Tony Stark's Daughter [1]

Chapter 21: The Mandarin

I have to stop them, but what about the helicopters!? I can't do both. Pepper screamed as they tried to grab her. She punched one of them in the face. My eyes widened as the man groaned. I smirked at the men. Three started coming towards me. I kept the force field up as I glared at the other man holding Pepper. He flew into the wall. Pepper kicked another man where the sun don't shine... ouch! He fell to the ground. I called for my suit, but I stood behind Pepper. My suit surrounded her instead of me. She tried to shot the men, but her aim was off. She stumbled back. Maya was struggling against two men.

I felt the force pushing against my field start to disappear. Nothing was shooting at us. I figured Dad got them all. I let it go and threw balls of magic at the two men. They flew back. Maya nodded at me with a weak smile. I felt my eyes burn, but not in pain. That told me they were glowing. The men stopped in their tracks. I made two balls of energy. I smirked at them.

"You shouldn't have come." I threw them out of the window into the rocky waters. I looked at the two women. Maya looked nervous. Pepper opened up the mask. She pointed towards the window. Before I could turn, the house blew up. A missile hit the house, sending us three into the wall. Good thing I gave Pepper my suit. Dad flew in the house frantically. He must have flew outside from the lab.

"Everyone Okay!? Pep!? Hope!?" He looked at us. We nodded. A piece of the ceiling was about to fall on me, but Pepper blocked it with her armour covered body. I smiled at her.

"Thanks Pep." I whispered breathlessly, tired from the sudden use of so much magic.

"Your welcome sweetie." She smiled sweetly. I chuckled. Dad sighed out in relief, but then glared at the window. I could hear more helicopters. I looked over and Maya laid motionless on the ground. More missiles flew in. The house shook. The places was falling apart. Dust everywhere. I wiped my eyes. Dad glanced at me and then to Pepper.

"Switch!" I called the suit back to me and Dads suit went to Pepper. Dad flew into the couch as another missile hit. I stumbled. I looked at Dad. "Go! I'm right behind you!" We ran towards the door, but Dad and I were cut off, Pepper on the other side.

"Grab her and go! I got him!" I yelled. She nodded and grabbed Maya, helping her walk towards the door. Missiles were now non-stop. The house was slowly falling. Dad tumbled down before I could grab him. I followed after. I grabbed Dad and we flew to the top.

"Sir, Miss Potts has now cleared the structure." Dad called his suit. The helicopters started shooting again. Dad's suit was hit by an incoming missile. It broke into pieces and the house started to fall.

"J.A.R.V.I.S!" Dad exclaimed.

"Right away sir."

"I'm going out!" I yelled.

"Wait! Hope!" But I already flew out. I shot my blaster at one of the helicopters propellers, it went down with an explosion. One still shooting the house, the other turned and a man inside started shooting at me. I dodged most of the bullets. I took off my hand piece and crushed the helicopter. It staring falling. It fell onto the house. No! The helicopter fired one more missile and the house went down. It crashed into the water... with my dad in it.

"No, no, no, no!" I flew into the water. I looked around. "J.A.R.V.I.S!" I called out.

"Already on it." He scanned the area. I looked around as J scanned. J zoomed in on a light. "There."

I used my thrusters to swim to Dad. He was under a wire. I pulled the wire up. Dad pointed up.

"Hope!" I looked up and a big chunk of the house crashed onto us. I felt my head pound with a familiar sensation. I grabbed Dad's hand. He squeezed my hand. After a few moments, I felt Dad's hand slowly let go, but my other hand was grabbed. I was pulled out of the rubble. I closed my eyes as I felt my thrusters turn on.

____________

I heard an alarm going off. I slowly opened my eyes and I was in my suit. I was confused at first, but then it all came rushing back. Pepper, the Mandarin, the house. The screen in front of my face blinking red. I looked around and noticed snow. Where the hell are we? I looked over and noticed my Dad flying next to me.

"Dad?" I called tiredly. I was exhausted. I heard J.A.R.V.I.S trying to wake him too.

"Sir you have to wake up?!" J.A.R.V.I.S tried to warn him. Dad grunted as he woke up.

"I got it... kill the alarm." Dad whispered to J.

"That's the emergency alert triggered by the power dropping below 5%." J told him. I gasped.

"Why did you tell me!?" I exclaimed to J. There was silence. I sighed. I felt the suit start to lean forward, indicating we were flying down. I looked at the ground. We were flying straight towards a car. Dad and I screamed as we got closer. We hit the ground beside the car as it swerved. We bounced off the ground and flew into some trees. We hit probably every tree in that damn forest! We finally stopped. We crashed into the snow roughly. I groaned as I laid on my back. My eyes shut tightly. I felt pain in my head and something running done my forehead. I looked at the screen in front of me and noticed it begin to flicker. We were powering down. I could hear Dad breathing heavily as he flipped himself over onto his back. We laid there for a moment. He took off his mask.

"It's snowing... where are we? Are we upstate?" Dad asked J.

"We are 5 miles outside of RoseHill, Tennessee." J answered like it was nothing.

"What the hell J?!" I exclaimed to the A.I.

"Why?!" Dad exclaimed. "J.A.R.V.I.S! Not my idea! What are we doing here!? This is thousands of miles away. I gotta get Pepper, I gotta-!" Dad panicked. I sighed.

"I prepared a flight plan... this was the location." J replied obviously.

"Who asked you?" Dad laid on my left.

"Unbelievable..." I rolled my eyes.

"Open our suits." Dad told him.

"I-I think I might be malfunctioning." J stuttered weakly.

"Open 'em J." Our suits begin to open. Dad sat up quickly. He groaned in relief. I slowly sat up too. My head pounding. I grunted as i started getting dizzy. I just shook my head and the dizziness went away, but not the pain. "Ah... that's brisk."

"I'm hungry!" I groaned as my stomach growled. Dad looked over to me with a 'really' face.

"How can you be hungry at a time like this!?" Dad asked as he mentioned to all the snow. I shrugged.

"You know I'm always hungry! I was hungry when you were fighting Obadiah. There was a vending machine that pissed the crap out of me, so I broke it. Most of the snacks fell out so took a bunch and-."

"Wait what?" Dad furrowed his eyebrows at me with a 'for real?' look. "I almost died and you were harvin' out on a vending machine?! You were my backup- you know what. Never mind." He rubbed his forehead in frustration. He shivered as he went to lay back down in his suit. "Hey J.A.R.V.I.S. I think I'll just cozy up back in my sui-."

"Actually sir... I'm feeling a bit tired... I don't think I... can..." J.A.R.V.I.S went offline. I rubbed my face with both hands. Dad just sat there, staring at the ground.

"J.A.R.V.I.S? J.A.R.V.I.S... don't leave me buddy..." he spoke to the A.I, but no reply. I stood up from my suit. Dad did too. We closed our suits manually. Dad was getting cold. He was shivering. I was used to the cold, always have been. I think it was because of the cold cell... the practice test out side in the snow. They wouldn't give me any jackets or anything. They said a monster never grows cold... that's probably why I got so used of the cold. I still have to tell Dad...

"What do we do now?" I looked around the snowing covered forest. Dad looked North.

"We have to find out more about Chad." Dad looked at me and then to our suits. I nodded and blue mist surrounded our suits. I lifted both suits, so they were floating in the air. Dad smirked at me. "I love your magic... it helps out so much."

If only he knew how I got it. What if he tells someone about me helping HYRDA? What if Nick finds out? Would Dad think I'm the monster I truly am? I don't think I should tell him...