**You guys are still amazing! 111 of you following this story - *hands out Iron Man shaped cookies* Mwa!**
**And, surprise, surprise, I still own nowt!"
Toni's Point of View
It took her longer than she had wanted to find Loki and Thor, the alien gods standing on a rocky rise looking over a forest.
Looks like I am getting to see the Black Forest after all.
They were having something out between them if the agitated movements were anything to go by, but nothing was turning violent - yet. Maybe she could just land and have a nice chat with Thor and let him know that they needed to borrow Loki for the time being but he could totally have him back later.
Crap!
She sped up as she watched Thor's hammer magically land in his outstretched hand and he pointed it threateningly at Loki, gripping the other man by the shoulder with his free hand.
Human weapons couldn't kill Loki but she didn't know about mythical alien weapons and she wasn't willing to take the chance.
The dude is a god, Toni reasoned with herself, and he managed to 'poof' out of nowhere and fly out of a plane. So, me crashing into him shouldn't be a problem…hopefully.
It sounded like a logical idea to her so she followed through with her half thought out plan. Ploughing into the bulk of muscle and armour that was Thor just as he moved the hammer into his brother's face.
Ouch!
Toni felt the impact through every part of her body, her nerves ringing but she fought to clear her mind, not daring to think what this would have felt like if her suit hadn't absorbed at least some of the impact.
Ok, so maybe I should have thought this out a bit more, she berated herself as the force of her barrelling into Thor sent them both crashing through trees before she released Thor and sent him bouncing along the dirt of the forest floor. He looked like a stone skipping along the surface of a pond as he hit and left the ground several times before thudding to a stop.
Toni couldn't help but grin as she managed to stay on her feet, skidding along the dirt, slightly crouching to keep her balance, before coming to a complete stop and standing straight. So maybe she hadn't planned that but he didn't need to know that she wasn't that cool.
Thor straightened up as she lifted the face plate of her HUD, if she was going to put someone in their place she would rather do it holographic face to face – it was only polite (unless of course you were an evil genius then all manners went out the window as she tried to shoot you – but that was beside the point).
"Do not touch me again," Thor 'warned' her.
Seriously, people! Threats just got her hackles up and did anything but make her want to back down.
"Then don't take my stuff," she countered.
Could I sound any more like a bitchy cheerleader?
"You have no idea what you are dealing with," Thor informed her.
Ok, so maybe he had a point there, with Fury and his constant need to play things close to his bullet-proof vest she had no doubt that there were things that they were being kept in the dark about. But that was something she as going to rectify as soon as she got to the 'base'.
In the meantime…
"Shakespeare in the park?" she gave him a pointed look, taking in the floor length cloak and the kick butt armour. Mine is still prettier, she thought waspishly and struck a pose "Doth Mother know you weareth her drapes?"
Good move Toni, just antagonise the hammer wielding Thunder God. She really needed to work on the mind to mouth filter but she was never around people long enough to make it worth her while. But then Thor looked almost amused by her comment...and then he sobered up.
"This is beyond you, Metal Man,"
Metal Man? She shivered at the thought of the media christening her that name instead of Iron Man. What a dreadful idea.
"Loki will face Asgardian justice,"
Ummm, so she didn't know what 'Asgardian justice' entailed but it didn't sound like rainbows and My Little Ponies.
Just stay calm and explain to him what has happened.
"Look, I'm sorry to put a great spanner in you plan, but you can't have him right now," there, she sounded polite and absolutely no sarcasm had laced her voice. Ok, so maybe a little bit, but that was all it was.
He raised his hammer.
Seriously! Why did she have to get the bash first ask questions later guy. He hadn't even given her the chance to say he could have Loki once they were done with him. At least Captain Icicle Butt had got the 'Mwahaha I am evil' speech from Loki.
She lowered the HUD back into place and ducked just as the hammer slammed into the earth, leaving a dent she could easily lay down in. Charming.
"Whoa dude, really, let's talk about this," his hammer came at her again and she swerved out of the way.
"I am sorry that you can't have him right now but we are going through a bit of a situation here," she gasped, if you could call immanent destruction of all mankind a 'situation'.
She was too slow to miss the next swing of the hammer and it caught her shoulder, sending her spinning into a boulder, the force of her landing crushing some of it to rubble as it fractured beneath her.
That was going to leave a bruise.
She scrambled and powered herself a few feet to the side, bits of pulverised boulder scraping against her suit as she just missed another blow from the hammer.
She rolled to her front and scrambled to her feet, charging her hand piece and firing at the god. She missed.
Cold dread flooded her as she watching him raise the hammer and lighting arched from the sky, travelling through it and him like he was a giant conductor.
And then he aimed it at her.
Oh no.
She covered her face in a vain attempt to protect herself and she fell to one knee as the electricity danced through the suit. She had prepared for the possibility of storms while she flew but she doubted it could handle this much electricity being aimed right at her.
Then it stopped.
"Power at 400% capacity," JARVIS's ever calm voice informed her.
