Okay....So, it's been FOREVER since I've last updated, and I'm really sorry about that. You guys probably think I've fallen off the face of the planet or something. I saw Iron Man 2 this past weekend and LOVED it! I would recommend seeing it, for sure. And...if you haven't seen Iron Man 1, I would also recommend seeing that one, since my story is merging into that one. Hope you guys still like my story...Oh, and in my version of the movie, Tony's a bit more...humble. Hahaha


Chapter 8

After all these long years, the "Brotherhood" that Gene had adopted along his search for the last ring had grown to thousands of men within the territory. Their obsession: Power. All they want is what would be considered as the ultimate weapon. And the man that had risen in weapons development was Tony Stark. He was famous across the globe.

Their leader was one of the original men that followed the Mandarin, his name: Arash, meaning hero. They believed he would be the one to lead them into a new age. Arash knew that Tony Stark was their ticket to fame.


"Tony Stark." A voice sounded from the speakers around them.

"Visionary." It said, "Genius. American Patriot." The voice read through those adjectives at a dramatic pace. "Even from an early age, the son of legendary weapons developer Howard Stark, quickly stole the spotlight with his brilliant and unique mind."

It paused for a moment while pictures rolled across the large screen.

"At age four, he built his first circuit board. At age six, his first engine. And at 18, he graduated summa cum laude from the Prestigious Tomorrow Academy." The music shifted to something a little more sad.

"Then, the passing of a titan. Howard Stark's lifelong friend and ally, Obadiah Stane, steps in to help fill the gap left by the legendary founder, until, at age 26, the prodigal son returns and is anointed the new CEO of Stark Industries."

More pictures flashed across the screen.

"With the keys to the kingdom, Tony ushers in a new era for his father's legacy, creating smarter weapons, advanced robotics, satellite targeting."

"Today, Tony Stark has changed the face of the weapons industry by ensuring freedom and protecting America and her interests around the globe." Applause and cheers rang out through the audience as the short movie of pictures ended.

Rhodey climbed the small staircase and moved to the podium, "As liaison to Stark Industries, I've had the unique privilege of serving with a real patriot. He is my friend and he is my great mentor."

He paused for a moment, holding up a trophy-like statue in his hand, "Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to present this year's Apogee Award to Mr. Tony Stark." Rhodey smiled, waiting to see a familiar form rise in the audience to come claim his prize.

"Tony?" Rhodey asked, his heart sinking.

Obadiah shook his head from his seat, then got up and made his way to the front. "Thank you, Colonel." Obadiah said.

Rhodey nodded, "Thanks for the save."

Obadiah chuckled, raising the award. "This is beautiful. Thank you. Thank you all very much!" He called out to the audience.

"Well...I'm not Tony Stark." He said, shrugging his shoulders slightly, the audience laughing.

"But, if I were Tony, I would tell you how honored I felt and what a joy it is to receive this very prestigious award. Tony, you know...the best thing about Tony, is also the worst thing. He's always working."

And that is just what Tony Stark was doing.

Back at his mansion, working on the Iron Man suit. He squinted slightly, trying to get a clear image of what he was working on. Tony could hear heavy high-heel clad footsteps upstairs. Pounding footsteps.

"Uh oh..." Tony mumbled to himself. He could hear those footsteps enter the stairway to the basement garage area, where he was located.

Then came the tapping of fingers on the clear plasma key screen just outside the glass door. The door swished open, and in walked....Pepper Potts.

"Tony." She said sternly, glaring at his back.

Tony was almost afraid to turn around. Almost. "Yes, Pepper?" Tony asked sweetly, turning around.

"Why weren't you there to accept your award today?" She said, her hands on her hips.

"Uh....I was working." He turned and waved his hands at the Iron Man suit, "On this!" He gave a broad smile.

Pepper looked up at the ceiling, breathing deeply. "You know, it wouldn't hurt you to just stop in somewhere for just a half an hour and give a small speech and accept that award."

Tony winced, "Pepper, I'm sorry. I really am, I just got so caught up in this that I-"

"That THING is always the reason, Tony." She said, pointing at the suit. "I wish you would think about something other than that suit. Next time, provide me with a different excuse." She said coldly, and left the room, climbing back up the stairs.

Tony let out a low whistle. "Maybe she's right..." He mused, looking back at the suit.

Later that day Rhodey swung by. "Rhodey, I'm sorry." Was the first thing Tony said as Rhodey walked through the door.

Rhodey put a hand up to signal Tony to stop. "Pepper told me. It's all right Tony, you're just lucky you weren't there when my anger was a level nine. I've simmered down a bit."

Tony looked down at the floor. "Really, I am sorry though."

Rhodey nodded, "I know, Tony. You are every time. But at least I know it's something important, not just you running off with some girl all the time."

Tony smirked, "What if I were running away with Pepper all the time? Would you be so angry?" He couldn't help but laugh.

