Storm ≛ Tony Stark ≛

6.

'Pretty decent tech,' Tony's voice dragged Sue's attention to him as he entered the cell with his hands in his pockets. 'Cycles per second were a little low. You could have doubled up your rotations. You focused the repulsor energy through ionised plasma channels. It's effective. Not very effective. But it's a passable knock-off.'

Sue eyed the man who sat hunched. It was obvious that he was listening, but either wasn't bothered to give Tony the attention, or knew it would irritate Tony's pride.

'I don't get it. A little fine tuning, you could have made a solid paycheque. Could have sold it to North Korea, China, Iran, or gone onto the black market. You look like you got friends in low places,' Tony continued before he stopped wondering around the cell to stand near the bench.

'You come from a family of thieves... and butchers,' the man's thick and heavy voice was heard for the first time. Sue perked up at his words and saw that the man had looked over his shoulder to stare at Tony.

'Now, like all guilty men, you try to rewrite your own history. And you forget all the lives the Stark family have destroyed.'

Sue listened to the back and forth between Tony and the Russian man. She admired Tony's resilience as even she felt the menacing and corse air the man let off. She remembered his few gold teeth among the black mass of his mouth. She remembered the way he leered at her as he was dragged across the racetrack. The chills that went down her spine from earlier returned and she wrapped her arms around her herself, hoping to find some comfort in the cold room.

'-we'll send a bar of soap,' Tony finished and began heading towards the door. It opened and Sue prepared to leave the room to meet him in the hall, when the Russian spoke again.

'Hey, Tony. Before you go, palladium in the chest, painful way to die.'

Tony froze in his place in the doorway and Sue eyed him through the glass. She watched as Tony went to turn around and face the man again, but decided not to. The man on the bench knew he had gotten through to Tony, even if it was just a little bit. He decided to make it more impactful by adding,

'I'm sure the woman, from the track, would not like to watch you suffer.'

---

Sue couldn't tear her eyes away from the news report that displayed the footage from The Grand Prix racetrack. The sound of the plane engines droned out the news anchor's rambles that Sue didn't want to hear. The footage from a camera that was established in the stands showed herself running around the car that was damaged by the whips. She watched as her past self-produced the forcefield that stopped Tony from being killed.

The footage changed and the news anchor was in the studio with a picture of Sue next to him. The words 'The Invisible Girl rumours are true?' sat at the bottom of the screen, along with the running titles that displayed 'Susan Storm joins Iron Man as new side-kick'.

'Girl? Are you eight years old?'

The TV on the wall of the private jet's cabin turned off as Tony appeared from the back of the plane. Pepper made the executive decision to cut the vacation even shorter and head back to California. Much to Sue's relief, reporters and cameras were kept far away from the car that Happy drove to the airport where their private jet waited. They took off and were mere hours away from landing back in the US, but Sue dreaded touching down.

'Is Pepper at the back?' Sue asked as Tony sat in the chair opposite her. He lowered his head in a nod and she leaned forward, lowering her voice into a whisper. 'Palladium, Tony? Really?'

Tony knew this was coming. He covered his eyes with his hand as he felt a migraine starting. He had done well to keep his issue under wraps, but the Russian man had unearthed a can of worms. At least Pepper didn't know, as he knew it would bring the whole carton of canned worms. But even so, Sue wasn't the next best thing. She knew what palladium did to the body.

'Didn't know you knew what palladium was...'

'Of course, I know what palladium is.'

'What did Reed Richards research again?'

'Chemistry would be one of the topics.'

'Right...'

Sue laid back against her chair and let out a loud sigh. She hadn't thought much about Reed or the incident as of late. There was too much going on with Tony's life that she was now involved in that she didn't have the spare moment to think about it. The directors of the company she now owned did well at keeping everything under wraps, so they didn't have to contact her while she was in Monaco. This meant there was no reminder of what had caused a lot of her current struggles.

'What's on your mind?' Tony's voice brought her out of the staring match she was having with the floor of the plane.

'Don't change the subject,' she looked back up and met his eyes. He looked in pain, which made Sue switch her gaze to the glowing arc reactor that was in his chest. It was strange to think that it was poisoning Tony, while also keeping the shrapnel from entering his heart.

'I have to. I don't know what to say. Palladium hurts. I have this-' he pulled out a small black device which had a thin screen on it. '-that shows the toxin levels of my blood. Because it's not grim to watch yourself slowly get poisoned.'

Sue flinched at his words. Tony's expression barely changed as he spoke, but she could see that behind his charismatic and sarcastic exterior, he was scared and in pain. She couldn't imagine what it was like to feel the hole in your chest spread metal into your veins and slowly kill you from the inside.

'Does the chlorophyll help?' she asked with her head leaning on her propped-up fist.

'It keeps me going.'

A silence overlapped them for a moment and the plane engines filled the empty air between them. Tony stared at the woman who had become involved in his life after knowing him for only two weeks. He had heard about Dr. Reed Richards' research and inventions, but only knew about Susan Storm by name until she arrived back on Earth in the emergency shaft. He never thought he would be siting in his private jet with her after revealing to the world that she was The Invisible Woman, or Girl, as the media liked to call her.

'What happened on Marvel-1?'

Sue didn't know if she should answer. The statement that her assistant had finished and published for her gave a brief overview of the happenings and the media had made their own assumptions. But the full story was painful. Especially whenever Johnny's face popped into her head.

Tony didn't pry any further when Sue stayed silent. As much as he was curious, he knew he should wait for her to tell him on her own time. Instead, he looked down and pressed his thumb against the finger pad that ejected a small needle into his skin. Tony flinched and Sue noticed, watching as he blinked when the results came up on the small screen.

'What does it say?' Sue asked but didn't want to hear the answer. Thankfully, Tony didn't want to answer. He only sighed and gave her a forced smile.

---

Sue stood in Reed's lab in the suit she had originally made for her abilities. The blue encased her figure from her neck, down to her feet. A zip ran from the tall collar down to her chest, and black gloves covered her hands in a thick leather. She wasn't sure what Tony was making for her, but she wanted to at least use the suit she made for something. Her hair was tied back in its usual low bun with her fringe sitting on her forehead lankly.

She stared at the poor excuse for a target dummy that sat five metres away. The equipment and desks were pushed to the side to allow for an unobsticled path. She chose to sacrifice a test tube that stood on a miniature metal stand as a target and stacked it on a swivel chair. Something small was good to aim for and Sue couldn't bear to break anything that Reed would have missed.

Closing her eyes, Sue looked for the energy that coursed through her system. The chilling power flowed from her cells to the pores of her skin, feeling it overcome her. She prepared it to protrude off of her being like when she made forcefields. Only this time, she threw her head and shoulders forward, willing the power to move off of her and at the poor test tube on top of the swivel chair.

The force crashed against the chair and sent it flying backwards, the tube falling and breaking against the floor. The chair hit the wall and wheeled forward, as if to defend itself, before pulling to a complete stop. The sound of glass breaking made Sue pull her head back up to see the damage and was pleasantly surprised at the results.

'Sorry Reed...'