Chapter 5

)()()(

After Salem exchanged her clothes for a medical gown, one she greatly despised as soon as she saw that the back was open but could be tied, she sat on a reclining bed with Doctor Cho next to her near the holographic. Several wires were attached to her, many on her chest and back to record her vitals which showed on the screen next to her.

Doctor Cho tried to take a couple vials of blood from Salem's right arm, Salem's skin didn't even dent when she tried.

Salem frowned, not wanting the needle to go into her skin as it would hurt and she didn't like the sensation, "I don't like my blood taken."

"Try and relax," Cho encouraged. "Think of the needle going into your skin not as an enemy, but as a helper."

Cho tried the needle again, watching as Salem clenched her hand around the tennis ball in her hand before the needle easily slid into her vein. As soon as the needle settled, Salem clenched her hand and the neon ball collapsed onto itself as dents where her fingers let out the air and crushed it.

"We'll add in strength increases when stressed," Cho smiled, finishing up the vials before wiping at the needle point. She ran her gloved thumb over the incision, watching it heal before her eyes within a split second. "And healing. We'll test those abilities at a later date."

Tony paced on the other side of the bed, arms crossed and hand rubbed at his chin. "Strength yes, healing, I don't think so. Harming her to just see how she heals isn't a brilliant idea."

"Natasha cut my arm to confirm earlier, Dad," Salem said.

"And she was told off for it," Tony gave her a look he usually reserved for the idiots that he had working for him. "While I understand why she did it, she should have known no harm, by anyone's hands, should have happened to you."

"Tell that to the stupid bomb that got me into this mess," She gave him the same look back. "So strength testing, and a minor test of my healing ability. I recovered from shrapnel in my side. Why?"

"You probably didn't think of healing yourself at the moment when you got hit," Cho said. "You were more concerned about getting the falling Quinjet out of there and onto land. I'm going to do some tests on your blood samples to see what's going on. But first, I need a urine sample too. Sorry."

Salem moaned, taking the plastic cup and walking into the bathroom. After a minute or two, she reappeared and handed the cup back.

"And the final thing will be a spinal tap,"

"For fuck's sake,"

"Language."

)()()(

"How long has she been on the treadmill?" Steve asked, watching as Salem ran on the treadmill with her headphones in.

She was allowed to change into workout gear, meaning she changed into a pair of black Puma athletic shorts and a matching sports bra with trainers. Her dark blue-black hair, a trait of the Stark family, was pulled up and into a tight ponytail to keep it out of her way while she ran, bouncing behind her as she did so.

With her STARK earbuds in, she couldn't hear anything right now as she was concentrating on running. She didn't realise how long she was on.

"One hour, forty three minutes and thirty seven seconds, thirty eight, thirty nine," Cho counted off as she sat near the screen with Salem's vitals. The girl wasn't allowed to look at them while she exercised.

"And she hasn't broken a sweat yet?" He said, his arms crossed as he watched Salem almost lip sync to her music. "What's her heart rate like?"

"It's at an even sixty while she exercises, but resting heart rate is at forty a minute." Cho said, gesturing to the steady heartbeat line at the top. "Even with her age, hers should be at an average of eighty. Her exercising heart rate should be much much higher than it is, but there haven't been any adverse effects for her low heart rate. Her heart is pumping effectively and she's getting enough oxygen. The oxygen levels in her blood are about ten to fifteen percent higher than average, but it would explain her lack of tiredness at the moment."

"Adrenaline?"

"Low levels, but it raised to just below average when she started to run and settled back down to low,"

"Done talking about me?" Salem said, quickly stepping off of the treadmill and letting it slow down by itself. She took a deep breath in, checking her watch as she looked at her heart rate. "But you're right, that is a low heart rate. That's strange, my heart rate is usually really high. FRIDAY, put up my heartrate history from my watch over the last year."

"It's on the screen now,"

There was a continuous line across the screen, each minute of each day was documented and every single average heart rate of each hour was written. During the night and at some resting areas, her resting heartbeat went as low as twenty-nine and the highest rate went up to one hundred and ninety-six.

In the last twenty-four hours, her sleeping rate was down to twenty-five, her resting stuck at forty, and her exercising and movement was at a steady sixty.

