Son of Iron Man

Ah, true believers, I didn't see you there! OK, that was a lie, you've been outside my castle of doom for the last few weeks with pitchforks and torches. It's not my fault this chapter is so late! First off, it's a long chapter, so that excuses weeks one, two and maybe three. Then, exams reared their ugly heads and I had to put this on hold. But now, finally, I've put the finishing touches on this chapter. It is now fit for human consumption! But don't actually try to consume it. That doesn't sound healthy.

I might try releasing new chapters every other week, now. It takes a bit of the pressure off. Enjoy this super-chapter in the meantime. I know you've waited long enough!


Chapter Twenty-Three: Fury

Long before Toby Stark was born, the original Avengers had a strong partnership with S.H.I.E.L.D., a secret agency directed by one Nicholas J. Fury. The agency's wide reach meant they were always on top of criminals, and could help the Avengers locate and put an end to any threat worldwide. For years, the partnership between S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers kept the planet safe, stopping every threat from a plot to take over the criminal underworld to a full scale invasion led by Thor's brother Loki.

But all good things must come to an end.

It started when Hydra, an enemy agency, managed to infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D., using their information and influence to perpetrate all kinds of crimes, with no one the wiser. By the time Steve Rogers, the Captain America of that time, uncovered the moles, Hydra made up over two-thirds of the agency. Their position revealed, Hydra made their move, crippling S.H.I.E.L.D. and seemingly killing Director Fury. Together with the Avengers, S.H.I.E.L.D. struck back and took down Hydra, but with Fury gone and two-thirds of its agents corrupted, the agency had to shut down.

It took years for the Avengers to restore order in their absence. During that time, Nick Fury, presumed dead, was hiding out in France, where he met the woman who would become his wife, Amie. Even the few people who knew Fury to be alive – including Steve Rogers, Tony Stark and Agent Phil Coulson – never knew why he didn't come out of hiding.

The truth, a rather lacklustre end to his career though it was, was that Amie Fury had given birth to a son: Nathan. Only the Furies themselves knew of the young boy's existence – which made it even more surprising when, at the tender age of four, he was kidnapped by a strange organisation with no name. Nick couldn't be sure if the organisation even knew who the boy was – but he sure as hell knew he was getting his son back. Without S.H.I.E.L.D. to back him up, he set out alone to rescue Nathan. Still an expert agent, he infiltrated the organisation's base and found his son in the middle of a laboratory. But he was... different. His hair was bleached white, his eyes an unnatural pure black. Nick rushed Nathan home, took him to all the doctors he could find, but none of them said there was anything wrong with him.

"What the hell are you talking about?" he snapped eventually. "My son has pupils which take up his entire eyes, and you're telling me that's natural?"

"I'm not saying it's natural, Mr. Fury. And his pupils are the same size as always, the pigments in his eyes have simply-"

"I don't give a damn about his pigments!" he interrupted the unlucky doctor. "Can't you tell me why he's like this?"

"I'm sorry, sir, but for all intents and purposes, your son is in perfect health. Other than the obvious, he's a completely normal four-year old."

But there was nothing normal about Nathan Fury. For the next few weeks, Amie had been complaining that the boy wouldn't go to sleep, and when asked he replied that he wasn't tired. Even Nick noticed that his son was behaving oddly. Since the incident, he thought he had noticed their rough-and-tumble play become a little more rough-and-tumble. Whatever had happened to him at the hands of the organisation, it wasn't something a doctor could fix, or even diagnose. Growing desperate, Nick took Nathan back to New York – a huge risk given that he was supposed to be dead – and searched out Professor Xavier, one of the few people who knew of his continued existence.

Sat in Xavier's office with a locked door and closed windows, Nick looked across the desk at the mutant. Nathan was sat beside him, on the floor, with a toy as a distraction.

"How can I help you, Nicholas?" Xavier asked.

"I think you already know." Xavier furrowed his brow a little in concentration.

"Three months ago, your son was kidnapped by an organisation with no name. Since then, he's shown extraordinary strength, improved mental functions and-" he chuckled – "an astounding resistance to bedtime."

