Disclaimer: Iron Man belongs to Marvel, not me. I make no money writing this story. I also don't own KALEO. I just get to smash the two together and bake at 500 degrees. Suppose I should have bought a fire extinguisher.
Author's Note: Each chapter comes with a song title. They're the songs I listened to as I wrote. I highly recommend you listen while you read. Throughout this story you will also find dialogue and scenes from the first Iron Man movie, so don't be surprised. I stitched them together with some description and my plot. Hopefully I have managed a balance between the familiar Marvel verse events and original story telling.
Prologue:
KALEO- Way Down We Go
2008
Angela glanced over to see her boss still holding his drink. She never should have gotten into the humvee with him. The whole demonstration so far was a farce. She'd answered a few questions from the General they were presenting to, but most of the questions had been aimed at Tony. Angela couldn't help but wonder why she'd been sent with Stark when there seemed very little gain from it.
Her boss was getting twitchy. It was the quiet she knew. Determined to tune out whatever asinine way he went about breaking it, Angela stared at the passing mountains. So far Afghanistan had been hot, dusty, and if not for the plane ride over, a waste of her time.
"Good God. You're a woman," Tony announced in shock. Angela felt the corner of her lip curl up in amusement. Admittedly it was hard to tell with the driver sitting down, but one look at her face and you could tell her gender. Apparently Tony hadn't been looking at faces.
"I'm kind of having a hard time not looking at you now," her boss admitted to the female airman. Angela huffed a quiet laugh.
As the man up front asked a question about Stark's prowess with Maxim cover models Angela's phone chimed. She reached a hand beneath her flak jacket to grab it.
There was only one possible person who would be texting her while she was in Afghanistan. Sure enough her brother Mike had messaged to ask if she was still okay. Angela hooded her eyes in irritated affection before tapping a message back to him.
When she was finished she thrust her phone back into it's secure spot in her bra and looked up. Stark was watching her with an eyebrow raised. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes.
"Is it cool if I take a picture with you?" The question came from her left.
Her boss's attention tracked to the young man sitting on the other side of her. "Yes," Stark gave a solid nod. "It's very cool."
The kid who'd asked flushed and got his camera out to pass to the guy up front.
Angela looked between Stark and the young man, noting she was in the way. "Do you want to change places with me?" She asked the man to her left.
After a moment of deliberation he declared, "Not the best idea, Ma'am."
It took a second for her to realize he was talking to her. Ma'am was an odd address. Next to her Tony snickered.
She supposed she could understand why the young man was reluctant to give up his position on the door. But it still presented a problem. "Well then how about I change positions with Mr. Stark?" She suggested.
The man in question drawled teasingly, "Tony. And yes. Please." She thought he was serious until she saw the look on his face. Angela felt her lips purse as she gave him a heavy glare in return.
Tony immediately widened his eyes and held his hands up. "If you don't want to be in the picture just duck down, Panda."
She growled a bit under her breath. That nickname. Seriously? Fifteen years and he couldn't let it go.
With a bit of focus she crunched herself forward as small as she could. It wasn't easy with the extra padding of the Kevlar. Above her she could feel the men on either side of her lean in. While the boys above her bantered Angela had a moment to think. Wasn't that always her life? She was constantly threatened by being squeezed out by men.
While she was placidly staring at the floor of the humvee, waiting for the picture to be taken, a sudden explosion rocked through her. Her head shot up and her back went involuntarily straight. Gooseflesh broke out along her arms as an enormous clang rattled through the vehicle. Angela realized that a heavy piece of metal had hit the hood of their transport. More important was the ball of fire that used to be the humvee in front of them. Her breath shortened in panic.
"What's going on?" She glanced over at her Boss's voice and saw his eyes wide with uncertainty.
The female driver yelled, "Contact left."
The humvee rolled to a stop and the dipping tones of ricochet mixed with automatic gun fire. From somewhere ahead of them the heavy repetitive thump of the fifty caliber started.
In front of her the female driver opened her door and swung her legs out. Before her boots hit the ground several rounds hit her and she fell out the door, dead. Angela's breath stuck in her throat as she shrank back in her seat in horror.
"Jimmy stay with Stark." Angela whipped her attention to the elder man up front.
A surprisingly heavy arm landed over her shoulder and pushed. "Stay down," Jimmy commanded.
Angela's eyes darted around what she could see. For a moment her vision caught on the man from the front seat. Then a hail of bullets hit the humvee and the windshield cracked. She flinched reflexively at the impact and let out a breathy grunt. The man from up front went down and didn't reappear.
"Son of a bitch," Jimmy cried. The butt of his weapon swung dangerously close to her and she cringed against Stark's leg. Angela heard a latch click and turned disbelieving eyes on the young man as he stepped out of their vehicle.
"Wait, wait, wait." Tony cried over her head. "Give me a gun," he demanded.
"Stay there," Jimmy ordered.
He turned around. In the moment she lost sight of his face there was a heavy impact to the humvee and she grunted again. Angela's ears rang and she felt a bit punch drunk. There were new patterns in the side of the humvee, like on the tin lights Nana Dugan had favored.
