18 Chapter 18) – Evacuate the Dancefloor

A/N - Aloha Readers, Banana here. This is a long one - Just under 5.9k words.

I wanted to get your opinion on this type of chapter as I, personally, felt like splitting this chapter into 2 separate ones would feel a bit disjoined. But, as you're the Readers, I realised it's your opinion on it that matters.

Would you, as Readers, prefer a long, basically double length, chapter with a slightly longer time between chapters, or 2 chapters split evenly and treated as normal length chapters?

This would only apply for longer scenes, and for some really long scenes I would have to split into multiple chapters anyways, so it only really affects the 5-6k wordcount chapters.

As always, thanks for reading, and all the feedback is greatly appreciated. ❤

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Over the following days, our schedule was fairly routine.

Mara would wake up, go through our usual morning routine, and then we'd get picked up by May to be taken to the same safehouse we first visited. We would then spend the majority of the day going through either S.H.I.E.L.D.'s history, the standard procedures the secret organisation used for its various mission types, the animal encyclopaedia we were given to determine what we could replicate, or previous declassified missions. For the mission logs, we would breakdown the footage and discuss how it could have been done differently with our abilities as well as what lessons could be learned from them.

Although it was unnecessary, Mara preferred for me to have a head created for all of the learning. This allowed me to verbally ask questions to the handler, rather than have Mara do so, and also gave May the impression that I was paying attention to all of her teachings, even if I would be regardless.

3 days after we first met May, however, our monotonous schedule was broken with the arrival of Tony's 40th birthday.

Instead of spending the whole day going through all of the information and studying like we normally did, May had Mara and I learn the ins and outs of how a spy operated during a party setting, since it would technically be our first ever mission.

"The most important thing to remember is not to get drunk. If your powers allow you to drink without getting inebriated then you are free to do so, but, otherwise, drink something non-alcoholic to blend in more, or nothing at all. As far as non-alcoholic substitutes go, it would depend on the type of party. If the event is high-end, or fancy, something like cranberry juice with lemonade to dilute the colour of it would make it look like sparkling rosé wine and wouldn't look out of place. For most other venues, however, you could drink standard mixing sodas like coke or lemonade, and if asked you can say it's vodka or gin since they're colourless spirits when unflavoured."

While we nodded along to May's explanation, Mara asked internally, [You can't make me immune to alcohol yet, right El? You'd need to bond with my blood first since I think that's how it is transported around.]

Unsure about the correct answer, I clarified for my host, <I'm not sure, dear. You've never consumed alcohol, so I've seen how it affects your body. The previous Klyntar's I absorbed also didn't have a host that the substance regularly, no reliable information from them either.>

Deciding that just hypothesising about how the body deals with alcohol wasn't going to resolve anything, Mara asked her handler, after she had finished her drinking advice, "May, how does the body deal with alcohol? We might be immune to it, but I haven't drank it since my memories began, so I'm not sure."

Over the days since we had chosen May as Mara's handler, the stoic woman had been very accommodating to myself and my host over our various queries, and this time was no different, "When a normal human drinks or eats anything alcoholic, the alcohol isn't digested like other types of food or drink. Instead, it passes into the bloodstream to travel to every part of the body. It first affects your brain, then kidneys, lungs, and liver. The effect alcohol has on someone is determined by multiple factors, like gender, age, weight, and tolerance. About 20% of the alcohol consumed is absorbed into the bloodstream through the stomach, and the other 80% is absorbed through the small intestine. Does that answer your question?"

As per usual, not only did May have the answer to what we asked, but she also went further in-depth then what we required. For the umpteenth time since we had met, I thanked the handler for her vast wealth of knowledge, "It does. Thank you May. We won't be immune to alcohol, as we have no control over our internal bodily functions."

Picking up where I had finished, Mara continued, "So, we'll be going with the non-alcoholic alternatives, or none at all, for the party. Since it's Tony's birthday I imagine it'll be full of important people, so cranberry juice and lemonade looks to be the play."

