Here we go...this is my longest chapter ever! And I am going to apologize in advance because school is starting tomorrow and that means I won't be bale to update as often. My goal is going to once a month, but sometimes it may not happen. So I'm really super sorry in advance, but here's a super long chapter to hopefully tide you over.
FLIGHTLESS IN ROSE HILL
We had been flying for hours. I still had no clue where we were or where we were heading, but for the past hour we had been flying through a blinding snowstorm and I had yet to spot a town below us. I wasn't completely sure if that was because the snow was so heavy that I only ever caught glimpses of the ground below me or if the ground below us was truly completely covered in a forest of pine trees or maybe it was a combination of both. Suddenly, Tony's suit began to shift around causing me to wrap my arms tighter around his neck.
"Alright, kill the alarm. I got it." Tony mumbled.
"Oh thank god! I thought you died." I gasped, wrapping my arms even tighter around Tony's neck. He had been unconscious so long that I wasn't sure if he was going to wake up again.
"Shut up." He mumbled, waving his hand dismissively.
"Whatever. It's not like I saved your life or anything." I scowled and rolled my eyes. Suddenly Tony started to spazz out, causing me to hold on for my life.
"What are you doing?" I snapped trying to keep myself from falling off his back down into the white abyss.
"WHOAAAAA!" Tony yelled in response as the suit started to plummet towards the ground without any sign of slowing down soon. As we drew closer to the ground I could make out that we were on a collision course with the straight black lines of a road and the soft yellow glow of oncoming headlights.
"Tony? Tony! TONY THERE'S A CAR!" I yelled, slapping his helmet to get his attention as we got closer to the road, but Tony still didn't pull up out of the out of control, ungraceful dive.
"Fantastic." I muttered as I pulled my feet up under me so that I was crouching on his back. Right before Tony bounced off the top of the car I launched myself off his back onto the nearby snow covered ground. When I rolled to a stop I looked up the road to where Tony had roughly skidded to a stop. I pushed myself to my feet and started to try to run over to him, but the snow was too deep and I just wiped out, falling face first into the snow. I scowled and slowly got to my feet as I brushed off all the snow that was no coating the front of my outfit. I sighed and started to run my hand through my hand through my hand in frustration when I got an idea. I carefully raised my hand and put a layer of ice thick enough to hold my body weight on top of the snow that continued all the way to Tony like a sidewalk. Then I created blades of ice on the bottom of my combat boots to make homemade ice skates. I pushed off the first step and it worked like a charm. I chuckled to myself as I skated the rest of the way down the path. When I reached him, he was sitting upright in the suit breathing heavily.
"That's brisk!" Tony announced even though he didn't know there was anyone else around to hear it.
"Well, duh, it's snowing and it's almost Christmas." I smirked as I skated up to him.
"I was hoping that I had imagined your voice earlier." Tony sighed, rubbing his hands together for warmth.
"That is not a very nice thing to say to someone who saved your life." I mockingly chastised as I skated circles around him. Tony flicked me off and started to lay back down in the suit.
"Maybe I'll just cozy back up for a bit." He said, rubbing his arms.
"I actually think I need to sleep now, sir." Jarvis replied as the suit shut off.
"Jarvis… Jarvis? Don't leave me, buddy." Tony pleaded.
"Wow. That's a bummer." I sighed, sliding to a stop.
"Can you not be annoying for five seconds?" He asked.
"I don't know, can you?" I scoffed.
"See this why no one likes you." Tony snapped.
"Really, I thought it was because I hung out with you." I retorted. Tony opened his mouth to say something, but then quickly closed it.
"You know this whole thing is your fault." Tony said, his voice calm, almost emotionless.
"I'm not the one who threatened a terrorist and then invited him to come blow up my house." I sneered.
"If you weren't clinging onto my suit then I wouldn't have lost power so quickly." Tony snapped back.
"A) it was a prototype and was going to die regardless of what I did. B) you kind of dragged me along for the ride." I coldly replied.
"You can fly. Don't give me that shit." Tony glared at me furiously rubbing his arms.
"No my wing has actually been shot up pretty bad. Hence, the ice skates." I argued, pointing at the makeshift ice skates that were still on my feet. Tony didn't say anything, he just kept glaring at me and shivering.
