Off The Leash (November 1987)

The next few weeks had been wonderful as far as Tony was concerned. He was able to spend some time with Isabella that did not involve training. Dinners out on the yacht, breakfasts out and mornings in where they never left the bedroom. They even flew to Italy once to visit the stomping grounds of her family. He had his people find her distant relatives and the surprise of meeting them, he had kept it a secret, brought him more happiness than he could have imagined. Making Isabella smile, making her happy brought him more joy than he had ever felt before. More proof that he had made the right choice. Or that she had for he felt it was her that brought them together.

Isabella was busy though, the Foundation and Tony’s entrepreneurial needs were extensive on her time but he had never heard her complain and her drive and energy seemed endless. Tony loved art and culture and adding his interests to acquire art forced her to use her assistant more than she would have liked. Luckily Angela was up for the task though she had lost her longtime boyfriend over it. Ultimately it was her choice but she would not slow down and took up her growing responsibilities without trepidation.

Isabella’s training started slow at first but she quickly found the more practice she put into it, the better she became. The suit began to feel like a second skin and Tony had mode so many adjustments and upgrades that her suit became much different than his own. He focused on a new type of shielding and he also consulted with some of the finest doctors in the world and had begun to write a new, comprehensive medical program and installing it into Jarvis to be used with new medical hardware that he designed and built into Isabella’s suit.

Tony and Isabella were actually sitting together on the couch making out when Jarvis alerted them to watch the news. Once he told Jarvis to drop down the screen Jarvis tuned to the newsfeed. One city block of downtown burned and several of the buildings were in ruins. People were dead or dying and their bodies laid motionless out in the street. Something large moved in the darkness and the camera and news reported moved between several cars to get a glimpse of whatever it was. The camera only got a partial shot of it, the ridged back that looked like some kind of huge lizard to Tony. Tony looked at Isabella and she looked back at him. Her arms were still around his neck and then she jumped up and he was hot on her heels as they ran down the stairs to the lab where the robot arms were to put on their suits.

These last few months had been a complete whirlwind for Isabella. Once her family had been alerted to her engagement an official announcement was made and the press went wild. Isabella and Tony had very much anticipated this and they spent a lot of time out of the public eye. They spent time on the yacht and traveling. Isabella had not thought she could love Tony more, but then he had surprised her by taking her to Italy and bringing her to meet distant relatives of hers.

Their days were filled with wedding plans and projects they were both working on and their nights were filled with hot passion. Isabella technically still had her own apartment, but she spent nearly all of her time at Tony's place. They had decided they wouldn't sell her apartment, but would keep it as an investment.

Isabella had been maid of honor at Luca and Laura's wedding and Tony had attended the wedding as well. Isabella wanted Luca and Tony to get to know each other better and they had spent quite a while talking about various things. It made her happy to see her family starting to accept Tony and realize that he wasn't the man they thought he was. Little did Isabella know that Frank had paid Tony a visit recently and had threatened his life if he ever did anything to hurt her. The two men had ended up talking more calmly at the end and both walked away with a much deeper respect for the other. Isabella had no idea that Frank was keeping an eye on her. He had told Tony that he was still going to protect her and Tony accepted and appreciated that. The one thing both men could agree on was that they loved her and wanted her to be safe.

It was less than three months from the date of their wedding and Isabella was over at Tony's place. They were sitting together on the couch making out instead of going over the items the wedding planner had asked them to. Tony and Isabella's wedding was the biggest and most important wedding their planner had ever handled and she was stressed to say the least. Celebrities and royalty were on the guest list and this had become her sole job. They were supposed to be going over the menu for the reception, but Tony had begun to distract her. At first she tried to stop him, but then she just gave in. Jarvis, however, interrupted them to alert them to the news. Isabella looked over to watch the news feed of what was happening downtown and her eyes widened when she saw what could only be described as something that looked like a giant lizard. Tony and Isabella looked at each other before jumping up. She was in front as they headed down into the lab. Isabella had gotten very good at using her suit, but this would be the first time she would be using it in a situation like this. She was somewhat nervous, but she was also feeling confident. Tony had provided a lot of training and had designed her suit for her. It had become like a second skin to her.