Bobbing her head once in confirmation, May replied, "You're correct. Tony's previous birthdays and other events have included the wealthiest denizens in whatever location he holds said event at. This also means that you'll need to dress appropriately. From what your file says about you, as long as you see an item of clothing you can replicate it. After we've gone through what your job will consist of, we'll go through a catalogue of high-end clothing to choose something appropriate to wear."

To which my host responded with, "Yeah, we can. What, exactly, are we expected to do during the party anyways? I assume that it'll be the same as the reason we're still staying over at Tony's mansion – to help him if Vanko decides to attack – but is there anything else we need to do?"

Rather than immediately replying to my host's question, May inserted a small SD card into the back of the remote she used to operate the screen that came from the ceiling. The action resulted in a scene we were both familiar with, but only from the declassified mission reviews.

Displayed on the screen was a slowly spinning, circular, S.H.I.E.L.D. emblem. The emblem was of an eagle with spread wings and talons. It had 4 spaces between the feathers on each side and 2 between the tail feathers. The eagle itself was a sold black with the circular background of the emblem being a shade of grey.

Shortly after appearing, the emblem disappeared only to be replaced by a detailed breakdown of what appeared to be a medical report on Tony Stark. As we both began to read what the report was about, May took it upon herself to narrate what we were seeing and added additional context, "What you're seeing is data gathered from S.H.I.E.L.D. experts, as well as Natasha Romanoff's personal assessment work during her time undercover, about Tony Stark's current condition. Based on our estimates, the Palladium concentration in Mr. Stark's bloodstream is currently upwards of 80%, meaning he has, at most, a week to find a cure or he's going to die. You might be wondering what this has to do with you, since it's not like you can cure him. Unless that's also part of your powers?"

With such a question directed at us, we both shook our heads side-to-side signifying that we couldn't solve Tony's problem. Well, technically I could. By performing the brute force bond, I could clear his system of the metallic poisoning as well as remove the shrapnel in his chest. However, if I did as such, Tony would not solve his own problem and S.H.I.E.L.D. might want Mara to use her 'power' to heal others. Since that was not what Mara wanted, I felt no inclination to help the Iron Man at all.

Understanding our gesture, May continued, "Well in that case, your job is to essentially protect everyone else from him. That might sound confusing, but put yourself in Tony's shoes for a second and look at his situation from his perspective. From his psyche evaluation, we can confidently assume that Tony has ran numerous simulations on different materials and alloys to find an alternative to his Palladium core – the very thing keeping him alive while also slowly killing him. Since he's still dying, it's clear he hasn't found a solution with however many he's tried. Our experts are also looking for a replacement but are so far getting the same results as we assume Tony does. We have, however, found a way to abate the symptoms, but it's no cure. Now, getting back to Tony's situation, imagine you were dying and none of your simulations or tests gave any positive result. Basically, imagine knowing you knew you were going to 100%, without a doubt, die. What would you do with your remaining time? How would your view on things change?"

Although May gave us some time to think about what it would be like to be Tony in that situation, Mara didn't need long, as she could remember what happened at the party in the movie.

"If it were me, I would do whatever I wanted. If I knew for certain that I was going to die within a set period, why would I care about others in my last moments? What does it matter if I killed someone, or blow something up? If I got arrested, I would die soon anyway so it doesn't matter. I guess I would stop caring about everything else except myself, which would be increasingly dangerous for anyone around me. I see what you mean now, May."

Pleased at the outcome Mara had come to, May re-affirmed her conjecture, "We think the same Mara. There's a reliable chance that Tony will get highly intoxicated during his party and at some point, either accidentally or intentionally, bring out some of his non-commercial technology. Essentially, we're concerned that drunk Tony plus Iron Man equipment is not what we want around civilians and especially not when there's a possibility he might doesn't care about the consequences of his actions, with him knocking on death's door."

Not sure about what would be the best method to achieve what was being required of us, I asked, "How do you want us to determine when it gets out of hand? And do you want us to stop Tony with force, or focus on the civilians first?"

