Heroes Are Made | A Tony Stark series (fan fiction)

Caught Red Paw-ed

Monroe's pov

I know you're out there. I can feel you...

I stood over the destruction and gazed at the night sky. Before the authorities came, I had to shift back into plain old' Jess. It had been hours since I've heard from Tony. I closed my eyes as the cool breeze blew across my face. I pushed back a few hair strands behind my ear and looked around at the cleanup crew. Firefighters and medics all around, but no Tony. A muffled beeping caught my attention. My senses were heightened and will stay that way until he is found. I looked over at where the noise was coming from and found one of the helmets from Tony's suits on the ground. Inside, there was a red blinking light. The helmet adjusted itself to me once I put it on.

"Stark secure server. Retinal scan verified."

He added me in. When did he- "Jess, it's me. I've got a lot of apologies to make and not a lot of time so... First off, I'm so sorry I put you in harm's way that was selfish and stupid. It won't happen again." I smiled at the sound of his voice. I listened to the rest of his message and then placed the helmet back. It was damaged goods. I called for the woman and got in my car. Luckily, it was still intact. We drove around looking for a place to stay for the meantime.

"Why were you at the house tonight? What was so important that you had to speak to Tony?" I began to interrogate.

"So we're not gonna talk about the fact that you turned into a giant dog?"

"Okay look, you're not my friend. I know you're hiding something and I don't know how, but you've locked me out of your head. You've only seen half of what I'm capable of, so I suggest you start talking before I tear you apart. Let's start with the fact that you're not a botanist." I'm tired of waiting for answers, Tony is out in the middle of who knows where and she knows something about it.

"I'm a biological DNA coder running a team of forty out of a privately funded think tank. I didn't know if I could trust you, and knowing about what you do, I prepared myself and locked up my thoughts. I think that my boss is working for the Mandarin. So, if you still want to talk about it I suggest we get ourselves someplace safe."

"Your boss, does he have a name?"

"Aldrich Killian." I looked over at her with furrowed eyebrows. "I'm Maya by the way, in case you wanted to know mine too." I exited the freeway and headed for one of the inns nearby. Luckily I've had my experience with running and hiding, so finding a place to stay wasn't too hard. I'll admit it's a little more luxurious than I'd go for, but it'll have to do. Right as I shut off the engine, a sense of panic washed over me. My chest tightened as I began to hyperventilate. "Are you okay?!"

I shut my eyes and laid my head back. I took in deep breaths in an attempt to calm down. "I'm... fine," I let out after catching my breath.

Once we were in our room, I sat on the bed waiting for an explanation. She opened up quite a bit. Little did I know, she had so much going on.

"So, what happened?"

"Fun fact, before he built rockets for the Nazis, idealistic Wernher von Braun dreamed of space travel. Star gazed. Do you know what he said when the first v2 hit London? The rocket performed perfectly, just landed on the wrong planet. See, we all begin wide-eyed, pure science. And then and ego steps in. Obsession. You look up, you're a long way from shore."

"You can't be too hard on yourself, Maya. You gave your research to a think tank," I felt sympathy for her.

"Yeah, but Killian built that think tank on a military contract."

"That's exactly what we used to do. So don't judge yourself."

"Thank you. I really appreciate that."