Hey sorry I made a couple of changes to this chapter- nothing major. Just little stuff to make the overall story work better. Again sorry! Didn't mention it last time- but all characters and everything does NOT belong to me. Also hope someone out there enjoys this story. Say something if you want. If not its cool
It took them nearly two months to get all their 'pieces' set up.
The biggest player now was the man who took over after Howard Stark died his number two- Obadiah Stane. Stane was a King in Tony's game- he had great power, but limited by the old laws instilled by Howard and the police of the City knowing his name. Stane was vicious, where Howard delegated threats and bloodshed, Stane loved to take care of both himself. Stane was a big bald man, who before all this, Tony actually liked to some extent. Unlike Howard and Maria, Obadiah actually showed interest in Tony and his education. Obadiah was the one who got Tony his tutors and said congratulations when Tony got his high school diploma. But there was always a glint in Obadiah's eyes that reminded Tony too much of Howard's worst side. And when Howard and Maria were in the accident Obadiah only came with Tony to the hospital to make sure they were in the morgue. Obadiah, right after seeing the bodies, assured Tony 'Don't worry my boy I'll take good of the business. I know you never understood these things.' Obadiah's smile was more demented then any ever seen by Tony. Tony had just nodded his thanks as Obadiah walked away already making phone calls to assure his domination.
Another problem in the city was Hammer, Justin Hammer, the conniving little twerp that thought himself a god. To Tony he wasn't just a pawn, but the pawn. Hammer was easy to twist and bend. Hammer wanted the City and thought he had the brains to pull off taking it. Thing was, Hammer was an idiot that could easily be convinced people were working against them. Tony planned on convincing Hammer everyone was out to get him, the sit back and watch as Hammer took out any real threats to Pepper and him.
Then of course there were other crime families and gangs. Those that trafficked people or drugs or guns, each played a role in the City and each need to be taken over. Almost all of them were old and well established in the City, so Tony had no trouble planning how to play them for Pepper.
There was only one group that Tony was uncertain of- some organized gang lead by a freak wearing an eye patch from DC. But they had no place in the City, they only had scouts in the City watching to see what will happen next.
"So that's the Madam of Red, that girl!? What's her name- Potts right? She's the one that has control of everything North and West of the City? She's a child, she can't be the one in power, what about the man behind her, he has to be the power, she's what his secretary?" Obadiah watched as the tall thin young red head exited a limo followed by a shorter lean young man with a goatee. "This is wrong, who the hell are these kids?" Obadiah hissed at his underling, Jameson.
"Mr. Stane, those two are the Madam of Red and the Merchant of Death. The word is that they're very young and very dangerous. He's about eighteen and she's two years older. He's the muscle and she's the brains. He apparently can convince anyone into killing someone and then hands them the weapon. Of course he only works for her; where ever Miss. Potts goes, he goes. They are unstoppable; they're the second most powerful criminals in the City- possibly the East Coast. You're more powerful than them but sir, they're still a danger to us, and so we must tread carefully." At this Obadiah turned to glare dagger at his man but said nothing as the two approached, he instead chose to study them.
The girl walked ahead of the boy by two paces. She was tall and thin, rather gorgeous with long red hair pulled back into a neat loose bun. She wore a simple black dress under an open red trench coat, with tall stilletos that made her appear to tower even more over everyone. She held a demeanor of complete control and grace. Obadiah could respect that, but she was too young to be taken seriously. She was too innocent for this world.
On the other hand, the boy that followed her, not only seemed familiar, but he appeared to be an old soul that knew the world and therefor didn't trust it. He wore sunglasses and his dark red hoodie, so Obadiah could not see much of his face- other than a strange goatee. He walked behind the girl, but appeared just as confident as her. But unlike her, his face shared a look similar to an animal bearing its teeth in a protective threat- towards Obadiah and his men. Obadiah had a feeling that he was very much a merchant of death. 'Something to keep in mind to use against them.' Obadiah thought as they came to stand in front of him.
"Miss Potts." Obadiah extended his hand toward her.
"Mr. Stane." She replied crisply and she took his hand in a firm hand shake. He then turned to the boy next to her, Obadiah couldn't see his eyes behind the sunglasses but he could tell the boy was assessing him critically. The boy did not take Obadiah's hand and Miss Potts interrupted, "Ignore him Mr. Stane, our business does not involve him."
He returned his attention to her, forgetting the foolish boy and focused on playing the girl to get what he wanted. "Please Miss. Potts call me Obadiah."
"Thank you but I believe its best since this is a business matter that we stay formal."