"Are you cold?" I sighed.
"How are you not?" He retorted.
"Genetics." I smirked, "Oh and maybe you should try rolling down your sleeves."
"I hate you." He muttered , but he didn't unroll his sleeves.
"Join the club." I joked, "And to think I was going to give you my sweatshirt."
"No! Sorry. Can I have the sweatshirt now?" Tony asked. I rolled my eyes and sighed,
"Only because you look so pathetic." I smirked, as I pulled off my light blue sweatshirt, leaving me standing in just a sports bra, black leggings and combat boots. Tony gratefully smiled back and slid the sweatshirt over his head.
"Thank you." Tony grumbled as he slowly stood up.
"No problem, just promise that as soon as we find shelter you'll look at my wing. I think there's still a bullet or two lodged in it." I replied giving him a small smile.
"Yeah, sure." He replied, waving me off. I rolled my eyes.
"Is that a yes?" I slowly asked, quirking an eyebrow.
"Maybe." He flippantly replied.
"Can you not being annoying for five seconds?" I asked, quoting him from earlier.
"Pepper seems to think so." Tony smugly grinned back.
"Pepper seemed pretty pissed at you earlier." I reminded him as I gently lobbed a snowball at his smug face. Tony easily batted the snowball away.
"Because I threatened a terrorist!" Tony protested. I chuckled to myself,
"You two complement each other well. When are you going to ask her to marry you?" I asked, changing the subject. Tony's head snapped towards me.
"What?!"
"What? Are you scared?" I taunted.
"No, I'm waiting for the right moment." He defensively replied.
"Come on! You've fought terrorists, aliens, Heck, you even…"
"Don't say it!" Tony snapped.
"Went through a wormhole into a different dimension!" I continued, ignoring his interruption, "I think you can handle asking…Tony?" I paused, noticing that he was clutching his chest.
"Shit! Is this a panic attack?" I asked, starting to freak out. Tony wordlessly nodded, his eyes practically bugging out of his head. I panicked and did the only thing I could think of…I slapped him across the face.
"What was that for?" He exclaimed once he had caught his breath.
"I panicked?" I sheepishly explained.
"You panicked?" Tony incredulously asked, "What about me?"
"It was a reflex!" I protested.
"Who slaps someone when they're having a panic attack?!" Tony exclaimed, "You know what, don't answer that. I don't even want to know what you were thinking."
"But—" I started to defend myself, but Tony interrupted me,
"No! Just stop talking. I don't want to hear it. I'm done talking to you." Tony coldly replied as he slowly stood up. He took off his belt, looped it under the suit's arms, and started trudging away from me through the snow. I rolled my eyes and skated after him.
"Do you want skates?" I asked, but he kept his eyes straight forward, ignoring me. I skated around in front of him,
"Do you at least want me to help you carry that thing?" I sighed, but once again Tony didn't reply.
"Are you going to act like a child this entire trip?" I asked, rolling my eyes, but there was still no response.
"Fine." I sighed and settled for skating along beside him in silence.
After skating alongside Tony through the snow in silence for about fifteen minutes we finally saw the glow of lights. As we got closer I realized it was an old Texaco gas station. The little old station was practically abandoned. The only signs of life were the multi-colored Christmas lights around the window and the lone pick-up truck parked in the back lot.
Tony pulled the suit up under the overhang in front of the shop so it was sheltered from the snow and I reluctantly followed him. Tony ripped a poncho off a wooden Indian that was a decoration for the pathetic gas station and pulled it on over top of my sweatshirt.
"Stay here with the suit." Tony ordered and he walked over to the payphone.
"Yes sir." I mockingly saluted back. Tony rolled his eyes and stepped inside the payphone. I couldn't hear what he said, but I hoped he was calling Pepper. She cared about him and deserved to know that he was safe. A minute later he walked back out, grabbed the suit, and started trudging through the snow again.
"Who did you call?" I asked as I jogged to catch up with him.
"Pepper." He solemnly answered.
"Did she pick up?" I asked as a follow up.
"No." He sighed.
