Briana Stark

I was laying on the couch, working on my homework that was due. I tried to ignore the flying helicopters that were outside the house and did my best to focus on my homework, knocks on the door then interrupted my process and I groaned as I  placed my pencil down on top of my homework and stood up, walking towards the glass front doors.

I'm never gonna finish my homework in time.

I stopped walking when I saw a woman with brown hair and a black purse standing at the front door. I raised an eyebrow while trying to figure out who the heck she was and why she was even here. The door then opened and she stepped in, as a scanner scanned her. I stared at her before I rolled my eyes and made my way towards the couch again—just wanting to finish my homework on time and get it out of the way.

"Right there's fine," I looked behind me to see dad in one of his suits holding a finger towards the woman who stopped walking to look at him.

"You're not the Mandarian," his face mask opens up, "Are you? Are you?"

The woman chuckles, "You don't remember. Why am I not surprised?"

Uh...am I missing something?

"Don't take it personally. I don't remember what I had for breakfast," dad said.

"Gluten-free waffles, sir," Jarvis and C.A.S.S said at the same time.

"That's right,"

"Okay, look, I need to be alone with you, someplace not here," the woman said. "It's urgent,"

Dad stared at her before turning around and walking off, "Normally I'd go for that sort of thing, but now I have a kid and I'm in a committed relationship, it's..."

Three bags—mine, his, and mom's bags then land on the ground next to dad.

"With her," he finished.

"Tony?" Mom's voice called out, dad's suit opens up and dad steps out. "Is somebody there?"

"Yeah, it's Maya Hansen. Old botanist pal that I used to know, barely," dad said.

Barely, as in one of his ex-girlfriends, of course.

I watch as mom goes over to dad and Maya, "I'm sorry, with Happy in the hospital. I didn't know we were expecting guests."

"We weren't," dad said.

"And old girlfriends," mom said.

"She's not, really,"

"No, not really." Maya agreed with a shrug. "It was just one night,"

Ew! I don't need to know the details.

Mom turned to Maya, after looking at dad, "You saved yourself a world of pain,"

Dad turned to her, "Whay?"

"I'm sure," Maya agreed.

I secretly glared at her.

I hate her.

"Trust me," mom said before turning back to dad. "We're going out of town. You, me, Briana. We're leaving,"

"Okay," dad interrupted. "We've been through this, Nope,"

"Yep!" Mom said.

"The man says no,"

"Immediately and indefinitely," mom gave a firm nod.

"Honey," dad tried.

"Great idea. Let's go," Maya said.

"I'm sorry, that's a terrible idea," he quickly pointed as Maya tried to pick up the bags mom packed for the three of us apparently. "Please don't touch the girls' bags,"

"This is how normal people behave,"

Who say that us Starks are normal?

"I can't protect you two out there!" Dad said.

"Is, is that normal?"

We looked to where Maya was pointing. The huge bunny dad got for me was standing in the stairwell.

"Sadly, yes, that is very normal," mom said.

"It's a big bunny! Relax about it!" Dad snapped at Maya.

"Calm down," mom said.

"I got this for you!"

"I'm aware of that,"

"You still haven't even told me you liked it,"

"I don't like it!"

"I asked you three, Ah, you don't like it!"

"Tony, we are leaving the house," mom said.

"Guys?" Maya questioned in the background.

"That's not even up for discussion," mom said.

"I said no," dad said.

"Can we, um,"

"What?" Dad asked Maya.

Maya struggled for words as she pointed to the screen, "Do we need to worry about that?"

I saw a very familiar house being displayed on a live news network. I mean, dad gave the entire world our address, so reporters would be circling us, of course. But what caught my attention was a glowing object with a smoke tail burning towards the white mansion on the cliff. Dad, mom, and Maya whirled around to face the glass windows to see the missile slicing straight towards us.

Here we are.

Now you see how my father's mistake led to him creating a villain.

The missile dives into the cement of the mansion and explodes. Our terrance is blown apart and its flooring is blown towards us, carrying a wave of fire in its wake. All of us are thrown off of our feet and flown back. I hit the wall then fell to the ground, pain runs through my body and head like crazy.

Aliens came straight down from the portal.

I blasted every one of them, each one of them tremble and fell to the ground.

The red and gold suit heads for the portal with a nuke on its back.

"Daddy! No!"

"Daddy!" My scared voice yells.

Light explodes in the darkness, and my father is gone.

The red and gold suit falls from the sky.

I groaned in pain as I pushed myself off the ground, I stumble backwards and the wall catches me. I held onto the wall for balance. Smoke hovers around me like a thick cloud and I look around my home, or at least, what's left of it. I try to step forward but my wobbly legs lose balance and I use the wall to hold myself. I hear footsteps and I look to see dad, he cups my face gently in his hands.

"Listen to me, munchkin. Head for the front door and get out. We'll be right behind you, go," he kisses my forehead and lightly pushes me towards the front door before going off to help mom and Maya.

As much as I would love to run downstairs and grab my suit to help out (which there is no point in cause I'm pretty sure that my suits got destroyed during the explosion), I head for the front door and got out of the mansion. Another explosion catches my attention and I whirl around to face what's left of my home. I start to head for the door again, to run inside the house to help my parents, but before I could, the door gets blocked from the inside so I have no way of opening it.

The only thing I can do now is wait.

My mind becomes full with thoughts as everything gets blocked out and I'm just standing there, staring at what's left of my home. I didn't even notice that mom and Maya made it out with my mind thinking.

Come on, dad.

Get out.

Please.

But he never comes. And soon, the mansion drops into the ocean with no sight of my father.

———

I stand at the edge of what's left of my house, the tears filled my eyes at the thought of never seeing my father. I'll never get to do anything with him. I'll never get to do any father-daughter things with him anymore, no more father-daughter dances. All those memories with him, I'll never forget them.

I looked down at my hands to see a scratched up Iron Man helmet. I gently held it up and placed it against my forehead, pretending he was still in there. I then heard a faint beeping coming from it and looked inside the helmet to see something beeping red. I clicked on it and placed it on, just as it started powering up.

"Pepper, it's me,"

I gasped and smiled big. "Dad?"

"I've got a lot of apologies to make and not a lot of time. So...first off, I'm so sorry I put you and Briana in harm's way. That was selfish and stupid and it won't happen again."

Yeah, it would.

"Also, it's Christmas time and the rabbit's too big. Done. Sorry. And I'm sorry in advance because I can't come home yet. I need to find this guy. You and Briana gotta stay safe, that's all I know. I just stole a poncho from a wooden Indian,"

The call ends and I take off the mask. I rush off to find mom and show her the message.

———

"Why were you at the house tonight? What was so important that you had to speak to Tony?" Mom asked as she drove her car, Maya sat in the passenger seat next to her. I laid down in the back seat, pretending to be asleep while I eavesdropped in on their conversation.

"I think that my boss is working for the Mandarin," Maya states. "So, if you still want to talk about it, I suggest that we get to ourselves someplace safe,"

"Your boss works for the Mandarin, you think? But Tony says you're a botanist. So..." mom says.

Uh, dad never talks about his ex-girlfriends. Heck, he never allowed me to meet them. This is probably why.

"That figures. What I actually am is a biological DNA coder running a team of 40 out of a privately funded think tank. But sure, you can call me a botanist," Maya said.

"This boss of yours, does he have a name?" Mom asked.

"Yeah, Aldrich Killian,"

I peeked at mom and saw that her eyes widen in fear, making me frown a bit in confusion. I got one question.

Who the heck is Aldrich Killian?

Iron Man 3 belongs to Marvel

Briana belongs to me