The Daughter of Iron Man

New Beginnings

-Alice's POV-

One of the hardest lessons I'm beginning to learn, is that life continues on whether or not we're ready for it to.

It's been a few months since nationals, and Sarah and I managed to stay in touch by face timing every day after school. In fact, she quickly became my best friend who I told everything to.

Pepper, my dad and I flew out to New York to finish up Stark Tower. It was only 30 minutes from where Sarah lived, so our parents surprised us by letting me stay with Sarah for a few days out of our trip. At the end of my mini trip within our bigger trip, Happy picked me up from Sarah's and took me back to Stark Tower.

That night, my dad told me about the Avengers Initiative and that Iron Man was needed. I didn't understand what was happening. The next morning, Pepper and I flew home to California while my dad stayed in New York.

While we were on the plane, the news came up and showed the Avengers fighting dark forces in New York and suddenly, I understood why he needed to stay.

The news flashed with images of the things they were fighting, (they were definitely not human,) and these giant metal whale like creatures flying in through what looked like a wormhole. The clips the news caught of the whole thing was madness. And then, the camera flashed to an image of my dad, holding on to the top of a Nuclear missile. I watched in horror as Iron Man guided it up, and into space through the wormhole. I very well knew his suit wasn't made for space, so I was terrified when I saw him fall from the wormhole, and back to the earth.

I locked myself in the bathroom while I sobbed.

Pepper tried desperately to convince me to come out, but I wouldn't. It wasn't until Pepper told me that he was okay that I finally agreed to come out.

A lot changed over the next few weeks.

Stark tower became Avengers tower. My dad explained that the Avengers are the worlds greatest defenders and that Stark tower was going to become the new base of operations. Then, he introduced me to them. Among the Avengers was Natalie, my dad's new assistant since Pepper became the new CEO of Stark Industries. I barely knew her. I learned that her real name is Natasha, and that she was a former Russian spy before she became an agent for SHIELD, and is now an Avenger.

None of the other Avengers seemed particularly interested in getting to know me at the moment except for Steve. I thought he was intimidating at first, but I came to see that he's actually extremely nice.

Upon returning home, I noticed that my dad was acting different. He started producing Iron Man suits like crazy, and he wasn't eating or sleeping much. At the peak of his stress, he told me he'd be sending me to New York.

"What??" I asked, staring at my dad in confusion.

He had bags under his eyes and his clothes were fitting a little loser. He sighed and made his way over to my bed, plopping down next to me.

"I gave a terrorist group our home address." He said with no explanation, and I felt my blood begin to boil.

"You can't do something that stupid and then just ship me off across the country!" I yelled. "What's wrong with you?" He glanced down at his hands.

"Happy's in the hospital." My heart sank. "He was the victim in a bombing incident by the same group of terrorists that now have our home address. Please, pack your things. I'll take you to the airport in an hour."

Pepper joined me a few minutes after my dad left to help me pack. She didn't ask about my dad or anything else. In fact, the only words exchanged was when she asked if I'd like to bring my own pillow and blanket.