The Son of Iron Man
Some quick shout-outs before we begin:
Thank you to Johnwolf234 for suggesting a son/daughter of the character Lupos from my other story, Rise of the Cross-Species. That's a great idea, as far as I'm concerned… now all I need is a name. And to clarify for anyone who hasn't read that story, no it wasn't a weird love story between Peter and a naked wolf-man. Lupos, the wolf-man in question, started off as a science experiment in that story and quickly got some clothes, presumably from the place Hulk buys his: Indestructible Trousers R' Us. I can't remember whether I've actually written and published that part yet, but it does happen.
To OrangeEucalyptus I would like to give my thanks for your review. Personally, I'm not actually a fan of romantic stories. I don't mind it if it's a side-theme – this story may even have a splash of romance in it – but it appears your story is based entirely upon romance. I'm very sorry to say that it's really not my cup of tea. However, I do encourage anyone who does enjoy a bit of romance in their steamy beverage to have a look at it. If I'm wrong and it turns out to have an interesting plot, someone please inform me and I'll have a look.
Again, I apologise deeply for my lack of enthusiasm for what I'm sure is a great story for those who are interested in the genre. I hope this little note will help you on your way to being a great author.
Now to everyone:
Welcome back! In the last chapter, we met Toby Stark son of Tony Stark, endured a typical school day for him and then learned that the Invincible Iron Man has been injured for the last time and is planning to retire. What's more, Toby is due to take his place. Now, I'm sure you're as excited as I am to find out what happens next and just what Toby's new armour will be like. So, with no further ado, we begin!
Chapter Two: Mark I
"JARVIS, create a new project folder," Tony Stark said to his AI. Toby and Tony were in the latter's workshop, somewhere Toby was very rarely allowed to go. He looked around in wonder at all the advanced technology in the room, from the self-aware robotic hand to the half-finished suits that were scattered around.
"Wow!" he breathed.
"What would you like to call it, sir?" asked the synthetic upper-class voice of JARVIS, the AI of Stark Tower.
"How about Iron Kid?" Tony suggested, looking at Toby, who shook his head. "Fine, call it Iron Man 2."
"It is done, sir. Would you like to begin a new project?" JARVIS asked. Tony glanced at his son, marking the look of excitement on his face and savouring it.
"Yes. Call it Mark I." And so Toby's first suit design was created.
"Now," Tony said, sitting in a seat and swivelling round to face his son, who also sat in a similar seat. "Where do we begin? Are there any of my suit designs you want to use as a starting point?"
"Well, actually…" Toby began, looking around at the suits. "The MK. VI was one of my favourites."
"OK, then. JARVIS, bring up the designs for the Mark Six," Tony said, and a holographic screen opened up between the two showing the plans for the Mark VI suit. Tony immediately started to fiddle with the display, zooming it in and reminding himself of all the features. Toby sat idly watching as his father did what he did best. "So, we copy this and drag it onto your plan…" Tony said, dragging the whole design from one screen to another which opened up next to it. Toby pulled his chair next to his father, looking at the screen that was titled 'Mark One'.
"That should set up the key running components of the armour, but the weapons and thrusters might want updating. Any ideas, son?" Tony asked.
"Well the thrusters from the Mark II were probably some of your fastest. If we put some of those in the boots and perhaps simply keep the Mark VI's repulsors, I think that would work," Toby suggested.
"It wasn't the thrusters that made the Mark II fast; it was the lack of extra weight. However, if we factor in that your suit will weigh less than mine because you're not as heavy then the Mark II thrusters would probably be the best here. Good idea, Toby," Tony explained.
"Thanks," Toby said as his father pulled up a menu of past components and dragged the correct thrusters into the design.
"Naturally the suit will run on Vibranium and you'll have JARVIS installed," Tony said as he worked. "I hope you're paying attention; the next one's going to be all yours."
"I am, dad," Toby said truthfully. He really found this fascinating.
"Now, the original Mark VI had one-use wrist-lasers and a small complement of pod-missiles. We'll put on the upgraded laser system…" he dragged the Mark VII's lasers onto the wrists of the design, "but we'll probably have to keep the missiles the same. Anything else you'd like?"
