"Ms Gomez, Sir is requesting you in the basement." I rolled my eyes and shoved one last mouthful of toast in my mouth before getting up and going to the basement. I put in the code to the door and let myself in.
"Morning" Tony smiled as he sat at his desk and was on his computer.
"Morning. What do you want me for?" I asked standing next to him.
"Nothing I just wanted to make sure you were awake."
"Well I'm awake. Do you want me to do anything while I'm here?" I asked crossing my arms.
"Maybe you could-"
"Incoming call with a blocked number, sir" Jarvis cut Tony off. I looked to Tony and we were both confused.
"My phone privilege is reinstated. Lovely. Coulson, how's land of enchantment?" Tony asked thinking it was Phil. But I knew Phil wouldn't call Tony, he would call me.
"Hey, Tony, how you doing?" A gruff voice said with a hint of a Russian accent. "I double cycle." I saw Tony froze and realized this guy was Ivan Vanko, the bitch that tried to kill us.
"You what?" Tony asked and I quietly pulled up a chair that the robotic arm pushed towards me.
"You told me double cycle's more power. Good advice."
"You sound pretty sprightly for a dead guy." He's supposed to be dead?
"You, too." Tony sighed and I bit my nails. Tony then muted his voice and told Jarvis to trace him. Tracing people on a phone takes a while so hopefully he stays on long enough for Jarvis to track him. "Now, the true history of Stark name will be written."
"Jarvis where is he?" Tony asked and I sat up wanting to know where he was.
"Accessing the Oracle grid. Eastern Seaboard." Oh so he's close. I wanna know where he is so I can go after him.
"What your father did to my family over 40 years, I will do to you in 40 minutes." I took a deep breathe and clenched my jaw as this guy worried me. But I've handled his kind before, he won't be a challenge.
"Sounds good. Let's get together and hash it out."
"Tri-State Area. Manhattan and outlying boroughs."
"I hope you're ready." He said before hanging up.
"Call trace incomplete."
"God dammit" I whispered and looking to Tony. I then saw he had the Expo site up that had a picture of Hammer on it. Tony saw and then looked to the arc reactor. "Oh no, Tony. It's not ready." I said as he grabbed it and put it into his chest.
"Sir..."
"You want to run some tests, run them. And assemble the suit while you're at it. Put it together now. Ashley I want you to go back to your apartment, get your gun and uniform and meet me back here."
"Tony, what are we doing?" I asked and he ignored me.
"We are unclear as the effects..."
"I don't wanna hear it, Jarvis. Ashley, go now."
"Why?" I asked frantically and he just looked at me.
"Just go." I didn't wanna question him anymore so I just walked past him and left. I got to my car and drove back to my apartment fast. Once I got there I got in and quickly changed into my mission suit. (A.N the same one Natasha wears but in white.) and added some black wedged boots. I then put my gun in my leg holster and made sure I had my belt on. I checked my look and made my way out. I didn't to cover up or anything as people have seen me in my uniform before. I locked my door and went to leave.
"Ashley?" I heard behind me. I turned to see Indy looking at me in my uniform.
"Hey Indy." I smiled and she looked worried.
"What's going on?"
"I dunno. Tony just said to put on my stuff and meet him at his house. I dunno what's going on but I have feeling it's not good." I saw how worried she was so I walked up to her and put my hands on her shoulders. "But nothing I can't handle. You stay in your apartment you understand me?" I asked and she nodded her head. "Okay. I'll be back. I promise." I smiled at her and she smiled back. I quickly hugged her before making my way back to my car. I quickly road to Tony's and went down to the basement. Once I walked in I saw him in his suit. No helmet though.
"You look good." he commented.
"Why did you get me wear this?" I asked.
"Because Hammer may have had some contact with Vanko and I think Hammer will be revealing some weapons tonight. I need you there as back up in case things go wrong. Plus I want to let you beat up Hammer as he deserves it and I want you to do it." he said fiddling with his wrists and coming down from his platform.
"Is Natasha in this too?"
"No. I kinda don't trust her after she lied to me about who she was and she also tried to kill you which doesn't sit well with me."
"She only lied to you to keep her identity. You can trust her, Tony. I trust her, isn't that enough?" I asked and he sighed.
"Guess so. Anyway, enough about that, we gotta go. Justin's thing starts soon and we need to get there to stop him."
"How we getting there?" I asked as Tony looked at me as his helmet went down on his face.
"We're flying there." he simply said making my eyes go wide.
"Flying? Like proper..."
"Yep. Don't worry I'll carry you. You can trust me."
"Tony can't we just-"
"Oh look time to go. Hold on tight." He then picked me up bridle style and before I could shout at him he flew off. I hid my head in his shoulder as he was flying quick and I didn't like it. "Almost there, Ashley."
