Alex's Diary, Entry Fourteen

I have never been this angry before in my life.

I'm basically trapped here at home, while Dad has gone off to take down Obadiah. And, there's nothing I can do to help because Rhodey has been tasked with being my bodyguard until Dad gets back.

Thank God that I brought my braces home with me today. I was, originally, planning on showing Dad a sneak peek of my project, but now I am wearing them out in the open because Spinal Tap was stolen from me. Thank God they're working, too, otherwise I would be absolutely motionless and laying in my bed right now. As grateful as I am for Spinal Tap and for my braces - which, now that I think about it, need a fun name too - the fact that, without either of them and without my suit bracelet, I would be literally helpless scares the hell out of me. I need to make sure that I am never without my suit bracelet ever again. Because, without the other two, my suit is the only other way I could regain my motion if it's taken from me like it was tonight.

I need to, somehow, either get Rhodey to leave the house or somehow manage to sneak out without him noticing. Neither will be an easy task, but I can't just sit here and do nothing. Obadiah is the reason why I am paralyzed, he's the reason why Dad was held captive, and I want revenge!

Wow...I can't believe that I wrote that. I never really thought myself the vengeful type but, then again, I've never been betrayed in such a way before. It's good to know that this part of me exists, though. Here's hoping it has no reason to come out again.

There has got to be a way for me to convince Rhodey that he doesn't need to stay here with me. Maybe I could tell him that, since Obadiah thinks that I am currently a vegetable on the floor, he won't even be thinking of coming back right now. Nope, that is extremely flimsy. Maybe I can tell him that he needs to make sure that the military doesn't shoot Dad out of the sky. Yes, that sounds much better! Then, when he's gone, I can go and meet up with Dad. But, then again, meeting up with Dad would mean that he would find out about my suit. I would be risking him taking it away from me.

Screw it. Dad would have found out about my suit eventually. It was really only a matter of time, though, I'll admit, I didn't expect that time to come so soon. But, stopping Obadiah is way more important.

As it turned out, Tony had already given Rhodey the task of making sure that the skies stayed clear. So, Alex decided that it was up to her to convince Rhodey to not do it from the mansion, but to actually go to the army base to make sure that his orders were followed.

"Are you sure that this is something that you can take care of over the phone?" Alex asked. She was watching Rhodey pace back and forth as he tried to get through to his colleagues. "Maybe you should go down there."

"I can't do that," Rhodey said, trying the call again. "I promised your dad that I would stay here with you."

"I get that, but making sure that Dad can stop Obadiah is more important," Alex said. Rhodey rolled his eyes at the continued lack of communication with his colleagues and tried the call again. "Even if you were to get through to them and tell them to stand down, how can you be sure that they would do as you say? You've got to go down there, Rhodey."

"I'm not leaving you here by yourself after what just happened," Rhodey said. "I'd be saying the same thing even if your dad hadn't asked me to stay here with you."

"I'll be fine," Alex assured him. "Dad is going to keep Obadiah occupied enough that he won't even think of coming back here." Alex put her hand on Rhodey's arm to stop him from trying the call again. "Go, Rhodey," she said. "Make sure that Dad has the chance to take Obadiah down."

Rhodey stared at her for a moment. "Alright," he said. "But, the second that anything happens, you call me."

Alex nodded and then Rhodey turned and left. Once Alex heard his car speed away, she turned and headed down to the workshop.

"Alexandra, I really must protest," JARVIS said. "This is not safe..."

"I am well aware of that, JARVIS," Alex said. She sat in a chair and took her braces off, laying them against the counter. "And, I don't really care."

She took the few precious moments she had before her legs went numb again to get to Tony's launch pad in the center of the workshop. Once there, she activated her suit, allowing it to cover her entire body.

"What do you think, JARVIS?" Alex asked, once the suit was fully on.

"Of the suit or your insane plan?"

Alex rolled her eyes. "The suit."

"The suit is wonderful, as I said when you first tested it," JARVIS replied. "But, again I must protest..."

"Your protests are noted, JARVIS," Alex said. She rose a few feet above the ground. "Now, take me to Dad and Obadiah. I know you know where they are."

If JARVIS could groan, Alex knew he would have. "Very well."

Alex rose up even more and flew through the hole in the ceiling and out into the clear night sky, allowing JARVIS to guide her to where the battle was taking place. She was anticipating many things about how the night was going to go down, but what she was not expecting was getting a call from Quentin.

"Quentin, this is not a good time..."

"Alex, there are some insane things happening here," Quentin interrupted. "Miss. Potts and I...it's like we're under attack!"

"Wait, you're with Pepper? What's happening?"

"It's like something straight out of a movie. I was here at the lab when Pepper came in with a bunch of men. Secret agents or whatever. Anyway, Mr. Stane...Alex, he's gone insane! He has this machine and he's inside it and he's destroying things. I-I don't know what to do..."

"Quentin, just try and stay calm. Stay with Pepper. I promise that everything is going to be fine," Alex assured him. "If both of you can get out of wherever you are and get home, do it."

