Iron Man's Daughter

"You with Rhodey?" was Tony's answer when he picked up.

"Yep," Tess said, turning on a touchscreen monitor about the size of a notebook. The suit's status, Tony's vitals, along with everything Tony could see showed up on the screen.

"How do you think the Mark One chest piece is going to hold up?" Tony asked.

"The suit's at 48% power and falling, sir," JARVIS said. "That chest piece was never designed for substained flight."

"Keep me posted," Tony said as he called Pepper. "Pepper."

"Tony!" Pepper's high-pitches shriek made Tess wince. "Tony, are you okay?"

"I'm fine. How are..."

"O-Obadiah, he's gone insane!" Pepper said shakily.

"I know. Listen, you'd better get out of there. Get out of there right now!"

From Pepper's end on the line, the ground began to rise behind her as though something was tunneling beneath it. A large mechanical arm, rose from the crumbling asphalt. Then the whole body followed. It was the orignal version of Tony's suit. Bulky, round, and beyond the word 'huge', its glowing blue eyes spotted Pepper.

"Where do you think you're going?" Obadiah's crackly voice asked from behind the helmet. Clenching his fist and advancing on Pepper, he reached out and aimed. "You services are no longer required."

Tess saw Tony round the building corner and she spotted the giant suit.

"Holy cow..." she muttered.

"Stane!" Tony shouted.

Obadiah began firing at him, but Tony plummeted into him and they both wemt crashing to the ground, sparks flying, the sound of metal hitting metal defaning.

"Dammit!" Tess growled and clenched her teeth.

Rhodey looked at her. "What?"

"Lost visual. We gotta find Tony. Turn off here."

Their car turned sharply onto the exit ramp.

The two metal suits fell through the floor, bouncing through walls from the momentum of Tony's hit. They crashed from the other side of the building and landed in the middle of traffic, crashing into several vehicles along the way.

Rhodey slammed on the brakes and they stopped nearly two blocks off from the robotic showdown. Tess opened the door and sprinted off towards them.

"Tess! Are you crazy?" Rhodey shouted after her. "TESS!"

Obadiah kicked Tony into a bus and then picked him up like a doll. "For 30 years, I've been holding you up!"

He threw him hard into the ground and began smashing him in with his oversized foot. "I built this company from nothing!" Another smash before picking him up again.

"Nothing is going to stand in my way." He tossed him through the bus. The bus collapsed. "Least of all you." A rocket rose from his back and zeroed in on the bus.

Before he could launch it, however, a bumper flew into his helmet. "Hey, dickhead!"
Obadiah turned. Tess stood there, feet apart, looking up at him defiantly. "Leave my dad alone," she growled.

"Your dad, huh?" Obadiah chuckled, walking heavily towards her. "I always knew you were that little brat he had with that whore!"

"Watch it, Stane!" Tess spat. "My mom was not a whore!"

"Oh, yes, she was. She even tried to tell Tony so he would have support the two of you. Lucky for him, I signed the papers." He was standing right in front of her, but Tess hadn't moved. "But you had to come and screw everything up, didn't you?"

He reached out for her, but she ducked and ran off. However, the loud bangs that shook the air told Tess he was coming. The large metal hand picked her up roughly, nearly swatting her across the street.

Obadiah laughed as Tess tried to struggle out of his painful grasp. "You're fiesty, aren't you?"

"Let her go, Stane!" Tony commanded. He was hovering over the air, his hand raised, the stabalizer glowing.

"Fine. You want her, go get her!" And to Tony's horror, Obadiah pulled his arm back and threw her with all his might.

Tess screamed as the ground zoomed by her, drawing nearer. She was going to hit it. She was going to hit it and die. At least it would be quick. Hopefully.

Just as the asphalt, seemed too near, hard, cold arms grabbed her and she was flying upward. She wrapped her arms around Tony's neck in shock, too scared to think she was showing him she actually might have liked him then. She had called him 'dad' and he'd heard it though. She'd never live that down.

Tony lowered to ground and let her go, but it took her longer to release him.

"You okay besides the post traumatic stress?" he asked, trying to lighten the moment. Tess nodded. "Okay. I'm gonna go kick his ass. Stay out of the way."

"Don't die, okay?" she said.

Her big brown eyes were showing emotions for once and he saw that she sincerly was worried about him. Then, to his surprise, she hugged him. The metal plate on his chest was rather painful to run into so abruptly, but Tess didn't care. She just wanted him to beat Obadiah.

"I'll be fine," he said when she released him and flew off.

He flew past Obadiah, luring him before flying straight up. Obadiah's own boot rockets fired and he rose heavily into the air, steam blowing out around him.

"Sir, it appears that his suit can fly," JARVIS said.

"Duly noted," Tony said quickly. "Take me to maximum altitude."

"With only 15% power, the odds of reaching that..."

"I know the math! Do it!" He took off higher into the sky. Obadiah was still following. They merely became bright lights in the sky. Higher and higher.

