Glass Heart

Scarlett hurried out of the ballroom, into the hallway and as far away from Tony Stark as she could get without leaving the building. In case Tony followed her she didn’t stop to see where she was. The last thing she wanted now was to be in an enclosed space with him after such a close call. Her heart was racing, her palms were sweaty and everything in her thoughts was telling her to run. Sick to her stomach as she’d been on several occasions over the last few days, she rushed until she saw a sign for the ladies’ room. Hurrying into the bathroom she closed the door behind her and then turned on the faucet for the cold water in the middle sink against the long counter in front of a pristine mirror surrounded by lights, much like there would be on an old vanity.

Leaning both hands on the counter on either side of the sink, Scarlett stared down at the running water and exhaled one again, having realized she was holding her breath. How many times had she done that in the last hour? She’d lost count. Was Tony feeling the same conflict she was? Is that why he hadn’t kissed her when he’d had the chance? This was what she wanted wasn’t it? To have Tony practically begging to have her. Why was it sending her into such a panic when she had been planning on seducing Tony all along? Resting a hand on her chest she could feel her heart racing faster than it should. Maybe she was still sick from the wound on her leg. That had to be it; her mind wouldn’t allow her to think it was anything more.

“Really, Scarlett?” Looking up at herself in the mirror she was suddenly aware of the mask that Tony had picked out for her. She’d forgotten it was there while they’d been dancing. “You’re so desperate not to see the truth that you’ll make any excuse to avoid it, won’t you?” Reaching behind her head she untied the mask and set it down on the counter. Letting the water pool in her hands she splashed the cold liquid on her face in hopes of feeling rejuvenated, calmed and renewed. It only did enough to renew her senses and little else for her shot nerves. Her stomach was still twisted in knots.

But what was the truth she was trying so hard to avoid? What exactly was happening between her and Tony and why was she so unwilling to see it? That she could answer and easily at that. She had three thousand reasons to hate Tony Stark and want him dead and only a handful of reasons to defend him with. Not to mention, most of those reasons were ones her logical brain kept rejecting. What was she hoping to get out of this if not her revenge? A relationship? Romance? With the king of the womanizers? How ridiculous a notion that was particularly with someone like her. But what did that mean? Did she not deserve to be happy? Had she even considered it a possibility? Abandoning thoughts of her own issues she considered Tony’s. Scarlett hadn’t seen a single woman on Tony’s arm outside of herself since she’d woken up. But perhaps he was only avoiding doing so because she was there.

Somehow she knew none of that was true. The man that Tony Stark had once been had faded into rumor and conjecture. The man he’d become was someone overshadowed by the press he’d surrounded himself with for the last fifteen years at the very least. Now that she’d seen the man behind the metaphorical mask she had a hard time swallowing her pride on the matter. If she was wrong about what he was, then what else was she wrong about? It was like opening the proverbial can of worms.

Walking the short distance to grab a hand towel from the neatly folded pile on the far side of the counter, she wiped the remaining water off of her face and then rung it out in her hands even though there was little water to get rid of. Scarlett had never been good at relationships because it required giving up more than just control over her own life. It required her to give up her wants for the needs of another which had never been her strong suit. It was nearly impossible to give up the things you desire when you weren’t sure what desire you’d have when you woke up each day.

Even what she’d had with Scott had been simply out of obligation. It was why things had never been quite right between them. She’d never managed to let go of her pride and even though she’d promised to try, she had never been able to put her selfish wants and desires behind what she knew was best for her relationship with him. But she hadn’t wanted a relationship at all. Her heart had never fluttered for Scott he way that it did for Tony.

Before she could contemplate the notion of a failed relationship with Tony further she heard the door to the bathroom open behind her. Glancing to the door curiously, she stopped short when three men, dressed in black suits, came into the room each with a black mask covering their face to obscure their features. Something told her they were most certainly not there for the masquerade. Giving them the once over in the mirror in hopes of not seeming suspicious she noted that the one on the left had a syringe in his hand filled with a clear liquid. That did not bode well.