"I'm sorry Tony, but I know she's going to be thrilled to get the message. She probably thinks you're dead. She probably thinks I'm dead too, but she probably couldn't care less about me." I tried to encourage him.
"No, I told her that her "sister" was alive too because that's one of the amazing things about Pepper, she may have just met you a couple of hours ago, but she cares what happens to you and most likely was even worrying about you this entire time." Tony seriously told me. I smiled to myself,
"She sounds like a great person."
"She is." Tony longingly replied with a far off look in his eyes. I smirked and decided to leave him to his thoughts. The poor man had been through enough today.
After a few minutes a small abandoned-looking farmhouse came into view. Tony quickened his pace,
"We're crashing there tonight." Tony said, pointing at the farmhouse.
"We already crashed one time today don't you think that's enough?" I joked trying to lighten the mood a little bit.
"You're hilarious." Tony sarcastically replied.
"It's a gift," I smirked, running my hand through my hair, "Can I try to kick down the door?"
"Kick down the door?" Tony slowly asked.
"It's a dream of mine." I seriously replied.
"Since when?" Tony scoffed.
"Since five minutes ago when I saw the door." I grinned.
"I'm going to find crowbar for when you screw up." Tony teasingly replied.
"I'm going to find a crowbar for when you screw up." I mocked him, deepening my voice.
"I don't sound like that." Tony called back over his shoulder, holding up one finger as he walked around the side of the building.
"You're right, I forgot the overwhelming arrogance." I snapped back, running my hand through my hair. Tony did respond so I started to eye up the door. I took a step back from it and kicked the door as hard as I could and fell on my butt.
"Shit." I hissed, quickly looking around to see if Tony had seen it. Luckily he wasn't back yet. I quickly, decided to pick the lock and knelt beside the door. I pulled a bobby pin out of my hair and jammed it into the lock.
"Couldn't kick down the door could you?" Tony taunted, flipping a crowbar back and forth between his hands.
"Shut up." I sighed, stepping back from the door. Tony pried the door open the door with the crowbar he found, pulled off his poncho, and dragged his suit in to a small plaid couch. I quickly looked around the room. It looked like a less expensive, smaller, more cluttered version of Tony's lab. I picked up the poncho on my way in figuring that we could use it for bandages.
"Let's get you comfy." Tony told the suit as he sat down beside it. He adjusted its hand so it was resting on its knee and faced its head forward.
"Can I have my sweatshirt back now?" I asked. I was tired of walking around in the snow practically half-naked even though the cold didn't bother me.
"You happy now?" He asked the suit, ignoring me.
"Tony, you promised to get the bullets out of my wing." I reminded him.
"I did? Oh right I did. Hop up on the table." He dismissively ordered, pointing to a table with tons of spare parts on top of it while he rifled through a tool kit.
"Tony there's stuff on that table." I pointed out to him with a tight smile.
"Move it." He shrugged.
"I'm going to stay standing up." I firmly replied, crossing my arms.
"Fine, suit yourself." He flippantly shrugged. I closed my eyes and slowly spread out my wing. Tony let out a low whistle,
"You weren't kidding that's a lot of bullet holes."
"Yeah, I know." I replied through gritted teeth. That's when my sweatshirt hit me in the back of the head.
"There's seven holes total. Three still have bullets in them." He told me.
"Great, get them out." I snapped, just wanting the bullets to be out of me already so that the wounds could start to heal. I felt his hand move some feathers aside and the painful twinge of the tweezers grasping the bullet. I gritted my teeth, refusing to cry out in pain. Tony was good. He pulled them out quickly and tried to be gentle about it, but it still hurt. Tony laid the last bullet down on the desk and threw the poncho at me.
"Wrap it up." He ordered before moving over to the table and starting to fiddle with something he had injected into his arm. I sighed, walked over to the couch, and started to rip the poncho in bandage sized pieces.
"Freeze! Don't move." A voice ordered. Tony and I's heads snapped up. Thankfully because I was in a darker corner of the room the voice, a young boy, was focused on Tony. I gently laid the poncho on the couch and slowly got up so I wouldn't draw the boy's attention. Tony put his hands up and froze.
