Tony looked at his armor and sighed. It wasn't badly damaged after the fight with Giganta, but it still had a fair share of dents and scratches.
And unless he wanted to risk setting the hotel on fire, he had nowhere to repair it.
Groaning in annoyance, Tony turned his armor back into a backpack, put it on, and walked out. He could fix it later.
With nothing better to do, Tony resorted to just wandering the Metropolis streets out of sheer boredom.
Then he saw it.
Sweet salvation...
AN ARCADE!
Tony walked in and saw the one thing that could keep him from perishing from boredom. Video games galore.
"SON OF A-"
Tony looked to the source of the yelling. Looks like a group of girls was having difficulty with one of the machines.
One was tall with olive skin that appeared to be of Greek descent. One had short blond hair. One was black with a singular streak of yellow going through her hair. One was Latina wearing mainly green. One somehow had PURPLE hair. And one had ginger hair covered by a hoodie that looked like bat ears.
The blond girl angrily kicked the machine. "Why won't you work?"
"Y'know, contrary to popular belief, concussive force isn't a good repair tool for delicate machinery." Tony snarked.
The blond girl turned to Tony with a glare while angrily stomping towards him. "Oh really, smart guy? Well then, I'll let you to have a crack at fixing it!"
The green girl slid in between Tony and the blond girl. "Kara!"
Kara raised her hands and angrily walked away from Tony. Tony meanwhile walked over to the machine and looked closely. Nothing wrong with it on the outside, meaning this was an inside problem.
"Got a screwdriver?" Tony asked the blonde girl.
"Uh, I do." The black girl pulled out a screwdriver, which Tony thanked her for and took.
Tony unscrewed a panel to look inside the machine. It appears some things were loose and unplugged. Easy to fix.
After a bit of tinkering and re-screwing later, the screen of the game lit up like a match.
"And you're welcome." Tony said.
The blond girl merely rolled his eyes while the rest of the group gave Tony a thumbs up.
"You are a wizard for this technology! You must teach me your spells!" The olive-skinned girl exclaimed.
The purple-haired girl put her hand over the Greek girl while Tony stared in confusion and the other girls facepalmed.
"Please ignore that," the purple-haired girl said. "I'm Zee."
"I'm Karen," the black girl introduced herself.
"Kara," the blond girl introduced herself.
"Jessica." The girl in green said.
"I'm Babs!" The ginger girl said.
"Diana of The- I mean Diana Prince!" The Greek girl said.
"Tony," Tony said with a nod.
Just then, the phones of all the girls suddenly vibrated in union. When they pulled them out, shock proceeded to appear on their faces. They started to scramble out of the arcade.
'Huh. Wonder what they saw,' Tony thought.
Tony's own phone then began to ring. Call from Rhodey and Pepper.
Tony picked up the call. "Y-"
"TONY!" Pepper screamed at him through the phone, catching Tony off guard.
"Pepper, are you trying to deafen me?" Tony groaned.
"Dude, you gotta get to Lexcorp! Now!" Rhodey's voice was heard over the phone as well.
"Guys, like I said before, I DO NOT want anything to do with Lexco-"
Pepper cut Tony's sentence short with a few words of her own.
"Stark Industries is here!"
For Tony, it felt like time froze.
"What?"
"Stark Industries people are over here at Lexcorp! You better get over here!" Rhodey said.
Tony wasted no time. He ran out of the arcade and, in such a hurry, crashed into someone familiar.
"OW!" Zee yelled.
"Sorry, in a hurry," Tony said. Then he noticed. The girls seemed to be heading to Lexcorp too. "Are you girls heading to Lexcorp?"
"Yeah?" Kara said.
Tony hastily picked up his backpack and got on his feet. "Got room for one more?"
The group showed up to see a large crowd gathered there already.
"TONY!"
Everyone in the group jumped in shock and fear. Pepper somehow stuck into the center of them without anyone noticing.
"Where have you been? What were you doing? Who are your new friends?" Pepper went on.
Most of the girls' faces displayed immense horror as Pepper continuously asked more and more questions.
"Tony!" Rhodey ran up to Tony. "Dude, this is bad."
"What do ya mean?" Tony asked.
Before Rhodey could say more, a loud voice was heard over speakers scattered around the area.
"HELLO METROPOLIS!"
Tony looked at the stage. A bald boy that appeared to be about Tony's age wearing a purple suit was talking to the audience.
Lex Luthor, teen CEO of Lexcorp.
"Today is a good day! Y'know, when I founded Lexcorp, I founded it with one purpose in mind: PROGRESS! I wanted to make the world better, more advanced!"
Tony leaned closer to Rhodey to continue their conversation. "You said Stark Industries is here, right? You see Stane?"
"No. I saw a couple trucks full of tech heading to Lexcorp, but no Stane." Rhodey said.
Tony sighed in relief. "Still, this reeks of Stane's plotting. Luthor has no idea what he's doing."
"But sometimes, ya need some help to build the world of tomorrow! Which is why I'm proud to announce a partnership with Stark Industries!" Lex continued. "Here with us now is acting CEO of Stark Industries, Obadiah Stane!"
Tony felt time around him freeze and his heart drop. Stane was here.
The manipulative warmonger walked onto the stage for all to see, before taking the microphone from Lex's hand. "Hello, people of Metropolis. I am Obadiah Stane, CEO of Stark Industries. This amazing company used to belong to my old friend Howard Stark, but tragically, he perished in a plane crash long ago."
Jesiica noticed Tony was clenching his teeth so hard she was worried they could crack. "Are you okay, Tony?"
Just then, it appeared Tony came back from his own world, as his face appeared less angry, but still somewhat angry. "Just fine, Jess."
Mr. Luthor is right! To build a better future for the world, alliances are neccesary! Which is why I am glad to accept this partnership with Lexcorp!"
Stane and Lex shook hands, making most of the crowd erupt in cheering.
Tony, meanwhile, wanted something to throw up in.