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The Iron Sith (Star Wars x Marvel Cinematic Universe)
- Thread starter Illuviar
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Prologue
Please, support me on Parteon if you enjoy my stories!
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the movies set up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe nor any of the Star Wars movies, cartoons, games, books or comics. They belong to their respective copyright owners. This story is not created with commercial aim. I make no money from it. It is not for sale or rent.
location unknown
time unknown
When I awoke, it was to tearing searing hot pain in my chest, right above my heart. I felt oppressive, suffocating heat which immediately brought the thought of a desert to my mind. My first instinct was to grab the Force and ensure that I was as safe as possible.
I froze in shock when I grasped for my power and found nothing. Kriff, I was in big trouble this time around. Yasalmir? Someone powerful and skilled enough in the Force to cut me off even temporarily? I could recall a few Sith artifacts that might do it;a handful of alchemy concoctions too.
A wave of dizziness slammed its ugly fist into my mind. The Force? Alchemy? What nonsense was this?
I felt like falling through an endless chasm. Memories flew past me like a moths of light. I remember being a slave. No, I was the son of Howard Stark. No, I wasn't! I was a Sith! No, I was… I was… My head pounded as if I've drunk too much again. Huh. I haven't gotten drunk since my wife died.
What? Wife?! I'm a bachelor and proud of it! Why the hell would I tie up myself with just one woman? Besides they all get boring once we begin to talk… Like those twins last December… That was a nice night…
The pounding in my head picked up a notch. It sounded like a bunch of Gamoreans chased by a starving Rankor.
What's with the Star Wars references?!
Who the hell was I?!
I… Stark, no Veil… Who is that?!
The pressure inside my skull increased and I knew no more…
The next time I awoke, it was still hot enough to boil someone in their own sweat. While my chest continued to hurt, the pain wasn't as sharp as the last time. Even better, my head was a bit clearer this time around. No one was trying to use my skull as a drum, though my memories were still a mess. What the hell did I drink last night?!
My nose twitched. Sweat and dust, machine oil, metal, burning wood and something cooking. The last scent was somewhat familiar, though I couldn't place it.
I cracked an eye open, deciding I will be sorting out my messed up memories later and looked around. It was quite dark with dancing light coming from a fire trying to chase of the shadows. Above me was an uneven rock. Huh, a cave? That sounded wrong.
What on Earth would I do in a cave of all places?!
I tried to get up only to flinch back when something pulled at my chest which exploded in sharp pain. I groaned and looked wildly around. Only now I noticed something sticking from my nose. This was getting worse by the moment. Before I could think my hands were moving and I was pulling whatever was in my right nostril.
Something scraped through my trachea and I pulled harder, then began gasping for breath. Only now I looked at the bloody thing – a thin plastic tube. What was this, primitive central?
I forced myself to calm down. Why was I panicking anyway? Even without the Force I wasn't helpless. I froze. Again with the Force. What… I closed my eyes and fell back into the bed. I needed to sort out my head first. It took some doing but I fell back into a meditative trance and began examining my memories. There was a new set of them stuck in my head. There was no personality with them, yet they felt fresher, more tangible than the rest. I still could remember clearly that I was Delkatar Veil, the Dark Lord of the Sith. Yet, I could remember being Tony Stark… a man who was determined to waste so much potential… yet I found myself envying him. Its been so long since I could simply enjoy living day for day with no real threats hanging over my head.
How the kriff did I end up here? I tried to remember…
Explosions, shooting and fear washed over me. Stark's last memories were fragmented and confused – no real surprise for his first time under fire… while tipsy too.
I tried to remember where I knew the name Tony Stark from – I'm certain it wasn't just from my new memories. Damn, has it really been more than sixty years since I was back on Earth?
I could vaguely recall something about a man flying in a suit of red power armor. Very slim and advanced… How the hell could someone put so much tech in such a small package? The sixty years worth of engineering know how and scientific theories I forced myself to learn by heart began to to mutiny against the very idea.
I pushed the thoughts of such impossibility back. I was stuck in another dimension – for the third time I think. That explained why I couldn't reach the Force. My power might not even exist here. That realization made me shiver with fear and this time the emotion wasn't a fuel for my powers. I was just a weak, potentially wounded baseline human.
I was vulnerable.
The very thought sent a lance of red hot fury through my system. I didn't survive for decades among the Sith to give up now! I didn't claw my way to the top ranks of the Empire to let such a setback, no matter how grave, break me! If I didn't have the Force anymore I would find another source of power! Another pillar of strength! I will overcome any obstacles standing in my way. I will be free again!
I opened my eyes and glared at my surroundings. Without the Force I felt blind and deaf. The world was distant and less alive.
I finally I noticed I wasn't alone in the cave. Kriff, my senses were gone to shit without the Force. Or was this just Tony's fault? A not particularly tall balding man had his back turned to me and was busy shaving. I tried to get up only to get my chest painfully tugged again.
"I wouldn't do that in your place." The man pointed out.
I looked down. My chest was bandaged and there were a pair of black wires sticking out. I traced them up to a large battery of some kind resting on a wooden cupboard next to the bed.
"What the hell is that?" I rasped.
"That? It keeps you alive." The man turned around and smiled tiredly.
His face was gaunt with a thin graying patch of beard over his chin. He wore a dirty suit with a decent cut of a type I haven't seen since I was on Earth a very long time ago. A fire burning in a wooden stove nearby made his glasses shine eery in the twilight.
"I dug out all the shrapnel I could, but there was some I couldn't reach. Without that elector-magnet to keep them in place, the rest will enter your arteries and you'll be dead in a week. If you're lucky." He looked around, brightened and picked up a small glass sample case which he threw at me.
I was barely able to snatch it before it hit my bandages, which made me wince. My reflexes were painfully slow even for a normal human.
"What is this?" I raised the vial to the flickering fire and examined it. There were a few very sharp pieces of metal in there.
"A souvenir, Mr. Stark." The balding man explained.
Lucky me. Digging the remaining shrapnel would be easy – with the Force. Without it… What was the state of medicine back on Earth?
