Chapter 1
STRANGERS IN MY GARDEN
by Chaed
Chapter 1
“Yeah.”
Tony picked one of the many hands that jutted up. Q&A was what everybody was really here for. After the unspectacular announcement of SI Medical’s expansion the gathered media tried to tickle any last bit of headline-worthy material out of the press conference.
“Any news on Team Cap?”
Pepper rolled her eyes. Their favorite topic. Chewed any which way, it didn’t fail to enthrall the tabloids.
Tony waved his hand dismissively. “You know I can’t comment on that. Next.”
It all warped into a monotonous amalgam of voices. Pepper paid more attention to that little bulge in Tony’s suit pocket than the actual conversation itself.
With Spider-Man sending them emptyhanded into the lion’s lair that ring had materialized out of thin air.
Learning that it had been there, stashed away in Happy Hogan’s custody for years, had thrown her off her game.
The Avengers had almost cost them their relationship. New York, Ultron… Tony continually tapping into reserves he didn’t have, drawing on energy that wasn’t there. They’d barely dodged the bullet after Civil War.
It had been a bumpy road since 2009, but she’d known that when she committed to it. Eight years of patting him on the back during hangovers and cleaning up after his orgies had given her enough of a taste of what it entailed to be with Tony Stark.
That he’d carried that ring with him for the better part of their relationship - even if just indirectly through Happy - gave her a turn. They had never addressed such topics other than in bon mot. Now that it lay out it the open Pepper didn’t know what to think about it. She wasn’t sure they were ready for it. If she even wanted to. The obligations, the repercussions.
“-not funny.”
The sharpness of his last words were what caught her attention. A scale off from his media voice.
But then things picked up, fast.
One of the journalists stood, a glint of metal in his balled fist. She told herself she wasn’t yet worried. There was security. Tony wore his vest. They were prepared for this. She clutched the StarkPad closer to her chest.
“You don’t wanna do this, pal.” Tony was buying time.
A half circle opened before the man. People hassled to get out of firing range. Everybody was here for a good story, but nobody was willing to die for it.
Her headset beeped. Security was on its way. She pursed her lips watching Tony lower his hands behind the pult. She knew what he was going for. The StarkWatch. Did he have to give them a show?
The doors burst open with guards, black fatigues, latest tech, paid well enough not to botch a potential amok run. She took a step back, towards the door. Reporters swarmed like ants from a smoked hive. They’d write their frontpage articles from the safety of their offices.
The aggressor dropped his weapon.
Pepper allowed herself to exhale.
The consecutive explosion swept her clean off her feet. She hit the wall, then the ground. Debris bit into the skin of her palms.
A second detonation. She was on her back now, gasping for air. Screams and blood and the stench of scorched bodies filled the room.
She wiped red from her eye, blinking to get her focus back. Tony was to her right, not behind the pult anymore, because the pult had ceased to exist. She saw dark spots on the Armani. He’d netted the brunt of the second blow.
He stretched an arm out for her. A futile gesture. They were divided by half the room. She couldn’t tell if that was all the movement he was capable of. He didn’t make further attemps to get up.
Their gazes locked just before she felt the steel embrace of Iron Man. The disarray of the room gave way to the orderly HUD interface. FRIDAY mapped the situation before the suit fully enclosed around her.
“Getting you out of here, Miss Pepper.”
The armor righted itself up. She felt the repulsors heat beneath her palms. The HUD overwhelmed her with information. Her own vitals blinked somewhere in the eighties.
“Visuals on Tony Stark,” she ordered.
FRIDAY filtered him out. He was in the same position, on his back, one arm over his chest, the other pointed at her. The reminisance of Malibu threw her in a stupor. She only shook herself free of it when Iron Man began to hover.
“Get him, FRIDAY. Pick him up.”
The HUD flashed red. The repulsors achieved working temperature. She could see a flight path being calculated in a seperate window.
“Execute order,” she urged.
“I’m sorry. I can’t do that.”
“What-” She gasped. “Manual override!”
“You don’t have the authorization for that.”
She was close to the roof now. A puppet on strings. She couldn’t move against the suit.
“Override!” she yelled, helpless.
“You don’t have the authorization for that,” FRIDAY repeated, a bastion of calm. She pulled up a new window titled RESCUE, but before Pepper could read that a warning sign flashed up and she was advised to brace for impact.
A third blast. Iron Man wavered, but proceeded to gain altitude. Tony now lay on his stomach, twitching, a dwarf in the distance.
Pepper tried to obtain control of her limbs, but she was locked into place.
“Activating stealth mode,” FRIDAY said.
“I don’t want stealth mode! Turn around! Master override: Pepper Potts.” She spelled it out. Her voice shook with frustration. She lost the feed on Tony. FRIDAY told her again that she was lacking authorization.
She was well above the compound by now. A fourth detonation struck the building. It began to bend in on itself.
She didn't understand. Tony programmed all his suits with the master directive to protect him when it came down to it. He’d told her as much after the showdown with Killian, when JARVIS had mistakenly identified her as hostile. It was a core command.
“Contact Tony Stark,” she tried.
“I can't do that,” FRIDAY said. “I’m in stealth mode. Communications are disabled.”
FRIDAY offered her the RESCUE protocol again. Pepper skimmed through the lines. She bit the inside of her cheek.
“Goddamn you,” she breathed. If Tony were here she'd strangle him.
“Sorry, Miss Pepper. Boss’ orders.”
The suit was an iron prison around her. The RESCUE protocol wouldn’t allow her to pilot - she was passenger only.
“Get me the room’s security feed. I need to know if he made it out of there.” The compound was a corn of sand in the desert. She couldn’t even tell if the explosions had stopped.
“I can’t connect to the mainframe,” FRIDAY told her. “My servers are damaged."
Great. Pepper chewed on her lip. The scene replayed before her inner eye. The blast. Tony spasming on the floor. Was this what Afghanistan had been like?
She had a thought. “What were Mr Stark’s last orders to you before you lost connection?”
“He requested Mark 46.”
Pepper glanced into the lower right corner of the HUD.
“This is Mark 47.”
“Mark 46 isn’t fitted for the RESCUE protocol.”
Pepper hated that she had to squeeze every bit of information out of the AI. JARVIS, in his time, had been a lot more forthcoming. FRIDAY only shared primary data. A tight-lipped girl.
She put it in plain English. “Did he fly an Iron Man suit out of there?”
FRIDAY was silent, calculating. Finally she answered, “I can’t confirm that.”
Pepper mouthed a silent curse. They were getting nowhere.
“What can you tell me?” she asked irritatedly.
“Time until destination is 32 minutes,” FRIDAY offered.
“And where’s that? Our destination?”
“That’s classified information.”
She was going to short-circuit the damn suit when she landed. And once she found Tony they were going to have a serious discussion about her access rights to FRIDAY’s servers.
A sudden sting in her thigh. She twitched against her confinement. “What was that?”
A new tab opened.
“Preliminary diagnosis available,” FRIDAY said. A holo of her body showed several hotspots. Soft tissue damage, grade 1 concussion, elevated temperature. The system rated her Green - Non Urgent.
“550mg naproxen-natrium was applied for your convenience.”
She dismissed the report.
Those bombs hadn’t been meant for her.
Her throat was dry, itchy.
She thought of the ring in Tony’s bloodied suit pocket.
“He’s alive, isn’t he?”
FRIDAY tallied the chances.
“I can’t confirm that, Miss Pepper.”