Third Chapter. Woop woop! I like this story, and the ideas are coming in slowly, plus I have school, so forgive me for updating slowly :)
"…and so, considering dramatic conventions and techniques, what can this play tell us about gender conflict during this time period?" Drama was not one of Sarah's best subjects. Yes she was good at the acting part, but she had learnt to lie from the best.
The bell rang, and before the teacher could set any homework, the class had bolted out of the classroom, leaving Sarah sitting at her desk. Physics had caused her brain to work overtime, weighing up option after option. Skip out lunch on the roof and feel the wrath of Pepper after, or go, and spend the time hoping that Tony didn't bring up the engineering, or at least do it subtly. After deciding that running from Pepper probably wasn't the best idea, she packed her books up and headed towards her locker. Turning the corner on the hallway, she looked up and saw Pepper leaning against her locker.
Pepper saw her, smirked and waited for Sarah to come into hearing range.
"You think that I would let you get out of lunch with us? Never! What happened in Physics? I fell asleep. Tony can go on forever about things he designs. You just tune out after a while." Sarah had grabbed her lunch and they had made their way up to the roof. Sarah noticed that Gene was missing, along with Whitney.
"Yes!" Pepper started jumping up and down. "Whitney must be having lunch with her dad! Booyah!" The rest left on the roof looked over to where the two emerged from the stairs, and smiled when they saw Pepper dancing. All except Tony, who was fiddling with his phone. Pepper pulled Sarah over to the others, and started meshing words together so quickly that Sarah couldn't understand what she was talking about. Rhodey was studying for the History test they had tomorrow, and Happy was doing his thing over on the other side of the roof.
Sarah moved towards the edge of the roof and looked on to the city. In the small area that she could see, it was already bigger than Perth.
"Hey." She turned, and saw Tony approaching.
"Hey. Decided to finally emerge into reality? Welcome. It's boring. " He laughed as he joined her at the edge.
"You of all people should understand that." Sarah rolled her eyes.
"Is that Stark International?" Sarah pointed to the building.
"Yeah. Used to be home."
"Used to be?" Tony sighed.
"When my father and I were in the plane crash, he didn't survive. Obadiah Stane took control of the company and is turning everything my father and I designed into weapons. And I mean everything." He turned away and looked over to where Rhodey and Pepper were arguing.
"I take over at 18, but I don't know if I can do that anymore. The board seems happy enough with him, and they could prevent me inheriting the company."
"I'm sorry." He smiled.
"You get used to it. Now, I told you my background, how about you tell me how you know so much about engineering?" Sarah cringed. This was what she wanted to avoid at all costs. But he might understand.
"You know the basics. My parents divorced, my mum moved here and so did I."
"But it doesn't explain how you know…"
"Okay, fine. My father… he worked for Interpol. He was the guy that they took everything to when they didn't know what it was. SHIELD used him back when he was working on stuff they didn't understand." She paused, and then turned to Tony.
"He was friends with your dad." She watched him freeze, then turn to look at her.
"Really?" Sarah nodded.
"You know your father worked for SHIELD at a point, don't you?"
"He built their helicarrier."
"Right. Did a freaking good job as well. Anyway, at that time, they got my father in to look at some of the tech that they had gotten of the raid they did on the black market in China." Sarah moved from the edge of the building and paced.
"They got him to reverse-engineer most of it. They would have got your dad to do it, but he was running a company." Sarah walked back over to the ledge and sat down.
"I learnt off him. Before he decided to throw himself into alcohol. Then he just became unbearable." She smiled.
"And now I'm here. Woo."
"America's more interesting than Australia, you've got to admit. Plus, you could get the things you need to build your designs." She raised an eyebrow.
"What makes you say I have designs?" Tony smirked.
"I quote: Have you tried doubling back the rotations… blah and so on. C'mon! Only someone who either spends their whole life reading or observing engineering would be able to say that without experience in actually designing and building things!" Sarah glared at him teasingly and turned to look over the city. It was more fascinating than Australia by far. The warning bell rang out, giving the group five minutes to get to fifth period. Sarah and Tony turned to head back to where the others were on the far side of the roof when Sarah paused.
Something was different, she could feel it. Her instincts were the one thing her mum always told her to listen to, and right now they were screaming at her that something was wrong.
"Sarah?" Tony had noticed her pause. She slowly spun in a circle, taking in everything that she could see. One more piece of guidance from her mother.
Buildings… more buildings… helicopter that was on fire hurdling en route for the roof…
Sarah went into overdrive. Estimating, they had about 9 seconds until it hit them. Cursing on bad timing, she ran towards the others.