"Thirteen-percent power, sir."

"Climb!"

"Eleven-percent."

"Keep going!"

"Seven percent power."

"Just leave it on the screen!" Tony replied sharply. "Stop telling me!"

Obadiah reached up as his suit began to freeze and grabbed Tony's leg. "You had a great idea, Tony, but my suit is more advanced in every way!"

"How'd you solve the icing problem?" Tony asked smuggly.

"Icing problem?" Obadiah's suit began to power off.

"Might want to look into it," Tony said and hit him over the top of the helmet.
Obadiah's suit fell to the earth.

"Two percent." The suit faltered and Tony clambered wildly to stay in the air. Rockets flickered on and off. "We are now running on emergency backup power." Off and on. Off and on his power went, until he landed ungracefully ontop of the Stark building.

"Potts!" he called, knowing she was closer than Tess was.

"Tony! Oh, my God, are you okay?"

"I'm almost out of power. I've got to get out of this thing. I'll be right there," he said, beginning to undo his armor. His face plate rose from his face.

Obadiah landed behind him. "Nice try!"

Tony turned and the face plate shut just as Obadiah aimed to punch him. Tony ducked and went to aim with his stablizer but his glove was gone. Obadiah punched him successfully and Tony twisted in the air before falling to the ground. He slid to a stop and cameat Stane, powering his other gauntlet and punching him in the face. Stane barely dodged it. He grabbed him by the waist and squeezed tightly.

"Weapons status?" Tony choked.

"Repulsors offline. Missiles off line," JARVIS reported. Steam began to emit from the suit.

"Flares!" shouted Tony.

The suit complied and flares shot out, richoceting in all directions like a fireworks display. It stunned Stane's suit and he released Tony, who quickly disappeared in the smoke.

"Very clever, Tony," Stane growled.

"Potts?" Tony said quietly.

"Tony!" Pepper exclaimed from the other end.

"This isn't working. We're going to have to overload the reactor and blast the roof," he whispered.

"Well, how are you going to do that?"

"You're gonna do it. Go to the central console, open up all the circuits. When I get clear of the roof, I'll let you know. You're going to hit the mast bypass button. Its gonna fry everything up here."

Pepper began to walk in through the shattered glass. It looked like snow. "Okay. I'm going in now."

"Make sure you wait 'til I clear the roof. I'll buy you some time."

Pepper began opening all the circuits. The hum of electricty filled the air. Up above, Tony jumped up on Obadiah's shoulders. "This looks important!" he shouted and pulled a strip of chords from the suit's neck area. Stane's vision blackened. He waved his arms blindly, trying to get Tony off. He grabbed Tony's helmet and threw him onto the sky light. Tony laid there helmetless.

Tess was sprinting across the parking lot, sliding across the shattered glass, and finally into the building. She stepped up beside Pepper as she shouted, "Its ready, Tony! Get off the roof!"

"Plan?" Tess gasped.

But at that moment, there was the loud clamor of machine guns and glass rained down on Pepper and her. Tony was hanging above them by the rim of the sky light. He tried to pull himself up as Obadiah shot more, shattering more glass.

"How ironic, Tony! Trying to rid the world of weapons, you gave it its best one ever!" Obadiah chuckled.

"Pepper!" Tony called
Stane continued. "And now...I'm going to kill you with it!" His missile lauched and blew up beside Tony. "You ripped out my targeting system," Stane said, apparently as an excuse.

"Time to hit the button!" Tony called.

"You told me not to!" Pep called back.

"Hold still, you little prick!" Obadiah aimed again .

"Just do it!"

"You'll die!"

Tony's grip slipped and he caught a glimpse of his daughter below. He swallowed. "Tess! Push it!"

Tess looked at him desperately before stepping forward. She pushed it. Electrical currents began dancing around everywhere. Lights grew brighter. Pepper grabbed Tess's hand and after a moment's hesitation Tess followed her out. A giant blue current shot up higher, sending Tony flying outward. It hit Obadiah, electrocuting him. The giant beam of light shot into the clouds, looking like a lightening storm before disappearing. Obadiah's limp body fell down through the sky light. He crashed into the ARC reactor. The whole thing blew.

Tess watched in a mixture of shock and horror. Once, everthing seemed in the clear, she ran for the railing that led up to the roof.

"Tess, wait!" Pepper called, but she paid no attention.

Her heart hammering in her chest. Harder and harder as she got closer to the top, afraid to see what she'd find. As soon as she was over the edge, she saw Tony. She ran over to him, more afraid than she'd ever been. Finding her mom dead in bed kept flashing back to her.

"Tony!" she yelled, falling beside him. He was unconscience, the reactor was fried, it wasn't glowing. "Tony!" she yelled again, this time more desperate. She didn't want to lose him too! Even if she acted bitter towards him, she'd learned to like him.

"Dad..." she whispered, trying to keep the tears at bay.