Seemingly already having a prepared plan should we need to intervene, May answered, "We'll leave it to agent Romanoff's discretion to determine when Tony gets out of control. With regard to engaging Tony, that'll be your job. Agent Romanoff's role will be to get the civilians to evacuate, whereas yours will be to stop Tony – with force if necessary. Although we haven't had time to give you sufficient hand-to-hand training, S.H.I.E.L.D. still thinks that your abilities would be more effective in combat with the Iron Man equipment, at least more-so than having agent Romanoff fight Tony head-on."

The handler's description made perfect sense. It didn't matter how good at combat Natasha was, if Tony brought out his Iron Man suit, she wouldn't be able to fight properly. With him being encased in metal, she'd just end up hurting herself punching the suit and get nowhere trying to throw him about.

Since S.H.I.E.L.D. had already created a plan for us, we both agreed to follow it as best we could. We then spent the rest of the day finalising the plan and strictly learning hand-to-hand combat combos in the event we would need to intervene which, according to Mara, was basically a certainty. Mara and May also went through a catalogue to pick out what attire my host was to wear before it was time to head back to Tony's mansion for his party.

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"Cranberry juice and lemonade please."

Ordering exactly what we had discussed previously, at one of the pop-up bars dotted around the house, Mara waited for the bartender to prepare her drink. As soon as Mara had ordered her drink, she went straight back to watching Tony like a hawk. She wanted to impress on her first mission and with the state Tony was in, she didn't want to take her eyes off him for too long.

It had already been a couple of hours since the party had started, and Tony was already incapable of walking straight. Oh, he was also in his full Iron Man suit with the faceplate up so that he could keep drinking.

The outfit that Mara and May had eventually settled on was a form-fitting, full body length, sparkly black party dress. It had a square neck, showing off her clavicle bones, was long sleeved and had a slit in her dress from her thigh down, to give her more flexibility to move. Rounding out the outfit were black, ankle strap, high heels that had gemstones inlaid on the fabric that went across her forefoot just before her toes started. Mara had also requested a slightly different hairstyle. Instead of her natural curls that started halfway down her hair length, she opted for full length, messy, wavy hair.

She also had a small, matching sparkly black, clutch bag that she carried around in her hands that was made from my form. The only reason she carried it around was because it had a S.H.I.E.L.D. communicator in it, as well as her completely silver, unbranded, popcorn sachets that she had been slowly munching on throughout the party. The communicator was linked to a skin-coloured earpiece that she was wearing so that as soon as Natasha determined that Tony was too dangerous, we could intervene.

When the bartender had finished making her drink, Mara turned to grab it as the music suddenly stopped. Collecting the drink and turning back around, we were greeted by the sight of Tony stood next to the DJ as he started scratching the record on the turntable.

[Well, even with our presence here it seems that things are playing out exactly the same as the movie El. We should see some action soon.]

Straight after Mara's mental communication, Tony stopped scratching the DJ's record and a song called California Love started playing, causing some of the partygoers to cheer and whistle.

With her drink in hand, Mara made her way over towards the entrance of the mansion and leaned back against a wall when she had crossed half the distance. She still had a clear line of sight to Tony and was close enough to react should anything differ from what she expected.

Even though she had her eyes on Tony, Mara would occasionally glance over to the front door with anticipation as she waited for someone to enter.

She didn't have to wait long either, as about a minute later, Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes walked into the party. As he looked around, clearly looking for the birthday boy, he locked eyes with Mara where they both performed a singular nod to each other – a greeting and acknowledgement of the other's presence.

As Rhodey turned away from my host, he spotted Pepper and walked over to speak with her. While he was doing that, Mara put her clutch bag under her arm, the one that was holding her drink, to free a hand. This was so that she could hold it up to her ear and use her in-ear communicator to update Natasha on the evolving situation.

"Nat, Rhodey's arrived, and he doesn't look happy. He's currently speaking to Pepper between the mansion entrance and the makeshift dancefloor."

