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
March 4th, 2010
It was coming up to ten in the morning when Rhodey drove up to the Stark Mansion again, this time dressed in more casual clothes and feeling a bit better about how things might go today.
Apologising to Tony about going behind his back had actually taken a weight off his mind. He still worried, and would still believe he had only been looking out for his friend, but he could easily see it from Tony's viewpoint as well of him going behind his back and collaborating with people who were looking to steal from him and tear him down.
From Tony's viewpoint, it made him look like a real asshole, even if that hadn't been his intention at all.
He was mildly surprised to see Pepper and Tony's daughter leaving the mansion together as he pulled up, they seemed comfortable with each other, smiling and laughing. Though the way Pepper leaned in and gave Tony a quick kiss before they went to Pepper's car had him blinking in surprise as he pulled around and parked his truck to the side of the mansion.
"Hi Jim," Pepper smiled at him as she got into her own car, offering him a small wave as Tony's daughter got into the passenger seat before they reversed out and drove away.
"Tony," Rhodey nodded over as he climbed out of his truck, looking at how Tony actually looked alert and happy, even showered and fresh. At ten in the morning, he used to be still in bed at this time after an all night bender or simply spending all night in his workshop. Seeing him looking fresh and alert he had to reconsider Tony's words about being dry and sober now, because honestly he looked great.
"Honeybear," Tony smirked at him. "Come on, work to be done." He chuckled, gesturing for Rhodey to follow him into the mansion itself.
"Tony... what was that... you and Pepper?" Rhodey asked as he walked in, following along behind Tony.
"Not sure, trying something out." Tony shrugged. "Feels... actually feels great. Hope it lasts." He admitted with a wide smile as he started jogging down the stairs into his workshop.
"You and Pepper?" Rhodey asked in disbelief.
"Why not?" Tony shrugged, happily leaning on the door to his workshop and letting one of the AI's open the lock for him, whichever one was paying attention at the time. "Kids, best behaviour now, Uncle Rhodey's here to visit." He said with a chuckle as he held the door open for Rhodey to join him.
"Funny," Rhodey rolled his eyes. "Pepper gets along with... I can't remember if you told me her name."
"Morgan," Tony nodded. "Yeah, they're great together." He smiled happily. "Cooler to the side, bottles of water whenever you want. Coffee, snacks, help yourself." He explained with a wave over to the 'snacking station' as he and Morgan had designated it.
"What's the story there then? She's... what, twenties you said?" Rhodey asked, trying to remember everything Tony had mentioned about the girl the first time he'd met her.
"Twenty six, yeah." Tony nodded absently as he went to his workstation and pulled up a few files on the holographic screens. "Only found out about her a couple of months ago, things... actually things have been really good since then." He explained with a smile.
"I can see that," Rhodey nodded, looking around the workshop. It had definitely been remodelled since he'd last properly looked around here. Tony's cars were still off to one side, but the workshop itself had more tables than he remembered, with one specific one off to one side with a mannequin holding the Angel wings on it. "She works down here with you a lot then?" He asked curiously.
"Uhuh," Tony nodded as he continued to tap around a few different holographic screens. "And at SI, and doing whatever else it is that she does."
"She's not from around here," Rhodey commented. "Accent, I remember noticing it." He clarified when Tony looked at him.
"Oh, no, Europe." Tony shrugged after looking at Rhodey in confusion. "ETH, Zurich, Spain, probably other countries around there." He explained.
"That's... different," Rhodey admitted thoughtfully.
"Huh," Tony shrugged, not bothered one way or the other. "FRIDAY, you up baby girl?"
"Always boss," FRIDAY's accent came floating back.
"Bring MAMA online, set up War Machine. Static sentry mode in the workshop please." Tony ordered as he flicked a few screens away casually.
"Right away boss,"
Rhodey was about to ask about the new AI with the Irish accent when the various robotic arms came to life and several sections of the roof and floor of the workshop slid apart as a suit of armour was assembled right in front of his face.
He'd seen it before, once. When Tony suited up to face off with Stane, but this was different, this was a VERY different suit.
It was all flat matte blacks and greys, larger and bulkier than Tony's red and gold suit, and he recognised the Air Force insignia's as soon as the shoulders and arms came down to attach to the torso sections. It was definitely intimidating, and the large shoulder mounted gun of some sort that was currently slid back and vertical up the back for storage definitely said exactly what sort of armour this was designed to be.
He could only stare in awe as the final pieces came down and slotted together before the suit powered up, small sections of the suit lit up with an ominous red glow, and the suit itself stood upright before turning to Tony and actually gave a crisp salute.
"Rhodey, meet War Machine." Tony grinned gleefully, extremely proud of how the armour looked. It was everything he wanted, and was definitely going to even the score when the aliens invaded New York.
"Tony... it's finished?" Rhodey asked in amazement, simply staring at the intimidating looking armour. He hadn't actually known what to expect, but he'd pictured something like Tony's suit, maybe in blues and silver's... the suit he'd seen before in the workshop was plain silver, so he'd just thought about something like that, Air Force colours, but this... this looked like it fit the name. It was a War Machine, plain and simple.
"You online MAMA?" Tony asked as he walked over, completely unafraid of the intimidating suit. "Power up the rail gun and run me through a power cycle." He said as he grabbed a tablet from his workbench on his way over, tapping on it to bring up the diagnostic screens as he walked.
"Processing sir." MAMA's voice came from the suit. It was a kind voice, soft and with a slight deep southern twang. Definitely American though, and sounding like a mother or grandma.
"Tony..." Rhodey frowned as the shoulder canon rotated up and locked into place across the shoulder. Three targeting red lasers appearing from it and their beams visible across the workshop. "What is that?" He demanded.
"Rail gun, well, three technically. Titanium core ammunition, fifty millimetre ball bearings fired at mach ten. About seven thousand miles per hour." Tony rattled off. "They've got about a three second cool down, the alternating barrels help, I'm still working on some tweaks for that." He admitted as he went over the data MAMA was sending him.
"What else is in there?" Rhodey asked in awe, slowly approaching the armoured suit and staring at it, trying to catalogue everything he could see.
