AN: Good afternoon. Let's start with the usual, which is the many thanks to my Beta MegaDiary123. Just so you know, this is the last chapter with Iron Man 2 content. I am not going to say anything else, so please enjoy.

All rights go to Marvel

Skye's POV

We eventually reached New York and made our way to the Stark Expo. I had no idea what Natasha and Tony talked about when we left with Pepper, but even I could not read Natasha's expression. Though the slight tenseness in her muscles was hard to ignore.

As representatives of the Stark Industries, and given that we were at Stark Expo, we had pretty good seats. We were quite close to the stage and had a good view of whatever happened on top of it. Pepper was sitting in between Natasha and myself, which was convenient for me. If I was positioned right next to my sister, in the back of my mind I would constantly want to ask what happened with the billionaire, but now that I had Pepper there I could focus on what Hammer had to present.

Soon the man came on the pavilion. Of course dancing while walking on the stage, as if we didn't already know how jealous he was of Tony. Trying to make everything better by copying his rival's moves. At least Tony had the decency to hire dancers for the song, while he came on stage in his Iron Man suit. Watching Hammer dance his way through made my eyes hurt and I had to turn away until he started talking and I was positive that he had completed his so called "routine".

But then, he started talking and it all got worse.

"Ladies and gentlemen, for far too long this country has had to place its brave men and women in harm's way. But then the Iron Man arrived and we thought the days of losing lives were behind us. Sadly that technology was kept out of reach. That's not fair, that's not right. That's just too bad…"

I had closed my eyes when I head Pepper exclaim, "Oh, Lord" next to me.

I had to roll my eyes because, seriously? This guy? He spoke like a four year old whose vocabulary only had a handful of words in its disposal and he was a businessman for crying out loud. I mean, come on!

He kept on talking and I tried not to focus on what he was saying, until I heard him start talking about a "new face in the US military". And he introduced the Hammer drone. The drones started making their way to the stage and all three of us started exchanging glances.

The drones seemed to have something like a reactor similar to Tony's where the heart was supposed to be. I could see the look of distress in Natasha's face and who would occasionally look around, until the huge bomb hit us. When Lt. Colonel Rhodes, in a weapon advanced Iron Man suit appeared on stage claiming to pilot the drones. The suit must have been Mark II, the one that he left with when he disappeared from the mansion after the whole fight-with-Tony fiasco. But the weapons were not in the initial design. It appeared that Hammer tech made some "improvements".

"What?" Pepper asked, not able to believe that Rhodey, as she and Tony called him, was a part of all of this.

He saluted to all the audience, taking his place among the drones, but no sooner had he left his hand fall to its resting place that Tony's Iron Man suit was heard approaching. The whole Expo was instantly silenced and everyone turned their heads to the sky in search for the source of the sound. And, oh boy, Tony didn't fail to deliver. Landing in one knee with a heavy *thumb* on the stage as the crowd went wild.

What the hell is he doing here? I mentally questioned and got up as well to be able to see what was going on in the stage.

Though no-one could hear what he was saying, he spoke to Rhodes first and then moved towards Hammer who was backing away. "Where is he? Where's Vanko?" He asked and the microphones picked up on it.

The name had yet to leave my memory, since he was the guy who attacked the racetrack. But, I thought he was dead? I turned my face and looked at Nat, who picked up on Tony's question as well. Pepper had her serious face on as well, looking at the whole exchange between the two men. And then, Rhodes activated his weapon, aiming it straight at Tony.

Tony backed away, as most of the other drones aimed their guns on him as well. Following in the same steps as him, the three of us started backing away and making our way backstage, when Iron Man flew away and the drones, along with Rhodes, started firing at him.

"Shit!" I exclaimed as the drones that were left on the stage started making their way towards the crowd. We were running against the others, who were going out of the Expo.

Heading in the back, we heard a distressed Hammer talking to his guys. "Well then call their… call their cells" and one of his guys replied. "The cell phones aren't working either, sir. He's locked us out of the mainframe"

"Who's locked you out of the mainframe?" Pepper demanded moving in closer, with Natasha and me on her heels.

"Please, please. Go away, go away. I've got this handled" Hammer stepped in front of the computer screens and raised his hands to push Pepper away. "Have you now?" She all but screamed to his face and he had the nerve to say, "Yes, I do. In fact if your guy hadn't showed up, this wouldn't be happening" Oh, he was asking for it. "So please no, go away. Thank you" he showed the exit door to Pepper once more and he turned his back on us, talking with his IT guy.

