AN - I am almost finished with the Arrival Arc; after this will probably be an interlude and then we determine whether or not this fanfic deserves expansion or not. Please remember that this is a rough draft and thus if I do decide to make this into its own thread, editing might occur.
I have noted that Shadow Stalker even before the Locker Incident, going by the wiki actually took part in an Endbringer fight and one against the Hero Killer himself and survived - but survived doesn't mean 'Got through unscathed' and going by the odds we've seen for Endbringer battles where 1-in-4 capes don't survive it. Assuming that the Killed-to-Wounded ratio is anything approaching like modern combat - wherein for every fatality you have three wounded, chances are it's a very rare person who walks away from an Endbringer fight unscathed.
Man of Iron - Arrival 1.4
Tony Stark
The days passed with languid slowness, primarily because Tony Stark was not a figure who liked being forced to rest. But even he knew better than to argue with doctors and so he was resting and thus recovering from his myriad of wounds even after Panacea had seen him; he had learned though that the hospital ward that he was in was meant specifically for capes - and thus everyone here had gone through government background checks.
But due to not being in his home dimension - he hadn't seen Rhodey or Pepper; thus for company he had to make due with Jarvis. He was also doing considerable research on where he was now and the AI had been immensely helpful in that regard. Right now though he wasn't pleased to learn a particular fact.
"Your saying I haven't been here for a week and I've already gone viral?" Tony asked in shocked disbelief.
"In manner of speaking sir. Most of what you would consider viral has been primarily speculation on various forums regarding Parahumans about who you are and where you came from. Though someone did record your initial conversation with the capes Armsmaster and Miss Militia and posted it to the internet, you calling Armsmaster, Mister Halbeard has spawned a load of memes and jokes." Jarvis said and Tony frowned.
"There's forums regarding Parahumans and they think that I am one?" Tony asked shocked, from what he had read on Parahumans, they were almost exactly like what his universe called Mutants, right down to having a unique genetic strand that appeared whenever one 'triggered' which was when they got their power.
"Indeed sir; due to your armor there's speculation going around that you're what's known as a Tinker." Jarvis replied and Tony frowned, what the hell was a tinker? As far as he knew, the powers that mutants received were often incredibly broad to the point that they were damn near impossible to accurately classify.
"So what the hell is a tinker then Jarvis?" Tony asked, confused, if these people had broadly been able to figure out things regarding these parahumans, then he wanted to know what they could do.
"A tinker, as stated by the Department of Homeland Security's Parahuman Protectorate Division's power classification system is that 'they have an ability that allows them to create or alter devices and materials well beyond the usual definition of what can be stated to be possible by education, knowledge, resources, or physics. Most tinkers barring unique exceptions specialize in one particular area, either an area of expertise where they operate exclusively or just operate in that's better than others.' As far as research can tell, what drives tinkers in their creations can be either instinctual or driven by institutional knowledge, however this varies from tinker-to-tinker. Additionally, tinkertech is almost universally impossible to reverse engineer." Jarvis replied and Tony hummed, if he was a tinker, then how come Whiplash was able to reverse engineer the miniaturized arc reactor, because that obviously indicated that either Whiplash had been a tinker as well, or maybe he was just that smart.
Tony really wasn't sure which one fit better primarily because of the fact that he knew how the arc reactor functioned near perfectly, having played a major role in seeing the prototype come to fruition. Yet at the same time, he couldn't help but agree that he might be a tinker considering he managed to build a miniaturized one, in a cave of all places, with only two captured Jericho missiles and a literal smithy in Afghanistan with only one other man, he paused and leaned back in his bed. If it wasn't for Yinsen, he wouldn't be here and more than likely Loki would have done a lot more damage than the overall containment that they managed and New York likely would have gotten turned into a crater by whoever the fuck had ordered that nuclear strike.
Tony shook his head, Yinsen had saved his life and the man was brilliant in his own way. He just wished that he had been able to save him as well.
