Addy grinned, happy to be included as Tony held a can of Mountain Dew out to her. "So problem solved then? Your chest nightlight won't make you sick any more?"

Stark chuckled at the snarky word choice, mentally acknowledging sarcasm muses be a hereditary trait. "Yeah, no more palladium poisoning." He nodded, taking a long sip of his own drink. "And you were instrumental in the demo process, the way you swung that hammer.." he teased.

"Oh har har," Addy mocked, trying and failing not to grin in response, "you gave me a hammer as big as me!"

Tony smirked and turned towards his robots, "dummy, you, can we clean up this mess? You're killing me..."

A ringing interrupted, "phone privileges reinstated," he murmured to himself before answering. "Coulson, how's land of enchantment?"

"Tony hey how you doing?" A deep, heavily accented voice, chuckled across the line. "I double cycle."

Addy felt fear crawl up her spine as she watched Tony's expression draw serious. "Tony?" She whispered uncertainly.

Tony swallowed, knowing full well who was calling but wishing he were wrong, "what?"

"You told me double cycles more power. Good advice."

"You sound pretty spritely for a dead guy."

"You too." The voice laughed darkly.

Addy tugged on Stark's robe, her initial fear only growing as she realized who was calling, "Tony? Is that the guy that attacked us?"

Tony pulled his daughter into his side reassuringly with his left arm, reaching out with his right to mute himself. "Trace it," he instructed.

"Sir," Jarvis responded immediately. Data and maps appearing on screen as the AI rapidly cycled through. 

Addy stared transfixed as the map zoomed in, from one of the whole world to the United States and ultimately the east coast. The haunting Russian voice rambling on his threats and reasonings in the background.

"What your father did to my family over forty years I will do to you in forty minutes."

"Sounds good let's get together and hash it out," Tony taunted despite the fact his aggressor wouldn't hear the words.

Addy looked panicked from the screen to her father, "no!" She disagreed in terror, "he nearly tore us all apart last time you do not want to get together and hash anything out with him!"

Tony ignored her aside from an absentminded pat on the shoulder as he continued to bounce from screen to screen.

"I hope you're ready," the voice continued before the line clicked, the call ended.

"Call trace incomplete," Jarvis stated.

Tony glanced between the screens in agitation. Before something seemed to click in his mind and he leapt into action. Addy spun her chair around staring after him in confusion, "what's going on..?"

"You wanna run some tests? Run em." Tony snapped at his AI as he jammed the new reactor into the cavity on his chest. "And assemble the suit while you're at it."

"Were unsure-"

"-I don't wanna hear it Jarvis!" The man interrupted.

Addy stared nervously as the reactor began to glow brighter and brighter, Tony coughing as he tried to become accustomed to the new, more powerful, element. "Tony...?"

Stark's eyes finally landed on the girl and he seemed, for the first moment since receiving the call, unsure of his next action. He glanced towards where his suit was being readied and back to the obviously frightened child sitting before him. Tony groaned loudly, running a hand through his hair in agitation. "Pep says you're too young to be left alone..." he mumbled more to himself than Addy.

The girl stared wide eyed after her father as he moved forward, donning the iron man suit. "You'll have to come with, leave you with Pepper." He continued to himself.

"Come with you?! With that?!" She squeaked, breathing increasing at the thought of not only flying, but flying outside the walls of a normal aircraft. "No I think Pepper's wrong, I'm fully capable of being left here."

Tony sighed, kneeling before the child panicking in his workshop. "Believe me kiddo I'd rather you be here and far away from what I'm about to fly into. But, despite my less than stellar track record on the matter, it would be irresponsible of me to leave you alone in Miami while I fly off to New York." He smiled as he dropped the helmet from one of his older models onto the girl's head, "so suit up buttercup."

"This doesn't fit," Addy's voice echoed hollowly from inside the top big helmet as tony jerry rigged gauntlets and chest piece onto her as well.

