four months after we announced the truth, the world was a whole new place.
Iron Man and Iron Girl where everywhere, we had our own Japanese anime, Stark Industries was flying, the famous expos in New York where complete sell outs, we worked for the US Army, Marines, Air Force, everywhere. People wanted me for modelling shoots and advertising campaigns, they wanted me to guest star in Teen TV shows like Pretty Little Liars, The Vampire Diaries, Teen Wolf, I went everywhere, and Brody came with. Apart from when me and dad where in active war zones and the like.
I spoke to S.H.I.E.L.D on several occasions, we were working together on the super secret Avengers Initiative, or Director Nick Fury was planning it, the heads of the board weren't thrilled about taking it on, but I'm sure once he let them know I was on board, he'd have no problem with clearance. It was so secretive I couldn't tell me dad.
I made three more suits, one full body armour like dad's, a metallic purple and gold, I re made my original baby pink and graphite one, I also made one for show, like the one they came up with in Japan for the anime cartoon; Iron Girl Adventures. It was mostly aimed at girls, they had Iron Man Adventures for boys and a crossover series Iron Adventures.
The suit in that was a silver cat suit with a luminous pink armoured chest piece that looked cropped, if metal could be cropped, the traditional clunky boots in the same sparkly pink that came just over knee height, and fully robotic arms and helmet, only the helmet had this hugely long and inappropriate ponytail coming out of the top of it, and the mask's face was a whole lot more cartoon like and expressive. I loved that suit more than any other.
But through all this excitement, thrills, famous friends, parties, interviews, saving the world, I was dying. We were dying. Using the suits was poisoning us, slowly but surely. And being honest with myself, I was so so scared. I didn't want to die, I wanted to live so much. I couldn't wear backless anything anymore, I had to cover up the tiny black veins that extended further and further every day all over my body that were signs of the poison making its way through my body.
…..fifteen thousand feet above New York City, first night at Stark Expo…..
"two seven thirty holding steady at fifteen thousand feet, you are over the drop zone."
"Play the music." I said, and the guitar riffs sent a bolt of adrenaline through me, and my dad I'm sure, and the plane opened its door over the expo, I could practically hear the crowd from here, we were going to fly in to the bars of AC/DC's Shoot to Thrill, look really awesome, and have super cool dancers in Iron Man and Iron Girl costumes, and we were going to present the first Stark Expo featuring Iron Man and Iron Girl.
The doors opened, the music swelled up from nearly the entire city, and Dad and me dodged the fireworks and swooped and fell and dove through the air, to finally land in a crouch on the Expo's main stage in front of a huge screen bearing a bright, bold American flag, the dancers came out and did their dance to the rest of the song and our hands were raised up, accepting the screams and applause.
We'd landed directly on two circular pedestals, which spun slowly as three robots appeared, not the ones from our Malibu house, but their cousins, if you will, and began to disassemble the suits in front of the crowd, leaving Dad in a suit and me in a pair of fresh-off-the-NYC-runway high waisted black spandex pants and a black and white crew neck striped box t shirt with ¾ sleeves, teamed with some extreme chunky platforms. My hair was in natural waves in a low pony, I looked awesome, casual, unexpected. Iron Girl.
Iron Girl who was dying.
"Hello New York!" I yelled, a secret concealed mini mic amplified my voice, I waved
"It's good to be back!" Dad called, Pepper wrote this intro for us, all we had to do was remember it. It was safe to say I was much better at public speaking since the day I announced we were superheroes.
"Did you miss us?" I asked
"Blow something up!" someone shouted from the crowd
"Blow something up?" I asked "Hey, didn't we already do that dad?"
"I think we did."
There were laughs. "I'm not saying the world is enjoying its longest period of uninterrupted peace because of us." Dad took on a serious note; I kept smiling, stood next to him.
"And I'm not saying that from the ashes of captivity, never has a greater phoenix metaphor been personified in human history!" I said laughed out, taking a miniature bow.
"I'm not saying that Uncle Sam can lay back on a lawn chair, sipping ice tea because I haven't come across anyone who's man enough to go toe to toe with us on our best day!" the audience was amazing, they cheered everything we said
"I love you Tony!" someone screamed
"Please, it's not about me…it's not about you, it's not even about us. It's about legacy; it's about what we choose to leave behind for future generations. That's why that for the next year, and for the first time since 1974, the best and brightest men and women from nations and corporation from the world over, pool their resources, share their collective vision, to leave behind a brighter future."
