A light slowly lit up the darkness to the shocking sight of all the Iron Man suits were getting destroyed.
"No! Not the suits!" Ruby cried out in horror, waterfalls of tears literally running down her face.
"Such wonderful technology lost. It's a true shame." Ironwood said mournfully.
"But why are they all exploding? There has to be some kind of reason." Winter insisted, trying to think of any possible reason the suits would be exploding.
"We create our own demons. Who said that? What does that even mean? Doesn't matter, I said it cause he said it. So now he was famous and that's basically get said by two well known guys. I don't, uh..." Tony's voice could be heard, before he sighed, clearly struggling to get his words across the way he wanted to. "I'm gonna start again. Let's track this from the beginning." He declared as everything went black once again.
"Something's wrong." Ozpin said.
Glynda picked up on it as well. "It isn't like Tony to stammer with his words, unless he was speaking to Pepper about his feelings, while also trying to get across he was dying. For such a drastic change, something must have happened." She agreed.
"To turn someone as confident as Tony into a stuttering mess? What could have possibly happened?" Weiss asked in concern.
Effel 65's "I'm Blue" playing over the MARVEL and Paramount logos.
"Hey, this is kind of catchy." Jaune said, nodding his head to the beat.
"~I'm Blue, now Vegeta will die~ And now Vegeta will die~ Now Vegeta will die~!" Katana sang.
"That doesn't sound like what they're saying AT ALL." Blake said, a bit disturbed.
"And isn't this Vegeta the father of one of your daughters? It would be quite cruel to wish for his death." Penny added.
"Yeah. Right. Sorry. That just ALWAYS gets me." Katana said with a sigh, shaking her head. [1]
The 1999 was shown over a black screen, before a city was finally shown, which was soon stated to be Bern, Switzerland on New Year's Eve. A girl was seen blowing into a party horn, which unrolled into the face of Tony Stark, who chuckled at this, wearing a pair of shades and a white and gold bowler hat. He was also wearing a name badge that read "You know who I am".
"Oh, god. Roman would have a panic attack if he saw that bowler hat Tony was wearing." Neo said in disgust at the hat.
"White and gold? Super gaudy." Coco agreed.
"I think it looks fancy." Velvet admitted.
"Who's the girl with him? Where's Pepper?" Ruby asked.
"This was way earlier, remember, kiddo?" Qrow reminded her.
"Yeah. They don't say her name for a while, so to save us time from calling her 'her' or 'the girl', her name is Maya Hansen." Katana explained. [2]
Happy Hogan, who had long, slicked back hair and a mustache and goatee that were not connected, turned back to them. "Half hour till the ball drops." He informed the girl with Tony.
"Hey, do you want...?" tony began, before being interrupted.
"Tony Stark? Great speech, man!" A random party guest complimented the billionaire, before Hogan moved the man away from Tony.
"I got you, pal." Happy told the guy.
"I gave a speech? How was it?" Tony asked.
"He doesn't remember giving a speech?" Pyrrha asked in disbelief.
"He was likely drunk. We all remember how much he drank back then." Ren explained, before he realized something. "Wait... He was giving a speech while drunk? We've heard that before, haven't we?" Ren asked.
"You don't think..." Everyone said together.
"Edifying." Happy told him.
"Unintelligible." Maya corrected.
"Really?" Tony asked.
"Mmm-hmm." She confirmed.
"It's my favorite kind, a winning combo." Tony said as they started walking together.
Nora laughed at this. "At least he owns up to it." Nora said.
"As long as you don't overdo it on the alcohol, I suppose there's no harm in the occasional drink." Glynda stated.
"Indeed. Even I have a flask to spice up my coffee every so often." Ironwood stated.
"Where are we going?" Maya asked.
"Uh, to town on each other, probably back in your room. Cause I also wanna see your research." Tony declared his intentions.
"Okay, you can see my research, but that's...I'm not gonna show you my 'town'." Maya told him.
"Ugh. Just as vulgar as ever." Weiss said.
"Hey, he's a rich and powerful. Most girls throw themselves at guys like that. It's impressive she can say no like that." Qrow said.
"It's impressive when you can get any man to step off." Cinder declared.
"Especially when they keep pressuring you over and over." Emerald agreed. Both girls were rather attractive, so in a school full of hormonal teenagers, they often found themselves being hit on.
