Author: This is the first of the single character adventures I planned to make. I wish I'd made more, but then I discovered Pokemon Black 2 and White 2. *sigh* Why can't I have unlimited time to finish what I started?
Anyways, I just wanted you to know that you might know some of the characters I included into this chapter. They are from the now-deleted (I think) fanfic called 'Devil's Luck'. I enjoyed reading it, and this is a sort of praise to the author.
Enjoy.
The Adventures of Tony Stark
"Activate boosters"
Fweeeeeeeee
"Hm. Still not reacting?"
Tony frowned and grabbed his flashlight, shining into the suit. "Wait a moment... I think I got it..." The billionaire turned his head slightly to glance over his shoulder. "Hey Red! I need your help over here!"
Kid didn't bother to lift his head from the navigational charts he was working on. "What is it, Stark?"
"Could you come over for a moment? I need your magnetic abilities."
Kid sighed and put the quill down. Normally he would work on the maps up on the bridge, but with Tony needing his help from time to time he decided to work down in the engine room. Speaking of maps, it surprised the Avenger immensely to learn that the massive red-haired captain actually doubled as navigator. But then again, the guy had magnetism-based Devil Fruit powers, allowing him to sense the magnetic fields around him, so this wasn't really that shocking.
"What is the problem?"
Tony moved a bit to the side, motioning for Kid to throw a look into the open hatch. "Look into it and tell me what you see."
"Just a lot of cables and plates", Kid answered.
"Exactly, but do you see that plate all the way down there?"
Kid frowned a bit. "This looks kind of... crooked."
"That's my problem. It blocks that single system. With it blocked, I can not use the boosters at all."
"Get it out then"
"I can't. It's too deep inside. I would have to dismantle the entire thing and I just don't have the time to do so. But this is where you get into action."
Kid narrowed his eyes. "How so?"
"You use your powers, of course", Tony explained, "You know, you use the magnetism to flatten the plate so it slides back into its original position."
"...I can do that?" Kid stared at the older man in confusion, "You want me to change the shape of a metal plate?"
"I know at least one guy who can do that", the billionaire explained. "Name's Erich Lehnsherr, but we refer to him as 'Magneto'. He's a mutant, one of the more powerful ones. He can freely change the shape of any metallic object; he can make bridges float that are around 75,293 tons weighing the steel alone; he can shoot all guns around him simultaneously using his magnetic abilities alone; he can even float by using the magnetic field of the earth."
"And?"
"Magneto is pretty old already. I'm sure you're not somebody who lets himself put in a corner by an old fart, aren't you?"
Kid stared for a moment at the billionaire, before his face twisted into a nightmarish grin. "You certainly know how to ruffle my feathers, do you? Now I won't rest till I can do this shit too."
"That's the spirit!" Tony beamed back, "Now, try it on that darn tiny plate." He frowned slightly before adding: "Just be careful you don't take apart my suit, okay?"
Kid smirked and turned to the small plate, trying to picture in his mind what it was supposed to look like.
Nothing really happened for several long moments. Kid's patience was starting to run thin pretty fast and this was not a very good thing. With the red-head's temper starting to rise, Tony carefully inched away, but he did notice that several tools started to shudder slightly. A small quake ran through the ship.
"Why don't you work you little shit?" Kid growled lowly. "WHY?!"
With his uproar every tool and piece of scrap metal dug into the walls farthest away from the captain. The ship rocked violently and when Tony risked a glance out of the porthole, he noticed that it was starting to rise from the water's surface.
"Red! Red! RED!"
"WHAT?!" Kid roared, whirling around. The ship dropped back into the sea with a loud splash.
"You did it."
"...What?"
"Jarvis, Activate the Boosters."
FWOOOOOM
"Boosters working at 100 percent performance, Sir."
Kid stared in disbelief at the suit, then to Tony. "Fucking Sweet!"
"Yep. Good work there, Red. But you might wanna learn to do that without giving your crew a heart attack."
-oOo-
Several Days later
Killer sat brooding over some maps on deck. Kid was at the bow, playing with small pieces of scrap metal to train his newly discovered abilities. The other crew members did what they always did when there was nothing to do.
