83 The Lunch Rush

Bokuboy

Grant Ward stood in the small park near his target and surveyed his masterful work. He wasn't sure who had sent him the encrypted email that had told him where a lot of his primary targets would be going to have a secret meeting and he didn't care. The improvised explosives from a nearby construction site had been a great find and he had laced the entire building with them.

It was unfortunate that he had to make himself scarce until the meeting had been well underway and he couldn't visually confirm if all of his targets had entered or not. He felt bad about that until that same email address had sent him video of each and every target on his list enter the building. He had nearly given himself away when he shouted with happiness and he was glad that no one had noticed.

Grant took out the detonator and grinned as he whispered the word 'payback' and hit the button.

*WHAABOOOM!*

The blast actually blew his hair back and he laughed and laughed as the small building started to break apart and then it crashed down and sent a plume of debris, dust, and smoke high into the air and over the area. Grant covered his face to protect his eyes and then felt a gun barrel pressed under his chin.

“Hail Hydra!” A mechanical voice said.

“Hail Hydra!” Grant responded automatically.

*BANG!*

Grant's body dropped to the ground with a hole in the top of his head and a smile on his face. He died believing he had killed all of the upper echelon members of SHIELD and that he had gotten his revenge.

Spider-Man knelt and 'gathered' evidence, not that he really needed to, and placed the gun on Grant's open hand after adding the man's fingerprints on the bullets, barrel, and handle. He had let Jarvis handle faking the footage and it had been masterful. He had replaced all of the Hydra agents with the faces of SHIELD agents and Grant had unknowingly killed most his own organization.

It had been child's play to arrange the emergency meeting for secret Hydra agents after the death of Alexander Pierce had been intentionally leaked to the news. They had been worried that Hydra had been compromised if one of their top people had been removed and the other security council member named Gideon Malick had easily been tricked as the fake Armin Zola image requested he take over.

Making Grant the fall guy had been convenient, since he had a massive gripe against SHIELD.

Spider-Man heard people starting to come near to see what was going on, so he sent what he had to the NYPD with an apology for not arriving fast enough, dropped the evidence bags around Grant's body, and swung away.

If he was lucky, he could get a few hours sleep before he had to be awake to make May's breakfast. He could get a proper sleep after that before he had an important lunch to get to.

*

Pepper sat in the same bistro she had been in that day, Chez Perez, and she waited with both eagerness and trepidation for her meal partner. For some reason, she knew this was going to be enlightening for her and not in a good way, not after what Ben had said during the New Year's bash the night before last. She shook her head to push those thoughts aside and turned slightly on her chair to look towards where the Maitre'D was and caught her breath.

Ben was there talking to the man and he wore one of the shirts she bought for him with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. It showed off his muscular forearms and the expensive watch on his wrist had an excessively thick metal band holding it. Her eyes caught that it looked like titanium and that was a blatant show of wealth.

The Maitre'D let out a rare laugh and nodded, then he led Ben over to her. Pepper noticed the stylish pants that matched the shirt well and her eyes dropped to the expensive and comfortable shoes. His socks were the same color as his shirt and she didn't know why she was happy about that.

“Miss Potts, your guest has arrived.” The Maitre'D said with a bit of a wave.

Ben stepped around him and beamed a smile at her. “It's so nice to see you again.”

Pepper returned the smile as he bent over to her and their lips met briefly. Her thoughts of trying to keep a distance from him had fled faster than a cheetah after a gazelle. “Thank you, Jacques.”

The Maitre'D nodded and shook Ben's hand before he returned to his spot to oversee the restaurant.

Pepper had not missed the money changing hands. “Should I ask what that was for?”

Ben smiled. “I was just ensuring when the waiter comes over to bother us.”

Pepper opened her mouth to ask and the waiter walked over to their table with her favorite non-alcoholic cocktail. Two of them. She gave Ben a questioning look as the waiter walked away.

“Jarvis can be quite chatty about his favorite human if asked the right question.” Ben said.

“Oh? I suppose you know all about me now.” Pepper said, a little perturbed.

Ben chuckled. “Hell no, I'm not stupid. I came to lunch specifically to get to know my good friend better. Cheating by having Jarvis give me your particulars would only get me put into the doghouse, not save me from it.”

Pepper's mood lightened at his words. “I'm glad, because I know almost nothing about you.”

Ben smiled. “I'm tempted to say I'm like an interesting book, except it has a porn magazine tucked inside when you open it. That's not something a woman needs to read all the time, even if she's read it before.”

