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
February 26th, 2010
"Tony?" Pepper asked aloud, walking into the workshop to find Tony pouring over multiple holographic screens at the same time.
It seemed that he had fully adopted Morgan's way of working, and was happily pacing around the workshop with the screens following him, matching his every step so he could comfortably read as he paced around.
"Oh, hey Pep," Tony said absently, barely looking away from his screens to acknowledge her.
"Where's Morgan?" Pepper asked, walking into the workshop properly and noting that Morgan's workstation now had a mannequin next to it with a rather large framework of hollow wings attached to it currently. "She's working on the Angel wings?"
"Yeah, I looked over the designs, the pack is definitely stable and her thruster design is nearly three hundred percent more efficient than my original repulsor designs." Tony admitted with a small frown. "She'll only need a tiny arc reactor to power that thing for a year, and manoeuvrability will be off the charts with the two smaller wings at the back."
"It looks good," Pepper smiled at him. "Where is she?" She asked, hopefully getting an answer this time.
"No idea," Tony shrugged, still pacing and reading down his screens. "FAITH, where's Morgan?" He asked aloud.
"Currently the boss is circling back from Alaska grand-boss." FAITH's happy voice responded. "She is at four thousand feet and flying at mach three under stealth. Her current flight plan indicates that she will be home in forty three minutes."
"Nice," Tony grinned happily before pausing. "Wait, Alaska? What's she doing up there?" He asked aloud, then shrugged when FAITH didn't respond to him. "So, Alaska apparently." He said, turning to Pepper with a 'what can you do' shrug.
"Fine, Alaska," Pepper rolled her eyes, inwardly wondering what on earth could be in Alaska that would have Morgan's attention right now. "What are those?" She asked, heading over to look at Tony's holographic screens personally now that she knew her daughter wasn't anywhere around.
"Surgeons, the best according to JARVIS and FAITH. They both vetted them, deep." Tony explained, flicking through the various screens. "He's the closest."
"Doctor Stephen Strange?" Pepper read off the screen, still a bit bemused by the holographic screen that she could actually touch, and pick up and move with her. "A neurosurgeon?" She asked pointedly.
"Nothing like that," Tony waved off her concern. "I figure if he's skilled enough to poke around inside people's brains, then he's skilled enough to get this shrapnel out of my chest." He pointed out.
"That sounds... reasonable, but I'm not sure medical specialities cross over like that." Pepper nodded.
"Aside from that, FAITH tells me he's actually some sort of wizard, and I'm about seventy percent sure she wasn't just screwing with me." Tony frowned, staring at the picture of Doctor Strange dubiously.
"I doubt that," Pepper laughed. "FAITH probably just inherited your sense of screwing with people from Morgan, who's second on your list?"
"Second only because of the distance," Tony explained, flicking Strange's screen away for now. "Faiza Hussain." He said, bringing up the screen for Pepper to read.
"London?" Pepper asked in surprise. "She's talented." She commented, reading off the litany of awards that Doctor Hussain had been awarded.
"Yeah, she's got a name for tricky operations that nobody else would touch." Tony mused, staring at the report JARVIS had prepared on her. "Doesn't operate outside of the UK though. Sort of a perfectionist, sticks to her one private hospital and one operating theatre, nobody can convince her otherwise."
"I'm told geniuses have their quirks," Pepper commented with a wry smirk at the screen. "What does she think about your case?" She asked.
"I haven't approached her yet," Tony frowned. "She's pretty good at keeping her mouth shut, no leaks or exposes or anything. But this sort of thing... I'd want to talk to her in person about it." He admitted.
"That's probably wise," Pepper said softly, resting her hand on Tony's shoulder reassuringly.
"If nothing else, she'll want her own scans to confirm everything I know so far. That'll be a long day under x-rays, I'll probably end up glowing after everything they'll want to check." Tony explained with a small laugh.
"That's something to consider," Pepper said thoughtfully. "You'll have to factor in recovery time too. I'm guessing this is going to be a serious operation, so you're going to need time to recover afterwards."
"Yeah," Tony frowned, it would be months, probably two or three at the earliest to recover from serious surgery like that. They'd basically be opening up his entire chest to remove all the shrapnel, the recovery was certain to be a bitch. Then he'd have to wait until the surgeons were happy his chest had fully recovered and healed properly before he could even start to look at cosmetic surgery options to cover up the gaping hole where the arc reactor and magnetic casing had been.
It would easily be the better part of a year, maybe over a year, until his chest was healed properly and he had recovered enough to get back to his normal day to day life.
"After the Expo," Tony said firmly. "Get the Expo out of the way and sorted first, then I'll deal with the surgeons."
"Promise?" Pepper rounded on him, staring into his eyes knowingly.
"Promise," Tony parroted with a small smile. "I'll need to be a hundred percent for twenty twelve. That means getting this done as soon as I can, so I'll be back on top form for everything that's coming."
"You've got me and Morgan as well to pick up the slack, Jim too if you talk to him and bring him in on everything." Pepper prompted him.
"I know," Tony sighed. "Rhodey, it's... it's complicated." He explained with a grimace. "Last time we spoke, he made it clear that I was putting him in a place where he'd have to chose me, or his career. And he outright said what his choice would be."
"I saw what happened in Morgan's future, he stole one of your suits." Pepper reasoned with him. "But you must have forgiven him at some point."
"I'd forgive Rhodey anything," Tony admitted without hesitation. "I'm just trying to think if there's another way we could compromise this time, but I still don't trust handing over one of my suits to the military."
"Talk to Jim, see if you can compromise." Pepper smiled softly at him. "I know you two, you'll be able to work something out. I'm sure Morgan's got some methods of securing the suit from being tampered with or anyone stealing it or using it for themselves."
"That... yeah, probably." Tony mused on the idea. "She has her own nanite core linked to her DNA, nobody else can even remove it from her, they wouldn't be able to use it or anything."
"Could you do something similar to a suit for Rhodey? Secure it directly to him?" Pepper asked, seeing Tony already considering the idea.
"Definitely, and I'll add in some proper encryption to stop anyone from hacking into it. And give it some fail safes in case anyone tries to steal it." Tony grinned, already plotting all kinds of surprises that he could wire into the suit to stop it from being used without his say so. "FAITH, bring up the top tier War Machine suit. Nothing nanotech, but the best we can build with what we've got."