From below the ringing she heard Stark call out, "Are you alright?" He patted her arms. "Did you get hit?"
Angela shook her head sharply. She wasn't sure if she was being truthful but she didn't feel any pain.
"Come on," the man next to her commanded. He pushed his door open and stumbled out into the desert.
Unsure it was a sound idea, Angela took another look at the holes in the opposite side of the humvee. Those got her moving.
With clumsy movements she stumbled out onto the sand in time for Tony's shoulder to collide with her. It knocked the wind out of her and she had no time to react when the man grabbed her suit sleeve and pulled. One of her heels sunk in the sand and she stumbled. Stark's gripped slipped but he kept running.
Ducking her head Angela hustled to kick free from her heels and followed. The sand burned under her bare feet as she ran, but in the noise and smoke she barely noticed. Ahead of her, up the incline, Tony flung himself over the top of a boulder. Halfway up the slope something hard and sharp cut into the ball of her left foot and Angela wavered in that direction. It ended up being fortuitous.
There was a whistling shriek that dropped in pitch by the right side of her head before a thud. Her eyes snapped across the sand to see the dark body of a missile with the white Stark Industries logo painted on it. Between one heartbeat and the next she took in the shape and coloring and felt as if she had been jarred out of her body.
Angela realized she was still running forward when Stark leapt out from behind the boulder and raised an arm toward her. She was almost level with him by then. Her eyes swung from him, to the missile, and back to him. They were too close. They were both going to die. A fear like she had never known punched through her gut.
She screamed. "Tony!"
The world exploded. A hot rush of wind and dirt hit her in the face. Angela was picked off her feet and tossed back down the slight hill. With a slam, her left leg and then shoulder met the earth and she rolled. After the first full rotation she managed to jam her right hand into the soil and halt her momentum.
Ahead of her through the scrub brush she could see her boss's torso as he rolled onto his back. She saw his hands scrabble at his shirt. A stabbing, breath stealing pain took up in her side and chest. Angela was so disoriented with pain and panic she couldn't even yell. Abruptly the world cut away and there was only blackness. She wondered if she was already dead.
…...
A portable stereo was playing ACDC Back in Black from the front, but no one was talking. Tony glanced at the ice in his drink. "I feel like your driving me to a court marshal," He gazed around at the stern faces in the humvee. Nobody smiled. "This is crazy. What did I do? I feel like you're gonna pull over and snuff me." Beside him he noticed Angela roll her eyes. "What?" He persisted to the men in front of him. "You're not allowed to talk? Hey, Forest," he prodded.
"We can talk, sir." A young man dressed in camo on the other side of Angela spoke up nervously.
Tony regarded him with some thought. "Huh. I see. So it's personal," he concluded. He wondered if he'd done something specific or if it was just his reputation.
"No." A woman's voice came from up front. "You intimidate them."
Tony's eyebrows raised in surprise. "Good God. You're a woman." He looked over the bulky uniform and helmet. "I honestly, I couldn't have called that. I mean I'd apologize but isn't that what we're going for here. I thought of you as a soldier first," he tried to cover.
"I'm an airman," the woman corrected dryly.
He tilted his head and looked over what he could see of her face. "Well you have actually excellent bone structure there. I'm kind of having a hard time not looking at you now. Is that weird?" He asked. Compliments usually smoothed most things over.
Next to him Angela huffed a breath through her nose that was mostly covered up by the other's amusement. It was her subtle way of laughing at him. That was more like it. People needed to loosen up. They were making him twitchy. "Come on it's okay. Laugh," he encouraged.
The man in front of him turned around. "Sir, I have a question to ask."
Beside him a phone chimed and Angela began typing back a message. "Yes. Please," Tony continued.
"Is it true you went twelve for twelve with last year's Maxim cover models?" The man asked eagerly.
Tony took off his sunglasses. "That is an excellent question," he responded playfully. He noticed Angela's attention was still on her phone. "Yes and no. March and I had a scheduling conflict but fortunately the Christmas cover was twins," he boasted. "Anything else?"
Angela slid her phone away and Tony noted it went beneath her flak jacket. He wondered if she'd put it in her bra. The kid on the other side of Angela raised his hand. Tony gave him a sardonic look. "You're kidding me with the hand up. Right?"
The boy sheepishly put his hand down. "Is it cool if I take a picture with you?"
Tony gave a firm nod. Finally, something familiar. "Yes. It's very cool."
The kid across from him smiled shyly and the Velcro of his pocket sounded as he opened it. He got his camera out and passed it to the guy up front.
Angela looked from him to the kid. "Do you want to change places with me?" She asked the young soldier.
The younger man worked his jaw a bit, blushing. "Not the best idea, Ma'am."
Tony snickered at the kid's flush. Angela was beautiful and when she gave her full attention it could be intense. The kid defaulting to calling her Ma'am was funny, but the expression on her face at the address was hilarious.
"Well, then how about I change positions with Mr. Stark?" She offered.
"Tony," he sang playfully. Someday the woman was going to call him by his first name. "And yes. Please," he drawled teasingly.
