Chapter 71 – Interview with a Vanko
A/n – Welcome back everybody and enjoy the chapter!
Mystic 777 – How Vanko survived stuff like that has always been one of my questions too. It's a common one I have about movies. As for Hammer… we'll see.
Masterelite28 – I personally think it's the other way round. HYDRA's basically running SHIELD right now so of course they're doing terribly. They become better after the exposure. And Toni's biased and her opinions are affecting everyone else. As for bashing – a lot of people have sides to them that we can't see through the lens of the character's involved. And yes Skye will come in as will May; I can't confirm anyone else right now.
"Well now the two biggest assholes in this movie are going to team up," Bruce sighed, "that's great. You can't just have one guy after you at a time can you Toni?"
"Pretty sure that would defy the fact that portions of my life have been incredible examples of Murphy's Law," Toni said with a shrug, "anyway, there needs to be more than one of them to even cause me a challenge."
Everyone chuckled a little at that even though they knew Toni had said it deliberately to cheer up the atmosphere in the room. It was probably made funnier by the fact that it was true. It took a lot to keep up with Toni in any field so teaming up with several other people seemed to be the way to go.
"I appreciate the sentiment but do they all have to be creeps because Hammer hit on me sometimes too," Natasha sighed, "I couldn't even knock him to the ground because I was playing the perfect PA at the time."
"The problem with being a woman in business is always the creeps," Toni sighed, "always. The fact that they are misogynists is what causes them to be creepy. At least nobody can try and claim I'm not capable anymore. They tried plenty of that when I took over the company. It was one of the reasons dad was constantly mad about my being a girl. Although he seemed to think I couldn't do it either. I have greatly enjoyed proving everyone wrong."
Toni now dressed in jeans, a t-shirt and a leather jacket made her way down a hallway as Monaco police chattered away in French behind her, "Miss Stark. We ran his prints. We got nothing back, not even a name."
"Where are we going?" Toni asked also in French.
"Over there," the officer told her.
"You're going to interview the man who tried to kill you," Steve exclaimed obviously shocked.
"I should point out that the Monaco police did try and interview him themselves first," Toni told him, "but he refused to say anything to them. So all they could do was print him and take DNA but that got them nothing as the officer pointed out. Seeing as he was targeting me and there was no chance of being in danger when all his weapons had been removed the line of thought was that he might talk for me."
"We aren't even sure he speaks English," the officer added, "He hasn't said a word since he got here."
"Five minutes," Toni told him.
"Considering the amount of languages Toni speaks I'm sure that even if he hadn't been capable of speaking English she would have found one he could at least speak passably," Phil said with a smile.
"Plus he had spoken English with a Russian accent in front of me already so even if his English was broken I knew which language to go for," Toni pointed out, "I'd learned Russian at this point because I knew that was where Natasha was from. I wanted to be prepared for anything concerning a spy."
"That was a good idea," Natasha acknowledged, "and Russian can come in handy for other things anyway."
The policeman reiterated that Toni would only be allowed five minutes as the door to Vanko's cell was opened and Toni walked inside. The door was closed behind her.
"You really do have serious connections to get yourself in there without a police officer to supervise," Clint whistled, "I understand there are probably lots of cameras in the room but there's no one there to physically get between you if they had to."
For a moment Toni's heels clicking on the ground were the only sound until she started talking, "pretty decent tech. Cycles per second were a little low."
"Why am I not surprised that you immediately started off by talking about the technology involved Lady Toni?" Thor laughed.
"Hey, technology is what I live for; I have to get to talk about it sometimes," Toni said with a fake pout, "besides I wasn't going to miss an opportunity when it was actually relevant."
"You could have doubled up your rotations," Toni continued, "You focused the repulsor energy through ionised plasma channels. It was effective though inefficient. It's passable enough though."
"Nice way of letting him know that you know exactly how he managed to accomplish everything he did while also letting him know that you could have done it better," Phil said appreciatively, "puts you above him in the dynamics of the conversation. Especially since he claimed to have won the fight even after you beat him."
"Sometimes it feels rather good to be smarter than someone," Toni said with a smile. She hated to think of what her life would have been like if she hadn't inherited the intellect of her parents. It would have been a life of mockery and being hailed as a massive disappointment instead of a long hard slog to being one of the most popular and intelligent women in the world.
Toni sighed and took a seat on the other end of the bench Vanko was sitting on before continuing, "I don't get it. A little fine tuning, you could have made a solid paycheck. You could have sold it to North Korea, China, Iran," here Vanko finally turned to look at Toni, "or gone right to the black market."
"That's the saddest thing about all this in a way," Toni said sadly, "if he'd come directly to me with those kind of skills. Well, I'd have hired him on the spot to work in R&D and practically every country in the world has someone who could and would do the same. They'd be thrilled to get their hands on any tech similar to mine and the person who made it. Yet he decided to try and kill me over something I didn't even know about instead."
