chapter xxvii.
( iron man 2 )
when you've been fighting for
it all your life, you've been
struggling to make things
right, that's how a superhero
learns to fly every day, every hour,
turn the pain into power
superhero ─── the script
stark expo, new york
may 31, 2011
There is blood all over me and none of it is mine. Ivan has handcuffed me to a chair as he sits about five feet away. Two bodies hang from above me and their feet are touching my shoulders. The bodies have stopped suffocating and twitching which, as horrific as it sounds, is a small relief because that means I can't feel them kick against my aching back anymore. Quick and steady streams of blood are coming from the bodies above me and keep pouring on my forehead. I'm drenched in it and I've already thrown up once.
With his hood and sunglasses on, Ivan is sitting on the floor and working with a few wires that are under the tiles. His whips are spread out on a long table. They're looking a little worse than the last time I saw them and it's obvious he's been making repairs on them; Dad did a number on them during the Monaco attack. I can maybe take some hope from that. The longer it takes him to get his plans set into motion, the longer Dad has to find me and the longer I'm able to stay alive before becoming bait and eventual and literal grilled meat. Fun.
Suddenly I hear a phone dialing and ringing.
"Coulson," my father's voice echoes in my ears and I feel my chest swell, "How's the Land of Enchantment?"
"Hey Tony, how you doing?" Ivan laughs a little, "I double cycle."
Dad is quiet for a long moment, probably still absorbing the fact that this psycho is still alive, "You what?"
"You told me double cycle's more power," Ivan thoughtfully nods a little, "Good advice."
Dad breathes out and responds with sarcasm, "You sound pretty sprightly for a dead guy."
Ivan nearly laughs as he responds, "You too."
A small puff of air exits my nose as my eyes slowly close.
"Now, the true history of Stark name will be written," Ivan goes on when Dad doesn't speak, and he takes off his sunglasses, "What your father did to my family over forty years, I will do to you and your little girl in forty minutes."
I grit my teeth and blink through the red covering my face.
"Sounds good," Dad answers with pep, but I can tell he sounds a little distracted, "Let's get together and hash it out."
Lord, please help him to be tracing our location.
"I am already hashing," Ivan looks over his shoulder at me.
I scowl, but flinch as more blood drains down on me. Ivan grabs the leg of my chair and the metal loudly scrapes across the tiles until I'm right beside him. His dark gaze meets my eyes and he nods me towards the phone, not saying anything. I purse my lips and try to swallow the lump in my throat.
I take a quiet breath before carefully saying, "Dad."
"Lisa?" Dad sounds completely taken aback, "Oh God. Lisa," he breathes heavily and his voice is muffled as if he's talking through his hand, "are, are you hurt?"
"No, I've been having a whale of a time," I try to sound as positive as I can.
Sarcasm is always a good sign, right?
"Really," I continue on, "Ivan the Terrible and I have been having some deep, meaningful conversations. Haven't we, Comrade?"
False. We've hardly talked at all. When I sneak a glance at Ivan, I see that he doesn't even seem angry at my mocking. I'm not sure If I should feel relieved or not. I resist the urge to lick my lips; I do not want someone else's blood in my mouth.
Taking a deep breath, I drop my voice to a whisper, "Daddy, he's going to kill me."
There is a smirk in Ivan Vanko's eyes and I give one of my own in my head.
"No, Baby, he won't. Okay? I'm going to get you out," Dad is playing his part perfectly, even if he doesn't realize he is.
"Daddy," I say weakly, still playing the part until I blurt out in a rush, "Justin Hammer! It was him! Get to the Expo! He's in on the plan, you've got to,"
A firm hand claps over my mouth with such force that my chair falls back and my back smacks against the hard metal. I bite down on my tongue so that no quick cries of pain can escape my mouth.
"Starks always talk too much," Ivan gruffs, shuffling his shoulders as he does.
"I swear to God, Vanko, if you hurt her, I'm going to rip your heart out of your chest!" Dad bellows angrily.
"I hope you're ready."
The phone call ends.
