Franklin sat in the school library during lunch. The librarian, Mrs. Torres, wheeled in a TV so the students could watch Tony Stark's press conference.
"His plane just landed at Edwards," Miguel said, pointing at the screen.
The cameras showed a military plane on the runway. A redheaded woman in a suit waited near a black car. When Tony Stark walked down the plane steps, she wiped her eyes.
"That's Virginia Potts," Mrs. Torres explained. "His assistant."
Stark looked different from the pictures they'd shown on TV for the past three months. Thinner. His arm was in a sling. But he walked like nothing was wrong, waving off the medical team that tried to check on him.
The cameras followed as he got into the black car. News helicopters tracked the car's route, showing it stop at a Burger King.
"Dude's been missing for three months and the first thing he wants is Burger King?" someone whispered.
At Stark Industries headquarters, a crowd waited. A bald man with a beard hugged Stark as he got out of the car. Franklin noticed Stark kept hold of his burger bag even during the hug.
The press conference started right after. Reporters packed the room, all talking at once until Stark walked in. He sat on the floor in front of the podium, still holding his burger.
"Would you please sit down?" Stark asked. "It'd make this feel less formal."
The reporters sat on the floor too. Franklin had never seen grown-ups in suits sit on the floor like that.
"I never got to say goodbye to my father," Stark started. His voice sounded different than in the old TV clips. "There's questions I would've asked him. I would've asked him how he felt about what his company did."
The room got quiet. Even the kids in the library stopped whispering.
"I saw young Americans killed by the very weapons I created to defend them and protect them." Stark paused. "I had my eyes opened. I came to realize that I have more to offer this world than just making things that blow up."
Franklin watched the bald man's face change. He didn't look happy anymore.
"That is why, effective immediately, I am shutting down the weapons manufacturing division of Stark Industries."
The room exploded. Reporters jumped up, shouting questions. The bald man pulled Stark away from the microphones. The feed cut to news anchors trying to explain what just happened.
"Holy shit," Miguel said, then covered his mouth when Mrs. Torres looked at him.
The library buzzed with voices. Kids pulled out phones, texting family members who worked with anything connected to Stark Industries.
"My brother's not gonna believe this," Miguel said.
Franklin thought about his uncle Jerome, about his mom's lab, about his dad's construction contracts. About all the ways everything might change because Tony Stark decided to stop making weapons.
The TV showed the Stark Industries logo while reporters talked about stock prices falling. Franklin didn't understand most of what they said, but he understood their voices - they sounded scared.
The bell rang. As Franklin walked to his next class, every TV in the school showed Tony Stark's face. The man who came back from the desert wasn't the same one who left. Franklin wondered what happened out there to change him.
In science class, no one paid attention to the lesson. Their teacher gave up and let them watch the news instead. They kept replaying Stark's speech, showing the reporters' shocked faces, the bald man - Obadiah Stane, they said his name was - trying to calm everyone down.
Franklin's phone lit up with a text from Jerome: "Watching the news?"
"Yeah," Franklin typed back.
"Never seen anything like this," Jerome replied.
After school, Franklin's mom picked him up again. She looked worried.
"Traffic was bad," she said. "Everyone's leaving work early to watch the news."
At home, they watched more coverage. The reporters interviewed military officials, business experts, anyone who might explain what Tony Stark's decision meant.
Marcus came home early. "Construction site shut down again. Boss says we have to wait and see what happens with our contracts."
Franklin finished his homework while the news kept talking about Stark's announcement. He went to bed early, tired of hearing the same reporters say the same things over and over.