Of course they’d come for her. She’d known that going out was a bad idea somewhere deep down and had done it anyway. Why would MedCo care if they were in a crowded place? Crowds were always the best cover and she knew that. She’d made herself vulnerable when she’d gone off on her own but she hadn’t been thinking clearly at the time. Shifting her weight on her leg she felt it sting in annoyance but not badly enough to keep her from being able to protect herself. If she could get back into the crowd she’d find safety in numbers.

“It probably wouldn’t do me much good to let you boys know this is the ladies’ room, would it?” Turning off the faucet, Scarlett heaved a sigh and leaned against the counter, shaking her head. When she saw the man in the middle reach for his gun she knew instantly her window of opportunity was starting to slam shut. “I didn’t think so.”

Tony stared at the door to the hallway in hopes that Scarlett would return from them with Happy soon. Suddenly things didn’t seem so interesting, at least not without Scarlett there. Leonard was talking on and on about one of the papers that Tony had written in his youth when he’d gone to MIT at an early age. It was nice to know that the man admired his work enough to have gone back that far but Tony had flown through his studies with such ease back then that he barely recalled any of the papers that he’d written.

“Where’s the waiter, I need more wine. My bottle runeth dry.” Tony yawned and turned back toward the table. Pepper was looking around nervously and then swatted Tony’s arm when someone started walking onto the stage. This was Tony’s least favorite part of charity events. Some manipulative jerk would get up on a stage and give three thousand reasons for the people in the crowd to donate money to a cause. Instead of saying outright what they needed and what they were hoping for they would manipulate and use guilt as a ploy to motivate people to hand over their hard earned money.

Glancing around the room at the handful of wealthy socialites who had been invited simply because of social status, Tony only felt bad for the ones who had actually worked for their money. And even then he didn’t care enough to do anything about it. Just like he did, the others invited to the event knew what they were getting into when they came.

“What was that?” Pepper whispered, looking around curiously. Tony looked up from the spot on the table he’d been tapping with his fingers.

“What was what?” He muttered, bored. The man on the stage was still speaking about the foundation and the research in particle physics that needed funding.

“You didn’t feel that?” Pepper whispered, trying not to draw attention to them or seem rude because she was talking during the man’s speech. Several other people in the room were looking around curiously as well, though not enough for it to seem out of the ordinary. Pepper couldn’t tell if they’d felt the same thing she had or if they were just bored like Tony was.

“Feel what? Pepper, have you had too much champagne? You always were a lightweight.” Tony whispered in amusement. Scarlett still hadn’t come back and now Happy hadn’t returned either. Whatever was going on in the hallway seemed far more interesting than the nonsense that was happening in the ballroom.

“The ground just shook…” Pepper whispered and turned to Leonard in hopes that he could back her up. When he shrugged his shoulders and looked as befuddled and skeptical as Tony did she sighed in frustration. “Just forget about it. It must have been nothing.”

“Forgotten.” Tony tapped the table again and then thanked the waiter when he brought his wine glass refilled back to him. “Thank you…” Once the glass was set down on the table it fell over as the table shook violently. The ground had trembled for a moment as though something heavy had been dropped nearby. Standing up instantly to avoid the dripping red wine getting on his tuxedo he noticed that several other glasses around the room had tipped over so it hadn’t just been him. “Okay, now that… that I felt.” Tony wagged his finger at Pepper and searched around for the source of the shaking.

The man on the stage was telling no one to panic and making everyone aware that he’d sent some people to investigate the disturbance. Soon he started to assure people that there was likely just some construction down the road. Tony’s stomach started to churn. Something bad was about to happen and he wasn’t sure what. There was no way that shaking was caused by something down the road. Whatever had caused the ground to tremble beneath them was close and something told him it was menacing.

“Maybe they are doing some construction nearby. I saw there’s a rather extensive forest nearby, perhaps there’s construction!” Leonard theorized, trying to help settle the crowd that had started to panic.

