When Varina strutted over with the bracket judge at her side, looking smug as hell, Jojani completely panicked.
"Mr. Stark, I'm sorry." She looked at her laid-back Earth friend beside her and felt genuinely awful for him. Now he was not only going to lose out on the prize money, he was probably going to end up sitting in a cell because of some idiot. For a mechanic as talented as him, that was truly rotten luck.
Up in the stands, Kagaton quietly rose to his feet and started walking toward the competition floor.
Behind a nearby workstation, Rocket Raccoon shook his head at Tony, while the tree-man at his side muttered, "I am Groot."
"He's good, sure," Rocket said with a dismissive shrug. "That doesn't mean he's a good person."
"I am Groot."
"Don't be stupid. Why would I help him? We're competing against each other right now."
The bracket judge and Varina seemed to know each other well. After a brief whispered exchange, the judge immediately called over the officers responsible for maintaining order.
As they closed in with obvious bad intentions, Tony smiled with absolute confidence and stepped in front of Jojani.
"Mr. Stark..."
"I can handle it, kid. Why do you look like you're about to cry? Just watch." Tony tossed out the reassurance casually, then raised a hand to the judge in greeting. "I'm Tony Stark. My friends are Skyl and Moonshadow."
The judge blinked. "Who?"
Tony's face reddened a little. He hurried to explain, "You really haven't heard of him? Skyl is the man who saved your president, Winslow."
At the mention of President Winslow's name, the judge frowned, and even the officers looked a little less certain.
Varina let out a shrill, needling laugh, like a teakettle starting to scream.
Then Kagaton stepped onto the competition floor and turned himself in to the judge. He claimed he had lost his head and tricked his daughter into entering under a false identity.
Tony felt a headache coming on. "That is not helping, pal."
The contestants and spectators alike erupted into boos. Following procedure, the judge declared that they had committed fraud in the competition and would now be placed under review. The likely punishment was more than ten days in detention, revocation of the mechanic's license, and a five-year ban on retaking the certification exam.
Kagaton stood there looking as helpless as a lost child. Jojani had not wanted to cry, but the moment she saw how powerless her father looked, tears spilled out anyway.
"You really don't know Skyl? Never even heard of him?" Tony was still unwilling to give up, even while two officers twisted his arms behind his back.
"Skyl may be somebody important on your homeworld, but here, I've never heard of him."
Tony suddenly laughed. "Then you're about to."
A portal opened right there on the competition floor, and Skyl stepped through with the president of the Mechanics' Association and Stan at his side.
"President Winslow!" The moment the judge saw him, his expression transformed instantly into warm sunshine and spring rain. Even the panel judges hurried over to greet him and ask after his well-being.
"How's the competition going, Stark?" Skyl removed his wizard hat, shrank it down into a handkerchief, and tucked it into his pocket. "Sorry I missed the earlier rounds. But I did bring back someone who might help."
And yes, bringing the person in charge of the entire tournament to the venue was, in fact, a little helpful.
Tony smugly shook off the officers' grip and gave Varina, whose face had gone stiff and pale, a restrained little smile. "By the way, I also know the chief judge for the finals. From the judges to the panel, they're all on my side. What exactly were you planning to use to fight me?"
Varina forced out an awkward smile, then slipped away without a word, vanishing like a bad smell.
"Let this child continue competing," Winslow said. He examined Tony and Jojani's work, then nodded. "However, you did use a false identity to enter the competition, so to keep things fair, you, young lady, may no longer use outside assistance."
That ruling was fair enough. The judge agreed with a nod, and once the crowd realized there was no more drama to watch, everyone started to disperse.
Rocket Raccoon sauntered over and flashed Tony an infuriating gesture, grinning from ear to ear. "Earth bastard, you're out."
The unfriendly little animal clearly wanted to say something even nastier, but then he noticed Gali in the stands looking like she was ready to leap down at any second. Rocket immediately went stiff with alarm and hurried off with Groot.
Tony lowered his voice and asked Skyl, "How is your friend making things worse?"
"He's an official," Skyl replied. "With everyone watching, he has to uphold the appearance of fairness. What, did you want him to just announce you the winner on the spot?" Skyl thought that was an absurd question. A man with Tony's social instincts should not have been that dense, unless... "You don't think this alien girl can win, do you?"
"Of course not," Tony blurted out without thinking.
Then he met Jojani's pitiful, wounded gaze. The girl had just experienced the first real brush with disaster in her life, and now her little face was flushed a blue-red with the raw emotion of it all.
"Ah, that's not what I meant," Tony said quickly, fumbling to explain. "I just mean... you're not ready yet."
Compared to Tony, who was trying awkwardly to protect the girl's pride, her father was much more direct.
"Withdraw, and come home with me, Jojani. I know you meant well, but the rest of this competition is beyond you."
"But we need the money." Jojani's whole face went red with desperation. "If I can just win two more rounds..."
"You can't," Kagaton said. "You don't have the skill. The only people standing in this arena now are geniuses, people who earned their place through relentless study, practice, and more sweat than you can imagine." His expression was solemn as he gently rested a hand on his daughter's shoulder. "You're still too young, sweetheart. Five years from now, ten years from now, when you stand here again, I'll be proud of you. All right?"
"No. You won't."
Jojani slapped his hand away and ran.
Tony turned to Skyl. "I need help, Skyl."
"It's rare to see you care this much about somebody else. You've started thinking of this alien girl as a friend?"
"A friend? Not exactly. She's just... got grit." Tony had his reasons. Beneath the playboy's careless, roguish surface, there had always been grief over the sudden loss of his parents, and that sorrow had left him with a heart far softer than he liked people to know.
Skyl gave the Infinity Scepter in his hand a little shake. "I can make a time chamber whenever I want and let her study in peace for a while. Win or lose, that part will be up to her."
"I'll go help her."
Tony found Jojani sitting alone on a bench in the park, staring at the fountain. He did not say anything at first. He simply handed her a bottle of soda. Popular alien soda came in packaging similar to an American can, except instead of a pull tab, the whole cap popped open. Tony took one sip and immediately spat it out.
"This stuff tastes worse than cherry-scented toilet bowl cleaner. I cannot believe that idiot at the shop told me this was their best-selling flavor."
"If you hate it that much, why did you buy it?" Jojani asked, deliberately refusing to look at him directly.
"I figured you might need some water, and maybe a little sugar. So where'd that little sunbeam called Jojani go? I can't seem to find her."
Right on cue, she laughed.
"Look, we just met, so I probably shouldn't be saying any of this. But I think you should forgive your father. What he said wasn't easy to hear, but it was the truth."
"I know that." Jojani's voice gradually grew more emotional. "I know I'd probably lose. But what if I didn't? The chance is right there in front of me. Even if I know I'm likely to fail, I still have to try. Otherwise I'll regret it for the rest of my life. Later on, when I'm staring at my father's name on a gravestone, I'll keep hating the version of myself who gave up."
There was a tenderness in Tony's gaze that was hard to describe. It was as if he was speaking to Jojani, but also to the reckless, defiant young man he himself had once been.
"You're a good kid. But sometimes being good isn't enough. You've done all this because you don't want to believe you're destined to lose someone you love. Your father chose to give up his own future. No matter how cruel that choice feels, he made it because he loves you. So treasure every minute you still have with him, all right?"
Jojani puffed out her cheeks, looking adorably stubborn. "Quit giving me life lessons." She drooped miserably. "I'll apologize to Dad when I get home."
She sat there thinking for a while, then could not stop herself from crying.
"He said that in five years, or ten years, he'd be proud of me. But he won't live that long."
"You should try," Tony said. "Keep competing. I believe in you."
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