Chapter 33: Stark Expo

"…and that's what happened."

Harvey said, sitting beside Pietro. The young man had silver hair and blue eyes; his light skin complexion was the same as his sister's. Pietro was wearing a white hoodie over a blue shirt. His Nike sweatpants led down to a pair of white Nike running shoes. His sister, Wanda, was resting her head on his lap. 

When he heard Pietro tell him he would be here in a flash, Harvey thought he meant it like the expression. Not literary. Harvey was surprised when he saw Pietro slide in front of him with bluish-silver energy following behind him. Apparently, this silver-haired individual was fast, very fast. But when he stopped, Harvey noticed his face was covered in sweat. Whatever was powering the siblings must still be weak to the point that using their abilities once caused them to be drained of energy.

"I see." Pietro said in a similar accent. "Thank you, truly. We're still new to America, and it's ways."

"No worries, I'm just glad nothing happened." Harvey nodded and smiled. "You two have powers. How long have you two been able to do what you do?"

Harvey saw Pietro become uneasy. He held his sister, Wanda, Closer to him. Pietro must've thought Harvey might be fearful of them and expose them. Nodding his head, Harvey lifted his hand and produced fire.

"It's okay, I'm like you two." Harvey smiled. "Your secret is safe with me."

Pietro's eyes widened at the fire, and slowly, a small smile appeared on his face. He nodded and looked down at his sister; Harvey could see the love he had for her. It caused Harvey's heart to ache when he remembered his own little sister. Looking away, Harvey frowned and sighed.

"You okay?" Pietro asked.

"I… had a sister. I can understand the feeling of wanting to protect them." Harvey started saying.

"I'm sure when you heard me from your sister's phone, it must've scared you to death. Sorry about that."

"Ah… I'm sorry for your loss." Pietro said quietly. "But yes, I was scared. Being in such a large city is intimidating. We come from Sokovia, and it's much, much smaller than all this."

"Wanda told me she would just visit the library. See what types of books American libraries had." 

Harvey nodded at Pietro's words. Looking down at a few of Wanda's books, he saw a familiar red book. The Art of War by Sun Tzu. The other two books were about better understanding the English language. Harvey felt his phone vibrate and saw a message from Luke. He texted Luke and Alex earlier that he had to take care of something; it was code for his Vigilante business. They told him they would cover for him but couldn't do it forever.

"It seems I have to go now. The people I came with are getting worried."

Standing up, Harvey stood up and looked down at the siblings. Harvey then took out a small notebook and wrote down his phone number. Tearing it off, he handed it to Pietro.

"Here, that's my phone number. Call me if you two need anything." Harvey said with a smile. "There's not too many of us with powers. We should look out for each other."

Pietro looked at him for a while and nodded. Grabbing the paper, he looked down and saw his sister still sleeping. "Thank you, my friend."

"Don't mention it. I'll be in New York for five days. We should hang out." Harvey smiled. "It should be fun!"

Pietro smiled and nodded; he was surprised when Harvey held out a fist in front of him. Chuckling, Pietro returned the fist bump. Saying their goodbyes, Harvey walked off to meet with the Dunphy's. He was sure Claire would chew him out for disappearing for so long.

•••

"No way! It's the Stark Industries light refraction prototype!" Alex said in excitement. "They reported a prototype wouldn't be ready until next year!"

Alex watched a quick demonstration of the prototype's large reflective panels shifting digitally and mirroring the objects behind it. Almost making it seem invisible, there were a few flashes of lights going off on some pixels here and there, but overall, it showed off the device's true purpose. Massive scale proper camouflage technology!

"That's amazing!" Her father said in awe next to her. "Imagine all the possibilities!"

"Dad, if you think that's amazing, we should go to booth 2012b! They have pictures and models showing off an arc reactor that will produce clean, self-sustaining energy!" Alex said with a smile; her father looked at her in shock.

"What are we waiting for!"

Alex nodded excitedly and guided everyone to the booth; she followed the map displaying all of this week's showcases. She turned and saw a few of her family's expressions. Luke looked at everything with wide eyes. It seemed the impressive technology had impressed her brother. Hopefully, this could ignite an interest in science. Haley, while not interested in the event, looked impressed by the sheer size of the event. 

Looking over at her mom, Alex saw her look impressed at some revolutionary automobile technology. Her father looked like a kid in a candy store; his past on the AV team in school helped him genuinely appreciate all the inventions and breakthroughs the expo offered. Finally, Alex turned to Harvey and saw him looking at her. He chuckled and smiled at her; he must've caught her watching everyone's reactions. Embarrassed, Alex turned around and continued leading everyone to the large booth.

"When is the opening ceremony gonna start?" Luke asked as he looked at her.

"It should be in about an hour. Apparently, Tony Stark has something big planned." Alex said.

"Hm, we should head to the ceremony stage after this booth." Her mother said as she looked at her watch. "We want to make sure we get some decent spots."

"I don't know; I'm pretty sure some people have been waiting over there all day." Harvey said as he looked over the stage's general area. "Looks packed; maybe we should just head there now?"

"But I want to see the new form of clean energy Alex was talking about!" Her dad said pleadingly.

"Phil, I'm sure it'll still be here after the ceremony." Mom told her father. "We'll come back later."

