Son of Iron Man

At this point, I think it's only fair to warn you guys that Toby has no guarantee of surviving. One of my biggest issues when I read a story like this is that I know plot-armour protects the main character. And in book form, you can feel that there's at least the rest of the book to go. Not on the internet. Here, I'm telling you now that if I leave a chapter in a perilous position for Toby, there's no guarantee that he gets out of it. There, that should make reading this more interesting.

And on a lighter note, let's see what happens in this chapter…


Chapter Seven: Under the Hammer

The next day, Toby arrived home from school to be greeted by Mothi and Magni.

"Hey!" he called.

"Hello, Friend Stark!" said the brothers. He waved at them before heading to his bedroom. He didn't have any training today, so he decided to see what Ben and Adrian were doing. However, when he took out his phone and sat on the bed, he saw that he had a text message. From Sarah.

'Hey, could I speak to you?' it read. He sighed and tapped 'reply'.

'What is it this time?' he typed and sent. He began to wonder how much longer he could ignore her. After a minute or two, the phone buzzed again.

'Are you alone? If so, call me,' the message said. Toby opened his bedroom door, checked there was no one out there and closed it again before calling her.

"What do you want?" he asked as soon as she picked up.

"Well, hello to you, too," Sarah said, affronted.

"Just get to the point."

"Fine," Sarah said, and Toby heard a sigh over the line. "I wanted to meet up with you."

"To interview me, you mean?"

"Yes," Sarah said, and Toby was somewhat impressed by her honesty. Nevertheless, he still responded with:

"Goodbye!"

"Wait!" Sarah exclaimed. Toby sighed and put the phone back to his ear.

"I'm listening," he said.

"I really need this. If I don't get an article about you before Saturday, Jameson says he'll fire me," Sarah begged.

"Good, then there will be one less reporter to worry about," Toby quipped.

"This isn't funny! I could lose my job!"

"You're at high school," Toby reminded her. "You've got plenty of careers ahead of you."

"But I love this one! Please, I just want to do a straight-up interview. And I'll be kind. Most reporters at the Bugle – the ones that would replace me – will try to turn you into some kind of menace. I'll describe you as who you are: a hero," Sarah reasoned. Toby considered it. He had seen what the Bugle did to Spider-Man, both as Peter and Ben. And if Sarah turned out to be like them anyway, well, he wasn't losing anything for trying.

"Fine," he said. "One piece. Where should we meet?"

"Great!" Sarah exclaimed, the relief clear in her voice. "Meet me at that coffee place round the corner from your place."

"I'll be there, Toby said finally before ending the call. He immediately went downstairs and threw on a jacket.

"Where are you going?" asked Magni as he searched the fridge.

"Out. If you see my dad, tell him I've gone to Ben's," Toby told him. It was probably best that Tony didn't know for the time being.


Toby sat across the little table from Sarah, sipping gently on a cup of coffee as she ran through her notes.

"OK, I'm just going to ask you a few questions," she said.

"Fire away," Toby said.

"How long have you been Iron Man?" Sarah asked.

"Since the day I saved you," Toby answered. Sarah immediately started scribbling some new notes.

"OK, thanks. Do you know any other superheroes?"

"None," Toby said.

"You were with Spider-Man the day you saved me," Sarah reminded him.

"Good memory," Toby said. "Yes, I know Spider-Man." He decided it was best not to reveal his identity.

"And you live in the sometimes-base of the Avengers?"

"Oh yeah, I know the Avengers, too."

"Interesting," Sarah said, scribbling notes furiously. "There are rumours that you're the first of a new generation of heroes. Can you confirm this?" Toby thought instantly of Ben.

"No, I have no idea," he replied. The interview continued throughout the afternoon, until Toby looked out of a window and noticed it was getting dark. "Have you got all you need? It's getting dark."

"Yes, this'll do me for now. Thanks for your time," Sarah said, standing up and putting her notes away in a bag. "Until next time?" she asked hopefully.

"Don't push it," Toby said half-jokingly. Together, they exited the building and Toby started to head toward Stark Tower. When he turned, he saw that Sarah was following him, despite that fact that her house was the other way.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"I just wanted to apologise for that first article," Sarah said solemnly.

"You're not going to try to kiss me again, are you?" Toby asked jokingly, his hand going to the watch.

"No," Sarah giggled. "But seriously, I'm sorry the article offended you. If I'd known that it would do that-"

"It didn't offend me," Toby assured her, "I was just trying to keep my identity secret when you told the whole world."

"But you showed me your identity," Sarah said.

"I trusted you." Sarah suddenly turned away from Toby and he heard faint sobbing.

"Hey," he said softly. "Calm down."

"I'm sorry, Toby!" she burst out, and she turned to him with tears in her eyes. Toby was shocked by the sudden outburst of emotion. "I didn't mean to betray your trust like that!"

"It's… it's OK…" Toby said in what he hoped was a soothing voice. Sarah didn't reply, but she started sobbing on his shoulder. He patted her back while looking wide-eyed around the street for help from any corner.

It came from an unexpected source.

Toby heard the familiar sound of thrusters before cold metal grabbed his shoulder and he felt himself flying upward. Sarah looked up, still sniffling, as Toby was carried away.

He looked up and saw what looked like an Iron Man suit, and wondered if it was his father. But it couldn't be – where the gold on his faceplate would be was a red face with red, glowing eyes. The rest of the suit was black.

