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Some of my computer keys have started to stick so I am sorry for any errors this may have caused. I think I have caught them all but if not. Sorry :)

Chapter 14

Toni's Point of View

Feeling too jittery after her conversation with Loki, Toni didn't even try to get to sleep. So, once she had regained control of her legs and eyes she clambered to her feet and made her way cautiously back to the room she had been delegated, hiding around a corner while a group of officers walked past and then slipping – hopefully unseen – into her room.

Not bothering to change her clothes – the S.H.I.E.L.D uniform was surprisingly comfortable and had plenty of stretch to the fabric – she retrieved the cuffs from her drawer and slid them on. Once again Tony Stark, play boy extraordinaire, Toni scooped up the flask of coffee, the mug and a couple of the chocolate bars and cereal boxes. Making it as far as the door she made a u-turn and retrieved the painkillers – just in case.

Toni made her way to the storage bay holding her suit. The arm still needed work and as she wouldn't be sleeping anytime soon she may as well be productive.

Once she entered the room she bolted the door from the inside. Well…figuratively speaking she bolted it. She actually hacked the keypad and added an extra level of coding. Someone could swipe their pass key or enter their numbers all they liked. They weren't getting in before she entered the rest.

She slid off the cuffs secure in the fact that no one would see her and set to work.

Opening the capsule she stepped inside to open up many of the little drawers she had built into the walls and pulling out welding wands and screwdrivers. Anything she thought she would need.

Next she pulled at a looser section of the capsule wall and slid it sideways like the hand of a clock. Next she pulled it all the way toward her until it was edge on with the wall and then pushed forward. The plank locked into place and she knocked a little tune on what was now her work station.

In no time at all she was literally elbow deep in fixing the arm-piece.

"Damn, stupid alien gods and their stupid hammers," she grumbled irritably as she teased wires apart and set about reattaching them, tiny streams of smoke rising from the small patches of fusing she was manipulating into place with the wand.

She had made the capsule with every intention of it being a 'lab away from lab'. It was a bit depressing that it wasn't really working. Having a task and the familiar tool in her hands was working wonders for calming her nerves but she still felt unsettled, exposed even, in this strange environment. If she were at home she would have music blaring in the background (and if Pip was around he would be popping his head in the door every now and again to tell her she would go deaf from the volume – of course the volume never stopped her from hearing him complain and until it did she figured she didn't have to worry about looming deafness), or maybe even a movie playing as she stirred her mental cauldron and magic-ed up a new blueprint (at-least that's what most people thought she did). Dummy would be beeping away around the lab completing exercises she had set out for him – despite the countless threats to donate him to the university she knew in her heart she would never let him go – and sometimes she would just sit and talk to J.A.R.V.I.S.

This was why she never went anywhere. Well, other than the fact that her track record for road trips wasn't all that encouraging. She just missed home too much. And her creations…and Pip. She just missed it all. And at least J.A.R.V.I.S., Pip and Dummy liked her. Not to mention that she hadn't even broken in the new lab at the Tower yet – as was proved by her lack of ability to locate anything.

"Stupid," she scraped viciously at some of the melted rubber now stuck to some of the mechanics, "Glowing," she scraped again, "Blue," again, "Boxes!" she snarled viciously working at the mechanics for a few more minutes before finally freeing the delicate cogs and gears of the gunk.

She held the arm piece away from her.

"Not bad at all, Toni," she mumbled proudly to herself.

She placed it gently back onto her work station and decided she deserved a break, quickly pouring herself a cup of coffee and opening up one of the boxes of cereal, she slurped at the caffeine and crunched her way through the dry Frosties, bending tentatively at the waist in all directions. Her ribs ached.

"Oh, shut up," she snapped angrily at her body.

Deciding her body wasn't going to do what she wanted it to she let her mind wonder. It immediately latched onto the alien god in the basement. She was sure he had some kind of plan he was working too. During her fight with Thor the God of Mischief had plenty of time to escape, after all, Captain Icicle Boxers was a little preoccupied at the time too. And yet he had stuck around, presumably propped up on his rock watching them fight it out and level sections of the Black Forest. He had an agenda. They all knew it and it was just a case of finding out what it was.

But it wasn't just that. The guy was meant to be an Evil Over Lord (well…a Junior Evil Over Lord anyway, he didn't qualify until he had at least one planet under his…helmet as far as Toni was concerned) so a dastardly, cackle inducing sub-plot was to be expected. It was something about him that didn't seem right, something that just didn't fit.

His lack of colour and sickly complexion for one thing.

And then there was the way he had acted once Thor had nabbed him from the plane. It had taken her a while to find them and she had not been able to see their encounter but when he had been led back to the jet he was holding himself stiffly and appeared to be in pain, stretching his back carefully and trying not to be noticed. He was a god! She had fired enough energy at Thor to boil Lake Michigan (she had done the math) and the guy didn't even have a nosebleed. There was something wrong with that picture. She'd try and get to see Loki again, maybe tomorrow.

A loud shriek came from the door nearly making her bite her own tongue as she chewed on a mouthful of cereal.

I'll be leaping at my own shadow soon.

There was another loud shriek and then Fury's voice shot through the intercom at the door. Now no one could say that S.H.E.I.L.D. didn't take every eventuality into considering. How else could you explain putting an intercom system into the door of a storage room? It was like putting a phone in a broom-closet. Highly unnecessary and yet practical for those pesky days when you needed somewhere to store a billion dollar piece of tech and its maker when making repairs. Looking at it from that angle, it all made perfect sense really.

