After changing out of her clothes and into the blue suit she had to wear, Tony and Susan who ad waited for her walked out of the room. Something moved out of the corner of Tony's eye and when she turned her head; she instantly rolled her eyes. Leaning against the wall outside the room was Johnny, trying to look natural but also very attractive at the same time. He looked up at the women and smiled, his eyes tailing over Tony's newly appeared curves from the suit.
"Johnny, what are you doing here?" Susan asked, looking at her younger brother. Johnny finally took his eyes off Tony to look at his sister.
"Victor came by and wanted to know where you were, he had to talk to you about something to do with the launch." Johnny explained.
"Oh. Alright," Susan looked at Tony and smiled, "I'll see you later then."
"Okay." Tony smiled back and watched Susan walk down the hall and out of site before feeling someone watching her. Johnny had started watching her again, seeming to try and figure her out, and Tony was starting to get a bit flustered with the way he was looking at her.
"We haven't been properly introduced, the name's Johnny Storm."
"Dr. Antonia Bradshaw."
Johnny smiled and started to walk the same speed as Tony who had made her way down the hall, "Antonia, wow that is beautiful. What is it, French?" This made Tony laugh and look at Johnny.
"Oh my god, that is so bad." She laughed. Johnny stopped walking at looked at the woman shocked.
"Bad?"
"'Is it French? ' If you want to try and butter a girl up, know what comes out of your mouth."Tony explained. She started to walk away again, leaving Johnny stunned in the middle of the hall before she turned around, "And FYI, Antonia is Roman in origin but I get it from my father's Italian side."
After turning the corner, Tony had left Johnny feeling confused and irritated. Usually that line works, I guess Big Ben was right, she is different than the other girls I go for. Johnny looked down the hall to where Tony had left him and took in a deep breath before letting it out, Just means I'm gonna have to try harder.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The shuttle launch was probably the most exhilarating and frightening moments of Tony's life, but it was worth it when the ship docked and the group of adults walked into the space station. Tony was trailing behind Johnny and Ben while holding her case filled with the samples for the experiment, trying to give Reed and Susan some space for whatever seemed to be going on with them. As they all walked out, Victor lead them into the station.
"E.T.A. till cosmic event, nine hours." He reminded the group. Johnny and Ben walked behind him, carrying cases for the astronaut suit Ben would be wearing later.
"If you're good, maybe next time Daddy'll let you drive." Johnny whispered to Ben, catching Tony's attention. She rolled her eyes and caught a glimpse of the Earth from their vantage point. The combination of the planet and of all the stars around it made Tony's heart speed up and made her smile brightly.
"You keep talkin', and there won't be a next time." Ben whispered back, getting his point across that he was very annoyed with the blonde man. The group continued until they were at the heart of the station, several corridors leading of to other parts of the structure.
"We can monitor the cloud's approach and observe the tests from here." Susan said as she came behind Tony, followed by Reed who was still looking around fascinated.
Ben unzipped his silvery one piece that was over the blue synthetic suit everyone was wearing. As he looked around, he asked, "Is it safe?"
"The shields on the station should protect us." Reed explained. That caught both Tony's and Ben's attention.
"Should?"
"What's the matter, Ben?" The three looked over to Victor who was walking towards them with his overconfidence radiating off him like heat. "Getting paranoid in your old age?"
"Let's start loading those samples. Tony, makes sure you have everything and the samples are all set. Get your suit ready, Ben." Reed said, trying to ignore Victor. Tony nodded and looked at Ben, waiting for him to stop staring down Victor so they could go. Just as he was turning around, Victor opened his mouth again.
"So I see you're still doing all the heavy lifting. Maybe you should have stayed in the lab; fieldwork never suited you."
Ben turned back around and walked towards Victor, "He does the talkin', I do the walkin'. Got it?"
"Then what does she do?" Tony's eyes met with Victor's when she was mentioned, kinda being surprised since he hadn't acknowledged her at all. "Plays with the pretty flowers?"
"These pretty flowers are about to make you more rich than Tony Stark. You really want to start something?"
Ben and Reed's eyes widened at Tony's rebuttal, they have never heard her talk back like that to anyone of authority or high standings in the 2 years they have all known each other. Ben let a smile slip onto his face and Reed stayed wide eyed. Victor tried not to act surprised by what she said, but it had hit a cord with him that someone other than Ben had stood up to him. Instead, he smirked and looked back at the astronaut, "You like walkin' Ben? So go and take a walk. Actually, if you'll all excuse me, I need to borrow Susan for a moment."
As silence swept over the room, Ben gave Tony a look before starting to head out to wear they needed to get ready; Tony following seconds later. She didn't even notice Johnny rushing to her side as the three of them all walked in the same direction. Reed had gone a different route to go and check on the storm that was approaching, leaving the girl alone with two astronauts.
"Has Victor always acted like a ... douche?" Tony asked, breaking the silence in the group. Ben laughed at her choice of name and Johnny looked at her funny.
"Douche? Victor's awesome."
Tony looked at Johnny like he had grown a third eye, "Did you not see that back there? 'Playing with flowers. ' I earned my masters in Botany thank you very much and it wasn't just so I could play with flowers." Tony said back, her voice raising. Ben looked at her and smiled, not liking that Victor was getting under her skin but liking that she wasn't such a pushover at Reed.
The group walked a little farther before getting to their destination and Ben going to put on his space suit. Tony had knelled down to check the storage container that the samples would be in when something moved out of the corner of her eye. Looking up, she saw Johnny kneeling besides her, watching her work on one of the capsules. He looked looked up from her hand to her bright green eyes which was watching him confused.
"What is it?" She asked, putting down the capsule into the storage container and sealing the top. Johnny sighed before started to talk.