"Sounds good to me. There's always the Mark II for anything else I want to add in," Toby said.
"Now you're thinking like a genius," Tony grinned. "So, we'll make the whole thing out of a gold/titanium alloy, as always. How would you like it to activate?"
"I'm sorry?" Toby questioned.
"Some of my suits fly to me, others unfold from a suitcase or something. What would you like yours to do?" Tony clarified. Toby thought about it for a moment before answering. It would have to be something easily concealed that could be activated quickly, of course.
"Can you make it a watch? Would that work?" he asked.
"It'll take some changes to the design, but I think I could make that work," Tony said with a grin. "Hey, perhaps I could get it to actually tell the time." Father and son shared a chuckle before Tony got to work.
Come the afternoon, the designs were complete and Tony, Toby and JARVIS were working on building the suit, with a little help from Dummy the robotic arm. When night fell, Toby and Tony wanted to stay up and work on the suit, but Pepper disagreed.
"You've still got school on Monday," she had said to Toby, who frowned and looked at his father for support.
"You'd better do as your mother says, Toby," he said, much to Toby's dismay. And so the first day came to an end.
The next morning, Tony Stark walked into his workshop to find Toby poring over the designs. The finished helmet looked up at the boy, lifeless, as he scratched his chin thoughtfully.
"You're up early," Tony said, surprising his son.
"Sorry dad, I'm just so excited!" Toby said.
"As well you should be, but don't forget that being Iron Man is a big responsibility. You need to keep people safe, as well as balancing your normal life with your life as a superhero. As well as being a billionaire, genius, playboy philanthropist like your father, you've still got school, and I don't want you messing up there," Tony warned his son.
"There's no chance of that happening," Toby said with a smug grin.
"I know, but your mum told me to say that. Now, let's play with dangerous machinery!" Both Toby and Tony cheered.
"You know," Toby said after a few minutes of working. "When I was looking at the designs for the armour I had an idea."
"What's that, son?" Tony asked as he twisted a screwdriver into the gauntlet on Toby's arm.
"Your Mark 7 suit had thrusters in the back which helped it go faster. Could we put those in this one?" he suggested.
"Probably not. If we add all that extra surface area it'll never fit in the watch, so you'll have to make a choice which feature you prefer," Tony answered.
"Hmm…" Toby muttered thoughtfully. "Maybe we'll leave the extra thrusters for the Mark II."
"Good idea." Tony agreed before continuing to work on the suit.
Later that afternoon, Toby's mobile phone began to ring. He left his dad butting the final touches to his suit and stepped out of the room a moment before answering to hear Ben's voice.
"Hey, Toby, you want to come round my place for a bit?" he asked. "Great Aunt May's here and she's cooking!"
"Sounds great, Ben, but I can't come around today, I'm afraid," Toby said.
"Why not?" Ben asked sadly.
"Because dad and I are building my new suit," Toby said.
"Your new suit?" Ben asked, excitement creeping into his voice. "You don't mean…?"
"I do," Toby said, allowing his own excitement to show. "I'm going to become Iron Man."
"Congratulations!" Ben said. "I wish that would happen to me."
"I might one day," Toby consoled his friend. "Anyway, I'd better go if I want to finish this thing tonight. See you at school!"
An hour later, Tony Stark was looking at a slightly smaller version of his suit, and from behind its shining blue eye-slits looked back his son. In that moment, as Tony looked at his son, he felt prouder than he ever had before.
"Well, son," he said, fighting back his emotions, "let's test this new suit of yours out." He then put on a suit of his own and stood side-by side with Toby.
Inside his new suit, Toby examined all the displays of his HUD and saw the face of his father in the bottom-right.
"Let's go!" he said excitedly. "Wait, how do we go?"
"JARVIS will do most of the thruster work himself, so all you need to do is steer," Tony replied.
"And how do I do that?"
"Well, I just lean in the direction I want to go, most of the time. You'll get used to it, and perhaps more importantly JARVIS will," Tony explained. "Now, let's fly." He squatted slightly and fired up his thrusters before hovering in the air and positioning himself for the door. "Meet you out there." He then leant forward and flew out the door, leaving Toby to struggle with his technology.
