Chapter 4 –Test Drive, March 2009
"Pardon me?" Pepper asked Tony, shocked.
Tony nodded, and looked at Pepper, he had no hint of a smirk on his lips and the usually playful spark in his eye was gone too. He meant business.
"Stark Industries will no longer make weapons." Tony repeated. "Do you have any idea what happened to me out there Pep?" Tony asked, pointing towards the wall. "I was captured, tortured and held to ransom with my own goddamn weapons," Tony said defensively.
"I know…" Pepper whispered.
With these words Tony's expression softened and he pulled her into a tight hug, and then smiled when she buried her face into his chest, carefully avoiding his miniature ARC Reactor.
Eventually they broke apart, and Tony sat in the chair by the desk.
"I want something better for this company. I don't want the Stark Legacy to be a death count." He paused, "I just think it might be too late."
Pepper came over and knelt in front of him with a soft sigh, taking his hands with hers.
"It's never too late to change. You can be whatever you want to be, and you can make this company into whatever you want it to be." She said softly.
"Thanks Pep," Tony said, he smiled.
"What did you have in mind for the company, anyway?" she asked, "Baby bottles?"
"Y'know…that's not half bad," Tony joked and Pepper slapped his arm and stood back up while Tony chuckled. "I'm not sure…Communications? Computing? Software?"
"For the military?" came Fury's voice from across the room.
Tony looked over and scowled, "For the public." He said.
"In case you'd forgotten, Stark, we're your employers, you have a contract to fulfil."
"Yes, until I decide that your money isn't worth my services," Tony said.
Fury was about to retort when Pepper cleared her throat. Instead Fury gave a dry chuckle and leant on the table.
"Let's get on with this?" he asked.
Tony bowed his head and looked past Fury, "Ready Rhodey?" he called, his voice echoing slightly down the huge room.
"Ready." Rhodey replied as he stepped onto a large podium.
Tony turned to the computer bank, several screens built up to one large CPU, and activated the construction sequence.
Plates in the floor of the podium opened outwards and slid up, and Rhodey slid his feet into the large feet which came up through the podium, and metallic arms came up slowly with the shin and calf armour for his legs, followed by the knees, thighs, crotch plates and belt. Rhodey had likened this to be swallowed by metal from the ground up. He took a deep breath as two arms came down from above, one in front and one behind, to secure the torso and back harnesses, and a small arm popped out of the arm in front of him to secure the ARC Reactor to the power plate. He felt the suit almost jump to attention, and looked to either side as more arms came down, this time with the gloves. He slid his hands into them and shuddered with partial fear as tubular objects extended down his arms, fitting various other pieces of the armour to his arms. The two arms came down in front and behind him again and fitted the armour plates to the harnesses and the ARC reactor sped up its cycles and began to glow an ominous red.
The last pieces came down around his head and his eyes closed as the face plate was secured, and slid down with a loud metallic thud.
On the computer screens, Rhodey's vital signs appeared, bleeping regularly. On another, the suit appeared, listing various read-outs which would highlight parts of the suit that became faulty or damaged.
Pepper came up beside Tony and leant on the desk as Tony's hands flew across various keyboards and touch-screens, "How many times have you tested the suit?"
"A few…" Tony mumbled back quietly.
Rhodey took a few deep breaths as he got used to the feeling of the suit around him, and then heard Tony's voice.
"On your word, Colonel,"
"Right…start the virtual walk-around," Rhodey said, and watched the world in front of his eyes take on a hollow-grid-like view, red in colour. "Okay, take me up and out." he ordered and the platform he was on began to rise steadily, and the roof opened. Rhodey blinked slightly against the glare, and the brightness went down on his screen to compensate, slowly bringing itself up to a more natural brightness setting.
"I'm installing Y.A.R.V.I.S. Now," Tony's voice said in his ears.
"Y.A.R.V.I.S?" Rhodey asked.
"Yet Another Rather Very Intelligent System." Tony said, and Rhodey could almost hear his smirk.
There was a notification beep and an exclamation point appeared, flashing briefly.
"Greetings, Master Rhodes," said a female voice.
"Very nice, Tony," Rhodey praised, "I'm surprised you haven't used this yet," he added, while Tony just shook his head.