"I see Jarvis, are there other forms of classifications for Parahumans?" Tony asked, he was suddenly hungry for more information on what Parahumans were since chances were quite likely that there was a whole system involved.
"There is sir; the other classifications used by the Protectorate and the world in general are Mover, Shaker, Brute, Breaker, Master, Tinker, Blaster, Thinker, Striker, Changer, and Trump. With a rating scale that goes from one to ten. Overall, said rating scale draws similarities to SHIELD's one-to-hundred scale, but power increases in an exponential rather than linear function as you go up the ladder." Jarvis replied and Tony hummed in thought.
"Okay, think you can send me the relative information on this rating scale? Is there anything of note that I should know?" Tony asked as he prepared himself for some major reading.
"Yessir, there is something that you should be aware of. There are multiple Omega level threats that are actively hostile on this Earth." Jarvis said and Tony felt his eyes bug in shock and horror.
Omega level threats. Going by the rating system that SHIELD used to rate the power of mutants and other threats, Omegas were the most powerful, with even a single Omega level Mutant being a match for entire Divisions if not Corps in terms of combat power and durability. To be declared an Omega Level threat was essentially to have SHIELD say that they had the potential for causing destruction and mayhem that was effectively unlimited, capable of laying waste to entire cities at minimum to in the case of some, like Jean Gray or Magneto, capable of laying waste to the entire planet should they be provoked.
To say that they were incredibly dangerous was understating things; to the point that meeting an Omega Level threat with force was likely to only rack up an enormous butcher's tally and make little if any noteworthy progress at all. They were almost uniformly incredibly fast and immensely powerful, both in terms of physical strength, durability, and more unique abilities.
Now, his own Earth actually had multiple Omega Level threats: Hulk, Magneto, Jean Gray, and Doctor Strange to say the least. But they weren't actively hostile and in many cases actually helped when it came to dealing with some of the nasties that were starting to crawl out of the woodwork. About the only Omega Threat that might be hostile, if he ever managed to escape The Cube was Abomination and he was very well contained.
The fact that this Earth actually had hostile Omega Threats changed the board dramatically. Before he was focused on getting back to his home dimension, but now he wasn't sure if he could actually bear the thought or not due to the fact that there were Omega Threats. Of course, there was also the fact that in order to actually make getting home possible, he would need money, which means he would have to do something. Before he had been thinking of joining this Protectorate as a means to get access to the resources.
Now?
Now he figured that he would have to be far more drastic in what he was going to have to do. He might have to found Stark Industries again and build it up into an impressive corporation that had continued to flourish even after his father had passed away and he had taken the reins. That being said, unlike his father, Howard, he wouldn't have to build Stark Industries from scratch, he had various starting points thanks to Jarvis. Which meant that since he had products, all he had to do was essentially patent them then work on getting grant money so that he could set up production for fancy high tech toys that could help rack in the funds.
A knock at the door brought him out of his musings. "Yes?" he asked.
The door opened and a nurse poked her head in. "Mister Stark, Carol Dallon is here to see you."
It took Tony a moment to realize who that was, the name had popped up in the news feeds a couple of times after his arrival here. Oh shit, Glory Girl's mother. He thought, if he remembered right, Glory Girl aka Victoria Dallon was recovering nicely despite the fact that she had been basically an impromptu landing pad, she was out of the ICU now thanks to her sister and on the mend, with release from the hospital being likely within a few days. But the fact that he had landed her in the hospital had more than likely earned him the ire of the independent cape organization known as New Wave.
The fact that Carol Dallon, Brandish, wanted to speak with him personally, well, he didn't know if it was good or bad. But he was leaning towards the latter, that's how it usually was with parents he succeeded in pissing off. Still, better to get the chewing out over with now rather than later - it would be better for everyone. Thus with a sigh, Tony said with a sigh "Alright, send her in."
"Okay sir." the nurse said and vanished.
