Rescue Plans (open)

[Pepper]

Pepper looked down at their entwined hands after Tony finished speaking, and then lifted her eyes to his. She was utterly and completely floored. This defied pretty much everything she knew about Tony Stark, not to mention completely reversed her thinking and hit her in the face with new information that was a complete shock to receive. She wanted to let go of his hands and walk away and wonder what had happened to him and come back and find him sipping a drink with another hot blonde on his lap. Be the normal Tony - not the Tony of her dreams. Because this new Tony was not something she had prepared herself for!

She was also quite aware, however, that if she did exactly that, she might lose him. It was a big emotional situation. He had just rescued her, saved her life. He might not be thinking clearly either.

Not once did she take her eyes off of his face. She did unlock her hands from his but it was only to place them on his face. She looked him carefully over, searching for any signs that he wasn't serious. And she found none.

She hugged him then, burying her face in his shoulder, and when she pulled him back the tears had returned to the corners of her eyes - tears of joy. They didn't fall; she wasn't going to let him know just how happy she was yet.

"You picked a great time to tell me," she said, smiling. "Now I have to cancel my date with Ted Kord."

[Iron Man]

Tony snorted when she said she had to cancel her date with Ted Kord if those two really had something going Pepper wouldn't be acting like she was now but went along with it. "So Ted's alright knowing his girlfriend in the arms of another man then?" He asked as he wrapped his arms around Pepper and pulled her closer to him with a grain on his face. If Pepper wanted to play then he'll play along and see how far she's willing to go with this little game of hers. He'd hope his luck would hold out and no one would walk in on them knowing Pepper would be embarrassed about the whole thing. He knew mostly everyone left he didn't know the where abouts of Rose, Superboy, and Flash which meant one of them could walk in any minuet.

[Oracle]

((I'm sorry, I had to do this.))

The door opened and Barbara Gorden wheeled accidentally into the moment.

Before Nightwing had taken his group down to Keystone, to find Trenton Oracle had no doubt, he had said that Pepper had a disk for her. Something about Deathstroke, a notorious mercinary on any account.

When she realised what she had just intruded on, her cheeks flushed as bright red as her hair and her eyes widened to the size of dinner platters.

"I am-" She studdered out, tripping and falling over her own tongue. "Oh my gosh, I am so sorry!"

[Pepper]

"Yes, Ted's absolutely fine with it. He knew he didn't have a chance anyway..." Her sentence trailed off as he drew him to her, and her hands slipped up to around his neck. Slowly her eyes began to close as she leaned in to kiss him this time...this time she'd actually do it, he wasn't going to draw away. She could smell him, practically taste him...

A startled, alarmed, and apologetic voice sprang her apart from Tony as though a bungee cord had gotten a hold of her. She looked over to see Barbara Gordon recoiling in her chair, eyes as wide as saucers. Pepper's hands dropped from Tony's neck, but as her hand trailed down his arm her fingers caught his hand. And she grasped it and held it firmly. No reason to be shy about it, even though her own face was red as a tomato.

"No...it's all right. You couldn't have known," she tried to diffuse the amount of red in the woman's face. She quickly withdrew the disk and held it out. "I was told to give you this," she said. "It contains a lot of intelligence on Slade."

With a slight sharpness in her tone, she added: "I'll give it to you on the promise that I get a copy of this disk as soon as possible."

[Iron Man]

Tony leaned in and was close to kissing Pepper when a startled, alarmed, and apologetic voice came from the doorway which made Pepper pulled away and him curse under his breath as Pepper took his hand. He looked from Peppers red face to Barbara's wide eyed and shook his head "Next time I'll but sure to put a sign on the door." he said breaking the awkward moment. Tony turned gave Pepper a confused look when she asked to have a copy of what was on the disk What would she with info on Slade? He thought wondering what she planning on doing with it "Don't tell me you plan on going after him." He said not liking the idea of her going off to find Slade by herself. "If that is what your thinking I think I'm going to have to handcuff you to a bed." Tony said.

[Oracle]

Well it's about time! Barbara couldn't help but think to herself. What sort of technological mastermind would she be if she didn't have every camera in Stark Tower - of all places - spiked? Seeing Pepper holding Tony's hand even though her face was rather the color of a beet, Oracle would have smiled any other time.

With a cheery grin and barely suppresed laughter in her voice, Oracle answered Iron Man, saying "If it's a sign you want, it really wouldn't be much out of my way.

Stopping, she gladly eccepted the disk from Pepper. Holding it gently the lights from the cealing flashed off it and Bab's smiled. She had been waiting for this for a long time. However, at Viriginia's words she looked up quickly.

"Hate to agree with the man, but he's right, Pepper. This disk holds enough for us to land a team down on him with no way he'll get out. You'll get your justice, and I'll give you your tape, but don't do anything reckless. Revenge hardly befits you."

