Not much to say today. Just saw Age of Ultron for a second time yesterday and OH MY GOD...It gets better every time. I won't spoil anything yet but I laughed, I cried, I almost peed my pants.
Disclaimer: None of the characters or situations from Iron Man or Marvel Cinematic are my property.
February 21, 2009
"Pepper, I thought you were on a date at that benefit thing," Joei said as soon as she answered the phone.
"I was. I mean I am. I'm in the bathroom."
"You're in the bathroom talking to me on the phone while an extremely cute banker is out there waiting for you? Are you nuts?"
"I think I scared him."
"Uh-oh. What did you say?" she asked sympathetically.
"He asked about my job and I told him I was Tony Stark's PA. I think he's intimidated. What do I do?"
"Well, I'm not exactly a dating expert, Pepper! You're supposed to tell ME this stuff. You're the mom figure and I'm the dumb teenager, remember?"
"You were the only person I could think to call," Pepper's voice turned into a hysterical whisper, and Joei guessed somebody had walked into the bathroom, "I couldn't exactly call my mother about this. Or heaven forbid, your dad."
"Well...I say just be yourself. That's what all those Rom-Com girls do, right? They pretend to be somebody else and it doesn't work so then they end up being themselves and they find the perfect guy or whatever. So, I guess just don't dumb yourself down or belittle yourself or anything just because this guy is intimidated by how awesome you are. And try to have at least a little fun, won't you, Pepper? You deserve it."
"Okay. Thanks. I gotta go or he'll start to wonder what's going on."
"Yeah. You wouldn't want him to think you got diarrhea or something."
"That's gross."
"Yeah, well- AARGH!"
"WHAT IS IT? WHAT'S WRONG? WHAT HAPPENED?!"
"Nothing!" she yelled back, and then took a deep breath and tried to act calm, "Nothing, Pepper. Scary movie. Freddy Kruger freaks me out. Just go back to your date, alright? Talk to you tomorrow, bye!"
Joei hung up the phone before Pepper could answer anything or ask any questions and rushed over to the giant hole in the floor that had been formed by a large metal human-shaped thing crashing in from the ceiling. The hole continued down through the piano, the living room floor, and onto a car in the workshop.
"The car!"
"I'm okay!" her dad groaned back loudly from inside the armor, "Thanks for asking."
"I'll be right down!"
"Yeah. Take the stairs. Ughhhh. Ow."
By the time she had reached the lab, the robots were already helping him out of the armor. She went over and pulled at the pieces, examining the large bump on the side of her dad's head.
"Ice?"
"In the minibar."
"Only you would have a minibar in your lab. How high did you try to fly this thing?"
"Not that high."
"JARVIS?"
"Approximately 41,000 feet, Miss Stark. I went offline after the ice began to interfere with my connection to the suit."
"Not that high, huh?" she raised an eyebrow and pushed him into a desk chair, all the while pushing an icepack into the side of his head.
"Ow. Gently, kid. Press gently."
"You deserve it," she said, looking around the lab to assess the damage, "Hey. What's that?"
"The brown box? I don't know. Pepper brought it with coffee when Obie came by."
"Are you going to open it?" she asked, handing him the parcel.
He looked at the box, then at Josephine, and then back at the box before ripping into it.
"Huh. Go figure," Joei smiled, and out of the corner of her eye she saw her dad smile at the encased arc reactor, etched with the words 'Proof that Tony Stark has a heart.'
"How's your head?" Joei asked an hour later.
"Better. But my shoulder is killing me."
"Want me to get you another ice pack?"
"Please," her dad nodded, then went back to talking to JARVIS about the suit's new modifications as Joei grabbed the ice pack and some tape to hold it to his shoulder.
"Shall I render using proposed specifications?" asked JARVIS.
"Thrill me."
Joei turned up the TV, watching as the reporters at the studio handed over the screen to a woman at a red carpet event.
"Tonight's red-hot red carpet is right here at the Disney Concert Hall, where Tony Stark's third annual benefit has become the place to be for L.A.'s high society."
"Wow. We've fallen so far in society we can't even get into our own benefit, Dad. Who knew the stock market was so important?" Josephine said sarcastically.
"JARVIS, we get an invite for that?"
"I have no record of an invitation, sir."
"I feel like a lowly peasant," Joei flatlined and was about to change the channel when JARVIS spoke again.
"The render is complete."
The two Starks turned back to the computers and looked at the golden rendering of the new suit.
"A little ostentatious, don't you think?"
"What was I thinking? You're usually so discreet."
Joei snorted.
"Hey. No ganging up on Dad, kids. I brought you into this world..."
"You brought him into this world. I'm fairly certain that a woman birthed me."
"That's cute. You're giving your old man a taste of his own medicine. Tell you what, since you're so grown up, I'm taking you with me tonight. J, throw a little hot rod red in there."
