Awakening

Well, I was going to apologize for this taking so long….

But then something else happened and now you have only one thing in the world to thank for this chapter.

I JUST SAW THE SEVEN O'CLOCK AVENGERS:AGE OF ULTRON PRIMER AT MY LOCAL THEATER! XD I'm still on an Avenger awesomeness high.
(And Yes, the US sucks for getting movies later than the rest of the world. I know. That's why I'm only half american. (Like I had any control over that.))

SO, back on track. THANK AGE OF ULTRON FOR THIS FUCKING CHAPTER; and also thank the film for a few other things.

I am no longer disappointed Disney bought Marvel,

And more importantly….I KNOW HOW THOR 2, CAPTAIN AMERICA 2 AND AVENGERS 2 IS GOING TO WORK WITH PENNY!

This has been something I've been trying to work out for a while now, and why I've been sorta dragging my feet with tying off Awakening (and also why HOA hasn't been updated in forever.)

Everything just...clicked in my brain while I was sitting in our very comfy reclining movie chairs (my movie theater rocks for a small town...and in general.) and now I'm super excited.

Alright, only two more things to say. AGE OF ULTRON FREAKING ROCKS and we get some BAMF Tony and Penny in this chapter.

Enjoy! XD

Penny's POV

10/27/12

Somewhere over the North Atlantic

I couldn't stop my right eyebrow from twitching as I stormed through the hallways of the rebuilt Helicarrier. I could've just teleported right into the conference room where the Council's meetings with Fury always take place, but I felt like being dramatic. Not to mention that my storming through SHIELD headquarters was probably beneficial to the Council's health.

Because I was pissed and fed up with the World Security Council; and storming made me feel a bit better. I had no idea why the members were such assholes but I was sick of it. They had tried to nuke millions of people because they didn't trust Fury, and they tried to micromanage everything as if they controlled the world.

Dad and I thought that they needed to be taken down a peg or six, while I believed that they needed a reality check. They didn't rule the world; and it was time to learn why it was a bad idea to ignore a warning/threat from the Starks. We had warned them once. Now they had to deal with the consequences of crossing two pissed off Starks.

Even more agents jumped out of my path as I turned the corner and the double doors of the conference room where Fury met with the Council came into view. Taking a deep breath, I made my breathing slow and pushed my magic into my veins. This allowed me to appear and remain composed even when I was pissed. I rarely had to use this technique, and while at the moment I didn't think it was necessary, knowing the Council, it definitely would be. Especially if they were anything like the Council I had to deal with. (And from what I had observed so far…they were much, much worse.)

Making sure that my face was schooled into a flawless, superior and indifferent mask, I paused just a moment outside of the doors. With a small burst of my power I threw open the doors without touching them and stormed into the room. With the hall light flooding the dark room behind me, my highheeled boots clicking against the floor, red hair flying above my shoulders, dark blue, V neck, pantsed suit pressed to near perfection, and my AK eyes practically glowing like the curse itself, I knew I made an imposing sight.

"So dramatic." Mortem muttered in my mind. "and hot."

"Stark!" Fury and the Council members exclaimed, though Fury's voice was filled with relief, and the Council's was with rage and alight panic.

"Like you're any different, luv." I chuckled back while making sure my mask didn't slip a micrometer.

"Fury, Word Security Council." I greeted coldly with a nod, I discreetly dropping a few holo-balls onto the floor as I wandered closer. Just because Dad wasn't able to be here in person didn't mean he was opting out of the meeting.

"This is a private meeting Stark." Hawley, an older woman with a blonde bob cut said sternly; I knew all of the Council's identities. It hadn't taken Jarvis long to get through their few firewalls and aliases.

I raised an eyebrow at the only female member of the Council. She was stating the obvious.

"I am well aware of that fact, Councilwoman Hawley, but I'm afraid there is very little you can do about it." I drawled in the typical Stark fashion, narrowing my eyes just slightly.

Hawley and the other Councilmen all jumped at the sound of her name, and paled just a bit.