"On it grand-boss," FAITH's voice responded.
"Talking about the Expo, I'm still waiting to hear back from Michael Browning..."
"Who?" Tony asked, already dismissing the screens showing the various surgeons so he could get to work on the War Machine project.
"The manager for AC/DC," Pepper rolled her eyes in amusement. "I did however manage to secure a meeting with Rod Smallwood, the manager for Iron Maiden." She explained, preempting Tony's question. "I've got a meeting with him in nine days."
"I'll get in on that," Tony grinned happily. "I want them both for the Expo, they can have their own stage, alternate gigs, whatever they want." He said with a happy smile. "Once we've got them on board, look around for some other bands to fill in the gaps."
"That'll be sure to entice more people to the Expo, a wider audience too." Pepper nodded in agreement with his idea. "I assume you'll be speaking to Mr Smallwood about licensing the name for Morgan?" She asked in amusement.
"Oh hell yeah," Tony laughed. "Iron Maiden is already a world wide brand, the media will cotton on to it immediately, but if we get them on board first we can really push it to the limit."
"I'll make sure to copy you in on the meeting arrangements," Pepper laughed quietly at Tony's enthusiasm."Some reporters got photos of the three of us at the restaurant. Nothing serious, the usual tabloid headlines. I had a quick look, there's some speculation about Morgan, but mostly the papers think she's your flavour of the month or something similar."
"What?" Tony froze, narrowing his eyes as he pondered exactly which newspaper he would have to crush for insinuating that sort of thing.
"It's nothing, tabloid trash that bought a paparazzi photo, ignore it." Pepper assured him. "If anyone brings it up and asks for details, I've got a backstory for Morgan that will hold up, and match with our plans for the Expo."
"I knew there were reasons I trusted you," Tony breathed again, happy that Pepper was on the ball with this.
"We're going to have to start bringing other people in on this though, whether the full story or the story we're going with for the public." Pepper warned him. "Jim? Happy?" She prompted. "They're both going to notice Morgan sooner or later, and bringing them in on the truth about her being our daughter would give us a barometer for how things are going to go."
"Happy... Expo story." Tony said after a moment's thought. "My child, I never knew, found out before Afghanistan and reconnected after." He rattled off quickly.
"And Jim?" Pepper asked him.
"I'll think about it," Tony sighed, knowing he had a lot of things to work through before deciding if he could trust the military in general, and if he could trust Rhodey with such a big secret knowing that the Air Force came before him.
It was going to be a mess, and he didn't want to be the sort of guy that would make Rhodey chose like that, but at the same time, it actually really hurt that Rhodey would chose his career over his best friend.
That explained his reaction to Tony killing the Stark Weapons divisions, and the angry look on his face during the press conference, and why he hadn't been in contact with Tony since.
For now, he would put Rhodey on the back burner to figure out later, when he had a better idea of what he was going to do. He had more than enough technology and designs that would keep the military happy, if he really wanted to go into more contracts with them, but right now he was torn between deciding if that was the best thing to do or not.
Having extra guns and help around during the alien invasion would definitely be a godsend. It would help everyone, save lives, and help contain the invasion so it didn't spiral out of control. That was a good thing, he might be able to fight the battle just with his suit and Morgan's super advanced suit, but that didn't mean that more people on the battle field weren't going to be a good thing.
It was just hard, knowing Rhodey's first loyalty wasn't to him, but to his commanding officers. Could he trust them with Morgan's secret and future knowledge? Could he trust them with Morgan full stop? Knowing now how deeply HYDRA had infected everything, and the odds of them getting into the Air Force as well, the answer was very clearly no.
He'd obviously trusted Rhodey last time, and the man had stolen a suit from him and taken it directly to Justin Hammer. What sort of loyalty was that? What sort of a friend stole his technology and took it directly to a competitor?
Apparently he must have forgiven Rhodey for it, or he'd have sued the Air Force for theft and Hammer for industrial espionage.
"You're going to have to decide soon. Jim won't stay away forever, and if finds out about Morgan some other way, he'll have questions and take the media's answers for himself." Pepper pointed out.
"I'll think about it," Tony repeated, walking back to his workstation with a sigh.
"Fine," Pepper nodded, accepting that that was likely the best she was going to get right now. "Also, Morgan sent over the designs for the SI corporate jet from her time. It was signed off by me apparently." She explained with a bemused expression. "It's really strange seeing my signature and notes approving something that I've never seen before in my life." She admitted, an annoyed look on her face as she followed Tony over.
"Haven't seen it yet, any good?" Tony asked curiously as he kicked his chair out and sat down at the workbench comfortably.
"What I could understand of it," Pepper nodded thoughtfully. "It's definitely Arc powered. Five repulsor engines. Two on each wing, a fifth at the rear built directly into the tail. From what I can see, the repulsors rotate and move on their own, like one of those jets that doesn't need a runway?" She asked.
"VTOL," Tony said absently, scratching at his stubble. "Huh, never seen VTOL in a commercial jet before." He mused thoughtfully. "Fine, I'll sign off on it. Have the engineers start on fabrication and get it built up."
"They won't be able to work on the engines or Arc reactor for it," Pepper pointed out.
"They can start the framework, I'll go over the Arc reactor and see what the future version looks like. Once the main body is finished I'll start on the reactor and repulsors, shouldn't take long." Tony shrugged. "I'm sure Morgan has the specs and designs separate somewhere."
"Knowing her, definitely." Pepper smirked. "She definitely inherited a sense of organisation from somewhere."
"Wasn't from me," Tony laughed knowingly.
"I know," Pepper smiled, causing Tony to laugh again. "If you want me to get in touch with the surgeons you short listed, that one from England? Let me know and I'll put it on the itinerary for a stop off while we're in Europe to speak to the Spanish government."
"When's that again?" Tony asked curiously, bringing up the War Machine designs that FAITH had finally rendered down for him.
"March seventeenth," Pepper rolled her eyes, knowing full well she'd already put it on his calendar and he'd approved it, or likely JARVIS had approved it for him.
"Fine," Tony nodded absently, already lost in the twenty eighteen War Machine design that was being projected onto the various workstation screens for him. "JARVIS, send over that British surgeon's details to Pepper, let her do her thing."
