The Golden Daughter✓Tony Stark

9: Board of Director's Meeting.

"Great. I'll be right up." He says lifting his arm up.

"Okay. I thought you said you were done making weapons." Pepper asks.

"It is. This is a flight stabilizer. It's completely harmless." The stabilizer shoots, flinging dad backwards and scaring Pepper but I barely move.

"I didn't expect that."

Dad and I head upstairs to find Obie  playing the piano and Pepper working on the couch.

"How'd it go? It went that bad, huh?" Dad asks after seeing the pizza box on the table.

"Just because I brought pizza back from New York doesn't mean it went bad." He replies only looking up at us for a brief second.

"Sure doesn't. Oh, boy." Dad says taking a seat next to Pepper, opening the box and handing me a slice before taking one himself.

"It would have gone better if you were there." Obie says finally standing up from the piano area.

"Uh-huh. You told me to lay low. That's what I've been doing. I lay low, and you take care of all..." Dad says.

"Hey, come on. In public. The press." He says as he comes over to sit next to dad. "This was a board of directors meeting."

"This was a board of directors meeting?" Dad asks like he's surprised.

"The board is claiming you have post-traumatic stress. They're filing an injunction." Obadiah says placing his hand on dad's shoulder.

"A what?"

"They want to lock you out." Obie replies

"Why, 'cause the stocks dipped 40 points? We knew that was gonna happen." Dad asks in disbelief

"Fifty-six and a half." Pepper quips

"It doesn't matter. We own the controlling interest in the company." Dad explains facing Pepper

"Tony, the board has rights, too. They're making the case that you and your new direction isn't in the company's best interest." Obie tries to explain.

"I'm being responsible! That's a new direction for me, for the company. I mean, me on the company's behalf being responsible for the way that... This is great." Dad stands up motioning for me to come with him, taking the pizza box with him and Obadiah follows us

"Oh, come on. Tony. Tony." He tries to persuade.

"I'll be in the shop." Dad says, his tone final and I know nothing can change his mind about it again.

"Hey, hey! Hey, Tony. Listen. I'm trying to turn this thing around, but you gotta give me something. Something to pitch them. Let me have the engineers analyze that. You know, draw up some specs. Let Lisa here join you." He continues, gesturing to dad's reactor.

"No. No, absolutely not." Dad declines quickly.

"It'll give me a bone to throw the boys in New York!"

"This one stays with me. That's it, Obie. Forget it." Dad says with finality.

"All right, well, this stays with me, then." He says taking the pizza box back and I raise a brow at him. "Go on, here, you can have a piece. Take two." He continues sighing.

"Thank you."

"You mind if I come down there and see what you're doing?" He asks but dad ignores him.

"Good night, Obie." I shout a I head down the stairs back to the workshop.

▪️▪️▪️

Dad is running another flight test, this time wearing the boots and hand flight stabilizers.

"Day 11, test 37, configuration 2.0. For lack of a better option, Dum-E is still on fire safety. If you douse me again, and I'm not on fire, I'm donating you to a city college. All right, nice and easy. Seriously, just gonna start off with 1% thrust capacity. And three, two, one." Obviously taking my advice this time.  He lifts of the ground and hovers for a bit before landing.

"Okay. Please don't follow me around with it, either, 'cause I feel like I'm gonna catch on fire spontaneously. Just stand down! If something happens, then come in. And again, let's bring it up to 2.5. Three, two, one." He lifts off the ground with less control and starts hovering all over the workshop

"Okay, this is where I don't want to be! Not the car, not the car! Table! Could be worse! Could be worse! We're fine! Okay." He lands where he started and Dum-E goes to use the fire extinguisher.
"No! Uh-uh! Uh-uh!" He warns

"Wow, I can't believe it worked." I say.

"Yeah, I can fly."

▪️▪️▪️

Dad finally puts on the full suit. I sit behind the computer uploading JARVIS.

"JARVIS, are you there?" Dad asks as he puts on the mask.

"Uh, why is JARVIS doing a weather and ATC check?" I ask cause I definitely didn't do that.

Dad doesn't reply me as I roll my eyes.

"JARVIS what is he trying to do?" I ask, knowing JARVIS can't lie to me.

"He is preparing for a flight." JARVIS replies.

"There are still terabytes of calculations needed before an actual flight is..." But dad cuts me off.

"Sometimes you got to run before you can walk, Smalls. JARVIS, ready? In three, two, one." Dad hovers in the air for a few seconds before he flies out of the garage.

"JARVIS link the comms." I said as I plug one of the earpiece in my ear.

"Dad, how is it? Please tell me you didn't crash somewhere." I asks frantically.

"Handles like a dream. All right, let's see what this thing can do. What's SR-71's record?" Dad's voice comes in through the comms.

"The altitude record for fixed wing flight is 85,000 feet, sir." JARVIS replies.

"Oh no no no, don't you try what I'm thinking you want to."

"What?! Records are made to be broken! Come on!" His voice pours into the link.

"Sir, there is a potentially fatal buildup of ice occurring." JARVIS warns.

"Keep going! Higher! We iced up, JARVIS! Deploy flaps! JARVIS! Come on, we got to break the ice!" Dad urgently calls out.

"Dad, dad." I call but I can't hear anything. "JARVIS what -" I'm cut off by a loud crash that seems to be coming from the -

Dad crashed into his blue sports car and Dum-E sprays the fire extinguisher on him.

"I guess you deserve that."