"Oh dude, Pepper won't fall for you, man. Not anymore. She's too good for you." Rhodey said, punching Tony's shoulder playfully.

"Oooh, ouch. Took that right to the heart, Rhodey." Tony mocked.

They moved from the entryway to the living room. "You ready for Afghanistan in a couple of months?" Rhodey asked, sitting down on the nice white sofa.

"I think so. The missile is ready, so I think it'll go smoothly." Rhodey nodded. "Please don't make me wait. The last time we did this you went off in the suit and didn't come back till four hours after we were supposed to leave for Japan."

Tony laughed, "Ya, sorry about that...I couldn't help it. A lady was in trouble."

Rhodey rolled his eyes, "Someone is ALWAYS in trouble, Tony. Always. You can't protect everybody. Sometimes not even yourself."

Tony nodded, "I know, I know. I won't let you down this time, Rhodey. I won't make you stand there and wait for me like last time."

Rhodey looked intensely at Tony for a moment. "What?" Tony asked, "I won't! I won't fly off somewhere. I promise."

Rhodey leaned back against the sofa, picking up a drink from the table. "You better not, or you'll have me to deal with when you get back."

Tony laughed, "Oh, I'm so scared."


Arash stood, watching his men load some signature "Stark Weaponry" into some vehicles. The Ten Rings had gained a lot of ground, they were in the process of taking Gulmira, a small town to the north of their camp. One of the men they had taken hostage was a scientist, one of the best in their area. Arash stood on the foothills of the mountain range where their previous leader, Gene Khan had taken them to find the Temple.

He looked down at the large basin, at the crater that had been formed when their leader had been killed by the power of the rings. They had never stopped their search for power after Gene had died. Years later, Arash was finally able to come into contact with an insider within Stark Industries. Someone that had access to all the new weapons. So far they were in an agreement that he would provide them with weapons, IF they got rid of someone for him.

Arash didn't know who this "someone" was, but that he would be delivered to them soon. If their contact wanted someone to disappear, he would make sure it would happen, as long as they got their weapons.


The next morning, Pepper opened the door to the Stark mansion, "Hello Miss Potts." Jarvis stated.

"Hello, Jarvis. Is Tony awake yet?" Pepper asked kindly, getting over her anger from yesterday.

"No, ma'am. He is still asleep."

Pepper rolled her eyes and started toward Tony's room, which was on the opposite side of the mansion.

"Miss Potts?" Jarvis asked tentatively, if a computer could have a personality, at least.

"Yes Jarvis?" Pepper stopped walking.

"Mr. Stark is not in his bedroom. He is in the work shop." Jarvis said.

Pepper closed her eyes, this was not the first time he had fallen asleep down there, working on either that THING or the car. She let out a long breath and started for the stairs. "Thank you, Jarvis."

Tony was fast asleep on the couch in the basement. When Pepper first came to work for Tony, she had been thoroughly surprised to see that old sofa, here in this nice, perfect mansion. He had dragged it out of the armory in New York and shipped it here himself. It still had her blood stain on it too. Tony rolled over, almost falling off of the couch.

How on earth was that thing even comfortable anymore? Pepper made her way around the various tables and objects placed, rather haphazardly, around the room until she came to the couch with her boss sleeping on it peacefully.

"Tony..." Pepper whispered in his ear, "Tony..." She almost sang.

"Hmmm?" Tony hummed, not opening his eyes.

"Tony, it's time to get up." She said, folding her arms.

Tony turned his head in the direction of Pepper, "What was that, angel?" Tony asked, a slight smile on his mouth.

Pepper pursed her lips, "Mr. Stark, you have a meeting today."

Tony opened his eyes and frowned at Pepper, "Why do you do that?"

"Do what, Mr. Stark?" Pepper asked, feigning innocence.

"That." Tony said.

"I still don't understand. Mr. Stark." She punctuated the end of her sentence with his name, or rather, his last name.

"Why do you call me Mr. Stark? I've asked you about a billion times to call me Tony. We've been friends forever, Pepper!" Tony hopped off the couch, throwing the blanket to the ground, revealing that he had no shirt on and was only clad in a nice pair of dark-wash jeans.

Pepper turned her head away to keep from blushing, looking down at her blackberry. "Actually we've been friends for almost 19 years, but who's counting?" She turned and picked up a pile of papers on his desk.

"Well, that's practically forever, Pep. And when's your birthday again? Are you turning 35? Well, let's see, my birthday was a couple of months ago...and you're only a couple months younger than me..." Tony calculated.

"Tony, I asked you to fill these out yesterday! You've only done one paper!" She shoved the pile into his arms, ignoring his last question.

"Honestly, I don't know why you're all that surprised, Pepper. I never do what you ask." Tony said. His eyes widened when he saw the glare shooting from Pepper's eyes in his direction.

"Well, I'm glad you actually realize that. Maybe you can do me a favor and fill those out before noon today." Pepper said.