"Very well Miss Potts, shall we go inside and discuss territory and product distribution?"
She nodded and followed Stane into his building.
As they followed Stane up to his penthouse, Tony watched everything he did, assessing Obadiah and trying to figure out how he would attempt to schmooze Pepper into giving him all he wanted.
When they reached the top, drinks were offered and the discussion began.
Tony splayed himself across the rich crème couch with his head lying on Pepper's lap. To all outward appearances, Tony looked like a bored idiot that understood nothing going on around him, and Pepper resembled a child pretending to act like an adult- she appeared to not understand everything Obadiah was speaking of.
Obadiah couldn't restrain from smirking as he spoke with these children, 'they are truly out of their depths'
The Russian imported the chemicals used by Stane's cooks in the labs to make the pharmaceuticals. And lately, Stane had been shortened by the Russians and on the street there had been whispers of different product, leading Stane to the conclusion that he Russians were trying to cut into his business. So Stane, needing weapons and a guarantee of territory that only distributed his product, called for this meeting with the youngest power player in the City- the Madam of Red.
By the end of their meeting, the Madam of Red had agreed to provide him with his needed weapons and territory in exchange for truce in which Stane would not order his men to arms against the Madam of Red.
'The only thing I want Mr. Stane is your personal guarantee that you won't decide to use my weapons against me the moment the Russians are gone.' Pepper had said sweetly.
Stane had eagerly agreed not actually meaning it but also not worrying about it now either. "This was an excellent evening Miss Potts, Mister…" Obadiah dropped off hoping the boy would finish with a name, but no such luck.
After the meeting Tony and Pepper went back to her flat. She bought this new flat a month ago, when her organization began to rise in stature in the City. It looked over the river and got the setting sun through the living room windows. It had three bedrooms with on sweet baths, a kitchen, living room, dining room, and massive closets. Pepper loved the closet space, and Tony was happy that he could use one bedroom as a workshop for his machines and toys.
As they walked in, Pepper removed her shoes and Tony removed his sunglasses. "He thought us idiots. So demeaning."
"Basically, but who cares after he gets rid of the Russians, Hammer will be pissed and attack Obie's guys that work the Wharf."
"Can you be certain with Hammer, I mean the guy is psycho stupid."
"His ego guarantees that he'll retaliate because of the guns he got from the Russians, he wants to stay in their good graces to he can stand up to us."
"I don't think we should be playing with Stane, he's unstable and I don't like how he was looking at you."
"Pepper, I'll take care of him. Now we need to talk about our lovely drug mules."
"What about them?" Pepper asked as she sat down on the plush dark red couch. Tony looked over the kitchen island towards the couch and said "The Russians have been hitting them hard for almost two weeks; their labs are all but gone. I want them out so I had Happy make a deal with the Russians."
"Oh, that where Happy convinced them to sell weapons to Hammer?"
"That's the one. Happy gave them the addresses of all the labs in the City and outlying areas in exchange for them to work with Hammer. They have one major lab left and I just got word they're going to hit it tonight. So..." Tony dragged out the 'Sooo' as he came back into the living room carrying a bag of blueberries. He sat down next to Pepper and she placed her feet on his lap and stole a few berries.
"We need a new mad scientist."
"Why can't you do that? You'd be good and we wouldn't have to outsource."
He looked at her with surprise and sarcastic pride, and then replied with a smirk, "You're asking me, the guy who burns water. Yes, I fully understand chemistry, but understanding and doing are two completely different things. I can't cook. We need a real chemist, or in this case a physicist who happens to moonlight as a medical doctor and is an awesome chemist to boot!" Tony forward to reach for his tablet on the coffee table to hand to Pepper; opening a personal file, he handed it to Pepper.
"His name is Bruce Banner, brilliant guy, should've done more in his life but- well life got in his way. He apparently has some anger management issues that limit his ability to work in a stressful environment. I've read all his published work before he went underground a few years back. I think he's the perfect fit for our game."
Pepper took a minute to study this Banner guy's file, illegally obtained by the guy she currently had her feet resting on. "You want a guy with anger issues, that's probably as messed up as you to work in the extremely dangerous and stressful world of illegal pharmaceuticals?" She arched an eyebrow at Tony.
"Yep pretty much." Tony smiled at her. "He'd fit in well with us. And I think I'll want to keep him."
"You're making him sound more like your future pet rather than our future product manager."
"Same difference." Tony said waving his hand back and forth flippantly. "I think we should meet him quietly, just as you and me, not scary badass Queen and death's salesman."
"You know you could talk not about work if you wanted, you know."
