooming in on Rhodey's car where he was on the phone with Piper, "What do you mean he paid to have Toni killed? Piper, slow down. Why would Obadiah… Okay, where's Toni now?"
"So that's how you got out of it?" Steve said relieved believing that he had found the way Toni had managed to survive. He had no idea what prolonged time without the arc reactor in her chest would do to Toni. And if it did have any nasty effects the reactor must have been out of her chest for long enough to do the damage. But that wasn't something that Steve wanted to dwell on because he knew Toni was about to go off and fight and the thought of her fighting with a debilitating injury once again was terrifying.
"Not exactly," Toni said, "but you'll see in a minute so there is no point in nagging me into telling you about it."
Once again the scene changed to show Piper walking through the SHIELD building with Coulson and several other Agents as he told Rhodey, "I don't know. She's not answering her phone. Please go over there and make sure everything's okay. Thank you Rhodey." Then he hung up and turned to Phil, "I know a shortcut."
"Normally I'd criticise him for believing that just because you weren't answering your phone you were in some kind of trouble," Clint said, "but considering he just found out Obadiah wanted to kill you and the fact that he currently doesn't know Obadiah's location it is kind of justified."
"And yet Annie still had to get herself out of it no doubt," Natasha said having deduced that if Rhodey didn't get there in time then the only person left to save Toni was Toni herself. As usual! Not that she blamed Piper or Rhodey really because neither of them had been clued in about Obadiah until it was too late to stop his physical and psychological attack on Toni. It was just frustrating that Toni always seemed to have to save herself.
Rhodey veered off suddenly onto the street that led to Toni's house as Toni herself looking pale and weak flung herself into the elevator at her house barely able to stay upright at this stage. The elevator descended quickly down to the lab level and slid open as Toni pushed her way out using the walls gasping for breath.
Clint had taken to muttering the words, 'come on Toni,' under his breath as he watched the scene and doubtless would continue doing so until Toni was shown to have an arc reactor back in her chest. Natasha was fingering one of the knives that she kept within her sleeve as if any second (despite Toni's warnings) it was going to shatter the screen the movie was showing on. The others were sitting on the edge of their seats once again ignoring the fact that Toni was in the room. What would it take to get through to these people? Toni literally didn't know anymore. What she did know was that if they ruined her sitting room they were going to be the ones clearing it up. Not the bots.
She pushed open the main door to the lab space using it to hold herself up and her gaze zeroed in on her old arc reactor which still sat in its glass box on her work station.
"I'd forgotten about that but of course it's the obvious solution," Bruce said relieved. He guessed it was a good thing that Piper was sentimental when Toni wasn't because if he wasn't Toni's chances of living through Obadiah's attack would have been zero.
Unfortunately when she took a step forward Toni was no longer able to sustain her body weight on her weakened legs anymore and she toppled forwards and hit the ground chest first.
"Would that have…?" Steve asked and he didn't even need to finish his question before Toni had a reply for him, "yes, I hit the floor hard enough that it probably jolted the shrapnel a bit but it would have been erratic so some of it would actually have been pushed further away." She had been anticipating that question ever since she realised this scene was going to be in the movie.
Toni grabbed a hold of the wheel of one of her cars as she pulled herself across the floor using her arms. She shoved equipment from the floor away as she made steady, difficult progress towards the desk.
"It's a very good thing that you can do a lot when your motivated Toni," Bruce said admiringly, "otherwise you would never have been able to survive this."
"You could just put it the way the rest of the world does and tell me I'm stubborn," Toni said with a smile, "it doesn't bother me. In fact I take it as a compliment at this stage."
"You would," Natasha said cracking a smile for the first time since the scene with Obadiah.
After a few agonising moments she was close enough to the desk to make an attempt at grabbing the glass case and hauled herself up using a box of parts that she had left on the floor. She managed to reach one hand up accidentally pushing it a way a little but managing to grab onto the book it sat on and pull that towards her instead. But it was obviously hard for her to keep a firm grip so eventually she let it slip through her fingers and had a rather messy landing as her torso plummeted back towards the ground.
"I thought you said Rhodey didn't save you," Clint said wondering how she had gotten out of it because it was clear that she didn't have the physical strength to retrieve the old arc reactor at this point even if mentally she had the willpower to attempt it.
"And he didn't," Toni told him truthfully.
'Well then who did?' Clint thought but decided not to say this out loud knowing that for Toni to survive it would have to have happened soon in the movie timeline and so he would find out without needing to ask. Asking would just irritate Toni who was obviously still annoyed that they had ruined many pieces of her highly expensive furniture.
She just lay there resigned to what was going to happen for a second before Dummy made a distressed noise in the background and lowered the glass case containing the arc reactor into her hand.
"Your robotic assistants always seem to know what to do in a crisis," Thor boomed, "even if they cannot help with something ordinary."
"As long as they still are salvageable then I will always rebuild my bots exactly as they are if they get injured," Toni said, "because their personalities mean they've learned what is really important."
Dummy said something else to Toni and she responded with a quick, "good boy!" before she leaned over and managed to smash the glass case against the ground freeing the arc reactor within.
A/n: This chapter is short but this way you guys only have to go a day without any kind of update for this verse which is an achievement I am happy to have made. Hope you guys like this chapter :D