Iron Man's Daughter

“Day 11, test 37, configuration 2.0. For lack of a better option, Dummy is still on fire safety. If you douse me again, and I'm not on fire, I'm donating you to a city college. All right, nice and easy.”

“Tony, are you sure you want to do this?” Tess asked, biting her lip nervously.

“Seriously, just gonna start off with 1% thrust capacity,” Tony reassured her. “And three, two, one.”

Tess cringed, but the rockets calmly started and he rose from the ground, sparks flying from the flight stablizers on his hands for a few seconds before he dropped down unsteadily again.

“Please don't follow me around with it, either,” Tony said, referring to ‘Dummy’, “‘cause I feel like I'm gonna catch on fire spontaneously.” Tess laughed. That was a definite possibility. “Just stand down! If something happens, then come in. And again, let's bring it up to 2.5. Three, two, one.” He lifted off the ground further than the last time, then began to move backwards.

Tess followed him, staying out of the exhaust being set lose by the machines strapped to her father. “Okay, this is where I don't want to be!” Using the flight stablizers, he tried to direct himself a different way. “Not the car, not the car!” he cried, moving around them.

“Table!” Tess cried, jogging after him.

“I see it!” he called back as papers flew around. “Whoa!” His hands shot out in front of him and he began to fly backwards.

“Tony! Be careful!”

“Could be worse! Could be worse! We're fine! Okay.” Back where they started, Tony circled around, before relaxing, and slowly lowering himself. The boots quit and he fell again.

Dummy, the robot, pointed the fire extinquisher at him. “N-na-ah-ah-ah-ah!” Tony backed away, giving him a warning glare.

Dummy dropped its head like a whipped dog. Tony looked over at Tess.

“Yeah, I can fly,” he said.

|:|

Mechanical arms attached, drilled, and probed around as the silver armor was placed on Tony's body.

“Jarvis, are you there?” he asked as the front plate went over his face.

“At your service, sir.”

“Engage Heads Up Display.” Tess knew he was speaking to Jarvis who was now fully downloaded into the suite. She watched from behind the computer screens as the metal being stepped forward. “Can we start the virtual walk-around?”

Parts of the suite began to move around, contracting and detracting, folding in and out like little birds wings, like claws of some foreign being.

Tess heard Jarvis speak throughout the shop, “Test complete. Preparing to power down and begin diagnostics.”

“Yeah, tell you what. Do a weather and ATC check. Start listening in on ground control.”

Jarvis disagreed. “Sir, there are still terabytes of calculations needed before an actual flight is..”

“And there's still plenty of tests to go through before you take off,” Tess cut in.

“Miss Koscher, that is what I just said,” Jarvis said.

“Jarvis! Tess! Sometimes you got to run before you can walk.” Tess rolled her eyes and put her head in her hand. “Ready? In three, two, one.” The sparks erupted, Tony leaned forward, and--before Tess could contradict anymore–shot through the tunnel, into the night sky.

There was silence at first from the earpiece Tess was wearing. Biting her lip in apprehension, she waited.

There was a sligth buzzing and then, “Tess? You there, kid?”

“Loud and clear, sir.” Tess smiled at the excitement in his voice. “How's it look?”

“Let me show you.” And image popped up on the main computer screen, a sky view of Malibu with the lights twinkling in the distance.

Tess's smile broadened. “How does she feel?”

“Handles like a dream.” Tony focused in on a farris wheel along the shore, giving Tess a close up look of two little kids with ice cream cones. “Alright, let's see what this thing can do. What's SR-71's record?”

“The altitude record for fixed wing flight is 85,000 feet, sir,” Jarvis spoke.

“Tony...” Tess warned, getting his immediant hint.

“Records are made to me broken, Tess! Come on!” The image suddenly turned to blackness of the night sky.

A red warning sign suddenly popped up on a side screen. “Tony, you've got a problem.”

“Sir, there is a pontentially fatal buildup of ice occurring.”

“Keep going! Higher!” The ice built up, and suddenly Tess lost all visual.

“Tony?” The girl's fingers travelled over the buttons as she tried to figure out what happened. All connection was gone. “Tony!”

It was quiet until suddenly an image of the shoreline appeared on the screen and Tess heard Tony laughing.

“Miss me?” he asked.

“No. But I didn't want a tycoon's death on my hands.” Tess couldn't stop the relieved smile on her face.

“Right...I don't believe you. But I'm heading back.”

“‘Kay.” Tess removed her ear piece and got up from the computer to welcome him back with a possible smack to the face because of his stupidity.

There was a loud boom from above, then another loud bang, and suddenly something came crashing through the ceiling with a crash. Dust rose and car alarms broke out. Tess had to cover her ears from the din as she moved closer to see Tony's metallic body laying on top of her favorite car. Dummy came up beside him and doused him with the fire extinguisher, forcing Tess to hold down a laugh. Tony leaned his helmeted head back.
Tess smirked at him and crossed her arms.

“You can fly, but you sure can't land.”