TW:IM2
By the time the duo of Artemis and Wally returned to the living area, the rest of the Watchers had gone ahead and played the movie, forcing them to quickly scramble into their couch.
1:10:36 - 1:10:45
"Okay, what did we miss?" Wally asked.
"And why the hell is Hammer squealing like a highschooler who just snagged a hot date to prom?"
Their questions were answered almost instantly as the wanna-be Tony Stark arrived at the table and gasped theatrically.
1:10:46 - 1:10:58
" Upgrade their software?" Artemis sneered. "With what, his shitty software? Talk about a major downgrade!"
1:11:00 - 1:11:07
"Ah, good old firepower," Raquel commented as she sat up, rubbing her hands together with a gleam in her eyes. "Time to see if this guy's worth all those taxpayer dollars the Pentagon's shelling out to him."
1:11:08 - 1:12:43
"You've gotta be kidding me." Raquel muttered, looking about as unimpressed by Hammer's weapons display as the military men onscreen. No, she looked even more disappointed -and more than a little angry too. "That's it?! The Pentagon's top weapons contractor and all he can do is level a single 'standing structure' with his magnum opus? Jesus, I know you guys said he wasn't shit compared to Tony but that's just sad!"
"And you didn't even see the Jericho missile," Hal snorted. "Or those micro-seekers Tony used on his first outing."
"What's the Jericho?" Being the only one present who hadn't seen the prequel, Raquel was totally in the dark to what Hal was talking about.
"Let's just say it's the kind of weapon that's perfectly fitting for a guy once nicknamed the Marquis of Death."
"Jesus, it was that bad?"
"Yes."
"And the micro-seekers?"
"A cluster of small projectiles that, when fired, were capable of neutralizing multiple stationary targets holding hostages before they could so much as think of pulling the trigger." J'onn supplied.
"Well… damn…" She'd known that Tony was a mechanical genius -seeing the Iron Man suit was all the evidence anyone needed, really- and she had known that he had once created weapons but it was only now that the dots were really connecting in terms of how much destruction he could wreak if he brought even a tenth of that mental acuity to weapons-smithing.
"We had a similar reaction to seeing those weapons ourselves," J'onn commented. "It is also why neither Colonel Rhodes nor the Major seem even remotely interested: compared to anything Anthony Stark has done, Justin Hammer's magnum opus comes off as… to use a more youthful term, incredibly lame ."
"Which might explain why the government seem so desperate to get their hands on Stark's suit," Hal remarked. "They might play politics with a number of things but to even get your name into the ring for a military contract, you've gotta prove that you can deliver the goods, which means Hammer's had to be one of the top five weapons manufacturers, putting out tech that leaves their government ahead in the weapons race. If the absolute best he can do barely scratches the surface of what a bored Stark could do then it almost makes sense for Uncle Sam to take whatever means necessary to acquire Stark's suit."
"No wonder Rhodey didn't want Hammer touching the suit's software," Conner said. "It'd be a huge downgrade compared to whatever's currently in the suit." *
1:12:47 - 1:13:06
"Dude's gotta feel like he's just won the lottery now that Rhodey's taking all the crap he's offering," Wally snorted as he reached for the last platter of spicy wings. "Any takers?" When everyone declined, he happily tore into the first one.
"You know, something just hit me about Hammer." Zatanna remarked. "I don't know anything about guns except 'tiny metal slugs exit through here' but I do know that he talked about two of those guns coming from other countries."
"The FN-2000 was the only one he explicitly said was 'made in Belgium,' Zee." Artemis corrected.
"Okay, my mistake," She raised her hands in an apologetic gesture before continuing, "but my point is still kinda there: he's supposed to be weaponizing Tony's suit and he wants to do it with just guns ?"*
"And regular, perhaps military-grade guns at that, if Rhodey and the Major's expressions were anything to go by," Kaldur agreed. "The least he could have done would have been to put forth something -if not revolutionary then at least- unexpected."
"Well, to be fair, he did provide the dreaded, building-leveling ' Ex Wife.'"
"You forgot to add 'epic writer' to its many talents," Dick snorted, adding to Conner's dig.
"The Jericho makes that cigar look like a firecracker," Artemis said dismissively. "And while we're on the topic… the Ex Wife? Really ?"
"It's like he enjoys giving people reasons to ridicule him," Kaldur noted. Honestly, Hammer's stock had taken so many hits it wasn't even funny any more. "It's quite sad, really."
"Hey, some people have zero class," Oliver shrugged. "Hammer just happens to have even less than that."
"But what if his wife, er, ex-wife, was actually just that bad?" M'gann asked. "Isn't it possible that she just left such a horrible impact on him that-"
"He'd willingly call his single greatest creation 'the Ex-Wife?'" Zatanna interjected. "Sorry, M'gann but that just reeks of pettiness. I mean, even if we take it as the ex being a nasty piece of work -which is very possible- naming the weapon like he did is just low. He could have named it after his ex, as in giving the weapon her actual name and when people ask he'd say something like 'it's blow up any target like she did to my life-'"
"Oh God, that was cheesy as hell!" Artemis faux-retched.
"Yeah but it's still a step up from where he is now." The Homo Magi shrugged. "Anyhow the best thing would have been to just not name it after her. Like, at all. Call it the ' Cyclo-RDX Ulysses' or something and move on. He'd look a lot less like a tool."
"Well, Zee, if there's one thing this movie's hammered, it's that this guy is a huge tool." Dick stated with a shrug.
"And that is how you pun," Artemis whispered to her boyfriend as the next scene began with Tony looking through his father's box.
1:13:09 - 1:14:05
"Looks like the man's just as human as any of us," Oliver noted with an almost wistful smile as Howard's recording trailed off, recalling a number of times when he had flubbed his lines on a presentation.
1:14:06 - 1:14:15
"Oh my…!" M'gann breathed as a little boy popped out from behind the model and began playing with one of the model buildings. "I think that boy's Tony!" Confirmation came swiftly as Howard finally noticed his uninvited guest:
1:14:17 - 1:14:30
"Okay, am I the only one thinking maybe Tony's dad could have handled that better?" Conner asked with a small frown. "Because, from where I'm sitting, it looks like his dad just brushed him off."
"I don't see a problem there," Artemis rejoined. "Tony wandered onto the set of a live recording and touched what he probably wasn't supposed to, his dad asks what he's doing there and then shoos him off while calling for Mrs Stark to handle toddler Tony." She shrugged and added, "Seems pretty normal to me."
