A/N: I realized how much time i've been putting into drawing Pepperony for my Tumblr, and thus noticed the lack of attention i've been giving my muse. Here's the next chapter for you! :)
Disclaimer: Nothing shalt be mine.
RANT: My friend recently told me about the extra ticket they have to Comic-con. Unfortunately, i can't go because my friends are driving down to stay with me and go to Disneyland. Yeah, i know. I'm giving up Comic-con for Disneyland... First world problems. :/ I just want to cry. I want that taco commercial girl to ask me, "Why not have both?". Sigh.
It was the next day. Both parties were working hard. Bruce was in the laboratory with five monitors hoisted and lined up at the other end of the room. Tony and Pepper were diligently working in the gym on floor two. They had been training for almost seven hours, with a few affectionate breaks in between. In that matter of time, Pepper's concentration got her as far as her arms. The bots didn't seem to allow her to go any further.
Frustration was building up fast from both ends.
Bruce walked over to the monitor and furrowed his eyebrows at one of the zoomed in nanobots.
"Hey." A voice came from the threshold.
Bruce turned his head and saw Captain America standing there with a small smile. Bruce could only smile back. "Steve."
"How is everything?" Steve walked into the laboratory with caution and slowly made his way towards the doctor.
"Better than expected, actually." He replied with a small nod.
"So, the antidote will be ready soon?" Steve raised an eyebrow with concern. He was casually dressed in a pair of jeans, a blue t-shirt, and a grey dress shirt. His hair was gelled and combed over, as usual.
"The antidote should be done in about two hours. And then after it's done, I'll need to test it." Bruce replied, his fingers slid multiple panels across the monitor in front of him.
"Hopefully Miss Potts will be ready soon."
"Hopefully." Bruce said with a nod. "Can you bring me that glass slate on the table next to my notes?" He pointed behind his shoulder.
"Sure." Steve replied soothingly. He grabbed the glass slate and took a quick glance at his notes. He wasn't sure what was scribbled on the top piece of paper, but there was something he didn't quite understand. "Hey."
"Hm?" Bruce hummed before turning his head to face the Captain.
"I thought you said there were two types of nanobots in her system." Steve gestured towards his notes.
Bruce took a second to respond. "Yes, there is."
"Then what's this red one?" Steve pointed at one of the pictures on his notes.
Bruce furrowed his eyebrows and walked over to his notes. He held up the piece of paper and noticed a red spot next to some of the dark and light grey bots. "Weird…"
"Weird?" Steve could feel his hand twitch. Scientific experiments always have surprises, and he wasn't very fond of them.
"When I skimmed this picture, I thought it was a blood cell. But it's a different shade a red, and its shape is different." Bruce said in observation. "Give me the sample."
Steve handed over the glass slate to Bruce and Bruce quickly ran over to one of the microscopes. He inserted the glass slate underneath two of the claws and carefully looked into the microscope. Steve watched from behind as he turned a few knobs back and forth.
"Can you give me one of the separators?" Bruce asked.
"Separators?" Steve fumbled, looking behind him to scan the metallic table.
"It should be on the table behind you, right next to the red vile." Bruce gestured towards the table.
Steve looked down at the table and noticed several tools and scientific equipment. "Man, this is like a horrible game of Where's Waldo, only Waldo is silver." He mumbled to himself. He shook his head in displeasure and grabbed a bunch of the tools.
When Bruce looked behind him, Steve stood there with at least ten different tools in his arms. He raised his eyebrow at the Captain.
"You can't expect me to know what a separator looks like without it being properly labeled." He simply responded.
Bruce breathed a laugh, rummaged through the pile and quickly found it. He turned around to look back into the microscope and used the separator to get a better look inside the ominous red nanobot.
Steve took the time to place the tools back down on the table in a neatly fashion.
"Oh no…" Bruce murmured with a shaky breath.
"What is it?" Steve asked without a beat. He was a Bruce's side in an instant.
Bruce looked back at his notes and then at the microscope. He looked up at the Captain with wide eyes, "Where is Pepper?"
"Uh," Steve tried to think quickly. "She's with Stark down in Level two."
"Get to them, now!" Bruce commanded. The doctor rushed over to the monitors and quickly made a few adjustments. He was working faster than lightning. Steve could only stand there and stare in confusion.
