Chapter 3: Key is ConfidenceSummary:Skye continues to assist Tony while hiding the fact she's 'The Predator', as her employer so eloquently puts it.
Also, meeting the president isn't easy.
Notes:Still takes place in Iron man 3. :)
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter TextSkye burped, a satisfied grin on her face as she carefully disposed of the soda can in the trash
Tony pats his chest and looks at himself in the mirror, half-twirling to get a better look at himself.
"Do I look fine? I think I look fine. Yeah, I look fine." He stammered as he adjusted his cap.
He borrowed one of Harley's father's clothes for two purposes. One to better blend into the cozy town as a local and the other reason being his blue shirt wasn't enough to combat the cold. Skye declines to borrow anything because she can pretty much warm herself up if she's desperate, and her clothes are enough to blend in. It was a good thing she changed out of her uniform since a skirt would probably chill her knickers.
The other important detail they need to stay as is is the news of him being dead.
Someone was still after him, so to prevent people from giving him much attention, he said he needed to stay low until he didn't need to anymore.
Not that she'll jeopardize that.
"What do you think?"
Skye looks him up and down before letting out another burp. It was amusing to see him so worked up about what he was wearing that she couldn't tell him that he looked like a common old southern man hiking for some trees in the backyard of the forest.
So she opted for a nod instead. "Fine, Mr Stark."
"Tony."
"Hm?" Skye asked, taken by surprise at the look he was giving her in the mirror.
He was technically still her, kind of, boss. Yet he seemed genuinely respectable and he gave that respect back to her.
"You can call me, Tony. Mr. Stark is a bit..."
Skye can imagine him being a troublesome boss to have around but loyal and true once he has considered you a friend. No doubt a good working environment for some if their ego wouldn't bounce about against his.
Skye chuckled as she understood what he meant. "Okay, Sir Tony."
"I don't know if that's better."
"Don't blame me; we have strict policies to address clients as formally as possible. My boss would yell at me again if I called you any more informally than needed."
"Sure. Whatever,"
They finished eating but decided to head on to town to investigate a previous incident that happened in Rose Hill.
Skye said she'd join the two once she was ready as she continued to type on the laptop, the keys flying away. It felt so natural to do it like she normally would; she hadn't taken into account that others don't type the way she does.
"You're good at that," he said over the clacking of keys. His eyes observed the 100-per-minute typing and squinted his eyes at her.
"Yeah." She smiled but left it at that.
He snorts but doesn't probe. "Anyway, I'll try and get you once I get us a car."
"Be safe, Sir," she said over her typing.
"Now you sound just like Jarvis."
"You're too kind." Tony rolled his eyes at her.
"That wasn't a compliment." Before leaving.
Skye begs to differ. Jarvis is a splendid AI. Highly competent, and if Jarvis played his cards right, he'd get upgrades by the dozen solely for his highly functioning program.
While they were away, Skye hacked into the news broadcast and read articles to find more information on who the Mandarin was.
In her opinion, he was as generic as they come. Dangerous all the same but really generic.
Beliefs so damn explosive it progenerates acts of violence as force majeure for the laws of man. Even if it's from force alone that the world would venerate them. Yet, the Mandarin felt so generic; she was having a hard time vouching for who he is as a person who terrorizes the masses.
A teacher, he eloquently puts it. Having lessons to mask his coercion. But too ostentatious as if she wasn't even looking at the Mandarin at all.
"That's odd. The live feed wasn't even remotely close to Pakistan," she said a bit confused. The media has been speculating it was near Pakistan or the Far East. "Yet the signal is small-scale at best. It doesn't even have a steady path of location there. Suppose I get the correct location from where the last signature pathways were broadcasted then... It would show..."
"Miami?" Skye questioned if she was getting rusty. She rubbed her face and stretched her neck. "Let's forget about it for now."
She'd try double-checking later.
"Then let's proceed with the other matter. I need a breach report from the Pentagon's system. Mr. Stark said something about threatening the president. If they managed to hack into the president's itinerary, then someone would be tapping into their security server."
It took her a while before she got most of the things she needed, but there were more things she was missing. Data she didn't know where to look, but at least she wasn't behind on the Mandarin thing.
Blessed Mr. Stark's heart, he didn't think she was a hermit living on the Galapagos island.
Her stomach grumbled after five minutes of searching, and she decided she needed to eat more food. Her powers do consume a lot from her, but she thought it'd be rude to start rummaging through the cupboards of a family she broke in on unexpectedly. It wouldn't be wise nor etiquette-wise if she did.
The brunette made good of her word about heading to town to go after Mr. Stark. She'll just get some burgers and fries before meeting with Tony.
They'll meet eventually so what's the harm in filling her stomach first?
There was a sweet small diner beside the barber shop that caught her attention. It was cute, the pink was what got most of her good points. After swiping the money she stashed in her breast pockets, ordering, she then waited for her order to arrive.
She picked the booth beside the glass window because she wanted to watch the streetlights and the people walking and enjoying the night breeze. It was a form of entertainment for her and the mundane behavior numbs her current situation. A thing to pass the time.
It was after seeing a Latina woman with some short, brown, and maroon-highlighted hair passing by to go to the pub, did she remembered a certain Latina friend.
