Hi, everyone!
Not entirely sure what happened to last week's update. It didn't happen... mainly because of work and being tired and not having much time to write or energy to do so when I come home from work in the evenings. I think once I get back into a proper routine I should be able to manage writing on a more frequent basis. It is just trying to find that balance again.
Though England has gone back into Lockdown until 2nd December, and our Government has decided that anyone who was shielding earlier this year, which I was, cannot go to work for the duration of this new lockdown. I am now off work again until at least 2nd December, though my manager is looking into trying to redeploy me into a temporary role which I can do from home during this time off, so there is a chance I may have to work from home... I'm just waiting to find out. However, presently, nothing has come through yet and I have a lot of time to write.
This story has another 3 chapters to go before it is finished. I've updated the number of chapters to reflect this. I am also hopeful I can make a lot of progress on 'Understanding The Real Hero: The Avengers' when I finish this one, allowing me to maybe start posting that one earlier than I plan to.
This chapter is nearly 7000 words, and I am aiming for most of my chapters to reach that mark.
Please do, enjoy the chapter!
Understanding the Real Hero: Iron Man 2
Six
The camera panned out from Tony, as we see him sitting inside the large donut circle sign atop 'Randy's Donuts'. He is still clad in the suit, and he is taking bites out of a donut.
"Why are you sitting inside the donut?" Bruce blinked, shaking his head.
"You're sitting inside a donut whilst eating donuts," smirked Clint. "Novel."
"If you're going to Randy's Donuts, you eat them in the donut," stated Tony. "Besides, I was in the suit, I couldn't exactly sit in the diner with the other patrons and expect them to ignore Iron Man, can I?"
"But sitting in a donut eating donuts isn't conspicuous at all?" Sam raised an eyebrow.
Tony could see the point they were trying to make. "It was… early?" It wasn't a good excuse and he could see why they were bringing it up on it. "Fine, I just want to sit there. I could see what was coming if anything was."
As the camera pans down, it is revealed Nick Fury is looking up at him.
"Though, admittedly I never noticed Fury arrive," grouched Tony.
"He's good at slipping into places and surprising people." Natasha glanced at Tony. "As you are well aware." She was referring to the end of the last movie when Nick Fury had got into Tony's house and the alarms had not been raised to alert him.
"True," accepted Tony.
"Sir! I'm gonna have to ask you to exit the doughnut." Fury shouted up to him.
Tony lowers his sunglasses and looks down at Fury, who stands with his hands on his hips, and then walks away.
Clint roared with laughter. "You got the classic 'I'm fed up with your shit' pose and 'come on down here this instant' pose!"
"I'm surprised you did leave the donut when Fury asked you to," stated Natasha.
Tony shrugged. "I had nothing better to do other than sit there and stuff my face with donuts. I was sure Fury could entertain me in some aspects, garner my interest in whatever he wanted to say to me. Though I felt like a child on the receiving end of being verbally told off."
Natasha leaned forward. "Well, you had succeeded in wrecking your reputation. You were not helping yourself. In Fury's mind, you deserved it."
"And yet you could have come forward sooner and helped me instead of leading me astray," accused Tony.
Natasha wilted under Tony's steel gaze. "I couldn't do anything without orders, you know that."
"Maybe. But that hasn't stopped you before about going against orders," implied Tony. "SHIELD was happy to let me die, and you know it, Romanoff."
His gaze intensified and Natasha couldn't keep contact anymore. Her silence spoke volumes of the truth Tony spoke.
They sat at a table in the diner, Tony leaning on his elbow, sunglasses still on. "I told you I don't wanna join your super-secret boy band."
"You make it sound like we are a pop group," Clint pointed out.
"In some respects, you could say we are," reasoned Bruce. "We are famous and everyone knows who we are."
"We just do not sing," piped up Tony.
"We save the world instead," finished Rhodey.
Fury chuckled. "No, no, no. See, I remember, you do everything yourself. How's that working out for you?"
Tony refrained from commenting. He knew if he had said anything, he wouldn't be able to defend himself because the evidence presented thus far had shown he did everything himself and never involved anyone else. It was a bad habit he still hadn't broken out of.
"It's… It's… It's… I'm sorry. I don't wanna get off on the wrong foot. Do I look at the patch or the eye? Honestly, I'm a bit hung over. I'm not sure if you're real of if I'm having…"
Tony was cut off as Fury leaned forward. "I am very real. I'm the realest person you're ever gonna meet."
Clint nodded. "Fury is right about that."
"I would rather describe him as a busybody who interferes in other people's business," sighed Tony. "Still, he did help me when he didn't have to."
