DivineWhiskey: I think that you would like SpaceBattles, the forum format makes it very easy to have conversations and discuss feedback. My only tip is that if you post on SpaceBattles limit yourself to 1 chapter a day to allow a feedback to come.
Re: Well, that shouldn't be too difficult, since it's often weeks between updates for the same story… Right now the site's holding on, so I'll keep trucking. Plus, all my FF friends are on here.
The true Wild Thing: Hey, I've been reading this story since the very beginning and it has been a wonderfully crazy ride and I'm always super pumped when I see a new update. That being said, this is my first time reviewing and I was wondering if Virgil is ever going to end up in the Red Zone again, be it on his own or with any of the motley crew he has come to know. I'm also rather curious how much any of the characters actually know of him and his past. I've read the whole story so far and I'm positive I have probably forgotten an answer to my questions, should they already exist.
Re: Glad to hear it. Always happy to learn people have been reading "since the very beginning".
As for Virgil returning to the Red Zone, that'll happen someday, but right now since he's the only one who can use the Nanosuit, they won't risk sending him back there until he's ready. Before, he had Dana watching his back, but the longer the Infected occupation lasts, the more concentrated the Biomass will be over all the buildings, so they'd have to groom him into a borderline super-soldier before sending him back in there again. And even then, they don't have anything that could kill Mercer short of major overkill, so it won't be immediate.
As for who knows about his past, the residents of the Red Light know he does "secret stuff" for the government, but they don't know the full of it. "Virgil Valentine" died in the Red Zone, hence why he needed new paperwork.
LuckyShadowWolf: Well let me start off by saying that it was a very nice change of pace with this chapter not having any overt action in the form of a villain caliber fight beyond an averted chase scene and a temporary freak out at an AI rising to rampage, along with that non-combative dogfight. Gave the story a bit of a cool down feel that allows Vergil to have his stress levels calm down a bit and hopefully delay his next bout of berserker rage and let's them overall get some R&R that seemed to be very much needed. Other then that there were three things that stuck out to me. The first was the revelation that Tony could realize that his AI's could in fact lie to him if they found it necessary, since for some reason I know that sounds familiar but it's on the tip of my tongue as to why and I just can't spit out the why. Second is the fact that Tony recorded what Vergil said about his and Lex's power armors, since based on what he said earlier in the chapter it shows he and Lex are still very much on speaking terms with one another and they both try to outdo each other with their inventions and it will be no doubt another point of interest that Lex will have in Vergil. And finally the fact that Tony has someone he personally wants to go visit on the east coast and thus is giving them and their new goodies a ride there makes me thing that the meeting Tony has planned or the after effects of such will be having an impact on the future combat activities of Vergil. With that once again great story and looking forward to seeing how things will go right and wrong in it in the future!
Re: It's wordy as hell, and I love it!
As for the bulk, yeah, other than the Dogfight Tag scene, I didn't see any reason to toss a random villain in the mix; given the shit-show they were privy to at the end of Part 3, I figured he deserved the vacation part of his "working vacation". Yeah, the "cool down feel" was what I was going for, since as-entertaining as it is to write a- "I think his rage broke." -kinda scene, I don't want Virgil to be the kind of protagonist who has to deal with an endless cavalcade of comic book nonsense.
Correction on the first thing: Tony's AI can't lie by themselves, they have to be told/asked-to lie. Otherwise, they're programmed to be completely truthful; your calculator won't tell you that 2 + 2 = FISH for shit and giggles unless someone programs it to.
Second thing: Tony and Lex might be business rivals in this universe, but as opposed to most rivalries in fiction, theirs is a healthy relationship. They have a healthy respect for one another's work and genuinely bring out the best in one another. As opposed to the Earth-12 Lex Luthor who is straight-up Saturday Morning Villain, Earth-16H Lex Luthor is the same kind of Futurist that Tony Stark is in the MCU; someone who'll push the boundaries even when they shouldn't, like when Tony accidentally created Voltron.
I mean Ultron.
Last thing: A little foreshadowing to another of Tony's interpersonal relationships in this shared DC/Marvel universe. Tony didn't plan all of that out, he never expected to actually lose a car, but it was all a "happy accident" where it all proceeded to line up just-so.
But yeah, glad you liked it so much and I got such a wordy Review. Keep it up!
Blaze1992: Hmm now that stark and hammer are apart of this , I have to ask wouldn't stark improved version of the hammer drones greatly help the infected NYC?
No need for the corrupt corp f**king everyone over and the US doesn't have to keep sending troops into the meat grinder and since they are machine not man when they fall they don't become infected like US troops do.
Maybe someone like Lex could be the drones after the expo and send them to the NYC as a "test", if you don't think stark would?
Re: The reason Tony doesn't make the "Iron Legion" is because as Iron Man 2 shows us, they're too-easy to hack. Maybe not easy to hack, but if someone can get the barn doors open, it is very easy to get the horses out. Also, you're talking about fighting a quarantine, since at-present the Blacklight Virus is too-robust to kill with drone strikes. Bloodtox could've worked in the past, but Mercer developed an immunity to it, so now the Blacklight Virus as a whole is immune to Bloodtox since the second strain came from him. Also, the more stuff that goes in-and-out of NYZ, the more-likely it is to spread, and since the only thing keeping the virus "in" is the water around it (the Blacklight Virus "can't commute across large bodies of water"), supplies are mainly air-dropped.
Also, the only troops getting sent in are Blackwatch; the government had to post the Mortality Rates for the last Infected occupation, and Blackwatch were the only repeat applicants. As for the Drones not being able to be infected, as an in-world concern, maybe they're worried about Mercer reverse-engineering one to deliver Blacklight to the Mainland, and once it hits the Mainland, it's Game Over, Humanity. Mercer is "Global Enemy No. 1" for a reason, even if the first time around he was framed for it. Second time around, he did it all intentionally.
Between super-advanced attack drones and Blackwatch, Blackwatch is the less-tax-intensive option, and the New York Zero thing in of itself is a massive drain on resources since they have to keep sending in supplies for Brookly, Queens, The Bronx, and Staten Island, none of which are self-sustaining at-present.