"You gotta take the kid's age into account, though," Hal pointed out. "Stark's what, five? Six years, at best? Those are a kid's formative years and, correct me if I'm wrong here, Dinah, but at that age, kids tend to accept whatever face you show them as who you are and will pretty much relate with you for the rest of their lives based on the perception they get from you then."
"It's a little bit more nuanced than that and I can't exactly give a full break down on child psychology since that's not my area but yes," Dinah agreed. "If Tony's earliest memories of his dad were mostly like that-" she gestured toward the screen where one of the recording crew was frozen in the act of taking Tony away, "-then, by the time Tony would have hit puberty, every experience he'd had with his dad would have been colored with the preconceived notion that his dad didn't want him around."
"Hence the comment about his dad's happiest moment," Wally murmured, now understanding the seemingly exaggerated comment from a few scenes back.
"Exactly," J'onn continued. "This scene also helps us understand why Tony resents his father so much yet says nothing about his mother: when Howard Stark noted his son's presence, he swiftly called for his wife, Maria. If she took her time to be with her son and guide him, it would explain why Tony wasn't quite as morally bankrupt as he could have been and why Miss Potts holds such sway with him."*
"But… if Tony didn't like his dad because he thought he hated him then… why was he basically doing what his dad did?" A confused Conner asked. "He pretty much just left Stark Industries as a weapons manufacturer, heck he made a fortune off developing weapons like his dad… that doesn't make a lot of sense to me."
"Let me ask you something, Conner," Dinah said, her tone quiet but serious. "Recently, after we worked past every last bit of Cadmus programming, you told me that it was still your greatest desire to be like Superman. You weren't sure what he thought about you, you weren't even sure that he didn't hate you yet you chose to continue seeing him as a standard, a goal you had to reach." Her ever observant eyes caught the slight clenching of his fist at the reminder of that turbulent period in his young life and yet again, her heart reached out to him. Yet, in order to make him understand the answer to his own question, she knew she had to take him back to that point. "Why?"
An almost physical silence descended on the room, snuffing out even the ever-present thrum of the Cave's electronics. In the silence, the only movement came from M'gann who placed her hand on her boyfriend's fist and waited for him to open it so she could entwine her fingers with his.
"I… I never really thought about it before," His voice was quiet, halting and full of uncertainty. "I'll have to really think about it but, if I had to answer it right now…" He sighed and looked at his free hand, seeing something no one else could. Something from his time with Cadmus… "Superman has always been this… this larger-than-life character. Cadmus always told me he was the greatest hero but it was only when you guys got me out of there that I realized just how true that is. Everyone looks up to him and they all want to be like him, thinking he's perfect… At first that's just how I wanted to be: I wanted to be perfect like him… but then I met him and he never seemed to like me." A dry, almost bitter laugh burbled out of him. "Here I was, basically a carbon-copy of him and he didn't even want to look at me. After that, I decided I wanted to be better than Superman… to be so good at his thing that he's have to look at me." He felt a light pressure in his palms and -to his mild surprise- saw that M'gann had gotten both her hands entangled in his and was quietly conveying her support. He gave her a weak smile. "It's part of the reason I took those shields from Luthor: they made me as strong as Superman and… well, that's what I wanted back then."
Dinah waited until she was sure that he wasn't going to speak anymore before sending an appreciative smile his way. In the back of her mind, she vowed to meet him after the movie was over so they could talk. In addition, she added the conversation to the list of things she needed to discuss with Clark. "We're talking about movie characters who may or may not exist in some other reality or whatnot * so I can't guarantee that my thoughts are anything more than just theories but I think Tony's decision to tread the beaten path, so to speak, is just one big… well, it's one big ' fuck you' to Howard. ' You were a genius? I'm so much smarter. You were rich? I'm more than triple your net worth. You designed weapons? I revolutionized modern warfare.' That kind of thing."
"I can almost hear him talking to his dad in the afterlife," Though she had snorted in amusement, there was a clear melancholic undercurrent to her words. " Hey old man! I know you were good at making shit go boom and all but did you get a cool nickname out of it? "
There were a couple of smiling faces around the room; so accurate was Raquel's portrayal that a few of the more imaginative minds could actually see the scene: Tony, looking casually dapper as always swirling glass of champagne, a cocky smile on his face as he spoke.
Yet there were only smiles -small ones, at that- and no laughs, chuckles or giggles because they all knew, now, the pain hidden behind that smirk.
"He may be looking back on the decision with a not insubstantial amount of regret considering how much trouble it has heaped upon him to this point however I believe Miss Lance's thoughts would go a long way in explaining why Mister Stark chose to reveal himself as Iron Man," Alfred mused, his tone as subdued as everyone else's.
"He wanted something that would always distinguish him from being just 'the son of Howard Stark.'" Kaldur nodded. "For all that it would seem to be at odds with his desire to be better than his father at all the man had done, Tony also sought something that would leave a different legacy from what his father had done. He had tried it in his philanthropic efforts just as he had done so in his more… decadent lifestyle but owning up to being a bona fide hero?" The young Atlantean shook his head. "That would be something his father could never lay claim to."
1:14:47 - 1:14:53
"Do you… d'you think he's worried about Tony?" Zatanna whispered to Dick as the movie rolled on. "How he treated him, maybe?"
Unfortunately, the younger boy had no answer and could only shrug helplessly.
1:14:56 - 1:16:04
It was no surprise to anyone present that Tony was on the verge of tears at his father's firm, proud declaration; indeed, a number of those watching had watery vision and not a few cheeks had grown damp at the show of fatherly pride.
"I guess, in a way, Tony was right," Hal noted quietly. "Fury knew his old man way better than he did."
"But… well, I don't get it." Wally frowned. "If Howard Stark cared about his son and was so proud of him…"
"Why couldn't he show it?" Oliver asked, finishing the question for the ginger-haired speedster. When he saw the boy nod, the scion of the Queen family sighed. "Because he didn't know how to." When he saw the young speedster jerk back in shock, like he couldn't comprehend the fact that a father might not know how to express his love for his son, the Archer inhaled deeply. "Being a father isn't easy, kid. And I don't mean the whole 'sperm donor' part; that just makes you a cog in the reproductive wheel. No, to be a father is to take care of a child; to protect, guide, nurture and provide for an entirely separate human that, for a decent chunk of their life, is entirely dependent on you. Screw the motivational yadda and the parental guides bullshit, nothing on this planet can ever truly prepare you for that first moment when you hold this… person… and realize that you're now wholly responsible for a different being." He leaned back and exhaled explosively.
