El!
El has been with the site for nearly two years now and has continued to prove her value. Currently, she is heading up our site event, Battle for Liberterram, on top of keeping up with her own personal plots.
CHARACTER
SPOTLIGHT
Peggy Carter!
Lux's posts are all wonderful to read. She has done a wonderful job of grasping the new universe and incorporating Peggy into it.
CHARACTER
SPOTLIGHT
Peter Parker!
It's good to see Spidey back on the site. Watching him deal with the universe shift in his own snarky way has been nothing short of entertaining.
THREAD
SPOTLIGHT
Eight O'Clock on the Dot!
El and Lux are making magic in this thread. Straight up fireworks, and the way they've played with drawing out the reveal is top class.
Post by z inactive pepperpotts on May 25, 2016 3:05:33 GMT
The third wave of Chitauri had hit New York creating mass destruction in their wake and, unlike the first two waves where Pepper had been away from ground zero, this time she had been on the fringe of it all. She didn’t have any superpowers or a fancy suit that gave her abilities but she could still assist with the evacuation effort.. City officials had been trying to do everything they could to evacuate the area directly around the attack. The aliens made it hard for an evacuation to be conducted within ground zero itself but at least they could pick up any outliers who managed to make it out and make sure that if the damage spread less people would be affected.
Pepper had fully intended on going with them, she really had. It just had not happened that way. There had not been enough seats in the evacuation shuttle and Pepper had readily given up her seat for a heavily pregnant woman. The officials had assured those remaining that they would dispatch another vehicle out to right away to come back and collect the rest of them before taking off. The others left behind had decided that they weren’t going to wait around for the shuttle but would instead strike off on their own to get to safety. Pepper had been inclined to join them. The group had taken off heading away from the fighting. They hadn’t gone more than a block or two when she could hear what sounded like a small child crying.
The group had not wished to take a detour saying the child was most likely with a parent but was so terrified by everything going on that it would not be consoled. This did seem like a likely scenario but Pepper knew she would not be able to live with herself if she did not at least try. Muttering an unlady like comment about people who were only concerned with their own needs she headed off in the direction of the crying.
This turned out to be the wrong decision.
She never found the child in question. The fighting moved inwards a bit as the Chitauri begun their retreat. Pepper tried to duck onto the patio of one to the buildings in order to get out of the mess but before she could take so much as a few steps there was this massive resounding crash as something large slammed into a building. Chunks of rubble and brick rained down on her. Giving a shout she raised her arms over her head hoping to soften the blow, crouching as low as she could get.
The pain, oh god, the pain. Everything hurt. Pepper groan and tried to sit up but couldn’t get her body to respond. That wasn’t normal; she knew that wasn’t normal but her brain was so clouded with pain that exactly pinpoint why that wasn’t normal. She laid there a moment trying to assess the damage to her body but the best she could come up with was everything hurt. If only she hadn’t gone off on her own, perhaps she wouldn’t have wound up in this situation. Or maybe then she would at least have a better chance of being rescued.
Pepper tried to call for help but was unable to do much more than squeak. Was this a symptom of a collapsed lung? Whatever it was she needed help and she needed it fast. Hissing in pain she wiggled her fingers into her pocket where her cellphone was kept She wasn’t exactly sure how she was going to be able emergency responders where she was but she had to do something. Pressing buttons she hopped her phone was, not only in good enough condition to work, but that she was pressing the correct corresponding buttons to get 911 on speed dial.
Only once she thought she heard the soft ring tone did she cease. The pain was starting to fade and cold was starting to set in. Was this what shock felt like? Maybe she could catch a short nap before the responders found her.
As soon as things started to calm down, Tony let out a sigh of relief from the med tent he'd been put in after his suit failure had occured. He'd half a mind to call another suit in and return to the battle, but he was in enough pain as it was that he decided against it. He'd gotten Darcy and Alice to safety and he'd taken out plenty of aliens himself to rescue countless others. He'd done enough for the day, he figured. There was little else that he could do at that point that someone else who was less injured couldn't manage. Especially if what he heard over the radio about a retreat was true.
His phone started ringing and he answered without looking. "Hello?" There was nothing on the other end and he frowned, looking down at the ID screen.
He swore he felt his heart stop as he read Pepper's name.
He'd carefully retrieved both Darcy and Alice, but he'd forgotten about Pepper. Beautiful, wonderful Pepper who had been by his side through thick and thin for years. He hadn't made sure that she was okay and there was no voice on the other end of the line.