Several minutes later, a woman dressed in business casual clothes whose quality immediately told Tony that this was a lawyer, walked in the door. Carol Dallon was a short woman, maybe five foot three with a slim figure and dark blonde hair in a bob cut. For a moment, Tony was reminded of Pepper back in his own reality, Carol had that same general air about her, a no nonsense woman with an attitude.
Tony leaned forward as best as he could. "A pleasure to meet you Ms. Dallon," he greeted, offering his hand.
Miss Dallon took it and they shook. "Mister Stark, it's good to see you in good spirits." she replied.
"Thank you, I am honestly surprised that I am doing this well, I guess I have Panacea to thank for that." Tony admitted and that was honestly a truth in itself. Panacea had been a damn miracle, without her, he was looking at months of recovery at best.
To his surprise, Miss Dallon smiled. "She's something, though while I would love to discuss the exploits of my adopted daughter, I am frankly more in the mood to talk about what's going to happen to you, Mister Stark."
"To be honest, I am in fairly deep shit even before we take the injuries I gave your daughter in that crash into consideration. Since well, apparently I managed to travel across realities." Tony admitted and Miss Dallon's eyebrows shot up.
"I figured judging from reports and what Victoria said that dimensional travel was involved. But it's one thing hearing and another having it confirmed." Miss Dallon said in a gentle tone.
"Indeed, it's weird since I've gone from being a multi-billionaire to having basically nothing." Tony admitted in a strange tone, as if he was having trouble believing it. "I never thought that I would be in this situation."
Ms. Dallon winced in sympathy. "So what are you planning to do then?"
"I am working on that, my best option might be to start my own business. I got a fair few ideas and with an IQ of one-sixty, it's easy to come up with new ideas." Tony replied and Ms. Dallon looked shocked.
"I am in the presence of an actual genius by IQ rather than what most tinkers claim to be." she said, shocked.
Tony smiled. "I guess that the real thing is a rarity?" he asked.
"That's one way of putting it." Ms. Dallon said and Tony had to resist the urge to laugh at her expression.
"Ms. Dallon, since I don't have access to my bank accounts or my lawyer. I am willing to make a deal here, regarding my business that I am thinking of starting up. But first I need to ask, what's the name of this Earth?" Tony said and Miss Dallon leaned forward interested.
"Earth Bet, why?"
"Because how about in-lieu of a monetary settlement, I give your family say a ten to fifteen percent stake in Stark Industries - Bet, now that might not seem like a lot, but the original Stark Industries back on my Earth is a Fortune 15 corporation, if or when we connect to my Earth, I'll make Stark Industries Bet part of the original Stark Industries while making sure stock holders keep their share." Tony said and Miss Dallon hummed.
"That's a very interesting offer, how do you know that this Stark Industries will be successful?" Ms. Dallon asked and Tony smiled.
"Jarvis, show a technical diagram for a twin reactor Arc Reactor power plant."
"Of course, sir." Jarvis replied and the holoprojector on Tony's phone warmed before activating.
Then a technical diagram of an Arc Reactor was projected into the room in a cool soothing blue, Miss Dallon stood up immediately and began looking at it. The way her eyes flicked over it, Tony could tell that she wasn't an Engineer in the slightest. But when she spoke, her voice was amazed. "Is that power generation for each reactor accurate?" she asked.
"Twenty gigawatts of power nominal load? Yes, it is, this reactor was designed to be more powerful than the most powerful fission plants in-existence back on my Earth while allowing for a vastly more compact package. This power plant would cover only about as much space as a conventional oil fired power plant while having vastly more energy output that's completely clean. I helped design the Arc Reactor since it was based on concepts that my father first pioneered." Tony said with a smile.
"Mister Stark, this thing is a massive gamechanger, ever since Iran lost its second largest oil field due to Behemoth and the entirety of Kuwait had to be sealed due to the Simurgh, the price of oil has been very high since her song rendered that area uninhabitable for humans. You propose this to the Department of Energy and they'll bend over backwards to make this happen. What's more, this isn't tinkertech, I am only understanding maybe a quarter of this, at most, of what this technical diagram is saying…but the fact that I can understand any of it, tells me it's not tinkertech." Miss Dallon said in a shocked tone of voice.
