𝐦𝐲 𝐝𝐚𝐝 𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐫𝐨𝐧 𝐦𝐚𝐧!

༻ ❁ ༺

          CHARLOTTE CLUTCHED her mother's shoulder, widening her eyes in absolute terror. Pepper gasped and staggered backward, pulling Charlotte behind her, throwing her arms around the waist of her mother, and hiding her face within her jacket. From above, a distant voice called, prompting them to turn their eyes to the dim night sky.

A shimmer of red and gold skimmed the clouds as it rocketed towards them. "Dad!" exclaimed Charlotte in a combination of relief and astonishment as her dad flew down and crashed into Obadiah, ramming him from the side. Pepper dragged Charlotte against her as debris soared by them, an arm lifted to protect her face from the array of metal and dirt pouring down upon them. The two iron suits collided once more, tumbling down into the hole which Obadiah had crawled out of moments before.

"Dad!" Charlotte called once more, pulling herself from her mother's grasp, she scrambled towards the smoldering concrete crater. The pavement cracked and steamed as she stared into the black abyss.

"Charlie, get away from there," Pepper swiftly pulled her back by the shoulders. She ran a hand through her hair, her skin aglow with a sheen of sweat, and her eyes brimmed with tears as she peered down into the crater, anxiously searching for Tony. Suddenly, a roar vibrated across the tarmac. The pair turned to see Obadiah soaring into the air, his dark suit silhouetted by the moonlight. He was swiftly followed by a much smaller suit - Tony was faster and more agile; he quickly caught up to Obadiah.

They watched for what felt like minutes, but really, it was mere seconds, as the two suits climbed higher and higher into the night sky. "Tony?" Pepper suddenly pressed a hand to her ear, her voice startled Charlotte; she was fixated on the two as they continued their ascent - the dueling pair soon disappeared as they landed on the roof of Stark Industries.

"This isn't working. We're gonna have to overload the reactor and blast the roof."

Charlotte looked to her mother as she could faintly make out what her dad was saying. "What does he mean - blast the roof?"

"Hang on, honey," Pepper smoothed a hand over Charlotte's hair, pressing her earpiece in further. She watched her daughter with concerned eyes as she spoke to Tony, "How are you going to do that?"

"You're going to have to do it. Go to the central console, open up all the circuits. When I clear the roof I'll let you know and you're gonna hit the master bypass button. That's gonna fry everything up here."

Pepper grabbed Charlotte's shoulders and looked her in the eye, a stern expression on her face. "I need you to stay here, Charlie."

"But -"

"Please, Charlotte. Just do as I ask." Without waiting for a response, Pepper stood and turned, briskly walking back towards the main door. As she watched her mom vanish into the building, a sense of fear washed over Charlotte; glass from the broken windows crunched under her heels as she paced nervously. The building was being demolished slowly. Outside the tattered building that once stood proud and tall, she was alone. Charlotte could hear voices faintly in the distance- she could tell they were her parents.

"Please be okay. Please. Please." She whispered to herself, her eyes were so tightly closed that she was beginning to see white circles in her vision. A sudden boom rolled through the sky and she whipped her head to the rooftop. A brilliant white glow was emitting from the building as electricity seemed to crackle and pulse from the building. Her heart sunk and a lump formed in her throat as she heard another boom, this time it was followed by an actual explosion; the deep orange glow was vibrant, and lit up the structures of the connecting buildings.

"No! Mom, Dad!" Her feet stung as they pounded against the damp concrete, her body subconsciously carried her towards the building, tears rolled down her face as she stared up at the thick black smoke billowing from the rooftop. Without taking a moment to hesitate, she pushed through the doors to the lobby and pulled open the metal door to the emergency staircase that leads to the rooftop.

A sudden but kind voice from behind her startled her. "Miss Stark! Wait,". Turning abruptly, Charlotte was met by Agent Coulson; he was quickly followed by a small group of agents, all with their guns drawn, their senses were on high alert. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"No. My dad, my mom -"

"Your mom is safe. She is downstairs waiting for you."

