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Toni's Point of View
Toni was woken up not even two hours later by a constant loud beep that filled the room. She tugged her cover over her head and burrowed further into it and her pillows, but not before catching a glimpse at the time from her bedside clock.
"JARVIS," she moaned from under her quilt, "whoever it is tell them to go away,"
"I am sorry miss," the refined English accent of her AI now replaced the beeping tone – although it still sounded like it was going off in her head (she made a mental note to fix it, maybe she should have it play Frank Sinatra instead?) "-but there are several agents from SHIELD in the lobby,"
Seriously?
It was bad enough that Phil got into the building when technically it wasn't even open yet – and she liked Phil – but having complete strangers just wandering around the building was not on.
"Have their IDs checked out, JARVIS?" she asked quickly, not at all paranoid, nope, not one little bit.
"All their identifications check out, miss," came the ever sober reply from JARVIS and the slight panic that had been building somewhere in her chest receded. Not that anything would have happened to her if they weren't from SHIELD She could be in her suit in under ten seconds and she would have them all blasted to kingdom come before they could even fire a round, but she still felt uneasy with being without Pip.
"They are requesting to speak with you,"
She snorted. Yeah right. SHIELD do not 'request' to talk to anyone. They just do it. Or kidnap you, lock you in your own home and cut you off from all forms of communication. Ah yes, good times.
"Are they still in the lobby, JARVIS?"
"For the time being. They have been trying to contact you through the intercom but you disengaged it last week," she smiled slightly at the memory. She had finally gotten fed up of the work men playing beam-me-up-Scotty with it and had switched off the whole system – it had been funny to watch them when they thought they had broken it. Their panic stricken faces had been priceless.
"I though it prudent to contact you when they began to speak of screwdrivers,"
She cringed at that. Not only did they come to see her without so much as a phone call but then they wanted to take apart the buildings internal communication network. Idiots!
"Would you like me to patch them through?"
She sighed wearily, getting used to the idea that she would be getting no more sleep today and finally lowered the quilt from her face and rolled to her back.
"Go for it JARVIS, and don't forget to mask my voice," she reminded him, all though she knew she didn't need to and that he would disguise her voice automatically when it came to unknowns.
"Mr Stark," a very male and slightly congested voice filled her room. She almost felt sorry for the guy who was obviously coming down with the cold.
"Can we speak with you please?"
Toni smirked to herself. She knew what that was code for but she refused to make it easy for them. After all, it went against all of her principles to make anything easy for anyone.
"I believe that is what we are doing now, Agent…?" she wondered if he was a newbie, or maybe he had pulled the short straw. That was usually what happened when agents got sent her way.
"Hunter. And face to face would be ideal, sir," ok, so obviously not a newbie, they tended to freeze up for a few seconds and then trip through an explanation.
She sighed heavily.
Why me?
"Very well Agent Hunter, JARVIS will show you up,"
"Thank you,"
The connection beeped as the agent hung up.
"JARVIS, open up an elevator and direct them to the top floor, I should be ready by then,"
With eyes still bleary from the little amount of sleep she had gotten she groped for her bedside cabinet and yanked open the top drawer and pulled out four broad silver cuffs. She groggily slid them on. One on each ankle and then repeating the process with her wrists. And then, realising she hadn't even gotten dressed yet she moaned at the extra effort that would take.
Reaching from the bed to the floor she scooped up her jeans from where they had fallen and stood to shimmy into them. She fell back onto the mattress when her head began to spin from the speed she had stood up at.
She whined to the empty room, feeling miserable.
Yes the world was on the brink of destruction – but hey, wasn't it always? – but what good was she to anyone if she was so tired she was seeing double?
Finally after several tries she succeeded in getting into her jeans and t-shirt. Technically she didn't really need the clothes but even the idea of walking round nearly naked under the hologram freaked her out. Besides, you never knew when something could go wrong and she was not going to be revealed to the world (or whoever was around at the time) in her favourite most comfortable underwear. That was not happening!
She straightened out the rumpled material and then pulled up the bottom of the shirt, tucking it under her chin to keep it out of the way and leaving both her hands free. She fiddled for a second with a small button located in the mount of the reactor in her chest and pressed it down, dropping her shirt.
She felt the electrical tingle from the cuffs on her limbs and knew that if she could be bothered looking there would be a red light pulsing on each of the silver bands.