"Look, I'm sorry for what I said. Back on Earth," Johnny said, a small smile coming onto his face when saying Earth like he was an alien or something. Tony caught this and a small smile crept on her face as well. "We're both here to do a job so let us do that and maybe when we get back we can... go out or something."
Tony's small smile fell and she stared at Johnny; he was acting uncharacteristically serious and so far in the past couple hours she has known him she can tell that was weird. The silence had become deafening to Johnny, every second that ticked by made him feel more of an idiot than their talk in the hall. Just as he was about to say something, Ben walked back into the room and was now dressed in his suit. "You kids ready?" He asked, totally unaware what had just happened in the room. Johnny and Tony looked at each other before Tony stood up and held her hand out to Johnny to help him stand. Johnny looked at it for a second before taking it and standing as well. Tony looked at Ben before smiling at him, "Yeah, let's make history boys."
Johnny smiled and walked over to Ben to get his suit up and running, "Aye aye Captain." He mock saluted at her as he went to the back of Ben's suit and made sure everything was set with his pack. There was a small silence as Johnny snapped the pack back into place and then walked up in front of Ben to set something else in the suit when something popped into his head, "Please tell me your guy's not trying to rekindle things with me sister again."
"Of course not. It's strictly business." Ben said back. Tony's eyebrows flew when she heard that. Its not like she didn't know there was something between the two scientists (she's not blind), but she didn't know they had something to 'rekindle' so to speak.
"Yes well, his eyes say differently, don't they?"
"Hey." Ben grabbed Johnny's arm as he turned away, "Two hearts got busted last time. Maybe she's not over it either."
"Wow Dr. Phil, that's deep. Let's think about that. You got Victor - more money than God, stud of the year - and you got Reed, world's dumbest smart guy, worth less than a postage stamp." Tony watched as Johnny grabbed Tony's storage container and gave it to Ben as the two walked into the chamber that would lead Ben out into space. As Johnny clipped on the strap connecting Ben to the case, something clicked with Tony as well. "That's a real toss up."
"Ben wait!"
Ben and Johnny looked as Tony ran quickly over to her other case and grabbed something before rushing over to the two and bending down next to the container of the samples. "What's up?"
"I forgot I needed to switch the Lilium with theLobulari." Tony explained. She took out the canister with the ordinary garden lily with the one with the sweet alyssum plant she had meant to switch out earlier if Johnny hadn't distracted her.
"In English please?" Johnny asked as Tony stood back up, the right canister in her hands.
"Lobulari, also known as the Sweet Alyssum flower, needed to be one of the samples to go out there. Not the Lily."
"Oh, gotcha." Johnny pointed to her before ushering her out of the small alcove. He patted Ben on the arm before leaving as well, "Don't wander off now boy."
"Please be careful out there Ben." Tony said just as the doors were closing. He smiled at her and sent a small thumbs up, trying to reassure her.
"Securing air lock chamber." an automated voice said, closing the doors completely and getting Ben ready to step out into space. Tony turned to Johnny and saw that he was sending thumbs up to Ben to which made the older man roll his eyes and turn to the outer door.
It was awkward as Tony and Johnny stood in the room by themselves, neither of them making a sound. A couple minutes went by and Tony had been staring down at the capsule in her hands with the white and red garden lily in it. She smiled ever so lightly and then looked up to see Johnny checking something on the ship probably regarding Ben.
"Maybe."
"What?" Johnny asked, turning around to face her. Tony sighed and looked Johnny in the eyes, hopefully not regretting what she was about to say.
"To the question you asked earlier, when we get back home, maybe we can go out...'or something.'" She explained. Johnny stared at the woman in front of him, and before he could even react, Reed ran into the room hurriedly, looking like something terrible has happened.
"Ben! You need to get inside now!" Reed yelled, rushing over to Johnny.
"What's going on?" He asked.
"I ain't done arrangin' Tony's flowers yet, egghead." Ben's voice said over the headsets everyone was wearing.
"Dr. Richards, what's wrong?" Tony asked, starting to get panicked at the state of her boss.
"Ben, turn around."
It was then when Tony looked beyond Ben and saw what Tony would know as the cosmic storm that should be here in seven hours was now at their doorstep. The bright red and yellow of the storm looked like a red mist filled with electricity and sent Tony's heart to a complete stop.
"Guys, I'm not gonna make it." Ben said, turning back in the other direction.
"Then you gotta jump!" Johnny yelled. He could feel the fear settling in as the storm grew closer by the second. "It's the only way!"
Tony watched as Ben left her samples behind and jumped into empty space trying to reach the air lock chamber. The grip Tony had on the lily canister tightened as nerves started to settle in and make them shake.
"Come on Ben! You got this!" Johnny yelled.
"Come on Ben. Come on." Tony mumbled under her breath, the astronaut floating closer and closer to the station. As Ben was almost there, Reed quickly turned to Johnny before facing Ben's way again.
"Okay, Johnny. Get ready to close the portal."
Just as Ben was reaching the station, a wave of the storm encased him and pushed him into the glass hard. Reed stared with his mouth open as Ben's body fell to the ground, and then everything changed.
The storm encased the station; wave after wave after wave hitting members of the team there. When the waves hit Tony, the canister she had been holding shattered and the shards launched themselves into her stomach. The flower, the garden lily, also slammed into her torso and Tony's hand trying to touch her wounded stomach but made contact with the flower. Pain flared all over her skin and the waves of radiation continued their onslaught on the station. Once it stopped, she dropped to the ground with the last sound she heard before passing out was the warning alarm ringing through the halls of the space station.
whoa, so that happened.
I thought that since I hadn't posted in so long I would give you guys a super long chapter :) hope you all like it