"And that was how I found a place in New York with chitlins made right," Pepper finished explaining as she handed the box to Howard. "Tricia says it's your favorite food and you haven't been eating - which I totally get post crash - so I thought the solution was to get you something so good you couldn't refuse it."

Howard gaped up at her, paperwork temporarily forgotten. "How did you get past security when I haven't phoned you in yet? How did you get a hold of Tricia? And..." His stomach growled. "Do I have to share?"

"Nope. I'd rather be shot through the head than eat chitlins. You're just a hick." She beamed down at him affectionately. "I thought being your office assistant would be a crap job, but so far everyone's really nice! Did you know Cayan has a crush on you?"

"He's Cayan. He gets five new crushes before he's rolled out of bed. It'll fade. Just smile and nod at him and welcome to Team Stark." Howard unwrapped the box and watched Pepper's nose wrinkle in obvious disgust. "What's wrong with chitlins, anyway?"

"They're small intestines. I get why poor families in the middle of Missouri or Alabama eat them. But you own upscale places with awesome food. Why would you tell me to go get you chitlins?"

"Because's your my gopher, and the sweetbreads place shut down." Howard smiled and then ended up trying to chuckle wth his mouth closed as Pepper froze.

She twitched slightly. "You did not just tell me the richest man alive likes sweetbreads."

"They remind me of my mother," he defended, indignant. "And I didn't grow up in Alabama or Missouri, for your information, and neither did she. But it reminds me of how she used to be there for me. If anybody should understand that, it's my gopher. Go for this, go for that, go for the good of the higher ups and their emotional well being."

"You need therapy," she told him bluntlly, making him chuckle anew. "Oh God, I'm not even going to run down all the reasons that sweetbread shouldn't exist. You have a banned list of foods I can't bring into the building, even if I'm asked to gopher it, and sweetbread isn't on the list."

"That's different. McDonalds is disgusting."

Pepper threw her hands up at that point, sitting down. "I want you to know my dad thinks you're creepy for giving me a summer job."

"Your father thinks all men who interact with you are creepy. It's called parenting. Get used to it," Howard instructed her calmly. She chuckled. "It's just a protective instinct. He couldn't protect your mother, so now he's overprotecting you. I'm doing the same thing with my staff and every branch of my business right now. If I could, I'd have security cameras installed in each of their houses."

She studied him quietly. He had vaguely dark circles under his eyes. He hadn't been eating. Even as he tucked into the chitlins enthusiastically, his frame was noticeably thinner to her eyes. Tricia said he'd been avoiding his house like the plague. Howard glanced up and caught Pepper staring him down. His eyes were dark, as if the light inside them had gone out. She was reminded of the look on animal's faces after they'd been put down and their heart had lost its battle to keep beating. For a moment she debated the merits of hugging her boss before deciding against it for now.

"I'm fine," he told her firmly.

"No, you're not. And that's okay," she replied thoughtfully. "It's too early for anybody who knew Tony to be fine. But if you're not going to talk about it, you could at least take care of yourself until you can. I'm worried."

"I'm your boss. That's inappropriate."

"Fire me, then."

They resumed their stony silence after that, until someone else buzzed for Pepper to go fetch some printer paper for them. She gave Howard once last look over before she slipped out of the room. Once she was gone, he put his face in his hands, and tried to think properly. Tony's smile and bright blue-gray eyes lingered in his mind. When he thought of his son, Howard felt a kind of raw anger he hadn't felt in a long, long time. He was a sworn pacifist and an unofficial diplomat in some cases. He had never been a tempermental person. It took a lot to get to him. Tony's death was a direct shot through the heart. Howard clenched his hands, tangled his fingers in his own hair and glared at his food.

He wanted revenge.

That scared him.

The one Ring he had was incentive enough for the Mandarin to eventually re-attack. And plain old human beings wouldn't stand a chance against him. It was time to get into that suit of armor, learn how it worked, look over those blue prints and notebooks of Tony's. Then he wouldn't have died in vain; his technology would be understood and eventually used properly. Right now Howard had to fight with himself not to use it to do something horrible, to keep himself from going down that dark path. It wouldn't bring Tony back. It wouldn't make anything better. All it would do was confirm everything the world believed about human nature. He had spent his whole life trying to argue for the inherent goodness of human beings. This wasn't the right response.

