Chapter Seven
After they all turned in for the night, Toni went back downstairs to finish the boots and hand flight stabilizers.
"Day 4, test 37, configuration 2.0. For lack of a better option, Dummy is still on fire safety." She shot a glance at the bot. "If you douse me again, and I'm not on fire, I'm donating you to a city college. All right, nice and easy. Seriously, just gonna start off with 1% thrust capacity. All right, nice and easy." She lifts off the ground and hovers for a bit before landing. She looked over her shoulder at Dummy. "Please don't follow me around with it, either, 'cause I feel like I'm gonna catch on fire spontaneously. Just stand down! If something happens, then come in. Let's bring it up to 2.5." She braced herself. "Three, two, one."
She lifts off the ground with less control and starts hovering all over the workshop. "Okay, this is where I don't want to be! Not the car, not the car! Table! Could be worse! We're fine! Okay." She took a deep breath and looked over to see Dummy going to use the fire extinguisher. "No! Uh-uh! Uh-uh!" Dummy lowers the extinguisher, disappointed beeps sounding. "Yeah, I can fly." Toni said with a soft smile.
Over the next few days, it went like that. She would sleep for a couple of hours every other day and work on her suit at night when everyone else went to bed. She also sometimes didn't come up to interact with everyone until lunchtime when one of her guards would drag her out of the lab. Then she would be around everyone until bedtime. Then repeat.
Finally, Toni was fully suiting up in the Mark II.
"JARVIS, are you there?"
"At your service, miss."
"Engage heads-up display."
"Check."
"Import all preferences from home interface."
"Will do, miss."
"All right, what do you say?"
"I have indeed been uploaded, miss. We're online and ready."
"Can we start the virtual walk-around?"
"Importing preferences and calibrating virtual environment."
"Do a check on control surfaces."
"As you wish." The full suit is assembled around Toni. "Test complete. Preparing to power down and begin diagnostics."
"Uh, yeah. Tell you what." Toni was itching to take the suit for a test drive. "Do a weather and ATC check. Start listening in on ground control."
"Miss, there are still terabytes of calculations needed before an actual flight is…"
"JARVIS! Sometimes you got to run before you can walk. Ready? In three, two, one." She begins hovering and flies out of the garage into the sky, leaving behind her home in no time. "Handles like a dream. All right, let's see what this thing can do. What's SR-71's record?"
"The altitude record for fixed wing flight is 85,000 feet, miss."
"Records are made to be broken! Come on!" She begins flying straight up.
"Miss, there is a potentially fatal buildup of ice occurring."
"Keep going! Higher!" Ice builds up around the suit, causing it to stop working and her to start flying from the sky. Panic began to set in the back of her mind even as her brain raced to save herself. "We iced up, JARVIS! Deploy flaps! JARVIS! Come on, we got to break the ice!"
Toni manually gets the flaps up. The power starts just in time before she crashes into traffic.
"Yeah!" She shouted as everything started working again and flies back up into the sky in the direction of home. She heads back to the mansion and back through the garage, straight into her lab.
Toni knew her suit was heavy, if she killed the power somewhere like the roof, she would most definitely fall through the roof.
"Kill power." Power is killed and she lands safely on the ground in her workshop. Then for some reason, Dummy uses the fire extinguisher on her which she hadn't seen the bot pointing at her. Once out of the suit, she walked out of the workshop only to run into Clyde.
"Hey, Clyde, what're you doing up?" She asked, having assumed everyone was still sleeping. He grimaced slightly and pressed a wrapped package into her hands.
"Here, I had hopped you were sleeping so we could ignore this awkwardness." He then disappears back up the stairs while Toni goes back into her lab. She sets it on her desk and opens the package, seeing her old arc reactor in a glass case.
'Proof that Toni Stark Survived' was engraved on the holder that the reactor had been placed inside. She smiled softly at the gift, silently thanking Clyde in her head.
Then she pulled up the specs of the suit and began redesigning it with improvements. "Notes. Main transducer feels sluggish at plus 40 altitude. Hull pressurization is problematic. I'm thinking icing is the probable factor."
"A very astute observation, miss. Perhaps, if you intend to visit other planets, we should improve the exosystems." Toni smirked at the sass in JARVIS's words.