She glanced into the mirror attached to the door of her wardrobe as her face and body were replaced with those of the Tony Stark that everyone knew. The initial glow from the holographic formed faded after a second as the disguise settled over her and solidified. She pulled some random faces and winked each of her eyes, making sure that the cuffs were reading her movements correctly and mirroring them on the face of Tony Stark.
She really needed to come up with a new and easier programme to change the clothing. Tony Stark had been wearing the same casual, jeans and Iron Maiden (yes, she got a huge kick out of that!) t-shirt for the past 2 months.
"Miss Stark, the agents are in the elevator on the observation deck,"
"I'm on my way," the gruff, definitely masculine voice that met her ears had her nodding at her not-her-reflection.
Everything was in working order.
She jogged up the steps to the next floor and rounded the corner to see two men in suits standing in the elevator. She liked them being in the elevator and not in the room with her. All it would take was one word to JARVIS and they would be back in the lobby before they could say 'Ground Floor'.
"Gentleman, what can I be doing for the men in black today? Any alien cockroaches in need of squishing?"
They just looked at her…well, him.
Okay then.
"Mr Stark we are here under direct orders from Director Fury to bring you in," said the agent who sounded a lot like Hunter.
She really hated the no-nonsense, 'you WILL do as I say' voice that all of the SHIELD agents seemed to have nailed. Of course they then came to see her and she showed them that the tone didn't work with everyone. The surprise on their faces when this happened was always worth the annoyance of having them around.
He held out an envelope to her and quirked an eyebrow when she didn't take it from him immediately.
"Sorry, I don't like being handed things," she looked around, nothing. She really needed to put a table by the elevator for times like this. "Just…put it on the floor," she gestures to the ground and the agent sighed (no doubt thinking she was so weird eccentric rich person) but did what she asked, sliding the envelope towards her.
She scooped it up and nearly choked on her laughter. There was actually TOP SECRET printed across the front. Was that supposed to stop someone from getting ideas because from personal experience something like that on any document was like an open invitation to have a good snoop.
She ripped it open carefully, trying to appear as arrogant and collected as Tony Stark should do, and pulled out the only thing that was in it. A single sheet of paper. She scanned the numbers printed across the page.
Co-ordinates. And they sure as hell weren't to anything on land either. She was sure the numbers represented somewhere in the North Atlantic.
Toni glanced back up at the agents and quirked an eye-brow.
"We have been given instructions to take whatever items you may feel are necessary to the jet. You are welcome to accompany us or you can use the suit. The choice is up to you, sir,"
She nodded her head thoughtfully, watching the agents with narrowed eyes.
Did she want to be in a kind of closed in space with these men for more than two minutes? The answer would be no.
"I'll take the suit guys," she told them firmly and all Hunter did was nod his head while the younger agent stood silent. So…Hunter obviously pulled the short straw and the other guy was a newbie judging from the silence.
"I'll go pack for the sleepover," she grinned walking back towards the staircase and slipping the co-ordinates back into the envelope.
"The kitchen is two floors down, help yourselves to coffee," she yelled over her shoulder a she skipped down the stairs to her room. There was no reply from the agents, but then she hadn't really expected one.
She placed the super-dooper-secret envelope onto her desk and dragged a small holdall out from the bottom of her closet.
Toni glanced around the room. It was still very bare and had an almost clinical feel to it – the smell of fresh paint still hung in the air if you took a deep enough breath. She missed Malibu. Especially the garage come work room.
She shook herself.
Now is not the time, Toni.
She began yanking open drawers and pulling out clothes, throwing them on the bed in piles. A pile of jeans, a pile of t-shirts, and a pile of underwear. Then she began sorting through them.
"JARVIS, call Phil please," she just couldn't resist it. Besides it gave her something else to do while packing the bag to be transported to the 'location'. She rolled her eyes. They sure did love to keep up the whole secrecy act – although she would admit to some curiosity.
What kind of base would be in the middle of the ocean? An aircraft carrier maybe?
She tried the stretchiness of the waist bands on the jeans, only packing the two pairs with the most elasticity – she didn't know what they were going to have her doing and she was not going to be feeling like she was being cut in half all day if she had her peering over a computer screen all day.
She did the same with the underwear and t-shirts, only packing the most comfortable out of all of them. And then she threw in her favourite pair of boots – the ones that she could stand or walk for hours in without even the whisper of a blister. They had been re-soled so many times she had lost count.
