Disclaimer: I own nothing used in this. Iron Man and all related characters are the property of Marvel Comics. Ergo, no profit is being made off this story and it is being written solely for entertainment purposes.
Legacy and Aftermath
By Anicomicgeek
Rated T for Language
Tony Stark looked as crews started repair work on his home, fixing the damage done during the battle between him in the Mark IV armor and Jim "Rhodey" Rhodes in the Mark II armor, and his tearing up the house during his researching in making the new element to power the arc reactor. He thought he was taking advice from Natalie Rushman—who later turned out to be SHIELD agent Natasha Romanoff—about doing whatever he pleased when he asked her what she'd do if she knew her next birthday was her last. He decided to throw a biggest party he could.
Upon looking back on it, getting drunk and using his armor's weapons to blow stuff up for the partygoers was a very bad idea and Pepper and Rhodey had every right to be worried.
Walking down to the lab, he looked around, surveying it. The Mark II was still missing; even after the mess in Flushing Meadows, he hadn't confronted Rhodey or the Air Force about it or the fact they modified it into the Variable Threat Response Battle Suit yet. He wasn't sure if he was ever going to talk to them about it, but at least this way, he figured, it would keep Senator Stern off his back.
There was also more damage from his research and creation of the new element to power his arc reactor to repair. Looking at the new arc reactor, he was surprised that it had been under his nose the whole time—in the diorama of the 1974 Stark Expo also served as a diagram from the element. He was also both relived and surprised that he was cured of the palladium poisoning and would live after all.
"Sir, it seems that the new element is working out," JARVIS said.
"I noticed," Tony stated sardonically. He then walked towards the display case holding the armors.
"Are you going to talk to Mr. Rhodes about the missing Mark II and the modifications made to it?" JARVIS asked.
"I don't know yet," Tony replied. "I should, though." He sighed and glared at his reflection in one of the cases, thinking, What the hell was I thinking, getting drunk at the party like that—and in the damn armor no less? I shouldn't have done what I did at that party. I could've hurt—or worse, killed—someone!
"Tony?" a voice called out. Tony spun to find Virginia "Pepper" Potts behind him.
"Hi," Tony said.
"Why did you tell anyone you were dying?" Pepper asked, saddened and offended. "Is that why . . . you did . . . what you did?"
Tony sighed. "Yeah," he replied. "That was no excuse for a lot of what I did, though. The only real good thing I did during that time is put the company in hand I felt could handle it when I'm gone. But then, after what happened, you gave it back, though I don't blame you."
"Tony," Pepper began, "I can—"
"I mean, getting drunk while in the armor like I did was a bad idea," Tony continued. "I could've killed someone. You and Rhodey had . . . every right to stop me at the party and try to end it."
"You're gonna pursue the matter about the Mark II?" Pepper asked.
"As I told JARVIS, I don't know yet," Tony replied. He then smiled mischievously. "But upon thinking about it—the armor Rhodey has and what we've been through lately—it wouldn't hurt to have some specialized armors."
"What are you talking about?" Pepper asked.
"The main armors are sufficient for most cases," Tony replied, "but not all of them. There will come a time I need something made a specific environment or time. It's better to be prepared, don't you think so?"
Pepper nodded. "Yes," she said. "So, anything in particular in mind?"
"Well," Tony began, "armor to function under water and in space, for starters. The armors I've made so far aren't made for long-term use underwater. Then there's armor to combat much stronger opponents. JARVIS?"
"Yes?" JARVIS replied.
"Pull up video of the recent . . . superhuman event at Culver University," Tony stated.
"Yes, sir," JARVIS said.
Suddenly, video emerged around them, showing the Army against a massive, nine foot tall, green-skinned man in torn pants and muscles rippling. Watching the battle, Tony observed the battle and Pepper grew horrified at what she was seeing.
As the Hulk kicked a superhuman-enhanced soldier into a tree, Pepper looked at Tony and asked, "Are you out of your mind? Look at what that monster's doing!"
"Stop playing," Tony stated. JARVIS did that and the footage disappeared. "Pull up designs and plans for the armor I had in mind to take on the behemoth."
"Yes, sir," JARVIS said. Suddenly, designs for a new armor came up. It features the idea of an enlarged powered exoskeleton to go over the main armor and it was in the color scheme of the Mark III, IV, and VI armors. "The design for the Hulkbuster exoskeleton armor, as you requested."
"'Hulkbuster'?" Pepper asked.
"They're calling the monster 'The Hulk,'" Tony replied. "Hence why I call the exosuit 'Hulkbuster.' The idea is to create an armor to handle the monster."