HOWEVER! The most-devious reason of all, is that the U.S. Government in part doesn't want that kind of intervention. GenTek promised Uncle Sam a virus that could be tailor-made to target specific ethnicities, something that really got his nethers frothing over, and since the Yellow Zone is basically a giant testing ground for the Virus, GenTek basically gets kickbacks from the U.S. Government, and their very own scapegoat who's as trapped in NYZ as they are.
Biggest reason the Justice League was denied intervention, apart from an unwillingness to kill Mercer, is that, NO MATTER WHAT, the Blacklight Virus can't be allowed to leave New York Zero. That's the most-important thing. In the context of any universe, is that a Blacklight Virus with free reign is an EXTINCTION LEVEL EVENT for whatever planet it happens to occupy. Think "Blackest Night", only worse; in-context.
Prototype and Prototype 2 are among my favorite pre-last-gen games, and I've put a great deal of thought into working the Prototype franchise into the lore of this world and Virgil's backstory. Admittedly I hadn't read the comics before releasing this work back in… 2014 (November 27), but the events of the comics wouldn't really change in the Young Justice universe since back then (post-Prototype) Mercer hadn't turned evil yet; Humanity (with a capital H) "letting him down" is what made him evil. Hence the radical shift from Dark Anti-Hero to full-on Villain.
guisniperman: ... I swear if that old friend of Tony is Moxxi and it turn out Athena's his daughter I'm going to find you and tell you :"You are incredibly predictable sir" right before coughing the cash for the good takeout of you neighborhood. Because you deserve it.
Re: That's an interesting idea, but I already have Athena's dad planned out, as well as who Tony's east coast friend. Maybe in another timeline Athena would've been his, but not this time~
WolfSPARTAN062: To answer your question from your response to my review. I would have to say a bit of both, but to be completely honest to me its mostly the world building. To me it's also neet to see certain characters react to situations other than combat or that end up turning into an action seen. If you had asked me those questions a couple of years ago I would have gone completely with the not every "episode" having action. In recent years I've grown fond of world building. Telling/showing (depending on the medium) other stories that don't particularly contain the 'main character(s)' is very interesting to me and having a genuinely 'lived in' universe is really cool.
For the romance between the three, I see where you're coming from and am willing to see where that story thread goes. I think it was mostly due to how... bombastic she was at her entrance that put me off to her character.
Re: Well, you have to remember that in context of Borderlands (2 and possibly 3), she's a little on the "thirsty" side of things. Plus, in the context of this universe, the death of Marcie Holloway "broke her" a bit more than in the Borderlands universe, so a little eccentricity is a given.
Full Honesty: I had a bit of a Nerd Crush on Gaige for a while, and not just because of her pent-up sexual energy; the fits of megalomania as you build up [Anarchy] stock into the 200+ range made me fall for her character too.
OmegaDelta: Wonder who the friend tony is visiting is and how will batman take losing to him with Athena? Keep up the good work.
Re: Technically, Bruce Wayne lost Athena to Tony, Batman isn't part of that equation, and if Athena is smart-enough to postulate that she'd be contributing to his wildly self-destructive lifestyle, he wouldn't want her to be in his employ anyway.
*TO THE IRON PLANE!*
"Best part of owning your own plane; it doesn't leave until you do."
-is what Tony said, but in actuality, none of them would be leaving until Happy finished supervising the loading-up of two cars and an experimental Holotable onto Mr. Stark's private plane.
With no immediate concerns over leaving, everyone just dicked around in Tony's swanky mansion until all the arrangements had been made. Athena and Gaige bent Tony's ear, a rare opportunity for a card-carrying member of the man's fanclub, Pepper made sure he didn't do anything wildly-inappropriate with a couple of minors, because of course she had to, and Virgil… He tried to drown the memories of that poor test pilot being spun around like a twist top with as many Mimosas as Tony's fridge would accommodate.
At least before Jarvis caught wise.
Once he got a dapper- "I believe you've had enough, sir. I'm afraid I'm going to have to cut you off." -from the British-sounding AI, and the follow-up threat of bringing DUM-E up the elevator if he didn't comply, Virgil took the time to check his messages, and immediately went sober at what was waiting for him.
It would be later that he learned it was actually the "Revitalizing Medical Nanotech" in his system which diluted the already-diluted alcohol in his system, not necessarily the message itself rendering him sober...
Hey sug~
Just thought I'd let you know your little fanclub will be joining us for Thanksgiving~
Oh, and Friday afternoon you'll be helping bring Paula and her little girl over for Thanksgiving too~
Please & Thank You~
Moxxi~
'Big Brother Senses… Tingling…!' Virgil thought after it finally dawned on him that those precious cinnamon rolls would be staying in Bludhaven for more than a brief layover. Best case scenario they never left the house, but with all the energy between them, that seemed highly unlikely. They were genuinely good, pure souls who wanted to know more about him so of course they'd want to know about his stommping grounds.
It wasn't that he was worried about them coming to harm, they had more than enough stopping power between them for a super-criminal dry zone like Bludhaven; thank Creed. And if he could help it, he'd try to only show them the "shinier" side of Bludhaven.
No, he was worried about them seeing something they couldn't un-see in the interim; something for which Bludhaven was a veritable candy store of. Sure, it wasn't as much of an armpit as Gotham thanks to Creed's zero-tolerance policy on "costumed nonsense", but you didn't need a cape, a gimmic, and/or an alias to do horrible, unspeakable things to other people and/or animals.
Sure, Martian Manhunter could edit their memories at his leisure, and Giovanni probably had something in his repertoire for that too if wholesale magic had been kept secret for so long without causing a second Inquisition/Witch Hunt, but just like in Men in Black, there was bound to be some sort of cumulative brain damage from repeated "Neuralyzing".
Plus, finding out their memories had been doctored could open up a can of worms neither men, nor he for that matter, wanted to see popped open, because when "cans of worms" concerning women were opened, especially if the context predating it was "for their own good" in a "mansplaining" kinda tone… They were usually accompanied by the opening of a 70s Trademarked can of Whoop-Ass.
Which in the modern day came in either Diet Whoop-Ass, or Whoop-Ass Classic.