The man began to babble about some conference where we supposedly met a few years back, but I ignored him making the odd encouraging sound. My mind was on the shrapnel. What a stupid way to go. I looked down at the bandages. I needed to get that fixed but first – find my way to civilization.
"How did we end up here?" I asked.
"Ah. I was wondering when you would think about that." He gave me a pained smile. "Smile to the camera." He pointed a thumb over his back to the far corner of the cave.
I glanced that way and sure enough I could see a red light there. I had to squint and only now I was able to see the faint outline of a large, terribly primitive camera. Well at least that was my first impression. Who new what was under its casing…
Someone shouted in unfamiliar language outside, then there was the sound of a metal bolt being removed from the door.
"Do as I do!" The man said in frantic tone. He picked up the battery attached to my chest and put it in the center of the cave while urging me to follow his example. He put his arms behind his head and smiled nervously at the door.
I glared but followed suit. This wasn't the time for heroics.
The doors opened and a bunch of shabby looking people with brandishing guns entered. Their obvious leader came to the front front, spread his large arms at us and began babbling in that same unfamiliar language. He had graying hair and beard, a gun stuck in his belt and was very large at least in comparison to the men behind him.
They were quite thin, though I could see wiry muscles on some of them. The way they held their guns – no proper training. The weapon themselves on the other hand looked brand new which was at odds with the people carrying them. They looked like your bog standard bunch of nobody terrorists slash resistance fighters. Those usually armed themselves with anything they could fudge together or steal… when they weren't supplied by someone with nice toys so they could ruing someone else's day.
This was beginning to smell on the later. I've done the odd black ops or insurgent suppression back in the day. I would recognize a bunch of fanatics who weren't exactly sure what they were doing besides fighting the 'enemy'. Yesterday I would have dismissed them as no threat at all. Today, with a battery stuck to my chest and without the Force?
The very idea that this bunch of scum could be dangerous to me grated. All I wanted was to crush them like the bugs they were. Not only these fools, but all their friends and everyone who had the bright idea of supporting them too.
Instead I swallowed my fury, bid my time and waited for the man who apparently patched me up to translate.
"Welcome, Tony Stark! The most famous mass murderer in the American history!"
I had to fight valiantly not to roll my eyes, which might get me shot somewhere survivable. What people stuck up on one insignificant backwater world know about mass murder? How many planets have they turned into glass? How many sapient species have they exterminated? How many trillions have died by their command? I bit off a sneer and smiled pleasantly.
"Thank him for the compliment." I nodded to my translator who suddenly looked like he regretted saving my life.
"Its an honor for him to meet you." The translator glared at me while our 'host' grinned and continued to speak. "He wants you to build him a rocket."
"A rocket?" I repeated. They kidnapped Tony Stark and by extension me so we could build them a rocket?! My already quite low estimate of my kidnapper's mental capacity suddenly got into a steep nosedive. The only rocket I'll be building them is the one I would strap them on before launching it!
Nah, I didn't feel that merciful.
"A Jericho missile just the one you demonstrated." The translator continued and our kidnapper stuck a piece of paper in my hands.
Huh. A paper… the last time I saw and touched paper was when I was stuck on that primitive world for six months fifteen or so years back…
The tactile feeling of paper in my feeling was quite nice. I turned the sheet around to see a picture of a missile with on its launching pad. Ah, I remembered now. Jericho – multiple independent warheads built upon repulsor technology… There was no way I would be able to built it with the tools these jokers could get their hands on. No matter. I will be building weapons, just not for them.
"It's going to be possible, but very, very hard." I smiled at the bearded man, while wondering how exactly I was going to murder the kriff out of him and his friends. "I'll need tools, parts even weapons."
The translator whose name I might have to learn one of these days continued to glare at me, but did his job.
Our host beamed at me and waved us to follow him.
I took a good look at the part of the cave complex we were led through, making notes of good choke points, number of people, armaments and where supplies could be seen laying around. It was quite large cave network, which wasn't good.
Once we were outside, I frowned. There were a lot of people and weapons out here. A platoon worth at least, perhaps closer to two of the bastards. While not technically impossible, taking them on in a straight up fight would be suicide. While I've seen it done, that was by people with proper armor, weapons, in incredible shape not to mention the training and experience they had – only the later two points counted in my favor and without the Force I was in significant disadvantage anyway.
I needed force multipliers. Explosive too. Lots of explosives…
It was a good thing then that our host brought us to a large pile of Stark Industries gear – which these guys most definitely weren't supposed to have. Once I'm back there would be some house-cleaning. Arranged accidents too. Getting kidnapped by people wielding weapons you produced was kriffing embracing.
The bearded man said something and brought me back into the present.
"He wants to know what do you think." The translator muttered.
"That's a lot of weapons." I nodded in approval. "I'll make him something very special if he tells me how he get them."
Our kidnapper laughed at my words and began talking.
"Perhaps when you've built him the missile. He says there's everything you need to make it in here. He wants a list with the necessary gear and tells you to begin immediately."
The bearded man smiled and offered his hand. I shrugged and shook it while he spoke again.
"When you're done, he says he will let you go."
I smiled.
"No, he won't."
"No." The translator smiled too.
Well, it wast time to build myself some weapons and armor then turn this place into a graveyard. I looked back at the pile of assorted Stark Industries goodies and my smile widened.
A cave
somewhere in Afghanistan
"I'm surprised, Mr. Stark." The translator spoke quietly much later in the evening. "I didn't expect you to agree to build them more weapons."
"What's your name anyway? I didn't catch it." I looked up from the cup of hot tea in my hands. I've forgotten how cold could be in the desert during the night.
"Doctor Ho Yinsen." He frowned.
"Sorry, I had a lot on my mind earlier." I sipped the tea. It was strange but nice. "What choice do we have? We both know they will kill us once we've done what they want. However, they will either kill or torture us if we do nothing. At the very least this..." I waved at the workshop taking shape in our prison, "will buy us time." I needed to get in a decent shape, got the device keeping me alive improved.
