Ironman 3 (Charlotte Stark)

Ch. 3 Happy

Later that night, we got a call from the hospital. They were letting us know that Happy was there and he was unconscious. Not knowing how stable he was, Tony and I immediately left the house, arriving at the hospital a long thirty minutes later. We sit in the room with him for hours, finally realizing his condition hasn't changed and we need to get home.

"Hi." I say to the nurse.

"Oh." She says, startled to see me.

"Uh...mind leaving that on?" Tony asks, referring to the TV.

"Sure." She says and then Tony rises from his seat.

"Sunday night's PBS 'Downtown Abbey'. That's his show, he thinks it's elegant." He pauses for a moment. "One more thing...make sure everyone wears their badges. He's a stickler for that sort of thing, plus my guys won't let anyone in without them." Tony and I turn to leave.

News reporters are all waiting for us outside the hospital. "We're awaiting the arrival of Tony and Charlotte Stark. We're hoping they'll give us the reaction...their reaction to the latest attack." We walk out and all the reporters swarm towards us. "Mr. Stark! Miss Stark! Our sources are telling us that this is another Mandarin attack. Anything else you can tell us?" We ignore the questions and walks towards the car.

"Hey, Starks! When is somebody gonna kill this guy? Just sayin'." We turn to face the reporter.

"Is that what you want? Here's a little Holiday greeting we've been wanting to send to the Mandarin. Just didn't know how to phrase it until now. My name is Charlotte Stark," And then I gesture towards Tony. "And this is my brother, Tony and we're not afraid of you. I know you're a coward, so I've decided that you just died, pal. I'm gonna come get the body."

"There's no politics here; it's just good old-fashioned revenge. There's no Pentagon; it's just you and us. And on the off-chance you're a man, here's our home address: 10880, Malibu Port, 90265. I'll leave the door unlocked." Then he takes the camera one of the reporters was holding and breaks it. "Bill me."

We then get in the car and I just stare at him.

"What?" He asks.

"You publicly released our home address?!" I exclaim.

"I got caught up in the moment. And believe me, it will be fine. He won't even show up."

"You're an idiot." I mutter out and stay silent the whole drive back. When we arrive home, Tony and I go to the lab.

"I've compiled a Mandarin database for you, sir. Drawn from S.H.I.E.L.D., F.B.I., and C.I.A. intercepts. Initiating virtual crime scene reconstruction." JARVIS informs us and we search through all the gathered data.

"Okay, what do we got here? His name is an ancient Chinese war mantle, meaning "adviser to the King". South American insurgency tactics, talks like a Baptist preacher. There's lots of pageantry going on here...lots of theater." Tony pushes the virtual information down to close. "Close." We look at the virtual crime scene reconstruction.

"The heat from the blast was in excess of 3000 degrees Celsius. Any subjects within 12.5 yards were vaporized instantly."

"No bomb parts found in a three mile radius of the Chinese theater?" I ask the AI as Tony and I walk through the hologram crime scene.

"No, Ma'am."

"Talk to me, Happy." Tony mutters. In the virtual reconstruction, we see Happy pointing his finger at some dog tags. "When is a bomb not a bomb?" Tony picks up the virtual image of the dog tags to investigate them further. "Any military victims?"

"Not according to public records, sir."

"Then where did the dog tags come from?" I ask, trying to piece everything together.

"Bring up the thermogenic signatures again, factor in three thousand degrees." Tony asks JARVIS.

"The oracle cloud has completed analysis. Accessing satellites and plotting the last twelve months of thermogenic occurrence now."

"Take away everywhere that there's been a Mandarin attack." We look at the information popping up. "Nope." Tony sees an attack in Rose Hill, Tennessee. "That. You sure that's not one of his?"

"It predates any known Mandarin attack. The incident was the use of a bomb to assist a suicide."

"Bring it around." I ask.

"The heat signature is remarkably similar. Three thousand degrees Celsius." Tony and I look at all the information being presented on the Tennessee attack.

"That's two military guys. Ever been to Tennessee, Char or Jarvis?" Tony asks us. I give him a smirk.

"Creating a flight plan for Tennessee."

As we are about to get ready to leave for Tennessee, we bear the door bell ring.