The Trickster (Iron Man 1) Book 1

Danger

3rd P.O.V

Caleb snorted as he watched Rhodey sat exactly what he and his dad had told him to say. Then he assured that what had happened on Gulmira was not of the American Government's doings.

Tony came in whit his suit and he seemed to be having some trouble while taking out the arm. Even with Jarvis' help.

"It is a tight fit, sir." Jarvis said while Tony let out some small yells of pain.

Caleb snorted again.

"I think he's calling you fat, dad." He joked.

Tony sarcastically laughed at him as Pepper entered the room, looking surprised at all the glass on the ground.

"Sir, the more you struggle, the more this is going to hurt." Jarvis said, seemingly exasperated. Well, as exasperated as an IA could be.

"Be gentle. This is my first time." Tony grunted. "I designed this to come off, so-" He let out a yell. "Hey. I really should be able to-"

"Please try no to move, sir."

Pepper entered the lab and looked at Tony for a while before her eyes drifted to Caleb who was watching everything unfold while eating popcorn. He looked briefly at Pepper and waved at her.

"What's going on here?" Pepper asked.

Tony slowly looked at Pepper and they stared each other off.

"Well, let's face it. It's not the worst thing you've caught me doing." Tony stated, which brought another snort out of his son's mouth.

"Are those bullet holes?" Pepper asked worriedly.

Caleb waved her off.

"He's fine. Don't worry about it."

Later that night, Tony and Caleb were both working on the suit as Pepper came in. Tony stopped and looked at her while Caleb continued working.

"Hey." He nodded at her. "You busy? You mind if I send you on an errand?" He asked her. "I need you to go to my office. You're gonna hack into the mainframe and you're going to retrieve all the recent shipping manifests. This is a lock chip. This'll get you in." He gives her what looked like a big USB key. "It's probably under Executive Files. If not, they put it on a ghost drive, in which case you need to look for the lowest numeric heading."

"And what do you plan to do with this information if I bring it back here?" Pepper asked.

"Same drill. They've been dealing under the table and I'm going to stop them." Caleb cleared his throat. "Sorry, we're going to stop them." Tony corrected himself. "I'm going to find my weapons and stop them."

He pressed some buttons on the machine as Caleb stopped for a while.

"Tony, you know that I would help you with anything, but I cannot help you if you're going to start all of this again." Pepper shook her head.

"There's nothing except this and my son. There's no art opening. There is no benefit. There is nothing to sign." He turned around and looked at her as his voice rose on the last sentence, his voice went back to normal. "There is the next mission and my son. Nothing else."

"Is that so?" Pepper said. "Well, then, I quit."

She threw the key on the table as Caleb's heart stopped.