Once again I must apologize for the long update wait. On the plus side, I got some more followers and favorites in the wait period, so that's good. I hope everyone had a good holiday and has a fabulous New Year! Enjoy the chapter!
The armors were ready for testing. It had taken days of little sleep and constant vigilance to hide and complete the projects, but the siblings now stood together on the platform as various robot arms assembled the suits around them. Tony picked up two faceplates and handed one to Fiona. They slotted them into place, the blue HUDs lighting up inside. A small picture of Tony appeared in the corner of Fiona's display.
"Jarvis online in your suit?" Tony asked. Fiona nodded.
"He's in." With the suits fully assembled, the siblings sized each other up. Fiona's suit was slightly more feminine than her brother's, with slightly more curves in the hips and bust. It also had no arc reactor shining in the chest.
"Looks good," said Tony
"Yours too," replied Fiona. "Jarvis, how's the virtual walk-around going?
"Calibrating virtual environment...complete. Preparing to power down and begin diagnostics." Tony met Fiona's eyes- as well as two people's eyes could meet from behind metal masks. Fiona nodded.
"Hey, J? Run a weather and ATC check," Tony said
"Check the local flight patterns while you're at it," Fiona added
"May I advise that you do not do what my processors calculate you're going to do?" Jarvis asked
"Don't be such a mother duck, Jarvis!" Fiona complained.
"There are still terabytes of calculations needed before an actual flight is-"
"Jarvis, sometimes you gotta run before you can walk," interrupted Tony
"Tony, for once I agree with you," said Fiona. "Take the bull by the horns.
"Ready in three...two...one." Tony's repulsors lit and he blasted off down the garage tunnel, Fiona at his heels. As they cleared the exit and gained altitude, the siblings let out yells of exhilaration. Fiona soared in a long, graceful arc toward the lights of the Santa Monica Pier. Tony followed. They drew level with the Ferris wheel and circled it in opposite directions, blowing past a pair of children in one of the gondolas. The boy dropped his ice cream in shock as they rocketed around the wheel. They peeled away and flew upwards, coming to a hover a few thousand feet up.
"You wanna find out what these things can do?" Tony asked. Fiona could hear the grin in his voice. "Jarvis, what's the record for fixed-wing flight?"
"85,000 feet, sir."
"Records are made to be broken! Come on!" Tony blasted away and was two thousand feet higher before Fiona even got her boot jets firing. She raced after him.
"Tony, the reason that's the record is because of the-
"Potentially fatal ice buildup occurring, sir."
"That," Fiona finished.
"Keep going!" Tony yelled. A moment later, Fiona heard him curse. "Jarvis, deploy the flaps! We iced up!" Fiona sighed, activating extra thrusters. Her HUD locked onto Tony's position and she met him as he fell, the pair crashing into each other and Fiona locking her arms under Tony's and around his chest. Tony's weight and momentum sent them tumbling downward. Fiona desperately tried to correct their course.
"I need the flaps!" Tony yelled. Fiona reached for a lever on his side and yanked it to the other position, opening the flaps on Tony's suit and breaking the film of ice that had covered most of it. Tony pushed away from her slightly and the pair righted themselves, coming to a hover near their house.
"Well...that was exciting," Fiona said, before the siblings lapsed into giggles and began flying back toward the house. Tony wanted to kill the suit power over the roof and do a dramatic landing but Fiona convinced him to go back into the garage tunnel, wanting to avoid the property damage that likely would ensue from such a landing. The two clanked onto the platform and the robots began the deconstruction of their suits. Both were bruised from the mid-air collision so Fiona went and dug some ice packs and bandages from the first-aid kit. After strapping ice packs onto all the injuries, Fiona yawned. "I'm off to bed. You staying up?" Tony nodded.
"Yeah...for a bit..." Fiona left the workshop and headed up to her bedroom. Once in the privacy of her room, she pulled out the project she had been saving Tony's old arc reactor for. She had secretly crafted a metal ring that fit around the reactor and engraved around it Always here to help you with a little speed bump. She placed the finished product on a smal platform and covered the whole thing with a glass box. Gift ready, she changed into her old t-shirt and shorts and crawled into bed. The nightmares had decreased in quantity since she had begun working on the armor with Tony and the sporadic periods of sleep she'd been getting had been peaceful and horror-free.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~
The next day, Fiona was channel-surfing upstairs when she came across a news broadcast.
"Tonight's red-hot carpet is here at the Disney Concert Hall, where Tony Stark's third annual benefit-" Fiona shut the TV off and raced downstairs to the lab where Tony was watching the same broadcast.
"Did you see this?" Tony asked. Fiona nodded and the two kept watching.