Tony sighed, looking around. "Just my luck. Where's the staff here?"
Fury caught sight of the rash on Tony's neck. "That's not looking so good."
Tony admitted he had been worse.
"On a scale of one to ten, this is a twelve," stated Rhodey. "Way above the scale."
A woman walks over and speaks to Fury, telling him they had secured the perimeter but didn't think they should hold it for too much longer.
Tony glanced over the top of his glasses and recognises his assistant 'Natalie'. "You're fired," he managed. Fury grinned at Tony's reaction.
Clint scoffed. "Yeah, you can't fire her."
"I know that now," grated Tony, rolling hie eyes.
Natasha sat beside Fury. "That's not up to you."
"Though, technically it is," said Bruce. "It's his company. He could do what he wanted."
"Pepper is in charge," Natasha pointed out. "I think she has more control than Tony does. If anyone could fire me, it would be her."
"Tony, I want you to meet Agent Romanoff." Fury tapped her on the shoulders.
"Hi," said Tony, a bit put out.
Natasha explained her true role. "I'm a SHIELD shadow. Once we knew you were ill, I was tasked to you by Director Fury."
"How long did it take you to realise Tony was ill?" asked Wanda.
"He's good at hiding things," sighed Natasha. "It took us a while to realise. As soon as we were aware, I was deployed to his side, with the aim of becoming his personal assistant."
"Wait, you intended to be his PA?" interrupted Rhodey.
"Only way to get to his side," shrugged Natasha. "We already guessed Tony wouldn't have been interested in interviewing potential candidates for Pepper's replacement, so we had to slip me in quietly without arousing suspicion."
Tony leaned back in his chair, scrutinising Natasha. "How long were you with S.I before I handed CEO over to Pepper?" Her entire employment history had been doctored. He hadn't been able to find out when she had infiltrated his company, despite the digging he had done to find out how much SHIELD had found out.
"Nearly a month. Our aim was to get close to you. It was meant to be a long-term assignment. We had a feeling something was up and you would soon hand over your company. I wasn't supposed to be the one to bring you the documents to sign over your company," she admitted.
Tony nodded. "I know that. You poisoned the woman who was supposed to bring me the documents, didn't you?"
"Non-lethally, I might add," corrected Natasha. "She survived, and, as far as I am aware Samantha Carlisle is still with your company."
"She is. Doesn't give you the right to poison my employees though." Tony didn't look happy.
"SHIELD and HYDRA are the same in all but name." Bucky shook his head. "Both organisations use tactics to get what they want. SHIELD favoured the non-lethal approach more often than HYDRA did." His eyes focused on Natasha. "You poisoned a woman to get to Stark. I've already been a part of an organisation like this against my will. How can you willingly do these things to other people when SHIELD is supposed to be the good guys?"
"That's a good question," mused Clint.
"Sometimes we have to do things we disagree on," said Natasha. "SHIELD could have killed me instead of giving me a second chance. They decided to listen to Clint and give me an opportunity to change. I took it. SHIELD helps to protect others, but sometimes we have to do other things which make us the bad guys, like HYDRA. Unfortunately, in our line of work it is all part of our job. I've come to terms with that."
"It isn't something I would want to be involved in," noted Bucky.
Steve sat up. "You don't want to be an Avenger?"
"Why would I?" Bucky glared at his friend. "What I've seen so far doesn't give me confidence that this is a team I would want to be a part of."
Steve was stunned.
"If there is anyone here who I'd like to work with, it would be Stark," stated Bucky. "Not that he would want to work with me, but at least he has morals and has changed for the better due to his experiences."
"Are you saying I've changed for the worst?" swallowed Steve.
Bucky didn't reply but this answering stare was enough of an answer for Steve.
Not being able to resist antagonising Steve further, Tony spoke up. "Once this is over, Barnes, we need to talk. There may be a place for you yet."
Steve was stunned.
"I suggest you apologise." Tony's gaze narrowed.
Tony folded his arms across his chest. "I would like to make it known she still hasn't apologised."
Natasha glared at him. "I was doing my job. I do not need to apologise to you."
"You've been very busy. You made your girl your CEO, you're giving away all your stuff. You let your friend fly away with your suit. Now, if I didn't know better…" started Fury.
"You don't know better. I didn't give it to him. He took it," explained Tony. He was sticking with that explanation regardless.
"You gave it to me in an underhanded way," interjected Rhodey, glancing at his friend. "You still wanted me to have it. You could have stopped me."
"I know," admitted Tony, "but as I said before, I wanted you to take it. You could have taken it at any time."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. He took it? You're Iron Man and he just took it? The little brother walked in there, kicked your ass and took your suit?" Fury didn't believe it. He turned to Natasha. "Is that possible?"
"Well, according to Mr Stark's database security guidelines, there are redundancies to prevent unauthorised usage," revealed Natasha.
"You hacked into his database too?" Bruce asked.
"It was part of my assignment," defended Natasha. "We knew, even if Tony died, that we would not be able to control the suits. They were coded to specific people. Four people in fact."
"Four?" Steve was surprised at that. "So, only four people in the entire world had authorisation to use the suits?"
Natasha nodded. "Yes. Only one of them is here. Tony counts as one as the primary user." She glanced at Rhodey.
"Who are the others?" queried Bucky quietly.
Tony sighed. "Pepper and Happy. The suits were coded to them in case they were needed to protect them. A few Christmas' ago, when my house blew up, Pepper briefly used them. Good thing I had coded them to her. She would have died if I hadn't thought of everything I could to protect her. Even if I died, the suits would not be useful to anyone but Pepper, Rhodey and Happy. If anyone not authorised to use them tried to use them, the suits would self-destruct."
Rhodey frowned. "If War Machine is only keyed to me then how did Killian's henchmen use it? They took it from me. And the President?"
A slight smile tugged at Tony's lips. "The War Machine suit can be used by anyone. I'm talking about my own Iron Man suits. Those are only keyed to me, you, Pepper and Happy."
Rhodey winced. "I don't know why I thought War Machine counted as one of your suits."
"It's yours," agreed Tony, "and, the Military, if they still want to use it in later years."
"After I retire you mean?" Rhodey clarified.
"Of course. Retirement. Not the d-word. I refuse to believe you will not reach retirement," said Tony.
"You'd better be joining me in retirement. It would be boring without you," stated Rhodey.
Tony grinned. "Life is boring without me when I'm not there."
Rhodey groaned. "I led you right into that one, didn't I?"
"You did."
"Can we get back to the movie now?" asked Rhodey as the others watched their interaction with interest.
Tony shrugged, his gaze flicking towards the screen. "Sure."
Tony smiled slightly and snorted. "What do you want from me?"
"What do we want from you? What do you want from me?" As Fury laid into Tony, Natasha got up and left. "You have become a problem, a problem I have to deal with. Contrary to your belief, you are not the centre of my universe. I have bigger problems than you in the southwest region to deal with!"
"I don't understand how Tony is Fury's problem?" Bruce asked. "Did he have to get involved?"
"He did if he wanted my suits," replied Tony knowingly.
"Fury didn't have to get involved. He chose to," admitted Natasha. "He does care about you."
Tony scoffed. "Doubtful."
"You've grown on him then," attempted Natasha again.
Tony didn't believe her but he chose to ignore her.
Natasha returned with an injection and Fury ordered her to hit Tony with it. She injected him right in the neck and Tony jerked away.
"You could have asked," snapped Tony.
"You would have said no." Natasha folded her arms across her chest.
"Not if it helped me. If I'm going to be injected with something, I'd rather do it myself," grated Tony.
Steve nodded, apparently agreeing with Tony. "You forced it on him without asking. If he'd refused then maybe the situation would warrant you forcing it on him but not without asking him first." Steve was concerned about SHIELD's tactics. "You're taking away the freedom of choice from him."
Tony couldn't help but laugh. "Like you wanted to take away the freedom of choice from countries who wanted to decide whether they should grant us entry or not?"
Steve bristled. "They -"
But Bucky stopped him by placing a hand on his shoulder. "He's right, Steve."
"But it's not the same," insisted Steve.
"It really is if you think about it," explained Bucky quietly. "You really messed up."
Steve shook his head. "I don't –"
"I know you don't believe it, but you did," added Bucky. "Countries and Governments deserve the right to choose who comes into their country. Being a superhero doesn't automatically give you the right to decide what is best for them. You take away their freedom to choose, it becomes a dangerous world where Captain America is the one making the decisions, and he shouldn't be."
Steve couldn't believe it. "What happened to you?"
"I listened, I watched, and I observed." Bucky's simple reply was enough to silence Steve.
"Oh, God, are you gonna steal my kidney and sell it?" Natasha grabbed his chin, patted the injection site before Tony pulled away. The rash on his neck faded back down. "Could you please not do anything awful for five seconds? What did she just do to me?"
"What did we just do for you?" Fury corrected him. "That's lithium dioxide. It's gonna take the edge off. We're trying to get you back to work."
"You still should have asked him," grated Rhodey. "I'm glad it helped… but he deserved the choice."
Natasha's shoulders drooped. "Would it help if I said I was sorry?"
Tony scrutinised her. "You do not mean it. You feel pressured into saying it. SHIELD does what it wants to, regardless of other people's feelings." He raised his hands before Clint could make a snarky comment. "And, yes, I am guilty of it too, but I am trying to change."
Wanda nodded. "He is. My whole opinion and outlook on Tony Stark is different now than it was. I judged him wrongly…" She glanced around at the others. "I think, like me, you've judged him too harshly.
"Give me a couple of boxes of that. I'll be right as rain."
"It's not a cure, it just abates the symptoms," explained Natasha.
Fury spoke quietly. "Doesn't look like it's gonna be an easy fix."
Sam frowned. "But the stuff you used helped him. Surely you could have given him a supply of it? Why not give him access to more shots in case his symptoms got worse?"
Tony was secretly enjoying the questioning of SHIELD's actions. He felt vindicated.
Natasha looked uncomfortable. "I just did what Fury wanted me to do."
"Not giving me my own supply meant you could control me to an extent," interrupted Tony.
"That's not true," stated Natasha.
"Then why only give me one shot?"
Natasha couldn't answer.
"Trust me, I know. I'm good at this stuff. I've been looking for a suitable replacement for palladium. I've tried every combination, every permutation of every known element." Tony was getting fed up.
"I'd already done the work," shrugged Tony. "There was nothing I could do that I hadn't already tried. But then SHIELD had a card up their sleeve…"
Fury leaned forward, a little bit of hope gleaming in his eyes. "Well, I'm here to tell you, you haven't tried them all."
Rhodey frowned. "Tony told me SHIELD had kept a lot of Howard's stuff. A lot of his work. It should have gone to Tony when Howard died. But SHIELD kept it."
"Which they shouldn't have," added Tony. "A lot of what I did back then wouldn't have happened if SHIELD had been transparent with me from the beginning. Had given me the information I needed to work out a new element. All of this could have been avoided."
"I cannot answer for Fury," sighed Natasha. "You know that. He was doing what he thought was best."
Tony's gaze hardened. "He was wrong to keep my father's research from me for so long."
Natasha looked away. SHIELD had made bad decisions in the past. Perhaps the way they had dealt with Tony should have played out differently. But now it was too late. "It still worked out well."
Tony scoffed. "Not if we go by the report that was written up about me… You didn't get to see the real me. You saw the fake me, and judged that version. Perhaps SHIELD would have seen the real me if they'd had my best interests at heart. I don't trust easily but I recognise when people are genuine, and I know when to lower my shields. I never felt that I could with SHIELD itself… but around all of you, after New York, when we were hunting HYDRA, I felt I could start to do so. And then…"
"Siberia," breathed out Steve, feeling a bit guilty at the events which had transpired there.
"Exactly." Tony briefly caught his gaze but soon turned away.
The scene changed to Hammer with his assistant approaching Vanko, who was working on one of the Hammer suits, having redesigned the helmet. Hammer proclaimed they had got Vanko the bird he wanted and revealed the white bird in the white cage. Vanko stated this was not his bird. They'd had to pull a lot of strings to get this bird from Russia. Vanko continued to insist this was not his bird.
Vision cocked his head slightly to the side in confusion. "Did he want his bird from his home?"
"Sounds like it," muttered Sam.
Clint raised a hand. "I did call it earlier. Remember? I said they'd get the wrong bird!"
"He did," confirmed Natasha.
"But how could he tell the difference?" queried Vision further. "The birds look the same."
"Usually if you have your own pet, you know when it is not your pet," said Bruce. "It's an owner's instinct."
"Oh. He must have been very fond of his bird," said Vision.
Hammer told him not to get so attached to some things and to learn to let go.
Tony sighed. "The same could be applied to Hammer and his obsession with out-doing me."
"Usually people do not recognise when they carry the same faults, they accuse others of having," said Sam quietly. "We are all guilty of it."
He then noticed the suit and the change of design. He asked Jack, his assistant, what it was. Jack was ordered to try and put his head within the very small helmet. He couldn't. Hammer wanted to put people inside the suits, however Vanko stated a drone was better. Hammer wanted to know why. Vanko stated for Hammer to trust him as people made problems. Hammer reminded him what they'd said to one another before, and how suits were needed, as the government wanted them like Iron Man suits.
"Hammer should have realised then and there that Vanko was doing things his own way. He was just using Hammer's tech to get what he wanted and strung him along. He allowed Hammer to believe he was in charge, when it was Vanko all along," summarised Sam.
"Hammer was too concerned in trying to one-up me that he ignored the dangers he was facing by working with Vanko," sighed Tony. "Hammer still blamed me for ruining everything. Though he still has a grudge against Pepper."
"Who could hold a grudge against Lady Pepper?" Thor asked.
"You'd be surprised," muttered Tony. "You'll understand why when this movie is over why Hammer holds a grudge against Pepper. It's why I keep tabs on him in prison and when he gets out… He won't be able to come near Pepper at all. I won't allow it. No one threatens the people I love."
"Reminds me of how I was when it came to Jane before I dumped her," mused Thor.
"Are you sure it was you who dumped her?" grinned Tony. "The way I heard it…"
Thor interrupted him. "I dumped her!"
Tony traded a glance with Rhodey and grinned, both knowing it was Jane who had dumped Thor, having heard it from the scientist herself.
Vanko threw Hammer's earlier comments back in his face. "Hey, man. Don't get too attached to things. Learn to let go."
Hammer sighed: "These drones better steal the show, Ivan. You understand? Better rock my world, Ivan."
"They rocked it enough to send you straight to prison," commented Rhodey. "We should never have taken him on as the Defence contractor. But, after Tony, he was the next best option."
"Face it, platypus, there was no other option after me," joked Tony.
"We had to make do with the best of a bad lot," agreed Rhodey.
Back at the Air Base, Rhodey and the General viewed the suit, hanging in a secure locker within the base. Rhodey confirmed the suit was fully mission-capable. The General wanted Hammer down there to weaponise it. When Rhodey queried it, the General revealed he wanted the suit to introduce Justin Hammer's weapons presentation at the Expo.
Rhodey wasn't sure, however the General believed the world needed to see this fast and they had to make it happen. The General informed him it was also an order. Rhodey acknowledged and the General said he was making his country proud.
"If I hadn't gone 'off-the-rails' would the Army have asked me?"
Rhodey nodded. "Probably would have. But then, I wouldn't have taken the suit at your party otherwise if you hadn't gone crazy."
"True," nodded Tony. "Still, at least the Army allows me to keep up its maintenance now."
"You are the only one who knows how the suits really work," pointed out Rhodey. He glanced around the room. "If Tony gives you any tech in the future, don't bother going to a normal mechanic. Only Tony knows how to fix things he has made. Seriously, don't bother trying, no one else will know what to do."
"I'm guessing Hammer made a colossal mess of your suit?" guessed Sam.
"That he did…" grated Rhodey.
"Gave me great joy to see what a bad job Hammer had done…" grinned Tony.
"I'd tell you to shut up but I don't think that would stop you laughing," sighed Rhodey.
"It wouldn't," laughed Tony, sitting back further in his seat, enjoying the banter between them.
Tony and Fury were back at Tony's mansion, sitting in what remained of the ruined living area of the ground floor. Security guards kept watch from a distance. Tony was a lot more sober. They were talking about the Arc Reactor.
"That thing in your chest is based on unfinished technology," the Director pointed out.
Tony disagreed. "No, it was finished. It has never been particularly effective until I miniaturised it and put it in my…"
"No. Howard said the arc reactor was the stepping stone to something greater. He was about to kick off an energy race that was gonna dwarf the arms race. He was on to something big, something so big that it was gonna make the nuclear reactor look like a triple-A battery."
Wanda frowned. "If SHIELD knew he had miniaturised the Arc Reactor and the technology could progress to something more, why didn't they share what they knew before now? I don't understand why they kept things from Tony for so long."
"SHIELD operates on the assumption it cannot allow dangerous material to fall into the wrong hands," explained Clint, attempting to clear the air. "Stark was an unknown quantity at the time. He was a loose canon – and still is – and they couldn't risk giving him material he could turn against us."
"We had to wait until he needed us," admitted Natasha.
Tony had guessed as much. "Just a ploy to make me feel grateful you had saved my life so I wouldn't use it against you. SHIELD never cared about Tony Stark. They only cared about Iron Man and what he could do for them. I was just the operator that came with the role. They would have flushed me out if they could have done."
Rhodey felt anger shimmering inside him. "SHIELD is supposed to be the good guys… but the way you treated Tony and then reported on him? It's not an organisation I would ever want to work for."
Even Steve looked uneasy. "I thought SHIELD was better than HYDRA. I was wrong."
Natasha lowered her gaze. "Maybe if we had done things differently… but we can't change it now. Tony survived. That's what matters."
Tony couldn't meet her gaze. "Maybe. But it doesn't change the fact that SHIELD could have stopped everything from happening and helped me before I lost control. Maybe the way people on this team see me would have been different if SHIELD hadn't tried to directly manipulate me into acting the way they wanted me to, to justify their report."
An uncomfortable silence fell between them.
Tony seemed doubtful as he poured himself a drink. "Just him, or was Anton Vanko in on this too?"
Fury leaned forward. "Anton Vanko is the other side of that coin. Anton saw it as a way to get rich. When your father found out, he had him deported. When the Russians found out he couldn't deliver they shipped his ass off to Siberia and he spent the next 20 years in a vodka-fuelled rage. Not quite the environment you want to raise a kid in, the son you had the misfortune of crossing paths with in Monaco."
"I did additional research on Vanko after the incident," said Vision. "What JARVIS discovered is stored in here." He pointed to his head. "I should have said it earlier. Anton Vanko wasn't working with the Russians. They did approach him. But he refused. The Vanko's had escaped Russia for a reason. They wanted a better life for their family. They were accused unfairly…"
Tony paled. "Then why did my father have them deported?"
"Because someone, either the Russians themselves fed Howard the intel or someone else close to Howard saw them and informed him," explained Vision. "Vanko was deported based on limited evidence at the time. As for the Arc Reactor design… it was a joint project. Both your father and Anton Vanko contributed greatly to the project. It was your father who attempted to downgrade Vanko's contributions to it."
Tony felt numb. "Why didn't you tell us this before when we were discussing it earlier?"
"It wasn't something I considered to be important at the time," responded Vision.
Tony shook his head, hardly surprised by what his father had done. "So, my father heard Vanko had met with Russians and assumed the worst of him, without giving him a chance to explain himself?"
"Presumably."
Rhodey rubbed his eyes with his palms. "Man, this is so messed up. Assumptions were made which led to grudges which came back to hit Tony years later. I know Howard Stark was one of the most intelligent people of his time, but he really made too many assumptions without proper evidence."
"And the one person he thought he could trust betrayed his son in the most hideous way possible," muttered Tony, thinking of Stane. He shook his head. "Does make you wonder if my father had carried out the checks properly, how different Ivan Vanko's life would have been?"
"Probably a lot better than the life he lived," mused Natasha.
Tony pointed at Fury whilst holding his glass. "You told me I hadn't tried everything. What do you mean I haven't tried everything? What haven't I tried?"
"He said that you were the only person with the means and knowledge to finish what he started."
"The Howard Stark I knew," began Rhodey, "would never have said that about his own son. He never believed in Tony at all."
"I'm sure Howard must have shown some care –" Steve started but Tony cut him off.
"No. You do not get a say in this! He was a different man when you knew him," spat the Inventor. "I was just an inconvenience to my father. I never felt that he cared about me. He never showed it either."
Steve wanted to reassure Tony that he was wrong about his father but he recognised it wouldn't have gone down well if he had tried.
Tony didn't believe his father would ever say anything like that about him. "He said that?"
Fury raised his own glass. "Are you that guy? Are you? 'Cause if you are, then you can solve the riddle of your heart."
Sam rolled his eyes. "Feels like manipulation here. You're trying to make Tony feel that his father cared about him when the evidence so far points to him not being the best father he could have been."
"I don't know where you get your information, but he wasn't my biggest fan." Tony shook his head.
"What do you remember about your dad?" Fury asked, curiously.
"Not anything good," muttered Tony quietly.
"He was cold, he was calculating. He never told me he loved me. He never even told me he liked me, so it's a little tough for me to digest when you're telling me he said the whole future was riding on me and he's passing it down. I don't get that. You're talking about a guy whose happiest day was when he shipped me off to boarding school." Tony sat back, sighing.
Steve shifted in his seat. He couldn't believe it. "You must be mistaken…"
"Why must I be mistaken?" Tony stood up, turning to face Steve and glaring at him with a look of thunder. "Let me repeat this again. I knew Howard Stark for nearly two decades! I think I know my father better than you ever did!"
Sam caught Steve's concerned expression on his face. "Leave it, Steve. You cannot claim to know someone better than their own child who knew them longer than you. No one will support you in this."
Steve cast his gaze around and realising that his friend was right finally nodded in acceptance.
Tony still stood there; arms folded across his chest.
"What?" Steve didn't understand what Tony wanted from him.
Tony turned and swiftly sat back down, but remarked: "I thought so." Inwardly he thought: why did I ever expect Rogers to apologise?
Fury sipped his drink. "That's not true."
"Well, then, clearly you knew my dad better than I did."
"As a matter of fact, I did. He was one of the founding members of SHIELD." Fury revealed.
"Just because you worked with someone doesn't mean you know him better," said Bruce quietly. "A lot of people seem to believe they do but it is rarely the case."
"But if Howard was the absentee father…" pointed out Clint. "And you barely spent time around him in twenty years…"
Bruce shrugged. "It doesn't matter. Fury didn't see Howard during personal times with his family. Just like we've dealt with Tony's mask and not really got to know the real him… Howard had a mask he used for work too. You cannot say you knew them better if you didn't interact with them outside of working hours."
"It isn't up for discussion," hissed Tony, feeling a bit angry at the way the conversation was going. He just wanted this to be over with.
Two men walked behind them with a heavy, silver case, setting it down in front of them.
Shock passed across Tony's face. "What?"
Fury glanced at his watch. "I got a two o'clock."
Tony pointed to the silver case. "Wait, wait, wait, wait. What's this?"
"What SHIELD should have given Tony long ago," grated Rhodey, frustrated on his friend's behalf.
But Fury was not going to elaborate, instead he asked Tony if he was good, which he wasn't. Fury changed his question, asking if Tony had 'got this'. Tony didn't understand what Fury was referring to. Fury informed him Natasha would remain a floater at Stark with her cover intact.
"Which I wasn't happy with, might I add!" Tony made a point of everyone knowing his thoughts on this.
Agent Coulson walked towards them. Fury checked Tony remembered him. He did.
Clint grinned. "Coulson is a very rememberable person. Who could forget him?"
Thor's shoulders drooped. He hated his brother had killed Coulson. Coulson had been a good man. Though he had forgiven Loki for many other things, the loss of Coulson was a sore point, one that Thor knew would never go away.
Good people were taken too soon.
As the Director walked away, he turned back and said directly to Tony: "And Tony, remember, I got my eye on you." He departed.
Tony shuddered. "That's still worrying. One eye on me. Come on, how is that not a bit scary?"
Natasha folded her arms across her chest. "Unfortunately, Fury cannot keep an eye on you anymore. You've made sure he can't."
"I have a right to a private life," Tony bit back.
Clint gaffed. "Says the man who spends his life in the public eye… Hypocritical at its finest. Can't have it both ways Stark."
Tony rolled his eyes. "The people I love deserve a private life, even if I don't. Just because I am who I am doesn't invalidate my right to live my life anonymously. If I could, I would gladly move away from the city, find a nice piece of land and settle there, tinkering away with Pepper by my side, running the company from afar. The public eye has always been on me, foisted upon me by my father as a child. I've never been able to keep my life private because my own father kept pushing me into the spotlight. I think I am well entitled to shutting the door on the media if I wanted to."
"Then why don't you do that? Move away?" asked Steve quietly. "If its what you wanted to do…"
"Because someone will always come and drag me back in," sighed Tony. "I said this before. If I did leave, it would be on the understanding I would not be pulled away from my life, unless it was universe-altering shenanigans."
Tony stood with his hands behind his back as Natasha approached him and explained they had disabled all communications, and Tony was to have no contact with the outside world. She told him good luck before leaving herself.
Tony turned to Agent Coulson. "Please. First thing, I need a little bodywork. I'll put in a little time at the lab. If we could send one of your goon squad down to The Coffee Bean, Cross Creek, for a Starbucks run, or something like that, that'd be nice."
Coulson wasn't having any of Tony's snark. "I'm not here for that. I've been authorised by Director Fury to use any means necessary to keep you on premises. If you attempt to leave or play any games, I will taser you and watch Supernanny while you drool into the carpet. Okay?"
"Coulson said that to you?" Bruce gasped.
Steve leapt to Coulson's defence. "He was just explaining what he would have to do if Tony broke the rules. There is nothing wrong in what he said."
"Wow." Tony blinked, and shook his head.
"Steve," Sam spoke quietly, "tasering Tony in the condition he is in there would have killed him. His body wouldn't have been able to take the stress. Fury should have known better not to use a taser threat to ensure Tony's compliance. They could have killed him." He frowned. "I'm beginning to think SHIELD kinda hoped Tony would bait them enough for them to do it, so if he died, they'd be able to get all his stuff."
"SHIELD probably didn't know what tasering Tony would do him…" attempted Steve.
Tony sighed. "You really have no idea do you, Rogers? Tasering me would have killed me. I was only alive due to a small intervention, but it wasn't enough to keep me going for long. With each passing hour I was feeling worse and worse. If you believe SHIELD didn't know what tasering me would do…" He shouldn't be surprised by Roger's admission. "Urgh… you have no clue about the grand scheme of things."
Steve bowed his head.
Bucky leaned in close to his friend. "I think you need to think things through before you offer an opinion, Steve. You're just going to keep getting yourself in trouble if you continue down this path."
Steve nodded his head.
Tony blinked and nodded. "I think I got it, yeah." They shook hands.
Agent Coulson turned and walked away. "Enjoy your evening's entertainment."
Tony looked down at the box that had been left for him. Inscribed on top were the words: PROPERTY OF H. STARK .
Wanda frowned. "I'm not sure looking through a box of your father's old research would be considered entertainment for you, would it?"
Tony agreed. "It wasn't. But, in a way, enlightening."
Back at the airbase, the silver Iron Man suit lay on a table, parts of it having been dismantled, and areas exposed. Rhodey removed the Arc Reactor from the chest piece.
Tony folded his arms across his chest. "How much did the Army learn about the suit by dismantling it?"
"Not much," admitted Rhodey. "Enough for Hammer to make modifications to it though, but not the in-depth knowledge that you have."
Hammer entered, sucking on a red lollipop, who couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"He looks like an excited eight-year old who has won a goldfish at the fairground along with a lollipop," quipped Sam.
The others couldn't help laughing.
He wanted to know what Rhodey had done to get hold of one of the suits. Rhodey didn't elaborate, wanting Hammer to tell them what he was going to do for them.
"Good, I'm glad you didn't tell Hammer what had happened between us," said Tony quietly.
Rhodey smiled. "You may have pissed me off but I know how much Hammer hated you. I wasn't going to give him the opportunity to attack you further."
Tony smiled gratefully. "Thanks."
Hammer explained he was going to upgrade their software, however Rhodey interrupted as he had been expecting suggestions on firepower.
Hammer bit his lolly, and claimed they were talking to the right guy.
"No, he really wasn't," stated Rhodey. "His weapons sounded and looked good… but their execution was a complete failure."
The next scene showed Hammer laying out all the weapons he had brought with him, including a M24 shotgun and the M134 7.62 minigun, amongst others. Throughout the demonstration, Rhodey and Colonel Allen stayed silent, until Hammer said that was all he had. Hammer couldn't read Rhodey or gauge his reaction. It came as a surprise when Rhodey stated he would take them all.
Rhodey raised his hands. "In light of everything, I really shouldn't have taken anything from Hammer, but the onus was on me to make a buy and get the suit running, regardless of technology."
Tony grinned. "This is why you only use Stark tech. You know it is always going to work. If it doesn't work it's a dud."
"It was a lesson we all learned a bit later on," sighed Rhodey. He glanced around the room. "You want the best tech; you go to this guy here." He patted Tony on the shoulders. "Otherwise you are wasting your time."
"Thanks for the recommendation," replied Tony.
At least someone thought he was worthy. It meant a lot Rhodey had stayed by his side, regardless of what he did.
He couldn't name many true friends but Rhodey was certainly one of them.
To be continued...
Please let me know what you think!
Apparently in the Marvel tie-in comics, to infiltrate Stark Industries and to be the employee who delivered the paperwork to Tony at his mansion, Natasha had to poison the woman who was originally supposed to do it. I thought this was a good little story to add to the narrative which is why I decided to reference it.
Bucky isn't liking what he is seeing and would not rather work with the Avengers, though he feels he could work with Tony. This is a plot point that will come up later in the series.
I also think it is likely Tony would only allow certain people to use the suits. So, Rhodey, Pepper, and Happy would be able to use the suits either for defence or escape purposes as Tony has ensured they are coded to them all.
Anyone else find it strange that SHIELD didn't give more access to the medicine they used to relieve his symptoms? SHIELD gave him one dose and then left him to find a solution - why not give him a supply? I wanted to bring that up as I feel SHIELD could have given him a small supply.
I'm not sure it is really confirmed if it was Thor who dumped Jane or if it was Jane who dumped him. I decided to go with the idea that it was Jane dumping Thor first. Makes it a bit more fun that way.
The new information about Anton Vanko... Though it is assumed he did betray America, there is another angle to the story that one could be explored. He fled Russia to come to America - what proof was given that Anton intended to sell secrets to Russia? This idea was brought on by one of my reviewers who questioned about the way I spoke about Vanko in an earlier chapter. I wanted to take on board what they said and go for a different angle. Vanko really disliked the Stark's. What if Vanko Snr was innocent and the Russians pursued him, and it was wrongly assumed he intended to sell to Russia? His life, and that of his son, was worse off after being deported. I think it is worth considering Vanko may have been innocent, which is why I've decided to go down this path. It's a different angle to look at - and put simply, Howard Stark made an assumption and was wrong.
Steve doesn't understand tasering Tony would have the capacity to kill him.
The next chapter will be posted next Sunday 15th November!
Until then,
the-writer1988