A familiar face was then seen. "Mr. Stark" Yinsen greeted the billionaire as Tony and Maya were walking away.
"Yinsen!" The students cheered as the adults smiled fondly at the man.
"He may be gone, but it's still nice to see him again after everything that's happened." Blake said with a smile.
"He's in a better place with his family now." Velvet told her.
Yinsen intercepted them before they got too far, however. "Ho Yinsen." He introduced himself.
"Oh, I finally met a man called 'Ho'." Tony said as he and Yinsen shook hands. While Yinsen chuckled humorlessly, Tony turned to Maya. "Come here." He told her as she attempted to escape.
"I would like to introduce you to our guest, Dr. Wu." Yinsen tried to introduce them to the doctor, moving them towards Wu..
"Oh, this guy." Tony realized.
"Mr. Stark." Yinsen stated, trying to get Tony under control.
"Hey." Tony greeted as Dr. Wu greeted Tony in mandarin and they shook hands.. "You're a heart doctor. She's going to need a cardiologist after I..." He began, then turned and started blowing on his party horn and walked away with Maya.
"Can we please get past this flashback and return to when Tony is tolerable?" Winter asked.
"I'm sure we're here to see something important Winter. Tony spoke of creating demons. He must have done something wrong here." Pyrrha reminded her.
"You mean, besides EVERYTHING?" Neo asked.
"Bye." Maya said to them.
"Perhaps another time." Yinsen tried to reschedule.
"You'll get it. Just not the way either of you would hope." Ren stated.
"His plan was always to die, Ren. It didn't work out the way we all wanted, but it worked out the way HE wanted it." Jaune said.
"Wise words indeed, Mr. Arc." Ozpin praised.
"It started in Bern, Switzerland, 1999. The old days." Tony's voiceover explained as people yelled indistinctly.
"Mr. Stark!" Called out a young blonde man with a walking stick and limp.
"I never thought they'd come back to bite me. Why would they?" Tony's voiceover asked as he and Maya walked towards the elevator, while the enthusiastic blonde man with long hair came up towards them.
"I could think of a few reasons." Yang said.
"Tony has already been rude to at least three people, but this new person seems to be of particular importance." Penny stated.
"He doesn't look like a bad guy, though. How could he be one of Tony's demons?" Ruby asked.
Cinder ran a hand through Ruby's hair. It depends on what Tony does to him, little red. The guy may not seem like much, but we also don't know what he wants. And people can be dangerous if they don't get what they want." She told her new girlfriend, some guilt in her voice.
"Oh, wow! Hey, Tony! Aldrich Killian." He greeted, shaking a bit, before turning to Maya. "I'm a big fan of your work!" He told her.
"My work?" Maya asked, surprised but also flattered.
"Who isn't? He means me." Tony corrected her.
"And he's continuing to hurt his case." Coco said, getting more and more fed up with the old Stark rather quickly.
"Just keep reminding yourself he's a better person now." Velvet told her leader.
"And if you're really struggling, remember the time he was tortured." Neo added.
"That's a bit extreme." Blake said, a bit scared of the former mute.
"Well, of course. But, Miss Hansen, my organization has been tracking your research since year two of MIT." Aldrich explained.
Tony, Maya and Hogan walked into the elevator. "Yeah, we're full." Happy said, putting his arms out to stop Aldrich from coming inside, but he ducked under Hogan's arms and moved into the elevator.
"Oh, wow. He made it. He made the cut." He asked.
Hogan trapped Aldrich by the wall. "What floor are you going to, pal?" He asked.
"Oh, now, that is an appropriate question. The ground floor, actually. I've got a proposal I'm putting together myself. It's a privately-funded think tank called, Advanced Idea Mechanics." Killian explained as he held out two business cards towards Tony and Maya.
"What's a think tank?" Jaune asked.
"Generally, it's a collection of scientists from different fields grouping together in order to come up with ideas from various different scientific angles to the purpose of furthering technology or creating something revolutionary. Atlas had a group of scientists that was similar to a think tank and their end result was Penny." Ironwood explained, gesturing to the android.
"Unfortunately, it also resulted in Watts getting butt-hurt and joining Salem." Cinder added.
"He's always had a far too high opinion of himself and his abilities. It's not my fault he took every little criticism or choosing someone besides him as a blow to his pride." The general grumbled.