The dial tone cut off and Phil's voice announced himself over the line. She zipped up the bag and then unzipped it, walking through to her bathroom.
"I have the password to the tree-house," she announced brightly, stuffing her toothbrush and other bathroom necessities into the toiletry bag that had been sitting by the sink since she had arrived at the tower.
"So Director Fury informed me," Phil chuckled.
"And are there going to be other boys and girls for me to play with?" she asked the empty bathroom, shutting the flap of the bag and heading back into her bedroom.
"Yes, there will be other children for you to play with," Phil replied, sighing. She knew that he sometimes led than serious attitude to things played on his nerves a little so she didn't take it seriously.
"Ooo really. Who?" she slid the toiletry bag down the side of her boots and this time zipped the main compartment up for good.
Yes, please tell me who I will be sharing a possible suicide mission with because we both know Fury doesn't want me involved with this for my brains.
She slipped her phone and the bug into her jeans pockets. She couldn't risk packing them in with her clothes in case some over eager SHIELD agent decided to go snooping in her stuff – which she knew they would. Instead, all they would find would be some very regular clothing – of course she would leave it up to their imagination as to why Tony Stark had a bag packed with obviously female clothing.
The papers would have a field day with that one.
Play-boy – Closet Transvestite! Yip, that would definitely keep her in giggles for weeks.
"It will have to stay a surprise Toni,"
"Please tell me. Please, please, please," she begged in the whiniest voice she could muster while collapsing back onto her still unmade bed. Was it her imagination or was it still warm and utterly inviting?
When she got nowhere quickly with the begging she gave up.
"Fine," she grumbled sitting back up on the bed and standing up.
"I have to make sure that everything it alright with the travel crate. I assume that the chuckle brothers have some way to transport it?" she was so proud of the crate and although she had used it in testing she hadn't actually gone anywhere with it. Of course she would rather the first time not be a trip to stop the end of the world…
"Yes, that shouldn't be a problem. You are flying I assume,"
"Of course,"
"Go and check everything over Toni, I will check the transportation arrangements,"
"Thank you," she sighed in relief. Her suit would be fine without anywhere specific to be stored but she had made the crate for that reason and it was filled with spare parts too in case of damages.
She knew that Phil was probably doing that slightly bashful thing that he did whenever someone showed any appreciation. Toni didn't think people said 'thank you' to him an awful lot and the poor guy didn't know what to do with himself when they did.
She quickly exchanged a goodbye with him and shot out a quick 'see you soon' before he hung up.
She went through a quick mental list and deciding that she only really needed two more thing other than the suit and crate she dashed to the lab for her tonEE-Pad and med-kit and then headed to the secure basement to run checks on the crate.
Philip Coulson's Point of View
Phil listened into the radio chatter as he hovered over the shoulder of one of the technicians.
Even in one of SHIELD's highly advanced jets the flight to Germany would still take just over two hours and a lot could happen in that time. And eagle eye was being kept on Loki. He wasn't going to leave Stuttgart without them knowing when and how.
He stood up knowing that he was making the tech uncomfortable with is hovering.
"Coulson,"
He stood straighter at the directors voice and turned to face Fury.
"Sir,"
"Where do we stand with Stark?"
Toni?
He had spoken to her almost an hour ago and then to the two agents assigned to bring her in just twenty minutes before. They had told him that she was suiting up and that they would be at the hellicarrier – along with her 'necessary items' (one being a several tone metal capsule) - within the hour,
"Mr Stark is on his way. Agents Hunter and McGwyer also,"
"Good, contact Stark and have him rendezvous with Rogers and Romanoff in Germany. They may need the back-up,"
Phil frowned at this. Fury was just going to throw Toni in at the proverbial deep end before she even arrived on the carrier by the looks of it.
"Sir, are you-"
Fury cut him off with a look.
"Yes sir,"
It looked like Iron Man was going to Germany.
Hi guys!
I am so sorry for the delay (again) I wanted this to be up last week but I have been pretty ill thanks to the antibiotics that were supposed to make me feel better – ironic or what? ;/ But you can't say I'm not good too you. This is a nice long chapter after all and is moving us nearer the action. WHOOHOO!
I am trying not to info-dump you all so I hope I avoided that in this chapter.
I have made some changes. Like having Tony Stark wearing an Iron Maiden t-shirt instead of Black Sabbath – I couldn't resist ;)
Remember feedback makes the fairies happy :)