"Of course sir," JARVIS responded.
"Have you got anything else big planned for now?" Pepper asked curiously.
"Rhodey's stuff aside," Tony lent back in his chair and tilted his head thoughtfully. "New servers for SI should be delivered tomorrow. I'll get those up and running, once Morgan's finished work on getting FRIDAY's code installed and double checked, I'll let her take over the SI mainframe. That'll get her up and running so you can access her properly too from that fancy watch Morgan gave you." He ticked off one finger at that. "Morgan's got her Angel things going, they should be ready for testing in the next couple of days." He ticked off another finger as he waved over towards Morgan's workstation. "And I've had legal looking into Stern more closely, in case he does push harder this time than he did last time. I want to be prepared to crush that HYDRA asshole as soon as he pokes his head up." He said firmly, ticking off one last finger.
"If that's all, are we still on for date night tonight?" Pepper asked, putting one hand down on his shoulder and smiling down at him.
"You betcha," Tony grinned up at her. "And we should add some date time in to the itinerary for Europe. Spain, Italy, some pretty romantic places up there."
"I know," Pepper smiled knowingly at him. "Morgan already bought me a 'Spanish for dummies' audio thing to help me learn the language." She explained with a small laugh.
"Once we get FRIDAY up and running, she'll be able to help you with translations as well," Tony shrugged.
"Fine, anything else?" Pepper asked.
"Just some odd projects I haven't decided what to do with yet. Body armour, non-lethal guns, bit and pieces like that that I need to have a proper think on before going forward with anything."
"Alright," Pepper smiled at him. "I'll be back later tonight OK? JARVIS, remind him at seven alright?"
"Of course Miss Potts," JARVIS replied with his usual smooth accent.
"Also, got to finish rendering up the avatar for JARVIS," Tony ticked off one last finger. "No rush on that, but it'll be something nice to work on." He mused thoughtfully.
"Enjoy," Pepper said, smiling at him before she walked out of the workshop, leaving Tony to focus back on the War Machine project that he'd been staring at on his monitors.
It definitely looked mean. It was taller than his armour, a solid matte black and silver design with thicker gauntlets like Morgan's suit, and red lights showing through in various places and around the Arc reactor housing.
The USAF insignia on the shoulders were a nice touch, and his name etched on to the chest plate told everyone exactly who this armour was designed for.
The reactive plating definitely gave it an edge, along with the updated repulsor canons and built in micro missile launchers, but it was the shoulder mounted rail canon that definitely stood out. A triple barrel design with three unique looking red targeting lasers. The specs alone made him shudder, and it had obviously been designed to take down things a lot nastier and heavier than he'd ever contemplated so far.
"FAITH, what am I looking at here?" Tony asked aloud.
"The War Machine Mark Six armour. Designed by Tony Stark and fabricated on September fourth, twenty twenty." FAITH responded. "Initially designed directly to combat extra terrestrial threats on Earth, such as Loki, Thanos, and The Chitauri."
"It looks badass," Tony commented, flicking his eyes over the design again. He would certainly love something like that at his back when the invasion came. He did note the special designs on the legs of the armour, obviously built to incorporate an exo-frame so that Rhodey didn't have to take his off every time he suited up.
The extra structuring and armour around the back and reinforced spine made him grimace, wondering exactly how bad Rhodey's injury had been to force him to change the entire design of the armour to protect him against any further problems.
It was telling though that there wasn't a nanotech War Machine armour. Oh he'd certainly kept the armour up to date, weapons, armour, and tech were all up there with probably the best on the consumer market in twenty twenty, but it was all cutting edge only.
Apparently even by twenty twenty he'd only trusted the military so much. Cutting edge tech yes. Bleeding edge nanotech, no.
That had been reserved for him and the spider assassin apparently.
"Of course grand-boss," FAITH's voice came back with an audible smirk in it's tone. "It was built to contain an AI system for guidance, but according to your records, Colonel Rhodes repeatedly refused, claiming he solely wanted manual control over everything."
"Well, that's not going to happen." Tony frowned, if he was going to build this, well, build it again. He was going to have an AI installed to watch over it every second, and make sure it was kept out of greedy and corrupt hands. "FAITH, we got the hardware to install limiters into the suit? Restrict it to Rhodey's DNA? Fail-safes on the entire thing?"
"Limitations are not currently in place, but can be added." FAITH reported.
"Do it," Tony said after taking a deep breath. "And set up a self destruct system over the entire thing and targeting restrictions. If this thing falls into anyone else's hands, I don't want it pointed at me." He smirked, fixing the rank insignia and name etched on the chest plate to Lt Colonel instead of Colonel. He was pretty sure Rhodey would kill him for getting his rank wrong, even if it was a promotion.
"Rendering now grand-boss," FAITH replied. "Self destruct on the modified Mark Nine arc reactor will cause significant damage to the surrounding area. Explosion radius of approximately one thousand three hundred meters will be vaporised in the resulting blast."
"Good," Tony frowned, staring down at the re-mastered War Machine armour. "I like it, build it." He ordered. "JARVIS, oversee everything, let me know when it needs the arc reactor."
"Of course sir," JARVIS' voice came back as Tony stood up from his chair and moved over to the cars, flipping his phone out of his pocket as he walked. He'd speak to Rhodey first and take his temperature on the armour before deciding anything else.
That was going to be his test, and if Rhodey was willing to sign off his armour to the Air Force again without talking to him first, then that was going to be the end of their friendship for good this time around.
Alaska
Morgan grinned to herself proudly as she flew through the nearly arctic wind, happy for the suit's insulation and internal temperature control.
That was the third and last SHIELD base fully hacked, she now had a complete copy of the entire SHIELD database ready to be combined and decoded as soon as she got home and let FAITH tear into it.
The entire thing was massive, far larger than she'd originally expected. Apparently Romanoff and Rogers had only uploaded fragments of it before, enough to hurt HYDRA and do some serious damage to SHIELD, but not enough that they had even a bare fraction of the entire thing.
She should have guessed that, seeing the reports of what Rogers and Romanoff had done, they wouldn't have had time to actually decrypt and upload the entire database during the battle, not with the technology back then. There just wasn't the computing power or upload bandwidth that would allow such a thing to be possible.
Added to that that they must have believed SHIELD didn't encrypt anything, and the entire database was just lying around for them to upload to the internet whenever they wanted.
