Chapter 16
The motel on the outskirts of Chattanooga had clearly seen better days. The paint was dingy and peeling, the neon sign on the outside was rusted and faded, and several people loitered outside on the uppermost balcony, smoking cigarettes in the cold, morning air and watching warily as she and Banner wandered up as if they were there for less than savory reasons. Still, the figure standing huddled in front of the motel in jeans, a hooded jumper, and sunglasses looked as healthy and unharmed as he could have, given the circumstances of the last few days.
“Bloody hell,” Peggy muttered, walking right up to Stark, and without a by-your-leave, wrapping him in a large hug, unexpected tears pricking the corners of her eyes. “I am so relieved to see you.”
“Errrmm…hello?” Stark stiffened, briefly, before relenting to her fierce squeeze and gently patting her shoulder. “So…I’m not dead, despite popular rumors to the contrary.”
“Jesus Christ, Tony,” Banner sighed, shaking his head and clapping Stark on the shoulder when Peggy pulled away. “It’s not for lack of trying, though! Did you really have to go and taunt a terrorist on national television?”
“Yeah, not my finest hour, moving on. Did you bring my suit?”
“In the quinjet,” Banner confirmed, jerking a thumb in the general direction of where Jake had landed. “I got to warn you, though, I managed a patch for the energy sources to keep them stable, but that was about it. There are other glitches in the programming I could not understand because your coding is like another language.”
Stark shrugged. “You get used to it. Next AI project I do, you’ll have to sit in, I can show you the ropes. Anyway, did SHIELD find out where Killian’s address is at?”
“Coral Gables,” Peggy returned, pulling herself together and returning to business. “Sharon is gathering together a team that will meet us there, but until then…”
Stark picked up what Peggy left unsaid as he fell into step alongside her and Banner, slinging a heavily laden backpack over his shoulder, as well as a duffle bag in hand. “So we get to come in as the welcome wagon and lock down the place.”
“That is the idea.”
“Good, because I need to beat Killian’s ass for Happy, then for the house my father built, then for what happened in Rose HIlls, and then he’s all SHIELD’s.”
Banner’s gaze slid to Peggy, pointedly, and she knew with a sinking feeling she would have to tell Stark the truth of what happened. “Tony…there is something else you need to know.”
“What now?” They had moved on past the shabby motel, to the street corner, waiting on the light to change so they could cross towards the empty parking lot the quinjet was waiting in.
There was no way she could make this better for him. “Killian captured Pepper.”
She might as well have punched Stark in the gut. Numbly, he dropped the duffel he had in one hand, as the other smoothly ripped off the sunglasses he had on, his dark eyes glaring at the pair of them with horror and disbelief. “Wh…what?”
“Tony,” Banner began, but Stark held up a staying hand, turning his pale-faced disbelief on Peggy. “Wh…what? Where was she? How did he get to her? How did he find her?”
“I don’t know,” she said, her heart breaking for him. “She had been out at the house site all day yesterday. I had a SHIELD detail on her. She was staying at a hotel, she stopped at a grocery on the way back, she ducked her detail…”
If anything, her words seemed to make his complexion worse, the blood draining to leave him a sickly gray as his breathing began to hitch in rapid gasps. “She was…how could they just lose her?”
“I don’t know, Tony, I wasn’t there. They said they lost sight of her and went to the hotel to find her. Her car was there, but she wasn’t.”
“He tracked her,” he croaked, scrubbing his exhausted face before bending over, his hands on his knees, looking as if he might vomit. “He tracked her, he followed her…she was always ducking details. Happy’s security drove her crazy. I told her to stop doing that, to start…Jesus!”
“Tony,” Peggy murmured, kneeling down, one knee on the slushy and broken sidewalk, trying to get him to look at her. She glanced up at Banner, who seemed just as uncertain as to what to do as she did.
“I said I would protect her, I got to keep her safe, because…but I didn’t!” Stark was babbling, now, more than anything, finally peering up at Peggy in terror and panic. “I…I can’t lose her.”