“No, we wouldn’t have felt it like that.” Tony waved his hand at Leonard, his hand on his chin as he tried to think of what could’ve caused it. Worry was turning into dread and he suddenly knew he had to go and find Scarlett and Happy. The shaking had been in such close proximity he was wondering if something happened to them that had caused the tremor.

“Tony what if it’s an earthquake?” Pepper sounded panicked at the notion and had gotten to her feet.

“It wouldn’t happen like that Pepper, use your brain. This is happening in short bursts, not like an earthquake. That’s if you, in fact, didn’t hallucinate the shaking before. It seems oddly coincidental that you would make something like that up only seconds before it actually happened. Unless you’re developing some extra sensory perception now and in that case you can be a super hero with me.” Wincing, Tony recoiled when Pepper smacked him with her purse. “Hey, not my fault you’re not thinking clearly…” Drifting off, Tony felt the ground shake again, this time far more severely. The chandeliers overhead clanked and shook dangerously. If Tony didn’t know better he’d say that the tremors sounded like footsteps rather than anything else. It seemed ludicrous but the pattern felt like steps.

“What is that?” Leonard stayed behind Tony, looking curiously toward the stage but also seeming to realize that something sinister was going on. Security guards had started to urge people toward the entrance to the building for evacuation. The man on the stage was assuring everyone that the procedure was just precautionary and once they were sure everything was alright they would be led back inside to continue the festivities.

“…I don’t know.” Tony whispered, pulling the mask off of his face and throwing it onto the table. When he felt the plague doctor mask hit him in the back as it had done several times while he’d been waiting for Scarlett, he turned and pulled it off of Leonard’s face as well. Before Tony could instruct Pepper or Leonard to do anything the windows aligning the far edge of the room, overlooking the gardens, cracked and split like someone had applied too much pressure.

With the arrival of the earsplitting sound of gunfire the windows gave into the pressure applied and shattered one by one. Tony turned his back on the scene, grabbed Pepper and Leonard and threw them to the ground then dropped down himself and threw his hands over his head just in case. The windows were all the way across the room but with the force applied to the glass panes he had no idea how far the shrapnel was going to fly. When the sound of shattering glass passed and the clinking of it landing against the marble floor ceased, Tony got back up and turned around. The ground was consistently trembling every few seconds now and he knew it was from the footsteps of something massive.

Through the broken windows stomped four incredibly large and heavily armed unmanned drones. The entirety of the ballroom stood still with baited breath in awe of what was appearing in front of them. A cold chill washed down Tony’s spine. He knew they were there for him without having to guess. These robots that had come after him were some of the most sophisticated he’d seen produced. What villain would send them to a charity crowded with innocent people? How heartless could they be and what was it they wanted from him? Closing his eyes for a moment he tried not to consider the body count that would follow what came next. It was harder to wash away the guilt when he saw faceless bodies lying dead on the ground in the darkness of his mind.

Gunshots rang through the ballroom echoing overhead and seeming more sinister than they had when they’d broken the glass of the windows. The drones weren’t aiming at the civilians but rather above them. It seemed like they were giving off warning shots. Maybe they weren’t out for a bloodbath after all.

“Everyone run! Run, don’t hesitate for a moment! Get out! Get out!” Tony stepped forward and yelled over the crowd. While it wasn’t the best idea to draw attention to himself, he knew that if he didn’t yell some instructions then no one was going to take charge. The man on the stage had jumped off when the glass had broken and was panicking just as badly as the people around him. If there was one thing Tony was good at, it was taking charge.

The gunfire continued and people started to run out of the room, heeding Tony’s orders once it had been given time to sink in. Turning to Pepper and Leonard who looked panicked but prepared to follow orders, he whispered.