"So this is it? You last act? Your legacy?" Yinsen asked.
"My legacy? Doctor, my family's legacy is war and death. The only reason why I don't have even more people after me is because I'm building toys for not only the 'good' guys but the most powerful country on the planet." That thought was amusing. America might be the sole superpower here on Earth, however in the big scheme of things that didn't mean much. A single country or a whole species still stuck in its lunar orbit weren't things that could impress me anymore.
Still… Was it being back on Earth? Or perhaps Tony's memories… This place, well not the bloody cave, was my home. I suspected there were dangers out there this planet wasn't ready for. I could do something about it once I got out and for the first time in years I could live more or less free from the legacy of the Sith, though I wasn't sure what to think about that.
"I've wondered, Mr. Stark…" Ho trailed off and looked me in the eyes. "How do you want to be remembered?"
"A very good question. I'll tell you if I ever figure it out, Doctor." I knew how I would be remembered back… was it home? I've called that galaxy home for a very long time. A warlord, a monster… a failure in the end who died over his own hubris.
I finished my tea and dragged my battery back to the bed. I needed to rest first, then there was work to do.
To my astonishment, I got a more or less serviceable workshop to play with by the late afternoon. How these nice folks managed to get about eighty percent of the equipment I needed in such a short time-span I wouldn't know until I could get close and personal with a few of them, which unfortunately might not happen. I couldn't afford to play with them.
I was busy killing time with the help of Ho, who was assisting me in performing a surgery on honest to god cruise missile – just another proof that more was going on than Tony has ever been aware of. Joy.
"Who exactly are our hosts?" I asked quietly hoping that the noise of our work would keep the conversation private.
"They're your loyal clients." Yinsen rolled his eyes at me as if it was obvious.
I glanced at the logo painted on the missile between us. I could see how people could get that impression. Yet, you'd think that my biggest official customers – the US DOD would have made an issue if American soldiers got blown up with my weapons. As far as I know, there has been nothing official coming to surface about such things happening… Yet more questions that needed answers.
"They call themselves the Ten Rings."
"I've heard of much worse names." I nodded absent-mindedly… here goes the warhead… I carefully removed it and put it out of the way. Now for the rocket fuel… Oh, the things I could to to people with it…
"What exactly are we doing?" Ho asked.
"I need some off the shelf components for power-cells among other things. Better magnet for my chest, way to power it, some way to power our way out when its built..." I trailed off and carefully looked at Yinsen.
"I'm listening..."
"We have a few problems. It so happens we're outnumbered quite a lot. While our hosts were good enough to give us a lot of weapons to play with, a few stray shots and we're done. I have some ideas about that but first," I tapped my chest. "We need to buy me some time."
And so we got to work. From Tony's memories I figured out a few very interesting things. That ark reactor he had built to power up some of Stark Industries factories – it was amazing tech. I could see how to built one, I could calculate its output too, figure out how to safely connect it to equipment too, yet, I had trouble wrapping my head around the theory, not to mention the equations that explained it didn't really make sense. They appeared to work, but…
Let's just say that I might have Tony Stark's memories, but I lacked his genius. Or madness if you want to put it that way. Eh. I had a lot of tech in my head to play with and from what I knew thanks to Tony, it should work here too.
Building a mini ark reactor with what we had was problematic. Without any really advanced equipment we had to practically craft everything by hand which took a lot of time. There were errors that set us back, not to mention the need to appear we were working on the Jericho missile too. In fact, it was faster and easier to make a compact, backpack sized fusion reactor and a couple of power-cells in the rough shape of soda cans. They and a new better electro-magnet kept me alive thanks to Yinsen who had to operate on me without anything to knock me out.
That sucked, yet couldn't compare with some of the fun and games back at the Sith academy on Korriban, much less the few times I fucked up by the numbers as Baras apprentice.
Properly applied Sith lighting is much, much worse than chest surgery while awake. Its telling that I was more concerning about how effective the antiseptics we cooked up were going to be than Ho cutting my chest open.
Still, it kriffing HURT, damn it all to hell!
It took us three weeks to get the ark reactor going. It was a piece of art if I say so myself. That evening we were celebrating by getting a bit of well deserved rest and passing time by playing backgammon. I remember occasionally enjoying the game as a kid, though I don't think Tony ever touched it.
Somehow we ended up talking about home and family – painful topics, no matter who I really was.
"To Gomira and getting you back to your family." I saluted Ho with my tea cup.
What can I say? The Doctor got me back on my feet so I owed him, more than one at that.
"What about you?" Yinsen asked.
"My family is dead." I admitted.
"Then you're a man who has everything yet nothing." Ho intoned. "Its sad when you think about it."
"True enough." I shrugged. More than he would ever know.
Kriffing up by the numbers and being too far away to do anything when each of my wives were murdered – by the never sufficiently damned Jedi both times was one of my greatest failures. Ashara murdered in our home because of her Battle Meditation and Bo-Katan cut down when she engaged Windu during the Jedi coup while I was on the other end of the galaxy… Well, this was a great mood-killer.
At least there were no Jedi or other such do gooders on Earth. I needed a distraction, damn it.
"I need to get my hands busy." I muttered to Yinsen and went back to making servo-motors for the exo-skeleton we were building.
Getting the job done while building a couple of fake missiles was challenging but at least we had visual proof we weren't siting on our hands or obviously plotting mischief. It bought us the time we needed to figure out how to make a decent armor with what we had, because surprise surprise, the things needed for a combat exo-skeleton and those to build a proper missile were quite different.
Well, for the most part…
The hardest thing to hide were actually the pieces of the armor once we created them. We had to deliberately keep the clutter up to manage it but it happened.
In comparison, making a pair of arm-mounted coil-guns, a flamethrower using modified rocket fuel and adding micro rockets was quite simple. On the other hand mounting everything on the armor once it was done and ensuring I would be able to fire without blowing myself up – that was a challenge.