"You got me. Nice potato gun. Barrel's a little long. Between that and the wide gauge, it's going to diminish your FPS." Tony replied, unimpressed as he analyzed the gun.. The boy fired the gun at a mason jar on a shelf as if to say 'see look, it works just fine'.
"And now you're out of ammo." Tony sighed and put his hands back down on the desk, "Blaise come out."
"I need your help wrapping the bandages." I coldly told him as I threw the poncho strips at his face.
"Right now?" Tony whined, unfortunately catching the poncho before it could hit him.
"Yes right now. I don't want the bullet holes to get infected." I scowled.
"Who's that?" The boy warily asked.
"I'm his sister, Blaise." I cut in before Tony could say anything.
"She's adopted." Tony added to make the lie more believable as he glared at me.
"What's that thing on your chest?" The boy untrustingly asked Tony.
"It's an electromagnet. You should know, you've got a box of them right here." Tony snarkily replied tapping a box of magnets. I gently hit his arm,
"Be nice, he can still call the cops." I reminded him through a forced smile.
"What does it power?" The boy asked, still not lowering his gun. Tony hesitated for a moment before flipped a light towards his suit that was still sitting on the couch.
"Oh my God!" The boy gasped, dropping his gun and taking a step towards us, "That...that's... Is that Iron Man?" He asked awestruck.
"Technically, I am." Tony proudly replied.
"You just can't help yourself can you?" I smirked, shaking my head at him.
"Technically, you're dead." The boy replied, hitting tony in the chest with a newspaper. Tony unrolled the paper and I peeked over his shoulder at the headline "Mandarin Attack: Stark Presumed Dead."
"A valid point." Tony muttered.
"I didn't even get a mention." I gasped, feigning hurt.
"Get over yourself princess." Tony replied, slapping my across the head with the paper. Meanwhile the boy had walked over to the suit,
"What happened to him?" The boy asked, peering into the suit's eyes.
"Life. I built him, I take care of him. I'll fix him." Tony flippantly replied, throwing the newspaper onto the floor.
"Like a mechanic?" The boy asked.
"Yeah." Tony quietly replied.
"Oh. If I was building Iron Man and War Machine..." The boy started to say something, but Tony quickly cut him off,
"It's Iron Patriot now."
"That's way cooler!" The boy exclaimed
"No, it's not." Tony snapped. The boy shrugged and continued,
"Anyways, I would have added in um... the retro..."
"Retroreflective panels?" Tony asked surprised that the boy knew what those were. I didn't even know what those were. The boy eagerly nodded,
"To make him stealth mode."
"You want a stealth mode?" Tony asked.
"Cool, right?" The boy grinned.
"That's actually a good idea. Maybe I'll build one." Tony thoughtfully replied right as the boy accidently ripped off one of Ironman's fingers.
"Oops!" The boy unapologetically replied.
"Not a good idea! What are you doing? You're going to break his finger? He's in pain, he's been injured. Leave him alone." Tony snapped.
"Sorry." The boy softly replied.
"Are you?" Tony asked, before calming himself down and brushing off the incident, "Don't worry about it, I'll fix it. So, uh, who's home?
"Well, my mom already left for the diner and dad went to 7-Eleven to get scratchers. I guess he won, 'cause that was six years ago." The boy flippantly replied.
"Mm. Which happens, dads leave. No need to be a pussy about it." Tony callously shrugged, "Here's what I need: a laptop, a digital watch, a cell phone, the pneumatic actuator from your bazooka over there, a map of town, a big spring, and a tuna fish sandwich."
"You're so polite Tony." I sarcastically told him as I mouthed an apology to the boy, "Would you being willing to give us some bandages and some disinfectant as well? I've been shot." I kindly added on to the end of his list.
"What's in it for me?" The boy asked, turning Ironman's finger over in his hand.
"Salvation. What's his name?" Tony asked without missing a beat.
"Who?" The boy asked, thoroughly confused.
"The kid that bullies you at school, what's his name?" Tony repeated, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"How'd you know that?" The boy replied, his voice lacking some of its previous bravado.
"I got just the thing." Tony told him as he walked over to his suit. He pressed a button and a small metal object popped out.