"Repulsors, hands and feet, obviously. Flight and combat ready." Tony explained, waving to the hands with his tablet. "Micro missile launchers in the shoulders and wrists. Grenade drops from the rear shoulders, actually you could put whatever you wanted in there, mines or party streamers if you wanted." He explained with a snort of amusement. "Nine milometer submachine guns built in to the gauntlets. I was considering a larger mid range rocket launcher for the right shoulder, but the balance was off, so you're stuck with just the rail gun for now."
"It's definitely a walking tank, I don't think it needs another rocket launcher." Rhodey chuckled, eyeing the way his rank and name were etched into the chest plate, running diagonal from the centre glowing arc reactor up to the shoulder plate. "You're serious about that rail gun?"
"Yeah, it's got a kick and a half to it, so you're gonna want to test it out a few times first to get used to the recoil." Tony explained. "Just be glad it's mounted to the suit and I could add in some absorption and recoil counter, or firing that thing would tear your shoulder off."
"Thanks for the tip," Rhodey muttered with wide eyes as he eyed the rain gun more dubiously now.
"It's looking good, Arc reactor is in the green, all sensor readouts are coming back solid." Tony nodded to himself as he flicked his eyes over the tablet. "Pack it away MAMA, FRIDAY." He ordered as he put his tablet off to one side. "So, you like?" He asked with a smirk, watching as Rhodey watched the suit of armour walk back to the middle of the room for the robotic arms to come down and disassemble.
"I like," Rhodey nodded emphatically. "The guys on base are going to drool all over that thing." He admitted with a snort of laughter at how true that was.
"It's wipe clean thankfully," Tony grimaced at the thought. "Self contained. Safe for high altitude and underwater. Filtered rebreather, so don't worry about smoke or anything like that."
"Tony... it's amazing." Rhodey breathed out as the final pieces of the War Machine armour were taken away by the robotic arms. "How long have you been working on this for?" He asked, actually feeling guilty now about everything he'd said and everything he'd heard about Tony not being willing to work with the military anymore, and how he wasn't a team player.
"A while," Tony shrugged the question off, walking through to the middle of the room. "FRIDAY, suit me up baby girl." He grinned, leaving Rhodey to watch as the automated arms returned and started fitting together an altogether sleeker and more colourful suit of armour.
This one was definitely not the Iron Man suit he'd seen only a few months before, it was similar and he could see the evolution lines, but it was like comparing a tricycle and a Harley Davidson against each other.
"You've been busy," Rhodey commented, watching the suit come together around his friend. "Suits, wings, Pepper, Morgan... you've been really busy Tones."
"You know me," Tony commented before the helmet came down and was locked into place so he could step off of the assembly plate and raise the faceplate up so he could talk easier. "You're turn honeybear." He said with a smirk, pointing to the middle of the workshop where a specific tile had two marks set on it for feet.
"You know General Baur wasn't expecting anything for months right?" Rhodey asked, walking over and moving to stand exactly where Tony was pointing.
"I like to surprise people," Tony grinned, causing Rhodey to snort in amusement at how true that fact was. "FRIDAY, Rhodey's ready. Dress to kill."
"Coming down boss," FRIDAY's Irish accent came back as the War Machine parts came down again and started assembling themselves around Rhodey slowly, Tony watching carefully to make sure that everything went together correctly and there weren't any problems in fitting it around Rhodey's body.
"Looking good," Tony commented as the chest plate and shoulders locked into place before the backplate came down with the rail gun attached. "Back's coming down now, watch out for the extra weight." He commented, seeing Rhodey was ready for it before it got bolted into place.
"It's not that bad actually," Rhodey nodded, thankful for the warning though.
"Torso takes most of it and it's braced against the armour across the spine and down to the legs, so the hydraulics in the spinal armour really take ninety percent of the weight." Tony explained. "Helmet's coming down now, watch your ears." He said with a grin as Rhodey looked at him in shock and froze as the helmet piece assembled itself around his head. "Looks good, can you hear me?" He asked aloud, seeing Rhodey nod in response. "MAMA, lift up the faceplate for me will you darling?"
"Of course Mr Stark." MAMA's soft voice came back as the faceplate lifted up.
"Ask MAMA for anything you need to know, I've got all the specs and everything you'll need emailed over to you, so you've got a LOT of reading to catch up on." Tony grinned over to him.
"Tony... why MAMA?" Rhodey asked with a pained expression.
"It felt right," Tony smirked at him. "Let MAMA take control of thrusters for a bit until you get the hang of it, she'll learn as you do, pretty soon you'll be partners and she'll be able to anticipate everything you need."
"That's why I didn't want one of your AI's Tony, I can't have someone second guessing my actions when I'm in the middle of a firefight." Rhodey explained.
"She won't, as soon as you're up can fly and access everything without her, I'll take off the training wheels protocol and she'll only be there whenever you ask for her." Tony explained. "She's there for help and security, not to take over."
"I'm not getting out of this am I?" Rhodey asked with a long suffering sigh.
"Nope," Tony smirked at him. "Stand at attention, hands out, palms down." He explained, moving into the pose he wanted Rhodey to match. "Like this." He explained, watching as Rhodey mirrored him. "Alright MAMA, fire thrusters, one percent. Keep him stable." He ordered, watching as the repulsors fired and slowly lifted Rhodey off the ground up a good four feet into the air.
"Holy..." Rhodey whispered, doing his best to hold himself stable while the repulsors adjusted automatically to stop him from floating in any direction.
"Relax, MAMA's got you." Tony chuckled to himself. "Alright MAMA, ease off on the controls and let Rhodey get a feel for them." He said with a smirk, firing his own repulsors and lifting up to match Rhodey. "Lean forward, keep your hands flat... that's it..." He grinned, watching as Rhodey gently leaned forwards and started slowly moving towards him through the air. "You got this."
"Hell yeah I got this." Rhodey laughed.
"MAMA, drop the faceplate, give him the custom Air Force HUD, simplify it for now, flight only... think you can take the ramp outside?" Tony asked as Rhodey's faceplate dropped down and his audio link got routed directly through to the Iron Man suit.
"I'm game for it." Rhodey nodded.
"I'll be right behind you, let MAMA catch you if anything goes wrong alright?" Tony said, waiting for Rhodey to nod to him before he floated out of the way and gestured towards the ramp leading up and out of the workshop. "Go for it." He said with a grin as he slapped his own faceplate down.