Like M'gann had done with Conner, Dinah entwined her hand with her partner's. Because of their no-secrets pact, she knew exactly why Oliver spoke with such emotion on the subject of fatherhood.
She did know about William after all. *
Taking over from where he had stopped, she said, "The thing is, as the child grows older, you're always plagued by anxiety and worry: am I taking the right steps? Am I making the right choices? Was I too harsh just now or should I have been even harsher? Questions like that will always be there every step of the way because it's as much of a learn-as-you-go experience for you as it is for your child. Of course, like just about anything else, it gets easier with each repetition and so the fear, shock, awe and everything else becomes a little more muted with every new child but it never really goes away because each child is different and what worked for one rarely ever works perfectly for the other, even if they're twins." For a moment, she wondered why Artemis seemed so… shocked? No, it was more like she'd had an epiphany… ' Ah, you're finally beginning to understand why Paula's always on your case hmm?' With a small nod, the blonde heroine decided to bring the topic to a close: "We don't know much about Howard and his day to day treatment of his son but we can see that, in his own, quiet way, he really does care for his son. And in some ways, that's all that matters."
It took a couple of moments more for the younger ones to regain control over their emotions and it was only when he had approving nods from everyone present that Conner hit the play button.
1:16:14 - 1:16:22
"Mama Coulson might be a little upset at our boy, here," Dick noted with a small smile as Tony asked stopped by a parked truck bearing 'Fresh Organic Strawberries' for sale and asked for the price. "Tony's bailing on house arrest for a strawberry craving."
"I mean, this one's on Coulson," Hal shrugged, just a tad heavier than normal. It was clear that they all had not quite recovered from the last topic. "He inferred that Stark was under house arrest, yeah, but then again, he couldn't be nice enough to send one of his mooks to just get some coffee. Considering the state of his house, I don't blame Stark for sneaking out."
"There's also the fact that Billy Billions over there's not quite at the level of taking out multiple trained guards on his own," Bruce remarked. "If Coulson had an even slightly efficient squad, there'd be next to no way for Stark to sneak out, to say nothing of driving out."
"So, Coulson let him out?" Conner asked.
"Almost certainly," Hal confirmed.
1:16:24 - 1:16:35
"Okay, so I can't tell exactly what kind of watch that is but I know that's probably enough for the old man to buy a small strawberry farm somewhere," A stunned Raquel said as Tony tried to persuade the man to accept his watch in exchange for a box of strawberries.
"A six dollar box of strawberries for a six-thousand dollar watch," Hal smirked as the man handed over the box of fruit. "Old man's a hustler."
Oliver, an amused look in his eyes, directed a ' do we tell him' look at Bruce who discreetly shook his head with a smirk of his own.
1:16:38 - 1:16:43
"I don't know if the old man's getting that strawberry farm anytime soon," Zatanna smiled softly at the scene. "But I do know that he'll never know how much those words must mean to Tony right now."
"I know we do not fight for platitudes and all but, as someone who has been close to the edge a few times, I can tell you that more than the 'keys to the city' and the plaques and statues, it is words like those that keep us going." J'onn remarked.
1:16:44
"Looks like rough waters for the new CEO of Stark Tech.," Raquel muttered as Pepper argued the legality of certain actions over her phone.
"It's Start Industries," Artemis corrected. "But yeah, considering everything that's happened since she's taken over, I'm surprised her hair hasn't grayed out entirely."
"Unfortunately, I don't think she's about to catch any breaks," Wally noted as a harried looking woman poked her head in.
1:16:47 - 1:17:00
" Mark II platform?" Wally frowned as he tried to figure out what Pepper was referring to. "What is she…?"
"I think she's talking about the… um… Tony's suit disassembler." Conner suggested and Kaldur nodded.
"I agree. I believe Miss Potts is taking steps to recover the suit Rhodey confiscated."
"She wants to take on the military?" Artemis asked skeptically. "What, she's going to power up her own Iron Lady suit and go charging in?"
"Nothing that dramatic," J'onn smiled. "Instead, she will fight this battle the best way she can: through the legal systems."
"… I'm pretty sure a guy like that Senator… Sterns, was it?" Artemis shrugged, unconcerned about getting the name right. "Anyhow, I'm pretty sure that guy can call in a few favors and bury any attempts to go through the courts."
"Yeah, well one advantage of being as rich and high-profile as Stark is the sheer media pull his name generates." Bruce stated. "It's not a perfect set up, and I'm sure the legal team will let her know why but if Potts plays her cards right, she could make the case so loud that even if she can't get the suit back, the government wouldn't be able to make public use of it for at least a decade."
"And because Stark had the good sense to trademark it, the government can't slap a new coat of paint on it and try to pass it off as something new." J'onn finished as Pepper continued haggling over the phone, a news report playing in the background. "She may not win such a case but she doesn't intent to lose and she'll throw up as many obstacles as she can to prevent the military from gaining even an inch."
1:17:06 - 1:17:17
Oliver grimaced as the reporter rambled on about Pepper's abrupt appointment as the CEO of Stark Industries. "And that's the disadvantage of being as rich and high-profile as Stark."
"Oh come on!" Zatanna exclaimed simultaneously. "She's got a Ph.D in handling Tony's bullshit, she's basically been running the company since the first movie; what other qualifications does she need?!"
"The kind that would get her the trust of the primary stakeholders, Miss Zatara." Alfred replied bluntly. "And as much as I understand where you are coming from, those stakeholders cannot and, more importantly, will not rely on such arbitrary qualifications."
"Wait. But Tony chose her, right? That's gotta count for something." Conner frowned.
"As evidence of Mister Stark's nepotist and often erratic behaviour, yes. As evidence for Miss Potts having slept her way through to the top -keep in mind I'm approaching this from their perspective- yes. As proof that she is qualified to handle such vast fortunes? Absolutely not ." The Wayne Butler glanced at his ward for a moment and a silent conversation seemed to pass before he continued, "When Master Bruce returned from his… overseas endeavors, the various stakeholders of the Wayne business empire sought to keep him at bay. They saw in him a boy who had no understanding of how to handle such great power and so they wanted to, for all intents and purposes, make him a 'trust fund baby' while they handled things. It took nearly five years of work for Master Bruce to work his way up, to earn their trust and prove that he was responsible enough to handle such tasks."
