Vignette #10

3 May 2016 – Stark Expo 2016

It was a long time coming, but tonight was the night.

A lot had happened since the last Stark Expo ended in disaster – when Justin Hammer's robots, controlled by the renegade Ivan Vanko, had laid waste to much of the exposition's Flushing Meadows site – six years before. It had taken most of that time to rebuild, and in some ways improve, the complex. It also took a lot of money, which was part of why it had taken so long to finish, and a lot of co-operation from the city and state of New York (which didn't speed things up any).

A lot had happened in general, and a lot had happened with Stark Industries. Eight and a half years after Tony Stark made his out-of-the-blue declaration that SI was getting out of the weapons business, that lofty goal was close to completion. By the end of the year, the company would deliver the final orders of its Jericho missile system to the U.S. Army. Then it would be able to concentrate just that much more on its new core businesses: transportation, prostheses and other medical equipment, passive-defense systems, high-tech personal electronics, and most of all power supply, all built around the arc-reactor technology that all over the world was changing how people accessed and used energy. (And changing what the world looked like, too – in addition to their original Nevada site, SI now had arc reactor factories/solar panel farms in Arizona, Texas, Mexico, Yemen, India, Mongolia and Australia, plus others in various stages of construction in New Mexico, Argentina, Libya, Namibia and the United Arab Emirates. All of them large enough to spot from orbit.)

Stark Industries was prospering like never before, and pulling numerous other corporations in its wake. And now, it was time to celebrate a little.

The center of the celebration on Stark Expo 2016's opening night was also the centerpiece of the renovated site – the new 14,000-seat Stark-Thomson Amphitheater. (Thomson, the Canadian information services company, had come through with the cash to help construct the venue, in exchange for co-naming rights.) The whopping theater-in-the-round had opened a month before with a unique double-header: an outdoor NBA game between the Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks, followed by a concert featuring Jay-Z and Alicia Keys. Now on this balmy spring night, it was filled up to the top level with executives, salesmen, programmers and fanboys (and fangirls) from hundreds of companies, ready to be welcomed to the future of whatever Stark Industries had in store for them.

Already there was a lot for them to chew on. SI's main presentation was going to be on the second night of the Expo, when they would debut the long-awaited first products of their nascent automotive division – the arc-reactor-powered Vellon roadster, Alberon family sedan and Centurion SUV. Apple had a pavilion of their own, as well as the big stage on Night Four, and there were rumors that they planned to reveal a business-oriented computer that could run MacOS, Windows or Linux-based programs, and potentially capture a decent share of the PC market. Oracle reportedly had a big announcement prepared, as did Northrop Grumman, Elbit, Lenovo, Airbus, Mitsubishi, General Dynamics, Siemens, Google … pretty much anybody that was anybody in the electronics, defense and heavy industry fields.

And then there was the real coup. It had just been announced that morning that the next-to-last night of the Expo would feature a debate, on the subject "The Future of America." Tackling the topic would be the four major candidates for the 2016 U.S. presidential election, all of whom had already sewn up their party's nominations. They'd wanted to issue the press release days earlier, but it had taken that long to nail down Senator Rand Paul, the American Tea Party's representative. Apparently someone hadn't been passing the messages along to the senator; from the sound of it, heads were going to roll for that …

But now, there was a distraction from all the other plans, as a sonic boom rang out over Long Island Sound.

"Here he comes!" someone shouted, and sure enough, there was a spark of light flying toward the arena as the sound system began blaring the Sempers' "I Am Iron Man." (The Sempers had been another Tony Stark discovery, one more unusual than most. The five-piece metal band made up of Marines stationed at Camp Pendleton were great admirers, and had sent Tony a demo CD of their music. Tony had liked it so much that he'd paid for their studio time to cut a full album. Just six months ago, it had cracked the top 25 at iTunes.) As the crowd began to roar, the spark grew, soon resolving itself into a familiar red and gold armored suit.

The suit began to descend toward the stage, and a strong female voice announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the future – and WELCOME! To STARK EXPO! TWO! THOUSAND! SIXTE-E-E-EN!"

KLANG! The suit landed at center stage in a kneeling three-point stance, as the crowd went crazy. With the music still pumping, it stood, and robotic arms arose from the stage to begin removing the various pieces of armor …

… only to reveal, not Tony Stark, but a strawberry blonde in a red pantsuit with gold accents and wearing a headset microphone?

The attendees began to quiet in confusion, before people suddenly realized who it must be. And then it got really loud.

Virginia Marie Potts "Pepper" Stark took it all in stride, waving and smiling to the crowd like a career politician as she waited out the onslaught of noise (including the end of the song). When the decibel level dropped enough, she remarked, "I don't suppose you were expecting … someone else?"

That got a laugh, during which she took the opportunity to smooth out a few suit-induced wrinkles in her outfit. "Unfortunately, Tony couldn't be here tonight – he was called away at the last minute to take care of a little emergency. I'm not at liberty to give details …" Pause for crowd reaction. "… but if you check your favorite news website tomorrow morning, you should be able to make an educated guess."

The thousands in the stands were lapping it up. Someone began a fist-pumping "I-ron-Man!" chant, and for a minute a good portion of the crowd joined in. Pepper grinned and waited her turn.