"I forgot to call Bella," she cursed suddenly over the realization that there's a pissed-off Latina somewhere in California who's going to nag her ear off once she knows she's still alive and didn't tell her. "Damn, I think she'll be pissed if I called now."
She was weighing her odds but decided to call her later since there was a lot to talk about if she decided to reach out now, but she did leave a message saying she was alive. She'll handle it when she's done with this.
Her food arrived no more than twenty minutes later and crammed down a burger with bite after bite.
She was munching on her fries when she saw a car parked outside the diner. A clean-shaven bald guy came out and started to look around.
Experience was a constant tattoo on Skye's skin, never leaving—often ignored. Yet sometimes, she gets hit with it without needing to gauge.
Skye could see his eyes strained his surroundings with a kind of guarded and lax demeanor akin to a predator on the hunt. He was arrogant and bold. Searching for someone.
Skye enjoyed watching him as she continued to chew and swallow fast, knowing something was going to happen soon enough.
It wasn't even five minutes after that afterthought that the nearby pud started causing massive attention, people leaving the building in a hurry and quite frightened and running around seeming like someone would murder them next. Two signs saying there was something terribly wrong.
But she still sat still and continued to finish her food, hating to waste such a fine delicacy. "Why do I have a feeling I know who caused this?"
Then she saw Tony leaving the door his hands cuffed behind his back. Skye smiled bitterly and devoured his last burger, chugging her water while leaving the diner, and observed cautiously towards the bald guy. He started glowing under his skin and smiling evilly when he found Tony.
"Okay, that is not normal." She quipped.
-
The bald, glowing dude poured his coffee on the road and aimed his gun at Tony's face. Acting quickly, she chucked her own cup of water at his head, which skewed his aim, and ended up hitting the boutique glass window instead.
Tony saw this as an opportunity to run in the other direction, but another glowing individual followed him, close to his trail.
Skye didn't have enough time to worry about Tony as she came face to face with what she supposed was Mandarin's henchmen, getting awfully flustered and provoked.
He glared at her, his eyes turning red, and his skin like hot lava, while Skye only smiled back with a natural debonair. "Let's dance, Human Torch."
He ran straight at her, his hands erupting to a scalding degree while also shooting her with his gun. Skye rolled out of the bullet's way and quaked the ground he was walking on; he tripped, and Skye easily kicked the gun away from his hands. Unfortunately, he quickly went for her ankles, which not only burnt her skin but also pulled her down to the ground.
Unrelenting, the man grabbed her neck next, planning to hot roast her esophagus, but Skye didn't let him as she blew up his wrist the minute he got in her range. He screamed, and she wheeled away from his body.
"What are you?!" he said, a seething look in his eyes as he cradled his arm.
Skye was kneeling on the ground with a practiced motion, her senses never leaving the henchmen.
She thought this would be easier when she noticed that his exploded hand was starting to form back, a staggering regeneration right in front of her eyes.
"Could ask you the same thing," she mocked.
He roared, putting his hand on the ground, and it started to melt the asphalt to a large degree and with enough area to cover two meters. Skye jumped away, but he cupped the molten rock and started throwing it at her face, so strong that it flew like a baseball. Skye avoided one of these things and hit a car, a hole melted all the way through.
"I know I shouldn't be saying this, but that is some sick stuff." Skye ducked as he threw another one, and that grazed her hair.
"Not cool!" She patted it down and cringed at the smell of burnt hair.
Skye ran away to get some distance while thinking of a method to kill him without getting too much attention from other people. As much as she would have liked it, she could still see some townsfolk—maybe one or three—still in the area looking on. Unfortunately for her, that wasn't a good thing.
Blowing someone's hand was already a huge feat; she got lucky his huge build covered most of what she did.
But she needed somewhere enclosed and private before killing him.
"Okay, I think ruining shops is bad for small businesses, and I'm not Mr. Stark who can offer remuneration for damage to private property, so let's just make it work." Skye raised both her hands in the air and destroyed the lights around the area; in just three seconds, the whole town went dark, and Skye quickly went to work.
"Now you can't see me."
"Oh really?"
He showed an amused smirk as his skin started glowing, and he became a literal human torch right in front of her eyes. "Are your clothes heat resistant? Because I am wondering how they have not burned away yet. I mean, I'm worried because I don't want to see you naked. It might hurt my eyes."
"AHH!"
Jumping over a car's hood, Skye dodged the fireballs still hurled at her. She slowly led him behind the shops and into a small junkyard with abandoned scraps lying everywhere.
Skye gasped as the molten skeleton of a car barred her only other way out after he threw it unceremoniously over her head. She was cornered and could only turn to see his manic smile gleefully going over her body. On his hand was melted steel.
"You know, we were only here for Stark. We weren't briefed on an accomplice. Maybe a first love kind of thing since you're so willing to die for him?"
Skye didn't look charmed and shook her head. "I'm sorry, but having an affair with an employer is not my thing. Also, the only one dying is you."
