Chapter Five
February 15th, 2010
“I am Iron Man.”
Sara stared at the TV screen, her hands clenched into fists as she watched the same news footage for the hundredth time. Aniruddh Stark, speaking at a press conference after his return from Afghanistan, looked thinner and somehow harder and more vulnerable than she remembered.
You could see flames in her palms flickering, but she immediately extinguished them. After two years of training, her powers and control became second nature, but her emotions made them go a bit cooky. And after seeing Tony – her mentor, her “uncle,” the man who’d indirectly helped her understand her abilities – declare himself a superhero? She couldn’t not be emotional after that.
“Sara, chinna, your pappu is getting cold,” Sandhya calls from the kitchen. They’d developed new routines in the past months: online school in the mornings, pyrokinesis training in the afternoons (with Master Chen, a martial arts instructor Tony had vetted before… whatever had happened), and evenings spent trying to be a normal family.
Well, it wasn’t so normal. Not since Tony disappeared for three months.
Sara sat down with her plate, warming it with a bit of convection using her powers. “Amma,” she starts, and then stops talking. Nobody in the family liked talking about the kidnapping, about the weeks of uncertainty when they couldn’t show their fear publicly. That would be quite suspicious.
“I know, bangaaram,” Sandhya says softly, sitting beside her eleven-year-old daughter. “Everything is different now.”
“Do you still think he’ll…” she trails off, watching the Iron Man footage on the screen from the news.
“Yeah, he’ll still be here for you,” her mother reassures her, though something flickered in her eyes. “He’s just… protecting people in a different way now.”
“Like I could,” Sara mutters, then catches herself as she notices her mom’s eyes sharpen.
“Saranika,” Sandhya scolds, voice stern. “We’ve talked about this so many times.”
“I know, I know. Secret identity, secret powers, secret everything. Even keeping it a secret from Anna, Akka, and my best friends.” Sara couldn’t help but sound bitter. “But he’s out there being a hero, Amma. And I have powers too!”
Sandhya sighs. “You’re eleven, Kuvi. And your powers aren’t for showing off – they’re a responsibility, like what Aang had.”
Before Sara could argue anymore, the front door opened. “Who’s showing off what?” Arun questions, stepping inside with a ton of grocery bags. Behind him, Harsha and Sesha followed with more bags, both tired after their robotics meet and startup demo presentation.
“Sara’s science fair project,” Sandhya smoothly lies. “She wants to enter it into the state competition.”
“Is that so, Vira?” Arun beams and Sara feels the familiar twist of guilt in her stomach. She hated lying to him, to her siblings. But she was getting better at it; it seemed like she was getting better at controlling her flames.
Later that night, after dinner, homework, and pretending everything was normal, Sara sat cross-legged on her bed, practicing the breathing exercises Master Chen had taught her. A small flame on a scented candle by her nightstand responded to her breath – in and out, grow and shrink (the candle is usually set on her desk).
Her phone – an iPhone 3GS, the latest iPhone; her mom had it for her when she was getting it for her siblings as she would obviously be a tiny bit lonely as someone doing online school – buzzed, but the flame was still responding to Sara’s control.
1 new message: Tony Uncle
Lab day tomorrow? I got some upgrades to the training room to show you.
Sara smiles, typing back quickly:
will there be robots?
Tony Uncle: When do I not have robots?
Tony Uncle: Bring your homework – your dad mentioned you have a physics test soon.
Right. Sara’s online school program – one of the most prestigious ones, designed for prodigies – had her put in the engineering curriculum so that she’d be taking extra physics, engineering, and math courses along with her usual core.
Her smile fades a bit as she remembers. Tony wasn’t just her mentor in her pyrokinesis or engineering anymore. Now, he was Iron Man, saving the world with technology and courage. While she was still here, hiding who she was, practicing in secret.
see you tomorrow!
She presses send on that message and returns to her breathing exercises, seeing the flame in the candle expand and contract.
And then, a knock on her door interrupts her concentration.
“Yeah!” Sara calls out, blowing the candle in a normal way.
Harsha opens the door and walks in with Sesha on his tail. “ Chaaru , we got boba on the way back home – here’s your thai tea.” he says, handing the cup to his younger sister.
The girl rolls her eyes at the nickname. Chaaru is a South Indian soup-like mixture, and it sounds like Saaru, which is derived from Sara, but she thinks it’s weird. “Oh, thanks.” Her siblings are already sitting on her bead, Sesha immediately lying down while Harsha leans against the wall.
“How was our science genuis’s day?” Sesha teases. “Did you build any killer robots?”
“Akka, you really think Tony Uncle would let me build killer robots?” Sara asks, scoffing. “Just normal ones. Though I did program one to follow Anna around playing the Baby Shark song on repeat.”
Harsha groans. “That was you? Sara, I had that stuck in my head during the entire robotics presentation!”
“You’re the one who called me a nerd this morning. Do I look like I have big glasses and a tooth sticking out my mouth?” She knows that stereotype isn’t accurate, but she wanted to bring it up anyway.
“Girl, you are a nerd. Who takes physics at eleven?” Sesha questions, pointing at the textbook on her sister’s desk.
“At least I’m not taking AP Physics yet. You look like you’re dying every day, Akka, and you’re always saying you don’t need that class.” Sara gestures at Sesha’s dark circles. “Plus, you literally played at Carnegie Hall last month.”
“Oh yeah, speaking of,” Harsha interjects. “are you coming to her next concert? I think it’s the same day as your thing with Tony Uncle, but maybe you could ask him to move it?”
That’s next weekend. She has her fire control class and engineering work with Tony.
Sara freezes slightly, sipping from her boba cup. “Uh, I’ll try. The lab stuff is kinda important, I think.”
“More important than your sister, a professional pianist?” Sesha pouts exaggeratedly, but Sara could kinda hear her feeling hurt underneath.
“Sesha, you’re far from being a professional.” Harsha comments under his breath, earning a punch on the side from his twin. “Ow!”
“No, it’s not that, Akka, it’s just…” Sara fumbles, trying to find the right words to cover herself up. “It’s complicated – the experiments have to be done at a specific time and…”
“Chill, Sara, we’re just kidding,” Harsha saves her – noticing the tears coming out of her eyes – though he exchanges a look with Sesha that Sara pretends not to see. “But you better bring us some of the fancy-ass Stark Industries snacks next time. We don’t go up there as much as we used to, plus I’ve been spending a lot of time at Hammer’s – his snacks suck.”
“Yeah, sure, whatever,” Sara agrees quickly to get them out of her hair. She continues to sip on her boba, listening into her siblings’ high school tea – they’re seniors now, and she hears things like someone getting expelled for bringing a vape to school, some new couple, people committing to a college, and Harsha liking this girl in his English class, but she has a boyfriend, and Harsha finds him attractive too.
It’s at least a break from her pretending that she goes to Stark Tower to learn only engineering when she’s doing more than that—harboring powers that were supposed to be found only in Avatar: The Last Airbender. But right now, she feels at least a semblance of normal.