The Midnight Mistress

Disclaimer: I do not own IMAA.

Chapter 2

She's Back

Rhodey glanced across at his best friend as they made their way through the Tomorrow Academy school entrance. The fact that the infamous Tony Stark was actually early for a change earned him a view stares from students and teachers alike. Ever since Tony had found out this 'saviour' from the other day was in fact a villain, he'd been down in the dumps. He had barely touched his food (which yes, I guess is not completely out of the ordinary for the teenage genius, but it's still not good), done any school work or ranted about how he was going to take down Stane. Heck! He hadn't even tried to upgrade the armour! Needless to say, Rhodey was worried.

"Tony, man this isn't healthy!" Rhodey finally said as they reached their lockers.

Tony simply sighed as he leant against his locker. He slipped a small, silver gadget onto his ear and listened to the police reports whilst Rhodey got the books he needed for the next few lessons from his locker.

"I just don't understand how she destroyed those magnets," Tony muttered, referring to the mysterious villain.

Rhodey slammed his locker shut with such vigour that it surprised his friend slightly and momentarily got his attention. "That's what you've been brooding about all this time?!"

"Er... Yeah."

Rhodey narrowed his eyes at the teenage genius wondering whether to hit him over the head or simply walk away in a dramatic fashion. He chose hitting Tony over the head and would have done if he hadn't been tackled into a hug by a half sprinting, half leaping blur of red and pink.

"TONY! I've missed you! Oh, and you too Rhodey! I mean how could I not miss both of you? 'Cause if I only missed one of you that would be unfair on the other one and I just couldn't do that. Well I could, but that wouldn't be very nice and I'm genially a nice person. At least I think so and so does Jasper, but he doesn't really count 'cause he was the one that almost made the boat sink on the lake which scared me half to death and I'm sure he didn't mean to blow a hole in the bottom of the boat but that's just my opinion and-"

"Can't... BREATH PEPPER!" A now very red faced Tony managed to shout.

"What? Oh, sorry!" Pepper grinned as she released her sufficating hold on the brown haired teenager.

Rhodey raised an eyebrow as the genius started coughing and trying to get some air into his lungs and tried not to laugh as Tony's attempts to stay conscious were completely ignored by the hazel eyed girl. In fact, she didn't even notice.

"I'm guessing you had a good time, then?" Rhodey grinned. Why hadn't he ever thought about strangling Tony? It seemed pretty effective…

"Oh it was amazing! You should have been there! There was this boat-"

"We know!" Tony wheezed, as he straightened up and placed a hand on Rhodey's shoulder for support. "You might have mentioned it a... er... few times in your calls."

"Oops," Pepper smiled, though secretly thought she had restrained herself a lot from calling her two best friends whilst she was away. After all, she had only called each of them about forty times a day – max… OK, maybe fifty.

"Where's Tony?" Pepper asked as she stepped out onto the roof at break time.

"Oil spillage off the coast of Venezuela," Rhodey replied, as the red haired girl sat down on the wall next to him.

"So what happened yesterday, then? From what I heard, Iron Man got his butt kicked by a fashion victim and was saved by a girl! Man, I wished I had been there! Was it funny? No, of course it wasn't funny! How could I say a thing like that? He probably got hurt and his eyes might need some serious counselling after 'cause from what I heard that guy's kilt thing was way too short. Which actually, if you think about it, is quite funny – but disturbing at the same time. Rho-"

"Pepper!" Rhodey yelled as he managed to get a word in edgeways as Pepper finally paused a split second to breath.

"What?" She blinked, then her eyes widened and she bit her lip. "Oh…"

"What?" Rhodey asked as she put a hand on his shoulder and looked at him sympathetically.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable by bringing the subject up."

"Huh? Why would Magnet Man make me feel uncomfortable?"

"It's OK," Pepper smiled, taking her friend's hands in hers, before looking him in the eye. "The kilt was short enough to see up, wasn't it?"

Pepper's last sentence took Rhodey a few moments to figure out. "No! Grosse! NO! Why would you even think that?!"

"It's OK, Rhodey. I have the number for a good shrink. He's supposed to be a miracle worker. I'm sure he can help you," Pepper told him.

"But I didn't see anything! Nothing happened!" Rhodey exclaimed, standing up and putting a good few feet inbetween him and Pepper.

"You're in denial," she simply replied.

"I'm am not in denial!"

"That's what someone in denial would say."

"Wha-? N- Loo- Just no! No!" Rhodey stuttered, trying to think of what to say, but luckily the bell rang, signalling lessons were to start in five minutes. "Saved by the bell!"

"His number's in my phone. Wait, let me look… for… it…" Pepper muttered as she took her mobile out and started to search through her contacts.

"Wha- What?!" Rhodey took a deep breath and came to the conclusion that he would deal with his slightly on the mad side friend later. And with that decided, he sprinted off to Chemistry.

Pepper glanced up and bit her lip to stop herself from laughing as she saw one of her best friends running away from her like she was a man eating lion. She grinned as she put her phone into one of her pockets and stood up. Oh, messing with that guy was such fun…

Meanwhile…

After rescuing the crew of the ship the oil had escaped from, Iron Man had then set about trying to stop the oil from polluting the surrounding ocean area and killing thousands of different species of marine life – which, included air lifting some sort of whale to a safer location. And let's be honest here, whales are bloody heavy creatures!

But all's well that end well as the old saying goes. Iron Man saved the day… again. Though this time he did get a bit dirtier then normal…

Tony moved through the laboratory, his brown hair still wet from the shower he had taken when he'd gotten back. Luckily, Rhodey's mom hadn't been home, so he'd avoided an interrogation. Well, he was safe until the Tomorrow Academy decided to call and ask about his little disappearing act. Though he was sure either Rhodey or Pepper would have covered for him… somehow…

As Tony walked past the main computer he had built, the voice system he had installed spoke. "Code words found. Police, thief, robbery."

"When?" Tony asked, rushing to the screen. Why hadn't he heard anything about this sooner?

"Tomorrow."

"Did she st- HUH?" Tony stopped for a moment, wondering if he had heard right. "Repeat."

"Tomorrow."

"You're telling me the police know this thief's gonna strike tomorrow?" The teenage genius inquired. "Really?"

Well his faith in the police is staggering!

"Show me some evidence."

Another browser appeared on the screen. On it was a copy of a card that had been sent to the police earlier that day. The message on it read:

I will be come for the 'Drops of Happiness'

12 o'clock tomorrow night

Beware Banks

The Midnight Mistress

Tony pulled up a seat and sat down, before he continued to read the rest of the police reports, where he found all the answers he needed for tomorrow night.

"Looks like I've got a thief to catch."

Sorry the update took so long! Please forgive me!

Anyway…

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