Not wasting much time in responding, Natasha replied, "Copy. Continue overwatch for now and be prepared to intervene at any time."

As quick as Natasha was with her reply, Mara acknowledged the instruction, "Understood."

Lowering her hand from her ear, Mara kept the clutch bag under her arm and used her still free hand to pick out some popcorn from the sachets in the bag to eat, while she also sipped on her drink. Enjoying the real-life movie in front of her eyes.

As Tony tripped over his own feet for the umpteenth time that night, Pepper walked away from Rhodey and towards the bumbling billionaire. Unfortunately for the new CEO of Stark Industries, Tony decided that it was a good time to pick up a microphone and do a speech when she was only halfway through the dancefloor.

"You know, the question I get asked most often is, 'Tony, how do you go to the bathroom in the suit?'" To which he went silent for a couple of seconds, as he evidently urinated into his suit, before continuing, "Just like that." With the audience proceeding to laugh either with him, or at him, it was unclear which.

At that point Pepper finished her walk up to the stage where the DJ's turntables were located, and were what Tony was stood in front of to give his speech.

Taking the microphone off Tony, Pepper spoke to the crowd while the man himself wrapped an arm over her shoulder, "Does this guy know how to throw a party or what?"

To which the crowd cheered in agreement as Tony saluted them.

He then leaned down to speak into the microphone, letting his feelings out in his inebriated state, "I love you."

Pepper proceeded to try and laugh off the remark because, clearly, the man wasn't in the right state of mind for a love confession, "Aww unbelievable! Thank you so much. Tony, we all thank you so much for a wonderful night. And we're gonna say good night now and thank you all for coming."

To which all the guests groaned with disappointment at Pepper wanting to call a close to the festivities. Needless to say, however, that the intoxicated Iron Man didn't feel like shutting down the party yet, "No, no, no, we can't… Wait, wait, wait. We didn't have the cake. We didn't blow out the candles."

The intoxicated Iron Man's words caused Pepper to respond by moving the microphone behind her back, so the guests couldn't hear their private conversation. With everyone around, Mara decided that creating a tendril to travel across the dancefloor and between all the guests wasn't worth the effort for the contents of the conversation they were having. So, like everyone else, we couldn't hear what was said.

What became apparent, in the handful of seconds Pepper and Tony were speaking without anyone else being able to hear, was that the drunk billionaire was beyond reason. Pepper tried to continue talking to him, but all he did was lean towards her and presumably try to kiss her.

After their private discussion, both stood upright again, and Pepper swapped the microphone in her hand, with the bottle of liquor that was in Tony's hands. The CEO must have thought that Tony had agreed with her to end the party, and technically that's what he said. But what came out of his mouth straight after that made his agreement null.

"Pepper Potts. She's right. The party's over. Then again, the party was over for me, like, an hour and a half ago. The after-party starts in 15 minutes!" Accompanied by the crowd surrounding him cheering louder than ever, before he ended with, "And if anybody, Pepper, doesn't like it, there's the door."

The problem was that when he lifted his arm and pointed at the door, Tony's repulsor went off inches above some guest's heads and destroyed a glass wall that separated the staircase, from the main room turned dancefloor. For some strange reason however, the crowd proceeded to cheer even though it was evident that Tony didn't have full control of his actions and could hurt, possibly kill, them at any point by mistake.

Roaring at the guests, Tony took it a step further and gave a female guest his approval to throw a bottle of liquor into the air. He then proceeded to shoot said bottle with his repulsor, causing it to explode into shards that fell onto the, now open, dancefloor.

Knowing this would happen, Mara turned to look at Rhodey with expectation. The Lieutenant didn't disappoint either as he turned away from Tony and walked towards the stairs leading to the basement garage. All the while, Tony was still playing shoot the bottle with his clearly idiotic guests.

Not being able to see Natasha in the vicinity, Mara put a hand to her earpiece again and updated the spy on the situation, "Nat, it's getting out of hand. Tony's using his repulsor weapons in close proximity to the guests. Rhodey has gone down to the basement, I suspect he plans to don one of Tony's other suits and stop him with force. How should I proceed?"

