❝You're Tony Stark, y'know? Girls tripped over themselves to be with you before you became Iron Man. Now, I don't know if you noticed, but I'm not exactly popular, or hot. Girls never looked my way unless it was to copy geometry homework off me. She...
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For some reason, Nora never expected a situation like this to actually happen.
The world seemed to stop as she watched her father drop to the ground. She heard her siblings scream, and she probably did too, but it didn't register. All she could see and hear and feel was her father, the man who had taken her in and raised her, on the floor with a slowly growing pool of blood.
The rest of the party cried out in either shock or protest, but was quickly silenced by Aliya's uncontrollable sobbing. Rafe was staring at the ballroom floor, tears silently falling from his eyes. Nora felt herself flinch when the man turned to them with a look of such indifference. It made her blood boil. She ducked under the cover of the table, trying to calm her breathing so she didn't have a panic attack right then and there. She brought her knees to her chest, her fingers grabbing fists of her hair to the point where she could feel some of the bobby pins slip out of place. She had to think calmly and rationally about this. She needed to get her suit, she needed to use the beacon, she needed Peter's help. Nora knew she was very outnumbered right now. There were about six assailants, all the waiters, and she knew they were armed and very dangerous. She couldn't do this alone.
Feeling her breath even out somewhat(although she believes it never will after what she just witnessed), she reached out to tug Rafe down to her. "You need to get my bag."
He wasn't registering her, just kept looking out at the floor, shaking violently. "Rafe!" she whispered, grabbing his face and forcing him to look at her. "Please, you need to use the beacon to call Peter, or use my phone, I don't care, just contact him." he nodded, seemingly back in the room, a dark glint in his eyes that meant he was focused. "Keep Aliya safe, I need to get to my suit."
As she made a move to begin her trek to the coat closet, Nora felt her brother grab her wrist. She turned back, about to question why he had done so, but with one look in his eyes and she knew. He was telling her to come back. And she would, she would for him, for Aliya and for their dad. "Make them pay." he said, viciously serious.
Oh, she would.
Right now would begin the hardest few minutes of her life. She needed to get to the coat closest undetected, and that would mean crawling through the masses of scared people who were trying to shy away from the people who held them at gun point. Nora knew to kick off her heels, in case she needed to make a quick escape. Swallowing hard, she got on her hands and knees, focused on getting to her suit.
One of the henchmen walked over to her father, examining him. Nora froze, pressing her finger to her lips to shush the elderly couple in front of her. They nodded, making Nora notice the cut on the woman's forehead. The young Latina reached her hand out slowly, brushing her fingers against the cut. The blood seeped back into the ladies skin, the cut sealing up as if it had never been there. The woman gasped slightly at the warmth that spread through her body, smiling at her kindness. Nora nodded in recognition before hearing the waiter tell the man from the lab. "He's still breathing."
