Chapter 1:

The Avengers team was having a particularly normal day.

Toni was in her workshop repairing her suit which has problems after the battle with Loki, not that the others knew that. Clint and Nat were watching TV- some bird show that Clint wanted to see, Bruce was in his 'candy land' workshop as Toni had described it, Thor was on Asgard trying to sort out left over business regarding the arrest of Loki and Steve was in the gym doing god knows what, trying to get Tony out of his head. He loved her. He knew that. But it was the fact that in all simpleness… She still seemed to completely hate him with her whole being. So now, he could nothing but wait for his feelings to fade… if they ever did.

At noon they'd all gone to the kitchen to eat lunch, minus Ton who wouldn't come out of her workshop. Toni was only going to come out of her 'precious' workshop willingly if four things happened:

1. The apocalypse had come

2. Pepper had gotten her favorite ice-cream cake

3. Steve was ready to admit his undying love for her (not that he knew that)

Or

4. The Sherlock hiatus was over

And since none of these things had happened, she wasn't coming out. End of story. But you know, Toni being Toni hadn't eaten and 24 hours and the team needed to desperately get her to eat something. Pepper had just come out of a meeting looking like she was ready to kill death itself so… No help from her. So again, they were all huddled around the table for the fifth time that week, making different strategies to lure Toni out of her workshop.

They just didn't expect a small DVD case labeled 'Iron Man' to appear on the table.

Nat quickly ripped out the spare gun she carried on her, ignoring Clint's inquiry about 'where the hell do you keep all those guns?' and tried to glare it into submission while pointing the gun at the plastic casing. When it didn't immediately explode at their proximity she put away the gun. Instead of throwing it away, like a normal person would, she asked JARVIS to scan it so they could watch it.

As they settled on the couches, strategies of getting Toni from her workshop at the back of their minds, a low scratchy sound was heard from the TV before loud music came from the speaker, making everyone jump.

They all watched curiously as army jeeps drive across a desert landscape.

"What are they moving? A criminal," Bruce asked rhetorically.

The scene changed to the inside of the jeep where 3 army officials were sitting with a young woman holding a glass of alcohol.

"Is…is that…Toni?" Bruce asks in disbelief.

Steve doesn't say anything, but under his skillfully blank mask was a lot of worry.

"I feel like you're driving me to court martial."

"That is definitely Toni."

The army people ignored her.

"This is crazy. What'd I do? I feel like you're gonna pull over and snuff me. What, you're not allowed to talk to me?" Toni turned to the young soldier sitting across from her. "Hey Forest?"

"We can talk miss."

"Oh I see, so it's personal."

"No, you intimidate them," replied the woman driving amusedly.

"Good God you're a woman. I have to admit, you are rocking that camouflage gear, finally good to see some women around here."

"I'm an airman. And this is my uniform, it is necessary so I wouldn't have a choice even if I looked like a potato in it. And my brother doesn't approve of this profession at all. Says' it's a man's job."

"Does he know the benefits of being in the army?"

"Probably not."

"Well then I guess you'll just have to shove a big, fat I-Told-You-So pie in his face when you see him next."

The men in the vehicle laughed.

"You think this is funny do you?" the woman asked darkly.

"Such a bad move there. If Tony hates anything, it's definitely sexism," Nat states.

Their laughter cut off abruptly.

"No it's ok, laugh! Anyone got any questions? You're kidding me with the hand up right?"

Steve, Clint and Nat scowled as the young soldier to Toni's left lowered his hand.

"Is it cool if I take a picture with you?"

"Out of all the questions he could have asked… He asked to take a photo. Why does he even have a camera with him?"

"Yes, it is very cool," Toni drawled, unsurprised.

The young boy looked through his multiple pockets for a camera and handed it to the man in the front seat.

"All, right," Toni started, "I don't want to see this on your MySpace page. Please no gang signs. Actually throw it up, I'm kidding. Yeah peace. I love peace. I'd be out of the job with peace."

