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The Forge	By : IndigoMiko Category: Marvel Verse Movies > Iron Man (all) > Iron Man (all) Views: 1688 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Iron Man, X-Men, Avengers, or any other Marvel verse property. I also don't make any money from writing this. All I do is wile away my free time kicking things around inside my head. It's a mess up there.

Chapter List
- 10
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- 12
Disclaimer: I do not own Iron Man. His shiny metal butt belongs to Marvel. I also do not own Gary Jules. The shininess of his butt remains in question.
Chapter 11: The Other End of the Line
“The dreams in which I’m dying are the best I’ve ever had. I find it hard to tell you. I find it hard to take. When people run in circles it’s a very, very mad world.” Mad World Gary Jules
Friday
During the call with Happy, Tony heard Pepper’s heels walking away. She did that well. When the front door closed behind her, Tony felt like his emotions caught back up with his thoughts. He swallowed a few times around the ball of pissed off in his throat.
It hadn’t been enough for Pepper that he had committed to her, she had wanted him to change completely. She left him when he wouldn’t, and then continued to muck around in his personal life like she had a say. He and Four were building trust between them. Then Pepper came and rattled both their cages.
After the red head had left, Four had crossed the living room and sat herself on the other side of the counter from him. He watched her drum her fingers on the bar top.
“When did you want me to pick Miss Four up?” Happy asked, bringing Tony out of his thoughts.
“Tonight, please Happy.” Four broke in. Tony could see that she was frowning, her jaw tight. “Now, if you can.”
“Sure,” Happy sounded like he was already moving. “I’ll be there in twenty.”
“Thank you, Happy,” Four‘s shoulders were slumped. She looked like she had lost the argument instead of ending it. It made him even more angry with his CEO.
Tony rubbed a hand across his forehead. “Thanks, Happy. You‘re a good sport,” he added in. He knew Happy wouldn’t hang up without the safety phrase.
Tony continued to watch Four until she looked up at him. He wondered what the hell was going through her head.
“I’m sorry,” she was frowning. “I didn’t think this would mess your life up as much as it has.”
Tony‘s life had been messed up for a long time before Four came around. He scoffed and reached across the bar top to grab a hold of her hand. Startled blue eyes raised to his. “This is not your fault. You haven’t messed my life up, Four.”
“You were holding off business meetings to deal with my crap.” Her brows pinched together.
“No,” Tony disagreed. “I cleared my schedule for a month. Something that was perfectly fine, until my CEO decided to go around me and schedule meetings.”
“She’s right though,” Four argued. “The reopening of the Expo is super important and you not going is me messing with your real, real job.”
Tony gave a little tug on her hand, “And I would have went. You would have been just fine here hanging out with JARVIS.”
She smiled a little. “We would have had a house party. I would have made Dum-E a hat.”
For a moment his brain ran away with him and he got distracted in his thoughts. Her voice reminded him they were in the middle of something.
“It doesn’t freak you out? What I said?”
He felt his eyebrows go up and he hummed in question. “What? About the you killing me?”
Four gave him a wry look. “That’s kind of a big thing.”
Tony grinned. “I knew you could do that before I walked into your shop.” He shook his head. “Besides, I’m Iron Man. I could wait until you’re distracted and blast you with the suit. Hell, I could wait until you fall asleep and shoot you with a gun. I am just as capable as you are of doing horrible shit with the things I can do.” Tony took a breath. “I have done horrible shit with the things I can do. It’s why I’m Iron Man to begin with.”
He watched her pretty mouth drop open and Tony stood up to walk around the counter. He pulled her up out of her seat and into his arms. “You go have your girl time with Happy if you want, but I’m not locking you out of this house or the lab.” He made sure he caught and held her gaze. “What I‘m saying is, you don‘t have to go.”
“But Miss. Potts…”
Tony cut her off again. “Are you going to go joy ride in my suits while I‘m gone?”
“What? No, I wouldn’t,” she stuttered.
“Good choice. Probably wouldn’t be very comfortable in the chest area.” He leaned back from the hug and dropped his eyes to leer a bit.
He could tell she didn’t buy his playful flirting. “Why are you doing this?”
“Because you shouldn’t have to worry about people being afraid of you, or hunting you down, just because you can do something spectacular. You shouldn‘t feel like you have to hide.” He closed the distance between them again and kissed her on the temple before releasing her. He needed to head down to the lab. Four would go or stay, but Tony had work to do.
Once he was back down in the basement he got started. “JARVIS. Bring up the applications for my assistant.”
“Yes, sir.” Was it his imagination or did JARVIS sound like he approved.
Tony glanced at Four’s workstation and saw the gauntlet for the Mark VII right where he’d left it. He clenched his jaw. Tony had made his decision about Four. Pepper could deal with it.
He spent the rest of the night in the lab combing through applications, looking for the right combination to deal with his shit. He found it five minutes before he was due to be on the plane for take off.
………………………………...................................................................
Tony didn’t bother to answer Pepper’s calls. He knew she was only going to tear into him about being late for the flight. It was only by a half an hour. He’d been much later for much more trivial things.