The brunette slowly quaked the ground the guy was standing on. He looked confused as the asphalt began sinking, and he too started to fall into the makeshift pit. She slowly walked to the bear-sized hole, her eyes looking down at him, and thought it wasn't enough to see him squirming. She took the skeleton car and pushed it into the hole.
"Get me out of here, you bitch! I'll burn you! I'll flail you alive!" He tried his best to climb up, but between his overly hot body and the still-sinking hole, the situation left him exhausted and uselessly incapacitated. The action slowly melted the scraps and formed a small swimming pool of dirt, rocks, and metal. It was all too much that he couldn't push his head above the organic cesspool.
"You can regenerate as much as you want, but the moment you can't breathe, you'd still be dead," she said with a sigh, squatting as she waited for him to die. "I'm more happy you don't have Wolverine's regeneration, or this will be a problem in the future."
Skye looked on as he didn't move anymore, his body's unnatural heating disappeared, his head buried under all his undoings. Slowly, the things solidified, and his tomb forever formed with him.
"Now to get rid of the evidence," she sounded serious, but all she did was put more soil over the pit until it wasn't noticeable that there was a hole before. "Done. If they dug you up, buddy, I'd be long gone from here."
"Hey!" Skye said as she went to get another burger after her run-in with the second-rate Bruce Willis guy.
Tony looks even more shit-faced as he acquired another set of bruises and cuts. He had his arms crossed and looked at her as if she just insulted his family tree. A big frown on his face.
The kid was beside him looking at her face with slight fascination.
"Where were you?"
"I went to get food. Want some?" She offered, and he huffed in disbelief.
"There are people after me, Skye. I managed to hang the hot crazy chick, but there's still one of them out there."
"I don't know. I lost him after I ran away a few hours after the lights went out. I haven't seen him since." She said not worried about it. Tony still looked stressed but sighed. "I hope he fell in a ditch somewhere, but we do have a car now."
"Neat."
The bald guy's car was parked pretty undisturbed from the fighting that happened. "You have the keys?"
"I can probably hotwire it. Come on." He brushed the files he had while staggering towards the car. Skye followed but still felt the kid's eyes on her.
She stared at him and smiled before putting her finger on her lips. "Keep it a secret from your idol, Harley?"
He nodded. "I will."
"Good kid," and ruffles his hair before pushing him towards Tony.
"You're welcome, by the way," Harley said after getting over his dazed stare at Skye and started annoying Tony.
"For what? Did I miss something?" He looks away from his files. The statement also takes Skye's curiosity.
"What did you do, Harley?" Skye asked worriedly.
Harley pouted. "I threw the flash bomb at the crazy lady, and she didn't shoot Mr. Stark in the face."
"Are you okay?" She checked Harley's body and completely forgot about her burger as it fell on the ground.
She inspected his eyes, palms back her forehead to see if he had a scar, his arms, and feet. "I'm fine. She didn't manage to hurt me."
When she was satisfied, she smiled and let go of him. "That's good."
"Mother hen, much?" Tony's teasing tone came back.
Skye ignored him but pouted as she saw her burger on the ground.
She could see him smirking over her anguished look but continued to walk. "Anyways, kid. A, I saved you first, and B, thanks. Sort of."
"And C, if you do someone a solid, don't be a yutz. All right? Just play it cool. Otherwise, you come off grandiose."
They reached the car, and Skye found the thing wasn't even locked. She sat in the passenger seat and proceeded to let the two talk since she wasn't in any mood to speak when she saw a tablet on the dashboard. She swiped it and quickly started playing around with the pass lock.
"Unlike you? Admit it, you need me. We're connected." Skye couldn't help chuckling at the kid's attempt to have some ground with the billionaire.
"What I need is for you to go home, be with your mom, keep your trap shut, guard the suit, and stay connected to the telephone because if I call you better pick up. Okay?" He paused. "Can you feel that? We're done here. Move out of the way or I'm going to run you over. Bye, kid."
He entered the car and met with Skye's indignant and disappointed gaze, which he shrugged back in response. She glared even more before he groaned and opened the window to stare at the young blonde boy.
"I'm sorry, kid. You did good." He praised, and the brunette smiled at his progress.
"So, now you're just gonna leave me here, like my dad?"
"Yep," and now it was Skye's turn to sigh and shake her head to continue looking through the tablet. At least he was nicer now.
"Wait, you're guilt-tripping me, aren't you?"
"I'm cold," Harley said dramatically.
Tony's tone turned mocking, "I can tell. Do you know how I can tell? Because we're connected." He stepped on the gas pedal, and the car moved forward and out of the town.
Skye rolled her eyes, but she knew he didn't mean it, and it was not like they could stay there for long when he needed to do something about the Mandarin, and she needed her employer not to die yet until Bella got her full payment.
Troubling times.
"So, are you going to tell me about it?"
"Tell you about what?"
"What really happened to the other guy?" Tony was looking at the road, but she knew his mind was occupied by something else.
"No. I don't know at all. He didn't return after he went running to the junkyard. Maybe broke his neck or something." Skye's voice was natural, and she didn't give off any extra tells that she knew. It helped that she was hacking towards the local news station after finding some disturbing seed that wasn't hers, that distracted her attention.