“They’re here for me. I don’t know how I can guarantee you that, but that seems to be the trend when giant robots show up. They’re after me. I need my suit… then I need you to get these people out of here.” Before Tony could continue something creaked loudly overhead. One of the chandeliers nearby had taken too much damage to its support and was starting to collapse. “Get down! Get the hell down! Cover your head!” Tony yelled and dove to the floor again, further away from the chandelier. Pepper screamed in surprise and hid under the nearest table. Leonard dove near Tony, clearly ready to follow his orders since he seemed to know how to handle such dire situations.

With a loud crash and the shattering of crystal fixtures, the chandelier fell and crushed a table nearby. People were screaming so loudly that on top of the gunfire Tony could barely concentrate or focus.

“Tony! Tony! Where are you? Are you okay?” Pepper was screaming from underneath the table once the chandelier had finished causing damage. Scrambling to his feet, one hand still on the ground, Tony hurried to the table where his assistant’s voice came from and grabbed her arm and tugged her free from the half crushed table.

“Potts, I need my suit. Where’s my suit?” Tony shouted seriously, trying to simultaneously get Pepper to calm down and to concentrate on the matter at hand. Pepper was shaking with fear, even her freckles seemed pale. “I need you to concentrate for just long enough to tell me where the suit is. Did we leave it in the Bentley?”

“Happy…” Pepper’s voice was trembling and cracking but she was finally managing to breathe and calm down. “Happy has it on him and you sent him off to find Scarlett and neither one of them has come back… oh god, do you think something’s happened to them? Tony! Tony, tell me that they’re okay!” Pepper grabbed onto Tony’s arms and looked at him pleadingly in hopes of finding some relief.

“Hell…” Tony muttered under his breath but before he could tell Pepper what his next move was the sound of the drones coming closer and the whistling of bullets nearby distracted his thoughts. “Take cover!” Tony shoved Pepper to the side who did as she was told, hiding behind one of the nearby pillars that supported the vaulted ceiling. Tony hurried toward the main exit, realizing that Leonard was right behind him and not hiding from the gunfire as Tony had instructed him to.

“I’m here to help Tony. Tell me what you need me to do and I’ll do it.” He yelled over the sound of gunfire nearby.

“I need you to get out of here! This isn’t safe for you. I won’t have your blood on my hands, Leo!” Tony shouted, trying to keep an eye on the drones, Pepper, and the hallway across the room where he was still hoping Scarlett and Happy would emerge, but now for entirely different reasons.

“You’re not Iron Man right now. You need all the help you can get. I may not be as young as you are but I’m not on my way to the home yet.” Leonard scolded, sounding far stronger than Tony had expected him to.

“No offense grandpa but I don’t think you’re doing me that much good. You’re just another casualty to keep my eye on.” Tony couldn’t help but smirk as he spoke but continued toward the door. “Everyone get out before they block anymore exits. If this collapses go out the broken windows through the garden!” Tony shouted, and much to his surprise instead of continuing to destroy the room and block the exits as he’d expected them to do one of the drones came right toward them and started firing. Tony grabbed Leonard’s arm and ducked low then crawled out of the way. The targeting systems of the drones were either inefficient or they weren’t aiming to kill. What could they be distracting him from if anything? Were the drones not there to kill him but rather to just keep him busy?

Tony didn’t have time to think out his theory further. A second drone came at him and slammed his metallic fist into the ground near Tony. If he hadn’t rolled out of the way just in time it would’ve smashed right into him. He reconsidered that maybe their targeting system was just faulty or inefficient because if he hadn’t moved out of the way his internal organs, at the very least, would’ve been ruptured.

Getting up and leaping forward as another fist smashed and created a crater in the ground beneath him, Tony breathed a sigh of relief that he’d been missed again. Without his suit he couldn’t even buy himself some time to try and find a weakness on the drones. If he had his suit on him he could just blow them all to hell or at least lure them away from civilians. But no, Happy was missing and he was left risking his skin.