"Yes, that should help you keep a low profile. The render is complete."
"What do you think, Miss Stark?"
"I like it. Flashy enough for Tony Stark to wear. Safe enough that he won't freeze and fall to his death at 40 thousand feet. Where are we going?"
"Fabricate it. Paint it."
"Commencing automated assembly. Estimated completion time is five hours."
"Where are we going?" Joei repeated.
"Didn't you hear? I'm hosting a benefit. Go find a dress. Something girly. Cute."
"Do I get to spy on Pepper's date?"
"No. You get to distract the press so I figure out why my company is trying to kick me out."
"I'll go find something that says ditzy little girl who missed her daddy, then," she sighed.
"Don't wait up, honey," Tony said to JARVIS, "I've got a date with a cute teenager tonight."
Joei sighed and kicked off her shoes. She'd worn a pair of sparkly flats and a frilly light yellow dress that had been hiding in the back of her closet since she was thirteen. It had been too large for her then, but had filled out without being too revealing tonight. The shoes, however, were from her freshman year of high school, back when she was just Tony Stark's little princess and not fast-growing heiress extraordinaire. They'd hurt her feet almost the second she had walked onto that red carpet, and the backs of her feet were now red and raw.
Tony stalked past her, tossing his tie and jacket onto the couch. Joei had watched him strut to the bar, chat with Phil Coulson (she'd almost had a panic attack over that. She still wasn't ready to tell him about S.H.I.E.L.D), and dance with a most gorgeous looking Pepper whose date stood awkwardly with some lab technicians before starting a conversation with a pretty girl from logistics. After that Pepper and her dad had walked off toward a balcony, her dad making a motion at her to keep her eyes and ears open. She'd heard nothing, however, and a few minutes later Tony had walked up to the bar, been approached by the horrendous Christine Everheart, and then walked outside with a look so intense that Joei doubted he had ever been so determined and angry.
After saying a quick goodbye to the group of women who had been gushing over how adorable she looked, Joei had followed him outside, only to find her father standing on the steps of the Walt Disney Concert Hall looking like the world had just shattered around him and he was completely hopeless and helpless over it.
"We're leaving." he had snapped before walking briskly toward the car, his eyes hard and looking only straight ahead while Joei tried not to let the confusion she felt spread across her face in front of the cameras.
He hadn't said a single word since, but in the confines of the house he had let his shoulders slump and his face was a mix of denial, anger, and weariness. Joei watched him descend the stairs toward the lab as she rubbed her aching feet, then counted to fifteen before following him.
He'd tossed a few things about when he'd entered, if the trail of metal parts on the floor was anything to go by. She knew where they would lead before she even saw him.
"Are you going to tell me or am I going to have to guess?" she asked, jumping into the passenger's seat of the hot rod.
Tony reached into the back seat and pulled out a bundle, "Here. You might want to get comfortable."
Joei took the bundle and realized it was one of her dad's shirts, some boxers and a pair of sweatpants.
"The pants are too big but you could probably wear the boxers as shorts. Girls do that, right?"
"You've been watching too many 90s reruns, Dad." she snickered and looked at the foot of the back seat. There were at least three more bundles, "Why do you have so many changes of clothes?"
"When I spend three or four days down here how do you think I come out NOT smelling like an oily dumpster?" he pointed to the lab shower that was meant for washing off toxins and chemicals in emergencies, "Contrary to what you and Pepper believe I am not a total barbarian."
"Good to know," she smiled, "Give me a minute."
She dashed into the lab bathroom to take off the yellow atrocity that she had forced herself to wear and returned to the Hot Rod with a pair of purple boxers over her own underwear and a faded blue flannel shirt with sleeves that were a good six inches past her fingertips.
"Now will you tell me?"
She could practically see the thoughts running one after the other in her dad's head. Something big had happened tonight. Something had changed him. She didn't know what or how, but it was easy to sense a change in someone that she knew so completely.
"Do you remember..." he spoke slowly, looking straight ahead as if the scene was playing out in front of him, "the first time that you freaked out over me making weapons? I think you were like ten. You were watching the History Channel and some documentary came up about what some culture or other used to do to merchants who sold weapons to the enemy."
Joei smiled slightly at the memory, "I cried until the nanny called you out of your office and you drove all the way over here to see me. I was so scared that if you kept making weapons that you would get a mask branded on your face like those people did."
"What was it I told you? 'Daddy only sells...'"
"To the good guys," she finished for him.
Tony sighed loudly and slouched lower in his seat. Joei pushed her seat back and turned on her side to get a better look at him. She could think of very few times when they had spoken this long without him cracking a joke.
"What happened, Daddy?" she whispered.
"Exactly what you were afraid of, kiddo. I've had an iron mask welded onto my face for who knows how long and I didn't even know it was there."
"What? You mean someone actually sold those weapons to the terrorist that caught you? Directly? Straight from SI?" her voice crocked at the end.