No-one really liked Whoop-Ass Clear or any of the bootleg stuff.
Like Kick-Butt.
Because screw Kick-Butt.
. . . So yeah, while he doubted he could keep the two of them indoors the entire time, he would have to plot out a route that'd keep them away from Bludhaven's seedier elements. Just looking at Dr. Zed's quote/unquote "clinic" would be enough to give them nightmares, let alone going inside. That place looked like a B-Grade horror movie with an actual budget.
Artemis didn't seem the sort to need that kind of coddling, she looked like life in Gotham had built her into sterner stuff, so at least there was that… And after the working vacation he'd had, he was just glad that Creed kept the city "Villain-Free", because as-of-late his life had been nothing but comic book nonsense. All he'd technically signed on for was chaperoning Moxxi's little girl on a Fortune 500 cross-country tour, not more of the same nonsense he did at work.
He was honestly starting to miss the mercenary lifestyle, where all the nonsense he had to put up with was even remotely predictable, but given most of his on-field support staff had been irradiated in one fashion or another, it made sense he'd be given a bit of time off the field.
While all the "comic book nonsense" kept his senses sharp, he was starting to have a hard time separating his work life from his home life. The entire reason he endeavored to separate the two was so he'd have a safe haven to sleep off his combat fatigue post-mission. After all, what conspiracy nutjob in even their right minds would suspect a fashion model to be Solid Snake's successor?
Virgil prayed to god that Thanksgiving would be normal.
Because after being made to watch a man get spun around like a twist top, god OWED HIM!
Especially after ruminating on that scene and realizing his spine had been completely sheared with that full 180 twist.
*TO THE IRON PLANE!*
Stark International: Aviation Division
November 25, 14: 25 PDT
"I can't believe we get to ride back home in Tony Stark's private plane!" Gaige squealed happily as they passed the Aviation Division's terminal.
"Gaige, I get that you're excited, but please dial it back a bit…" Athena chided.
"Oh, let her have her fun," Virgil returned. "How-often will she be able to do this sort of thing with that arrest warrant on her head?"
"Not my fault…!" Gaige insisted.
"We aren't saying it is," Athena returned.
"Don't worry, I'm sure it won't stick," Tony assured her. "If you want, I could get my legal department on it. I might not've made a person 'explode', but they've gotten me through worse lawsuits."
"That's really flattering…" Gaige stated, "but I think for now I'll let my dad and his friend handle things. I wouldn't want to put a strain on your reputation; me being a nominally-attractive minor and all."
"That was one time and no-one can prove I did anything."
"I do not want to know what 'no-one can prove'," Virgil said pretending he did not hear that come out of the man's mouth. "So what're we riding back in? It has to be pretty robust if it can hold two cars and however-much hardware Athena's new 'table needs."
"I'm so glad you asked~" Tony said rubbing his hands enthusiastically. "Come with me~ and you'll be~ In a world of~ pure imagination~"
"Wait, is that code for 'chocolate fountain'?" Gaige asked hopefully. "'Cause I could really go for one of those right now," she said making her thoughts on the subject known.
"Not quite the direction I was going for, but there might be one on board," Tony replied, the van they were in taking them to a hangar on the far end of the complex, well away from the others.
"For curiosity's sake, what are we taking?" Virgil asked as they all stepped out of the van.
To answer their question, the hangar doors before them began to rise up and across the interior roof, not all that dissimilar to a garage door. Once the door had come all the way up, the craft within began to taxi forward, pulling out of the shadows.
"What… What am I looking at?" Virgil gawped, practically blinded by the thing's paintjob.
"The thing" in question was a heavily-modified Boeing 737-4B7. On the rear of the fuselage was a large air scoop sweeping over the rear of the cabin, the engines didn't look like turbofan engines in the slightest, and the paint job… If Virgil thought Tony's Iron Man suit was ostentatious, whatever this was took the cake, because the hot rod red and gold accents were just so… so… garish! And it wasn't even a subdued gold color, it was a shiny metallic gold that was almost blinding to look at.
"Behold! The Iron Plane!" Tony said bombastically, arms swept out toward it like a presenter at a new car demo.
"Jesus fucking Christ, it's like you can see that thing from space!" Virgil cried as he shielded his eyes, practically blinded by the whole thing.
"Thank you!" Pepper sighed appreciatively, she-too shielding her eyes. "I've been trying to tell him that for months!"
"What're you talking about? This Iron Plane is seriously cool!" Tony complained.
"Tony, I'm a member of your literal fanclub, and even I feel like that's a bit much," Gaige hummed.
"What're you even doing with something like this?" Athena asked skeptically.
"I made it just-in-case I decide to become a superhero," Tony shrugged like that were an adequate explanation. "I mean I've got the suit and everything."
"What, you hoping to hook up with Wonder Woman?" Virgil asked with a raised brow.
"I mean… I wouldn't say 'nooo'…"
"I don't know if it's better or worse that you're so-transparent about that."
"Oh please, like you wouldn't want to use your 'Cheat Pass' on someone with those curves. I mean have you met Wonder Woman? She's gorgeous."
"Tonyyy…!" Pepper growled.
"Right, right, grownup face," Tony said drawing his closed fingers down in a line before his face like an actor composing themselves. "So, what do you all think of my ride?"
"I mean… It's very shiny…" Athena admitted, unable to look at the thing directly but still look at it. "I also feel like you'd blind everyone in the tri-state area with that paint job…" she added, shielding her eyes.
"I said the exact same thing!" Pepper gasped exasperatedly.
"Okay, so maybe the pain job isn't for everyone. But wait 'til you see what's under the hood. Hit it, Happy!" he called out.
*VWEEEEET!*
The next moment, the familiar hum that Virgil could feel down to his bones issued from the underbelly of the 737 and its wings, a quieter whine sounding form the engine cylinders as the plane initiated a VTOL by a couple meters before hovering right out of the hangar to come to a stop in front of them.
"Wait a minute…" Athena gawped. "Is that…?"
"Yep! Outfitted this baby with Repulsor Flight Stabilizers," Tony said with a shit eating grin. "You would not believe, how much this saves on gas~"
"That's… That's amazing…!" Gaige gawped.
