Forevermore

Forever and a Day

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" This was the third traffic jam Tony's come across in the past 20 minutes, and due to how the street he had turned off of was positioned there was no way he could back out of this one.

With a dramatic sigh, he leaned back in his chair, pulling his sunglasses from his face. It was mid-June, the bright sun beating down on the city. The temperature wasn't bad, a bit on the hotter side of the scale, but not too bad. Though even then it would be a mistake to go outside all day without someway to protect yourself from it.

With another sigh, he grabbed his phone from the holder he had managed to put up just hours ago, knocking it down again as he did so. Rolling his eyes at it he flipped his phone open, scrolling through the mass amount of messages he would never answer.

There were only a few that he had answered, and those were from Pepper or Rhodey, while the rest were unanswered requests for interviews, press conferences, or some other stupid stuff like that.  None of it was new, none of it was interesting, and none of it helped him forget about the traffic jam before him.

Rolling his eyes, with a groan for added dramatics this time, he set it down, leaning back once more. Life had been slow lately, oddly enough. As Iron Man and a member of the Avengers, or not really an Avenger anymore, it was more of him and the rogues, life was never slow, but for some reason, it was for him. 

It was as if it was finally catching up to his age, which he noticed his body was doing as well. He was 53 and still fighting crime, which he loved to do, but in the mornings some times, it was harder for him to get out of bed than it used to be.

Before his thoughts could derail themselves further he shook his head, watching in boredom as the trail of cars before him never moved. It was ridiculous, why where there so many people out right now!? It was 2 in the afternoon, what was happening?! 

A loud, jarring sound then ruined his silence, making his heart stop. He sadly knew that sound by heart, the sound of a gunshot. He snapped his head over to the left, his eyes zeroing on a man holding a child by the throat while he had a gun in the other.

He seemed to be yelling about something, yelling at the child who was crying and trying to get out of his grip, but Tony couldn't hear it for his world had gone silent as he watched this black goo-like stuff seep from the kid's skin, moving to cover the man's hand at his throat.

He watched in wonder as the man started to freak out, everyone around him freaking out as well. The few bystanders that had stayed to watch after the gunfire started to run away, though a few stayed behind like idiots to take videos. Tony could see it now, he could see the news headline. "Mutant child turns on a random man without reason."

He's seen it before, the news putting mutants at the lowest point ever. They were new to society, and people were still trying to understand them, but many just hated them, and Tony was tired of it.

Tony opened his door quickly, managing to startle the man with the gun who fired a shot in his fright. The bullet thankfully never reached the kid, for that black goo formed a shield, absorbing the round.

The man snapped his head over to Tony who stood in defiance. He looked quite stupid as he stood there, he was without his armor, without a weapon, standing in the middle a barren street in a tailored suit with a gun possibly to be put at his head.

The man hardly even glanced at him before recognizing him, but his attention wasn't on him for long. That weird black goo from the kid was starting to move more, the kid starting to scratch at the hand holding him. 

Tony watched in wonder as the goo completely enveloped the man's wrist, cringing when a sickening crack echoed through the street. The man screamed in pain, dropping to his knees, the gun skidding away from him.