Fic: Smoke and Mirrors
Title: Smoke and Mirrors
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe; Star Trek (ish) (by way of mirrorverse fic)
Rating: T
Disclaimer: If I owned it, the gay would be way LESS obvious. (Get it, because this is the mirrorverse disclaimer.)
Prompt: I didn't fill it exactly (because I forgot to read past "OMG MIRRORVERSE?!"), but this one riiiiight here.
Summary: Pepper Potts, of Potts Industries, has got a mystery woman on her hands.
Note: I need you to know that, in this universe, SHIELD is called SWORD. It's a private paramilitary police force working for Potts Industries, and it stands for Strategic Warmongering Or Retaliation Division. It was too hilariously evil to put into the fic, but it's a fact.
Note 2: (I promise I'll shut up) Most of my mirrorverse feels come from DS9, so that's the tone I'm going for. To be honest, I just thought, "what if Pepper was like Intendant Kira, only trying to rape superheroes instead?" and then I just sort of ran with it.
Smoke and Mirrors
"Natasha?"
Pepper Potts looks up sternly from her work, and Nicky lowers his good eye immediately, going silent. His other eye doesn't move, but Pepper can hardly blame the poor boy for that. After all, it's still misshapen and oozing where the razor sliced across it. It's a shame, Pepper reflects, that she's sometimes forced to resort to such violent methods of correcting her boys, but it does seem to have taught Nicky a lesson. He hasn't tried to escape in three weeks.
After a moment of silent staring, Nick Fury obediently leans back against the satin pillows that line the bed. Thor Odinson shifts lazily next to him, the chain that links his nipples catching for a moment on the one that adorns Nicky. The heavier chains that connect their collars to the wall clink gently as the boys settle. It's cliched, to be sure, but Pepper loves being reminded at a glance that her boys belong to her.
Next to the bed, a woman is chained to a chair. Her vivid red hair stands out strikingly next to the white gag that's tied over it. She fought like hell when she first arrived, but now she looks somehow diminished in the shadow of "Happy" Hogan, Pepper's personal enforcer, who looms menacingly behind the chair.
Pepper can't deny the woman's uncanny resemblance to the late Natasha Romanoff, but Romanoff (self-appointed resistance leader and so-called martyr) was killed three months ago. It was a nasty business, too. Seems Director Coulson really had some aggression to work out that day. So, with Romanoff dead (and still in cold storage in Doctor Banner's little lab, it was confirmed today), this must either be some sort of a trick (though they've already eliminated LMDs, disguises, and all the other usual sorts of trickery) or an unbelievable coincidence. Pepper doesn't do coincidences.
She also, apparently, doesn't do work. With an exaggerated sigh, she drops her pen on the forms she was trying to go through. She's loath to admit it, but sometimes Pepper really misses Tony, if only because he used to do the really boring work for her. But, she reminds herself, he made his choice. If he wanted to throw his lot in with the pacifists and the rebels, she wasn't going to stop him. No, she's past that. She's going to prove what a bad decision he made.
"So, Miss Romanoff, is it?" she says, standing up. She stretches a bit, relishing the feel of silk sliding against her stomach as her blouse rides up a little. "I must say, Miss Romanoff, I really didn't expect to see you again." The woman's eyes blaze in anger, and a little something else. Confusion? Fear? Despair? Pepper isn't sure, but she's going to have a long time to find out. "Now, now, sweetie, don't give me that look," she says, moving to stand behind the chair, Happy stepping closer to the bed as she moves. "I know Commander Rhodes was a little rough bringing you in, but he was only doing his job." Pepper leans down, letting her cheek barely brush Romanoff's hair. "I wouldn't let you get really hurt."
The woman's head suddenly jerks to the side, attempting an odd sort of headbutt, but Pepper's already moving away, moving around to the front. The chair, welded to the floor as it is (a modification, incidentally, made after the last time a Natasha Romanoff sat tied to that chair), doesn't even move. Bending down, Pepper slides her arms over the woman's shoulders, voice steady. "Hey, come on, none of that. I just want to know," she murmurs, hands moving up to untie the gag, "who you really are."
Thor is perched on the edge of the bed now, watching eagerly as Pepper pulls the gag down, using it to tie the woman's neck to the back of the chair. His impossibly blue eyes are sparkling in anticipation-- he knows the signs of his mistress' violent temper, and he loves watching it crash over the heads of others. Nicky, on the other hand, has shrunk back against the headboard, nearly shaking. His good eye darts around the room frantically.
"Are you going to tell me?" Pepper asks quietly, swinging a leg up as she sits down, straddling the woman's hips. The chair shakes frantically, but doesn't budge. "Because I know you can't be Natasha Romanoff, darling." Pepper places a small kiss on the woman's lips. She's powerless to do anything, the gag so tight on her neck that she can barely breathe, let alone try another headbutt. "So I'd like for you to tell me who you really are. Okay?" Pepper's voice is light and innocent, but her eyes are growing harder.