Making weapons is reasonably easy. Often its harder to create an effective platform to deploy them from. Frankly, I would have preferred to use an assault rifle or two, but no one was dumb enough to give them to us. Making enough conventional ammo to shoot my way out turned out to be harder with what I had on hand so that's why I went with the coil-guns. It wasn't like we were hurting for energy. The ark reactor and bunch of power-cells saw to that. The fusion one would be better but hauling it too would have required much more sophisticated exo-skeleton. All the weapons and armor were already straining what our kit-bash Frankenstein could haul.
In the end the biggest challenge was to get everything to work with minimal computer support because we simply didn't have much to work with on that front. Honestly, building the control system for my portable fusion generator was so much easier it wasn't even funny.
It took us bloody months stuck in that cave. How we weren't found by the US military in that time I would never know. Yet, we did it in the end, just in time too, because our hosts were getting increasingly impatient and even more unpleasant…
A cave slash an irritated Sith's workshop
somewhere in Afghanistan
No plan survives contact with the enemy, even if they were bunch of zealots hiding in a cave in the desert. Unfortunately for our hosts, I've been trained by some of the nastiest murderous commando types the Sith Empire ever produced. They gave me months to prepare too with minimal supervision, which is a big no-no.
That's why when the exo-skeleton was ready, we mined the door, prepared a few remote detonated surprises along with a bunch of grenades for Yinsen and only then did we get the armor set up for deployment - in a blind spot of the only camera in the cave. Getting inside the kit-bash war-machine was a long and arduous process which was guaranteed to get us noticed even if we started late in the evening.
Needless to say, our activities didn't get unnoticed. We were three quarters done when our hosts got a wind of something being wrong and began bashing on the door and screaming at us.
"Not happy, are they?" I quipped.
Before Yinsen could answer someone opened the door and got blown up by a couple of canisters with compressed air.
"Oh, god… It actually worked!" Ho exclaimed.
"Help me up, we don't have much time!" I snapped.
Yinsen frantically nodded and helped me get on the rest of the armor. Now we had to wait for the bare bones operation system to load and initialize; hope that it would work too, because it wasn't like we had time for testing everything properly.
That's why the grenades and mines were for – good luck charging through them if Yinsen didn't manage to blow up himself first. I gave him a rundown how to use all the toys we cooked up – multiple times at that, yet you never know...
I was stuck waiting and listening to a lot of fanatical screaming cut short by sharp explosions. Even more screaming followed when Ho kriffed up and threw one of the rocket fuel specials – a loud fooosh, then hows as people burned alive. The down side was the nasty toxic smoke that came in the cave from the fire. That couldn't be good for our health however getting shot would be worse.
All things considered this was a nice start for the evening.
"Come on!" I snapped at the old laptop uploading the suit's OS.
The status bar was at 90% and going up slowly. Too slowly, because I could hear more of the bastards approaching.
"I'm halfway through the grenades!" Yinsen shouted.
"Throw a few and go get yourself a gun. Use it to suppress them!" I shouted back.
It wasn't exactly a rocket science!
More explosions. Was that chanting coming from the tunnel? One more detonation complete with dying screams and Ho was back. He stumbled next to me covered in sooth and hefting a machine gun that looked more or less intact.
"I think it worked!" Yinsen gave me a manic grin.
The laptop pinged. My exo-skeleton came to life with whine that under different circumstances I would find concerning.
"Now, you remember the last part, right?" I carefully lifted a hand and pointed at the fusion generator. Those babies usually couldn't go make boom. There were safety precautions to avoid it, which I didn't bother putting in, not to mention they were generally safe designs in the first place.
I had to modify this one to have the option of blowing up properly.
Ho nodded and went to put in the ignition sequence. Now we had twenty minutes to get away before this cave network was kriffed up by an angry sun. No matter what happened now we would be free from here – or dead which was a form of freedom too I guess.
I made my way to the door and grinned at the Doc's handiwork. He blew up at least twenty of the bastards if all the bits and pieces I could see were anything to go by. Good man. I might just have a job offer for him once we're out and back somewhere civilized.
"Ho, don't forget your part of the plan! I'll keep them focused on me, you keep low and grab some provisions!" I ordered and strode out in the tunnels. It was time to put this armor to the test.
My first two victims were carefully sneaking toward us. Once they saw me they froze for a moment whispering something about a Jinn. Before they could recover from seeing an armored giant coming from the smoke, I raised my arms and shot them with the coil-guns. Thoom. Thoom. The shots echoed through the tunnel. They were effective enough against unarmored people – a single hit in the torso put the terrorists out of commission.
The next client came in charging, probably hoping to surprise me. I backhanded him in the wall with enough force to cave in his chest. I think his head cracked too but couldn't see in the twilight.
So far so good. Now I needed to hope that no one wielding heavy weaponry could hit me or I was a goner.
There was only one last unfortunate soul waiting for me next to an open set of doors. He was turned to scream down the tunnel and got shot for his lack of attention. Ah, it was good when the people who were trying to off me weren't professionals for once!
Reaching the exit was underwhelming. I expected more resistance, but Yinsen saw to that. Only at the entrance I faced trouble. A kriffing bastard with a grenade thrower almost nailed me but missed. The grenade blew up down the tunnel behind me, hopefully missing Ho who should be scavenging supplies.
I didn't miss and two slugs tore through the bald man. His buddies lit me up, but the armor held. Thoom. Thoom. Thoom. Thoom. Four more were cut down in as many shots and the last two ran out.
Now it was going to get tricky. There were two fifty cal emplacements outside, though only one could bear on the exit. At least that was the case the last time we were allowed out.
I switched on the flamethrowers and sent jets of fire to provide some cover and terrorize the locals. A hail of fire met my exit, then I sent the only two smoke grenades we could cook up safely. Technically we could have made more though those would be quite bit toxic. The smoke from the rocket fuel was bad enough.
Fire and coil-gun fire saw to those near the exit. Hitting the HMG emplacement with a micro rocket turned out as hard as I feared – it was more luck than anything else that saw the last blow it up. That left at least one more emplacement with an unknown number of the bastard skulking through the valley.
