Tony tapped his finger on the desk. Pepper was coming back today. He was nervous, like a lot. He was gonna tell her everything, starting with how he felt about her, ending with a new enemy. Madam Mask. Interesting. Apparently, she can change into any other identity, her mask is a piece of Tony's dad's technology found only in his vault, if it was stolen his dad would of spoken of it, but he hasn't said anything about it. Tony sighed, looked over at the gate for the millionth time since coming here.
"Will you stop staring over there? She said that she was gonna land late." Rhodey said, realizing that he kept looking at the gate.
"I know, but you would feel nervous if you had a 50% chance that your heart's gonna get crushed, and a 50% chance of your feelings being returned." Tony said, matter-of-factly.
"Still, calm down. Pepper wouldn't like a sweaty guy profess his love to her." Rhodey said.
"I'm not sweating in the first place!" Tony said, raising his arms.
"If you continue to be so nervous, you'll start sweating, therefore becoming the sweaty guy who profess his love for Pepper." Rhodey retorted.
"I'm not... that nervous..." Tony mumbled.
"But you are. That's why you should stop fre-"
"Pepper!" Tony stood up from his seat in a cafe, across the gate Pepper's plane was landing. She just came into the floor of the airport, so that's what caused Tony to jump up like a five year old. Rhodey smiled, realizing that Pepper had actually landed back, so Rhodey stood up, a few steps behind Tony, when they reached Pepper, they were at each others side.
"Hey guys! I missed you guys so much!" Pepper said, pulling both guys into a hug.
"We missed you too, Pepper." Rhodey said, returning the hug.
"Yeah." Tony agreed, returning the hug too.
"So, What's been going on?" Pepper asked, as they walked towards Pepper's apartment. They talked about school, they talked about Pepper's case in L.A., they talked about some other things on each others minds.
"-Iron Man." Pepper said.
"What?" Tony asked.
"I said, What's going on with Iron Man." Pepper said.
"That's... uh... the thing..." Tony said, nervously.
"What?" Pepper asked.
"There's a new enemy, you could say..." Tony said.
"What? Who?" Pepper asked.
"She calls herself Madam Mask." Rhodey said.
"Madam Mask? So, she was the one standing on the rooftop as you or I should say Iron Man." Pepper said.
"Yeah." Tony said.
"How'd she do that? To look like you?" Pepper asked.
"Well, she has that mask. That mask can change your appearance, I think she got it from my father's vault." Tony said.
"Vault?" Pepper asked.
"My father has a vault, in which he puts his inventions, his top secret inventions in that vault, with a top notch security system that he invented." Tony said, reaching the apartment building of Pepper. Pepper opened the door which led to the lobby of her apartment building. They headed towards the elevator.
"What else? I mean, what are the possibilities its someone inside the Stark Tower." Pepper said.
"No one knows that vault really exists." Tony answered.
"Then, how do you know?" Pepper asked.
"I'm his son, he trust me with almost everything." Tony explained.
"Hmm, but come on, someone must know." Pepper said.
"Maybe Stane, but the thief was a girl, soo yeah." Tony said.
"Doesn't Stane have some sort of family?" Pepper asked, the elevator dinged, opened to Pepper's floor. They left the elevator.
"Yeah, he has a wife, and a daughter." Tony said, following Pepper to her apartment.
"But that can't mean anything, sure Stane has a evil side, but he wouldn't put the lives of his wife and daughter for vengeance on Tony's dad." Rhodey said.
"I never said anything about Stane being the one, or him using his daughter and wife for vengeance, why would he need to in the first place?" Pepper asked.
"Probably for the Earth-Movers, he wanted to use it as a weapon, not as a friendly technology." Tony answered. They reached Pepper's door by now, Pepper unlocked it, her dad being gone, he went undercover just a couple of days ago. They walked inside, Tony dropping her bags by her door.
"One good reason I guess. Anyone else with a possible way into the vault?" Pepper asked.
"Not really. It has more security than the White House." Tony said, sitting down on Pepper's couch while she sat across from him in another chair.
"That's really... weird... but okay." Pepper said.
"We were kinda hoping that you would help us in this." Rhodey said.
"How?" Pepper asked.
"Well... you can pretend it's for an FBI investigation." Tony said.
"I would but... I work in the murder investigation bureau of the FBI as along as it involved a murder, I can't pretend it is one." Pepper said.
"Oh... we'll think of something. Just right know we'll let you rest." Rhodey said, nudging Tony, in which he got up from the couch.
"Bye Pepper." Tony said, before he and Rhodey left her apartment.
"You didn't tell her." Rhodey said.
"I'm not gonna tell her while your hovering over us." Tony said, staring at him through the corner of his eyes.
"Is it wrong to see a love profession?" Rhodey asked.
"Yes." Tony said. "Especially if it's my love profession."
"Aw. Ruin the rest of my life will ya?" Rhodey said.
"I guess I just did." Tony said as the elevator reopened for them.
"When are you gonna tell her?" Rhodey asked, hitting the lobby button.
"I don't know, but I have a feeling I'll have to do it soon." Tony said.
"Why?" Rhodey asked.
"Because, I have a feeling that something bad will happen." Tony said.
"Do you say that for Madam Mask?" Rhodey asked.
"She can change into any identity she wants, what if something goes really really bad." Tony said.
"This is Pepper your talking about, she pointed a gun at you." Rhodey said.
"Yeah, but what is the chance that I can fight against her if she takes the identity of Pepper?" Tony asked, the elevator stopped, and they walked out of Pepper's apartment building.
"What are the chances that she will take the appearance of Pepper in the first place?" Rhodey asked.
"Still. I'm just worried." Tony said, looking up to the sky.