Bold = Authors Note/Opening Sequence/Place
'Italic' = Thoughts
Normal Italic = Emphasis
Underlined = POV Change
(Y/n) = Your Name
(M/n) = Middle Name
(L/n) = Last Name
(N/n) = Nick Name
(D/h) = Dominant hand
(N/d/h) = Non-Dominant Hand
(E/c) = Eye Color
(S/k) = Skin Color
(H/c) = Hair Color
(H/l) = hair length
(F/c) = Favorite Color(s)
(F/f) = Favorite food
(F/r) = Favorite Restaurant
(F/s/a) = Favorite Stuffed Animal
(S/a/n) = Stuffed Animal's Name ^^
(F/o) = Favorite Outfit
(B/m) = Birth Month
(B/d) = Birth Day
(F/b) = Favorite Band (or artist)
(F/s) = Favorite Song
(D/n) = Dad's Name
(D/h/c) = Dad's Hair Color
(D/e/c) = Dad's Eye Color
(M/n) = Mom's Name
(M/h/c) = Mom's Hair Color
(M/e/c) = Mom's Eye Color
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Your POV
I counted my steps as I stomped towards the end of the hallway; not even being bothered by the men shooting at me. I turned right, like I was supposed to, and counted more. The men thought they could hide behind a door, but I grabbed the man left behind, threw him away, and slammed on the door. It took me three tries before the door came down. I knocked out a man, but my arm got lodged in the wall in the process. I got it out and went to the end of the hallway, finally seeing the exit. I heard coughing and I looked over.
Yinsen was laying on a pile of pages of ammo, all bloody.
"Yinsen!"
"Watch out!" He groaned as the bald man shot a small bomb at the wall next to me. I shot back at him; him getting crushed by the rubble that fell. I went over to Yinsen and put my mask up.
"(L/n)."
"Come on. We got to go. Move for me, come on. We got a plan. We're gonna stick to it."
"This was always the plan, (L/n)."
"Come on, you're gonna go see your family. Get up."
"My family is dead." My stomach sank. This was the plan after all. He knew he would die in the process. He sacrificed himself for my life. "I'm going to see them now, (L/n)." He saw my eyes watering. "It's okay. I want this. I want this."
I smiled. "Thank you for saving me."
"Don't waste it. Don't waste your life." He took a deep breath, and his body relaxed; his head falling to the side.
I looked at the doorway with a glare before I put my mask back on and walked out. The men all fired at me, then soon stopped, realizing it did nothing to me.
"My turn." I seethed before I let out my flamethrowers; burning everything in range. I walked out of the cave burning everything I could. Someone on the hill started shooting at me, and ended up shooting something in my knee gear. I fell to the ground before getting up and blowing up the man. I flipped a switch on my arm and pushed a button, then put my arms and legs close together. The flamethrowers in my feet activated, sending me flying into the sky. They soon gave out, and I was plummeting to the ground. I hit the sand and skidded a couple meters.
I groaned as I slowly took everything of the suit off of me. I laid there for a moment before I decided to get up. I wrapped my jacket around my head and shoulders and started my slow and sweaty walk away from that wretched cave. My tank top revealed my arms to the sun and I could feel them getting burnt.
I limped over yet another sand dune then jumped when I heard helicopters. I immediately recognized them as ones from the army. I raised my arms and waved them around. I laughed and fell to my knees as they all landed. The door to the closest one opened and Rhodey jumped out and ran to me along with four other guys.
He got to me and immediately engulfed me in a hug.
"How was the "fun-vee"?" I laughed and started crying with relief. "Next time, you ride with me." He said, not even giving me a choice. Not that I would want any other.
Time skip
After getting the blood wiped off me, a shower, my arm patched up (from the sudden jerk of getting stuck in the wall), a change of clothes, and a couple hour nap, the plane landed. The back opened up, and Rhodey helped my shaking self out of the wheelchair. He helped me down, warning me of the steep part of the plane door. Some medics came with a stretcher, but I waved them off. I wasn't that bad.
I looked at Pepper and smiled. She jogged over to me and embraced me, being careful of my right arm. We got in the car.
"Where to, Miss?" Happy asked.
"Take us to the hospital, please, Happy." Pepper said and I shook my head.
"No."
"No? (Y/n), you have to go-"
"No is a complete answer."
"The doctor has to look at you-"
"I don't have to do anything."
"Yes-"
"I've been in captivity for three months." My voice broke. "I want to eat, I want to sleep in my bed, and I dearly want to see JARVIS. Also, I want you to call for a press conference."
"Call for a press conference?"
"Yeah."
"What on earth for?"
"Hogan, drive. (F/f) first."
