The Trickster (Iron Man 1) Book 1

Episodes

3rd P.O.V

Happy was driving while Pepper sat next Caleb in the backseat, looking outside and thinking about where is dad could be and what happened to him.

Was he alive or dead?
Was he hurt?
Was he safe?

No one knew.

Everyone that sat in the car was sad about Tony's disapearance so, Pepper had the idea of going out shopping for Caleb to put their minds elsewhere. Right now, Pepper had just hanged up her phone. She had been talking to Rhodey since he too was worried of Tony's whereabouts. Unfortunetaly, the colonel couldn't make it on the shopping trip. So it was only Happy, Pepper and Caleb.

Caleb was still looking outside lost in his thoughts when suddenly he started feeling weird. He cleared his throat and loosened his tie. He felt like he was wet, problem is, he wasn't.

Pepper looked at him worriedly.

"Are you okay?"  She asked him.

The fifteen years old looked at her.

"Yeah," He cleared his throat again. "Fine." He tried to reassure.

But he wasn't fine. The feeling just kept getting worse. Then his throat constricted. Caleb started coughing as he felt as if he had his head put under water. His coughs got harder and harder and he could hear Pepper and Happy panicking in the background. Suddenly, Caleb felt something coming up his throat. Next thing you knew, he was throwing up. But he wasn't throwing up anything. He was coughing up water as if he had just breathed in while underwater.

Happy slammed down the brakes and the car stopped. Immediately, Caleb opened his door and fell out, still coughing water up. He tried to get in a few breaths, but he couldn't, because of the water that wouldn't stop coming out of his mouth. Pepper was crouching next to him and talking, but Caleb coldn't hear what she was saying.

It didn't take long for a crowd to form. Of course, seeing the son of Tony Stark, choking on water attracted a lot of journalists and people.

Then, as quickly as it started, it stopped. Caleb took in large breaths as the water stopped coming and he could now breath. He stayed on the floor while he tried to regain his breath. It took him a couple of minutes and then he finally started to nderstand what was happening around him. He shot a glance at the journalists and then looked at Pepper, who was still asking him if he was okay.

"Help me get up." He told her.

Pepper took him by the arm and helped him up. Caleb flashed a sheepish smile at everyone.

"That's what I get from not listening when Pepper tells me to drink properly." He said lightly, trying to not let his image slip. "Now, if you'll ecuse us, we have a important things to do."

He then hurried off inside the car and let Happy and Pepper deal with the journalists. He placed a hand against his chest and took in more large breaths. Only one thing was running trough his mind.

What the hell just happened?

After that, Caleb got a couple of other 'episodes' like this one, only, he wasn't coughing up water, he would just get random pains. Nothing too painful. They even went to see a doctor, but they found nothing, so Caleb dismissed it and told everone to stop worrying about him and start worrying about Tony who was still missing.