Disarm • Stark

"The notary's here! Can you please come sign the transfer paperwork?" Pepper shouted as she entered the gym, where Tony and Happy were practicing boxing with each other.

Little Mazzy Stark trailed behind her, copying her posture and the way she was walking. "The notary's here, Dad!" she announced.

"I'm on Happy time," Tony responded, not looking away from his opponent.

Mazzy looked over at the two men, hitting each other with big, padded gloves. It didn't look very fun. It looked gross, actually. They were both sweating profusely. So, Mazzy looked away and followed Pepper over to some chairs in the corner of the room, just before sitting down beside her. Soon after, a woman with long, dark red hair and a black pencil skirt walked into the gym, too, making her way over to Pepper.

"I promise you this is the only time I will ask you to sign over your company," Pepper called out to Tony. He wasn't listening well, though. He was too busy watching the red-haired woman.

"I need you to initial each box," the red-haired woman told Pepper. Pepper did, and Mazzy peeked over her shoulder to see.

"I could sign it for Dad. I know how to spell his name," Mazzy offered, seeing as Tony was too busy beating the crap out of Happy to come and sign the papers.

The red-haired woman smiled, but shook her head. "That's forgery, sweetheart," she said.

"Oh."

"What's your name, lady?" Tony asked loudly, pointing to the red-haired woman from inside the ring.

"Rushman. Natalie Rushman," the red-haired woman, Natalie, answered.

"Front and center. Come into the church," Tony said as he sprayed a stream of water into his mouth.

Pepper gave him a death glare and Natalie honestly looked a bit confused. Mazzy crossed her arms, tossing her head back in annoyance. "Oh, brother," she huffed out.

"No. You're seriously not gonna ask her-" Pepper didn't even get a chance to finish her sentence before Tony interrupted her.

"If it pleases the court. Which it does," Tony said.

"It's no problem," Natalie said, closing up her file and walking confidently toward the ring as Pepper and Mazzy murmured apologies for Tony's strange behavior. Natalie stepped into the ring and Tony stared at her for a good thirty seconds as he gulped down his drink. Usually, whenever Tony was acting like this, it was easy for Mazzy to see that people were uncomfortable. Not Natalie Rushman. Natalie Rushman stared back at him, just as intensely.

"What?" Tony asked to fill in the excruciating silence. He looked away, a smirk playing at his lips. After a moment, he let his face fall blank again and turned to Happy. "Can you, uh, give her a lesson?" he said, which Happy happily did. As Tony walked over to where Pepper and Mazzy were sitting, whispering Pepper's name, Mazzy gave him a confused and judgemental look. He didn't seem to notice. "Pepper!"

"What?" Pepper asked. Tony took a seat right between Pepper and Mazzy on the seat only made for two. They both huffed and crossed their arms.

"Who is she?"

"She is from legal. And she is potentially a very expensive sexual harassment lawsuit if you keep ogling her like that," Pepper said, only glancing up from her cell phone to give Tony a pointed look.

"Yeah. You're harassing her, Dad," Mazzy said, giving him the same pointed look that Pepper had given him just a moment before.

Tony rolled his eyes, pretending that he wasn't amused by Mazzy's attempt to be like Pepper. He wrapped his arm around Mazzy's neck and pressed his hand over her mouth, playfully silencing her, as he turned to look at Pepper again. "I need a new assistant, boss," he said.

Mazzy pried his hand away from her face before wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. She furrowed her eyebrows. "Your hands smell like shit," she said, scrunching her nose up. Both Pepper's and Tony's eyebrows shot up as their heads snapped to the side to look at her. Mazzy pressed her lips together, shrugging her shoulders. "What?" she asked.

"Where did you learn that word?" Pepper asked, her eyebrows raised with concern.

"Daddy," Mazzy said, jabbing her thumb in Tony's direction.

Pepper's head lolled to give Tony a very stern, very disappointed look. "Really?" she asked in a monotonous voice.

"She's lying," Tony said, raising his hands up in surrender. "I've never said that word in my life."

"You don't get a new assistant until you can learn to behave yourself," Pepper said, shaking her head.

"Yeah, Dad. You have to learn to behave yourself," Mazzy said, nodding her head in agreement.

"I'll behave later. I need a new assistant now. I feel like it's her," Tony said, jutting his chin out in Natalie's direction.

After taking in a sharp breath, Pepper shut her cell phone as she said, "No, it's not."