“Tony, here!” Leonard hurried over to him. The older man had a scrape on his face, like he’d taken a blow but was obviously willing to help him. Reaching to take the hand that was offered to him, Tony was surprised that when he tried to get up something had a hold on his leg. Before he could look down at the source he was pulled off of his feet and fell face first onto the ground.

Leonard scattered forward and grabbed his arm to try and pull him out of the drone’s clutches but was thrown back by another one of the drones that had come to block off the entrance as Tony had expected them too initially. “I guess it’s too late to tell him to run.” Tony groaned and tried to wiggle free of the drone’s clutches. Luckily it seemed like most people were steering clear of the drones and searching for other exits. Rolling onto his back to get a better look at what had him captured, Tony realized that all four of the drones seemed to be focused on him. Wherever he’d gone, the machines had followed and started creating chaos. Kicking at the robotic hand he curled up in hopes of reaching the metallic fingers.

He could see exposed wires and hoped he could pull on them and at the very least disable them so he would be able to get his foot free and take cover. If he could find loose wires on each of the drones then he could at least buy them enough time to find Happy and get his suit back. That was if Happy and Scarlett were alright at all.

But before Tony could reach the wires on the armored hand of the drone it tugged him and waved him through the air. Upside down and starting to get nauseous from being flung around Tony tried to gather his focus. He could hear Pepper yelling to him but he couldn’t concentrate on his surroundings for long enough to find where she was yelling from or what she was saying.

After managing to fight off a wave of nausea he strained his muscles so that he could lean his torso upward from his hanging upside down position. With a swift tug he grabbed onto the wires he’d seen and tugged as hard as he could. A handful of the wires came free and sent a shock through Tony’s arm that made him twitch. The robot swung his arm wildly but his fingers seemed to be disabled because Tony was free. Unfortunately he’d gotten free mid-swing and was now flying across the room.

Holding his arms over his face and head defensively he smashed into one of the nearby tables which cracked and fell over beneath his weight and rolled on top of him. Groaning and laying still on the ground for a second to gather his bearings Tony kicked the table off of him and managed to push it to the side when it stubbornly refused to move off of him.

Leaning up he saw the world spinning around him and put a hand to his head to try and shake off the dizziness and regain his equilibrium. The wires from the drone were still in his hand and the casing was flaking. He wondered what kind of an engineer would build such a sophisticated machine with such cheap and poorly constructed pieces. Tony pocketed the wires in hopes of identifying the construction of the drones after he’d managed escape.

“I regret all that wine now.” Tony muttered but then felt someone grab his arm and nearly retaliated angrily. Pepper was standing next to him and tugging on him to try and get him to cover. “Didn’t I tell you to run like ten minutes ago?”

“I am not going to leave you here on your own, Tony!” Pepper looked at him in disbelief. “Now come on, Leonard is still over by the main entrance! The drones knocked him down when he tried to help you and they aren’t waiting for you to feel steady before they come after you again. We need to grab Leonard and get out of here!”

“Have I mentioned that you might be my favorite assistant?” Tony steadied himself on his feet with Pepper’s help and stumbled, blinking away his dizziness. The main entrance was caved in and so was the door to the hallway that Scarlett and Pepper had gone through. If the targeting system was such a joke then how had the drones known exactly where to hit over the doorways to keep from compromising the structural integrity of the building?

“I’m the only one that will put up with you and you know it.” Pepper managed a laugh through all the chaos.

“I think you’re finally learning how to deal with this.” Tony laughed and let Pepper guide him back toward where Leonard was lying against the wall, blood dripping from his forehead and his glasses broken on his face. He was pale and looked worse for wear. The crack in the wall behind him led them to believe that he’d taken quite the blow.

“No, I’m just starting to see the humor in how ridiculous this is.” Pepper checked Leonard’s pulse and found it slow and uneven. “Tony he’s in trouble, we need to get him out of here before it gets worse.”

“The only exits left I see available are through the windows that the drones broke earlier. They can’t block those off without taking down the roof and something tells me they’re not willing to do that.” A loud crashing sound on the western side of the room forced them to look up. The integrity of the building was starting to wane. The balcony on that end of the room came crashing down as the pillars supporting it gave way beneath it. Luckily it seemed to provide the perfect cover for them.