Connecting to the workshop, he deployed one of his suits to his location, connecting in to JARVIS in his earpiece at the same time. "Get me GPS on Pepper's phone. Now," he demanded of the AI, and was quickly obliged. The suit landed and he climbed in, blasting off towards Pepper's location almost before the suit had finished closing around him. She was in trouble and it was his damn fault.
When Pepper's location wasn't visible immediately upon his arrival at the coordinates, Tony could feel himself panicking. He began picking his way through the rubble in the area until he found her, breathing shallowly, under a pile of it. "Vitals, JARVIS!" he demanded, and what was shown to him wasn't good. He extracted Pepper as quickly as possible and flew with her in his arms up towards the Helicarrier as fast as he dared to. Their medical facilities would be the closest that were the least damaged in the attack, and they would be able to take care of her the best.
"Get me your best surgeons, now," he demanded as he entered the facility, and the medics scrambled around him and Pepper.
Post by z inactive pepperpotts on Aug 15, 2016 15:13:26 GMT
Dying was nothing like what Pepper would have thought. Hell she wasn’t even aware she was dying. When she was conscious she had only been aware of the massive amount of pain she was in. During the brief moments of clarity she had worried about broken bones or crushed organs but not necessarily death. Still, there were no bright lights, no long last loved one waiting for her to provide comfort and guidance during this difficult time.
There was nothing but darkness.
The brain is a wonderful thing. The body can only take so much pain and once that threshold is met the brain does everything it can to make things more comfortable for the body. Unconsciousness, while not a preferable state to be in why lying in the middle of New York, turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
She came to an undeterminable time later. Harsh florescent lights assaulted her eyes the moment she tried to open them. Making a small unhappy noise she quickly shut them again. The pain she had felt before falling unconscious was still there, only it felt distant, like her brain had been disconnected from her body. A few seconds later she tried again. This time she cracked her lids open, letting her eyes adjust to the harsh fluorescents rather than subjecting them to the artificial lights all at once.
Once she’d managed to wrench her eyes open Pepper craned her head as much as her stiff neck would allow her in an attempt to get her bearings about her. She was in a hospital, that much she was able to tell. Pepper hadn’t been able to discern much more before a wave of unbearable pain washed over her as the morphine she’d previously been enjoying finally wore off. Whimpering she moved her hands around on the bed beside her looking for the button that would allow her to administer herself another dose.
Her movements became more frantic as she felt nothing but coarse blankets under her fingers. Finally her fingers grazed on the hard, cool plastic cylinder and her efforts were rewarded with a fresh dose of painkiller seconds after pressing the little button. Letting it fall out of her grasp once more, Pepper allowed herself to relax. That one small dose did not kill the pain entirely but it did make it more bearable. As pleasant as it sounded she was reluctant to cloud up her brain with heavy drugs for any reason. This one small dose was bad enough as it was.
Absentmindedly she reached up to rub at a bandage. The wound on her chest had begun to itch something fierce and while she knew she shouldn’t touch it she hoped that applying light pressure rather than the tips of her nails would offer some relief. Her fingers hit hard metal under the gauze. Frowning, Pepper gently pried a bit of the medical tape up to give her a better look. A large metal disk giving off a faint glow sat in her breast plate.
What the? Disbelieving Pepper pressed the button that would summon a nurse to her side. She needed answers and she needed them now.
He'd refused to leave Pepper's side for the first hours of her time in the medical bay. The operation was tediously slow and the prognosis was mediocre at best. Then there was the horrible realization that she wasn't going to make it. That Pepper - beautiful, amazing, incredible Pepper - was at death's door.
Except that he could save her. He knew how to save her. He'd built his first miniaturized arc reactor for much the same condition, but in a cave with a box of scraps. He could certainly build one for Pepper in his SHIELD workshop with all of his tools.
So the first time he left Pepper's side was to race to his workshop and throw it together. He could make a better one later; what he needed right now was to keep Pepper alive. The doctors knew the risks of the reactor, but they also knew that he'd survived it just fine for a long, long time. Pepper was healthier than him and the knowledge of the reactor was far better now than it was when he'd put it in his own chest.
Then Pepper was alive. She was alive and breathing and the doctors were sure she'd stay that way, as her body showed no signs of rejecting the foreign device yet. She would live. He hadn't killed her.