She actually snorted at the thought of that. They were either idiots, or they'd been played by someone else. Probably Fury. Nobody with an IQ over single digits would believe that they could upload an entire government agency's server in the space of a single battle going on.
It would be ridiculous, and they simply must have just believed that Fury and SHIELD had absolutely no encryption or safety against their own information being leaked. Yeah, because obviously the biggest convert agency in the world wouldn't have any encryption or safeguards against such a thing. Not to mention whatever security HYDRA tacked on ontop of it.
Nope, the only answer was that Romanoff and Rogers were played by someone else, and conned into believing whatever they'd wanted.
If it had really been a problem, then Fury would have got her dad involved and dealt with the servers properly. It was his technology on the helicarriers that Romanoff and Rogers destroyed, his coding, literally his hardware. There was no reason at all for Fury not to call him in, unless he didn't want him to look too closely at what was going on and see through Fury's plan.
Well, that wouldn't work this time around. This time she had the full database. Every one of SHIELD's dirty little secrets and nasty mission reports, everything, uncensored and ready to be decrypted.
By tomorrow they would know everything about SHIELD and HYDRA, everything SHIELD knew anyway, and it was going to be glorious tearing that corrupt agency down and showing the world exactly what sort of people they really were.
It would have to be done anonymously of course, and she'd have FAITH censor all the current agent's locations and missions. There was no point in risking innocent lives when she released everything, she wanted the agency dead, not the agents who were just doing their jobs.
No, once the New York invasion was over, and SHIELD had done their part in luring Loki and the Mind Stone to Earth, that would be SHIELD's final curtain call.
Afterwards, the world would know everything, and she'd definitely make sure to include the entire invasion was SHIELD's fault for experimenting with the Space Stone, and how it was SHIELD that fired the nuclear missile at New York. By that point, SI should be an international business already, and they would be able to watch SHIELD burn as SI grew by leaps and bounds.
Two years, that's all SHIELD had left, and she was going to be counting down the days until she could bury that agency so deep that even HYDRA would look squeaky clean next to them.
Edwards Air Force Base
Lancaster
Los Angeles
California
Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes wasn't really sure what to expect when he'd been summoned to the briefing room this afternoon.
As far as he knew there were no active exercises that required his presence right now, he was on standby and observing some of the SSC missions currently until his new rotation kicked in.
He definitely didn't expect to walk in to the briefing room and to be faced with General Baur sat opposite Tony. He snapped to attention automatically as he entered the room, giving General Baur the respect he'd earned.
"At ease Lt Colonel," General Baur said as he stood up. "Doctor Stark has requested this meeting, and I for one am interested in hearing out what he has to say."
"Yes sir." Rhodey answered automatically, his eyes flicking between General Baur and Tony.
"Take a seat Lt Colonel." General Baur ordered, gesturing to one of the seats along side him before he retook his seat and focused back on the matter at hand. "Doctor Stark was just telling me about a new project he has in mind for the Air Force."
"Two right now actually, and a big one, probably more coming up." Tony waved that off automatically. "And one other huge one that I'm still figuring out, but I'll be coming back to that once I've got the problems ironed out."
"Alright, I'm listening." General Baur said with a small nod of interest.
"Starting off small." Tony said with a small gesture of his hand. "Search and rescue projects. I'm calling them Angels, you'll see why when you see them." He said with a small grin. "Personal flight suits, wings, sensor panels, room for carrying small arms probably upto a rifle, but the recoil will be a bitch in air. You'll have to get your guys to adjust for that depending on how they can handle the recoil, until I figure something out to counter it anyway."
"Flying suits? Like your suit of armour?" General Baur asked, suddenly extremely interested in this project now.
"No," Tony shook his head. "Lightly armoured, more manoeuvrable. Literally think angels. We're running tests over the next few days, but a squad of these, a dozen, fifteen men per squad, they would take air superiority in cities where planes can't get in to a whole new level." He explained. "I've been working on sensor tech linked in to goggles for the pilots. Radar, sonar, thermal, everything. Literally they'll be search and rescue angels, probably best with pilots who don't mind being free at altitude, paratroopers or that sort of thing."
"They sound interesting," General Baur admitted, but kept his face stoic as he considered the mental image. The Air Force silver wings insignia would definitely take on a whole new meaning with squadrons of those behind them. He would have to see how they performed, but for now the implications were certainly interesting.
"Alright, you want the dessert first then," Tony smirked knowingly. "Advanced bionic replacements for veterans who lost limbs." He said flatly, seeing both General Baur and Rhodey sit up straight and their eyes widen at the implications of what Tony was saying.
"Are you serious Tony?" Rhodey blurted out before catching General Baur's face and quickly apologising.
"I'm of the same mind Lt Colonel," General Baur cut off his apology with a raised hand. "Specifics Doctor Stark."
"Replacements arms and legs, fully manoeuvrable. They won't be able to feel anything through them, at least not yet, but they'll work on existing nerve impulses." Tony explained. "Hands, arms, legs... There's more in the pipeline, but these are just a taste of what's coming." He said with a knowing smirk, seeing the General definitely interested now.
"You've tested these prosthetics?" General Baur asked with a straight face.
"Some," Tony nodded. "I'm waiting on getting some more medical input to look at the control circuits. It's going to require a decent operation to add the control plate around the area where there's the missing limb, but once that's done we can attach the cybernetic prosthetic and it'll work as good as new. Detachable for charging and the usual maintenance." He explained with a wave of his hand as if that was expected.
"You're talking about revolutionising the prosthetic industry, if these prosthetics work as good as you say..."
"They do," Tony nodded. "I wouldn't mess around about things like this." He said bluntly, knowing too well how people viewed veterans with missing limbs. "I'd put money on anyone with one of these limbs being able to get back to work within a week of adjustment, probably less." He boasted with a smile.
"I take it these will be offered to all branches, not just the Air Force?" General Baur asked curiously.
"Universal, I might knock up some custom designs for different branches, and they'll be harder wearing than the public versions, but... yeah." Tony nodded. "In the next six months SI is going to blow the communications industry wide open. We're talking breakthroughs that are going to shatter the public domain. I'm not blowing my own horn here guys, I mean it. By the time we go live at Expo, it's going to be a whole new ball game." He grinned proudly.