I looked at Nat, who looked ready to drive her fist into his face, but I made the first move, not letting her take the lead. I didn't need two arms to get the answer that I needed to give to Natasha.

I used my right hand to grab his and twisted it behind his back. He yelped, not expecting the sudden pain that cursed though his wrist and shoulder, as I pressed him on the desk and pushed him down. "You tell me who's behind this" I said in his ear, just as Natasha had once taught me. When he didn't reply, I pushed harder and asked again, "Who's behind this?", in a more demanding voice.

"Ivan– Ivan Vanko"

I could almost feel my pupils growing at the name. "Where is he?"

"He's at my facility" Hammer didn't hesitate to say and I could hear the strain in his voice. He was in pain, good. This meant he was telling the truth.

I released him and turned around, just as Nat started making her way out of here. I made a move to follow her but she stopped and turned to me. "You are staying put" her voice was so demanding that there was no room for me to disagree, but I did so nonetheless.

"I am coming with you" I declared. "You need all the help you can get and even in my current state I can be of help" I met her gaze with just as much relentlessness.

"You want to help? Stay here and monitor the system. Try to hack back into what Vanko is doing at Hammer Industries and shut the droids down" she gave me an earpiece. "Talk to me through here if anything happens" and with that she left.

I looked back at Pepper who had just made a call to the NYPD and I went to the computer. The guy who was previously sitting there got up when I basically dragged his off his seat. "Tell me everything you know" I said with a stern voice, as I started making my way through Hammer's system using both hands. Screw the pain that I felt in my shoulder and ribs from the strain of the movement, this was more important.

I start making my way through the back doors of the systems, and every time I tried something Ivan blocked me out. Oh, this was a challenge that I hadn't had in information that the Hammer tech guy gave me were not very helpful and while I read the endless rows and lines of coding I was making my own assumptions about what was happening.

Pepper was over my head, her eyes moving rapidly as she tried to figure out what was going on in the screen. The final set of drones that was left on stage finally flew off just as another section of the computer turned green.

I knew what this meant, but I had to explain it to Pepper, so that she knew what was going on as well. "Each set of drones is communicating in its own unique language" I told her, never diminishing the rate that my fingers were pushing the letters and symbols on the keyboard.

"Why don't you try focusing on one?" She asked, her voice a bit higher than I was used to. This whole thing was starting to affect her patience and calmness.

I was about to answer when Hammer interrupted. "Have you tried Russian? Why don't you try Russian?" I sharply turned towards him and he actually took a couple of steps back, holding his hands up.

"Idiot, I meant coding language. And yes, Pepper, this is what I am trying to do" I tried not to snap at Pepper, but the pain that was rising in my left side was not particularly helping. I had yet to wear the earpiece that my sister gave me and I rushed to do so. I heard grunting from the other side of the line. "Nat, talk to me. What's going on?"

"I'm a little busy right now" was all she said and was all I needed to hear. She had reached Hammer Industries and was making her way to Vanko. So, all I needed to do was stall him for a little more and–

Suddenly my coding became so much easier. There was no interference from the other end, which meant that probably Vanko had left the computers and was planning something else. Quickly, my fingers started pressing the keyboard even faster, trying to help as much as I could before he returned. As Pepper said and as I was doing all along. I focused on one of the drone sets, trying to deactivate them. I had no idea what kind of software the guy had put, but with the limited sources that I had from the Expo computer I could not break down the security walls that Vanko had risen.

"Damn" I wanted so much to smash the computer in front of me for its inability but I thought better of it. "He's gone" I said to the earpiece, only for Natasha to confirm it a few seconds later.

"Skye, I'm gonna try to reboot Rhodes suit, for him to have control. Can you help me from your end to make it faster?"

"Of course" was my instant reply as I restarted typing. Soon there was a "access granted" sign with capital, green letters. I opened another window in the computer which linked me to the computer Natasha was using.

"Reboot complete. You got your best friend back" she said to Tony, whose face through the Iron Man suit appeared on the screen as well.

"Thank you very much, agent Romanoff" he said and I turned my face to look at Pepper. Natasha said something, but I could see the question in Pepper's face and as she looked at me she saw that I was not phased by this new information. She opened her mouth to speak when Tony spoke again and our attention turned to him, because of what he said. "Yes, for the moment, I'm not dying. Thank you"

This made Pepper rush in front of the screen. "What do you mean you're not dying? Did you just say you were dying?" She started rambling.

"Is that you? No, no I'm not. Not any more" Tony tried to save his slip but couldn't really.

"What's going on?" Pepper asked again, trying for once to get a straight reply from the billionaire.