Ivan leaves my chair laying back on the floor and I let out a puff of air, curling my lips up in the process. Glancing around in my new position, I find that shattered pieces of the paperweight are about a few inches from my body. My legs slowly slide around the chair and onto the floor. Ivan is busy on the computer so he doesn't see me as I flick my ankle against the small shards of glass. A few bounce towards me and my fingers strain to reach them. It's sharp and my fingers are bloody, but I'm working it into the small lock in my handcuffs. Thank God, Happy taught me how to pick locks, specifically handcuffs.
It clicks softly when it uncuffs from around my wrist. I don't react; I just slowly move the shard over to my other hand. When my other hand is free as well, I carefully begin unlatching the straps holding my gloves in place. I force myself to be calm as I remove the gloves from my hands; I can't let the light from the thrusters give me away just yet. Soundlessly, I roll off of the fallen chair, swing around up onto my feet, and then raise my hands up at the man.
"Freeze," I speak lowly, still attempting as hard as I can to be intimidating.
He stills for just a moment before suddenly he is spinning around and snapping his whip at me. With a quick gasp, I dive from being hit. Bright blue and white sparks go off everywhere as the electricity zaps and cracks. I roll across the floor and kneel up so that I can send a blast of my own. He dodges it and then spins his whip around again. By the time he goes to barbeque me, I'm already out the door. He moves after me, but he is much slower. I hear him shouting angrily in Russian as my feet sprint down the white, bright lit hall. When I throw my head back over my shoulder to catch a glance, he's nowhere to be seen. He's given up on chasing me because he has more important plans. I'm having trouble deciding if that's a good thing or not. As I sprint along, I keep my hands raised in case I come by any Hammer Industries' guards who try to catch me. When I make it to the door with the big red 'Exit' sign over it, I blast the electric lock and use my hip to shove the door open. Alarms explode from all around me and the ground nearly shakes at the sound, but I have no choice but to ignore them.
The sky's getting dark which means the Expo had to be starting soon, if it hadn't already. I have to hurry. I got to get there. I got to find Dad. I breathe heavily as I continue sprinting from Hammer Industries, but I feel very, very lost. Dad never let me come to this part of the city before, saying that Hammer Industries made it like a cheap amusement park where hard-on-their-luck tourists go to die, or something like that. I think it was a knock on their weapons' quality, but I'm not sure. Needless to say, I have no idea where the Expo is from here.
As I move, my thrusters begin to do something pretty strange. They keep shooting plasma beams even when I don't force them too. Not wanting to accidentally catch anything or anyone on fire, I lower them to my sides as I run, but then suddenly my feet are no longer pounding against the ground. I gasp and shriek a little as I notice that my thrusters are keeping me suspended in the air. My hands falter and I land back on the ground, still running.
"Oh-oh-oh," I grin and leap in excitement, "Yes!"
I concentrate on my thrusters and then I'm up again. I go higher and higher until I am over rooftops. It's hard to control really and it puts a lot of pressure on my hands. It must be easier for Dad because he also has thrusters in his boots. My neck cranes around as I try to figure out where I am. When I see the bright lights of the stadium at the Expo, I try to control my body so that I can go in that direction.
When I finally arrive outside the main building, I land in a tumble and roll head over heels a few times. Groaning, I pick myself back up and then begin sprinting into the building. I look around quickly, trying to find Pepper or Dad. People look at me in horror, but I ignore them. Justin Hammer is prancing on stage like a show pony and then he starts giving a speech that makes me want to throw up and then throw something, preferably something very sharp.
I spot a woman with red hair and another woman with strawberry-blonde hair sitting in the audience. I promptly run down the aisle and then step on the armrest of some random person's chair.
"Yep, sorry," I whisper at them as the people I'm stepping over (or on) look at me with wide eyes, "Yup, yeah, sorry. I know. Sorry, sorry, excuse me."
Natalie, or, right, Natasha, looks over sharply and then her eyes widen in shock. Pepper does a doubletake, gasping.
"Hey guys," I breathe heavily as I land on the ground beside them, "Do you have a phone on you?"