Taking a noticeably longer time to reply from my host's query, Natasha eventually answered, "Start the evacuation, we can't have people around if they're going to fight in the middle of the mansion. Feel free to use scary face if you have to."

Creating a first sized head from my host's shoulder I replied to the agent in command, "That's just rude, Nat. You know I use that as my face."

Even without being able to see her face, I could tell she was probably slightly smiling to herself over the jab as she responded with, "Doesn't make it any less scary, but scary is what we need right now. Get everyone out starting with the top floor, they'll take the longest."

Both Mara and I were in perfect sync as we spoke the same thing, at the same time, "Yes ma'am." "Yes ma'am."

Receiving only a sigh in response, Mara put down her drink on one of the nearby waiter's trays before we made our way up the staircase to the top floor. As we were walking up it, I changed Mara's outfit into our suit form so that we had, as Natasha had so eloquently put it, the 'scary face' on. I made sure to keep the popcorn and the communicator, from the clutch bag, secured to Mara's body under my form, so we didn't separate from them.

Reaching the top of the stairs, with a raised voice due to the music and commotion downstairs, we said, "Party's over! Everyone out now, before we eat you!"

It went without saying, but everyone on the top floor heard our proclamation and subsequently ran down the stairs screaming.

"Well, that was easy. Don't worry El, our face doesn't look that scary. They're just pussies."

Taking the time to re-affirm Mara's philosophy, I replied mentally, <It doesn't bother me what random creatures think. Yours is the only opinion that matters to me, as you're my marked bond.>

Happy with my statement that re-enforced her earlier advice, Mara responded, "Glad to hear it, and I think you're exceptional, babe~"

Interrupting our conversation on the top floor came Rhodey's voice from the dancefloor, "I'm only gonna say this once! Get out!"

It seemed like the guests finally realised how intimidating a metallic suit of mass destruction was, as they all fled the mansion within mere moments of Rhodey's declaration.

Since our suit form was no longer needed, I changed our attire into our agent form. If we fought with our full power, we would likely do more damage to the mansion than Tony or accidentally kill the drunk superhero by hitting him too hard.

There was also a slight change to the agent form. The baton holster on our right thigh had been replaced by a pouch that contained the clutch bag items.

As we had cleared the top floor of all the civilians, Mara proceeded to contact Natasha, again, to keep her updated, as the de facto leader of the operation was still nowhere to be seen, "Nat, I was right about Rhodey. He's come back to the main floor with an Iron Man suit on. Both the main and the top floors are clear of civilians. Do I engage, or watch how it plays out?"

With no immediate answer, Mara was able to pay full attention to the happenings on the main floor as Rhodey spoke to Tony while wearing a completely silver Iron Man suit. She also didn't forget to pull out her popcorn from the thigh pouch and, as I knew what she wanted, I removed the mouth covering, so she could snack on them.

"You don't deserve to wear one of these. Shut it down!"

Not taking Rhodey seriously, Tony turned to the DJ, "Goldstein."

Said DJ then slowly stood up from his crouched position, behind the turntables, "Yes, Mr. Stark?"

The Iron Man then told the DJ why he called for him, as he started giggling halfway through his sentence, "Give me a phat beat to beat my buddy's ass to."

To which the DJ played a song that consisted of multiple songs combined together, which Mara practically swooned over in-between munching her popcorn, "Mmm~ This mash-up is so good, El! The combination of 'Another one Bites the Dust', 'It Takes Two' and 'Robot Rock' fit together like jigsaw pieces. All 3 songs used in it are smash hits in their own right, but the mix of all 3 somehow fit together perfectly, even when they seem like they shouldn't!"

While Mara had been explaining how good the song was, and the details of it, Tony had lowered his faceplate and flown backwards, through the wall connecting to his exercise room, with Rhodey hanging on his back.