"How do I spell your name, Natalie?" Tony called out, his voice echoing in the large room. Pepper looked like she couldn't believe him, even though this was not out of the ordinary for him. As Natalie spelled out her name, Tony typed her name into the screen on the table beside them. He swiped through all of the Natalie Rushmans until he found the Natalie Rushman. "Oh, wow. Very, very impressive individual," Tony said, swiping past the information about her to get to the pictures. "She's fluent in French, Italian, Russian, Latin. Who speaks Latin?"

"No one speaks Latin. It's a dead language," Pepper answered, before going on to explain that answer. However, Tony was too busy enlarging pictures of Natalie Rushman in lingerie.

Watching the screen, Mazzy scrunched her face up. "Why do so many ladies wear swimsuits all the time?" she asked.

As quickly as he pulled the images up, Tony swiped them away. "'Cause it's... hot outside," he murmured.

"You're a very irresponsible parent. You know that?" Pepper asked, watching him close off the tab.

Then, from the middle of the ring, came a loud, painful-sounding wham! Mazzy, Pepper, and Tony's heads all shot in the direction of the sound to see Happy lying on his back with Natalie Rushman's legs held tight around her neck.

"Oh, my God!" Pepper shouted, shooting up out of her chair.

"Woah!" Mazzy exclaimed, staring in awe at her new favorite person. Natalie quickly released Happy and stood herself up, brushing off her shirt and readjusting her clothes.

"I just slipped," Happy lied.

"You did?" Tony asked.

"She kicked your butt!" Mazzy said, bouncing on her toes beside the ring. "Do it again!"

"Looks like a TKO to me," Tony said, ringing the bell.

Happy groaned, wiping sweat from his forehead as Natalie stepped down from the boxing ring, despite Mazzy's plead for her to do it again. She returned Mazzy's impressed smile before turning to Tony and getting back to business. She picked her file up once again. "Just, um... I need your impression," she said to Tony.

"You have a quiet reserve. I don't know. You have an old soul..."

"I meant your fingerprint," Natalie said, stopping him before he could go too far. She opened up the file, holding it towards him. He dipped his finger in the ink and pressed it against the paper.

"So, how are we doing?" Pepper asked, walking up beside Mazzy.

"Great. Just wrapping up. Hey," he paused and pointed at his thumbprint. "You're the boss," he said, making a small smile grow on Pepper's face.

Natalie shut her file and tucked it between her arm and her side. "Will that be all, Mr. Stark?" she asked.

"No," both Mazzy and Tony said at the same time.

"Yes, that will be all, Ms. Rushman. Thank you very much," Pepper said, putting on a polite smile. Natalie began to walk away and Tony let out a huff while Mazzy just crossed her arms.

"Please can she stay?" Mazzy asked, giving Pepper her best puppy-dog eyes.

"Yeah, Pepper. Please can she stay?" Tony repeated.

"No."

•

As Tony, Pepper, Mazzy, and Happy all stepped out of a sleek, black car, crowds of fans behind fences cheered at their arrival- or Tony's arrival, rather. When Pepper reached for Mazzy's hand, the girl shook her head and straightened her posture. She didn't need to hold anyone's hand. She was strong and independent, like Natalie Rushman.

Pepper rolled her eyes and glanced back at Happy to make sure he was keeping an eye on Mazzy, which he was. Ever since Natalie Rushman knocked Happy on his ass, Mazzy had been trying her best to be just like her. Pepper liked it better when Mazzy was always trying to act like her, but at least she wasn't trying to act like any bad influences.

"You know, it's Europe. Whatever happens in the next 20 minutes, just go with it," Tony said as they would through the entrance to the building. Mazzy was beyond excited to see the race up close, but she was trying her best not to show it because she was cool like Natalie Rushman.

Speak of the devil and he doth appear.

"Mr. Stark?"

"Natalie!" Mazzy exclaimed upon seeing the red-haired woman. Mazzy was wearing a white and black long-sleeve baseball tee with a gray skirt, but now she was wishing that she had picked out a neon pink dress to wear so that she could have matched Natalie.

"Miss Stark," Natalie greeted her, putting on a soft smile. "How was your flight?"

"It was excellent," Tony said while Mazzy gave a firm thumbs up. "Boy, it's nice to see you."

"We have one photographer from the ACM, if you don't mind," Natalie said, gesturing toward the man with a camera right behind her.

Pepper and Tony seemed to be having some quiet, tense conversation that Mazzy couldn't quite hear over the chatter that was coming from the rest of the room. But from the look on Pepper's face, she could guess that her dad had done something he wasn't supposed to. Probably hiring Natalie Rushman as his new assistant. Mazzy didn't mind that so much, though. She already loved Natalie.