"Five years?" Dick gaped. He'd known a little of Bruce's early days as the head of the Wayne businesses but never could he have guessed what his mentor had fought through on one side of his life while simultaneously dealing with the dark side of Gotham.
"Five years, Master Grayson." Alfred stated firmly. "Of course, it might have been shorter had he not needed to balance the lives of the scion, the playboy and the hero through it all but it could never have been shorter than three years. After all, those in power are ever so dreadfully cautious of that which might tamper with their interests."
1:17:18 - 1:17:21
"He sounds pissed." Conner noted as Tony ordered the TV to mute itself.
"He should be," Oliver scowled. "We can't tell exactly what Pepper's been doing but going off what we saw when she was just Stark's personal assistant, I can say that the reporter's spewing nonsense."
1:17:22 - 1:17:28
"Looks like this 'Burt' guy's explaining that legal stuff you talked about earlier, B-man," Raquel noted as Tony talked about moving some boxes.
1:17:31 - 1:17:36
"A part of me is surprised that he'd keep hid dad's model in his office but, after what we talked about earlier, I think I get it now." Zatanna said.
"You're partly correct there, Zee," Dinah noted. "That being said, there's a simpler explanation to it: Stark's taking the idea for this Expo from his father's notes so it makes sense that he's using his old man's tools."
"…that makes sense too."
1:17:37 - 1:17:47
"Ouch." Wally winced at Pepper's bland rejection as Tony took his seat.
1:17:47 - 1:17:53
"Okay, either the stress is getting to her or she's just being rude," Raquel frowned as Pepper began her countdown. "Wasn't he her boss a few scenes ago?"
"Little bit of the stress, mostly due to the fact that it's Tony," Dick shrugged apologetically. "Pepper knows that if she doesn't want to spend a million years listening to him ramble then she's gotta put her foot down and force him to stay on track."
" Really? Cause earlier on, you guys thought she was pretty clever for following all his rambling."
"Yeah, but she wasn't exactly facing time crunch." Another shrug. "Just see for yourself, hmm?"
"I was just driving over here and I thought I was coming to basically apologize, but I'm not."
"You didn't come here to apologize?"
"Look, that goes without saying, and I'm working on that. But I haven't been entirely upfront with you, and I just want to try to make good. Can I move this?" Tony asked, referring to the swinging sticks in front of his face just… well, swinging. "This is crazy. It's like a Ferris wheel, it keeps going. I'm trying to get some-" He rambled.
"No." Pepper refused.
Tony moved to his right on his side of the desk, away from the swinging sticks. "Do you know how short life is? And if I never got to express… And by the way, this is somewhat revelatory to me. And I don't care… I mean, I care. It would be nice. I'm not expecting you to…" He continued to ramble. "Look, here's what I'm trying to say. I'm just gonna say it-"
1:17:54 - 1:18:30
"Let me stop you right here, okay? Because if you say 'I' one more time, I'm gonna actually hurl something at your head, I think." Pepper glowered at him. "I am trying to run a company. Do you have any idea what that entails?"
"I'd have agreed with his ' yes' if I didn't know he foisted all the heavy lifting on her shoulders when he was the big man." Wally sighed.
1:18:37 - 1:19:06
"She's allergic to strawberries," Dick groaned, piecing it together just a fraction of a second before Tony did. "Oh boy, he's really screwed up here."
"This is progress, Pepper. I knew there was a correlation between you and this!"
" Really?" Raquel asked incredulously. "He's really gonna try to spin this?"
"I mean-"
"Nuh-uh, Flash Fact, there's no defending him from this one," She cut in. "He just screwed up colossally and his first reaction is to try to spin it so he comes out in a better light?"
"I'm not saying he's right-"
"You'd better not, else I'd be wondering what the hell Artemis sees in you!"
"Raquel, believe me, when Tony says stupid shit like that he pisses me off just as much as you're feeling right now," Zatanna started, hands raised in a placating gesture. "But… considering how he forgot Pepper's birthday and just told her to buy herself a gift from his account… I think, on some level… he's not entirely wrong to think that this is progress."
"Did you know that The Atom once called me into his laboratory to help him test a new flame retardant he was working on?" J'onn asked, the suddenness of the question baffling many present. "Of course, he didn't ask me in so many words, he just requested that my presence in his lab. Imagine my surprise and -I am not ashamed to admit- fright when the doors slid open and I was welcomed by a blazing torch being waved right at my head." M'gann and a number of her teammates winced at the imagery, knowing the effect flames had on Martians.
"I'm guessing he realized how he messed up a split-second after you flinched, huh?" Hal asked knowingly.
The older Martian nodded. "He apologized, of course, but my point here is that much like Anthony, Doctor Palmer is far more comfortable recalling complex chemical formulae and designing technological marvels than recalling facts about his co-workers. In this case, Anthony was faced with a challenge and he sought to speak to possibly the only person he could turn to at this time. He wanted to apologize and thought a heartfelt gift would connect better than simply throwing money at the problem as he is fond of doing…"
"So he's racking his brain, thinking of an appropriate re-conciliatory gift when he spots a strawberry farmer and his mind makes a connection between Pepper and strawberries," Alfred finished. "The execution leaves much to be desired but his heart's in the right place."
"Yeah well he'd better not be expecting smiles and forgiveness because if that was me, I'd still be pissed the hell off," Raquel scowled, clearly still incensed at Tony's behaviour.
1:19:15 - 1:19:20
"Apparently Red and I share the same sentiments." Raquel huffed following Pepper's cold dismissal of her former boss.
"Pepper -and you, Raquel- may be justifiably upset but how do you think she'd feel if Tony committed suicide?"
Dinah's question had the Dakotan girl reeling. "Uh, B.C, where the hell did that come from?"
"Think about it: Tony's been pushing everyone away because he knew he was dying right? And then Fury shows up, gives him a reason to be hopeful, to want to keep fighting and to want to build those bridges he tried to burn… except when Tony tried to figure out the mystery his dad left, he found diddly-squat. He probably wasn't going to just stop there and give up but he probably felt it was a good time to start rebuilding those bridges, right?"
