Phantom

Chapter: Twelve

"Ivan hired goons to kidnap me. I have a messed up hand, dad rescued me. I ignored him when he said go inside the hospital. Blah blah, the usual. I'm fine. Is dad there yet?" I pushed the gas down flooring it passed a semi that was going to slow. "Stay safe Pepper."

"You too," I heard her begin to yell at some people then the phone when dead. I was only a few blocks from the expo now, and that's when I noticed that there was no one on the road now. No traffic, everyone was going one way. Away. I swerved to the side of the road when I saw a blur of red followed by grey blurs flying through the sky. Dad. I hated seeing that, he was outnumbered but I felt better knowing he was here. I knew it was bad to think this but I was glad they were attacking dad, an not anyone else. I drifted around a corner but hit the break as hard as I could seeing the swarms of people. I could see the entrance of the expo so I ditched the car, grabbing the phone encase Pepper wanted to call me again. People had yelled for me to turn around and run the other way but I was determined to run the whole way to the center. My eyes had noted that many of the people who were racing passed me had already sustained injuries. Simple cuts and bruises, I saw a few broken limbs but I was hoping that there was nothing worse than that.

My feet hit the pavement racing to the expo and I took in everything that was happening. When there was a loud thud in front of me I stopped moving and I looked up to see a camo coated drone standing in front of me. I uttered a curse word before I raced down the street passed the bot who had started to run towards me. I yelled out as I rolled over a car hood and hid behind a pillar. Again my heartbeat was in my ears and I held my breath hoping that the drone would have left me alone. Out of the corner of my eyes by a car crash, the car crash that had happened had included a cop car. I had hoped that the officers were okay but when I saw the shoes of the officer I slid down the pillar covering my mouth. To hide my whimper that escape me, yet the only thing my mind had gone to was getting their gun.

Slowly I made my way around the hood and closed my eyes when I saw the blood ridden officer. She had blood coming down the side of her head, I was guessing she had been hit back and must have hit her head on something. I took the gun from her waist and started to run more when I heard the drone once more. I continued to run until I slammed into the drone and landed on my back. I coughed when air had left my lungs from the blow back, I hadn't let go of the gun though. In one quick move I was on my feet and I took the safety off the gun. I didn't think twice when I fired the whole clip into the drone. Holes littered the drone and it dropped to the ground with a loud thud. I gripped my chest feeling relieved and I threw the gun away from me before I realized I still had to make my way down to the expo.

Hundreds of people now stormed out of of buildings with other police officers trying to direct them towards a safer spot. Few buildings had fires that would need to be put out soon and then others were just rubble, a hand few of drones had looked to the sky then dad had zoomed by. As soon as he did the drones fired at him and I watched him swerve to avoid being shot down. Each time I saw that it didn't make me feel good for him, I was nervous. Although I was concerned I had to worry about everyone here. On the ground. It was probably stupid, and dad was going to yell at me later if he found out but when I heard a yelling voice from inside a burning building I raced straight into the place, I think it was an American Army History exhibit. I had heard some woman yelling out, and I covered my face with my wrap as I entered the building. The heat hit me so fast I almost left but I couldn't as the yelling got louder. Smoke was filling the room and I saw flames cascading across the walls.

"Help! Please!" Running deeper into the building. I ignored my instinct to run and I quickly made my way through a broken wall to find a woman leaning over her children. A girl no more than Five and a boy who couldn't be older than three. "Oh thank god!"

"Hand me the boy and follow me!" I yelled to her and she carried the girl who was crying. I took a deep breath of the smoke filled air and I held the boy close to me. My lungs were starting to burn with the smoke as we raced out of the building. The boy was cough into my shirt but he probably was breathing better than I was. Without a second to waste I raced to the exit, jumping over a beam and dropping to my knees with the kid when we hit the asphalt outside. The cool crisp air entered all three of our lungs and I was relieved to be outside.

"Mia, Evan!" The mother rushed over to me with tears in her eyes. I nodded as she thanked me over an over. "You saved my children and I. Thank you."

"It's alright. I recommend you getting these two to the ambulances. They have a few around here I'm sure." There were many damaged drones left on the pavement and I was thanking the gods when I saw the red and blue flashing lights of the ambulance and fire truck. The mom brought her kids over to the medics and they took care of them both. I nodded to them both smiling once more reassuring them I would be alright.

"Wait can I at least know your name?" The mother said, her face was relieved.

"Jaedyn Stark..." I mumbled before I took a deep breath as I ran over to the Unisphere, stopping in my tracks when I saw dad's red blur once more flying through the sphere destroying some of the drones because there directional systems were far from dad's. As I watched dad disappear once more I spun when I heard crying. The children had gone with the ambulance so I wasn't sure who could be crying. Was it me? My hand touched my cheek, nope. I thought I was the only person in the main area, this was a popular drone spot. I pulled my new borrowed phone from my pocket when I was about to call Pepper to check in on her, or even call dad. I wanted to make sure they were both okay and safe. When I saw the kid huddled against the wall I almost dropped the phone but I caught it quickly before I rushed over tot he kid. He had tears streaming down his face and seemed to be about five years old. He had a cut on his forehead that had dried blood and dirt around him. "Hey..." I said in a gentle voice, I tried my best to give him a comforting smile. "Did you lose your mom?" He nodded and wiped his tears from his face. "Would you like me to help you find her?" He nodded again and I held my hand out to him.

"I'm scared..." His voice was shaky and I could tell he was scared as hell.

"Hey I'm scared to... But you know what," I began kneeling down to him and wiping his eyes. "Everything will be alright, I know that. I know that because my dad's Iron Man. And he's here to save the day." I saw the boy smile brightly when I mentioned Iron Man.

"Your daddy's Iron Man!?" He asked in awe, I smiled and nodded. Seeing his smile made me have hope that everything would be alright. "Can I meet him?"

"I'm sure my dad would love to meet a brave little man like you. Once we've found your mom I'm sure you can meet him." The boy gripped my hand tightly and I yelped in pain as it was my bad hand. The kid was freaked and he took a step back but once he saw my hand that had started to bleed through the bandage. I mentally cursed when he took a step back from me, I had to give him an apologetic smile before he gave me a hesitant smile and reached for my other hand. "What, what's your name?"

"Jacob."

"Well, Jacob," I began rubbing my thumb over his knuckles we made our way through the destroyed expo. "Let's go find your mom." He had asked me a lot of questions about dad and I was happy to answer them. Except the ones about my hand and then the drones. I couldn't truly answer those. "My name is Jaedyn. You can call me Jae though." He smiled again and we began to search for his mother.