Iron Man's Daughter

Tess opened the cabinet door, searching for something that might cease her hunger. Pepper was somewhere and Tony was down doing something with the suite. Finding a box of poptarts, she grabbed one and began nibbling at it as Maya hopped on the counter and rub against her arm.

"Tess, can you come down here please?" Tony's voice sounded from the intercome.

"Now?" Tess sighed.

"Yes, now would be a good time," Tony said quickly.

Tess sighed again and headed down to the basement. Her black and red Converse crunched as they stepped over the glass on the floor that had once been the door. It was completely shattered.

"What happened?" Tess demanded as she tiptoed through the mess.

"Nothing," Tony said, stepping up to a rise in the floor. "I need to go to Gulmira and I'll need your extra set of eyes."

Tess looked at him sadly. "Tony, those people there...Its not--"

"It is my fault," his voice sounded firm, meaning end of discussion.
The floor began to open up, mechanical arms brought in other parts of the suit. Then, they were screwing and drilling the parts together over Tony's body. Finally, the helmet was installed and Tony turned to look at his daughter.

"Keep your eyes open. I don't know what to expect there." Then he launched himself into the air and through the tunnel before he reached the open sky.

Tess moved to her set of monitors and put the ear piece in.

"Tony?"

"I hear ya." The screens blinked on and Tess with Tony flying through the open sky.

Chaos. Carnage. Destruction. That was what Tess saw when Tony landed. Immediately, the attacks started, but Tony simply blew them away with his hand cannons. He was merciless against the hostiles. He turned to take care of the final few. However, they had grabbed women and children as human shields, yelling gibberish, expecting the man in the iron suit to back down.

Tess saw Tony lock onto the hostiles heads. Small bullets shot from his shoulders, nailing each terrorist in the head. They all dropped simotaneously. A small boy ran to his father, welcomed by grateful arms.

Tony moved by them, heading straight for a destroyed wall. He punched through it and dragged out the cowaring leader, throwing him to the civilians.

"He's all your's," he said to the innocents as he rose into the air.

"Wow," Tess breathed.

Her screen showed he was searching for the Jericho missles at an artillary camp. He'd spotted them. Suddenly, there was a loud boom and the world was turning as Tony plummeted down. He hit the ground, sending dust and debris everywhere, and Tess's screen went black.

"Tony?" she asked frantically.

"I'm here," Tony's voice said as her screen lighted up again and he rose from the self-made crater.

As soon as he stepped out, he dodged a missle from a tank, and shot at it. Nothing seemed to happen, until he turned away, then Tess heard the loud boom.

Men shot at him again, their bullets clinging uslessly off his armor. He rose into the air again and projected lasers at the Jericho missles. They disappeared in a ball of enferno.

Another job done, he rocketed into the sky.

Tess rested her forehead against her hands. "That was a little close."

"Where's your sense of adventure, Tess?"

"Left way back there when you made that stupid suit."

Tony went to reply, but the ringing of his built in cell phone stopped him.

"Hello?" Tony answered.

"Tony?"

"Who's this?"

"Its Rhodes."

"Sorry, hello?"

"I said, its Rhodes."

"Speak up, please."

'What the hell is that noise?"

"Oh, yeah, I'm driving with the top down." Tess smiled at his lie.

"Yeah, well, I need your help right now."

"It's funny how that works, huh?"

Tess shook her head and began pressing keys until she finally managed to get into one of the military satellites, giving her a birds-eye view of Tony on a different monitor.

"Why do you sound out of breath, Tony?"

"I'm not, I was just jogging in the canyon." Tess grimaced at the slip in his alibi.

"I thought you were driving."

"Right, I was driving to the canyon, where I'm going to jog."

"You sure you don't have any tech in that area I should know about?"

"Nope!"

"Tony you got two F-22 Raptors coming in hot!" Tess said.

"Okay, good, because I'm staring at one right now, and its about to be blown to kingdom come."

Tony looked behind him to see the two jets coming at him. "That's my exit," he said, swirving off and engaging supersonic flight.

"You got an inbound missile!" Tess notified him.

"Flares!" Tony commanded. The flares were released, crashed into the missile, and blew. The percussion sent Tony forward and he was falling again through the clouds.

The jets began shooting at him, one managing a hit.

"Deploy flaps!" Tony shot back behind the two Raptors.

Tess gritted her teeth. "Call Rhodes now before you get shot up any more!"

"Yeah..." her father sighed.

Rhodes ID came back up on her screen. "Hello?"

"Hi, Rhodey, it's me."

"It's who?"

"I'm sorry, it is me. You asked. What you were asking about is me."

"No, see, this isn't a game. You do not send civilian equipment into my active war zone. You understand that?"

"This is not a piece of equipment. I'm in it. It's a suit. It's me!"

"Tony, they've spotted you!" Tess warned.

Tony tried desperately to hang on as the jet began to roll over in an attempt to shake him off. His grip slipped and he went flying back, the momentum throwing him into the wing of the the jet behind him.

The pilot ejected from his jet. Tess spotted his tiny figure falling, but no sign of the parachute.

"Tony, his parachute's not opening!"

Tony zipped down towards the endangered pilot.

"You've been reenaged. Execute evasie maneuver," JARVIS said.

"Keep going!" He clamped onto the pilot's seat and jerked on the chute lever, opening it, and sending the pilot to the ground safely.

Tony quickly made his exit.

"Okay, that was too close," Tess breathed, hugging her stomach.

"Tony, you still there?" Rhodes asked.

"Hey, thanks."

"Thanks for what?" Tess mumbled. "He didn't do anything."

"Oh, my God, you crazy son of a bitch."

"That's what I think sometimes," Tess muttered.

"You owe me a plane. You know that, right?"

Tony chuckled. "Yeah, well, technically, he hit me. So...Now are you going to come by and see what I'm working on?"

"No!" Tess hissed.

Rhodes echoed her. "The less I know, the better."