"Only his first attempt at doing that hit the mother of stonewalls -his fault, admittedly, but he probably doesn't see that- so his confidence is incredibly shaky right now." Bruce continued, following her line of thought. "Suicide wouldn't exactly be off the table for anyone at this point."
"So, how do you think Pepper would feel if she heard on the news tomorrow that Tony's killed himself?" Dinah asked. "Matter of fact, how would you feel, in Pepper's shoes?"
Raquel frowned but remained silent.
"Miss Potts?"
"Hi, come on in." Pepper smiled at Natasha as she walked in, ignoring Tony's arched expression as the beautiful redhead walked over to Pepper's side.
"Wow, she doesn't seem bothered that Tony's there at all," Zatanna noted.
"Hey, do you think Tony's going to blow her cover?" Conner asked as Natasha reminded her boss of her impending flight seemingly without feeling even remotely surprised at Tony's presence.
"No," Kaldur answered decisively. "Tony's typically very expressive but by the time he completed his little chair spin, he had already wiped his surprise at seeing Ms Romanoff from his face. If he was going to say something, he'd have done so already."
"As for Nattie being surprised that he's there, well, remember how we said that Coulson almost definitely let Tony walk away?" Dick asked, answering Zatanna's earlier question
1:19:32 - 1:19:39
"Ooh…" Oliver winced at the awkward silence that Tony tried to fill with an even more cringe-worthy joke. "He definitely felt that one."
Raquel stared at the screen for a moment, wondering if she should talk before deciding not to. ' It'd cause too much arguing again,' She thought to herself as Tony glanced toward Happy who shook his head slightly as if warning Tony not to push things. ' Far as I'm concerned, the guy caused all this so he shouldn't have no problem facing up to his shit.'
1:19:42 - 1:19:53
"I thought you said he wasn't going to blow her cover?" Conner asked, directing a questioning look at Kaldur.
Rather than the Atlantean, though, it was the Green Lantern that replied: "He's testing her; fishing for a response of some sort. I don't know why he's being so juvenile about it but I can tell you this one for sure: he can't risk burning her."
"Wait. He can't?"
"What do you mean, burn her?"
"Burn, betray, blow her cover, same difference," Hal waved away M'gann's question before focusing on her boyfriend's. "And no, he absolutely cannot risk that until he has figured out the 'riddle of his heart.'" He ran a hand through his hair and added, "Remember, he has no clue if Fury's holding any more of his dad's stuff back -my experience with Waller says he almost certainly is- so until Stark figures this shit out, he can't afford to really piss off what has to be one of the Director's top agents."
Seeing that he wasn't getting anything more than the initial flash of emotion from the spy, he switched focus to Pepper. "I thought you two didn't get along?"
"They di- oh! She called her a lawsuit on legs the first time they met!" Wally snapped his fingers in remembrance.
"Not in so many words but yes," Alfred stated. "However Miss Potts did not really seem to have a problem with Miss Rushm- pardon me, Miss Romanoff until the party in Mister Stark's home where she said, and I quote, 'I'm on to you' and an unfinished statement."
"So, what exactly did Pepper not like about Nattie?" Artemis asked. "Or was Tony right and she was just chomping down on those green jelly beans?"
"She's asking if Pepper was jealous," Oliver quickly explained, having noted Hal's baffled expression. "Which, come to think of it, may actually not be too far off the mark. I mean, Nat's pretty much the younger, prettier model and in the short time she worked for Tony, she had pretty much allowed him to do whatever he wanted."
"Except she didn't allow him to have sex with her," Bruce chuckled lightly. "Which is somewhat ironic because from Pepper's point of view she must have felt that Romanoff would allow him into her bed -probably easily too."
"It gets even better," Oliver smirked. "I'm willing to bet that Pepper hired Nat as her PA specifically to keep her, er, grubby mitts away from Tony."
"That… you know, that's actually extremely likely."
1:20:02 - 1:20:22
"Wait…" Wally seemed stunned by what he was seeing. "Is he actually impressed?"
"Should he not be?" Artemis asked. "Because she's actually pretty good: she got into his company without throwing up any red flags, positioned herself perfectly so she could keep an eye on him and when the chance came for her to get closer to him, she took it without hesitation. And if her real boss hadn't told Tony who she was her cover would still be intact."
"Is there anything real about you? Do you even speak Latin?"
Her response was delivered in fluent Latin.
"What did she-?"
" Fallaces sunt rerum species," Bruce, Dick and -surprisingly- Zatanna supplied the answer in stereo.
"It's a quote from Seneca that means ' the appearances of things are deceptive,'" Zatanna added. "Dad used Latin in a number of his old shows so I got interested and learned."
"Very fitting, all things considered." Dinah remarked.
1:20:32 - 1:20:24
"You'd think the thing offended him or something," Hal snorted as Tony stuffed a stapler and some other item into the base of the swinging sticks curio to put an end to the constant movement.
1:20:52 - 1:21:09
"Okay, so, anybody have any clues why Tony's staring at the Little Big City model like it's a DaVinci?" Connor asked as the younger Stark held his hand up to his eye as if it was a spyglass and roamed over the city before locking on to a silvery dome-shaped object. "Because it can't be the first time he's seeing it, right?"
"Considering what he now knows about his dad, it may as well be a virgin viewing," Oliver pointed out. "Remember: he didn't exactly see his dad in the best light until a few hours ago and the jury's still out on that. After watching those recordings, though, he's probably seeing things without his my dad thinks I'm the worst-tinted lenses."
"Then there's the inscription on the plaque," Bruce noted as Tony drove home with the model city. "If it means what I think it means then Howard Stark had a very… interesting sense of humor and was among other things, likely a genius at hide-and-seek."
1:21:35 - 1:21:54
"What I wouldn't do to get my hands on those holo-projectors," Raquel muttered, her annoyance at Tony overridden by her curiosity.
"What, the hard-light projectors you guys use aren't as good as these?" Artemis asked, genuinely interest clear in her voice.
"Our projectors are just that: projectors," Wally sighed. "We use them to display renders of our work models and stuff but fluently mimicking movement so that we can essentially manipulate the models by hand?" He shook his head. "Our tech isn't there yet."