"Fury, arrest this girl!" The current head of the Council, Darik Emerson snarled, his face slowly turning red. Sadly, I recognized Emerson, he had been the newbie WSC member when I (as Lynx) had died. He had been beyond annoying then, and seemed to have gotten worse in his old age.

Pushing my resentment for Emerson aside, I couldn't help but turn on my heel and raise an eyebrow challengingly at Fury. We both knew that there was next to nothing that the Director could do to make me leave.

Thankfully, Fury seemed much more comfortable with me in the room, because he simply shrugged before saying, "I very much doubt that I'll be able to remove or detain Miss Stark unless she so wishes it."

"Director Fury!" The other three Council members, Singh, Yen and Rockwell all exclaimed at the same time.

"What?" He asked with a shrug and a suspiciously blank face. "It's true."

"Very, very true." Dad's voice suddenly flooded the room as Jarvis finished situating the holo-balls into their correct places and a very color accurate hologram of Tony appeared on the other side of Fury.

He was wearing one of his dark grey suits, signature sunglasses perched on his nose and his hands stuffed in his pockets. Dad's weight was all on one foot, and he had a shark like grin on his face that was offseted by the blank and bored look on his face.

Dad made a rather imposing and threatening figure when he so wished; and we weren't pulling any punches today.

"My daughter can be rather stubborn when she wants to be." Dad continued with a shrug, as if it was the most normal thing ever to just randomly appear in one of the most secure meetings on the globe. Though, for the Starks, it was rather normal.

I snorted, shifting my weight so our stances matched before replying. "Where do you suppose I get it from?"

Dad's lips twitched, and I had to fight to keep my face straight as the lower members of the Council suddenly became panicked.

"Sir, Miss Penny, Council members Yen, Hawley, Rockwell, and Signh are attempting to end the call. I believe that they are starting to become concerned."

It was really hard not to laugh. That was the understatement of the century.

With Dad's appearance, everyone but Emerson was almost about to pee their pants, even more so when they realized that they could not log off of their computers.

However, it was Emerson's reaction that caught my attention. Instead of panicking at the appearence of my father, he became deathly pale and almost fainted. Almost collapsing back into his chair I faintly wondered if Mortem would have to collect his Soul because of a heart attack before I realized that I really didn't care. I just wanted to know why he looked so surprised to see my dad.

Aparently Fury was wondering the same thing because he turned towards my father and raised an eyebrow in a silent question. Almost rolling his eyes behind his glasses Dad just shrugged before turning his attention back towards the Council.

"Surprised to see me, Emerson?" Tony asked flippantly and I suddenly grew slightly concerned. I was missing something here and I didn't like not knowing things.

"If you stop fretting and pay attention I'm sure you're father will clue you in any moment." Mortem chided me and I poked the Bond rather hard.

"Doing paperwork again?" I asked knowingly, having long ago put together that Mortem poked around in my head a lot more when he was faced with large piles of paperwork.

I glanced between Dad and Emerson, trying to figure out what on earth I was missing. Sadly, neither man was actually in the room, or I would just pluck the knowledge from their minds. It was rather frustrating to be honest.

"You said you took care of Stark!" Rockwell screamed, turning to face Emerson as Yen and Hawley shared a small if terrified glance.

"...Hel's supposed to be doing this." He grumbled, but I couldn't bring myself to feel bad for my Bonded, because Emerson had taken my full attention.

Almost at the same time as Rockwell's exclamation, he seemed to regain control of his tongue and managed to stutter out, "Y-you're here...th-that's not possible!"

His eyes went wide in terror and I found myself suddenly extremely pissed. There was only a few things that Emerson could've meant and damn it all, I knew exactly which one it.

I opened my mouth, my eyes tiny little slits but before I could do a thing, Dad spoke.

"Oh yes, I'm sure seeing me alive is rather surprising," Fury's eyes were narrowed now, and I was suddenly reminded amidst my rage that Tony was practically Fury's godson. "But you see, the men you hired never even got to New York."

Dad said all of this as if he was talking about the fact that the sun came up or that it was a waning moon; and that possibly pissed me off even more.