"You can see inside his head. Can you tell me what's going on with him?" Nick pressed.

"That's what I'm trying to do, but he's providing a strange amount of resistance."

"You mean they've made him a telepath?"

"...No, I think not. The mind of a telepath would be impossible to see into, even at this age. He's putting up resistance, but I don't think – ah, there we go!" The look on Xavier's face became one of deep concentration, followed by what Nick read to be shock. "How curious..."

"What?"

"Nicholas, your son has the X-gene," Xavier revealed. "Whatever that organisation did... your son is a mutant."


For the next six years, Nick trained Nathan back home in France. There, the boy learned discipline, martial arts, firearms and stealth tactics – but those were human things. At the age of ten, Nathan could easily best his father in hand to hand combat. He had become too advanced. Fortunately, Nick recognised this. As he lay on his back for the umpteenth time, he knew it was time to pass his son along to someone with more experience in training superhumans. And so it was that the two returned to the Xavier Institute in New York City, where Nick once more found himself sat across from the man himself.

"What brings you back?" Xavier asked.

"It's Nathan again," Nick replied.

"Bringing you trouble, is he?"

"I'm right here, you know," Nathan interrupted. "You don't have any toys to distract me with, this time."

"You... remember that day?" Charles seemed surprised.

"He remembers everything," Nick answered for his son.

"Incredible. And this bothers you?"

"No. But he's outgrown me as a trainer. I was hoping..."

"That one of my teachers could take over his training? Refine his superhuman abilities, not just his human ones?" Xavier finished.

"Yes."

"I think I know just the man. Though I warn you, his methods can be rather... intense."

"I'm disciplined. I can take anything you throw at me," Nathan asserted.

"You may just regret saying that," Xavier said with a chuckle.

"Intense is good," Nick told him. "I won't settle for any less."

"Well then," Xavier smiled, "you'll be very pleased."


"Nice shot, bub." The short, hairy man stood up, the bullet hole between his eyes disappearing already.

"Thanks, Logan," Nathan said, the pistol in his right hand still smoking from the shot. Half a year had passed since Nathan had been assigned the Wolverine as a mentor, and in that time he had already shown great promise.

"Listen, kid," Logan began, "there's a lot I can teach you, but you have to prove you're ready for it."

"What do you mean?" Nathan asked. Wolverine sighed, apparently struggling to find the words to speak.

"Just meet me on the Blackbird in half an hour," he said. "Pack your equipment. Make sure you bring a lot of ammo."

"Why, where are we going?"

"No questions. Go."

Several hours later, the Blackbird's door slid open and the subsequent wind whipped through the spiky white hair of Nathan Fury.

"Are you crazy?" he shouted over the wind.

"Savage Land's the only place on Earth that I figure can challenge you right now," Wolverine replied flatly.

"I'm ten years old!"

"And you can shoot a man through the head without remorse."

"Touché." Nathan looked down at the jungle below. "I can't survive that jump."

"Better learn to fly, then."

"Wha-?" but Nathan was interrupted as he suddenly found himself falling through the air. Thinking quick, he scanned the surroundings for a pond or a river – something soft to land on. But there was nothing. He knew he was stronger than the average man, but could his bones survive that impact? Only one way to find out. He spread his arms and legs, maximising his body's surface area and slowing his fall. By the time he reached the ground, Nathan was travelling at a speed that would have killed any ordinary ten-year old.

But Nathan Fury was nothing of the sort. Shortly before he hit the ground, he folded his limbs into a roll and turned in the air, extending his legs as they faced downward. When his feet hit the ground, he bent his knees to reduce the shock. The impact was like nothing he had ever felt before. Pain ripped through his body, and he felt like his legs were broken. Yet, after a few moments of stillness, he realised his body was completely undamaged. Sore and aching, but unbroken. With a grunt, he stood and looked at the jungle ahead of him.

"I'm impressed, kid," came the amplified voice of Logan from the Blackbird above. "I honestly didn't think you'd survive that fall. Welcome to your home for the next two months."

"Two months?"

"Yeah. Survive that long, and maybe I'll consider training you," Logan said. "See ya later, kid." With a roar of the engines, the Blackbird jetted off for civilisation, leaving Nathan alone in the Savage Lands with only his pistols and his wits.