"Hell yeah!" Rhodey laughed as he lent down further, the repulsors firing stronger as he approached and ramp and started flying up it.
"This is gonna be fun." Tony chuckled to himself before following Rhodey up the ramp and to the outside where they could stretch their wings and see what Rhodey's flying was really like.
5630 Ramblin Rose Road
Colorado Springs
Colorado
"Our intel on Stark wasn't worth shit!" Natasha hissed as she approached from behind Clint, making him startle and spit out half of his beer from where he'd been relaxing on the garden chairs and enjoying his quiet evening.
"Bitch," Clint muttered, wiping his chin before frowning down at the table that was now splattered with foamy beer. "Stark didn't want to help then?" He asked with a roll of his eyes.
Natasha simply smirked as she approached. This felt right. With just Clint she didn't have to hide. Have to pretend just to be a top Agent. She didn't have to adopt that slightly American accent to make people feel more at ease. It was a subtle thing, but a slight accent made it look like she was trying to fit in, trying to be like them, it made people look at her softer and think that she wanted to be like them.
It never fooled Clint, and she never acted like that when it was just them. Now that they were out of SHIELD, she'd left that accent behind and left the identity, clothes, affections and everything else that she'd adopted to fit in with SHIELD better. And it felt great.
If she was going to fix things and wipe out the red in her ledger, she was going to do it as herself, not hiding and pretending to be something she wasn't.
"Oh he said he'd help," Natasha hissed, sliding into one of the garden chairs and snatching a beer from Clint's stock, cracking the cap off with one hand absently. "Him and his daughter."
"What?" Clint demanded, the shock visible on his face. "Stark's got a kid?"
"Couldn't tell much through the armour, but she called him dad. Shorter than him, but didn't sound like a kid. Young adult at least, probably somewhere in her twenties going by her voice." Natasha said before enjoying a pull of her beer. "European accent though. Spanish, bit of French and Swiss. Sounds like she's travelled a lot."
"Shit," Clint breathed out, knowing full well SHIELD had absolutely no intel that suggested anything like that.
"His AI's as well, they pulled out more information on the Red Room in a few seconds than SHIELD could have done in a week." Natasha frowned, shaking her head. "We were WAY off the mark on Stark, seriously off the mark." She explained. "Three AI's at the least. I'd expect more. The way he ordered one of them, it sounded like they'd been specifically built for intelligence gathering and espionage. And they were good. Very good. If it had been a phone, I wouldn't have been able to tell."
"No wonder he told Fury where to stick it," Clint frowned. "Think Fury knows half of it?"
"Doubt it, Stark seemed pretty antagonistic towards Fury." Natasha explained with a shrug. "Stark's kid, she said she was the one that delivered the videos. Backed it up too, she knew about the future you on them."
"She got one too? Stark as well?" Clint asked, cocking his head to the side as he considered that.
"She said she didn't, but didn't ask Stark." Natasha frowned thoughtfully. "If she's the messenger, how'd she get the videos?" She pointed out.
"She's from the future?" Clint asked. "Makes sense. That's why SHIELD doesn't have shit on her, she hasn't been born yet."
"I'm not sure, maybe, but if she was, why didn't the future you come back to explain things properly, instead of leaving it to her? It doesn't fit." Natasha questioned, leaving that thought in the air for now. "They both said they'd help. I'm heading back in two weeks."
"I'll come with," Clint toasted towards her with his beer at that. "Want to make up my own mind on Stark, figure all this out." He explained. "If his kid's come back from the future, or if she got a video or something else, she might know more than the shitty intel my future sent back to us."
"Probably," Natasha nodded in agreement with that. "Any ideas on when it was the future knowledge came from?"
"I got old, grey hair, a few more scars, the tattoos were definitely new." Clint mused as he drank a mouthful more of his beer. "Forty years maybe? Fifty? Something like that." He shrugged. "Has to be a decent amount of time, don't see myself going grey anytime soon." He explained with a smirk. "Why?"
"Trying to consider what future knowledge she might have, or what tech she might have access to." Natasha explained, causing Clint to whistle in awe. "She might know everything, the next forty or fifty years, she could have it all mapped out."
"Shit," Clint breathed out. "She'll know everything. Every move, every mission, everything. HYDRA, SHIELD, aliens, red rifts, everything."
"That's why your future self said trust the Starks... both of them. He knew she was coming back." Natasha reasoned out as she contemplated Clint's thoughts about the younger Stark being from the future. "He trusted her."
"Makes more sense for me to trust her than trust Tony Stark," Clint shrugged. "I don't even know her and I'd trust her more than the adult one."
"We'll see," Natasha frowned to herself. "Stark claimed he was dry too, no alcohol." She explained, tipping her bottle of beer towards Clint. "He had different AI's too. Don't know if they were his or from the future too."
"Shit." Clint frowned as he considered that. "Was any of the SHIELD intel worth a damn?"
"None of it," Natasha shook her head. "He's healthy, strong. No sign of poisoning or anything. Claims he solved that problem easily." She explained. "They're dangerous. Both of them. They could have forty or fifty years worth of future knowledge tucked away. More? Technology from the future? Any move SHIELD or HYDRA makes, they'll already know and have countered."
"Could have fixed his medical problems with future tech?" Clint reasoned.
"We can't automatically say anything was or wasn't fixed by the future knowledge, if we judged everything wrong before, perhaps that's why the future you wanted to change everything." Natasha pointed out.
"I hate all this second guessing. Can't tell if I'm thinking of something because I want to, or because the future me hinted at something." Clint shook his head before drinking deeply from the beer. "You're sure about this, trusting Stark?"
"The videos were right about everything else. What have we got to lose?" Natasha asked.
"Our sanity?" Clint snorted. "Two Starks?" He took another long pull from his beer. "Now I wish we hadn't quit. I kinda want to see Fury's face when he learns about that." He explained with a snort of laughter. "He's going to shit a brick." He said with laugh.
"I wish I'd known first," Natasha smirked as she pictured that thought. Oh yeah, Fury was definitely going to make some... rather interesting faces when he learned about that.
Edwards Air Force Base
Lancaster
Los Angeles
California
"General,"
General Baur looked up from the briefing packet he was going through, idly glancing around the watchtower and automatically targeting in on the airman that had called for him.
