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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
- 7
- 8
- 9
Chapter 8: Bad Ideas
“Living easy, living free. Season ticket on a one way ride.” Highway to Hell by AC/DC
Two weeks from the day Tony picked her up in New York, Four emerged from a section of his garage she had prepared for sandblasting. It’d taken her a day to get the area to her specifications. Tony had spent that prepping his bots and tinkering with an gauntlet for the Mark VII. He knew she hadn’t even thought to use his systems for anything but minor assistance. They basically fabricated the Iron Man suit with JARVIS, so a little sandblasting was actually below their pay grade.
“Is it Halloween for robots?” She had her head cocked to the side a bit examining Butterfinger’s outfit.
“Nope. They’re suited up for an important mission.” He stepped back. “JARVIS take the specs on the Mustang chassis and run through the sandblasting protocol with U and Butterfingers.
Four’s eyes went wide. “Hey!”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’m supposed to be working for you, not having your bots do it,” Four protested.
“This is easy work. Believe me, it’s not the first time they’ve done this. They can do it faster than you can anyway.” Tony wiped his hands off and ignored Four‘s scoff. “Besides, I have an errand to run and you’re coming with me.”
“What the hell Captain C? I don’t remember running errands with you being in my contract.” She was cute when she got indignant.
“It was there, somewhere. Fine print,” he murmured. When she looked skeptical, he pouted. “Come on Four. You’ve been here for two weeks. Fresh air, sunlight, you’re in Malibu for Christ’s sake. You haven‘t even used the pool.” He eyed her up and down. “I was hoping to see you in a swimsuit. String bikini? Thong?” He guessed. He didn’t think getting her out of the lab would be this difficult. Jesus was this how Rhodey felt?
“I didn’t bring a swimsuit,” she sassed.
“Oh, skinny dipping. Nice.” He leered at her.
She rolled her eyes. “I thought the point of coming to Malibu was to stay out of sight of shady government characters? Wouldn’t going out in public with you ruin that?”
“The point,” Tony made his way over to her and took her arm, “is not the point. JARVIS has a ninety two percent probability Agent Fischer is a dirty fake. Which means unless you agree to contact SHIELD,” he paused and waited for the shake of her head he knew would happen, “We’re at a dead end. You know what dead ends are good for? Course corrections.” He continued to steer her toward the stairs.
“But,” she looked back toward the garage and Tony tugged her up the steps.
“Nope. Go. Take a shower. Change. Do whatever it is you women do with your hair.”
“There’s nothing wrong with my hair,” she protested.
Tony talked over her, “Get you’re weekly update from your shop monkey.”
“Hay is not a monkey!”
“Meet me in the kitchen in twenty.” He’d managed to tug her all the way upstairs and was herding her toward her bedroom.
She stopped before her door and turned to him. “Does this mean when you’ve been in the lab for two days I can manhandle you out?”
Tony blinked at her, “No.” He headed toward his own bedroom. There were plans he had in motion and he needed her temporarily out of the lab for them. U and Butterfingers may spend the day sandblasting, but Dum-E had an extra special mission. Bonus was that Tony got to spend the day with an attractive, intelligent woman.
“You are a menace!” Four called after him.
He pointed at her over his shoulder. “Twenty minutes.”
……………………………….........................................................................
Stark’s errand ended up being lunch out at a Mexican restaurant. Just before they left JARVIS had announced Pepper Potts was calling. Stark dragged Forge out of the house so fast she couldn’t even grab her purse. It didn’t stop Miss. Potts though.
Before they’d even gotten in the Audi Stark’s cell had started ringing. Forge wouldn’t have paid too much attention to him sending the call to voicemail if the phone hadn’t immediately started ringing again. Eventually Stark had told JARVIS to hold all his calls, as he was ‘pretending to be Rhodey,’ and thus not actually the person whoever was calling him was trying to reach.
A little under two hours later they had ended up back at his house, on the couch together watching Sky High, and picking at a left over container of churros. Forge wondered if she shouldn’t be more freaked out by how comfortable she was getting with Stark.
JARVIS had interrupted them mid-movie with an announcement that Miss. Potts had left an urgent message. Stark had responded by muting JARVIS. Forge thought that was kind of mean, but the fight to rescue the citizen came on and she was sucked back into the movie.
They were at the end of the movie when Stark turned to her and announced, “You’re Layla.”
Forge knew her face said ‘what the fuck?’ “I am not Layla,” she denied.
He bumped her shoulder with his. “Girl has powers. Girl refuses to use said powers to their full potential. Girl finally bucks up and uses awesome powers to kick ass.” He pointed a sugar covered finger at her. “Layla.”
He may have had a point but she wasn’t going to tell him that. “Does that make you Ron Wilson, bus driver?”
“What?” He yelped.