"And the best part, the Arc Reactors powering this bad boy make it completely green and eco-friendly," Tony grinned as a drive-out boarding stair came out to greet them.
"That's… This could change everything about air travel…!" Athena gasped, her amazement evident on her voice.
"Yes, well, right now I'm keeping it a Tony Stark Exclusive. Not like the lobbyists will let me do otherwise," Tony admitted. "Come along, children. We've all got places to be, people to see," he said mounting the steps, the three teens left gawking, and shielding their eyes, as Ms. Potts brought up the rear.
*TO THE IRON PLANE!*
'Thank god the inside looks normal,' Virgil sighed, his eyeballs thanking him after the lightshow outside.
"Good morning, passengers, this is your captain speaking," Happy said over the intercom. "The skies look clear today, and our estimated flytime from Malibu, California to Bludhaven, New Jersey is five hours 26 minutes, weather permitting. We'll be running final checkup so feel free to move about the cabin until the Seatbelt Light comes on."
"Make yourselves at home," Tony said walking over to the bar and making himself a daycap. "Don't do anything I would do, and definitely don't do anything I wouldn't do. There's a little gray area in there. That's where you operate."
"Shouldn't it be the other way around?" Athena asked as they set their luggage in a corner..
"Not with Mr. Stark," Pepper sighed. "Tony, did you make sure to pack everything? I'd hate to have to turn around halfway out and inconvenience our guests."
"Don't worry, I have what I need right, here," he said patting a shiny silver case with a biometric lock on it.
"What's in the case?" Virgil asked.
"That's on a need-to-know basis, and you don't need to know."
"Finally, something you won't tell a gaggle of minors," Pepper sighed.
"A gaggle?" Athena blinked.
"Well, what would you call them?" Pepper asked.
"An infestation," Virgil replied sardonically.
"Love the laconic humor," Tony said with a clap of his hands. "Mimosa? Jarvis tells me they're your preferred daycap."
"So that's what you were doing in the kitchen all by yourself…" Pepper hummed, only a small amount of disappointment in her tone.
"Oh please, like Tony hasn't done worse stuff in that kitchen; and on every workable surface," Virgil return with a deadpan.
"Hey!" Tony protested.
"Do not worry, sir. After any and all of Mr. Stark's 'sexcapades', any and all 'workable surfaces' used receive a thorough disinfection from accredited crime scene cleaners."
"I don't know if that makes me feel better, or worse about what I touched with my hands. Also, I WAS FUCKING JOKING!"
"If you think that sounds bad, you might want to get out of that chair."
"AAUUUGH!" he cried leaping from his seat like a hand from a hot iron, images of ungodly deviant sexual acts being performed on where he'd just sat filling his thoughts.
" . . . That was a joke."
"Jarvis, please deactivate Humor Subroutines," Tony stated.
"Shall I also disengage Sarcasm Subroutines?"
" . . . Are you being sarcastic right now?"
"No."
" . . . Are you sure?"
"Are you sure he's the smart one?" Virgil whispered into Ms. Potts' ear.
"It isn't that he isn't smart. It's just that sometimes he lacks any and all common sense," she whispered back.
"Well, I did fleece thirty large and a car off of him, so I'm inclined to believe you."
"Don't think of it as 'fleecing' him. Think of it as… teaching him a valuable life lesson."
*Ding*
"Seatbelts on, kiddies, it's wheels up, and we're taking the Iron Plane's maiden voyage!" Tony called out.
" . . . Wait what-"
*TO THE IRON PLANE!*
Virgil profusely thanked god that the maiden voyage of the "Iron Plane" didn't start like the Hindenburg's ended.
Not that he didn't try to literally claw his way through the locked door while screaming- "LET ME GO GET ME THE FUCK OUTTA HERE!"
Surprisingly enough, the taxiing down the runway was the roughest part of takeoff. Once the Repulsors kicked in, the acceleration was incredibly smooth, almost like they were already in flight. Not only that, but the climb to cruising altitude was much shorter than other planes he'd ridden in the past; not even Luthor's private plane could compare. The climb time had possibly been reduced by as much as half, but it wasn't like Virgil had a baseline to compare it to.
Of course, it probably helped not having to carry your own liquid fuel supply…
And just imagine what this could do for space travel!
"So… You done freaking out?" Tony asked as Virgil sat across from him, a pretty young girl on each arm linked at the elbow doing their token best to sooth him.
"That joke was in very poor taste."
"Who said I was joking?"
" . . . "
"WE GOT A RUNNER!" Gaige screamed, wrapping her arms around his neck and throwing her legs across his lap, burying his face into her bosom as she tried to weigh him down.
"He wasn't running! He was fuming!" Athena said trying to pry them apart.
"Ah, young love," Tony sighed wistfully getting up from his seat, leaving the three to their own devices.
"Tony. Fix this," Pepper chided as pointed a finger back their way, the two girls about to get into a catfight with one unfortunate, and mentally traumatized, boy caught in the middle.
" . . . Fine," Tony sighed, returning to his seat.
*TO THE IRON PLANE!*
"Wow… So that is just… right… in there, huh?" Gaige asked as she stared at Tony's chest.
More-specifically, the thing in his chest that was keeping him alive; the Miniature Arc Reactor powering the electromagnet keeping the SFIB shards from moving further into his heart and killing him.
"I find it odd I didn't notice that until now," Virgil hummed aloud.
Because a glowing circle in a man's sternum was really conspicuous.
"Yeah, well, the glowing ring in my chest weirded people out, so I had all my shirts tailored with blackout cloth," Tony shrugged, a few of his buttons undone to let himself air out.
"Wait, if the thing in the box was the thing that helped you escape the Ten Rings, what's that?" Gaige asked curiously.
"The 3.0," Tony answered, since the MAR did look on the more-advanced side of things. "Good thing Pepper has such small hands. Perfect size for handling all of my… hardware~"
"Tony!" Pepper squeaked, face red. "Phrasing!"
"You know what's really inappropriate? The stripper pole I used to have in here~"
"Don't you mean the stripper pole you still have?" Athena asked jerking a thumb over her shoulder.
"Shit, I thought I got rid of that," Tony said with a genuine blush on his face.