"Oh God, Lisa, Sweetie, are you alright?" Pepper is panicking, "Oh my word, is that blood?!"
"What happened?" Natal-sha, ugh, I'll have to get used to that, asks with narrowing eyes.
I look down at myself, remembering how painted red I am and how that must be all that they're seeing.
"Oh, right," I look up at Pepper and shake my head quickly, "the blood isn't mine."
That makes them even more confused and now I see that I look like some kind of homicidal maniac.
"I didn't have anything to do with this," I quickly try to explain, "Well, I did, but I didn't cause it," oh Lordie, "Anyway, none of that is important right now, I need to use your cell."
Pepper is just handing her phone and earpiece over when our attention is stolen.
"Air Force Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes," Justin Hammer announces proudly as a large black and silver suit rises up from the center of the stage.
All three of our heads snap in his direction.
Pepper's mouth opens in shock, "What?"
Rhodey is wearing the suit that he took, but it is completely "pimped" out as, Justin described it. Wonderful. It's bulky and uncomfortable-looking, but, I know that whatever Vanko's plan is, it has to include that suit and the other drones spread out across the stage.
"For America and its allies, Hammer Industries is reporting for," Justin's voice fades out as we all hear this loud, nearly whooshing sound.
Everyone in the audience turns and we see a red and gold suit flying through the sky. I give a small, relieved smirk as Dad lands with one fist on the ground. Ever instituting the dramatics. The audience goes berserk, and Pepper and Natasha look at me for an explanation. Justin seems taken aback, but quickly tries to play it off for the crowd.
I see the three men conversing on stage, too quietly for any of us to hear. Then suddenly Dad turns to Rhodey whose eyes go red and a large machine gun appears out of his suit.
"Uh oh," I whisper, panicked.
Then all of the drones are following Rhodey's lead. They lift their thick arms and prepare to fire at anyone and anything. Chaos ensues as everyone starts screaming and running. Justin leaps off stage and Dad lifts up in the air. He blasts up through the giant hole in the ceiling, and Rhodey and some of the drones quickly give chase. My eyes are still following them up when Natasha looks at me with a terrifying, stone-hard face.
She takes my arm, "Explain."
"Oh, well, right, um, first off, Vanko is alive. Last I saw, he was at Hammer Industries. I-I think he's controlling Rhodey and the drones," I explain to the two other women as I climb up on a now empty seat, "Find Justin Hammer. He was in on it. He might be able to help you get Vanko out of the system."
"Wait, wait, Lisa, what are you doing?!" Pepper asks, still panicked.
I look down at her and give a quick shrug, "I don't know."
My thrusters power up and then I'm flying over the seats and panicking people. My thrusters occasionally give out so I have to keep lifting myself off of the armrests, but I eventually make my way outside the building where I see complete and utter terror coursing through the street. Dad, Rhodey, and the drones are so far away by the time I finally catch sight of them so I try to focus on helping people get away from the drones marching after them. As I help a few kids towards the exit, I slide Pepper's earpiece in and dial Dad's number. I'm just falling over from the blast of an explosion when Dad answers.
"Pep! Are you good?"
"Dad!" I hurriedly roll myself up to my feet, "It's me."
"Lisa?! What? Smalls, you are literally going to give me an ulcer! Where are you?!"
I'm going to give him an ulcer? Ha!
"At the Expo. Where are you and Rhodey?"
"Creating mass hysteria," Dad quips before going on, "You're alright, right? Lees?"
"Healthy as ever!" I respond as I shoot at a drone heading in my direction.
A loud metal thudding catches my attention so I look over to see a small boy wearing an Iron Man mask standing a few feet in front of an approaching drone. He slowly raises his hand, wanting to be just like my father.
I sprint over, slide behind the boy, and raise my own hand in his defense. When the drone falls over, I playfully nudge the boy's shoulder.
"Nice work, Kid!"
He peers up at me and I see his sparkling eyes through the holes of the mask. They widen in recognition of who I am and I just give the cute kid a sheepish smile in response.
"Lisa!" Dad snaps in my ear.
"What?!" I snap back, losing focus on the boy.
