The team was not mentally prepared for this battle. Sure, they were a team of elite human beings with certain skill sets, but to take down one of their own, especially Pepper, was not expected.
"Tony…" Pepper murmured to herself. She regretted the decisions she had made. If I had put in the effort, none of this would've happened, Pepper scolded herself.
Tony pressed his lips together in worry. He wanted to execute the plan without having to hurt Pepper at all, but considering his options, he doesn't see a way around it.
"Bruce, you there?" Tony asked through his HUD. Bruce's face instantly lit up on the side of the display.
"Yep, and I already know what you want me to do." Bruce replied with a concerned look. He was looking down, at what Tony imagined, at one of the monitors in the lab. "His name is Doctor Kirk Jordan. He used to work for the U.S Government doing research and development in nanotechnology. He has a Masters in neurology, and a PhD in nanotechnology."
"Let me take a wild guess." Tony wanted to roll his eyes, but he was surveying his surroundings through the HUD. "The man was fired for doing illegal experiments."
Bruce nodded with a small smile. "You should apply for a game show."
"Already did that." Tony added. "Ended up stripping on national television, but on the bright side, it raked in a lot of money."
Bruce slid a few things around on the monitor in front of him. "How does it look?"
"Not good." Tony murmured. "It doesn't seem like Pepper has any control over her body, but her will to speak might give us the advantage."
"The Avengers." Doctor Jordan shouted with a wide smile. "The prestigious league of super heroes; I have dreamed of this day."
"Tony!" Pepper called out. "You need to take out his gloves. It's how he's controlling me."
Steve furrowed his eyebrows and turned his head to look at Tony. Thor also turned to them for answers.
"Sounds easy enough." Thor said to his teammates.
"I don't think so, Thor." Hawkeye said through their comm. "Super speed can be a pain to deal with."
"But it's not like it's impossible." Steve replied. He took a glance at Pepper's grey titanium case form. "If we spread out and cave in at different angles, we can probably destroy those gloves."
Tony pressed his lips together and gritted his teeth. "Thor and Steve will try to get those gloves off him. Clint, Romanoff, and I are going to try and attack from afar to drive her away from him."
"Got it." Clint immediately said before drawing his bow.
Romanoff removed her guns from her holster, and took in a deep breath. "This won't be easy."
Tony stared at Pepper's form; he could read her mind without having to read her lips. She mouthed that she was sorry. He wasn't sure if he was scared to hurt her, or if he was scared that one of them would die as an outcome. But, he wasn't about to let her be a puppet for some mad scientist.
Clint took the lead and shot an arrow from the rooftop. Alongside the attack were several bullets from Romanoff, and a few repulsion blasts from Tony. Thor took the opportunity and flew into the sky, while Steve darted to the right and around the crowd.
Doctor Jordan frowned, he was hoping to taunt them for a few more minutes. He moved up his gloves in a swift flow, making Pepper's body open into a fighting stance. When he waved his hands around, she ran around the doctor in lightning speed, creating a tornado shield around him. The blasts from Tony, shots from Romanoff, and flurry of arrows from Clint were immediately blocked.
Clint narrowed his eyes and quickly surveyed the situation.
"Oh, c'mon." Doctor Jordan sighed as the tornado around his body began to disappear with Pepper standing next to him. "At least give me a challenge."
Within a second, Thor landed behind the Doctor with a thundering boom. Clint took the opening and took out a special explosive arrow, and aimed for the ground near the Doctor's feet. Romanoff ran to the other side to get a better angle. Tony flew up into the sky and shot a few more repulsion blasts.
Doctor Jordan grinned devilishly and began to work his magic. With a flow of his hands and movements of his fingers, Pepper's body moved rapidly. She kicked Thor in the side with her leg, quipped with her super strength, and sent him flying into the nearby building. She grabbed him by the cape and dragged him with her.
Pepper dashed to the explosive arrow and quickly threw it back at Clint, lodging it into the wall below him. The explosion went off with a loud bang, and in that time frame, Pepper tossed Thor at Romanoff, making them tumble back and slamming into some nearby rubble.
Steve jumped out from one of the alley ways and ran for Kirk. When he got close enough, he lunged at him in a dive, but at the last second, Steve felt a rush of pain hit his side. Sure enough, Pepper had gotten there in a split second, and bashed him in the side with her titanium cased arm.
"Steve!" Pepper called out desperately. She had to watch herself take out the people she cared about, and she could barely comprehend why it had to be her. She wanted to cry out in pain and anguish from the very thought of killing them, but her body moved so fast without her knowledge that she couldn't form words.
"Shit…" Tony cursed under his breath. Thor and Romanoff were slowly getting up, and Clint was still on the roof, coughing from the blast of his arrow. Steve was below Tony, sitting up with a few coughs.
"God, that hurts." Steve gasped as he held his side. The regeneration from the super soldier serum was already kicking in.
"You didn't have a bulky Norse God thrown at you." Romanoff deadpanned.
Thor got up and narrowed his eyes at her. "Is that how you humans call someone fat?"
"Heads up guys!" Clint yelled through the comm.
All four of them looked up and saw Pepper coming in from the sky. Romanoff rolled away from the shockwave Pepper delivered through her landing and immediately fired off the rest of her magazine.
Pepper didn't even pay attention to the nonexistent damage the bullets were doing to her armored body. She reached for Steve and threw him against the nearest building. Tony fired multiple repulsion blasts from the sky, but each one of them was easily dodged thanks to her super speed.
Pepper took out a chunk of the ground from underneath her feet and threw it at Natasha. Natasha tried to dive to the side to avoid the rubble, but felt the rocks hit her in the stomach.
