OSAD 4
Vanessa was thirteen now and her hair flowed down her back in a braided halfway up style. She was walking down the local strip mall he knit cap and sunglasses firmly in place to hide her appearance from unwanted attention.
Vanessa walked down the street from the theatre having grown tired of waiting for Tony to pick her up. They were in the middle of a production of 'The Phantom of the Opera.' She had landed the role of Meg for which she was extremely happy for considering her age.
She loved the story as well, but felt so bad for the phantom who only wanted love. She always thought that Christine was just too afraid to realize that. She always said that she would take the phantom over the fop any day, which the other's had scoffed at her. They didn't understand what it was like to want someone to love them that seemed like they never would.
Shaking her head of her dark thoughts she continued to poke around the strip mall deciding to put off going home for a while. It was nice that she could do this and not have to worry about the nanny brigade. Her sneaking out on her own was a thing that drove Pepper, Rhodey, Happy, and Tony crazy so of course she did it as much as possible.
Not that she gave them a whole lot of trouble. She was top of her class having inherited her father's knack for learning; she was about to graduate high school already and had already started college courses. She had also inherited his aptitude for mechanical development, but from her mother she had developed a love for the theatre her talents in song, acting, and dance propelling her toward a bright future no matter what path she chose.
So she was over all a well-rounded child as far as academics went and she never gave the school any trouble, she saved all of her mischief for Tony, such as today when he was supposed to be spending the day with her, but had locked himself in his workroom and completely forgot so she had decided to take a day for herself. Pepper was going to kill him when she found out and her not being there was going to make it even worse for him.
She stopped walking to admire a beautiful outfit in the window of a store that consisted of a blue dress with a thick red belt with a sweet heart top and a high neck lace top with capped sleeves. She was considering going into the store to purchase it when someone bumped into her, knocking her off balance.
"Hey." Vanessa snapped as she almost fell to the ground knocking her glasses off in the process.
"Sorry." A boy with sandy blonde hair and brown eyes said as he reached out and steadied her. Then his eyes widened in shock. "Vanessa Stark."
"Oh piss." Vanessa breathed out as everyone turned at the boy's exclamation.
People instantly started to crowd around her, phones were taking snap shots of her, people were asking for her autograph, and women were shoving their numbers at her for her father. She could feel the panic building in her as her heart sped up at an uncomfortable rate as the crowd pressed in.
They were to close, her chest felt like it was on fire, to close, she couldn't breathe, so close, and everything was starting to spin. A buzz filled the air and a ringing sounded in her ears as well as the profound dizziness over took her. She tried to shake it off, tried to get away, but it persisted, got worse, and the crowd wouldn't let her through. It felt like something was building up inside of her until it was near to bursting as her breath came out in painful gasps.
She placed her hands on either side of her head and gritted her teeth as she sank to her knees, but still the crowd pressed. Pebbles and trash on the ground started to vibrate then slowly move as if being blown by the wind that was nonexistent that day, then they started to float around her forcing people back.
They watched fearfully as her hair rose in the air her eyes closed tight in fear and pain. Finally it all became too much and she let out a huge scream as a wave pulsed through the crowd causing them to stumble to the ground. She fell over to the ground hard unable to comprehend what had just happened. Everyone that had seen what had happened starred at her in shock as she slowly sat up.
"It's a mutant." Someone shouted and Vanessa could feel the air go tense. She knew what she was and her ability was clear to her. She had studied mutants for a long time wondering if it would happen to her one day and it had. With this knowledge came the understanding that mutants were not well liked by the vast majority of the world, but she was too tired to run away and the crowd was beginning to press in again, angry shouts filling the air.
"Vanessa!" Someone shouted as they pushed through the crowd. Happy quickly kneeled down in front of her and scooped her up into his arms carrying her back to the car through the crowd shoving them violently out of the way.
"How did you find me?" Vanessa gasped out gripping his lapels in fright.
"When Tony realized you weren't at the theatre he called me to look for you then I saw the crowd and took a guess." Happy said as he sat her in the front seat, and then ran around to the other side pushing people away. "What were you thinking? You were supposed to wait at the theatre."
Vanessa just shook her head not answering as she tried not to cry. Her head was pounding and she felt sick to her stomach. When they finally reached home she jumped out of the car and ran up the front steps ignoring Happy calling out to her.
She ran into the house slamming the door closed behind her and leaning against it slowly slipping to the ground. She brought her knees up her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs burying her face in them. She couldn't stop shaking as the shock settled in and her mind as well as her heart raced. She took deep breaths trying to stop her tears, but they kept coming.
"Finally, there you are, I thought Pepper was going to kill me. Why weren't you at the theatre, I wasn't that late." Tony said as he came up to her hurriedly then seemed to notice something wasn't right. He looked at her nervously trying to decide how to approach her. "Hey kid, you ok?"
"Something really weird happened." Vanessa said looking up at him. "Something big."
"Oh…uh is this a lady thing, here wait let me call Pepper." Tony said as he fumbled for his phone.
"No it's…" Vanessa started, but Tony cut her off.
"Seriously let's wait for Pepper, birds and bee talks are seriously out of my depth." Tony said hurriedly looking more nervous by the minute. Vanessa kept trying to interrupt him but he was on a rant. "Anyways wouldn't you rather talk to another woman about these things? It's ringing so just…"
"WOULD YOU JUST SHUT UP?!" Vanessa yelled snapping to her feet causing the whole room to shutter subtly and Tony froze starring at her wide eyed.
"Tony was that Vanessa is she ok?" Pepper asked over the phone. Vanessa shook her head and ran up to her room.
"Why can't you just be my dad for five seconds, would it kill you?!" Vanessa yelled as she ran upstairs to her room slamming the door shut behind her. She collapsed on her bed and curled up crying. Tony stood still were she had left him then slowly put the phone to his ear.
"Never mind Pepper, I got it." He said into the phone before hanging it up before Pepper could reply.