"We have a message from Lt Colonel Rhodes sir. He's two minutes out and asks for permission to land."
"Land?" General Baur asked, raising both eyebrows in surprise. "I'll be damned, tell him permission granted. Hanger two." He laughed aloud, tossing his briefing packet back on his desk for now. "Anything on radar?"
"Commercial and private only sir," The airman tracking the radar screen responded. "Nothing within the no fly zone sir."
"Don't expect you'll see anything anyway knowing what I think is coming," General Baur chuckled. "I'm heading down, keep watch and notify me if anything comes on radar that I should know about."
With that said he simply left, not waiting for a reply or expecting any. His orders were simple enough and he knew they would be carried out without question.
The question he had though was what had Stark actually put together that Lt Colonel Rhodes could fly here from Stark Industries. A new plane perhaps? A prototype? Maybe one of the Angel suits?
He couldn't have got more than the framework finished on the War Machine project already, not unless Stark had had it in the pipeline for months before coming to him and Lt Colonel Rhodes with the idea. It was possible, certainly, but he'd have to admit he'd got Doctor Stark entirely wrong if that was the case.
Jogging down the stairs and out onto the airfield his eyes scanned the skies automatically, looking around for anything as he headed over to the hanger bays.
He nearly missed them at first, two flying suits, one noticeably bigger than the other, darker too. It wasn't flying as fast or as surely as the smaller suit, but it was making good headway and coming in smooth.
"I'll be damned," General Baur laughed to himself as he picked up the pace, watching as the two suits came in for landing. Guards from around the base automatically tracking their flight path and moving to intercept them. "Belay that. They're here on my orders." He bellowed, causing the guards to notice him and snap to attention.
It took another minute or so for the suits to land, the red, chrome and gold one he knew was Stark. Gold and red were his colours, he'd seen that on the footage of his famous Iron Man suit already. It was definitely a different suit to the one he'd seen on the news, smaller, sleeker, more refined. Where as the black and grey suit was a hulking tank with a science fiction looking weapon slung over the shoulder that definitely looked like it meant business.
"Doctor Stark I assume." General Baur chuckled after the darker suit landed, not nearly as smoothly as Stark's had, but he hadn't hit the floor like a first time jumper, so that was something.
"General Baur sir." The black and grey suit automatically snapped to attention, pulling off a perfect salute.
"At east Lt Colonel," General Baur chuckled, noting the name plate across the chest that identified exactly who it was that was inside the suit. "God damned, I didn't expect this." He nodded, lifting a cigar out of his chest pocket and idly chewing on it as he circled around the armoured suit and took in every inch of it.
"I thought you'd enjoy a first look at the early Christmas present," Tony lifted up his faceplate with a grin.
"Oh it's a present and a half," General Baur laughed, nodding happily when the silver faceplate lifted up and showed Lt Colonel Rhodes inside. "How's it feel in there Lt Colonel?" He asked, honestly curious how the suit felt.
"Comfortable sir, heavy." Rhodey clarified. "Tony's got some nice cooling going on around the suit, I'd thought it'd be hot and sticky as hell, but it's like a spring day in here." He explained with a laugh.
"MAMA will adjust that for you on the fly," Tony explained, drawing General Baur's attention over to him. "She'll keep it at room temperature, so if you're in Alaska or the Sahara, she'll automatically figure it out."
"Now that sounds useful. Doesn't limit the suit to temperate environment." General Baur nodded at that. "MAMA?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.
"The suit's AI sir," Rhodey explained. "Tony... has a sick sense of humour sir." He grimaced at that when General Baur let out a bark of laughter.
"I don't mind that one bit, hell, I think I can appreciate that in a man." General Baur laughed around his cigar. "Reckon half the insurgents who see this this will be crying for their mamas too." He chuckled at then thought. "How's she handle?"
"I'm getting the hang of it sir, it's intuitive, but I can see why Tony wanted the AI to keep an eye on things until I learn the ropes." Rhodey explained with a chagrined smile over towards Tony.
"I'm not saying I told you so, I'm very definitely not saying that." Tony smirked at him.
"You oughta' listen to the man Lt Colonel." General Baur pointed towards Lt Colonel Rhodes with his half chewed cigar. "Always listen to your engineers. They'll tell you more about your bird than you'll ever know." He said with a serious look on his face.
"Yes sir," Rhodey nodded, accepting that piece of advice on board.
"Well now, why don't you show me what this beauty can do." General Baur stuffed his cigar back in his mouth and chewed on it happily. "We've got a firing range that's dying to be fed some proper calibre out there, and this thing looks just mean enough to give it what it needs."
"That and more sir," Rhodey nodded proudly.
"Indoors or out?" Tony asked curiously. "Trust me, don't fire that railgun off indoors, and not without a good half mile between you and the target." He said seriously. "If you do, you'll know about it, and more to the point, anyone around you without ear protection will know about it as well."
"See, listen to your engineer Lt Colonel." General Baur barked, slapping Rhodey's armoured shoulder with a grin. "Outside Doctor Stark, we play with live ammunition around here." He explained.
"Let's show off a bit then," Tony grinned, gesturing for the General to lead the way. "I've sent the specs and all the warnings and information over to Rhodey's email. I'm betting he'll print it off and send it up to you whenever he gets the chance."
"Appreciated son," General Baur nodded in agreement as he led the way through the base, all the airmen around staring at the two armoured suits as they walked past, their heavy footsteps drawing a crowd that discretely followed them around to the weapons range. "So, what am I looking at here? Armour rating?"
"A walking tank, literally." Tony explained. "The armour might look different, but it'll hold up to tank rounds without external damage, it'll hurt like a bitch, don't get me wrong, but it won't kill you."
"Impressive," General Baur nodded. "Armaments?" He asked. "And are you being serious about that rail gun?" He asked, knowing the Air Force had been working on rail gun designs for years now but had barely managed to get anything working properly, and certainly not something that would survive multiple shots, and definitely not as small and mobile as the War Machine's main gun was.
"I don't joke about my toys," Tony smirked at him. "Well, OK, I do, but not like that." He amended quickly when Rhodey looked at him with a 'are you serious?' look on his face. "Yes, it's a fully functional rail gun. Fifty millimetre titanium balls pushed through an electromagnetic phase changer and into... you probably don't want to know the science behind it, but they'll come out at about seven thousand miles per hour. Just be glad they're not big enough to cause any real sonic booms." He explained with a smirk.