Stripped of everything - his suit, his lab, his bravado, his life - what remained of Tony Stark was a man who had lost so much already, who had faced terrifying experiences he had never dealt with, and who was now frightened of not being able to protect the few things he had left. It was a side of Stark she had never seen, she wasn’t sure anyone had ever seen save Pepper, and it was startling to see it coming out of someone as generally composed as he was.
“Tony,” she sighed, placing a hand on the top of his hooded head. “We all failed in this, not just you. I should have demanded she be brought into HQ and kept under surveillance. Pepper should have listened to me when I told her that there was a credible threat to her safety. There were a lot of things we could have done, but that isn’t how things play out sometimes. You can’t foresee every eventuality.”
“I should have,” he insisted, stubbornly.
“Maybe, but then again you were the one who lost your temper and told Killian your address and basically taunted him to come after you.”
She wasn’t sure if that was the sort of thing she should tell a man in a full on panic attack, but he didn’t seem to get any worse. “If he has her…if he hurts her…”
“He’s got her to taunt you with, Tony,” Peggy said, plain and simple. “You do know that, right? He has her so he can taunt you with the fact that he took something of yours and keep you in line, to make you do what he wants. The question is, what does he want?”
“I don’t know,” he insisted, fiercely, looking as if he would rather curl up on the sidewalk than have this conversation.
Peggy sighed, thinking, recalling his conversation with Harley the night before over the phone and the words the boy imparted to her earlier as they left Rose Hills. “Don’t forget who you are, Tony. You are a genius, you are strong, and you are resilient. You have faced greater odds than this and won.”
Her words, quietly and fiercely spoken, at least seemed to sink in, somewhat. His pained, panicked breaths began to smooth out and ease, his white-knuckled grip on his knees easing. “What if he hurts her,” he repeated, staring at his shoes, his voice low.
Peggy’s mouth thinned. It was certainly in the realm of possibility, given that Killian had given little-to-no thought to anyone else he had harmed: the Extremis patients, their families, or the numerous others who had been killed by any of his overheated super soldiers. That he could do so to Pepper to force a reaction out of Tony was possible, if not probable.
“Then you avenge her,” Peggy replied, fiercely. “We will avenge her.”
It wasn’t quite a Steve Rogers level of motivational speech, but it was the best that Peggy could do, and it seemed to have the desired effect. Tony’s face tipped up, finally, his dark eyes full of fear, but also full of a burning rage.
“If I find that one hair on her head has been harmed…”
“You have killed people, Tony, but you aren’t a murderer.”
“My critics would beg to differ,” he choked in a strangled attempt at levity.
“You are not a murderer,” she reiterated, firmly. “Killian’s actions have hurt and killed so many people, not just Happy and Pepper. They deserve their justice, too, their day in court.”
“And what if he doesn’t give me that option.”
There was that as well. As much as Peggy would love for Killian to have to face the punishment for his crimes, she knew well enough that it was just as likely he could threaten action even more dangerous, especially considering the lengths he had gone to thus far. “Then you will do what you have to do.”
For long moments, he stared at her, considering, before nodding, pushing himself up to a standing position, slowly. The backpack that had crept up to his neck as he bent over slid down, nearly taking him with it, but he straightened, tugging on its straps. “All right, then, let’s go find this asshole!”
Without being asked, Banner swooped in to grab Tony’s duffle, wincing at the weight. “What do you have in here? Bricks?”
Tony frowned at it, bringing himself back to the present. “Uhhh, yeah…leftover supplies mostly, fertilizer, chemicals, tools, things I used to make hand grenades.”
“You used for…” Banner paused, staring down at the bag, then at Tony. “You made hand grenades?”
“I did make weapons for a living,” he shrugged, shaking himself as he pulled himself back together. “If I couldn’t take my suit, then I had to improvise. Glass Christmas ornaments, pour in fertilizer and a few other choice chemicals, set a fuse, and there you go.”