"God! Can you not sound like you're dying?"
"Hey, listen," I scowl as I help an injured man follow the rest of the crowd, "I don't need your crap right now."
"Crap? My crap?" I hear explosions on the other side of the line, "What about your crap? Huh? You know, you didn't even tell me where you were going and you were gone for over twenty-four hours!"
"Yeah, I know," I gracelessly crawl under the legs of a drone and shoot it in the back, "It's called being kidnapped. Thanks for noticing. Show some slight concern and file a police report next time, would ya?"
"Okay, not fair. I did notice, but I thought you were being a melodramatic teenage girl,"
"Me?! Melodramatic! You have got be kidding me,"
"Both of you shut up!" Rhodey's voice reaches me through Dad's comms, "Tony, I'm still locked on!"
"Well, drop your socks and grab your Crocs. We're about to get wet on this ride," Dad quickly responds.
"Where are you guys?!"
Suddenly I see explosions erupting from the big metal globe and I slowly nod in understanding, "Oh. Well. I found you. Are you two good?"
"Yeah, I'm good," Dad answers before directing his words to his best friend, "Rhodes? Sorry, Buddy. Had to thin out the herd. What's your twenty?"
Then I hear the sound of metal hitting metal and Dad is yelling. My eyes dart up to where they are and I see them plummeting through the sky and crashing into the big, glass botanical garden called the Oracle. I hear them groaning and yelling as they hit the ground. There is more metal hitting metal, but I don't ask what's going on. I swallow hard and power my thrusters back up. It's a shaky and absolutely terrifying ride, but I eventually lower myself through the hole Rhodey and Dad created in the top of the building. Dad looks up as I hover down and then drop unsteadily to my feet. My hands catch myself before I can fully hit the ground. His mask lifts up and his mouth hangs open.
"What?" is all he has to say.
"Yeah," I put on a smug expression that I've seen on him many times and repeat the words he once said to me, "I can fly."
He laughs a little as I jog over to where Dad is standing and Rhodey is laying in a small stream, unmoving.
Dad keeps asking questions, "What are you doing here? Are you hurt? Did they hurt you? How did you," he stops and his eyes widen, "Is that blood?!"
I consider saying 'it's mine' just to mess with him, but that's probably not a very nice thing to do.
So I simply sigh and bend down next to Rhodey, "Not mine, luckily."
Natasha announces through Dad's comms that Rhodey is back online. She then goes on to compliment him on how he did a good job with replacing the chest piece. Whirling around, I quickly inspect it and hug Dad's suit tightly, thrilled that my father is actually going to live until his next dumb birthday party. I'd suffer through another hundred of those if that meant he wasn't going to die. Then Pepper accidentally finds out that Dad was dying and they have this whole little spat. It's all pretty exasperating to be honest. So I just end up sighing once more, but also smiling a bit because it means that we're all getting back to normal.
I refocus when I hear Natasha say, "You got incoming, Tony. Looks like the fight's coming to you."
"Great," I scoff.
"Pepper?" Dad calls out her name, tiredly.
"Are you okay now?" she demands to know.
"I am fine. Don't be mad. I will formally apologize,"
"I am mad!" she interrupts grumpily.
Dad continues, his voice rising, "When I'm not fending off a Hammeroid attack."
Hehehe. Hammeroid. That sounds like hemorrhoid. Ew. Oh gosh, how old am I? I'm really glad I didn't say any of this aloud. That would have been very embarrassing.
Pepper snaps, "Fine."
I peer down at Rhodey who still is unconcious, "You're so lucky you're out for this, Rhodey."
"We could have been in Venice,"
"Oh, please," she snaps again.
Dad comes over and taps on Rhodey's face mask, "Rhodes? Snap out of it, Buddy. I need you."
"They're coming. Come on, let's roll. Get up."
Rhodey's mask lifts and he sighs, "Oh, man. You can have your suit back."
Dad and I laugh as we help him up.
"You okay?" Dad asks, eyeing him carefully.
"Yeah, thanks," there's an awkward pause, "Tony, look, I'm sorry, okay?"
