Starks Kid (P.Parker FF)

Volume #1

An 8 yr old AJ sat underneath her father's workbench reading his blueprints for the new Jericho missile that he was building and soon presented to the US Army. Her dad was currently away at the main warehouse of Stark Industries with her "Uncle" Obadiah. Quotation marks around "Uncle" because for as long as she had known him, something in her little 8 yr old brain would tell her otherwise, as she described to Happy during a car ride to school one day, her "Obadiah Ick". 

It was easy to say that AJ's stroke of genius was definitely passed down from her father as her ability to comprehend things way above her age was greatly acknowledged by her teachers and the photographic memory she developed from constantly studying her dad's plans coupled with the weird heightened senses she has had since she was born was no joke. 

Tony and Pepper found out about her weird little quirks when as a kid, AJ would say she could hear a car soon approaching the driveway from yards away, or when heading to the beach she could smell the freshly popped popcorn from the parking lot all the way to the boardwalk which wasn't for another couple blocks. Whenever she was barefoot outside she would even feel the rumbling of someone's footsteps approaching or the vibrations of Happy's boisterous laugh. 

Things like this would continue throughout the years, it would eventually lead to Tony getting her tested when she was 3 yrs and to everyone's avail, nothing was wrong with his kid. 

She was as healthy as she could be, she wasn't on the spectrum, wasn't dropped on the head as a kid, and wasn't suffering from any fetal alcohol poisoning from her mother or any drug-inducing disabilities. No cancers or chronic irregularities, she was just a kid who was born with some weird aptitude for heightened senses. A miracle if you will. The only diagnosable thing with her was asthma. Which, as most children had, was a common trait in kids adolescent years.

And because of these nuances, AJ tended to stray away from social groups at school. The reason why she was hiding under a workbench was that she was running away from Pepper to take her to school. She went to a private school that was unbearable. The lessons were a mockery of her intelligence, the things she learned in the workshop with her dad had been teaching her enough. Not to mention, her sarcastic and quick-witted remarks tended to make her peers avoid her. 

AJ could still hear Pepper's shouts to hurry up and get to the car, she looked up to the clock on the wall and noticed she was already an hour late, not to mention that she wasn't even dressed. 

She was still Asian squatted under the bench munching on a chocolate bar studying the manual in front of her and using a bright red pen on the manual to make little adjustments or recommendations which she knew her dad would try later on. Sometimes they worked and sometimes they did, trial and error. 

"AJ! We have to go! We are almost 2 hours late and I know your dad won't appreciate another parent-teacher conference" Pepper speaks through the glass that leads to the workshop garage, she inputs her code and enters, she bends down under the table to see an uninterested girl who still continued to munch on her chocolate bar flipping through the pages. 

"Hey Pepper, 'bout time you showed up," AJ said, "C'mon missy, time to get to class, and what happened to your uniform?" AJ huffed and crumpled up the wrapper then stood up and walked out from the underside and threw her trash away before hoping on top of the countertops and grabbing the folder from the top shelf to put the manual back "I think my friend Lucas wanted to try it on for today...and maybe the next few weeks"

"Lucas? you mean imaginary friend Lucas" Pepper crossed her arms, one of her eyebrows 

She hopped down and sat down on the stool with a little hop "You know your dad is going to be upset with you, he pays good money for you to go to that school and it's good for you. You need education in life AJ" Pepper sighs, AJ cocks an eyebrow at Pepper and makes an unreadable expression towards her "Really... I need the education" Pepper rubs her temples in frustration. She forgets that the kid was raised by a genius.

"AJ you know what I mean, what would your dad think if he knew his 8 yr old was skipping" 

"Nothing," AJ says picking up an iron smolder and began using it on a motherboard microchip for a new computer device "AJ seriously we need to get to school-" Pepper reached out to grab the hand holding the smolder "Jeez are you trying to get burned, Pepper?" AJ looked up at her pouting "I-" 

"What's going on here?" 

Tony walks in unraveling his tie. AJ placed the smolder down on the holding and rushed over to her dad jumping in his arms and hugging him tightly. "Hey kiddo, what's this about getting burned?" He looked over at Pepper "She almost got burned by the smolder when grabbing my hand" 

Tony sighed "Are you ok Potts?" "Yes, Tony it was stupid of me" Potts was clearly stressed and frustrated so she wasn't thinking clearly enough to realize the heated device "Its alright Pepper, but it looks like I'm not the one who needs the education huh?" AJ jokingly says smiling behind her hand, Pepper just smiles at the young girls quick retort's "Now that your Dad's here AJ, why don't you tell him about your school troubles" 

"School troubles? Are you being bullied?" 

"Me? Bullied? Half of them can't even comprehend half the sentences they try to form."

"AJ... What's going on?" 

AJ looked between Potts and her dad before sighing in defeat "I just don't like it there, simple as that. There's no bullying or anything, it's just...slow, I learn better when I am here building and actually putting what I know to use. Plus, I don't like the idea of people knowing I am your daughter, I don't like the attention" She fumbles with the strings of her hoodie as Tony sets her on her feet "No offense Dad, I love being your daughter I just..." 

"Don't like the attention that comes with it?", AJ nodded slightly pouting

This was one of the few moments where the 8 yr old, actually acts like her age. She spends so much of her interactions with adults that her maturity developed early so it was easy to forget her actual age. 

"All that attention must've been getting to you huh? Sorry love, sometimes I forget that you're still a kid" Tony pats her head slightly and makes no hesitation to call up the school to pull her daughter out. 

Luckily many of the students there were not so caught up on who her father was and would quickly forget about AJ, as for the teachers, it was their policy to not speak of any child who attended the school nor about their parents as many children from influential backgrounds attended there. 

The minute AJ heard her father's plan of homeschooling her, she never felt happier. She would finally be able to work on the technology and devices she loved. 

Later that night after dinner, AJ had just finished showering and getting ready for bed until she heard her dad calling from downstairs. 

"AJ! Come downstairs real quick" Her small footsteps echoed through the halls, entering her code on the screen she entered the garage.

"Hey Daddy, what's up?" She smiled before hopping on the stool next to him, "I saw all the changes you did. Repulsor technology huh?" he skimmed over the little marks here and there 

"Yeah, I remember reading about it in Grandpa's old files and thought it would be a good idea, you always said you wanted something that should just be fired once" Tony smiled gently at his daughter and looked over at the schematics again.

"Fired once...alright let's do this kid, tomorrow you're coming with me to the lab, you can see all the moving parts and Daddy in action. We are going to test the repulsor technology out before the presentation" 

AJ smiled excitedly at the news, she loved going down to the labs. All she wanted was to go down there and operate the tools, and tinker with the weapons.

"Really!? I get to go this time? You never let me go before unless I begged" 

"Well, since you're now technically homeschooled, I guess this is the start of lesson 1. You gotta start somewhere right kid?" 

Tony saw the same spark in AJs eyes that his father saw in him years ago, the eyes of wonder and creativity, the drive to build and create, the desire to outdo themselves and be better with their next invention.