DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ANY OF THE CHARATCERS APPEARING IN THIS WORK!
Note: Hey, IU10 here with another chapter in Infinite Iron Man! Please review and vote on the poll on my account.
INFINITE IRON MAN
Iron Forged In Fire Part II
CRUNCH! CRUNCH!
Tony Stark took his first steps into freedom. He stood unmoving for a few seconds, letting his eyes adjust to the intense sun. When he could finally focus again he noticed he was surrounded on all sides by armed Vietnamese terrorists.
Tony sighed and then spoke for the first time since his friend and savior, Ho Yinsen, had been killed, "So, are you going to make this easy or hard?" And on cue all of the men fired their assault rifles.
"I see. Hard it is, then." Tony Stark lifted his arms up and began to fire the two flamethrowers on each of his armored wrists.
Tony held his breath, trying not to smell or taste burnt flesh. After he knew the deed was finished he began walking down the mountain prison he had been stuck in for almost two weeks now.
Suddenly, a man, Wong Chu, walked out from behind a rock, and fired a rocket launcher. Tony lifted up his armored arm and used it as a shield. The force of the explosion rocketed him backwards. When he hit the ground he heard a pop and felt immense pain in his arm. "Damnit!"
"You will not leave here alive, Stark!" Wong Chu screamed as he dropped the rocket launcher on the ground and pulled an assault rifle from over his shoulder and began to fire it at Tony.
Tony struggled like a turtle on its shell to stand up as he was pelted with bullets. After he finally did stand he held out his hand and fired his repulsor at Wong Chu, who was sent flying by the concussive blast.
"Time to test flight…" Tony took a deep breath, preparing himself for what he knew could be his last act. The repulsors on his hands and feet began to glow and in a burst of light he rocketed into the air.
"Yes. Yes! YES!" Tony flew through the air for a few seconds, already far away from his mountain prison. Suddenly, he started to plummet to the ground, the repulsors having not been able to keep up the amount of force needed to hold his armor up for longer than a few seconds, "No. No! NO!"
He hit the ground with a SMACK! The armor thankfully cushioned his fall. Tony began to rip off, piece by piece, the armor until he was laying in a swamp in nothing but boxers and a white tank top.
He pushed himself off the ground and began to trudge through the mucky water. It took hours of walking and almost dying of exhaustion but Tony managed to find a town.
The townspeople were nice and took him in. They let him sleep, and when he woke up they fed him. Then they fixed his arm in a leaf sling. After that Tony asked for a phone call. The town leader was the only one with a phone but he gave him it.
And Tony called Pepper, who called Rhodey, who called the army, who picked up Tony.
And exactly 24 hours after the call, Tony had just landed in San Diego, California.
The plane's hatch opened and out stepped Tony Stark. His right arm was in a sling, but other than that and a few scratches he was unscathed.
Pepper and Rhodey stood at the bottom of the hatch. Rhodey ran up to help Tony down and Pepper just took a deep breath and tried to keep the tears in.
When Tony reached Pepper he looked at her and smiled, "So, how's your little vacation been?"
Pepper sighed, despite going through hell the past couple of weeks Tony still had it in him to joke around, "It…it wasn't so great. I prefer work."
"Good, because vacation time is over. Call for a press conference now," Tony got into the limo that was waiting for him.
"Wait, what?" Pepper asked, unsure of if she heard her boss correctly.
"Call a press conference. Vacation's over. It's time to get to work," Tony looked at his chaffeur, bodyguard and friend, Happy Hogan, and said, "Hogan, take me to Stark Industries…on second thought, Stark Industries can come later. Take me to Burger King…or McDonalds. Whichever's closer. I've been gone for two weeks and I am in the mood for an old-fashioned American cheeseburger."
And so, two Big Macs and one Coke later Tony Stark arrived at Stark Industries headquarters, where reporters were already swarming around, waiting to get an interview with the world's most expensive abductee.
Tony exited the limo and Happy Hogan pushed all of the reporters away who tried to get to the genius playboy.
When he got inside the building, Tony was yet again greeted by his assistant/secretary Pepper Potts.
