Hi everyone, how are you all? So, this is going to be a two-shot because I think it'd be too long for just a one-shot, so, I hope you like it! :) Oh! And I apologize in advance if you may think Tony Stark is out of character a bit... this is my first time writing him so hopefully it's good. Please enjoy! :D
Please comment/review and let me know what you think of it, I would greatly appreciate it, thanks!
I OWN NOTHING; I DO NOT OWN THE AVENGERS.
"A Child's Hero"
. . .
Part One:
The young child runs as fast as her small legs will take her as she turns another corner in the dark alley, her feet slapping against the cold, muddy slush cement with every step she takes. She whips her head around to glance over her shoulder to see if the older man was still chasing her- he was and he was close to catching her.
She turns her head quickly back around and tries her best to quicken her speed. She can feel her heart pounding in her chest as she pants heavily from all the running and lack of air- doesn't help that she has horrible asthma.
As she runs, she squeezes her small plush doll, which is mostly covered in dirt, closer to her chest as her nails dig into the doll to make sure there is absolute no way the doll will slip out of her grip and fall behind. If she were to drop it, she wouldn't know what to do.
Sweat drips from her forehead, despite the freezing cold weather and the snow still on the ground. The sweat mixes with her tears that are spilling down her red cheeks. Her eyes are large, red, and puffy from crying and her entire face is red from running. Her lips are slightly parted as she tries to swallow some fresh air in between her pants.
She can feel her legs shaking beneath her, threatening give out from exhausted at any moment. She almost slides on a sheet of black ice, but surprisingly she remains her balance and keeps running; silently praying that the shadows of the night will hide her as she turns, what seems to be the thousandth tonight, alley.
The young girl feels like an idiot for not taking her inhaler with her before she made her escape, but she was in a rush and the only thing she managed to take with her was the clothes on her back and her favorite plush doll that she goes everywhere and anywhere with.
Vaguely, the girl can hear the man screaming her name and yelling her to 'stop' or 'come back', but that only makes her increase her speed- if that was possible. She blinks hard in an attempt to get rid of the blurriness the tears are making, but to no avail.
As she rounds another corner, she makes the mistake of taking another glance over her shoulder to see the man only a few feet away, but by the time she looks back ahead, her foot slides on the ice that was hidden under a layer of dirty snow and she goes flying backwards. She has nothing to grab onto as her feet slide ahead of her and her back makes a rough impact with the cold ground.
A groan escapes passed the child's lips as she holds tightly onto the doll with her left hand and uses her other hand to rub the back of her head. The world is spinning around her and she feels extremely dizzy- all she can see is tall buildings ahead on the other side of the busy street of New York City and black dots that are clouding her vision.
"Ow…" She mutters to herself as she tries to stand up again, but she slides once more on the ice, making her wince at the pain, this time landing on her side. She blinks the tears away as her eyes burn holes into the ground; she can hear his footsteps growing near and this time, she has no escape. By the time she manages to stand up and not slip on the ice, he will already have her in his grasp.
"There you are you little brat," The man harshly snaps in between his pants- they have been running for over an hour and a half now, "I've been chasing ya' for quite some time. You had me on some real chase, that's for sure."
She refuses to look at him, instead, she keeps staring at the ground, praying that this is all a dream- that she was still at home with her parents, laughing and watching movies and eating popcorn. She swallows around the burning lump that placed itself in her throat and she sniffs while tears roll down her rosy cheeks.
"Look at me when I'm talking to ya'." He suddenly yells after a moment of silence, his voice full of venom and spit flying out of his mouth. "I've had enough of you and these little stunts you keep pulling." The man kneels down to grab a chunk of her chocolate brown locks in his hand and he yanks, hard.
She yelps as he pulls on her hair and she tries to struggle, but he uses his free hand then to grab her upper arm hard enough to leave a bruise. His fingers are tangled with her hair as he pulls it back; forcing her to look up at him with fearful, green eyes. Her chest rises and falls in a quick pace as she stares up into the black eyes of the older man who has torturing her for as long as she can remember.
The hand that is holding her arm tightens its grip and his fingernails dig deeper into the young girl's skin, making her wince and continue even hard to break free. He frowns as he watches her squirm, only making him yank her brown curls even harder and throw her small body against the brick, alley wall.