"Don't be," Dad and I say at the same time.
Dad gives me a look and I weakly shrug, visibly cringing with my teeth gritted together.
Rhodey goes on, "No. I should have trusted you more."
"I'm the one who put you in this position. Forget it."
"No. It's your fault. I just wanted to say I'm sorry."
Oh boy, can we be done now?
"Thank you. That's all I wanted to hear," I laugh at them before Dad keeps going, "Partner. They're coming in hot, any second."
"What's the play?" I very maturely ask, stretching my back.
The two men quickly turn to me with big eyes and tight lips which is the universal parental sign of something coming that a teenager is not going to like.
"Well, you're leaving, that's the first thing," Dad raises his eyebrows and speaks like it's obvious.
"What? No, I'm not," I scoff, waving the thought away with my hand.
"Lees, it is in no way, shape, or form safe for you to be here," his voice is firm and very 'dad' like, "Now, please, leave."
I can't stop the words from ranting out of me, "I literally just was kidnapped by some shady company, forced into a closet, watched two men get hanged right in front of me, handcuffed to a chair that was put underneath those men's dead bodies, drenched in their blood, threatened by a big, scary Russian man, learnt that I can fly, and then I just shot at a bunch of drones. Please, don't tell me that I can't stay here with you. Believe me, I can handle whatever is thrown my way."
"I'm down with that," Rhodey surprisingly seems convinced and I knew I loved him for a reason, "Tony?"
Dad only scowls as he snaps at me, "Lisa. Get out of here."
"No."
I never disobey him. Well, not on the really important things. This a first and also probably the worst time for it too.
He steps closer to me, but his scowl is softer now, "All of that stuff happened and I almost lost you again. I'm not losing you when I can do something to protect you. Go."
I open my mouth to argue back when suddenly a drone shows up behind us. We slowly turn before Dad pushes me behind him, spreading an arm out in front of me. I feel my heart leap into my throat as drone after drone lands around us, forming a circle that blocks us in. Rhodey moves to stand behind me so that he can shield me from the drones as well. We all slowly, dreadfully look around and see how terribly outnumbered we are.
"Hey Dad," I speak quietly.
"Whatever you do, stay behind me, okay?" he responds lowly, preparing himself for a fight.
"Mmm," is all I can say back, still glancing around with wide eyes.
Then their face masks drop and their eyes glow.
Then the shooting starts. The drones shoot everything they have at us and I drop to the ground, trying to shield my painfully unprotected body from the attacks. Their huge bodies come towards us as Dad and Rhodey shoot back and take as many of the hits they can for me. Dad fires three missiles that attach onto the drones and the explosion causes my body to rock.
"See that?" Dad calls, turning to fight another.
"Yeah, yeah, nice," Rhodey calls back, distractedly.
Everything around me is going up in sparks and flames. Explosions shake the ground and bullets hitting metal is all I can hear. The sight of a drone coming close to Rhodey when he's fighting two others causes me to leap into action. I push myself off the ground and fire my thrusters at it. My beams are so much weaker than they were before and the drone doesn't fall even though I keep shooting it in the head. When its gun turns in my direction, I panickedly duck and dive out of the way of its spray of bullets. I roll across the rocks until I end up right behind the drone. Taking a deep breath, I jump onto its back and dig my fingers into the seams of the drone's body. Bullets continue flying and the drone spins me around, trying to get me off of it. I'm getting dizzy, but I hold on for dear life. When I can't get its head loose, I shove my palms on either side of the metal and blast it as hard as I can. I feel the sting of the heat on each hand before the drone falls to the ground with me still on its back. A terrifying ping-ping resounds off of the metal and I shriek as I roll off when bullets are sent my way.
I hear Dad yell out with a demanding tone, "Rhodey? Lisa? Get down!"
I put my arms over my head as I watch Dad spin in a circle as lasers that are coming out of his arms cut everything down, from drones to trees. When all is silent, I slowly try to push myself back up and push my grimey and damp hair out of my eyes, studying the scene. Great, I literally got rid of one while Dad and Rhodey each took out twelve or more. After he and Rhodey finish bantering again, Dad jogs over to me and helps me to my tired feet. His metal hands take my face and his mask lifts so he can study me.
