One Hundred Days Chapter 2, an ironman fanfic

II.

Stark search effort put on hold

By GEORGE HAVERHILL

Published: February 24, 2008

FORT BRAGG, North Carolina - A month after the capture of billionaire Anthony Stark, the dogs are getting called off.

In a rare public statement, the commander of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal said this morning, "The United States Armed Forces are not quitting the search effort." JSOC, an elite group comprised of special forces operators from all branches of the military, has reportedly codenamed the recovery effort 'Operation Malibu' after the location of Mr. Stark's famous estate.

Lt. Gen. McChrystal continued, "At this time, however, the search for Mr. Stark will be redefined and further specialized. No additional large-scale involvement is needed."

When asked if that meant they had any new leads, Lt. Gen. McChrystal grew visibly agitated. "That is classified information."

The outlook is not optimistic. Secretary of the Army Pete Geren was recorded discussing the situation at a fundraiser last week. "I hate to say it, but the chances that further operations will succeed now that there are even fewer leads, now that we're a month out from the event... it's not going to happen. Stark is dead. If he's in the hands of terrorists, then a video will show up in a few months dated January 28 showing him getting beheaded. That's it, period."

When the statement hit the news stations, Secretary Geren immediately redacted his comments. "My insensitive words came from a moment of frustration," he said via prepared remarks. "I have every hope that Mr. Stark will be recovered, and I sincerely apologize if my words hurt his friends and family."

"The prayers of the nation are with Tony Stark," said President George W. Bush in an unprepared comment following a routine press conference. Mr. Bush, who attended Yale University at the same time as Mr. Stark's mother Maria Stark, is a personal friend to the Stark family. "And if Tony is no longer with us, then I know he is with his beloved parents."

At this time, none of Stark's friends or associates have moved to have Mr. Stark declared dead in absentia. Mr. Stark's godfather and interim Stark Industries CEO Obadiah Stane refuses to discuss it. "It's been a month," snapped the businessman during a press briefing about Stark Industries' infant space program. "There has been-and will be-no discussion of that."

Mr. Stane is listed as Mr. Stark's next-of-kin. The decision to have Stark declared legally dead will most likely remain with him.

"I mean, I can't believe someone I slept with is like, a prisoner of war now," says the socialite in a stage whisper. "It's so crazy. I've been talking to my therapist you know, because it's just like, incredibly traumatic."

"Oh, honey," says another, "I'm sure it is. I mean, you knew him, and now he's like... I mean, what if he's being like, tortured?"

Pepper is trapped. The piano is to her right, the bar in front of her, and the three bimbos are to her left, and she knows that if she turns and leaves, they'll see both her and the sudden tears in her eyes.

"It'll be a good distraction, Ms. Potts," Obadiah had said firmly this afternoon. "You need to make an appearance, for the company's sake. You're a reminder that everything is under control."

"I mean, isn't it like, a little morbid that we're all here, at this party for his foundation or whatever, and he's like, kidnapped?" The grating voice of a very blonde Australian surfer-turned-model. Pepper remembered her; Tony had gone through an Australian kink a few years prior.

("Correlation isn't causation, Potts," Tony would chide her. "It wasn't a kink, per se... I was gathering data.")

"Seriously, I was thinking, like, the exact same thing," said the second girl. "It's just, like, so sad. I mean, I heard that the Army is like, totally giving up."

"I heard that they got a video," said the first girl conspiratorially. "It's like that journalist guy, remember? I heard that they got a video of Tony getting his like, head chopped off, and the military is keeping it really quiet, because the whole thing is like, so embarrassing."

Pepper's heart is pounding. She knows what they're saying is wrong, knows that there hasn't been a video-god, Jim would have told her-he had called her earlier, promised that they were still looking-

She stares at the martini in her hands and suddenly drains it. Part of her wonders if the gin and vermouth will drown out the conversation. The other part of her wants to self-medicate. She wants to order a scotch because if she places it beside her drink, then it will feel like she's just holding it for Tony.

"Oh my god," says the Australian in a whisper that carries just as easily as her normal decibel. "Isn't that like, Pepper Potts? Like, his assistant?"

"She's such a bitch," whispers the socialite. "She like, kicked me out of the mansion. I didn't even get to say goodbye to Tony, and we like, had a real connection."

That's her cue. Pepper sets the martini glass down on the bar and turns to the three women with a practiced and blank smile. "Ladies, thank you for attending the benefit tonight. Please do have a pleasant evening."