"Who are you?" Toby demanded.

"You wouldn't know me if I told you," replied a cold, calculating voice. "But your dad knows mine." His threatening tone put Toby on edge. Something told him this guy wasn't friendly.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"Dustin Hammer," replied his attacker. "But you can call me the Black Knight."

"Dustin Hammer…" Toby replied. "As in the son of Justin Hammer of Hammer Industries?"

"The very same."

"Look, I know our dads are rivals, but…"

"Rivals? Ha! You don't know how deep the rift between our families goes," Dustin laughed coldly.

"Oh, I see how it is," Toby said, his hand creeping toward his watch. "There's one thing you need to know about us Starks…"

"And that is?" Dustin enquired.

"No one rips off our armour." With that, Toby pressed the button on his watch and his suit unfolded around him. He then boosted his thrusters to 100% and blasted Dustin upward, catching him by surprise. He took hold of the other boy and performed a vertical u-turn in the air, rocketing toward the ground. "Nice try, Dustin," he said as he let go and slowed himself down, letting Dustin fall at supersonic speed and crash into the ground. A crater appeared where Dustin made contact, and the few New Yorkers who were on their way home in the area scattered, screaming. Toby landed beside him and pointed both repulsors toward his attacker, as well as both his rocket pods. He could hear the Black Knight suit recalibrating as Dustin recovered from the impact.

"Why are you here?" he demanded. Dustin was silent. Toby repeated the question, wondering if Dustin had hit the ground too hard and how good the rip-off suit's life support system was. Still Dustin was silent. As Toby began to panic, however, the suit's thrusters activated and Dustin shot forward, tripping Toby up. He fell to the ground as Dustin looped upward and hit him with a repulsor blast. Just as Toby tried to get up, he was hit by another blast which knocked him down.

"Energy levels are dropping, sir," JARVIS said.

"I can see that, JARVIS!" Toby snapped. He tried to push himself up again, but got knocked down. "Argh!" he growled in annoyance.

"Can't take it, Stark?" Dustin jeered. Toby suddenly wrapped his arm around his chest and loosed a blind shot in the direction of his voice. A scream told him he'd hit his target, and he took the opportunity to get up. He fired off a round of missiles, most of which missed but a handful of which hit their target, knocking him out of the sky.

Toby leapt into the air and flew toward Dustin with his fists out, landing a double punch. He blasted Dustin with repulsors repeatedly.

"Sir, power is running low," JARVIS informed Toby.

"Better put an end to this, then," he said, but in the split second during which he was distracted Dustin hit him in the head with a red repulsor. He flipped backward as Dustin escaped, but it appeared that he too was suffering.

"This isn't over, Stark!" he promised before beating a hasty retreat. Toby considered chasing him, but knew the suit's power levels wouldn't stand it. Reluctantly, he removed the suit and looked around. Further down the street he saw Sarah, who had recorded the whole fight on her phone.

"Oh, great," he mumbled to himself as Sarah saved the video and put her phone away before running up to him.

"You don't mind if I post that on the website, do you?" she asked, a pleading tone to her voice.

"Just go ahead," Toby replied uncaringly. He was more concerned about why Dustin Hammer had just attacked him in the middle of the street. "Look, I've got to go. See you tomorrow." Sarah waved as Toby ran to the Tower.


"Dustin Hammer?" Tony asked disbelievingly after his son had told him about the attack.

"The son of Justin Hammer, your rival," Toby said, nodding.

"I know who he is," Tony said. "What I want to know is where he got that armour from."

"Me, too," Toby agreed.

"Years ago, before you were born, Justin Hammer tried to copy the Iron Man suit – that's how the War Machine armour was created," Tony revealed.

"You mean the one Rhodey wears?" Toby asked.

"The very same. Anyway, Rhodey and I beat him, Whiplash and all his drones and sent them both off to jail. When Hammer got out he seemed to have turned a new page, but it seems from what you've said that he didn't stop working on ripping off my armour."

"And now he's succeeded?"

"Looks like it. You need to be careful out there, Toby – these guys aren't messing around. Stick by Ben when you go outside, and make sure your suit is always charged up," Tony warned his son.

"Oh, I almost ran out of power today," Toby said.

"Then we'll put in a new power chip right now," Tony said, moving toward the elevator. This was the day he had been dreading, but also the one he had planned for…

Tomorrow, he would tell his son to do something that could save his life. Until then, he would keep a sharp eye upon him. This had been a real eye-opener for Toby, too: the dangers out there were very real, and he had only just survived an encounter with a kid. What would happen if a full-fledged villain attacked… well, that remained to be seen.


"Finally!" I hear you cry in jubilation, "a life-or-death piece of action!"

But don't let yourselves get carried away by your appreciation for this attempt on Toby's life. Next time, it might not be so easy…

And what about Sarah? Is she as bad as she first seemed? I'm not just asking myself these questions, guys, you're allowed to give your thoughts and opinions if you want. Are you buying Sarah's sob story, or do you suspect she's still hiding something? I haven't even written what comes next, so you know just as well as I do.

Well, join us next time to find out what Tony is about to suggest to Toby that is so important I had to put it off until the next chapter.

Until next time, true believers!

P.S. Three chapters in one day! It s a new personal record!