Isabella knew New York just as much or better than Tony had so he let her lead. In the air they flew together and because Tony’s suit was a bit heavier than hers. Being lighter her suit was much more agile and faster than his so he had to add extra thrust to keep up with her.

“Isabella, stay high and do a flyby,” Tony said. There was thick smoke that billowed out from several buildings and they saw 2 fire trucks on their sides as well as several police cars burned out. “Our suits are heat resistant but not impervious to fire,” Tony warned and then they saw it. Flames billowed from its gaping maw of a mouth and it had massive black wings that jutted out from its back. It was on the ground though ripping at the side of a large bus with its claws. Tony zoomed in his vision and he saw several people on the bus. “Attack it from the back to draw it away. I’ll come in a hair later and draw it’s fire, we need to get it away from all these people,” He said. New York was just too heavily populated and the people had no where to go. Burned bodies and body parts were strewn out on the street. Some were small and he heard Isabella gasp. “Don’t look at the street, focus on the Dragon...thing,” He said.

Isabella felt her adrenaline pumping. This would be her first real test of the suit. She tried to remain as calm as possible. She knew that she needed to be clearheaded in order to safely handle this situation. She utilized her CIA training to its fullest. On her HUD she could see her own vitals, as well as the remaining power in her suit, and identifications of people and objects below. She couldn't believe what she was seeing when she saw the creature. It looked like a dragon. Unfortunately, her CIA training did not include how to handle dragon-like creatures and so she would need to figure it out on her own. She listened to Tony's instructions, but it was difficult not to look down at the burned bodies on the street. The bodies of the children would likely give her nightmares for the rest of her life.

She flew back around the creature and hovered in the air and fired several repulsor beam shots at it from behind. It turned and Isabella just narrowly missed being hit by the flames that came from its mouth. She could hear people screaming below and the creature began to follow her away from the crowd.

As expected the huge beast turned its attention from the bus. It was a good thing to as its massive claws had wrent a large gash into the side of the bus. Tony thought it looked like a can of sardines to the creature and then he made his own attack, an armor piercing missle that struck the creature in the side of the face as it blew its fire at Isabella. The Dragon screamed a loud, horrible scream and then as Tony had hoped it brought its large wings up and began to flap them against the street. How it was able to leap up into the air with so much girth under it Tony couldn’t imagine but it did and it nearly hit him with one of its massive claws.

As Isabella came around it was in the air and accelerating to catch up to Tony. Its body shifted and moved expertly in flight as its wings flapped at the air to give it lift. The side of its face was damaged and bleeding but it still was able to expel its flame from its mouth ahead of him. For a moment Tony was bathed in its fire but he shifted like a rabbit being chased by a dog and was out into clear air. “Mr. Stark its fire is doing minor damage to the resistant coating on your armor. I would not recommend remaining in the creatures flames for very long,” He said and Isabella heard.

“Isabella, you’ve read those...fantasy books right? How do we kill this thing?” Tony asked quickly.

Isabella hoped that the missile Tony fired at it would do the trick, but while it injured the creature, it did not kill it. It only now seemed to make it more angry. Isabella began to panic as she saw Tony bathed in flames. She heard Tony's question and she dodged the animal's massive wings to avoid being hit.

"A giant steel arrow. I'm not sure we can easily get one of those. I think maybe we need to just keep hitting it with whatever we've got. What about steel cable? We could wrap it around it and entangle it."

Tony couldnt believe she thought he was serious. “A steel spear? Are you kidding me? It took a tank breaker missile in the face,” he said. “Unfortunately sir the creature appears to have regenerative healing properties,” Jarvis chimed in.

The creature was hot on Tony’s tail and he was flying fast and changing direction often and they were like a hawk chasing a sparrow. Tony and Isabella managed to get it away from the city and the people though.

“Now that its away from the city, maybe try and damage its wings,” he suggested.

Inside her suit, Isabella rolled her eyes. "I wasn't being serious Tony. Although that is how they took down Smaug in The Hobbit."

Thankfully, they were able to lead the creature out of the city and away from people. However, Tony and Isabella couldn't relax.