The second time he left Pepper's side was because she'd been asleep for hours and he needed food if he was going to continue watching over her. He wasn't gone long, but still it was long enough that he came back to the doctor heading into Pepper's room. Tony followed him to see that she was awake. She looked a little peeved, but she was awake. "Thank fuck," he said as he caught sight of her, rushing to her side, "I thought I'd lost you, Pepp..."
The Doctor cleared his throat at that moment. "Was there something you needed, Miss Potts?"
Post by z inactive pepperpotts on Sept 25, 2016 10:16:54 GMT
Waiting for the medical staff to appear after her frantic buzzing Pepper stared in a mix of horror and amazement at the metal and glass disc embedded in her chest. It sat neatly on her breastplate only rising above the curvature of her chest by a few centimeters. It was pretty in a weird way, it’s glow soft and steady. But what made it unnerving, other than the fact that someone had implanted a mechanical object in her chest without either her consent or her knowledge, was the fact that it hummed. Not audibly, but she could still feel it vibrating through her chest kind of like standing near a loud speaker thumbing out bass. Only it was fainter. Muted.
Shakily she raised a hand to touch the strange object not sure if she wanted run her fingers around the edges or rip it out of her chest. Before she had made up her mind she became distracted by the two men who entered the room. Noticing the lab coat Pepper figured him for her doctor. Questions flew to her lips threatening to tumble out in a panicked squeak. Wanting to puller herself together as much as she could Pepper paused to take a deep breath. That’s when she noticed who had followed in hot on the doctor’s heels.
Suddenly everything made sense.
How could she have been so stupid? She should have been able to recognize the rector in her chest the moment she had seen it but her mind had been fuzzy with shock, and probably a number of pain meds considering the tubes still hooked to her arms.
”What the hell did you do to me?” She yelled, panic turning into anger at the sight of her boss and once closest confidant. A flimsy plastic cup was stat on the table next to her bed and before she could even think about it Pepper picked it up and flung it in Tony’s direction. Belatedly she realized the cup was empty. Relief and shame flashed through her briefly. If she had been in her right mind she would have checked to make sure there was no water present in the cup before she sent it flying in a room full of electrical equipment.
No, that wasn’t true. If she had been in her right mind she wouldn’t have thrown the cup at all. Pepper wasn’t sure if her aim was off or if she had simply acted out of panic and anger, wanting to lash out and not necessarily hit a target. Either way the cup fell feet away from the room’s other two occupants, landing with a hollow clink before rolling to a stop a few feet from her intended target.
The fuzziness that had coated her brain was still there but it was starting to clear a bit letting panic set in as the shock of seeing a reactor in her chest was starting to wear off. ”I don’t want this… this thing! Take it out of me Tony… or so help me!” Her words were sharp and louder than she anticipated. Tony’s arc reactor had been a creation of war. Pepper couldn’t begrudge him from having created it in the first place, it had saved his life and brought him back to her. She was thankful for that.
But she had also seen the destructive things Tony had been able to do with it in the name of being a hero, and she wanted to be no part of that legacy forever encased in her chest.
Tony supposed that he should’ve expected anger from Pepper. That had been his first reaction when he’d woken up with the car battery attached to a magnet in his chest. Maybe it was selfish of him, but he couldn’t bear the thought of being without Pepper and he’d had to do something, even if it was without her permission. He only hoped that the anger would go away with time. That was all he could hope.
He ignored the thrown cup as he moved to her side. “Pepper, sweetheart, calm down. I can explain, okay? You were… you were dying. It was the only way to save you…” His own voice held sorrow and relief at the same time; he hated to put her through this, but she had to live. She just had to. Life without Pepper would be dull and pointless.
Making a motion to dismiss the doctor - who seemed glad to leave the room - Tony grasped Pepper’s hand with two of his. It was a gesture that Pepper would understand was far more intimate for him than it would be for most people, and he caught her eyes with a sad look in his own. “We can’t, Pepp. Not yet. Your heart…” he paused and swallowed, fighting back the tears that he’d been keeping at bay ever since this had started. “It’s too damaged to beat on its own, Pepp. You were already so unstable…”
Pausing, he dipped his head in something that was rather akin to shame. “Eventually they’ll be able to go in and fix things, hopefully, but for now the arc reactor’s keeping you alive. I’m so sorry, Pepp. I didn’t know what else to do… I couldn’t just let you die…”
His voice was thin and helpless as he looked at her, expression pleading for her to understand. He just needed her to understand why he’d done it.
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