wildlyconflicted | [For Jason] Halloween

There was a Halloween party going on, but Pepper simply couldn't summon up the will to go. Since Peter had developed the stop-gap to give Tony a little more time, Tony had thrown himself with renewed enthusiasm back into finding a replacement for palladium. That was what he was doing that evening, and Pepper thought it just as well that she pick up something for them to eat from the Compound and then simply spend a quiet night at home with a book.

Lulled into a false sense of security by the silly but ultimately harmless events of the last Halloween, she'd walked right into the cloud without thinking anything of it. They didn't get fog that often on the island but it wasn't unheard of. Almost instantly she realized her mistake.

The island was gone. Being someplace familiar, someplace so obviously home should have been a relief, but Pepper's heart immediately dropped into her stomach. Every muscle in her body gone tense with dread, she did the only thing she knew to do. She didn't hesitate, she ran.

Heels clattering against the metal catwalk, she sprinted from the building and to the parking lot outside without looking back. She'd been here too many times, had relived this far too frequently to wait around for Obediah to peer out at her from the gloomy depths of the laboratory's shadows. Any relief she found outside was short lived, however, as the asphalt began to almost immediately buckle beneath her feet and there was absolutely no place to go.

"TONY!" she screamed, the sound wrenching from her throat entirely on instinct as the ground opened up with a crack.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The scream splits the eery quiet around him, and Jason's head snaps up up from the fog curling its fingers around his boots. He's aware that this fog is out of place, that the sunshine beating down on him only moments ago wouldn't allow its presence, but he feels better than he has in days and allows himself a moment of not caring.

The ground is sturdy concrete beneath him, and when Jason puts his feet to it he finds his bike ready and waiting for him. Ha! Already back in Gotham - suck it, Bucky - and Jason actually whoops for joy when the bike thunders to life beneath him. He turns the wheels in the direction of those screams. One corner cut hard, and then another, and there she is, a pretty thing with the ground opening up beneath her.

"Lady!" Jason shouts at her, speeding forward with hand outstretched.

That is so utterly unexpected that Pepper snaps completely out of her terror so as to better stare at the approaching maniac on the motorcycle. There isn't much time to think, though, with Obediah pulling himself free from the ground. There's no hint of the man within the massive hulking metal form as it reaches for her.

It's a no-brainer, really: She goes with the maniac on the motorcycle.

Hair whipping around her face, arms clamped fiercely around his middle, Pepper throws a worried glance over her shoulder. They can't get away fast enough, not like this.

"Tony?" she asks, wondering if this is his idea of saving the world sans-suit. "Why are you calling me LADY? And where did you get this moto-"

Cut off, she shrieks as Obediah lands ahead of them with a thunderous roar that shakes the ground beneath the bike.

Jason cuts the wheel hard, screeching to a halt mere feet from the - oh, awesome - giant fucking robot. "I'm not Tony, lady," he barks over his shoulder, cranking the gas to try and get behind the metal monster. Whatever it is, it's not going to go down easy.

"And if you know what this is, I suggest you start talking."

Well, that certainly explains a lot even if it isn't precisely comforting. Tony is supposed to save her in this scenario, not some masked motorcycle hooligan. As if this entire situation could get any more confusing and unsettling.

"It's a who, not a what," she hastily replies beside the hooligan's ear. "That's a robotic suit, there's a man inside, just a normal man, middle-aged—" Cut off again by Obediah's rapid approach, Pepper begins frantically shaking the cyclist's arm. "GO! Go, go, go!"

Seems more homicidal than a middle aged and doughy, but that passes close enough to normal in Jason's book. He twists down on the throttle and puts some distance between them and the bot, but Jason knows they don't have long. Fucker in the metal suit is tenacious, god bless him.

Behind him he can feel her clinging, smacking at his arm. Well, at least she isn't crying. "Can you drive a motorcycle?" he shouts.

In high school, Pepper had dated a guy who rode a motorcycle. He'd given her exactly one lesson, and it had been a long time since junior year.

"If I have to," she answered, the best she can offer under the circumstances. If it means they're less likely to die in a fiery heap, she was willing to try just about anything.

"You have to," Jason replies. "On the count of three. One." He points a cable gun and fires, tugging hard when it clanks around the robot's shoulder to ignite the explosive inside.

The blast knocks the bot onto a knee and the motorcycle sideways. "Two," grunts Jason and tugs her hand onto the handlebar, getting his feet beneath him in what little room is left on the seat. He fires another cable just as the bot gets up again and leaps, hurtling towards the bit of armor that's come loose at the robot's shoulder. "Three!"

There was literally no time to debate the wisdom of trusting Pepper with not simply a motorcycle, but one already moving; her choices were to either do as he'd said or crash.

Breathlessly, she arched forward to steady herself, the motorcycle wobbling partially from her awkward position so far back on the seat and partially simply because she was so inept at driving it. Regaining control of the cycle afforded her no time to look back, and Pepper wasn't stupid: Her would-be savior was either successful or not, and further endangering herself wouldn't help anyone. She kept her eyes ahead.

Jason wastes one kick on the bot's face just to see what happens, receiving a dull pain all the way up to his hip for his efforts and little more. "Okay then," he grins and twists away from the robot's questing arms - those glowing bits on its palms look very fun - and flips with ease onto its back.

"Pardon my reach," he says, grabbing the loose bit of armor at the bot's chest and tugging hard. It doesn't give easy, but Jason gets a good enough grip that he leaps to the ground again, pulling the entire chest plate with him. "Oh hello, beer gut."

There was a screech of protesting metal loud enough to be clear even over the sound of the motorcycle, and taking it as an encouraging sign, Pepper drew to a hasty stop and cast a glance over her shoulder. Even from a distance, she could see the familiar figure housed inside the metal behemoth, and without warning, something within her snapped.

It was his fault. All of it. If he'd not tried to have Tony killed, Tony would still just be a genius playboy lush and not a dying superhero. It horrified her to realize that if she had a gun just then, she would have walked right up to Obediah and shot him in the head without a second thought. Peter would be appalled, she was sure.

As it was, she found herself yelling encouragement to the man from the bike, hands cupped around her mouth, eyes blazing over her fingers. Whatever he did to Obediah, she hoped it hurt. She really, really did.

Even without the chest plate the bot is still functioning and fast, and Jason rocks back when it lands a hard hook to his cheek. He rolls with it, landing on his hands and flipping back to his feet.

"Now, now," he says, pulling another exploding pellet from his gauntlet and tossing it right into the the metal suit. "Why don't you come say hi?"

The blast pushes him backwards, but Jason keeps his feet, smelling hot metal and singed flesh as he reaches inside the gaping bits of metal to tug the man out.

Getting the kickstand down takes entirely too long in Pepper's ill-equipped shoes. The moment she manages it, however, she sprints back to the crumpled form of the suit and the crumpled form of the man being pulled bodily from it. She doesn't hesitate, nor does she even wait until he's completely on the ground: Her fist, small but fierce, punches him square in the nose with a satisfying crack of cartilage and bone. Pain blossoms in her fingers, and as she shakes out her hand she notices that she's broken a nail; absolutely worth it under the circumstances.

[For Jason] Halloween

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject