A Re-Kidnapping (open)

[Dick Grayson]

(OOC: Posting for Trenton)

Trenton had just flown from her Keystone apartment after things got out of hand. She had taken Pepper and vanished before anyone could stop her. The young and brash former hero had recently had all power stripped from her and was sick of it. It only made sense in her mind to take back her original key to financial lucrativeness.

She landed with a thud on an empty and shut down laboratory facility. It was like an early version of S.T.A.R. labs and had been somewhat of an eyesore lately, though it sometimes went unnoticed due to it's lack of activity. The teen plopped the strawberry blonde woman down on the rough surface of the flat rooftop and crouched down nearby.

The wind whipped wildly and blew her hair across her face as she peered down with cold eyes at her victim. She somewhat admired the intelligent woman, and to a certain degree hoped that she could have been like her. But she wasn't and could never be a success. She had never had a shot.. She had always been a victim or an ignored hero. She was always unnoticed. But not anymore.

She sighed and cracked her knuckles in boredom as she considered her next move.

[The Spot]

Spot jumped through a portal only a few yards away from Sophia, and landed gracefully on the rooftop. "There you are." The superhuman thief-turned-kidnapper had calmed down since the big argument at Sophia's place, and was now back to his old self.
The Spot walked toward Ms. Trenton with a concerned expression. "Are you alright, Ms. Trenton? You stormed out of there rather quick." He said gently.

[Pepper]

Pepper's head spun almost the entire trip. She had had time to cry out once as Trenton grabbed her and she'd actually made to grab at Tony as she was pulled out. The idea was to take him with her wherever Trenton was going - so he'd be away from Deathstroke. But mere seconds out the window and she'd fainted as the speed pulled her blood from her head, and all thoughts of Tony and her safely had faded as her head drooped.

Now, however, she was waking up - and part of her was mad as hell, while the other part somewhat relieved. The wind whipped her clothes, bringing hemlines to almost embarrassing heights, and she fixed that as best as she could - though that meant sacrificing her strawberry blonde hair, which chose to sail out in the wind like a graceful fan. She was sure she was quite a sight up there, but there was no one to enjoy it.

She turned her head in time to see Trenton staring at her with cold eyes, and she said: "Well Miss Trenton, it's good to see you finally took charge. I was wondering how much I would have to irritate you to get that to happen. That doesn't stop anything I said from being true, however. And now Deathstroke has Tony...." she stopped as another familiar voice broke in - Jonathan's. She sat up and looked at him and the part of her that was mad as hell got even worse even fast. In another three seconds she was on her feet and swinging at Jonathan with an open palm, first a front slap then a backhand. "What are you doing here?" she shouted, her hair exploding about her face in the wind. "If you can just appear and disappear at will with your portals, why the hell didn't you grab Tony before coming here? If Deathstroke turn him into one of his brainless soldiers again the first person I am going to come after is you because you left him there!"

Still looking at Jonathan, she added: "And you..." she spun towards Trenton, whipping out her tazer and pepper spray. She fired both of them at Trenton, the pepper spray a little left, the tazer a little right, hoping to catch the brunette in at least one of them.

[The Spot]

The Spot was rather shocked by Pepper's actions, and bent backward to avoid her hand. He sprung back up when she turned away from him, and then quickly made a portal between Trenton & Pepper, protecting Sophia from Pepper's attacks.

"Ms. Potts, allow me to point something out to you." Jonathan said calmly. "You stand absolutely no chance against either of us." He stated. "And you know what? If you want to be pissed off at me, well you go right ahead. Give me everything you've got! There's not a thing you can throw at me that I can't send right back at you." He was still rather composed, but his tone was giving off a hint of anger. "So, I suggest you sit yourself down, and cool off, because you aren't going to do yourself any good by being mad at me."
The portal between the two women vanished as Spot turned around, and took a few steps away from them. "Oh," he let out as he looked back at Pepper. "To answer your question: I hate Stark...that's why I left him." He said coldly.

[Pepper]

Pepper was all set to let loose with a stream of curses in Spot's direction, but she held her tongue and put away her weapons. A new emotion began to replace the boiling anger, and it was not an emotion Pepper was used to feeling. Not fear - she knew fear, she was rampant with it. Tony was in danger and so was she and she could do nothing about it. And that was the new emotion - helplessness. Pepper had felt it before but never to this degree. Her knees wobbled and she slowly sank to the ground. Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes but she withheld them. She was too proud to cry. But she wasn't too proud to do exactly what Jonathan said and shut up. She wanted to ask him how he could hate Stark and protect her. She wanted to ask him why he'd left...they had been friends and then he'd left and they'd never spoken again. She wanted to shove Trenton off the roof.

But she sat down carefully, and kept her mouth shut, hoping. Praying.

[Black Canary]

Trenton peeked up at Spot, who had just arrived. She should have known that he would be the one who would give chase. Deadpool would be too busy annoying Deathstroke, and Deathsroke would be too busy hatching plans for Stark.

"I am fine", she said with a quick nod. "Things were getting too real back there. I just want to get this lady off my hands and get some cash...", she looked over at Pepper.

She explored the rooftop for a few minutes and then returned to Spot and Pepper. She pulled the man a little to the side and looked up at him. "There will be people coming to look for me soon..", she said with a sad sigh. "We're going to need to make this transaction quickly, if at all.."

She dug through the contents of her utility belt until she pulled out a cell phone. She handed it the Spot. He somehow knew Pepper. He would know who to call and what to do.

[The Spot]

Jonathan was glad to hear Sophia was alright. He wasn't sure why, but he really liked this woman. Despite her occasionally short fuse she was a pretty nice person, someone Spot could see himself with as more than just partners-in-crime.