"Tony, this is insane!" Pepper said. "You can't handle something like that!"
"Hence the armor," Tony began. "I'll be working on a lot of them at the same time."
***I***
A few weeks later, Rhodey drove up to Tony's home. The crew had finished up with a lot of the work in repairing the mansion by this time. Getting out of the car, Rhodey walked inside and looked around to see some work was still being done, but otherwise, it hardly looked as if his battle with Tony happened. Seeing Pepper in a hallway, he walked over to her.
"Where's Tony?" Rhodey asked.
"In his lab," Pepper replied. "Look, I know why you did what you did—"
"Hey, he was out of control," Rhodey stated. "You saw what he was doing. He was drunk and using his armor's weapons to blow stuff up while intoxicated."
"But keeping the Mark II?" Pepper asked. "Why? How could you?"
"It got the government off Tony's back, did it not?" Rhodey asked. "Look, I'm sorry, but I was trying my best to keep them from coming after it themselves, which they would have. If they'd seen how Tony was at that party, there was no doubt they'd have what they needed to go after the armor without any problems. At least this way, it got the military and Stern off his back."
"Wearing it at the party was justifiable—Tony was drunk and could've hurt someone—but taking it wasn't. It's still his property and you technically stole it!"
"And in all likelihood, if the government came after it, they'd probably have taken the whole armory from him!" Rhodey stated, agitated. "Especially if they saw him drunk at that party!" Calming down, he added, "Do you really think they'd trust Tony and let him keep any of the armors he has if they saw how drunk he was?"
Pepper thought for a moment, then quietly replied, "No."
"I don't like what I did, but I had to do it and it's done. At least this way, Tony kept the other armors." Rhodey looked around. "Where is Tony, anyway?"
"He was in his lab, doing God knows what."
Rhodey became concerned. "Meaning?" He was hoping to avoid a repeat of what happened.
"He's been building new armors in there. For special missions, he said."
Rhodey and Pepper walked down to Tony's lab. The walls have since been repaired from the damage Tony caused during his experiments and another display case was erected. In the first case was a newly constructed replica of the Mark II armor, taking the place of the original Mark II armor. There was also another compartment added to the case, this one housing the Mark V "travel armor," repaired from the first battle with Ivan Vanko. The Mark VI was also in the display case, repaired from the finale battle with Vanko.
The second display case was meant for other armors—the specialty armors Tony had mentioned building. This case had three compartments for storing armor, two of which were currently holding armors, but the third was empty.
In one of the compartments was a black armor similar in appearance to the Mark VI armor, though sleeker and thinner than it. The eyes and arc reactor glowed red. Rhodey and Pepper looked at it, wondering why Tony made an armor that looked like a shadowy demon.
In another compartment was a predominately grey armor with its bulk smaller than the Mark I, yet bigger than the Marks II-VI armors. The jet boots of this armor were thicker, too. On the sides of the gauntlets of the armor were blasters. This armor did have red of the chest, shoulder plates, blasters, and jet boots with gold mixed in on the boots, shoulder plates, and blasters. However, the helmet retain the red and gold color scheme and the eye lenses and arc reactor of this armor still glowed blue.
Standing to one side was what appeared to be a pair of leggings for a powered exoskeleton armor to go over the main armor. They were colored similar to the Mark II, IV, and VI armors—mostly red with some gold on the upper half of the legs. The front half of the torso piece for the exoskeleton leaned against the wall.
Looking at the exoskeleton, Rhodey asked, "What is that?"
"The Hulkbuster," Pepper sighed.
"The 'Hulkbuster'?" Rhodey asked. Then his eyes widened. "Oh, no . . . not to take on what the media's calling the Hulk, I hope."
"Afraid so," a voice called out. Rhodey and Pepper looked to see a man clad in what appeared to be a gold armor that looked like a mechanized diving suit with water dripping off it. The armor had a clear dome covering the head and inside was an Iron Man helmet.
"Tony?" Pepper asked.
The man nodded, then took off the dome. Next came the removal of the helmet, revealing Tony's face. Walking over to the machines that helped him in putting on and taking off most of the armors, Tony used the machine to remove the armor that he was wearing, then walked over to his desk.
"The Hydro Armor seems to be working just fine, JARVIS," Tony stated.
"What is with all of this, Tony?" Rhodey asked.
