Believing In Heroes

“Would you like any desert?” I glanced up at the waitress that had stopped at my friend and I’s table. My friend’s name is Allyson, and mine is Kadin. See, she’s a beautiful blonde with stunning green eyes and a nice curvy body with D-Cup breasts, and I’m a C-Cup with black hair and dull blue/grey eyes, who does not have really curvy hips. Like seriously, how did she get all the looks?
“Yes please. Can I have the strawberry Pocky cake? What do you want, Kady?” She calls me Kady because ‘Kadin does not sound like a girl’s name!’ Le sigh. I picked up the menu and scoured the desert section before finally settling on one that I‘ve never heard of. The Picture was of a flaky pastry with blue frosting like something and silver sprinkle like other things. “I’ll take the Unmei Cake, please.”
Something flashed in her eyes, and her smile became just a little bit forced. “Of course. I’ll be right out with your food.” Well then. As I idly chatted with Ally over something trivial I wouldn’t remember the next day, the woman came back with our food. The woman handed me a corded necklace with a charm on it and said, “This comes with the cake.” I gazed down at the charm and whistled lowly. It was beautiful. I quickly slipped it on and clicked it into pace, before taking an experimental bite of the cake.
It tasted amazing, truly amazing, and it practically melted on my tongue. When I had finished it, the waitress turned to me. “Your destiny awaits. Kadin, it’s time.” I was about to ask what she meant, when suddenly everything turned black.
-And another one bites the dust. Oh why can I not conquer love? And I might have thought that we were one. Wanted to fight this war without weapons!-
I groaned lowly as I sat up from where I had awoken. I was in a subway, and it was dark and desolate. Yuck. Something blue caught my eye and I gasped as I realized what it was. It was a tail. Attached to me. My hands flew to my head to feel 2 cat like ears, but there was no fur on them. I felt where my ears used to be and only felt smooth skin.
Well… Time to scream. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” After I had calmed a little, I realized that my own skin was starting to turn back to pale human color, and my regular ears grew back. But hold on. They felt almost fake. And I’m pretty sure I just used magic. I sighed and stood, stuffing my tail into my jeans so that no one would see it, and I noticed a fluffy green beret laying on the floor. I stooped down to grab it and put it on so my ears would stay hidden, before rushing up the stairs and out of the subway.
“Oh my god.” I breathed. “I’m in Miami.” I stared in awe at a very familiar home that was right next to me. No. No, this is not Tony Stark’s Miami house. But then Anthony Stark stepped out of the door. “To Vegas!” He cried, getting into the car. Oh no. That means he’s supposed to be at the conference getting his award. I better hurry.
Slipping past all of the people in the room to stand near where that bastard Obadiah Stane sat was much easier than I expected. “Tony Stark.” I jumped as the video explaining him started. “Visionary. Genius. American Patriot. Even from an early age, the son of legendary weapons Howard Stark quickly stole the spotlight with his brilliant and unique mind.”
Yada, yada, yada. They just kept praising him, talked about Obadiah, until Colonel Rhodes started, “As liaison to Stark Industries, I’ve had the unique privilege of serving with a real patriot.” I straightened a little and sighed, ears flattening on my head from underneath my hat. “He is my friend, and he is my great mentor. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to present this year’s Apogee Award to Mr. Tony Stark!”
My eyes rolled a little when it went silent a moment, before turning and getting ready to leave for Vegas. “Tony?” Obadiah shook his and stood, going up to accept the award. “Thank you, Colonel.” Rhodey’s voice was too quiet for me to hear the response, but I believe he said in the movie, “Nice save.”
I didn’t want to hear his lies about Tony, so I left the show room and wandered the halls for a while. A slight burning from where my necklace lay caught my attention and I looked down just in time for a burst of light to blind me.
-And I wanted it, I wanted it bad! But there was so many red flags. Now another one bites the dust! Let’s be clear, I trust no one.-
“Is it better to be feared or respected?” I jumped again as Tony’s voice rang out, speaking to a group of military people and me, hidden to the side, with new clothing. I had a white tank top on, military pants, and a military jacket tied to my waist. My tail was still tucked away and my hat still lay on my head.
“I say, is it too much to ask for both?” Tony continued, and suddenly someone was beside me. “Colonel Kadin Retter?” I turned at that to see a jittery new recruit. It seems my new last name is Retter. And… am I a Colonel? “Yes?” I asked forcefully, and he looked away. “They… You are needed.” I steeled my jaw. “Can it not wait till after the Jericho missile?” He stuttered the next part, “W-well, I mean, yes, but-!”
“Then wait.” I answered, just as the missile launched. The resulting force made a large wind plume up and nearly push me over, but I just put my hand up to push my hat down onto my raven hair so that it didn’t blow away. “What do you need?” I asked the man without looking at him. “The jeeps, you need to choose. Do you want to go with Mr. Stark or Colonel Rhodes?” I immediately answered, “Anthony Stark. Was that really that important?” He shrugged uselessly and ran off.
I stayed away from the drinks when they were brought out. I got into the seat in between Tony and the other soldier, adjusting my beret. “So, are you French or…?” Tony asked. “Mhm. I’m not French, it’s just my favorite hat. I never take it off, so don’t ask.” I glanced over at the billionaire, and he laughed a little. “Oh. You’re a loner, then?” I smirked at him. “Oh, no, I’m just thinking. When I do that, I don’t like when people speak to me.” He gave me a thoughtful look, and it went silent. “I feel like you’re driving me to a court martial.” I looked over at him a moment, raising one eyebrow.