"We both know he wouldn't disappear if no one made sure he wouldn't be able to. And I saw you last with him. I think it's about time we talk about the glaring inconsistencies with your excuses, shall we?" He grabs the tablet in her hands and yanks it from her grip.
"Hey!"
"No hey. Answer me, Skye. If your name even is Skye. Do you work for the Mandarin, yes or no?"
"Huh?"
"Answer me!" He shouted, his eyes desperate and deeply disturbed.
As a person who knew that look too well, she empathized heavily with Tony. The last thing she wanted was for her to lie to him, but it wasn't her place to satiate his trauma. It was his responsibility; she was only there to help.
"No. I am not, Mr. Stark. I have no connection to the Mandarin at all." She said lowly.
"Then tell me how you managed to survive our flight to Tennessee, why you're pretending to be weak when you're basically bench pressing— what 150 kilograms— and how you managed to get that guy off your back! Because the way I see it, you're either lying to me, and you're just like your little friends or you're..."
"I'm not normal."
Tony paused, not expecting Skye to answer him. She looked pained as she raised her shirt to show him her scars that ran along her body, a mismatched crossword.
His eyes were aghast, and she could feel the pity in them. She pulled her shirt back down, afraid of what he would assume, and looked him in the eye looking for the proper words to explain. "I can't tell you much, but I'm not just a housekeeper. I guess you can say that I've served, maybe in different fields, but I know my way through combat. I'm sturdier than most, but believe me, I can still die."
Skye waited for him to say anything, but he continued to drive and didn't interject, so she proceeded to share a little bit more.
"I have not lied to you, Mr. Stark. I did come to your house only to fulfill the end of our contract and I got tangled coincidentally. I am not part of Mandarin's men, and I am not here to hurt you. Please trust me that I am willing to do the opposite."
"What do you want?"
"Honestly, I just want to finish my three-day appointment with you. Nothing else. But it's hard to do that if the owner dies prematurely, noh?"
There was silence before she heard him exhale.
He snorted. "Is cleaning really a great passion for you?" He joked.
Skye chuckled as she could feel his shoulder languid and his eyes clearer again.
She rubbed her forehead but smiled, the kind of smile one makes if they remember a horrible and embarrassing memory that you still cherish despite it being shameful. "It's more of a... thank you, kind of sort. I owe someone a debt and I'm willing to help her through some things. She needs this contract more than you know, Mr. Stark and I'm not willing to let a friend down."
He nodded. "Got it. I'm not going to ask any more questions but I'm going to trust you so please don't..."
"Don't worry. I'm lazy but I don't double-cross. So please trust me, Mr. Stark"
He handed her back her tablet and his face determined.
"Okay."
Tony got a hold of a phone and started calling a friend. His name was Rhodes.
Skye didn't know him until she started looking through videos and found the man to be flamboyant in his display of service.
It was more of an astonishment when she found out the two were friends.
The way he said his name would display how close they were yet had it not been for that, Skye might have thought Tony was bullying this man masking it as friendship. The reason for calling was to ask for his passcode and user name for his National Security Contractor account.
She laughed along with their banter about Rhodes's password, but she ignored them when a ping sounded on the tablet, seeing the loading bar complete, she had managed to find the receiver of Tony's call. "You're calling the Iron Patriot?"
Tony paused and peered over at her, indignant about that fact she knew about it at all.
"Who's that?"
She could hear from the other end. But Mr. Stark continued to look at Skye and the small tablet she had on her lithe fingers. "How'd you do that?"
"I synced in your access call logs and checked your last dial. I number-tracked it to a directory list of military personnel with a level 6 clearance and saw Iron Patriot as its tag."
Skye expected Tony to get mad about her snooping, and frankly, she would be too if she were in his shoes, but he only continued to be inquisitive about it rather than blowing up.
"You can hack? With that?" He pointed at the small tablet she had on her.
"Yeah. I mean I hack more than I clean, so it was fairly easy to do."
"Next question. Why?"
"You see, I got this" Skye pulled out a dog tag Bruce Willis dropped while they were fighting.
"This was owned by one of the people chasing after you. I got curious and tried to find their identity. His name was Eric Savin but if you try searching for their information, generally they've all been burned out. I tried their military ID and that was also deleted. I got to snooping and found a number often used under Savin and I got some data in the military directory in a much-encrypted corner. Eric Savin was formerly a Lieutenant Colonel of the United States Army and served for almost 8 years before he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease which was common in their family. He disappeared on the eve of May the 8th. Was reported missing in the police and CIA files but nothing came out of the search. That was most of what I got with Savin at the moment. Following that, I was just fooling around when I tracked the synced-in call log. I wasn't serious about it."
Without missing a beat, Skye looked apologetic. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that at all."
Instead, he continued. "What's your hacker name?"
"Hello, Tony. I'm still here. Am I compromised?"
"You're still good. Catch up with you later, Rhodes." Skye wondered if they were really friends.
He ended the call and looked her in the eye, expectantly.
"Skynet," she answered honestly.
"Never heard of it."
"Because I don't hack as much as I need to." She said, obviously a bit offended that he thought she was more infamous because that would have meant she was doing illegal things. Not that she was squeaky clean either.
"Are you any good?"