"Has anything changed in the last week?" Doctor Cho asked. "Have you consumed anything different or new or strange?"

"Nah," Salem shook her head. "I had a bad feeling all week, like when you know something bad is gonna happen. Apparently having a HYDRA spy as a roommate qualifies. What even happened to them?"

"They've been taken into custody," Steve said. "Their parents were found dead early this morning. Apparently none of the girls have been home since they were sent to school."

"Yeah," Salem agreed, her eyebrows furrowing in such a way that even Steve could see her father in her. "They didn't tend to go home until the summer. I usually went off during christmas to see Pepper and Rhodey, then I went wherever for the rest of it. Usually Spain or Italy, sometimes England."

"Wait, Tony lets you go to a foriegn country alone?" Steve sounded shocked at that, letting a child regardless if they were a teen alone in a different country without supervision.

"Yeah," She said it like it made perfect sense to her. "I've been doing this for a couple years now. I planned to stay in Malibu this summer since the house got redone from when it got destroyed."

"Where do you live, Salem?"

"At the school, mostly. I've got the codes to all of the Stark residences, along with a room on Dad's floor at the tower,"

"That's not very stable for a kid,"

Cho watched as the vitals on the screen shifted, seeming unsure of how they wanted to go. her heart rate increased and then decreased drastically, it was unhuman-like how it did. It shouldn't have been possible to have such an irregular heartbeat.

Salem's core temperature rose, going from between the normal ninety-seven point eight Fahrenheit (thirty-six point five Celius) and ninety-nine Fahrenheit (thirty-seven point two Celius) to a number way beyond two hundred. It wasn't doing any damage so far, but if it increased any more, Sale would be in hyperthermia and could damage her internal organs.

"I'm almost sixteen. While I'm not an adult, I'm sure as hell not a kid," She snapped, flaring her nostrils in anger and gritting her teeth "I'm good with languages so there's no language barriers, and I've got a tracker on my person along with the ones on my phone and watch. It's fine."

Steve shook his head. "He didn't even want you out of his sight after the missiles and HYDRA threat, but he lets you out of the country by yourself? Tony's neglecting you if he allows you to go to a foriegn country without any protection."

"It's none of your business, old man," Salem crossed her arms, widening her stance as Steve took on a more Captain America voice and tone. She felt like she wanted to explode in anger. "How I am raised, or lack of raising, is none of your business. You didn't know of me until yesterday because you didn't need to. I usually use Andris instead of my last name. My private and official documents have the Stark name but I keep them safe."

"It's my business if a child is being neglected!"

"I'm not being neglected!" Salem almost screamed, gesturing wildly as she lashed her words out. "Just because I'm being raised in a different way than you would like doesn't mean I'm being neglected! My dad has a whole company to look after, even if he gave control to Pepper. He's an Avenger, he doesn't have time for a child! Why do you think I keep out of his way?"

Steve stepped forwards, watching as the roots of Salem's hair seemed to lighten to a strange white colour before it turned all of her hair white. Her eyes seemed to tear up, turning a shade or two more purple than the normal grey as she just clenched her fists in anger.

If her anger did this, what would rage do? Steve now knew that the topic of her father and being raised was a sensitive one. What about her mother?

"He's your father," He began, stepping closer to her so he was only a foot or two away from the girl. "He should be here to look after you if your mother can't. What kind of parent lets their offspring be vulnerable with enemies around? What kind of parent abandons their child completely?"

Salem rubbed under her eyes, not yet crying but not yet completely fine. She bared her teeth in something Steve would call defensiveness and wanting to distance herself.

With each new sentence and question, Salem's skin started to become more and more transparent.

Cho watched as Salem's core temperature decreased so much, going down to dangerous levels but Salem looked completely fine, besides for anger and sadness.

"Just stop," Salem blinked some tears away which wanted to escape, her mouth felt dry and she rubbed her neck. "I don't want to talk about it."

"It's serious,"

"I don't care!" Her skin and clothes turn more transparent, seeming unable to decide whether she should be seen or not right now. Salem wanted to disappear. "It's none of your business and you don't need to interfere. The world needs Tony Stark as Iron Man more than I need Tony Stark as my dad. I've accepted it, so stop fucking making me talk about it."