"Are you hurt? Bleeding? Burnt? What?"
"Alive," I give an unamused smile, "Stop worrying."
Dad lets out an exasperated sigh, "God, don't you ever listen?"
"Usually," I nod with a heavy breath, "But some days I just want to channel my inner-Tony Stark."
Dad tries hard to fight the smirk on his lips while Rhodey releases a tired laugh and claps a metal hand on Dad's shoulder. I lean against Dad's chest, suddenly realizing how exhausted I am.
"That's it. Pepper's won," I breathe as my eyes flutter closed.
"Won? What did she win?" Dad asks, looking down at me in confusion.
I sigh and shake my head, "I'm going back to therapy."
Dad gives a small smile as he kisses my forehead and puts his arm around me.
Natasha's voice suddenly breaks in, "Heads up. You got one more drone incoming. This one looks different. The repulsor signature is significantly higher."
We all straighten and look up as a yellow light crashes through the glass above and then drops onto the earth before us. The armor slowly raises from its hunched position and the mask pulls back to reveal Ivan Vanko. Heat rushes to my face and a lump rises in my throat at the sight of him. I swallow hard and Dad's hand moves me a little closer to him. Ivan's eyes drift over all of us, smirking at how Dad shelters me like it's a pointless gesture. I find myself rambling before I even know I am.
"Oh, well, if it isn't Mr. Christmas Lights himself,"
"Hey, that's good," Dad looks at me proudly.
I grin, "Hey, thanks."
Ivan suddenly throws his hands out and blue, electrified whips snap beside him. Gasping lightly, I step back out of instinct. The whips zap and I can feel the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
Ivan smirks wider, nodding at the three of us, "Good to be back."
"Oh, this ain't gonna be good," then Rhodey is suddenly cocky, sauntering towards him, "I got somethin' special for this guy. I'm gonna bust his bunker with the 'Ex-Wife'."
"The what?" I confusedly raise my eyebrows.
A missile appears out of Rhodey's shoulder and it begins to spin, whirring up. Then suddenly it blasts off from us with a spit of fire on its tail. It then clinks unceremoniously against Ivan's suit and falls into the small stream where it fizzles out.
That was anti-climatic.
Dad looks over at him, "Hammer tech?"
"Yeah," Rhodey answers sadly as his shoulders droop.
Ivan merely smiles before taking a threatening step towards us.
"I got this," Dad's tone radiates confidence and, despite everything, I find myself believing him.
Missiles fire off of Dad, and Ivan's mask blocks it before it hits his face. Suddenly he's spinning his whips around and slashing them towards us. Dad wraps his arms around me and throws us to the right as Rhodey ducks left. My uncle immediately turns and fires at him, but Ivan's suit easily takes it before he cuts the gun in half with the whip. Dad shoots up in the air and spins around, trying to get in a good position to attack, only for Ivan to wrap his whips around him and throw him down to the ground. Dad's head clangs hard against a rock and my hands cover my mouth in horror. There isn't anything I can do.
I am only flesh and bone while these men are made of iron and will.
I'm completely useless and I hate it.
Rhodey begins running and shooting again. Dad is up and flying to tackle him, but Ivan swats him off like a fly. Dad crashes about a hundred yards away. I sprint towards Ivan and shoot a few beams at him before I catch one hard metal backhand across the face and I'm nearly knocked out. I moan and the back of my hand touches my bloodied face; this time, I'm pretty sure the red is mine.
Ivan turns and catches Rhodey in his whip. Rhodey grunts and groans in pain before Ivan yanks him towards his fist. My uncle is sent back, unmoving as his limbs dangle. Dad angrily yells, flies through the air, and lands a punch on the back of Ivan's head. They're face-to-face now and Dad lands a few more good punches before Ivan headbutts him hard. Dad stumbles back and then Ivan's whip is around my father as well. I hear Dad's quiet sounds of pain and a hard foot smashes into Rhodey's body and a metal bolt stabs into his suit.
