Battle Strategies | Tony Stark [1]

10

Athena pulled up outside Tony's mansion, getting out from her car and hurrying inside to see what damage happened to the suit. And of course, to see what state the man himself was in. Athena rushed pass Pepper, who was about to descend the steps to the workshop, herself. Once she reached the bottom of the stairs, she carefully stepped through the broken panes of glass, looking behind her as she heard Pepper gasp at the state of the ground. Athena gave her a nervous smile, knowing that a lecture was about to come, before marching further into the workshop. She found herself slowing, however, as she took in the scene in front of her.

Tony was up on a height, surrounded by many robots, in his suit, which by the way was covered in multiple bullet holes. The robot attempted to remove the suit from Tony's body, but things weren't looking good as Tony protested against every action that was made by the robots. Athena rolled her eyes, annoyed by Tony's actions. Truthfully, she felt bitter that Tony hadn't said anything of his plans to her.

Did he not trust her enough? Was she so overbearing that he was now opting to not telling her stuff now? Was she annoying him? Was she in his way?

"What's going on here?" Pepper asked in an unnaturally high pitch. At the sound of Pepper's voice Tony froze, his face visibly contorting into a wince as he peeked over his shoulder. Athena felt amused at the glint of fear in his eyes as he looked at her, but hide it under a cold glare.

Tony gulped before looking at Pepper sheepishly. "Let's face it. This is not the worst thing you've caught me doing."

"Are those bullet holes?" Pepper asked him concerned, her voice was still extremely high. Athena was afraid that the personal assistant was about to faint, as her face suddenly paled.

"Perhaps." Tony winced again, before letting out another yelp. "Ow! Hey, watch it."

The robots eventually got the suit from Tony. During that time, Athena had to drop Pepper home in fear that Pepper would not make it home on her own. Athena reentered the workshop, an annoyed expression on her face as she did so. Tony quickly glanced over his shoulder as she entered, but didn't say anything before returning to his tinkering with his suit. Athena crossed her arms across her chest, her heels clicking obnoxiously loud in the near silent room. Athena couldn't keep her mouth shut any longer.

"What did you think you were doing?" Her voice rose with every word, and a vein was starting to stick out from her forehead. "Who do you think you are playing god?"

Tony stood up, dropping the screwdriver on a table. "If I don't, who will?"

"What gives you the right?" Athena snapped, her protective instinct kicking in. "What if the suit malfunctioned? You would have been killed."

"But it didn't, I didn't." Tony argued, passion flaring across his face as he took a few steps closer to her. "We have created something incredible, Athena. Think about all the possibilities. Think about all the people I could save with this suit."

Tony stood nearly chest to chest with her, his hands cupping her cheeks. The action was so intimate that Athena actually had to remind herself to breath, and did everything she could to stop the tremble that threatened to quake her body. Tony looked into her blue eyes, seeing every bit of concern, anxiousness and excitement dancing in them. "Maybe, with this suit, I can finally do something good."

Athena closed her eyes, and took a deep breath, the tremble she was desperately trying to hold back escaping her grasp as he she heard the unspoken words. For Yinsen. Tony, feeling the tremble, looked at the woman in concern. Athena opened her eyes, and took a stumbling step back. "Just don't get yourself killed, Tony. I can't live with that on my conscience."