"Are you sure about this?" Pepper asked, expecting a sarcastic joking response from her boss. But she was surprised when he said, "Pepper, I'm more ready than I've ever been. Being over there –seeing the things I've made to help being used to hurt—I now know what I'm going to do with my life, with my company. I am ready."
Pepper just stood there, shocked, as Tony walked in front of the podium, followed by the reporters. Tony sat down and then said, "Hey! Uh, everyone, please just sit down. This way you can see me and I can see you…and it's more casual."
All of the reporters awkwardly sat down and looked at Tony expectantly.
Tony took a deep breath and began, "When I was over there…in Vietnam…kidnapped by those terrorists, I saw Stark Industries' weapons, my weapons, being used to hurt the very people they were meant to protect. I saw the world in a new light. And I had an epiphany. I now know what I'm going to do with myself and my company…starting today, Stark Industries will no longer be creating weapons. Instead…" His voice was drowned out by all the reporters at once asking questions.
"What exactly happened over there?"
"How'd you escape?"
"What do you mean 'no more weapons?'"
"Do you realize how much your stock will drop if you follow through with this?"
Tony took another deep breath and stood up, "Everyone, shut up!"
And at once everyone got quiet again.
"Stark Industries is not going to go down the drain; Stark Industries will not start making useless items like glow-in-the-dark watches. Stark Industries will begin focusing on this-" Tony opened up his jacket and pointed at the miniature Arc Reactor in his chest, "Starting today, Stark Industries will relook into Arc Reactor technology. And starting today, Stark Industries is no longer Stark Industries. My company is now known as Stark Resilient."
And yet again the reporters all started to shout their questions, with no one actually able to even hear themselves talk.
Somewhere in Vietnam
"Wong Chu!" The now severely burned Vietnamese terrorist was shaking, scared for his life.
"Yes, master…" Wong Chu bowed to his master, The Mandarin.
"What happened?" The Mandarin shouted, standing up from his stone throne and exposing his figure to the light. The Mandarin was extremely tall and thin. But despite this, you could see definition under his large green and gold robes. He had a short black beard and his hair hung down over his shoulders.
"I…I do not know! The man…Stark…he built an armor…an invincible armor…" Wong Chu forced back tears.
"Is that any excuse? Five men are dead, a dozen seriously injured, and our best hope of finding the Ten Rings and taking over Asia escaped! All we succeeded in doing is killing off his petty partner!" The Mandarin pulled out a sword from beneath his robes and held it to Wong Chu's neck, "This is your fault! Give me one reason to not end your pathetic life now."
Wong Chu looked up at his master, and pulled a piece of metal about six inches long out of his jacket…this particular piece of metal was shaped like a mask...
"My lord, my master, we have found his armor. He left it in a town not far from here…" Wong Chu began to pray, hoping that this would be enough to survive The Mandarin's wrath. His prayer was answered.
The Mandarin pulled the sword away from Wong Chu's neck and snatched the iron mask out of his hands.
"Wong Chu, your perseverance has saved your life today, for you have done very well. Very, very well indeed. Bring me the rest of his armor…we have much to discuss…" And with that the Mandarin sat back in his throne and examined first the mask in his hands, and then the ten tattoos on his fingers, each shaped like a ring…
Stark Tower, California
"Do you know what you've done?" Obadiah Stane, CEO of Advanced Idea Mechanics and Tony Stark's business partner, growled, "This doesn't just affect Stark Industries…"
"Stark Resilient," Tony corrected.
"Stark Industries, Stark Resilient, whatever! Tony, this doesn't just affect you; this affects me and everyone you work with! We make weapons; it's how we succeed! It's what your father and I did before you and it's what we do now!" Obadiah turned away from Tony, to angry to even look at him.
"Obie…listen…when I was over in Vietnam…" Tony began.
Obadiah interrupted the 21-year-old billionaire, "Stop talking! I've heard this shit already from Pepper!" Stane took a deep breath, turned to Tony and began again, "You need to listen to me, Tony. If you do this you're stock will drop forty points minimum. If you do this, AIM's stock will drop almost as much, and we're not even part of this! HAMMER, OsCorp, and every other weapon manufacturers in the world's stock drops because we deal with you…and because…and because you are the best. Stark Resilient is always at the top of the charts."