Pepper blushed a little. “Ben, that's something we need to talk about.”

“I know.” Ben said and took a drink of the cocktail. “Very nice.”

“You're very young and...”

“You're very sexy and desirable.” Ben interrupted. “I don't regret what happened and neither should you.”

“Ben, it's not that simple. I'm actually a bit older than your aunt...”

“I can produce a written document that retroactively grants you permission from my aunt if you need it.” Ben interrupted again and Pepper was surprised. “It doesn't matter how old you are. Age is just a number that lets you keep track of all the crap you've been through in your life.”

Pepper blinked her eyes at him. “That... is a pretty cynical outlook to have.”

Ben chuckled. “It's not cynical if it's true.”

“But...”

“Bullied since I was a kid. Lost my family as a baby. No friends growing up. Almost dirt poor until recently. I've even had several blows to the head that changed my life.” Ben said.

Pepper stared at him and didn't know what to say.

“That change to my life has been the best thing that's ever happened to me. I have friends now. I'm popular at both school and at work. I can do quadratic equations in my head and I didn't even know what those were until recently.” Ben said and Pepper was stunned. “I'm working out, I'm studying hard, I'm becoming rich, and I'm meeting beautiful women that are so far out of my league that being in the same room as them makes me feel giddy inside.”

“Ben, you... why are you...”

“I like playing with electronics, working with my hands and building things, and figuring out how to change the world. I'm doing the best I can with the life that fate has granted me, and having you be a part of that is more than any man can ever ask for.”

Pepper couldn't stop her blush at the sincerity in his voice and on his face.

“That's why my offer of friendship is genuine, Pepper. Unlike anyone else that might want to spend time with you, I will never ask you to change your life to fit me into it. You're the CEO of one of the top companies in the world. In. The. World.” Ben said and reached over to take her hand. “I have no right to demand you change who you are or give up what you enjoy. That's not how friendship works.”

“Ben, I... I don't know what to say.” Pepper whispered and squeezed his hand.

“Friends are there for each other when they can be and they try to support each other whenever they can. When it's required, they will also move heaven and earth to get to them when they are desperately needed and will give them whatever they desire most.”

Pepper was at a loss for words once more, because she was sure that he couldn't be offering her what he was offering her. She was reading too much into things and there was no way Ben would give her what he was implying. There was also no way that the conversation's tone had shifted so fundamentally.

As if he could read her mind, Ben smiled. “When are you going to stop taking the pill?”

Pepper stopped breathing and her mouth dropped open.

“I know it's a little shocking to hear that, considering we started out talking about how young I am and how not quite so young you are.” Ben said diplomatically instead of calling her old like she expected. “It's been on my mind for a while now and I've thought a lot about it. I also don't expect anything from you, like I said. Friends are there for each other and that's what matters.”

“Ben, I... what... I'm...” Pepper shook her head. “This is too much to deal with right now.”

Ben chuckled. “Too much? We're just getting started with the conversation, Pepper.” He said and waved off to the side.

The waiter brought over two plates of great smelling food for them. When he left, Ben smiled at her as he picked up a fork to start eating the grilled chicken.

“We haven't even talked about Stark stealing my security device patent and how he's making millions off of a flawed product that will cause more damage than criminals will when it goes off.” Ben said and ate a bite of food. “Not bad.” He said and chewed another bite. “It could use a dash of cilantro.”

Pepper stared at him and didn't know what to say as she ate. She had no idea how he could know about the containment foam causing extra damage. There had only been two reports about it and... she stopped thinking about it when she made the mental connection between Ben and Jarvis.

“How chatty was Jarvis when you talked to him?” Pepper asked, pointedly.

Ben chuckled. “He's not leaking company secrets or allowing espionage, if that's what you're thinking. In fact, he's even more security conscious now.”

Pepper relaxed. “Then how...”

“I've seen them, of course. Using containment foam, that's slightly corrosive until it solidifies, will damage both the criminals and the things they are trying to steal. Stark also removed the container mine had for the dissolution solution that could be activated by command, so the police and store owners wouldn't have any trouble removing the criminals from the premises.”

Pepper was stunned. She suspected that Ben had been telling the truth, even if it was exaggerated by yelling it at Tony after punching him. She hadn't realized it was their new product that had been selling out all over the country or that Ben could actually solve her company's problems before they became major problems and cost the company tons of money.

