Disclaimer: I do not own anything that I have written. Yep, that is right, I own not even one iota of the below work.
Warnings: Cannon violence, sexuality, and blood. Possibly worse language than the actual movie. Will contain homosexual relationships.
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Chapter Six
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"It's much more satisfying this way." Tony stated, his eyes darkening slightly as sadness faded into something more like anger, "Knowing that Rhodes will take that armour back to them, be forced into practical slave work with it because no one else can use it, forced to always make sure that no one else touches the suit out of fear of making me angrier... He will be constantly forced to make sure he does not betray me once again. I couldn't think of a more fitting punishment."
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"What's the schedule for the next few days, J?" Tony spoke while his fingers rushed along a keyboard, coding the new update for the StarkPhones.
"14 more hours until Project Proven Subsection Gauntlets is complete. Mister Wilson will be gone for somewhere around five days, he has told me that how quickly he will get back will depend on 'how good the cock for brains is at hiding.' Then Mister Wilson went on to say, 'tell Stark that he better continue working out as I'm ganking this fuckwad, because when I get back, I want to be able to bounce a quarter off that ass.'"JARVIS informed, playing an actual clip of Wade talking, instead of quoting it back – Bringing the slightest of smiles to Tony's lips at is AI's general thoughtful independence.
"Wade is such a charmer." Tony eventually said sarcastically after a brief pause, but gave a snicker for the first time since he had that falling out with Rhodes.
It had only been 17 hours, but the ache of anger and lose had not loosened its hold at all. You might thing that the infliction of revenge or punishment had an immediate effect, it didn't. Tony had brought a sort of vengeance upon many people in his life so far, and knew well that the feeling lingered. The anger would fade first, only then did you get over the pain. Matters were not helped by the fact Tony had not slept, but this was typical for him. Sometimes he went three or four days without sleeping.
"I should also suggest that you plan out some sort of public relation project – It has also been sometime since we have released a new project."
Tony winced momentarily as a sudden thought of red hair struck his mind, holding back the urge to just drown in his sadness it wrought. Especially after the most resent emotional upheaval, "Didn't Pepper have something in the wings that she wanted to discuss before she left?"
"Project Stark Tower – A home base for Stark Industries that would be run completely with clean energy via an arc-reactor." JARVIS said, pulling up the file on the project and forming a hologram in front of his creator.
Tony skimmed the plans and snorted slightly, "She always did know how to make a splash... This is good. Put it on the fast burner, find a big enough place, and then buy them out. Start the construction of the building, and I will start making a... Diameter of 5 feet should work. Using the old core, it's not going into a human body after all. We also need some sort of new tech... Apple is going to eventually come out with a new phone, but we are still so far ahead of their curve... J, tell me what Google is up to."
If nothing else, turning his thoughts more directly away from anything Pepper planned would help to dull the emotions, her being mentioned had started drag forth. He could feel his throat tightening, and he didn't want to just burst out into tears – He was a Stark, one time was enough. After all, the ceiling could only he leaking once every few months, otherwise it was a serious problem.
"Steady stock, no announcements for awhile... Frequent updates to YouTube, a lot of them causing controversy to the users."
"Hack them; see if they have any secret little products they might be announcing sometimes soon." Tony ordered leaning back in his chair as he finally finished the new update, letting his eyes skim the work for mistakes, before sending it off to IT for testing and debugging. No need to do the boring stuff alone, which is why he hired the debugging crew in the first place. One person alone couldn't handle the work load, and if Howard Stark taught Tony anything, it was an ability to allocate resources accordingly.
Even when it hurt Tony, that Howard's own resources were always used toward finding Steve Rodgers, than paying attention to his own child.
Tony quickly forced that thought out of his head, because he had grown out of that. His father was long dead; he did not pick favourites any longer.
"They seem to have made concept art for a technology called 'Google Glass' I shall display for you now." JARVIS suddenly announced, and the hologram appeared even a second more of wait time.
Tony's eyes scanned the stolen information, and inspired gleam coming to them. Oh, by the time he was done bastardizing and improving on this idea, Google was going to wish they hadn't even come up with the concept. Did Tony care that this way of coming up with ideas wasn't particularly legal... No, because if the other companies could, they would have done the exact same thing to him. That is just the way the business world worked – and Tony Stark was at the top.
"We're doing it, and we're doing it better." Tony announced, pushing the hologram into the 'to-do' stack, so to speak.
"I would never expect anything less, sir." There was a humor in JARVIS voice, "I shall get on on the Tower plans. Do you need anything else?"
"Music."
Immediately, the best of rock started to blare through speakers in the workshop, and Tony could feel himself slipping into a concentrative state. He had essentially conditioned himself to associate Rock music with working in general over the years – At first, it had been accidental, but upon noticing, Tony kept enforcing the effect. It was science at work, after all.
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The music faded out, drawing Tony's attention away from his concentrated state regarding the 'StarkGlass' that he was creating. He had chosen the general design, glass type, a good majority of components, and was now deciding just what sort of possibilities and technology he wanted to put into the glasses. There were many options, but Tony didn't want to get ahead of himself by including some of his technology that he did not want around the world yet. Such as major holographic technology, things like that. He made these choices every time he went about updating something – Of course, his version of the product would be vastly different to the one that he gave to the public. Tony was already planning on ways to put JARVIS in the glasses, ways to enhance his eyesight with zooming, pulling up profiles on people as he passed them, all sorts of things that he could have JARVIS do.
All together, the StarkGlass was going to be a fun little project to occupy the Stark's mind for a good while.
"Sir, the Gauntlet Project has finished synthesizing." JARVIS spoke, the second the music had completely faded, ending Tony's tunnel vision.
"Finally, I do so love being armed and dangerous." Tony grinned, and that grin only widened when Dummy returned, holding what was clearly the new bracelets. They where around half an inch thick all the way around, made of unpainted metal. Better that way, lest people see red and gold and assume it was some sort of weapon simply because of Iron Man. The point with them was to be discreet, this was better suited. One the side of each bracelet, there was a button, which extended the process of unfolding, a program that was made to perfectly track and fit to Tony's hands.
All and all, Tony was a genius, and he did so love when it worked out well. He pressed the button, and the bracelets unfolded, revealing their true form, and the small inch wide arc-reactor on the inside, as well as the repulsors.
"If I might suggest, you could go to the gym and turn the tests there, so that you might get both the work out that Mister Wilson demanded, as well as getting used to the gauntlets." JARVIS suggested, even as Tony stared at his hands with clear self-pride.
His father never would have thought that Tony could make better, deadlier use of the Vibranium then Steve ever could. Tony did so love thinking about the astonished look on his face Howard would have, childish as it was, the inventor felt a thrill run through him.
A trill that Tony could use to farther his pursuits, and for the first time Tony Stark was starting to realize just how aptly named Project Proving was. He would prove to Rhodes, Obie, Howard, and anyone else that thought of him as less, just how wrong they were.