LATE-NIGHT CALL

Abel waited as patiently as she could with a camera in her hand, watching Tony mercilessly inject himself in the arm with micro-sized detectors. "Tony," she asked calmly.

"Hold on." He cut her off by injecting yet another micro detector. "Ow."

Abel bit down on her lips and rocked her head to the side, doing her duty and just waiting patiently…as much as she could. She's been waiting to speak to him ever since this new project came up, and she hasn't been able to put a word in edge-wise. Needless to say, her patience was a little thinner than normal. "Tony," she dared ask again.

"Ow!" He shouted with yet another injection. All the while shaking his arm to try and lessen the pain. "Abel, how many is that?"

"You're on forty-seven. Now would you do me a favor and slow down?" she finally relayed to him.

"I will. Just give me a second. Forty-eight. Ow!" He injected himself for the last time in the arm. "Micro-repeater implanting sequence complete." He grabbed a disinfecting wipe from off the table and quickly cleaned up the small traces of blood on his arm.

"Against my better judgment," Abel said dryly, setting down the camera so she could finally speak her peace. Something she's been meaning to say for a couple of days now. "Tony, you promised me you'd take a break…four hours ago. You've been awake for seventy-two hours. You can't keep up with this," she protested.

"I know. I know. I hear you and I understand." He got up from his seat and kissed her very quickly on the lips. "But please. I'm almost done. Just let me test out this one suit and I promise I'll go to bed," he said, clenching her shoulders tightly.

Clearly, Abel had a hard time believing this and just stared at him, eyebrows raised and doubtful. "And stay in bed?" she spoke with a weary voice. "I know you've been getting up in the middle of the night each time to come down here."

Tony flinched when he realized she knew. She probably knew the whole time, too. "Yeah…but this time I'll make sure to stay in bed. The full night. I won't get up once," he promised.

Abel grumbled but fell weak against the charm that he used effortlessly against her. She knew he wasn't lying to her though. He was just putting it on so she won't be so harsh on him, and lucky for him, it worked perfectly. "Fine." She groaned and reached up to kiss his forehead. "But if you break your promise…I will physically drag you to the bed if I have to." She gave him a quick pat on the side of the face before backing up, camera raised and ready to film.

"Don't threaten me with a good time," he muttered under a gleeful smile before turning to address the camera. "Focus up, ladies. Good evening, and welcome to the birthing suite. I'm pleased to announce the imminent arrival of your bouncing, bad-ass, baby brother. Mark 42 autonomous prehensile propulsion suit test. Initialize sequence," Tony began while lifting his hands and remote activating the new suit. "Jarvis, drop my needle."

Frank Sinatra's Jingle Bells begin chiming out of the record player as Tony got into position. He stretched his arm out towards the table where the pieces of the new suit were, expecting them to move. They didn't even budge though and continued to remain motionless, no matter how many times Tony tried to activate them. Something was wrong.

Tony frowned and dropped his arms. "Crap. Abel."

"Ok, ok." Abel tucked the video camera under her arm and walked up to Tony. She grabbed his arm and looked over the spots where the micro detectors were supposed to be. She pushed against his skin lightly before tapping her fingers against them. After a couple of small hits, she could finally hear the sound of them activating under his skin. "You're good." Abel gave him a thumbs up before backing away and bringing up the video camera again.

"Thanks, Sweetheart." Tony pointed his arm again, but this time they finally sprung to life. One by one, pieces flew off the table and attached themselves to Tony's arm and shoulder, just like they were programmed to do, much to Tony's amusement. "Alright, I think we got this. Send 'em all," he said while cracking a grin.

The suit pieces began to pick up speed and move all at once, flying around the room and honing in on Tony. Some of them attached to his leg just fine, but others were going too fast and ended up crashing into the glass cases behind him. Little by little, it was starting to get dangerous with the speed they were going, and it got to the point that even Abel had to hunch down low to avoid getting hit.

"Tony…" Abel called out worryingly from the floor.

"I hear you. Probably a little fast, slow it down. Slow it down just a..." Tony quickly ducked out of the way when an armor piece flew over his head, nearly missing him. "…A little bit."

Armor parts continue to fly dangerously around and attached to Tony's body by force, knocking him all over the place till only one piece remained. The face-piece hovering menacingly across the workshop. Only a couple of feet away.

Tony readied himself for the final blow. "Come on. I ain't scared of you."

The face-piece begins to move in fast as Tony braced himself, hoping to not act a fool in front of the camera. He flipped over and attached the piece to his face, finally assembling all the pieces to his brand-new shiny suit.

"I'm the best," Tony said, facing Abel and the camera and giving them both a thumbs up.

It was at that moment that one stray piece flew out of nowhere and struck Tony from behind, knocking him right into Abel and causing all the pieces on his new suit to fly off. The only thing that somehow managed to stay on was the helmet.

Jarvis spoke up. "As always, sir, a great pleasure watching you work."

Abel groaned and got up off the floor, pulling Tony up with her. She sat him down on a chair and quickly reached around to the back of his helmet, pulling the emergency release button she had installed herself. Once it was off, she did a quick scan to make sure he was alright. Luckily, he was and only had light bruising and a bleeding lip.

"Are you going to bed now?" Abel asked again.

Tony sucked in a sharp and pained breath. "Yeah…yeah. I think that's a good idea." He leaned into her stomach and just sat there for a while until he heard what sounded like a phone going off. Abel's phone, actually. "Who's that?"

