The Iron Daughter (1) (ON INDEFINITE HOLD)

Prologue (part 1)-The Meeting

Date: June of 1999

"Did we just arrive? Excellent," said Tony Stark to no one in particular on his jet.

Tony Stark, the owner of Stark Industries, the top military contractor in the world, was bored out of his mind, stuck on his own private jet for 12 whole hours with no form of entertainment (women and excessive booze 'cough'). What awaited him was hours upon hours of meetings with important military personnel and older government officials that spoke in a language that he didn't understand at all.

"Yes Mr. Stark, and I think we really should get off the jet now. The meeting is supposed to start in around 30 minutes and we're still on the tarmac." His personal assistant, Pepper Pott's voice, snapped him out of his stupor. "If you didn't go out the night before, we'd have arrived 2 hours ago." Pepper finished in an exasperated voice.

The night before the flight, Tony was once again living up to his reputation by hooking up with another random model at the nearest casino, as well as drinking so much that he slept through all the calls from Happy AND Pepper, resulting in a delayed takeoff time of 6 whole hours.

"Fine," droned Tony in a highly unenthusiastic voice, begrudgingly getting off his seat, "Let's just hurry up and finish with these stupid meetings."

Stepping out of the plane into the blazing afternoon sun, Tony blinked in response to the change in brightness. Looking down, he expected to see an entourage of burly military officials waiting at the foot of the steps to greet him. Instead, he was surprised to see a young woman looking at her watch, waiting for him and Pepper right next to a typical black government car, looking at her watch. She seemed to not notice that Tony and Pepper were standing at the top of the stairs coming down towards her.

As the two neared the car, the young woman finally looked up, seeming rather surprised to finally see the two arrive.

"Hello Mr. Stark and Ms. Potts. My name is Lim Sujin (임수진) but you can also call me Isabella." The young woman greeted the two rather enthusiastically, stretching out her right hand, and gave the two a very formal hand shake each, with her left hand supporting her right wrist. "I'm the translator assigned to help you two throughout your stay in Korea." She added, rather breathlessly.

Looking at the woman after the handshake, Tony started to get a clear look at the woman's appearance. Tony guessed that she was maybe a few years younger than himself, dressed in a rather smart-looking white blouse and a black pencil skirt. She sported long, brown hair that was tied up in a ponytail, as well as a pair of sparkling, black eyes that shone like pearls under the sun.

Maybe it was how she looked, or how her voice reminded Tony of his mother, Maria Stark. Potentially it was a combination of the two, as well as her bubbly personality, that made him feel an odd sense of connection towards the woman.

"I suppose we should get moving, shall we?" Asked Pepper, smiling affectionately towards Isabella while tucking a strand of her trademark auburn hair behind her right ear.

"We should actually, the meeting is supposed to start really soon!" Isabella exclaimed, gesturing towards the door of the car.

Tony couldn't explain what took over him all of a sudden, but he somehow decided to drop his usual façade of being a self-absorbed, attention-seeking person. Reaching out with his right hand, he opened the door and gestured to the two ladies standing on the tarmac. "Ladies first?" said Tony, catching Pepper's rather perplexed expression and Isabella's somewhat impressed look. Tony could have sworn that he saw the brunette's cheeks redden ever so slightly before she turned away and entered the car, saying a quick "thank you" to Tony.