"Connect to the sys. co. Have it reconfigure the shell metals. Use the gold titanium alloy from the seraphim tactical satellite. That should ensure a fuselage integrity while maintaining power-to-weight ratio. Got it?"
"Yes. Shall I render using proposed specifications?"
"Thrill me."
A few hours later found Toni joining Oliver, Lex, and Bruce in the living room while Alfred and the boys had gone out for the next few days to explore Malibu's beaches and tourist areas. That was what Toni was told, but in reality they had all quickly returned to their home cities to patrol and make sure everything was fine at home. Even though Gotham was being watched over with Barbara, Stephanie, and Cass, the boys had been feeling antsy and so returned home to assist for a few days. And even though Star City was watched over by Black Canary, Roy and Ray were also feeling antsy and so returned home.
The four friends were just relaxing together, watching tv when a tv reporter caught her attention.
"Tonight's red-hot red carpet is right here at the Disney Concert Hall, where Toni Stark's third annual benefit for the Firefighter's Family Fund has become the place to be for L.A.'s high society."
A thoughtful look crossed Toni's face. "JARVIS, we get an invite for that?"
"I have no record of an invitation, miss."
"… hasn't been seen in public since her bizarre and highly controversial press conference. Some claim she's suffering from post traumatic stress and has been bedridden for weeks. Whatever the case may be, no one expects an appearance from her tonight."
"The render is complete." Bruce, Lex, and Oliver looked over at her curiously at JARVIS' words.
"A little ostentatious, don't you think?" Toni asked as she pictured the suit as it was right now.
"What was I thinking? You're usually so discreet."
"Tell you what. Throw a little hot-rod red in there." She said, standing.
"Yes, that should keep a low profile. The render is complete."
She looked down at one of the side tables as a picture of the suit with red and gold coloring flashed on it for a moment before it disappeared so that the men wouldn't see it. "I like it. Fabricate it. Paint it."
"Commencing automated assembly. Estimated completion time is five hours."
"Don't wait up for me." She said.
"Where are you going?" Oliver asked.
Lex shot him a look as he went to go to his room. "Isn't it obvious? She's crashing her own fundraiser. Luckily, I thought to bring a suit just in case."
He disappeared to get ready and Bruce and Oliver didn't delay in going to get ready as well.
In no time, the three men were dressed in black suits talking amongst themselves. Then Toni came down the hall and the three men fell silent. She was wearing a deep green A-line Halter Asymmetrical Lace Chiffon dress. Her hair was pinned back half way and her hair was past her shoulders in gentle waves. She had on a pair of gold lace-up high heels. Her makeup was elegant, with her eyeshadow having a glittery gold and green mix. In simple, she looked beautiful and elegant in all of their eyes.
"I assume by your attires that you all are accompanying me tonight?"
"You knew we would," Bruce pointed out. She smiled at the three.
"Of course I did. I had JARVIS pull up a car for us. Let's get going," she said, still smiling and leading the way outside. Waiting for them was a red Audi RS7 Sportback.
"I'll drive," Oliver offered, to which Toni nodded to and tossed the car keys to him. She got into the back with Lex while Bruce climbed into the passenger seat. Toni, for the first time in years, forgot to let Bryan and the rest of her guards know that she was leaving the premises. So she left her home with only her three friends accompanying her. She wouldn't remember leaving them behind until the next day. But for now, she was enjoying the potential chaos that they were about to stir up.
Arriving, Oliver climbed out and opened her door for her. She accepted Bruce's hand that he offered to her and she stepped up to beside Lex as Oliver and Bruce stood on her other side, the valet having taken the car away.
It took a moment but reporters began shouting out to each of the billionaires, causing those that were still on the steps doing their own interviews to turn their attention onto them. Toni led the way up the stairs, none of them stopping to give interviews but waving to reporters here and there.
"Hey, Toni, remember me?" A man on the stairs asked as they walked past.
"Sure don't," Toni said without pause. "You look great, Hef."
She reached Stane, just hearing his last words to the reporter. "We're going to have a great quarter."
"What's the world coming to when a gal's got to crash her own party?" Toni asked with a smirk towards the reporter who captured her words as Stane turned towards her.
Stane's eyes were on the three intimidating men behind her.