"Please tell me he's joking…" Virgil groaned.
"No, no, he legitimately used that for a stripper pole-" Pepper-
"I hope he didn't use it-"
"He had his skanky flight attendants use it."
"Oh, that's much better," Virgil sighed. "Jarvis-"
"The Iron Plane's stripper pole, aka the Iron Pole-"
"Please never call it that again…"
"Yeah, Jarvis! Phrasing!"
"-has been properly sterilized following its last use," Jarvis chimed in.
"I honestly can't believe you programmed an AI who can say all that with a straight face."
"Technically, I do not have a face."
"Stripper pole aside," Gaige cut in, "you got Netflix in this bird?"
*TO THE IRON PLANE!*
Two thirds of the way through the movie they'd chosen as a distraction for all the talk of stripper poles, and Virgil knew his working vacation was going to lean towards the working side of things at the next announcement Happy had made.
"Guys… We might have a problem."
'Shiyiiiit…' Virgil thought. 'Please don't be sky pirates, please don't be sky pirates, please for the love of God don't be-'
"It's the Sky Pirates! They're back! I don't know how, but they're back…!"
'I am never going to catch a break, am I?' Virgil thought to himself.
"Jarvis, show me rearview," Tony ordered, the Netflix feed switching out to a real-time image of a heavily-modified Boeing C-17 Globemaster III on their tail. Its coating was in all-black, and on the nose was a winged skull painted in a blood-colored red.
"Uh… Why do they have the Shadaloo emblem from Street Fighter painted there?" Gaige asked.
"Technically the Shadaloo emblem has a lightning bolt on the skull."
"Tony!" Pepper cried. "Sky-Pirates! Pending doom! SKY PIRATES!"
"Right, right," Tony nodded. "Jarvis, can we outrun them?"
"Unlikely, sir. Their modified engines are giving off the same readings as Repulsor technology, though clearly salvaged from the 'Hail Mary' you gave unto their mobile headquarters the last time they crossed you," the AI returned.
"Tonyyyy…!" Virgil growled. "WHAT DID YOU-Oh, I'm sorry, did you want to berate him?" he immediately asked Ms. Potts.
"No, please, by all means," she acquiesced.
"WHAT DID YOU DOOO?!" he concluded his rounding.
"I'll tell you on the way. Follow me," Tony said waving him over to the rear of the compartment. "Happy, increase speed. They're probably jamming us, but it couldn't hurt to try and get a message out. The more energy we use on an SOS, the more they'll have to dedicate to stopping us and I doubt their second-hand hardware can compete with mine for very long."
*TO THE IRON PLANE!*
"Okay, you're either really prepared, or really paranoid," Virgil said as Tony stripped out of his clothes into a bodysuit and stepped into another "Car Wash".
"Can't it be both?" Tony asked stepping into the metal boots. "Anyway, here's the rundown of what's going on," he said as the Iron Plane began to accelerate underneath them, the sound of their pursuing craft matching speed audible from the rear. "Back when I shut down weapon production, a lot of unsold weapons and materials were slated to be shipped back to the states for decommissioning. A modern-day privateer by the name of Sky-Pirate had been raiding smaller ships for years, but saw his opportunity to hit the big time when my merchandise was out in the open. Instead of letting the materials in one of my planes be stolen, I had the pilots eject and set the weapons to self-destruct. Right as the Flying Dutchman, Sky-Pirate's flying headquarters, took the weapons in with their Tractor Beam, the timer hit zero and the whole thing was taken out like the second Death Star. All that Sky-Pirate had leftover was a single craft and a handful of men who were using jetpacks at the time, and between that and the government raids on his weapon caches elsewhere thanks to my tracking software, and that should've been the end of him."
"And now he wants revenge," Virgil grumbled as Tony's helmet locked into place.
"Yeah, pretty much," Tony answered, the craft rumbling underneath them.
"Sir, we appear to have been harpooned, and boarding parties are inbound," Jarvis spoke up, imagery of harpoons stabbing down into the Iron Plane's wings showing on one monitor, while on others were imagery of the harpoon lines being used as ziplines, Sky-Pirate's crew propelling themselves forward with rocket packs, their armor the same color as their vessel.
"Happy, if you can't pull away from them, stay on course. I'll handle the gremlins," Tony said stepping toward what Virgil assumed was an airlock. "Jarvis, I'm giving the kid authorization to be kitted out in the prototype Iron Lad armor. Make necessary sizing adjustments and import preferences."
"Very well, sir."
"Iron Lad? Seriously?"
"It could happen," Tony replied. "It is happening," he amended. "I've got more experience with this sort of thing, so you stay inside, protect everyone in case anything slips the net."
"Stay inside and pop the weasel?"
"Ha! Phrasing," Tony chuckled.
"I can work with that," Virgil acquiesced before stripping out of his clothes, took a jumpsuit from a drawer that opened by itself, and stepped into the armor assembler.
The arming-up was more personalized than the Variable-Fit from before, more in line with Tony's own. By the time Tony had cycled through the airlock and gotten outside, Virgil's armor was a third of the way assembled.
*BOOM!*
"AAUGH!"
"Jarvis! What's going on?!" Virgil demanded.
"A separate contingent of Sky Pirates have breached the cabin and are beginning to pour in."
"Abort armor assembly process! This much will have to do!" he said taking stock of the arm-and-leg armor only tangentially connected to the still-assembling chest piece.
"Belay that order!" Athena shouted into the intercom, the sound of gunfire sounding on the other end of the line. "Gaige and I will hold the line! When you get out here, I want you armed to the teeth!"
"Yeah! Waste these assholes!" Gaige said behind his P-90.
" . . . Understood," Virgil acquiesced, glad he brought his guns into the cabin.
Had he had any illusions about women being unable to defend themselves in a post-bio-pocalyptic New York (which he didn't, by the way; at least not now), Dana had utterly crushed aforementioned hypothetical illusions in the time they'd lived together.
Was it weird that he found older women gunning down modern-day American-funded Nazis arousing?
Yeah, probably-Anyway! If Athena and Gaige said they could hold the line, he'd believe it.
Didn't stop the seconds it took to fully armor him up from stretching on into eternity.