"I've met the man, general. I assure you, you aren't telling me anything I don't already know." Cinder agreed.
"To give him credit, though, he tells it like it is. His semblance must be spitting straight facts." Katana admitted.
"Uh... she'll take both." Tony stated.
"Okay." Maya agreed as she took the cards.
"One to throw away and one to not call." Tony quipped again.
"Advanced Idea Mechanics, or AIM for short." Aldrich told them again as he pointed to the logo on his shirt. "Do you get it?" He asked.
"I see that, cause it's on your t-shirt." Tony pointed out.
"Aw!" Killian exclaimed happily.
"What, you point it out first, then get embarrassed when someone else points it out? Dude, either be proud of what you're wearing or don't wear it." Coco said.
"I've actually forgotten before when I've used my Semblance to change my appearance, so I didn't answer when someone called to the person I was changed into." Neo admitted, lowering her head in shame, even as Yang pulled her into a hug.
"We've all made mistakes with our semblances before, Neo." Pyrrha assured her, remembering a time she accidentally pantsed herself when she didn't realize her polarity was effecting her belt as well the objects she was lifting and lowering.
"Ladies, follow the mullet." Tony instructed the party of women in the elevator, referring to Hogan as they walked out. He then looked to Maya. "Ladies first." He told her.
"Thank you, I'll call you." Maya said to Aldrich as she walked out of the elevator.
As everyone walked out of the elevator, Tony stopped Aldrich from getting out by putting out his arm in front of him. "I'm titillated by the notion of working with you." Tony told the young man.
"Really? He hardly seemed interested." Glynda said, a bit suspicious by Tony's sudden intrigue in the man's ideas.
"Yeah, Tony doesn't play well with others, so a think tank with a bunch of other scientists doesn't sound like a good idea." Nora agreed.
"I have a bad feeling Tony is aiming to get Mr. Killian's hopes up, only to disappoint him." Ozpin said.
"Yeah?" Aldrich asked hopefully.
"Yeah, cheese clown. I'll see you up on the roof in five minutes." Tony instructed as he stepped out of the elevator. "I'm just going to try to get my beak wet real quick. You know what I'm talkin' about?" He asked, heading after Happy and Maya.
"Five minutes? If that includes looking at her research, too, Tony's not nearly as good with the ladies as we thought." Yang said.
"Assuming he plans to show up at all. But I hope he wouldn't just get this guy's hopes up for nothing." Blake told her.
"It's Tony, we knew back then he was almost as cruel or uncaring as my father." Weiss told them.
"I'll see you up there." Aldrich called after him as the elevator door closed.
"Damn betcha." Tony agreed.
"He's not showing up." All the students said at once.
"Yep. I think this guy's think tank is the last thing on Tony's mind." Qrow agreed.
"And what is on his mind should be beaten out of it." Winter snapped.
Tony, Maya and Happy were now in Maya's room, with Tony looking over Maya's shoulder as they looked at her computer. "Come on! I thought that was just a theory." Tony said in amazement.
Everyone was surprised at this. "Wow. He really did want to see her research." Weiss said in surprise.
"That could prove to be most interesting." Penny said excitedly, bouncing and clapping.
"So, what was that about having his thoughts beaten out of his head, Winter?" Nora teased. The elder Schnee huffed and didn't answer.
"Well, it was. If I'm right, we can access the area of the brain that governs repair..." Maya explained as they were seen looking at a computer monitor with graph of the brain.
"Wow." Tony said, impressed.
"...And chemically recode it." She finished.
"She's trying to make the body repair itself faster? That would be incredible." Blake said in awe.
"I bet people would pay big money for that." Emerald said with a smirk.
"And it has the potential to help thousands." Pyrrha added with a smile.
"But is there a way to keep it in check?" Ozpin wondered.
"That's incredible. Essentially you're hacking into the genetic..." Tony began.
"...Genetic operating system..." They said together.
"...of a..." Tony continued.
"Exactly." Maya assured him.
"...living organism." He finished.
"Yes." She confirmed.
" Wow." Tony said again.
Happy touched Maya's plant. "Is that... Can you..." She asked.
Coco smirked at this. "Happy... You can't touch a girl's flower without her permission." She said.