"It doesn't have to fit, not perfectly anyway, don't need you thinking you're ready to go fight bad guys. This is just to protect you from wind resistance during the flight."

Addy stumbled backwards, Tony just managing to keep her upright, as one of the gauntlets went off, shattering a screen behind them. The girl screamed, "why do I need them powered?!" She screamed in a panic.

"On case I drop you."

"You're going to drop me?!??" She shouted, the end cutting off in a scream as she was scooped up and the duo shot off into the air.

She screamed again hours later when they dropped down just outside the expo, "go find Pepper and both of you get out of here!" Tony instructed before shooting off once more.

Addy stared towards the mass of people, completely overwhelmed. "How'm I meant to find Pepper with all these people?" She wondered to herself.

Moments later her thoughts turned from finding Pepper and onto avoiding being trampled as the crowd swarmed, terrified, out of the expo and towards where she stood. Something that vaguely resembled her father's suits landed heavily before her, the force cracking the steps and nearly knocking her off her feet. Addy raised her hand defensively, "come on come on, how do you shoot! Work you piece of shit!!" She screamed in desperation as the drone aimed a large gun her direction.

"Language!" Tony's voice scolded as he landed next to her, quickly dispatching the threat. "I told you to get to Pepper,go!" He snapped before speeding off again.

"I can't find Pepper!" She screamed after him. The gauntlet on her left hand fired, shattering the single pane of glass that had somehow survived the initial attack and sending the girl sprawling onto her back, the helmet knocked aside. "Oh sure now you work," she groaned as she climbed back to her feet.

She flinched at the sound of explosions, fire lighting up the giant sculpture of the earth to her left. "Should've tried harder to convince him to leave me at home." Addy grumbled. "Now, if I were Pepper, where would I be...?"

Addy turned slowly in circles, clueless as to where to even begin. Most of he crowd had run off now. The sparking remains of numerous drones littered the ground around her, water shot awkwardly from broken fountains, and the tinkling of glass falling periodically from where it had tried valiantly to cling to its initial form was the only sound besides the distant echo of shots she knew must be Tony.

"Happy wouldn't leave without her, if I can find the car maybe I can find Happy and Pepper," she smiled to herself and began the laborious trek around the expo dome. Addy considered momentarily attempting to remove the other bits of armor Tony had strapped to her before deciding against attempting anything that could result in another accidental firing.

She had just reached the edge of the parking area when a fallen drone began blinking nearby, "that cannot be good..." Addy cringed fearfully as she began stumbling backwards, away from the ominously blinking creation.

______

"You loose," Vanco mumbled with his last breath.  The drones surrounding them began to beep, red lights blinking in tandem with the quickening sound.

"All the drones are rigged to blow," Rhody noted, "we gotta get out of here man!"

Tony felt his blood run cold, "Pepper?" He called into his communicator, hoping desperately Addy and Pepper were together. "Rhody, Pepper and Addy, whichever you find first get them to safety!" Stark snapped as he flew into the air, desperate to reach the ones that mattered most to him before the worst occurred.

"You brought Addy?!" The Colonel questioned in disbelief as he shot off after Tony.

"I didn't have anywhere else to leave her," Tony defended in a panicked tone, "Pepper?!"

The pair split of, both scanning the ground for any sign of the girls. Tony breathed a shaky breath when he spotted Pepper's strawberry red hair, the woman starring curiously at a drone mere feet away. He barely landed, scooping the woman into his arms and shooting off as everything began exploding behind them.

"Did you see Addy?" Tony shouted as he ripped off his mask.

Pepper completely missed his query as she ranted, meltdown mode in hull swing. "I can't take this anymore! My body literally cannot handle the stress! I never know if you're gonna kill yourself or wreck the whole company!"

"I think I did ok!" Tony defended. "Addy?"

"I quit I'm resigning!" She continued blindly.

"Pepper! Have you seen my daughter?!" Tony interrupted.

"What?"