They started to bicker; Stark trying to claim the role of Will Stronghold and Forge finally talked over him. “Yes. Man has no powers. Man suddenly comes into powers. Man uses said powers to fight off giant robots for the mayor.” She watched him open and close his mouth. “You,” she laughed, “are Ron Wilson, bus driver.”
“That’s,” he stuttered a bit, “completely different. I didn‘t fall into toxic waste.”
“And I am not a flower wielding sidekick,” Forge declared.
He sucked the sugar off his finger and wiggled his eyebrows at her. “You could be my hero support.”
“No,” Forge warned. “Get that idea right out of your head.”
He hummed at her with those twinkling eyes. People should fear those more, she thought. Everyone just thought they were charming, but she knew what they meant. “I have people after me.” She reminded him sternly. “I do not need to be super hero moonlighting. I am not a superhero!”
Tony smiled his genuine smile at her. “Layla.”
Forge threw herself back against the cushions, but flinched a second later when Stark poked her in the side. “What?”
“Tomorrow, nine a.m. Come to the gym with me,” he ordered.
She rolled her neck to look at him and frowned. “That’s Happy time,” she protested.
He grinned again. “Happy can get you started on some small stuff while I hit other areas. If you’re going to have people after you, it wouldn’t hurt to know a bit of hand to hand.”
Forge eyed him suspiciously. This sounded like the beginnings of a master plan she didn’t like. She opened her mouth to protest but Stark beat her to it.
“Powers are great, and I think you might have the punching down,” he said ruefully. “But you could use some work on dodging.”
She was still reluctant when he added in, “The sandblasting won’t be done until later anyway, so you have a free morning.”
“What if I wanted to get into the pool? You were so adamant about me trying it out earlier,” she teased.
His eyes darkened. “I thought you said you didn’t bring a suit.”
“Well you’ll be busy all morning.”
“I’d make an exception. Happy would understand,” he murmured.
Forge made a face at him.
“How about you go to the gym with me, and then we get in the hot tub afterward?” He purred at her. “You might be sore. I could rub your back again.”
She groaned. “I knew you were never going to let me live that down.”
“You need to loosen up.” He winked at her. “I don’t bite.”
Forge didn’t believe him for a second. “That’s a filthy lie and we both know it.”
Tony laughed.
“What next,” Forge asked. “Meet the Robinsons, or The Incredibles?”
Their easy camaraderie was broken by the sound of heels clicking on the floor.
Forge turned to see the CEO frowning at them.
“Pepper,” Tony greeted. He paused to unmute JARVIS. “Come to join the movie marathon?”
His voice sounded strained. Sure, Forge had only been around him for two weeks but she’d spent countless hours listening to him talk with the bots, or JARVIS. or bantering with her and Happy. Things must not have ended as amicably as the magazines claimed.
“Actually, I came to discuss the Stark Expo reopening ceremony with you.”
Oh, Forge thought, business, business talk. She grabbed a napkin from the table, the same napkins Stark had been gleefully ignoring, and wiped the sugary mess off her hands.
“I’m going to head down to the lab.” Stark made to protest but Forge plowed ahead. “It’s not a big deal. You have real, real job details to work out, and I have to make sure the bots haven’t set up their own government and declared Dum-E supreme leader.”
Stark cracked a grin. “It would be Dum-E.”
Forge turned to Miss. Potts. “I’ll leave His Unruliness to you. Have fun.”
Pepper Potts nodded in a distracted way, frown still on her face.
Forge swore she could feel eyes on her as she made her way to the top of the basement steps. She was beginning to think that woman didn’t like her.
……………………………….........................................................................
Down in the secret sanctum Forge peeked into the corner she’d set up for sandblasting. U and Butterfingers were still at it.
“Hey Mr. JARVIS, can you give me an estimated time of completion for the sandblasting sequence?”
“Of course Miss Maddix. Sequence should be completed in nineteen hours. Would you like to schedule the priming protocol to follow upon completion?”
“You have one of those?” Forge’s eyebrows shot up.
“Yes Miss.”
“Wow. I feel like I’m not earning my pay check.” Forge dithered about it a minute, but flash rust was a bad, bad thing. She sighed. “Yeah, go ahead and schedule that please Mr. JARVIS. I don’t want to take a chance.”
“Priming protocol has been scheduled, Miss.”
“Thank you Mr. JARVIS.”
Forge moved over to her desk intending to boot up her computer when she caught sight of what was laying on her worktop. She stared, and blinked, but there continued to be a half assembled Iron Man gauntlet sitting on her desk in front of her keyboard.
“Um,” she drug the sound out, “Mr. JARVIS? Why is there a piece of the Iron Man tech at my work station?”
“I believe Sir was working on it between retrofitting for the sandblasting protocol.”