Abel pulled away and grabbed her phone from off the table, quickly looking down at the ID. "It's Macy. You know her. My friend?"

Tony blinked. "The writer one? The one who, uh, makes stories based on your life? What does she want?"

"I don't know. She's been doing a lot of TV interviews lately and probably just wants some advice," she said while opening the phone. "It's a text. She saying to the turn on the TV."

"Why? What for?"

Abel tightened her jaw. "The Mandarin attacked again…and this time he left a message." Abel pulled up another chair and sat it in front of the TV mounted on the wall. "Jarvis, can you turn the TV on?"

"Certainly," Jarvis answered and flipped on the button for the TV screen.

The message was unnerving, flipping between random videos that had been documented about the Mandarin's attack. "Some people call me a terrorist, I consider myself a teacher. America, ready for another lesson?" a dreadful voice spoke over the film, soon showcasing the Mandarin's face in full view. "In 1864 in Sand Creek Colorado the U.S. military waited till the friendly Cheyenne braves all gone hunting, waited to attack and slaughter their families left behind, and claim their land. Thirty-nine hours ago the Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait was attacked. I...I...I did that. A quaint military church filled with wives and children, of course. The soldiers were out on maneuvers, the braves were away. President Ellis, you continue to resist my attempts to educate you, sir. And now, you've missed me again. You know who I am, you don't know where I am, and you'll never see me coming." The video ends after that, but when on to repeat itself by the new station.

Tony walked up behind Abel's chair and leaned against it. "This guy again…" he muttered.

Abel took in a deep breath before letting out a long and exhausted sigh. "Yeah…Looks like there's been another attack."

It was tiring at this point. Tony didn't even like turning the TV on anymore because there always seemed to be another attack. "You're pretty good at picking people apart. What do you think of him?" he asked.

Abel hummed to herself and leaned back against her chair. "Hm….I don't really carry an opinion…but here's an interesting thing I've noticed," she said, perking Tony's interest.

"What?"

Abel took a breath and stared silently at the TV that repeatedly played the Mandarin's message. "It's his eyes. To me, they seem off in a way. Focused…but hollow at the same time. He's without shame, yes…but only because it feels like he's…unreal." Her lips fell into a frown at the last words she spoke. "I'm sorry. I feel like I'm being really cryptic."

"A little, yeah." He nodded with a somewhat puzzled look on his face. He couldn't even dream of trying to decipher what she meant, though it probably made perfect sense to her. "But from what I'm getting…you think something's weird about him, right? Like what we're being told is not the whole story."

"Yeah. That's what I'm thinking," Abel confirmed.

Tony groaned. "Great. That's just…great," he muttered while picking up the pieces of his new suit.

Abel turned off the TV and when to help pick up the scattered pieces. "Tony, how about you get ready for bed, and maybe take something that will help you sleep, too. I'll clean up down here and will be up there soon," she suggested with a gentle voice. Abel eyed him carefully and noticed that he seemed a little out of it. His breathing was somewhat labored, and his mind appeared adrift in a totally different space of his brain.

Tony denied the request by shaking his head adamantly. "No, no. I got this. I can-"

"No. What you can do for me...is sleep." She reached up to the side of his face and gently caressed it, meeting his eyes, and holding them there. "You promised me, didn't you? It's fine to rest. It's fine to lay your head down. It's fine…to detach yourself from your worries every so often." she said with ease, watching the exhaustion finally rise in his eyes that's been held back for hours now.

Tony reached for her hand and grasped it tightly. He took a deep breath and kissed the top of her knuckles. "Fine. If that's what you want me to do… then who am I to say no." He kissed her one last time on the lips before getting up to leave. "But I better see you in bed too." He called out while heading upstairs.

"Don't worry. I will," she called back with a smile, holding it there until he was gone. It fell quickly after that though, and she sat back down with a spacey look dancing across her face.

"Ma'am, are you alright?" Jarvis asked, pointing out her odd behavior.

Abel nodded slowly while staring at the pieces that laid on the floor. "I'm fine, but…I think Tony…I think he may of PTSD." she said with a drifting voice.

"What makes you say that?"

"It's because I know the signs when I see them. Both my sisters had experienced it before, and many others before them," Abel said with a long, drawn-out breath. "I just don't think he's aware of it though. The only reason he's been making suits is because he can't sleep," she muttered while rubbing her hands over her face. "I'm worried…because it's hard to get over something like trauma, especially since the problem was otherworldly." She sat within her silence for a couple of seconds until she heard her phone began to ring for the second time of the night. Expecting it to be Macy again with more bad news. Abel groaned before picking it up. "Hello?"

Silence was about the only thing that greeted her. There was no one speaking but she can hear someone's calm breathing on the other side, along with an unnatural heartbeat rhythm. This immediately bothered Abel and she pulled the phone away from her ears to see who it was. She had initially thought it was Macy calling her, but now that she looked, she saw that it was an unknown number.

"Hello? Is someone there?" Abel asked again, waiting with anticipation as the caller's heartbeat sped up very slightly. Yet still going unanswered.

It took another whole minute of silence before the unknown person took in an unnaturally deep breath like he was mentally bracing himself for something. "Thanks for the immortality," a man's voice said before the line suddenly went dead. Leaving Abel to shudder in a cold sweat.