"How much damage are they going to do at that speed?" Rhodey asked, honestly curious because firing ball bearings didn't sound that dangerous to him.
"Above mach ten?" Tony raised an eyebrow at the thought. "Probably around a hundred million joules of kinetic energy. It'll hit with something around the force of about a twenty five kilograms of TNT." He explained after rattling off the numbers in his head.
"God damned, I want to see that." General Baur grinned around his cigar as he led the way into the firing range, waving off the guards who were jostling around to try and get a look at the armoured suits walking through.
"Physics makes everyone their bitch," Tony smirked at Rhodey's shocked expression as they followed General Baur through the base.
The range was definitely set up for various weapons, and was clearly set out with a long desert hillside away from them, with various burnt out trucks and a few other bits that had been used for target practice already.
"Repulsors have an effective range of about two dozen yards and falls off pretty heavily after the first dozen, beyond that, don't bother." Tony explained as Rhodey walked up to the firing range. "Talk to MAMA, activate the weapons you want, and lets see what this baby can do." He said with a grin as he stepped back, slapping down his helmet as he watched General Baur get some hearing protection and ordering everyone else to make sure they had some too.
The micro missiles were first, both sets. The shoulder mounted ones came out and utterly destroyed one of the half shot to pieces trucks. The wrist mounted ones did the same, but Rhodey had clearly targeted them differently using MAMA as they spread out after being fired and caused devastation on either side of the range.
"Hot damn," General Baur grinned, watching with enthusiasm as Lt Colonel Rhodes rounded on the target silhouettes, two automatic guns coming out of the gauntlets around his forearms and firing off a nice spread that tore into the paper targets with ease.
Making a note to ask about ammunition storage, calibre and reloading, General Baur stood back as Lt Colonel Rhodes moved around awkwardly as the large canon strapped to his back actually moved up and sat across his shoulder pointing down the range, looking mean as hell with it's laser sights targeting down the and clearly visible with all the dust that had been kicked up in the air so far.
The first shot blasted clean through a truck, impacting the desert behind it with a whomph that shook the firing range. The second shot actually tore through the truck's engine block, sending the entire thing crashing and spinning around on the sand.
He could very well imaging that weapon tearing through tanks and armoured vehicles, the rounds were small, but at those velocities they hit like a mac truck and just carried on going.
General Baur grunted with every shot. The reports from the rail gun were just as bad as Stark had said, and even through his protection he could hear the ominous hum of the coils charging up before a high pitched shriek emanated from the canon as it fired.
More targets were wiped out with some sort of blasts from Lt Colonel Rhodes' hands, he didn't have the full information on those but had the vague understanding that they were what Stark had called repulsors earlier. Short range and deadly, good for one on one targets or immobilising craft.
All in all, it was a damn impressive load-out, and he was sure that he hadn't seen all the capabilities of the War Machine yet. These were just the headliners, but that rail gun alone, that took centre stage.
General Baur chewed happily on his cigar as he took his ear protection off, seeing Lt Colonel Rhodes step away from the range and his faceplate slide up to reveal a satisfied smirk on the man's face.
"Outstanding Lt Colonel, outstanding. That rail gun's a shrieker all right." General Baur clapped, causing the rest of the airmen around the range to join in with applause and cheers. "When do you think you'll be ready for deployment?"
"Give it a week for me to polish up the hardware." Tony advised, sliding up his own faceplate and walking over. "Shrieker, I like that." He grinned, naming the gun mentally and making a note of it. "I'll have engineers down here in three days if you've got the hanger set aside. We're going to need space for robotics, power cabling, storage... but once we're set up, you'll be good to go." He smiled. "Probably need a few weeks for Rhodey to get to grips with everything and use it to it's full potential, but with MAMA alongside, he'll be more than capable of taking down anything you're going to face."
"I'll see to it," General Baur nodded as he lifted out his cigar. "I haven't heard back yet about Mitchel Base, but as soon as I hear anything, I'll have word sent over."
"Look forward to it," Tony grinned happily. "Ready to head back and get out of that thing?"
"Actually enjoying it," Rhodey smirked back over to Tony.
"Well, play time's over. I want to check over MAMA's telemetry for the targeting and flight, see how the system compensated for any problems or shifts while you were getting used to it, and go over the targeting telemetry to make sure it was all point accurate." Tony explained, tapping him on the shoulder with a 'clang'. "Take off again, MAMA's here if you need her." He smirked before slapping down his faceplate before Rhodey could say anything back. "General." He said, his voice coming over the suit speakers loud and clear as he nodded before shooting off into the sky.
"I hate him, I hate him. I'm going to kill him." Rhodey muttered to himself. "Permission to leave base sir."
"Granted," General Baur laughed around his cigar. "Give him hell Lt Colonel." He chuckled as Rhodey saluted crisply before his faceplate slide down again and he put his hands to the side, slowly lifting off into the air.
"You see that men?" General Baur announced loudly, using his cigar to point up to where War Machine was steadily gaining altitude and flying off over the base. "That is the future of the United States Air Force. That is Lt Colonel James Rhodes. That, is our War Machine!" He shouted the last, getting yells and cheers in response that echoed across the entire base.
Stark Mansion
10880 Malibu Point
Malibu
California
Morgan was quite happily munching on a foot long meat feast Subway as she made her way down to the workshop area of the mansion. The day had run predictably late, as always really. Pepper had got caught up with meetings that ran far over schedule, and she'd sequestered herself in the server room of the SI complex and had been slowly working on upgrading the hardware to something vaguely approaching usable in her view.
She wasn't done, not by a long shot. The SI servers were still outdated garbage and would be for a long time as far as she was concerned, hell, her watch currently had more processing power than the damned SI server farm, and that felt painful to know. They were passable for now, but until she got her hands on some of the new chips from the custom fabs she'd helped with, this was going to be the best that they could hope for.
The new custom processors would be the first step, that would help her build up to as least first gen macro scale nanotech, and from there it was only a few steps more towards functional nanotech and quantum processing.
In theory anyway, she would have to brush up a lot on her knowledge and scour through the old SI mainframe for the original patents and designs for all the hardware they would need to push their way towards quantum processors, but it was a start anyway.