*TO THE IRON PLANE!*
"Let go of me!" Pepper shouted as a Sky Pirate in beaten and battered composite armor managed to storm the line, reaching over a barricade and attempting to drag her over.
"Yeah! Hands off the merchandise!" Athena said tossing Gaige the Makarov pistol while she took up the Coach Gun and blasted the guy in his ribs, the pirate yowling as his body armor took the shot and he released his would-be captive.
"Don't screw with my OTP, dirtballs!" Gaige shouted firing into the meat shields by the door.
*Whoosh*
"HEY ASSHOLES!"
[Cue My Hero Academia OST – You Say Run]
"What the hell?!" one of them gawped as a red-and-silver Iron Man, smaller than the one outside, stepped into the cabin from the rear, approaching them with confident strides.
"Hands off the lady!" he said walking up to the nearest pirate and discombobulating him with a double palm-strike to his helmet. The armor taking the brunt of the damage, Virgil scowled inside his helmet before he took a knee and delivered a hydraulically-augmented nut-shot that left the man yowling in soprano, the rest of the sky pirates huddled by the door grabbing their own genitals in sympathy.
"Friday, give me door integrity!" he said scanning the trio of pirates trying to cut into the reinforced bulkhead to the cockpit.
"Bulkhead integrity at eighty-five percent and dropping," the 'female' AI replied.
"Good to know. Gaige! Knife set!"
"Got it!" Gaige said ducking into the kitchenette before tossing it over.
"Step away from the door and die!"
"Don't you mean step away from the door or die-"
The thrown knife stabbing itself into the unarmored part of his thigh answered that question for him.
"Girls! Give me suppressing fire!"
"SUPPRESSING FIIIIRREEEEE!" Gaige shouted unloading the P-90 at the pirates bottlenecked by the entrance as Virgil unleashed his inner Slasher, stabbing the borrowed knives into the gaps of the breaching trio's body armor, yowling like a crazed lunatic and putting the fear of god in them.
"Agh!"
"Dammit!"
"I can't move!" the pirates shouted as they took whatever cover they could behind their energy shields.
The three knife-riddled bodies being tossed at them didn't help matters.
"I have had it with these mother-fucking snakes, on this mother-fucking plane!" Virgil roared squaring his feet, cupping his hands at his side. "Kaaaa… Meeee… Haaaa… Meeee…" he intoned for all to hear, the Repulsors in his palms whirring madly, a brilliant blue light forcing the pirates to shield their eyes and hide behind their shields.
"I… am so… turned on right now!~" Gaige swooned as the keening reached a fever pitch.
"HAAAAAAAA!" he roared into a Hadoken pose, the twin Repulsor beams nearly indistinguishable from one another as the concentrated blast collided with their overlapped energy shields. The sky pirates being pushed back into their compatriots, shields reddening, cracks began to appear before they broke wholesale, and were violently cast out.
"SPLOOSH!" Gaige squealed. "Jarvis, please tell me you got all that!"
"I have recorded the occurrence from three separate angles and archived it for later perusal, miss."
"Booyakasha!" she whooped.
"Are you kidding me? He just vaporized those guys!" Pepper screamed.
"And they, were going to plunder your booty if they got you back to base," Athena said in turn.
"Jarvis, how's Tony doing out there?" Virgil asked, large harpoons spearing the roof of the cabin moments later.
"They appear to have abandoned boarding and are attempting to capture the cabin wholesale," Jarvis returned as long-range lasers began to cut into the wings. "Nano-Forge operating at maximum capacity. At current laser intensity, wing and hull integrity can be maintained for ten more minutes of constant bombardment."
"Tony, I took out the guys inside the plane. How're you doing with the gremlins outside?" Virgil asked tapping his ear.
"Boarding party's kaput, but the ones with jetpacks are harassing me with laser fire, and their harpoons are slowing the Iron Plane down."
"Still can't believe you called it that…" Pepper groaned.
"Jarvis, you said this plane is self-repairing, right?"
"That is correct, sir."
"If I cut the lines and push the harpoons inside, will you be able to repair it while maintaining pressure," he asked, noticing that the door that'd been ripped open had a forcefield before it.
"Why not just pull the harpoons free?" Tony asked.
"Because they could just reel in the lines and try again. If they're really on their last legs, I doubt they have spares."
"Alright, sounds like you have a plan. I'll take out the 'jetpack brigade', you climb topside and handle the harpoons."
*TO THE IRON PLANE!*
Elsewhile, in the cabin of the Flying Dutchman II…
"Stark…" a grizzled bear of a man, the left side of his face scarred by shrapnel, growled low in his throat as the red-and-gold glint of Tony Stark's "Iron Man" armor did its best to repel the invaders. "You took everything from me… so now… I'll take everything from you…"
The next moment there was a flash of light from the cabin, countless screams filling the radio band as the boarding party was violently blasted out the cabin doors, their biometrics flatlining violently either from the initial blast, or when their bodies rebounded off the wings and tail of the "Iron Plane".
"WHAT HAPPENED!" Sky-Pirate demanded. "With Stark outside, the cabin should've been defenseless!" he raged as he pounded a fist on his armrest.
"Sir, I'm picking up an additional Arc Reactor energy signature!" one of the tech announced.
"Put it on screen!" Sky-Pirate demanded, a magnified image of a red-and-silver Iron Man, smaller than Tony Stark, swinging out of the cabin door and shooting ahead before decelerating toward the roof.
The "Iron Lad" then proceeded to grab hold of the line holding the harpoon in place before using a forearm-mounted laser cutter to shear the line in half with his other hand. The tension on the line suddenly cut loose, the recoil sent it careening through the air, the heavy-duty cable colliding with some of the Sky Pirates harassing Tony and giving them a sky burial. With half the Jetpack Brigade killed, Tony proceeded to launch a volley of missiles at his remaining aggressors now that he had a clear shot, the lot of them sent pinwheeling through the air and towards the unforgiving ground.
And as if things weren't bad enough, the cable that had come free had not only killed off a number of his men, but in a cruel twist of fate had flown into the left engine cowling, ingested against the blades causing it to come aflame and belch out smoke.
