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"𝐋𝐀𝐃𝐈𝐄𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐋𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐍, 𝐌𝐑.Howard Stark!"
Grace and Jarvis stood to the side of the stage as Howard walked up, greeting the crowd with a large smile. His stage persona, as Grace liked to call it. The girls near the front of the stage all giggled, completely smitten by the man causing the younger Stark to roll her eyes.
"Ladies, you know how hard it can be putting on makeup in a car that's bouncing like a trampoline?"
Grace quirked an eyebrow up at the beginning and looked at Jarvis. "Where's he going with this?"
"I don't know," he sighed with a shrug. "Though I told him to change that line. It sounded odd."
Grace turned back to the stage as Howard moved toward his latest invention. "Well, what if I told you that in just a few short years, your automobile wouldn't touch the ground at all?"
He hit the button and the Cadillac started to rise off the ground. Grace smiled softly at the sight. She knew he was brilliant and this was no different. She only wished he spent more time with her than in the lab.
"With Stark Gravitic Reversion Technology — patent pending — you'll be able to do just that—"
Suddenly, there was a loud explosion from beside Howard as the car came crashing down onto the stage. Grace winced at the noise.
"I did say a few years, didn't I?" Howard said, sheepishly.
The crowd all applauded, as did Grace and Jarvis, while Howard smiled before walking off the stage.
"Well done," Grace told her brother as soon as he sat down. "You made a car fly."
"Until it crashed on the stage, completely humiliating me," he said bitterly, holding his head in his hands. "Stupid."
"Hey, it wasn't stupid," she contradicted, sitting beside him. "It was still a work in progress, wasn't it? This is what doing science involves. Time."
"I don't have time, Gracie!" Howard exclaimed causing her to let out a breath. "People are depending on me and I'm failing."
"Who is depending on you for a flying car?" Grace asked, calmly.
Whenever something doesn't go right with one of his inventions, Howard's coping mechanism was to lash out at whoever was closest to him, who were usually Grace or Jarvis. Grace had more experience taming her brother's temper while Jarvis was still working on figuring out all of Howard's many ticks.
"Everyone!" Howard said in response to Grace's question. She crossed her arms and leaned back in the chair. "Do you know how hard it was to convince people that I could pull off a flying car? Now, this makes me look like an idiot."
"Howard, you made a car hover on a stage in front of thousands of people," Grace said, still sitting. "Do you know how many people wish they could do that?"
