"The notary's here! Can you please come sign the transfer paperwork?" Pepper shouts as she enters the gym, where Tony and Happy are practicing boxing with each other.

Little Mazzy Stark trails behind her, copying her posture and the way she's walking. "The notary's here, Dad!" she announces.

"I'm on Happy time," Tony responds, not looking away from his opponent.

Mazzy looks over at the two men, hitting each other with big, padded gloves. It doesn't look very fun. It looks gross, actually. They are both sweating profusely. So, Mazzy looks away and follows Pepper over to some chairs in the corner of the room, just before sitting down beside her. Soon after, a woman with long, dark red hair and a black pencil skirt walks into the gym, too, making her way over to Pepper.

"I promise you this is the only time I will ask you to sign over your company," Pepper calls out to Tony. He isn't listening well, though. He is too busy watching the red-haired woman.

"I need you to initial each box," the red-haired woman tells Pepper. Pepper does, and Mazzy peeks over her shoulder to see.

"I could sign it for Dad. I know how to spell his name," Mazzy offers, seeing as Tony is too busy beating the crap out of Happy to come and sign the papers.

The red-haired woman smiles, but shakes her head. "That's forgery, sweetheart," she says.

"Oh."

"What's your name, lady?" Tony asks loudly, pointing to the red-haired woman from inside the ring.

"Rushman. Natalie Rushman," the red-haired woman, Natalie, answers.

"Front and center. Come into the church," Tony says as he sprays a stream of water into his mouth.

Pepper gives him a death glare and Natalie honestly looks a bit confused. Mazzy crosses her arms, tossing her head back in annoyance. "Oh, brother," she huffs out.

"No. You're seriously not gonna ask her-" Pepper doesn't even get a chance to finish her sentence before Tony interrupts her.

"If it pleases the court. Which it does," Tony says.

"It's no problem," Natalie says, closing up her file and walking confidently toward the ring as Pepper and Mazzy murmur apologies for Tony's strange behavior. Natalie steps into the ring and Tony stares at her for a good thirty seconds as he gulps down his drink. Usually, whenever Tony is acting like this, it's easy for Mazzy to see that people are uncomfortable. Not Natalie Rushman. Natalie Rushman stares back at him, just as intensely.

"What?" Tony asks to fill in the excruciating silence. He looks away, a smirk playing at his lips. After a moment, he lets his face fall blank again and turns to Happy. "Can you, uh, give her a lesson?" he says, which Happy happily does. As Tony walks over to where Pepper and Mazzy were sitting, whispering Pepper's name, Mazzy gives him a confused and judgemental look. He doesn't seem to notice. "Pepper!"

"What?" Pepper asks. Tony takes a seat right between Pepper and Mazzy on the seat only made for two. They both huff and cross their arms.

"Who is she?"

"She is from legal. And she is potentially a very expensive sexual harassment lawsuit if you keep ogling her like that," Pepper says, only glancing up from her cell phone to give Tony a pointed look.

"Yeah. You're harassing her, Dad," Mazzy says, giving him the same pointed look that Pepper had given him just a moment before.

Tony rolls his eyes, pretending that he isn't amused by Mazzy's attempt to be like Pepper. He wraps his arm around Mazzy's neck and presses his hand over her mouth, playfully silencing her, as he turns to look at Pepper again. "I need a new assistant, boss," he says.

Mazzy pries his hand away from her face before wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. She furrows her eyebrows. "Your hands smell like shit," she says, scrunching her nose up. Both Pepper's and Tony's eyebrows shoot up as their heads snap to the side to look at her. Mazzy presses her lips together, shrugging her shoulders. "What?" she asks.

"Where did you learn that word?" Pepper asks, her eyebrows raised with concern.

"Daddy," Mazzy says, jabbing her thumb in Tony's direction.

Pepper's head lolls to give Tony a very stern, very disappointed look. "Really?" she asks in a monotonous voice.

"She's lying," Tony says, raising his hands up in surrender. "I've never said that word in my life."

"You don't get a new assistant until you can learn to behave yourself," Pepper says, shaking her head.

"Yeah, Dad. You have to learn to behave yourself," Mazzy says, nodding her head in agreement.

"I'll behave later. I need a new assistant now. I feel like it's her," Tony says, jutting his chin out in Natalie's direction.

After taking in a sharp breath, Pepper shuts her cell phone as she says, "No, it's not."