"...whatever the case may be, no one expects an appearance from the Stark siblings tonight."
"The render is complete," said Jarvis.
"Wait, what render?" Fiona asked. Tony pulled up a model of his suit on the screen. It was painted a bright gold.
"That grayish silver was so boring! I wanted to spice it up a bit."
"With all gold? That's a bit much, even for you." Tony considered this, his gaze falling on one of his antique cars.
"Tell you what...throw a little hot-rod red in there, J." Jarvis was quiet for a second. Then the model on-screen shifted, red becoming the dominant color and gold remaining on the sides of the torso, legs, arms and head. "What about you? What colors do you want?" Fiona reached for the screen and opened a color file. She swiped through the hues until she found the one she wanted.
"This one where yours is red," she said, touching a sky blue. "And bronze where yours is gold." Fiona's armor appeared on the screen, resplendent in blue and bronze. "Perfect," she said.
"Jarvis? Fabricate and paint 'em," said Tony. "Also, I solved the icing problem. Used that titanium alloy from the seraphim satellite. Now back to the problem at hand..." He jerked a thumb at the TV, where the reporter was now interviewing guests. "I'd say we have a party to get to, wouldn't you?" Fiona grinned.
"That's exactly what I'd say."
~.~.~.~.~.~.~
The silver Audi R8 sped through the downtown streets, pulling up in front of the concert hall just a few inches from a young red-vested valet. His mouth opened in shock when the Starks exited the car. Tony tossed him the keys and the siblings walked purposefully up the red carpet. Fiona was wearing the red dress she had worn for the award show a few months back and her hair hung in curled waves down her back. Both knew how cut dramatic figures in public and were doing excellent jobs.
"Hey, Tony, remember me?" an attractive woman purred as they passed.
"Sure don't," Tony responded without batting an eye. Fiona caught sight of Obie up ahead and inconspicuously nudged Tony, directing his attention Obie's way. Obie was talking to a group of men but stopped when he noticed the approaching Starks.
"What's the world coming to when a guy's gotta crash his own party?" Tony asked as they drew level with Obadiah.
"Look at you. Hey, what a surprise!" Fiona caught the less-than-pleased tone in Obadiah's voice.
"I'll see you inside," said Tony, also picking up on the tone of voice, and the Starks made to leave. Obadiah stopped them.
"Hey, listen, take it easy, all right? I think I got the board just where I want them." The siblings nodded.
"Cabin fever, that's all," said Fiona.
"We'll just be a minute," added Tony. The two entered the spacious hall. All of LA's high society was there, decked out in their finest. The siblings parted ways. Fiona plucked a glass of champagne from a passing waiter while Tony headed for the bar.
"Miss Stark," said a voice from behind her. Fiona turned to find the agent from the press conference- Coulson, that was his name- making his way toward her.
"Agent Coulson. To what do I owe the pleasure?" The two shook hands.
"I still need to do a debriefing with your brother about his escape. Do you know where I might find him?" Fiona nodded towards the bar.
"I'm guessing he's getting a drink." Coulson thanked her and began walking away. "You guys come up with a new name yet?" she called to his retreating back. Coulson turned with a small smile.
"We're working on it." Fiona grinned back at him before a flash of red hair caught her eye. She wove around a couple of actors and caught up with Pepper.
"Pepper, you look amazing!" Pepper turned. It was true. She wore a shimmering blue party dress that complemented her hair wonderfully.
"Fiona! Thanks, you look great too. What are you doing here?" Fiona sighed.
"I wish Tony had made it clear that I had nothing to do with the weapons shutdown; I'm getting a lot of flack for that. I don't even work with the weapons division! Hey, did you know Agent Coulson's here? I just ran into him." Pepper shook her head, her eyes fixed on something over Fiona's shoulder. Fiona turned to find her brother striding towards them.
"Pepper, you look fantastic, I didn't recognize you! Where'd you get that dress?"
"It was a birthday present," said Pepper.
"That's great."
"From you, actually."
"Well, I got great taste." Fiona sighed and took her brother's lapel , gently pulling him away from Pepper.
"Two seconds," she mouthed back at Pepper as they walked away. Once they were out of earshot, she turned him to face her. "You know, for someone as suave and great around women as you are, you're totally blowing it with her." Tony looked confused.