Banner nodded, clearly impressed. “You just…did that in a hotel room overnight?”
“Well, that, made an improvised gun that isn’t particularly high caliber, but effective, and an electrified glove to work in lieu of my repulsor stabilizers…a few other fun gimmicks in case I need them.” He reached over to tap the crosswalk button again, now calmer, if not fully himself.
“Oh, only little gimmicks,” Banner snorted, shaking his head. “You don’t even need the suits to take someone out, Tony, you are still Iron Man without them.”
Banner’s words brought Stark up short, even as the light turned and the crosswalk flashed. He turned on the other man, stunned and thoughtful.
“Gentleman, we need to go,” Peggy urged, pushing them both along into the snow-and-salt rimmed street, between the white lines that demarcated where they could safely walk. Stark stumbled along after Banner, making it to the other corner before stopping again, staring at Banner as he stepped up on the curb.
“What?” Banner too, paused, bemused by Stark staring at him as if he were suddenly turning green on the spot.
“What you said,” Stark said, thoughtfully. “Just…something the kid said last night, something that I keep forgetting, I guess.”
“That you are inventive?”
“No, that I am Iron Man,” he said, simply, shrugging sheepishly, an expression Peggy didn’t think she had ever seen on Tony. “I mean, everyone thinks of the suit as the deal, right, Senator Sterns, the big wigs in the Pentagon, even the kids asking for autographs, but that’s the thing. It’s, what, a weapon? My protection? But it’s not the brains in the operation. It’s not Iron Man, I am.”
“You are just now figuring that out,” Banner teased, smirking.
“I mean…I suppose.” He flushed, shoving his hands into his pockets. “I guess it’s hard to remember in a world with super soldiers and gods that my brain is my superpower, not my metal suit.”
Banner met Peggy’s surprised gaze, as stunned as she at this moment of self-reflection on Stark’s part. “No offense, Tony, but I spent last night working on your suit. I have a stupid amount of degrees, I am no slouch, and I can honestly say that your brain is absolutely your superpower, because it thinks of crazy things and I don’t know where they come from and why.”
“Sadly, no one knows,” Peggy opined, half in exasperation, half in fondness. “You come by it honestly, I’m afraid, and as much as I would love to help you suss out your moment of personal revelation further, we need to get going.”
“Right,” Stark nodded, leading the way forward towards where the quinjet was parked. “Free Pepper, kick Killian’s ass, then process moments of personal growth and self-revelation.”
“And maybe get a therapist,” Banner suggested.
“Why get one of those when a conversation with you did the trick?”
“I am not a therapist,” Banner replied, pointedly.
“Not even a psychology class?”
“Outside of what was needed in my research, no.”
“Really? I had to take one at MIT, and I was in engineering. Do you know how far that went over my head as a fourteen-year-old? I had the emotional bandwidth of a grape.”
“Well, you have grown, Stark,” Peggy smiled. “You’ve at least graduated up to a lemon by this point. Perhaps a small orange?”
His mildly sour look was ruined by his contemptuous snort. “I will overlook the jokes at my expense in light of the fact that I have clearly not made the last few days easy on anyone.”
“Well, well, you have had a moment of self-realization,” Peggy quipped, as they crossed the damp and crumbling blacktop behind what had been a hole-in-the-wall bar at some point, now long closed. As they did, the gangplank lowered to allow them entry, Thor waiting at the top with a welcoming smile on his face.
“Stark! It is good to see you in the land of the living,” he called, holding his hand out to meet Stark with a hardy handshake and a bone-cracking thump on the back.
“Good to not be dead,” he replied. “Still no Captain Courageous or the Super Spy?”
“Not a word.” Peggy was far from being annoyed with either of them for it, but she was rather angry with Fury. They were her team members and when they were needed most they were AWOL on a mission for him. “We will have to manage this one on our own.”
