Avengers - Time Rift: Iron Maiden

Chapter 12 - Here Comes the Doom

Tony walked into the gym and pulled a chair up next to the treadmill rubbing his chin "So, you want to talk about it or are you just going to ignore it until shit hits the fan?" he asked. Tonya looked down at him not breaking stride "No idea what you're talking about." she replied flatly. Stark crossed his legs with a slight sigh "I know you're smarter than I am but don't think I'm an idiot. Running at over fifty miles an hour for two hours at a time, those sadistic extended leg pull ups with an additional three hundred pounds of weight and all the time working on your armor, mainly the power output and feedback systems of the reactor. Somethings going on and since I haven't heard of any nuclear power lifting triathlons happening I thought maybe talking things out might help. At least give me the courtesy of not acting like I'm a half-wit that will buy 'nothing' as an acceptable answer". Tonya looked at the engineer out of the corner of her eye "Fair enough. It's none of your damn business." she panted as she picked up the pace of her run "It's a 'what if' situation, don't worry about it". Stark stood up and leaned against the front of the treadmill "If it was a 'what if' situation" he accentuated the phrase making the quotation motion with his fingers "you wouldn't be pushing yourself so hard to be ready for it". He tapped his finger on the control panel of the machine as he stood upright "And you wouldn't still be knocking over drug dealers". Tonya raised an eyebrow "I'm not. I'm knocking over meth labs and crack houses. There's a difference". Tony frowned as he shook his head "Semantics. Point being you're worried about money and with what I pay you it's not short term and since I won't fire you that means you're worried about income in the future because you don't think there will be any. I can only see one situation that brings all our freaky little factors together". Tonya put her ear plugs in, her stare boring right through Stark as she ran "Like I said, none of your business" her voice was all but emotionless. Tony headed to the door pausing for a moment as he looked over his shoulder "Just don't forget you're not alone anymore, you have a team behind you, friends ... family. Don't go doing anything stupid until we get a chance to play too". Stark stepped into the hall closing the door to the gym behind him and leaned heavily against the wall "She might be smarter but I've always been unparalleled when it comes to loop holes. Jarvis, find me a way to block her sensor array and lock her out of communications. I'd say find a way to lock her lab down but she'd just chew through the door or something. I need you to be smarter than Juliet on this one big J, don't blow it or you're going to be repurposed as a solitaire app for a teenagers smart phone". Jarvis replied through the blue tooth "I'll start on that right away Sir. Does the solitaire position come with less empty threats and exposure to circus animal and midget porn? I might be interested". Tony made his way toward the elevator to his lab "Just get on it and pull up the Dreadnought armor schematics ... I have the feeling I'm going to need it a lot sooner than we thought and I need to double the power load it can handle".

The next two weeks no one including Pepper saw Tony outside of his lab for more than a few minutes at a time, usually grabbing a sandwich or on his way back into his lab to work on what he just referred to as 'some stuff'. Coulson approached Tonya late in the afternoon as she stared out over the city from the edge of the helipad outside the hangar. "You know things don't always go the way we expect them too. Even when what we expect isn't all that great." he said as he moved to her side looking out at the skyline. Tonya nodded "It's better to expect the worst and hope for better. With the data packet we recovered from the satellite we only have one more to find and one Infinity Stone. Times getting short and Ultron knows it, it's gonna go down and soon". Phil looked over at her "And you think it's your job to stop him, all on your own?". She looked down to the street "I have something here to protect ... and I'll do anything to make sure that happens. Your team ... they all mean well but really, who else can do it?" her reply was soft and solemn. Phil mustered up a smile as he looked at her "I think you keep forgetting to look at the Avengers as a team not just the parts of the whole". "Yeah" Tonya said as she walked away "And my assessments the same. They'll try, they'll do the whole valiant heroic team effort thing ... then they'll fail and die and Ultron will wipe out humanity. The needs of the many and all that but thanks for the talk". Phil shouted with out looking back at her "Tony ... he worries you know". The girl's head dropped as she continued inside "I know, misplaced daddy syndrome. But there are some things even he can't fix".