"I think so?" She didn't know where Tony was heading with his question, but he then gave her the files he was holding. "Can you hack into AIM's server and pull up information for me?"
She read it for a moment and nodded after, giving Tony a certain answer. "Yeah. The tablet itself is pretty highly functional. The wifi is through the roof, but it's hard to type with this, so just give me a minute."
Skye has hacked into servers with a phone, but she usually would have done this with her laptop since it was easier for her to manage. But it wasn't impossible— just complicated.
After twenty minutes, she pulled up her tablet to show Tony she got into AIM's system.
He pulled the car over and started looking through their data and files.
Skye watched beside Tony. In AIM's data storage were multiple videos, varying from their test runs, candidate selection, and drug monitoring. It was all sketchy; they were selecting candidates with high desperation for the experiment's outcome without guaranteeing the results. Mostly veteran soldiers, who have lost limbs, have critical conditions and incurable diseases. Basically people who are willing to give up their lives for a chance of a cure.
The videos showed their drug extremist being tested on the test subject and ended up having acquired regenerative ability, powerful enough to recreate a lost arm and even heal damaged neurons.
Regrettably, there's a side to Extremist. It also showed that if the drug is not compatible with the host. They explode.
So hot and so violet nothing is left for them to bury.
Skye handled her emotions very well. Yet she despised the direction of what the Extremist was being used for.
"It's not a bomb. It's a misfire. The stuff doesn't always work. It's faulty, but he got a buyer. He sold it to the Mandarin."
There was a guy's face on screen. A mid-30 man, with dirty bleach-blond hair that was slicked back, a greasy look about him, and an imperceptible sense of presence. As if it were intentional. "You know him?"
"Aldrich Killian. The guy approached us before this whole ordeal and tried to sell us Extremist but I knew that there was something wrong about him." Tony paused and shrugged as he fact-checked himself. "Okay, I didn't actually hear his pitch, but he approached Pepper actually. Tried to sweet talk her, but she knew the dangers his project would be on a global scale. Now it isn't a speculation anymore."
True. Extremist was already causing so much damage, and it hasn't been perfected yet; what would happen if it were to be produced as a bioweapon? The implication would be disastrous.
"What are you going to do now?"
"Go to the buyer and cut out the weed." He began typing on his phone but not before giving back the tablet to Skye.
"Harley, tell me what's happening. Give me a full report."
The two bantered, but Skye went ahead to use the AIM server to see if she could pinpoint the Mandarin's location using the broadcasting link and cross-examining the feed.
"That means you're fine. Give me Jarvis. Jarvis, how are we?" He put the phone on speaker while he continued to drive the car.
"It's totally fine, Sir. I seem to do quite well for a stretch, and then at the end of the sentence, I say the wrong cranberry."
"Hi, Jarvis!" Skye yelled over, sincerely happy that the AI was okay.
"Lovely to hear your voice, Miss Skye," Jarvis said with a chirp as well.
"Don't tell me you Hacked my AI?"
"No, Sir. She arrived at the residence this morning to clean several rooms in the mansion."
"That makes two of the ones who can vouch for me" Saying it like she won something.
"Anyway, what about the thing I sent you Jarvis."
"Yes sir. You were right. Once I've factored available AIM download link facilities. I was able to pinpoint the Mandarin's broadcast."
"You mean what I did before?" Skye spoke up overhearing what Jarvis said.
"Huh?"
Skye leaned over Tony and spoke into the phone so Jarvis could hear her better. "Jarvis, he's in Miami, right?"
"Don't be quick to assume, Skye. I mean, I know you're a hacker, but Jarvis is —"
"She's correct, sir. The Mandarin is in Miami." It was priceless to see his face a blubbering mess.
Tony didn't want to believe it and started talking to Harley. "Okay, kid, I need you to help me reboot Jarvis's speech drive."
Skye rolled her eyes and showed Tony the tablet. "Have some faith, why don't you?"
She showed the map location of the signal, and it appeared that it was on a property uptown in Miami.
"What do you mean by 'before'?"
"I tried locating the Mandarin using the broadcast link he leaves whenever he hacks into the news outlets. Before, it still displayed that it was in Miami, but I wasn't sure if I needed sleep or if I wasn't wrong about it. But I tapped into AIM's broadcasting link and found the same link as what the Mandarin used before."
"You're good. Want to work for Stark Industries?"
"Sorry. Plan now. Hire later." Although she appreciated the offer very much, it may not be for her.
Although, she figured he was only joking.
Stark was a genuinely straightforward man. He speaks his mind and sometimes it gets him in trouble but Skye wouldn't be worried if he's pretending to be friends just by his own thought process.
"Okay, first things first, I need my armor. Where are we at with it?
"Uh, it's not charging."
Skye could feel something wrong when Tony's hand started to twitch, and his breathing was starting to break into a frantic pattern.
"Actually, sir, it is charging, but the power source is questionable. It may not succeed in revitalizing the Mark 42," Jarvis explained regretfully.
"What's questionable about electricity? All right? It's my suit, and I can't... I'm not gonna... I don't wanna..." Skye wanted to reach out to him, as he was starting to worry her that he'd run out of breath before they could reach Miami.