"I don't think he has any special projectors, though," Dick said with a contemplative frown. "I think JARVIS is just a really good AI assistant. I mean-" He gestured for the remote and, when it landed in his palm, he quickly rewound the movie by a few seconds. "Here! It's faint but if you look closely where Tony's arms meet the tables-"
"JARVIS was already scanning the city before Tony finished instructing it." Kaldur noted.
"Bingo. Plus, his helmet's HUD? There's no way in hell he's deciding what comes up and when with his fingers or his facial expression. Not without some sort of neural link, anyway."
"And since we have no evidence for a neural link, it stands to reason that JARVIS is, as you said, just that good," Dinah nodded, accepting the young boy's theory.
1:21:55 - 1:22:08
"Interesting…" Bruce hummed. "While I don't think you're completely wrong, I think the answer to Stark's holographs isn't completely reliant on JARVIS' accurate prediction of his creator's needs."
"The snapping gesture, Master Bruce?"
"Right on the money, Alfred." The Dark Knight paused to collect his thoughts before continuing. "While the helmet's HUD is almost completely under JARVIS' control, these workshop projections are not. They're likely based on a combination of JARVIS' predictive capabilities and Stark's movements which themselves are likely a condensed, shorthand of whatever system he must have used when JARVIS was little more than an upgraded BIOS."
"… It makes sense," Oliver mused. "There must have been a way for JARVIS to have known that Tony raising his arms at the table wasn't a sign to lift just one area of the city and not the entire thing. And that little snap and drag just now? There'd have been no need to snap if JARVIS could accurately predict what the dragging movement meant. Heck, if it was that good, Stark would probably just be walking around giving instructions and not playing touchy-feely with light projections."
1:22:10 - 1:22:23
"Okay, science-y people: how does that look like an atom?" Zatanna asked as Tony reached for the ball-like projection at the center of the city and pulled it out before expanding it so that it seemed like a floating globe.
"It's not a perfect replica -and we can't see the whole thing- but it does have more than a passing semblance to old diagrams of atoms as having nuclei with electrons moving around them in clearly defined concentric rings." Artemis answered. "According to Baywatch-" She lightly dug her fingers into his side, "research shows that electrons are more like, uh… space debris! From, you know, Star Wars after big space battles. Anyhow, electrons are space debris floating the the gravitational field of the super-tiny planets called nuclei."
M'gann smiled as Tony provided JARVIS with more instructions. "Looks like the chemistry lessons helped."
"Yes, they did," Artemis pulled her boyfriend closer with a smile. "I still hate chemistry but I don't suck at it as badly as I used to."
While Tony studied the floating ball of light, JARVIS tried -and failed- to comprehend its creator's objective. "What is it you're trying to achieve, sir?"
"I'm discovering… Correction: I'm rediscovering a new element, I believe." Tony explained.
"Called it!" Hal exclaimed with a victorious fist pump, shooting a savage grin at a grumpy Oliver. "Pay up, loser!"
"You guys placed bets without me?" Artemis asked, with an overly dramatic gasp. "How could you?!"
"Considering the fact that I now owe your boyfriend five bucks, should you really be asking that?" Zatanna asked, looking every bit as grumpy as Oliver did.
"You know, I feel like I should be saying something about you guys turning our telepathic link into your private gambling hub," M'gann glared at the guilty parties for a moment before flashing them a winning. "Lucky for you, there's this thing about the house earning a share of all bets placed so pay up, suckers!"
In the background, the meaty 'thwack!' of J'onn's forehead meeting his palm was muffled by the even louder groans that rang out.*
1:22:48 - 1:23:15
"Woah…" Conner breathed in quiet awe. "This almost makes me wonder if old man Howard wasn't smarter than his son."
"It isn't impossible," Alfred remarked. "Though I am inclined to believe that the answer is not so straightforward."
"What do you mean?"
"I suspect that Mister Stark and his father cannot truly be compared because their minds are tuned to different specialties," The old gentleman theorized. "I'll use Master Bruce as an example: for all his broad knowledge of anatomy and medicine, I can state with absolute certainty that his father, Master Thomas possessed a deeper understanding of those fields. Without taking newer techniques and discoveries into account, Master Thomas is undoubtedly the better physician. However the reverse is true about their understanding of chemistry: even if Master Thomas had all the time to acclimatize himself with modern knowledge, Master Bruce would still be better."*
"You're saying Tony's better at building stuff than creating completely new, out of the box stuff and his dad's the opposite?" Conner asked. "And you can't tell who's smarter because they're both geniuses at two different things?"
"Put simply? Yes."*
1:23:24 - 1:23:49
"And that's how you know JARVIS is still an AI," Oliver noted in distaste. "Zero tact and it's the mother of all buzzkills."
"Tony doesn't even seem bothered," M'gann noted as the billionaire turned to his old robot assistants and smiled. "It's like he didn't even hear JARVIS."
"In a way, he didn't," Dinah commented. "After believing that he was going to die for so long, he's just been handed the key to a long life and you think a little 'we don't have the facilities for this project' will stop him?"
"Mister Alfred called him an engineer and if he's anything like the Atlantean engineers I knew then he loves a challenge," Kaldur stated in a surprisingly serious tone. "For all that Alanah and her team threw up every complaint possible and cursed every last member of the design team, when my king ordered them to get to work on building the new Sorcerers' Guild headquarters, they threw themselves into the task with the same dogged relentlessness that the four of you possessed over this weekend."*
1:23:57 - 1:24:20
"Whatever he's planning, looks like it's going to need one hell of a power surge." Hal commented as Tony pried open a crate and pulled out the heavy-duty pipes that laid within. "Might even short out his entire section of the grid if those are what I think they are."
"Speaking from experience there, Hal?" J'onn asked, to which the Lantern just shrugged.
"We had to do our fair share of electrical jury-rigging at Ferris."
1:24:46
"Ooh~ Supernanny looks pissed," Artemis remarked at the serious, faintly disapproving look Agent Coulson leveled at Tony. "So he didn't know about Tony's little excursion, hmm?"
"Yeah… no, I call bullshit," Dick rejoined bluntly as Tony shot a quip at his house arrest officer and asked where the man had been. "Like we said earlier, there's no way Tony just moseyed past a perimeter of trained guards and had the space to zoom out in his flashy Audi. Coulson -better yet, Fury knew something like that would happen and must have given instructions about that."
"So Coulson's just playing hard-ass cop?"