"Some people just have wires in their brains crossed about these things," Bruce added, "they think in terms of anger, jealousy and revenge and never consider that they could get what they want without resorting to violence. It's such a waste."
"Although I would like to note that Vanko is still a creep despite his untapped potential," Natasha piped up.
"Oh no doubt about that," Toni snorted, "the problem is that he could have learned to get rid of that attitude in time. He just didn't see it as worth the effort. I always say I hate it when other women don't pursue their dreams because they're told they can't. It's just as bad when they way someone is raised means they either actually can't or just consider it not worth trying."
"You look like you've got friends in low places," Toni said obviously not being able to resist the jab.
Vanko finally spoke up after this, "You come from a family of thieves and butchers. And now, like all guilty men, you try to rewrite your own history. And you forget all the lives the Stark family has destroyed."
"He's worse than I was at considering members of the same family as separate people," Steve exclaimed, "I made some fairly biased comparisons but I never tried to claim that one person can be responsible for another's actions just because they're related. And Toni does not try and rewrite her history. She just acknowledges that it is just that – history! And she's doing much better now."
"Don't think I didn't notice his deliberate use of men instead of people," Clint added.
"I admit my family has done quite a few things that I am not proud of and in the end so have I so I can't really disagree with that part. But the thing that Howard did to his family wasn't even unjustified. Perhaps a little harsh considering the effects it had on Ivan but it was hardly a decision made lightly. Considering the fact that I think that and I think very little of my father's decisions in general he really has no case."
"Speaking of thieves, where did you get this design?" Toni said clearly not bothered by anything Vanko was saying about her family.
"The beauties of being in the public eye right Annie," Natasha said with a smirk, "someone always hates you and it's really easy to deal with it when it happens."
"My father," Vanko told her, "Anton Vanko."
"Well I've never heard of him," Toni said simply.
"Dad must have taken his name off my version of the schematics for the arc reactor after he had him sent back to Russia," Toni explained, "there was no record of him anywhere. Trust me, after I found out about him I looked. My father was very efficient at hiding things he didn't want seen. If it hadn't been for my nanny that would have included me as well."
"My father is the reason you're alive," Vanko stated.
"The reason I'm alive is 'cause you had a shot, you took it, you missed," Toni refuted.
"Even if he's suggesting that you're alive because of the arc reactor which his father helped design he's still wrong," Phil insisted, "you saved yourself there. You were in a cave with limited materials, attempting something that had never been done before and thankfully being watched over by a bunch of idiots who couldn't tell the difference between a metal suit and a missile."
"I do like to take some of the credit for my still being alive," Toni said with a nod, "thank you for making my case for me Phil."
"Did I?" Vanko asked, "If you can make God bleed, then people will cease to believe in them. And there will be blood in the water. And the sharks will come."
"He's being awfully flattering despite his hatred of your family," Thor pointed out, "he compared you to a god."
"I never have been comfortable with that comparison," Toni stated, "mostly because I don't believe in a god anyway and secondly because I would certainly never consider myself one."
"The truth," Vanko continued, "all I have to do is sit here and watch the world consume you."
Toni considered this for a second before quipping, "Where will you be watching the world consume me from? That's right. A prison cell. I'll send you a bar of soap."
"You always have a joke up your sleeve Toni," Steve said with a slight smile. Her quips were somewhat more amusing when they weren't aimed at him. Although he might find them funnier now that there wouldn't be as much animosity backing them.
Toni stood up and strode towards the doorway obviously satisfied that she had enough information now. Vanko shouted after her, "Hey Toni! Before you go, palladium in the chest, painful way to die."
"Is it?" Clint asked quietly.
He received nods from both Toni and Bruce both of whom would know what they were talking about in matters like this. This did not make anyone in the room feel any better. The idea that not only was Toni dying but she was dying in a particularly painful way made everyone feel sick.
Toni simply knocked on the door and was let out thanking the police officers as she exited. Vanko started laughing to himself the moment the door was closed again.
"Why on Earth would he bother attacking you if he already knew you were going to die," Steve said puzzled.
"He wanted to ruin my reputation first," Toni stated, "and even though palladium poisoning would be an awful way to die he probably wanted the satisfaction of killing me himself. Plus the fact that he couldn't be sure that I wouldn't cure myself – which I of course eventually did – was probably a factor.
The scene switched to Toni's jet as Senator Stern was shown stumbling through a speech on the TV, "It's just unbelievable. It proves that the genie is out of the bottle and this woman has no idea what she's doing. She thinks of the Iron Man weapon as a toy."
"How did this man ever join a profession involving public speaking?" Thor boomed, "He has no skill as an orator and does not make his points well at all."