"How hard can this be?"


"Argh, bastard!" Nathan growled. Blood poured from his chest from three fine lines as he stared into the hate-filled reptilian eyes of the raptor ahead of him. "That was the last mistake you'll ever make, scales." He pounced on the dinosaur, wrestling it to the ground and avoiding sharp teeth and claws. With several punches to the head, he knocked it out. His foe vanquished, he drew the pistol at his right hip and pressed it against the dinosaur's head. With his finger hovering over the trigger, he leant in close, staring. It wasn't the first dinosaur he'd seen since his arrival, but it was the first he had brought down. For a moment, he thought about the possibility of trying to tame it; but the rumble in his stomach put an end to such charitable thoughts. During his time on the island, he had eaten only berries and other fruits. Raptor meat would surely be a welcome change. Closing his eyes, he pulled the trigger.

That night, Nathan sat beside the roaring fire he had lit to keep watch by. Raptor steaks sizzled on the wooden grill tower he had made from branches and vines while he admired the sharp raptor claws he had plucked from his kill. Capable of breaking the skin of a dinosaur, they would make effective weapons in the absence of knives. He wore the skin of the beast as a trophy, but it alone was not very effective at warming him. To survive the cold nights, he would need to kill again – a lone survivor couldn't keep a fire going and rest.

He took a sliver of raptor meat from the fire. It was a peculiar taste, and the meat was chewy at first, but he soon got used to it. He had to, or he would never survive. As Nathan Fury sat by a fire of his own creation, eating meat he had gathered himself, he observed his home for the next two months. His thoughts turned from food to rest, and he realised the best place to sleep would be in a tree. He only hoped he wouldn't fall out.

His ears suddenly caught a sound that they shouldn't be able to hear. Footsteps. The splash of a distant puddle. Claws against exposed roots. Nathan quickly withdrew his pistols and stood up. He stoked the fire, making it burn brighter in the hopes of illuminating his surroundings and potentially scaring off the intruders to his camp.

"Come and get some!" he screamed at the top of his voice. Logan had told him that wild animals were scared off by loud noises, if they were sufficient enough to make him sound a big threat. He sniffed the air, and caught a whiff of the rotten meat that heralded a carnivore. He could now hear the creatures more clearly, and there were definitely many of them. Noises and fire would be useless. Using the telepathic link Beast had managed to establish between his mind and his pistols, he caused the chambers to rotate to the freeze bullets he had brought. After several tense moments, the first dinosaur burst through the trees, followed by three friends. It was a pack of raptors. With superhuman reflexes, he fired off four shots, each one hitting one of the dinosaurs' feet and freezing them in place. The raptors struggled, snarling and biting the air. Nathan figured they were Utahraptors based on their size. He took the claw he had harvested from his first kill and systematically slit the throats of each raptor, using his enhanced strength to hold their heads away from him with one hand. The last raptor kicked with its free leg, but Nathan jumped back and it fell over, unbalanced, breaking it's frozen leg.

"Shame," Nathan said, positioning the claw at its throat. "Guess I'll have to have you put down."


One month had passed since Nathan was dropped off in the Savage Lands. He was now outfitted entirely in raptor skin, and had upgraded to a T-Rex tooth, which was practically a short sword. He still had the raptor claw as a knife. He was now down to ten regular bullets, five explosive bullets, two freeze bullets and three smoke bullets. Supplies were running low, and he had to be smart. It didn't take him long to learn the best place to sleep without having to shoot something in the night – the middle of a tree, high enough to avoid ground predators and low enough to avoid pterosaurs – and discover his favourite dinosaur meat, which wasn't something he had expected to learn. His attempts to tame raptors had unfortunately been unsuccessful... so far.

But he was surviving.

Flash forward and Nathan now had only three days left before pickup. By this point his survival should have been guaranteed, but he had run out of bullets: the three days ahead of him looked more daunting than the months before. At that moment, Nathan was wandering through the jungle in search of firewood. The trees were far apart and the clouds were threatening rain, so he wanted to replenish his wood pile and get what he could find under shelter. So far he had been undisturbed by the local fauna, but he couldn't be certain things would remain that way.

