Word count-1320

Bagram air base, Afghanistan

The three of them had left the plane, in their formal outfits. Tony in his striped suit, Rhodey in his uniform and Cal in a vested suit. She had also grabbed the metal glove that she had been working on.

There was a group of soldiers stood at the base of the plane's steps, the general was amongst them. Tony spotted him instantly and shook hands with him. "General." After shaking Tony's hand, the general shook Cal's hand.

"Welcome, Mr and Ms Stark. We look forward to you weapons presentation." The man smiled at them.

"Thanks." Tony smiled, before shaking the bearded soldier's hand who was stood next to the general.

"Is it better to be feared or respected? I say, is it too much to ask for both? With that in mind, I humbly present the crown jewel of Stark industries' freedom line."Cal disagreed with the name 'freedom line' because she didn't think weapons were apart of freedom but because Tony was the CEO he got to chose the name. "Its the first missile system to incorporate our proprietary repulsor technology. They say that the best weapon is one you never have to fire. I respectfully disagree. I prefer the weapon you only have to fire once. That's how dad did it. That's how America does it. And its worked out pretty well so far. Find an excuse to let one of these off the chain, and I personally guarantee you the bad guys won't even want to come out of their caves." Tony signalled for them to release one of the missiles. It shot off and broke up into lots of different little missiles. "For your consideration, The Jericho." He raised his arms as a sand cloud swept over everyone. Cal kept her hands behind her back, as she stood next to Tony, so no one could see her glove.

Tony went and opened a case of alcohol. "I'll be throwing one of these in with every purchase of 500 million or more. To peace!" Obadiah phoned Tony.

"Tony!"

"Hey, Obie!" Cal shouted over Tony's shoulder.

"Obie, what are you doing up?" Tony asked.

"I couldn't sleep until I found out how it went. How'd it go?"

"It went great. Looks like its gonna be an early Christmas."

Hey! Way to go my boy!"

"Hey! I was there too." Cal interrupted again.

"And girl! I'll see you guys tomorrow, yeah?"

"Why aren't you wearing those pyjamas we got you?" Tony pointed out as they reached the transport.

"Goodnight, Tony. Night, Cal." They hung up and Tony got in after Cal. He just shut the door when Rhodey showed up. "Hey, Tony."

"I'm sorry this is the 'fun-vee'. The 'hum-drum-vee' is back there."

"Nice job."

"See you back at base."

Kunar Province, Afghanistan

AC/DC 'Back in black' was blasting through the speakers as they drove along the dirt roads. Cal was sitting in the middle of Tony and another soldier, whilst another two soldiers sat up front. She had her head on Tony's shoulder, trying to get comfortable.

"I feel like your driving me to a court-martial. This is crazy. What did I do? I feel like you're gonna pull over and snuff me. What, you're not allowed to talk? Hey, Forrest!" Tony addressed the soldier on Cal's left.

"We can talk, sir." He replied.

"Oh, I see. So it's personal." Tony said, a nearly empty glass of scotch in his hand.

"No, you intimidate them." The driver said.

"Good God, you're a woman. I honestly...I couldn't have called that. I mean, I'd apologize but isn't that what we're going for here? I thought of you as a soldier first."

"I'm an airman." The woman replied again.

"You have, actually, good bone structure, there. I'm kinda having a hard time not looking at you now. Is that weird?" Cal rolled her eyes but still chuckled slightly. Everyone in the vehicle laughed.

"I guess this is the 'fun-vee' after all." Cal said to Tony.

"Did you ever doubt it? Come on, Its okay, laugh. Hey!" Tony managed to rid the air of the tension.

"Sir, I have a question to ask." The soldier riding shotgun said, turning to face the Starks.

"Yes, please."

"Is it true that you went 12 for 12 on last year's Maxim cover models?" Cal sighed at the question, and slumped slightly, still on Tony's shoulder.

Tony decided to joke around a bit, noticing Cal's lack of enthusiasm.

"That is an excellent question." He took off his sunglasses. "Yes and no. March and I had a scheduling conflict, but fortunately, the Christmas cover was twins." The soldier seemed to be content with the answer. "Anything else?" The soldier next to Cal raised his hand. "You're kidding me with the hand up, right?" Dis-heartened, the soldier put his hand down but still asked the question.

"Is it cool if I take a picture with you two?"

"Yes. It's very cool." Tony said whilst Cal just nodded. The two moved slightly towards the soldier as he passed his camera to the man sitting shotgun.

"All right." He smiled whilst pointing the camera at the three.

"I don't want to see this on your MySpace page." Tony said as the soldier held up a peace sign. "Please, no gang signs. No, throw it up. I'm kidding. Yeah, peace. I love peace. I'd be out of a job with peace."

It was taking a while for the camera to take the picture so the soldier next to Cal started talking to him. "Come on. Hurry up. Just click it. Don't change any settings. Just click it." At that moment the car in front of theirs blew up, startling everyone. The vehicles all stopped as Tony and Cal froze.

"What's going on?" Cal asked urgently. Due to her previously being in the army she was more alert then Tony who was just slightly panicked.

"Contact left!" The woman shouted.

"What have we got?" Tony asked urgently. The woman got out and was instantly shot down.

"Jimmy, Stay with the Starks!" The soldier in the front shouted.

"Stay down!" Jimmy shouted at the two. Tony grabbed Cal as she had started shaking. It reminded her of her old life, Steve, Bucky, Howard and HYDRA.

"Son of a bitch!" Jimmy shouted as he loaded his gun and prepared to open the door.

"Wait, wait, wait! Give me a gun!" Tony shouted quickly. Jimmy got out and turned to shout through the closed door.

"Stay here!" As soon as he turned back around, he was shot down leaving several holes in the side of the vehicle. There was a large ringing in the two Starks ears.

Tony left the vehicle.

"So much for staying here." Cal muttered as she swung herself out and followed her nephew. The two cowered slightly as a grenade went off too close for comfort. They both dived behind a large rock as bullets threw sand at them. Tony pulled out his phone and started pressing buttons. Suddenly, a small missile landed to their right. Both their eyes widen when they saw that it was from Stark Industries. They stood up facing it. Cal, being closer to the missile, turned towards Tony and wrapped her arms around him to block him from the blast. Tony was thrown back and landed on his back with Cal on top of him. She rolled off of him a searing pain flowing through her veins. She had taken most of the blast and some shrapnel had gone through her bulletproof vest, through her, then through the front of the vest, then through Tony's and embedded into his body. Both of them ready to pass out. "So much for the damn 'fun-vee'." Cal managed to gasp out, before losing consciousness.