"Yeah, it's really something isn't it?" Tony said and Miss Dallon sighed.
"Yeah. it is. Damn, I am no engineer, my husband has a Master Degree in that, but even I can tell that this would be revolutionary and would solve so many problems in the world." Miss Dallon replied and then something changed in her posture. "Alright, we can haggle out the details regarding Stark Industries later as that's going to be fun and doing so here in a hospital room isn't particularly brilliant."
Tony laughed out loud. "Yeah, true."
She held out a card. "Please call me with this number once you get out of the hospital so we can hammer out details."
Tony took it. "Thank you Miss Dallon." he replied and with that, Carol Dallon turned on her heel and walked out the door.
After looking at the business card and adding Carol's name to his phone he then leaned back and then continued looking out the window as life went on in Brockton Bay for a couple of minutes before picking up his phone again. He wanted to learn as much about capes as possible.
The following day was another day of boredom with not much really happening, but the day after was something else. Once again, Tony was on his phone, this time however his goal was to learn about the Omega Threats of this world, he was surprised to learn that there was Kaiju running around on this Earth, just like his own which had Gojira. Creatures so huge and powerful that they were essentially above Omega Threats and were really Omega Plus.
But there were other threats that were absolutely despicable out there, probably the most disturbing of the lot was this Slaughterhouse 9 - the Endbringers were horrible in their own way. What with their nicknames of The Hero Killer, The City Destroyer, The Siren; but at least they were enormous creatures who very clearly weren't of this Earth.
Tony sighed, the Slaughterhouse 9 were truly monstrous. They reminded him far too much of the terrorists he demolished in Gulmara, people who killed for fun just because they could. It was in many ways truly disgusting. The fuckers were already on his shitlists, if they showed up, he would use his repulsors on a setting that would cause explosive effects in organics - that wasn't something he did lightly as the plasma projectors that formed the repulsors were mind-numbingly powerful - due to the fact that water really didn't like being hit by plasma and there was the concussive force to consider, at even fairly low power could make an incredible mess, as in steam and crimson would go everywhere.
There was a knock at the door and then the nurse poked her head in. "Mister Stark, Victoria Dallon here to see you."
Tony looked surprised. "Okay, send her in" he said.
The nurse nodded and vanished, two minutes later. Victoria came in, one of her arms was in a cast but other than that she seemed fine. "Hey Tony." she greeted cheerfully as she strolled in.
"Victoria, good to see that you're up and about." Tony replied as she promptly collapsed into a chair.
"Thanks, it was touch and go for a couple of hours, but I lasted long enough for my sister to put me back together." Victoria said in response from where she was.
"Yeah, sorry about that, I was more focused on regaining control. If I had been paying better attention." Tony said, trailing off.
Victoria waved it off. "It's no big deal, we all make mistakes and frankly getting out of a tumble can be difficult even when you do know what you're doing." she said with a shrug.
"Sounds like you're speaking from experience."
"I am, I might be able to fly but even I learned how to recover from tumbles. But it's not the most embarrassing thing either." Victoria admitted.
"I've done some stupid shit in the past, most notably when designing my Mark II suit, I designed it with the ability to fly at eighty thousand feet using an advanced iron alloy for protection. But I forgot to account for ice, which made things, uh, interesting when the suit iced up and the repulsors failed because of it. Didn't go splat, though I almost hit a car after recovering which took a lot longer than it should have." Tony replied and Victoria snorted a laugh.
"Seems fairly silly to forget something like that." Victoria noted.
"To be fair, I thought that heat provided by friction due to the suit interacting with the air while at speed would prevent ice from forming. But due to the much smaller cross-section of the suit compared to say a SR-71, not as much heat was built up which meant that ice could form. I got around the problem by layering a titanium-gold alloy over the iron alloy due to it having much better properties in regards to dealing with ice. But that's enough about how I've had a pretty major epic fail." Tony said, rubbing the back of his head.