"Mr. Stark..." yet she didn't get to finish her words.
Skye's heart lurches in her chest when the car suddenly stops. The kind that creeps up at you so suddenly, she didn't even register that they were on the side of the road. The driver's door was open, and Tony was nowhere to be found.
Skye quickly got out of the car and went around it to see a hyperventilating Tony.
"Mr. Stark?" Skye carefully approached him, slow so that he wouldn't be as overwhelmed as he already was.
"Are you having another attack? I didn't even mention New York." Skye heard Harley, and she realized this wasn't the first time.
"When did it happen?" Skye asked Harley as Tony was losing it, breaking, and at the same time not breathing.
"Yeah, when we were talking, he got anxious when I mentioned the alien wormhole in New York," Harley grumbled over the phone.
"Right, and then you just said it just now." He spluttered, trying his hardest to breathe but only making it worse by having short amounts of it.
New York. The wormhole. Skye often forgets that while it was a normal thing for her to realize that aliens exist and scarier things might come and attack Earth, it would still not be something one would accept because it is there. Tony and those people who fought back have seen firsthand how scary the universe is.
He also almost died. Alone. Looking at a void of nothing. Leaving the person he loves to protect them. Skye bites her lip as she tries to slowly understand Tony's frantic and rather rational fear. The fear of not being enough.
"Mr. Stark." She kneels in front of him, grabbing hold of his hand, putting it on his chest, and grabbing his other hand to let him know that she was there. "Mr. Stark, can you feel this?"
The cold metal of his arc reactor buzzed under his fingers and so did Skye's hand. "You're alive, Mr. Stark. You aren't alone. Please breathe with me, Mr. Stark."
"I can't. I can't... I'm... what am I going to do?" He wasn't listening to her.
The brunette used the smallest of tremors under Mr. Stark's palm to ground him back to the living. "Tony. Listen to me. You're scared. You are terrified... and that's fine." Skye steeled her voice while squeezing his hand even more.
"You're afraid that you can't protect Pepper. That you can't protect Happy... That your best might not be enough. But the thing is... you are. You're not alone." Skye smiled as his eyes finally were clear. Steadily calming down. "Come on, breathe."
Tony was petulant at first, but his breathing started to slow down even more.
"But my suit..."
"You are Iron Man. But that isn't what makes you great, Tony. You're not great because of the suit. You're great because you created it. You said it yourself. You're a mechanic."
"I'm a mechanic."
"Yes. And you can protect them. You just need to be stubborn."
"Stubborn... create..."
Skye expected him to still be panicking when he froze where he was sitting on the ground and looked at her as if he realized something. He stood up as if spellbound and nodded once. "That's it."
"Uh, Mr. Stark?" Skye asked a bit worried he had gone crazy.
"You already called me Tony. Don't take it back and get your ass back in the car. We'll do this old style." He quickly sat back in the car while the brunette had to digest what he said when a car horn took her out of her reverie.
"Okay! Okay! Wait." Tony playfully stepped on the gas pedal, and she had to run back faster to her seat. "Chotto matte!"
Tony raided Home Depot and came back to the motel they rented with all sorts of stuff. He started building the first thing he could and Skye didn't really bother him.
She tried helping at the beginning but she found out, he was rather picky with his assistants and he doesn't like his things being disturbed willy-nilly so she plopped on the couch and slept. Waiting for him to be done might take hours so it's better to get some shut-eye.
Skye was rudely awakened when morning came. "Ah!"
She fell on the floor, face first as the blasted billionaire grinned at her from over the couch where he deliberately pushed the couch diagonally.
"Rise and shine, Abeline. Let's go." He was too chirpy for Skye's taste.
Seeing the redbull cans scattered on the floor, she'd suspected the drink had too much sugar.
He wore a black hoodie and pants and had on a black bag full of his toys. His attire hid most of his inventions but Skye could slightly see a makeshift gun on his waist, what she hoped would be exploding Christmas balls, and is that a taser glove?
"You didn't sleep?"
"didn't have enough time for that. Come on," he ushered her out of the room, opening the door and letting the light blind Skye's eyes.
Why does she feel like Tony is avoiding the glaring issue? Because he is.
"Sure," she said deadpanned as she was cranky about not having coffee yet. Skye stared at his energized face but the underlying eye bags were there. Clear as day.
She didn't mention it as it wasn't the time and place to have him break down again.
...
They rode in silence; Skye glaring out the window while Tony was edged on his seat.
"So what do I carry?" she questioned as a means to avoid getting sleepy.
"Excuse me?"
"I said, what do I carry?" she repeated, intrigued by the taser gloves.
"You are not coming with me to take down the Mandarin," he declared.
"Why?"
"Firstly, I am responsible for getting you home safely, and secondly, I need someone to look after the car." She rolled her eyes.
"We both know we can get another car if this one gets stolen, and besides, I can handle myself quite fine, Mr. Stark," she insisted.
"Listen Skye, you've been the most helpful since I've met you but this is my fight. I need you here so I don't have to worry if you even got out safe. Also, I've spoken with your boss. If anything happens to you, I think she'll sue me with every penny she has."
