Chapter 9 – Iron Man, 2011
Tony sat down in the underground garage, which backed onto his workshop, staring at more holographic screens, most of them showing the data streams, and various clips of Rhodey's field usage of the armour.
"J.A.R.V.I.S?" Tony voiced again, "You up?"
"For you sir, always," the British voice droned.
"I need help." Tony said, "And don't make jokes, I...this...this really isn't the time for it," Tony said, studying the holo-screens.
"Sorry, what can I do, Mister Stark?" J.A.R.V.I.S. said.
Tony remained silent for a few seconds, leaning back in his chair, "Optimistically...what are the chances that Rhodey's mood swings and attitude in battle...aren't my fault?"
"Very low, sir."
"Thank you," Tony said with a sigh, and wheeled the chair over to the broken hot-rod in the corner, and picked up a big-end. In the reflection of the black and red tinted paint he could see Rhodey's face as he shot down several anti-air missles and laughed as the fire rained down on his enemies, even some of his allies.
"J.A.R.V.I.S...bring up the schematics for the VTR Unit," Tony eventually said, wheeling himself back over, with one of the hot-rods windshield wipers in his hand. "Bring them up on the projectors, life-size." He ordered, and stood from the chair, walking around the War Machine armour.
He folded his arms and stared into the opaque faceplate in front of his eyes.
"I designed this suit...as just a simple...armour, to escape my captors, J.A.R.V.I.S..." Tony started, "The Variable Threat Response Unit wasn't supposed to be used like this...not as a tool, a killing machine...I wanted something better than this." He shook his head, "I guess they were right, once an iron monger, always an iron monger."
J.A.R.V.I.S. remained silent, even the A.I. could sense that Tony's mind was, slowly, working towards an answer.
Tony stared into the eyes of the faceplate, imagining Rhodey's own eyes on the other side. He opened his mouth to speak, when the phone rang.
"General Nicholas Fury, for you sir," J.A.R.V.I.S. informed him.
Tony went and picked the phone up, looking back at the projection of his evil creation. "General?"
"Stark, we need you at the Triskelion, now." Fury's voice said, he sounded upset; never a good thing.
"Now isn't a good time, general,"
"You don't understand, Stark, the War Machine armour has gone." Stark blinked.
"Gone?"
The private Stark Global Boeing touched down at Newark Liberty airport in Jersey, and Tony stood, ignoring the calls of the stewardess to remain in his seat and fasten his seat belt until they came to a stop.
Happy Hogan, Tony's chauffeur and occasional bodyguard, stood and put a hand on the stewardess' shoulder. "You're new, don't try and stop him," he warned, before following his boss.
Tony was some way ahead, heading towards the rear of the plane, towards the cargo hold, where he'd had his Audi R8 Spyder put before they'd left.
"Boss, you want me to drive?" Happy asked as he caught up.
Tony turned and smiled at his friend and employee. "No, Hap, don't worry. I won't be gone long, I'll give you a call, make sure the plane is ready to leave." Tony said, patting the ex-boxer's shoulder, and Happy slouched a little. Tony patted his shoulder once more and gave a gentle squeeze. "If Pepper rings, you're with me, and I'm in a meeting." He said and turned before he could see Happy's un-easy expression, and continued down towards the car. He could feel the plane slowing as he looked over the car and got into it, and started it as the rear door of the plane started to drop open. He pressed a button and the roof of the car dropped open, while he slid Deep Purple's Greatest Hits into the CD player.
Tony grinned and rolled the car down, shooting up as quickly as possible as he hit the tarmac and drove across the runway and out. He couldn't help but smirk as he did this.
The gates were open when he got to them, and Tony flashed a smile at the guard, before joining the traffic heading into Jersey City. He looked over towards the impressive skyline of New York City in the distance and marvelled at the lights, both artificial – the lights in and on the skyscrapers – and the natural – the stars blinking high above the city. This city just breathed. If he could create a city, and – with his intensely creative mind, was highly possibly – he would want it to function just like this.
He noticed the blue and red flashing lights and looked over his shoulder, and saw two NYPD squad cars parting the traffic. One passed him and stopped just ahead, while the second stopped beside him and the window rolled down.
"Good evening," Tony said, with a curt nod and a polite smile, acting – for all the world- like this happened on a daily basis.
"Good evening, Mister Stark," said the officer, with a thick British accent and a mop of ginger hair, the handle bar moustache; Tony thought was a bit much. "We got a call through from S.H.I.E.L.D. to clear the streets for ya, they said it was an emergency. Anything to do with the Triskelion break-out?"