Victoria snorted and laughed. "Seems like a fairly major oversight when you look at it that way."
"I think that one of the logs after that test flight where I reviewed that flight basically was me going 'well I can't believe I forgot that and that was stupid. Let's fix that!' and that's where I decided on my current material for the exterior." Tony replied with a chuckle of his own. "I have to ask, have you done anything similar?"
To his surprise, Victoria nodded. "I have actually, shortly after I triggered and it was felt that I could do patrols solo - I got the bright idea to post on twitter every so often where I was and also keep in contact with my mom. I wasn't paying attention and crashed into a billboard at highway speeds."
Tony laughed loudly. "Bet mom wasn't too happy with that."
Victoria smiled. "Yep, I was literally grounded for a month."
Tony had to admit, that was a good joke, though not inaccurate, due to being an Alexandria Package, which equated to a Classic Flying Brick, Victoria really could fly. Thus he chuckled again.
"Ouch, I will admit, after some of the crazy shit I did when designing the Iron Man armors. Well, let's just say that I am certain if my mother or father saw it, I would be in a lot of trouble." Tony admitted as he thought back to those days. He didn't know who to trust back then and had wanted to keep everything secret. But after everything that had happened when he had fought Stane along with the absolute piss-poor alibi that SHIELD had come up with. He had decided to reveal that he was Iron Man and released various videos that showed him testing and refining his armor.
Hell, he knew for a fact that the helmet footage for his first test flight in the Mark II had become the most watched video on Youtube back in his home dimension.
"Mister Stark, I have to ask, why do you wear a full helmet despite everyone knowing who you actually are?" Victoria asked suddenly.
"Well, since I am not invincible, it's for protection when I fly and when I am in battle. All of my early suits, save the Mark I could go supersonic at all altitudes, at those sorts of speeds air resistance would tear my face off. Additionally it's for my own protection against guys with guns, what's the point of wearing full body armor if you're only wearing a Mardi Gras mask and thus can be killed by taking a conventional bullet to the forehead?" Tony replied and Victoria hummed in thought.
"That's something that I never thought to consider actually when I designed my costume." Victoria said in a tone as if she knew something about her power and that a realization had just smacked her in the face.
"Everything alright?" Tony asked.
"No, just realizing exactly how many close calls I've had and how oh so much could have gone differently if luck hadn't been on my side. I am going to have to try and figure out a way to actually get better head protection for my costume without ruining the look." Victoria said with a frown.
This news caused Tony to frown. "Why is there something up about your invincibility?" he asked.
"You could say that, I am going to have to tell Mom about this." Victoria said, still frowning and clearly troubled.
Tony frowned as he thought about it. While Stark Industries didn't produce weapons anymore, they had recently begun producing Exo-7 'Falcon' suits, a way for Iron Man Armor technology to be used in the field. The suit itself was multi-layered, with conventional fibers with kevlar and ceramic tiles reinforced with carbon-nanotubes sandwiched between them which provided NIJ Level 4 Protection, with detachable titanium-mylar wings that were integrated into a jetpack that had the smallest and admittedly least powerful arc reactor ever created that powered a quartet of electric turbine engines each capable of roughly one thousand pounds of thrust allowing for a top speed of roughly three hundred miles per hour; the backpack also included a parachute. It wouldn't be too hard to create something that could maintain the look of her current mask while providing better cranial protection.
The thrust there was sufficient to lift a man with relative ease. He knew that the USAF Pararescue Jumpers were very interested in the technology. To the point that two of the units were already in the field with more in production. Something to think about.
"Hey it's alright, we all make mistakes. Being a hero isn't easy and you can't possibly think of everything." Tony said and Victoria smiled lightly.
"Yeah, that's true particularly since I am still in high school." Victoria admitted.