Tony looked around the room, not seeing a clock. "Why don't I have a clock down here?" He asked himself.

Pepper just stood there and stared at him, "I'll get you one today. Then maybe you'll be able to pay attention to deadlines."

Tony smiled, "You're the best, Pepper."

"I know." She stated, turning on her heel and going back upstairs.

Tony shook his head, it never ceased to amaze him at how she had put up with him for these past five years. He had definitely given her a fair warning though.

Pepper had about a thousand things to do. Her list was never-ending. Deep down, even after so many years of trying to be professional, she still was falling head over heels for Tony. She honestly couldn't help it. At all. The man was incredibly handsome and ridiculously smart, she could go on for hours about Tony.

And he flirted with her constantly. Did he really take her seriously? She felt like, if she gave in, he'd only leave her for another woman that was playing hard to get. She didn't want that, so might as well leave it alone, right? She told herself this over and over again.

Pepper made her way up the stairs, grabbing her keys from the entryway table and opening the door. "Oh!" She yelled, startled.

"Hello Miss Potts." Hogan said politely.

"Oh, hi Happy. Sorry. I didn't expect to see you there." She smiled warmly.

"Are you going somewhere? I brought the limo around, I could take you where ever you need to go." He said.

"Oh no, it's fine. I need to run some errands, what I need you to do, is make sure that Tony gets to that meeting today at 12:30. It's almost 11:00 right now. Can you do that for me?" Her eyes got big and pleading.

Happy smiled and laughed, "Of course. I'll make sure he gets there. Drive safe." He added before closing the door behind her.

Although Happy was a complete jock in high school, he had turned out to be a real decent guy. When his career in basketball went downhill, Tony gave him a job as his personal driver. And he paid him very well, too. Happy was, well...happy, with how things were going.

Pepper made her way over to her car, opening the door and getting in. She felt fatigued, that was for sure. She had stayed up until three in the morning checking e-mails, forwarding them, deleting them, writing them. It was never-ending, just like her to-do list. "I'm going to get something done for good one of these days."' She said to herself, pulling out of the driveway.

About an hour later Tony still sat down stairs reading papers and signing his name at the bottom of them. "Oh man, I feel like this will take forever!" He moaned.

Happy strode into the room, "Sir, we need to leave. Your meeting starts in a half an hour." Tony nodded, for once, he was all right with leaving the mansion and going to a meeting, as long as it got him away from paper work.

Tony ran upstairs and put on a suit and tie, ran out the front door to the awaiting limo, and rode to Stark Industries. No doubt Obadiah would be there to haggle him on why he wasn't there the day before to accept the award.


Pepper stood in a Target store, wandering around the aisles, looking for some kind of bright, big digital clock to put on Tony's wall in the basement. Or at least, somewhere he could notice it easily. She weaved up and down the aisles, finally coming across someone in a red Target jacket.

"Oh thank heavens. Excuse me?" She asked politely.

He turned, "Yes, ma'am?"

"Can you show me where I can find a huge digital clock that I can put on a wall?" She said.

The man seemed a little surprised for a moment. "Uh...I'm not sure if we have any, but I'll take you to the clock aisle."

Pepper followed him down a few different aisles and finally came upon a pretty good sized clock. She took it to the check-out lane and bought it, heading back out to her car.

She drove down road after road, just going through the motions of getting back to the mansion. She didn't have time to react to the SUV turning left, crossing right through her lane of traffic. She didn't even have time to honk the horn.


Tony sat in his meeting, Obadiah was to his left, talking about missiles and some other stuff that Tony didn't want to listen to at the moment. He glanced down at his phone, seeing that he had one text message.

It was from Happy, he opened the text quickly.

"EMERGENCY," it read, "Pepper. Car accident. Hospital."

Tony's mouth dropped open. How long ago had Happy sent him the message? He checked the time. One minute. He let out a quick breath of relief.

He stood up abruptly from his chair.

"Sir?" Someone was asking him.

"Huh?" He asked, obviously showing that he hadn't been paying attention.

"What do you think about expanding to Europe? And where are you going?" One of the directors asked.

Tony's mouth still hung open, he looked to Obadiah for just a moment, "Well...I think it would be in good interest for the company, but I have to go!" He started to make his way toward the door, his heart pounding.

"Now wait just a minute, Tony. Why are you leaving?" Obadiah asked, he didn't want Tony to bail out on a meeting. Again.

Tony looked at him apologetically, "It's Pepper. She's in the hospital." He opened the door and rushed out, not waiting for Obadiah's response.


Ta da!! I hope you like this chapter. And the next, and the next...and the next. I really have no idea how many chapters there will be. But I hope you're enjoying it! I'm adding and subtracting things from the Iron Man movie story line, so hopefully it works out. I guess we'll just have to wait and see! Reviews would be awesome! No flames, please...