"NO! DAMMIT!" Sky-Pirate roared as the plane listed to the side.
"S-Sir! Iron Man's sidekick is trying to cut another line!"
"Rrgh! Jettison the winch!" he ordered, plates on the fuselage bursting free and belching out hardware the moment Iron Lad cut the other line, sparing his plane from further injury.
"C-C-Captain!" the pilot cried as Iron Man leveled himself with the cabin.
*TO THE IRON PLANE!*
"Tch! Looks like they caught wise!" Virgil swore as the Sky Pirates jettisoned their winch before he could cut the other line.
"Not for long!" Tony said as he flew level with the cockpit in a backward trajectory. "I hope you like the Fourth of July, 'cause you're about to see some fireworks!"
Missile pods folding out across his armor, Tony launched a volley of micro missiles that screamed through the air before impacting the top of the enemy fuselage and the twin laser emitters. Armor plating and hardware sent skittering away into the wild blue yonder, the [ SIGNAL JAMMED] chevron in his HUD vanished.
"Rhodey! It's Tony!" Tony said quickly, Virgil still keyed in.
"Tony, what the hell happened to you? Control lost sight of your transponder for a while there."
"Long story short; Sky-Pirate's back but Iron Lad and I took out their gremlins, so you and your flyboys can come on in and round them up."
"I'm sorry… Did you say 'Iron Lad'?"
"Yeah, I thought the name was stupid too," Virgil chimed in.
"Tony… Please tell me you don't have an untrained minor in that thing…"
"If it helps, Luthor vouches for him."
" . . . We have the enemy transponder in our sights and we're scrambling jets. Can you get away in time?"
*FWOOOOOOSH!*
"That… might be a bit debatable…" Tony said as the rear of the enemy craft opened up, a massive hulking frame leaping out the back before it began flying after them under its own power.
"Tony… What just appeared on our radar!?"
"One of Stane's castaways. I don't know how Sky-Pirate got a hold of it, but he did."
"Tony, you have civilians up there! Don't do anything careless-"
"Crap, they're… -amming the… -ignal… again," Tony stuttered before cutting the line.
"Was that really necessary?" Virgil asked.
"Most definitely," Tony nodded as he flew up to the fuselage and helped push in the last of the harpoons, hexagonal plates skittering over one another like insects and interlocking into place, sealing the breaches. "Happy! Harpoons are off and the gremlins are dead. Punch it!"
The Iron Plane's Repulsor engines whirring loudly, the magnetic boots of their armor kicked in as the craft lurched beneath them, the hulking behemoth, sized like the Hulk in armor plating, flooring it itself in an attempt to catch up with smoke trails to match.
[Cue Blackway & Black Caviar Soundtrack – What's Up Danger]
"So, are we going to let the US Air Force shoot that thing out of the sky, or are you and by extension me, going to do something stupid?" Virgil asked.
"Give you three guesses, first two don't count."
" . . . Shit," he groaned. "Girls! Get your seatbelts on! If that thing's got missiles, you might experience a little turbulence!"
"Already on it!" Happy replied over the comms.
"Good. Friday, what's the ETA on reinforcements?"
"At maximum speed and efficiency, they'll arrive within fifteen minutes."
"That's not good enough," Tony said as the Iron Monger thrust an arm forward, a large gattling gun spooling up. "HAPPY! DIVE!"
The Iron Plane's nose dipping harshly, Virgil raised his arm to shield his face from a stray round that barely clipped his armor, the sound of Athena, Gaige, and Pepper screaming filling the comms before Friday cut them out.
"Friday! What am I looking at here?" Virgil asked looking down at his armor.
"Armaments include a Laser Cutter, Flares, Light Emitters, Sound Emitters, High-Frequency Blades, Cable Guns, Disruptor Darts, and Anti-Personnel Micro Missiles," the AI replied. "For the 'Hail Mary', you can discharge a high-intensity non-Newtonian energy blast from your chest piece. However, it's a one-off. Any further energy expenditure must remain dedicated to flight capabilities."
"Good to know…" Virgil nodded as he got to his feet, the hydraulics in his armor stabilizing him as the Iron Plane began to weave around the deluge of rounds.
"I guess Lex didn't sing your praises for nothing," Tony chuckled as he rose to match before the two leapt from the top of the plane, Repulsors roaring to life sending the two on a collision course with the Iron Monger, which looked even cruder and uglier up-close.
"STARK! I'LL HAVE MY VENGEANCE YET!" Sky-Pirate roared on the loudspeakers of his armor.
"It doesn't count as 'vengeance' if you're a bad guy," Tony replied.
"My ancestors stole from this country's enemies for generations, and how do they repay us?!"
Before the Sky-Pirate could continue his tirade, Virgil fired his Disruptor Darts into the Iron Monger's speakers, shutting the raving lunatic up. If he were bellowing in rage, Virgil certainly couldn't tell, though the angry flailing of his arms might've been an indicator.
"Just because the Iron Plane's armor is self-repairing doesn't mean it can take that kind of beating!" Tony said as he fell back and detonated the missiles the Iron Monger launched with a sweep of his Repulsor. "We have to end this fast!"
"Are these things rated for space travel?" Virgil asked as he pestered the Iron Monger's gun-arm with his laser cutter at-range.
"Only upper-atmosphere, and only because of the anti-icing flaps."
"Good to know… FOLLOW MY LEAD!"
"Wait, what?" Tony blinked as Virgil cut thrusters and "fell" towards the Iron Monger.
"Deploy Flares!" he shouted as the Iron Monger's missile pod locked onto him, the phosphorescent motes of light causing the missiles to detonate prematurely and knock the pod off. "Friday, let's give him a lightshow of our own, courtesy of Pokémon!" he ordered as he collided with the Iron Monger, arms wrapped around its fat head. His armor's LEDs releasing powerful strobing red and blue lights directly into the Iron Monger's helmet, Sky-Pirate bucked at him furiously before he was thrown overhead by big beefy arms, the younger armor-user flipping around and getting his feet under him before he shot toward the Iron Monger's exposed back. "Thanks for the handhold!" he shouted as he fisted the cables spilling out of the missile pod's remains, an HF blade extending from his forearm before with a brutal slash, he took out the Iron Monger's right hydraulic actuator, its gattling gun arm going limp. "Going up?"
