•Night Angel•

CHAPTER XLVIII - STARK-DUMONT SIBLINGS

July 2008. 20:00. Malibu, Los Angeles, CA.

Tony's POV.

I was sitting down at the workshop. Looking at some final details after a successful yet painful try out test of the suit.

It has been a week since Michael came to see Star and they talked. Apparently he and my little sister were done now. Good. I trusted that man with my sister and he ended up betraying her. It doesn't matter that he betrayed me, I was kinda used to people doing that, but like I said before, my sister was untouchable.

When we came home after half a day out, I came to find Star sprawled over the couch in the living room, sobbing and crying. I made my way quietly over her, but stopped. I didn't want to push her or something, and when I was about to leave, she called my name, asking me to not leave her alone.

We stood there, I held her in my arms all day. She didn't want to eat, she didn't want to do much, she slept almost all day, she just woke up to go for a run in the morning and came back. She only took a couple of hours a day to come visit and help me in the work-shop.

I wanted to kill the guy and their boss. Apparently he had asked my ex-brother-in-law to spy on us and he obeyed. Idiot. I really wanted to kill him. Or maybe just injure him badly. Both would be nice.

I wanted to kill him so badly and so did Happy. But apparently going after someone with a baseball bat, a car, a few not-so-safe electronic devices that could gravely injure a person and a hammer, was not the right thing to do. According to Star, it was not "morally correct". Happy and I on the other side, tho, thought it was a fantastic idea.

I tried to get my mind off of things that just made me angry, like Michael Sinclair. I busied myself working and fixing little things from the suit and I let Jarvis do the necessary adjustments to it.

It was not late at night and I was waiting for Star to come and help me with a few things.

-Hull pressurisation is problematic. I'm thinking icing is the probable factor.- I said to Jarvis as he took notes of the things I wanted to fix.

-A very astute observation sir.- The A.I responded. For a moment there I thought he was being sarcastic. -Perhaps if you intend to visit other planets we should improve the exosystems.- Jarvis said to me and for a moment I considered it to be a great idea.

-Connect to the sys.co. Have it reconfigure the shell metals. Use the gold titanium alloy from the seraphim tactical satellite. That should ensure a fuselage integrity while maintaining power-to-weight ratio. Got it?.- I said as I sipped my green juice.

Now, the truth is I hated this thing. Not my favourite definitely, but Star drinks it and she kinda talked me into it. Now, I tolerate it. It has grown on me. She says I need to drink it in the morning, but I felt like now was a good time to do it.

I was in my own thoughts when all of a sudden, the T.V caught my attention.

"Where Tony Stark's third annual benefit for the Firefighter's Family Fund has become the place to be for L.A's high society."

-Jarvis, we get an invite for that?.- I asked my A.I as I watched or more like kind of paid attention to the news.

-I have no record of an invitation, sir.- Jarvis responded and I started thinking.

As I was analyzing my mask, an idea popped into my head. I'm sure this is a great idea. But I needed a companion for this. I was still deep in thought and playing with the mask when something the reporter said caught my eye. And my ear.

"Hasn't been seen in public since his bizarre and highly controversial press conference. Some claim he is suffering from posttraumatic stress and has been bedriden for weeks. Whatever the case may be, no one expects an appearance from him tonight."