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WHILE Pepper busied herself in talking with the technician, (Y/N) had enough time to dial Natasha and inform her of the details because this situation counted as an emergency. Now, Natasha was headed towards the facility where Vanko was supposedly in, since she was better in slipping into places unnoticed.
"Each set of drones is communicating in its own unique language," the technician informed.
"Well, choose one and focus on that," Pepper ordered, and the poor man nodded as (Y/N) watched from the back. She admired how firm Pepper could be in situations like this.
"Have you tried Russian? Why don't you try Russian?" Justin told the technician.
The technician sank into his chair. "I don't know Russian."
Pepper snapped her head to glance over at (Y/N), gesturing at her to come forward. (Y/N) understood where this was going and she pushed over the technician to be face to face with the computer.
It took a second for (Y/N) to fully understand what she was facing before she pressed any keys on the board. Ever since she came back, she'd been taught how to use the computers after Fury noticed the look of full confusion on her face when she first used one. Her recalling of those lessons was fresh, but it took her seconds to recover it fully.
An image appeared in the computer and (Y/N) could see Natasha's face from the other side of the video call. "Reboot complete. You got your best friend back."
"Thank you very much, Agent Romanoff," Tony appeared too, his call being from the inside of his suit.
"Looks like you did do your homework," (Y/N)'s eyes flickered through the screen. "I am reading significantly higher output and your vitals all look promising."
"Yes, for the moment, I'm not dying. Thank you," Tony said with an exasperated tone.
His words had perked Pepper's interest and she went into a spiral. "What do you mean you're not dying? Did you just say you're dying?"
"Is that you?" Tony questioned before continuing. "No, I'm not. Not anymore."
"What's going on?" Pepper looked at (Y/N) for an explanation before turning back to face the screen.
"I was going to tell you," Tony tried to explain. "I didn't want to alarm you."
"You were gonna tell me? You really were dying?" Pepper's tone grew pitched.
"You didn't let me."
"Why didn't you tell me that?"
"I was gonna make you an omelet and tell you."
"Hey, hey. Save it for the honeymoon," Natasha interrupted the two before they continued the bickering. "You got incoming, Tony. Looks like the fight's coming to you."
"Great," Tony breathed out. "Pepper?"
Pepper's worry lines only seemed to deepen. "Are you okay now?"
"I am fine," he replied. "Don't be mad. I will formally apologize."
"I am mad!" Pepper cut him off.
". . .when I'm not fending off a Hammerdroid attack!"
"Fine."
"We could have been in Venice," Tony decided to lighten the mood but it only increased Pepper's frustration.
"Oh, please."
With that, Tony's face disappeared from the screen as he went off to fight off the rest of the drones that were coming to him.
"I told you that five minutes ago."
The NYPD arrived just in time, three police men walking down the staircase and Pepper immediately stood from the chair to gesture towards Justin.
"That's your guy here," Pepper turned to face Justin as she gestured him to the police.
Justin squinted his eyes, since he didn't have his glasses on anymore. "Excuse me?"
"You're being placed under arrest," one cop announced.
"Are you kidding me?"
"Hands behind your back, sir," he ordered as he grabbed Justin's hands with help of another officer and pinned them on his back.
"I'm trying to help here."
He looked back at Pepper and chuckled drily. "I get it. I see what you're doing. You're trying to pin this on me, huh? That's good. That's good. You're starting to think like a CEO, taking out the competition. I like that."
Two officers grabbed him by the shoulders after they placed the handcuffs on him and began to drag him away from the desk.
"You think you're making a problem for me?" He tried to get on Pepper's face as he was dragged away. "I'm gonna make a problem for you. I'm gonna be seeing you again real soon."
Justin turned back and allowed the officers to drag him up the stairs, and (Y/N) couldn't read the look behind Pepper's eyes. She didn't know if she didn't care about the threat or worried that something else was going to happen.
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Four more police men offered to escort (Y/N) and Pepper towards the exit of the Expo, walking on either side of the women as they made it to the front steps in no time. Pieces of concrete were thrown all over the floor, as well as shards of glass and the broken drones that Tony had succeeded in taking down.
"When they get here, I think you should station them at the south, east, and both west exits," Pepper told the officers as (Y/N) stayed by her side.
"We shut down the 7 train in and out of Willets Point already," one cop informed, already placing a foot on the steps.
"Well, have city buses there to ferry people to operating lines," Pepper continued.
"Yeah," the officer nodded at her request. "Are you coming with us?"
