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Silverfire - Chapter 18
🕑 Added 2022-03-09 10:39:37 +0000 UTCChapter 18 – Meeting Stark
[2011 – July]
“You think you got what it takes to wear that suit?”
“We don't have to do this, Tony.”
“You wanna be the War Machine? Take your shot!”
“Put it down.”
“You're gonna take your shot?!”
“Put it down!”
“NO!”
“COME ON, Big Tony!”
“TAKE IT!”
*BOOM*
After the explosion settled somewhat, Tony looked around still a bit rattled from the blast. As he saw Rhodey, about to take off with one of his suits, he knew that he couldn't prevent it. And to be honest he didn't really care at this point, not with death already breathing down his neck.
Suddenly red mist-like energy wrapped around Rhodey and a calm voice sounded out.
“As amusing as it was to watch you two flinging each other around like that, I cannot allow you to take off with that suit. The military of this country are the last ones, who should be getting their hands on such a weapon.”
Tony didn't know when, but a man and a woman had suddenly appeared on his veranda.
The man wore a pair of loose wide leg black cross pants made out of linen, a black hooded jacket with rolled up sleeves, no shoes and a face mask that only covered the lower half of his face. He had braided ash-blonde hair and piercing crystal eyes.
The woman wore the same kind of face mask. Along with a hooded cloak that reached her ankles, the cloak was open in the front, showing off some tight fitting black leggings and a wine-coloured skin-tight long-sleeved shirt. She also wore a pair of boots, that reached just above her ankles and had the same colour as her shirt.
It had been the man who said these words, while the woman had red glowing energy surrounding her hands, which probably meant she was the one restricting Rhodey.
“Who are you?!”, Rhodey shouted at the duo, while Tony used the time to clear his head somewhat and stand back up – ready to fight.
“Put him to sleep.”
As the red energy started to penetrate the suit. Tony raised his right hand and aimed at the girl, ready to fire his repulsor, while he announced: “I don't think so, girl.”
The next moment he found himself embedded into the floor, a dull pain spreading through his chest. The interface and Jarvis notified him that his repulsor nodes on all his limbs and chest were destroyed, while the chest piece of the armor had also received great damage.
“I am not here to fight you Stark, but I will if I have to. And I won't be pulling my punches next time you try and attack.”, the man said with the same calm tone, as if he hadn't just barehandedly ripped into his suit.
“Who are you? And what do you want?”, Tony asked, while looking at Rhodey, who had fallen asleep because of the girl's power.
Despite what most people thought, Tony knew when he was outmatched. And right now he definitely was.
“Stark too.”, said the man and a moment later Tony was also unable to keep his eyes open, as the red energy penetrated his armor with ease.
…
“Let's bring them downstairs, so we can remove their suits.”, I said to Wanda and led the way, while she levitated the two armored men to follow us.
The security code on the door couldn't really stop me, as I simply melted the whole locking mechanism by pressing my hand against it.
“Where should I put them?”, Wanda asked.
“Over there, on the small pedestal.”, I answered, before addressing the other presence in the room aside from us and Silver.
“JARVIS take off their armor.”
“I'm sorry, but you are not authorised for such an order, Sir.”, he answered politely.
“I know, but if you don't do it, I will cut them out myself. And I won't be as careful as you with removing the armor.”, I stated calmly.
“Authority overriden. Order accepted. Please wait a moment, Sir.”, JARVIS's voice sounded out, after a short pause.
I guessed that JARVIS's first priority was the safety of his creator, so I wasn't surprised by his agreement.
A short wait later, Rhodey and Tony were stripped off their armor, which had been put back in the display case by JARVIS. Wanda had levitated Tony into a nearby armchair, while Rhodey was still floating in the air.
“What should I do with him?”, she asked.
“Send him home, we aren't here for him.”
A short touch to his forehead and Rhodey opened his eyes – which now had a red glow in them – and left without a word.
“What now? Should I wake him up?”, she asked afterwards.