I wasn't sure if it was possible to be more pissed than I was at the moment. I swore that the world was tinged with red, and my vision was so focused everything started to take on a fuzzy, vibrating quality. It was as if I was seeing all of the molecules moving together around me. Suddenly, I almost hated Emerson as much as Fati. Almost.

"You attempted to assassinate my father!?" I practically growled, my sparks appearing between my fingers and my aura starting to manifest. I sensed more than saw both Fury and Dad's hologram whip around to face me in sudden shock and panic.

Mortem's presence in my mind suddenly became almost suffocating, like a giant weight on my psyche.

"E're, calm down…."

I ignored my Bonded as I took a step forward, not even realizing that Dad and Nick were trying to get my attention. Emerson was the only person I saw, his sweating, white face practically burning into my mind.

"E're!"

How dare this ignorant, annoying, insignificant little man attempt to take my father from me! How dare he try to harm the only family I had left in this world!

"You dare?" I was barely aware that I was speaking as I stepped closer to Emerson's suspended screen. I didn't sense the Helicarrier start to shake as my aura physically and visually manifested, nor did I realize that the monitors and walls were sparking, or that Dad's hologram was flickering.

"You were always a pathetic, vengeful, imbecile of a worm…" I hissed. He was going to regret that. There were few people in the world that I couldn't afford to lose; and somehow in this dot of time against an immemorable number of years...Tony Stark had managed to make his way onto that list.

I would not have him dead.

"But I honestly thought you'd have some lick of sense." The words fell from my lips but my eyes never left Emerson's sweating, pale face.

He was still conscious, surprising but good.

That meant he would be watching as I tore out his soul.

No sooner had the thought passed through my mind when my attention snapped, and Mortem's voice rang both through my mind and through the air.

"Aequivalere!"

And everything went black.

Third POV

Penny collapsed into her Bonded's arms and instantly the Helicarrier stabilized in the sky, several hundred feet lower than it had been originally. Fury slowly got to his feet as Tony's hologram stabilized once more.

All of the Council members stared in shock at the 'teen age' girl who was now passed out in Mortem's arms, who had appeared out of no where only moments before.

"Forgive her." Mortem said slowly as he straightened up, lifting the younger Immortal effortlessly. "Family…is rather important to us."

Tony nodded slowly, understanding that Mortem ment Immortals, but he was stick in complete shock over the fact that his daughter lost it like that. He hadn't seen her lose control since she had gotten her memories stable. To see her flip out over an incident that hadn't even evolved into one...at full power too...was rather beyond even him.

Fury didn't say a word, keeping his gaze between Mortem and the Council, trying to see what would happen next. He didn't know exactly what Penny and Mortem were, but he knew enough to know that they weren't human (or even mutant.) after all, Mortem was said to be Death himself. (Which he was, but Fury's a sceptic.)

Tony raised an eyebrow as he nodded slowly, silently asking if she was alright. However, Tony didn't want to voice his questions in front of the Council. That was just a bad idea all around. Mortem inclined his head before projecting into both of the men's minds, "She will awaken once she's calmed down. I will return her to your tower once this happens."

Mortem paused for a moment before glaring at Emerson. "Do try and not doing anything stupid. If I didn't know any better, I'd think you got it from her."

With that statement, both Penny and Mortem vanished, leaving Fury and Hologram-Tony standing alone in the conference room, with the five monitors of terrified Council members. Fury was slightly impressed that Emerson had not fainted.

"Well," Tony finally said breaking the silence and drawing all eyes to him, as he was good at. "That didn't go as planned."
"When do things ever?" Fury muttered, mostly to himself, and Tony shrugged in response.

"Just goes to show why you really shouldn't piss off a Stark." Tony continued matter of factly, while having Jarvis drain half of the Council members accounts. They had a plan, and although the fun part of it had been blown out of the window by Penny's little breakdown, Tony was still going to make sure that the message got across.

"I really don't know what your problem is," Tony started, stuffing his hands back into his pockets and gazing at them all. "And I really can't bring myself to care. You tried to kill me, fine whatever. People try to do that every day. You boss Fury around, ok, I'm sure you've been doing that a long time now."
Tony pointedly ignored the glare the older man shot him, he was dealing with the morons at the moment, not the director.