(Y/N) looked at Pepper's figure and could tell she was on the verge of exploding from the stress, and she had to make sure she and the remaining civilians were safe. That was part of her job here.
"You should go, Miss Potts," (Y/N) said with formality. "I'll stay until the park is cleared out."
Pepper looked ready to protest, but she sighed and nodded. Before she could follow behind the officer into the car, she turned back to face (Y/N) and pointed at her accusingly.
"You have a lot of explaining to do," she firmly ordered.
(Y/N) nodded with her lips forming on a thin line. "Yes, ma'am."
Satisfied with her answer, Pepper stepped back and walked away with the officer by her side, escorting her to the back of the police car for her to enter. (Y/N) watched the car leave the the area and she grabbed the phone from her pocket again to give an update to Natasha.
(Y/N) pressed the phone to her ear and waited for Natasha to answer, too busy to notice how the chest piece from the broken down drone in front of her glowed red and made a loud beeping noise.
When she realized that the noise was coming from the drone a few feet away, (Y/N) backed away from the steps and quickly made sure that no one was around to push herself into the air, but before she could do that, a familiar silhouette of red and gold swooped her off her feet and lifted her off the ground just as the drone went off.
(Y/N) let out a yelp once she realized who had grabbed her unexpectedly and watched how the rest of the drones exploded down on the rest of the park. The yelp died in her throat once Tony placed her and himself down on the roof of a building close by, trying to wriggle herself out of his iron grip.
Tony backed away from her and removed the helmet off his head, tossing to the ground as the rest of his suit crackled with electricity. (Y/N) coughed to allow the air to return to her lungs, and once she composed herself again, she placed her hands on her hips.
"Why did you feel the need to do that?" she asked incredulously, still slightly out of breath.
"I just saved your life. I don't hear a thank you," Tony ignored her previous words.
"I prefer to fly on my own," (Y/N) replied without thinking, cringing internally once she realized.
"What?"
"I — I'm a pilot," she tried to regain her cool. "Former one. Yeah."
Tony wanted to ask something else, but then he smacked his lips together. "Still don't hear it."
(Y/N) rolled her eyes at the man. "And you won't hear it any time soon."
"I'm going to keep anoying you so you better do it fast," he stubbornly said, walking closer to her.
He opened his mouth again but before he could utter a single sound, (Y/N) raised her palms to stop him.
"Fine, fine!" she exclaimed. "Thank you."
Tony grinned with satisfaction. "Your welcome."
(Y/N) glared at him before another thought came into her head, causing her to let out a groan of frustration as she placed her hands on her head.
"Fury's gonna be pissed," she murmured.
"I — " Tony tried to speak.
"I was supposed to do one simple thing, but you just made it so complicated," she continued to ramble, ignoring the jabs Tony was trying to do into the conversation.
"Listen — "
"Everything went sideways so quickly and — "
"I think I did okay," Tony tried to reassure but then an explosion went off right after that.
"It's just," she didn't know why it had her so rattled. "You try to get yourself killed daily, it's like your favorite hobby."
"You're done? I can speak now?" he asked.
(Y/N) huffed out of her nostrils and Tony took another, yet hesitant step towards her again. She cleared her throat because of the awkward silence, trying to avoid the man's eyes.
"If it's any consolation, you did a solid job," he muttered. "Forgetting the fact that you were an undercover agent the whole time."
(Y/N) nodded. "You weren't that insufferable after all."
Tony squinted his eyes at her words and (Y/N) could see how those words quickly filled his ego more than it already was. "Did you. . .just compliment me? Weird."
"Yeah, that was weird," she winced.
"I think it was weird too," a third voice added.
They both jumped out of surprise from the third voice on the roof, turning to the side to see Rhodey sitting back on the roof with his suit still on, casually leaning back like he was having a peaceful evening.
"You guys look like two seals fighting over a grape," he said.
"We were just — "
"It's — "
"You don't have to do that. I heard the whole thing," Rhodey cut them off.
"You should get lost," Tony pointed at him.
"I was here first," Rhodey defended. "Get a roof."
Tony chuckled at his friend's words. "I thought you were out of one-liners."
"That's the last one."
"You kicked ass back there, by the way."
"Thank you. You too," Rhodey responded. "Listen, my car got taken out in the explosion, so I'm gonna have to hang on to your suit for a minute, okay?"
"Not okay," Tony answered immediately. "Not okay with that."
"It wasn't a question."
Rhodey pushed himself up with his boosters and these let out a cloud of smoke in the roof before he flew into the air with great speed and disappeared into the night sky.
"I like him," (Y/N) laughed.