Shadow of the Past (Captain America) // ✔️ //

Chapter 1: Shadow of the Past

She was pissed. How dare he talk to her like that? Who in the hell did he think he was? He didn't treat Agent Romanoff like this, so why was he treating her like his? She could take care of herself; she had been taking care of herself for years. She didn't need anyone and she really didn't need him. She didn't even know why she was even on this team. Director Fury didn't want her on the team to begin with. He thought she was egoist and riskless, which was true, but she was dying at the time. It still bugged her that he used that to judge her.

Shaking her head, Antonia Stark took a deep breath. She wasn't going to let Rogers, no wait, Captain America, get to her. Though she wondered, why was he getting to her in the first place? His insults weren't the first and she knew damn well, they wouldn't be the last, so why did they hit so hard? Why did she care what he thought? If she really thought about it, she knew the answer. Her mind wandered to her father, and how her father talked about him. She knew Captain America was important to her father because he had never shut up about the man. So if someone well-liked by her father hated her, what did that say about her relationship with her deceased father? She didn't have a relationship with her father, and it hurt to know Captain America meant more to her father than she. Why did her father hate her?

As she took a deep breath, Antonia told herself to calm down. She tried to focus her mind on something else, because she didn't want to think about her father and her lonely childhood, a childhood that still gave her nightmares.

"Fuck!" she swore as she burnt her hand on the torch. She suddenly dropped the torch as she waved her burnt hand into the air, trying to cool it. After a few seconds, she remembered that the torch was still on. "FUCK!" Without thinking, Antonia reached down to turn it off. She fumbled with it as her hand hurt like hell. She didn't need her tower to burn down. "Fuck!" She cursed as she realized which part of the torch she had grabbed. She had picked up the metal mouth with her already burnt hand. "Fuck!" After she had set down the torch, she stared at her hand for a second, watching it turn deep red before reaching for the first aid. She knew this was her fault as she allowed her mind to drift.

"Are you okay, Miss?" The AI, known as JARVIS, asked. "I can alert someone."

"I'm fine," she muttered. "You don't need to call anyone. I got this." She didn't want him to call anyone, because she didn't need anyone. She was fine on her own as she would always be.

Antonia, after wrapping her hand, returned to her work. The wrench hurt as she held it in her burnt hand, but she wanted to work on the device, which could fit in her small hands, in front of her. The device, when operational, should be able to shut down all electronics within a 10 foot range. If it worked, she would increase the range to 25 feet or more, but she couldn't get it to work right. It fried electronics and reverse, which she couldn't understand how, the time on her clock by 15 minutes each time it fuzzed. That wasn't what she wanted.

Apart of her didn't want it to work, as it could be used as a weapon. This world ran on power, and to suddenly take that, there would be massive panic. The world could be thrown into darkness. She didn't want to think about the consequences if this got out. So why was she building this? She thought she was out of the weapon business. Shaking her head, she told herself this wasn't a weapon. It was a shield for her team, when they went on dangerous missions. She wouldn't let anyone outside of the Avengers get their hands on it.

"Miss Potts is requesting entry."

Glancing back, Antonia held back her scowl as Pepper smiled at her. Note to self, replace glass doors with metal ones. She had no idea why she thought glass doors were a smart idea, because it made it exceptionally hard to hide. "I'm surprise she doesn't just use the code." Pepper was one of the few people, who had code for the door.