Innocent Bystander | T. Stark ✔️

eighteen ▼ a test flight

Getting Tony home from the hospital was an altogether exasperating experience. He couldn't get out fast enough. When they finally arrived at the mansion after a ride filled with Tony's subtle please for Juliet to drive faster, he immediately made his way to the lab.

"Aren't you going to eat something?" The nurse called after him as she hung her coat over the back of a chair.

"Later," he called over his shoulder before disappearing down the stairs. A moment later he reappeared. "Actually, I need you down here for a second, Jules."

Juliet made the familiar walk from the living room down to the lab. Tony was waiting expectantly for her next to a suit she had only seen once before, on the day Stark Industries was attacked.

"I've been working on it here and there for a while," he said, eyeing the suit with pursed lips before turning back to her. "I call it Rescue. It's all yours."

Her mouth dropped open and she approached to better examine it. There had been modifications made to it since she last saw it; it looked less like a prototype and more like a working model.

The form of the suit was different than the ones Tony wore. It had a slimmer form, less height and appeared to be heavily guarded. She guessed it had been made more with the intention of defense than offense.

"The bracelet will still call it to you if you ever need it."

"When did you have the time?" She asked, still in awe by it.

Tony shrugged. "When we thought extremis wasn't going to be a problem any more I had some free time. So," he turned to her with a wide smile. "Wanna go for a test drive?"

It was hard to forget the circumstances that out her in the suit last time, but curiosity won over her.

"Nothing too fancy. I had about four bowls of cereal at the hospital this morning, not to mention the jumbo muffin-"

"We'll take it easy," Tony assured her. He moved to the perimeter of the lab where a half dozen suits lined the wall. One of them was propelled forward on a platform before opening for him to step into. The Rescue suit opened as well.

Adjusting her glasses, Juliet held her arms out at her sides and stepped into the suit. There was a series of clicks and whirrs around her as the wove itself together and left her in darkness for only a second before several displays lit up in front of her.

"Everything is in order," the voice of Jarvis said over her ear piece.

The roof of the lab retracted to reveal a sky spotted with white clouds. The sun glared down at them, reflecting off the suits.

"Take it slow at first," Tony's voice filtered through the communication systems between the suits.

Right on command, the suit lifted an inch and then another into the air. It wobbled as Juliet fought to find balance. Her arms stretched out to the sides in an attempt to use the hand thrusters to gain stability as she continued to rise.

Gradually gaining speed, Juliet emerged out of the lab in the open air. She looked to her right to the see the ocean falling farther and farther away from her. Tony appeared beside her. He floated just higher than her, almost taunting her to out do him.

Juliet grew comfortable quickly. The suit had plenty of back up settings to catch her mistakes and keep her from plummeting to the ground. She loved the rush she felt from the speed and the height. It was almost intoxicating.

Testing her limits, she jetted straight up into the air, feeling her momentum grow.

Black spots began to form in her vision and a numb feeling blanketed her. She tried to gulp down air only to find that she couldn't get enough.

She was only barely aware of the voices of Tony and Jarvis in her comms. The suit took over, reverting to auto controls and piloted her to the lab in a swift movement. When it landed and opened her limp body spilled out into Tony's waiting arms. She gasped for air, unable to focus on anything but her need to breathe. The starbursts that clouded her sight grew before fully submerging her in the darkness of unconsciousness.