Before Sue could go to clean up the glass, the sound of her phone ringing made her take a detour towards the desk. She picked it up and put it to her ear without looking at the name, sending a greeting down the line.

'Susan. How are you?' Pepper's voice was hard to hear against the loud music and noise that boomed in the background.

'Pepper, hi. I'm okay. How's the party?'

'It's... getting out of hand. Did you get your invitation?'

'I did but... I'm not ready to mingle. I really can't face the public after Monaco. Not yet, anyway.'

'Understandable, but I think we might need you here.'

'Why? What's wrong?' Sue pinched her eyebrows together and Pepper went quiet for a moment, leaving the music to boom in her absence.

'Can you please get here as soon as you can? I think I'm about to lose my mind.'

---

Tony Stark's driveway was long, but somehow not long enough for the number of cars that were attending his birthday party. Sue turned down his street and had to clench her jaw to stop it from dropping. Never had she seen so many luxurious cars in one place that wasn't a car dealership in the centre of Malibu. She crept her Audi through to see if there were any spaces at least next to the entrance of Tony's driveway, but had to suffice with a space that was a block away.

Sue contemplated whether she should risk walking up to his house while attempting full invisibility. It would make it less likely for her to be recognised as she was still in her dark blue suit underneath the denim jacket she had thrown over the top. However, it would be strange to see a blue suit walking on its own.

So, she took a deep breath and stepped out of her car. The air had a chill to it and she pulled the denim jacket tighter around her figure. She kept her gaze on the pavement and made her way towards Tony's driveway, already hearing the booming music and seeing the strobing lights from around the corner.

One her way up, a few women stumbled down the steep hill. Sue looked through her fringe as the women in their short dresses giggled and drunkenly tripped on their way past her. She knew Tony's birthday would be this sort of chaos with loads of women and billionaires, hence why she decided to not attend.

Now that the world had gotten word of her gaining abilities from the cosmic storm, Sue hated the thought of any public interactions. She wasn't like Tony Stark, who paraded around in his suit and made press conferences to update the media of his newest plans for Iron Man. Even before the Marvel-1 mission, Sue was never one for the limelight. Out of her and her brother, Johnny was the confident and charming Storm. If he was in her place, he would be telling the world everything about his abilities and teaming up with Tony Stark to be a dynamic duo.

'Oh my god, it's The Invisible Girl!'

Sue snapped out of her thoughts of Johnny and looked up to see she'd made it to the water feature that sat in front of Tony's house. The parked cars surrounded the roundabout and a group of men smoking cigarettes stood with wide eyes. Sue bit her lip and tried to form some words to let out, feeling the cold rush overcome her without her consent.

'Look, look, look! She can turn invisible!' a man with black, slicked back hair pointed in awe. Sue instinctively put her hand to her face, assuming that it was 'glitching', as Tony would say.

Sue made her way towards the open doors that sat to the right of the smoking men, and tried to ignore their calls about it her clothes disappeared too. She found herself jogging to get away from them and found small relief in idea of being inside the house.

The lobby was littered with drunken women who giggled together as they leaned against the wall. Sue slipped past with her jacket tightly around her and headed for the hum of noise that came from the open-plan kitchen.

'Susan? Susan Storm?'

She let out a sigh and peaked over her shoulder in hopes of not coming face to face with a drunken woman asking if she was 'The Invisible Girl'. But her uncertainty was replaced with relief, as a familiar face walked over to her.

'James Rhodes,' he said as he held his hand out for a greeting.

'Hi. Yes, I've seen you on TV with Tony,' she smiled and shook his hand. 'And from your own conferences, of course.'

James gave her a bright smile to hear that he was recognised when next to Tony. He had been at a meeting with the U.S senate about Tony's suits, hence his late arrival to the party. He was able to defer the action of taking them by force, as Tony was never going to give them up willingly. His dress shirt and blazer were slightly formal for a Tony Stark party, but when he looked down at Sue's denim jacket and strange body length suit, he thought he had missed some memo about wearing superhero uniforms.

'Are you here to see Tony or?' James motioned to Sue's outfit. She looked down and noticed how silly she appeared at a party where most women were dressed in expensive cocktail dresses.

'I ugh,' she started. 'Pepper called me, actually. Something about losing her mind?'

'Sue, thank god,' Pepper herself appeared next to them in a black dress and her orange hair in a ponytail. 'He's out of control. I don't know what to do.'

Sue and James looked to the dishevelled woman with confused expressions. Pepper didn't bother to explain and decided to show them the mess she needed to have sorted. She led them to the explosion of people that looked up to Tony, who was in his Iron Man suit with a bottle Jack Daniels in his hand. The mask of the suit was up, and Tony's drunken grin made James Rhodes furious.

'You've gotta be kidding me, I just stuck my neck out for this guy!' he yelled and Pepper flinched as he threw a pointed finger at his best friend. Sue's lips parted in shock as Tony danced around while laughing at himself. Women applauded and cheered at the sight, even calling for him to shoot his repulsor at them.

Last time Sue saw Tony, was when the plane from Monaco touched down in California. They bid their goodbyes for the time being and Sue had given him a look of encouragement about his situation with the palladium. She then received the invitation for his party, which was the last time she heard from him. She hadn't thought in that time he would think to go off the rails.

'Sue, could you talk to him? I've tried and all he did was announce an after party,' Pepper pleaded. James let out a loud huff from his nostrils and walked away, leaving the women to deflate the situation before he would have to step in.

'I-I... I can try.'

Taking slow steps around the crowd, Sue glanced back towards Pepper who watched anxiously. She could see that the woman was ready to leave altogether to avoid any more embarrassment from her previous boss. Sue wasn't sure what she would say and she was already trying to keep her 'glitching' at bay. She feared that when she got up next to Tony and the eyes turned to her, she would feel the surge of cold charge threaten to break out.

'Who wants to see a party trick?!' Tony suddenly shouted and the crowd cheered, throwing up their cocktail glasses and sloshing their drinks on to the floor.

Sue watched in horror and Tony stumbled over to her with his big grin and took her hand. She could smell the stench of whiskey on his breath as he pulled her to the middle of the floor. He threw his arms out around her to present her as if she was a prize the crowd could win, and Sue stared out with eyes like a deer. She caught sight of Pepper standing at the back with her face in her hands, knowing that it was unlikely anyone would be able to get through to Tony now.

'The Invisible Woman, everybody! Usually, you can't see her, which is the point' Tony joked and laughs speckled throughout the room. He then turned to Sue and lowered his voice to a whisper, trying to keep himself upright.

'Can you do the thing, Sue? Do the thing where-where-where you disappear,' he slurred and slipped, his boot scrapping against the tiled floor. He caught himself and wobbled, before turning back to Sue to see her looking terrified.

'Tony, you have to stop this now,' Sue forced out, imaging she wasn't standing in front of a group of oogling people. 'I know its your birthday, but Pepper's about to lose it. And it's not a trick, thank you. It's a condition-'

'Take your clothes off!'

'Who said that?!' Tony turned back to the crowd as Sue threw her face into her hands.