This was going to suck.
Fire, smoke and screams. Bullets glancing off my armor or embedding in the Kevlar – that kriffing hurt. My flamethrowers ran dry and I released the tanks, then kicked one of them at a bastard trying to blow us both with an RPG from point blank range. I hosed him down with both guns for good measure too. Kriffing suicidal maniacs.
Two terrorists popped from my left and emptied their magazines in my side. For a change they didn't spray and pray but aimed. That saw my left arm lock up and the leg on that side began acting up. I shot them with my right gun before they could reload but I the damage was done and my armor was crippled.
Shit. That wasn't good. On the bright side it was night and the only real light came from the fires I lit up, which were behind me so I got some concealment to work with. On the other hand the primitive exo-skeleton I wore wasn't exactly stealthy…
A deadly game of cat and mouse followed and a few of these mice packed RPGs too. Fortunately apparently everyone who could shoot straight to save their lives got killed earlier or I wold have died before I ran out of terrorists to maul.
The last HMG emplacement turned out to be tricky. I had to scavenge for a grenade thrower, then ammo for it. Reloading with one properly working arm was a pain too, however, actually hitting close enough to the gunner to send him tumbling out of his little nest happened on the first try.
God must be looking out for fools, madmen, ships called the Enterprise and Tony Stark. Either that or whoever stuck me in this body didn't want to see me get myself killed just yet. I'm sure otherwise I would have been dead.
I took a deep breath. The scent of of death and battle – it was quite nice. Now it was time to pick up Yinsen if he was still alive and run before my farewell package ignited.
I looked over the valley. Huh, I don't remember setting up that many fires…
"Stark! Let's get out of here!" Ho shambled up to me loaded with two large bags and flamethrower. He was grinning like a loon too.
Damn it, I'm good! I got the man corrupted by accident and I didn't even have the Force anymore!
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the movies set up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe nor any of the Star Wars movies, cartoons, games, books or comics. They belong to their respective copyright owners. This story is not created with commercial aim. I make no money from it. It is not for sale or rent.
The Iron Sith
=IS=
Prologue : Rebirth
=IS=
=IS=
Prologue : Rebirth
=IS=
location unknown
time unknown
When I awoke, it was to tearing searing hot pain in my chest, right above my heart. I felt oppressive, suffocating heat which immediately brought the thought of a desert to my mind. My first instinct was to grab the Force and ensure that I was as safe as possible.
I froze in shock when I grasped for my power and found nothing. Kriff, I was in big trouble this time around. Yasalmir? Someone powerful and skilled enough in the Force to cut me off even temporarily? I could recall a few Sith artifacts that might do it;a handful of alchemy concoctions too.
A wave of dizziness slammed its ugly fist into my mind. The Force? Alchemy? What nonsense was this?
I felt like falling through an endless chasm. Memories flew past me like a moths of light. I remember being a slave. No, I was the son of Howard Stark. No, I wasn't! I was a Sith! No, I was… I was… My head pounded as if I've drunk too much again. Huh. I haven't gotten drunk since my wife died.
What? Wife?! I'm a bachelor and proud of it! Why the hell would I tie up myself with just one woman? Besides they all get boring once we begin to talk… Like those twins last December… That was a nice night…
The pounding in my head picked up a notch. It sounded like a bunch of Gamoreans chased by a starving Rankor.
What's with the Star Wars references?!
Who the hell was I?!
I… Stark, no Veil… Who is that?!
The pressure inside my skull increased and I knew no more…
=IS=
The next time I awoke, it was still hot enough to boil someone in their own sweat. While my chest continued to hurt, the pain wasn't as sharp as the last time. Even better, my head was a bit clearer this time around. No one was trying to use my skull as a drum, though my memories were still a mess. What the hell did I drink last night?!
My nose twitched. Sweat and dust, machine oil, metal, burning wood and something cooking. The last scent was somewhat familiar, though I couldn't place it.
I cracked an eye open, deciding I will be sorting out my messed up memories later and looked around. It was quite dark with dancing light coming from a fire trying to chase of the shadows. Above me was an uneven rock. Huh, a cave? That sounded wrong.
What on Earth would I do in a cave of all places?!
I tried to get up only to flinch back when something pulled at my chest which exploded in sharp pain. I groaned and looked wildly around. Only now I noticed something sticking from my nose. This was getting worse by the moment. Before I could think my hands were moving and I was pulling whatever was in my right nostril.
Something scraped through my trachea and I pulled harder, then began gasping for breath. Only now I looked at the bloody thing – a thin plastic tube. What was this, primitive central?
I forced myself to calm down. Why was I panicking anyway? Even without the Force I wasn't helpless. I froze. Again with the Force. What… I closed my eyes and fell back into the bed. I needed to sort out my head first. It took some doing but I fell back into a meditative trance and began examining my memories. There was a new set of them stuck in my head. There was no personality with them, yet they felt fresher, more tangible than the rest. I still could remember clearly that I was Delkatar Veil, the Dark Lord of the Sith. Yet, I could remember being Tony Stark… a man who was determined to waste so much potential… yet I found myself envying him. Its been so long since I could simply enjoy living day for day with no real threats hanging over my head.
How the kriff did I end up here? I tried to remember…
Explosions, shooting and fear washed over me. Stark's last memories were fragmented and confused – no real surprise for his first time under fire… while tipsy too.
I tried to remember where I knew the name Tony Stark from – I'm certain it wasn't just from my new memories. Damn, has it really been more than sixty years since I was back on Earth?
I could vaguely recall something about a man flying in a suit of red power armor. Very slim and advanced… How the hell could someone put so much tech in such a small package? The sixty years worth of engineering know how and scientific theories I forced myself to learn by heart began to to mutiny against the very idea.
I pushed the thoughts of such impossibility back. I was stuck in another dimension – for the third time I think. That explained why I couldn't reach the Force. My power might not even exist here. That realization made me shiver with fear and this time the emotion wasn't a fuel for my powers. I was just a weak, potentially wounded baseline human.