On the main deck of the Hellicarrier Rhodey looked around, the scanners studying pieces of the fighter jets parked around him, as well as communications masts on the main towers, and zoomed in on a group of people gather on an observation deck.
"Quite a crowd you've gathered," Tony said, and Rhodey wasn't sure if his friend was addressing him, or Fury, "Hey! Is that Doctor Banner? I owe that guy a drink..."
"Shut up, Tony," Rhodey said, and back in the control room, Tony frowned indignantly, but Fury laughed.
Rhodey looked up and around again, "Y.A.R.V.I.S.? Test control surfaces." he ordered and plates of armour moved, clicked into a fully open position, hissed, and moved back. The minigun on his shoulder whirred, moved up from its standby position, as did the missile launcher on his left shoulder. On his wrists, twin rapid-reload shotgun gauntlets cocked and uncocked. He twisted his neck and smirked slightly.
"What d'ya say, Colonel?" Tony's voice said.
"Okay...let's take a walk," Rhodey replied and started to move around freely. He felt kind of wobbly in the suit, but after a few minutes, he was used to the movement, and was even jogging, which was as fast as the suit would allow him to move. "Tony? Can you engage thrusters?" he asked.
"Engaging thrusters," Y.A.R.V.I.S' voice said.
"Alright," Rhodey muttered, and took off, hovering a few feet above the deck.
There was a spatter of applause from the gathered crowd on the observation deck, and down in the chamber with Tony and Pepper, Fury grabbed a microphone.
"You lot better get back to work in the next 10 seconds, or you'll be taking a long walk off the end of the Hellicarrier!" he yelled, and the scientists and S.H.I.E.L.D. officers gathered on the deck quickly dispersed back to their stations.
In the communications tower a radar started bleeping,
"Uh...sir?" Agent Ramsey, sat at the communications desk said into the ear piece hooked around his ear, "General Fury?" he asked again, more urgently as more blips appeared on the radar.
"What is it?" Fury's voice said.
"There are several unidentified objects on the radar, closing fast from the east," Ramsey said, "I count...eight, nine...ten, more," he said in disbelief.
In the chamber below decks, Tony and Fury shared a look.
"What's going on, guys?" Rhodey asked as he dropped back down onto the deck, stumbling slightly under the forgotten weight of the armour.
"We have over 10 incoming projectiles; one of them is huge..." Fury said as he looked at the radar screen Tony had brought up onto one of the unused screens.
"Should I engage?" Rhodey asked and Fury looked at Tony.
"The weapons are good to go, but I haven't given them a proper field-test yet," he started.
"Engage them, Rhodes," Fury said, using Tony's interrupted speech as an affirmative.
Rhodey nodded, "Yes sir," he said.
Tony frowned and was about to object when he felt Pepper's hand on his shoulder, "Initialising weapons systems, General," he said flatly and keyed in the commands.
Rhodey looked around, "I don't see them!" he said, "Are you sure there's anything incoming?" he asked, when suddenly there was a buzzing hum from the far side of the deck.
"Sir! We have a visual, four…I don't know what they are, robots…are carrying a metal cube…I can't see any clear markings…" Agent Ramsey's voice said hurriedly.
"Oh my god…" Rhodey said.
The robots came into view, being powered by similar technology that went into the War Machine armour on Rhodey's own back. Downstairs, Tony was already tapping away at the keyboards, executing commands before Fury said them.
"The only visible markings I can see is an 'T' logo…it could be an 'H', there's too much dirt on them to be sure." He said clearly, "The thrusters are very similar to mine, maybe two or three generations behind…" he added under his breath. "I don't know Nick," he said, "Whoever made these things, he knows what he's doing."
Fury gritted his teeth, "General." He muttered.
"Rhodes if you don't engage them in the next five seconds I'll have you dishonourably discharged!" Fury yelled.
"We don't know if they're hostile." Rhodey replied.
"I think it's safe to say that these are unidentified, Rhodey," Tony said, "Definitely not friendlies."
"Fine, Y.A.R.V.I.S, engage weapons system," Rhodey ordered.
"Weapons system engaged." Y.A.R.V.I.S. said after a few moments.
Rhodey lifted his arms, twin blasters on the end, and the minigun took aim. He was now aiming at three of the four robots, waiting to see if they would make a move.
"What are you waiting for, Rhodes, fire!"