He doesn't see me coming as I slide over and dig my fingers into his arc reactor. Ivan and I cry out at the pain as the bright thing sizzles into the both of us. My other hand snatches my wrist so that the shock of the reactor doesn't jolt my hand away. I dig my fingers further in, trying to tear the reactor out so his suit will power down. Dad and Rhodey struggle on either side of me, but Ivan won't let up. Sparks fly up against my face and the blue reactor's light grows in intensity as if it knows this is its last few moments. I snap my wrist back and press my palm inside to try to shoot him, but I get a hard knee to the gut and then a hand sending me flying. With a shriek, I crash hard and tumble across the rocks for a few feet.
"Lisa!" Dad yells out as his voice nearly shakes in fear.
Ivan snaps his whip around Rhodey's neck and then he has both of them nearly to their knees. I watch in horror as their bodies convulse with the electricity.
"Rhodes. I got an idea," Dad takes quick breaths, "You want to be a hero?"
Rhodey calls out, confused, "What?!"
"I could really use a sidekick! Put your hand up!" Dad raises his thruster towards Rhodey.
"This your idea?"
My eyes widen in realization of his plan.
"Yep."
Rhodey quickly follows suit, raising his thruster, "I'm ready. I'm ready. Go, go, go!"
"Lisa!" Dad shouts out in warning.
Forgetting all of my pain, I scramble back to my feet and hurriedly dive behind a boulder.
Ivan watches in confusion as their thrusters begin to power up, glowing in ferocity.
Dad screams over the sound of building energy, "Take it!"
Two streams of light come together, form a nearly beautiful glowing orb, and then it bursts out like glass.
Light flashes everywhere and I duck lower to avoid the blast. Wind overtakes me, and then windows shatters and rains down from above. As I cover my head, all I can think about is how it's like the birthday party all over again. When we all get back to our shaky feet, Dad's mask turns to me so I give a quick thumbs-up and a nod. Ivan and his suit lie to the side, burnt and dying, as we all slowly make our way over to him.
He stares up at us before breathing out in an odd smugness, "You lose."
My brows furrow before I hear a strange beeping and then a red light is flashing near our feet. Then the beeping and red lights are showing up all over the garden and emanating from each of the drones' unmoving forms. All of the air is sucked from my body as I begin to understand what's going on.
"Uh oh, blinking red lights aren't ever good," I say to myself more than to the men around me.
"All these drones are rigged to blow," Rhodey says quickly, "We gotta get out of here, Guys."
"Pepper?!" Dad says quickly, sounding on the verge of panic once more.
Knowing I'm much too slow and Dad needs to get to Pepper, I latch onto Rhodey and we blast up. I watch as Dad flies through the sky towards the Expo and I think I'm going to be sick. I pray and I pray as we fly further from the now glassless dome. Just before the explosions go off, I squeeze my eyes shut and cling tighter to Rhodey. Fire erupts around us and it threatens to deafen me.
"It's okay, Lees, he got there in time. She's okay. Pepper's okay," Rhodey keeps assuring me as we finally land on a roof.
I throw my arms around Rhodey once more as he gently rubs my back.
Suddenly I hear Pepper exclaiming, "Oh, my God! I can't take this anymore."
Rhodey and I both pull apart and turn to see Dad and Pepper standing on the opposite side of the roof, completely oblivious to our presence.
"You can't?" Dad sounds almost irritated.
"I can't take this," Pepper breathes.
"Look at me!" he motions down to his damaged suit.
"My body, literally, cannot handle the stress. I never know if you're gonna kill yourself or lose custody of Lisa or wreck the whole company!"
Dad points a hand out to the city, "I think I did okay."
An explosion goes off.
Yup. Ya did great, Dad.
Pepper shakes her head and blurts out, "I quit. I'm resigning. That's it."
My eyes widen and my heart drops.
Dad's face falls as he walks towards her, "What did you just say? You're done? That's surprising," he corrects himself while scrunching his face a little, " No, it's not surprising. I get it. You don't have to make any excuses."