She quirked her head, unable to stop the slightly demonic grin from flitting across her lips as she glared at Thor.
"Imagine that,"
She raised both her hands at the god and fired before he had a chance to react. Sparks flew from her as the extra power left the suit. The shots landed right in Thor's chest and he flew backwards. Toni staggered from the extra kick of the shot and groaned when she saw Thor land in a perfect crouch.
Why me?
She followed his example and crouched, ready for anything. He shot upwards and she did the same a second after, slamming into him in mid-air. She kept going, keeping as tight a grip as she could, aiming for the wall of a cliff and hoping bashing him into that several times would knock some sense into him. And even if it didn't it would make her feel better after the boulder incident.
She slammed him into the rock, his armour shrieking in protest as she continued to fly upwards. And then the next thing she knew they were arcing away from it as Thor pushed away from the cliff. She saw trees fly by her when the damn cape wasn't obscuring her view and felt them fracture and break behind her as they once again went crashing to the ground, this time she was the one to land in a heap.
She staggered to her feet but not fast enough as Thor gripped her arm. Spark began to fly from it as he squeezed, the suit protesting against the man's strength. She bit back a cry of pain as something snapped in the suit's arm, digging painfully into her skin.
She head butted him. Not the most original (or smart) idea she had ever had, she thought as her vision danced for a second.
Thor slammed the hammer into her front and she heard something crack just before she was airborne yet again for a few seconds. She felt and heard more trees splintering and breaking at her back – she was going to plant a whole bunch of them to make up for this – and felt herself begin to slow before sliding to a stop. She tried to breath, to heave herself out of the pile of what had been trees and was now just wood.
Ouch.
Ok, breathing was obviously a bad idea.
She finally slumped to her hands and knees and felt the pressure of the metal of her suit bending at the back of her neck and suddenly everything was upside down.
The pressure left just as she was slammed onto her back.
Thankfully she had the few seconds it took Thor's hammer to come to him for her eyes to clear and see him looming over her ready to strike. She couldn't take another hit to her chest right now.
In a panic she boosted the thrusters just as he began to swing and she slid out from under him. She lifted her head and saw him fall forward into the space she had just vacated.
Climbing quickly to her feet she flew forward landing a punch to his face before her could get up.
"Hey!"
The word registered but she raised her fist to land another blow as Thor faced her.
And then something flew into her vision, ricocheting off Thor to bounce off her. It shocked Thor enough to make him pause and she followed the trail of the thing back up to where the Capsicle stood, catching his shield like a Frisbee.
He just whacked me with that! Talk about adding insult to injury.
"Enough!" his voice rang out through the now silent forest as he slid the shield (Toni glared at it) over his arm and jumped effortlessly from where he was standing on a rock above them.
She felt the childish urge to stamp her foot, point and the god and scream "He started it!".
But she kept quiet.
"Now I don't know what you plan on doing here-" Capsicle started.
"I've come to put an end to Loki's schemes," Thor interrupted.
Toni thought this was all pretty unfair. How come he had stopped when Mr Star Spangled Banner came along but when she was trying to talk to him all he could do was bash as her with that damn hammer – and break one of her ribs if the trouble she was having breathing was anything to go by.
"Then prove it and put the hammer down,"
She nearly laughed at that. Not going to happen.
""Cap, yeah…uh…no," she stuttered, not wanting this to end up as another all out fight again. "Bad call, he loves his hammer,"
And with that Thor drew the hammer back slamming her again in the chest – brilliant there goes another rib – and launched himself at Capsicle.
"You want me to put the hammer down?" she heard Thor yell as she landed – this is getting old.
White light filled her vision and pressure made her stay on her back, and then just as quickly as it came it was gone.
"What the hell," she grumbled painfully as she got to her feet for what felt like the hundredth time that day and staggered towards Thor and Capsicle who were also climbing to her feet.
They stood staring at each other, well, she stared at them while Capsicle eyed up the hammer and Thor eyes up the shield.
It clicked in Toni's head what must have happened. Note to self – adamantium shield and godly hammer of rib breaking abilities do not mix.
Toni's feelings on the shield from a few seconds ago changed as she wondered if she incorporate the material into the suit.
She finally broke the silence wanting to get herself patched up.
"Can we go now,"
Hi my darlings,
How lucky are you guys, quick update or what ;)
I hope you are all having a good week so far :)
I hope you liked the fight scene and some of the changes I made. I know it is pretty close to what happened in the movie but believe me there will be plenty of differences coming up in the future!
And if you are here and waiting for the romance to happen, patience peeps it will all come together. Feel free to voice who you think Toni should get together with by the way :)
Many thanks to SarcasticSam for letting me know that Iron Man's helmet is actually a HUD (Heads-Up Display). So sometimes it will be referred to as helmet (when I am talking about the whole thing) or HUD (I think for when I am talking about the front section). Thank you very much for that! :)
Coming up next – Toni meets the rest of the team :)
Hopefully the next update will be Saturday or Sunday!
Toodles
PS - Remember feedback makes the fairies happy! x