"This is a piñata for a cricket. I'm kidding, it's a very powerful weapon. Point it away from your face, press the button on top. It discourages bullying. Non-lethal, just to cover one's ass." Tony told him as he held out the device. The boy reached out to grab the device, but Tony kept it out of reach until the boy agreed to his terms,
"Deal? Deal? What'd you say?" Tony repeated like a broken record.
"Deal." The boy finally replied.
"Deal?" Tony asked one last time as he handed him the device and the boy nodded.
"What's your name?" Tony asked as the boy inspected his new device.
"Harley. And you're..." Harley trailed off waiting for a response.
"The mechanic." Tony replied, but Harley gave him a look causing Tony to relent and give him a name,
"Tony." Tony paused and looked at the boy for a few moments,
"You know what keeps going through my head? Where's my sandwich?" Tony rudely asked. I sighed and ran my hand through my hair.
"You could make your own sandwich." I replied, rolling my eyes.
"And you could treat your own wounds." Tony snapped back.
"No, actually I can't. They're just out of my reach." I retorted.
"Where were you shot?" Harley interrupted our argument and I looked at Tony,
"Last chance." I threatened knowing that as soon as I pulled my wings out the whole siblings lie would be scratched. Tony shrugged and waved for me to go ahead. I slowly stretched out my typically almost white wing that was now stained with blood.
"You're…you're…" Harley stuttered, but I interrupted him,
"Bleeding, yes, I know."
"No you're Ice Angel." He gasped.
"Ha! I told you people would recognize me!" I taunted Tony.
"Well of course they will after you show them your wings. How many other humans are genetically engineered to have wings?" Tony scoffed.
"Shut up." I scowled, flipping him off before turning to Harley,
"I can help you with Mr. Needy over here's list."
"Hey! I am not needy." Tony protested.
"You're right. I'm sorry is spoiled a better description?" I retorted. Tony rolled his eyes and went back to fiddling with whatever he had injected into his arm.
"I can show you…" Harley trailed off pointing towards the rest of the house.
"Yeah, lets go." I nodded, following him out of the room.
After twenty minutes Harley and I had gathered together Harley's sister's digital Dora watch, a flip phone, the pneumatic actuator that we had managed to get out of his potato gun, a possibly out dated map of town, a big spring from an old mattress, a tuna fish sandwich, a glass a water that we may or may not have salted, a change of clothes for Tony so that I could get my sweatshirt back, and he had bandaged and disinfected my wounds. During that time I learned that Harley was practically a mini Tony. The kid was brilliant, manipulative, and knew how to get what he wanted. The only difference was that Harley wasn't an arrogant asshole most of the time.
When we gave Tony what he wanted all he said was finally and kicked us out of his newly established lab. Then he threw the salted water at us a minute later causing Harley and I to die laughing. Then after twenty minutes of playing cards Harley showed me a room down the hall where I could clean up and sleep.
I woke up to a cup of ice water being dumped on my head about thirty minutes later.
"What the hell?" I exclaimed, jolting awake.
"We're leaving." Tony announced, as he walked out of the room.
"I hate you." I called after him, running my hand through my soaking wet hair.
"Get in line." He flippantly replied. I groaned and put my face back in my pillow, imagining ways to kill the annoying billionaire. After a minute of fantasizing about Tony's death, I got up and shuffled over to the lab.
"What time is it?" I grumbled.
"Around seven." Tony dismissively replied.
"A.M?" I scowled.
"No at night. That's why it's dark out." Tony smirked at me, "Come on, grab Harley, We're leaving."
"Fine." I grumbled. I stepped out into the hallway and yelled,
"Harley we're leaving!" Tony's head popped out from behind the door.
"I could've done that. Go find him." He snapped. I rolled my eyes and waiting a few seconds. Sure enough Harley came bounding out from a room down the hall.
"I'm ready." He eagerly grinned. I smirked at his enthusiasm and ruffled his hair before pounding my fist on Tony's door,
"We're just waiting on you big guy." Seconds later the door swung open revealing Tony, dressed in an ugly brown coat and brown ball cap.
"Do you have a car that we can drive to town?" He asked Harley as we walked out of the house.
"No."