Skye laughed, thinking the suing bit was also somewhat true. Yet, Tony has no idea what she's capable of. Not that it's his fault. It's basically because she can't be honest about who she is that he can't put all his trust in her. A rational decision, really.
While she might claim to be above average, that isn't enough to persuade Tony to let to join; that's why she didn't argue. Instead, she settled for a compromise.
"Fine. But if you don't come back after one or two hours, I'll come looking for you. See it however you want but I also have my belief and as long as I see you as my target, there's no stopping me from reaching my goal."
"Which is?"
"To get you safely back home to Miss Potts," she said earnestly. She didn't shy away from Tony's smile as there was no need to be. It was the truth, a truth she could divulge.
Tony wasn't a bad guy. If anything, Skye was considering him a swell guy. Very egotistical but has a heart that is buried under all those snarky comments. He has a lot of issues but who doesn't? People like Tony still deserve someone to check up on him.
"He needs someone to watch his back, and since his friend isn't here, she will have to do.
After all the years she spent hiding her thoughts, she's gradually owning up to her own emotions. Now, it was about wanting to help a friend's benefactor.
"We're here."
Skye's mouth drops open at the towering gates that oversee the protection of a whole ass villa. Just the thought of all the guards in it made her a bit uneasy but she kept it to herself. She took something from her pockets and faced Tony.
"Good luck, Sir Tony."
"Would you make up your mind? Am I Mr.Stark or am I, Sir Tony?" He teased before opening the door. "Because there's an easier way to address me and it's just four letters."
"I think I'll stick with Mr. Stark for now." Skye didn't cave in.
"Can't say I didn't try." But he didn't sound sad about it.
"Mr. Stark, catch!"
Tony caught it clumsily but managed to curl it on his chest. He opened his palm and chuckled. "Really?" and showed a kid's watch with Haweye's face in the middle.
She shrugs. "I got it at a raffle. I've been lucky since I've got it so you can use it and just give it back to me when you're done with all of this."
"Thanks, Skye."
She waved her hand goodbye as he left to sneak in.
The grueling part was always the waiting. It's bad enough she has to hear every gunfire and explosion but she has to sit tight on her seat while she waits for what fate decides.
She sighed. "I should just call Bella; it's as good a time as any."
Daisy stretched her body. Bored out of her mind, she fixed her sights on the deli she found a couple of miles from the house. She opted to walk to get some exercise. By the time she got there, she ordered food and coffee.
She brought the tablet with her and saw the synced-in number for Rhodes was still connected, it had rang multiple times but the call was hung up before it could reach even a minute.
She knew something was up. She tracked Rhode's location from his suit and found the GPS track to Blue Lagoon Drive, Miami.
She quirked her brow. The last she heard, he was going to Pakistan. Why is he in Miami? She tried dialing the number, but it went straight to a dead line.
That's too good of a coincidence.
Skye weighed her options. Tony might need her help, but the building was so close that she could get there in under twenty minutes.
"Wait, a minute." Skye opened AIM's facilities in the area and sure enough, Rhodes was in one of those facilities.
"Should I get Mr. Stark?" She shakes her head. "He needs to deal with the Mandarin. I'll find out if his friend's alive."
Skye took the car and drove off to the address. She stopped and saw it was a base right in the middle of a suburban area.
It had guards everywhere, wearing all-black suits, vests, and occasionally tactical wear.
Getting in might be tricky, but she has enough experience to handle it.
She opened her tablet and searched all the personnel working for AIM, memorized all their faces and names, the facilities blueprint, and hacked their mainframe to insert her face and all needed pass access.
he key to any infiltration is flexible adaptability skills, strong memorization, and confidence. Confidence is always key.
A.k.a bullshit your way through.
After everything was done on her end, she walked through the gate without worry.
"The guard looked at her, confused, but she only smiled and waved. "Hi. I'm the new hire. I'm supposed to meet Dolland for guarding duty in the lab.
"Name," he gruffed out.
"Abeline, Skye."
Skye leaned into the guard and whispered, "Hey. I've been meaning to ask since I saw you, but you must be David Samuel. I heard you aced the tracking test on your first try. That's awesome."
The guy's demeanor changed as he looked embarrassed but boastful about it. "That I did. You know, my SO said the others took another three or four times before they passed, but I guess I'm just that good.
"Right, you are. Can I have an autograph later? It's just Dolland really wanted that access files on his desk before 10, you know how he is."
Not only did she snoop around the personnel files but also read the HR reports which just so happened to be useful.
"I know, right? Right posh he is. Anyway, you're all good. And oh," He grabbed a sling from the board with a number in it. "Wear this. It gets you in easily since it's your first day. The other might delay you if you wear this they know you're in an urgent task."
"Thanks, Samuel. Keep it classy, my dude."
"Nice meeting you, Abeline."
Skye strode into the AIM base as if she belonged there. She waved at people easily, calling out names left and right, and some of them even greeted back with a respectable 'Ma'am' after seeing the clearance ID she had on.
They thought she was a high-ranking officer in AIM, and she didn't even have to do anything. Lucky her.
...