"Wha—"
"Shit!" Bruce cursed. "You need to get Pepper far away from Tony as possible."
"Why?" Steve quickly asked with a low tone; his Captain stance quickly becoming visible. "What's wrong?"
"There's no time to explain. Just go down to level two." Bruce quickly ushered him out. "I'll be right behind you."
Without anymore questions, Steve quickly ran out of the laboratory at full speed. Many of the SHIELD agents looked in confusion as the Captain whizzed past them.
…
"Okay." Tony said, trying to catch his breath. Pepper was sitting next to him with a sly smile on her lips. His arm was around her waist, pulling her in close. "We need to train."
Pepper laughed at him and rested her forehead against his shoulder. "You're the one that wanted to take a break."
"It looked like you needed it." He smiled down at her.
"I said I needed water, not a make-out session." She nudged him in the ribs.
He breathed a laugh. "It was a win-win situation. You got your water, and I got to make-out with you."
She shook her head at him and slowly, but steadily, stood up. She pushed the hem of her black t-shirt down and walked towards the middle of the gym. When she looked behind her, Tony was still sitting there with a grin.
She rolled her eyes at him. "C'mon, Tony."
"But I have such a nice view." Tony gestured towards her backside. Pepper narrowed her eyes at him; her glare immediately got him to rethink his decision. He held his hands up in defeat. "Okay, okay." He stood up in no time and walked over to Pepper.
He placed his arms on her shoulders and patted them once. "Okay, relax—"
"I know the drill, Tony." She interjected rather harshly.
Tony held his hands up again and backed away. "Yes, mam."
She smirked at his reaction to her blunt response, and slowly closed her eyes. She could hear the creaks of the helicarrier, and the light humming from the helicarrier's propellers. If she listened closely, she could hear the humming from Tony's RT. She almost thought she developed some sort of super hearing, but that thought quickly left her mind when she felt his hands on her waist.
She began to grin from ear to ear. He gently pressed his lips to the back of her neck.
"Relaxed yet?" He quickly whispered behind her ear, thus tickling it. Pepper let out a small laugh. "Concentrate."
"I can't do that when you're kissing me." She tried not to giggle.
He laughed and pressed another kiss to her shoulder. Pepper used all the strength she had to concentrate. Tony saw something out of the corner of his eye, and immediately looked down at her arms.
"They're working." He told her.
Pepper closed her eyes and tried to push it further. The nanobots slowly made it past her elbows, allowing Tony to yelp in surprise.
"They're almost to your shoulders." He said with excitement in his voice.
Tony watched in awe as the titanium alloy spread across her shoulders, along her back, and up to the brim of her neck. Pepper opened her eyes in fear as the event in front of her quickly escalated. Soon, her entire body was covered in the titanium alloy, even her face.
"Oh my god." Tony gasped. He released his hold on her waist and took a step back to observe the spectacle in front of him. He walked around her a few times and couldn't help but grin. "You did it." He began to laugh.
"Tony!" A strained voice came from the top of the stairs. Tony furrowed his eyebrows and turned his head to investigate. Steve ran down the stairs and was shouting something. Tony couldn't quite make it out.
It wasn't because Tony's hearing was getting worse. It wasn't due to the fact that his entire body was jolting in excitement. And it wasn't because he simply chose to ignore the Captain, like he usual does.
He couldn't concentrate on the words that were coming out of Steve's mouth because something wrapped around his neck and lifted him up.
Before he could even react, his turned his head and stared in shock as his girlfriend's hand was wrapped around his neck and slowly squeezeing.
"Pepper!" He squeaked. He tried to pry her fingers from his neck but they wouldn't budge. Super strength, he quickly reminded himself.
Pepper stood there with wide eyes. She looked up at her hand and noticed how far off the ground she was choking Tony.
"Pepper!" He squeaked again. He began to pat her arm. "I'm tapping out—You can let go now." He tried not to panic, but that idea was quickly discarded.
"I—" Pepper could only stare. She breathed deeply several times. "I can't, Tony—"
"What—" Before Tony could ask her why, he felt her grip on his neck tighten. "Gah!" He choked out.
"I can't move my arms!" She tried to budge, but it was no use. "I don't have control of my body!"