JARVIS had informed him when Four had left the house. He was a bit disappointed. A quick call to Happy made sure the man knew to bring her back Monday, and also got him the information on the hotel in case he had to go drag her out. She didn’t know it, but she wasn’t paying for a damn thing while she was there.
Tony had settled back into his chair, sunglasses over his eyes, to catch a quick nap when JARVIS spoke up from the phone in his breast pocket.
“Sir, the air bags have deployed in Mr. Hogan’s vehicle. An emergency call is connecting now.”
“Put it on speaker J.”
The first thing he heard over the line were Four and Happy yelling and car horns going off in the background.
“Happy?”
“Shit! Shit!” That was Happy.
“Happy what the hell is going on? Is this a code gold?!” Tony was already up out of his seat getting the Mark VI ready to go.
“What the fuck was that?” Four sounded pissed. After a moment she asked, “You good Happy?”
“Y..yeah,” he replied.
“Four? Would someone tell me what the hell is going on?” Tony was standing by the emergency exit now.
“You want to answer him Happy? I’m busy.” She sounded strained.
“Right,” Happy seemed to get himself together. “Got run off the bridge, boss. Big truck, a black diesel four by four. Should have some right front end damage. They smacked us out of no where.”
“Where are you?” He was starting to wonder if it was a case of bad Californian driving. Wait, did he say bridge? Before he could get any clarification they both started yelling again.
“Fuck!”
“Who the hell is that?” Happy cried.
Tony was in the suit by the time Four’s breathy answer of “Bad guys,” reached him. He hit the emergency latch and flew out of the plane.
“Stark,” Forge’s voice sounded shaky as hell. “Santa Clara River bed, underneath the Ventura Freeway Bridge. Hurry up. Happy I’m really sorry about this but those are plastic.”
“You can’t stop them?” Tony could hear Happy‘s worry.
“Not the darts, but let’s hope they’re stupid. This is going to be super uncomfortable for you, but if you can still shoot them, please do. Also just shoot a lot, bullets I can work with.”
He could hear the sound of twisting metal from their end. “Code gold,” Happy yelled. Yeah. Tony had already figured that out.
“Already on my way. Twelve minutes. JARVIS, give me everything you got.”
“Full power to thrusters.”
Over the still open connection Tony could hear a series of tearing metal sounds and then huge thuds and bangs. From far away he could hear faint yells and cries. It sounded like a damn war zone.
“Happy!? Four!? What the fuck is going on?” he called.
There was a loud crackle in the earpiece before Four’s voice came back. “Tony?” His heart almost stopped when she said his name. Jesus, she sounded terrified.
“Four, I’m on my way. Ten minutes.”
“Okay. Okay. Fuck. Happy and I are okay.” Tony could hear her whistling as she breathed. “There were guys here but, well they’re not a problem anymore. Should we move?”
“Can you see anyone else around you?” Tony asked, eyeing the distance to destination designator.
“We’re still in the car.” It sounded like she was dazed. There was more ripping metal and a echoing clang.
“What the hell was that?” Tony cried.
“Me. Getting out of the car.” She paused. “There are people on the bridge. I don’t know if its them.” Her voice started to crack and wobble. “People on the ground. I don’t know how many are alive.”
“A bunker,” Tony could hear Happy faintly.
“What?”
“Use the car against the bridge support to make a bunker.”
“Jesus Happy, that’s great. Okay.” Happy yelped. “Sorry, Happy.”
“What are you doing?” Tony wanted to keep her talking. She sounded like she was going into shock.
“Making a shield from the car against a bridge support. Out of sight of the people on the bridge.”
“Eight minutes out,” He assured.
“Happy can you talk for a minute? I just need to keep an eye out.” Four sounded like she was going to lose it.
Tony tried to keep her on the phone but before he could say anything Happy called out, “Boss?”
“Happy, talk to me buddy.” Tony demanded.
“We went off the side of the bridge.” It sounded like Happy sucked in a deep breath at that. “That woman is amazing. She saved our lives, Boss. Got us down to the bottom without a scratch. Had a welcoming party of a dozen guys waiting down here though. They had some type of plastic weapon Miss Forge said she couldn’t disable. She took them out. Extreme prejudice. The car’s a no save. She ripped it apart and used it as shrapnel. Has us wrapped up in pieces of it like armor. I can’t get a good look at her, this stuff doesn’t move easy. I don’t think we’re hurt, but she’s shaken pretty hard.”
“Almost there, two minutes.”
“Sir, decelerate now or you will overshoot the destination.”
Tony cut the thrusters, and let JARVIS take over the flaps. He could see the bridge and the crowd of people on it now. He landed a bit heavy next to a lump of twisted metal braided around a bridge support.
A flood of information entered the HUD. Four and Happy were wrapped head to toe in black metal that molded to their bodies like the one she had worn back at the expo. There were a dozen men on the ground thirty two yards away. JARVIS was storing a magnified and enhanced image of their weaponry.
