AN: So whatsup guys? Chapter 1 of Run is finally out! Reviews, favs and follows are much appreciated :D
Chapter 1
Phoenix was handcuffed in a room with nothing but a bottle of water. Her throat was bone dry but she was unable to even open the cap with her hands cuffed to her back. Looking around, she saw her backpack was opened and emptied, showing her favorite and only possessions.
The only things she put in there was a set of clothes, a water bottle, an apple, a diary and a pencil case. The rest were just three sets of clothes. Phoenix also noticed that her pocketknife had disappeared and so was her hair clip.
It was harder to brush her hair back especially when she didn't have any hands. An officer with dozens of badges pinned on his shirt walked up to Phoenix.
"Where am I?" Phoenix demanded.
"New York Jail." He replied simply.
"Why am I here?"
"Mr. Stark should deal with you shortly.
Phoenix growled. If the officer was going to reply like this all the time, she better start thinking of as many questions as she could to keep giving her answers before Mr. Stark arrives.
Writhing her hands around silently, she scanned through a wave of possible questions.
"Who are my parents?" She thought quickly while trying to free herself.
"Aren't you supposed to answer that yourself?"
"Are you going to answer me with more questions?" Phoenix challenged.
The guard stayed silent.
After the eerie of silence, the door opened and a man with brown and neatly combed hair, short but semi curly walked in. He was wearing sunglasses like it was the hottest day on the planet.
"Stark," The officer shook hands with the man.
"Officer, let's see what we have here shall we?" Stark opened his arms to present Phoenix who was kneeling with her hands tied to her back.
"So, begin questioning." Phoenix joked.
"Okay?" Stark started off awkwardly. "What were you doing last night on my doorstep?"
"I was trying to get in." Phoenix replied, giving Stark a cold stare.
He started pacing around Phoenix, clapping his hands with every step he took. "Why?
"The police was after me."
"Because?" Stark lifted his eyebrow and gave Phoenix the questioning look.
"I…" Phoenix hesitated, should she tell him? "I'm… your daughter."
"Ah. That explains that last name of yours, Stark isn't it?"
"Hang on," Phoenix sat back, making herself comfortable. "You aren't surprised.
"I know," Stark looked at my confused face amusingly. "I knew about you."
"You what?" Phoenix stuttered. "How?"
"Aren't you the girl who ran to my cave?" Stark brought his face up to mine and removed his sunglasses.
"Well… that was three years ago!" Phoenix came and faced him. "How on earth did you remember that?
"Genius?" Stark tapped his head. "I can remember a lot of things."
"Like what? How to destroy your virtual butler with a pull of a cord?" Phoenix laughed at her own joke, but Stark didn't.
"What did you say?" Stark turned around. "Did you do something to Jarvis?"
"Who is Jarvis anyway?" Phoenix asked innocently.
"Hello?" Stark waved his hands in front of Phoenix's face like it was so obvious. "My Artificial Intelligence and virtual butler?"
"Oh, I'm guessing he also runs the cameras as well." Phoenix tilted her head, her eyes flared in annoyance.
"Get up, I'm not going to bother with the keys so I'll just cut it." Stark took out a laser and started cutting through her handcuffs.
Phoenix had no choice but to follow him. Grabbing her backpack, she carried her feeble collection of stuff to Stark towers again.
After arriving at Stark towers, Stark picked up his phone and called his CEO, Pepper Potts. After a couple of rings, Stark managed to get Pepper on the phone.
.oOo.
Pepper was waiting for the business meeting to be over. There was still two hours of good stock marketing but Pepper hated it. Being Chief Executive Officer of Stark Industries, she had to take care of all these meetings, no matter how much she doesn't want to.
Every since Tony announced he was shutting down Stark Industries, the military stole his suit. It wasn't very pleasant over those two years. But eventually it became normal.
In her left side pocket, she felt her Blackberry ring violently. Pepper thought she put it on silent. But then again, Tony must have pressed the "EMERGENCY" button.
The board stared at Pepper for about half a minute. Pepper felt her face reddening and she was trying to keep it under control. When she couldn't handle the embarrassment anymore, Pepper left the meeting room and closed the glass door shut.
"What is it Stark." She asked in a monotonous voice.
"Hey Potts," Tony started casually. "Did I ever mention that I might have a daughter?"
"Look, I'm in a middle of a board meeting so don't you try dragging me out of this." Pepper scolded Tony through the phone. But then, a wave of memories and realization hit her mind. Pepper asked again, clearly shocked and bewildered. "Wait, did you say a daughter?
"Yes, a daughter."
Pepper dropped her Blackberry. Tony heard the sound of the plastic cracking and said. "I knew I should have made it out of titanium alloy, but then again, she wouldn't let me touch it."
"Pepper?" Tony asked. He panicked when she didn't reply. "Pepper Virginia Potts! That's it! I'm coming over right now!"
The phone hung up with a click.
Pepper was processing what she had just heard. A daughter? How is that even possible? Recovering from the shock, she picked up the phone to see that Tony had hung up and sent a text message.
I'll be right over in a jiffy. Wait in the lobby.
Pepper groaned but proceeded to the elevator anyway.
.oOo.
Tony Stark walked into the lounge with a dirty and battered looking girl. The girl was about one meter and a half tall and her tank top and shorts were torn and ripped. Her hair was brown and oily and her skin was rubbed with dirt. It was like she hasn't washed in days. Her blue-grey eyes betrayed her tough outer look; it had a hint of darkness and fear.