"Senator Stern briefed me only a few days ago. He was certain you weren't willing to work with the military any more." General Baur said with a contemplative frown, looking over at Lt Colonel Rhodes with a curious eye. "I'm sure you've heard talk about his stance against you already?"
"Yeah, he's going to be pushing for my technology to be handed directly over to the government. Probably a senate hearing stacked with his usual corrupt buddies." Tony snorted, shaking his head. "You know Stern's an ass, he just wants the publicity and rhetoric for himself, I wouldn't trust a single word that came out of his mouth."
"That will be something we have to talk about in further detail later on," General Baur nodded, obviously in firm agreement with Tony's evaluation of Senator Stern. "Those two projects are certainly something we would be interested in developing." He said, allowing a small smile to cross his face. "It would certainly be a boost to moral to see Stark Technology partnering with the USAF again."
"That's part of something else," Tony said, leaning forward and resting his elbows on the meeting table. "And why I asked for Rhodey to join us." He smiled over.
Rhodey blinked at that, not having realised Tony had specifically asked for him to be here. He'd assumed General Baur had asked for him as the SI liaison, not Tony.
"One last project. I'm calling it War Machine." Tony smirked, seeing how General Baur immediately paid more attention. "A suit, like mine. Specifically coded to Rhodey. It'll be outfitted with all the bells and whistles, a walking tank that'll be the first line of defence."
"I thought you weren't willing to create weapons anymore," General Baur pointed out. "Not that I'm against this project, I'm just wondering what caused you to change your mind."
"Nothing did," Tony said simply. "The problem I had with creating weapons was that they were being sold under the table to terrorists and arms dealers around the world. Innocent people's last sight was my name on a barrel before they were shot." He said firmly. "That's why this suit will be coded solely to Rhodey. DNA lock. Any maintenance and upgrades will solely come from SI. All SI tech will be locked from now on, any tampering will trigger the usual fail safes. And I'm sure you don't have to imagine what sort of fail safes I can build right now." He explained with a dangerous smirk.
"What sort of armaments are we talking about?" General Baur cut down to business.
"Repulsor cannons, sub machine guns, repeating rail gun on a tri-axel mount, micro-missile launchers, flight and AI obviously." Tony rattled off. "Those are the headliners, but this is all conditional on a strict contract with SI. No maintenance, no re-branding, no sourcing SI tech out to Hammer or anyone else for modification. It stays in house, that's the deal."
"I'd have to float it up the chain. Policy for maintenance while on deployment might be a breaker. We have our own people who work on equipment in deployment." General Baur frowned at that.
"Not like this, Arc technology is in house only. Anyone tries tampering with it and you'll get a plasma explosion that could wipe out an entire building." Tony shook his head. "I'm willing to work with you guys, but meet me half way here. The War Machine armour alone will be both ground and air superiority, throw in the Angels and you'll have air superiority anywhere you go. That's just a fact." He said simply. "You don't have anyone that can repair or replace my tech, I know it, you know it. And if you try taking it apart, chances are you'll end up breaking it, and I won't be replacing anything that comes back to me in parts. That's the deal."
General Baur stared for a moment before nodding, conceding the point. Even if they did manage to get hold of one of the suits some how, they would have to outsource to someone else to actually work on it, nobody in the Air Force would have the technical know how to get anywhere on something like that.
"Thoughts Lt Colonel? Would you be willing to be the front man for the War Machine project?" General Baur asked, turning his attention to Lt Colonel Rhodes.
"Yes sir," Rhodey nodded automatically. "It would be an honour."
"We're looking at a big release for Expo. Showboat the entire thing. War Machine, the Angels, everything, it's going to be huge." Tony grinned. "Piloting the War Machine suit is going to be a learning curve though. I'm going to have to fit a full set of robotics here to help him in and out of the suit." He explained, looking back to General Baur.
"We can arrange a suitable hanger that can be set aside for SI projects and secured." General Baur nodded, it wasn't an unreasonable request, and if it meant having the sort of firepower that Stark was talking about on their side, then it was a concession he would be willing to accept.
"Thinking of two hangers actually, one here, the other... New York? Opposite ends of the country so we've got a suitable place for maintenance and deployment either side?" Tony hinted hopefully. "What's that old base on Long Island..."
"Mitchel," General Baur nodded thoughtfully. "Decommissioned in the sixties. It's a museum now, parts are used by a community college."
"Can you reclaim some of it?" Tony asked curiously. "Work's already underway on Stark Tower in New York, so I'm going to be there a hell of a lot of time from now on. Having an offsite base for the War Machine and Angels projects would definitely be a help."
"I can see what I can do," General Baur nodded. "And I agree that having two suitable areas set aside for the projects makes sense for deployment and maintenance. I'll make it a recommendation to have as much of Mitchel reclaimed as possible."
"Let me know, I'll see what I can do about upgrades and bringing the base out of the sixties," Tony laughed at the thought. "I'll have contracts sent over, and I'll come back down myself when I'm ready to start fitting the robotics in place."
"I look forward to it." General Baur nodded. "When can we expect to see anything on the War Machine project?" He asked.
"Give Rhodey to me next week, and I'll see what we can do." Tony gave a sly grin to that. "I'm still coding the AI and getting everything up to scratch. Learning to fly those things is a pain, so prepare for a lot of falls." He said with a smirk over towards Rhodey.
"I'm sure Lt Colonel Rhodes will be up to the challenge," General Baur chuckled at the thought.
"Like I said, getting in and out of the suits... well, Rhodey knows how much goes into them. It's not something you can knock together to set up anywhere." Tony explained, seeing Rhodey nod in agreement with his explanation when the General looked at him. "My place, Monday?" He asked.
"I'll see to your papers allowing it Lt Colonel," General Baur nodded when Lt Colonel Rhodes looked to him.
"I'll be there," Rhodey smiled across, happy that Tony was learning to be a team player for this now.
"Yeah yeah, don't get mushy on me." Tony smirked at him, getting a roll of his eyes from Rhodey in response. "I'll probably have a lot more in the next couple of years. Body armour, single man flight craft, things like that... SI Aviation is going to be going through some changes, and we've got a lot in the fire already."
"So I see," General Baur nodded. "It seems those people saying Stark Industries was failing are going to be eating their words soon enough."