The woman shakes her head as best she can. She makes a rasping sound. Pepper, kind soul that she is, reaches around the woman's head (breasts just happening to rub against the other woman's chest) and loosens the gag slightly. The woman takes deep, shaky breaths. "Now," Pepper says, hips moving slowly against the other woman, "what were you trying to say, my dear?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," the woman says, voice hoarse. Pepper, feeling a little annoyed at this lack of cooperation, is about to ask her what she means, but an explosion at her back temporarily whites out the world. When she comes to (it can't be more than a second later), Pepper's ears are ringing. She's on the floor next to the chair, and there's blood dripping down the back of her neck. She puts up her hand, and it seems like a small cut, considering what would have happened had she still been at her now-demolished desk. Pepper stands unsteadily. Thor is lying face-down on the floor next to the bed, either unconscious or dead. Nicky, cowering so far away from everything, seems to have escaped with nothing but a deep gash down his cheek. As for Happy--
Pepper turns, ready to ask Happy what happened, but the words catch in her throat. Happy is looking down at his chest. Protruding from it, dripping with blood, are the triple prongs of a golden spear. The blades disappear, and Happy collapses to the floor, revealing his attacker. Pepper stares. It's Loki. Loki Laufeyson. "H-how--" Pepper chokes out, nostrils burning with the memory of his charred flesh, but suddenly a familiar voice comes over the intercom.
"Agent Romanoff, we're good to go."
"Thank god," the woman mutters. "It's about time, Stark," she adds, standing easily from the chair. The restraints fall to the floor uselessly. With a snarl, Pepper moves to intercept her, but she finds Loki's spear at her throat.
"Oh no, Ms. Potts," Loki growls. "You're not going anywhere. You're going to release my brother, and then I'm going to take him home."
"Hey, Rudolph! You wanna move over, think about letting me get at Agent Romanoff?" And it's Tony, Tony's in the room, and Pepper can't help but stare. "Hey, Pep," Tony says, eyes wary. "I'd explain, but we're a little short on time. Suffice to say, wrong Tony." Pepper swallows, feeling the blade of the spear drag along her throat, as Tony (who's wearing some sort of an armored suit, so different from the cobbled-together weapons she associates with him) puts an arm around the woman's waist. "JARVIS," Tony says, "how much longer we got?"
"Twenty seconds, sir," a voice says from the armor, right as JARVIS speaks from the ceiling-- "I take it you don't mean me?"
"'fraid not, JARVIS. You take care of this place, though. Looks like it could use some work."
Pepper opens her mouth, closes it again, as the armor counts down. "Three, two, one--" and with a flash of bright blue light, they're gone. Loki sighs, seemingly in relief, but doesn't lower the spear.
"Now, Ms. Potts," he says, turning his full attention back to her. "You were about to release my brother." As Loki turns to look down at Thor, Pepper throws a desperate look towards Happy. It doesn't look good. She's about to make a break for it, but suddenly there's another Loki behind her. "Ms. Potts," he says, almost kindly, the second Loki vanishing as the first turns back towards her, "I really just want to take my brother and be on my way. If you would."
"Mr. Laufeyson?" It's Nicky, voice slightly shaky.
"Ah, yes, Mr. Fury, was it?"
"I... could I... could you..."
Loki smiles understandingly. "Make that two to be released, Ms. Potts."
Furious at herself, but unable to see another way out of this that doesn't end with a stabbing, Pepper closes her eyes. "JARVIS, release them both." With a loud clanking noise, the chains fall, detached from the wall. Nicky looks afraid to move, but Thor groans softly. For a second, Pepper thinks he'll manage to kill Loki, maybe Thor has recovered, but he just sits up, eyes crossed, and slumps dazedly against the bed. There's a large cut across the top of his head, and it's bleeding pretty heavily.
Still keeping his spear pointed at Pepper, Loki moves to stand next to Thor. "Mr. Fury," he says, not taking his eyes away from Pepper, "if you might come over here?" Nicky obeys. He pauses as he passes Pepper, as if tempted to do something, but when their eyes meet he flinches and does as he was told. "Mr. Fury," Loki says, almost gently, "please, take hold of my brother's hand, and hold tightly to my hand?" Nicky obeys again. Now Loki turns his eyes away, and Pepper sees her chance. Loki's eyes are focused on the ceiling. "Heimdall?"
Pepper rolls away from the spear, behind a chair, and comes up holding a gun. But before she can shoot, a brilliant, multicolored stream of light engulfs the three men before her. A moment later, they're gone, and Pepper throws the gun away, yelling in frustration.
In front of a covert video feed somewhere, a genius, penniless, fugitive freedom fighter grins.
