Sunshine

Chapter 1

She looked past her rage driven parents to the front door that was ajar. The hatred burning in her mother's eyes was no stronger than the devil himself and the power of her father's words and he yelled at her face cut like knives to her heart.

Seeing no other way to escape the torment that she had endured for the past year ever since her older brother left, she ran.

She slid past her drunken parents and grabbed her coat and her school bag which was always loaded with snacks. She ran out the door trying to get as far away from her old house as she possibly could.

She ran and didn't dare look back as she heard her father's screams disappear into the night.

She passed streetlights that lit her way. She passed an old café where her and her older brother used to go to get away from their parents when they had too much to drink. She passed her old dance studio where she had met her best friend that had left for Japan to live with her grandparents.

She passed each and every memory, some bad, some good.

She slowed her pace praying that her parents didn't try to follow her and turned to look back seeing no one following her.

She relaxed and slowed her pace to a walk.

There was a small shelter where a lot of the teenage runaways stay. It was almost like a new and better family for everyone there.

She had been there a few times before trying to see if her brother had been there and she made quite a few friends along the way.

She approached a rundown abandoned building that had window that were smashed in and garbage all around the exterior.

She knocked on the door which swung open with a screech.

Jordyn's POV

"Who's th-" It was Teddy. He was a tall and strong build man. "Oh hey, Sneakers." He said in his thick Brooklyn accent.

"Hey Teddy, Could I stay here tonight?" I asked as he let me in. Inside was basically what you would expect for the inside of a rundown building to look like.

"Ya," He pulled me over to the side. "Did something happen a home?" This is why we call him Teddy; he may look big and scary but he's just a soft teddy bear.

"Nothing out of the ordinary, I'm just tired of my parents always being drunk." He understood and showed me over to the girl's level of the building which was pretty high up, where I meet up Taya aka Wracker.

"Sneakers, what's up?" I look up to see Wracker sitting around a large fire that is right above a giant hole through the roof and other floors.

"Hey Wracker," I dropped my bag against a cement pillar that was a little ways from the fire.

"You stay'in her now?" She asked while pulling out a tin foil wrapped dinner from the fire.

"Ya," I put on my jacket and approached the fire.

"You're too young to be live'n in the streets." She told me as she began opening her meal which was just a hot dog and steamed carrots.

"I had to grow up real fast when my brother went missing." She was right though I was only ten and I was already in the streets.

"Did you see the metal man or whatever they call him, flying around the other day?" She asked chowing down on her food.

"Ya on my way to school." I said pulling a granola bar from my pocket and opening the wrapper.

"Soon science will find a way to create "special" people and they'll destroy us all." She said in a hateful tone that made me flinch. "Oh, sorry Sneakers, I didn't mean to scare you."

"It's ok, I'm gonna go sleep, see you in the morning." I walked back over to my backpack and curled up under my jacket and slipped into a peaceful sleep.

I woke up to a loud 'BANG!!!' followed by screams.

I frantically opened my eyes to see men with their faces covered entering our level through the stairs with large guns drawn shooting anything that moved.

I didn't dare move but let my jacket cover myself completely.

"Collect the bodies." A man said. I wanted desperately to look up and see what he meant but I knew it wouldn't be smart.

"What are you doing?" I recognized that voice. It's Wracker. But why is she moving? She'll die.

"You told us to come today." The man said.

"Ya but didn't you get my message last night? I told you to wait until I got rid of the girl." I could hear footsteps over to where I was laying.

I was shaking in fear as someone came up to my side not knowing if they were going to help or hurt me but suddenly the sound of a window shattering metal clanging.

"Put the weapons down." the voice sounded electronic and sounded like something was charging up.

"If it isn't the Metal man." Wracker said in a Hispanic accent which I knew was her native tongue, but she always had a Brooklyn accent.

"It's Iron Man and you've got a lot of blood on your hands, Echo. I must say it's impressive, you've hidden from law enforcement for quite some time, but I figured that it was about time that someone else stepped in and helped." He sounded overconfident.

"Well, it hasn't been easy but it's never impossible." Suddenly sirens sounded and my jacket was ripped off me. "And I should really get going." She yanked me from where I laid and put me in an arm lock with a gun at my head.

"Echo let the girl go." he said calmly.

"Umm, Nope. Boys." she dragged me towards a window over viewing one of the busiest streets in Manhattan.

I watched Iron Man shoot the other two men that were shooting at him then he turned to Wracker or Echo and me with his hand out.

"It's either me or the girl. Sorry Sneakers." I was confused by what she meant by me or her until she broke the glass window as the shards rained on my arms and threw me out the window.

I screamed so loud. I was terrified. It seemed as if the world was moving in slow motion or as if someone had hit the pause button on my life. I saw the tall buildings and all the people around the street. I saw a young woman at a coffee shop probably waiting for a friend. I saw a teenage boy walking his dog through a thick crowd.

I could see the ground coming closer and closer by the milliseconds but a pair of metal arms wrapped around me and landed me safely to the ground.

Once me feet touched the ground, I realized how fast my heart was racing. It was getting harder and harder to breath and tears were piercing my eyes, blurring my vision.

I saw the Iron Man suit open to reveal a man in t-shirt and sweatpants.

"Hey, kid I need you to stay with me, listen to the sound of my voice." He brought my hand to his chest and held it there. "Match my breathing. Ok? In and out. In and out." I focused on my breathing and tried to match his. It took me a second but eventually I calmed down to where I could focus on what was happening around me.

I looked up and saw a large group of people around me with their phones out videoing me.

'What if Mom or Dad see this?!' I thought in a panic. I launched myself towards the man who had saved me and wrapped my arms around him hoping that he could protect me from them to.

He didn't even hesitate to wrap his arms around me and pulled my head into his chest. I could still faintly hear sirens and barely see the flashing lights but none of that mattered now, I was safe.