"If we temporarily ground it I might be able to get a sample of its DNA so we can figure out what the hell we are dealing with. I have a strong feeling this thing isn't from anywhere around here though. Let's each fire at one wing," she suggested.

They each positioned themselves to fire at the creature's wings. They damaged the wings enough with their repulsor beams to cause the creature to fall to the ground. Isabella quickly flew down and managed to collect a sample of DNA.

"Jarvis, run a diagnostic on the DNA and let me know what this thing is."

“Working,” Jarvis said but now the creature tracked her from the ground. Its flames couldn't reach them from the ground and it was open field for quite a while around them. “I will tear you apart!” It growled as it looked up at them and then it leaped once more into the air and was hot onto Isabella as she flew across its flight line. It bathed her in flames and alarms went off inside her helmet.

“Isabella!” Tony yelled in fear and He grunted as he rammed into it on the side of the head and used a cutting beam and sliced one of the creatures wings off.however the creature grabbed onto Tony with a claw as they plummeted down toward the ground in an uncontrolled spin.

Isabella could feel the heat even from inside her suit. She began to panic when she heard the alarms going off and she tried to get out of the line of fire. At that moment, Tony rammed into the creature and cut off one of its wings. Isabella's eyes widened in fear when she saw the creature grab hold of Tony as it began to plummet towards the ground.

"Tony!"

Isabella shot down towards him as quickly as she could go. She managed to grab hold of Tony and pull him out of the creature's grasp just before it hit the ground.

Once Tony was free his rockets fired and the two of them flew up. The creature blew fire at them though but they were only hit briefly by it before they split up again and evaded the flames. “Isabella, the fire resistant coating on your suit has been depleted, I would avoid further contact with that fire, it appears to have a corrosive aspect to it akin to acid,” Jarvis said. The creature moved about on the ground and already they could see its wing begin to regenerate.

“Whatever we’re gunna do we better do it!” Tony said as he launched several more rockets toward it. They all hit and it screamed but it wasn’t put down. “Isabella, my analysis is complete, this is a Makluan named Fin Fang Foom from the planet Kakaranathara. Years ago his ship landed in China but there is little information available. They were able to put him to sleep using a rare herb,” he said and listed it to Isabella. It was a chinese herb that Isabella did not recognize the name.

Isabella began to desperately dodge the flames of the creature. Even so, she could feel the heat starting to burn her skin. She forced herself to remain calm and think clearly. She listened as Jarvis was finally able to give her some information about what they were dealing with.

“Ok so how are we supposed to get this rare herb?” she asked Jarvis. She was hoping for a miracle, otherwise she wasn’t sure what she and Tony were going to do.

‘I have the chemistry make up of the herb and I believe your medical suite might be able reorganize the chemical compounds. In the doses of Barbiturates, Suvorexants and Duboisa Hopwoodii I can…” he began but Tony cut him off. “We don’t need to know how, just do it!” he said as he flew around the creature and nearly got his legs singed by its caustic fire. Jarvis began to tell isabella which doses of what she needed to reorganize in her forearm guard. Unfortunately with her panel open she needed to hover high up and away from the creature and Tony was left to fend for himself and keep it busy.

“It’s wing is regenerating, hurry the hell up!” He snapped.

In her HUD Jarvis highlighted each dose one at a time and highlighted the position in hr forearm does magazine where she needed to place them. Then she needed to shoot them all into the contact syringe that her suit used to apply the medications. Tony had not gone over any of this with her before likely because he didn’t know much about it either. This part of her suit was very new to them both and this seemed far more complicated than any of the weapons systems she had seen.

“I’ve set the dose into the largest gauge syringe Isabella but it might not penetrate the creatures outer skin. You will need to create a wound first then apply the dose. Shall I power up your shielding? You will need to get very close to it for that,” Jarvis said. All this time she had some kind of shielding installed in her suit and didn’t know it.

“Oh...shielding, I forgot to mention that,” Tony said just as the creature spit a ball of flame at him. He narrowly dodged and when the ball arced back down it exploded when it struck the nearby trees below them. “Holy shit!” Tony yelped. “Ok, are you two done playing doctor!?” He said hastily as he zoomed around the creature in a circular pattern. He also zig-zagged up and down so it would have a more difficult time to track him with a wall aimed shot.