"He's also a Republican," Toni said with a shrug, "the vast majority of that party nowadays is made up of idiots with backwards ideas that they call traditional values. They also can't defend them particularly well. There's a reason that many of them are considered jokes. It's not all of them but it's the majority. Not that the Democrats are much better at times."
Piper was shown sitting watching the broadcast as Toni emerged from another section of the jet and sighed when she saw who was speaking, "I was at a hearing where Miss Stark, in fact, was adamant that these suits can't exist anywhere else, don't exist anywhere else, never will exist anywhere else at least for five to ten years and here we are in Monaco realising, 'Uh-oh, these suits are exist now.'"
"He does realise that what Vanko was using was not an Iron Man suit right," Bruce interjected, "he was using the same power source to power his weapons yes but he clearly wasn't wearing a suit. There are completely different mechanics involved."
"He's not a technician; he's an idiot," Natasha snorted, "and one looking for any possible reason to slander Toni so he can steal her property. He's just making the best out of an unexpected situation that fell into his lap because he was already made to look like an idiot once."
There was a close up of Toni's face showing the bruise developing above her eye as she said, "mute," and Senator Stern was silenced.
"If only I could do that to the real thing," Toni sighed wistfully getting raucous laughter and nods of agreement from everyone else in the room at that suggestion.
"He should be giving me a medal," Toni said carrying in a plate of food and sitting down opposite Piper, "that's the truth."
This resulted in a couple of snickers from Natasha and Phil and a brief satisfied smirk from Toni but none of the three would reveal why when asked. Eventually the other Avengers gave it up as a bad job.
"What is that?" Piper asked.
"This is your in-flight meal," Toni said pulling the cover off the dish to reveal an omelette.
"Cooking at high altitudes is different," Toni noted, "but considering all those lessons my mother was insistent on me having when I was little I can make extremely edible food."
"I would like to second that," Natasha said, "we need to talk her into making dinner sometime because she made us dinner once. It was amazing. Like professional chef amazing."
"I was mostly trained by professional chefs so that makes sense," Toni quipped secretly happy with the praise.
"Did you just make that?" Piper asked sounding slightly impressed.
"Yeah," Toni said, "Where do you think I've been for the past three hours?"
"It doesn't take three hours to make an omelette," Bruce pointed out.
"Yeah but I was starving so I made myself some food first," Toni said with a shrug, "besides hiding in the kitchen meant avoiding any confrontations with Piper about what happened. Plus some food to butter him up while heading into the conversation that's about to happen was a must."
"Toni," Piper said softly, "what are you not telling me?"
"Took him long enough to figure out something was wrong," Clint snorted.
"I don't want to go home," Toni said opting for a partial truth, "at all. Let's cancel my birthday party and… We're in Europe. Let's go to Venice, Cipriani. Remember?"
"I can understand wanting some private time with someone you know likes you considering what you think is going to happen," Phil noted, "your birthday parties tend to be filled with the elite. And you can never tell who's just sucking up to you there."
"Oh, yes," Piper said with a slight smile.
"I am not telling you," Toni said shutting down all possible questions, "you can ask Piper if you really want to know. But since he doesn't like you, I doubt he'll tell you either."
"It's a great place to," Toni paused before continuing, "be healthy."
"I get what you said about not being able to spit it out," Bruce said also with a sigh, "it's got to be hard to tell someone you won't be around for much longer. You don't want to cause other people pain or end up being pitied."
"I don't think this is the right time," Piper said apologetically, "We're in kind of a mess."
"Since he doesn't know about the poisoning I can approve of that response," Natasha noted, "Since it was your birthday coming up you should have been able to choose what to do but there are accompanying issues. And at least he sounds sorry about it."
"Yeah, but maybe that's why it's the best time," Toni insisted, "Cause then we…"
"Well, I think as the CEO I need to show up," Piper interjected.
"As CEO, you are entitled to a leave," Toni told him.
"I think this is the first disagreement between you two that hasn't led to you shouting at each other," Clint mused.
"A leave?" Piper said sceptically.
"A company retreat," Toni rephrased.
"I suppose the best thing for both of you to do would have been to fly back to the States originally then file a request for leave and then fly back to Europe," Bruce suggested, "that way you would have gotten your vacation."
"It's a shame Piper wouldn't have gone for it without knowing about the poison," Toni sighed.
"A retreat? During a time like this?" Piper said seemingly bewildered that Toni would even suggest such a thing.
"Just a ride," Toni said desperately trying to get Piper to agree, "Well, I'm just saying to recharge our batteries and figure it all out."
"You are dropping a lot of metaphorical references to your poisoning in this conversation hoping that he'll figure it out without you having to tell him," Steve noticed.
"Not everybody runs on batteries, Toni," Piper said softly.
They smiled slightly at each other before Toni looked away her face settling into a stony expression. The jet continued on towards its original destination.
A/n – Hope you guys all liked it. It's a bit of a filler chapter but I think it brings up some important stuff. See you next week.