"Damn it." Steve cursed. He quickly sprinted towards the couple, hoping to free Tony as soon as possible. Before he could even make it to them, Pepper had thrown Tony at him.
Steve widened his eyes as the body in front of him toppled him over. He quickly scrambled in front of Tony, in anticipation of a second attack, but when he looked up, all he saw was a gaping hole in the middle of the gym floor. He looked down and noticed the wiring popping out from every direction.
When he looked down further, he could see the nearest piece of land, and a tornado of wind with Pepper in it. He furrowed his eyebrows in utter confusion, and his mouth gapped in shock.
"Ow." Tony began to gasp. He rubbed his neck repeatedly, and coughed excessively. "What the hell—"
"You okay?" Steve calmly asked him. He held his hand out to him, but Tony got up on his own.
"No, I'm not okay. My girlfriend just tried to kill me." Tony coughed a few more times. "As punishment, I'm limiting our make-out sessions. No more sex until she apologizes."
Steve shook his head at him and sighed. "That was unexpected."
"You're telling me." Tony choked out. His hand was still rubbing his neck. "How did you know that was going to happen?"
"Bruce told me to run down here." The captain responded. "Something about an extra nanobot."
"Not an extra nanobot." Bruce's voice boomed throughout the gym, making Tony and Steve look back at the staircase to stare at the doctor.
"What's happening to her?" Tony asked with a shaky breath.
Bruce pressed his lips together in disbelief, he tried to look away.
"Bruce." Tony's voice was stable, and demanding. "What's happening to my girlfriend?" He inched closer to him.
"Whoever injected her with this nanotechnology has control of her body." Bruce concentrated his gaze at Tony, whom immediately walked away to swallow every bit of that information.
"What?" Steve exclaimed. "How is that even possible?"
"The red nanobot you found," Bruce turned to Steve. "When I took it apart, there was a small tracking device. The only possible outcomes that quickly popped into my head was that either the person was keeping tabs on her progress, but what would that do, so I came to the theory that—"
"He's using the nanobots to latch onto her molecular structure to control her remotely." Tony said, horrified of the thought.
Bruce noticed Tony's disgusted expression and slowly nodded. "But the question is, why would he do that?"
"Why would he want to control her?" Steve questionably asked.
Without a beat, Tony quickly barked orders. "Bruce, go tell Fury what's happened. Steve, go tell Romanoff, Clint, and Thor what happened."
Bruce nodded, but Steve wasn't so sure about his plan.
"Do we really need to spread this even further?" The captain asked.
Tony glared up at him. "There's no telling what this sick fuck is going to with Pepper. I'd rather be safe than sorry."
Steve turned his head to look at Bruce for some back up, but he simply shrugged in response.
"I think Tony has a point." The doctor looked back at Tony. He stared back at him with a worried expression. "Don't worry. We'll get her back."
"Let's hope so." Tony quickly mumbled before walking past them.
…
She didn't know where her legs were taking her. For once in her life, she had no idea what was going to become of her. Several possibilities, including death, popped in her head.
Her legs stopped in the middle of an abandoned ally. She looked around her and noticed the faint noise of the bustling city. Her eyes widened as soon as she figured out her current location; she was in the middle of New York.
The end of the ally was quickly illuminated in front of her. She squinted at the sudden brightness.
"Miss Potts." The voice gently greeted her.
"Who are you?" She gasped, her eyes quickly adjusting to the light.
He walked out and stopped a few feet in front of her. His hair was brown, very nicely combed to the side. He wore a white cotton t-shirt, and pair of dark denim jeans. His tennis shoes weren't that clean. They looked like they had been through the wringer more than once, Pepper began to observe.
"No one in particular." The man simply said with a smile. He pointed at her, "But you, Miss Potts. You're quite the specimen."
She looked down at his hand and noticed a bulky mechanical glove with glowing orbs on the knuckles. She furrowed her eyebrows at the device.
"What is that?"
The man looked down at his hand and quickly held it up. "This?"
Pepper nodded carefully.
"This marks the beginning of highly advanced nanotechnology, and end of regular human soldiers." His smile was creepy. His lips were thin, and his face was a tad wrinkly. Pepper put his age at around fifty to fifty-five years old. "And you." He pointed at her again. "You're going to be the center of attention."
A/N: Reviews are always appreciated.
I believe there will be at least three more chapters to this story.