Nathan, his arms filled with dry wood, started to make his way back to the camp. But as he neared it, he heard the distinctive low growl of an approaching predator. With a monumental clatter, the wood dropped from his arms and he bolted toward a tree. Taking a huge leap, he latched onto the trunk and shimmied up, reaching out to the first branch and pulling himself up. He held his breath, hoping the carnivore would pass. As it grew closer, the leaves began to shake and Nathan could feel the vibrations through the branch he was perched on. Whatever was heading his way, it was big. After a tense few moments, a huge, scaly head passed below him, followed by several metres of scaled dinosaur hide. As the tail flicked past him, Nathan let out a quiet sigh.

The tyrannosaurus paused, its great head raising up as it sniffed the air. Nathan caught his breath. The dinosaur turned to him, the ground shaking as it moved, and looked directly at him. He remained still, hoping the beast would turn away. A single hand moved slowly to the raptor claw at his side. He gripped it tightly, ready to strike if he had to. The moment seemed to last forever as Nathan stared into the eyes of the beast before him. He saw an ancient, primal hunger in those eyes.

After what felt like hours, the monster let loose a powerful roar. Nathan's ears started ringing and he almost fell out of the tree. Only the claw he had sunk into the tree trunk kept him safe. But the movement was enough; the tyrannosaurus knew he was there. He grabbed the claw and leapt out of the tree, landing on the beast's back. As it struggled to throw him off, he steadied his position and moved toward the head. Just as he raised his claw up, the dinosaur bucked it's head and threw him off guard. He managed to catch hold of the side of its head and pull himself up, but he had lost not only the claw that he held, but the Rex tooth which had been hanging at his side.

"Damn!" he hissed. He pushed toward the creature's mouth. Carefully, he grabbed one of the razor sharp teeth and tore it from its mouth, eliciting a pained growl. Blood still dripping from the tooth, Nathan stabbed the creature directly in the eye, blinding it and causing it to redouble its efforts to throw him off. In the chaos, he managed to stab the other eye.

Just as Nathan prepared to send the tooth into its head, he heard another kind of roar – one he hadn't heard for a long time – that of an engine. Nathan leapt off the tyrannosaurs just in time for a storm of bullets to fly into the hide of the creature. With one last, pained roar, it collapsed to the ground.

"Looks like you were doing well, kid," came a gruff voice, amplified by technology.

"I could have finished it myself," Nathan shouted back. In the sky above, the Blackbird came into view, its bomb bay doors open and a familiar, hairy figure looking down at him. A rope ladder descended into the trees and Nathan took to it, climbing into the jet. As he reached the top, Wolverine helped him up.

"Gotta admit, kid," he said, his voice gravelly as always, "I didn't think I'd be seeing you again."

"You're early," Nathan said stoically.

"We've got a problem back at the mansion," Logan explained. "We need all the help we can get."

"Let's get going, then. You got any bullets on this crate?"

"Over there," Logan pointed at a stack of ammo boxes at the back of the jet.

"This is never going to end, is it?" Nathan said as he walked toward the bullets and drew his pistols.

"Heh, welcome to the X-Men."


Well, that was a long one! I realise as I write this that the ending of this one is a cliff-hanger, but the next one, I think, will return to the main story. Indeed, we may never find out what this problem at the mansion is in this story. Maybe I'll write a spin-off one-shot at some point, though I already have so many spin-offs lined up it's just inhuman to expect myself to write them all.

I have a number of characters coming in the next few chapters, but Nathan here was one I found rather interesting. Suggested by JMac99, his backstory was so interesting I just had to flesh it out. Plus, we get to see what the X-Men are like in this universe: more on that in the near future. Not to worry, Nathan will be a little more grown-up soon. At the moment he reminds me of Damian Wayne, the current Robin, and that's not necessarily a good thing. Wait, did I reveal the slightest interest in a DC property? What a traitor I am! You know what, I might run with this. In fact, I might go full comic Cap on this one.

HAIL HYDRA!

Didn't see that one coming, did you, true believers?