"Look at you! Hey, what a surprise. And you brought Mr. Wayne, Mr. Queen, and Mr. Luthor with you. It is almost like I took a step back in the past."
"We'll see you inside." Toni said, not wanting to be caught around him longer than necessary.
"Hey, listen. Take it slow, all right? I think I got the board right where we want them."
Bruce couldn't keep silent at that. "That's weird, I don't remember getting a call for a board of directors meeting. Lex, Oliver?"
"I didn't get any correspondence in regards to Stark Industries," Lex said lazily, eyeing up Obadiah. Now that the three were aware of the tension between the two they couldn't ignore it.
"Let's not talk shop tonight," Toni said, putting an end to the conversation before moving past Stane and finally entering the building. "I am going to go grab a drink."
Immediately the men lost her in the crowd but they couldn't do much about it as other businessmen recognized them and they were dragged into conversations.
A while later Toni was still at the bar, sipping on a glass of scotch by herself. But her peace was interrupted by a familiar voice.
"What are you doing here?" Pepper Potts demanded.
"Can't a gal crash her own fundraiser that she should have been made aware of by her assistant instead of finding out about it last minute?" Toni asked with a pointed look that made Pepper remember that Toni is in fact her boss.
"Are you by yourself?"
"Do you see anyone else around me? And no, I arrived with a few friends but they got caught as soon as we entered. I haven't seen them since and I'm not feeling very savior like. They know where I am if they need me."
"I'm sorry, Toni, for not telling you about the fundraiser. But Mr. Stane said that it would be better for you to stay in and out of the public eye so that you could rest."
"Miss Potts, whose assistant are you?"
"Yours, but-"
"And who signs your paycheck?"
"You, but, Toni-"
"Please keep those two questions in the back of your mind the next time Obadiah tells you to do something in regards to me. Now that the seriousness is out of the way, if you could leave me in peace with Jerry the bartender here, that would be great."
Pepper took a deep breath and began to turn away when Toni remembered a task she wanted her to do.
"Oh, before you leave. I want you to write up an official personal intern position. It is going to be for Timothy Drake, Bruce Wayne's son and is going to be offered during the summer. He already knows about it but I wanted to make it official for his resume."
"Will that be all, Miss Stark."
"That'll be all, Miss Potts."
Pepper disappeared but was replaced by a blonde woman.
"Wow, Toni Stark."
Toni sighed even as she finished off her drink and waved Jerry away when he went to refill it.
"Christine Everhart, Vanity Fair."
"Oh, hey."
"Fancy seeing you here."
"I know, right?"
"You have a lot of nerve showing up here tonight. Can I at least get a reaction from you?"
Toni gave her a look. She had no idea what this reporter was talking about." Panic. I would say panic is my reaction."
"'Cause i was referring to your company's involvement in this latest atrocity."
Toni raised an eyebrow. "Yeah. They just put my name on the invitation. I have no idea on what you are referring to."
"I actually almost bought it, hook, line and sinker."
"I have no idea what you are talking about. I was out of town of a few months, in case you didn't know."
She shoved a stack of photos into Toni's face. "Is this what you call accountability? It's a town called Gulmira. Heard of it?"
"When were these taken?"
"Yesterday."
"I didn't approve any shipment."
"Well, your company did."
"Well, I'm not my company." She stormed away, heading right to where she could see Stane still outside talking to reporters. Bruce saw her leave and signaled Lex and Oliver to start heading out.
"Have you seen these pictures? What's going on in Gulmira?"
"Tony, Tony. You can't afford to be this naive."
"You know what? I was naive before, when they said, 'Here's the line. We don't cross it. This is how we do business.' If we're double dealing under the table… Are we?"
"Toni! Picture! Please!" Reports shouted out.
"Let's take a picture. Come on. Picture Time!" The two poised as if there wasn't any tension between them. As the pictures were taken, Oliver and Lex had went ahead to get the car while Bruce waited for Toni. He witnessed Obadiah whisper something to Toni that caused her to tense even more than she already had been when she had gone up to him.
"Toni. Who do you think locked you out? I was the one who filed the injunction against you. It was the only way I could protect you."
"I have not, and never have, needed you to protect me." With that she left Stane behind, not speaking as Oliver drove them home even as Lex shot her concerned glances.