“Well then, we need to hide until we can get to them! Tony they’re after you. You need to escape and get somewhere safe as fast as you can!” Pepper whispered, brow furrowed. Tony slipped his arm beneath Leonard’s and lifted him up the best he could. After that failed him he lifted the man in a fireman’s hold and started toward the downed balcony. His shoulder stung from the wounds he’d sustained the other day when he’d fought the men in black suits on the highway. He had various new scrapes and bruises, but the adrenaline and shock of the situation was allowing him not to feel them.

“I’m not running, Pepper. Happy and Scarlett are in here somewhere alone and I’m not leaving without them just because these assholes are after me!” Tony managed to dodge the gunfire from the drones that had targeted him once again. Shaking his head he contemplated what to do. Other people were still trapped in the room, either too panicked to escape or injured and panicked. If he could have Pepper guide them out then perhaps he’d be able to provide a diversion for at least a little while.

Unfortunately his assistant was right; there wasn’t much he could do. Eventually he’d be overwhelmed by the giant robots and would be killed if he didn’t run away. Without his suit he was of no use in such situations. Once behind the collapsed balcony, Tony set Leonard down and started searching the area to make sure that the rubble they’d taken refuge beneath was stable enough for them to remain there without worry of it collapsing and crushing them.

Pepper tore part of her scarf that accented her dress and started to wipe the blood off of Leonard’s forehead to get to the wound so she could judge its severity. She’d dealt with enough of Tony’s wounds in the past that she could at least create a rudimentary bandage to stop the bleeding and hopefully find some alcohol to rouse the man’s consciousness.

“Tony without your suit you’re just a civilian like the rest of us. You’re not safe! Let the police handle it for once! You’re not doing anyone any favors! You’re going to get yourself killed. Then what use will you be to Scarlett and Happy?” Pepper looked pleadingly at her boss while she held the cloth to the wound on Leonard’s head.

“We need to get everyone out of here.” Tony spoke seriously, ignoring Pepper’s quip about how he was powerless to stop the drones. He refused to believe that there was nothing he could do. Even without his armor he was Tony Stark. If the most brilliant engineering mind in the world couldn’t stop a bunch of robots without his suit of armor then who could? The self doubt that had gripped him seconds ago was fading. He’d disabled one of the hands so if he could continue to disable the drones little by little, eventually he’d have an advantage.

“We do. You’re right, the windows are our best bet. Tony, I don’t know how we’re going to get Leonard out of here though. You’re too slow with him on your back. Those drones will pick you up before you make a quarter of the way across the room. We got lucky getting under here.” Pepper furrowed her brow, clearly thinking that Tony had gotten the point she’d been trying to make.

“You’re right. I am to slow. We’ll have to keep him here for now.” Tony peered out from where they were hiding and saw the drones searching around for him. The gunfire had at least finally stopped while they spent time searching for him. People were taking to the windows but some were too terrified to escape. Glancing once again at the entrance to the hallway on the left side of the room he saw that it was too obstructed by debris for him to have any hopes of getting through it to the other side. The only way he’d manage to get to that area of the building would be to go outside and break through one of the windows. But if he went outside then so would the drones and that was where he’d sent everyone to safety. No, Tony knew what he needed to do and steeled his nerves to get it done.

“Tony what are you doing? What are you thinking?” Pepper whispered, sensing the sudden tension coming off of her boss. She wanted to prevent him from doing anything stupid, but history would lead her to believe that she wasn’t capable of stopping him once he had his mind set on something.

“You get Leonard to safety. Then guide the others out through the back window.” He spoke quietly, not wanting to be overheard. He wasn’t sure if Pepper could carry the bulkier man but he had a feeling she could at least drag him or get someone to help.