Wow ok Pepper you definitely wrote this script fairly, I had nothing to say for a while, so I just had to stand there looking pretty in a very genius superhero way. "It's not about us! Therefore, what I am saying, if I'm saying anything, is welcome back to the Stark Expo."
Now it was my turn "And now, making a special appearance from the great beyond, please welcome, my grandfather, Howard!" I said, as a huge screen rolled forward bearing the Stark Industries logo. There was a video that my grandfather had made to show at the Stark Expos, we showed a shortened version of it every year, but this Expo was huge, so we were showing them the full version.
We walked off the side of the stage as the familiar voice started to talk "Everything is achievable through technology, better living, robust health…"
My dad placed a metal bottle down on the table, took out his blood toxicity monitor. 19%.
"I need to check yours." He said, putting it away. I pulled mine out, rolling my eyes; I hated this more than anything at the moment. "Twenty one." I said. His mouth tightened.
The video was about to finish, I brushed off the tiny prick of blood and turned to walk backstage and go home. "The Stark Expo…Welcome."
I headed down, dad through his jacket to Uncle Happy, our driver and part time best friend. He wasn't my uncle, but he was like a second father too me, He was the person I trusted most in the world, after Dad and Pepper of course. Brody came after Happy Hogan on the basis he wasn't a Stark, or even an honorary member of my unrelated, kind of mixed up family. Brody also thought I had some serious mental issues. He liked to tell me I was worse than my dad, and very spoiled and annoying. But that was only in our fights.
Happy led us quickly through the backstage area "We gotta get you out of here. Come on." He led us through the door as bodyguards tried to shield us from the crowd "Hi, nice too meet you, enjoy the expo." I repeated, trying to shake as many hands as possible and smile brightly.
Going down the stairs I stopped to autograph pictures of me for some adorable little kids, the boys had Iron Man masks on, the girls' pink iron Girl versions. I patted them on the head. Happy introduced us to the more 'important' people on the stairs going down to the underground garage. I shook hands and put on my 'business' smile, a little less lopsided happy grin, a little more 'I'm nearly twenty years old, I know what I'm doing.' with a pinch of 'I'm a Stark, get the hell out of my way.'
We finally got away from the crowd "There we go, that wasn't so bad." Happy said
"No, it was perfect." Dad said
"The new models arrived." Happy passed us a car key each
"Oooh, nice." I surveyed the pretty cars
"Nice, does she come with the car?" Dad asked indicating the girl leaning against it, I had to stifle a groan, as Brody joined us. He greeted me with a hug and a quick kiss, "You were awesome out there." He said
"I know." I grinned
We walked over to the cars, Brody, Happy and Dad let out low whistles, then they looked at me when I made no sound "It does come in pink though, right?" I asked
Happy tried to explain that to put a colour like pink on a car like that was blasphemy, but I wanted to know what the hell this girl was doing against my car looking like she had the right to be.
"Hi." Dad said
"Hi" she said back
"And you are?" he asked
"Marshall."
"Unusual, I like it."
"Nice to meet you, Tony." She said but she got ignored.
"I'm on the wheel, you mind?" He asked Happy "Come one Brody, I'll race ya." He said
I rolled my eyes and handed the keys to Brody, as Happy put Dad's bags in the trunk, and an assistant brought my Louis Vuitton holdall and Brody's Hugo Boss gym bag over and put them in the trunk as I climbed into the passenger seat.
"Where you from?" Dad asked the girl
"Bedford."
"What're you doing here?"
"Looking for you and Lara."
"Oh really?" I asked
The two cars were parked side by side. "What're you up to later?" dad asked
"Serving citations." She said, across me as I was the one closest to her. She handed me a letter. I looked at it. "Yikes." I said
"I don't like to be handed things, Brody, take it." I snapped
"Yeah, she doesn't like to be handed things." Brody said taking the letter
"Yeah, she has a thing. I happen to have the same thing, so…" The girl walked around the other side to give dad's letter to Happy. Brody had torn it open and started reading it.
"You are hereby ordered to appear before the senate armed services committee tomorrow morning at nine AM." She said
"Can I see a badge?" dad asked
"That won't be necessary." She said
"I wanna see the badge." I raised my eyebrows. She flashed the shield. Crap, being in court tomorrow morning was not part of the plan. My favourite Manhattan salon with my Victoria's Secret model friends and Kim Kardashian was the plan.
So much for that, I guess.
"How far are we from DC?" Brody asked
"DC? 250 Miles." Happy informed us. Brody and Dad exchanged a competitive look and the engines revved.