"When we get out of this you are so dead!" I shouted over the wind and he laughed.
"I knew I would be. Okay, I'm gunna drop you in three, two, one." He then dropped me onto the stage below us letting me crouch before standing up. Justin saw me and looked rather worried. Tony then stood next to me and I could hear the crowd cheer behind us. I could see Rhodey in the suit he stole the other day and we walked towards him.
"We got trouble." Tony said.
"Tony, I'm here on orders. Let's not do this right now" Rhodey said we walked up to him.
"Rhodey, all these people are in danger. We gotta get out of here." I said to him.
"You gotta trust us for the next five minutes." Tony finished as we fake waved to the audience.
"Yeah I tried that. I got tossed around your house, remember?"
"Listen, I think he's working with Vanko." Tony simply said.
"Vanko's alive?" Rhodey asked. Was I the only one that didn't think he was dead? I then turned to Hammer and walked up to him.
"Where is he?" I asked Hammer as I stood taller than him. I placed my handes on my hips waiting for his answer.
"What?" He acted confused.
"Where is Vanko?"
"Who?" Man this guy can get annoying fast.
"Vanko. The guy you're working with. Tell me." I was almost going to stangle Hammer but I remembered big crowd.
"What are you two doing here?" Hammer asked looking at me then back to Tony.
"Woah, Woah, Woah." I heard Rhodey said in a panic. I turned to him to see what was wrong. The gun on his back then came up and aimed at Tony. I put my hand on my gun ready.
"Is that you?" Tony asked.
"No, I'm not doing that. That's not me. I can't move, I'm locked up. I'm locked up!" He said in a panic. Then the things behind Rhodey pointed their fists to us ready to shoot. "Get out of here. Go! This whole system's been compromised."
"Let's take it outside" Tony said before flying upwards making the things shoot after him. I noticed Hammer leaving so I ran after him. I followed him behind the screen and came up behind him to bang his head on the table.
"Ow!" He complained as he rubbed his forehead.
"What's going on?" I asked the guys on the computers.
"We're being overridden Ms Gomez. We don't know who by though." One of them said.
"He's locked us out of the mainframe." Another one said.
"Who's locked you out of the mainframe?" I looked to my right and saw Pepper and Nat. Just the person I wanted to see.
"Can you please go away? I got this handled." Hammer said as Nat stood next to me.
"Have you now?" Pepper asked sarcastically.
"Look, if you guys hadn't showed up, this wouldn't be happening." Hammer started to blame me and Tony for this. "So please now, go away. Thank you." He then returned to the computers and I looked to Nat and Nat looked to me. I think we were thinking the same thing. We walked up to Hammer and grabbed an arm each and twisted them making him cry out in pain.
"You tell us who is behind this?" Natasha asked angry. "Who's behind this?"
"Ivan. Ivan Vanko." Hammer struggled out.
"Where is he?" I asked.
"He's at my facility." We then both let him go and went to find Happy. We needed a way to get there and he was our only way. We walked out and saw Happy on the phone.
"Nobodies answering the phone. What's going on?" He shouted over the people screaming. "And why are you wearing that?" He asked directly to me.
"Get in the car. Take us to Hammer Industries." I said as we walked to the car.
"I'm not taking you two anywhere." he shouted back.
"Fine, you want me to drive?" Nat argued.
"No, I'm driving. Get in the car." I sighed and got in the back with Nat. Happy started driving fast and Nat started to change into her Shield outfit.
"We're gunna enter the facility and take down the target." Nat said and I could see Happy peaking as Nat undressed.
"Eye's on the road, Happy." I said annoyed and he had to swerve to miss a car. It was a bit of a squeeze as she changed but she managed to do it. Happy then parked outside Hammer's place and me and Nat got out.
"Happy, stay in the car" I said.
"I'm not staying in the car." he complained like a little kid.
"She said stay in the car" Nat said with gritted teeth before we both walked up to the door. Nat then managed to get the door open and we ran in. Happy just had to follow us though.
"Hey, hey, hey. you can't come in here." A guard said before Happy punched him in the face. Whilst Happy distracted the guard me and Nat opened the glass door to more guards. We slid on the floor to miss one as Nat threw some electric discs at him electrocuting him. We then moved foreword and left Happy to deal with the guy. I saw a guard and flipped over a cart to take him out. Once he was out I stood back up and moved ahead with Nat. She the slid through a guards feet and started to take him out. I saw one behind her so I used the wall to bounce myself off and kicked the guard in the head. We moved foreword again came near a corner where we heard guards. I looked round the corner to see how many.
