CHAPTER 9
Gold-Titanium Alloy Man
"What the hell happened last night?" Claire ran into the room, standing out with her mismatched attire that didn't correspond with the suits and ties around her.
Phil welcomed her into the room, providing no explanations to why she had been called in, which was not wise as Claire had built up conspiracies by now, the media fuelling her imagination. She stopped to stare at a familiar ginger smiling at another familiar face.
"How the hell did they survive that explosion? Phil, what the hell is happening?" she was losing her patience now, an irritability was vastly growing amongst her attitude.
"'Iron Man'. That's kinda catchy, got a nice ring to it. I mean, it's not technically accurate, the suit's a gold-titanium alloy..."
"Excuse me, make yourself comfortable," Phil gave Claire a smile that suggested he really did not want to be happy, that he wasn't happy, and he walked over to Mr Stark and his newspaper.
"Here's your alibi."
Claire's eyes wondered around, from the TV with James Rhodes on it, over to the table with small snacks aligned ready for her sticky fingers. She slowly made her way over, trying not to be noticed with her VIP lanyard and skinny jeans, preventing an immediate spread of more rumours that she was not prepared for.
Silently she wished she had her cat for company around all these big names, but externally she showed confidence and a look of boredom and disinterest as she trailed her fingers around the plate of cheese croissants.
"You were on your yacht."
"Yeah..." Mr Stark was not going for this idea.
"We have port papers that put you in Avalon all night, and sworn statements from 50 of your guests."
SHIELD comes prepared... they really thought all of it through. To Claire she believed they still needed a media witness, someone to spread the lie across the web in a faster way than this interview could. They needed Tony to believe the statement himself... she needed to figure out what exactly they were hiding from the world, from her, and why it is so important that even she was here. Was it a coincidence they brought in a hypnotist when they were trying to convince the world that nothing went wrong?
"See, I was thinking we should say it was just uh- it was just Pepper and me, alone on the island," the playboy came out, and so did Claire's playful grin as she eavesdropped her near-future client and listened to Pepper pull off a medical strip from his eyebrow in reaction to the comment.
"That's what happened," Phil insisted.
"All right."
"Just read it, word for word." Tony was and is a trouble maker, how much do they have to do to get him to listen?
He flipped through the cue cards, over and over, skimming each word and his anxious flipping quickened, "There's nothing about Stane in here." Bingo.
Claire turned around, a croissant in hand as she munched away, her arms as crossed as they could be, and her lower back leaning against the table. Now she was blending in as a lower-graded PA, perhaps passing as a minor to Phil.
"That's being handled, he's on vacation. Small aircrafts have such a poor safety record."
So Stane had been killed during the events of last night, by the armoured suit?
"But what about the whole cover story that it's a bodyguard? He's my body- I mean, is that? That's kinda flimsy, don't you think?" the embarrassment was seeping through each word of his.
Was Tony the suit, did Tony kill his dad's best friend?
"This isn't my first rodeo, Mr Stark. Just stick to the official statement and soon this will all be behind you."
Claire pulled the pastry from her mouth, now hearing Phil's words loud and clear. Was something like today pulled off when Mesmero had up and disappeared? What was her statement? They pulled a child away from her family, out of school, and into the unreal but now real world. What had they said about her exactly? Was she viewed as a drop-out, or a success? Were the people of New York disappointed in the sudden cancellation of a magnificent show, or had they noticed?
"You've got... 90 seconds. Give or take," Claire commented, forcing the attention of the room to be drawn to her, "Mr Rhodes looks to be at the end of his tunnel. His eyes are fogged over, very faraway look in them, meaning his concentration on reading is lessoning. He's glancing to a back door, this door I assume, his shoulders are leaning forward, his toes pointed between the reporters and to the exit. Careful, this man could run."
Majority were shocked, this excluded Coulson. He didn't expect anything more from the young woman. Tony Stark, on the other hand, had no clue where she had appeared from and for what specific reasons she felt she had to speak up at that moment.
"Continue," she insisted, going back to her croissant and hoping that her moment with the CEO and his PA would arise after this odd mess was sorted out.
Pepper had run off, chasing Phil down to thank him for all his efforts in this fix they've had to summon out of thin air so suddenly. She thought that there was no reason at all for SHILED to be helping this company, but she was far from the truth. There were realistic reasons as to why Coulson won over their good side, and Claire had a feeling she would be figuring out why very soon, especially if it has anything to do with the initiative Fury was talking about and Stark's suspicious link with a metal armoured suit.
"That's what we do. You'll be hearing from us. In the meantime, I'd like you to consider one of our finest. She could do great things," Claire took this as a cue for her entrance in the conversation, silently praying he was speaking about her.