"Hey, what'cha reading, Kill?" Anna, the second shipwright asked.
"I'm trying to figure out what is missing in our maps. It looks like there should be an island, but there isn't."
"There is an island", Hiroki, the first shipwright said. "The Marine doesn't want us pirates to know about it, so they try to hide it."
"Anything of worth to get there?"
"I heard there are Kairoseki mines as well as some experimental weapons."
"Kairoseki mines? So that's where they get this stuff from", Kid growled, "But the weapons sound good. How do we get there?"
"Not without any maps", Killer explained, "But where should we get such maps from?"
"Pandora once spoke of such a place", Heat threw in.
"My mom?" Kid looked up in confusion, "What did she say?"
"She said she wanted to get to those mines to destroy them", Heat replied, "To take the strongest weapon off the Marine's hands. And she told me where we could find a map to this place."
"And that would be?" Klaus, one of the chefs, asked.
"An island that serves as some of the World Nobles as home", Wire explained, "I think she also wanted to kill some of these guys."
"What are World Nobles?" Tony wanted to know.
"Scum", Aria, one of the crew members growled, "Human scum"
"They can enslave people just because they want to. They can shoot people on the open street if they see it fit", Kid growled, "They sit on their thrones and think themselves better than anything else." He made a disgusted noise. "Compared to them we pirates are humane." His face twisted into a manic grin. "When mom wanted to raid that island, we'll honour her by doing exactly that."
"Kid, we'll need a plan before we attack", Killer threw in.
"First we spy on them", Tony suggested, "See how many men they have, see where those Nobles are and what they are doing. Then we send in somebody to take at least one of them hostage. If they really are that important, they will not do anything to oppose us."
"And the maps?" Hiroki wondered.
"Let me finish first, Dead Eyes", Tony continued, "The entire hostage situation is going to be a distraction. As soon our hostage taker is successful, the others storm the island, raid the supplies, see if they can free any slaves and get the maps. Easy."
"Please tell me we are going to beat up some people", Anna whined, "Please tell me."
"Okay. You guys can beat up any opposing force you find, Badger Girl", the billionaire explained grinning. "And I'm going to take the hostages. I can fly."
"Then I will spy first", the navigator Richard said, "For I can fly as well."
"Yosh!"
Killer frowned at Tony. "I thought you were one of the good guys? Now you're talking about hostages?"
The Avenger shrugged. "Hey, what can I say? I'm not a Hero – I built the suit to protect myself, not others. Plus it pisses me off if people use their wealth to be complete douche bags."
"I feel obliged to inform you that you used to be the same, Sir", JARVIS chimed up.
"Oh shut it, Jarv. I had class."
-oOo-
The Celestial Dragons that owned this part of the Grandline were just incredibly deep in important discussions.
"I say we should have Lobster Tails for dinner", Saint Petrus said.
"My dear", his wife Saint Carmilla replied, "I think Lobster Tails would be much more fitting for brunch, not dinner. For Dinner I suggest Sea King Tongues."
"I want to eat the giant duck that flew past here before!" the snotty brat, Saint Arthur threw in.
His father frowned at him. "Giant Duck? Aren't you sure you haven't seen a normal duck? This is lowly commoner food, you know."
His son shook his head, shortly before throwing a tantrum. "It was a giant duck! It must have been rare! And must be good-tasting too!"
"Well, rare animals always have the best meat", the woman agreed, "Petrus, don't you think you can tell the men to catch it?"
"Of course, my dear. And we'll have it for dinner. The Lobster Tails we will eat for brunch tomorrow and the Sea King Tongues for lunch. Is that agreed?"
"Well, I disagree. The giant duck is a buddy of mine."
"...Who said that?"
"Just good ol' me." With an ear splitting crush, a single armoured man broke through the massive window and into the room. Fire was spewing from his hands and feet and explosive projectile rained from his shoulders and wrists, knocking the guards around unconscious in an instant. The flames hissed and died down as the man landed on top of the table. "Ladies and Gentlemen, I am Ironman. And you are my hostages."