"You take the one on the right, me on the left." I whispered to her and she nodded. She then took out two smoke bombs and threw them to make sure they couldn't see us. Nat went first sliding taking the her guy out. I did two backward somersaults on my hands to get my guards head in between my thighs to throw him on the floor. I punched him to make sure he was down. One then came on Nat's left and she took an elastic cord and twisted it round the guys neck. Two more came running meaning they were mine. I kicked one in the head making him go down and caught one's hand as he tried to punch me, flipped his arm round and stepped on his now bent knee and kicked him in the head as I spun backwards landing in a crouched position. I saw Nat had taken her man down before she ran to another and caught his head in her thighs and twisted him so he was on the floor. Another came behind her so she slid through my legs as I jumped over her and punched the guy before moving my leg round to put him on his ass.
I stood back up and walked alongside Nat to Vanko. Two guards then came one either side of us and Nat sprayed hers with a can of pepper spray and I just punched my guy and he went down. All whilst looking straight ahead. Once Happy caught up with us we found the room Vanko was in. I took my gun out and kicked the door open holding the gun up in case he was in here. Nat held a gun up too behind me. I looked round and saw two dead guards hanging from the ceiling and Vanko no where to be seen.
"Crap." I mumbled. "He's gone" I said before seeing his computer that he must of controlled Rhodey on. I put my gun down and walked to the computer. I put my gun on the desk and started typing.
"What are you doing?" Happy asked behind me.
"I'm rebooting Rhodey's suit." I said keeping my full concentration on the computer. A box then came up with the words System Access in red inside it. I smiled as I did it. I freed Rhodey. "Reboot complete." I said as I saw Tony's face appear on the screen.
"We got our friend back." I smiled at him.
"Thank you very much, Agent Gomez. And Agent Romanoff." Tony said.
"Well done with the new chest piece." Nat said as she looked over my shoulder at some words. "I am reading significantly higher output and your vitals all look promising."
"Yes, for the moment, I'm not dying. Thank you." I smiled and so did Nat.
"What do you mean you're not dying? Did you just say you're dying?" I saw Pepper's face appear on a screen above. Just great.
"Is that you? No, i'm not. Not anymore." Tony tired to calm her.
"What's going on?" She asked.
"I was going to tell you. I didn't want to alarm you."
"You were going to tell me you really were dying?!" Pepper worried.
"You didn't let me"
"Why didn't you tell me that?"
"I was gonna make you an omelette and tell you." Tony said now annoyed at her pestering.
"Hey, hey. Save it for the honeymoon. You got incoming, Tony." Nat said over my shoulder. I looked to the screen and saw triangles and squares heading to where Tony and Rhodey were.
"Looks like the fights coming to you." I said.
"Great. Pepper?"
"Are you okay now?" Pepper asked slightly calmer.
"I am fine. Don't be mad. I will formally apologize...."
"I am mad!"
"..when I'm not fending off a Hammeroid attack."
"Fine" Pepper simply said.
"We could have been in Venice."
"Tony just go and make sure Rhodey is okay." I interrupted their little squabble and Tony rolled his eyes.
"How do you put up with them?" Nat whispered to me.
"I have no idea" I whispered back. I kept an eye on the fight to make sure Tony and Rhodey came out okay. Soon enough all the drones were down.
"Wait, what's that?" Happy pointed to another drone flying in.
"Tony, you got another drone heading your way." I told him.
"This one looks different" Nat said. "The repulsor signature is significantly higher." The drone then started going at Tony and Rhodey and they fought back. Then soon the drones were beeping and I knew they were going to blow. But Tony and Rhodey got out of there and to safety. Thank god.
"Good job, Tony." I whispered before Nat told me we were leaving.
"You know fighting back there reminded me of the good old days when we fought together." Nat said as Happy held the door open for us.
"Me too. But I didn't think you worked with-"
"I don't. But I could make an exception" She smiled as we stood next to the car.
"You wanna work with me?" I asked her and she nodded. "I appreciate it Nat but I think we work better alone."
"I understand." She said walking over to the other side of the car.
"That doesn't mean we're never gunna work together." I said before she got in and she smiled getting into the car. Happy then drove us back and Nat had to go back to shield.
"Well it's been fun." She said as we stood near the shield car that was picking her up.
"Yeah it has" We both smiled before we hugged. "You gunna do the Avengers?" I asked her.
"I found it hard to turn it down." She smiled. "Well until then Agent Gomez." She nodded before turning to leave. I sighed and turned round to walk to back to Happy.
"You wanna ride home?" He asked me.
"Yes please" I smiled as he held the door for me and drove me home. "Cheers Happy." I said to him as I got out the car and walked up to my apartment. I unlocked my door and walked in. Once I shut the door behind me I walked to my room and threw myself on my bed. Today was hard work.
I think I fell asleep after that as I woke up to the sunlight through my window. I sighed and got up and got changed out of my outfit into a casual one. I put my trusty gun with the others in the back of my wardrobe (in a secret compartment) and went to get some breakfast.