"How do I hover, again?" he asked himself.
"I recommend using 1% thruster capacity, sir," answered the voice of JARVIS.
"Ah, thanks, JARVIS," Toby said. "Wait, one percent?"
"Your thrusters are powerful tools, sir," JARVIS answered simply.
"OK, if you say so," Toby said, setting the thrust capacity to 1%.
"Would you like assistance during this flight, sir?" JARVIS offered.
"Yes," Toby said without a second thought. As he started to hover, he then angled himself forward, stabilising himself with the repulsors in his hands. Automatically, the thruster capacity in his lower left vision started to increase and he started moving forward.
"Woah!" he exclaimed as he started to rocket forward. "Slow down!" But he kept moving forward. As the glass wall approached up ahead, he tried desperately to turn away, but there was nowhere to run he closed his eyes as he crashed painlessly through the window and flew out into the sky. He pulled up immediately for fear of crashing into a building and started to hover. Tony came up beside him and opened up a communication channel.
"Should probably have taught you the best way out. If your mother asks, Thor came back," he said, eliciting a chuckle.
"What now?" Toby asked.
"Whatever you want! Just try to get a feel for the armour first; then perhaps we could have a race or two," Tony suggested.
"You'd win that easily," Toby said.
"You're probably right, but you could give me a good competition."
"If I can ever master this," Toby muttered.
"You'll never master it. Even I haven't mastered it, but with JARVIS' help you should be pretty good at this before we have to head back," Tony said. "I'm going to head back to the helipad and watch you for a while; just see where the suit takes you." And with that, Tony did as he said and watched his son from Stark Tower's 'S' shaped helipad.
"OK," Toby said to himself as he hovered shakily about New York City. He leant forward and started to rocket in that direction before attempting some turns. After about half an hour of flight, he opened a communication channel with his dad. "I'm getting pretty good at this!" he said happily.
"You can fly, yes…" Tony said. "But can you land?" Toby's face immediately went white.
"Well," he said nervously. "There's only one way to find out, I guess."
"Be careful. It's not as easy as it looks, and I don't want you smashing up my helipad," Tony warned. Toby nodded and headed toward the tower, and adequate flier now but far from the skill of his father. He still felt a fear akin to that which came with riding a rollercoaster, but that would wear off eventually. As he neared the tower, the airbrakes on the suit engaged, slowing him down along with the decrease in thruster power. He turned to hover above the helipad and looked down at his father, whose faceplate was raised so he could see Toby try to land.
"OK, JARVIS, decrease thruster power to 1%," Toby instructed. "Slowly," he added as an afterthought. He had found that, while 1% thruster power had been enough for him to hover a few inches off the ground, hovering elsewhere required a higher percentage and 1% brought him down quickly.
Toby lowered himself to the ground slowly, until his thrusters were at 1% capacity and he was hovering.
"Right. JARVIS, deactivate thrusters," he said.
"Right away, sir," JARVIS said, and with a jolt Toby hit the ground.
"Well done!" Tony said, but it wasn't over yet. Toby started to stumble before falling over backwards.
"Ouch," Toby said as he pushed himself back up. Once he stood, he lifted his faceplate to reveal a huge grin. "I think I'm ready!" he said.
"Not yet," Tony said with a serious tone. "You still have a lot of training to go, and I know just the partner for you to do it with."
"A partner?" Toby asked, an excited smile lighting up his face. "Who?"
"You'll find out after school tomorrow," Tony said with a wink. "In the meantime, what do you say to a race?"
"You're on," Toby said, lowering his faceplate with a metallic clink. "Last one to the Baxter Building is a rusty suit!" He then took off shakily, leaving his father to watch for a moment before snapping his own faceplate down and shooting after Toby. He would make a fine Iron Man – with training.
That's the end of chapter two! In the next chapter, we'll see who this mysterious partner is. It's possible you guys could guess, but for those of you who can't… well, I guess you'll just have to wait and see.