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe; Star Trek (ish) (by way of mirrorverse fic)
Rating: T
Disclaimer: If I owned it, the gay would be way LESS obvious. (Get it, because this is the mirrorverse disclaimer.)
Prompt: I didn't fill it exactly (because I forgot to read past "OMG MIRRORVERSE?!"), but this one riiiiight here.
Summary: Pepper Potts, of Potts Industries, has got a mystery woman on her hands.
Note: I need you to know that, in this universe, SHIELD is called SWORD. It's a private paramilitary police force working for Potts Industries, and it stands for Strategic Warmongering Or Retaliation Division. It was too hilariously evil to put into the fic, but it's a fact.
Note 2: (I promise I'll shut up) Most of my mirrorverse feels come from DS9, so that's the tone I'm going for. To be honest, I just thought, "what if Pepper was like Intendant Kira, only trying to rape superheroes instead?" and then I just sort of ran with it.
Smoke and Mirrors
"Natasha?"
Pepper Potts looks up sternly from her work, and Nicky lowers his good eye immediately, going silent. His other eye doesn't move, but Pepper can hardly blame the poor boy for that. After all, it's still misshapen and oozing where the razor sliced across it. It's a shame, Pepper reflects, that she's sometimes forced to resort to such violent methods of correcting her boys, but it does seem to have taught Nicky a lesson. He hasn't tried to escape in three weeks.
After a moment of silent staring, Nick Fury obediently leans back against the satin pillows that line the bed. Thor Odinson shifts lazily next to him, the chain that links his nipples catching for a moment on the one that adorns Nicky. The heavier chains that connect their collars to the wall clink gently as the boys settle. It's cliched, to be sure, but Pepper loves being reminded at a glance that her boys belong to her.
Next to the bed, a woman is chained to a chair. Her vivid red hair stands out strikingly next to the white gag that's tied over it. She fought like hell when she first arrived, but now she looks somehow diminished in the shadow of "Happy" Hogan, Pepper's personal enforcer, who looms menacingly behind the chair.
Pepper can't deny the woman's uncanny resemblance to the late Natasha Romanoff, but Romanoff (self-appointed resistance leader and so-called martyr) was killed three months ago. It was a nasty business, too. Seems Director Coulson really had some aggression to work out that day. So, with Romanoff dead (and still in cold storage in Doctor Banner's little lab, it was confirmed today), this must either be some sort of a trick (though they've already eliminated LMDs, disguises, and all the other usual sorts of trickery) or an unbelievable coincidence. Pepper doesn't do coincidences.
She also, apparently, doesn't do work. With an exaggerated sigh, she drops her pen on the forms she was trying to go through. She's loath to admit it, but sometimes Pepper really misses Tony, if only because he used to do the really boring work for her. But, she reminds herself, he made his choice. If he wanted to throw his lot in with the pacifists and the rebels, she wasn't going to stop him. No, she's past that. She's going to prove what a bad decision he made.
"So, Miss Romanoff, is it?" she says, standing up. She stretches a bit, relishing the feel of silk sliding against her stomach as her blouse rides up a little. "I must say, Miss Romanoff, I really didn't expect to see you again." The woman's eyes blaze in anger, and a little something else. Confusion? Fear? Despair? Pepper isn't sure, but she's going to have a long time to find out. "Now, now, sweetie, don't give me that look," she says, moving to stand behind the chair, Happy stepping closer to the bed as she moves. "I know Commander Rhodes was a little rough bringing you in, but he was only doing his job." Pepper leans down, letting her cheek barely brush Romanoff's hair. "I wouldn't let you get really hurt."
The woman's head suddenly jerks to the side, attempting an odd sort of headbutt, but Pepper's already moving away, moving around to the front. The chair, welded to the floor as it is (a modification, incidentally, made after the last time a Natasha Romanoff sat tied to that chair), doesn't even move. Bending down, Pepper slides her arms over the woman's shoulders, voice steady. "Hey, come on, none of that. I just want to know," she murmurs, hands moving up to untie the gag, "who you really are."
Thor is perched on the edge of the bed now, watching eagerly as Pepper pulls the gag down, using it to tie the woman's neck to the back of the chair. His impossibly blue eyes are sparkling in anticipation-- he knows the signs of his mistress' violent temper, and he loves watching it crash over the heads of others. Nicky, on the other hand, has shrunk back against the headboard, nearly shaking. His good eye darts around the room frantically.
"Are you going to tell me?" Pepper asks quietly, swinging a leg up as she sits down, straddling the woman's hips. The chair shakes frantically, but doesn't budge. "Because I know you can't be Natasha Romanoff, darling." Pepper places a small kiss on the woman's lips. She's powerless to do anything, the gag so tight on her neck that she can barely breathe, let alone try another headbutt. "So I'd like for you to tell me who you really are. Okay?" Pepper's voice is light and innocent, but her eyes are growing harder.