I was vulnerable.
The very thought sent a lance of red hot fury through my system. I didn't survive for decades among the Sith to give up now! I didn't claw my way to the top ranks of the Empire to let such a setback, no matter how grave, break me! If I didn't have the Force anymore I would find another source of power! Another pillar of strength! I will overcome any obstacles standing in my way. I will be free again!
I opened my eyes and glared at my surroundings. Without the Force I felt blind and deaf. The world was distant and less alive.
I finally I noticed I wasn't alone in the cave. Kriff, my senses were gone to shit without the Force. Or was this just Tony's fault? A not particularly tall balding man had his back turned to me and was busy shaving. I tried to get up only to get my chest painfully tugged again.
"I wouldn't do that in your place." The man pointed out.
I looked down. My chest was bandaged and there were a pair of black wires sticking out. I traced them up to a large battery of some kind resting on a wooden cupboard next to the bed.
"What the hell is that?" I rasped.
"That? It keeps you alive." The man turned around and smiled tiredly.
His face was gaunt with a thin graying patch of beard over his chin. He wore a dirty suit with a decent cut of a type I haven't seen since I was on Earth a very long time ago. A fire burning in a wooden stove nearby made his glasses shine eery in the twilight.
"I dug out all the shrapnel I could, but there was some I couldn't reach. Without that elector-magnet to keep them in place, the rest will enter your arteries and you'll be dead in a week. If you're lucky." He looked around, brightened and picked up a small glass sample case which he threw at me.
I was barely able to snatch it before it hit my bandages, which made me wince. My reflexes were painfully slow even for a normal human.
"What is this?" I raised the vial to the flickering fire and examined it. There were a few very sharp pieces of metal in there.
"A souvenir, Mr. Stark." The balding man explained.
Lucky me. Digging the remaining shrapnel would be easy – with the Force. Without it… What was the state of medicine back on Earth?
The man began to babble about some conference where we supposedly met a few years back, but I ignored him making the odd encouraging sound. My mind was on the shrapnel. What a stupid way to go. I looked down at the bandages. I needed to get that fixed but first – find my way to civilization.
"How did we end up here?" I asked.
"Ah. I was wondering when you would think about that." He gave me a pained smile. "Smile to the camera." He pointed a thumb over his back to the far corner of the cave.
I glanced that way and sure enough I could see a red light there. I had to squint and only now I was able to see the faint outline of a large, terribly primitive camera. Well at least that was my first impression. Who new what was under its casing…
Someone shouted in unfamiliar language outside, then there was the sound of a metal bolt being removed from the door.
"Do as I do!" The man said in frantic tone. He picked up the battery attached to my chest and put it in the center of the cave while urging me to follow his example. He put his arms behind his head and smiled nervously at the door.
I glared but followed suit. This wasn't the time for heroics.
The doors opened and a bunch of shabby looking people with brandishing guns entered. Their obvious leader came to the front front, spread his large arms at us and began babbling in that same unfamiliar language. He had graying hair and beard, a gun stuck in his belt and was very large at least in comparison to the men behind him.
They were quite thin, though I could see wiry muscles on some of them. The way they held their guns – no proper training. The weapon themselves on the other hand looked brand new which was at odds with the people carrying them. They looked like your bog standard bunch of nobody terrorists slash resistance fighters. Those usually armed themselves with anything they could fudge together or steal… when they weren't supplied by someone with nice toys so they could ruing someone else's day.
This was beginning to smell on the later. I've done the odd black ops or insurgent suppression back in the day. I would recognize a bunch of fanatics who weren't exactly sure what they were doing besides fighting the 'enemy'. Yesterday I would have dismissed them as no threat at all. Today, with a battery stuck to my chest and without the Force?
The very idea that this bunch of scum could be dangerous to me grated. All I wanted was to crush them like the bugs they were. Not only these fools, but all their friends and everyone who had the bright idea of supporting them too.
Instead I swallowed my fury, bid my time and waited for the man who apparently patched me up to translate.
"Welcome, Tony Stark! The most famous mass murderer in the American history!"
I had to fight valiantly not to roll my eyes, which might get me shot somewhere survivable. What people stuck up on one insignificant backwater world know about mass murder? How many planets have they turned into glass? How many sapient species have they exterminated? How many trillions have died by their command? I bit off a sneer and smiled pleasantly.
"Thank him for the compliment." I nodded to my translator who suddenly looked like he regretted saving my life.
"Its an honor for him to meet you." The translator glared at me while our 'host' grinned and continued to speak. "He wants you to build him a rocket."
"A rocket?" I repeated. They kidnapped Tony Stark and by extension me so we could build them a rocket?! My already quite low estimate of my kidnapper's mental capacity suddenly got into a steep nosedive. The only rocket I'll be building them is the one I would strap them on before launching it!
Nah, I didn't feel that merciful.
"A Jericho missile just the one you demonstrated." The translator continued and our kidnapper stuck a piece of paper in my hands.
Huh. A paper… the last time I saw and touched paper was when I was stuck on that primitive world for six months fifteen or so years back…
The tactile feeling of paper in my feeling was quite nice. I turned the sheet around to see a picture of a missile with on its launching pad. Ah, I remembered now. Jericho – multiple independent warheads built upon repulsor technology… There was no way I would be able to built it with the tools these jokers could get their hands on. No matter. I will be building weapons, just not for them.
"It's going to be possible, but very, very hard." I smiled at the bearded man, while wondering how exactly I was going to murder the kriff out of him and his friends. "I'll need tools, parts even weapons."
The translator whose name I might have to learn one of these days continued to glare at me, but did his job.
Our host beamed at me and waved us to follow him.
I took a good look at the part of the cave complex we were led through, making notes of good choke points, number of people, armaments and where supplies could be seen laying around. It was quite large cave network, which wasn't good.
Once we were outside, I frowned. There were a lot of people and weapons out here. A platoon worth at least, perhaps closer to two of the bastards. While not technically impossible, taking them on in a straight up fight would be suicide. While I've seen it done, that was by people with proper armor, weapons, in incredible shape not to mention the training and experience they had – only the later two points counted in my favor and without the Force I was in significant disadvantage anyway.