When the small brunet handed him a cell phone he took it in hand, assuming it was untraceable. He dialed a number he hadn't used in a very long time, and then waited for someone to pick up. The last time he had used this number was when he was still working for Stark, and Tony was away on business, and there was only one way to get a hold of him, which was through Pepper. However, at that time he heard that Ms. Potts was away seeing her family, so...
"Hello?" A woman picked up on the other line.
"Yes, I have a message for Mrs. Potts." Jonathan said to the woman.
"Who's calling?" The lady asked.
"My name is unimportant. Just tell her that I have her daughter, and that if she doesn't come up with ten million dollars in forty-eight hours...let's just say there will be a tombstone involved." Spot said firmly. "When the cash is prepared have it sent to Stark Industries headquarters in New York. That is all." Dr. Ohnn hung up the phone, and then looked to Ms. Trenton. "The day before the money gets to Stark Tower we pull the same trick with them, and then have all the money sent here where we give them Ms. Potts, and we get our payoff." He said with a faint smile--the thought of money was beginning to lighten his mood. "What say you?"

[Pepper]

Pepper was finally beginning to tremble. Kneeling there on the roof with her hair in all directions and holding back her tears - which she was doing an admirable job of considering the circumstances - she listened to the two kidnappers make a hasty execution of this whole ransom thing. She looked up in surprise as she heard them speaking to the receptionist at the magazine where her mother worked. She held her breath, thinking. Her father was a stockbroker and her mother the editor in chief of the magazine. Between the two of them they might be able to pull together ten million dollars, but she doubted it. And to hear Jonathan's voice, cold and indifferent, threaten with the word 'tombstone', Pepper closed her eyes.

"My parents don't have ten million dollars," she said softly. She was 99.9% sure her parents would give all they had to get her back but she was pretty sure the two of them combined didn't have ten million. "You're better off ripping off Stark Industries for that amount than my parents. Not that it matters. Tony won't pay. He wouldn't and he couldn't."

[The Spot]

Jonathan looked over to Pepper, his face was cold, and his eyes were piercing. Now was the time to be a villain, not a light-hearted superhuman thief. He didn't say anything for a moment as he went into his regular human form. His icy gaze was fixed on Ms. Potts as he responded to her words. "And whose problem is that?" His tone was dark, and cold matching his expression perfectly.

[Pepper]

Pepper stared at him in surprise, and then she said softly: "So you would protect me from Deathstroke only to kill me yourself?" She couldn't - didn't - believe he'd do it. Trenton might, but certainly not Jonathan Ohnn. As much as he hated Tony he didn't hate her - or so she thought. Maybe she was about to be proven very wrong.

Whose problem is that? Her parents - it wasn't hers, she had no control over the accounts. And it was sort of theirs for kidnapping her, because it put them in a situation where they would have to either kill her or let her go if they didn't get the money within the time frame. To adjust would make them look weak. But kill her?

Pepper closed her eyes. Hurry the hell up, Tony.

[The Spot]

"Ms. Potts," Jonathan started as he approached the lovely woman. "I am not the man I once was. Though I do care about you to a certain degree you are our captive. If you should prove to be of no further use, or of little use..." He paused shortly as he crouched down in front of Pepper. "Know this: I do not make empty threats. So if I were you I'd start worrying a bit more about whether or not that cash is going to come."

[Pepper]

Pepper looked back at Jonathan, straight into his eyes. She saw no mercy there, and she shook visibly. She'd been wrong - so wrong about this man, and she swore never to assume anything ever again about anyone. Not that she'd be able to keep up with that, but she could try.

She looked over at the silent Trenton and made another silent vow - that woman was going to feel both pepper spray and electricity before she even got near Pepper to try to hurt her. If she was lucky she'd get her in the mouth with the spray and the eye with the tazer. Do some real damage.

For the time being, and utterly uncaring of the strike she was sure she would get in return, she reared back and spit in Jonathan's face.

[Ravager]

[With Ironman's permission]

As they got closer to the roof "Hey tin man fastball special me at spot check." Ravager told Iron Man who just nodded and threw her at Spot flipping in mid air so she would be coming in feet first which she went to slam into the top of the doctors head as she came down "Oh a party, and nobody invited me...that just makes me mad." she said as she drew her katana's and got ready for the coming fight. "Come on loser you couldn't fight your way out of a paper bag with out your spots. Your nothing but a second rate wanna be villain." She taunted

[Iron Man]

While Ravager played with spot Iron Man rained down his fury on Trenton in the form of repulsor blasts "That's it I'm tired of being Mr. Nice Guy." He said as he opened a com link to S.H.I.E.L.D. and order a unit to be sent to bring down Trenton and The Spot. "It's one thing to attack me it's another to attack someone who I care about." He said to them ignoring the pain in his side his ribs where either broken or bruised he wasn't which but he'll deal with it later after all he went toe to toe with the god of Thunder and walked away his suit was trashed but he was still alive. Tony then opened another com link with someone else "Get up here and get her out of here." He said to the unknown person.

[Pepper]

Almost as if the spit triggered something, Pepper only had the sound of something coming very fast to dive out of the way. She screamed in surprise as a woman - the same woman who had had a knife to her neck - crashed down onto the roof, pulling out a katana. And then there came an all too familiar sound of repulsor blasts powering up, and she looked up to see Iron Man pounding the roof with blasts aimed for Trenton. "Tony," she whispered, and then out loud: "about time."

As all hell broke loose around her Pepper sprinted. This was going to get dangerous and bloody fast, and she needed to get out of the way. As she ran, she pulled out the earplugs and put them in, then drew both her tazer and sonic tazer.

She reached a wall and crouched against it, glaring at the chaos before her. Both her fingers were on the triggers; she was ready if any of the fighting superheroes came for her.