"Pretty much." Dick nodded to Conner.
1:24:47 - 1:25:00
"Definitely option A," Oliver snorted. "Especially if Dick's right about Fury's orders and I'm betting he -what the heck is that?"
"Looks like an incomplete round shield," Raquel answered as she studied the incomplete shield. "I'm not sure but it looks like it's supposed to be retractable: probably hidden in the suit's gauntlets to be deployed when needed."*
"So, what, Stark's planning a medieval upgrade?" Hal asked.
"Judging by the coloring, I was thinking more of a mascot," Bruce stated. "We know he wanted Colonel Rhodes to take the Iron Man mantle if he died to the palladium poisoning and he knows the Colonel's a military man so it's not impossible that he wanted to create something that would reflect that while flying the national colors."
"An Iron Patriot, huh?" Hal mused. "It could work…"
1:25:06 - 1:25:47
"Looks like Fury also told Coulson to keep Tony's head from getting too big," Zatanna snickered as the federal agent walked out.
"Well, with Pepper temporarily outta the picture, someone had to do it." Dick replied with a laugh.
1:25:48 - 1:26:07
' What's a prismatic… thingy?' Conner asked over the Team's shared telepathic link. Unfortunately, the only three that could have provided an answer were hyper-focused on the scene as Tony struggled to twist a wheel in a given direction until he was forced to grab a wrench. With those three out of the way, the demi-Kryptonian returned his focus to the screen, resolving to ask them later.
1:26:14 - 1:27:34
The room erupted into loud cheers and claps -even from a grudging Raquel- as the new reactor thrummed with power. Over JARVIS' proclamation of the modified core being accepted, the teens celebrated the trans-generational success they had just witnessed while the adults broke down the properties of Howard Stark's new element.
"Fury may have been on to something when he said that Howard was on the verge of triggering the mother of all energy races," Bruce remarked. "That tiny chip Stark put into the reactor is monstrously efficient."
"I guessed the chip was the product of the Howard's work," Dinah nodded. "It made more sense than the light-show being the element. Still, how'd you get to that conclusion?" Hal asked.
"You saw how that laser sliced through everything in its path except the little chip, right? Well, the fact that the chip survived sustained exposure to the beam with next to no side effects except the glowing meant that the chip was able to store all that energy in itself with the only exchange being the intensity of light emitted. Considering how brightly it shone, the fact that Stark could approach it directly with no visible side effect meant that it didn't give off any heat-"
"Which we know the laser generated based on how it melted through Tony's walls," J'onn supplied, catching the Dark Knight's drift.
"Exactly. In addition, the speed at which it dimmed after Stark turned the accelerator off means that it was already absorbing even the excess light it gave off."
"But it kept on glowing, right?" Artemis asked, bumping into the conversation. "We got over Tony's success a while ago and listened in," she added.
"I believe the glow is a sign that the chip is 'active' so to speak," Bruce continued, not bothered by their participation. It was an open house, after all, and Dinah had explained her motives for continuing these social sessions.* "It didn't start glowing until it was hit with that prismatic beam so it stands to reason that the glow marks its 'active' status."
"But… is it really an energy source?" Zatanna asked. "I mean, the original arc reactor -the one from the cave, I mean- was capable of generating a ton of energy every second. This chip, though-"
"The chip's just a part of the reactor," Wally pointed out. "Remember, we saw him switch palladium cores earlier on so the core only plays a part in the energy generation. The rest of the reactor harness has its own function."
"Ah. Question withdrawn." Zatanna threw her hands up in a gesture of surrender before her features twisted in annoyance. "Oh great. It's him,"
1:27:42 - 1:27:55
"Oh, someone's going to snap." Artemis winced. She didn't like Hammer one bit but right now, she felt he would be very justified if he just went out and beat the tar out of Vanko.
1:27:58 - 1:28:13
"Okay, no, Vanko deserves to get his teeth knocked out," Conner frowned as Hammer practically screeched. "Even I can tell that he's spewing bullshit! And what the heck is he working o- oh. Oh, that's not good." The demi-Kryptonian trailed off as the camera angle panned out to reveal exactly what Vanko had been working on.
Instead of perfecting Hammer's drones, the Russian had spent the time reworking his own primary weapons: his electric whips. Where the whips had looked like little more than braided metal cords lashed together earlier on, the weapons were now sleeker and more energy efficient, the current flowing through far more smoothly and giving off a far more menacing air.
"That's definitely not good."
1:28:19 - 1:28:26
"You think this'll finally push Hammer over the edge?" Oliver muttered to Dinah who shook her head.
"Not unless he's ready to go full hog and either kill Vanko or torture him into compliance, neither of which helps him out in the long run and Vanko knows it. So Hammer will rage and bluster but that's all he can do because he's already lost too much ground with Vanko."
1:28:29 - 1:28:40
"Goddamnit!" Artemis swore softly while Dinah, Hal and Bruce shook their heads. "He had one shot at even trying to take back the momentum and he just blew it to kingdom come! I mean why the hell is he strutting around being all buddy-buddy with Vanko?!"
1:28:54 - 1:29:05
At this point, Artemis just gave up. " Pillows. The guy's been in and out of prison more times than you've had an original idea and your big bad threat is to take away his pillows."
"And shoes," Wally pointed out blandly. "Gosh, I don't have my shoes! What, prithee, shalt I do this darkest of days?"
1:29:13 - 1:30:02
"What did he say?" Hal asked.
"Nothing worth understanding, believe me," Oliver scowled.
1:30:03 - 1:30:15
"There's just no maturity with this guy is there?" Artemis sighed, having completely lost any and all inclination to even be slightly annoyed at Hammer.
1:30:16 - 1:30:38
"Considering Vanko's smirk just now, these mooks aren't going to last five seconds," Dick frowned. "He just signed their death warrants."
"The worst part of it is that Mister Hammer still does not recognize how dangerous Vanko is," J'onn added. "He believes he can control Vanko, put him in his place with little trinkets and paltry threats. He doesn't see that, as far as this side of the game is concerned, Vanko has already won."
1:30:48 - 1:30:55
"Phone privilege?" Zatanna asked.
"It's a thing that can happen if you're kept under house arrest," Oliver explained. "It basically means you don't get to use the phone without express permission from the officer in charge of your detainment. No calls coming in or out without someone listening to every word."