The right response was to go after the next Ring, study them, figure out what this technology was. Figure out what was worth killing Tony for. Eventually he would be able to understand these Rings enough to take the Mandarin's power away, keep him from killing more people. Then he would take the man behind the mask to court. He would face all his crimes there and then Howard would... well, he couldn't see much past that, because the future was uncertain without Tony in his life, but he'd be fine. He had too much money to worry about the future in that aspect. His problems were all based in the nightmarish world of other people and money and greed. His goal was no longer to plan for the future, but to survive to see it.

He pressed a button his intercom. "All gophers be aware: McDonalds is temporarily off the banned foods list for the next two weeks only."

Somewhere out there, he heard a redhead's distinctive voice squealing, "I love you Howard Stark!"


"Well, I am the world's best boss," Howard sighed into the cellphone, smirking. "Roberta, please, don't give me the gopher versus union speech. They've got good wages."

"This isn't about their wages," she replied sharply. "You can't have underage workers on staff like this. Until she turns eighteen child labor laws-"

"Mean nothing because gophers work below the table, Roberta. She's not legally doing anything but hanging out at the building and helping out some people. And if she happens to seem a little richer, well, who can say what those crazy teens have been doing?" he rolled his eyes playfully, even though she couldn't see it. "I know what I'm doing legally, okay? Calm down."

"Rhodey says Pepper says you've been talking to her. At length."

"Roberta, darling, I know I don't know the law as well as I should, but even in California they haven't made talking illegal yet-"

"She's about Tony's age," she pressed, stressing her words in that very Roberta way he'd grown used to long ago. Unlike Tony, he rarely tuned her out. He simply didn't understand what she was getting at this time. His silence must have given that away, because she sighed and continued, "Are you sure you're not just replacing him with her?"

"What?" Howard was indignant. Then, he became sarcastic. "Yes, I'm replacing my goof ball introverted male child who knew tech better than most of our head scientists with an ultra extroverted loudmouth female who couldn't operate a jetpack without instructions. Bertie, have you been drinking?"

"You know, ever since Tony died, you've been so defensive and angry-"

"I wonder why?" he shot back dryly.

"Howard..."

"I'm busy, I'll call you back later, alright?"

"I-"

Howard switched off the cell signal with a simple firm thought, too angry to be amazed at the suit's prowess.

Right now he was busy flying. Roberta could wait. So sorry I tried to make a friend, he thought to himself as he touched down on the ground seamlessly. If only I could do cocaine or drink myself to death like my father, that'd be so much better than talking to Pepper. Anyone but her! He took three steps forward and sighed, letting the faceplate on his suit retract. I'm... being incredibly immature about this. Of course she's worried about me. She has every right to. I'm acting crazy. I shouldn't have snapped at her.

The moonlight was positively glowing on the surface of the lake, and he could see a vague red reflection in it. Red and gold. Optimistic colors, just like Tony's personality, flashy and loud and hard to miss. He smiled grimly. I must look pretty crazy right now. Thank God there's no one here. If all went according to plan, even the Mandarin wouldn't be here. It was, after all, only Stark creativity and inventiveness that allowed Howard to track the energy signal of the Rings. And if he had been doing this intellectually he wouldn't have fathomed two Rings so close to each other in location.

The first Ring had been in the shattered remains of a dirty, dusty used up testing sight that had, without a doubt, been overused by many companies before Stark Industries came into existance. In the most populus state in the United States, it was one of many potholes left by the industrial state's pushes forward. This new signal he was picking up, however, was located in the Barrens, and that made more sense even than the industrial wasteland for a choice to hide something in. Even in the suit Howard didn't particularly want to be in this place, not at night. He shook off his superstitions and made his way forward on foot, trying to isolate the signal.

The New Jersey Pine Barrens were some of the thickest, densest forest in the United States. It was a spot of untouched wilderness in the heart of the highly urban state, and very few people lived within them. The only things here so far were animals showing up on his infared, and even those were fewer and far between than they should have been. The lake was easily lost behind him after twenty feet, obscured by trees. Brambles and branches reached for him, tried to snare him. A lot of people had died in the Barrens. A lot of people had gotten lost here, or lost members of their family passing through here, and there were a lot of old stories attached to this place. Fortunately in the suit he could simply fly up and determine where to go to get back to civilization. Unfortunately, the forest was screwing with the energy signal in ways he couldn't compensate for from above.

