บท 99: C99 Poisoning

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As Peter portal'd Pepper and Tony back to the Tower in New York, Pepper stepped through the portal with a nervous look on her face. This was one of the very rare occasions that she was able to use Peter's portal.

As she watched the portal close behind them with a look of awe, Tony just strolled through casually and made his way to a nearby minibar, where he poured himself a very large glass of whiskey.

Peter removed the lawyer's suit and found a place to sit while thinking of what today's events mean.

'Iron Man 2..." He thought.

Vanko or Whiplash would come after Tony soon enough. This whole debacle with the Senator and Justin Hammer was like a flag telling him that Iron Man 2 would be happening soon.

Using his intelligence and patience, Vanko vowed revenge against the son of the man that ruined his and his father's lives. His goal is to destroy Howard Starks legacy (Tony) and the Stark family's reputation altogether.

Sadly, Vanko is a pretty low-level villain, and even when he teams up with Justin Hammer, Tony should still be able to handle the situation on his own. Especially since Tony has gone through the Avengers training program and the design of his suit is ahead of what he had in the movie.

Peter would know as they work on his suit together every once in a while.

'Maybe this would be a good test for the more inexperienced Avengers?' Peter thought as he and anyone on the council could probably handle this situation on their own.

Even Fury, who's a human with no powers or advanced armor like Tony, would probably be able to handle this situation if given enough time and recourses.

The only problem is Tony's arc reactor. He is using palladium as the core, which is poisoning him and increasing his blood toxicity as the core degrades. After researching and testing every known element, Tony still could not find one that could work in place of palladium, so he had to remain with what worked, even if it was bad for his health.

Although Tony doesn't need the arc reactor to keep the shrapnel away from his heart, as he had that surgically removed in preparation for meeting Magneto, that doesn't mean the reactor isn't still poisoning his body.

Tony still wears his reactor at all times in preparation for any possible situation that could break out, so he still needs to discover a better element before he kills himself.

Tony would have to make a new element as he did in the movie, which he unceremoniously dubbed Badassium. Thankfully, Peter knows how he figured it out so this can be solved easily.

Taking out his phone, Peter sent everything he knows about Ivan Vanko to Scythe and asked him to track him down. Once Peter has a handle on the situation, he can bring it up to the council and have an Avengers team take care of it or work out some 'chance' meeting between them.

It's the perfect test for them after all.

With that settled, Peter turned to Tony and Pepper who stood by his side and spoke.

"So, Tony. Do you plan to tell us about your most recent problem?" Peter says, causing Tony to freeze mid-drink and Pepper to look at him in confusion.

"What's he talking about, Tony?" Pepper asks as Tony averts his eyes.

"I don't know what you're talking about..." Tony says as he tries to avoid this conversation.

"Okay..." Peter says with a nod as he shoots a web at Tony's shirt and pulls, yanking the billionaire's upper clothes clean off.

As Tony's naked chest was revealed to the world, the veins surrounding the arc reactor, which was still attached to his bare chest, were clearly visible and dyed black like ink.

"What the..." Pepper gasped as she stepped closer to get a better look. "What happened?!"

"It's just some palladium poisoning." Tony says as he covers his chest with his arms and glares at Peter. "I'm working on a fix. There's no reason to worry."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Pepper asks as she moves his arms out of the way and touches the black veins.

"Well, you've been busy with becoming CEO of the company, so I didn't want to add more to your plate." Tony says as he looks away awkwardly.

'Are these two making this an intimate moment somehow?' Peter thought as he watched them interact. 'They should just get together already...'

"That's not an excuse! You're killing yourself! Take it off." Pepper says, knowing that Tony doesn't need the arc reactor as he removed the shrapnel long ago.

"I'd rather not..." Tony says as he backs away.

"Why?" Pepper asks confusedly.

"I just feel naked without it." Tony says as he looks down at the glowing blue object on his chest.

"What? It's killing you..." Pepper states plainly.

"Yes, but I'm working on a solution." Tony says defensively. "Without it, I feel like I'm unarmed. I need to be ready for any dangerous situation."

At this point, it all made sense for Pepper. Tony has some sort of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder(PTSD). He's acting like a veteran soldier that refuses to part with his service pistol. Peter already knew this from his time spent with Tony and his character in the movies.

"Look, I get it." Peter joins the conversation as Tony puts his shirt back on. "I know that I joke about this a lot, but you don't have powers like the rest of the Avengers, so I understand why you feel so attached to the source of your power. However, you shouldn't be hiding such a huge problem like this. There are many people in the Avengers that are qualified and would be glad to help you, myself included."

Tony has no words to fight back and Pepper nodded alongside every word that came out of Peter's mouth just now.

"...fine." Tony gives up with a tired sigh. "I need help, but I still refuse to remove the arc reactor."

"Tony..." Pepper goes to speak but Peter cuts her off.

"Fine, how much time before the poisoning gets bad?" Peter agrees and asks, causing Pepper to turn to him with an imploring look. "What? He's far too stubborn to see reason. Let's just focus on a fix before it's too late."

"I resent that..." Tony says as he pours himself a new drink.

"You didn't answer the question." Peter says.

"I have about 2 weeks to a month before we have to start worrying." Tony says after sipping his liquor.

"Okay, let's recruit Banner, Charles, and Beast. With a stacked team like that, we'll have a fix for this in no time." Peter says as he takes out a phone and sends a message to the Avengers group text, causing Tony's phone to vibrate.

Pulling it out, Tony reads the text out loud.

"'Yo, Tony is dumb and dying. I hereby summon all big brains to the Tower. Get here ASAP before he croaks'" Tony reads the message that was sent to every Avenger with an unamused look on his face. "Seriously?"

"What?" Peter says with a shrug. "You are dumb for keeping this from us and you are dying if we don't figure this out."

"I agree, this was a very stupid thing to hide from us." Pepper starts reaming into Tony as Peter gets up and slowly sneaks away. "I may not be able to help but the Avengers could. You just don't think about anyone else. I mean really how could you... You could have died... Why can't you just... so irresponsible of you..."

Tony was stuck there taking the sharp words from Pepper, while Peter snuck away to relax before they all got to work. Peter could feel the pleading look that Tony was giving him as he left, but simply ignored it and went on his way.

He would have to get used to such treatment when they're in a relationship anyway. It would only get worse at that point.

After sneaking off, Peter made his way through the tower, looking for the model of the Stark Expo that Howard Stark left behind, as it held the secret to making the element Tony needs.

Howard believed it to be the key to limitless, renewable, clean energy. However, limited by the technology of his time, Howard was unable to create the element for himself and instead left the blueprints for the element hidden in the model that Peter is searching for, hoping that his son would complete his creation in the future.

A/N: 1439 words

[DONT FORGET MY STONES! Here's a riddle for you. No google allowed🚫. When is a door not a door?🚪?]