[For Jason] Halloween

[wildlyconflicted]

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.

Comments

[wildlyconflicted]

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.

[prodigaljaybird]

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.

[wildlyconflicted]

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.