"Oh, we should probably follow them to keep watching." Said my host as she jumped off the top floor balcony, where she was viewing the dancefloor from.

Just as Mara peered through the hole that the 2 metal men created, when they blasted through the wall, she witnessed a weight plate flying towards her that she subsequently caught before it could hit her face.

Looking at the plate in her hand, she commented, "Huh, that's new. I could have sworn that the plate went into the glass door next to this hole… So, either I'm remembering wrong, or even without me directly interfering there are subtle differences in events. Damn butterflies and their wings."

Not understanding what exactly my host was talking about with butterflies and wings, I asked for some clarification, <What do you mean butterflies and wings? And what does that have to with a slight difference in events?>

Dropping the plate still in her hand, and taking a deep sigh, Mara explained what she had implied while she continued to watch the two Iron Men pummel each other with other weights, "There was a popular time travelling theory back in my original universe that was kinda poetic to be honest. It was along the lines of, 'Something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing, can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway across the world.' Basically, it meant that changing something seemingly negligible in the past, could have drastic effects on the future. Take the situation we're in now for example. If I hadn't been nosy and watched the fight, then the plate could have travelled through the new hole and hit the DJ. With how fast the plate was going, it probably would have killed him, in which case Rhodey, who threw the plate, might be suspended, and thus prevent him from donning the War Machine suit when Tony comes to battle Whiplash. Tony taking on Whiplash alone might lead to his defeat, which would lead to his death and then the Avengers, as well as everything afterwards would be thrown into disarray. One tiny change, like the angle a weight plate was thrown being slightly altered, thus doomed the Earth. It's a bit of a stretch, but you know what I mean."

With Mara finishing her explanation and the Iron Men taking their fight through the ceiling, onto the top floor. My host walked past the main entrance towards the kitchen area where all the food for the guests was laid out.

With my hosts description and the already slightly altered event as evidence, it became evident that getting involved in events was inevitable going forward, <That's a reasonable theory. I suppose we have no choice but to get involved keep things on track then.>

Just as we entered the kitchen, Natasha also entered from a different entrance and made a beeline for my host, "Mara, put Tony down. If this continues for much longer the whole building is going to collapse."

As chipper as ever, Mara replied, "On it boss." As she stored her popcorn back into the thigh pouch and I re-covered her mouth making her attire complete again.

Before we could move to follow Natasha's orders, Pepper turned up from behind my host and began to argue with Natasha, "Natalie! I'm onto you. You know what? Ever since you came here-"

Unfortunately, the CEO didn't get to finish her words as the Iron Men came crashing through the ceiling onto one of the various tables of food.

Happy, seeing that his new boss was about to be caught up in the brawl, ran back into the mansion from outside, to pull her to safety. Natasha looked back at Mara and changed her orders slightly, "Get Pepper and Happy out of here first, then put the drunkard down."

Giving a mock salute in confirmation, we moved to pick up Pepper and drag Happy out of the glass door he had entered through. Once they were out of the combat area, we turned back to see the Iron Menaces taking turns to mindlessly punch each other in the face.

Deciding that now would be a fun time to intervene, we moved closer to the pair before Mara threw out a punch.

With us still being a few feet away, Mara's punch wouldn't have connected normally, but since I could tell what she wanted, I happily obliged.

Rippling from her elbow down to her knuckles I gradually increased the side of my form on her arm until Mara's fist grew to 3 times the size and extended out to punch Tony through his kitchen island, burying him into his fridge freezer.

Not wanting to drag out the fight, while I shrunk her hand back to normal size, Mara informed me, [We'll take him down as quick as possible, El. It's not gonna be much fun fighting him like this when he's so pissed.]

While Tony was still planted into the fridge, my host turned to the future War Machine, "Looking good Rhodey, could do with a paintjob though."

As strait-laced as the last time we had spoken to him, Rhodey replied, "Yeah well, I didn't exactly get to pick the color when I put it on, I was in a bit of a hurry to stop Tony before he hurt anyone. Why are you only getting involved now anyway, couldn't you have done that earlier?"

