¹ Strength of the Mind || Marvel Cinematic Universe

29|Anxiety

"Some people call me a terrorist. I simply consider myself to be a sort of teacher."

"America. Ready for another lesson?"

"In 1864, in Sand Creek, Colorado, the US military waited until the very friendly Cheyenne braves had all gone hunting. Waited to attack and then slaughter the families left behind and claim, their land."

"39 hours ago, the Ali Ali Salem Air Base in Kuwait was attacked. I... I... I did that. A quaint military church filled with wives and children, of course. The soldiers were out on their maneuvers. The braves were away."

"President Ellis. You continue to resist my attempts to educate you, sir. And now you have missed me again."

"You know who I am. You don't know where I am. And you will never see me coming."
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Kiara saw that the Mandarin's broadcast was over and she sighed quietly at the sight, as her phone rang out in her pocket and swiftly, she lifted her eyebrows at the sign of "a private caller" on her phone. The last time either her or Tony had gotten a private call, it was from Ivan Vanko, almost two years ago now.

Kiara picked it up hesitantly and waited. "I figured that you would want me to talk first, anyways." Kiara noticeably sighed heavily with relief, as Hunter laughed a little. "You doing okay?" He asked.

"Better now that I know, that it is your stupid ass on the phone and not some terrorist creep on the phone! In case you have forgotten, take the damn private caller off of your cell phone, will you?!" She snapped and he sighed.

"Sorry. I was working not too long ago. Scary about this Mandarin shit, right?" Hunter asked and Kiara leaned back in her chair a little.

"Yeah, no kidding. Frankly, for right now, I'm just afraid that my dad is just going to snap one night, and not come back." She admitted and for a moment, all was quiet on the other end of the line.

"Did you want me to come back? My last job ended a few days ago, I can do with a few weeks' of a break for your protection deal again." Hunter offered and Kiara smiled faintly at the words, even though he couldn't see it.

"I might seriously take you up on that... but not today, Hunt. Talk to you later?" Kiara asked, offering a sort of a olive branch and Hunter chuckled.

"Talk to you later, kid." They both hung up and moments later, Kiara was back in Mark III and was flying off to meet Tony and Rhodey, out for lunch.

"Central to my administration's response to this terrorist event and attack, is a fresh and newly minted resource. I know him, as Colonel James Rhodes. The rest of the good American people, will soon know him, as the Iron Patriot." Kiara was choking on her water from laughter, and, she glanced over at Rhodey, who already could see the laughter in her face.

"And how is President Ellis responding? By taking the guy that they call War Machine and giving him a paint job." One of the news anchors was saying and Kiara glanced over at her dad as she saw that he was having a similar reaction to it.

"The same suit, but painted red, white and blue. Look at that. And they also renamed him, "Iron Patriot." You know, just in case the paint was too subtle." One of the others was saying and Kiara chuckled faintly at the look on Rhodey's face.

"It tested well with a whole bunch of focus groups, all right?" Rhodey's tone of voice indicated, that he wasn't really too happy with it either, but he took the orders as they were given.

"I am Iron Patriot!" It sucks." Tony put it rather bluntly back at Rhodey's face, but he was right about it.

"Listen. "War Machine" was a little too aggressive. All right? This sends a better message." Rhodey attempted to explain but by the look on Tony's face, he had stopped listening already to absolutely nobody's shock.

"So, what's really going on? Like with the Mandarin. Seriously, can we even just talk about this guy?"

"It is classified information, you two. Okay, there have been nine of these bombings. The public only knows about three of them. But here is the thing, nobody can ID a device. There is no bomb casings."

"You know that we can help. Just ask. I got a ton of new tech. I got a prehensile suit..."

"That you stole the idea from me again." Kiara muttered as Tony was glaring at her. "I can get a friend to look into it Rhodey, I won't tell them where the information came from, I promise." She said.

"I got bomb disposal. It catches explosions in mid-air." Tony was saying as Rhodey glanced at him, at Kiara, then back to Tony.

"When was the last time that you got a good night's sleep?" That was the question of all questions, that got Tony to take a breath and stop talking constantly for a few moments.

"Einstein slept three hours a year and... Look what he did." Tony said and Kiara shook her head.

"People are concerned about you, Tony. Kiara is concerned about you, I'm concerned about you." Rhodey was starting to dig himself into a hole and Kiara was prepared to intervene if necessary.

"You're going to come at me like that?" Tony asked in annoyance, as his defensive nature was starting to kick in at Rhodey's words.

"No, look, I'm not trying to be a dick...tator." Rhodey managed to stop himself and he recovered himself, before he nearly badmouthed in front of a kid that wasn't Kiara Stark who was used to such words.

"Do you mind signing my drawing?" The girl asked and while Kiara signed it with just her name and a little diamond in the corner next to it, that was the same one that was on her suit on the chest piece, her dad did the whole shebang, always trying to outdo her.

Tony was suddenly wheezing and breathing heavily, as he stumbled out of the restaurant and after saying a quick goodbye to the kids, Kiara took off running after him and slipped her earpiece into her ear as she ran.

"Check the heart. Check the... is it the brain?" Tony asked from within his suit as Kiara and Rhodey were just outside of it, and Kiara was not in her suit yet as Mark III waited patiently for her, nearby.

"Rhodey, back the people up if you can." Kiara pleaded and Rhodey was doing his best. "Dad, you have to open up the suit." She pleaded under her breath.

"No sign of cardiac anomaly or unusual brain activity."

"Okay, so I was poisoned?"

"My expert diagnosis, is that you Mr. Stark, have just experienced a rather severe anxiety attack."

"Me?"

"Come on, man, this isn't a good look. Open up." Rhodey said after he had knocked on the helmet and every person within a two-block radius was now watching it unfold.

"Sorry, I gotta split." Tony said bluntly as he stood up and nearly pushed Rhodey over as he did, when he blasted off from his standing sort of position.

"Dad!" Kiara complained as he had left her behind again, with everyone else gawking at her. "Sorry everyone, but as of today and the next, I will not be answering any questions without a attorney present. Good day." She said as she jumped into the Mark III and it closed around her. "Sorry about that, Rhodey, I'll figure it out." She said and saluted him briefly before she flew up into the air and took off after Tony.