"Oh you have no idea," Tony laughed. "Those idiots who sold their stock? They're going to be drowning in their own tears by sundown on the first day of expo." He grinned vindictively as he fished out his sunglasses from his pocket. "Rhodey, Monday. General, Contracts." He grinned with a nod as he stood up.
"A pleasure Doctor Stark," General Baur nodded as he stood up, offering his hand and shaking Mr Stark's hand, really meaning what he said as he imagined what sort of suit the USAF was being offered here.
"I know," Tony grinned, offering Rhodey a wink before he gave them both a lazy salute and walked out of the briefing room.
"That was not the man that Senator Stern described," General Baur said, turning to Lt Colonel Rhodes once the guards had closed the door behind Mr Stark. "You think he's genuine?" He asked. "Speak freely Lt Colonel, I want your honest opinion here."
"I do sir," Rhodey nodded. "Tony's always been abrasive. Push and he'll push back harder. I know he means what he said about keeping his weapons out of terrorists hands, and he'll do whatever he can to make that happen."
"That just makes me question what Senator Stern is playing at," General Baur said with a frown. "He's the one that set up the contracts with Hammer?"
"Yes sir," Rhodey couldn't quite hide the grimace at that. "He was insistent that Tony wouldn't be willing to play ball, and that we should seize the technology for the USAF."
"You didn't approve of that plan," General Baur said, seeing Lt Colonel Rhodes' reaction.
"No sir," Rhodey shook his head. "Seizing the suit would just give you one suit, repairing it would be nearly impossible, and recreating it without Tony's help isn't going to happen." He shook his head. "Senator Stern either severely underestimates Tony's genius, or his plan was to only ever have one suit." He clarified. "Working with Stark Industries will gain us a lot more than just a single suit."
"So I'm seeing," General Baur nodded thoughtfully. "Major General Meade was most insistent on working with Hammer Technology and playing by Senator Stern's plan. He's not going to like signing off on another Stark contract." He said with a frown, inwardly making a note to check any further links between Major General Meade and Senator Stern. They both pushed contracts with Hammer Technology pretty hard, and something felt off the more he thought about it.
"Yes sir. Major General Meade made... suggestions, that I should use my relationship with Mr Stark to secure the Iron Man suit for the Air Force." Rhodey explained with a small curl of his lips that signified the disgust he thought of that idea. "He tried to convince me that Mr Stark was a danger to the country because of his history."
"He didn't look like a danger to anyone to me," General Baur frowned, thinking back on the meeting they'd just had. "Looked capable, clean, recovered from his ordeal. I think people are seeing problems where there aren't any." He said firmly.
"Yes sir." Rhodey nodded, completely in agreement with that. Tony had actually looked the best he'd seen him in ages now, he didn't even look hung over or sleep deprived or anything like he normally was when he was firmly invested in a project.
He'd assumed Tony would still be suffering from PTSD after everything that had happened in Afghanistan, and then after everything with Stane. The only conversations they'd had since that whole mess were short and curt, mainly because he still didn't agree with Tony's stance on refusing to support the Air Force with his weapon designs any more.
"Very well, I'll issue your orders on Monday, you'll be off site training for this Project War Machine, but I don't expect it to stay under wraps for very long." General Baur said, happy to pull this meeting to a close.
"No sir, Tony... Tony isn't exactly low key." Rhodey admitted with a small laugh.
"So I've heard," General Baur smirked at that. "I'll speak with the VA, take their temperature on the idea of robotic arms, the idea... I don't even know what to think about it." He admitted.
"I'll see what I can get out of Tony next week sir, if he's already got the prototypes built up, they'll be around in his workshop somewhere." Rhodey nodded.
"Very well, but don't jeopardise this relationship for the sake of curiosity. From where I'm sitting, the War Machine project has a hell of a lot more to offer the Air Force than snooping around Stark's underwear drawer could give us." General Baur shook his head. "Dismissed." He said with a nod, watching as Lt Colonel Rhodes saluted before leaving the room.
"War Machine, I like the sound of that." General Baur smiled to himself privately in the briefing room once Lt Colonel Rhodes had left, leaving him to his thoughts about the various things Mr Stark had brought up, and what they could mean for the future of the USAF.
Camp Lehigh
Wheaton
New Jersey
February 27th, 2010
04:08
Camp Lehigh was abandoned, silent and dark. Thankfully there was no one around to witness the dramatic 'thump' as Iron Man landed hard enough to leave imprints on the ground.
"JARVIS, full scans, keep an eye out." Tony ordered as he saw the woosh of air as Morgan landed beside him, practically silent compared to his landing. "This the place?" He asked, looking back at Morgan's suit and admiring the smooth lines and curves that made it up and showed it was a thousand generations beyond his currently Iron Man mark four suit.
"According to FAITH," Morgan nodded, looking around curiously. "I'm getting a lot of readings coming from over there. Looks like there's a hell of a lot of data being sent in and out."
"In an abandoned base?" Tony raised an eyebrow sarcastically. "Sounds like they need some technical help." He added with a smirk.
"Good job we're here then," Morgan replied with a grin as she walked forwards, FAITH automatically keeping her HUD updated with everything her sensors were reading. "Definitely through here, but deep down." She explained, pointing ahead to a single bunker.
"SHIELD buries their secrets deep apparently," Tony frowned as he approached the bunker door, looking at the modern electronic lock that had been placed over the heavy metal door. "You got the key?" He asked, looking to Morgan now. "Or do we just knock hard?"
"I've got it," Morgan laughed, shaking her head. "FAITH, want to show off for my old man?" She asked with a grin, ignoring Tony's offended noises in the background.
"Anything for you boss," FAITH chirped as the HUD brought up the information on the electronic lock, cycling through various encryptions before it pinged with a green light and the door latched open.
"Electronic locks, against a Stark? Come on." Morgan laughed as she pushed the door open.
"Who'd you say took Mr Analogue down last time?" Tony asked curiously, activating his suit's night vision scope to overlay his HUD and make moving around inside the bunker much easier.
"Rogers and Romanoff according to the reports FAITH pulled out." Morgan answered with a small shrug. "They probably just broke the door or blew things up on their way through." She explained as she continued walking through, tracking the data that her sensors were showing up on her HUD. "Lots of encrypted data going through, looks like it's set up on a wireless repeater to get to the surface and then out from there." She commented. "FAITH, block everything. Lock it down. Blanket the entire base."