“Tony, if you think that I’m letting you stay here by yourself…” Pepper immediately started to argue, worry gripping her again.

“Pepper they’re after me. If you stay with me then you become a target too.” Tony hissed and slammed his wrist against the collapsed rubble that he’d earlier decided was stable enough to form their cover.

“How do you know I’m not already a target? What if they come after me anyway like they did in that night club? I’m not leaving you here alone!” Pepper reasoned, trying to keep her voice at a whisper but was having a very hard time doing that when she was in such a panic. Her voice became shrill and higher pitched.

“They didn’t target you after I ran off to help people get out the front door. They followed me. You need to get out of here because you can.” One hand on the edge of the rubble they’d climbed underneath, Tony managed to calm his breathing and find his center. If he could keep his wits about him and his energy up, then he could do this.

“Tony, don’t do it!” Pepper shouted more urgently, fear thick in her voice for what would become of her friend and boss. Before she could grab him or object further, Tony ran from beneath the rubble and out into shattered remains of the ballroom.

Scarlett turned away from the mirror and held both of her hands up defensively at her sides. She was unarmed and knew that her advantage would be in playing along until she was armed. Taking a deep breath she offered them a kind smile but behind it her mind was working overtime. Each man was armed with what looked like a handgun and likely a knife. At least she knew that’s what she would be carrying if the tables were turned.

“I’m sure you don’t want to cause a scene here, right? So I’ll come quietly as long as you put that nasty syringe away.” Scarlett reassured them. The men didn’t seem to trust her and with good reason. It was a shame that they were already aware of just how quietly she was likely to come.

The man in the middle with the gun in his hand slipped it back into his holster after he spent a moment contemplating what to do with her. Grabbing a pair of handcuffs from his belt he unhooked them and started toward Scarlett who held her hands in front of her close to her chest.

“I said I’d come quietly… no need to play rough with me.” Scarlett batted her eyelashes. That was one thing Scarlett was incredibly skilled at. She was aware of how feminine she was and saw absolutely no harm in using it to her advantage. In the span of things it wasn’t a very important trait to her, even if she did work hard to maintain her appearance. It was just another tool she’d been provided with to do her job. And now was no different than any other time she’d used it.

She could see the amusement and desire in the eyes of the man in front of her. When he got closer to her and held the cuffs out as if offering to let her do it herself, she smirked. Every hired goon seemed the same. Under sexed and overpaid. It was amazing what a man would insinuate with a suggestive smile and the batting of her eyelashes.

When he got as close as he could get to her without touching her she straightened her back and narrowed her eyes at him. Her smile faded and she grabbed onto the wrist that held the cuffs and twisted it as hard as she could. The cuffs dropped from his hand and onto the marble floor.

“Sorry, but I don’t play submissive without a good fight.” Gritting her teeth Scarlett adjusted her fingers on the man’s wrist until she found the gap between his bones then twisted hard. He screamed in agony. The man to his right started toward her. Ducking down suddenly and bringing the man she had a grip on with her, the second man only grabbed onto the air above her clumsily. The man she held onto was fumbling sloppily for his gun while yelling a string of curse words at her.

“You bitch! You broke my hand! You broke my hand!” Scarlett finally let go of his wrist, crawled under where he was hunched over and grabbed the gun from the holster that was already unfastened. Sliding backwards beneath him she scrambled to her feet.

“I broke your wrist you imbecile.” Turning the safety off on the handgun, checking the clip to see how many rounds she had, Scarlett aimed toward the men and hoped to gain leverage. But the man on the left with the syringe had moved after the man on the right had faltered. In one hand he had his knife and the other he held the syringe. He sliced at her and she jumped backwards, falling through the door of the handicap stall. The gun slipped out of Scarlett’s hand the clip falling somewhere further away since she hadn’t managed to get it loaded back into the gun before the third man had come after her.

Cursing under her breath, Scarlett pushed the bottom of her dress out of her way and stumbled to her feet in her heels. Resting her hands at her sides she prepared herself for whatever the man’s next move was.