“This is crazy, what did I do? I feel like you’re going to pull over and snuff me.” He looked around to the others, then to me. “Are they not allowed to speak?” He asked. “They can talk.” I answered. Tony gave an almost pout. “Oh, I see. So it’s personal.” The airman driving the car turned her head a little. “No, you intimidate them.”
“Good god, you’re a woman. I honestly… I couldn’t have called that.” Tony said in shock, then settled in. “I mean, I’d apologize, but isn’t that what we’re going for here? I thought of you as a soldier first.” I chuckled lightly. “She’s an airman.” I answered for her. I tuned out the rest of the conversation as I thought of how I was going to keep Tony from going insane or unresponsive. I better speak with the 10 Rings.
Then the explosion. “What’s going on?!” I looked around the jeep and grit my teeth. “What have we got?” I asked. “We’ve got this, stay with Stark, Colonel!” The airman called, and I watched as the others and Jimmy beside me left the car. “Don’t worry, Stark.” I said, giving him a meaningful look. “Right…: I breathed, before there was a string of bullets cutting through the side of the jeep. “No!” He had opened the door and started running. I followed close behind and jumped over the rock along with him, watching as he took out his phone to text, before a nuke dropped beside us.
Oh no. I watched as he gazed at in horror and I screamed out for him to move before the Stark bomb exploded, shrapnel cutting through his chest and vest. I stopped, and realized it had gone silent. Raza was suddenly standing in front of me, and I stood tall. “You do know who this is, don’t you?” He looked over at Anthony. “This is Anthony Stark, the one who made your weapons. What were you payed to kill this prince? I bet it wasn’t nearly as much as he could build you.” I steeled myself as he thoughtfully looked at the genius, then called for people to take him, to care for him.
“And you, Angel of Death? What do you have to offer me?” I sneered. “Now, why would you ever think of killing me?” He grit his teeth and said something in his language to his men, before they were escorting me to wherever they were taking Tony.
I was seated in a chair on the other side of the camera where Raza was speaking to Stane. I did sign language to the disoriented Tony saying, ‘It’s alright, I’m going to get you out of here.’ He gave no indication that he understood, and fell back asleep.
-You are a brick tied to me that’s dragging me down, strike a match and I’ll burn you to the ground. We are the jack-o-lanterns in July, setting fire to the sky, he-here comes this rising tide, so come one! Put on your war paint!-
Tony slowly awoke beside me as I nursed the new gash in my side. Blegh. I had stopped the bleeding already, I just didn’t want it to get infected. As he pulled the tube out of his nose, I looked up. “Be careful. The nuke that exploded caused shrapnel to get imbedded in your chest. Now you have an electromagnet in your chest connected to a car battery to keep you from dying.” I explained, looking over to Yinsen for conformation. He nodded.
“I removed all the shrapnel I could, but there is a lot left. It’s headed to your atrial septum.” Yinsen picked up the cup filled with the shrapnel. “Here, want to see?” He shook it and it clanked on the sides. “I have a souvenir. Take a look.”
I ignored them in favor of drawing in the journal I held, rough sketches of the Iron Man Suit Mark 1. “That looks good.” Tony murmured behind me, and I looked over at him. “Oh?” He started pointing at different places and told me to change some stuff, and finally we had the Mark 1 right on my paper.
Then yelling. “Stand up!” Yinsen yelled, and Tony looked over in shock. “Come on, stand up!” I watched as Tony stood, and I straightened, but didn’t stand. “Come on, put your hands up.” Yinsen hissed and I did so. The terrorists barged in then, baring guns with Stark plastered all over them. “Th-those are my guns! How did they get my guns?” Tony asked, and Yinsen hushed him.
The man looked over at me almost expectantly, and I tightened the military jacket around my waist, putting my hands down with a smirk. The man grit his teeth and glared at me, but made no move to enforce himself, before he started speaking to Tony in his language.
“He says, “Welcome Tony Stark, the most famous mass murderer in the history of America.” I grit my teeth at that. “He’s very honored. He wants you to build the missile.” Someone shouted at Yinsen and he retried, “The Jericho missile that you demonstrated.” Someone handed him a picture. “This one.”
“I refuse.” I gasped and stood abruptly. “Tony-!”
-Cross walks and crossed hearts and hope-to-dies, silver clouds with grey linings! So we can take the world back from a heart attack. One maniac at a time we will take it back, you know time crawls on when you're waiting for the song to start! So dance alone to the beat of your heart!-
The light hurt my eyes as we stepped out of the cave, and I looked over at poor Tony with a set jaw. “He wants to know what you think.” Yinsen told him. “I think you got a lot of my weapons.” Tony answered, and Yinsen relayed this.
“Tony, they say they have everything you need to make the Jericho missile. I suggest agreeing and making something that will let us escape.” I told him lowly without looking at him. “He wants you to make a list of materials. He says for you to start working immediately and when you’re done, he will set you free.” Yinsen explained as Tony shook hands with the terrorist. “No he won’t” Tony said, giving a grim smile to the terrorist. “No he won’t.” Yinsen agreed.
When we got back into the cave and Tony was seated in front of the fire I decided to spur him on. “Tony, people are looking for you. But they are never going to find you in these mountains, and if they don’t, no one is going to be able to stop the weapons from being manufactured and killing all these people.” His eyes flashed.
“You’re life’s work is in the hands of these… monsters. Don’t go out like that, Anthony.” He scoffed. “They’re going to kill us anyway. Even if they don’t, I’m dead in a week.” I gave him a grim smile. “Then we got one helluva week ahead of us, don’t we?”

Notes