"I know how we can get to town." I grinned. With a flourish of my hand blades of ice appeared on out feet and a path of ice appeared in front of us.
"That is so cool!" Harley exclaimed as he took off down the path. I stuck my tongue out at Tony as if to say 'I told you so' and took off after Harley.
When we got close to town I made the skates disappear and the three of us walked into town.
"Tony where are we going?" I asked him.
"To church." He flippantly replied. I rolled my eyes and didn't bother to ask a follow up question. I assumed that we were going to the local explosion site.
"What did you think of the stuff we got you?" Harley asked and I inwardly cringed knowing that Tony had been waiting for an opportunity like this.
"The sandwich was fair, the spring was a little rusty, the rest of the materials, I'll make do. By the way, when you said your sister had a watch, I was kind of hoping for something a little more than that." Tony rattled off. Harley and I laughed.
"She's six! Anyway, it's limited edition. When can we talk about New York?" Harley asked.
"Maybe never, relax about it." Tony quickly replied.
"What about The Avengers, can you talk about them?" Harley persisted.
"I don't know, later." Tony shrugged and pushed Harley away, "Hey kid, give me a little space."
"Tony he's not even that close to you." I pointed out, but Tony ignored me to examine the explosion site. It was a cement block building with two of the walls and ceiling missing. A memorial was set up in the one corner, surrounded by five shadows.
"What's the official story here? What happened?" Tony asked Harley.
"I guess this guy named Chad Davis, used to live roundabouts, won a bunch of medals in the army. One day, folks said he went crazy and made, you know, a bomb. Then he blew himself up right here." Harley explained sitting down near the memorial as Tony looked around at the suspicious looking shadows. I joined Harley on the ground and watched Tony thoughtfully pace around the site.
"Six people died, right?" Tony asked.
"Yeah." Harley confirmed.
"Including Chad Davis?" Tony checked.
"Yeah." Harley nodded.
"Yeah. That doesn't make sense." Tony sighed, sitting down next to Harley. Harley and I looked at him for a further explanation.
"Think about it. Six dead, only five shadows." Tony continued.
"Yeah, people said these shadows are like the mark of souls gone to Heaven. Except the bomb guy, he went to Hell on account of he didn't get a shadow. That's why there's only five." Harley softly replied, wiping his face.
"Do you buy that?" Tony asked. I frowned and got up to look at the evidence myself. I avoided the flowers and pictures that people had left as a memorial to the victims and examined the shadows much like Tony had.
"That's what everyone says." Harley justified. Tony just thoughtfully nodded his head in response.
Looking back, if I had paid attention to Harley and Tony's conversation I could've saved us a lot of trouble, but at the time I thought it was more important to examine the shadows.
"You know what this crater reminds me of?" Harley asked.
"No idea. I'm not...I don't care." Tony coldly replied.
"That giant wormhole, in um...in New York. Does it remind you?" Harley probed, trying to get a reaction.
"That's manipulative. I don't want to talk about it." Tony dismissively replied.
"Are they coming back? The aliens?" Harley persisted, ignoring that Tony told him to stop.
"Maybe. Can you stop? Remember when I told you, that I have an anxiety issue?" Tony snapped.
"Does this subject make you...make you edgy?" Harley nervously asked.
"Yeah, a little bit. Can I just catch my breath for a second?" Tony said between heavy breaths.
"Are there bad guys in Rose Hills? Do you...do you need a plastic bag to breathe into? Do you have medication?" Harley asked, rapidly firing one question after the next while Tony grimaced in pain.
"Nope." Tony breathed out.
"Do you need to be on it?" Harley fired back.
"Probably." Tony grunted.
"Do you have PTSD?" Harley retorted. Tony paused,
"I don't think so."
"Are you...are you going completely mental? I can stop, do you want me to stop? Do you want me to stop?"
"Remember when I said to stop doing that? I swear to God, you're going to freak me out!" Tony snapped as he quickly stood up.
"Ah man, you did it, didn't you? You happy now?" Tony grimaced.
"What did I say?" Harley protested, but Tony ignored him and ran away from us.
"What the hell?" I snapped at Harley.
"I-I didn't mean to." Harley stuttered.
"Yeah, most people don't." I coldly replied as I took off after Tony.
"Hey, wait up! Wait, wait." Harley called after me as we chased after him. Suddenly after a block of running Tony dropped to his knees and put snow against his face.
"What the hell was that?" Harley asked when we finally caught up to him. Tony's only reply was to throw snow in Harley's face.
"Your fault, you spazzed me out. Okay, back to business. Where were we? The guy who died...relatives? Mom? Mrs. Davis, where is she?" Tony asked, finally catching his breath.
"Where she always is." Harley replied, wiping his nose.
"See, now you're being helpful." Tony retorted.
"Lead the way, Harley." I smirked. The boy grinned and started walking towards a bar decorated with multicolored Christmas lights.
"Okay good work, kid. Here's ten bucks go buy some candy across the street." Tony instructed him with a gentle push towards the store. Harley opened his mouth to protest, but I held up my hand to stop him,
"No arguments." I ordered, giving him my most threatening gaze. Harley sulked across the street. As soon as he was out of hearing range Tony tuned to me,
"Go join him." He dismissively ordered with a nod of his head.
"Tony?" I calmly said. He turned to look at me.
"We've been through this before…don't fucking tell me what to do." I snapped.
"Fine." He replied rolling his eyes. Tony tugged the brim of his cap down over his eyes as we walked to the bar. On the way in he ran into a sharp-dressed, red haired, lady and made her drop a glove because he couldn't see where he was going.
"Sorry." He muttered, then he noticed the dropped glove.
"Lady, this uh..." He awkwardly called out to her, handing her the glove.
"Thank you." The redhead flirtatiously replied. A slight breeze blew back the woman's cropped hair and Tony stared at her as if he was mesmerized.
"Nice haircut," he awkwardly cleared his throat, "it suits you." He complimented her.
"Nice watch." She grinned back at him.
"Yeah, limited edition." Tony confidently replied. Which was slightly impressive since he was wearing a Dora watch.
"Oh, I don't doubt it." She sultrily replied. At this point I decided to step in and grabbed Tony's arm,
"Come on Dad, Mom's waiting for us inside." I grumbled, rolling my eyes for effect. The woman's eyes flicked to me as if just noticing my presence.
"Well, have a good evening." She grinned, still a little too flirtatiously for my tastes, before turning and walking away. Tony stared after her for a few moments and I sighed,
"So…how's Pepper?" I asked, giving him a pointed look.
"Did you see the burn on her face?" Tony quickly replied as he adjusted his hat.
"Is that what you were staring at?" I retorted, mentally kicking myself for missing the burn. Tony rolled his eyes at me as if to say 'obviously' and turned to walk into the bar.
"Well, it's rude to stare." I snapped as I jogged to keep up with him. As soon as we stepped inside thought, his entire demeanor changed. His shoulders hunched over and he looked extremely on edge. I swing my elbow into his ribs,
"Act normal. This is a small town, everyone knows each other. Some guy sketchily stalking around a bar is going to get noticed." I hissed at him through a fake smile. Tony just grabbed a drink and walked over to a table where a very distressed looking woman sat alone drinking something out of a bottle.
"Mrs. Davis, mind if we join you?" Tony politely asked, taking off his hat.
"Free country." Mrs. Davis shrugged.
"It sure is." Tony replied, sitting down across form her. I slide into the seat next to Tony and he slapped his hat down in front of me causing me to jump. I shot daggers at the back of his head.
"Alright," Mrs. Davis sighed, "Where'd you like to start?"
"I just want to say we are sorry about your loss. We want to know what you think happened." Tony kindly told her. Mrs. Davis warily eyed him up,
"Look, I brought your damn file. You take it and go." She replied, dropping the file on the table and dismissing us with a wave of her hand. "Whatever was in here, he wanted no part of it." Tony opened the file and flipped through it,
"Clearly, you're waiting for someone else. Yeah? Supposed to meet somebody here?" Tony asked her.
"Yeah." Mrs. Davis replied, her voice barely a whisper. Tony continued to examine the file until suddenly he flipped it shut and leaned across the table,
"Mrs. Davis, your son didn't kill himself, I guarantee you. He didn't kill anyone. Someone used him." Tony solemnly told her. Mrs. Davis' jaw dropped,
"What?"