She slips away, her mouth dry despite the alcohol and the tang of the olive, and strides across the dance floor and out into the night.

McCain wins nomination, talks War on Terror, Tony Stark

By Benjamin Whitman

March 5, 2008

WASHINGTON, D.C. - "I am honored to accept the Republican nomination for President of the United States," began Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) in a press conference held in the Capitol. "My friends, we live in a difficult time. As a nation we are faced with economic and national security challenges unlike any we have seen before. We must stay the course in Iraq and Afghanistan."

"I met Tony Stark for the first time a few years ago," McCain continued. "He was two hours late to a meeting with the Committee of the Armed Forces to discuss Stark Industries Research & Development projects. He brought with him five or six of what his assistant called 'Apology 'Bots,' which were these amazing new military robots, and each of them held a bottle of the '73 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay in their pincers. Senator Levin said, 'Tony, all you needed to do was send us a note,' and Tony grinned and said: 'Carl, I'm an American. I don't do anything halfway.'"

McCain smiled somberly at the anecdote. "My friends, Tony got it right. We must prevail in Afghanistan and Iraq, and this will be the focus of my presidential campaign."

Tony Stark has become a touchstone for the Democratic and Republican nominees since his disappearance in Afghanistan on January 27 of this year. Initial search efforts for the billionaire weapons manufacturer proved fruitless, and over the past two weeks resources have been diverted and the operation reassigned to the Joint Special Operations Command based out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

The Stark scion has many friends in Washington, but not even sixty years of history between his family and the Washington political machine can produce enough goodwill to keep an entire task force running on fumes. But the politicians aren't Stark's only allies.

"Stark saved my life," says Army Captain Timothy Pohlinjiuk, home on medical leave from his third tour in Afghanistan. The soldier has a Purple Heart from each deployment. Originally from Glendale, Arizona, Pohlinjiuk attended the McCain press conference to meet his home state senator and Republican presidential nominee for a photo opportunity. "I was wearing the body armor Stark designed," Pohlinjiuk explained. "Tougher than Kevlar and about 70% lighter. I would have been dead if not for that armor. Those vests saved a bunch of my buddies who are still over there, too. It's only been six weeks. There's no way the guys in the 'Stan are giving up on Stark."

Prior to his abduction, Stark was a divisive figure. He's been called a genius, a war profiteer, a playboy, and most famously the 'Merchant of Death,' a throwback to Alfred E. Nobel who bore the same unfortunate moniker until funding Nobel Prizes to improve his image. Since the attack in January that made him one of the few American civilians captured in the War on Terror, Stark has become a dynamic and sympathetic figure on the political stage. McCain spoke about Stark again at the end of his speech. "I still haven't opened that bottle of Chardonnay," he commented. "I'll open it when Tony gets back."

"Hi, You," says Pepper quietly as she sits down on the couch of the workshop's living area. She has brought her laptop and her dinner down to the basement. The upstairs is quiet but for the waterfall and she finds that sitting at her customary spot at the kitchen counter isn't quite the same when AC/DC isn't blaring up from the shop.

The robot rolls over to her obediently, awaiting instructions. Pepper wonders idly if the robots get bored without their creator to verbally abuse them.

"You up, JARVIS?"

"Yes, Ms. Potts," the AI replied promptly. "What can I do for you?"

Pepper is struck by an idea. She digs into the bag she had carried down with her and retrieves a somewhat misshapen coin.

("Just a piece of metal, Potts, not a big deal," Tony had said with a grin, spinning the literally too-precious-to-be-handled coin on her desktop. "Happy and I decided to use it when we were doing a little precision driving this afternoon.")

The coin is an 1804 silver dollar, a coin that had been worth actual millions of dollars until Tony had flattened it with the Tesla.

("Here, have it. My gift to you. Don't spend it all in one place.")

"JARVIS, can you have the bots hammer and drill this into a ring, please?"

There's a two-second pause. "Certainly, Ms. Potts. What size ring would you prefer?"

Pepper looks down at her own hands. "Six, please."

"Commencing fabrication process. Estimated completion time, thirty minutes."

"Would you mind slowing it down a little, JARVIS? I'm going to be up for a while, I don't mind the noise."

"Of course, Ms. Potts. I will set the process at quarter-time."

"Thank you," says Pepper after a moment, handing off the scorched and misshapen coin to You, who reaches out and plucks it out of her fingers with surprising dexterity and a few beeps.

("I told you, I was inspired by R2-D2. I was going to have him talk in binary and everything, but it just... took way too long.")