Once she got deeper, she remembered one of the facility's rooms being the lower dungeon. Skye said that because once she reached the room, it looked like one: unpainted walls, a dingy atmosphere, and she could swear she saw a rusted bar somewhere in here.
"Who are you?"
Skye faced a woman with brunette hair, fair skin, and a really tall stature. Her file's name was Maya Hanser, the head researcher of AIM. She went looking for her because she wanted to know if she had any idea what was happening.
So Skye made herself approachable, nodded, and smiled.
"Hello. I'm Skye. I was tasked to settle here for your protection until they send me back up again in the main reception." Skye excused.
Maya stared at Skye, giving her a once-over. "Why would I need protection? It's not like Stark's here yet. He's the only one I should be wary of."
"I guess there's Killian as well but he wouldn't hurt me since I'm his top researcher."
Skye gained information just from that conversation alone.
Skye nodded but insisted, "Yeah, well, it's not like I make the choices. I'm here until I'm told otherwise."
"Suit yourself but don't touch anything."
Skye stayed to look at what she was doing and she'd be lying if she said she knew what it all was. Maya was all technical and that must have meant Killian is the Face of AIM.
"Miss Hansen, do you know Stark personally? The way you said his name seemed like you had something with him." She probed.
"Why do you ask? It's not like it concerns you." Clearly guarded at her sudden question.
"You said he's the only one you should be wary about but I don't think he's the kind of person that hurts people indiscriminately."
"Oh, if you haven't noticed we're not exactly a charity here. We are shady, highly operating illegally and we have her girlfriend in restraints. I'm sure he'll have enough reason to take us down. And even without those reasons, Tony isn't a goddamn martyr either." Her voice falters. "He is capable enough to hurt someone without meaning to."
Skye winced.
One. Miss Potts was kidnapped, and that deeply concerned Skye and two, Tony really fucked up his flings.
Skye licked her lips to think about her next words. "Do you hate him?"
The researcher paused briefly before she stopped playing with the keyboard and shook her head. "I don't. I just think that he can perfect Extremist because he's just a genius like that but I know he isn't willing to. We could save millions of life "
And could destroy a lot as well.
The way Maya's face was turning sourer and sourer she stopped her questioning, lest she find her too meddling.
Thus, she changed the subject.
"Ms. Hansen. I've heard Miller saying something about a missing firearms in the storage room and I'm really worried that the person who stole them would start shooting, can you do one thing for me?"
"I don't have time for that"
Skye approached Maya and touched her wrist, her eyes firm. "Please. If you have time to mop around and be broody, then you have time to spare."
Skye didn't let her say another word and dragged her to another room.
...
Skye left the dungeon room a few minutes later. Skye excused herself and started walking around, trying to find Tony's friend and possibly where they put Miss Potts. So far, she's checked every last room, and there was no sign of Miss Potts or Rhodes.
Skye walked down the last hallway when a burly man, resembling both a bear and a human, nodded at her to come in. She didn't question it and entered the room.
Sure enough, she found one of the people she was looking for.
Strung up high in the air and in chains was one of Tony's suits themed in blue and white with a star on its chest. She was sure that it was the Iron Patriot.
While observing the room, she noticed there were six henchmen surrounding Rhodes: four men and three women, including her.
They saw her come in, eyes trailing after the newcomer. The brunette didn't let this treatment get to her; she stopped in the corner while also assessing them back.
"Are you new?" One of them asked.
"Not really but I used to be assigned to be assigned to building F before I got reassigned here."
Their faces cringed at the mention of building F. Building F was not a building but a sector where they handled the missing person cases. As one is familiar with AIM's behavior, they take in subjects secretly and if they fail to succeed in the last phase of the experiment, it was their sector that made sure none of the results would come out to the public. That meant they would have to erase all evidence and connection of the passing candidate to ever be traced back to AIM. And if it is necessary, brute force and assassination are done along the way.
The tedious work.
"Must be nice then to have a change of pace."
Skye shrugs. "I met Dolland. Safe to say, He's not part of the perks here."
"You said it. Damn, asshole is what he is." One of them commented with disdain.
Skye acted as if she knew the man. Sorry, whoever you are. I guess your assholery benefits me greatly."
Suddenly, one of them got a text. "Okay, we got confirmation; pry the suit open."
Two of the men started working while the others watched.
Skye observed them from the far corner and was amazed that Tony's suit could handle most of the attacks they were doing. Their blades would be chipped after a couple of uses.
Sometime later, they heard the door open, and Killian appeared; beside him was Savin.
The brunette was not expecting that at all. Surprised he was still alive, Skye cursed under her breath and prayed to God he didn't see her at all.
"Afternoon gentleman," Killian's cadence voice perforated along the small room and most of the henchmen who heard him, revered the man as if he was the Mandarin, itself.
Skye finally meets the infamous Killian Aldrich. She expected him to be taller, but his presence still made her uneasy.
He smiled arrogantly, seeing the Iron Patriot immobile under his palms.
"Hello, Colonel." He grinned even more if possible.
"We'll get you out of there. Don't you worry."
Notes:okay so I wasn't sure if Ellen Brant was Latina or not so apologize if she isn't. I'll change it if its confirmed.
Anyway, this is a long chapter. I promise the next one will be a bit shorter.