Metallic Lights {Metallic Charms Book #3}

Chapter 18: Possibly Not a Dead End

Chapter 18: Possibly Not a Dead End:

 

//13 Months After Noel’s Disappearance//

~~~~~~~~~~~{Tony’s Point of View}~~~~~~~~~~~

Somewhere over America, Pepper and I floated in a plane. It was an odd feeling to say the least. I mean, when you spend almost eighty per cent of your life these days kicking butt and flying around in a suit of armour, then you’d probably feel weird about being in a plane too. It just seemed too big for the air to carry. Not aero-dynamic enough. Not safe enough. But at the same time, it was.

It had been designed to stay in the air as long as it had enough fuel and a pilot flying it. And to be honest, it was the pilot thing that bothered me so much.

There was a massive air transportation vehicle in his hands. I was in his hands, and so was Pepper. One wrong move and we were all dead, falling out of the sky like comets. I was just supposed to trust him? Put all my faith in a guy I didn’t even know to get me to Los Angeles safely?

I just couldn’t do that anymore. Not after New York. Not after what Hammer’s kid had been doing. Not after Noel had switched sides.

I used to think that being a hero was something to be proud of, that people would look your way and feel safe and protected, cheer you on and never feel afraid as long as you were there to help them.

But how could you help them and make them feel safe when all you felt was emptiness inside? When the first thing you thought when you met someone knew or said hello to somebody you’d known forever was ‘how long will it take them to turn on me?’

But as soon as I thought all of that, I immediately shoved it away. What right did I have to think those things anyway? In a way, the pilot and I were exactly the same.

Holding people’s lives in our hands every day, flying through the sky and keeping people safe. I piloted my suits, he piloted a plane. We both did the same job, just on different scales.

“Tony.” I heard clicking noises in my face and my name being shouted a few more times. I shot up out of my seat and looked around me. Still on a plane. Still eating lunch. Still with Pepper. Still alive. Arc reactor still humming in my chest.

I was okay.

“Tony?” Pepper looked worried –she always looked worried. Sometimes I felt guilty for dragging her into my mess of a life, but at the same time, I had to be selfish and bring her into it. She was like a shining beacon of hope and sanity and goodness for me. She kept me grounded when everybody else was willing to let me float away into an oblivion.

“Yeah?” I rubbed my eyes and sat back down steadily as we hit some slight turbulence.
“Are you alright?” She reached her hand over the small table that separated us and placed her long, slender fingers over mine. Her hands were warm and soft, that was nice. Made me feel...something again. A shimmery, fluttering feeling in my chest that I hadn’t felt in a long, long time.