Tony just cleared his throat. "Thank you, Officer...?"
"Dugan, sir," Officer Dugan replied.
Tony smiled and drove forward into the space created by the police cars, and the squad cars moved him through the traffic. Tony glanced left and right at drivers, glaring angrily from behind their steering wheels to see who was getting this special treatment, only to shrink back into their seats when they saw both Tony Stark, and the licence plate "Stark-4" on the Audi.
Soon enough the Triskelion loomed up, ever imposing, sticking up out of the water like the ice berg that sunk the Titanic in 1912. It obscured the view of Jersey horribly; Tony conceded for the thousandth time that it was the worst thing he'd ever dreamt up. The whole place gave off a bad vibe, and he didn't think things were about to get better any time soon.
Fury was waiting for him, and he really didn't look cheerful...did he ever?
Tony pulled over and got out, tossing the keys to one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents flanking Fury. "Don't scratch the paint," he said, then put on the easily-faked smile he'd perfected since his father's funeral.
"You're late." Fury muttered.
"Uh...sir?" the Agent asked.
"Quatermain!" Fury snapped, and the Agent nodded and went to the car.
Tony looked at Fury expectantly. "Who and how?"
Fury turned and looked up at a smoking hole in the side of the Triskelion.
"Son of a bitch," Tony said, "Lead the way." He said, his mind already formulating several scenarios as to what could have happened, but he didn't want to think about the fact that Rhodey may have done this. But...Would he really be surprised if Rhodey had?
Tony was lead through the bowels of the Triskelion, towards the security centre and detention block built into the very centre of the structure, even stretching underground. Tony knew the layout, and knew where the hole in the wall came from.
Fury, however, wasn't giving anything away.
They all remained silent until they came to the security centre, and Tony was shown into the camera booth, and sat down in front of the controls, which he immediately took control off, finding the right camera data.
"Nobody saw him enter." Fury started, "And if they did, no one gave it a second thought."
Tony would have made a comment about the disappointment in Fury's voice, but Tony was suddenly filled with a sense of dread when he saw Rhodey's face on the screen. Rhodey was calmly strolling through the corridors towards the Armoury.
"He killed the operators." Fury went on.
At that moment, Rhodey entered the Armoury, pulled his gun and shot the two operators, one of which was Beth Cabe, Rhodey's ex-girlfriend. One of them, at least, Tony knew that much.
Tony sat back and closed his eyes, rubbing the bridge of his nose thoughtfully. He didn't need to watch the rest of the footage to know that Rhodey stole the armour.
"He's turned rogue, and we don't know where he's gone." Fury finished.
"On my way over, I tried to track the armour using a remote-access to J.A.R.V.I.S...but someone or something has tampered with the operating system in the armour...It's changed. The signal has completely disappeared." Tony said slowly.
Everyone remained silent for a few seconds, then Tony turned to Fury, still sitting in the seat.
"He's your friend, and it's your armour. Fix this." Fury said, and Tony snapped. He jumped out of the seat and his voice rose several decibels.
"You're saying this is my fault?" Tony roared angrily, "How the fuck did I do this?"
"You were always angry that the military got ahold of your "Peace Project" and turned it into a weapon. I wouldn't be surprised if you paid Rhodes to do this." Fury replied, his voice rising, but not as high as Stark's.
Tony scoffed, "I don't believe this," he said, with a laugh. "I'm going home. Call me when you wanna talk, Fury." Tony said, and walked out of the door.
Tony knew what he had to do, he had to get back home, and find a way to track the War Machine armour. Maybe he could get something on one of the Stark Global satellites to track the signals to a point. His mind was working on overdrive, running and re-running over the schematics for the VTR Unit and the original suit he'd designed.
As soon as he'd returned home, Tony went down into the basement garage, "J.A.R.V.I.S?" he asked.
"Yes, sir?"
"Bring the schematics back up, right now," Tony ordered and the hologram of the War Machine armour shimmered back into life. Tony stared at it, "Right, remove all the weapons, strip it right down to just the armour, and bring up the original suit schematics."
J.A.R.V.I.S. did as instructed and Tony was looking at the two suits.
"Okay." Tony said, sitting in the chair. "What's the power output like for the current miniature ARC Reactor?"
"I see where you are heading with this, sir, the current output does not match the needed output for prolonged use of the VTR Unit."
Tony shook his head, "Forget the VTR, thats old tech." Tony said, "I'm thinking...newer, more streamlined, faster." Tony continued.
The A.I. remained silent.
"What would the chest piece need to give as an output?" Tony asked, more to himself as his mind raced to the answer, "At least...4 times as much?"