"Bringing EMC online now boss," FAITH reported. "Locking down transmissions. All covered."
"No calling for help, no backups, no way out." Tony smiled approvingly, moving through the base and noting an old style SHIELD insignia painted on the walls that was very different to the one he'd seen on Fury's jacket and on the badges Agent Coulson had flashed to him when they'd tried to get him to go along with their stupid cover story.
"Down here," Morgan said, gesturing towards an elevator that led down. "Funny how the elevator still has power in an abandoned base right?" She asked with a sardonic smile, pressing the button to open the elevator doors.
"Keep an eye out," Tony frowned, looking around as Morgan walked into the elevator. "If this has power, then there's probably cameras too, they'll know we're here." He said cautiously, moving into the elevator, his larger and bulkier suit taking up most of the room as he stood in front of Morgan protectively while the doors closed.
"I guessed," Morgan nodded as Tony pressed the button for the bottom floor of the complex. "Think this is where SHIELD started then?" She asked curiously as the elevator hummed quietly as it descended.
"Looks like it." Tony nodded, happy for the direct communications link between their suits. Nobody else would be able to hear their conversations through their helmets, so it gave them a nice line of communication they could use without being overheard. "Old, musty, stuck in the past and better off forgotten and buried? Sounds like SHIELD to me."
"Sending you over my sensor data. Get JARVIS to overlay it on your HUD." Morgan said with a small roll of her shoulders as she got comfortable. "My sensors are a few decades ahead of yours old man." She added with a smirk.
"Yeah yeah, rub it in why don't you." Tony rolled his eyes as he accepted the data link, then went wide eyed at the amount of information he was seeing. "My last suit, the bleeding edge one? That'll have all of this?"
"Right now? Nope." Morgan smirked knowingly. "It was your last suit, circa twenty three. I've still got a whole twenty years plus on anything you built." She explained with a grin. "Think your last suit was third or fourth gen nanotech, still just on the microscopic scale."
"Needs an update then," Tony sighed. It would be light years ahead of anything else in the world, though still two decades behind Morgan and her technology.
"Give me time to actually get nanotech up and running again, and I'll teach you the basics." Morgan smirked at the noise of outrage coming from her dad. "Kidding. I didn't want to upgrade it before... It was your suit you know, your last suit." She explained. "I know how I feel about anyone else touching my stuff, and mom always said you were the same."
"Yeah, I get it kid," Tony's voice came back with a reassuring tone. "When we get to the nanotech stage, you better bet that I'm going to catch up quickly."
"If you catch up, I'll still be improving." Morgan grinned back as the elevator doors opened.
"Definitely my daughter!" Tony crowed proudly as he stalked out of the elevator, happy for all the sensor information being displayed on his HUD now that they were practically in complete darkness. "Another elevator?" He asked, raising an eyebrow as his HUD highlighted the void and mechanics behind two large sliding book shelves. "A secret entrance behind a book shelf? I'm torn between horrified at the cliché, and kind of jealous." He admitted with a smirk.
"It's a cliché, and a bad one." Morgan rolled her eyes, moving to grab one side of the book shelf while Tony grabbed the other, the two suits giving more than enough strength to pull the book shelf apart like it was made out of paper, revealing the secret elevator doors behind. "A secret base hidden underneath a secret base. Behind a secret book case hidden door thing?" She scoffed. "Do HYDRA just run on clichés or is it just me?"
"No idea," Tony shrugged, frowning when he saw the elevator power was down. "I still don't understand their badge thing. It's an octopus, not a HYDRA. Eight legs, one head. It's the exact opposite of a hydra." He huffed in annoyance, punching through the thin elevator doors easily and tearing them apart to make a hole he could get through. "Looks like about ten floors, eleven maybe if the elevator has stopped at the bottom."
"Rock paper scissors for who gets to go first?" Morgan asked hopefully.
"Not on your life," Tony smirked, activating his repulsors to levitate him up slightly and through the torn doors into the elevator shaft before he reduced power to the repulsors to slowly lower him down the shaft.
"You do know my armour is tougher than yours?" Morgan argued as she floated in above him, dropping down slightly faster to come down to the same level as Tony. "A lot tougher. Single plate titanium gold alloys don't really match up to vibranium laced nanotech." She explained with a smirk as she continued to drop down below Tony's line of sight.
"Vibranium laced? A lattice?" Tony blinked, staring at where Morgan had continued to drop down into the darkness. "Wait, you got molecular scans of vibranium? Where?" He demanded.
"You did," Morgan grinned though she knew her father wouldn't see it. "Most of your last armours had it too, a vibranium lattice weaved over major areas, especially around the chest and reactor to protect it." She explained. "Synthetic vibranium is the base of a lot of the future Stark Tech, I'll be starting to synthesise it as soon as I start work on the flightsuits for the Angels and the replacement arms."
"Huh," Tony frowned as he considered that. Wondering where on earth he actually got the vibranium for scans like that, and what sort of fight his future self had been in where he'd specifically latticed super protection like that over his chest and reactor.
The sheer idea of synthetic vibranium was a game changer on it's own, and now he was wondering what other shocks were still in FAITH's future database of technology and advancements from the next forty years.
"Got the elevator, cutting through." Morgan's voice came over the link, breaking Tony out of his thoughts as he looked down, seeing Morgan using some sort of flaring bright blue laser cutting tool that came out of her palm repulsor to cut a wide circle in the roof of the elevator. "Scans say this is the bottom floor."
"We're pretty deep down here," Tony mused, grimacing slightly at the loud 'clang' that echoed up the elevator shaft when the circle Morgan was cutting fell through into the elevator itself.
"Yeah, only one way in or out it looks like. Pretty secure bolt hole." Morgan mused as she floated down through the hole she'd made.
"Got anything down there?" Tony asked, watching as Morgan tore open the elevator doors and slipped out into the corridor below. "Anything?"
"Nothing," Morgan's voice came back over the link. "No heat signatures outside of electronics. There's definitely power running down here, but no people around."
"Huh, no guards," Tony frowned as he considered that, lowering himself down through the hole and into the elevator, dropping down onto the ground gently and causing the elevator itself to shake under his sudden weight. "Nothing at all?" He asked.