A knock at my door confused me but when I opened it Indy hugged me like her life was depending it it.
"I saw what happened are you okay?" She asked before she pulled away from me.
"I'm fine." I said.
"And Tony?"
"He's fine too. Come in I'll make you pancakes." I moved to let her in and she slumped on my couch turning the TV on.
"So, Ivan Vanko? Where is now?" Indy asked as I handed her a plate with a pancake on it.
"Dead." She widened her eyes and almost choke on the piece of pancake she had in her mouth.
"Wow. That quickly?"
"Yeah. Well that's what Tony said."
"Speaking of Tony, when can I meet him?" She asked as she shoved another piece of pancake in her mouth.
"Aren't you scared of him after the party?" I asked as I ate my pancake.
"No. I mean if you can forgive him and still be besties then he shouldn't be that scary." I nodded understanding. "Can I meet him today?"
"I dunno, do you want to?" Her eyes widened and she started bouncing on my sofa.
"Yes, yes, yes, please!" I laughed at her and put my plate on my coffee table.
"Okay, okay. Let's go." I smiled getting up and she followed
"Let me go to the toilet first." She smiled and I nodded letting her go. I turned the TV off and took the plates to the kitchen.
"Just to warn you Indy he can be very sarcastic so sometimes he says things he doesn't mean." I shouted to her as I put our plates away. "And if he's an ass to you be an ass back, he likes a bit of fight." I then walked to my room to get my phone when I walked in on Indy looking at photo on my bedside. I fake coughed and she jumped out of her skin.
"Oh my god, Ashley, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to be in here, I just." Whilst she babbled I looked at the photo she was looking at and it was the one of Bucky and Steve. I still have that photo after all these years. And the dogtags. Can't forget the dogtags. "I'm sorry I was just curious" I smiled at her and walked next to her.
"It's fine, Indy." I smiled at her and she smiled back.
"Are they Bucky and Steve? Your old best friends?" She asked and I nodded.
"Never got rid of the photo. Didn't want to." I said looking at it and seeing their smiles. I missed them terribly.
"I understand. I read about them and they meant a lot to you. One more than another" She nudged me and I smiled to myself. "He never knew did he?"
"No. I regret not telling him now" I felt tears come into my eyes again and Indy pulled me into a hug. I need to stop crying and get over them but I just can't. They meant everything to me and living in this world without them has been hell. But I made it through, for them.
"I ship you two ya know?" I rolled my eyes as Indy ships anyone. And yes I know what shipping is. She told me about it. "I just thought you too would be the best couple both being super soldiers and all. He seemed like a good guy."
"Oh he was the best. Now, let's go see Tony." I put on a smile and dragged Indy out. We walked out and got into my car.
It didn't take long for us to get there. We both got out and headed for the house. Jarvis let us in and told us he was in the basement with Pepper. I laughed as he's always there. Indy followed me down and we looked to see Pepper and Tony sharing a kiss. I was happy for them but I wanted tp puke.
"Okay, when did this happen?" I asked making them jump apart.
"What happen?" Tony tried to act innocent.
"You and Pepper."
"Oh. Umm last night." He said and Pepper nodded.
"Aww you guys. It's about time." I said hugging both Pepper and Tony.
"Glad to know you like us as I didn't think, who's that?" He asked pointing to Indy who was just stood there.
"Oh, Tony this is Indusha, or Indy. She's my hallway buddy. Indy this is-"
"Tony Stark. Hi, Ashley's told me a lot about you." She interrupted me stepping foreword and shaking hands with Tony.
"Oh has she now?" he looked at me and I shrugged my shoulders. "Well I hope they're all good things." He smiled at her.
"Oh you can guarantee that" She smiled and they laughed. They'll get along just fine.
"And I'm just gunna say I'm sorry about the whole party thing I was crazy and stupid-"
"Apology accepted." She smiled and he thanked her.
"So, do you guys wanna go out for something to eat, to talk?" Pepper stepped foreword and we nodded liking that idea. "Okay, let's go." She smiled and I linked arms with Indy as we made our way out. It's been a busy few days here and I can't wait to just sit back and relax before going back to shield. I wonder what will happen for me in the next couple of days.
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A.N So Iron Man 2 is DONE! I'm sorry if it's a really long chapter but I really wanted to get this bit done to go to the Steve chapters. There will be one more chapter on Tony and Ashley before we go to Steve. It involves her ageing.
This would have been up sooner but my birthday was yesterday so I went to London and did all tourist things. It was really fun.
I will get onto the next chapter soon it's just the World Cup starts tomorrow and my whole family can't wait. I'm also going away for the weekend to watch my sister play tennis. I didn't wanna go but I had to as my dad is on night shifts so I couldn't stay at home alone. I'll try and updated Monday or Tuesday.
Please comment and vote as I love seeing you guys love this.
- Emma x