Her ankle had swollen up throughout the night. Yet, Rhiley ignored it. Tony hadn't said a single word since the party. He locked him in his lab. At least he didn't kick Rhiley out. So she watched and continued to place random water bottles throughout the room to make sure he didn't get dehydrated.
On the flatscreen TV, live war footage of refugees huddled with the words 'Breaking News Tragedy in Gulmira' has been on repeat.
"The ten-mile drive to the outskirts of Gulmira can only be described as a descent into Hell, into a modern-day Heart of Darkness. Simple farmers and herders, from peaceful villages, driven from their homes at the butt of Western rifles and the turrets of modern tanks." Rhiley kept glimpses from Tony to the TV, only to look away when images of the war she had fought in started to flash before her eyes, "Displaced from their lands, by Warlords and insurgent groups emboldened by their newfound power a power fueled by high-tech weapons easily purchased with Poppy money on the black market -- and further destabilizing a fragile region which for decades has been a tinderbox of tribal feuding and ethnic hatred-"
Tony aims the gauntlet at some light fixtures. Gives them anRT blast. They spark and fall from the ceiling.
This doesn't phase Rhiley. She had gotten used to the destruction that Tony had been causing. If she could, she would blast a hole right through this place. Right through Stark industry.
Rhiley Lucia Stark - that was her name on those weapons too.
She, herself, was a weapon.
Yet, she was alone with her dark thoughts.
"The villagers have taken shelter in whatever crude dwellings they can find. In the ruins of other razed villages, in the cold barren scrublands, or the remnants of an old Soviet smelting plant. Our translators relayed to use of one human tragedy after another. A seven-year-old boy, thin as a scarecrow, clutching yellowed photographs and holding them out to anyone who would stop, with a child's simple question: Where are my mother and father? A woman, begging for news of her husband, who'd been kidnapped by insurgents --- either forced to join their militia or to be shot without reason--"
Rhiley hadn't realized she had bent the hammer in her hand. She had crushed it with inhuman strength. She dropped it on the ground and shoved it under the desk with her foot before resting back in the swirling chair like nothing had happened.
She had been slowly gaining her strength back. Had it just been dormant a little longer than she had been?
Tony adjusts the gauntlet again, raising the power level. He blasts a window in the lab, shattering the glass and knocking a painting off the wall.
"With no political will or international pressure, there is little hope for these newly-formed refugees. Refugees who can only wonder one thing: is the world watching?"
This time, when Tony blasts the plasma TV screen, it gains a reaction out of Rhiley. But before she could scream at him, Pepper had appeared, watching. "Are you going to tell me what's going on?" She asked, looking at Tony.
"Get my house in Dubai ready." Tony doesn't look at Pepper, "I want to throw a party."
Pepper is flustered by his abrupt tone, "Yes. Mr. Stark."
Rhiley stood up and followed Pepper, the woman turned to face Rhiley, "Keep an eye on him, okay? He seems to trust you."
"He hasn't said anything to me."
"But he hasn't kicked you out." Pepper breathed, "He's self-destructive, right now."
Rhiley understood being self-destructive. Even though she couldn't feel that raw power in her veins, she knew it was there. She still had the scars from the day at the nuclear reactor, and the things she did for the people she loved. Her self-destruction.
YOU ARE READING
Radioactive | Bucky Barnes
Fanfiction"I want to go back to the time you first told me your name." Rhiley, the twin sister of Howard Stark, finds herself wrapped up with the one and only James Barnes. The next time she sees him is on her new assignment with the 107th Infantry Regiment...