“Pity, we could use Cap’s tactical brain at the moment.” He wandered over to the suit laid awkwardly in the back, secured down with cargo straps. “You didn’t break this thing down into its parts?”
Peggy exchanged a look with Banner and Thor and was relieved to know she wasn’t the only one confused by that. Banner was the one to fall on this particular grenade, however. “Errr, we didn’t know it could do that.”
Stark only just did manage to swallow his look of mild irritation, tapping the top of the helmet. “Wake up, JARVIS! How are things looking in there?”
The lights in the suit’s eye pieces lit up, making it look alive. “It is good to see you, sir! I am running diagnostics as we speak. The language drive has repaired itself, but there are other key features that are still problematic, notably finer navigation and spatial awareness in the suit. I am trying to pinpoint the causes.”
“One thing gets fixed, another thing goes wrong,” Stark muttered, patting the top of the helmet.
“What does that mean,” Peggy asked.
“Well, it means that while in theory I could fly the suit and use it, small spaces will be a problem moving around. That means if we go in, probably best I don’t wear it till JARVIS has figured out what is going on.” He shrugged, sliding the backpack off his shoulders. “But, hey, you brought the cavalry with you. I’m not going in there all alone.”
“I can’t believe you thought we would let you.” She pinned a glare on him, one that made him shift from foot-to-foot, much like Howard did when she had done the same to him. “We are a team, Tony. We all come together to help each other out. You never had to do this all alone.”
Guiltily he wrung his hands, searching for an explanation, and falling short. “I…I mean, I know that, but habits of a lifetime, Peggy. I had nothing for years, and it’s how I operate best.”
“It is not how you operate best. Even in that cave in Afghanistan you had someone there to help you.”
He winced, looking down. “I did.”
She exhaled, blowing out a long sigh. “You have this now, us. You don’t have to do any of this by yourself any longer.”
“Indeed, Stark,” Thor affirmed, standing tall, with arms across his chest, the picture of confident assurance. “You are one of my brothers in arms, as assuredly as the Warriors Three…or Lady Sif for that matter, as she would trounce me for leaving her out. We have fought side-by-side! Your battles are our battles, that is how it is among brothers!”
“So why is it the Warriors Three and then the woman,” Banner queried, curiously. “Because if she’s a warrior too, shouldn’t it be the Warriors Four?”
Thor paused at Banner’s rather pointed question, looking thoughtful. “I mean, I suppose. They earned their reputation before Sif joined us, but I suppose you are correct. I guess it was habit because she is…a woman? As Jane points out to me, Asgard is a horribly patriarchal society, backwards in many ways, with much to learn from Earth on the abilities of women…”
“Heaven help us if you are learning that from Earth society,” Peggy snorted, cutting off the conversation before it turned into a full sociological discussion on the nature of Asgardian patriarchy. “My point being, we do this together, Stark. So, in the absence of Steve, we need to come up with a plan to engage with Killian. Mr. Jarvis?”
The suit's lights flickered. “Yes, Miss Carter?”
“If I gave you the address for the location in Coral Gables, could you find the house plans somewhere on record?” She reached for her phone and sent a copy of the address through the appropriate application on her phone for JARVIS.
“I am sure I could find something online, yes.”
“Wonderful, please get those for us if you could. Steve wasn’t the only one in those war rooms in London. Once we have them, we can use them as reference for our plan of attack.”
“Place like Coral Gables, they should have them as a matter of public record,” Stark offered, as he looked over some aspect of the suit. “It’s a planned community, so everything has to be cleared through the city, and as someone who has had a run in or many with city planning commissions over building ideas…”
“I believe I have exactly what you all might need from the Miami-Dade County public record,” JARVIS called.
“Do we have a means of viewing it,” Peggy looked to Stark.
“Give me five minutes, we might.”
“Excellent!” Finally, they were getting somewhere. “Jake, get us up in the air. The rest of us will coordinate how we will break into Killian’s likely guarded compound.”