“Yeah, do it. Lets talk to Tony Stark for a bit.”
A light touch to his head and Tony opened his eyes, confusion coloring his face. This confusion though receded fast, as he saw us and recognized his surroundings, while throwing a quick look at his suits in their display cases.
He couldn't move though, as Wanda kept him bound to the chair with her telekinesis. Probably a little tighter then necessary, but I didn't stop her. Considering her resentment and hate towards Stark, it was already a victory that she didn't just crush his skull upon meeting him.
Turning his gaze towards us, Stark asked, “Who are you and what do you want from me?”
“My name is Pietro Maximoff and that is my twin sister Wanda Maximoff.”, I introduced us, seeing no reason to hide our identity from Stark. We came here to meet him personally and hiding our identity would fail that goal.
“What do you want?” He asked, throwing a look at Wanda, who was keeping a tight hold on him with her Chaos Magic.
I didn't answer his question, instead I said.
“Iron Man, huh. Somtimes I wonder what Yinsen would think if he saw you like that. Do you think that was what he had envisioned for your future, as he saved your life twice and sacrificed his own, so that you could escape that cave?”, I asked rhetorically.
“How do you know that name?”, Stark asked shocked.
“Sigh, you haven't changed Stark. The first thing you did after coming back home was building another weapon, though this time you decided to wield it yourself to claim lives. Because that is what you do, you bring death and destruction, or you enable others to do exactly that.”
“The lives of warlords and criminals.”, Stark defended himself.
“Does that matter? A life is a life and taking one makes you a murderer. I don't mean to accuse or judge you, I have taken lives myself. The difference between us is that I do not hide the truth behind an armor.”
“No, you hide behind a mask.”, he quipped back.
“Do I?”, I questioned, while pulling down my face mask with Wanda following behind.
This time Tony didn't reply, so I continued.
“Fear brought us here, Stark.”
“Fear of what?”, he asked.
“Wrong question. It isn't the fear of something that brought us here, but the person who this fear belongs to.”, I said, while pointing my finger at him and continuing, “It is your fear that brought us here.”
“Well, sometimes I do fear being all alone in this big house. But usually I would just call up a few nice ladies, instead of a pair of superpowered twins who would beat me up. Must have dialed the wro- Ughh!”
Tony didn't manage to finish his sentence, as Wanda used her power to choke him, clearly not amused by his attempted joke.
She stopped after a few seconds, causing Tony to cough a few times, while taking in deep heaving breaths.
“It's your fear of never being able to live up to your own dead father's expectations. It's what drove you to develop weapons of mass destructions, in an attempt to prove yourself worthy of his legacy. Those weapons were then used by the United States Air Force in the Bombing of Novi Grad, which had taken the lives of hundreds of civilians, among them our parents.”, I stated with a piercing glare into his eyes.
“That was in a time of war, and I had no control over what they used my weapons for.”, Tony answered in an attempt to justify himself.
“War?! What war did we fight?! Sokovia simply thought to protect itself from the on-going conflict in the Baltics!”, Wanda shouted in anger, while her telekinetic powers lashed out and crushed the cars and workbenches around us.
Wrapping my arm around her shoulders from behind, I tried to sooth the anger and pain inside of her.
“Shh. Calm down, my love. Breathe.”, I whispered into her ear, while pressing my chest against her back, letting her feel my support and presence. I did the same with our mental bond and surrounded her mental presence with my own – kinda the equivalent to a physical embrace.
Taking a few deep breaths, Wanda's anger subsided a little and she regained her calm. Though the look she gave the stunned Stark was positively murderous.
“Your ignorance doesn't absolve you of your guilt. As the creator of these weapons, it should have been your responsibility to ensure that they weren't going to be used in attacks against the civilian population. And while I understand that if you didn't provide them with these weapons, someone else would have, the problem lies with the fact that you haven't changed.”, I accused.
“Stark Industries has stopped its weapon production for over a year now. I personally made sure of that.”, Tony stated with a frown.