The shop rumbles to life. She finds the hum of the machines is comforting. Tony could be back there right now, keeping an eye on Dummy or maintaining the drill press or sulking because she vetoed Black Sabbath.

Pepper glances down at her dinner. She had picked up sushi and edamame before coming over, and looking at the spread she realizes that she had grabbed two sets of chopsticks instead of just one.

Something goes cold inside her chest and she suddenly doesn't feel like eating very much at all.

Not responsible for Stark abduction, al-Qaeda claims

By JAMES KEEGAN

Published: March 27, 2008

BAGRAM, Afghanistan - The video is only one minute, twenty-four seconds long, but it takes just twenty seconds to fuel the fires of conspiracy that surround the disappearance of Anthony Stark.

"By the grace of Allah," says a masked man, speaking first in Arabic and then repeating his words in Pashto, "The bones of the murdering, godless infidel Tony Stark are rotting, his body corrupted by the Western hedonism and filth that he embraced. Al- Qaeda rejoices in our knowledge that the capture of Tony Stark was Allah's divine justice, the punishment for those who pit themselves against Allah and His followers. Al-Qaeda wishes only to have murdered the unbeliever, to cut off his hands and his feet and leave his body for the unclean creatures to devour. But al-Qaeda does not have Tony Stark, and rejoices daily that the murderer is burning in one thousand hells, for one thousand lifetimes."

The video also shows clips of insurgents training in unmarked caves and is similar to footage released in the past. But the comments about Anthony Stark are the focus of the video, and if true, the revelation is shocking. Al-Qaeda and its Taliban allies has thus far been the primary suspects in the capture of the missing billionaire. For a terrorist organization like al-Qaeda to admit that no, they did not have a hand in one of the most high-profile events of the entire Afghanistan War is downright bizarre, and leads to more even more questions.

"No group has taken responsibility," said CNN contributor Stacy Pynchon. "And now al-Qaeda comes out and admits they don't have him either. What happened to Tony Stark? Could the terrorist angle just be a front? Could the abduction in Afghanistan have been a red herring?"

The idea of a 'Citizen Stark' scenario is outlandish, but provocative. There are many more questions than answers. Why did Stark leave the testing site before the generals he went to the Kunar province to see? Was it a planned attack that targeted Stark specifically?

"I don't care why, who, or what at this point," said Air Force Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes, military liaison to Stark Industries and a friend of over twenty years to Mr. Stark. "All I care is where he is and when we can get him back."

Lt. Col. Rhodes requested special permission from the Pentagon and the Air Force Special Operations Command to stay in Afghanistan and continue the search alongside the task force assigned by the Joint Special Operations Command. An Air Force ROTC graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Class of 1990), Lt. Col. Rhodes was roommates with Mr. Stark for two years and is the billionaire's oldest friend. His dogged persistence has kept the Air Force-led search effort alive over the past four weeks despite increasing resistance from his superiors.

"So al-Qaeda doesn't have him," said Lt. Col. Rhodes, sounding unimpressed. "We already knew that. A very different video would have hit CNN back in January if al-Qaeda had him. All this means is that Tony is still out there, and I'm going to find him."

Stark Industries interim CEO Obadiah Stane had only a brief comment. "I have known Rhodes since he and Tony were at school," said the man who is also Mr. Stark's godfather. "I have every confidence in him."

Jane Coupling and Brandon Murphy contributed to this report.

"Pepper, I'd like you to be my assistant," says Obadiah thoughtfully. They're in his office, and Pepper had dropped by over lunch to drop off two vendor contracts that had been sent to Tony's office by mistake.

The words hang there and Pepper wonders if maybe she misheard, or maybe it's a joke...?

"I'm serious," said the interim CEO. "It's been two months. I'm just thinking about your future."

Pepper finds herself twisting the ring on her index finger, the ring made from Tony's folly and by Tony's robots. "Mr. Stane, I'm flattered, but..."

"You're invaluable," Obadiah interrupts. "Don't think I don't realize that I have you to thank for practically every good decision Tony made over the past ten years. I don't want a headhunter to get you."

"That's exaggeration, Mr. Stane," said Pepper quickly, the thump-thump of her pulse beginning to pick up speed in her ears. "But, I... Sir, I think it's premature to discuss alternate working situations at this time."

Obadiah stares at her intently for a few moments, and there's something in his eyes then that makes her a little uncomfortable in a way that all of Tony's inappropriate jokes and barely-disguised leers never did.