I needed force multipliers. Explosive too. Lots of explosives…
It was a good thing then that our host brought us to a large pile of Stark Industries gear – which these guys most definitely weren't supposed to have. Once I'm back there would be some house-cleaning. Arranged accidents too. Getting kidnapped by people wielding weapons you produced was kriffing embracing.
The bearded man said something and brought me back into the present.
"He wants to know what do you think." The translator muttered.
"That's a lot of weapons." I nodded in approval. "I'll make him something very special if he tells me how he get them."
Our kidnapper laughed at my words and began talking.
"Perhaps when you've built him the missile. He says there's everything you need to make it in here. He wants a list with the necessary gear and tells you to begin immediately."
The bearded man smiled and offered his hand. I shrugged and shook it while he spoke again.
"When you're done, he says he will let you go."
I smiled.
"No, he won't."
"No." The translator smiled too.
Well, it wast time to build myself some weapons and armor then turn this place into a graveyard. I looked back at the pile of assorted Stark Industries goodies and my smile widened.
=IS=
A cave
somewhere in Afghanistan
"I'm surprised, Mr. Stark." The translator spoke quietly much later in the evening. "I didn't expect you to agree to build them more weapons."
"What's your name anyway? I didn't catch it." I looked up from the cup of hot tea in my hands. I've forgotten how cold could be in the desert during the night.
"Doctor Ho Yinsen." He frowned.
"Sorry, I had a lot on my mind earlier." I sipped the tea. It was strange but nice. "What choice do we have? We both know they will kill us once we've done what they want. However, they will either kill or torture us if we do nothing. At the very least this..." I waved at the workshop taking shape in our prison, "will buy us time." I needed to get in a decent shape, got the device keeping me alive improved.
"So this is it? You last act? Your legacy?" Yinsen asked.
"My legacy? Doctor, my family's legacy is war and death. The only reason why I don't have even more people after me is because I'm building toys for not only the 'good' guys but the most powerful country on the planet." That thought was amusing. America might be the sole superpower here on Earth, however in the big scheme of things that didn't mean much. A single country or a whole species still stuck in its lunar orbit weren't things that could impress me anymore.
Still… Was it being back on Earth? Or perhaps Tony's memories… This place, well not the bloody cave, was my home. I suspected there were dangers out there this planet wasn't ready for. I could do something about it once I got out and for the first time in years I could live more or less free from the legacy of the Sith, though I wasn't sure what to think about that.
"I've wondered, Mr. Stark…" Ho trailed off and looked me in the eyes. "How do you want to be remembered?"
"A very good question. I'll tell you if I ever figure it out, Doctor." I knew how I would be remembered back… was it home? I've called that galaxy home for a very long time. A warlord, a monster… a failure in the end who died over his own hubris.
I finished my tea and dragged my battery back to the bed. I needed to rest first, then there was work to do.
=IS=
To my astonishment, I got a more or less serviceable workshop to play with by the late afternoon. How these nice folks managed to get about eighty percent of the equipment I needed in such a short time-span I wouldn't know until I could get close and personal with a few of them, which unfortunately might not happen. I couldn't afford to play with them.
I was busy killing time with the help of Ho, who was assisting me in performing a surgery on honest to god cruise missile – just another proof that more was going on than Tony has ever been aware of. Joy.
"Who exactly are our hosts?" I asked quietly hoping that the noise of our work would keep the conversation private.
"They're your loyal clients." Yinsen rolled his eyes at me as if it was obvious.
I glanced at the logo painted on the missile between us. I could see how people could get that impression. Yet, you'd think that my biggest official customers – the US DOD would have made an issue if American soldiers got blown up with my weapons. As far as I know, there has been nothing official coming to surface about such things happening… Yet more questions that needed answers.
"They call themselves the Ten Rings."
"I've heard of much worse names." I nodded absent-mindedly… here goes the warhead… I carefully removed it and put it out of the way. Now for the rocket fuel… Oh, the things I could to to people with it…
"What exactly are we doing?" Ho asked.
"I need some off the shelf components for power-cells among other things. Better magnet for my chest, way to power it, some way to power our way out when its built..." I trailed off and carefully looked at Yinsen.
"I'm listening..."
"We have a few problems. It so happens we're outnumbered quite a lot. While our hosts were good enough to give us a lot of weapons to play with, a few stray shots and we're done. I have some ideas about that but first," I tapped my chest. "We need to buy me some time."
And so we got to work. From Tony's memories I figured out a few very interesting things. That ark reactor he had built to power up some of Stark Industries factories – it was amazing tech. I could see how to built one, I could calculate its output too, figure out how to safely connect it to equipment too, yet, I had trouble wrapping my head around the theory, not to mention the equations that explained it didn't really make sense. They appeared to work, but…
Let's just say that I might have Tony Stark's memories, but I lacked his genius. Or madness if you want to put it that way. Eh. I had a lot of tech in my head to play with and from what I knew thanks to Tony, it should work here too.
Building a mini ark reactor with what we had was problematic. Without any really advanced equipment we had to practically craft everything by hand which took a lot of time. There were errors that set us back, not to mention the need to appear we were working on the Jericho missile too. In fact, it was faster and easier to make a compact, backpack sized fusion reactor and a couple of power-cells in the rough shape of soda cans. They and a new better electro-magnet kept me alive thanks to Yinsen who had to operate on me without anything to knock me out.
That sucked, yet couldn't compare with some of the fun and games back at the Sith academy on Korriban, much less the few times I fucked up by the numbers as Baras apprentice.
Properly applied Sith lighting is much, much worse than chest surgery while awake. Its telling that I was more concerning about how effective the antiseptics we cooked up were going to be than Ho cutting my chest open.
Still, it kriffing HURT, damn it all to hell!
