Stark's Winged Daughter (S.P.N.D. Book 3)

Chapter 5: Tony Makes An Omelet

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Third Person POV

Four men walk down the hall. Three officers in suits and a man wearing a leather jacket. An unnamed officer says in French, "On a vérifié ses empreintes et on n'a rien trouvé, même pas son nom."

Another one of the men, Tony Stark, replies in the same language. "Où allons-nous?"

The same officer points down the hall. "Par là. En fait on ne sait même pas s'il parle. Il a pas dit un mot depuis qu'il est arrivé, pas un son."

Tony follows. "Cinq minutes."

The officer opens the door, letting Tony into the cell. Tony replies "Non, non s'il vous plaît tout ira bien. Five minutes."

The door shuts behind the man in the leather jacket. The arc reactor is now barely visible under the thin black fabric of his shirt. He faces a man who sits on the bench alone. His salt-and-pepper hair reached his chin, and tattoos cover almost all of his skin. There are three scars on his arm, reselbing claw marks.

Tony stands there for a few moments, then walks closer to the man.

"Pretty decent tech. Cycles per second were a little low." Tony pauses, now seeing the man's face. "You could have doubled up your rotations. You focused the repulsor energy through ionized plasma channels. It's effective. Not very efficient. But it's a passable knock-off." Tony takes a seat beside the man as he finishes.

"I don't get it, with a little fine tuning," Tony continues, "you could have made a solid paycheck. You could have sold it to North Korea, China, Iran, or gone right to the black market. You look like you got friends in low places."

"You come from a family of thieves and butchers. And now, like all guilty men, you try to rewrite your own history. And you forget all the lives the Stark family has destroyed."

"Speaking of thieves, where did you get this design?"

"My father. Anton Vanko."

"Well, I never heard of him."

"My father is the reason you're alive."

"The reason I'm alive is 'cause you had a shot, you took it, and you missed."

"Did I?" Vanko asks him, curious if he really believes that.

Tony doesn't say anything.

"If you can make God bleed, the people will cease to believe in him. And there will be blood in the water. And the sharks will come. The truth, all I have to do is sit here and watch as the world will consume you."

"Where will you be watching the world consume me from? That's right. A prison cell. I'll send you a bar of soap." As Tony says this, he stands and begins to walk to the door.

"Hey, Tony. Before you go, was that your daughter? The little girl in the car?"

Tony stops, hesitating on his answer.

"A close family friend," he answered truthfully, finally being honest about who she is. The young girl has taken the role as Tony's daughter for all her life, but there was a secret he had yet to admit to her or anyone other than this man and her mother. "But the closest thing I have left for a family."

"How old?"

"12."

"Palladium in the chest, painful way to die. Especially if she's watching it."

Instead of answering, Tony knocks on the door, letting the officers know he is done. When it opens, he steps out, not bothering to look back at the man who remains on the bench.