Pepper looked at the girl, ran over and checked her over. "Is she okay?" Pepper asked worriedly. "Is that your-"?
"Yes, she's my daughter all right. I'm not surprised and neither should you." Tony put his hand on Pepper's shoulder.
"Are you sure?" Pepper turned around to face him. The other entire members of the board turned to see Pepper and Tony facing each other.
"Yes, because she is also your daughter."
"How… how is that even possible?" Pepper exclaimed.
"Can I explain on the way?" Phoenix jumped into the conversation.
Pepper and Tony stayed silent.
Tony led the two of them to his white Ferrari; it was a classy one, not new at all. But the windows and steel doors were relatively polished well and new. Luckily there was no press showing up, and that's a good sign for all three of them.
.oOo.
The gentle ocean breeze was gliding through Phoenix's hair while Stark was driving his Ferrari.
"So are you telling me," Pepper started. "That Tony and I will have a baby?"
"Yes." Phoenix nodded in return.
"You're also saying that you're from the future?" she asked again.
"Again, yes."
Pepper was still trying to process the information accessing her brain. It was only half an hour ago when Phoenix had started talking, but fitting twelve years of her life wasn't easy. She paused, and then turned around to face Phoenix.
"I don't know if this is a joke or tri-"
Tony cut in. "It isn't Pepper, I knew all about it."
"You did?" Pepper yelled at Tony unexpectedly, she through her hands up in the air. "Why did you never tell me?"
"Well, it was bound to happen anyway." Tony took off his sunglasses and gave her his trademark smile.
"Oh no," Pepper groans, then asked Tony to pull over the car. The three was talking so much that they didn't even notice they were already at Stark Towers.
After getting out, Pepper storms out of the car and into the building.
"What's with her?" Phoenix asked.
"I don't know," Tony stood beside Pepper and watched her growl in frustration. It was an awkward moment. "Maybe I should just wear my suit in my house." He chuckled at his own joke.
"Why not buy her another custom rabbit?" Phoenix joked. Everyone was bound to remember the press's reactions and articles on the giant, Christmas rabbit in Malibu.
"No, not a good idea." Tony sighed.
"Well then, I won't help you." Phoenix smiled.
Phoenix was still sticky and dirty. "Hey kid," Tony looked at her. Phoenix looked up. "What?"
"Wash up! You smell really bad." Tony pretended to sniff.
Phoenix stared at Tony; she turned her head around and gave him a cold look. "Really? Ah! Fine, but only because I stink!" Then after a second or so, Phoenix left and entered the building.
"That kid is seriously me." Tony thought to himself.
.oOo.
Phoenix sat in the guest room of the tower. After her shower, she was much cleaner and her hair was now curly and back to her original style. She was thinking about Pepper's reaction to her story on how she got here.
11 years ago:
Phoenix was a regular, healthy one-year-old baby. She was sleeping peacefully in her crib in the same room as Stark and Pepper.
The peace was broken when they all heard a loud crash on the balcony. There was a shadow of a man, a rather chubby one actually. The sound woke up Tony, who activated his suit that stood up alive.
The man pressed a red button and he disappeared and turned invisible. Without either the suit or Tony knowing, Phoenix screamed and cried while she was being grabbed. The man was holding baby Phoenix, and Pepper was screaming.
The man vanished with a bright flash.
6 years ago:
Phoenix never remembers that incident years ago, and she never thought about it.
Her foster father has signed Phoenix up into a number of classes when she was young. Even when her family was poor, her foster father had a number of highly trained people. Skills such as kick boxing; martial arts, gymnastics and gun handling came to her naturally. Soon enough at the age of six, she could beat the best martial arts teacher and knock them on their feet.
Phoenix thought she was probably training for nothing. She was never allowed on missions or fight zones, but she trained with punching dummies and her foster fathers baby sitters.
Phoenix thought her foster father loved her, but it turned out she was wrong. The reason why she was there was because her foster father had contact with his future self. It turned out she was sent through the future.
It was this portal that her foster father tricked her into stepping in when she was three. Appearing in the past, nine years before. That was how she had enough time to grow to twelve now. Every year she went back, she grew a year older. She never knew that her foster father was any different.
.oOo.
Phoenix was still thinking about the past when Tony walked into the room. Pepper may be confused right now, but hopefully she will understand soon.
"Hey kid," Tony smirked.
"Stop calling me kid!" Phoenix lightly slapped his face, and then sighed.
"Wait a second," Tony said suddenly.
"What is it?" Phoenix asked while being bored of sitting on her bed.
"I'm going to build a time machine, and Raza's going to get his hands on it?"
"Well, he gets his hands on me too." Phoenix replied curtly.
"Yeah, that too."
Tony started pacing around Phoenix while she was lying in her bed. Then when he found an answer, Tony clapped his hands.
"If you were from the future, how many years ahead?"
"Five and a half."
"So… that means you are born two years from now."
"Yes and…"
"You went back nine years when you were three." Tony spoke again.
"The Ten Rings incident was three years ago, so by seeing the facts here, you were eight when we first met." Tony paused while he still thought.
"Precisely." Phoenix concluded.
"You lived in this period of time for four years?"
"Yes, I still had to live with the Ten Rings." Phoenix ended the thinking.
"That's a shame."
.oOo.