"How do I spell your name, Natalie?" Tony calls out, his voice echoing in the large room. Pepper looks like she can't believe him, even though this is not out of the ordinary for him. As Natalie spells out her name, Tony types her name into the screen on the table beside them. He swipes through all of the Natalie Rushmans until he finds the Natalie Rushman. "Oh, wow. Very, very impressive individual," Tony says, swiping past the information about her to get to the pictures. "She's fluent in French, Italian, Russian, Latin. Who speaks Latin?"

"No one speaks Latin. It's a dead language," Pepper answers, before going on to explain that answer. However, Tony is too busy enlarging pictures of Natalie Rushman in lingerie.

Watching the screen, Mazzy scrunches her face up. "Why do so many ladies wear swimsuits all the time?" she asks.

As quickly as he pulled the images up, Tony swipes them away. "'Cause it's... hot outside," he murmurs.

"You're a very irresponsible parent. You know that?" Pepper asks, watching him close off the tab.

Then, from the middle of the ring, comes a loud, painful-sounding wham! Mazzy, Pepper, and Tony's heads all shoot in the direction of the sound to see Happy lying on his back with Natalie Rushman's legs held tight around his neck.

"Oh, my God!" Pepper shouts, shooting up out of her chair.

"Woah!" Mazzy exclaims, staring in awe at her new favorite person. Natalie quickly releases Happy and stands herself up, brushing off her shirt and readjusting her clothes.

"I just slipped," Happy lies.

"You did?" Tony asks.

"She kicked your butt!" Mazzy says, bouncing on her toes beside the ring. "Do it again!"

"Looks like a TKO to me," Tony says, ringing the bell.

Happy groans, wiping sweat from his forehead as Natalie steps down from the boxing ring, despite Mazzy's plead for her to do it again. She returns Mazzy's impressed smile before turning to Tony and getting back to business. She picks her file up once again. "Just, um... I need your impression," she says to Tony.

"You have a quiet reserve. I don't know. You have an old soul..."

"I meant your fingerprint," Natalie says, stopping him before he can go too far. She opens up the file, holding it towards him. He dips his finger in the ink and presses it against the paper.

"So, how are we doing?" Pepper asks, walking up beside Mazzy.

"Great. Just wrapping up. Hey," he pauses and pointed at his thumbprint. "You're the boss," he says, making a small smile grow on Pepper's face.

Natalie shuts her file and tucks it between her arm and her side. "Will that be all, Mr. Stark?" she asks.

"No," both Mazzy and Tony says at the same time.

"Yes, that will be all, Ms. Rushman. Thank you very much," Pepper says, putting on a polite smile. Natalie begins to walk away and Tony lets out a huff while Mazzy just crosses her arms.

"Please can she stay?" Mazzy asks, giving Pepper her best puppy-dog eyes.

"Yeah, Pepper. Please can she stay?" Tony repeats.

"No."

✭

As Tony, Pepper, Mazzy, and Happy all step out of a sleek, black car, crowds of fans behind fences cheer at their arrival- or Tony's arrival, rather. When Pepper reaches for Mazzy's hand, the girl shakes her head and straightens her posture. She doesn't need to hold anyone's hand. She is strong and independent, like Natalie Rushman.

Pepper rolls her eyes and glances back at Happy to make sure he's keeping an eye on Mazzy, which he is. Ever since Natalie Rushman knocked Happy on his ass, Mazzy has been trying her best to be just like her. Pepper liked it better when Mazzy was always trying to act like her, but at least she isn't trying to act like any bad influences.

"You know, it's Europe. Whatever happens in the next 20 minutes, just go with it," Tony says as they walk through the entrance to the building. Mazzy is beyond excited to see the race up close, but she's trying her best not to show it because she is cool like Natalie Rushman.

Speak of the devil and he doth appear.

"Mr. Stark?"

"Natalie!" Mazzy exclaims upon seeing the red-haired woman. Mazzy is wearing a white and black long-sleeve baseball tee with a gray skirt, but now she is wishing that she had picked out a neon pink dress to wear so that she could have matched Natalie.

"Miss Stark," Natalie greets her, putting on a soft smile. "How was your flight?"

"It was excellent," Tony says while Mazzy gave a firm thumbs up. "Boy, it's nice to see you."

"We have one photographer from the ACM, if you don't mind," Natalie says, gesturing toward the man with a camera right behind her.

Pepper and Tony seem to be having some quiet, tense conversation that Mazzy can't quite hear over the chatter that is coming from the rest of the room. But from the look on Pepper's face, she can guess that her dad has done something he wasn't supposed to. Probably hiring Natalie Rushman as his new assistant. Mazzy doesn't mind that so much, though. She already loves Natalie.