Velvet tilted her head to the side. "I don't really think that counts as a flow-" She began, before glowing bright red as she realized the hidden meaning behind her leader's words. "Coco!" She cried out.
"Nice one, Adel." Cinder said approvingly.
"Miss Adel, Miss Fall, I'll remind you there are innocent ears here." Glynda said in annoyance as she had covered Nora's ears, Yang had covered Ruby's and Winter had covered Weiss'.
"What?" Happy asked.
"Can you not touch my plant? It's not...she doesn't like it. She prefers..." Maya tried to explain.
"She's not like the others." Tony declared, picking up a laptop. "Come on. Let's go in the bedroom. Happy..." He told her, warning Happy at the end.
"That's cute, but..." Maya began.
"Leave her Ficus alone." Tony told him.
"There was totally a dirty meaning behind that." Jaune said.
"No doubt." Qrow agreed.
"Given Tony's nature back then, it's obvious." Ren added.
"Because... and, no, seriously don't." Maya warned the bodyguard as well before she walked into the bedroom.
"And you're starting with plants?" Tony asked.
"For now, yeah." Maya confirmed.
"Huh." Tony simply said.
"I'm calling it Extremis." She told him as Happy reached for the plant and pulled off some leaves to just throw them on the ground.
Winter growled at this. "She said not to touch the plant." She said in irritation. Did no one listen to basic instructions anymore?!
"We've seen a few times Happy seems to have problems with listening." Penny stated.
"I seem to recall you sneaking away from your armed escorts SEVERAL times, young lady." Ironwood told her, causing her to shrink down in embarrassment.
Weiss put a hand on Penny's back at this. "I think it's important to rebel every once in a while." She told her, causing Penny to smile.
Tony and Maya continued talking about her research in the bedroom. "Well, it's..." She began.
"Human application." They said together.
"Exactly! Exactly." Maya said happily as the plant was shown growing a new "limb".
"Whoa! That's so cool!" Ruby said.
"Based on the orange, I'd say it's pretty hot!" Yang joked.
"I feel like something else is gonna happen here." Neo said suspiciously.
"Dendritic revitalization." She continued.
"It's revolutionary." Tony declared.
"Disease prevention..." She went on.
"Changes the world." He added.
"...Even limb regrowth." Maya declared.
"It could do all that?" Ironwood asked in amazement, looking to his own metallic right arm.
Katana suddenly reached her over and held her finger in Ironwood's face. "No! No!" She scolded the general, shaking her finger once for emphasis.
"She has a point, James. Imagine if the White Fang got their hands on this. Immunity to diseases along with the ability to regrow limbs? They could rush in with biological weapons and bombs that would blast your soldiers apart while they simply regrew limbs. They'd essentially be super soldiers." Glynda told him.
Tony and Maya were then shown again. "You're the most gifted woman I've ever met." Tony declared.
"Wow." She said, amazed.
"In Switzerland." He added.
"Hmm, that's better. Aw, you're seeing things." Maya said, reaching for him.
"This week." Tony added as Maya took off his glasses, To which he laughed.
"He really can't be nice to anyone, can he?" Velvet asked with a small pout.
"It's better this way, Velvet. Since things didn't work out with her... and many girls after, he was able to get with Pepper, where he should be." Blake reminded her.
"That's an excellent take on the situation, Blake." Pyrrha said with a smile.
"You almost bought it, didn't you?" He asked her.
Maya put on the glasses and Happy shut the door. He nodded and they started kissing, only to be interrupted by an explosion and glass shattering.
"What the?!" Everyone shouted at once.
"Did that plant... Just explode?!" Ruby asked in disbelief.
"One more reason this Extremis thing seems like a bad idea. A new arm won't do you much good if you explode a minute after you get it back." Emerald noted.
"This is what I'm talking about, the glitch." Maya explained.
"Have you checked the telomerase algorithm?" Tony asked.
"The what?" Maya asked.
At that moment, Happy ran into the room and tackled Tony onto the bed to make sure he was okay. "Down! Stay down! Stay down, boss." Happy instructed.
Many chuckled or laughed at this. "Way to do your job, Happy!" Yang laughed.
"The only way he could have done better was not to cause the explosion in the first place!" Weiss snapped.
"I would defend him and say he didn't know, but Maya DID warn him." Blake added.
"We're good." Tony told him.