"Ok, I'll try."

Alex ended the call before Quentin could say anything else. "Are we almost there, JARVIS?"

Just then, a bus seemed to explode and Alex looked down and saw Tony and Obadiah in his ridiculous suit. The thing was gigantic and cumbersome, and Alex seriously wondered how it was able to move.

"We have arrived."

"Thanks, JARVIS. I hadn't noticed."

Alex slowed to a hover and pointed her arm towards Obadiah as he started walking towards Tony. She shot a thin, but strong, wire out from her suit and created a trip wire, causing Obadiah to trip and crash to the ground. Tony looked up and saw Alex hovering in the air above them.

"What the hell...?"

Alex swallowed. "Hi, Dad."

Though she couldn't see his face because of the helmet, Alex knew that Tony was furious. "Alex?!"

Obadiah started laughing as he, somehow, managed to pull himself into a standing position. "I should've known that Alex had her own suit hidden away somewhere," he said. "As they say, like father, like daughter."

Alex's wire retracted back into her suit. "I've been waiting for a chance to play with it."

"No!" Tony exclaimed. "Alex, go home!"

"I'm not going home!" Alex replied. "He's the reason I'm paralyzed!"

"I know," Tony replied. "He told me. That is my primary reason for being here right now. Let me take care of this."

"Look, we can stand here and talk all night, but I have places to be," Obadiah said. He pointed his arm at Alex. "Goodbye, you spoiled brat!"

Tony practically screamed as the beam shot towards Alex but, in a flash, Alex's wings appeared in their full glory and covered her, almost like they were hugging her. The beam bounced off of them and hit the ground on the side of the highway. The wings uncovered her, suffering only minor damage, and both Tony and Obadiah stared in amazement.

"What the...?"

"You may have made what you like to call 'upgrades' to your suit, but so did I," Alex said. Alex's wings folded back into her suit.

"Is that all they can do?" Obadiah asked. "Not much of an upgrade."

"Oh, they can do far, far more than that," Alex said. "You should have killed me when you had the chance."

Alex flew off into the open skies, knowing that Tony and Obadiah were close behind. She had absolutely no idea how the night was going to end, but she did know one thing.

She was not going to go down without a fight.

It was the most insane night of Alex's life so far.

Obadiah was dead. Or, at least, most likely dead. Alex didn't actually see the body herself, but there was absolutely no way that Obadiah could have survived the arc reactor explosion, even with his ridiculous suit on.

As much as Alex knew that Tony didn't want her there, they were an absolutely brilliant team. They worked together and didn't inhibit one another. There was a part of Alex that got a strange sort of thrill out of using her suit and seeing all of her hard work put to good use. And, as much as she didn't want to admit it, she was glad to get her revenge on Obadiah. Granted, she didn't expect the night to end with his death - her idea of revenge ended with him going to prison until the end of time - but that was something out of her control.

Quentin and Pepper also made it through the night, unscathed, which was a huge relief to both Tony and Alex. They helped a bit with causing the arc reactor to explode. Rhodey was not at all happy that Alex had snuck out of the house after he left, but Alex thought that he was secretly proud of her for what she did. She couldn't be sure, though. Rhodey was sometimes very tough to read.

Not that Alex was planning on having anything like this happen again but, if it did, she was glad to know that she and Tony would be forces to be reckoned with, especially together. Provided that Tony ever spoke to her again. There was no doubt that Alex was in trouble, but the question was whether or not she would ever be allowed to leave her house and see the light of day again.

Alex was down in the workshop, tinkering with her suit and repairing the damage done to it during the showdown with Obadiah. She had her music practically blasting, so she didn't hear when Tony came down the stairs.

"Turn the music off."

Alex jumped at the sound of the voice, but did as she was told. "Sorry."

Tony glanced at his daughter's suit. "We need to talk."

Alex put her tools down and wiped her hands. "I guess we do."

Tony shook his head and shrugged. "I don't even know where to begin," he said. "Should I start with how you disobeyed me, how you tricked Rhodey, or how you hid the fact that you made a suit?"

"Any of them are valid starting points."

"You never keep things from me, Alex," Tony said. "Why are you starting now?"

"Because I knew that you would take my suit away if you knew about it," Alex replied. "I wasn't planning on ever having to use it in the way we did the other night."

"Then why did you make it?"

"Well, you were making one..."

"Not a good enough excuse. Try again."

Alex sighed. "As we saw from the night that Obadiah took Spinal Tap from me and even from the Parking Lot Incident that, without my device or even my braces, I am literally a sitting duck. In making the suit, I created a way that would make it so that I would always be able to defend myself."

"So, take self-defense classes! That's literally what they are there for!"

"But, they won't help me if, somehow, Spinal Tap is removed," Alex said. "With my suit being able to condense down into my bracelet, I will always have it with me in case the worse should happen."

"And you thought equipping it with all the things that I did with mine, and then some, was really necessary?"

"Just like how you thought creating a second suit was really necessary?"

Tony pointed at her. "Don't you turn this back on me."