Time skip
After going to (f/r) and getting four (f/f)'s, we finally arrived to our destination. Everyone clapped as we pulled up. Obie smiled as he opened my door.
He pulled me into a gentle hug then let go. "I thought we were going to meet at the hospital."
"No, I'm fine."
"Look at you!"
I turned around and grabbed another (f/f) from the bag Happy was holding. "Thanks."
"Oh, you get me one of those?"
"Nope. There's only one left and I'm eating it."
We walked into the huge press room and everyone clapped as I walked up to the stage. I sat in front of the podium and Obie was confused.
"Hey, could everyone sit down? That way I can see you and you can see me." I pulled out my fourth (f/f) from my inner pocket and took a bite.
"Good to see you." I said to Obie as he crouched down next to me.
"Good to see you."
"I never got to say goodbye to dad." I looked to the crowd. "I never got to say goodbye to my father." I set my food down. "There's questions I would've asked him. I would have asked him how he felt about what this company did. If he was conflicted, if he ever had doubts. Or maybe he was every inch the man we all remember from the newsreels. I saw young Americans killed... by the very weapons I created to defend them and protect them. And I saw that I... had become part of a system that is comfortable with zero accountability."
A reporter raised his hand and I nodded.
"What happened over there?"
I got up and went behind the podium. "I had my eyes opened. I came to realize that I have more to offer this world than just making things blow up. And that is why, effective immediately, I am shutting down the weapons manufacturing division of (L/n) International until such a time as I can decide what the future of the company will be." Obie was pushing me away from the mic, so I stepped down and kept talking as I left. "What direction it should take, one that I'm comfortable with and is consistent with the highest good for this country, as well."
I left, Obie still talking on the mic to the reporters.
Time skip
Obie came through the doors and came over to me.
"Well, that... that went well."
"What, did I just paint a target on the back of my head?"
"Your head? What about my head?" He walked over to me.
"What do you think the over-under on the stock drop is gonna be tomorrow?" He asked me.
"Uh, optimistically, 40 points."
"At minimum."
"Yep."
"(Y/n), we're a weapons manufacturer."
"Obie, I just don't want a body count to be our only legacy."
"That's what we do. We're iron mongers. We make weapons."
"It's my name on the side of the building."
"And what we do keeps the world from falling into chaos."
"Not based on what I saw. We're not doing a good enough job. We can do better. We're gonna do something else."
"Like what? You want us to make baby bottles?"
"I think we should take another look into arc reactor technology."
"Ah, come on. The arc reactor, that's a publicity stunt! (Y/n), come on. We built that thing to shut the hippies up!"
"It works."
"Yeah, as a science project. The arc was never cost effective. We knew that before we built it. Arc reactor technology, that's a dead end, right?"
"Maybe."
"Huh? Am I right? We haven't had a breakthrough in that in, what? 30 years."
"That's what they say." I raised my eyebrow and looked at him. "Could you have a lousier poker face? Just tell me, who told you?"
"Never mind who told me. Show me."
"It's Rhodey or Pepper."
"I want to see it."
"Okay, Rhodey." I took off my arm strap and unbuttoned my shirt (I had a tank top with a hole in it underneath) for him to see the arc reactor.
Obie looked around before he closed my shirt. "Okay."
"Okay?"
He smiled.
"It works." I said. He sighed with a smile and put his arm on my shoulders.
"Listen to me, (Y/n). We're a team. Do you understand? There's nothing we can't do if we stick together, like your father and I."
I rolled my eyes. "I'm sorry I didn't give you a heads up. But if I had...
"(Y/n), no more of this "ready, fire, aim"-"
"You mean ready, aim, fire?" I thought.
"-business. You understand me?"
"That was dad's line." I looked at Obie. He raised his eyebrows.
"You gotta let me handle this. We're gonna have to play a whole different kind of ball now. We're gonna have to take a lot of heat. I want you to promise me that you're gonna lay low." He walked me out.
Time skip
Pepper walked me into the house. "You gonna be okay?" She asked and I nodded. She left to do her own thing so I went to my room and laid in bed.
My eyes started watering. "Hey, JARVIS."
"Welcome home, miss."
Before he could say anything else, I cut him off. "No more "miss". Just call me (Y/n), please."
"Alright, (Y/n). I'm glad that you are home and safe."
I started crying. "I'm so glad that I'm back with you." I took in a shaky breath. "It was so bad, JARVIS. I missed you so much." I wiped away my free flowing tears.
His voice got sad. "I'm so sorry I wasn't able to comfort you for those 3 long months. I am here now, and you can talk for as long as you want. I'll listen and comfort you as you need."
"Thank you, so much." I wiped my face and took some deep breaths.
"Your energy levels are low. You should sleep now." He said quietly.