"Smile," Tony's voice gets loud enough for Mazzy to hear it. He places his hand on her back, gently pushing her in between himself and Pepper. He points to the cameraman. "Look right there," he says. Mazzy refuses, turning her head and pressing her face against her dad's jacket. She hates photographers because of the bright flashes on their cameras. Maybe Natalie Rushman likes having pictures taken of her, but Mazzy supposed she doesn't have to do everything Natalie does in order to be just as cool as her.

When Tony begins walking with Natalie by his side, Mazzy tries to step in between them, but Pepper grabs her hand, keeping her behind with her instead. She doesn't think Mazzy should have to be subject to hearing Tony's poor attempts at flirting.

They walk through the crowded restaurant until Tony decides on a table and tells Natalie to make it theirs. Pepper pulls out a seat for Mazzy to sit in. "You want anything to drink, sweetheart?" she asks as Mazzy climbed onto the chair.

"Sprite," Mazzy says, kicking her legs back and forth.

"Sprite what?" Pepper asks, raising her eyebrows. Mazzy might be Tony Stark's daughter, but she doesn't have to lack manners, too.

"Sprite, please," Mazzy says, placing her hand flat on her chest and rubbing in a circular motion to sign the word.

"You got it," Pepper says before turning away. Tony follows her to the bar, leaving Mazzy alone at the table with Natalie, who is talking to a few of the servers.

It is really, very loud in the restaurant. It makes things quite hard to hear for Mazzy. When there are a lot of sounds- voices, chairs screeching against the floor, glasses and silverware clinking together, cameras shuttering- it makes things sort of blend together. It is hard for her to distinguish between someone talking to her and someone talking to literally anybody else. That's why Mazzy can't hear it when Natalie is saying her name.

"Miss Stark," Natalie says for a fourth time, this time placing her hand on Mazzy's shoulder. Mazzy looks at her, raising her eyebrows just a little bit. "ACM wants a picture. Is that ok?" she asks.

Mazzy huffs and picks at the napkin on the table in front of her. She hates having strangers take pictures of her all the time, but it's what she has to do, she supposes. She is a Stark. She doesn't really have a choice in any of this. So, she reluctantly nods at Natalie.

The photographer lifts his camera, just about ready to take a picture, when Natalie holds her hand out, silently telling him to stop. Mazzy furrows her eyebrows with confusion as Natalie crouches down in front of her chair.

"Miss Stark, can I call you Mazzy?" Natalie asks. Mazzy nods again. She likes her name. She doesn't mind anyone calling her by it. "Mazzy, you know you can say no," Natalie says, giving the girl a sympathetic look.

Unsure of it, Mazzy just shrugs. "Dad says it's part of being a Stark. People take pictures of him all the time, too," she says.

"That's his own choice. It's your own choice to decide when you want people to take pictures of you. Do you want a picture now?" Natalie asks one more time. This time, Mazzy hesitantly shakes her head. She doesn't want a picture now. So, Natalie stands back up and shoos the photographer away.

There are times when Mazzy doesn't mind having her picture taken. She doesn't mind it on her birthday, or on Christmas or Halloween, or when she's wearing an outfit she really loves. But she hates taking pictures when everything is already so overwhelming. When everything is loud, there are people everywhere, and a lot is going on, having someone flashing a camera in her face is never her favorite thing.

Almost as soon as Natalie walks off, Pepper returns to the table. She sits down on Mazzy's left and begins flipping through the menu, listing off things Mazzy might like. Mazzy isn't listening very well, though. Her attention is fixated on the TV that is hung on the wall across from her. The racers are getting ready. She's starting to get excited until her dad walks out onto the track in a racer's suit.

"Pepper," Mazzy murmurs, furrowing her eyebrows as she stares at the TV. Pepper hums out a what? sound and Mazzy taps her arm before pointing to the TV. "Dad's gonna drive a racecar," she says, unsure whether to be nervous for his safety or excited to see him race.

Pepper's jaw drops and she quickly beckons Natalie over to the table. Turns out that Natalie had no idea about this, either. No wonder he made that comment about just going with it. However, this is not on Pepper's list of expectations. Natalie rushes off to find Happy per Pepper's request.

"You stay right here," Pepper tells Mazzy before shooting up out of her seat and disappearing into the crowd.

Mazzy's eyes stay glued to the television as a man dressed in an orange jumpsuit walks into the middle of the track. He holds his arms out to his sides and reveals two large whips, just as his clothes start to shrivel up and burn off of his body, revealing an electric sort of armor beneath it. The armor looks strikingly similar to the Iron Man suit, featuring an arc reactor right in the center of the chest plate. This suit, however, leaves the man wearing its body extremely vulnerable. All he has on is orange pants and the armor, leaving his arms and parts of his abdomen exposed.