Tony turned his attention to Four when she dropped to the ground and woodenly started to peel the metal covering her hands off.
“Keep the metal on till I check on these guys,” Tony commanded.
“Okay,” Four breathed, closing her eyes. “Okay.” He watched her shake and try to breathe.
“Sir, Miss. Potts’ is calling you.”
“On the emergency number?”
“No, sir.”
Tony moved away to peered down at the splay of bodies. They were all dead. Though not all, it looked, by Four or Happy’s hand. “Answer it and take the call for me would you JARVIS.”
“Of course, sir.”
Tony took pictures of the bodies to examine later for identifying marks or logos. He noted at least two of them seemed to have foam on the corners of their mouths, suggesting they’d died from poison.
Before he sunk into the work needed for them to vacate the scene he saw Four from the corner of his eye. She’d come to stand over the pile of bodies. Her eyes flicked from one to the other, before she bent down and picked up one of the weapons.
“You can take the metal off you and Happy now, Four.”
All he got in reply was a soft okay, and then she was walking back toward Happy. The metal around her hands and arms dropping off piece by piece, leaving a trail behind her.
………………………………....................................................................
Four didn’t fight him on going back to the Malibu house instead of the hotel. Over the time he was working on the site she seemed to slowly come out of her shock. Tony repeatedly saw her looking at the guys on the ground. Each time her expression grew more pinched.
Happy would be staying the night as well. Tony needed to get as much information from them as possible. He’d had everything from the hotel forwarded to his house, and gotten Happy and Four up to the road and into a cab, before SHIELD bothered showing up. Then he’d been stuck at the site even longer.
JARVIS had given him confirmation thirty minutes ago that Four and Happy had settled in the living room. Of all the shitty timing, a pissed off Pepper was there as well.
When he came up the stairs from the lab he could hear an intense but hissed conversation coming from the sofa; Pepper and Happy. He scanned the lounge and saw Four, bottle of rum propped against her thigh, sitting on the floor cross legged in front of the big windows. As he watched she took a swig and ignored everything else around her.
He approached her first. “How are you doing?”
“That’s a stupid question.”
He nodded. Yeah it kind of was. “We need to talk about what happened.”
She hummed a sound of agreement. “You want bullet points?” It was said a little caustically.
“Anything.”
She sighed and starting going over the day again from the morning on. “Happy and I were never going to pancake. I have enough control to stop a fall.” She explained, then paused for another drink. “They knew that. They had people waiting with special sedative laced dart guns I‘ve come across before. The whole unconsciousness problem,” she waved a hand.
Tony nodded. Fixing that problem just became a top priority for him.
“I took them out. You showed up. I assume the guy who hit us got away.”
“Yeah,” Tony sat on the floor next to her and grabbed the bottle of rum. He had a feeling that what he asked next would be a painful question for her. “The dart guns. Where did you run into them before?” He took a swig and then handed the bottle back.
She grimaced. “Ever hear of Sprung Heel, Texas?”
Tony frowned and tried to remember. “Not really,” and that town hadn’t come up in her background check.
She let out a long sigh. “In ‘96 Sprung Heel, Texas was destroyed by what the government called a group of extremist mutants.” Tony didn’t like where this was going. He noticed that Pepper and Happy had gone quiet. “What really happened was a bunch of really angry mutants escaped from a group called FOKUS. The Fellowship Of Kindness, Understanding, and Sanctuary.” She gave a little chuckle and took another drink. “Should have raised red flags with the name alone right?
“Their front was a therapy office specializing in mutations. What they were really doing was looking for mutants they could exploit. If they deemed you uncontrollable then they kidnapped you and locked you up so their scientists could try to figure out how you worked.
“They let you talk in therapy until they knew enough about you to take you down and contain you. That dart gun, all plastic like that. The FOKUS group built that especially for me.” Tony was starting to feel sick to his stomach. How long had these people had a hold of her?
“I was living on a ranch working for an older couple at the time. The woman, Judy, asked me to go to the store for her.” She shook her head. “When I got to the grocery I didn’t even make it all the way out of my car before I had a dart sticking out of my chest.” She took a quick swig of the rum and swallowed hard. “I spent three days in a plastic cell getting experiment on until some new idiot guard walked in wearing boots with grommets on them.” Tony could see her jaw flex. “After that a lot of people died.”
A very unwanted voice from across the room spoke up. “I thought you said you hadn’t killed anyone.”
“Fuck, Pepper,” Tony swore.
Four raised her head and glared at Pepper. “I didn’t kill anyone then. I just busted out the pissed off mutants that did.” She took a huge swallow then. “The moral of the story, kiddies,” she said snidely toward Pepper, “Is that those dart guns should no longer exist. I had at least a dozen mutants behind me wreaking havoc. When I left that place it was caved in and burning.”
Tony took the bottle from her again and drank. Christ, the world was a fucked up place. “There were computers and the internet back then too, you know.” He pointed out as he passed the bottle back. “You’re escape might not have been as clean as you thought it was.
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