"Would you like me to draw up some upgrades and improvements for the Mark II ARC Reactor, sir?"
"Thrill me." Tony said, already getting to work on designing upgrades to the armour.
They worked long and hard into the next day, talking, discussing the necessary changes that needed to be made.
Tony had began work on building new boots, utilising the new Repulsor technology he'd been sitting on. It was present in the VTR Unit, but only in its early stages. While J.A.R.V.I.S. was still manufacturing the Mark III chest piece, Tony couldn't test the Repulsor's but he already knew the firing rate would be high and the damage could be set to a higher scale.
J.A.R.V.I.S. notified Tony when the chest piece was ready.
"Excellent, bring it up for me," Tony said and pushed himself away from the table, allowing Butterfingers to carry on with the work to the boots. Tony looked at the hologram of the miniature ARC Reactor and nodded, "Nice shape," he commented, looking at the triangular shell. "Get to it, J.A.R.V.I.S." he said, and went back to the boots.
The boots were a new design, too; using the Repulsor tech, they could siphon out a higher rate of acceleration in less time, and didn't damage the environment. He tested the boots, and after his original mistake during testing of the VTR Unit, crashing into the ceiling, took them up from 1% thrust capacity. "Next; flight stabilisers."
The flight stabilisers were easier to manufacture, and J.A.R.V.I.S. did a lot of the work, since Tony didn't see the point in changing them. He did change the Repulsors, giving them a narrower beam while the chest piece would make sure the firing rate with quicker.
The suit was slowly coming together. Tony couldn't stop grinning.
"Sir, the Mark III chest piece is ready for application." J.A.R.V.I.S. said, and Tony looked over picking out the Mark III chest piece from the machine.
"Excellent." Tony said, "Another masterpiece, J.A.R.V.I.S."
"Of course, sir."
Suddenly he looked over and saw Pepper staring at him, then looking at the half-built suit.
"Not again..." she said, "Please Tony, not again," she pleaded, tears in her eyes.
Tony put the chest piece down and went to his wife.
"Pepper...this isn't what you think. This isn't a weapon, this is going to make the world a better place."
"That's what you said about the War Machine...Now Rhodey's..."
"The War Machine wasn't my intention." Tony cut in, cupping Pepper's face gently. "What happened to Rhodey...I couldn't foresee it, but maybe I can stop it." Tony said, kissing her gently. "I love you Pep, I'm always going to be here." He tapped his chest, "With this replaced, I'm going to be here for a long time."
Pepper looked up at Tony and smiled, "I love you too, Tony," she said, and kissed him again.
Tony sighed softly and held her against him.
"Sir." J.A.R.V.I.S. said, "Should I begin machining parts for the new armour?"
Tony remained silent, pondering it.
Pepper felt him nod. "Yes." He said. She closed her eyes, there was no going back now. "What will you call it?" she asked.
Tony frowned; he hadn't thought of a name. "What about...Detriot Steel?" he suggested.
Pepper shook her head, "No...not catchy enough."
Tony fell silent for a few more seconds.
"Iron Patriot? You could have a red and blue colour theme, with white stars?"
Tony frowned, "Captain America beat me to it...What about...Iron Man?" and he saw Pepper consider it.
She nodded, "I like it."
"As do I, sir." J.A.R.V.I.S. agreed.
"Her, J.A.R.V.I.S, something we never considered changing in the VTR Unit's construction, the icing factor, try throwing in a blend of gold-titanium alloy, and vibranium." Tony said suddenly, "Throw it up on the screens." He added.
After a few minutes an image appeared on the screen, showing the new-and-improved armour, thus dubbed Iron Man, almost completely gold, save for pads over the upper arms, upper legs and knees.
"The gold is a best much, don't you think?" Tony asked indignantly.
"It mirrors your golden heart," Pepper said, smirking ever-so-slightly.
Tony grimaced, and saw the hot-rod out of the corner of his eye. "Throw some red in." He said and the image changed, the majority of it turned red, with the faceplate, arms, legs and fingers gold, the silver pads still present.
"I love it." Pepper said quietly, and Tony nodded.
"Should I begin the fabrication process?"
Tony hesitated, rubbed a finger across his beard, and sighed, "How long will it take?"
"I estimate the completion process will take 10 hours." J.A.R.V.I.S. replied.
Tony knew that was too long, Rhodey could have struck somewhere, appeared out of the blue, while Tony was twiddling his thumbs, and could kill thousands of people. But the more he sat here thinking, the less time he'd have to stop Rhodey.
"Do it."