"Ah, so Fury told Coulson to give Tony his phone privileges back." The magic-wielder nodded.
With that little explanation and Tony's relaxed greeting, no one was prepared for what came next.
1:30:59 - 1:31:06
"This son of a bitch," Hal swore, his angry voice just narrowly drowning out M'gann's horrified gasp. "Stringing them up like they're-! Dammit, he didn't need to do that!"
"He's sending a message," Artemis stated, her eyes uncharacteristically cold. "He's telling Hammer what he thinks of his 'not to be trifled with' security forces. It's just one more way he's expressing his opinion on anything touching Hammer."
"It's barbaric," Zatanna muttered in disgust. "He's unhinged."
1:31:07 - 1:31:10
Wally swore softly when Vanko practically threw Tony's words back at him. "Looks like Tony fat mouth's coming back to bite him in the ass."
1:31:10 - 1:31:39
"It's a waste of time," Bruce shook his head decisively as JARVIS narrowed down the triangulation. "They're not going to find him."
1:31:46
"Say what you will about him but Vanko's not stupid," Bruce remarked tightly as the villain cut the call. "He knew Stark would try to trace the call so he knew exactly what he wanted to say and how long he had to get his message across."
"And the message was pretty clear, for all that sounded vague," Oliver added as Tony stared at a monitor that he'd designated for the Expo. Justin Hammer's face was splayed over it, headlining the news that the man would be giving a speech on defence and peace that very evening. "If he wants to break the Stark legacy, there'll be no better place to do it than at the expo bearing their name, in a suit modeled after Tony's creation. Depending on how much havoc he wreaks…" They all grew silent then, understanding exactly how devastating such an attack would be on both the people and the Stark family name.
1:31:55 - 1:32:11
"It… tastes like coconut?" Zatanna asked, utterly bewildered.
"Scratch that, plugging the arc reactor in has a taste?" Wally rejoined, no less confused than the Homo Magi.
"Coconut and metal, apparently," Dinah sighed before changing the topic. "I know he wants to save lives and his parents' legacy but this just reeks of 'bad idea waiting to happen.' And the really annoying part is… I can't say I'd do anything different in his shoes."
"Yeah, well, let's hope this doesn't come back to kick him in the teeth," Oliver murmured, though it lacked any heat. Not a single person present could claim to have never jumped into a fight to save lives without stopping to count the costs after all. "The last untested lightbulb he stuck into his chest nearly killed him."
TW: IM2
*- I'm intentionally skipping a deep-dive into the guns Hammer chose. Chalk it up to the MCU having different weapons compared to the YJ-verse
*- I was advised to ignore the 'does that mean Tony secretly has an Oedipus complex?' question this line of thought could lead to. Too much of a potential minefield to bother with. IYKYK.
*- Because this is something of a spiritual successor to Firestorm808's 'Young Justice Watches Death Battle' fic, the Watchers are tangentially aware that there is a Marvel Universe. They aren't sure if it's just a conceptual thing or if the MU characters are as real as they are but they are aware. That being said, they don't know if the MCU (which, itself, is just a sub universe in the Marvel Multi- [or are they an omni-] verse) is real.
*- This is William Clayton, the child of Oliver's youth so to speak, introduced in CW's Arrow (season 3 iirc). I did say that this version of Oliver takes a few points from that series after all. None of the other characters could ostensibly have experienced fatherhood without heavily impacting the YJ storyline -too early for Damian to exist and it didn't hit so well when I tried using Alfred. As I intimated, Dinah knows about William and is something of a 'cool aunt' figure to him (not too dissimilar to Felicity's role in his life in the series)
*- The watch Tony wears in this scene is, per my research, a Jeager LeCoultre AMVOX3 Tourbillon GMT [platinum and ceramic]. The watch is valued at between $73,075 and $92,500 (source: watchbrandsdirect) so having Hal comment on it being a 'six thousand dollar watch' felt hilarious, especially with Bruce and Oliver sharing that look in the background. XD
*- Totally my headcanon, this stuff about Bruce and the Wayne Enterprises board. Though, in my defence, it does sound very logical.
*- Artemis' explanation of the atomic structure is an almost exact replication of the explanation I gave to a much younger cousin a while back. I know it isn't a hundred percent accurate but it covers most of the basics and provides relatable imagery so I reused it here.
*- I didn't bother have them respond with shock to the 'new element' reveal because I'm trying to keep these characters in-character and not dumb them down too much (sometimes, for exposition reasons, it becomes necessary). Tony already revealed that he'd tried every element in every permutation. A new element was the only logical progression outside of introducing some magical or extraterrestrial B.S which itself would have been as good as a new element anyway. Also: having M'gann play 'the house always wins' card here just felt too funny.
*- I'm taking a bit of artistic license to say that, at least at this point in the story, Bruce loses in a straight up 'doctor-off' to his dad who, IIRC, was hailed as a genius and pioneer in the medical fields. Bruce being better at pure chemistry is just logical though: between the Venom antidotes, Fear toxin antidotes and like a billion antidotes to counter just Poison Ivy, I think the winner's very clear.
*- This is based on an MCU theory of mine that actually follows Marvel comics pretty well: Tony is more of an engineer than a scientist. I won't go into this in detail here because I'll likely be laying it out over the course of the story but if you are curious, you can shoot me a PM.
*- The building Black Manta destroyed when he tried to steal the giant starfish thing. I've forgotten the name of the building and I'm too lazy to look it up so it is now the hq of the Sorcerers' Guild. Also: for the few that might have forgotten, Kaldur's referencing the events of the prologue to this book in the TW series.
*- Considering the fact that the only known time Cap's shield got significantly damaged was in Endgame and the shield was fully cast in CA1, there's absolutely no way in hell that this half-baked thing is the real shield. Plus, we know Tony can design a retractable shield so why not reference that?
*- I never got around to explaining this but one of the in-universe reasons the members of the League keep showing up to this is that Dinah wants to use these movie sessions to create firmer bonds with the Team. Bonds that are outside the typical 'mentor-mentee' bonds the League and their sidekicks usually have. She explained this to Bruce and Clark offscreen during one of Bruce's therapy sessions (between TW:IM and TW:TIH). I might find a way to fully explore this in the fic itself but if not, the answer is here.
A big shout out to VeinBloodborne, Katana of the Blade and my partner, Mr War!
Thanks for reading everyone!
The Ethereal Lord