"Straight from SI," he nodded, finally turning to look at her. His eyes were glazed over and he looked almost catatonic. The flatness in his voice did nothing to help the image.
"But who authorized the shipment? I thought only you and Obie-" she stopped when the same hurt and angry expression overcame Tony's eyes, "Obadiah?! Obadiah Stane has been selling weapons to the other guys? How the hell is that even possible?!"
Tony remained silent.
"Wha-But he. I thought he was like us. Like Howard."
"We have to make this right." he repeated in the same detached voice.
"How? He blocked you out."
Before Tony could answer, JARVIS' voice broke through the silence. "Manufacturing completed."
They turned toward the opposite side of the lab, where the steam was clearing to reveal the new gold titanium suit.
"That is so cool," Joei said breathlessly, jumping out of the car and heading toward the suit.
Tony followed slowly, looking far too thoughtful, "With this."
"What?"
"You asked how I was going to make this right. With this."
"Not you," she shook her head, "We."
"I don't want you getting involved," he answers gravely with a shake of his head.
"Well that's too bad because I already am involved," she snapped, her hands flying to her hips as she leaned toward him, "I spent the first seven years of my life with nothing! Absolutely nothing, Dad. And then you come around and suddenly I have something to work for, I have someone to look up to, I have somebody who gives a damn about what happens to me, I have a future. I have worked my butt off for the past three years to go from some rich guy's kid to an expert heiress. I made an image, I worked hard in school, I turned myself into an expert on weapons and the army and your company so that nobody would doubt my capacity to take up your mantle one day!"
Her voice began cracking, but she stepped closer until she was almost in his face, "I gave up normal teenager things like the school play, and cheerleading, and having friends to go to the mall with, and prom because somebody had to make the future of the company look good while you were partying, or making an ass of yourself, or fucking dead in the desert somewhere. And I didn't regret any of it, not a single moment because this is the life I have now. My life with you, Dad. A life that despite its faults was always better than living in a crowded orphanage feeling like nobody gave a damn about me or my future."
Tony was staring at her with wide eyes now, his lips slightly parted but seemingly willing to hear her out. The hard, dead look in his eyes was slowly being replaced by something else.
Joei took three quick, deep breaths to steady her voice. She hadn't realized she was nearly yelling in his face, "My life revolves around two things, okay? You and the company. For the past nine years those are the only things that have mattered to me. And I'll be damned if some asshole thinks it's okay to come into my house and take either of those things from me. Terrorists or no terrorists, I'm involved because I say I'm involved."
She bit down on her teeth hard, not sure if she should keep speaking. Before she could think of anything else to say, though, she felt two familiar arms wrap around her.
"I'm not going to build you a suit if that's what you were hoping for," Tony joked, making Joei release a watery chuckle, "But I'm not going to keep you in the dark, either. You can help me. We can figure this out together."
"Thank you," she murmured into his shoulder before stepping out of the hug.
"First I guess I should catch you up. Have a seat," he motioned to two stools and pulled some folded photographs out of his dress pants, "This is Gulmira. A small village near where I was held captive. Yinsen's home."
"Yinsen? The man who was in the cave with you?" she asked, examining the photographs, "Who gave you these?"
"Yes. Christine Everheart. They were taken yesterday. I didn't approve any shipments yesterday."
"But Obie did."
"Yes."
"And am I right to assume that these are the same terrorists who kidnapped you?" she asked, biting her lip.
"Yes."
"Why?" she looked up from the pictures, "Why kidnap you if they had access to your weapons?"
"They wanted a Jericho," Tony swallowed hard. It was the first time he'd spoken to her about what happened in the three months that he was gone, "It was a prototype, I was the only one who knew how to make it."
"But you didn't."
"But I didn't. I made this," he tapped the arc reactor in his chest, "And then I made the suit to get us out of there."
"But Yinsen didn't get out."
"No," he answered quietly, "Yinsen didn't get out. But the people who killed him did, and they took it out on Yinsen's entire village with my weapons."
"So what do we do now?"
"We take their guns."
"And how are we supposed to take it back? We can't just walk into a war zone and pack everything into a truck," said Joei, setting herself up in front of a computer and starting to search the internet.
"I never said I wanted it back," Tony mumbled as he started to measure out parts of the suit.
"Destroy it, then?"
"Destroy it, decimate it, blow it up. Just get rid of it for good. JARVIS, pull up the smallest stuff we've got. I want to fit as much as possible into this thing without losing flight capability."
"Gladly, Sir."
"What can I do?" asked Joei.
"Research. You've gotten pretty good at spending the day with your nose against a computer screen. So find out everything you can about the Ten Rings. Members, bosses, purpose, camp layouts. I want to know who they are and where they keep the good knives."
Just letting you all know right now that Josephine Margaret Stark takes shit (LANGUAGE!) from no one!