"I see where you're going with this!" Tony whooped as he wrapped his arms around the Iron Monger's left bicep, foot and back-mounted Repulsors changing his pursuit into a climb, Virgil following suit with its other arm after cutting the other actuator.
The three's frames rumbling as they fought for dominance, the crippled Iron Monger struggled as best it could, but for all its trouble any weapons it brought to bear were mercilessly torn away by the brutal teamwork and dirty fighting. Clearly, Sky-Pirate was only a novice relying on Pilot Assist and couldn't cope with one master pilot and a relative-but-skilled "apprentice".
The sky darkening around them, clouds giving away to void and star, a chill set into Virgil's fingertips and toes, but he fought through it even as the moisture from the atmosphere began to freeze atop his armor. Tony and Virgil both reaching to handles located at their hips and wrenching them out, the flight control surfaces on their armor burst open casting shards of ice in all directions, while the Iron Monger's lights could only flicker and then die.
"Whoo! Good plan, kid!" Tony whooped as he gave the armor a good shove.
"Tony… How many people has this man killed?"
"He's an internationally-wanted terrorist and privateer. You tell me."
"I see…" Virgil trailed off, squaring his shoulders and putting his chest forward.
*Vweeeeeeee*
"Hey kid, what are you-"
"UNI-BEAM! FIIIIIIRE!" Virgil roared, the Miniature Arc Reactor in his chest shining brightly, so-much-so to the point that even Sky-Pirate with his helmet caked with ice could see it.
"Kid wait!"
Before Tony could stop him, Virgil had already fired a beam of non-Newtonian energy from his armor's casing, the beam of energy lancing through the Iron Monger, bifurcating it and causing the two halves to explode in an energetic fireball. The blasted shards of metal tumbling away around them, the light in his chest dimmed to a soft hum as he reoriented himself.
[END SOUNDTRACK]
" . . . Let's get back to the plane before anything else happens," Virgil said succinctly, dropping away from Tony before shooting off after the unmistakable golden glint of the Iron Plane.
You really could see the damn thing from space.
*TO THE IRON PLANE!*
By the time Tony caught up to the Iron Plane, Rhodey and a few of his trusted crew were already escorting it to its final destination. According to Rhodey, the Flying Dutchman II had attempted to make a run for it south of the border as soon as the Iron Monger took flight, but were swiftly caught once deprived of their flight-capable crew and threatened with a smart missile up the ass; which apparently Sky-Pirate had torn open in his haste to pursue them.
By the time he'd gotten inside, fabricating a crude door covering with armor-plated robots so he could turn off the forcefield, Virgil had already stepped out of the Car Wash. Gaige was wracked with sobs as she cried into his chest, tears soaking his bodysuit as she finally let the terror she'd felt show, while Athena had drawn his head to her chest, stroking the teen's hair as he wrapped an arm around them both.
"Don't worry. It's okay. You're going to be okay," he said soothingly, pushing everything else out of focus.
" . . . Pepper, Happy," Tony said as he opened his visor. "You two doing okay?"
*TO THE IRON PLANE!*
The rest of the trip to Bludhaven was a somber affair. Happy, up in the cockpit, had set the plane to Autopilot while he raided the pantry in an attempt to bury his stress with food. Virgil, Athena, and Gaige simply reveled in one another's company now that the danger had passed, huddled together in an assurance that they had all survived. Pepper… Pepper was in the rear with Tony in his study.
"Tony… How many people has this man killed?"
"He's an internationally-wanted terrorist and privateer. You tell me."
"I see…"
"Hey kid, what are you-"
"UNI-BEAM! FIIIIIIRE!"
"Jarvis. Play recording."
"Tony… How many people has this man killed?"
"He's an internationally-wanted terrorist and privateer. You tell me."
"I see…"
"Hey kid, what are you-"
"UNI-BEAM! FIIIIIIRE!"
"Jarvis. Play recor-"
"Tony," Pepper cut in, putting a hand on his shoulder. "What are you looking for? This is morbid even for you," she said indicating the freezeframe of Iron Lad splitting the Iron Monger in half with his Uni-Beam.
"I keyed that kid into the Iron Lad's user protocols. Even if we never see one another again, I have to be sure…"
"Be sure of what?"
"Be sure that I didn't create a monster," he answered. "It all happened too quickly for me to stop, so…"
Letting out a deep exhale through his nose, Tony took a draft from his coffee before his eyes drifted to the secondary screen adjacent the first.
"Jarvis, are you sure these biometric readings from the Iron Lad armor are accurate?"
"All the readouts that Friday has taken are wholly accurate, sir."
"Is there something wrong with the readout?" Pepper asked, unsure what she should be looking for.
"Yes. His readings were perfectly level before, during, and after the discharge of the Uni-Beam. Which is exactly the problem," Tony answered, furiously drumming his fingers on his desk. "There should've been some sign of stress, before, during, after, or even during all three, yet there wasn't. No major deviation in pulse. No spike in hormone levels. No fluctuations in brain activity. He was completely calm, and yet…"
"And yet what-"
"Jarvis, access S.H.I.E.L.D. database. Keyword: 'Two-Percenter'."
*TO THE IRON PLANE!*
Elsewhile, back in the cabin…
"He can't keep going on like this…" Gaige said as Virgil laid on the floor, head beneath a pillow and a blanket thrown over him as he slept off the combat fatigue.
"I know…" Athena nodded. "If there is a god out there, I promise I'll start going to church, so please just cut my boyfriend a break…" she prayed.
"Well, god helped him exorcise a ghost car last Halloween. I think he's in the big man's corner," Gaige hummed. "OH FUCK!"
"What?!" Athena yelped.
"IS THE CAR OKAY!"
*SLAP*
"I deserved that."
*TO THE IRON PLANE!*
AN:
Initial draft was only 8.3K words, but after redrafts and proofreading, that number has jumped to… around 9.7K.
Not sure why I put this out there, but I feel like an AN was appropriate.
Anyway, look forward to the "Thanksgiving Arc" to take place next~
And I hope you tell me what you think of this chapter.
Until next time!