Electricity crackles its way through the whips in his hands and Mazzy's eyes widen when he uses one of them to slice one of the racecars in half. Pepper told her to stay right there, but unfortunately for Pepper, Mazzy just can't help herself. She jumps down off of her chair and pushes her way through the crowd until she gets to the doors.

Her dad is in one of those cars. He is going to die.

As Mazzy pushes and shoves her way through the crowd, she doesn't even take a single second to think about what exactly she is going to do once she gets out there. She runs and runs until she slams right into someone. She falls back on her butt, puffing out a breath of frustration.

"Mazzy Stark, I told you to stay at the table," Pepper's loud and panicked voice shouts. Mazzy looks up to see that it was Happy who she had run into. He's holding the briefcase that will soon wrap itself around Tony's body- aka, the Iron Man suit.

"Get in the car!" Happy shouts at them.

Pepper quickly scoops Mazzy up into her arms and gets into the back seat, keeping Mazzy on her lap. Happy gets into the front and turns the key. "Go, go, go," Pepper yells. The car jerks forward and they start speeding through the streets.

Happy doesn't hesitate to crash through the barrier that blocks the normal streets from the racetrack. Mazzy can feel the engine roar and the ground shake with every racecar that must be crashing that very second. It makes her stomach twist and turn. She wonders if her dad is crashing right this very moment.

"Give me the case," Pepper says, reaching over Mazzy.

"Here. Take it."

"Where's the key?!"

"It's in my pocket."

"Car!" Mazzy shouts, shrieking in fear as Happy quickly swerves to the right.

"Oh, my God! Oh, my God!" Pepper shouts over and over again.

They skid around a curve and that's when Mazzy can finally see the flames. There are several cars split in half, and even more crushed and on fire. Her heart leaps up into her throat when she spots her dad's car, lit up in flames with the electric man walking straight towards it. Then she spots her dad. He's alive. Alive. He is alive.

"Daddy!" Mazzy shrieks, pointing him out to both Pepper and Happy.

Happy slams his foot down onto the gas and Pepper squeezes Mazzy tight up against her. The car smashes right into the fence- right into the electric man- and Tony jumps up onto the fence, just narrowly dodging the hit. The electric man falls unconscious on the hood, blood dripping from the corners of his mouth.

"Are you ok?!" Happy shouts out the window as Tony hops down from the fence.

"Yeah," Tony breathes out, stomping over to the open window. Pepper is taking very loud and heavy breaths and it keeps Mazzy's anxiety lingering. It still feels like something is wrong. Tony, however, is too preoccupied with yelling at Happy to feel the tension. "Were you heading for me or him? 'Cause I can't tell!"

"I was trying to scare him!"

Pepper pokes her head out the window. "Are you out of your mind?!" she screams, making Mazzy jump at the loudness. "Get in the car right now!"

"I was attacked!" Tony exclaims.

"Stop yelling!" Mazzy shouts, trying to look as fierce as possible with her eyebrows furrowed and her nose scrunched up.

"We need better security."

"Get in the car!" Happy yells over them.

"You're CEO! Better security measures. God, it's embarrassing!"

"Stop it!" Mazzy says, just as Tony opened the car door.

Then, the electric whip suddenly lashes out of nowhere, slicing the car door in half. Both Pepper and Mazzy shriek, pressing themselves as far away from it as possible. Pepper screams and Mazzy wishes she would just stop it, and Happy reverses, then accelerates, then reverses, then accelerates, just slamming the electric man against the fence over and over again. Tony is shouting about the case and the electric man is slinging his whips, slicing the car in half, and no one can understand each other.

All Mazzy knows is that her dad needs the Iron Man suit, so she grabs the case from the seat beside her and hurls it out the window. The case lands right at Tony's feet and it only takes a few seconds for it to unlock and build itself around his body. As soon as the suit is on, Tony shoves the car back and out of the way.

Mazzy watches with wide eyes as Tony blasts the electric man over and over again, but nothing seems to phase the man.

"What the heck is going on with this guy?!"

The man wraps the whips around Tony's neck, just in time for Tony to use them to pull himself towards the man and rip the arc reactor out of the machine. Finally, finally, finally the electric man drops back down onto the pavement, completely powerless.

Police officers rush out from behind the fences, getting the man in cuffs as fast as they possibly can. The only thing the man has to say as they drag his broken body away is, "You lose."

He laughs, spitting out a wad of blood in Tony's direction.

"You lose, Stark. You lose."