"Run!" She didn't have to say anything. They were already running for their lives to the door leading from the roof. Turning back, she realised that her pause to evaluate the amount of time that she had was going to get her killed.
She felt someone take hold of her around the middle and drag her, literally, into the door and down the stairs. One second passed and then someone flung themselves on top of her just as the helicopter hit the roof. Everything blurred into a continuous nothingness and she and the person on top of her rolled down the last part of the stairs just as the roof buckled and collapsed where they were earlier. Dust and debris surrounded her and her eyes focused. Her eyes focused on the person that jumped and, well, saved her life.
Tony coughed as got off the top of her. Then he saw her expression. Shock, mainly, with a bit of amusement on the side. Sarah sat up.
"Are you completely insane?" He mirrored her expression.
"What?"
"Are you insane?" He looked back to where they were before and whistled. Then he turned back to where she was still staring at him. "Are you okay? Does anything really hurt?"
"Are you okay? You dragged me down a flight of stairs and out of the way of a burning helicopter!" His face radiated concern.
"You don't look okay. Seriously, does anything hurt?"
"No, I think I'm okay." Looking around, she couldn't see anyone else. Tony moved to his feet and pulled her up along with him. The shock subsided, and she could hear yells from somewhere. Then she looked around.
The roof had caved in over the stairs, and a lot of rubble had rolled and blocked the surrounding corridors and exit routes.
"Uhh…"
"Yeah, I noticed. Any ideas, genius?" She glared at him.
"I'm no genius, brainchild. I guess I have to thank you for saving my life."
"I guess you do."
"Don't get smug about it."
"Uh huh. Surree." Then they both heard a familiar voice.
"Tony! Sarah! Omg Rhodey what if they're trapped under something and they're suffocating to death! What if they are dead! Oh no. Who gets their stuff?"
Sarah laughed.
"Pepper is never getting my stuff. Hear this as a witness." Tony smiled. Sarah called out in the general direction of the Pepper voice.
"Pepper!"
"Sarah! Are you okay? Is Tony okay?"
"Hey Pep. Yes, I'm fine. We're both fine." The next voice they heard was from Rhodey.
"Seriously guys. Never do that again."
"Of course. I plan on attempting to kill myself by flaming helicopter next week. Would you like to join? Tony's already had the experience, I think he'll pass." They could hear the rubble being moved from where they guessed Rhodey and Pepper were, and they waited until a gap appeared. The gap widened and then the first to come through where medical officers. Both Tony and Sarah refused to get carried on stretchers and they made their way out of the space. Moving out first, Sarah saw light for two seconds before Pepper threw herself at her.
"Oh thank God you guys are all right!" Sarah flinched.
"Ah. Pepper? Little bit too much squeezing here. Kinda sore."
"Ooo sorry!" She let go immediately. Sarah's eyes focused and noticed the vast amount of people that surrounded the rubble. Turning around, she saw Tony talking to the medics. Moving towards them, she glared at him as she heard what he was saying.
"I'm fine, but I think you need to check Sarah out. She hit her head pretty bad on the way down the stairs."
"What about you, Mr Stark?"
"The best thing I can do is go home and fix some things up." Sarah made her way next to Tony.
"Well in that case, I'll go home too and fix some stuff up." Before Tony could protest, Sarah shot back an answer.
"If you think that you're going home, then so am I. Plus…" She looked behind the medics where the crash site was. "I need to ring someone that will check this out." Walking past the medics, and ignoring protests by all the people behind her, she walked up to where the gap was and entered.
"Hey!" Sarah turned and saw Tony following.
"I think it's my turn to say are you completely insane? This place could buckle any second!"
"Exactly why I should have a look now." Moving towards the damaged staircase, she saw the side of the helicopter was resting and blocking the staircase. Moving closer, she brushed the dust off of the side and the room groaned. Tony grabbed hold of her shoulders.
"Seriously Sarah, we need to get out." She held up her hand for him to be silent. She had frozen when she brushed the first bit of dust off of the helicopter, but she moved quickly to brush the remaining off. Tony moved from behind her to next to her. Both faces held pure shock. Tony was the first to speak.
"Is that…?"
"I think so. But…"
"They never come down."
"Ever."
"My dad made sure of it."
"So did mine."
The mark on the side of the helicopter was from SHIELD.
Oh I am cruel. So very unkind. Cliff-hanger! Well, not really. I could have stopped it before I told you it was a SHIELD helicopter. Now that would be cruel.
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