Isabella was definitely learning on the job. She did as Jarvis instructed and prayed that this would work. However, she doubted that even the largest syringe would be able to penetrate the creature's thick hide. When Jarvis suggested that she create a wound first so she would be able to inject the beast she knew she was going to need to get close...very close. She was quite surprised to learn that her suit had shielding capabilities.

"That would have been nice to know!" she scolded as she made sure everything was ready. "Yes, Jarvis. Power up the shielding."

Tony was quite nicely distracting the creature so she got as close as she easily could. She took aim at the creature's side and used her laser cutting function to slice into its side. The creature let out a horrific scream and turned its attention back towards her. She quickly injected the herbal mixture into the wound just before the beast shot flames at her. Thankfully, the shielding protected her, though it began to pull power from the rest of the suit. She managed to get a safe distance away up in the air and she watched as the beast staggered and then collapsed to the ground.

As they landed the creature began to change. Amazingly it began to draw in on itself and its color turned to a more paler green as it shrank in the tall grasses that it laid in. It continued to shrink as they watched until it eventually took the shape of a man. The man stirred and sat up. He didn’t move or stand, he just looked around confusedly as Tony and Isaebella looked on. “Well I didn’t see that coming,” Tony said. “I think maybe this is one of those instances that we should, I don’t know, call SHIELD?” he asked. “Whe….where am I?” The man asked and lifted an arm to touch his dead. He was completely naked and looked most definitely asian in origin.

Isabella was stunned to say the least and she continued to hover in the air for a moment as she tried to determine if it was safe to approach him. Finally, she decided it was and she set herself on the ground and retracted her face mask as she approached the man.

“You’re in New York City,” she responded. “Do you know that you were a dragon like creature just a few moments ago?”

The man only looked at Isabella as if she were speaking a language he didn’t understand. “I...don’t know…” he said weakly. Tony did call SHIELD. He got in touch with Phil Coulson and told him everything that happened. SHIELD had already been out in New York, several of their agents were investigating what happened there.

“We’ll get to you as soon as we can,” Phil said.

30 minutes later, 3 black sedans pulled up and men in black suits and sunglasses poured out of their cars. They were up on the hill and looked down at Tony and isabella who remained near the old man who had still not gotten up from where he lay. The agents came down to them and they all looked curiously at Isabella. Phil came up and shook Tony’s hand. “It appears you’ve been keeping things from us Mr. Stark. Who is this…” He began than saw Isabella’s face. “Ah, Miss Corsetti. This is a surprise,” Phil said. “Any chance you two will come in for a debrief? There are alot of dead and wounded,” He said. Tony winced. “If you need a statement Isabella will give it to you here and now Phil,” He said. Phil looked at Isabella.

Isabella was completely fascinated by this man. She wanted to know more about him, but neither she nor Tony was able to get anything out of him. As the SHIELD agents arrived she stood up and looked over at Phil. This was the first time anyone but Tony had seen her in her suit. Phil seemed surprised but also seemed to just accept it.

She told Phil exactly what had happened and even gave him the formula for the herbal concoction she had used to put the dragon to sleep.

“That’s everything we know. What exactly will you do with him?”

‘Well, the presence of an alien is of great interest. We’ve...prepared for this kind of thing, we are SHIELD after all,” Phil said cryptically. What he did say was just as important as what he didn’t say. It implied that SHIELD knew about aliens like this Dragon and as she looked over at Tony who was not looking their way she realized that he had been right. How he knew he had not told her yet but what Phil said suggested that SHIELD certainly knew and that this was not their first encounter with an actual extraterrestrial.

“We’ll...keep him safe,” Phil said as his men covered the old man in a green blanket and helped him to his feet. “My agents, the ones that saw you thought you were glowing like a Sapphire up there. It bothers me that I was brought up to date with what you and Mr. Stark are doing. If you share with us, we will share with you Miss Corsetti,” he said as he handed her his card then stepped away toward the hill.