Tony sighed, looked at his feet, and then looked back up at Obadiah, "I know all this…and frankly I don't care, because I know this will pay off. The Arc Reactor technology will be a huge success! Imagine, an entire city powered for centuries by…"
"…A glowing blue ball the size of your fist…yes, I remember the slogan. But Tony, you and I both agreed that the technology couldn't go any further. I don't know what that thing above your heart is, but I know it's not Arc Reactor tech. Arc Reactor tech is dead," Obadiah's cheeks went from bright red to a normal shade of pale pink, "Tony, just think about it."
"That's the point, Obie," Tony looked down at his cotton shirt, where a faint blue glow surfaced just above his heart, "I finally have. For once in my life I didn't rush into something. This is what I'm doing. This is who I am."
Obadiah began to walk off, "You're going to make some serious enemies, Tony."
Tony clenched his fists, "Damn you, Obie…damn you…"
Two Weeks Later, Tony Stark's Private Underground Lab
Tony tapped one of his hands against his worktable repeatedly; a glowing blue hologram in front of him displayed his Mark II Armor designs. He finally stopped tapping, took a deep breath, and said, "Alright, JARVIS, I'm ready. Let's test it."
"Are you sure, sir? After your last flight test…" Tony's british-accented AI butler, JARVIS', voice rang through his computer.
"…Yes, I'm sure. Sometimes you've got to run before you can walk, JARVIS." Tony approached the middle of his lab, where a large black mat took up most of the space and a few computers surrounded it. Tony reached up, touched his new Arc Reactor magnet, and then ordered, "Let's get started."
And in just ten seconds Tony was standing in full-body silver armor. This time the armor was human-sized, only adding a couple of inches onto his height. Two slits on the helmet allowed him to see. A whole on the chest displayed his glowing Arc Reactor core and four blue mini energy cores surrounded it. A full Head's Up Display appeared in front of Tony's eyes, inside the helmet, allowing him to see the power left in the armor, the temperature, a three-sixty degree vision of his surroundings, and much more.
"Start flight, Jarvis, at ten percent," Tony commanded.
"As you wish, sir," JARVIS' voice came through the helmet.
Slowly the repulsors on the feet and hands of the armor began to glow and produce a slightly condensed concussive blast out of it, lifting Tony off the ground.
"Oh, yeah baby!" Tony exclaimed as he floated higher and higher off the ground.
"Begin full flight test, now! Speed it up to fifty percent!" Tony shouted and suddenly he shot straight up into the ceiling and fell against one of his dozen sports cars he had parked there, "Ow! Damnit! Okay, not good! Start over at twenty percent. Let's keep the power down until I get outside."
Tony began to hover out of the lab, through a large garage like opening at the end. (Like the movies.) As soon as he reached the end of the tunnel, his jets turned up and he burst into the sky.
"WHOO HOO! Haha, this is how you travel!" Tony flew down the San Diego coastline gracefully.
"Alright, let's kill two birds with one stone. JARVIS, get a couple testing drone out here. I'm going to test the repulsor blasts on this thing," And as soon as Tony turned around, back towards his coastal mansion, he could see the silhouettes of eight round robotic drones flying towards him.
Tony flew off towards them and when he came close both the robots and he slowed down. He held up his right hand, pointing it at the first drone.
SHOOM! A blast of blue concussive energy shot from his hands, completely destroying the drone and sending Tony's hand flying back.
"Whoa! It's got quite a kick!" Tony laughed and began to shoot each of the drones out of the sky, starting one at a time and later two, occasionally doing tricks or changing his position.
After Tony had finished that, his flight tests, and fishing out the drones that had fallen into the ocean, he flew back home and told Jarvis what to fix on the armor.
"Yeah, that'll be it…" Tony was just hit with an idea, "Actually, while you're making the Mark III armor, paint it, will you? Gold, nice and shiny, gold."
"Is that all?" JARVIS asked.
Tony stood there for a second, thinking, before he noticed a car magazine lying on his desk, a certain bright crimson car on the cover "…Add a bit of hotrod red too. It'll give it a bit of sex appeal."
