"Penny, are you certain? Tony's armor is quite powerful and his weapons have proven effective in taking out entire armies." Winter reminded the robot girl she'd come to see almost as a second little sister.
"I believe I will be fine, Winter. While Tony's armor and weaponry have proven effective, they've proven their lack of ability against equally matched opponents at close range." Penny declared.
"Just promise me you'll be careful, Penny. And don't let your guard down." Weiss told her.
"I'll do my best, Weiss!" Penny assured her.
"Alright, then. Everybody, get ready to meet the armored Avenger." Katana told them all, to which they reacted with excitement.
Soon enough, a man appeared in the center of the room. He wore black shoes and pants with a mostly black t-shirt with grey shoulders and sleeves. He had a head of black, slicked back hair and a stylish goatee and light sideburns. It was none other than the first hero they had been introduced to throughout the viewing: Tony Stark, the Iron Man. He seemed a little surprised at first, before looking to the ice demon. "Katana. Steve told us you might randomly pull a few of us aside. I'm guessing you want me to be a teacher again or something? Get these kids on the fast track to college or something?" He guessed.
Katana rolled her eyes at this. "If Steve told yo I'd be pulling you hear, I'd also assume he told you what for." She said.
Ruby suddenly zipped up to the former weapons creator. "Oh, my gosh! Tony Stark! I'm a huge fan. Your movies are awesome and your armors are so amazing!" Ruby cheered.
"Well, I'm always happy to meet a fan." He declared.
"You know, most of us made our own weapons, too. Check these out!" Yang said, transforming Ember Celica into their gauntlet forms. Soon enough, all the other students, with the exception Penny, revealed the multiple forms of their weapons.
Needless to say, the billionaire found himself quite impressed. "Any chance you kids would be willing to take on a Summer internship at Stark Industries?" He offered.
"We appreciate the offer, Mr. Stark, but having our students in another dimension for an extended period of time is not something we're comfortable with." Ozpin explained.
"I just got my girls back! I plan on spending the whole Summer with them!" Summer agreed, holding Yang and Ruby close.
"So, which one am I fighting here? I'm guessing one of the grown-ups? The big bulky guy over there looks like he could take a beating from one of my suits." Tony said, looking at Hazel. "Speaking of which, I will be needing one of my suits." He said to Katana.
"If I started beating you, Stark, I don't think I'd be able to stop myself." Hazel told him.
"Yikes, tough crowd." Tony winced. Suddenly, the billionaire was encompassed by a familiar looking suit, the one in which he fought Ultron. "The Mark 45? Nice." He said, giving Katana a thumb's up. "I also wouldn't mind showing the blonde in glasses what I can do. In more than just my suit." Tony said, winking to Glynda.
"How dare you! I may have shown you sympathy many times throughout these movies, but I am still more than willing to break you down more than any villain has!" The assistant Headmistress snapped, readying her crop, the rest of the Ozluminati desperately holding her back.
"Actually, Mr. Stark, I requested to be your opponent. I am Penny Polendina. It's a pleasure to meet you!" Penny declared, stepping forward.
"Well, you've certainly got some spirit" Tony said, before his scanners detected an anomaly with her and he realized something. "Whoa, wait a minute here." He said, scanning her and discovering that she was in fact an android. "She's an android. Very impressive design. I wouldn't mind meeting whoever came up with this." He stated.
"I'm sure my father would very much like to have the opportunity to meet you as well, sir." Penny stated.
"Okay, Penny, your objective will be to either take out the arc reactor to power down his armor, or break the armor off of Tony's head to make him vulnerable. Those are your win conditions." Katana explained.
"Yes, ma'am." Penny agreed.
Tony completed his scan of Penny and came up with a rough blueprint for her. "I'll have to file that away somewhere. Vision might like having a little sister." He stated, saving the blueprints in a file before looking at Penny. "You sure you wanna do this, though, Lincoln?" He asked, giving Penny a (rather lame) nickname based off the president on the coin she was named after. "Just because you're a bit tougher than the others here doesn't mean I'll go easy on you." Tony warned her as the two of them made their way to the arena.