-o-
The entire base was in sheer panic. Rumours of a flying armoured man breaking into the conference room and taking the Celestial Dragons hostage were soon all over the complex.
Before the Marines managed to get into position however, more bad news reached them. And these news came in the shape of a massive metal-coated pirate ship.
The cannon balls the Marines shot at it were easily caught in mid-air by a massive electro-magnetic field and thrown back.
"It's the Kid Pirates!" one of them shouted. Those five words were enough to change the panic into pure terror. The Marines knew what that meant. The Kid Pirates were not exactly known for being merciful.
Like a demon from hell the massive captain leapt from his ship and landed hard on the floor. His twisted grin made most of the newer recruits faint in an instant, but even the seasoned officers were taken back. The pirate captain held both arms from his body, shouting at the Marines to come and take him on. Seconds later, two smaller battle ships groaned like wounded animals. Their hulls started to twist in a sick way before every single piece of metal broke through the hulk and joined a sheer tornado of swords, guns, cannon balls and scrap metal that whirled around Kid. With his laughter drowning out the terrified screams of the men, the red-haired pirate unleashed his power, sending the projectiles shooting at the Marines.
Within seconds the first and second defensive lines were broken, gates and walls were shattered and men injured or dead on the ground.
"Raid the island!" Kid commanded, "Take everything that looks like it might be worth anything!" The crew jumped off the ship and started dashing towards the remaining soldiers. Killer was about to walk past his captain when he stopped him. "Killer. You go find the map. Do whatever you want to the guards, but get me the map."
"What about you?"
"I have to do something."
-o-
Killer was slowly moving through the staff area. Those bleak rooms none of the visitors would ever see, those rooms that the Celestial Dragons probably never see. However, this was were the heart of this complex was, and this was something Killer was always fascinated by. The world beneath all the glamour and wealth.
And this was where people would hide a map of incomparable worth.
The Massacre Soldier was advancing slowly, effortlessly cutting down any guard or Marine soldier that threatened to attack him and scaring the employees away. That was one thing he learnt very quickly. Aside from some really idiotic guards, most staff of the celestial dragons was cowardly. Killer merely needed to tilt his masked face into their direction to scare them off.
After a little while, he reached a massive door. Several guards stood in front, guards that didn't last very long once they decided to attack the masked man.
The door was broken during the battle and almost all of the sorry slaves jumped in terror as a blood-soaked tall masked man barrelled through the splintered wood while mercilessly cutting through the men that opposed him.
The Massacre Soldier dropped the body of the guard before turning to the slaves. "You're free", he said nonchalantly, "My crew is raiding this island. Get off before you make the wrong turn."
All of them wanted to storm out, but Killer stopped them. "Before you go, tell me what I want to know. Where is the Map room?"
-o-
Tony was pretty sure he took care of every Marine in the room. With hostages, nobody shouldn't even try to walk in on him at all.
So he had absolutely no idea where this guy came from! All he knew was that suddenly a Marine soldier stood in front of him, eyeing the situation and asking him to give up.
Tony frowned when he stared at the man. "Mhm. I have seen you before, haven't I?"
"Sir, it seems this Marine is almost an exact copy of the mascot of some cleaning product", JARVIS explained. The man was tall, muscular, bald, with white eyebrows, blue eyes and small golden hoops in his ears.
"Right! You're Mr. Clean!" Tony shouted, "Holy mother of God! Why is Mr. Clean my enemy?"
"That's Vice Admiral Clean to you!" the man yelled at him.
"Ooookay...Jarvis. Let's take aim."
"Target acquired, Sir."
"Good. Let's smoke 'im out."
Vice Admiral Clean watched with interest as the iron warrior held his palm towards him.
"Be nice and say 'Ah', because this is the only taste test I'm gonna give you."
FWEEEEEEEE
BLAST
The Repulsor tore a nice hole into the wall.
And into Vice Admiral Clean as well.
"..."
"...Oops"
"I think you killed him, Sir."
"I checked the energy output, Jarvis, this should have thrown him off his feet, not disintegrate his torso!"