Thor swung his hammer in an uppercut fashion, aiming for Pepper's chin. Pepper's hands landed on top of the hammer and used her super strength to stop it from colliding with her head. Her leg swung upwards and hit Thor in the chest. The impact sent him flying off to the side.
Clint fired multiple arrows at Doctor Jordan in a last ditch effort, but Pepper blocked all but one. She caught the last one with her hand and threw it at Clint. The SHIELD agent tried his best to dodge the bulleting arrow, but it managed to graze his right bicep.
He let out a hiss as his side slammed into the ground.
Tony angrily looked at the scene in front of him. His teammates were all disposed off. Thor was struggling to get up, as was Romanoff and Steve. Clint was slowly inching to get up, but his arm was dripping blood from the large cut caused by the arrow.
"And so there was one." The doctor grinned devilishly. Pepper looked around at the fallen teammates and couldn't believe the damage her body was doing. The horrified look on her face never left. She could feel the hot spots where her armor blocked arrows, bullets, and repulsion blasts. She could feel her hands start to bruise from the various blows she had to deliver. Her heart ached for them; her mouth gapped in sorrow as her body moved forward, towards Iron Man.
She looked up at him as the distress tore her apart. Water soon formed at the corner of her eyes. "Tony…" She mumbled worriedly.
"Ready to reach the same fate, Iron Man?" Doctor Jordan shouted from behind Pepper. "It's inevitable! There's nothing in the world that can stop it." He laid a hand on her shoulder. "She's beautiful, isn't she? Nanotechnology is swimming through her body. The neurotransmitters are controlled with the bots – and I control the bots – it's wonderful." He looked back up at Tony.
"Bruce, I need options." Tony told him.
"You need to use the antidote." Bruce shouted through the HUD.
"How?" Tony furrowed his eyebrows. "With that armor on her—"
"Sir—" JARVIS suddenly chirped.
Tony's focus was pulled to the ground. Pepper was nowhere to be seen. Instead of hovering there like a sitting duck, he booted up his thrusters and flew into the sky, but her super speed got the best of him. She leaped from a nearby building and used her super strength to propel herself into the sky.
She landed on Tony with a loud clang as both alloys clashed against each other, but the heavy impact from her body made him fall from the sky. With her body on top of his, he slammed into the concrete chest plate first.
His HUD fizzed out of control as Pepper immediately recovered and grabbed him by the faceplate. He tried his best to pry himself free, but it was no use.
"Tony!" Pepper yelled before he felt his back slam into the nearby building. He could already feel bruises and cuts forming on his body. She slid his back along side the wall, and slammed him back into the ground with his faceplate still under her hold.
Tony threw his hand up and got a few repulsion blasts in before Pepper's leg slammed his hand back onto the concrete, covering the blast opening, and most likely fracturing his wrist.
She ripped off the faceplate and grabbed his neck.
He looked up at her with bright brown eyes, gasping for air, and struggling underneath her hold.
"Tony." She gasped as tears dropped from her eyes.
"Pep—" He murmured, but her hold on his neck tightened. "—Gah!"
"Stop!" Pepper yelled, glancing at the doctor that approached them. "Please…" The sly smirk on his face tore her insides apart. "Please don't make me kill him."
Doctor Jordan ignored her; he looked down at the helpless super hero. "How do you feel Iron Man?"
Tony glared up at him, trying his best not to break down from Pepper's tears that landed on his Arc Reactor and trailed down his chest plate.
"Nanotechnology at its best." The doctor smirked. With a twitch of his finger, the armor casing over Pepper's face and neck rolled back into her skin. Her orange hair cascaded over her shoulders complimenting her beautiful ocean blue eyes. "I want to see the look on your face when you take your last breath knowing it was one of your own that had killed you."
"Tony!" Pepper screamed desperately. Her grip tightened around his neck, making him choke out, gasping for air.
"Pepper." He managed to gasp as blood trickled down the side of his cheek and into the corner of his mouth. The salty taste poisoned his taste buds. He closed his eyes in pain, and in a last ditch effort, his wrist opened up exposing a thin needle. He struck it into her neck before the doctor controlling her could bring back up the titanium casing through her skin.
She widened her eyes as the antidote slid into her system, neutralizing all of the nanobots. Her hold on his neck loosened and the armor casing around the rest of her body disappeared. Her eyes slowly slid shut as her body gave out. A iron clad glove around her shoulders stopped her body from plummeting to the ground beside them.
Doctor Jordan widened his eyes in horror. "What—What have you done?" He shouted. He moved his arms in intricate ways but Pepper's body didn't move along with it. "Move, damn it! Move!" He yelled.
Steve, Thor, and Romanoff walked towards the doctor with livid looks. They circled around him, trapping him between their bodies. The doctor frantically looked at each one of them before cowering to his knees. Clint walked towards them with a scornful look as he held his bleeding arm in place.
"You okay?" Romanoff asked Clint, concern hinted in her tone.
"Yeah." Clint nodded, trying to shake off the pain. "I've had worse."
"Alaska?" Natasha asked.
"You know me too well." Clint responded with a slight smirk.
"May I knock this guy out with my hammer?" Thor asked the group with eyes surging with vengeance.
"No, no." Steve declined his request by placing his hand on Thor's arm. "We don't want to kill him."
"We'll let Director Fury do that part." Clint grinned.
The doctor held his hands up, and Natasha immediately stripped the gloves off him and tossed them to Clint.
"Bruce is going to love analyzing these things." Clint grinned at the knuckle glowing object.
Steve walked over to Tony with concern for Pepper's wellbeing. He kneeled next to them and noticed her limp form in his arms.
"Is she okay?"
"She'll be fine. The nanotechnology probably took a toll on her body." He responded as he watched her closely.
"Is it over, then?" Thor asked eagerly.
"Not yet." Tony replied as he stared lovingly at Pepper's peaceful expression.