"Not yet! I'm waiting for them to make the first move." Rhodey replied, "Y.A.R.V.I.S., activate external speakers."
Again, there was a notification sound.
"Unidentified flying objects, unless you can clarify your intentions, maker and location of origin, you will be deemed as hostiles. Identify." Rhodey commanded, but the flying robots took no notice of him, and flew over his head.
Suddenly they stopped, and dropped the box with a loud crash onto the deck, crushing the front half of an F-22 fighter jet, the rear dropped off the side of the Hellicarrier and crashed into the icy waters below.
"Ah hell." Rhodey muttered and opened fire, the blasters on his wrists aimed at two of the robots, the minigun on his shoulder aimed at the third. They didn't react for a few seconds, then burst open with machine gun fire at Rhodey. Bullets bounced off him and the armour vibrated.
"What is that thing?" Fury's voice came into his ears.
"Y.A.R.V.I.S..." Rhodey grunted, "Activate auto-aim missile," he ordered and felt the click of the miniature missile launcher rising from his shoulder. On the HUD he saw the four targets line up and suddenly they stopped firing.
There was a mechanical whirring and the metal box hissed as air-tight seals were broken, and four legs unfolded from the huge body of the box, lifting it slowly. The robots stopped hovering in one place and clicked into the body, and suddenly it seemed like everything was aimed on Rhodey.
"Fire!" Rhodey said and the rockets dispersed to their targets. The huge robot walker took a step forward and fired a cannon at Rhodey, knocking him backwards into another F-22. "Ow."
"Armour strength at 86%." Y.A.R.V.I.S. informed him.
"What is that thing, Tony?" Rhodey asked as he climbed out from the wreckage and looked at the walker as it made its way towards him slowly, making the Hellicarrier shake with each footstep.
"It's an Armiger," Tony said, "Heavy weaponry, tough," he said, "R&D had the designs in a few years ago...but we never finalised anything,"
"Well somebody beat you to it," Rhodey said. "Y.A.R.V.I.S. activate thrusters," he ordered quickly and took off as the cannon fired again, blowing up two fighter jets.
Rhodey looked down at the carnage and looked over at the Armiger as it aimed at him.
"Any idea where it's from, Tony?"
"Honestly?...Not a clue." Tony said.
"Helpful," Rhodey muttered and zoomed down under the Armiger, and tried to lift it. He groaned, even under the added strength of the suit, this was a struggle. He heard Tony tapping away at the keyboards in his ears.
"Thrusters increased to 15% thrust capacity." Y.A.R.V.I.S. sounded off.
"M...more..." Rhodey grunted, but had to admit it was getting slowly easier to lift the Armiger.
"No more, any more and the thrusters would simply explode...no one wants that." Tony said.
Rhodey grunted again and pushed the Armiger towards the edge.
"Rhodes! Stop what you're doing, I want that walker subdued and dismantled!" Fury barked.
"Sorry, general," Rhodey grunted, "I'm not risking any more lives than I have to..."
Suddenly one of the legs moved under its body and swiped Rhodey away, leaving him bouncing across the deck. The Armiger got back onto its feet and slowly began to turn towards him.
Rhodey quickly stood and looked over, using the thrusters to make his way back over, the minigun firing once more, ripping chunks of the metal from the body of the Armiger.
The robots attached to the tops of each leg were firing at him, but four swiftly fired missiles which luckily hit hard enough to deactivate them took care of that, and with one final push, War Machine became triumphant as he pushed the Armiger off the deck and down through the clouds, still firing its cannon wildly.
Downstairs, Fury sighed deeply.
"Well that went well," Pepper said.
On the main deck, Rhodey was standing in the armour, helmet under his arm as he helped Tony look through what was left of the wreckage on the Hellicarrier, "Nothing good to look into, nothing with any logo's, names...not even a serial number."
Tony sighed, "Whatever's there...is at the bottom of the North Atlantic." He said.
Fury walked over to them, "I want you both downstairs for a debriefing, now," he snapped angrily.
**DISCLAIMER #3**
This chapter…may or may not have direct lifts from both Iron Man video games, and the Iron Man film itself, of the Mark 2 flight test/Mark 3 fight tests and when Tony returns home from Afghanistan, and tells Obie about stopping the weapons thing…