Pushing through the door into the workshop she paused mid bite, tilting her head at the rather strange sight that welcomed her.
First off her dad was lounging at his workstation, casually making his way through a bowl of popcorn, his attention focused on two floating screens that he was reading and apparently paying a great deal of interest to.
Next to the screens, actually floating on his workstation, was a scale hologram of the Stark Plaza from her future. The literal home of Stark International in her time. The two towers with the swooping joined area that flared out at the base were iconic and recognised around the world.
In the future, Stark Plaza was recognised as the tallest building in the world, with the taller of the two towers stretching one hundred and seventy nine stories, the shorter one topping out at a still eye watering hundred an sixty two stories.
Between them they housed the offices for nearly fifty thousand people, workshops, research and development, laboratories, and then on the lower levels there were event halls, shops, restaurants and even a movie theatre.
Below ground the complex carried on, with more laboratories, server farms, and a direct link to the Valencia underground system where people could get off of the trains and literally walk straight up into the Stark Plaza for work, leisure or whatever they wanted.
The most puzzling thing in the workshop today though was further on down where FAITH and FRIDAY were displaying their holographic avatars and interacting with DUM-E over by one workbench. There was also a glowing blue avatar standing back from them, watching them curiously as DUM-E beeped and whistled while FAITH and FRIDAY seemed happy to carry on a conversation with the little robot.
"Busy day?" Morgan asked with a smirk, walking into the workshop fully and flicking her eyes back over to her father when he turned his attention to her.
"Like you wouldn't believe," Tony laughed, shaking his head in amusement.
"Looking at the future of SI?" Morgan asked, walking over to Tony's workstation and gesturing to the hologram of Stark Plaza. "Got to admit, I kinda miss the place. I spent more time down at the R&D compounds, but I did always love the towers."
"Can see why," Tony nodded, looking back to the hologram. "Gorgeous design, smooth lines, sleek, futuristic... it works." He nodded, keeping his eye on the 'Stark' emblems that were emblazoned proudly at the top of each of the two towers. "Saw the blueprints, Stark Plaza? I thought I had big dreams, but this..." He trailed off with an impressed whistle.
"Yeah, the architects mom got really knocked it out of the park." Morgan smiled proudly. "The entire thing was networked with fibre optic, by the time I took over, I had the place wired for hard light systems and built in a proper AI to run the entire place properly."
"Nice," Tony nodded approvingly. "We'll definitely be keeping this. Spain, this'll blow their minds. It's the perfect vision of the future for when we take SI international."
"It'd be great to see it again," Morgan admitted. The Plaza was one of the things she definitely did miss about the future, it might have been just a building to a lot of people, but to her it was like a second home. She knew every inch of the two towers, and between the Plaza and the SI R 'n' D complex, she was truly more at home in the SI buildings than anywhere else. "Who's blue?" She asked curiously, nodding over to where the various holographic AI's were still talking with DUM-E.
"JARVIS," Tony grinned. "Finally got around to finishing up rendering him properly." He explained. "He's still getting used to the extra processing, copied quite a bit of code from FRIDAY to get him up to scratch, so runtime might be a bit on the distracted side until it's all integrated properly."
"Huh," Morgan nodded absently, looking over and idly cataloguing the glowing blue avatar. He looked to be an older gentleman, probably ten years older than her dad was right now, with very neatly combed hair and an immaculate looking three piece suit. He was simply standing with his hands crossed over each other over his stomach, watching as FAITH and FRIDAY interacted with DUM-E and chattered together.
"I modelled him after Edwin Jarvis, my dad's old... I don't know, butler? Friend? Assistant?" Tony trailed off. "It's who I based JARVIS' voice off of, so it felt right."
"Looks good," Morgan said, finishing off another bite of her sandwich as she admired the work her dad had done on the new avatar.
"Yeah," Tony nodded with a small smile, reminiscing fondly about Edwin Jarvis and his childhood. "I meant to ask actually, I saw the code for the projectors. They can handle full colour easily, I saw that with the screens and suit projections. Why stick with a single colour for the AI's?" He asked curiously. "Not knocking it, I kinda like it now, was just curious." He admitted.
"Mom's idea," Morgan shrugged. "Something to set them apart so she'd know it was just an AI in the building or the house and not some stranger." She explained. "I did a few with full colour, but I ended up liking the single colour look too."
"It's a good idea," Tony mused, idly glancing over at the blue, purple and golden AI's that were still happily chatting with DUM-E. "Good day then?" He asked curiously, idly wondering what Morgan had been upto today.
"Yeah, pretty casual, but good to have a winding down day every so often." Morgan nodded. "You been working on JARVIS all day then?" She asked.
"Yup, got Rhodey's suit sorted as well. Test run went alright, got the engineers heading out to the base next week to start custom fitting one of their hangers ready for the War Machine armour and Angels kit." Tony explained.
"Sweet, by the time New York kicks around we'll have plenty of backup then." Morgan grinned happily. The Chitauri and Loki definitely wouldn't know what hit them with the amount of tech they'd have ready by the time of the invasion.
"I did do some more research into Mr Streaky and the vanishing genius of yours." Tony said, waving towards his two holographic screens. "Astronomer, three papers on Einstein-Rosen Bridges, pretty high end on the astrophysics scale." He explained.
"Wonder how close she is to figuring it out?" Morgan mused absently. "I mean, we're talking about teleportation right?"
"From what I can see," Tony nodded in agreement. "Foster seems to think it's capable of transport between planets, and the math is pretty crazy, but I wouldn't discount it." He mused, scratching at his beard idly. "She vanished completely by your time?"
"Yeah, decades ago. Like when I was just a kid." Morgan shrugged. "It was one of those big mysteries, conspiracy shows, late night TV, you know?" She said with a smile.
"Yeah, binged more than a few of those myself while working on bits." Tony chuckled, amused that Morgan had picked up more than a few of his habits from somewhere. "She's down in Puente Antiguo right now on some wild goose chase, funding's running out from what I can find out, thinking about getting in touch."
"Get her working for SI?" Morgan asked, finishing off her sandwich and tossing the wrapper in the waste bin over by the coffee percolator and snacks bench.