"Yeah but if I start to talk I tend to never shut up." Tony smiled cheekily.
"You're really set on this guy aren't you?" She studies Tony closely for a moment. "Alright" she finally agrees, "We'll go, just you and me and meet this guy."
"Good cause I want to ambush him tomorrow when he's at lunch." They both smile at each other and then turn on the TV to see what movies are on.
Later that night, after Pepper has gone to bed, Tony sits at his work bench writing line after line of code for new pet project of his. He tries to focus on the lines of code, ignoring the urge to get a drink. 'I'm not him. I don't need it.' He whispered to himself balling his hands into fists.
Unable to focus any longer, Tony got up from his bench. He grabbed a jacket and left the flat, hoping a walking in the cold night air would get his mind off of liquor.
He ended up nearly forty minutes later in front of the hole in the wall diner he and Pepper first met at almost a year and a half ago. He figured why not go in, get some coffee, and maybe 'not think about the fact you are maybe an alcoholic.'
He opened the door with its little chime and went to the counter. He raised an eyebrow when instead of the old woman; a young black guy came over wearing an apron.
The young waiter was a tall well-built African American guy with short buzzed cut hair and dark brown eyes. He stood straight and confident even in the dingy diner. Though his clothes looked older, they appeared well cared for. Overall Tony thought this guy was an upstanding citizen.
"Hi, what can I get for you?"
"Where's the old lady that works here?"
"Maddie? She's sick with the flu. Been out all week- you know her?" James asks politely.
"I'll have a coffee. Who are you?"
"Alright, one coffee coming up." He turned around and reached for the coffee pot and grabbed a mug. Turning back to Tony he began to pour the coffee as he answered his customer's question. "I'm James Rhodes, just came back from my last deployment. And yourself?"
Ignoring the question, "You a soldier, what branch?"
Simply accepting his customer's refusal to answer, James replied "Air Force, Lieutenant Colonel, actually- well an honorable discharge Lieutenant Colonel now I guess." James smiled as he replaced the pot in the coffee machine and went to wipe the long counter.
"Discharged? What are you going to do now?" Tony really didn't care, but he was trying very hard to keep his mind off of anything else. He picks up a pen from the counter and starts sketching missile blueprints as he drinks his coffee and randomly asks about this James Rhodes guy.
"Well, I'm graduating the police academy in a month, but no money."
"You're not from the City originally are you?"
"No, why?"
"Cops here aren't worth much and they make practically nothing. You'd be better off moving along before this City eats you alive."
James stops what he's doing to look at his customer, trying to figure out what he meant by that comment. "Don't really have any other place I need to be and well at this point I just want to make a new home."
"You hit me as a stand-up guy, so I'm going to be straight with you- to survive in this City of Opportunity,' Tony said this sarcastically then continued more seriously, 'you need to be able to lean and bend boundaries. Can't be a stand-up guy and do well at the same time Rhodey." Tony smiled cheekily.
At first James wasn't sure if this kid was being serious or not, "Kid, I don't know where you got that from but everyone needs boundaries, lines they will not cross."
Tony looked pointedly at this guy, ignoring the 'kid' comment and said coldly, "Good for you, but tell me, if everyone around you is corrupt how long do you think you'll survive?"
"I'll do what I have to to survive kid." A silence hung around them after that for nearly an hour.
Eventually Tony broke the silence, "My name is Tony by the way."
James looked over towards him from the end of the still empty diner, "nice to meet you Tony."
"I have a question for you Rhodey,' James raised an eyebrow in expectation, 'what do you want?"
Rhodey looked at him in confusion. "You said you were in the police academy, so what do you want?"
Rhodey stopped a moment to think about the question, "well, I want to be a cop, I want to protect this City since I'm making it my home now."
"So you just want to be a cop and clean up the streets? Get rid of the drugs and stuff?"
Rhodey chuckled, "No Tony, drugs and crime are too deeply ingrained in any city to ever really get rid of completely. More like I want to keep the city safe- lessen the trouble that crime causes, I guess. Though to do that I'd probably have to become Chief of Police or something high up like such."
Tony found it interesting that Rhodey wasn't against crime- just limiting its effects on the City. "So, you want to rule this city- you want to be the Police Chief?"
Looking seriously at each other, Rhodey paused a moment to make sure he was certain then said sincerely, "Yes, I want to become the Police Chief of this city."
Tony smiled to himself 'a new piece to add, and one that will work well. Nice to have someone strong in the police.' And with this thought in mind, Tony raised his coffee to Rhodey and said "Hail to the Chief."