Penny then revealed her swords. "Oh, don't worry, Mr. Stark. I'm combat ready!" She declared. [1]
Background Music: "Combat Ready" by Mitchell Marlow
Tony flew forward, throwing a punch at Penny, who deflected the attack with her left hand and delivered a powerful palm strike to the Iron Avenger's chest, which sent him back several feet before he used his repulsors to bring himself to a stop. He looked up after coming to a stop as Penny opened her backpack and unveiled her swords, spinning them around her once or twice, before having them in a circle behind her. "Well, that's different." Tony noted. He then raised his hands and fired some repulsor blasts, but Penny managed to move to the sides of the blast and flew towards the armored billionaire, her swords slashing at several places on his body. They weren't cutting through the armor, but they were leaving deep scratches that would certainly take a while to buff out, not to mention decently rattling Tony within the armor as the swords slammed into him at insane speeds.
Eventually, Tony fired a repulsor blast down at the ground between them, forcing Penny to jump back before she took the force of the blast, skidding to a stop with her swords. She then shifted her swords into their gun form, separating them to be at different angles in two groups of five, before they all began to fire a barrage of energy bolts at the armored Avenger. Tony was shocked at this, firing a blast from his repulsors to his side, avoiding the first initial volley, but the groups of swords firing upon him at multiple angles had him trumped. He tried to fire blasts back at the swords, but they moved out of the way too quickly. He looked back to Penny, who seemed to be open and fired at her, but one of the pairs of swords stayed with her in their sword form, which flew to the side as he raised his arm to fire, stabbed into the ground and yanked her to the side away from danger as the other weapons came back to her and returned to their sword form.
"She's versatile, boss. Even your tech can't do everything she's doing." FRIDAY warned him.
Penny then rocketed towards Tony with the jets from her swords, preparing for a powerful upward slash that should cut into the armor and limit a few functions. Tony had to think fast, but thankfully for the billionaire, that's what he was known for. "Flares!" He instructed, his suit releasing numerous flares, forcing Penny to stop her assault and shield her eyes. This allowed Tony to land a few solid punches and even a kick, before blasting Penny back with a blast from the repulsors. "Okay, she's a tough girl, she's got that forcefield and a good bit of iron intake [2], I'll be the first to guess... She can probably take a few missiles." Tony said to himself, deploying his suit's missiles and firing several of them, but Penny put her swords together, spinning rapidly to act as a shield, intercepting the missiles.
This created a smokescreen, but thanks to her infrared vision, Penny could see through the smoke to reveal Iron Man charging at her, to which she responded with spinning her swords together once again, although this time sideways like an oversized buzz saw, which she launched at Tony, knocking him back, before she completely wrapped a pair of swords around each arm and dragged him across the battlefield. Tony eventually activated his repulsors to take off and try to get free, but Penny wrapped an extra pair of swords around his legs and started pulling him back. "Sorry, Mr. Stark, but I am stronger than I look!" Penny declared, pulling back hard on the wires, yanking Tony out of the air and sending him crashing to the ground.
She then reeled him in and started to deliver blows with her fists, leaving decently sized dents in the metal, seeming to focus on the chest where the arc reactor laid, or his head, which would satisfy Katana's win conditions. She then used her remaining swords to gouge into the chest piece of the armor, starting to inch towards the reactor "Dammit! Can we analyze her movements, the swords, something!?" He demanded.
"The swords are tied to her movements, but you'll only be able to tell where they're coming from. There's no way to tell what she's going to do with them!" Friday explained.
Tony managed to deliver a headbutt to Penny, which made her lose focus and release him, allowing him to jet back to a safe distance. "Fine. Let's just fire everything." Tony said, deploying all of his remaining missiles, shoulder projectiles, etc. All the projectiles came all at once, which did seem to make Penny a bit nervous as she fought all of them off, but once again, using a pair of swords to pull herself back took her out of the danger zone. She then grouped all of her swords together for one massive laser. "Alright, a little head to head, let's see what she can do. Unibeam, let's go, FRIDAY." Tony declared.
"Power is at 45%! Even if this works, you'll barely have any power left!" FRIDAY tried to reason with him.