Okay, now Steve was genuinely confused. Here was a woman who he had seen fall out of space for the safety and peace of the human race, basically saying she hated peace.

Seeing Steve's confusion, Nat helped him out. "Stark used to manufacture weapons."

His face of shock wasn't a pleasant one.

"Just click it. Don't change any settings."

The team jumped again as a loud explosion sound came from the speakers. They all cursed.

Toni's blank mask was broken for a second as she looked surprised at the sudden rough treatment of the jeep. "What's going on?" she shouted, voice cracking slightly. The sounds of the explosions were clearly making her ears ring.

"Contact left," the woman driving shouted, grabbing a gun. She stepped out of the Jeep and cried out in pain as she was hit.

"Jimmy stay with Stark," the man that supposed to take the picture hollered, kicked his door open. He ran to the front of the jeep and gave a guttural scream as an explosion went off, taking his life with it. Tony cringed as blood splattered the shattered windshield.

"Son of a Bitch," Jimmy cursed. Tony yelled at him to give her a gun but her voice is drowned out by the next round of bullets.

"Stay here" Jimmy yelled back, making a dash outside. Another round of bullets rain on the car, killing the 3rd soldier.

Knowing that staying in the jeep would result in her early death, Toni turned and struggled to get her door open. She made a mad dash for a boulder and stumbled against it, pulling out her phone to call for help.

The team look horrified as a bomb lands next to Tony.

Toni stiffened as she read the label that said 'Stark Industries' and scrambled away. But not fast enough.

The bomb exploded and she was thrown through the air and forcefully into the ground, making her lungs lose their breath and her vision to fade black. She starts gasping for air, which the team can't find the reason for, when red starts to splatter her shirt.

The team gasped as she clumsily ripped open her shirt to reveal a red, blood painted bullet-proof vest.

"She's bleeding… So much," Nat replied. The team was surprised to find her looking so distressed. She looked at them sharply, "don't look at me like that. Toni is like family to me."

Steve didn't know any of his had happened. None of this was in her file, which he had read rather extensively.

The screen turned white.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say Toni just died," Bruce joked. It only served to make the room tenser. They were all holding onto the fact that they all knew Toni was very much alive and in her workshop.

A burlap sack was ripped off the camera revealing a beaten and battered Toni.

The team gasped at what they see. They have never seen Toni in any other condition other than her clean pristine work self, or her greased up, workshop self.

Toni's eyes were glazed over as she looked at the camera. Her head rolled around on her neck like a bowling ball, showing off all the cuts and bruises smothered in damp sand. The usual clean genius looked at the camera with dead, seemingly lifeless eyes while the men holding guns pointed them to Toni's head threateningly. The camera zooms out bringing in to view Toni's bloody, bandaged chest. Her breasts were barely covered and the men were staring at her lustfully.

"Oh my god," Steve and Bruce whisper. Nat tried to look indifferent, not liking the feeling of helplessness, and Clint… Clint wasn't particularly close to the genius but it wasn't nice to see her like this. They all snapped out of their thoughts as theme song music starts and the screen changes with the words 'Iron man' on it.

"Why is Toni in Afghanistan? Or in a movie called Iron Man?" Steve asked, though that was only the beginning of is questions.

"Like I said, Tony was a weapons manufacturer before. She was obviously demonstrating something," Nat replied distastefully, ignoring the second question as she didn't have an answer.

"The real question is,' Clint gave a dramatic pause as the team gave him their full attention, "Why does Toni get her own theme music?"

That started a flurry of chuckles from the rest of the group.

Bruce however, being the awesome genius that he is, had inkling that Tony and Iron 'Man' had a lot more in common than any of them realized. He did not voice his opinion to the group, knowing it was a very wild accusation.

A silence feel over the group as they contemplated what this could all mean.

Whatever they were expecting to be on the disc, it definitely wasn't this.