"I suppose you're right." 

With that, the group changed destinations and walked to the ceremony stage area. Once they arrived, it was indeed packed. They all made their way toward the center of the seating area and waited. Alex was starting to feel a little claustrophobic with the number of people around her, so she followed her therapist's instructions and took deep breaths. Feeling someone bump into her behind her back, Alex squeaked and panicked. 

"It's okay, Alex." Harvey said from behind her; he then squeezed her shoulders. "I got you."

Alex felt herself blush and nodded. They waited another twenty minutes when AC/DC's Shoot to Thrill suddenly started playing. A long line of dancers dressed in sexy modified Iron Man costumes emerged onto the stage and started dancing. When an explosion went off above her, Alex was scared but soon saw it was just fireworks. Harvey squeezed her shoulders, calming her down.

"Wow, it's like a concert!" Haley said off to her side.

"This is awesome!" Luke and her father exclaimed from behind Haley.

"Well, isn't that something?" Harvey said as he looked up at something in the air. "See that?"

Alex looked into the night sky and finally saw what he was talking about. It appeared to be a fast-moving rocket. Eventually, Alex's eyes could make out the figure of a man. 

"Is that?"

"Yup." Harvey said, not impressed.

With a loud clang, Iron Man landed in a superhero pose on the center stage. An array of pyrotechnics went off behind the dancing girls, and a large American flag appeared on the massive monitor in the back. Everyone in the audience cheered and applauded at the red and gold armor.

Iron Man stood up with his arms held out as he spun slowly. The floor beneath him started folding into itself, big metal arms folded out, and started to take off the armor. As soon as the helmet was removed, the man of the hour smiled at the crowd. It was Tony Stark! As the arms continued to take off the armor, the dancing girls continued dancing in the back; their moves became more energetic as each piece of armor was removed. When it was finally over, Tony Stark stood in an impeccable black suit.

The women seemed to reach the end their routine as they approached a still, slowly spinning genius. Once they were close enough, they held their hands out in a classic Iron Man pose. This matched up with the end of the song as well.

"Oh! It's good to be back!" Tony said as he clapped his hands. Everyone could hear him. It's most likely due to a microphone in his suit. "You missed me?"

"That was AMAZING!" Alex heard her father yell.

"I'm not saying that the world is enjoying its longest period of uninterrupted peace in years because of me." Tony said as the crowd cheered for him.

"I'm not saying that from the ashes of captivity, never has a greater phoenix metaphor been personified in human history." Tony said energetically as he held his arms out.

"Oh, brother." Alex heard Harvey say to himself.

"I'm not saying that Uncle Sam can kick back on a lawn chair, sipping on an iced tea, because I haven't come across anyone who's man enough to go toe-to-toe with me on my best day."

The crowd started cheering Tony Stark's name repeatedly. Alex even heard a very loud woman yell out that she loved him. Alex couldn't help but feel secondhand embarrassment. 

"Please, it's not about me. It's not about you. It's not even about us. It's about legacy. It's about what we choose to leave behind for future generations. And that's why, for the next year and for the first time since 1974, the best and brightest men and women of nations and corporations the world over will pool their resources to share their collective vision to leave behind a brighter future!" Alex couldn't help but feel inspired.

"It's not about us! Therefore, what I'm saying, if I'm saying anything, is welcome back to the Stark Expo! And now, making a special guest appearance from the great beyond to tell you what it's all about, please welcome my father, Howard." Tony said as he left center stage.

Alex and her family then watched an older video of the legendary Howard Stark talking about the Stark expo and the city of the future. Alex smiled and couldn't wait to start her career in science and technology. She also wanted to go down in history as a genius herself and woman of science. Alex felt Harvey pat her back, causing her to turn to him.

"Psh! I'm sure you'll have your own stage soon enough!" Harvey smiled at her. "Much classier than this."

"You really think so?" Alex asked in a small voice.

"Of course, Alex. Without a doubt."

•••

Harvey stood on top of a massive building, looking down at the city of New York. He was dressed as Vengeance; His motorcycle was a few feet behind him, scorch marks behind the wheels. It's been a few hours since the Dunphy family left the expo, and Harvey decided it was time to do some patrolling after everyone went to sleep. At first, he was worried about acting as Vengeance in New York. It could lead the police back home to possibly connect the dots on who he was.

But when he felt the blood of the innocent be spilled here all around the city, Harvey couldn't just lay in bed and do nothing. He was the spirit of vengeance first and Harvey Miller second.

Igniting his head on fire, The Ghost Rider scanned the city and took a deep breath. There, he sensed a sinful soul that made him growl in anticipation. Walking over to his flaming ride, he hopped on it and hit the gas. Speeding off the rooftop, the Rider swung his flaming chain into a column and pulled himself onto the side of the building. He defied the laws of gravity and drove straight down the side of the wall. The Rider made sure to go over the cement portion of the surface instead of the glass windows.

The Rider then commanded his motorcycle wheels to exude a torrent of Hellfire below him, Slowing his descent. In a loud crash that caused the floor beneath him to explode, the Rider drove out the smoke cloud and into the alleyway that led to the open road. Scaring some late-night city-goers as they laid their eyes on him.

For tonight, vengeance doesn't sleep.