"Yes, sir. I'll start immediately," JARVIS said. Tony left the room and headed upstairs to go to bed.
Vietnam
"My lord, we have brought the armor," Wong Chu walked into the Mandarin's quarters, followed by five men who were all carrying large plates of metal, some of which that were connected together to form prosthetic limbs.
"Good." The Mandarin sat up from his bed, "Then, we have a new weapon to use…a weapon more powerful than the Jericho missile…"
"Study the armor! Find out its secrets! And do not come back to me until all of its secrets are revealed." Mandarin ordered, "And, Wong Chu, call up our associate in China. Tell him we need his help. It's about time we cut off some loose strings…" And the Mandarin began to laugh maniacally as Wong Chu and the other men rushed out of the room.
San Diego, California, One Day Later
"Alright, this is how you travel!" Tony laughed as he flew through the air above San Diego.
"Sir, would you like me to send out more drones for you to destroy while boosting your already extremely large ego?" JARVIS' sarcastic metallic voice rang throughout the armor.
"No, this time, I'm thinking I'm going to go for a real ego boost. JARVIS, scan for all crimes currently happening and tap into the police radio. We're going to get ourselves shot at," And just a few seconds later a large red map appeared on the armor's HUD, with the crimes highlighted in yellow. Immediately after that the voice of Police Commissioner Jack Reeds came through the armor, "Yeah, we've got a Code Blue at the Bank of America on 50th and Waverly. I repeat, we have a code blue at 50th and Waverly."
"Just what I was looking for: a bank robbery." Tony burst through the air, instantly locating the bank's location on his HUD map.
When Tony arrived, he just floated over the bank, "JARVIS, focus on the auditory systems of the armor."
Suddenly, Tony could hear everything that was going on below…
Five men, all wearing black masks and sweatshirts, were holding a crowd of people hostage inside a bank. A dozen police cars were parked outside, the officers surrounding the building. One brave officer entered the bank, his pistol at the ready.
As soon as he entered four of the criminals pointed their submachine guns at the hostages.
"Ah, ah, ah. I wouldn't do that if I were you," The head criminal said in a thick New Jersey accent.
The cop stood there for a second, unmoving. He finally put down his gun and stood there. Immediately, the boss held up the submachine gun in his hands and shot the police officer.
"No!" Tony shouted and flew down, crashing through the glass roof of the bank. He landed in front of the dead cop, on his right knee with his fist on the ground and his head pointed downwards in what would become an iconic landing for him.
"What the hell…?" The boss muttered.
Tony stood up and the four goons all turned their guns on Tony and began firing. After ten seconds when they realized the bullets weren't doing anything the men stopped firing. One of them began to pray.
"My turn." Tony instantly targeted the four goons and fired four quick headshots from a mini shoulder gun.
Tony then approached the boss and lifted him up by his collar, "What the hell did you do?" Tony growled.
"I…I…" The boss struggled for words. Tony faintly smelled the distinctive foul odor of urine in the air through the suit's ventilation system.
"I…we work for Boss Nefaria. He…he's in cha—charge of th—the crime around he—here. He put us up to this. Please don't kill me. I've got a sick kid." The man begged.
Tony sighed under the armor and flew up and out the way he came, carrying the man. He flew overhead the police officers who were all rushing into the bank because of the commotion and he dropped the boss on top of one of their cars.
He burst through the air, heading back home.
"Boss Nefaria…" Tony muttered.
Later That Day
"Have you seen it? Tony, have you seen it?" Tony groggily zoned back into the real world after Virginia "Pepper" Potts asked him this question for the millionth time.
"Seen what, Pepper?" Tony asked, forcing his eyes away from his work computer.
"It's all over the Internet. Some robot…or some guy in armor came in and saved these hostages in a bank robbery. The technology looks more advanced than anything I've ever seen…" Pepper held up her laptop. On the screen was a video of Tony interrogating the thug. "They're calling this person…or machine…Iron Man."
Note: I hope you liked it! I must admit I rushed this a bit! I tried to get a lot of story into one chapter. Next chapter we'll have his first supervillain and the set up of many more! Please review, check out my other stories and vote on the poll on my page!
Next- Iron Forged in Fire Part III