May 30 - Prologue

He entered the arena, sat down on the grandstand around the dusty center track out his phone.

"Call Pepper."

The screen flickered and darkened. Out of power. Again. He's have to check the phone team's progress when he get back to the States. The world needed a Stark phone. He needed a Stark phone.

Something wet and mushy brushed up against Tony ear. He jumped and looked up to a spindly legged camel gazing at him through long lashes. Yuck. Wet camel nose. And what was that on he the camel's back? A type of saddle, but rider wasn't human.

May 23 - Prologue

He landed on the land below. Tony ducked and fled to the other side of the convention center. He tried the doors, but they only opened from inside-- this wasn't the main entrance. He spotted a pair of wooden railings next door, lining a walkway that led to a tall, concrete barrier. Tony realized he's stumbled on to an outdoor arena. Good. Let the reporters look for him at the convention center's exit or in the parking structure.

Tony loved attention, sure. But when he'd told the world he was Iron Man and that Stark Enterprises was changing its focus, he's only been prepared for the fawning-- not for the incessant questioning about his sincerity. He certainly didn't expect the fictional headlines the tabloids has generated, or the salacious-- and utterly false-- rumors about his friends and colleagues.

May 20 - Prologue

Tony could't win this argument. He wasn't going to suddenly declare a renewed interest in building weapons.

The other reporters all fires away with their question, yelling louder and louder as they tried to be heard over each other.

"... Iron Man... weapons... public safety... her name... "

Tony backed slowly up against the fountain as the crowd pressed in. This time, instead of the dropping to the sidewalk, he leapt into the fountain, getting good and drenched as he ducked across it and out the other side. He ran to the parking structure, glad for the small delay as his pursuers gathered their tripods and gear. Tony hurried up a set of stairs to the second level. He had just enough of a head start that he was able to throw himself off the side of the structure without the reporters seeing him.

May 17 - Prologue

"... sidewalk-buckling. When sidewalks buckle, then become uneven. Someone could fall. A dachshund could trip, you know, with those short little legs. Look, like right there.

Tony pointed to a perfect, level slab of concrete. No one else even glanced.

"Mister Stark." Joe was talking again. "How do you expect Stark Enterprises to make money now that you've abandoned your lucrative weapons contracts with the military?" Joe smirked. "Do you intend to have Iron Man perform in the circus?"

"Joe, are you suggesting I'm wrong to work for world peace?"

"I'm suggesting you've overlooked your responsibilities to your board, stockholders and employees."

May 11 - Prologue

"Mister Stark."

Tony looked up to see a giant SLR lens pointing at his face.

"You must be Joe." The cameraman's face reddened as he realized Tony had overheard his "rich weasel" remark.

Now a half-dozen other cameras were on tripods and pointed at Tony face, along with three microphones.

Tony jumped  to his feet. Reporters pressed in, crushing other's gear in their zeal to get closer.

"Mister Stark," the cameraman slowly rolled out the syllables. "Whatever were you doing lying on the sidewalk? Don't you know that Dubai gets hot this time of year?"

"Of course," said Tony. "Stark Enterprises is working on a new piece of equipment that cools sidewalks. For your information, heat is the number-one cause of..."

He thought rapidly. Sidewalks were more likely to degrade with cold, not heat.

May 9 - Prologue

He didn't have time to think about it. "It that a foot?"

Busted. Tony could leave his shoe, delay them a few more seconds. But he liked these, and he's already gotten sand on his suit. He crawled a few feet, hoping to make it to the parking structure next door to the convention center.

He hadn't thought the paparazzi would be outside the exit of the Dubai Emergent Technologies Expo, waiting to ambush the famous Tony Stark with their cameras and microphones. He hadn't given the immediate future a lot of thought on that day, just a few weeks ago, when he's impulsively admitted to the world that he was the super hero the media had christened Iron Man. It hadn't occurred to him would become the hottest tabloid story since... well, since no one. Tony was sure he was way more famous than Princess Diana or Michael Jackson had ever been.

May 4 - Prologue

The rest - the stuff about him being a wealthy jerk - was completely false. At least, it wasn's the whole story. Tony occasionally behaved poorly, poorly, but he'd learned compassion when he'd become Iron Man. Or partial compassion. Was there such a thing as partial compassion? Tony wondered as he scraped his forehead on the sidewalk outside Dubai's convention center. He didn't feel compassionate. He felt ticked off.

He heard a man's voice from the other side of the fountain: "There's no way that rich weasel outran us." Tony was lucky to have a stronger attachment to pragmatism than to dignity, or he'd have been embarrassed to be hiding below the far side of a fountain rim.

"I don't know, Joe, he's pretty fit." That was a woman's voice now. Tony vaguely recognized it - she was a television reporter. Had he seen her naked some years back, maybe after too late a casino during the Vegas electronics show?

May 1 - Prologue

Tony Stark, the invincible Iron Man, hadn't been much of an athlete as a kid. But then, he wasn't the last one on the playground picked for kickball, either. He's been a precocious child genius, heir to the Stark Enterprises fortune - sure, everyone knew that. But at least he hadn't embarrassed himself in gym class. Being a brainiac didn't have to mean being a cliched egghead. Geek chic had been around a lot than today's magazines and tabloids would have us believe.

But the tabloids would have you believe all kinds of stuff. Like that Tony Stark was a superficial dilettante, a wealthy opportunist, and a billionaire playboy.

Maybe the last bit was true. Or had been. Tony was trying to live down the one-night stands. But when women he barely remembered were quoted in 40-point type across the cover of the World-Star as suggestivety saying "NOTHING IRON ABOUT STARK," it got tough to ignore the headlines, fabricated or otherwise.

April 27

Good day!

Today is a Monday. It is a beautiful day. I am lost for to say on what is happening here. Can not tell how continue out what say.

I will write more.

April 24

Hi!

I was not able to blog last Monday. I just stay doing nothing.

What will we do now. I'm getting confused right now. 

I am little confusion right now. Help is needed.