"Miss Stark I would like a word," he informed her so steadily that she could see him frowning.

She strolled across the intercom and her mini cereal box and coffee mug in one hand used the other to operate the intercom.

"What's the password?" she asked around a mouthful of half chewed Frosties and a gulp of coffee.

Reeeeaaal attractive Toni.

"Lab access," he dead panned.

She frowned at this and punched in the rest of the code to open the door. He might as well have said 'withholding visitation from Bruce Banner' and she was having way too much fun (if you could call dissecting readings from an alien weapon 'fun') to jeopardise it.

The door swished open to reveal the rather imposing one-eyed director of S.H.I.E.L.D.

She swallowed her food and smiled brightly.

"How did you know?" she joked.

He rolled his eye and stepped into the room, she left the door to shut automatically not bothering with the lock. She wanted a clear escape route if she had to bolt because, at the end of the day, she didn't trust this guy as far as she could through him – without the suit on.

He was looking at her workstation and she resisted the urge to stand protectively in front of it and block his all seeing eye. S.H.I.E.L.D. had not been shy about wanting to know about her inventions – she had even been 'commissioned' in the making of some things and had no doubt she would find most of it on the helli-carrier – mainly the suit and just like everyone else she had refused to give them the details they wanted. Going so far as to implant a virus into the data she kept stored. If they went anywhere near her files they wouldn't know what hit them. Fury had yet to do anything so stupid but she had no doubt that it was just a matter of time.

"Hey, do you know what the correct term is for an alien?" she asked him, after all if anyone would know Fury would be the guy.

The question got him to turn from her workstation and he levelled her with a glare.

"You see," she continued, almost giddy now that her suit (or part of it) was no longer under scrutiny, "I was thinking Humanly Challenged. What d'ya think?"

He continued to glare at her.

Okay then.

"I believe you have something of mine?" he calmly informed her and she noticed he was no longer glaring at her but at the uniform she was wearing.

"Sorry, but I don't think this is your size," she whispered, leaning forward slightly.

She knew what he was after and coming looking for her almost three hours (if not more) after the fact was pretty ridiculous even by S.H.I.E.L.D.s standards.

"Enough Stark, this is no joke. The access key. Now!"

Toni knew when to call quits and handed him over the key-car.

Now how am I supposed to get in tomorrow?

She clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth and shook her head in disappointment as she placed it into his hand.

"What's it been? Three hours since I used it? Deary me I think someone is getting sloppy. Maybe if your staff spent less time playing games it would have been caught soon," she half mocked. She was being deathly serious though and it was worrying that it had taken him this long to come and retrieve his property.

"What were you doing?" the director snapped.

"Just having a chat with the resident Master of Evil,"

"About what?"

Really. It wasn't like the whole thing wasn't recorded somewhere.

"Oh, you know. World Domination 101. I thought I should fill him in in the fact that being caught by the enemy wasn't a good idea," she smartly replied, rolling her eyes at the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.

Seriously, what did he think she had been doing? Drinking tea and discussing crochet patterns?

"I just wanted to test a theory," she told him, brushing past him and returning to her suit. She wanted to give it one more last check over and then she could close up the capsule and have a diagnostic ran on it – conveniently tucking it out of Fury's sight at the same time.

"What theory was that?" Fury asked her, she could feel him glaring a hole in the back of her head.

"I have insufficient data to come to an educational conclusion so there is no point in telling you," she informed him, her mind already beginning to slide back into the 'world leave me alone I want to play with my nice shiny toy' zone as she lid her arm into the arm-piece to check for any friction tha shouldn't be there.

"And how are you planning on finding out what you need?"

"I was planning on going back tomorrow and continuing our little tête-à-tête ," she locked the piece into place with a well-practised push and flick of the screwdriver in the right place and turned to face Fury.

He looked weary and she felt a little guilty for acting the brat but if the guy was only going to glower at her she wasn't going to be polite.

Fury shook his head and a small smile quirked his lips.

"I don't suppose there is any harm in you going back. Who knows he actually might let something slip,"

I doubt it.

"But no tricks Toni," he levelled her with a look that dared her to try anything, "and the minute you learn anything you come to me am I clear,"

She nodded her head.

Sure, she could do that, because he thought she was trying to get information out of Loki, and he was wrong.

He left the room after one final glower and repeating his stipulations.

She didn't realise how tense she had become until the tension left her body as the Director left the room. There was a guy who would sacrifice the individual for the wellbeing of the masses and she still didn't trust him.

It was time to call it a night and see if she could delve an deeper into S.H.I.E.L.D.s files.

Hi guys!

I hope you are all staying safe and have had a good Monday. As Monday's are generally evil (it really isn't Monday's fault that it is the greatest villain of all time) I hope this update brightens your day. Aaaaaaand if it doesn't then a bar of chocolate might…or a funny dog video…or a hug. Yeah hugs are good. *huuuuuuuuug*

Moving on.

So this is more of a filler chapter I suppose. And as I am in a rambly/weird mood (see : exhibit B (psssst, this a/n is exhibit B ;)) it suited me perfectly to write as I got to go into Toni's head a little and have her do a little bit of thinking.

All joking aside I really do hope you enjoyed it and any feedback/comments/smiley faces you would like to send my way would be greatly appreciated. You guys continue to blow me away with some of the truly wonderful reviews you have left.

Take care. :)