[Pepper]

[love the avvie too, Tony]

Pepper hated lying to her boss. She had never done it - in fact he had hired her because she didn't lie. She could, barely. But she could. So saying she wasn't going after Slade was easy. "I'm not a vengeful person," she said, "and I'd prefer to live longer than a few seconds." Which was true. She wasn't planning on tracking Slade down and trying to kill him. What she was going to do was search those files, left and right, forwards, backwards, and sideways. She was going to pore over them until she found Slade's weakness. And then she was going to exploit the hell out of it.

"You know me," she said with a sidelong grin to Tony. "When have I done anything reckless?"

Anything like going into Section 16 alone - well with agents, but alone. Anything like facing down Iron Monger. Anything like breaking into Tony's office and stealing files from under Obadiah Stane's nose.

No. Nothing reckless at all.

[Oracle]

Relieved to here Pepper's words, Oracle smiled at the two. They made a cute couple. Place the disk in a tiny compartment in her chair, she slowly turned and started to wheel out, saying,

"I'll be sure to get your disk to you. And now, I suppose it's only good manners to leave you too in peace."

Flashing a final grin in the lover's direction, she said,

"Stop by whenever you're ready." And she rolled out of the room.

[Iron Man]

Tony waited until Oracle left before he began talking again "I was kind of looking foreword to handcuffing you to that bed part." He said giving her a naughty grin "Perhaps for your next birthday if your good?" he said a moment later just to let what he had said before sink in a bit before leaning into kiss Pepper before anyone else could walk in on them and asked for something from either one of them. Only if it was life or death would he help he didn't really feel up to playing superhero after getting tenderized by Deathstroke and he most likely had broken ribs since it hurt like every time he took a breath.

[Pepper]

"If I'm good?" Pepper sniped back, chuckling and flushing at the same time. She wasn't too sure about being handcuffed - she'd never seen Tony act that way or ushered any woman out of the house who had that on their belt. But then again, as Tony leaned in to kiss her, she realized she didn't really care.

As their lips met, Pepper melted into him. At first she tried to think, to make sure she was as good a kisser as anyone he'd ever kissed before. But she stopped concentrating mostly because he took her breath away - as well as her focus. She clung to him and kissed him intensely and fearlessly back, convincing both of them (she hoped), that the feeling was mutual and she was unafraid of it...and she would do anything possible to make sure he knew it.

Finally...finally, this was happening. Pepper couldn't have been happier at that instant than any other time in her life.

[Iron Man]

As much as Tony was enjoying this he had to put it on hold when he remembered Bart wasn't the only one who he had called for help he pulled away so he could talk. "As much as I'm enjoying this and I'm really enjoying this." he said kissing her again "We're going to have a visitor soon." he said not bothering to move away from Pepper. "I called a friend to help keep an eye on you now that it seems everyone wants to kidnap you for one reason or another. I'm sure you girls will learn a lot from each other." He said his voice still a worried tone to it. He would feel much better when Echo got here he knew Pepper would be in good hands with her around and he wouldn't have to worry as much.

[ronin]

[With Tony's permission]

Just then a man in black walked in and dropped a purse on the table before pulling his helmet off and placed it on the table next to the Iron Man one. The man had turned out to be really a woman with a white hand print a cross part of her face "My name is Maya Lopez I'm also known as Echo." She said to Pepper as she held her hand out then looked at Tony "Clint told me to tell you to not babble when call for help he had a hard time figuring out what you said so he could tell me." she said watching his face so she would know what he was saying "Sorry about that it was kind rushed a lot was going on at the time." He replied making sure Maya got everything.

[Pepper]

Pepper sighed as Tony pulled away from her and reached out her hand to this new woman. She was inherently distrustful of the lady - could anyone blame her? - but the woman's eyes were arresting and her blunt and forward manner struck Pepper as oddly comforting. Shaking the woman's hand, Pepper said: "Pepper Potts, a pleasure to meet you." How many Echoes were there? She had met a young boy not too long ago who had the name 'Echo' though he preferred to go by Mike Watz. She wondered if he had made it to safety.

Even as she shook the woman's hand, she saw - finally - her purse sitting in a nearby corner. With a nod, she bolted to it and pulled it open - finding the lockchips inside intact. With a relieved sigh, she slung the purse over her shoulder and returned to Echo and Tony. "Thanks for watching my purse," she said half-jokingly, a smile on her face.

She had things to do. She had to upload the computer and update Jarvis. She had to get the information on Slade. She had to eat, drink, sleep. But she didn't know where to begin. And now Tony had assigned a type of babysitter to her. Well...she did have a tendency to go off and get herself into trouble.

Maybe it was time to learn some basic defense and build that sonic tazer. Might be a good idea.

[Iron Man]

"While you two get to know each other I'm going back to earth and getting something." Tony said before giving Pepper a quick kiss on the lips "When you talk to Maya make sure she's looking at you or she wont know what your saying." He whispered before turning to Maya "Try to keep her out of trouble and away away from Deathstroke and his group. If she decides to go back to earth." He said as he grabbed his helmet and put it back on before walking out of the meeting room heading for the room he had first showed up in and beamed himself back to one of his homes on earth.