There were lots of little things here, birds, bats, squirrels and snakes lighting up the infared around him. In the dark it was easy for a lost person to be bitten by something, trip on something, fall into a pit or slip in the muddy patches. It would be easy without the armor for his arms to quickly become covered in welts and scratches from everything, to get thorns and spiders and ticks stuck in his skin. No one had ever tamed the Barrens. Even back when the Rings were hidden, this place was perfect. Honestly, you wouldn't even have to bury anything. Just leave throw it without looking and it's gone forever. He tried to push such thoughts out of his head as he kept moving forward. The signal was getting stronger.

"Jake!" someone screamed out. A child. Howard turned. The forest was a thick deterrent even on his heat scanner. "This isn't funny anymore Jake! I just wanna - AHHH!"

The screaming dissolved into hysteria. Howard caught a glimpse of red on his scanner and shoved forward towards it, towards the tiny human figure caught in the middle of the darkness. There was something else on the screen, something he couldn't recognize. With a mere thought he switched to night vision and with another he was airborne, zooming straight at something he hadn't believed in since he was three years old and his father was sober enough to tell fairy tales.

The New Jersey Devil looked at him, and smirked.


Pepper was in Howard's office, digging through his desk, when the lights came on.

The redhead peeked over the desk's flat paper covered surface up at a disapproving Rhodey. And Rhodey's mom. She sheepishly took the flashlight out of her mouth and smiled up at them before straightening up carefully. Rhodey looked exasperated. Rhodey's mom was unreadable. On the floor and in her hands were some of Howard's files, spread out and sorted carefully, in piles. Roberta's frown could've cut down anyone. Pepper's grip on the flashlight tightened. Her eyes darted between them, and she weighed her options. No amount of 'I work here' would get her through this.

So she told the truth. "He took off earlier without a word and I'm worried so I was trying to figure out where he went because he has nothing scheduled and he hasn't been okay lately but he tries so hard to pretend he is I can't get him to just talk to me-"

"Breathe, Pepper," Rhodey instructed, kneeling down to scoop up the papers. "Slow down for those of us who don't speak at two hundred words a minute."

"Worried. About. Howard. He's missing and..." She ran a hand through her still oddly light feeling shortened hair. "I can't make heads or tails of any of this to find him."

"He's probably in his lab," Roberta Rhodes said sternly. "It's nothing to worry about. Sometimes he needs to be alone to think."

"No, this is different," the redhead shot back, shaking her head. "This is more serious. I can tell."

"Better than someone who's known him since he was twenty three?" she replied icily. "Breaking and entering is a serious offense. You're lucky I don't have you escorted out of the building."

"Rhodey, help me out here."

He raised his hands. "Hey, you're lucky I covered for you with your dad. It's like nine or something and you didn't call home. He's worried."

"Oh, like he's normally at home to notice? Please, like this is the worst his teenage daughter could get up to in New York." She shook her head in disbelief, rolling her eyes. "Whatever, I'm going home. How'd you know I'd be here anyway?"

"You've been mommy-ing Mr. Stark for the whole week."

"Ah, so you're worried your spot as Team Mom is being taken over?" she smiled, then sighed at Roberta's glare. "Oh, like you weren't here to do the same thing I was. You're so obviously in love with Howard-"

"Young lady," Roberta said in a strained voice, "If you don't want me to call security, I suggest you leave."

"On my way out," she replied calmly, storming over to the elevator. "Thanks for ratting me out Rhodey. Thanks a lot. I really appreciate it."

The elevator door shut behind her before he got a chance to respond.


Howard knew the only reason he didn't scream like a little girl was because he was too scared to do it.

He flashed forward and hit the thing hard enough to dislodge the kid, and then he was out of there. With the boy secured in his arms he took to the sky, soaring above the trees, scanners seeking out any signs of human life below. He swapped back into night vision in time to duck away from the somehow scanner-invisible creature, the jets in his boots kicking in as he pulled back, carefully holding the child with both arms. The boy was four or five, crying, covered in cuts and scratches. Howard shielded him as best he could, glowing gaze aimed at the Jersey Devil.

"I just want the boy," he said clearly to it. "I just want to get him home safely. I won't ever return, I promise."

That's not why you came here, an insidious voice whispered. You come in search of the power hidden here. They all do.