“You and I have a lot to talk about, Ben.” Pepper said when she realized she couldn't let this opportunity pass her by.

“Why else do you think I'm eating so slowly?” Ben asked her with a knowing smile.

“Forget the food.” Pepper said and stood. “We have important business to discuss and that takes priority.”

Ben nodded and stood as well, then he took her hand and they went over to the Maitre'D. He handed the man two hundred dollars and they left. Pepper called her driver and they were soon whisked off towards Stark Tower to finish their discussion.

*

“Holy Mary Mother of God!” A construction worker exclaimed as they moved one of the large slabs of concrete with a hydraulic jack and saw dozens of crushed bodies inside what was supposed to be an abandoned building.

“What is it?” Adrian Toomes asked and ran over. His salvage company had been called immediately to clean up the site with several other actual construction companies. He had been lamenting that Ben wasn't there helping them, because he loved doing stuff like this, and his thoughts stopped when he saw what his employee had unearthed.

A stream of curses came out of Adrian before he could stop them and he told the guy to not touch anything before he ran over to where a police car guarded the spot where the body of the man that had blown up the building had been.

The faces of the cops drained of color when Adrian told them what they had found. All work was stopped on the site as the police called in everyone.

One of SHIELD's operatives worked for the dispatch office and relayed the call for help to both the NYPD and to her department head in SHIELD's Communications Department. It was given a low priority, mainly because there was very little information besides a lot of people being killed.

Two hours later, when some of the bodies had been successfully identified and relayed to the communications department, SHIELD's priority alarm rang out and roused the department heads, the Director, and Deputy Director.

Two hours after that, Nick Fury once again sat in the same meeting room with the same people, except for one of them. He was dead. The remaining people all listened as Maria recited the various police reports about the incident and gave them all of the information they had.

“Does anyone have any idea what the hell is going on?” One of the female agents asked. “We're being systematically picked off!”

Everyone glanced at the empty chair and then looked at Fury.

“Hill, the final report, please.” Fury said.

Maria moved the file to the top of her large stack and opened it. “A recently downgraded agent's body was found just outside the explosion's blast radius. Grant Ward had a gunshot wound from under his chin and out through the top of his head.”

“He committed suicide after blowing up how many agents and government workers?” Clint asked.

“Ninety five.” Maria said.

“Any idea why?” Natasha asked. She remembered him being on the mission with Ben and Grant failed that mission. Was that why he did what he did?

“We have our suspicions.” Fury said, cryptically. He didn't want them thinking about Hydra infiltrating SHIELD so much that two of their security council members and nearly seventy of their field agents and ten of their office workers had also been Hydra agents.

Thankfully, neither he nor Maria were worried about any more of them, because a second list had been sent to them and it contained the names of Hydra agents and their connections. The best part was that they matched the current records of the identified bodies from the explosion and building collapse.

The problem they had was that someone had done all of that and there was no record of anything. No one knew what had happened, who had done it, or if it was even a single person. There could be a new rival agency that was cleaning up the competition and SHIELD could be next.

It was a worrying concern and Fury saw a matching look on Maria's face. They nodded slightly to each other and they silently promised to pull out all of the stops to figure out who had been involved with this mess and would determine if they were going to be a threat to them, to SHIELD, and to the world.

*

I sat on the edge of Pepper's large ornate desk as she enthusiastically tried to suck the contents of my balls out through the tip of my penis. I honestly hadn't expected it, especially because we had just completed an exclusive patent sharing deal that let her fix and update the Stark Protect devices before they could ruin the company's reputation or needed a recall issued.

Pepper was allowed use my special fluid patents for both deployment and dissolving, while I also gave her the rights to produce my Fire Suppressant variant device. She gave me the patent permission for that and if I designed anything else similar to it, then she agreed to profit sharing for everything. Needless to say, we were both going to become insanely rich from the deal.

“This is... to thank you... for letting me prove... I deserve the CEO job.” Pepper said between licks and sucks.

I moved her nameplate over to show her the back of it. “Guess what's going to happen next?”

Pepper moaned and sucked even harder, then I nodded to her and she moved back about six inches and opened her mouth for me as I stroked myself. She had remembered that the third shot wasn't going to be as far as the others and she was at the perfect distance to catch it and not get any on her clothes.

“Creates... Enthusiastic... Orgasms!” I said and let it go.

Pepper's face was almost euphoric as all three shots went perfectly into her mouth and then she sucked on me again to get the rest of it. Apparently, no dribbles were allowed on her carpet.