I nodded. "Okay." I didn't bother changing as I nestled into the blankets.
My consciousness faded away as I mumbled "Love you, JARVIS." (Sadly, I didn't remember this in the morning.)
He was silent for a moment. "I love you too, (Y/n)."
I fell asleep with a smile on my face, having no nightmares.
Time skip
"Pepper, uh, how big are your hands?" I asked through my small screen.
"...What?" She asked.
"How big are your hands?"
"I don't understand why-"
"Just get down here. I need you for a sec." I hung up the call and waited for her to come down. She got down to my lab, put in the passcode and entered the through the glass door.
"Lets see 'em. Show me your hands." She lifted them up and moved them around. "Oh, wow. They are small. Very petite." She walked over to me, looking at all the things I was hooked up to. She didn't mind that I didn't have a shirt on, she's seen me like this before. Get your head out of the gutter, I was sick and weak for a long while, and I had to bathe so she helped me.
She finally spotted my chest. "Oh, my god, is that the thing that's keeping you alive?"
"It was. It is now an antique. This," I showed her the new arc reactor, "is what will be keeping me alive for the foreseeable future. I'm swapping it up for an upgraded unit, and I just ran into a little speed bump."
Pepper was confused. "Speed bump, what does that mean?"
"It's nothing. It's just a little snag. There's an exposed wire under this device." I twisted the top of the reactor and got it loose. "And it's contacting the socket wall and causing an little bit of a short." I pulled out the reactor. "It's fine." I handed it to Pepper.
"What do you want me to do?"
"Put that on the table over there. That is irrelevant."
"Oh, my god."
"I want you to reach in, and you're just gonna gently lift the wire out."
"Is it safe?" She asked nervously.
"Yeah, it's like a game of Operation. You just don't let it touch the socket wall or it goes "beep"."
"What do you mean "Operation"?"
"It's just a game, never mind." I shook my head. "Just gently lift the wire."
"Okay." She reached in before she retracted her hand. "You know, I don't think that I'm qualified to do this."
"No, you're fine. You're the most capable, qualified trustworthy person I've ever met. You're gonna do great. Is it too much of a problem to ask? 'Cause I really need your help here."
"Okay, okay." She reached in and made a disgusted face. "Oh, here's pus!"
"It's not pus. It's an inorganic plasmic discharge from the device, not from my body."
"It smells!"
"I know. The copper wire. The copper wire, you got it?"
"Okay, I got it, I got it!"
"Okay. Now, don't let it to- AH the sides when you're coming out!" I yelled as it stung me.
"Sorry, sorry, sorry!"
"That's what I was trying to tell you before. Okay, now make sure that when you pull it out, you don't pull out tHE MAGNET! That was it. You just pulled it out."
"Oh, god."
"Okay, I was not expecting- don't put it back in!"
She set it aside. "What do I do? What's wrong?"
I took a deep breath. "Nothing, I'm just going into cardiac arrest 'cause you yanked it out like a trout."
"What?! I thought you said this was safe!"
"We gotta hurry. Take this. Take this." I handed her the new arc reactor. "You gotta switch it out really quick."
"Okay. (Y/n)."
"What?"
"It's going to be okay."
"Okay. You're gonna attach that to the base plate. Make sure you- DIAAAOW!" I yelled as Pepper connected it and sent a shock through my body. She twisted it in place and stepped back with goop still on her hands.
"Was that so hard. It was fun, right?" I asked her with a goofy smile.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I feel great. You okay?" I laughed.
"Don't ever, ever, ever, ever ask me to do anything like that ever again." She scolded me.
"But I don't have anyone but you, Happy, and JARVIS. Happy would panic, and I don't know if JARVIS could do it so quickly. I mean, he probably could, but it's already done. Anyway..." I got up, took the wires off my chest, wiped my chest clean, then put a bra (with a hole that I had cut and hemmed) on.
"What do you want me do to with this?" Pepper asked as she held up the old reactor.
"That? Destroy it. Incinerate it." I tapped my new one.
"You don't want to keep it?"
"Pepper, I've been called many things. "Nostalgic" is not one of them. You can keep it if you want, I don't care."
She sighed with a smile. "Will that be all, Miss (L/n)?"
"That will be all, Miss Potts."
Time skip (skipping the Rhodey interaction)
After chatting with Rhodey, I went back home and turned on my computer.
"JARVIS, you up?" I asked gently.
"For you, (Y/n), always." I smiled.
"I'd like to open a new project file, index as Mark II." I took the model of my old suit and put it onto the 3D screen.
"Shall I store this on the (L/n) Industries Central Database?"
"Actually, I don't know who to trust right now. Till further notice, why don't we just keep everything on my private server." I walked around the table.