"Of course," the interim CEO says after a moment. "Yes, of course you're right. Your loyalty is admirable, Ms. Potts."

Pepper nods. "Is there anything else, Mr. Stane?"

He looks away, reaches for the cigar box on his desk and retrieves an Altadis' Behike and a gold-plated guillotine cigar cutter. "That's all," he says after a moment. "Thank you."

Pepper leaves his office feeling unsettled. It's not until she sits down at her own desk that she realizes why. If Tony never returns-if one day they take his name off the side of the building, or they remove the "interim" from Obadiah's title, that day will be her last.

'We won't give up on Stark,' searchers say

By Perry Moynihan

April 14, 2008

ASADABAD, Afghanistan - The task force that mobilized in January with over 200 soldiers, airmen, and marines has dwindled down to about 30. Comprised of Special Forces operators from the Army, Navy, and Air Force, the men now assigned to find Tony Stark are the best of the best.

"What is it that Kranz says in 'Apollo 13?'" asks an anonymous Pararescue Jumper ("PJ"), a member of the Air Force's most elite Special Forces. "He says 'failure is not an option.' We've got no body, no video, no anything. We're not giving up."

Air Force Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes echoes his men's conviction. "I've known Tony since he was fourteen," says the man whose day job is military liaison to Stark Industries. "He's my best friend. I will not give up on him."

In the sixty-five days since Stark went missing during an insurgent attack on his military convoy, the initial optimism that he would be recovered has gradually disappeared.

"It's a lost cause," says an executive at Stark Industries, who commented under a condition of anonymity. "We all know it. At some point we have to live in the real world."

"The thing is, no one really has any idea what happened to him," says a sergeant with a Ranger tab on his shoulder. "Maybe he escaped and he's living off the land. Maybe he built himself some kind of crazy weapon or something. Who knows? Stark builds bombs for a living, for Christ's sake. Stranger things have happened."

Could Tony Stark have survived the harsh Afghan winter with just his wits and the clothes off his back (reportedly, a $7,500 navy pinstripe Fioravanti)? Could he have sustained himself like a modern-day Robinson Crusoe?

"No," says former SEAL and Gulf War veteran Marshall Donner, who served from 1989-1997. "It's just not possible," he adds flatly. "The best training in the world doesn't keep you alive in Afghanistan for two months, and definitely not when you're worth a billion dollars and you were born with ten silver spoons in your mouth. Sorry."

Perhaps it is foolishly romantic to imagine Tony Stark living in the Afghan wild, using whatever tools available to him á la an episode of "MacGyver." But the idea is infectious. Over the past two months, websites and forums devoted to Stark have cropped up, with members claiming to have spotted Stark all over the world. One such website is "Where in the World is Tony Stark?" (), which collects these stories.

"My brother is stationed in Japan," a poster named 'StarkMad' insists. "He was on leave in Okinawa and he saw this guy in a really slick suit, wearing sunglasses and he had Stark's goatee. These Japanese tourists were surrounding him, and the guy grinned and then walked off as soon as he saw my brother looking. My brother says it was definitely Tony."

Stark has become something of a cause célèbre among conspiracy theorists. "They just found a huge mass grave in Mazar-i-Sharif," writes a post on , a conspiracy website. "It had like a hundred bodies that they supposedly haven't identified. Are we really supposed to believe that has nothing to do with Stark? Mazar-i-Sharif is only like, 250 miles away from where they want us to believe Stark was captured" (the grave in question was just discovered on April 12, 2008, and the bodies are assumed to be victims of the Taliban).

"If Stark is really dead-and that's a big 'if,'" says another anonymous commenter, "then it was definitely a hit. I would bet a million dollars that Raytheon or Hammer Industries or something put out a hit on him. I mean, it's barely a competition in the defense industry with Stark Industries in the mix. What better way to kill your competitor than to literally kill your competitor?"

The Special Forces operators get angry when they hear the theories. "Eleven airmen died in that attack, and at least eight more are still at Walter Reed," says a scruffy-faced soldier with no rank insignia or unit identifiers. "The airmen in that convoy did everything they could to protect Stark. And we're going to do everything we can to get him back."

Even if that means all they're seeking is a body? "Yes," says Lt. Col. Rhodes, who interrupts before the soldier can respond. to the question. "Even if Tony is gone," Rhodes continues. "I'll do whatever it takes to bring my friend home."

It's a Monday, and Pepper is in a bar.

