Galactic Savior | Avengers✔️

✮ 𝟎𝟏𝟏 ✮

tony needs gary, and gary needs tony

MARLENE rested her feet on the dashboard after listening to everything Tony had been through in past three months alone, along with the insight he had on the Mandarin case. He was going after the man, and Marlene nodded along. She was glad, quite oddly, to be doing something like this again. She knew she could be getting the bad guys everyday if she worked at S.H.I.E.L.D., but something about Fury did not sit right with her.

"Phone?" Tony asked suddenly, gesturing for her to hand her the phone in her pocket. Grabbing it, she handed it to him. "I'm calling Rhodey. You ever met him?"

"No," she said with a shake of her head.

"He's a treat. You'll like him," Tony replied before putting the phone on speaker once a man's voice filtered through with a confused greeting. "You ever have a chick straddling you and you look up and suddenly she's glowing from the inside out, kind of a bright orange?"

Rhodey answered without hesitation. "Yeah, I've had that. Who is this?"

Tony grinned at Marlene. "It's me, pal. Now, last time I went missing, if I remember correctly, you came looking for me. What are you doing?"

"A little knock-and-talk, making friends in Pakistan. What are you doing?" Rhodey replied.

"Your redesign, your big rebrand, that was AIM, right?" Tony said, ignoring his question. Rhodey agreed. "I'm gonna find a heavy-duty comm sat right now, I need your login."

"It's the same as it's always been, WarMachine68," Rhodey said.

Marlene smirked at the username. "And password, please," Tony said.

"Well, look, I gotta change it every time you hack in, Tony."

Tony rolled his eyes. "It's not the '80s, nobody says hack any more. Give me your login."

Rhodey let out a large sigh. "WAR MACHINE ROX with an 'X,' all caps."

Tony let the laughter spill out as Marlene could not help but join in. Tony's laugh was infectious. "That is so much better than lron Patriot."

As they ended the call, Tony drove until Marlene pointed out a news crew. She eyed him. "Could you use their computers?"

Tony clicked his tongue. "Good eye, Elsa," he said, pulling over. "Stay low. I don't want me being alive to be known."

"Makes sense," Marlene replied sarcastically.

As they made it around another van, Tony grabbed her wrist to keep her from walking forward. They could hear people talking. Tony tapped the van they were by, glad when no one tapped back or opened as if they were inside of it. Opening it, Tony shoved Marlene inside less than gracefully.

"Ass," she muttered, moving out of the way to let Tony do his work. Tony immediately began to type on the computer, but he could not get a good signal.

"That ain't gonna cut it," Tony murmured.

Suddenly, both froze as the van doors opened. Marlene let one hand raise to prepare to alight when the man began to talk, "We talked about this. Excuse me, sir. I don't know who—" When his eyes met Tony's, it was as if stars lit in them. Tony pushed Marlene's hand down, knowing the guy was a fan by the reaction.

"Shh," Tony said quickly, pulling the man inside.

The man was on the phone, so he said, "Mom, I need to call you back. Something magical is happening. Tony Stark is in my van."

Tony called out again, "Shh. Keep it down."

"Tony Stark is in my van!"

"No, he's not," Tony countered.