"And Mr Streaky too," Tony said, waving towards the other screen. "Doctorate in theoretical astrophysics, bet they come as a pair." He said, making a note of Doctor Selvig's name for future reference. "If she's as smart as she's supposed to be, and she's going to be the one that cracks teleportation..." He trailed off, waving towards his screens. "Yeah, I'd want her on board." He said, nodding to confirm it to himself. "Funding her stuff wouldn't exactly be a hardship, might be interesting... see what sort of stuff she thinks up while she's working on other bits."
"That... and having decent astronomers on board when aliens start knocking at our door..." Morgan trailed off with a knowing smirk.
"That too," Tony nodded in agreement. "How did things at SI go?" He asked, turning in his chair to look at Morgan fully now.
"Pretty good," Morgan shrugged, hopping up to sit on her dad's workbench comfortably. "Got the hardware sorted, it should be good enough to get FRIDAY integrated properly now. She won't be at her full potential yet, and there's a mess of networking through the entire complex that needs tearing out and redoing."
Tony grimaced at that, but nodded in agreement. He'd only focused on the mansion and making sure JARVIS was fully capable here. The SI complex had been built long before his time, and Stane had had far more control over managing expansions and new buildings than he'd ever bothered with, something that was coming to bite him in the ass now.
"We can't afford to take the entire complex offline to upgrade it to spec," Tony admitted, shaking his head. "Wait until we've got the new processors and hardware up to scratch, then build a new server farm for the entire place. Run the fibre optics alongside the old server until everything's ready to switch to the upgrade."
"Probably going to take a few months," Morgan nodded, it was a viable plan but it just meant that the main SI complex would be hideously out of date until at least the start of the Stark Expo.
"Can't be helped," Tony shrugged. "The Tower... my one, and this Plaza thing." He said, waving to the hologram of Stark Plaza. "We'll do them from scratch, future proof the entire thing right from the start. Build the AI's right into the superstructure of the building so they have complete control."
"The New York one?" Morgan asked curiously.
"Foundations are down, skeleton's going up." Tony mused, wracking his brain to remember exactly how far they were on the building right now. "Hard to put a rush on building in the middle of the city, can't get half the heavy machinery I'd want down there to get it done any quicker." He explained. "Already got the specs ready for the new generation reactor that'll be fitted. That thing could power most of the island without taking a hit, might have to speak to the city government about selling them power to offset some of the high rise taxes."
"Right," Morgan sighed, knowing how much of a pain New York regulations were for building something like that.
"Pep's already organising a meeting with the Spanish people, try and buy up the ground work early, get started on Stark Plaza a couple of decades ahead of schedule." Tony grinned. "Stark Tower can be the US branch headquarters, but this..." He smiled widely as he waved towards the hologram of the Plaza. "This is going to be the home of Stark International again."
"Moving international sooner will help a lot against the assholes in government." Morgan nodded in agreement, happy that both of her parents were definitely in agreement with that aspect of her plan.
"Oh yeah," Tony nodded fervently. "We can move all future tech stuff straight there as soon as it's habitable. Well, vaguely habitable. I'll want to get in on the ground as soon we can, once they've got the frame work up and the skeleton sorted, we can take charge of filling it out with all the bells and whistles."
"R&D labs?" Morgan smiled back.
"Definitely," Tony nodded. "Everything. Stark Tower, but to the Nth degree." He nodded eagerly. "Already got a list of people to bring in, headhunting them directly from your database." He explained, moving to another hologram screen and bringing up the list of names he'd been researching so far.
"So that's what got you thinking about Doctor Foster?" Morgan nodded, her eyes flicking down the list and picking out a few names that she did recognise, like Doctor Helen Cho and a couple of others that were still working at SI in her time.
"Yeah," Tony smiled. "With all the development and stuff we're going to be pushing, going to need an entire new sector devoted to research and high end stuff." He explained, reaching towards one of the screens and flicking it back to a previous piece of information that he'd been looking at. "One of the old storage depots, basically warehouses where SI kept stock ready for national shipping." He explained. "It's out in the sticks though, closer to Albany than the city, but should be a good place to set up a research and development lab."
Morgan grimaced, looking at the facility on the screen. "Yeah, I know it." She said quietly. "You turned it into the Avengers Compound last time." She explained when her dad looked at her. "It's where Thanos attacked the second time, twenty three. It's where you died."
"Ah," Tony winced, looking at the compound in a different light now. "Dying near Albany? Now that's an insult." He said flippantly, doing his best not to look at the compound as one big grave stone now. "Whatever, won't happen this time around. That's the point right, change everything?"
Morgan nodded before taking a deep breath. "Right. No dying." She said firmly.
"It's definitely not getting signed over to some team of assholes anyway, not the compound, not the tower, nothing." Tony said firmly. "Starks stand together, and we don't need Craptain or any other of his little band of assholes either."
"Together," Morgan nodded, looking at the hologram of the compound and wondering if she'd ever be able to look at it and not see the place where her father lost his life for a country that just took a big shit all over his sacrifice.
"I'll start having it emptied and brought up to date, living areas, labs, equipment, the whole nine yards." Tony said, dismissing the screen with a wave of his hand. "Got the space there for a proper particle accelerator, not this toy we've cobbled together here. Once we get that up and running..."
"We can start synthesising Starkanium in bulk properly for larger Arcs." Morgan nodded, seeing where Tony was going with this. "I can use it to start on synthetic vibranium as well."
"Yeah, I've really got to go over that stuff because I haven't even looked at nine tenths of the stuff you brought back with you yet." Tony shook his head with a laugh, thinking about how crazy things had been when something as world shattering as synthetic vibranium didn't even make it to his top ten interest list right now.
"Next week, I've got the engineers fitting up one of the hangers up at Edwards base, you know for the War Machine stuff." He explained when Morgan looked at him. "The first squad of Angels should be out of production, so we'll need to head up there together to get everything set up."
"Sounds like a plan." Morgan nodded, definitely happy to see the Angel wings in action properly.
"Then we've got Spain, and then whatever the assassin duo need help with out Russia side." Tony nodded to himself. "I've got the Aviation teams running double shifts to get the jet ready and tested, two weeks should be more than enough time."
