Chapter 18
"Sorry I had to put you between me and them," Tony finally said after silent working on the damaged hulk buster armor.
"Apologize after you blow this lunatic to pieces," Natasha replied, handing him a wrench.
"Natasha, I might not get another chance," Tony grabbed her wrist, letting the wrench slip to the workbench.
"Tony, you're not allowed to do this, not allowed to give up," Natasha whispered, fearing that the other four who had retreated upstairs to gather their weapons and things would hear.
"I'm not, I just saying,-" Tony was cut off by a glare from Natasha's deadly eyes.
"Well don't just say anything," Natasha grabbed the wrench and lifted it into his grasp.
"Fair enough," Tony said, scrunching up his nose, then turning back to his almost finished work.
"I'll be getting ready with everyone else, come to the roof when you're done."
Those were the last words they uttered before the quinjet took off, followed by a flying demigod and a large red and gold suit.
Bruce had begun tracking the email's location on his stark pad, following the signal as it grew stronger.
They arrived at an empty landscape with only one building, which appeared to be surrounded by guards, and tripwires that Clint pointed out.
"We've been spotted," Natasha yelled from the cockpit, where she suddenly jerked her hands to the side, moving the quinjet sideways to evade a small laser cannon's shot.
The laser cannon shut off, and the guards went inside.
"We were invited, remember?" Tony told them through his earpiece.
They landed in front of the building.
Clint notched an explosive arrow, aimed it at the door, and was about to let it fly when Tony landed between him and the building.
"Don't, I got this," Tony ripped the door off it's hinges and threw it into an empty field.
"Fine, be cool like that," Clint mumbled annoyingly.
"Come on," Natasha tugged at his shoulder.
He rolled his eyes playfully.
They clicked into spy mode the second they entered the bunker-like building.
"I thought you wouldn't come," an all too familiar voice sounded through the air.
"Is that?" Steve began, but Tony was already frozen in place, staring at the bald man walking toward him, with a sickly sweet smile plastered on his face.
"You're dead," Tony told him.
"And you're persistent," Obidiah replied.
Tony deactivated the suit, stumbling forward toward the man who lied to him, who deceived him, who he thought he could trust.
"You did this on purpose," Tony accused, "You must've known what we'd use the arc reactor for, you were trying to kill me from the start!" Tony yelled, pointing blaming fingers and cursing under his breath.
"I was not," Obidiah shook his head, "I would never have designed something so flawed, for all I know, that thing'll blow us all to hell right now."
"Is the explosive really that powerful?" Bruce questioned, not having taken on his greener form as of yet.
"We'll find out," Obidiah told him, "Unless you came to talk," he cocked his head at the billionaire.
"I didn't come to talk, I came to fix this, and then kill you. And this time, I'll make sure I do it right," Tony angrily told him.
"That's no way to make a deal," Obidiah waved his finger in front of Tony's face.
Tony slapped it away, "Don't get near me."
"Sassy as always," Obidiah deduced, waving a hand at the rest of the group to join him at a table.
"We'll leave as soon as he tells us what he knows," Natasha promised Tony as she followed him briskly to the table.
Tony nodded, and then pressed a button on his suit, signaling it to stand by until it was needed.
"Now, would anyone like a beverage, a snack?" Obidiah smiled devilishly.
"Cut to the chase," Tony glared at him.
Obidiah seemed annoyed, but continued to talk.
"Snappy, snappy," he mumbled.
"Since the arc reactor was never designed to be put in someone's chest, it had some flaws, most of which you seemed to fix, but the wire, the reactor doesn't work without it. You'd have to plug it up, which has a chance of setting it off manually."
"What about fixing it when it wasn't in my chest?" Tony asked, a hint of his well-known sarcasm creeping into his voice.
"And I'm sure you could," Obidiah said.
"Here," he slid a manilla folder down the table and it landed at Tony's fingertips.
If he had been in this room alone with Obidiah, he wouldn't have let his eyes fall from him to the papers, but since he was in a room with the five people he trusted most, aside from Pepper, he opened the folder and examined the files. Bruce looked over his shoulder, nodding to things he understood, and squinting at the things he didn't.
"This'll work?" Tony finally looked up.
Obidiah nodded, then turned to leave through the back door.
"Thanks," Tony called after him, "We're even... ish."
Obidiah smiled a little, "We both know we'll never be even."
Tony nodded slightly, then turned to leave.
"You can fix it?" Natasha asked.
He shrugged to the folder in his grasp, "I'll tell you if I do."
They landed on the roof of Avenger's Tower, which was previously named Stark Tower.
After hours of going through everything they had, Bruce finally gathered the things to fix the arc reactor.
"I'll be able to do it," Tony insisted.
"Not that I'm not certain that you could, but you'll have enough to worry about," Bruce told him.
Tony couldn't put up a great argument.
Natasha and Clint occupied a single seat, Clint had a knee up on the main part of the seat where he sat, whereas Natasha was leaning on the armrest.
Steve and Thor felt helpless, so Steve tried to nudge Mjornir across the metal floor while Thor laughed evilly.
"Here goes nothing," Bruce said unsurely, twisting the current arc reactor model out of Tony's chest.
Cliff hanger city. Population: us.
I have multiple ideas of where to take this, considering I'll still have a lot of room to work with for the last 2 chapters of this story.
Definitely going to make it suspenseful.
Let me know if you're excited to know what's gonna happen!
Favorite, Follow, and Review!
Every one of those will make the next chapter come quicker!
If we can get some awesome support, I may even consider putting chapter 19 up tomorrow! :D
-MarvelLuver