They arrived at Toni's house and she immediately went inside to change out of her clothes and into a pair of breathable pants and shirt. She came back down to so see Bruce blocking the way down to her lab.
"Toni, Toni, what's wrong?" He asked gently. She met his dark eyes and saw only concern for her reflected in them.
"I just need to relax so I'm going to go down to the lab. Don't wait up," she said as she smoothly moved around him and disappeared down the stairs.
Toni settled on a couch in the basement, fiddling with an arm gauntlet of the suit as JARVIS pulled up a news report on Gulmira that was being broadcast.
"The 15-mile hike to the outskirts of Gulmira can only be described as a descent into hell, into a modern-day Heart of Darkness. Simple farmers and herders from peaceful villages have been driven from their homes, displaced from their lands by warlords emboldened by a new-found power. Villagers have been forced to take shelter in whatever crude dwellings thcey can find in the ruins of other villages, or here in the remnants of an old Soviet smelting plant. Recent violence has been attributed to a group of foreign fighters referred to by locals as the Ten Rings. As you can see, these men are heavily armed and on a mission. A mission that could prove fatal to anyone who stands in their way. With no political will or international pressure, there's very little hope for these refugees. Around me, a woman begging for news on her husband, who was kidnapped by insurgents, either forced to join their militia." She stands and puts her screwdriver down, aims the glove and lets the blast go. The force of it jerked her arm a bit, not having expected that much. And in the blast's wake, dust and a light fixture fell down from where the blast had hit.
"Desperate refugees clutch yellowed photographs, holding them up to anyone who will stop. A child's simple question, "Where are my mother and father?" There's very little hope for these refugees, refugees who can only wonder who, if anyone, will help."
Walking past the tv and to where the glass windows stood by the glass door to her lab, she began aiming. Within seconds the three glass windows were shattered pieces littering the area. Resolved in her thinking, she moved to the platform in the center of her workshop. Immediately the floor began to break apart, the boots appearing before her that she stepped into. It wasn't long before her red and gold suit, the arc reactor shining brilliantly through the chest plate.
"Let's roll, J."
Then she was flying out the garage as she had during that test flight towards Gulmira. It took some time but by midmorning she was right where she wanted to be.
She landed just as the terrorists were about to open fire on a man in an execution position as well as others being aimed at against the wall. It looked like women and children were being loaded into trucks by the terrorists while the men and elderly were killed.
She landed on one knee, the whole area going silent at her entrance. One man pulled the trigger on his gun to which Toni immediately gave an upper cut that sent him flying into a crumbling building. Toni didn't pause as she turned and aimed her gauntlet at another man and fired, sending another man flying into a wall. Soon two others were blasted back. Then she turned to the truck to see the terrorists holding guns to the heads of the mothers and children, placing them in front to protect themselves from her.
She slowly lowered her hands, ignoring the demands from them. It was seconds later that from her shoulders emerged weapons that fired on all six terrorists, killing them instantly but leaving the hostages unharmed. In the ensuing silence, one of the children broke free from his mother and raced towards the man that had been about to be executed, his father, hugging him with all his might. Turning her attention away, she used her vision to see if she had missed any and saw one duck his head behind a wall so she headed after him.
She punched her gauntlet through the wall next to the man's face, grabbed him, and pulled him through the wall, throwing him back. The terrorist landed at the feet of the villages he had been terrorizing and murdering.
"He's all yours." She said simply as she took flight and left to find the weapons that she had seen when she had first flown in.
Toni easily spotted them but before she could destroy them, she was shot out of the sky, being hit by a tank. She crashed into a couple abandoned buildings below her, causing her to curse quietly to herself at the new aches and pains that were going to plague her for awhile. But she climbed out of the whole she made, standing free of the rubble. She faced the tank that aimed at her once more. It didn't take long before a missile was launched at her that she easily dodged. Raising her right arm in return, she launched her own missile that hit the tank easily. She turned away, not needing the see if her missile worked or not.
Of course it would and did as an explosion sounded behind her of the tank being destroyed. Walking half a block to where the weapons cache was, she walked right into the gunfire of terrorists trying to stop her.
Not even caring, she flew up slightly and aimed both gauntlets at the missiles and firing. All of the missiles exploded, causing all of the terrorists in the area to die. Satisfied of her work, Toni flew away, her mission done for now.