"No, he shouldn't trea—"

Salem took a step back, taking off each of the tiny patches of fabric that attached wires to her. She shook her head with each step backwards, slowing only a tad to allow Duke to slither up her leg to rest around her hips like a belt.

"Just stop already!" She screamed at him. "I don't care so leave me alone."

"Salem, stop!" Steve went to try and grab her wrist as she turned around and almost sprinted out, his hand went through her like she was a ghost. He watched as she neared the door and her form disappeared completely. "FRIDAY, put the place on lockdown."

"Salem left the building before you could even say that command," FRIDAY said evenly. "While I cannot track her anymore through physical means, even her body heat can't be sensed, she's still wearing her tracker. I have told Boss about this and Miss Potts says to let Salem come back here in her own time. You pursuing her will cause her to stay away for longer."

Cho just shook her head at Steve. "You better hope she's alright later. She's a good kid."

"How did you know about her but I didn't?"

"Mr Stark told me," She said. "He thought I would need to know just in case something happened to do with medical issues for him or Salem. I guess this would be one. I want to call in Doctor Strange."

)()()(

Pepper's no nonsense stare softened as she took in Salem sheepishly standing at the doorway of her office, nodding for her to come in.

Soon enough, Salem flicked the strange stick sculpture on Pepper's desk, watching as it moved around. A mostly eaten pizza sat on there, too many meat and cheese toppings to be healthy but Salem liked it that way.

Pepper continued to do paperwork as Salem flicked the sculpture again, the girl had her arms on the table and laid her head on her arms.

Salem gestured upwards with her fingers, wanting the stick thing to move around without her touching it. She just thought of it moving, almost manifesting it as she moved her finger but kept it away from the sculpture.

She grinned when it moved, a tiny gush of air foring the sticks to quickly twirl around as the sculpture design intended.

"You're getting the hang of your gifts," Pepper commented, placing her pen down to watch Salem begin to play with the tiny new ability of using some sort of wind or force to move the sticks.

"Eh," Salem shrugged, sitting up as she continued to flick the stick thing around. "Well, so far, if I want to do something or if I want something to happen, it happens. Healing, being out of danger, not being hurt. Even Doctor Cho couldn't get the needle into my skin if I didn't want it. I don't know if I have to focus for it to happen, or if healing and other stuff happens without prompts."

"At least you're not freaking out anymore,"

"I want to know how I have these gifts and how to get rid of them," Her voice was nonsense. "I don't want them. As fun as they are, I don't need anything that could make me a hero or anything. Puts a bigger target on the Starks then."

Pepper agreed. "The Starks have had a big target ever since the genius gene has been found in the family. You used to mess around with the interfaces of the computers and your dad had to fix them. He never really figured out who was messing with them."

Pepper smiled in memory, getting an almost lost look in her eyes as she remembered Sabrina Stark as a child, before she became Salem.

Many nannies couldn't keep up with the Stark offspring. Even as a newborn infant, it seemed like Sabrina wasn't to be looked after by strangers even if they were vetted and well qualified for the job.

Tony tried to send the girl to a boarding school during the year as soon as she turned five, but each time something bad would happen that would force her home.

The day Pepper met the offspring was when she had to drag Tony from the basement of the Malibu mansion. The man in question was sitting by a motorbike, something old but he was sprucing it up with a new bright violet colour, while a seven year old Sabrina Stark was running around in a pair of shorts and a t-shirt Pepper knew belonged to Tony because he was shirtless.

The music was loud, but not deafening as the girl ran around to get a smaller screwdriver before she ran under a table out of sight.

Tony asked JARVIS to turn the volume down so he and Pepper could talk.

"AH-HA!" A voice could be heard from under the table, making both adults pause.

They quickly came over when they heard the evil little giggles of a child unsupervised, finding a grinning Stark and a robot almost double the size of her.

She pointed to the robot. "U!"

"You?" Tony asked, eyes narrowing. "Did you make it?"

"Yes," Sabrina pouted. "I call him U!"

"Me?"

"No, daddy. U as in the letter!" She grinned, a gap at the bottom because she had lost a tooth and it hadn't grown back in yet. "Like how you call Dum-E Dum-E because it's a play on dummy, I call him U because you! I think he likes it. U even has a camera!"

"Why did you build him?" Tony crouched down, getting down to her level as she pouted at his question.