"Over here," the girl called from where she was sitting next to Rhody. She moved to wave but cringed and lowered her hand quickly, "could you take these things off of me now? I don't really wanna be shot off the roof."

"You put iron man gauntlets on her?!" Pepper began in a scolding tone.

"I was taking precautions! Being a responsible parent!"

"A responsible parent would've hired a babysitter! Not taken their seven year old child to battle with them!"

"There wasn't time! Besides I told her to find you and get out of here!" He glanced pointedly at Addy.

"Hey I tried! I don't think you realize how many people were running out of there! Complete chaos! Besides I'm not exactly tall enough to see over anyone's head! You may as well have told me to find the orange piece of straw in a haystack!"

"Before y'all start bickering again," Rhody cut in, "my car got taken out in the explosion so I'm gonna have to hang onto your suit for a minute ok."

"Not ok, I'm not ok with that." Tony argued.

Rhodes stood, gears whirring in the silver suit, "wasn't a question," he stated before shooting off.

Addy cringed and leaned away from the heat created by his thrusters.

"So you were quitting?" Tony prompted, his attention once more settling on Pepper. "You deserve better, you've taken such good care of me. Let's talk cleanup.."

"Thank you, thank you for understanding. I'll handle the transition it'll be smooth."

Tony nodded, the pair stepping slightly closer to one another, "Ok what about the press because you only had the job for a week"

"Well with you that's like dog years," Pepper defended, "it's like the presidency."

Tony nodded absently, his attention clearly no longer focused on the conversation as he moved forward towards his one time assistant before closing the space between them, claiming her lips with his own. Pepper's hands worked their way into his dark hair as she returned it.

"Weird?" Tony breathed uncertainly when they pulled back.

Pepper shook her head, "no it's not weird."

"It's ok right?"

"Yeah," the woman responded breathlessly.

Tony moved in for another, "ok run that by me again."

Addy groaned, stopping the adults mid-kiss. "As thrilled as I am you've both pulled your heads out of your butts long enough to get feels," she began sarcastically, "it's sorta been a freaky night. I've been flown across the country at ridiculous speeds, nearly trampled by panicked rich people, nearly blown myself up with stupid oversized glove things, you still haven't removed might I add. And these things aren't light! I'm not a full grown person alright?! I'm not built to carry around, however many pounds these doodads are, strapped to my wrists! Nearly been blown up, twice, by funky wannabe iron man things! I seriously need to go home and research what sort of probability we defied to survive tonight and not watch you two make out. That's literally the very last thing on my to do list. Right behind being blown up by those things."

Tony chuckled as he walked towards his child, quickly removing the gauntlets and chest piece from her body. "Better short stack?"

"Much," Addy nodded, rubbing her wrists. Tony couldn't help but notice her hands were beginning to shake as her anger subsided and fear began to creep past the adrenaline barriers that had previously held it at bay. She turned tear filled eyes up to meet his, a wobbly smile falling from her lips. "I'll try harder to find Pepper and run next time." She whispered, her voice cracking towards the end as the first tear escaped.

Tony sighed as he pulled the girl into his arms, "shhhh shhh it's alright, you're alright." He whispered softly as Addy cried into his neck. "Next time, neither one of you are attending the fights."

_____________________________

Hey peoples. I'm sorry I know it's been ages if you're reading lupin's cub you knows bit of why. If you aren't well long story short I'm apparently depressed. Yay. (<-sarcasm) I've just been diagnosed with ADHD (again yay!) and I'm in the process of moving. Pair that itch two little hooligans who fight all the time and destroy everything and yeah you guys and my stories get shoved to the back burner. I know that sucks for you but c'est la vie right lol. Anywho here's an update for you. Hopefully I can get you another soonish. No promises cuz yeah moving painted packing children. I'm gonna stop I'm starting to overwhelm myself 😣 hope you enjoyed the chapter. As always I love your comments. Even if I don't always manage to respond like I like to. Later peoples