Pepper walks closer to him too as they continue to squabble. Rhodey and I glance at each other with knowing smirks.
Dad takes her hand and gives her a soft expression, "Listen. Hey, hey. You deserve better."
"Well,"
"You've taken such good care of me and Lisa. I've been in a tough spot, but you got me through it, so, right?" he looks away like he's about to get emotional.
"Thank you."
"Yeah," he says gruffly.
My hand touches my heart as I'm getting the feels.
"Thank you for understanding."
"Yeah, yeah. Let's talk clean-up."
"I'll handle the transition. It'll be smooth," she nods quickly as if she wants him to understand this next part very clearly, "But I'm still going to stick around for Lisa though. She, you know, needs a maternal figure there for her, I think, you know," gosh, they're just so awkward, "You'll see me around all the time, I'm sure."
Dad seems relieved, but I don't know if it's more for me or him, "Good, okay. Well, what about the press? Because you only had the job for a week. That's gonna seem,"
Pepper interrupts, defending herself, "Well, with you it's like dog years. I mean, it's like the Presidency,"
Then he pulls her into a kiss, cutting her off before she can finish. And then she returns his kiss. And then I get tears in my eyes.
They pull away slowly and contentedly.
Then Dad ruins it by giving her a wondering look, "Weird."
She shakes her head and softly says, "No, it's not weird."
Dad seems relieved once more, "It's okay, right?"
"Yeah."
"Run that by me again," he goes in to kiss her again.
"Fifty bucks, Rhodey, fist it over," I slap the back of my hand against his chest, creating a loud clang.
Dad and Pepper quickly pull away and look over at us.
Rhodey groans, "How about an I.O.U.?"
I frown up at him, "Really?"
"Does it look like I have anywhere to put dollar bills, Lisa?" he spreads his arms out to display the suit and it's obvious lack of pockets.
"Fair point," I nod before looking over at my dad and Pepper, "Thanks, by the way. I was getting worried that I was gonna lose the nearly thirteen year long bet, but that kiss just sealed the deal and now I'm fifty dollars richer," I look back at my father's best friend, "Remind me to tell Happy he owes me too."
Rhodey sighs before telling them, sarcastically, "Great, Guys, thanks,"
"What? Oh, no, no, no," they fumble into explaining.
"I-I had just quit, actually," Pepper holds up a hand.
"Yeah, so we're not," Dad motions between the two of them.
"Yeah, right," I push my lips out in an amused smirk.
"You don't have to do that," Rhodey smirks too, "We-we heard the whole thing."
Dad points at us, "You two should get lost."
Rhodey scoffs, "We were here first. Get a roof."
Dad laughs, "I thought you were out of one-liners."
"That's the last one."
I jog over to Pepper and throw my arms around her thin waist as Dad and Rhodey keep talking. She wraps her arms around me and rests her cheek against my head. We watch as Rhodey flies off in the suit and then Dad puts an arm around each of his girls. I grin up at him as he kisses my forehead and then leans in to kiss Pepper again. I close my eyes so I'm not invading in on their privacy too much. As I lean my head against my father's chest, I take a deep breath and smile.
What did you think?! Actiony enough for you?! And gosh, so many gifs again, but I just needed to include then, okay? I love this chapter so much and this part of the movie was so good! Okay, tell me your thoughts! Vote, COMMENT, and follow! Just a few more chapters of this book and then Iron Daughter is over *gasp*. The sequel is on its way!
Future Quote from my next book in the series (I LOVE THIS SO MUCH!):
"His blue eyes look at me and I think I'm suffering from a case of awe, "Steve Rogers. Nice to meet you. "
I think I might die.
Steve Rogers. Steven Rogers. Steven Grant Rogers. Steve. Rogers. Captain Rogers. Cap Rogers. Cap'n. Cap. Cap Rog. Whoa. Okay. Dude, I need to relax and take a breather. It's not like I'm fangirling or anything. I'm just like, you know, historian-girling. Wait, is that the same thing? No. Yes? Nevermind, forget it."
- Lisa Stark, The Red Raven
And an extra Pepperony gif because they're just so dang cute: