TITLE: Iron Maiden - Days of Future Past
DISCLAIMER: The Marvel Cinematic Universe characters and everything from Earth-199999 belongs to Marvel under the umbrella of The Mouse of Doom, ahem, sorry, Disney... anything from other Marvel Universes / dimensions / timelines belong to their respective comic creators… basically, if you recognise it, it isn't mine... Please don't sic SHIELD on me, I'm just here for the fun.
Stark Mansion
10880 Malibu Point
Malibu
California
January 31st, 2010
The bright light coming through the expansive windows in his bedroom woke Tony up far earlier than he would normally like, and while he was more than happy to just lounge around in bed and slowly work his way towards proper consciousness, his brain was still going a mile a minute over yesterday's revelations.
The amount of technology that Morgan had brought back with her from the future was staggering, truly, in every sense of the word. Literally world changing, and he hadn't even managed to look through most of it yet.
Everything from nanotech, medical advances, processors and quantum nodes, sensors, hard light holographic systems, the advances in AI alone were mind shattering, but the things she'd hinted about that were stored in his private databases and the Stark International database were enough to make him salivate uncontrollably.
Pepper had done amazing things with SI, he'd barely scratched the surface of what the company was doing in the future and already he was amazingly proud of what Pepper had done. She'd kept it away from weapons and military contracts, and turned SI into a global tech giant that was unrivalled in the future.
They'd talked late into the evening last night, until Pepper had awkwardly begged off, saying she needed to get home to feed her cat and actually let all of this sink in. She'd taken a cheek swab using one of the regular paternity test kit things that Tony was sure he actually had stock in now, it was a 'just in case' thing that Pepper had insisted on.
She'd have the test run today, and while he was ninety eight, ninety nine percent sure of the results, it was always good to have certified and documented proof of things when it came down to it.
Rubbing his eyes to clear the sleep out of them, he clambered out of bed, blinking at the window when the usual morning interface didn't pop up showing today's weather and anything he'd added to his personal calendar for the day.
"J? You there?" He asked aloud, tilting his head as he looked around and waited for the response. "What the hell?" He muttered to himself, grabbing a pair of jeans from his wardrobe and quickly pulling them on.
Had he misjudged Morgan that badly, he didn't think so, but then he hadn't seen Stane's betrayal either, and he'd only met Morgan yesterday.
He was out of his bedroom jogging down the stairs while his mind was racing, pondering what future girl could possibly want with JARVIS when she had her own AI already that was superior to JARVIS, even if he'd never admit that aloud.
He didn't even stop on the main level of the mansion, darting straight down to the workshop where he could access his private servers and figure out what the hell was going on, though he skidded to a halt a few steps inside the workshop when he saw Morgan happily sat at his workbench, her feet up on the desk... her usual tan and brown cowboy boots. Had she even been wearing those yesterday, he couldn't remember, but she had one of her weird black block things in the middle of his bench, projecting floating holographic screens all around her.
"What are you doing with my servers?" Tony asked, a bit of heat in his voice as he walked over to stare at the various screens around Morgan.
"Chill dad, your security sucked ass. I'm updating it all using a neural encryption base algorithm." Morgan rattled off, happily munching through a bowl of dry cheerios that was sat next to the cereal box on his workbench.
"My security is the best," Tony defended his work automatically, walking over and glaring at the various screens.
"Yeah, for twenty ten," Morgan rolled her eyes, giving that statement the attention it actually deserved. "No wonder SHIELD hacked it to let themselves in whenever they wanted. It's good enough for private, against dodgy government agencies with all the alien tech they've confiscated? Pft..." She snorted derisively.
"Huh," Tony frowned, remembering well how Fury had got into his mansion and disabled all his security and internal systems. SHIELD using alien tech to break in to places and back up their dodgy activities? Not exactly a surprise. "Neural encryption?" He asked, eyeing the screens dubiously as he grabbed the box of honey nut cheerios and helped himself to a handful.
"Same base as the programming I used for FAITH," Morgan shrugged, swiping away two of the screens. "No binary based computer could ever hack it, not in a million years. It'd take one of my QSI's a century or two to make their way through it."
"You been doing that all morning?" Tony asked, looking at her dubiously. "And is that one of my shirts?" He frowned, looking at the Van Halen t-shirt Morgan was currently wearing.
"Hey, mine was sweaty and this was in the laundry done pile," Morgan shrugged. "I didn't exactly have space to pack a suitcase full of clothes and stuff."
"Right," Tony nodded, limited space for bringing stuff back from the future, and she'd filled it all up with tech and bits that she'd need to save the world, clothes were optional apparently. He could understand that, important tech gets priority. "Go online, order whatever you need. I'll let JARVIS know you're authorised when you get him back online."
"Should be booting up now," Morgan nodded as she swiped away two more screens. "How's your hacks going FAITH?" She asked absently as she continued to work on one keyboard while looking at a different screen.
"No problems so far boss," FAITH's voice came back. "Social media presence has been injected and back dated for the past four years. ETH records have been altered. DMV records have recorded your lost license, a new one will be posted to you within two weeks. A replacement passport has also been issued from the Spanish government and is expected in fourteen to twenty one days."
"Nice," Morgan smirked with a laugh. "Look at that, I'm actually a real person again." She explained with a smirk over to Tony.
"Funny," Tony rolled his eyes. "Social media? Tell me you're not just signed up as Morgan Stark?" He asked.
"Like mom would ever let that happen," Morgan muttered, shaking her head. "Morgan Snark, mom suggested it as a joke, but I kinda love it." She explained with a grin. "FAITH's backdating all my posts, photos, everything from my old presence in the future, just editing it a bit to make it twenty ten friendly."
"Right," Tony drawled. "And ETH?" He asked.
"They don't even have degrees in cybernetics or bio-engineering." Morgan huffed in annoyance. "Ran the same courses you did, robotics, engineering, programming, computer sciences." She rattled off. "Not going to be able to push my doctorates though, cybernetics and bio-mechanics won't be subjects for a decade or two annoyingly."
"Like you need a piece of paper to back up how smart you are," Tony smirked at her. "I got three of them, and never bothered with them. Most people don't even remember I've got them."
Morgan snorted at that, helping herself to another handful of cheerios.
"So, hacking my systems aside..."
"Improving," Morgan interrupted with a smirk.
"Did you have the list of assholes we need to deal with?" Tony continued on, walking away from his workbench when he saw the coffee machine still had half a jug's worth of freshly brewed heaven ready for consumption.
"Yeah, top ten all ready to be knocked down," Morgan nodded. "FAITH, bring 'em up. Ordered by threat please." She said aloud, grabbing her mug and heading over to get a coffee refill herself.
"What's the scale?" Tony asked curiously, pouring out his own mug before filling up Morgan's mug as well, watching curiously as she added far more cream and sugar to her mug than he would ever dream of. "Hedonist." He smirked, shaking his head at her coffee.
"According to mom, I got it from you," Morgan grinned, stirring her coffee happily before walking away, gesturing to the ten large screens that FAITH had projected around the workshop.
"Not that you didn't," Tony frowned, shuddering at the thought of her sickly sweet coffee. "Anyway, assholes in order. Number one?" He asked, looking at the picture of a huge purple looking alien with a rather disturbing chin. "Who's the walking grape with the scrotum chin?" He asked.
"Thanos," Morgan said, staring at the screen while taking a sip of her coffee. "Biggest threat out there. Strong enough on his own to punch through steel doors, but with the stones... serious galaxy level threat."
"Right, the magic marbles of doom." Tony grimaced, not liking to think about those at all.
"He's somewhere between a nihilist and a zealot, there's no conversations, no talking, no discussion. His only goal is getting the stones and wiping out half of the universe, that's it, nothing else." Morgan explained.
"Cheery guy," Tony muttered. "Next." He shook his head, looking to the next screen. "Little Red Riding Hood?" He asked, looking up at the picture showing a woman dressed all in red and black, scarlet energy swirling around her hands and a very unpleasant look on her face.
"Wanda Maximoff," Morgan frowned. "Most of the alphabet agencies call her The Scarlet Witch, or something that rhymes well enough with that." She explained, causing her dad to snort in amusement. "HYDRA experimented on her using one of the Infinity Stones, gave her these seriously dangerous powers, like reality warping stuff. She's the one behind the apocalypse back in my time."
"Right, top tier threat then." Tony nodded.
"Yeah," Morgan nodded. "Stopping her getting her powers is the first goal. If I can't, then putting a bullet through her brain before she does anything to crack reality open like an egg."
"I can get behind that," Tony said, staring at the picture and memorising it for future reference. "Who's emo boy?" He asked, gesturing to the next screen.
"Loki," Morgan waved over to the screen. "Alien, despite how he looks. Comes from a race that see themselves as gods." She continued when Tony snorted in amusement. "They're behind the Norse god myths. His brother, Thor? He can control lightning, seriously." She looked at Tony to see how seriously he was taking this. "Massively strong, fast, can heal ridiculous amounts of damage, and they live for about five thousand years." She rattled off. "FAITH, have you got the footage of my dad meeting Loki in Stark Tower?" She asked aloud.
"Sure thing boss," FAITH replied, bringing up the footage.
Tony simply watched, grimacing as Loki tried using some sort of spear or sceptre thing to stab him in his chest, before grabbing him by the throat and throwing him out a window like a child's doll. "OK, I don't like him." He said simply as the video vanished.
"That sceptre, that's what HYDRA used to give Wacky Wanda her powers." Morgan pointed out. "Mind control, energy blasts, who knows what that thing is capable of. Getting it off of him and stopping HYDRA from getting hold of it is our only option."
"Got it, next." Tony said quickly, looking away from the photo showing the supposed 'god' with manic green eyes. "Actually, skip that... how about the ones we can actually do something about now?" He asked.
"FAITH?" Morgan asked, watching as the screens flickered and changed around.
"Now this asshole I know," Tony said, moving back to the first screen showing Senator Phillip Stern.
"One of HYDRA's top people. He's going to try and get his hands on the Iron Man suit this summer." Morgan nodded. "I've got the court records from when you went to the hearing, but it was a shit show." She explained with a shrug. "He's also behind SHIELD's Project Insight, some fancy Big Brother program that HYDRA kicked off inside of SHIELD to start killing people before they could become a threat. Guess who's name is top of their list?" She asked with a smirk as she looked over to her dad.
"I'm honoured," Tony drawled. "So, HYDRA is really a thing huh? Always heard from my dad's old stories that Rogers and his band of merry men beat them back in the forties." He mused aloud.
"They did, only SHIELD had their own Project Paperclip running, they gave a load of HYDRA scientists amnesty and got them working for them. Probably the stupidest idea of the last hundred years, easily. SHIELD continues on happily with a couple of dozen HYDRA scientists working for them, fast forward a couple of decades, and HYDRA is still around, recruiting heavily and growing right inside SHIELD, ready to try and take over the world again." Morgan explained with a roll of her eyes.
"And SHIELD never noticed? You know, for an intelligence agency, that shows a horrifying lack of intelligence." Tony muttered, shaking his head in disgust.
"SHIELD's ethics are so dodgy that their entire organisation is half run by HYDRA and the Nazis and they never noticed the difference." Morgan grimaced. "Breaking and entering? Illegal phone taps? Blackmail? Assassination? Stealing? Kidnapping?" She rattled off. "Just an every day activity for the illustrious Agents of SHIELD." She said with a roll of her eyes. "Fury and SHIELD are a few screens down by the way."
"Figures," Tony muttered. "Alright, Stern. Dealing with him is going to be a pain in the ass."
"Politics," Morgan grimaced, shaking her head. "It's assholes like him trying to steal the company and Iron Man tech that pushed mom to take the company out of America. Well, that and the Rogers sycophants who thought he shit rainbows and lucky charms. Most of them were neo-nazis and bigots anyway, happy to cheer on the blonde haired blue eyed asshole like he was the second coming of God himself." She explained with a snort.
"Huh," Tony mused. "Might be an idea, something to consider. Taking the company international early. Let him make the first move." He mused aloud. "I'll talk to Pepper, bounce some ideas around." He said, shaking his head thoughtfully. "Asshole number two?"
"Thaddeus Ross," Morgan said, moving over to the second screen as she enjoyed a mouthful of her coffee. "Top asshole for the army."
"Don't know him," Tony frowned, staring at the screen and silently judging the rather unfortunate moustache the man was sporting. "Secretary of State? He isn't now?"
"Probably a general or something," Morgan frowned thoughtfully. "I know he went after The Hulk pretty hard, chased him all over the country. Half the incidents are because of him." She explained. "He's got this whole schtick of recreating the super soldier serum. Only he wants to make sure any super soldiers or heroes only answer to him, and only him." She gestured up to the photo. "He's running a private secret jail in international waters that SHIELD just love to use, moves all enhanced people there who won't play nice for him. No trial, no jury, just locked up for life."
Tony whistled at that, making a note of the asshole's name.
"The worst part is, he really thinks he's the great American patriot. He honestly believes he's the right person doing the right thing, he's nearly as sanctimonious as Rogers, but has the political clout to back his threats up." Morgan explained.
"I'll talk to some of my military contacts, see what the real story is about this guy." Tony frowned thoughtfully.
"I'll sick FAITH on his projects as well. I know there's human experimentation in there somewhere, probably a ton of other black projects that he wouldn't want to see the light of day." Morgan nodded. "Give me a week and I should be able to find enough to bury him so deep he'll never crawl out again."
"Nice," Tony nodded. "And give me the location of his secret prison. I'll make an unscheduled flyover, get some photos... leak them on the internet and blow the whole thing into the public eye." He said with a wide grin at the thought.
"That'll send him and the other rats scurrying," Morgan smirked thoughtfully. "Fury and SHIELD, you already know."
"The Leather Pirate himself, I've had the dubious pleasure." Tony nodded. "Next." He said, skipping past Fury's photo with a disdainful glance. "Aldrich Killian?" He asked. "Never heard of him."
"CEO of Advanced Idea Mechanics," Morgan said, glaring up at the photo.
"Name rings a bell," Tony mused thoughtfully.
"He's working on something called Extremis, basically a seriously beta version nanotech twist of the super soldier serum. Mom got infected with it when he kidnapped her." Morgan explained darkly.
"This asshole went after Pepper?" Tony demanded, seeing Morgan nod in response. "What happened?"
"A few years of gene therapy stabilised the Extremis, but it mutated into cancer later on." Morgan explained quietly. "He killed mom, I don't even know what he was trying to do by injecting her with it, but... he's the one that killed her."
"He never gets within a city block of Pepper this time around," Tony said darkly, already memorising the name and photo, and making plans to isolate and take over Advanced Idea Mechanics when he got the chance.
"She's got the watch and armour this time, I don't know if she'll use the armour, but even if she just activates it it'll keep her safe and she won't be infected." Morgan pointed out.
"Don't care, I'll kill him if he comes after Pepper." Tony said with one last glare up to the screen. "Next." He bit out, walking away from Killian's screen with a frown on his face.
"Arnim Zola." Morgan pointed up to the next screen.
"No photo?" Tony asked curiously.
"Nope, you'll get a laugh out of this one. One of Rogers' old enemies, SHIELD took him under their wing, protected him in exchange for him building weapons and designs for them. HYDRA through and through, might as well have a Nazi stamp branded onto his forehead." Morgan explained.
"So, not dead?" Tony asked curiously.
"Actually managed to digitise his brain patterns back in the seventies. He's some sort of AI hybrid now running out of some hundred year old computer systems over at an old army base." Morgan explained, smirking at Tony's disbelieving look. "I'm not kidding, apparently he recorded his entire brain onto ancient data tapes somehow."
"It's horrifying that that isn't the craziest thing you've said this morning," Tony deadpanned. "Right, army base?"
"Camp Lehigh in New Jersey," Morgan pointed up to the information being displayed. "He's HYDRA's big brain, organising and planning everything. Deleting him and destroying the tapes will do a ton of damage to HYDRA before they even get a chance to do anything this time."
"Old tech? EMP?" Tony asked. "Can just drop one onto the base and say the job's done?"
"He's buried deep somewhere in a bunker according to the files I've got, a missile strike wiped him out last time, but no idea if an EMP would do anything." Morgan said with a frown.
"We go in and do it old school then," Tony nodded. "Seventies tech, jeez... trashing that stuff is going to be like a trip back to my childhood." He said with a grimace.
"Yeah yeah, you're older than dirt," Morgan quipped with a smirk, waving past Zola and on to the next screen.
"Hammer? No, no... I refuse to accept this." Tony shook his head in disbelief. "AI man, HYDRA, asshole scientists, shithead senators and scumbag SHIELD I can accept... but Hammer? A threat?" Tony snorted in disbelief. "He'd only a threat towards good taste and actual intelligence." He frowned, dismissing the screen entirely. "His tech doesn't work, his weapons are laughable... he's an idiot, not a threat."
"Pretty much," Morgan laughed, nodding in agreement with Tony's description. "He's working with Ivan Vanko."
"Who?" Tony tilted his head to the side, watching as the screen changed to show Ivan Vanko attacking him with two energy whips on some racetrack. "Not a great look." He commented, looking at the rather dubious exo-skeleton style technology the man was wearing. "Wait, is that an Arc reactor?"
"A really basic design, but yeah, he managed to get it working as well. And by working I mean enough power to charge two whips and a basic suit for short range flying. Nothing else, definitely no other weapons or AI processing or sensors or repulsors or anything like that." Morgan nodded. "Apparently his dad worked with your dad somewhere back in the fifties or sixties, I never got the full story, but he blames you for something or other..."
"Blah blah blah, same old story," Tony rolled his eyes. "Threat?"
"Pathetic, slightly above a yapping dog." Morgan admitted. "Energy whips powered by an Arc reactor to create unstable plasma streams, not even innovative, just brute forcing the power output of the reactor down some cobbled together cables. He'll attack around the expo, then teamed up with Hammer to create the Hammer-oids, I showed you the video of him on stage?" She asked, looking to see Tony nod at her. "Those things. Then he uses them to trash the Expo and chase you around before blowing them all up when you take him down."
"He upstaged my own Expo?" Tony gasped in horror. "Right, him and Hammer, they're going down."
"Stern used him as an example of other people figuring out Arc tech, tried to get you to hand over the Iron Man suit to him." Morgan explained. "Did this whole speech about it being for the good of America, more like he was going to try and build an entire army of HYDRA themed armoured suits."
"Never going to happen," Tony said firmly. "Anyone else?" He asked curiously, looking around for more screens.
"Nobody that's worth paying more attention to than Hammer," Morgan shrugged.
"So, bugs then," Tony nodded, happy with that evaluation. "We smack them down one at a time before they become a threat, and keep an eye out for the bigger ones coming behind them."
"Leave SHIELD alone for now," Morgan said with a sigh. "At the very least we need them to still be around for the New York invasion. We need that Infinity Stone here. During the invasion we can steal away both of them, and SHIELD won't be able to say a damned thing about it. This time we push the news about them launching a nuke towards New York, and bury the entire organisation so deep that they'll be digging for years just to see sunlight."
"Vicious," Tony grinned in approval. "You know The Pirate isn't going to just sit around waiting? Especially if he gets a sniff of you?" He pointed out. "Secret daughter coming out of the woodwork, he'll be clambering to get you under his thumb before anyone else gets chance."
"I figured," Morgan grimaced at the thought.
"Anyway," Tony drawled, draining the last of his coffee. "I want to put this thing through it's paces." He said, tapping his Arc reactor with a grin. "No offence to you and FAITH, but I need to know how it's going to run with my tech, since you won't give me any of your fancy nanotech suits from the post-me era."
"Not my fault they weren't designed to work with that prehistoric lump in your chest," Morgan fired back automatically, waving her hand towards the holographic displays and dismissing them. "Get that crap out of you, and you can have your suit back." She smirked at him.
"I'm working on it, had JARVIS researching surgeons all night, or I did until you cut him off apparently." Tony gave a mock glare at that, ignoring the way Morgan rolled her eyes at him. "So, fancy heading out for a flight? See if you can keep up with your old man?" He asked with a grin.
"Is that even a challenge? I mean, I'm pretty sure I've seen kids around with better tech than your current suits." Morgan smirked. "I'm surprised that thing actually flies at all really."
"Kid, you're pushing it," Tony gave another mock glare. "JARVIS, you there?"
"For you sir, always." JARVIS voice came back, reassuring as ever.
"Suit up, it's play time." Tony grinned, putting his mug to one side as he stepped onto the plates in the middle of the room, smiling widely as he various robotic arms started coming down and arranging the various suit parts around him and bolting them into place.
"Looks exhausting," Morgan quipped once the helmet piece of the Iron Man suit came down and latched into place, the face plate staying up as the robotic arms moved back into the ceiling and floor. "Seriously, do you need a nap already?" She grinned up, tapping her nanite core reactor twice in quick succession and smirking as she watched her dad's eyes go wide at the liquid metal that flowed out and around her body before solidifying into her iridescent Iron Maiden armour.
"Oh, is that how it is?" Tony glared, slapping down his faceplate and running the usual checks on his systems.
"Lets see," Morgan laughed as FAITH connected her suit to Tony's so they could hear each other. "Catch me if you can." She grinned, firing her repulsors and lifting off the floor before angling herself down and shooting out of the garage ramp with Tony in hot pursuit.
Stark Industries
Los Angeles branch
By mid afternoon Pepper Potts was regretting staying up so late with Tony and Morgan last night. They'd talked well into the evening, and by the time she'd driven home it was well past midnight and approaching one AM.
Tony had been insistent about closing down the fabricators around the LA branch today, but she'd managed to hold him off for now, saying that they at least needed to meet their current contracts before closing them down for an upgrade. And considering Tony didn't even know the specifications of the new upgrades Morgan had been talking about, she was willing to bet it would be a few weeks until they were really ready to do anything on that sort of scale.
It all came back to Morgan, and she really didn't know what to think about the young woman. There was so much of Tony in her, so much it was frightening, but there was also so much proof that she was telling the truth about everything.
Photos of her and Morgan when she was growing up, wedding photos of her and Tony, a very obvious tell tale bump showing that she was visibly pregnant for the wedding. Absolutely adorable photos and videos of the three of them together, Morgan's first steps, her first words, the three of them living together in some sort of lakeside cabin that she couldn't even imagine Tony going anywhere near, let alone living in.
But it was so realistic, so logical. Some of it was fantastical, but after she'd seen some of the technology Morgan had been using, she couldn't deny that time travel was the only answer.
The photos and videos she'd seen of the future showed her and Morgan living together, Morgan growing up from a perfect little princess into a beautiful young woman who was going to take the world by storm. Her graduation photos, with an older version of herself standing next to her with a proud and loving smile on her face.
It was real, she couldn't deny it. Every time she looked at Morgan she saw a little bit more of herself reflected there, and she knew Tony already believed her with everything he had.
The story about turning Stark Industries into Stark International had definitely caught her eye, and she'd casually run a few projections this morning to see how feasible and what sort of market there would actually be.
Stark Industries operating in America was a multi billion dollar company, they sold their products world wide but were intrinsically linked with America, the US Military and the politics here, taking the company internationally would change all of that.
As it was right now, while SI sold technology and patents world wide, all their holdings were based in the US. Headquarters, offices, factories, research and development. It was all solidly American. Both Howard and Obadiah had kept solid contracts with the US government and military, so they'd been tied to the country pretty firmly.
That had been the case, only it wasn't anymore. Tony had officially broken all the contracts with the US military, they still had some contracts here and there with government agencies, but they could be bought out, and with the company still recovering after Tony's announcement of pulling out of weapons, and then the debacle with Obadiah, they would probably be able to buy out the contracts easily enough without too many penalties.
Every projection she had run stated clearly that moving to Stark International would take the company from a multi billion dollar company, to a trillion dollar company, and that wasn't even taking into account things like Morgan's medical technology or aviation. Breaking into those fields... honestly, if they moved into those fields with the technology and knowledge Morgan had, they would dominate those fields completely.
Stark International would become THE name in medical advancements, in planes, in technology. They would need factories and distribution centres all around the world just to keep up with demand, and the company would rise beyond all projections to heights no other corporation on the planet could match.
It was terrifying to even think about, but the idea of how those medical technologies could actually change the world, could improve the world and make such huge differences to people in hundreds of different countries. Stark International would mean something, it would mean something more than weapons and death, it would become something far greater than it had ever been before.
She was cut off from her musings as her computer popped up an email notification, drawing her attention over to it from where she'd been staring out of her office window and contemplating the future.
Her eyes widened as she saw it was a reply from the rushed paternity test she'd had run, confirming everything Morgan had told them. She was Tony's daughter, it wasn't just a story or a 'maybe' anymore, the DNA didn't lie.
The email was asking for confirmation of receipt so she dashed off a quick reply, telling them to seal the records and send all information directly to her for official documentation. Thankfully the company they used was reputable and extremely strict when it came to confidentiality, it was one of the reasons they'd used it in the past when paternity tests on convincing stories needed to be run, they'd never leaked anything before and she was certain they weren't going to start now.
Sending the email she lent back in her chair, sucking in a deep breath as the ramifications of this truly hit her.
Morgan was her daughter. Her and Tony's daughter.
It was all true. The photos, the videos, the future. Tony's death. It was all true, like some nightmare come to life.
Standing up she quickly rushed into the bathroom, splashing cold water on her face as she focused on calming her breathing down, staring at herself in the mirror and now unable to deny the similarities between herself and Morgan.
She had to change that future, no matter what. She couldn't let it happen again, let her daughter grow up without her father.
Would she even have Morgan again? Did time travel even work like that? She had absolutely no idea and was smart enough to know that any explanation would likely go over her head.
She had to talk to them both, Morgan and Tony. To figure this out, and actually make plans to get ready for an alien invasion. That thought alone sped up her breathing again. Aliens were real, and they were going to invade New York. She was a PA, what could she do against an alien invasion?
Her thoughts spiralled as she thought about Tony as well. They were going to get married, have a baby girl, how on Earth was she supposed to deal with that? Seeing pictures of her wedding day nearly a decade before it happened?
She lunged for the toilet as the panic sent bile bubbling up her throat, and her last thoughts before vomiting were that she had absolutely no idea what she was supposed to do with any of this.
Her last thoughts before bringing up her lunch were 'of course she's Tony's daughter.' Only Tony Stark's daughter would time travel back from the future to do god knows what in the past. It was Tony's daughter.
She honestly should have expected this at some point or another really.
The Triskelion
Theodore Roosevelt Island
The Potomac River
Washington, D.C.
"FAITH, how's the stealth holding up?" Morgan asked as she silently flew towards the main headquarters for SHIELD, her eyes running over all the information that FAITH was projecting onto her HUD.
"Perfectly boss," FAITH responded with a smug lilt to her voice. "Radar and satellite tracking are not picking us up at all. Heat and sonic based avoidance systems are at a hundred percent. Reactive camouflage is active and running at one hundred percent. The chances of SHIELD tracking you with their current level of technology are so negligible it would be considered an statistical impossibility."
"That's what I thought," Morgan smirked as she lowered herself down to the top of the Triskelion, her HUD notifying her of the various security cameras around the roof and highlighting their visible areas automatically for her. "Can you get into their systems from here?" She asked.
"Trying now boss," FAITH's voice responded. "Confirmed. Security is slightly better than twenty one standard, but still using a hundred and twenty eight bit encryption bus."
"Poor babies," Morgan grinned. "Ping their servers, figure out what we're looking at here." She ordered casually, idly looking around the Triskelion roof and admiring the view out towards Washington D.C.
"Collating now. SHIELD servers contain a hundred and thirty four petabytes of data. The Iron Maiden suit is more than capable of storing four times that amount in it's redundant memory."
"Good to know," Morgan nodded automatically. "Bring up the nanite core, I need a physical link into their systems, running that much data over wireless or a copper landline would take forever at their ten gig speeds."
"Of course boss, I don't know how SHIELD cope with such outdated technology," FAITH responded smugly, bringing up the required schematics and altering a hard line network node to be compatible with the technology they were dealing with.
"Yeah, we're practically in the dark ages now," Morgan chuckled, quietly moving over to one of the security cameras and sliding beneath it before snaking up a nanite cable to link in to the security system. "We online now?"
"Accessing," FAITH brought up the information on Morgan's HUD, listing all the access points that the security network was linked into, before expanding the list further as she hacked through the various firewalls that were separating the various systems. "Boss, it appears SHIELD is more capable than we first imagined."
"Oh?" Morgan cocked an eyebrow at that. "Well, don't leave a girl in suspense?" She asked curiously.
"It seems the official 'database dump' performed by Rogers and Romanoff actually included only a third of SHIELD's encrypted data." FAITH reported. "The servers here only contain a third of the actual SHIELD database, it's been encrypted and is only useful when paired with the other databases."
"New York?" Morgan asked curiously, rattling off the only other SHIELD installation that she knew about.
"Indeed, and a covert facility in Alaska, the so called 'hub' that provides an offsite redundancy of the SHIELD data base that is kept off of any networked systems." FAITH explained.
"Huh, that's actually smart." Morgan mused, actually giving SHIELD credit for that. It explained why there wasn't any huge fallout from the data dump, and actually explained SHIELD's reformation and the rise of SWORD easily enough. They still had all their confidential data and networks in place, having a third of their data that was still encrypted and basically useless out there would be a kick in the teeth, but it wouldn't cause irrevocable harm to the people who knew how to restructure and rebuild.
"In order to decrypt the entire database, we will need to combine the existing data with the data from New York and Alaska." FAITH reported.
"Yeah, I got that." Morgan nodded. "Start copying, grab everything. I want to know we've got enough to burn SHIELD to ashes when we need to."
"Initiating nanite link." FAITH acknowledged, bringing up the information on the HUD that showed the nanites from her core threading down the security camera network and down into SHIELD's main systems. It would take a minute to set up, but a direct nanite link down into the network would provide MUCH faster speeds than relying on SHIELD's actual networking hardware.
"Bring up the speeds, leave it silent, notify me when it's done." Morgan said off hand, casually leaning against the side of the tower where the security camera was perched above her. She saw the new information coming up and grimaced when she saw it was only moving in terabytes per second speeds. "Ugh, this is going to take forever." She muttered before sighing. "Tunes please FAITH, something, anything to keep my brain from falling asleep from sheer boredom here."
"Of course boss," FAITH responded before slowly bringing up the volume on some Def Leppard tracks, leaving Morgan happily humming along while she casually watched SHIELD's database being ripped out from under their nose.
"Start building a virus too, full wipe. When it's time, I want to go full scorched earth on these assholes this time around." Morgan bit out viciously.
"Sure thing boss, limited to the Triskelion or one to spread to any devices linked to SHIELD's network?" FAITH asked.
"Spread it, burn everything to the ground. I want their computers to be paperweights when I activate it." Morgan said firmly. "Drop in a shadow logger too, dark side it, I want our copy constantly updated with everything they're getting up to."
"Encoding now boss." FAITH reported before falling silent and leaving Morgan to listen to her music and contemplate the complete destruction of the agency that had caused her father and family so much suffering.
Stark Mansion
10880 Malibu Point
Malibu
California
"Tony?" Pepper asked aloud as she walked into the Malibu mansion, looking around for any sign of Tony or Morgan. "JARVIS, is Tony here?"
"Indeed Miss Potts. Mr Stark is currently in his workshop. I have notified him of your arrival, and he wishes for you to come down." JARVIS' soothing voice came back.
Pepper simply nodded in acknowledgement of that, quietly walking through the mansion and down the stairs to Tony's workshop. All the time thinking of everything that she had to say, had to confirm for him.
She knew that Tony had already believed Morgan right from the start, so it wouldn't be really news to him. But proof was very different to believing in something. Believing in aliens was one thing, an actual alien invasion killing people in New York was something entirely different.
"Tony?" She asked aloud, walking in to the workshop and seeing the entire room flooded with the same free floating holographic displays that Morgan had been using last night. The only difference was that these all showed extremely similar things, things she recognised very easily. They were all showing different variations of Tony's Iron Man suit.
"Hey Pep," Tony said absently from where he was staring at once screen a few yards down the workshop where it was hanging in front of one of his cars. "What's going on?" He asked curiously, not bothering to look away from the screen.
"The paternity test came back, I put a rush on it." Pepper explained, bracing herself before verbalising the proof for the first time. "They confirmed it Tony. She's your daughter."
"Our daughter," Tony corrected with a small smile. "Yeah, I figured. I'd already suspected when she told me. She looks a bit like my mom did when she was younger, I can see a lot of me in her though thankfully."
"Poor kid," Pepper gave a slight smile at that as she walked over. "I guess... where is she?" She asked, looking around the workshop.
"Said she was checking up on a few things," Tony waved the thought off. "That suit of hers is something else, left me in the dust when we took it out for a spin." He explained with a laugh.
"I don't even know what to think about her having her own suit," Pepper admitted, forcefully not thinking about the watch and bracelets Morgan had given her that apparently contained her own suit as well.
"I haven't asked about that yet," Tony shrugged. "I mean, I know why I built mine, but Morgan?" He frowned thoughtfully. "No idea why she decided to follow in my footsteps."
He mused on that for a moment, his eyes flicking back to the holographic screen displaying the Mark Three suit he'd built before he focused on the thought of Stane's suit. What had ever happened to that? SHIELD probably. He'd been recovering from the fight at the time and dealing with the problems of building a new Arc Reactor to power SI, so SHIELD would have had all the time they needed to steal Stane's suit away for their own purposes.
It was laughably primitive, even compared to his Mark Three suit. Stane never was much of an engineer, he was solely a businessman and a traitor. The Arc Reactor was shot after their fight, so that wouldn't be any use to them. The entire suit was basically outdated junk, so he could afford to let it go for now, but it still rankled him that SHIELD had stolen it out from right under his nose and he hadn't even thought about it until now.
"What is all this?" Pepper asked, looking around the workshop rather than delving into rather dark thoughts about what must have pushed Morgan to follow in Tony's rather dubious and self-destructive heroics.
"History," Tony grinned with a beckoning wave over to Pepper. "The Mark Fifteen. I built this in twenty twelve apparently." He said proudly. "Stealth systems, radar absorption, camouflage capabilities. It's a huge step forward from the Mark Four. I can see exactly where I improved things and why I made those changes."
"Improvements?" Pepper asked curiously.
"I kept up with my methodology," Tony explained. "Every time I hit a wall or a problem, the next suit overcame it." He explained. "The Mark Two had freezing problems and limited weapons, so I fixed that for the Mark Three. The Mark four fixed the guidance issues I had facing Stane, and re-enforced the structure after he managed to damage some of the plates that could become an issue."
"That makes sense," Pepper nodded, it was simple enough when it was explained like that.
"The Mark Five, I haven't even finished this one yet, but there's footage of me using it in a fight in Monaco." Tony explained, waving to one of the screens back down the workshop. "I was working on portability, but it lacked the strength and structural integrity of the other armours." He explained. "The Mark Six went back to a solid frame, and included induction capacitors to absorb incoming energy. Something I apparently learnt from facing down Vanko in the Mark Five. According to this, that came in useful when I was struck by lightning by someone called Thor." He explained, laughing when he saw the stunned look on Pepper's face.
"Lightning?" Pepper blinked, not liking the sound of that one bit.
"It goes on," Tony shook his head, gesturing to the screens. "Learning from each improvement, upgrading, mastering different things." He explained. "Vacuum capable for underwater and space," He gestured to one screen. "Armour improvements, weapons improvements. Designs for high radiation environments, ones with extra arc reactors for long term engagements." He rattled off, gesturing to different screens. "It's actually fascinating reading what I learnt from each armour and how I incorporated improvements into the next one." He mused with a soft smile.
"I'm sure," Pepper rolled her eyes with a small smile at the sight. "Were you serious? Yesterday, about going dry? Because that's... that's not something I could have ever imagined you doing." She admitted honestly.
"You know, sitting down and chatting... I already knew about her, the future tech sealed the deal, but I saw so much of me in her." Tony admitted, combing his hand through his hair. "She told me about how she drank, basically climbed into the bottle from what she told me... then about how Rhodey pulled her out of it, how bad things got for her and the stories Rhodey told her about me." He explained, shaking his head. "I don't want to be that guy. I don't want to be the dad that's basically a warning label for their kids." He said emphatically. "So, yeah, that's it. If getting cold clocked by the future is what it took, then that's my fate right here." He said firmly. "I don't want to turn into my dad. An absent parent, a warning story... a... a horrible dad."
"Tony..."
"No, I remember my dad drinking. He was drunk when he died, took the car off the road." Tony shook his head. "I never... I never pictured being a dad, I never wanted to turn out like my dad. Now I am... with Morgan... No, no alcohol. Not again. I won't turn out like my dad did." He said firmly. "I wasn't around for her in her past, but now... now I've got a clean slate, and you did such an amazing job with her... I want to be that, the dad she can be proud of, not a warning or a bunch of stories telling her what not to do."
"Alright," Pepper nodded slowly, seeing that he was actually really serious about this for once, and actually curious what sort of story Morgan had told him to get this sort of reaction out of him. "Tony, what... what are we going to do about all this?"
"Hmm?" Tony asked, turning to face her properly when he caught the note of panic in her voice. "What do you mean?"
"About Morgan? About me and you? About all of it?" Pepper demanded. "What... are we going to try dating? Get married? Do we need to make sure Morgan is born on the right day or will she vanish if we don't get it right?"
"Nothing like that," Tony chuckled, shaking his head. "When... OK, simple terms. When Morgan came back in time, she created a different history. It's not her history, her past, but a different timeline altogether, it split off as soon as she appeared back here." He explained.
"We're not in her past anymore?" Pepper asked curiously.
"Nope," Tony said, popping the 'p' as he shook his head. "Call it Timeline-M for Morgan. Her future doesn't exist anymore, it's all up in the air."
"But... she might not be born then?" Pepper asked.
"She doesn't need to be," Tony nodded in agreement. "She's here, her past is in a different timeline now, so..." He shook his head when he saw Pepper getting lost. "Simple terms, it doesn't matter. Don't overthink it too much, time travel stuff just leads to a headache and I don't want to slip back into looking for a drink right now."
"Right," Pepper said, taking a deep breath. Because knowing that her daughter had drinking problems, that really made her feel better about everything.
"It's fine, really. Morgan's not going anywhere." Tony reassured her. "I didn't get a proper look at the time travel tech yet, but from what she said... it was a one way trip. Whatever timeline her past, future, whatever, was from? There's no way for her to get back there, if it even still exists."
"That's... so we don't need to make sure Morgan is born right again?" Pepper double checked.
"Nope," Tony laughed. "If we do it all again, she might be a boy this time, or twins, or born a year later or earlier." He explained with a shrug.
"If we do it again?" Pepper prompted him.
"Well, yeah." Tony smiled. "What do you say Miss Potts? A date while our kid is out exploring twenty ten?" He asked, smirking as Pepper actually smiled at his joke.
"I wouldn't say no," Pepper admitted softly, meeting Tony's eyes with a soft smile of her own.