She blinks back her tears as she feels him slam her against the wall and stand in front of her. She squeezes her doll tightly close to her chest as she watches his angry expression and watches the fire burn bright in his dark, empty eyes. As she pants, she can see her breath in the cold air as another cold breeze passes by, sending shivers down her spine.
Despite it being winter and the snowflakes that continue to gracefully fall down from the sky and onto the Earth's surface, the young girl is only wearing a ripped, pink T-shirt that is covered in filth, along with the rest of her body, and ripped pink pajama pants. A pair of socks that have way too many holes in them covers her feet, but don't do much good, due to the holes. She has a no sweater or jacket and her body feels like it just came out of a freezer.
Her lips are blue and snowflakes latch onto her as they fall down from the thick, grey clouds above them that hide the sparkling stars in the night, black sky. She gulps as he scans her up and down, the silence between them thick with tension. The man is approximately in his mid-forties with dark brown eyes, olive skin, and black hair with a few grey strands sticking out on the sides. He has a strong built body with layers of T-shirts and jackets on top with black jeans with working boots. He has the hatred look in his eyes that match the scowl on his face with blends perfectly with the look of pure rage on his facial expression.
"I've had it with you, kid. You've proven to be quite the problem for me and I think it's time we eliminate that problem, wouldn't ya' agree?" He says through clenched teeth, his nose almost touching hers. He shakes his head, letting out a humorless chuckle, "I have my ass on the line right now. I don't need this, especially not from a seven-year-old!"
"Leave me alone, please!" She tries to plead; her heart racing and she can almost hear the pounding in her chest ring in her ears. She chokes back a sob as he moves his hand to her throat, making unable to move an inch. She stops squirming and then whispers with a shaky, hopeless voice as she says the name of the man who has hurt her for years now, "Please, Michael…"
"Shut up! This is the -what?- seventh time you tried escaping on me? Actually, I think a lot more than that. My boss is yelling at me because of you an' I don't need this! My boss made it very clear that I either make sure you can't escape anymore for good, or I kill you. I think I'm liking the second option, aren't you?"
Tears escape her eyes and pour down her cheeks. Her body shakes from the cold and from being truly petrified from the man that holds her life in his hands. She realizes that he will kill her, unless she can escape his grip or grab someone's attention.
Her head turns slightly, her eyes large as she tries to see through the darkness of the night and see if there is anybody around. She is only a few feet from a nearby street and on the other side of the street, there's a sidewalk with a few people walking, minding their own businesses. The shadows are the only things hiding her in the dark alley, but if she screamed, she may catch someone's attention.
She closes her eyes and swallows hard around the burning lump that is stuck in her throat. She takes a deep breath and as loudly as she can, she lets out a piercing scream in hopes of that catching someone's attention and they come to save her before the man, Michael, makes sure she never sees another day again.
. . .
The famous billionaire links arms with his wife as they exit the limo with smiles plastered on both of their faces. He grins down at her as he wiggles his eyebrows, "Now although that was fun, why don't we go have some real fun upstairs in the tower, huh? What do you say?"
Virginia "Pepper" Potts looks up at her grinning husband and rolls her eyes, "Tony, it's late-"
Tony Stark rolls his eyes when she says 'late' and cuts her off, "It's not late! Come on, Pepper, I went to that boring party-"
Now it was her turn to cut him off, "Excuse me, but the party wasn't boring. It was one of my close friend's engagement party."
He huffs as he shakes his head while he stops walking, standing right in front the very large Stark Tower. He looks down at her with a raised eyebrow as a frown replaces his grin, "Psh, I never even heard of that friend of yours before. I didn't even know she existed!"
"You're overreacting." Pepper tries to sound serious, but the way he was staring at her with a goofy expression made a few giggles escape passed her lips. "Besides, we're not as close now anyways, that's why you never met her."
His mouth falls open as she says the last part as he blinks at her while remaining speechless. "Then… wait, what? Then why did you drag me along- why did we even go?"
Now the full on laugh escapes her and she just shakes her head as she wraps her arms around his neck and grins up at him, "Because, we were close a few years back, but we lost touch, but then recently we've been talking again. Besides, you needed to get out of that tower. Your eyes haven't left whatever you've been working on for days and a party seemed like the best way to force you to relax a little."
