I'm not sure what I'm doing with my life anymore. This is three chapters in one day! Please don't expect that to be an every day thing? Once I've gotten into a rhythm with the story, I'm kind of expecting to update once or twice a week.

Anyway, Marvel's still not mine, but I wish it was!

- Aidan

Tony fidgeted in his seat behind the curtain, waiting for Howard to announce him. It was his tenth birthday, and it was the day of the press conference announcing his existence to all the people Howard had decided it mattered to. There were roughly five-hundred people in the room, all of them clamoring to know what the next big invention was that would be announced today. Tony heard his father take the steps up to the podium and clear his throat.

"Good people of Stark Industries, and everyone who does business with our company, thank you so much for being here today!" Howard's voice rang over the crowd. "We've got a very exciting announcement for you today, indeed! Who thinks they know what it is?"

A deafening roar met his question, and Tony scuffed his toe against the floor nervously. He wasn't worth this kind of reaction from anyone. He was just a kid, and had nothing to show for being the heir to Stark Industries, since they couldn't reveal the existence of the Y Suit. 'God, they'll be disappointed,' he thought to himself.

A slim, dark-haired reporter stepped up, catching Howard's attention. "What do you call your latest creation, Mister Stark?" she asked.

His booming laugh met the crowd. "Great question, Lacey. I call him Tony!"

"Him?" "Tony?" "What does Tony stand for?" "What is Tony?" The questions poured over each other.

"Tony? Why don't you come out and introduce yourself?" Howard called to him.

The boy swallowed the lump in his throat and plastered a smile to his face, jogging out onto the stage enthusiastically, waving to the crowd. His little tux was perfectly tailored and pristine, and his hair had long since been taken care of by a barber instead of scissors in the bathroom. He was a well-groomed, smiling lad, and the crowd took in his roguish, lopsided grin with enthusiasm. He came to a stop at his designated place to the right of the podium, and with Howard's press of a concealed button, the floor rose in a cylindrical pedestal that rotated slowly until it had raised up fully, leaving young Tony facing those gathered to meet him.

"Well, son, why don't you tell them who you are?" his father prompted.

"Hiya, folks!" The spectators cheered. "I'm Tony Stark!" This time, the cheers were deafening. Tony gave them a jaunty grin and half salute, and they went wild.

This was definitely a different experience. They adored him. He knew it was his father's prestige and prowess that they adored, but he couldn't get enough of it. Every wave and smile he gave them earned him cheers and the most positive attention he could remember receiving in any setting.

"Now, folks, I understand that some of you may have questions, but allow me to tell you a bit about young Tony here, and then we'll let you have your chance to ask whatever you like!"

Howard filled them in on their rehearsed story. That they had kept Tony's existence quiet so that during his most formative years, the family fame wouldn't go to his head. Now that he was reaching an age where he had his own brilliant ideas and proclivity for learning, it was time for him to be known by the world as one of the contributors to the think tank of Stark Industries. The reality was, Howard hadn't seen the existence of a daughter to be important enough to garner an announcement to the public. Now that Toni had changed his fates, and created the brilliancy of the Y Suit, he'd landed himself a well-earned place as the successor to the company. At least that's how it worked in Howard's eyes.

Now that Tony was a bit older, a bitter seed had been planted regarding his self-worth. Gender wasn't something Tony felt particularly strongly, and it was easy for him to take on the role of a boy because he wasn't very strongly drawn to the girly things in life. He was equally as unaffected by the things considered boyish, but that just meant that he was malleable. Malleable, but not unaffected. Howard's dismissal of his only child due to something that was, until the suit, uncontrollable, wasn't fair. It wasn't fair, and Tony swallowed back those bitter feelings as he listened to the lies that Howard had fashioned to explain his child's sudden existence to the outside world. The crowd ate up the story, and Tony smiled for the people who had accepted him so easily. After the press conference, when the hall was empty, and the chauffer had taken them home, Howard tried to congratulate his son on his entry into society, but Tony ignored him, and slammed his bedroom door in defiance. Howard looked to Maria, who only shrugged.

The headlines the next day read of a charismatic young lad, whose sheltered beginning had fashioned him into something humble and easy-going. Tony read the words like a sponge. They'd seen him, he felt. They'd really seen him. They didn't speak of him inheriting the arrogance of his father. They didn't see another Howard. They saw Tony. And Tony Stark is who they would continue to see; that was a vow Tony had made to himself as soon as he saw the first article. He kept each article that was written about himself from that point on, carefully snipping them from their papers to be stashed in a box on the shelf in his workshop. Through his preteen and teenage years, the articles added to the box would decry him as a reckless youth, but it didn't matter to Tony. He wasn't growing up to be another Howard.

I'm so sorry folks, but this story is on temporary hiatus. I currently don't have internet at home. I'll have internet back hopefully mid to late July, and then what I've written in the meantime will keep me ahead enough to post regularly if something happens again.