"That must be fun, juggling life between being a hero and school work." Tony replied, thinking back to when he had been about Victoria's age, though instead of high school, he had been in college.
"It is to an extent, but I am managing well enough to the point that I am taking AP courses." Victoria said with a smirk.
"Great to hear, I've heard that I am likely to be released later today due to how well I am recovering." Tony replied and Victoria nodded.
"The Protectorate has released a few details, the crash into hello that we had made it a fairly public event. All they've said though is that you're a Cape from a different reality in the multiverse and that because of that, you'll be supplied with your own living space." Victoria admitted.
"That's good to hear, since I don't really have any cash on me right now so I can't pay for an apartment, due to you know, my bank accounts being in another dimension." Tony said with a chuckle and Victoria burst out laughing.
"Quite a pickle to be in for sure." Victoria said a moment later.
"True enough, but at least the government is willing to help me out there." Tony admitted and Victoria smiled in response.
"One of the things that I want to ask though is are you willing to join New Wave?" Victoria asked and Tony frowned.
"New Wave?" He asked, confused.
"The independent hero team that I am part of. We don't do any sort of secret identities actually with everything in the public domain." Victoria admitted and Tony nodded in response.
"I'll think about it. I just got a lot on my plate at the moment." Tony said and Victoria nodded.
"That's fair." Victoria said before looking at her watch. "Jeez, I better go. I told mom this would only take a few minutes and it's been longer than that."
"Guess I'll be seeing you around."
"Yeah, bye!"
Then she was gone, leaving Tony alone with his thoughts.
Later that day, Tony was walking out of the hospital with another Cape helping him along to a waiting PRT vehicle, the big HMMWV was a heavy boxy vehicle painted in an digital urban camouflage, a contrasting series of shades of gray and black. The big brawny vehicle was going to take him to what was in-essence base housing, apparently PRT HMMWVs were a common enough sight around here that seeing one sitting in the parking lot of an apartment building wasn't too unusual.
Tony had to admit that he did have a very noticeable flinch at the sight of the Humvee. After they pulled away, the woman who had introduced himself as Battery asked him outright. "What's wrong Mister Stark?"
"Bad memories involving Humvees." Tony admitted and Battery's widened.
"Former military?"
"No, had a VIP excursion to Afghanistan to show off a new weapon that my corporation had developed in a live fire demonstration in the field. We were on the way back to the airport so I could head back to the states when we got ambushed. That marked the start of what became a three month ordeal as a guest of the terrorist organization known as the Ten Rings and it's because of that attack that I have this in my chest." Tony said, tapping the arc reactor in his chest and trying to not shed tears. Those men who had been in the convoy, out of the better part of a platoon, only three or four had survived and they had done so by playing dead when the terrorists had come to pick him up.
"Jesus Christ on a cracker." Battery said after a moment.
"That's one way of putting it." Tony replied in a soft voice.
"How did you get away, if you don't mind me asking?"
"With the help of another man, Doctor Ho Yinsen, I built the reactor that's currently in my chest so I didn't need to be hooked up to a car battery and then together we built a suit of armor. Yinsen bought time so the suit could power up, I fought my way out and found Yinsen, dying. Before he died, he told me not to waste my life - and then I finished fighting my out, dual-wielded flamethrowers were involved. Ever since then, I've been trying to make the biggest difference that I could." Tony replied as he thought back to that horrible experience.
"Wise words to live by Mister Stark." Battery replied, her expression placid but Tony got the impression that she too was thinking about it.
"They are wise words to live by." Tony agreed, thinking about how much he had changed since then as the vehicle continued prowling through the streets.
Eventually the humvee, not a funvee, turned into a subterranean parking lot below a large building complex that said 'Brockton Bay District Parahuman Response Team Headquarters'. "Right, here we are, please follow me." Battery said as she handed him an access card.
"That card only has access to your room, gym, cafeteria, and armory. I hear that getting your suit to the armory was difficult enough." Battery said and Tony nodded.