"Sir, it seems that his body does not consist of flesh and bones. It looks more like an organic household cleaner."
"...The Fuck?!"
"Enemy regenerating"
"...The Fuck?!"
Tony stared in disbelief as a green semi liquid substance flooded back to the dismembered Vice Admiral. Within seconds, it took the shape of the man again.
"...I fucking HATE Devil Fruit powers!"
-o-
Captain Eustass Kid marched through the hallways. Of course, he could dash down that way, but walking slowly and stomp the approaching enemies into the ground, was far more effective.
His senses told him that there was at least one worthy opponent around, and this was where he was heading.
"...I fucking HATE Devil Fruit Powers!"
Kid arched his non-existent eyebrow. This sounded like Stark. And it came from just behind that wall.
A wall with three guys in front.
"Oi", Kid growled, "You better dodge now!"
"It's Captain Kid!" the smartest of the three yelled, "Let's bring him down!"
Okay. Not so smart.
Kid's scowl twisted into his nightmarish grin as he stretched out his massive metal arm towards them. When he opened the hand, the three men saw a glowing device in the centre of the man's palm. A second device sat near the elbow joint.
"Let's try this then", the red haired pirate smirked.
A massive blast was fired from his palm and levelled the entire wall effortlessly. The three guys had enough brains to dive out of the way, but the enormous shock wave that followed the explosion knocked them out cold.
"Fucking Sweet", Kid roared as he leapt through the rubble and dust.
"Yeah I know!" Tony yelled at him, more or less unfazed because of his entrance. "But you might give me a hand here!"
Kid immediately grabbed a nearby sabre and chucked it with deadly precision at the Vice Admiral, only to watch it pass through his head unhindered. More even, the dust from the collapsing wall was gone all of a sudden and the sabre was squeaky clean. The red-head noticed that Tony's suit was completely golden in some parts as well.
"What the hell? A Logia?!"
Clean turned to face Kid. "Ah. Captain Kid. I have been expecting you. Yes. It is true. I have eaten the Kurin Kurin No Mi. I am a cleaner human!"
"...Really?"
"Yes", Tony threw in, showing the golden parts of his armour. "He washed off my red paint job with lemony freshness too!"
The red-haired Captain frowned at the Vice Admiral. "Really? I bet now you are going to do some more 'I will clean out the dirty pirates' jokes, then we'll battle it out and I will defeat you using my Haki skills, won't you?" His sighed before concentrating his power into his fist. "And here I hoped I get a real enemy to fight."
Then he lunged at the Marine. Clean reacted and threw a punch into his direction, but Kid easily avoided with a surprising agility for a guy with his frame. With a single punch to the gut he knocked Clean right through the room, sending him crashing into the shelves there. The Vice Admiral was quickly back to his feet and attacked once more. Kid avoided again and crushed his elbow into the man's neck. Clean countered with a well-aimed kick to the tall guy's throat. Kid blocked with his metal arm, but Clean managed to get a few jabs at the red-head's flanks.
He nearly broke a hand doing so.
"Tch. You are more annoying than you are worth it", Kid grumbled. "Hey Stark! Any ideas how we get him off our backs?! My guys should be ready with getting the good stuff!"
"Water would be very helpful, Sir", Jarvis suggested to the billionaire, "There is a water pipe in the wall next to you."
"I'm not going to ask why they have plumbing in this world", Tony muttered as he positioned his hand at the wall.
With a single punch he broke through the bricks and grabbed the metal beneath.
"Mr. Clean, it looks like the dirt wins this round!"
He tore the plumbing out of the wall, causing a high-pressurized stream of water shoot at the two fruit users.
Kid snarled enraged when the jet hit him instead of Clean, but he quickly thought of how to change that. With a bit of concentration, he started twisting the pipe out of the wall some more. The pipe twisted and turned like an angry snake as it aimed the water at the Vice Admiral. Clean hissed in surprise when the water hit him, dissolved his Logia body and literally washed him out of the room.
Tony walked up next to the pirate captain. "Well, I think this was a clean job then. The plan certainly washed out."
"Stark... do another washing-based pun and I will end you, understood?"
