Everything changes in this chapter. Sit tight!
By the time we reached home Tony's little outburst had gone viral. And the news had reached everyone from Larry King to my dad.
Dad did not take it well.
He yelled at Tony during their whole phone conversation, so I didn't have to ask my uncle what he said. Dad was cutting his business trip short and coming down to pick me up.
"You'll be safer away from me, Iz," was all Tony said. "Go to your room and start packing."
I did as he said, fuming the whole way, hoping Pepper had the sense to evacuate the house before shit went down. I pulled out my suitcases once again then noticed the Chrome armor, in its nifty backpack form, still in the corner.
Bring it. Definitely bring it.
The doorbell rang, surprising me and jarring me out of my thoughts. How did we still manage to have guests when Tony had put us under lockdown? Voices came from downstairs-Tony's, and a woman's I didn't recognize. I went out to see who it was.
"Who's there?" I said, stopping dead at the top of the stairs. The newcomer looked up at me-a woman with straight dark hair wearing a black cardigan.
"Iz, this is an old friend-Maya Hansen-Maya, my niece Isabella-" said Tony quickly.
"Isabella," said Maya. "Iron Girl, right? I remember hearing about you when you made the news."
"Yeah? Tony hasn't mentioned you at all," I blurted out before I could check myself. Luckily, I was saved from further embarrassment by Pepper.
"I'm sorry, with Happy in the hospital we weren't expecting guests," she said, coming up behind me.
"We weren't," put in Tony.
"And old girlfriends!" Pepper continued, going past me down the stairs. I was surprised.
"Old girlfriends?" I queried in genuine interest.
"Iz, go to your room," he groaned, and I shrugged and turned around as Pepper said "We are going out of town."
The succeeding conversation (argument?) was mostly muffled when I returned to my room and shut the door, continuing to remove my personal effects from the room. I turned to shut the blinds to the windows, when two rapidly-growing specks on the horizon caught my eye.
What the hell was that?
"Um, JARVIS?" I said. "Identify helicopters approaching the-"
BOOM.
The floor bucked savagely beneath me, and I screamed, losing my footing and slamming hard into the wall. BOOM! Another blast. What the hell was happening?! Were we under attack? By whom?
You know by whom! Who did Tony give our address to recently? Inwardly, I cursed. I should have seen it coming!
"Iz!" I heard Tony shout from outside, and my heart pounded furiously. I tried to reply, but the house rocked again, and this time my door shattered into a thousand shards of flying wood. I slammed against the glass of the balcony doors. Holy crap, if this thing broke-! The floor began to tilt again, and I saw my bed about to shift, my Chrome backpack still under it.
Now it was a matter of kinetics. I angled myself so that the bed wouldn't hit me when it finally slid. It came rushing towards me. Now!
I twisted just in time, grabbing the Chrome backpack and forming it around me just as the bed smashed through the glass doors. I tumbled through the wreckage of the house and found the livingroom almost completely destroyed. As another bomb hit the second floor, I saw Tony stumble in the rubble and slide down as the house tilted precariously before the surface of the ocean.
It was like a switch had been flipped on in my head, removing all trace of fear and uncertainty and leaving one thought.
Save him!