They kept on going back and forth about the reason why Tony didn't say anything so far and started arguing as if they were a married couple. Get a room already, I thought as I looked from behind Pepper to Natasha, begging her with my eyes to save me. Thankfully she picked up on my distress and spoke. "Hey, hey. Save it for the honeymoon. You've got incoming Tony. Looks like the fight's coming to you"

The duo kept on arguing for a little longer until Tony had to turn his attention back on the Hammeroids coming in his direction. I kept on typing on the computer, and despite the distance between our location and Tony's, we could still hear all the ammo being fired. My focus was still on the computer screen when the police came and took Hammer away, when Pepper said that he was the one responsible for the attack at the Expo. And for some reason, he really thought that he wasn't the one who needed to be put in jail? I had given up on this guy… Seriously. Trying to get inside the mind of that four year old was more challenging than trying to read through Natasha's Assassin mask.

So, when he was escorted by the police some other police officers came with us as we exited the backstage and moved to the front. Pepper was giving them directions about the exits that they should be positioned, given that she knew the Expo map by heart. "Are you coming with us?" One of the officers stayed back and asked her.

"No, I'm gonna stay 'till the park is clear" she said and pointed at me. "She is coming with you, though"

"What? No!" I almost yelled and went to stand next to her. "I'm staying as well" I dismissed the officer, but Pepper seemed to want to continue this argument.

"Skye, you're hurt. You may try to hide it, but I've seen that you grunt with the slightest movement. You helped with the hacking, and made your arm worse. Now, go and get checked out" she stood tall in front of me, trying to be intimidating and trying to make me listen to her. But she knew all too well that I was not going to go anywhere unless I wished to.

"If you're staying, then so am I" I simply took my aching arm with my good one and pressed it on my chest. She opened her mouth to say something, but she never got the chance to. "You stayed with me in a shaking building, in one of the higher floors and said that you would not go anywhere unless I came with you. This is me saying that I am not going anywhere unless you come with me" my eyes never leaving hers.

She scoffed and threw her arms in the air. "Fine" she said as if exacerbated, but I saw the tiniest lift at the corner of her lips and I knew she wasn't really mad with me.

We watched as people evacuated the perimeter and I was counting down the people that were left in close range. The sooner these guys left, the sooner we would leave as well.

"So…" Pepper dragged out the word, which made me raise an eyebrow in her direction. "Natalie is an agent?" She eventually asked, her eyes never really meeting mine.

"S.H.I.E.L.D." I simply replied and she nodded. "I met her once or twice before I fell off the grid" I added since she already knew some general information about my stay in the Academy. She did not reply though and it got me a bit anxious. "Sorry that I didn't say anything" I kind of lied. I was sorry, just not for not revealing Natasha's cover. I was sorry for everything that was going on. "S.H.I.E.L.D. seems to be keeping an eye on you"

Pepper laughed slightly at that. "Yeah, they sure do". She looked up in the dark sky as if lost in her own thoughts. "You see, I know that Tony doesn't like the agency much but there are some decent people there and they helped a lot when Tony first came out as Iron Man". She took a deep breath and closed her eyes as a slight breeze pushed the hair out of her face. It was quiet, too quiet. "Have you ever met a man named Phil Coulson?" She asked and I had a feeling I knew why. I had read the files when I hacked into S.H.I.E.L.D. from when AC went to meet Tony and make an assessment of his Iron Man suit.

I smiled at the memories that included him and I had a long time to visit. "I might or not have heard him"

The quiet that was too good to be true suddenly disappeared as an explosion happened from the other side of the Expo. It sounded a lot like the explosion that occurred in the Stark mansion when Rhodes went against Tony.

Both of us stopped moving and all our focus was at that point. It could have been seconds, or a few minutes when a tipping sound started echoing from one of the disabled Hammeroids close to us.

"Natasha?" I asked in my comms, and grabbed Peppers bicep as I slowly backed away from it.

"I have no idea what's going on Skye. I'm out of Hammer Industries coming to you–"

"No, don't!" I screamed back. "I think those things are about to blow" I said just as fast and sorted to pulling Pepper harder, who finally seemed to get the memo. The ticking sound grew faster and faster, but we were still not out of reach from the explosion that was bound to happen. I heard before I saw Tony flying towards us and I pushed Pepper in front and away from me. "Take her! I'll be fine!" Without leaving any room for him to question me I started running away just as the explosion finally happened.

I raised my good hand, sending vibration towards the explosion, hoping to create some kind of shield to protect me, but given that I only had one arm to use, the power sent to the shield was equally half.

I heard Natasha call my name in my ear, just as the heat from the destroyed drone hit me.