Year 1
Side: Tony Stark
Second story, companion to Avengers - assassins.
Note: I may unconciously refer to Tony as 'Stark' as I am a fan of Coyote Stark from Bleach. I also usually use Tony when I'm using Dante's alias of Tony Redgrave in the Devil May Cry series. (Yes that's real. In the manga and the anime. Also engraved on his guns Ebony and Ivory.)
Deep in the sea, a young boy of eleven was overlooking a research project. The research was to see if there was a way to utilize the temperature itself to make technology and magic mingle, hence why it was in the Artic. As for why it was underwater, well the boy secretly had another project, one that he wouldn't even admit to himself that he had. That's all the available info at the moment. The boy had black hair and brown eyes with a zipped up red and gold jacket and black pants. Now I know what you're thinking: Why was a boy overlooking such an impossible project? The anwer: The boy was none other than Tony Stark, future head of Stark Industries, as soon as he got old enough. Stark Industries was a corporation that produced everything from air conditioners to snake fangs, depending on the nature of the buyer. In other words: Stark was a wizard with an unmatched passion for muggles. In fact, half of the employees were either muggleborn or squibs, the other half were either relatives of muggleborns or muggles that were completely oblivious to their coworkers' knowledge with the occaisional half blood. Though there was one redhaired accountant Tony suspected had magical heritage at some point.
"Jarvis, perform another scan." Tony called out to the submarine.
"Yer sir." Came an automated response from the AI known as Jarvis. Tony had built Jarvis years ago, when he realized he would never get his father's attention and others only wanted his money. He had needed a friend and turned to his natural habitat: His lab.
"Sir, it would seem there is a penguin cicling the sub. Shall I let it in?" The AI asked with a little bit of sass. How Tony built a sassy AI was anyone's guess, but he liked it and made sure to memorize the code to recreate Jarvis if something happened.
"Thats a new one. Let it in." Tony said as he looked at the holographic scanners. A red blip circling the sub indicated the penguin's path, while several other blips indicated his research crew at their various tasks. A faintly flashing blip caught his attention soon after. "And send someone to investigate that. Have them bring back whatever they find."
"Yes sir."
"Quack quack." Tony turned to see a penguin waddling up to him with a letter in it's beak.
"If that penguin smiles and waves we are so out of here." Tony said to a nearby crew member, who just rolled his eyes, before taking the magically dried letter.
'Mr. T Stark'
'The submarine under the Arctic'
Tony couldn't hold back a chuckle at how ridiculous his current address was when put on paper. Definitely the work of a wizard, but witch one? (See what I did there?) Flipping the envelope revealed a crest of a lion, a snake, a badger, and a raven. A Hogwarts letter? Why not one closer to home, say somewhere in America?
'We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Your father had all the necessary paperwork done to make sure his heir could get the best education offered, you will find enclosed a list of the necessary school supplies. We expect your owl by July 1.
Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonnagal
PS. I am aware of your reputation and ask that you not blow up the school.'
Tony frowned at the letter, ignoring the last bit for the moment, though he'd probably laugh at it later. His main concern right now was that Howard hadn't even asked him his choice in the matter, hadn't even told him he'd done it. Not that he didn't want to go to the most prestigous school in the world or anything, it was the princible of it that bothered him. Why did that asshole control his life without even being there? It wasn't fair!
"Sir, the investigation team has returned. They request you come to the medical room." Jarvis said quietly, aware of Tony's feelings about Howard Stark. Tony folded the letter and tucked it in his jacket before starting to walk away.
"Thanks Jarvis. Have someone give Skipper over there some sushi or something." He said as he pointed back to the patiently waiting penguin...that began waving at his back. "Keep an eye on it too." Tony added, feeling the wave. He could have sworn he heard the penguin snicker as the door closed behind him. Stupid, flightless bird.
Making his way to the medical room, Tony took one look at the scene and frowned slightly before covering it up with a practiced smile. He had thought they wanted him in here because they had hurt themselves or something, not because they had found a suspiciously human sized block of ice. A suspiciously human sized block of ice that had a round shield painted in red, white, and blue near the outside, just close enough to be seen. He played dumb.