As the actual Iron Man began to pull himself out of the fridge, Mara quickly replied to Rhodey before we inevitably re-engaged the intoxicated hero, "I was busy clearing out the top floor, plus it was pretty entertaining watching you 2 slap each other around."

Once Tony had dug himself out of the appliance he had been lodged in, he looked up at Mara and questioned, "Feeling left out, Mara? Couldn't you see we were having a moment there?"

Getting into a boxing stance, my host replied, "Yeah, I could, and so could all the guests you nearly mowed down. You need to stop, before I have to embarrass you in front of everyone by making beating the shit out of you look easy."

"And here I thought I had the big ego. That's some big talk, let's see if you can back it up." Not adhering to Mara's advice, Tony stepped towards her and threw a punch with his right hand.

Ducking under it, my host threw out a right hook of her own. Her punch came from under Tony's arm and wrapped around the outstretched arm, to connect with his chin. This caused his head to snap to his right - in the direction the punch was going.

While Tony was stunned from the punch, Mara ducked back under his still outstretched arm and delivered a left jab to the inside of Tony's left knee. Said punch caused the leg that was hit to crumple to the ground in genuflection.

Not letting up from her brief, but impactful, onslaught, Mara grabbed the back of Tony's head and pulled it down while also bringing her right knee up, resulting in her smashing said knee against the Iron Man's faceplate.

Not only did Tony's head snap backwards taking his whole body with him, which resulted in him lying prone on his back. But, it also dented the forehead of the faceplate showing how strong the attack was.

With such a sequence of events, it was no wonder that Tony didn't get up from the ground and was either knocked unconscious or his pride was too wounded from the exchange. While on the other side, my host was extremely pleased that May's training paid off, [May really is a good teacher. Just the limited hours of hand-to-hand training, and the combos that she taught us, really are efficient. It definitely helped that Tony was inebriated, but a win is a win, nice work El.]

Equally pleased that my host dealt with the hero effortlessly, I also praised her, <You too, dear. Even if May was a good teacher, to be able execute what you only learnt today is undoubtedly impressive.>

With our internal praising session over, my host turned to speak to Rhodey, "Sooo, you wanting to go a few rounds as well or you gonna head home?"

Shaking his head site-to-side he replied, "I'm good, see you around Mara."

As the War Machine started to take flight, Mara responded by waving her hand, and saying, "See you later alligator."

With Tony still on the ground, and all the guests cleared off the premise - presumably done by Natasha during the fight - the only ones left at the scene were Pepper, Happy, Natasha and Mara. As I transformed our agent form back into some regular clothing – converse shoes, grey tracksuit bottoms and matching grey drawstring jacket – Mara asked the others, "I don't mean to be rude, but where am I gonna sleep?"

Natasha, being quick-witted as always, answered my host, "I'll organise a hotel for the night. I already have a driver waiting to pick me up, so you can come with me."

Nodding her head, Mara replied, "Cool, thanks Natalie." Looking towards the others present she continued, "Sorry about the mess Pepper. And sorry about beating up your old boss Happy."

With both recipients of the apologies shaking their heads, Pepper spoke first, "You don't have to apologize Mara, Tony's the one at fault here. I tried to get him to finish the party, but he took it upon himself to keep going with it. If anything, I should be thanking you for stopping him before he accidentally hurt someone."

Echoing Pepper's sentiments, Happy added, "Yeah Tony brought this upon himself, you've got nothing to apologize for."

Mara bobbed her head at the pair in thanks, before she turned back to Natasha and asked, "Should we go then Natalie? Honestly, I'm pretty tired after the longer than usual day."

Natasha answered, "Of course, Mara. I'll see you tomorrow, Miss Potts, Happy."

Saying such, my host and the others gave their goodbyes before the S.H.I.E.L.D. duo made their way over to the roundabout at the entrance of the mansion. Unsurprisingly, it was May that picked the pair up, and drove all of them to the safehouse for the night.