"Way to just drop it on her, Tony." I muttered, but Tony just waved me off and continued,
"As a weapon."
"You're not the person who called me after all, are you?" She whispered, trying to keep her voice from breaking and her tears from spilling over. Tony started to shake his head no when an old flip phone was slammed down on the table.
"Actually, I am." A female voice interrupted. Tony and I's heads snapped up recognizing the voice of the woman that Tony had literally bumped into earlier. The four of us sat/stood there in silence for a moment before I cleared my throat,
"You know, it's rude to interrupt." That simple sentence seemed to snapped things into action. The women grabbed Tony's arm and twisted it behind him while simultaneously slamming his head down onto the table. I quickly jumped back out of her reach so that she couldn't do the same to me. She snapped on a pair of handcuffs and threw him to the floor.
"Hey, hey, hey! What's all this about? What the hell's going on here?" A man, who I assumed was the sheriff because of his badge, asked, walking over to our table.
"It's called an arrest." The woman calmly replied as she straightened out her skirt,
"I'll need the girl too." She added pointing towards me. I looked at her like she was insane.
"Me?" I scoffed.
"Sheriff, is it?" She asked, taking a step towards him.
"Yes ma'am, it is. And you are?" The Sheriff replied.
"Homeland Security." She charmingly smiled at him as she flashed her obviously fake badge, "We good here?"
"No, we're not good. I need a little more information than that." The Sheriff snapped, not falling for her act. Tony nodded at Mrs. Davis and she tossed the file under the bar.
"Well, I think it's a little above your pay grade, Sheriff." The woman retorted.
"Apparently buying a quality fake badge was above your pay grade." I smirked as I ran my hand through my hair, but the pair ignored me.
"Yeah, well, why don't you get on the horn to Nashville and uh...upgrade me?" The Sheriff confidently replied, not backing down.
"Alright, you know what? I was hoping to do this the smart way, but uh...the fun way's always good." The woman flirtatiously replied as her hand started to turn red like molten lava. The Sheriff sighed and turned to a man nearby,
"Deputy, get this woman and…" But he never got to finish his sentence. The woman interrupted him by thrusting a burning hot badge into his face and shooting him in the stomach. The bar erupted in chaos. People started to scream and run for their lives. While the woman was distracted, Tony and I took off running.
"Hey hot wings, you want to party? You and me, let's go." Tony taunted her as we exited the bar.
"Shit, Tony don't taunt an angry woman." I scowled at him.
"What are you going to do about it princess?" He mocked as he took over running down the street. Suddenly his skidded to a stop in front of me noticing a blonde man getting out of a car a little further down the street. The man mockingly raises his cup in a toast to Tony before dumping its contents on the street and pulling out a gun. Tony and I take off the other way. I hear the gun fire as we dive behind a car. Tony and I looked around for an escape when he noticed a man lying beside the car.
"Crazy, huh?" Tony smirks. I rolled my eyes at his antics, but I couldn't help cracking a smile.
"Yeah." The man nodded. Tony looking back over his shoulder at the blonde man and then back to the hiding one,
"Watch this." Tony replied, quirking an eyebrow. Suddenly he stood up and took off running and launched himself through a shop window. My eyes widen in shock, but then I notice the redhead was aiming a gun at us so I called out to Tony,
"Tony get down." I yelled. I saw him dive behind the diner's counter. Assured that he was safe, I took off the other direction to look for Harley. The boy could be anywhere, but if the woman had seen us with him then his life was in danger. I ran down the street looking for Harley, but I couldn't find him. I scowled to myself wishing that I could fly without immense pain, knowing that I could've easily found the boy within seconds. I turned around to jog back down the street just in time to see the diner that Tony was in blow up.
"Shit, Tony." I hissed, my search for Harley forgotten as I sprinted back down the street hoping that Tony was alright.
That's it. I hope to update more than once a month, but my schedule this year is loaded...plus it's soccer season so that means lots of late nights. Anyway I hope you enjoyed it and reviews will probably provide more motivation to make time to write in my busy schedule *shrugs* just saying