"I know, Jarvis told me about it. I might need access to a workshop to repair my armor as well." Tony admitted as he walked with Battery.
"That's fair, I'll talk to Director Piggot about seeing that happen." Battery replied and Tony nodded in response, it made sense. He really needed to know what sort of shape his armor was in. He had a feeling however that the condition wasn't great. His armor had taken a beating, that was for sure.
"Thanks." Tony replied and Battery nodded.
"No problem, it's the least we can do." Battery said and Tony had to admit, these people were being exceptionally kind given the situation he had ended up in. Hell, even Carol could have sued for monetary compensation and he wouldn't have been able to fix it due to not having any kind of money at his disposal.
The hallways weren't a labyrinth thankfully, indeed the layout of the building was actually fairly easy to figure out. They had just walked through the doors that led to a common room which connected the two housing blocks when Tony saw a young black woman sitting on a recliner. She certainly looked like she hadn't been sleeping well recently judging by the bags under her eyes. "Hey Battery, who the hell is the new guy?" she greeted in a tired tone of voice; notably she didn't have a mask on like Vista had hastily put on when I met her.
"Shadow Stalker, this is Iron Man, he's going to be staying with us until we figure out how to get him home." Battery said.
The young woman, a cape apparently, nodded. "I see, hope we have luck with that."
After that they left the common room and were walking down a hallway. "What's up with her?" Tony asked and Battery sighed.
"Shadow Stalker was diagnosed about a month ago with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder - we think she developed it due to what happened at the Endbringer fight she was at back in November when Behemoth attacked Toronto." Battery admitted and Tony winced in sympathy. He knew what fighting PTSD was like, Shadow Stalker looked all of fifteen or sixteen years old. She should be worrying about high school, finding a boyfriend, worrying about getting into college, etcetera. Not fighting Behemoth and having it go so badly sideways that she got PTSD out of it.
"Someone her age shouldn't be worrying about PTSD." Tony said in a bitter tone.
"No and a Ward like her, unless the Endbringer is attacking their home city, they aren't allowed on the frontlines but on SAR only. But that fight against Behemoth was uglier than most, which is saying something." Battery admitted and Tony cringed, seemed like Shadow Stalker had been shafted in a sense.
"I hope she's getting help." Tony replied as they came to a door.
"She is, its District Policy around here regarding the Wards to go into therapy after an Endbringer battle, no exceptions." Battery said and Tony snorted.
"That's good to hear, I've had my own experiences with PTSD, so I know it's not easy to deal with." Tony replied and Battery nodded.
They came to a door and at a gesture, Tony scanned his card and walked in. The room was essentially studio living, there was a bathroom off to one side and a small closet. It wasn't much, maybe twenty or so square meters. Certainly not the size of one of his rooms in his California Mansion or New York Penthouse. He hadn't lived like this since he had gone to M.I.T, but he could make do here even if it was uncomfortable.
A quick check of the closet and the dresser revealed that it had indeed been stocked with clothes. Jarvis had probably helped with them getting his size, still it was another useful thing. He turned and faced Battery. "Thanks for everything, Battery, I certainly owe the PRT and Protectorate a lot." Tony said and Battery nodded.
"Indeed, we're giving you today and tomorrow to get settled in here and then you have a meeting with Director Piggot at 0900 so we can discuss how your armor got as battered as it did." Battery said and Tony nodded, that made as much sense as anything.
"Got it, two days to get settled in and then I have to give a presentation." Tony said in response.
Battery nodded and then left.
"Jarvis you there?"
"At your service, sir."
"Can you start compiling an After Action Report in accordance with DoD Standards along with notes on the Battle of New York as well as my arrival here in Brockton Bay?" Tony asked as he sprawled out on the small couch.
"Of course sir, compiling now. Estimated time to completion, two minutes." the AI replied and Tony nodded.
With that taken care of, he pulled out his phone and charger, then started browsing the internet.