"No, seriously, Dad. You created your second suit to run off and become a vigilante!"

"I created my second suit to destroy the weapons..."

"And, I created mine to protect my life," Alex interrupted. "My reason isn't nearly as ridiculous as yours."

"Are you kidding me?" Tony said. "Your supposed 'self-protection suit' has military grade weapons! That is the definition of ridiculous!"

"Not when you are the heiress to the Stark fortune."

Tony held up his hand to stop her. "Why did you disobey me?"

"Because I wanted my revenge on Obadiah."

"And, you didn't think that I could get that for you?"

"More like I was afraid that your chest piece wasn't going to be up to the task, given that you were using your old one," Alex said. "I was not going to allow Obadiah to take you from me...again..."

"So, that was why you tricked Rhodey into leaving?"

"I really wouldn't call it 'tricking' him," Alex replied. "He wasn't able to get through to his colleagues on the phone, so I just convinced him that going down there would be better. I didn't trick him into doing anything."

Tony shook his head. "I'm not happy, Alex."

Alex hung her head. "I know. I'm sorry," she said. "Are you going to take the suit from me?"

There was a long pause. "No."

Alex's head shot up. "No?"

"You have your uncle's memory. I know you'll just build another one," Tony replied. "But, I am going to have rules, which I am going to expect you to follow at all times."

Alex nodded. "Of course."

"You are not allowed to use your suit for anything but your own self-defense and, even then, only in the most extreme of circumstances. You are going to take self-defense classes so you know how to defend yourself without technology. And, you are going to learn how to shoot a gun and handle it safely. If you're going to be CEO of Stark Industries one day, you should know how to shoot a gun."

Alex nodded. "Thank you, Dad."

"And, this really goes without saying, but you're grounded. Big time," Tony said. "You're under house arrest for the next month."

"Dad!"

"Don't argue with me, Alexandra!"

"But, I have jobs I have to go to!"

Tony was quiet for a moment. "Alright, that's fair," he said. "Ok, no social life for the next month. You go to work, you come home. You're confined to this house on the weekends. Understand me?"

Alex nodded. "Yes."

"Good," Tony said. "Now, come here." Alex walked over to her father and the two embraced. "You know that I only do and say these things because I love you, right?"

Alex nodded against Tony's shoulder. "I know."

Tony pulled away and looked at his daughter. "You really scared me, Alex. If anything happened to you, I..."

"I know, Dad," Alex interrupted.

Tony gave her a small smile and they hugged again. "I love you, Angel."

"I love you too."

Tony kissed the top of her head and pulled away once more. "Alright, now show me your suit. I want to see what you came up with."

Alex smiled and turned back to her creation. "Obviously, as you can see, the design is basically the same as yours, with obvious modifications to fit my body structure. It's a bit more form fitting than yours is. And, the colors are different, as you can see. I was going to go with red and black, but I thought that black with purple highlights looked a bit cooler. It has all of the same features as yours, including JARVIS…"

"Really, JARVIS?" Tony said. "You didn't tell me that this was happening?"

"I was sworn to secrecy, sir," JARVIS replied.

"In JARVIS' defense, he did try to stop me," Alex added, as Tony shook his head. "Anyways, I did add one extra feature that your suit does not have." She clicked a button on the side of her suit and two large blades appeared, almost looking like wings. "Now, these blades are extremely sharp. I'd like to think that they will never get dull, but nothing is perfect. They can be revealed manually, as I just did, or by command, while inside the suit."

"How useful will they be if you are in mid-flight?"

"I've designed them to be like boomerangs," Alex replied. "I can release them from inside the suit, they'll go and hit whatever targets I want them to hit, and then they will return and reattach themselves to their home base. Then, if I don't want to use them anymore, they can hide themselves inside the suit again." She pressed the button one more time. "Like that. They can also fold down into sword or knife forms, if I so choose. And, as you saw, be used as a shield."

"This seems like an extreme feature for someone who just wants something for simple self-defense."

"I've been told that I've inherited my father's love for toys."

Tony smirked. "And, you've had JARVIS run diagnostics?"

"That was the first thing she did, sir," JARVIS replied.

Tony nodded. "Good work, Angel," he said. "I'm impressed."

Alex beamed. "Thanks, Dad."

"But, remember my conditions."

"I will. I promise."

Tony nodded and turned to head back upstairs. Alex turned back to her suit and sighed. So, she wasn't as dead as she thought she was going to be, which was good. She could keep her suit, which was good. And, she was only grounded for a month, which was almost hard to believe. All in all, she really didn't make out too badly.

Perhaps Justine was right; Alex really was a lucky bitch.

Apologies for the delay in posting this chapter but, I will admit, this one was a little difficult to write. I'm still practicing my "battle scene writing", which is one of the reasons this chapter took so long. I wasn't sure how detailed I wanted to or could get. Then, there was Christmas and various other things, but at least the chapter is here now!

One more chapter left in this story! Hopefully, that one will be up sooner than this one was.

I hope that you enjoy this new chapter! Please let me know what you think!