Chapter 21
"What's wrong?! What's going on?!" Bruce yelled from the top of the stairs, stumbling forward into the lab with sweat coming down his face.
"Jarvis, when I said urgent I didn't mean give Bruce a damn heart attack!" Tony complained to the AI annoyingly.
"My apologizes, sir. In my defense you did say urgently," Jarvis defended himself.
"Remind me never to tell you to do things urgently," Tony continued, turning to Bruce apologetically, "Nothing's wrong. I hope."
"What's that mean?" Bruce came over to the workbench where the metal was laid out underneath a microscope.
"It isn't documented on any known source, not even Shield," Tony pointed to the metal.
"So why is that alarming?" Bruce said casually, breathing easier now that he wasn't in a panic.
"It was in the tower, and Jarvis doesn't have any recollection of it having entered the tower," Tony informed him, finishing a few nuts and bolts on the side of the suit that he found the metal on.
"Are you sure that you didn't bring it in?" Bruce inquired.
"Jarvis would have record of it," Tony shook his head.
"Where was it?" Bruce turned around to look Tony in the eye.
"Right there," Tony placed his finger on the spot of the suit's left leg that had crusty marks from where the metal was attached earlier.
"Someone might've put it on while you took the suit out?" Bruce thought through all the possibilities of an unknown metal making it's way into the most secure tower in the city.
"That could be the case, if I hadn't just finished this one," Tony wiped his hands on a rag.
"You built another suit... After all the crap you've gotten from Pepper about building new suits and how it's a danger to the tower, yourself, and the rest of us? And that no more suits are at all necessary..." Bruce continued on like a broken record.
"Bruce, I can't not build more suits. They're part of me, alright? I can't just stop, it's not..-" Tony stopped mid-sentence and turned to lean on the workbench, willing himself not to freak out in front of Bruce like he had Rhodey before the Mandarin attack.
"Tony?" Bruce asked, moving closer to him.
"I'm fine, just don't- Don't tell me what I can't do," Tony finished, then turned to leave the room in a rush. He went past the training room, from where he heard huffs and grunts from Clint, Natasha, and he assumed Steve.
He flew down a flight of stairs, which for the moment he couldn't remember where they led, and continued until he reached a car garage. One that had been meant to store his collection of awesome cars, until they got blown up by a terrorist, "Every car, every suit, they're all gone..." He went over to the one remaining sports car and kicked the windows in, shattering glass everywhere. The car alarm went off, Jarvis tried to reason with him, Bruce's voice was coming down the stairs, followed by others who sounded further off.
Tony deployed a suit, overriding Jarvis' commands.
Flying out of the garage's now-opened window, Bruce just missed him as the suit flew off.
I'm going to find out who got into my tower with that damn metal, and I'm going to do it alone. The second I met these people, bad things happened. Aliens attacked. Gods appeared. Other dimensions became real. I'm only a man in a can. Whose the hot mess now? Big man in a suit of armor, take that away what are you? Can't stop building the suits. Can't. You've got a mean swing, point break. Better clench up, Legolas. I'd do whatever I wanted to do, with whoever I wanted to do it with. You can control it, I'm exposed, like a nerve. What just happened? We won.
"Sir, what is it you're trying to achieve?" Jarvis finally spoke.
"Call Rhodey, connect him to my suit's wireless calling system, I've gotta talk to him," Tony ordered, beyond trying to be polite.
"Certainly," Jarvis told him.
Okay, so some interesting stuff is beginning. I'm very excited to keep this going!
If we can achieve some favorites, follows, and reviews, I may even be tempted to do another chapter tomorrow!
Or two! :D
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-MarvelLuver