The woman shakes her head as best she can. She makes a rasping sound. Pepper, kind soul that she is, reaches around the woman's head (breasts just happening to rub against the other woman's chest) and loosens the gag slightly. The woman takes deep, shaky breaths. "Now," Pepper says, hips moving slowly against the other woman, "what were you trying to say, my dear?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," the woman says, voice hoarse. Pepper, feeling a little annoyed at this lack of cooperation, is about to ask her what she means, but an explosion at her back temporarily whites out the world. When she comes to (it can't be more than a second later), Pepper's ears are ringing. She's on the floor next to the chair, and there's blood dripping down the back of her neck. She puts up her hand, and it seems like a small cut, considering what would have happened had she still been at her now-demolished desk. Pepper stands unsteadily. Thor is lying face-down on the floor next to the bed, either unconscious or dead. Nicky, cowering so far away from everything, seems to have escaped with nothing but a deep gash down his cheek. As for Happy--
Pepper turns, ready to ask Happy what happened, but the words catch in her throat. Happy is looking down at his chest. Protruding from it, dripping with blood, are the triple prongs of a golden spear. The blades disappear, and Happy collapses to the floor, revealing his attacker. Pepper stares. It's Loki. Loki Laufeyson. "H-how--" Pepper chokes out, nostrils burning with the memory of his charred flesh, but suddenly a familiar voice comes over the intercom.
"Agent Romanoff, we're good to go."
"Thank god," the woman mutters. "It's about time, Stark," she adds, standing easily from the chair. The restraints fall to the floor uselessly. With a snarl, Pepper moves to intercept her, but she finds Loki's spear at her throat.
"Oh no, Ms. Potts," Loki growls. "You're not going anywhere. You're going to release my brother, and then I'm going to take him home."
"Hey, Rudolph! You wanna move over, think about letting me get at Agent Romanoff?" And it's Tony, Tony's in the room, and Pepper can't help but stare. "Hey, Pep," Tony says, eyes wary. "I'd explain, but we're a little short on time. Suffice to say, wrong Tony." Pepper swallows, feeling the blade of the spear drag along her throat, as Tony (who's wearing some sort of an armored suit, so different from the cobbled-together weapons she associates with him) puts an arm around the woman's waist. "JARVIS," Tony says, "how much longer we got?"
"Twenty seconds, sir," a voice says from the armor, right as JARVIS speaks from the ceiling-- "I take it you don't mean me?"
"'fraid not, JARVIS. You take care of this place, though. Looks like it could use some work."
Pepper opens her mouth, closes it again, as the armor counts down. "Three, two, one--" and with a flash of bright blue light, they're gone. Loki sighs, seemingly in relief, but doesn't lower the spear.
"Now, Ms. Potts," he says, turning his full attention back to her. "You were about to release my brother." As Loki turns to look down at Thor, Pepper throws a desperate look towards Happy. It doesn't look good. She's about to make a break for it, but suddenly there's another Loki behind her. "Ms. Potts," he says, almost kindly, the second Loki vanishing as the first turns back towards her, "I really just want to take my brother and be on my way. If you would."
"Mr. Laufeyson?" It's Nicky, voice slightly shaky.
"Ah, yes, Mr. Fury, was it?"
"I... could I... could you..."
Loki smiles understandingly. "Make that two to be released, Ms. Potts."
Furious at herself, but unable to see another way out of this that doesn't end with a stabbing, Pepper closes her eyes. "JARVIS, release them both." With a loud clanking noise, the chains fall, detached from the wall. Nicky looks afraid to move, but Thor groans softly. For a second, Pepper thinks he'll manage to kill Loki, maybe Thor has recovered, but he just sits up, eyes crossed, and slumps dazedly against the bed. There's a large cut across the top of his head, and it's bleeding pretty heavily.
Still keeping his spear pointed at Pepper, Loki moves to stand next to Thor. "Mr. Fury," he says, not taking his eyes away from Pepper, "if you might come over here?" Nicky obeys. He pauses as he passes Pepper, as if tempted to do something, but when their eyes meet he flinches and does as he was told. "Mr. Fury," Loki says, almost gently, "please, take hold of my brother's hand, and hold tightly to my hand?" Nicky obeys again. Now Loki turns his eyes away, and Pepper sees her chance. Loki's eyes are focused on the ceiling. "Heimdall?"
Pepper rolls away from the spear, behind a chair, and comes up holding a gun. But before she can shoot, a brilliant, multicolored stream of light engulfs the three men before her. A moment later, they're gone, and Pepper throws the gun away, yelling in frustration.
In front of a covert video feed somewhere, a genius, penniless, fugitive freedom fighter grins.