Charlotte breathed a sigh of relief, her body instantly felt as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. "You can't go up there. It isn't safe."

Once he reached her, Coulson placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, and gently pushed her behind him. "Stay behind me." He sighed.

Charlotte did what she was told and slowly walked with the group of agents towards the main door to the rooftop. Opening the door cautiously, Coulson stepped out onto the rooftop alone; he held a hand up to signal for the group to remain in the stairwell. The minute that passed was extremely long and Charlotte's anxiety was not subsiding, her heart thumped in her ears as she waited, surrounded by agents. "I've located Stark." Coulson's voice echoed over an agent's radio.

Immediately, Charlotte forced the remaining agents out of her path, pulling herself out of their grasp. Coulson tried to grab her as she ran past, but his fingers just brushed her jacket as she shrugged his hand away. When she caught sight of her dad, her stomach plummeted. Lying on top of a mound of crumbling debris, his suit was dented and damaged beyond repair. When she saw that the arc reactor wasn't glowing, her heart nearly skipped a beat. Charlotte crawled up to her father, whispering a curse under her breath as she fell into the pile of debris, the skin on her knees now scrapped.

"Dad?" Charlotte whispered, collapsing next to him. "Please be okay. Please wake up."Shaking his shoulder gently, Charlotte stared at his closed eyes, desperately wanting them to open. "Dad. Please wake up. I need you." Tears were starting to fill her eyes and she could feel herself etching towards an emotional breaking point. She lowered her head onto her father's chest. Tears were running down her cheeks now as she let out a cry that had broken her heart. "I still need you."

A vibrant glow illuminated her face as soon as she spoke those words. Charlotte gasped and pulled back, sitting upright to see the pulsing arc reactor. She could not stop the grin that emerged on her face as her dad's eyes blinked open.

"You're not getting rid of me that easily, kid."

༻ ❁ ༺

December 3rd, 2008

On the TV television, Charlotte watched the live coverage of the press conference. Her uncle Rhodey stood on the podium, the same one that her father, after returning from Afghanistan, gave his drastic company turnaround speech.

"You've all received the official statement of what occurred at Stark Industries last night," Rhodey spoke clearly. "There have been unconfirmed reports that a robotic prototype malfunctioned and caused damage to the Reactor. Fortunately, a member of Tony Stark's personal staff -"

They were all situated in a side room, watching the speech. Tony was sitting reading a newspaper; Pepper attended him, gently rubbing a compact brush on his face in an effort to mask the dark bruise across his eye and jaw. Charlotte stopped watching TV and wandered over to her dad, sitting on the arm of his chair, leaning against his side. Tony embraced the gesture happily and raised his arm so that he could shift it behind Charlotte, holding her in place. He raised his head and gave her temple a kiss; Charlotte looked at the newspaper he was reading at the time.

"WHO IS IRON MAN?"

A photograph of the Mark III suit was under the headline-someone must have taken the photo the previous night, during the clash.

"That's you," she whispered, the skin by her outer eye crinkled as she grinned, looking at the photograph of her dad. Tony smiled at the admiration in his daughter's eyes.

"Hell yeah, that's me," he whispered back, proudly. He winced as Pepper pulled a bandage off the bridge of his nose, an unamused look on her face. "Alright. I owe you a dollar." Tony rolled his eyes, poking Charlotte in the side causing her to giggle and push his hand away.

"Here's your alibi," Agent Coulson stated, standing nearby, as he handed Tony a set of cue cards. "You were on your yacht. We've got port papers that put you on a family trip in Avalon all night. We also have sworn statements from fifty of your guests."

Tony glanced at Pepper, impishly. "How about we say that it was just us on the island? You, me, and Charlie?"

