The Seventh Avenger

Chapter 25: The Stark Expo

Both to Tony's and my delight, the new element and the new arc reactor worked magnificently. It hadn't taken me long to change into my S.H.I.E.L.D uniform and chuck my hair up into a ponytail at the back of my head. By the time I had done this and returned to the workshop, Tony had inserted the new arc reactor into his chest, despite the protests from Jarvis, who apparently hadn't finished running tests on the machinery when I returned. And I had scolded him for it, though Tony assured me that everything was working fine, and that he had felt better since he inserted into its place on his chest. And then it was time for him to suit up.

I had already seen him change into the armor during Monaco when he had first gone up against Ivan, though it appeared that the sight would never get old. I found myself staring wide eyed as his drones (which he had named Dummy) helped him put the suit on, the pieces of the armor fitting on to his body easily. Tony had smirked as he had seen my surprised and impressed expression, before the face of his mask had slapped down, concealing his face from me and leaving only the red and gold colored armor in front of me. The eyes of the face mask glowed a luminous white, as did the triangle shape that was in the center of the chest area of his chest. I soon averted my attention away from Tony and his suit in front of me however, as it suddenly dawned upon me that Nat and Pepper were going to be at the Expo that night.

Tony's face had paled considerably as I pointed this out to him, as we both realized that this meant that if Ivan were to attack the Expo like we suspected, then they were both in danger. So the next ten minutes after Tony had suited up, was filled with a flurry of phone calls to Nat, to Pepper, to Happy and I had even tried Rhodes upon the insistence of Tony, to try and get in contact with someone to warn them of what was possibly going to happen. But too our dismay, none of them answered their phones which then prompted Tony to try and call those who were running the expo tonight: though once again, our calls went unanswered. Which meant that we had to get to the Expo as fast as possible, so that we could prevent Ivan from attacking the Expo at all and expose Hammer, as well as turn him over to the authorities.

Soon after our attempted calls, we had grabbed some comms to place in our ears before we hurried up and outside of the house, where too my surprise Tony had told me to grasp onto his neck. Confused, I had asked him why he wanted me to do so, though I was surprised when he answered that it was so he could fly me from Malibu to New York. Then it was my time to smirk, as I told him that that probably wasn't necessary before I had then pushed off from the ground and hovered in the air, my smirk turning into a grin as Tony's jaw dropped in surprise as he realized that I could fly. And after giving him a quick rundown of how it was possible, the two of us were off and flying straight for New York. It had taken around six hours to make the journey, and I had to admit that there were at least two times where I did in fact have to ask Tony if the offer of me holding onto his back while he flew, was still up for grabs. Tony had initially freaked or a little as I admitted that I was tiring, though I assured him that I was fine. While using my powers normally didn't drain so much energy from me, they did when I was using them constantly for hours on end. But after enough rest, I was back at the flying again though Tony made sure to keep an eye on me.

I had stifled a gasp as the sight of the Stark Expo looming in front of us, the whole sight of the many buildings and crowds taking me by surprise. Though my surprise was soon replaced with a feeling of nervousness that settled in the bottom of my stomach at the sight of all the different people. A part of me actually couldn't believe what it was that I was about to do. Though another part of me also dreaded revealing myself to Pepper. If Tony had reacted as angrily as he had in finding out the truth, then how bad would Pepper react?

Tony seemed to sense my nervousness as he turned to me as we flew, and though I couldn't see his face underneath his mask, I could guess that he was most likely shooting me a wry smile. "You ready?"