"I need to be prepared," Tony replied. "You never know when one of them may be needed. I'd rather have specialized armor for certain mission and not need them than need specialized armor for certain missions and not have them." Walking to the second case, he pointed to the blue armor first. "The Stealth Armor, meant for use to . . . well, stealth missions. Trades most of the weapons for maneuverability and has a chameleon circuit to render it invisible." Then he walked to the red and silver armor. "I haven't decided what to call this armor yet, but I'm kinda partial to the 'Ultimate Armor.' "
"Wonderful choice," JARVIS remarked sardonically.
Ignoring JARVIS, Tony added, "It's tougher than the normal Iron Man armors and contains some additional weapons and abilities. It can also generate a force fields for containing certain foes and has Neuro-scramblers to temporarily affect the thoughts of certain foes temporarily so I can take them down."
By this time, the machines reassembled the Hydro Armor in the third compartment of the new display case. Walking to the armor, Tony said, "You've already seen the Hydro Armor. As you can figure by the armor's name, this one's meant for use long-term use underwater."
"And outside of the name, what can the Hulkbuster do, exactly?" Rhodey asked.
"It can detect the gamma signature of the Hulk," Tony replied. "It has greater strength and durability than the other Iron Man armors. It also its own arc reactor to power it because I don't want to risk a power drain from the one in me to use it, but otherwise, it should be able to interface with the other armors."
"Why all of this, Tony?" Rhodey asked.
"Because I had to survive for some reason," Tony replied. "I should've died—twice now." Then he sighed. "What brings you by here, Rhodey?"
"I wanna talk," Rhodey replied. "Look, what happened that night at your birthday party—"
"Don't worry about it," Tony stated. "You had every right to stop me. And, as you can see"—he gestured to the Mark II replica—"I made a replica of the Mark II armor, though it was still uncalled of you to take the original from me."
"Tony, if the government came here, they'd have taken all of the armors," Rhodey stated, "especially if they saw you and how drunk you were that night. And now, you're gonna give them a new reason to come after your tech."
"Meaning?" Tony asked.
"You don't think the government would want something like this 'Hulkbuster' armor for themselves to use against the monster?" Rhodey asked. "They're gonna want it and they'll come after you again to get it. What will you do when that happens?"
"What I did last time—fight it," Tony replied. "They don't exactly have the technology to replicate it and if anyone tries, it'll blow up in their face like past attempts."
"And it'll blow up in yours again when someone like Vanko disproves you," Rhodey stated. "Remember what you said at that hearing about no one being able to replicate the armor? Remember how you were also disproved with Vanko, who made it with less?"
"His father knew the arc reactor technology," Tony replied.
"What about Stane?" Rhodey asked. "He created a suit of his own."
"He got ahold of the Mark I," Tony stated. "He was able to—"
"Hammer was able to make drones based on your tech."
"Which were retrofitted from his past attempt to recreate the armor and even then, he had Vanko to help him. After all, all of his attempts before that failed, plus the government now has the Mark II—"
Rhodey was getting angry with Tony and felt he was missing the point. "Damn it, Tony, you're not freaking getting it! First of all, you didn't know Vanko's father assisted in the original arc reactor! Secondly, someone else will come along and will be able to figure it out how the armor works! You opened a can of worms here! You got that? You let the cat out of the bag and you can't put it back it! This isn't something you can control! I don't want to be put in that position again, acting as a buffer between you and the government!"
Tony glared at Rhodey. "It's my damn technology! I came up with it, I built it, and I can refuse to sell it to the damn government if I want to! I chose not to stop making weapons and not to sell the armor, so the stockholders, Stern and the military should've just accepted that damn fact! But no, they couldn't! The board tried to oust me, and Stern and the military came after me because they couldn't accept that fact. In fact, if it happens again, I'm gonna have words with some of them!"
"And if that doesn't work?"
Tony fumed, then calmed down and sighed.
"You don't know, do you?"
Tony . . ." Pepper whispered.
"It's my life and it's my right," Tony replied quietly. The he took a breath and said, "I wanna be alone for a while."
"Look, Tony—" Rhodey began.
"Please?" Tony asked.
"All right," Rhodey said. "But I'll be back." With that, both Pepper and Rhodey left the lab.
Suddenly feeling tired, Tony walked over to his desk, then sat down and sulked. Taking a glass, he poured himself a drink, then took a sip from the glass. He hated to admit it, but he knew Rhodey was right—despite his best efforts, his armor technology was out and he couldn't stop it; chances are someone like Vanko and Obadiah Stane will come along and use it for their own greed and to hurt people.
Sighing, Tony looked at the bottle, realizing that he'd changed the world, but not in the way he wanted to. He couldn't control who sued the technology and how they used it. There were going to be people who used it in ways that'd hurt people.
The best he could do was to try to stop those who's hurt people with his technology.
The End