"I don't think we've had the proper introduction, Doctor Claire O'Connor," she smiled with an introduction, standing as formal and symmetrical as possible, and waiting for her hand to be shaken.
"Miss Pepper Potts... though I'm sure you already know that. I can't wait to hear from the both of you in the near future."
"Take care of yourself, Miss Potts. Arrangements will be made through contact of O'Connor," Phil soothingly spoke, only his voice being able to be so kind yet throw so much authority across the room.
"From the Strategic Homeland-"
"Just call them SHIELD," Claire winked at her, following Phil out of the door.
"Right..." Pepper replied to the obvious that there would be an acronym, and watched them slowly make their way into the next connecting room.
"I'm gonna miss hearing from you as often as I have lately..." she joked, facing him with a smile.
"And now... Mr Stark has... prepared a statement. He will not be taking any questions."
"Nothing lasts forever, I'll see you on the other side of the phone line. For now, my dear, even if I've grown so much love for your comments and your cat, it's time to focus that into a new project."
"A red and gold project? Is this something I should be messing with...? Iron Man?"
"He's not Iron Man," Phil attempting persuasion, pulling out his glasses, "at least not yet."
Claire watched him walk a few steps away, confused at his statement, "What's that supposed to mean?" she tried to shout after him, but he replied nothing back.
Was she supposed to wait and find out, or was this just him pulling her leg as revenge for all the years her supervisor has had to deal with her and her minor issues with SHIELD academy and her family?
But Claire stood in that conference room, Pepper Potts long behind her, Tony Stark on a podium trying his worst to follow his script, and her... a tall woman, a doctor, someone without a friend in the world, standing in a room with skinny jeans and a large purple shirt that somehow still made her look smart-casual.
Claire noticed a blonde woman in the front row pick at Tony Stark, calling him out, and Tony seemed to be taking it the wrong way. Claire watched specifically how twitchy his eyes were, never falling on the crowd for more than a few seconds. His best friend, Rhodey whom had spoken earlier, leaned in with a worried aura, Claire could see the robotic eyes that he'd been trained to hold and knew loud and clear that Tony most definitely was getting reprimanded for not sticking to his cards.
Her interest in the scene grew, and a few steps were taken so that her hand could rest on a nearby doorframe, eyes sparkling in tune with the flashes of the cameras, and heart racing at the anticipation. The entire crowd was drawn in like they had been hypnotised, except Claire recognised how they were not, they were purely nosey. Even Pepper had dropped her phone to watch.
The blue cue-cards rose in front of his face, dropping slightly to reveal his mischievous eyes, "The truth is..." Claire's phone started ringing, "I am Iron Man."
"Phil?" Claire hoped, picking up and stumbling back from her non-existent shock but clearly evident worry and fear for being sucked right into the eye of the chaotic storm.
"Who?" a bittersweet memory of the tune.
"Mom," Claire sighed, not of relief but of disappointment.
"I can't talk right now, I'm in a meeting," she tried to make up the excuse, putting sunglasses on her face to mask the burning flashing of emerging photographers and desperate media managers.
"What is that noise?" her mother asked, not receiving her SOS message.
"I'll call you back."
"Wait, no-"
Questions were definitely going to be asked, especially because she had picked up an unscheduled phone call with an unscripted answer. She was totally in for it, but first she had to find Pepper.
She barely managed to look past the chaos, but had caught the Ginger woman helping escort Tony out of harm's way and into their private preparation room where Claire had first seen the man. She dashed past the crowd, only making it to the closing doors in time to flash her lanyard and squeeze into the croissant room.
She could see everyone from Stark Industries freaking out, phone calls were being made back and forth. Claire's phone was no exception.
She irritably pulled out the vibrating black phone, answering it to insist to her mother that they spoke later in the week, just not now. "Mom, I can't right now! You know the rules!"
"I'm glad you always consider us first, Dr O'Connor," a deep vice that pronounced each syllable as if they all deserve to be heard.
"Nick," and that was the wave of relief that washed all stress off of every bone in her body.
"What in god's name is going on over there," he cut to the chase. He didn't beat around the bush, he bulldozed right over it.
"Sir, with all due respect, I haven't a damn clue," she replied, mind racing at what the hell had unfolded in merely half an hour.
"Well, find out. Who gave him permission to reveal that on live television?"
"Once again, all said with respect, I haven't a damn clue. This is Tony Stark, did you expect him to abide to the rules?"
The silence was almost as scary as standing in front of Nick Fury himself. Claire waited long seconds for a reply to be given to her, yet the reply was equally as dreadful as the wait.
"Hold ground, I'm on my way."
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