"Stay down." Happy repeated.
"You're...you're right on me. I made it." Tony assured his bodyguard, before Happy got up. "What the hell was that?" He asked Maya.
People were heard counting down outside. "What was that?" Happy asked.
"It's a glitch in my work. It's..." Maya tried to explain.
"That's not a glitch, that's a grenade in the shape of a potted plant!" Qrow snapped.
"Ooh, I should start gardening." Nora said mischievously.
"NO!" Her whole team, plus Ozpin and Goodwitch all yelled.
"She was just talking about it. Glitches happening." Tony assured him once again.
"It's not Y2K." Happy said in relief.
"No." Maya confirmed.
Everyone looked to Katana. "It was a doomsday theory back then that at midnight on New Year's Day, all of our computers would fail: satellites would crash, trains would go off the rails and power plants would explode. All because a computer had a hard time printing dates after December 31st." She explained.
"People in Mantle were often afraid that Atlas' Gravity Dust would fail and send the city plummeting down on them. They have no idea its actually the Relic of Creation keeping Atlas afloat." Winter added.
"The heating grid turning off is another common fear amongst the people of Mantle." Penny added.
"Not as long as Watts is locked out of it." Cinder stated.
Tony heard people celebrating outside. "Hey!" He declared.
"Happy New Year." Happy declared.
"Happy New Year." Tony returned.
"Happy New Year." Maya added.
"Alright, I'll see you in the morning, goodnight." Tony said as he shook hands with Hogan.
"Now hopefully he learned his lesson about doing things people tell him not to do." Velvet said.
"We know he definitely didn't learn about listening to or respecting women." Jaune stated, remembering the times he thought Black Widow got her training from trendy exercises mostly women did.
"Fortunately, he would learn better later." Ren stated.
"You good?" Happy asked.
"Yep." Tony agreed.
"I'll be right outside." Happy assured him.
"Okay." Tony agreed as Hogan left the room.
Aldrich was seen on top of the building waiting for Tony, who never showed.
"I believed Tony missed the deadline." Penny stated.
"No. He just totally ditched this man. Left him up there on a roof, alone and humiliated. Atrocious." Pyrrha said, fearing for the man's safety at the moment, remembering a similar time when she'd brought Jaune to the roof and his first idea for them being there was to jump.
"And it's new year, so it's winter, which means it must cold." Velvet said worriedly.
"Most of the snowing begins in January, but yes, I'm guessing it's still probably cold then." Katana confirmed.
"So why am I telling you this? Because I had just created demons, and I didn't even know it." Tony's voiceover explained as Tony was seen writing a note: 'You know who I am' and leaving it on the bedside table for Maya before leaving. Maya heard the door close.
"Yeah, those were the good times. Then I moved on. After a brief soiree in an Afghan cave, I said goodbye to the party scene. Forgot that night in Switzerland. These days I'm a changed man, I'm different now. I'm well... you know who I am." Tony's voice declared.
"Yeah. You are Iron Man. But before you got there, you were really tough to deal with." Jaune said, being torn between being inspired and annoyed.
"Let's just focus on the fact he's changed for the better now." Cinder suggested, a bit uncomfortable herself thinking about her dark past before she changed as well.
"Too bad he said goodbye to the party scene. Sure, going overboard is bad, but there's nothing wrong with having a bit of fun every now and then." Yang said, sharing a strawberry sunrise with Neo.
"So, thoughts?" Katana asked.
"I'd almost forgotten what Tony was like before Afghanistan. Kinda wish I still forgot." Nora stated.
"Indeed. I understand Tony was drunk, but tricking that man to going up on the roof alone was cruel." Pyrrha agreed.
"Well, from the sound of things, it's about to come back and bite him." Qrow reminded both girls.
"I believe the saying goes: Karma's a bitch." Neo declared.
"Amen, sister." Emerald agreed.
"I kind of just want to see what Tony's doing in the present." Ruby admitted.
"I think we all do." Jaune said, nodding.
"Then let's keep going." Katana stated, continuing the movie.
A/N: Thank you all for reading! I hope you enjoyed this first chapter!
[1] Seriously, ever since I heard that parody, it's the only way I can listen to that song now!
[2] Yes, that was an easy out for me, since I'm pretty sure they don't say her name until she meets Tony again way later.