Tony only rolls his eyes, but plants a gentle kiss against her forehead, "Well thank you, I think, but how about we just head inside and, well you know." He winks at her, a soft chuckle leaving his lips as he watches the excitement and happiness shine in her eyes.
"Okay, oh and-" She begins to say, but she cuts herself off when she sees Tony's eyebrows furrow together and a confused expression crosses his face. She raises her own eyebrow at him and tilts her head slightly, "Are you alright?"
He doesn't say a word as he turns his head away from her, looking towards the street as car after car passes by. He licks his lips and tries to listen to see if he can hear the scream again. Despite the fact that New York City is extremely busy, even late at night, and despite all the noise that the City makes, he could have sworn he heard a loud, piercing scream.
Slowly, he looks back at Pepper and shakes his head, "Pepper, go inside and call the police. I'll be right back." He can see the confusion in her eyes and the worry on her face, so, to reassure her, he adds a small smile and presses another kiss to her forehead and then a quick one against her lips. "It might be nothing."
He then runs across the street and right as he leaves her hearing range, he mumbles under his breath, "Oh, it's definitely something."
. . .
"What did I tell ya'?!" He yells as he spits in her face, slamming her against the wall once more. As her head collides with the brick wall, she cries out as her vision blurs and black dots continue to cloud her vision. She gasps for air as he tightens his hand around her throat, cutting off her air circulation after she cried out again. "Shut your mouth before someone hears ya'!"
She opens her mouth to say something, but nothing comes out; just short breaths. The world around her spins, but when another cold breeze slaps across her face, her eyes snap open for a split second and then they begin to fall close. His fingers curl around her throat tightly as he presses her body up against the wall, her feet no longer touching the snowy ground.
"Say goodbye." Michael says with a crooked grin as he watches the young child slowly slip out of consciousness. As he watches the life be drained out of the seven-year-old, he can hear the sound of footsteps crunching the snow on the ground and he glances over his shoulder only to come face-t0-face with famous the industrialist.
"Goodbye." Tony smirks as he lifts up his hand, curling his fingers into a tight fist, and punching Michael's jaw as hard as he can. Instantly, the man stumbles to the icy floor, holding his jaw in his hands as blood pours out of his nose.
"Well," Tony shrugs with a small grin tugging on his lips, "that surely felt nice." He goes to grab at the man, but when he hears another body hit the ground behind that, that grabs his attention. He turns around to see a small child lying lifelessly on the ground, snow already starting to cover her body.
Without a moment of hesitation, Tony simply ignores Michael and goes straight to the child's side. He sinks to his knees and flips the girl over so she is lying on her back instead of her side. Vaguely in the background, Tony can hear the man scramble to his feet and dash off, but instead of chasing and stopping him, he keeps his focus on the girl who is in desperate need of his help.
"Hey," He says in a gentle, low voice, "hey, can you hear me? Come on, stay with me." He shakes the girl and thankfully, her eyes slowly open. He lets out a sigh of relief as his brown eyes meet her emerald color ones. He goes to say something, but something in the girl's hand catches the corner of his eye.
He looks down at the dirty, worn out doll that is tightly being held in the young child's hand. He stares at it for a few seconds and then he looks back up at her. The doll is a plush toy of the "Invincible Iron Man".
The young girl stares up at him and she recognizes who he is immediately. Even with her vision blurry, she would know his face anywhere- he was her favorite superhero of all time. "…I…Iron M-Man."
Tony can feel the corners of his lips slowly curve upwards at how the girl said his superhero name. Anyone can clearly hear the hope in the child's voice. He nods his head and he can't help, but let his eyes roam over her body to see how she is mostly covered in scratches, bruises, dried blood, and dirt. Before he can say or do anything else, the girl's eyes roll to the back of her head and her entire body begins shake rapidly and uncontrollably.
His eyes widen at the sight of the young girl shaking as she starts to have a seizure. Instead of waiting for the police, Tony rips off his suit jacket and covers the girl with it and then he quickly scoops her up in his arms and holds her tightly. Looking around in different directions, he hears no signs of the police coming so he rushes to his limo that is still parked across the street in front of his Tower and gets inside with the girl still in his arms.
As the limo speeds off towards the closest hospital, Tony looks down at the small child who continues to shake and he desperately tries to stop. As they head to the hospital, he silently prays that the doctors can save this girl… but by the looks of it, anything could happen and deep down, he has a bad feeling lurking inside of him.