Angela gave him a gimlet glare that promised pain. He held his hands up. Tony had witnessed the coffee cup incident. "If you don't want to be in the picture just duck down, Panda." He thought he heard a faint growl from her, but she obediently crunched herself forward against the flat of her thighs.
Tony couldn't really blame her for being touchy. The military men had been more interested in speaking to him than his Head of Weapons Development. If it hadn't been for the vital but angering information she'd given him on the plane ride over, Tony would have said her addition to their little tour group was a waste of time.
"Alright." The guy up front took the camera and started trying to focus a picture.
Back in something he was comfortable doing, Tony's public flippancy came to the fore. "I don't want to see this on your Myspace page." He glanced over Angela's back to see the kid holding up a peace sign. That position couldn't be comfortable for her. "Please no gang signs," Tony joked. When the kid actually took it down nervously Tony added, "No throw it up I'm kidding. Yeah. Peace. I love peace. We'd be out of a job with peace."
The man next to him tried to lean respectfully over Angela's compacted form. "Come on," he urge the man up front. "Come on. Just click it. Don't change any settings."
One moment everything was fine. He was getting ready for a shot with one of his fans. The next, the humvee ahead of them was a ball of fire. The rumble of the explosion rolled through him and he ducked. Next to him Angela shot upright, staring out the windshield in shock. A large piece of metal from the previous vehicle landed on their hood with a bang.
"What's going on?" Tony blurted in the beginnings of panic.
"Contact left," the female driver yelled.
The whole train of vehicles was forced to a stop and automatic weapons fire began pinging off the humvee. The female driver kicked her door open and she was immediately shot before she could put her feet on the ground. Tony watched in wide eyed horror as she dropped out of sight. He saw Angela shrink back in the seat.
"Jimmy, stay with Stark," the man up front commanded.
"Stay down," the man across from him, Jimmy, yelled. He reached over Angela and nudged them both down with his arm. Tony had a moment to look into Angela's wide green eyes as they crouched together in the back of the humvee.
Through the smoke and flying sand Tony could see the man from the front seat take up position against the hood of the humvee. Without hesitation the man shot off a volley of bullets before there was more weapons fire and the windshield cracked. Tony grunted himself when the guy went down. He could hear Angela sob out a breath.
"Son of a bitch," Jimmy cried, working on his weapon. Tony heard a door latch click and turned to see the young soldier getting out of the vehicle.
Helplessness and desperation swamped him. "Wait, wait, wait." Tony cried. "Give me a gun," he demanded. Dimly he could feel Angela's back as it shuddered against his knee.
The young man turned around to face them. The expression of determination on the kid's face seemed foreign for someone who was so timid a moment before. He commanded through the window, "Stay there."
The kid turned around, his voice still ringing in Tony's ears, before there was a heavy impact to the humvee. Light shone through several new holes in the side of the vehicle. Angela grunted and Tony's attention fell to her.
"Are you alright?" He bent over her and patted at her arms, searching for blood. "Did you get hit?" Tony shook his head at the residual deafness.
Angela was shaking her head as well. He hoped that meant she hadn't been injured. Around them shots continued to be fired and there were several explosions. They couldn't stay in the vehicle. That last round had punched through the side like it was paper. "Come on," he demanded. Tony pushed his door open.
The world around him was chaotic. He smelled smoke and almost immediately the sun started heating his suit. There was another blast and Tony stumbled back into Angela's side as she crawled out of the vehicle. He grunted.
Glancing around in panic he spotted what looked like some cover on the side of the road. Blindly his hand grabbed the shoulder of Angela's suit jacket, but she stumbled and the slick material slipped out of his grip. It wasn't until Tony made it up the slight incline and dived behind the boulder that he realized Angela wasn't with him anymore. Sick dread filled his gut.
A spray of bullets hit the sand next to him and Tony tucked himself further behind the rock. With a quick thought he pulled out his phone and started texting. Before he could finish there was the high low pitch of an incoming round, then a thud. Tony looked up from his phone in terror at the whine of active ordinance. He had enough time to notice the Stark Industries logo on the side before he forced himself up and back.
A split second before it exploded Tony glanced back towards the humvee. Angela was running through the sand barefoot towards him. Her blazer was blowing wide behind her. She was only feet from him and Tony raised a hand in warning.
She looked to the side and Tony could see the whites all the way around her irises when she saw the missile that had landed near them. Her lips parted in horror and her eyes swung back to meet his. He saw her mouth open to shout but she never stopped running.
He yelled inarticulately a moment before the bomb exploded. The heat of the fire flashed across his face and he saw Angela's feet leave the ground as she was blasted backwards.
Tony's back collided with the dirt driving the breath out of him. Slowly he rolled his neck. His ears were ringing again and it filtered into his brain that there was a sharp pain in his chest. Woodenly Tony grabbed at his shirt and ripped the buttons apart. Blood was slowly seeping from beneath his Kevlar vest. Dizzy and disoriented, his head dropped back to the sand.
Around him the world faded in and out. Above him the sky was a clear robin's egg blue. He wondered if he was already dead.