"But let me make this very clear." Tony took a step forward and even though he was a hologram, all of the Council members flinched backwards. "You will leave the so called 'heroes' alone. You will leave the mutants, the science accidents and experiments, the Gods, the aliens, and all of the other oddities that are crawling out of the wood works alone. Your job is to make sure that the people of this planet, all of the people on this planet, are safe."

Tony took a deep breath and continued on, even when it appeared that Yen was about to say something.

"This does not mean that you all get to play god." Tony gave them all a narrowed eyed glare over the rim of his sunglasses. "Fury isn't your puppet, he's the Director of SHIELD and a damn good one if his track record is anything to go by."

Fury blinked at the compliment, but otherwise didn't say anything. The darker skinned man made note to actually give Tony a free pass on a few pranks next time he was actually on board the Helicarrier.

"I expect you to treat him like the man he is, and not like a puppet dancing from your strings. We warned you once, and you ignored us." Rockwell and the others were practically shaking in their chairs. "And here's the thing about Stark."

Tony took a step forward again, his shark like grin spreading across his face as he pulled his hands out of his pockets and took a serious stance. One that made him just appear that much more threateningly.

"We really don't like being ignored." His grin became a satisfied one as all five members of the Council began to panic as Jarvis flooded their screens with various pieces of information. Large bank withdrawals, some federal and local charges, random purchases and sales, (and a few hidden viruses thrown in). Nothing that would endanger their lives or imprison them (yet) but enough to get Tony's point across.

"I expect you to be on your best behavior kids." Tony said as he spun on his heel, obviously about to fade from sight when Emerson finally regained his tongue.

Which probably wasn't a good thing.

"YOU CAN'T DO THIS!"

"Can't I?" Tony snapped as he spun around violently and ripped off his sun glasses. "Mr. Emerson, you have already made an enemy of one Stark today. You have pissed off my daughter which is never a good idea, and you have also made it onto my shit list. You are pushing your luck as it is, and if you would like to continue your pathetic little life without quite a number of scaring charges to your name in every country on this good earth, then I suggest you don't say another word."

Fury blinked, one of the only things that he did to express emotion when in the presence of others. He could count all of the times Stark was so deadly serious on one hand. He was starting to get concerned.

Sadly, it seemed that Emerson was either an idiot or had a death wish, because he opened his mouth again. Even though both Yen and Hawley were shaking their heads at the man.

"You can't do anything to me, Stark!" Emerson exclaimed with a superior tone in his voice, finally straightening up in his chair.

Tony narrowed his eyes at the man as Fury narrowed his eye. Jarvis was suddenly going through the man's system with a vengeance. All three of them knew that Emerson had something up his sleeve.

"If you so much as think of doing anything to me, no matter what the scale…" Emerson paused for dramatic effect and Singh literally facepalmed. All four of them were hoping that Emerson wouldn't drag them down with him.

The man suddenly smiled with glee and a feeling of dread solidified in Tony's stomach, right as Emerson said, "I'll hit this one little button. And it won't matter what you do to me, what crime you place on me, or who you have put me in a grave."

Emerson's grin became shark-like, "Because even if I don't hit this certain little button," It seemed like Emerson was smart enough to not actually show said button, though that wasn't the best time to grow brain cells. "If certain people see certain things shift…

"Then the whole world will know about your precious little freak of a daughter." Emerson's eyes gleamed. "And you wouldn't want that, would you?"

Ok, I know...not nice of me to cut it off there but since it's beginning to get hard for me to see the screen (and no that has nothing to do with me not using my glasses…) I'm heading to bed. I hope you enjoyed the chapter and YES THERE IS A REASON WHY PEN FLIPPED. No, it doesn't have anything to do with Fati. Sadly.

I was going to throw a scene with her in this chapter, but it seems to have fled so I'll try to pin it down for the next chapter.

Thanks for reading, SEND A REVIEW IF YOU PLEASE! :)

(Especially if it's about Age of Ultron, I'll be more than happy to fangirl and gush with other fans. XD )

Cp