"Now, he assured me that he will be here tomorrow night – 'I wouldn't miss it for the world,' was his exact words. And if you know anything about Tony, you know he's not going to skip a chance to show off a car he's been working on …" More chuckles.

"But in the meantime, if you'll watch the screens …" Pepper indicated the four huge high-definition displays spaced around the top rim of the amphitheater. "… we have a special presentation for you. Lights, please?" The overhead and spots were turned off as Pepper sat down on the stage and the screens began to fill with blue light.

From the light emerged scenes of factories and labs, of robots working on planes and automobiles, of schematics for PDAs and helicopters, of army installations ringed by ForceShield rigs instead of chain-link fences, of solar panel farms extending for miles, of disabled vets walking around on almost-lifelike legs – all to the accompaniment of driving synthesizers. Finally, breaking through the hurricane of images, came the Stark Industries logo, with a musical sting and the slogan "Welcome To The Future."

As the crowd roared, the logo melted away, to be replaced by an image of the new giant arc reactor at the heart of the Stark Industries complex in Los Angeles. The camera panned down, to where Tony Stark, dressed in a blazer and slacks with a banded collar shirt, was casually strolling. And talking. "In 1849, Hermann Stark came to California to engineer equipment for the miners of the Gold Rush. Three decades later, his son Isaac started a business, designing and building irrigation equipment. Isaac's son August built Gatling guns for the doughboys of World War I and the soldiers at home battling the raids of Pancho Villa. August's grandson Howard helped Robert Oppenheimer split the atom and a generation of American presidents create 'the arsenal of democracy' to fight fascism, and later Communism.

"Today, we face a new world, with a new series of challenges. I believe the key to the 21st century isn't gold or water, not bullets or bombs." With that, he pointed to the arc reactor, blazing and humming above him. "It's power. Abundant, inexpensive power to run the vehicles, the computers, all the devices –" Out of his pocket, he pulled his Stark FuturePhone and held it up. "– on which our world increasingly depends."

The scene now switched to one of SI's solar farm/factory complexes. Pepper immediately identified it as the one in the Navajo Nation Reservation in northeast Arizona. That plant was a source of pride for Tony: not only had Stark Industries leased the land (almost five square miles) from the locals, they'd trained members of the Navajo and Hopi nations to run the facility as well. Currently the staff was over 80% First Nations, with a plan to reach 100% by 2020. One of them could be seen in the background as Tony (this time in a leather jacket, T-shirt and jeans) walked between the huge solar collectors.

"Stark Industries is committed to harnessing the most natural, least polluting power available – the power of the sun – and bringing it to the customer in the most convenient package possible." He held up, in his left hand, a Stark 12-inch arc reactor. "Imagine being able to run your car for the next ten years without filling up once." Then he raised his right hand to show, between thumb and forefinger, SI's smallest arc reactor, a ¾-inch model. "Or never having to recharge your tablet computer, or plug in your laptop. This is what we've been working toward at Stark Industries – a system where power is always portable, always affordable, always sustainable … and most of all, always available."

Again the scene changed, this time to an office setting. Tony, now in a black suit and tie, sat on the edge of a desk. Around him were displayed numerous Stark products, including a FutureDesk tablet, a prosthetic hand, and a model of the LS2A supersonic business jet being developed as part of SI's joint venture with Lockheed Martin. "There are a lot more things we're working on here at Stark Industries – and you'll be seeing them during the next three weeks here at Stark Expo 2016. Replacement limbs for amputees that look – and perform – close to the real thing. Small-scale particle accelerators that will allow any university to set up its own physics laboratory. Voice activation, robotics, home security, vehicle safety … we're working in those areas and many more.

"And that's just one company. There are over 80 corporations represented here at Stark Expo, all of them on the cutting edge of technological innovation. We want Stark Expo to be a place where people and companies are able to collaborate, to challenge each other, to be inspired and spurred on to improve people's lives. Forgive me if it sounds pie-in-the-sky, but … we don't just want this to be about making better products. We want Stark Expo to be about making a better world. That's … wait, what …?"

The cameras still rolling, Tony turned to see the top of a little blonde head toddling behind the desk, then a dark-haired one of about the same size. From somewhere came the voice of a kindergartener: "No, don't bother Daddy!" Giggles were the only response as Dark-Haired, showing himself to be a two-year-old boy, moved around the side of the desk and reached for the plane model.

"Oh, come here, you little stinkers," Tony said as he got up and walked off-screen. The little boy picked the LS2A model up from its stand and waved it around, making whooshing noises. As the crowd began to laugh, Tony returned, carrying a blonde girl the same age as the boy. He sat down on the edge of the desk again, set the girl on his knee and pulled the boy close to him.

Only then did he turn back to the camera. "When we at Stark Industries say 'welcome to the future,' it isn't just a sales pitch. Yeah, Jamey, you come here too!" He waved to his right, and a four- or five-year-old girl in a pink T-shirt and jeans joined him, looking very deliberately at the lens. "We're working to build a better future for these guys, and for all their peers, all over the world. Join us over the coming days as we see what the future holds – for us, and for them. Isn't that right, Anne Marie?" He bounced the girl that was on his knee, then pointed straight ahead. "Say hi to the folks out there."

"Hi-i!"

"Wshhhh!" the boy added, swinging the little plane through the air.

Jamey waved and said, "Welcome to the future – ow! A.Y.! Daddy, he hit me with the airplane …"