"What have we got?" He asked one of the giddy crew members, a girl of around twenty with brown hair and blue eyes dressed in diving gear.
"Its-It's EEEK! WE FOUND CAPTAIN AMERICA!" She shouted, completely amazed about her discovery. One of the other workers, a brown haired man of similar age, put a calming hand on her shoulder.
"I thought I told you Mr. Stark might not be so excited." He winced at his friend. Tony's practiced smile came easily as he began acting as if for the press - as if he was himself but in a good light.
"It's cool. Howard would be thrilled about this find. Let's begin thawing him, I'll call in some experts." He rambled slightly with a few hand gestures to sell it out. No one seemed to realize it was an act as he left. Captain America...why did he have to find him? It's wasn't like he hated the guy or anything, well maybe a little, but he was actually a fan. He just didn't like to deal with his emotions and buried them behind one project after another, thus he never quite sorted out how he felt about the guy.
"Sir, shall I contact S.H.I.E.L.D?" Jarvis asked quietly, offering his support to Tony's plight in the only way he could.
"S.H.I.E.L.D isn't real yet Jarvis. Contact Phil." Tony said with a smirk. If there was one person who could get him to safely be in a room with Rogers, it was Phil. Tony knew he was a total fanboy over the captain, but he also knew the guy was capable of containing that side of himself when necessary. He appreciated that Phil always did that when Tony was around.
"Yes sir." Jarvis said as Tony went to his office to give the message to the future agent. He actually was looking forward to seeing the look on the usually composed boy's face. It was scary how agent-like he already was at times. Sitting down, Tony swiped up a holo projector from his phone to talk face to face. After a few seconds, Phil answered.
"Is something the matter Tony?" The fellow eleven year old asked pleasantly. Tony thought he saw a book of some kind in the foreground.
"Yes actually. I've got Captain America on my sub." He said with a smirk. There was a full minute of silence in which Phil's face twitched a little bit as if trying to contain an expression before the boy's eyes widened comically. Tony almost snickered at the boy as he tried, and failed, to keep his composure. It was then that Maria Hill, a twelve year old girl with black hair and blue eyes who was also too agent like to be considered normal, came to his rescue.
"Are you sure Mr. Stark?" She asked as she came on screan.
"Positive. Why would I not be?" He asked as he adopted a hurt expression. Phil cleared his throught and straightened his already straight jacket before speaking.
"Where are you at Mr. Stark?" He asked, back to his proffessionalism.
"Just a few miles under the Arctic. I'll have my team head back to Stark Tower so you guys can pick him up." Tony said as he spotted a bag of blueberries on his desk and popped one in his mouth, suddenly realizing he had forgot to eat anything sence last night.
"We'll meet you there." Phil said, as the screen turned off Tony saw him pull some trading cards out of his jacket. He chuckled slightly, good old Phil. At that moment, a juicy looking burger in a Mcdonald's wrapping appeared in the chute. Good old Jarvis too.
"I assume when you get to the lab you are going to lock yourself in for a few days sir?" The AI asked/stated in a dry tone. He really liked Jarvis, by far his best creation if you asked him.
It took only a couple of hours to get back to Stark Tower, and by then Phil had already been waiting in the lounge for apparently thirty minutes. There was also a dark skinned boy of thirteen playing a game of chess with him, Nick Fury the boy who was going to be S.H.I.E.L.D's director and founder one day. These two were the only ones Tony trusted with anything after Obadiah's betrayal. That's why he went to them rather than the aurors when he found the Capsicle. Phil was the one who had helped him after he became Iron Man, and introduced him to the idea of S.H.I.E.L.D when Fury had thought of it about a month later. In a way, Tony supposed he should be proud: It was because of what happened to him that Fury had decided such a thing was needed, and not just an idea for a child to fantasize about. Him and Captain America. A part of Tony was smug, Howard had said, many times, that he'd never be on the captain's level yet, in a way, he was now. Take that Howard.
