Son of Iron Man

I've been considering something ever since I decided to have more superheroes than just Toby in this story: the New Avengers. These are not the New Avengers that were in the comics, but a team led by Toby that includes Ben and anyone else they might find along the way. What do you guys think of that?

Anyway, let's begin with another great chapter! (I hope...)


Chapter Four: Responsibility

The next day, Toby woke up in the morning to hear his mobile ringing. He sat up, yawned and looked at it. It was an unknown number. He answered the phone and put it up to his ear.

"Toby Stark, here," he said.

"Toby, it's Sarah," said a female voice on the other end of the phone. Toby raised a hand to his face and rubbed his eyes.

"Hey, Sarah," he said, deciding to see what she was going to say first.

"You said to call you," Sarah said. "This isn't a bad time, is it?"

"No, not at all," Toby lied, shaking the sleep away.

"Good. I was wondering if I could ask you some questions about yesterday," Sarah said.

"I'd like to ask you some questions, too," Toby said suddenly. "How much did you tell the police?"

"Not your name," Sarah said quickly. "I think people should know the name of a hero like you, but I know what the cops would do to you if I told them."

"But you still published an article about me," Toby said, his temperature rising.

"Not about you, about Iron Boy," Sarah corrected him. "I never mentioned your name. Your secret is safe with me."

"That's not enough. If there's an Iron Man flying around the place that isn't Tony Stark, then who would be the first person your mind naturally jumps to?" Toby demanded. The line was silent. "Well?"

"…you," Sarah muttered.

"Yes, me. Because of what you did, I can't go to school today. I have to stay safely at home, learning to control the suit."

"I-I'm sorry," Sarah said, emotion apparent in her voice.

"You should be. And for future reference, it's Iron MAN." He then went to hang up the phone.

"Wait!" Sarah pleaded.

"What?" Toby sighed.

"Don't you want me to… make it up to you?" Sarah asked suggestively. Her question was answered with silence from Toby. He had hung up.


At breakfast that morning, Tony, Toby and Pepper sat around the table together. Tony had cooled down a little since yesterday, but an awkward tension hung around the table.

"Sarah called this morning," Toby said eventually.

"Sarah?" Tony asked.

"The reporter," Toby clarified.

"Oh, right…" Tony said, going back to his breakfast.

"She said she hasn't told anyone my name," Toby continued.

"Have you read the article?" Tony questioned him.

"No… why?"

"Your name is mentioned at least three times."

"You're joking…" Toby said, horrified.

"I wish I was. But that's another reason for harder training," Tony replied.

"Oh, just you wait until I get my hands on her…" Toby said, his voice shaking slightly with anger.

"Revenge isn't the way," Tony said firmly. "You made the mistake of trusting her, but now you know not to. Just keep away from her. Understand?"

"Yeah," Toby muttered.

"Good," Tony said before draining his glass of orange juice. "Let's train."


"These are LMDs," Tony said, gesturing to the four featureless droids that stood deactivated around the training room. "Life Model Decoys. They can take any form and adopt any fighting style. They won't kill you like the originals would, but you'll be hard-pushed to defeat them."

"I'm ready," Toby said, snapping his faceplate down. The blue HUD switched out for a red battle one.

"OK, we'll start with something simple. Just one LMD in the form of Loki," Tony said.

"Loki?" Toby repeated.

"Loki. He's a good starting place, with ranged and melee attacks," Tony confirmed. One of the LMDs suddenly became the Norse god of mischief and lunged at Toby with his sceptre.

"Woah!" Toby exclaimed as he dodged to the side and jetted upward. He began to aim at the LMD, but it shot out a blast of magic which he only just dodged. He then managed to hit Loki with a repulsor blast, which knocked him back but didn't defeat him. As the LMD took aim again, two pod-rocket capsules opened up on Toby's shoulder and fired off a round of missiles. A few were shot down, but the rest hit the LMD square-on and exploded the droid.

But it was a brief respite.

Two more LMD-Lokis leapt into the air and tackled Toby, pulling him to the ground while a third raised his sceptre and jammed it toward the ARC reactor in Toby's suit. In a split-second decision, Toby activated his thrusters and dodged out of the way, dragging one of the LMDs into the place he had been. One LMD destroyed the other, while the third was still on Toby's boot. He bent down in the air and placed his hands on the LMD's horned helmet before activating repulsors in each. The LMD collapsed to the ground without a head.

The final LMD was destroyed by a laser.

"Well done!" Tony said, applauding. "Next time, try a unibeam blast."

"Unibeam?" Toby repeated.

"You can overwhelm your reactor and send an energy blast out of it. Very powerful, but it's a drain on the suit," Tony explained. Toby nodded. Suddenly, his HUD began to shake as he staggered back. He looked at his father in shock. He had just shot his own son with a repulsor.

"What was that for?" Toby demanded, but his father's only response was a second repulsor blast. He was left with no choice but to blast his father back. Tony Stark was blasted backward, but by activating his thrusters as he fell he was able to rocket back forward. He reached out and grabbed his son before twisting in midair and throwing him into a wall.