Pepper frowned slightly as she finished making Tony up; she smoothed her hair behind her ear. "That wouldn't work. There needed to be 'witnesses'". Tony opened his mouth as if to speak, but Pepper simply held her fingers to his lips, silencing him. "Just read what is on the cards, and there shouldn't be any questions."

"Alright. I'll stick to the cards." Tony surrendered, gently grasping Pepper's fingers and placing a kiss on them. He glanced at the cards, skimming its content. Reaching the end of his alibi, he looked to Agent Coulson and frowned. "There's nothing about Stane here."

"That's being handled. He's on vacation. Small aircraft have such a poor safety record." Coulson enunciated.

Charlotte frowned. So Obadiah was truly dead. Her father told her he had done what he had to protect everybody; she accepted that. Obadiah was a power-hungry man, that was unrecognizable from the man she called her uncle. She was concerned at first, as to why she was not heartbroken by the death of her uncle -she had always been fond of and held affection for him, he had comforted her when her father disappeared. She wasn't able to comprehend why he tried to kill her, why he wanted her, and her family dead.

She supposed that it was an occupational hazard, being the daughter of Tony Stark. There would undoubtedly be people out there, in the world, who would wish to cause harm to her father, to her family, and inevitably to her.

༻ ❁ ༺

"And now, Mr. Stark has prepared a statement," Rhodey announced to the conference room, "He will not be taking any questions. Thank you."

Charlotte and joined her mom and Agent Coulson in the conference room, just as Tony took Rhodey's place at the podium. "Uh..." He began, but trailed off for a second, he seemed taken back by the reporters in front of him. "...it's been a while since I was in front of you. I figured I'll just stick with the cards this time."

The press people all chuckled as Tony cleared his throat. Pepper cast a glance down at her daughter - she was concerned that Tony was not going to follow the cards; she did not want to think about the backlash and repercussions this would create for Charlotte.

"There has been speculation," Tony began, reading from the card. "that I was involved in the events on the freeway and on the rooftop -"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Stark," An all-to-familiar voice cut above the clicking of the reporter's cameras. "But do you honestly expect us to believe that that was a bodyguard in a suit that conveniently appeared -"

"I don't like her." Charlotte groaned, rolling her eyes as she fixed her glare hard on the back of the blonde woman's head.

"It's okay, sweetie," Pepper commented, running a hand across Charlotte's back. "Nobody does."

"I know that it is confusing," Tony held a hand up, interrupting Christine Everhart. "It is one thing for you to question the official story, and it is another thing entirely to make wild accusations or insinuate that I'm a superhero -"

Christine smiled smugly, talking over him once again. "I never said you were a superhero,"

"You didn't," Charlotte groaned inwardly at the slip up as Tony backtracked, blinking in slight confusion. "Well good, because that would be outlandish and, uh, fantastic -" He glanced back down at his cards, trying to think of an escape from this topic. Christine arched her brow skeptically as if she had triumphed.

"I'm just not the hero type, clearly," Charlotte had watched her dad take part in hundreds of press conferences and interviews, and not once had she ever seen him as nervous as he was at this very moment. "with this, a laundry list of character defects, all the mistakes I've made, largely public..." Rhodey put his mouth to Tony's ear and Charlotte watched as he whispered something to her father, who only replied with a nod.

He appeared to be gathering himself together, and the cards in front of his face were helping. "Truth is," He glanced up, and his expression became almost vacant as his eyes landed upon the innocent face of Charlotte, gazing back at him.

"I am Iron Man."

The press conference room was suddenly in an uproar and every reporter, all but Christine Everhart, sprang to their feet.

"Oh god, Tony," Pepper muttered, rubbing her temples, and mentally preparing herself for the upcoming onslaught from the press.

"Hell yeah!" Charlotte cheered, mimicking the same expletive her father muttered a few moments ago. Tony could not help but smile, and his heart swelled with pride, at the look of utter awe that was etched on his daughter's face. 

"My dad is Iron Man!"