“But you didn't. And just a few minutes ago, you nearly let Colonel Rhodes walk out of this house with your greatest weapon yet. And why? Because the fear of your own death has made you self-destructive.”
“So, you know about the poison and came here to do what? Gloat? To watch me die?”, Tony asked in a low voice.
“I came here to stop the military from aquiring one of your suits. They are the last ones that should be getting their hands on a weapon like that.”, I stated.
And it was true. I wasn't really as patriotic as I had been before Silver's mind and soul fused with my own, but I knew well enough what the American Military would use such a weapon for. That being for anything they desired, which wasn't something I wanted to see.
“That's it?”, Tony asked a bit disbelieving.
“Well, I also came here to steal one of your suits. I need to reverse engineer the technology you used in it for a project of my own.”, I admitted nonchalantly, while Wanda took my words as the cue to rip open the display case and levitate the silver-coloured suit next to us.
“So, a thief? Well, good luck with that.”, Tony replied with a small smirk.
'Behind.', Wanda warned me telepathically, though it hadn't been necessary, as I had already noticed someone trying to sneak up on us.
Using my Speed-Mode, the world around me slowed down to a crawl. Turning around, I found Natasha Romanoff, a.k.a. the Black Widow, standing a short distance away. Her hand outstretched as she had just thrown two small disc-like objects at us.
I knew these weapons from my memories. These small objects fired strong a strong discharge of electricity to stun and paralyze an opponent, and while my lightning resistance training would probably allow me to withstand them unharmed, I had no desire to test this theory.
Summning my dagger and infusing a bit of fire in it and simply cut the two discs apart, while they were still mid-flight, before transforming the dagger back into a bracelet.
Still in Superspeed, I walked up to Natasha and simply grabbed her by the throat, before disengaging my Superspeed and bringing her down onto the ground back first.
She didn't even manage to let out any sound before, falling unconcious from the force of the impact.
Tony's eyes had widened a bit at this display of speed.
“Well, it seems our meeting is coming to an end, Stark. Tell Fury to keep his distance from us. He won't enjoy making me angry.”, I told him, while already turning around and leaving the cellar/workshop.
…
Seeing her brother vanishing up the stairs, Wanda turned her gaze back towards Tony Stark.
She knew that she could kill him here and now with a simple telekinetic push in the right place. Pietro wouldn't even judge her for it, otherwise he wouldn't have left the room without her.
It was his way of telling her to make her own decision. And she loved him for it.
“Shouldn't you follow your brother? SHIELD agent will be swarming this place any minute now afterall.”, Stark questioned curiously, while looking at her.
She could sense his fear. And his sneaking glances at the Iron Man Armor by her side, told her that he would very much like to wear one right now, as if that piece of metal could stop her from crushing him like a tin can.
Closing her eyes for a moment, she took several deep breaths before opening them again, a determined glint in them.
Calling upon her telekinesis, she ripped Stark out of his chair and threw him against a nearby workbench.
“UGH! Gasp! Damn, I think that cracked a rib.”, he said, still in the mood for jokes.
Grabbing him again and levitating him before her, Wanda stared into his eyes, as she said.
“My brother decided that he doesn't want to kill you for the role you played in our parents death, somehow he managed to let go of much of his hate and resentment for you. And while he still dislikes you very much, he won't kill you for past grudges. I am not my brother, Mr. Stark. My hate for you is as strong, as it was the day I saw your name on that bombshell. But he believes in me, believes that I won't be controlled by my hate and resentment of you. And the only thing I hate more than you, is disappointing the man I love. So, I will spare your life.”, Wanda said before slowly letting Stark back down onto the ground.
This time, he didn't reply with some sarcastic remark. In fact he said nothing and just looked at Wanda, guilt and shame in his eyes.
“One thing though you should remember. If I ever find out about one of your new weapons being used to take the life of an innocent, I will come back here and rip you apart – limb by limb.”
With that last sentence, Wanda simply levitated out of the garage, the silver-coloured Iron Man Armor following behind her.