"OK, then," Toby said to himself before standing back up. He placed his hands together and hit his father with a double repulsor blast, which forced him to stumble backward. Toby ran forward and went to punch Tony, but the latter raised a swift hand and blocked the attack before punching Toby back. As he fell backward, Toby remembered what his father had told him. Diverting all power to the reactor, he waited a moment before loosing the blast at his father, who fell to the ground with a huge hole in his chest. As Tony Stark died, his armour disappeared to reveal the featureless body of an LMD.

"Good work!" said the real Tony as he emerged from the observation deck that was hidden in the walls.

"Thanks," Toby beamed, raising his faceplate. "You are the real Tony Stark, right?"

"Of course I am; look, no armour," Tony replied. "Well, it's clear that your combat skills are already pretty well developed. You still need to learn some techniques before taking on any real villains, but I feel fine letting you return to school tomorrow. Just promise me you'll keep the watch on at all times."

"Promise," Toby said as his suit folded in on itself and retreated into the form of a watch. He glanced at it briefly and saw that it was only around 3:00pm. "What now?"

"Your school just ended, so Ben will probably be around soon. That's enough training for today. Just promise you won't go out and hack the police again," Tony said half-jokingly.

"I promise." But Toby had no intention of going to find Ben. He was going to have a word with Sarah about responsibility.


Sarah Shilling felt a buzz in her jacket on the way home. She produced her mobile phone from her pocket and looked at the screen. It was Toby Stark.

"Hey, Toby," she said as she answered the phone. "Ready for that apology now?" As she spoke, she produced some lipstick from her pocket and began to apply it.

"Meet me outside Stark Tower," Toby said. His voice sounded urgent.

"Sure thing," Sarah said before hanging up the phone and adjusting her route.

A few minutes later, Sarah was across the street from Stark Tower. She could see Toby across the road, waiting for her with crossed arms. She quickly crossed the road and met him.

"Hey there," she said, looking into Toby's blue eyes as she spoke.

"Hi," Toby said impatiently. "Follow me."

"Gladly," Sarah said. Toby immediately started striding down the road, Sarah in tow and struggling to keep up. "Could you slow down a little?" she asked.

"No," Toby snapped. Suddenly, he turned right into an alleyway. Sarah realised it was the same one she had been mugged in.

"Ooh," she said. "How romantic."

"A dark alleyway?" Toby asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Our dark alleyway. Just you and me," Sarah purred. She suddenly flashed back to her meeting with the head of the Daily Bugle, J. Jonah Jameson.

"I want more details on this… Iron Boy," Jameson said in his gruff voice, unchanged by age.

"I'll get you all the details you want, sir," Sarah replied. She was never called up for big articles like this. Her first piece on Toby had been life-changing.

"You better. Get as close to him as possible. I want every detail," Jameson said.

It didn't get closer than this.

"OK, this is not why I called you here," Toby said quickly as he dodged Sarah's advances. "I want to talk to you about your article."

"Good, wasn't it?" Sarah asked, stepping closer to Toby.

"You lied to me," Toby said, stepping away.

"It was just a teensy little lie," Sarah said, holding up her finger and thumb in close proximity to show just how small the lie was.

"You told the world that I'm the new Iron Man," Toby protested. "It doesn't get much bigger than that."

"I know. I'm sorry," Sarah said, hanging her head. She then raised it again, a longing look in her eye. "But let me make it up to you." Toby sighed.

"Fine," he said. "Close your eyes."

"No way, I want to see every moment of this," Sarah said before leaning forward. A mechanical whiz sounded and she found herself kissing the cold, metal faceplate of an Iron Man suit.

"Mind where your mouth takes you," Toby said before jetting off upward and leaving Sarah to ponder the double meanings of what he had said.


"I hope you stayed out of trouble today," Pepper said to Toby later that evening. "Your father didn't work you too hard, did he?"

"Oh – no, not at all," Toby said. "It was easy, actually."

"That's my boy," Pepper said fondly. "The Avengers returned while you were out, so your father's gone to talk to them in private."

"Oh, alright," Toby said. "I'm just going to head up to my room for a bit; I have some thinking to do."

"OK, dinner will be on the table in half an hour," Pepper said.

In his room, Toby activated his suit and removed the helmet before looking at it. There was a lipstick stain on the mouth, making the suit appear like a woman. Toby chuckled before wiping off the stain. After today, he was going to stay far away from Sarah. If only that would work…


Ooh, that dastardly reporter! I somehow doubt this is the last we'll see of her…

Two updates in one day! My, you are lucky.

Well, in the next chapter I plan to introduce some of the characters that you all have been suggesting. On that topic, it's not too late to introduce some more characters if any of you readers out there have any good ideas. I've got kids for Iron Man, Spider-Man, Lupos, Thor and the Hulk so far, with Captain America planned but not in detail. I have a name for Captain America's son, but no details as yet other than the fact that he inherits half-powered super-soldier serum and the shield, so if any of you clever little readers out there have any ideas I'd be thrilled to hear them.

Until next time, true believers!