"Nope, getting the feeling HYDRA don't come down here much at all." Morgan frowned as she scanned ahead, seeing the large and ancient computer terminal up ahead with banks and banks of digital tape machines spooled on all sides. "Probably only a few of their bosses know this place even exists. Keep it isolated, secret, stops any of the lower idiots turning tailcoat if they're caught and spilling the beans."
"Think we're giving HYDRA too much credit here," Tony snorted in amusement, stepping out and looking around the large hall type underground facility for himself. "It's a hipster's wet dream down here. I haven't seen tech this old since my dad's old workshop." He smiled, startling and raising his hands with the repulsors charging up when the room lights suddenly flickered on and the tape machines whirred into action.
"Anthony Edward Stark," A crackling voice came over the ancient speakers. "Born May twenty ninth, nineteen seventy. Threat level, omega."
"Arnim Zola," Morgan said aloud, making sure to broadcast her voice through her suit's speakers. "HYDRA asshole, mole in SHIELD, and a worm on data tape."
"You..." The crackly voice paused as an old CRT monochrome green screen flickered on. "There are no records of you. You are an unknown."
"And you'll never know." Morgan smirked as she raised her hand, firing a single blast into the computer terminal and utterly destroying it.
"I was actually going to let him talk a bit you know, kinda interested in how he transferred his mind into data like that." Tony commented before turning his repulsors onto the data tapes, blasting each machine one by one and making sure they were all completely destroyed.
"It's too early for villain monologues," Morgan groused, using her suit's shoulder mounted lasers to make sure every piece of fallen equipment was destroyed beyond any chance of being recovered.
"Not my fault, you're the one who wanted to do this at the ass end of the morning," Tony smirked, looking around to make sure he'd got everything.
"Because your suit doesn't have stealth, and I don't want SHIELD looking in to why we're here." Morgan clarified for what felt like the dozenth time. "We done?" She asked, looking around at the carnage they'd caused.
"Pretty much," Tony nodded. "Back to the elevator and up. I'll drop a couple of surprises on our way out."
"Fine by me," Morgan nodded. "Villain defeated, secret base blown up, and back in time for breakfast." She grinned as she headed back to the elevator.
"Pancakes? Waffles? Syrup and OJ?" Tony asked casually as he walked along beside her, the rear shoulders of his suit popping up and dropping a few dozen small phosphorous grenades as he walked.
"Waffles, it's definitely a waffles day." Morgan laughed as she got into the elevator and fired her repulsors, lifting up through the hole and shooting up the elevator shaft.
"Hold on, it's about to get hot in here," Tony made sure Morgan heard his reply before he turned around, firing one last missile into the computer terminal hall and taking off before he even saw the impact.
He was half way up the elevator shaft when the explosion rocked the building, and even through his suit he felt the heat blaze up underneath him as he followed Morgan at their best speed, tearing through the facility in flight, not bothering to land and go on foot as they made their way out.
He was the one still dropping explosives all through their exit, and the moment they got out of the secure door and into the cool night air, JARVIS detonated them all, erasing the HYDRA and SHIELD base from existence in a fiery death.
"One HYDRA base down," Tony smiled happily as he and Morgan took to the skies, with dawn coming over the horizon they both angled themselves towards the west coast, and fired their repulsors at top speed to make their way home.
"Plenty more to go," Morgan commented, happy with their morning mission and even happier with the knowledge that they'd crippled HYDRA's information banks early, and wouldn't have to deal with Zola's crap in the future now.
SHIELD Helicarrier
Location: Classified
February 27th, 2010
"Report!" Director Fury ordered as he stormed into the briefing room, setting his one eye on Coulson before glaring down at the photos and briefing packets around the table.
"The facility under Camp Lehigh was targeted early this morning by forces unknown sir." Agent Coulson explained. "We didn't have eyes during the attack, but whatever it was took out the entire SHIELD facility underneath the compound."
"It was a mothballed facility," Fury frowned, it didn't make sense, why would anyone target an abandoned facility like that. "The SHIELD facility was empty?" He asked, double checking just for clarification.
"Completely," Agent Coulson confirmed. "I double checked, nobody's been in or out of the place in years. It was emptied, locked down and salted."
"Hnh," Fury grunted as he considered that. "Nobody attacks an empty facility." He said with a frown. "What sort of ordinance are we looking at?"
"We have a team investigating now." Agent Coulson explained. "Preliminary reports indicate high yield phosphorus weapons and other explosives. The entire base was collapsed in on itself causing severe seismic damage to the military base above ground. It looks like demolition grade explosives were used from the reports I'm seeing. From the reports I'm seeing, it appears to be the work of an organised and well funded team."
"Suspects?" Fury narrowed his eye as he frowned at the various photos showing the level of destruction caused by the morning's attack.
"We're looking sir," Agent Coulson said quickly. "Whoever it was must have had a line of escape planned, probably into the city. That much ordinance wouldn't have been easy to move in or out of the base. We're scouring CCTV around the area now to see if we can find anything of reference."
"See to it," Fury nodded harshly, mentally dismissing Agent Coulson as he turned and headed back to his office.
Yes. February had turned into a complete shit show.
Stark was an annoyance, and now he'd got word that despite Stark's original plans, he'd backtracked and was actually working with the Air Force again. There were new contracts being penned apparently, which meant that maybe there was still hope that SHIELD could benefit from his new technology.
Ross however was the turd that would not stop stinking up the place. Not only had he had the audacity to get himself killed by poison in Cairo for god damned sake, but he'd left a paper trail of projects that had the human rights lawyers up in arms.
Between that and the leaked information about The Raft, which the UN was now investigating and threatening sanctions over, SHIELD was putting out fires left right and centre, and they were losing political capital at an alarming rate.
The Raft was no longer viable at all, which meant they had nowhere to house enhanced threats. There certainly wasn't any funding to build a new prison like that, and with countries keeping a very close watch on things now, they wouldn't be able to get the funding for a project like that for the foreseeable future anyway.
This morning's attack on the mothballed SHIELD facility was just the shit topping on the cake. It didn't make sense no matter how he looked at it, which meant he didn't have the complete picture. And he hated that feeling.
February was proving to be one gigantic pain in his ass after another, and right now he couldn't wait for the month to end.