"Smile," Tony's voice got loud enough for Mazzy to hear it. He placed his hand on her back, gently pushing her in between himself and Pepper. He pointed to the cameraman. "Look right there," he said. Mazzy refused, turning her head and pressing her face against her dad's jacket. She hated photographers because of the bright flashes on their cameras. Maybe Natalie Rushman liked having pictures taken of her, but Mazzy supposed she didn't have to do everything Natalie did in order to be just as cool as her.

When Tony began walking with Natalie by his side, Mazzy tried to step in between them, but Pepper grabbed her hand, keeping her behind with her instead. She didn't think Mazzy should have to be subject to hearing Tony's poor attempts at flirting.

They walked through the crowded restaurant until Tony decided on a table and told Natalie to make it theirs. Pepper pulled out a seat for Mazzy to sit in. "You want anything to drink, sweetheart?" she asked as Mazzy climbed onto the chair.

"Sprite," Mazzy said, kicking her legs back and forth.

"Sprite what?" Pepper asked, raising her eyebrows. Mazzy might've been Tony Stark's daughter, but she didn't have to lack manners, too.

"Sprite, please," Mazzy said, placing her hand flat on her chest and rubbing in a circular motion to sign the word.

"You got it," Pepper said before turning away. Tony followed her to the bar, leaving Mazzy alone at the table with Natalie, who was talking to a few of the servers.

It was really, very loud in the restaurant. It made things quite hard to hear for Mazzy. When there were a lot of sounds- voices, chairs screeching against the floor, glasses and silverware clinking together, cameras shuttering- it made things sort of blend together. It was hard for her to distinguish between someone talking to her and someone talking to literally anybody else. That was why Mazzy couldn't hear it when Natalie was saying her name.

"Miss Stark," Natalie said for a fourth time, this time placing her hand on Mazzy's shoulder. Mazzy looked at her, raising her eyebrows just a little bit. "ACM wants a picture. Is that ok?" she asked.

Mazzy huffed and picked at the napkin on the table in front of her. She hated having strangers take pictures of her all the time, but it was what she had to do, she supposed. She was a Stark. She didn't really have a choice in any of this. So, she reluctantly nodded at Natalie.

The photographer lifted his camera, just about ready to take a picture, when Natalie held her hand out, silently telling him to stop. Mazzy furrowed her eyebrows with confusion as Natalie crouched down in front of her chair.

"Miss Stark, can I call you Mazzy?" Natalie asked. Mazzy nodded again. She liked her name. She didn't mind anyone calling her by it. "Mazzy, you know you can say no," Natalie said, giving the girl a sympathetic look.

Unsure of it, Mazzy just shrugged. "Dad says it's part of being a Stark. People take pictures of him all the time, too," she said.

"That's his own choice. It's your own choice to decide when you want people to take pictures of you. Do you want a picture now?" Natalie asked one more time. This time, Mazzy hesitantly shook her head. She didn't want a picture now. So, Natalie stood back up and shooed the photographer away.

There were times when Mazzy didn't mind having her picture taken. She didn't mind it on her birthday, or on Christmas or Halloween, or when she's wearing an outfit she really loves. But she hates taking pictures when everything is already so overwhelming. When everything is loud, there are people everywhere, and a lot is going on, having someone flashing a camera in her face was never her favorite thing.

Almost as soon as Natalie walked off, Pepper returned to the table. She sat down on Mazzy's left and began flipping through the menu, listing off things Mazzy might like. Mazzy wasn't listening very well, though. Her attention was fixated on the TV that was hung on the wall across from her. The racers were getting ready. She was starting to get excited until her dad walked out onto the track in a racer's suit.

"Pepper," Mazzy murmured, furrowing her eyebrows as she stared at the TV. Pepper hummed out a what? sound and Mazzy tapped her arm before pointing to the TV. "Dad's gonna drive a racecar," she said, unsure whether to be nervous for his safety or excited to see him race.

Pepper's jaw dropped and she quickly beckoned Natalie over to the table. Turned out that Natalie had no idea about this, either. No wonder he made that comment about just going with it. However, this was not on Pepper's list of expectations. Natalie rushed off to find Happy per Pepper's request.

"You stay right here," Pepper told Mazzy before shooting up out of her seat and disappearing into the crowd.

Mazzy's eyes stayed glued to the television as a man dressed in an orange jumpsuit walked into the middle of the track. He held his arms out to his sides and revealed two large whips, just as his clothes started to shrivel up and burn off of his body, revealing an electric sort of armor beneath it. The armor looked strikingly similar to the Iron Man suit, featuring an arc reactor right in the center of the chest plate. This suit, however, left the man wearing it's body extremely vulnerable. All he had on was orange pants and the armor, leaving his arms and parts of his abdomen exposed.