Not thinking, he rushed forward, knife first toward Scarlett. Grabbing onto the door of the stall she pulled it closed and trapped his hand between the door and the stall. Giving the door another smash against his arm the knife was forced out of his hands and onto the ground. When he howled in pain and frustration she let go of the door and gave it as hard a kick as she could muster. The door flew open and smashed straight into the man behind it.

When it swung open as the man stepped backwards, Scarlett grabbed the hand he held the syringe in and pulled him inside the stall with her. Hurrying, she locked the door to the stall. Just as she did the man gathered his wits and shoved her backwards into the wall, putting all of his weight on her stomach with his back. Still holding tightly onto his arm she twisted it around his neck and used his own weight to try and choke him.

He struggled and smashed his weight back into her again. Head smashing against the wall Scarlett ignored the stars she saw and slid her hand onto his wrist. She squeezed the base of it near the mass of tendons there and forced his hand to release its grip on the syringe. Taking a risk of being overpowered, she let go of his hand and grabbed the syringe.

In his moment of freedom, he turned to face her and threw his weight at her, knocking them both to the ground. Scarlet kept her grip tight on the syringe and wrapped her legs around her attacker’s waist. Her right leg was throbbing painfully but she reminded herself that it could be dealt with at a time when someone wasn’t trying to drug her and take her captive. Using the strength in her legs she forced herself on top of the man, pushing him onto his back before he could hit her as he’d intended.

Without hesitation she plunged the syringe into the side of his neck and pushed the plunger down as far as it would go. Within seconds the man was unconscious beneath her on the floor. Pulling the syringe free of his neck she threw it into the open toilet as she climbed off of him and readjusted her dress. Corsets and chiffon weren’t exactly what she would’ve picked to fight off a gang of kidnappers in, but it was holding up fairly well considering.

Giving the man a kick in his side for good measure Scarlett turned to the door and threw it open in hopes of knocking anyone on the other side back. She wouldn’t give them the opportunity to draw their guns or knives on her. If she kept attacking without hesitation she was likely to get out of her confined space with minimal injury.

The man whose wrist she had broken came running at her, but he was clumsy, angry and still cursing at her. She dodged him and kicked his backside so he would fall into the stall she’d just come out of and on top of the ally she’d drugged.

Spinning around, Scarlett was just in time to feel the third man lifting her up. Squealing in surprise Scarlett grabbed onto his coat in hopes of preventing him from throwing her. Unfortunately she wasn’t fast enough and was thrown straight through the bathroom door. It splintered at first then swung open under the force of the throw combined with her weight. Sliding against the ground, Scarlett felt her shoulder scrape against it. She came to a stop just before the wall and didn’t bother to take a moment to recover.

A moment of hesitation could be the end of her given how outnumbered she was. Scattering to her feet, surprised that her heels were still intact after the fall, she leaned heavily against it to gather her breath. The ground was shaking and the building was creaking like something heavy was collapsing nearby. Glancing around she couldn’t see what the source was but instinctively ducked when she heard the rapid fire of a machinegun. When no bullets whistled by or struck her she realized the gunfire was in the other room, but not for long. The man from the bathroom had drawn his gun and was cocking it. She could hear it on the other side of the door.

“Scarlett! What are you doing down there? What’s going on?” Happy was running toward her. The man from the bathroom had made his way into the hallway and was distracted by the appearance of Tony Stark’s driver.

“Happy, duck!” Scarlett widened her eyes and got down herself, unsure who the man with the gun would fire at first.

Just in time Happy got down on his knees and held the suitcase that contained Tony’s portable Mark V armor as a gunshot rang out and a bullet meant for Happy had ricocheted off of the metal casing.

Now Scarlett would have to take care of a civilian in her struggles. Maybe she could get Happy to run away so that she could at least have one less thing to concern herself with. Scrambling once again to her feet, she wiped the blood from her lip that split in her fall and prepared herself for the continued fight.