"What-"
"Okay. You obviously like Pepper. I've grown up with you and I know how you treat those one-night-stands and how you treat Pepper. Also, she likes you too. I know this as a woman and as a close friend of hers- Pepper really likes you. So here's what you do. You go over there and you ask her if she wants a drink. Don't ask her to dance. That's what you were about to do and let me say that that's just going to be really awkward with your current relationship- she's you're secretary. Just buy her a drink and go talk to her about her. Girls love it when you do that." She gave Tony's arm a gentle push and he walked back over to Pepper. They talked for a moment, then Tony headed for the bar. Pepper locked eyes with Fiona and Fiona winked and smiled. Pepper raised her eyebrows with a smile in that oh-so-familiar Fiona-I'd-be-insane-without-you look. Then someone touched her shoulder and she was immediately engaged in conversation with a man and woman. Fiona glanced over at Tony. A woman was with him, holding some small pieces of paper. Tony stiffened. He snatched the papers and stormed off. Fiona hurried across the room, brushing off a young man who looked way too eager and catching Tony's arm. He shook it off, turning with an irritated expression, but it softened when he realized who it was.
"What's wrong? Who was-" Fiona glanced back at the bar, answering her own question. Christine Everhart stood at the bar. She glanced their way and Fiona raised one eyebrow in the way she had spent years perfecting on the MIT campus- silently sassing out the people who had teased her before being so young. Everhart blushed slightly and turned away. "What did she show you?" Fiona snatched a photo from Tony's hand. It showed a group of people hauling weapons with the Stark logo on them. "What is this? Where is this? We didn't approve any weapons shipments!
"/We/ didn't," said Tony darkly. "But three guesses who did." It took less than two second for Fiona's mind to flick through all the possible candidates. Her mouth fell open slightly
"No way," she whispered. Tony nodded tightly
"C'mon," he said, and Fiona followed him out to the wide, sweeping front steps of the concert hall where Obadiah was talking to someone. Tony pulled him away and the siblings stood shoulder-to-shoulder facing him. Or, more accurately, shoulder-to-upper-arm. Fiona had not quite caught up to Tony in the height department.
"Do you two mind?" asked Obadiah, as though the siblings were annoying children who had interrupted a parent's phone call. Tony held up the photos in one fist.
"Have you seen these pictures? Do you know what's going on in Gulmira?"
Obadiah took each of them gently by one arm, walking them towards the press at the bottom of the stairs and he himself walking between them and looping his arms around their shoulders.
"Tony. Fiona." The siblings smiled for the paparazzi's cameras, but their grins were tight and forced. "You can't afford to be this naive."
"You know what? I was naive before, when they said 'Here's the line, we don't cross it.'"
"This is how we do business," countered Obadiah.
"By double-dealing under the table? Obie, Tony may have done some less-than-honorable things before-"
"Hey!"
"-but this? Who are you selling to?"
"That's not important. What's important is the company. Who do you think locked you out? It was the only way to protect you two." Fiona stopped and she saw Tony do the same.
"I'm going home. Tony?" Tony nodded and the siblings shrugged off Obadiah's arms and hurried down the steps together. The valet had seen them coming and their car pulled up as they neared the curb. Tony took the keys without a word, Fiona handed the valet a large tip and the pair drove off in silence
~.~.~.~.~.~.~
Later that night, the two were in the lab watching a news report. Tony was fiddling with a repulsor as they watched.A British reporter was on screen, standing in a dusty landscape.
"The 15-mile hike to the outskirts of Gulmira can only be describes as a descent into hell, into a modern day Heart of Darkness. Simple farmers and herders from peaceful villages have been driven from their homes, displaced from their lands by warlords emboldened by a new-found power." Tony gave the screwdriver in his hand a twist and the repulsor hummed quietly. As the reporter continued talking, Tomy stood up and walked away from the couch, in the direction of the bar. Fiona continued watching, unable to tear her gaze away from the people leading their families, hauling possessions in a long line across the screen. Without warning, there was a loud hum from behind her and a blue blast exploded into the TV, shattering it into a thousand pieces. Fiona ducked, covering her head and neck as tiny fragments rained down on her. There was another crash. She looked up, and watched as the windows next to the door shattered one by one. She twisted around to see Tony, palm outstretched, repulsor glow dying down, his eyes dark. He was breathing heavily.
"Tony?" Fiona asked hesitantly. Something seemed to soften in Tony's face and he turned to her. He took in her worried expression, her curled position, and the shards of glass and plastic in her hair and on her shoulders and hurried over.
"Oh my god, Fi, I'm so sorry!" He gently brushed the debris off out of her hair. "I just...I don't know. It got a little personal."
"It's okay. I'm okay." She stood up and climbed over the back of the couch. "Come on," she said, taking Tony's arm.
"What are we doing?" Tony asked in confusion. Fiona looked back at him.
"We're going to Gulmira."
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Also, check out the story I'm writing with some of my FFnet friends. It's an Avengers crack-fic and you can find it on my profile!
Until next time,
Ophelia