Below the living room, Pepper reached the workroom that Tony secluded himself in almost every day. She typed in her passcode on the keypad and pushed open the door, seeing Tony Stark working on what looked like an engine. Pepper never knew or asked what he was doing and used the screen that was hovering in the air to turn down the metal music that boomed throughout the room.
'How can you hear yourself think?' Pepper questioned as she walked towards the desk. Tony barely looked up as he turned his screwdriver.
'I usually don't listen to what I think. I usually just do,' he answered and pulled out a vent from the engine. 'The method has worked out pretty well so far.'
'Well, I've got someone upstairs who is here to see you,' Pepper said as she put her hands together in front of her.
'Tell them I'm not here.'
'I think you'll want to see her.'
'The 'her' scares me. Women from the past usually aren't- '
'It's Miss Susan Storm.'
Tony put the vent down on the table and turned his gaze to his assistant for the first time since she entered the room. The name was the only one he had heard countless times in the news besides his own. Pepper saw the intrigued glaze in her boss's eyes and knew that she was right to let the woman into the house.
'Hm,' he hummed and grabbed the bottle of dark green liquid that sat on his desk. He brought it to his lips and chugged a portion of it. Standing from his chair, Pepper waited patiently as he walked around the desk and started swiping at the screen that floated in the air.
'JARVIS, search 'Susan Storm' for me.'
'Yes, sir.'
'Shall I send her down?' Pepper eventually asked with a knowing smile. She knew the woman was a thought of interest to Tony and glanced at the information that appeared on the screen about the woman upstairs.
'Yeah. And more chlorophyl. Send her down with some chlorophyl.'
As Pepper walked away to get Susan from upstairs, Tony searched through the reports on the blue-hued screen. The emergency shaft that landed back on Earth was the hottest news just before he had told the world that he was Iron Man. Even he was interested to hear about what had happened and how Susan Storm had survived the rays that had killed everyone else onboard the rocket.
'JARVIS, do we know anything about what happened?' he asked to his computer system.
'Not yet, sir. Miss Storm is yet to release a statement-' JARVIS's voice rang out as images of Susan Storm appeared on the screen. Her change of hair colour was discussed about frequently as the once blonde bombshell was now a beautiful brunette. '-but the cosmic storm is yet to be understood by researchers. From what I've found, it was deadly radiation that killed the rest of the crew onboard.'
Tony hummed and looked over his shoulder as a shadow appeared on the stairs. He quickly swiped away at the screen and removed any trace of searches of Susan Storm. Busying himself with some things on his desk, he heard the door open and close. Picking up his screwdriver, he slipped it into his pocket as he looked up. Susan Storm stood with a glass of chlorophyl on a tray in one hand and a briefcase in the other.
'Mr Stark,' she said, the English accent startling him. 'I was told to bring you this.'
'Yeah,' he replied and took the glass and tray from her. 'Thanks. British?'
'Yes. It surprises most,' she smiled lightly. Her eyes trailed from Tony's face down to the blue that glowed underneath his black shirt. The arc reactor was an invention that had also shocked the world. It was an awe to see it in real life, but Sue didn't want to be rude and stare at it too much.
'What brings you to my humble... workshop?' Tony spoke as he walked with his glass of green water. 'I don't blame you for hiding off the grid. I'd do the same if I were you. I get sick of it sometimes too. Maybe I don't. But not everyone's like me. Obviously.'
Sue followed Tony with her eyes as he walked around his workshop. She eyed the Iron Man suits that sat in glass displays at the back of the room as he walked in front of them. They were as sublime and as sensational in person. It made her think of the suit that sat in her briefcase. The technology that the Iron Man suits possessed could be Sue's key.
'I can imagine its hard being so... famous,' Sue eased out as she began to look around the entire workshop. The fancy cars lined the backwall and the number of engines, metal and tools around the place made it feel like a mechanic's workshop. In some ways, Tony was a mechanic.
Tony noticed that Sue was looking around, giving him the time to pull the screwdriver out of his pocket and hide it in his hand. He had no ill intent, he was just curious about if the rumours were true.
'I don't mean to pry, Mr Stark. I can see that you're very busy,' Sue said as she looked at the detached Iron Man arm that sat on the table. 'And I know that the Stark Expo is opening in few days, but I need your help-'
With Sue's head turned, Tony reared back his arm and threw the screwdriver across the room. As it soared through the air and drew closer to the back of Sue's nape, she whipped around and held up her arm. A sheen of blue appeared in a semi-dome shape around her and halted the screwdriver in thin air. It was near invisible, but appeared to pulsate as it protected Sue in a forcefield. Her eyes focused on the energy that seeped through her and held the solid shape, before dropping her concentration and letting the tool fall. It let out a clang as it hit the floor and Sue dropped her hand to lay it by her side.
'I'm sorry...' Tony let out with a sheepish grin on his face. 'I just had to see what you would do...'
Sue let out a huff in annoyance. She could see that Tony was amazed at what he saw, and she nervously put the briefcase down on the floor next to her. It was the first time she had shown her powers to someone, and she hadn't wanted to do it out of the threatening of her safety.
'You could have asked,' she said in a matter-of-fact tone.
'I know,' he shrugged and gulped down the rest of his chlorophyll. 'But I was sure the unexpected would bring it out of you. Or should I say... from you? Does it come out of you? It looked psionic. Do you have to envision the shape you want?'
'Mr Stark,' she stopped him, and he halted his questions, his eyebrows raised. 'I don't know what... happened to me. I thought you would know, of all people. And if you had the time, I would appreciate your... expertise in this field.'
'I can have a look. What's in the case?' he motioned with his glass.
'A suit.'
'A suit?'
Sue put the case on the table and Tony walked over to stand beside her. He noticed how much smaller she was than him and how her hair wafted a smell of cucumber. Tony tried not to focus on it as he looked over her shoulder as she unclicked the latches. Inside, sat the folded blue material that Sue had been working on. Tony's eyebrows pinched together as he grabbed hold of it and pulled it out with one hand.
'I thought that with your suits and your... brains-' Sue started and watched as he let it unfold to reveal it in its entirety. '-you'd know how to make it suit my situation.'
'You see, your situation is... situational,' he started as he put down the suit and turned around to wander to the other side of the desk. 'If you could let me run some tests, I can see what I can do.'
'Tests?'
'The whole forcefield thing is a little beyond this world,' Tony rotated his hands around each other to show the 'beyond this world' imagery. 'If I do say so myself, I'd like to know how you can use psionic energy to form shapes that can theoretically stop objects.'
'So you're going to throw stuff at me?'
'Not just that,' Tony shook his head and Sue resisted the urge to roll her eyes. 'If you can project that energy, I'm assuming you can also use it to turn things invisible. Like yourself.'
'So you do know about what happened already?' Sue was hopeful. Tony shrugged and sat down in his chair, twirling it around to look up at her with a small smirk on his bearded face.
'I've worked some of it out.'
'When did you do that?'
'Just now. When you did the whole forcefield thing.'
'So you'll help me?'
'Sure, Storm. I'll help you.'