'Miss Storm! Have you had any contact with Tony Stark?!'
'Miss Storm! What can you say about the destruction of the Stark residence?!'
'Mr Storm! How did you feel when you saw your sister in the same hospital as you?!'
Johnny grabbed the reporter's microphone and burned through the foam top. Sinders fell to the floor and the reporter dropped the handle with a yelp, a spark forming into a small fire. The reporter's camera man rushed to stamp it out while Johnny caught up with Sue. He grabbed the passenger door and opened it, waiting for Sue to step in. Once she did, he got in the backseat with one last glare to the reports that surrounded the car. The wheels screeched and the car left the reporters running after it for even a lick of a news story.
'How are you?' Pepper asked as she drove. 'You still look a little beat up.'
'I'm fine...' Sue mumbled as she looked down at her hands. Scratches and scrapes scabbed over her face and she felt less weak and fatigued. But the uncertainty of Tony's whereabouts was affecting her. She knew he was alive, but what if he was hurt? What if he couldn't get back to Malibu because of his injuries? What if the suit's system malfunctioned?
'And you, Johnny?' Pepper looked in the rear-view mirror to the backseat.
'I'm dandy,' he grinned and leaned forward to speak to her. 'Thanks for the flowers. Didn't know you liked me so much.'
'They were for Sue...'
'Yeah, but I knew they were really for me.'
Pepper rolled her eyes at the playful Storm and Johnny sat back with a smirk on his face. The two were growing to like each other through all the chaos. Pepper went to the hospital a few times to visit Happy and the siblings, and she found Johnny to be charming. He was like Tony in the way of sarcasm and narcissistic comments, but he showed more of a heart to Pepper. She was sure that Tony did the same to Sue and Sue only, but Johnny had captured her with his lop-sided smirks and curly hair.
The car rolled up the long driveway and stopped at the small roundabout that once held a water feature. Once it was parked, all three of them stepped out to the barren cliffside. Nothing was left of the Stark mansion. There was rubble sitting in random places, the rest was at the bottom of the ocean. All of Tony's luxurious possessions were gone and the man himself was nowhere.
Sue walked to the edge of the cliff and looked over. The ocean was undisturbed with its depths containing sportscars and advanced technology from the house. Chunks of the cliff had been taken out from the falling debris, but everything lay intact. The land under the house was flat and bare. It hurt Sue to think of everything that happened in that house, and how it was all gone.
She met Tony for the first time in the workshop and he had thrown a screwdriver at her. He created her suit and displayed it alongside his own in the house. She saw his downfall from the invasion in New York in the workshop and was attacked by a rogue suit in the kitchen. Some memories were bad, but most were good.
Pepper and Johnny stood next to car. They gave her time to look over the damage and take a moment to breathe in the fresh air. It was upsetting for Pepper to see the house gone. She was Tony's assistant for over ten years and had been there through everything. When he promoted her to CEO of Stark Industries, she spent less and less time at the house. But she was glad that Sue was there to keep him in line at least to the point of keeping him sane. But Tony was gone, and the house was no more.
'I'm going to drive Maya Hansen home tonight,' Pepper said to Johnny while they waited. 'What could possibly have been so important that she would turn up to the house like that?'
'The world's getting crazier and crazier,' Johnny said, his eyes not leaving Sue on the edge of the cliff. 'Happy and I followed the guy who was with Aldrich Killian that day at your office. That's why we were at The Chinese Theatre.'
Pepper stood up from her leaning position on the car and turned to Johnny at the new information. No one had much of a chance to ask what really happened at the night of the explosion. It was strange that Johnny and Happy were together, and that was on top of the mystery from the unknown source of the bomb. The name of Aldrich Killian peaked Pepper's interest and she stared at the man who leaned on her car.
'What happened that night?'
'The guy we followed gave a case to the guy who blew up,' Johnny explained. 'Happy went and broke his nose, but it... healed itself? The case had these silver things in it that the guy inhaled. He blew up then and there. He turned into a human firework.'
'So, Killian has something to do with this? With The Mandarin?'