“Oh,” Forge started at the piece with her brows furrowed. Her keyboard was wireless, maybe she could just move it? Afraid she might bump the piece and somehow make it break into a million pieces causing untold science angst, she carefully reached behind it and got a grip on her keyboard. When she finally placed the board down to the right of her monitor she breathed a sigh of relief.
She looked back at the unfinished gauntlet, letting her eyes linger on all the interesting tidbits she could make out. “Damn,” she muttered in appreciation. “Science to the nth power.” She shook her head. So cool.
Cracking her neck Forge shifted the angle of the monitor and booted up her computer. The first thing to flash on the screen was the blueprint for the gauntlet. She pulled back from the screen a little in shock. “What the hell is going on?” She muttered to herself.
“Mr. JARVIS,” Forge sing song-ed, “I don’t think I have clearance for what’s on my monitor. You might want to remind Captain C to be a little bit more careful with his extra special toys.”
“Actually Miss,” and she swore the AI sounded amused, “Your security clearance is sufficient for all content present at your work station.”
Forge went still at that. “Really?”
“Yes, Miss.”
“Well that’s,” she trailed off. She had clearance to see the blueprints for a piece of the Iron Man armor? Not just a piece, but a new piece. Upgraded tech. Forge wasn’t sure how she felt about that. On the one hand, the idea Tony trusted her enough to leave out pieces of something she knew he guarded like Smaug did dwarf treasure, made her feel all warm and fuzzy. On the other, she wanted to scold him for being so lax with security. She’d been here for two weeks.
“I’m not going to hurt anything if I minimize the program with the blueprints right Mr. JARVIS?”
“No, Miss.”
She clicked to minimize the window and then pulled up her own program for project tracking. “Thank you,” she hummed.
That man. Forge shook her head and entered the information about estimated completion time for the sandblasting. When she’d started working in the lab two weeks before, Stark had been like a third grader guarding a test when he remembered she was around; all elbows down around his work and side eyeing her.
She’d perved on the Iron Man armor from the corner of her eyes a few times, but she tried not to be weird about it. Forge knew what it felt like to have someone want to poke around inside you and figure out how you worked. The armor might not be a part of Stark’s actual body, but she got it. So, she wasn‘t offended. Years of wanting nothing but people to mind their own business when it came to her, bred the habit of minding her nosiness around others. Hay would‘ve said it made her shut people out.
After the experience with FOKUS she could admit that yeah, that was probably true. Stark had been pretty good about his own curiosity. He certainly wasn’t malicious about it. If anything he was trying to get her to be more open about it, accept her uniqueness. Whatever. Unique is great, until it’s not.
Still, the gauntlet sitting at her station could have been absent mindedness. She didn’t think so though. Especially not with the blueprints up on her computer. If she had blueprints for how her body worked she would never bring them up on a computer someone else was using unless she trusted them.
“Mr. JARVIS,” Forge called.
“What can I do for you Miss. Maddix.”
“Is Tony trying to find out if I’m trustworthy?” Once it was out of her mouth she felt like a fool for asking the man’s personal AI about his creator’s motives. Forge dropped her head in her hands and groaned.
“Mr. Stark’s motives are not always clear.”
She gave a skeptical hum. “That was a non answer.”
The AI remained silent. Yup, Stark was totally testing her. Forge bit her lip. “Do you think I’m trustworthy, Mr. JARVIS?” She really wanted the AI’s opinion. So far he seemed like a good judge of character.
There was no hesitation in his answer this time, like he was trying to make up for his earlier avoidance. “I do indeed, Miss.”
“And that is why you are the Candyman,” she muttered. Forge drummed her fingers lightly on the keyboard.
She’d had a lot of heavy thoughts dropped on her and her mind was firmly out of work mode. Good intentions aside, temptation was sitting on her work station. A part of her mind was already cataloguing the schematics and itching to finish assembly on the gauntlet. Talk about metal art.
She wanted to process and that happened best lately when she was jogging. Bonus it would get her away from eventually breaking and messing with the tech. Tapping her feet she wondered if she could sneak by the two in the living room.
Forge glanced at the Iron Man gauntlet again and exited out of her program. Whatever, they were just talking business stuff. She could skirt through the room and be up the stairs in thirty seconds flat. Tiptoeing in the background like a vaudeville villain was a better embarrassed then Stark finding her mid-armor assembly cooing and stroking. Forge shuddered at the fodder that would give him. Decision made Forge opened the security door to leave the lab and a wall of sound rolled down to her.
From up the stairs she could hear a female voice she knew was Pepper Potts yell, “You can’t leave her here, Tony! JARVIS is not enough to stop her stealing your tech if you are on the other side of the country!”
Oh, Forge thought a little numbly. Yeah. Pepper Potts did not like her.
- 7
- 8
- 9
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The Forge