"But he didn't. And neither did Jake. They're just lost little boys, and I want to take them home. I promise you that's all I'll do. I'll leave after that. You can keep your power," he said in his best negotiator voice. "It isn't worth it."

You would really give up the power you seek for the welfare of two strangers? What are they to you? They wouldn't be the first to vanish here. You might even be able to beat me with that armor of yours-

His scanners picked up the form of a human in the darkness. He moved towards it and the Devil, faster than was physically possible, swiped at him. Howard turned so his shoulder took the hit instead, gasping in pain but maintaining his dive for the other child. With two of them in his arms, one unconscious, it was going to be a lot harder to fly and maintain any kind of speed. He crouched on the ground over them as another blow hit his back, a voice in the suit informing him that the suit's pressurization was compromised. He'd have to fly low on the way back, then. Huddled over the children, his face plate retracted and he gasped for air.

"Just let them go. Just let them go, please, I am begging you. Please. I can't see any more death. Please..."

Swear to never return, to never even step within the Barrens. Say you will give up all of the power in its grounds and never touch it. Say it.

"I'll never come back, I'll never even come to New Jersey again, I give up the power, all the power, the Ring, whatever it is my scanners detected, it's all yours, I don't want it," he gasped out, rambling as claws sank into his legs. He could hear it breathing behind him. "I don't want anything paid for in blood, I just want to get these two out."

Not bargaining for yourself?

"No. Please, please, just let them go." He could hear more than see in the pitch black that the child was sobbing. The other form was listless, too still, and the nearest hospital was miles away, on foot they'd never make it, maybe if he flew fast enough he could get them out of the Barrens - he studied the darkened lines of the trees and sky, unable to tell where one ended and the other began. Tony's face flashed through his mind, eyes dull, bloody face pale. He looked up again. "I'm taking them out of here. This isn't a request."

I can kill you.

"Ask me if I care." He steadied his grip and made a desperate burst towards the sky. "Computer, lock on a route to the nearest town, anything will do."

"Power will be insufficient to return to Stark Tower after-"

"I said do it!"

What about their parents, 'hero'?

"I have heat scanners. I know what you did," he yelled back. "You're lucky I don't do revenge!"

Oh, you don't? He sounded amused. How very noble of you. I suppose you think that's impressive-

"Done talking!" he snapped, diving abruptly at the sight of a path, curving and flying along with it, towards the ends of the Barrens. The wind was chilling to the kids, but cold was preferable to dead.

When the mythological being he hadn't believed in an hour ago popped up again in front of him, Howard turned and angled his crash into it. Since it was airborne, it had no way to stop the unexpected ramming, and he rammed it into the ground without ever slowing. The openness of the hills was up ahead, visible and tantalizing, even if he knew it was far from an assured victory. He didn't dare pull up above the treeline where he was an open target. He didn't have a plan for what to do when he hit the open road. There was none of his characteristic planning and caution here, because the freaking Jersey Devil was not something he'd planned for.

By some sort of miracle, the thing vanished off his radar once he was out of the forest. He didn't know why and didn't care. The computer took over the flying as he began to formulate a plan on how to explain this to Roberta tomorrow.

One thing was for sure - he couldn't tell her the truth. It was too stupid.


In the end, he ended up renting a truck and driving himself home.

The armor had to be covered up and he had two unlucky interns haul it into the lab, where he threw another tarp over it, tipped them both and called it a night. It was dawn by the time he made it back to the office, clutching a cup of coffee and yawning. That had gone... well, all things considered, that was probably the best that insane venture could have possible gone. At least he didn't have to worry about the Mandarin getting ahold of the Ring. No one would be able to get past that monster.

If he were less tired he'd wonder if other urban legends were real - if the existance of the Jersey Devil validated the Delphos Wolf Girl or Slender Man or the Lady In Red. As it was, he didn't even spare them a thought as he reached for his cell phone. Twelve missed calls. Eleven of which were from Pepper. She does know that I'm supposed to be her mentor, not the other way around, right? Well, whatever. She had good intentions. He was too tired to be mad.

When he saw the Ring on his desk, he found that he was also too tired to feel victorious.

Instead, he slipped it onto his hand before telling Tricia he was going to take the day off. Then he trudged back to the silent tomb he called a home, took two Xanax and a shot of vodka, and passed out before he even got to the bed.

Hopefully, no one would notice his drug induced hangover the next day.