Electricity crackled its way through the whips in his hands and Mazzy's eyes widened when he used one of them to slice one of the racecars in half. Pepper told her to stay right there, but unfortunately for Pepper, Mazzy just couldn't help herself. She jumped down off of her chair and pushed her way through the crowd until she got to the doors.

Her dad was in one of those cars. He was going to die.

As Mazzy pushed and shoved her way through the crowd, she didn't even take a single second to think about what exactly she was going to do once she got out there. She ran and ran until she slammed right into someone. She fell back on her butt, puffing out a breath of frustration.

"Mazzy Stark, I told you to stay at the table," Pepper's loud and panicked voice shouted. Mazzy looked up to see that it was Happy who she had run into. He was holding the briefcase that would soon wrap itself around Tony's body- aka, the Iron Man suit.

"Get in the car!" Happy shouted at them.

Pepper quickly scooped Mazzy up into her arms and got into the back seat, keeping Mazzy on her lap. Happy got into the front and turned the key. "Go, go, go," Pepper yelled. The car jerked forward and they began speeding through the streets.

Happy didn't hesitate to crash through the barrier that blocked the normal streets from the racetrack. Mazzy could feel the engine roar and the ground shake with every racecar that must have been crashing that very second. It made her stomach twist and turn. She wondered if her dad was crashing at that moment.

"Give me the case," Pepper said, reaching over Mazzy.

"Here. Take it."

"Where's the key?!"

"It's in my pocket."

"Car!" Mazzy shouted, shrieking in fear as Happy quickly swerved to the right.

"Oh, my God! Oh, my God!" Pepper shouted over and over again.

They skidded around a curve and that was when Mazzy could finally see the flames. There were several cars split in half, and even more crushed and on fire. Her heart lept up into her throat when she spotted her dad's car, lit up in flames with the electric man walking straight towards it. Then she spotted her dad. He was alive. Alive. He was alive.

"Daddy!" Mazzy shrieked, pointing him out to both Pepper and Happy.

Happy slammed his foot down onto the gas and Pepper squeezed Mazzy tight up against her. The car smashed right into the fence- right into the electric man, and Tony jumped up onto the fence, just narrowly dodging the hit. The electric man fell unconscious on the hood, blood dripping from the corners of his mouth.

"Are you ok?!" Happy shouted out the window as Tony hopped down from the fence.

"Yeah," Tony breathed out, stomping over to the open window. Pepper was taking loud and heavy breaths and it made Mazzy's anxiety linger. It still felt like something was wrong. Tony, however, was too preoccupied with yelling at Happy to feel the tension. "Were you heading for me or him? 'Cause I can't tell!"

"I was trying to scare him!"

Pepper poked her head out the window. "Are you out of your mind?!" she screamed, making Mazzy jump at the loudness. "Get in the car right now!"

"I was attacked!" Tony exclaimed.

"Stop yelling!" Mazzy shouted, trying to look as fierce as possible with her eyebrows furrowed and her nose scrunched up.

"We need better security."

"Get in the car!" Happy yelled over them.

"You're CEO! Better security measures. God, it's embarrassing!"

"Stop it!" Mazzy said, just as Tony opened the car door.

Then, the electric whip suddenly lashed out of nowhere, slicing the car door in half. Both Pepper and Mazzy shrieked, pressing themselves as far away from it as possible. Pepper screamed and Mazzy wished she would just stop it and Happy reversed, then accelerated, then reversed, then accelerated, just slamming the electric man against the fence over and over again. Tony was shouting about the case and the electric man was slinging his whips, slicing the car in half, and no one could understand each other.

All Mazzy knew was that her dad needed the Iron Man suit, so she grabbed the case from the seat beside her and hurled it out the window. The case landed right at Tony's feet and it only took a few seconds for it to unlock and build itself around his body. As soon as the suit was on, Tony shoved the car back and out of the way.

Mazzy watched with wide eyes as Tony blasted the electric man over and over again, but nothing seemed to phase the man.

"What the heck is going on with this guy?!"

The man wrapped the whips around Tony's neck, just in time for Tony to use them to pull himself towards the man and rip the arc reactor out of the machine. Finally, finally, finally the electric man dropped back down onto the pavement, completely powerless.

Police officers rushed out from behind the fences, getting the man in cuffs as fast as they possibly could. The only thing the man had to say as they dragged his broken body away was, "You lose."

He laughed, spitting out a wad of blood in Tony's direction.

"You lose, Stark. You lose."