"Working on a secret project, are we?" JARVIS asked as if he was smirking.
I flipped up the helmet on the model and lifted the arms. I took old junk and threw it in the digital garbage. "I don't want this ending up in the wrong hands." I threw more trash away. "Maybe in mine, it can actually do some good." I spun the model around with a flick of my finger.
Time skip
After a lot of planning and building, I got the base set for my feet of the suit.
"Okay, let's do this right. Start mark, half a meter, and back and center." I stood in the middle of the platform. I took a deep breath and turned around. "Dummy, look alive. You're on standby for fire safety. You, roll it." I pointed to my other bot that was holding a camera.
"Okay. Activate hand controls." They warmed up as I moved my legs around slightly. "We're gonna start off nice and easy. We're gonna see if 10% thrust capacity achieves lift. And three, two, one." I gripped the handles and shot up and backwards into the air. I hit the top of the garage before I fell to the floor. Dummy started spraying me even though I wasn't on fire.
"Ow."
Another time skip
After taking a break from the legs and programming the arm piece, I put it on. I looked over and saw Pepper coming through the door holding some stuff.
"Up two. All right. Set that."
"I've been buzzing you. Did you hear the intercom?" She walked over and set the stuff on the table.
"Yes, everything's... what?" I glanced up at her.
"Obadiah's upstairs."
"Great!"
"What would you like me to tell him?"
"I'll be right up." I took my arm off the hinges and aimed my hand at the wall as Pepper walked over.
"I thought you said you were done making weapons."
"I am. This is a flight stabilizer. It's completely harmless." I half-lied. I turned it on and it shot me backwards into some stuff. Pepper yelped as she covered her ears. She turned towards me with a worried look.
"I didn't expect that. I'm fine." I got up, took the arm off and went upstairs behind Pepper. As I got closer to the base floor, I could hear the piano playing.
"How'd it go?" I asked as Pepper sat down. I walked over and saw a pizza box. "Oh. It went that bad, huh?"
"Just because I brought pizza back from New York doesn't mean it went bad." He kept playing.
"Uh-huh. Sure doesn't. Oh, boy." I took a slice.
"It would have gone better if you were there." He stopped and started to walk over to me.
"Uh-uh. You told me to lay low. That's what I've been doing. I lay low and you take care of all...that."
"Oh, come on. In public. The press. This was a board of directors meeting." He sat down across from me.
"This was a board of directors meeting?" I asked.
"The board is claiming you have post-traumatic stress. They're filling an injunction."
"A what?"
"They want to lock you out."
"Why? 'Cause the stocks dipped 40 points? We knew that was gonna happen."
"Fifty-six and a half." Pepper said.
"It doesn't matter." I replied, starting to get pissed. "We own the controlling interest in the company."
"(Y/n), the board has rights, too. They're making the case that you and your new direction isn't in the company's best interest."
"I'm being responsible! That's a new direction for me, for the company." Obie's eyes widened as he hung open his mouth. "I mean, me on the company's behalf being responsible for the way that..." Pepper sighed. "This is great." I stood up.
"Oh, come on. (Y/n), (Y/n)." Obadiah called after me.
"I'll be in the shop."
"Hey, hey, (Y/n), listen." He turned my shoulder so I would face him. "I'm trying to turn this thing around, but you gotta give me something. Something to pitch them. Let me have the engineers analyze that." He pointed to the arc reactor in my chest. "You know, draw up some specs."
"No."
"It'll give-"
"No,"
"-me some bone-"
"-absolutely not."
"-to throw to the boys-
"This one stays-"
"-in New York!"
"-with me. That's it, Obie. Forget it. Take your pizza back, I don't even want it." I shoved the box into his chest and went to the stairs.
"Do you mind if I come down there and see what you're doing?"
"You try it and JARVIS won't hesitate to kick you out!" I shouted as I went down the steps.
Time skip
"Day 11, test 37, configuration 2.0. For lack of a better option, Dummy is still on fire safety. If you douse me again, and I'm not on fire, I'm putting you in the corner for a time-out." I went to the middle of the mat. "All right, nice and easy. Seriously, just gonna start off with 1% thrust capacity. And three, two, one."
The boots and hands went on and lifted me about a foot into the air. I stayed like that for a moment before I deactivated it and landed.
"Okay. Lets bring it up to 2.5. Three, two, one."
I was lifted into the air once more, but a couple feet higher than before. I accidentally flew around and over some of my cars before I went back to the mat. I steadied myself before I was lowered to the ground.
"Yeah, I can fly."
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Hope you like this chapter! Sorry I haven't uploaded in a while, school is kicking my ass. Thanks for still reading, though!
Word count: 3843