Tony was broken out of his thoughts by his men carrying said Capsicle in, something Phil noticed as he nearly jumped out of his seat in excitement. Fury chuckled slightly at his friends eagerness, yet consideration of others' feelings.
"Quite ironic that it would be a Stark that finds him." Fury said as he got up to observe the frozen boy, Phil hot on his heals.
"That's an understatement. Hey, you go to Hogwarts right?" Tony asked, not wanting to talk about Rogers at the moment. Fury seemed to read his mood as he allowed it.
"I just got my acceptance into third year a few minutes ago. Why?" He asked. Tony smirked as he withdrew the letter from the sweater he had changed into when the temperature got warmer.
"Turns out Howard had requested I go there." He said with a grimace. Fury's expression was unreadable as he seemed to think something over, while Phil started containing his excitement over Steve a little better at the statement.
"If it makes you feel better, I'll be there too. I got my invite yesterday." The boy said professionally, aware that pity sometimes set Tony off. It was something said genius was thankful for.
"Actually, that does. Get this, they asked me to not blow up the school! Who bothers to ask me that stuff anymore?" Tony asked in attempt to lighten the mood and get his mind off his father for at least a few more seconds.
"Try to limit it to your common room at least." Fury said with humor before getting serious, "Will the arc reactor work there?"
"It should. I've had a muggleborn that works under me take one to her old school, it worked. My guess is because it uses technology designed to imitate magic to a degree. It probably uses the arc energy to convert the magic into the air into a more sustainable source for it, perhaps even making it a little more powerful. Maybe the electro generator connecting to the gamma conductor that causes it to work in the first place also generates magic, or maybe those are one and the same, not sure, I'm not a gamma expert like Doctor Banner." He said, he hadn't exactly been thinking about magic when he was a prisoner in Afghanistan that was dying from shrapnel in the heart. Phil had that expression he had when he just barely followed something he said while Fury didn't even seem to be attempting to follow him. Tony almost sighed, would have if not used to dealing with both muggle and magical press (He'd dodged Rita Skeeter multiple times in the past), as much as he liked these two, he couldn't actually talk to them about the things he liked. It severely limited his casual conversations with them and sometimes got in the way of S.H.I.E.L.D talk.
"At any rate, we'll take the captain off your hands. I'll ask the headmaster to help things in the ministry so that none of us get in trouble for not reporting him right away." Fury said after a moment. Tony nodded, thankful that he wouldn't have to keep him in the tower.
When the two left, Tony went down to the lab to work on a possible base for S.H.I.E.L.D when they came together. It would be three days before he came up again near starved and remember about his letter that he had yet to respond to. It would be three more days before he accepted it.
"Will that be all Mr. Stark?" The cashier at his potions department asked. Tony nodded once before taking the supplies. He could get everything but some of the books from his tower, so that's what he was doing. He'd order the books when he was finished getting the rest in order. Unfortunately for him, Jarvis couldn't help him with the magical side of the world until he was able to get the formula to get technology to work with magic. The arc reactor was an exception, but he wouldn't release arc technology so terrorists could get their hands on it and use it to kill, though some like Voldemort would probably not even see how dangerous it could be because of his prejudice against muggles, something Tony would never understand. There were, however, other magical terrorists out there that he would just be giving weapons if he did that, assuming they studied it and learned how to convert it into one anyway. Plus the electro magnet it doubled as would get in the way.
Tony's shopping trip was rather uneventful, and he wasn't surprised to see his acceptance into Hogwarts in the Daily Prophet later that day, though he did take note that he'd be attending with Harry Potter. All in all, the most interesting thing to happen was Captain America regaining consciousness, as he heard from Phil a couple days later. That was on the front page of the Daily Prophet too. Those people were having a field day.
Tony went home that day deciding to finish his MIT classes before he went off to school, meaning he was at the computer for a few days. Two days later, he was an official MIT graduate (He'd been doing this for a while). Three days later, he received his diploma. Four days later had a suspiciously absent Tony while reporters crowded around the tower. One week later he was at King's Cross.