"Do it!" Tony ordered. The two of them fired their most powerful beams at each other, meeting in the middle and having an intense struggle to overpower the other beam. However, a short time after the struggle, Penny broke away two swords from the group. This allowed the beam to slowly start making its way towards Penny. However, as it was closing in, Tony saw a green light from below and looked down to see the two swords in their gun form, readying another beam that shot straight up, cutting through the weakened chest of the armor and destroying the reactor, causing the suit to lose power and Tony to fall back.
End Music
It was an incredible fight, easily the closest so far [3], but ultimately, Penny's proficiency at all ranges managed to trump the Iron Avenger. "Okay, not bad at all. You've got some moves, Lincoln. You could have a real place on the Avengers, I'm not kidding." Tony said.
Penny smiled and bowed a bit at this. "Thank you, sir. But my place is on Remnant, with my friends and my father." She said.
"I get that. Family's important. You've got to try your best to stick together, build each other up." Tony said, looking to Katana. "And you're actually doing a pretty good job with that." He added.
"Everything I do is to try and help, what can I say?" Katana asked with a shrug, holding her hand out and completely repairing the damage the suit took, as well as any injuries that actually got through the suit.
"Well, this was fun. I'm happy to do it again after a good bit of time to rest. I'll have to break out one of my nanotech suits. That would certainly have made this more challenging." Tony said.
"Nano-what?" Yang asked.
"They haven't gotten that far!" Katana yelled, snapping her fingers, starting the process of sending Tony home.
"Don't forget about those Stark Internships!" He called before he vanished.
"That still sounds really cool." Ruby said sadly.
"Forget it, kiddo. You don't get paid for internships. Stark's got the cash to spare, he could afford to give you part-time jobs if he wants Remnant tech." Qrow stated.
"But then we'd have to figure out a rate of conversion for their currency to ours." Winter pointed out.
"Perhaps we should simply move onto the next match?" Glynda suggested.
"Good idea. Who's feeling up for it?" Katana asked.
"I believe I'll step up next. I've been on the sidelines a little too long lately." Ironwood declared.
"Cool, but load these into your main gun before you start. They're rubber rounds. Non-lethal, but they still hurt. Remember, your opponents won't have aura." Katana reminded him.
"Right. Excellent foresight." The general agreed, loading his non-mobility pistol [4] with the clip Katana had given him.
"Best of luck, James." Glynda told him.
"I know you'll be able to vanquish any opponent you go up against, sir. Even with non-lethal rounds." Winter assured him.
"Rooting for ya, Jimmy." Qrow said.
"Show the kids how it's done, Ironwood!" Summer cheered.
"Best of luck, James." Ozpin added.
"This will certainly be a treat. It's not often you see a general step onto the battlefield." Weiss said excitedly.
"Alright, then. James Ironwood, choose your opponent." Katana declared.
"I choose..." Ironwood began.
A/N: This was definitely a fun one! I hope you guys all enjoyed. The end result may be a bit shocking, but I promise I can explain it:
Remember, this is essentially MCU Tony before the nanomachine suits of Infinity War and Endgame. If it was comic book Tony, Penny probably would've been screwed, but MCU Tony, she's got a fairly solid leg up on. They're close in all categories, but Penny slightly edges out in most of them, plus, as the fight pointed out, despite Tony's impressive arsenal, he's never dealt with anything quite like Penny's weaponry and analyzing her fighting pattern is next to impossible with how she moves compared to her swords. Plus, he's always been the kind of guy who fights from a distance against similarly-powered foes. MCU Tony can duke it out in a fist fight, but close range was never his strong suit (no pun intended), whereas Penny is quite effective at all ranges.
The nanomachine suits MIGHT have been enough, but while they could replace lost parts, it seemed to be easier to break and damage than ALMOST any other suit *Cough* Mark 42! *Cough* Although, admittedly, it was mostly THANOS breaking off those pieces, so let me know what you think, I might consider a rematch in the future.
[1] For the sake of saving time with repeated and/or extra dialogue, just assume that Steve told all the other Avengers about their aura in the event Katana called any of them to fight afterward.
[2] If it wasn't obvious, that was a (very) poor joke about Penny being an android and Tony guessing what she's made out of... Someone needs to ask that at RTX.
[3] Then again, with only four fights, that's not saying much.
[4] Remember, he has two guns, one for shooting people, one to help him move around with Gravity Dust bullets. Someone show him Attack on Titan so he can see the ODM gear!