"You build that," Sabrina gestured to the cars and motorcycles around the basement, turning her arm to the robot behind her. "I build this! Who's she? Is she the sec-re-tar-rey?"

"I am," Pepper said, coming a little closer. "And you are?"

"Sabrina Stark!"

"Pepper, meet my daughter, Sabrina," Tony said, standing up as he introduced them. "Sabrina, this is Pepper, my personal assistant."

"Oh!" Sabrina perked up. "You're Pepper, the one with the pepper spray! Daddy told me the story, I found it hil-ar-ee-us?" She frowned as she struggled over the word. "Hil-er-i-us? No, that's not right…"

"Hilarious?" Pepper prompted.

"Yes!"

"How old are you, Miss Stark?"

"I'm seven! Eight in november!" She said, sticking her hand out for a handshake. "You can call me Sabrina! Daddy does, and Happy too."

"Okay, Sabrina. Can you put the tools you used away?" Tony asked softly. "Can I check U to make sure he is…" He didn't want to say properly made because he almost knew it would crush his daughter to think what she made wasn't up to his standards. "Healthy and safe? You know how Dum-E used to have a squeak in his arm? I want to make sure U doesn't have the same problem."

Sabrina narrowed her eyes at him, the way a child did when they tried to see through anything the adult did that they didn't approve of. "You tell me and I can fix him!"

"How about I help you fix him?"

"Fine." She perked up. "I'm hungry. Cheetahs?"

"No, no cheetos. Apple."

"Apple then cheetahs?"

"Sure,"

"YAY!" Sabrina went off sprinting upwards, the doors opening automatically as she ran. "CHEETAHS!"

As soon as the door closed, Pepper turned to Tony with a shocked look.

"You have a daughter?"

"Yeah,"

"And she's a genius."

"Mmhmm,"

"And she's yours,"

"I thought you were quicker than this, Miss Potts," Tony teased. "I didn't think you would be this slow on the uptake."

"Not normally but when I find out that the amazing Tony Stark has a child, a seven year old one at that, I'm allowed to be shocked."

"Sir," JARVIS interrupted. "Mr Hogan has arrived and is coming through the main door."

And a distant scream came.

"HAPPY! I'm not a munchkin!" Sabrina screamed, the sound becoming louder as the man carried the squirming girl. "DAD, TELL HIM TO PUT ME DOWN!"

Happy appeared at the doors of the basement, Sabrina on his hip as she tried to grab the bag of cheetos which he held away from her. He placed the bag on a table before he walked closer to the other adults.

"She ate two packs and this is her third," Happy said, looking at the pouting face of the girl he held. He sighed, putting her on the ground.

She stood still, crossing her arms and letting Happy let his guard down.

Sabrina took a moment to calm down, suddenly running at the table and grabbing the pack of cheetos.

"CHEETAHS! YOU'LL NEVER CATCH ME ALIVE!"

When she tried to run away with the bag, the glass doors of the basement didn't open and she ran face first into it. She landed on her butt with a huge scowl on her face.

"Ow."

"Sorry, ma'am," JARVIS said. "You have too many of them in your system. They aren't good for you."

"JARVIS, you're a traitor."

"I know."

The adults sighed, and Pepper realised what she was getting into by dealing with the Starks.

)()()(

The intercomm by Pepper's desk went off, letting her know someone was at the door.

The door opened and a person from the media department came in, one hand holding up a phone while the other a folder. "Miss Potts, we have a problem."

"What do you mean?" Pepper said, standing up as the person came forward.

"It's about Tony Stark,"

"Tell me straight,"

The person swallowed at the dark look they were given. "The media knows that he has a daughter. A picture of them has leaked."

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Salem stood up, rubbing both hands down her face aggressively.

"Nope," They came over, putting the folder down on the desk. "Mr Stark made a file which was sent to me as soon as something like this happened. This is it. Good luck, Miss Potts."

Salem looked at the folder, biting the inside of her lip.

Code Little Star, SAS, Sabrina 'Salem' Andris Stark. Folder to be sent to Pepper Potts.

"I can't even have a peaceful day." Salem slumped in her seat after she sat down, Duke curling tighter around her throat in comfort.

Pepper was on the phone within the next second.

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