"Then the Expo, and getting everything ready." Morgan smiled eagerly. They were only making first steps so far, but with everything they'd started and put into motion, they were great first steps and set the groundwork to really push development so they were ready for the two thousand and twelve invasion.
"That's the plan." Tony smiled back before turning to look at the hologram of Stark Plaza once more, marvelling at it's design and the promise of the future held within it.
The future was theirs, literally, and they were going to safeguard it no matter what.
"I'm still thinking about twenty twelve, New York." Tony admitted with a frown, leaning back in his chair and looking at Morgan with an appraising glance. "I get that we need those magic marbles there, two of them. Whatever SHIELD has, and whatever Emo Boy brings during the invasion."
"You're thinking about the collateral," Morgan grimaced, nodding knowingly. "Yeah, I hate it too, that's why I've been pushing the Angels and thinking up any other tech we could get out to help."
"What about other people with powers? Not anyone who was part of Fury's boy band or anything, but there has to be others out there who could help right?" Tony asked hopefully.
"Maybe, a few." Morgan admitted after thinking about it for a second. "There's a few enhanced in New York I think. That Spider-guy doesn't pop up for a few years after the invasion, but there should be a couple around by now who we could get on board."
"Like?" Tony asked, gesturing towards her and prompting her on.
"FAITH, we got any records of any enhanced around New York at the moment?" Morgan asked, looking over to where the gaggle of AI projections all paused in their discussions with DUM-E to look at her now. "Check the databases from my time, who was around back now and active?"
"Searching," FAITH responded, her purple avatar freezing in motion for a second as she processed the massive amounts of data in the QSI's that held Morgan's encrypted future databases.
"We want people that we can work with," Tony interrupted, making FAITH pause and focus on him. "Nobody ever linked with SHIELD or Rogers or anyone like that." He clarified. "Enhanced, or decent enough that they could make a difference when the invasion hits. Ground, air, anything."
"Collating," FAITH reported, her eyes flickering slightly as she narrowed down the database and scoured through for anyone that fit the parameters. "There are two that fit the required parameters Boss, one more comes close with limited data."
"Thrill me, all three please." Tony said, standing up and gesturing towards FAITH. "Full screens." He said as Morgan stood up with him, visibly curious now to see what FAITH had pulled up.
As soon as the three full floating screens were projected into the workshop they both headed over to the closest one to start looking at it curiously. "Luke Cage?" Tony read off the first one aloud. "Enhanced strength, durability, speed... holy shit, he's indestructible!" He whispered in awe. "And he's working as a barman?" He asked in surprise. "He's like Rogers mark six or something!"
"Jessica Jones," Morgan read off another screen. "Enhanced strength, speed... she outdoes Crap by a good margin as well." She said, actually impressed by the readout she was going through. "Working as a PI, Alias Investigations. Licensed and everything."
"And our third candidate is..." Tony announced like a game show host. "Daredevil?" He read off in surprise, not finding a real name anywhere on the profile. "Alright, minimum details here, pretty light on everything really." He frowned, looking over to FAITH. "Is this all we have on the guy?"
"Yes grand-boss," FAITH responded. "Daredevil was active in the Hell's Kitchen area of New York from two thousand and ten until two thousand twenty six."
"What happened to him?" Morgan asked curiously.
"There are no further records." FAITH answered with a small shrug to indicate that anything further would be supposition based on existing data.
"No indication of skills, powers, anything." Tony frowned, looking at the scarlet and yellow outfit that had clearly been photographed on a cheap smartphone somewhere. "Good colour scheme though, if he managed to keep his identity off the grid even by your time, he's got some skill there."
"Probably," Morgan admitted. "Any police records?"
"A manhunt was issued on April tenth, twenty fifteen, but there are police records indicating activity as early as two thousand and nine." FAITH explained. "There is no official report regarding his existence, or documentation in the media."
"Keeps off the grid entirely then," Tony mused thoughtfully. "Surprised nobody's heard of him before."
"If he keeps to a small section of the city, nobody probably cares." Morgan shrugged. "Down there he's probably an urban myth or something, he probably makes everyone think that anyway just to keep his name out of the papers."
"Point," Tony conceded. "Alright, three names, that's a good place to start, especially Cage and Jones. Heavy hitters are what we're going to need when the invasion hits, and if they take the ground while we're in the air with the Angels for support, that should negate at least some of the fallout."
"We can plan out a proper show at the Air Force base for the day of the invasion too." Morgan nodded thoughtfully. "Angels, Uncle Eightball, Air Force, everyone. Get as many guns ready for the invasion as we can, then they're just a jump away when the shit hits the fan."
"Sounds good," Tony nodded. "FAITH, put a pin in those three, keep watch on anything in the media, social networks, anything that comes up from them. We'll approach them after the expo."
"Sure thing grand-boss," FAITH responded as the three holographic screens blinked out of existence.
"We need to be ready, I don't want this on my conscience if it goes wrong." Tony said, looking back to Morgan now.
"Me neither," Morgan admitted. "But focusing on the stones and getting them squirrelled away to stop Wacky Wanda ever existing or Thanos getting his hands on them, that's the game plan." She said firmly. "Stopping the apocalypse and all the shit that comes with it, if we don't stop that, the twenty twelve invasion will look like a drop in the ocean compared to what's coming."
"You focus on the stones, let me deal with the invasion then." Tony said firmly. "Me, Rhodey, and everyone else. You can take Emo Boy and anything he brings?" He asked hopefully.
"Easily," Morgan snorted disdainfully. "I know his plan, where he's going to be. Getting the sceptre off of him should be easy enough, then using that to get the other stone, get them locked away before anyone comes looking, just say that they were destroyed in the fight, probably under rubble somewhere or lost in the city."
"Get FAITH to knock up some fake camera footage of it happening, make sure you can back up your story so SHIELD and Fury's assholes don't start looking too closely at you." Tony said firmly.
"I'm hurt you think SHIELD's merry band of idiots could even get close to me," Morgan smirked at him. "You got the Expo and everything sorted out then?" She asked, moving the discussion on and away from New York for the moment.
"Oh hell yeah," Tony grinned, putting his arm around Morgan's shoulder and leading her back to his workbench to show her all the new plans he'd put together for the new Stark Expo.
It was going to be a show to remember, and usher in a new age for Stark International, and a new age for the world itself.
The age of the Starks.