It's not the first time. As an integral part of Tony Stark's entourage, weekday barhopping is unavoidable. But it's eight o'clock on a Monday night, and she has no work to do and no boss to clean up after, and she's sitting on a bar stool like a sixty year old man who just got laid off.

"Want another, sweetheart?"

The bartender is a late twenty-something with artfully arranged hair and a lot of hemp bracelets. He doesn't recognize her, because she's wearing jeans and an old UCLA sweatshirt and she's never felt more pathetic.

("I'm glad you're dressed down, Pepper... but I gotta say, I was honestly hoping for something a little more Jean Harlow 'comfortable...'")

"No thank you," says Pepper, waiting one beat too long. "I'm fine."

"Yes, you are," says a male voice to her left that startles Pepper so badly she nearly spills what's left of her vodka cranberry.

She looks up to see a coed grinning at her, his Pepperdine tee shirt stretched a little too tightly over muscles she's pretty sure are grace á steroids.

"Can I buy you a drink? Of course I can," says the boy, flashing his Amex Black at her as he slides the card to the bartender to open a tab. "I'm Jeff, by the way."

("Classy," Tony would quip. "Poor guy. Credit cards are so passé.")

"I'm just leaving," says Pepper quickly, but it's too late, Amex Jeff has sat down beside her.

"So, you come here often?"

"Only when my boss is 7000 miles away in a cave somewhere," said Pepper flatly, standing up and pushing a twenty towards the bartender.

"Yeah, totally," says Jeff, nodding his head like he gets it. "I'm working on my master's, by the way," he continues. "I mean, academic work is so mentally draining. But for me, my boss is my mind. And he never goes on vacation, you know?"

("I can't wait to use that line someday," Tony would cackle. "That is a good line. That line will work. Pepper, would that line work on you? Be honest.")

"Yes, very difficult," Pepper agrees, waiting for the bartender to hand over her change.

"People don't really understand," Jeff continues. "Intelligence is a burden, you know? I have to do my part for society."

("I like this guy, Potts. I feel like he understands me. I can empathize with him. Hire him immediately.")

"So, have you read Nietzsche?"

"I think so, wasn't it on Oprah's Book Club?" Pepper responds brightly, eyes latching on to the bartender returning with her six dollars and change.

Jeff gives a hearty laugh. "Not quite. Nietzsche is a famous philosopher. I'm writing my thesis on him. You know, the Übermensch. Maybe I could show you sometime."

The bartender leaves her six bucks, Pepper leaves him a dollar, and then turns to Jeff. "Ihr habt den Weg vom Wurme zum Menschen gemacht, und vieles ist in euch noch Wurm," she says solemnly, and the small part of her that likes to pick wings off of flies rejoices in the startled expression in the boy's eyes.

("I'll show you my worm, all right," Tony would drawl at her. "Thus spake Stark.")

Jeff mumbles "nice German" right as he realizes that Pepper is leaving, and then gives her a sour look before turning away.

The walk to her car seems to take a long time, and in her jeans and scuffed Converse and hoodie, Pepper realizes that not just her boss is in a cave 7000 miles away. Something undefinable, some essential piece of her, is with Tony. And she is afraid she will never get it back.

Notes

Languages

German: Ihr habt den Weg vom Wurme zum Menschen gemacht, und vieles ist in euch noch Wurm. (You have made your way from worm to man, and much of you is still worm.) This is a famous quote from Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zarathustra.

People

Some of the people mentioned in this chapter are real. A full list below:

Pete Geren (Secretary of the Army); Carl (Carl Levin, senator and Chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee); Alfred E. Nobel (inventor of dynamite and the original "Merchant of Death"); Kranz (Gene Kranz, NASA flight director of Apollo 13); Fioravanti (William Fioravanti, a famous custom tailor in Manhattan);

Events

March 5, 2008 - Sen. John McCain did become the presumptive Republican presidential nominee on this date.

April 12, 2008 - A mass grave of Taliban victims really was discovered in Mazar-i-Sharif.

Miscellaneous

The 1973 Chardonnay from California vineyard Chateau Montelena is one of the most famous and most expensive vintages in the world. In 1976, it won a blind taste test competition against leading French wines which became known as the "Judgement of Paris."

The 1804 silver dollar is called the "King of Coins" by the Smithsonian.

"...to cut off his hands and his feet" refers to verse 5:33 of the Qu'ran, which states: "The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter."

Altadis' Behike cigars are luxury cigars that cost around $450.00 each.