'Most likely.'
As Sue turned to leave, she stopped when she saw a hint of red through the small foliage in the concrete. She crouched down and pushed the green strands to the side, seeing one of Tony's Iron Man helmets. The paint was chipped away in some areas and the eyes on the mask stared blankly back at her. Its pilot was missing and it looked lonely on top of the cliff, hiding away until it was found by Sue Storm.
She ran her thumb over the pale gold forehead and turned the helmet around in her hands. A red light beeped on the circuit board inside and she pinched her eyebrows together in confusion.
Taking a chance, she lifted the helmet and carefully placed it over her head. She had never thought to try on one of Tony's suits despite his encouragement. He pushed her to try on a suit he made that was shorter than the others, meaning it would fit someone of her height. But she declined, not liking the idea of being fully enclosed in a suit made of titanium-alloy.
JARVIS powered up once the helmet was over Sue's head. She looked at the screen that Tony would usually see and saw the ocean outside. However, a blue square sat over her eye as it scanned it's pattern and loaded her identity into JARVIS's system. Words typed on the screen and Sue didn't have the concentration to look at anything closely.
'Stark Secure Server. Retinal scan: Verified,' a computerised voice sounded before a click was heard.
'Sue, it's me,' Tony's voice started, and Sue gasped. '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 and it won't happen again...'
The relief that washed over Sue was blissful. She listened to the message that echoed throughout the helmet and hung onto every word. He said about sending flowers and she was disappointed when another click was heard, and Tony's voice stopped. She took the helmet off and pushed back the hair that fell into her face.
'What is she doing?' Johnny asked as he saw Sue pull the helmet on and off.
'I'm not sure...'
'Tony's alive! He's going after The Mandarin!' Sue ran over with the helmet in her hands. Her smile was large, and Pepper returned one, relieved to be reassured that her close friend was safe and alive.
'You got all that from putting on a smelly, old helmet?' Johnny raised an eyebrow and Pepper sent him a disapproving look.
'He left a message. I don't know how, but he did,' Sue was ecstatic. 'I have to find where he is. He can't go after him alone.'
'Woah, there,' Johnny took hold of Sue's forearms. 'I know you're eager, but you just got out of the hospital.'
'I'm seeing Maya Hansen tonight,' Pepper spoke up and put her hand on Sue's shoulder. 'I'm going to find out why she was at the house. She has something to do with this.'
'I'll come with you,' Johnny said, and the women raised their eyebrows. 'What? I'm a part of this too, you know.'
---
Pepper drove her car with Maya Hansen in the passenger seat, and Johnny in the back. They drove along the coast to the address Maya had given. Maya spent the drive glancing over her shoulder to Johnny, who sat with his arms crossed in the middle of the back seat. His legs sat wide a part and he stared at the woman who turned up and nearly got Tony, Sue and Pepper killed. It was strange that Maya knocked on the door saying she was eager to speak to Tony alone, before a missile hit the house and destroyed all of Tony's possessions. Johnny didn't trust her and he didn't care if she knew that.
'Does he... does he have to come?' Maya said in a quiet voice to Pepper. She pointed a finger over her shoulder and Johnny hardened his glare.
'Do I make you nervous?' Johnny smirked and Pepper sent him a look through the rear-view mirror.
Maya saw that she wasn't going to have her way and sighed. Pepper and Johnny waited for the woman to explain herself. The confirmation that Tony was alive and going after The Mandarin left them to do their part, Sue included. With Happy in the hospital and Tony displaced, the three would have to follow any leads they had.
'I think that my boss is working for The Mandarin,' Maya sighed. 'So, if you still want to talk about it, I suggest that we get ourselves someplace safe.'
'Your boss works for The Mandarin, you think?!' Pepper cried in disbelief. 'But Tony says you're a botanist.'
'That figures. What I actually am is a biological DNA coder running a team of forty out of a privately funded think tank, but sure, you can call me a botanist.'
'Who's your boss?' Johnny leaned forward.
'Aldrich Killian.'
'Oh, for fuck's sake.'