=IS=
It took us three weeks to get the ark reactor going. It was a piece of art if I say so myself. That evening we were celebrating by getting a bit of well deserved rest and passing time by playing backgammon. I remember occasionally enjoying the game as a kid, though I don't think Tony ever touched it.
Somehow we ended up talking about home and family – painful topics, no matter who I really was.
"To Gomira and getting you back to your family." I saluted Ho with my tea cup.
What can I say? The Doctor got me back on my feet so I owed him, more than one at that.
"What about you?" Yinsen asked.
"My family is dead." I admitted.
"Then you're a man who has everything yet nothing." Ho intoned. "Its sad when you think about it."
"True enough." I shrugged. More than he would ever know.
Kriffing up by the numbers and being too far away to do anything when each of my wives were murdered – by the never sufficiently damned Jedi both times was one of my greatest failures. Ashara murdered in our home because of her Battle Meditation and Bo-Katan cut down when she engaged Windu during the Jedi coup while I was on the other end of the galaxy… Well, this was a great mood-killer.
At least there were no Jedi or other such do gooders on Earth. I needed a distraction, damn it.
"I need to get my hands busy." I muttered to Yinsen and went back to making servo-motors for the exo-skeleton we were building.
Getting the job done while building a couple of fake missiles was challenging but at least we had visual proof we weren't siting on our hands or obviously plotting mischief. It bought us the time we needed to figure out how to make a decent armor with what we had, because surprise surprise, the things needed for a combat exo-skeleton and those to build a proper missile were quite different.
Well, for the most part…
The hardest thing to hide were actually the pieces of the armor once we created them. We had to deliberately keep the clutter up to manage it but it happened.
In comparison, making a pair of arm-mounted coil-guns, a flamethrower using modified rocket fuel and adding micro rockets was quite simple. On the other hand mounting everything on the armor once it was done and ensuring I would be able to fire without blowing myself up – that was a challenge.
Making weapons is reasonably easy. Often its harder to create an effective platform to deploy them from. Frankly, I would have preferred to use an assault rifle or two, but no one was dumb enough to give them to us. Making enough conventional ammo to shoot my way out turned out to be harder with what I had on hand so that's why I went with the coil-guns. It wasn't like we were hurting for energy. The ark reactor and bunch of power-cells saw to that. The fusion one would be better but hauling it too would have required much more sophisticated exo-skeleton. All the weapons and armor were already straining what our kit-bash Frankenstein could haul.
In the end the biggest challenge was to get everything to work with minimal computer support because we simply didn't have much to work with on that front. Honestly, building the control system for my portable fusion generator was so much easier it wasn't even funny.
It took us bloody months stuck in that cave. How we weren't found by the US military in that time I would never know. Yet, we did it in the end, just in time too, because our hosts were getting increasingly impatient and even more unpleasant…
=IS=
A cave slash an irritated Sith's workshop
somewhere in Afghanistan
No plan survives contact with the enemy, even if they were bunch of zealots hiding in a cave in the desert. Unfortunately for our hosts, I've been trained by some of the nastiest murderous commando types the Sith Empire ever produced. They gave me months to prepare too with minimal supervision, which is a big no-no.
That's why when the exo-skeleton was ready, we mined the door, prepared a few remote detonated surprises along with a bunch of grenades for Yinsen and only then did we get the armor set up for deployment - in a blind spot of the only camera in the cave. Getting inside the kit-bash war-machine was a long and arduous process which was guaranteed to get us noticed even if we started late in the evening.
Needless to say, our activities didn't get unnoticed. We were three quarters done when our hosts got a wind of something being wrong and began bashing on the door and screaming at us.
"Not happy, are they?" I quipped.
Before Yinsen could answer someone opened the door and got blown up by a couple of canisters with compressed air.
"Oh, god… It actually worked!" Ho exclaimed.
"Help me up, we don't have much time!" I snapped.
Yinsen frantically nodded and helped me get on the rest of the armor. Now we had to wait for the bare bones operation system to load and initialize; hope that it would work too, because it wasn't like we had time for testing everything properly.
That's why the grenades and mines were for – good luck charging through them if Yinsen didn't manage to blow up himself first. I gave him a rundown how to use all the toys we cooked up – multiple times at that, yet you never know...
I was stuck waiting and listening to a lot of fanatical screaming cut short by sharp explosions. Even more screaming followed when Ho kriffed up and threw one of the rocket fuel specials – a loud fooosh, then hows as people burned alive. The down side was the nasty toxic smoke that came in the cave from the fire. That couldn't be good for our health however getting shot would be worse.
All things considered this was a nice start for the evening.
"Come on!" I snapped at the old laptop uploading the suit's OS.
The status bar was at 90% and going up slowly. Too slowly, because I could hear more of the bastards approaching.
"I'm halfway through the grenades!" Yinsen shouted.
"Throw a few and go get yourself a gun. Use it to suppress them!" I shouted back.
It wasn't exactly a rocket science!
More explosions. Was that chanting coming from the tunnel? One more detonation complete with dying screams and Ho was back. He stumbled next to me covered in sooth and hefting a machine gun that looked more or less intact.
"I think it worked!" Yinsen gave me a manic grin.
The laptop pinged. My exo-skeleton came to life with whine that under different circumstances I would find concerning.
"Now, you remember the last part, right?" I carefully lifted a hand and pointed at the fusion generator. Those babies usually couldn't go make boom. There were safety precautions to avoid it, which I didn't bother putting in, not to mention they were generally safe designs in the first place.
I had to modify this one to have the option of blowing up properly.
Ho nodded and went to put in the ignition sequence. Now we had twenty minutes to get away before this cave network was kriffed up by an angry sun. No matter what happened now we would be free from here – or dead which was a form of freedom too I guess.
I made my way to the door and grinned at the Doc's handiwork. He blew up at least twenty of the bastards if all the bits and pieces I could see were anything to go by. Good man. I might just have a job offer for him once we're out and back somewhere civilized.
"Ho, don't forget your part of the plan! I'll keep them focused on me, you keep low and grab some provisions!" I ordered and strode out in the tunnels. It was time to put this armor to the test.
My first two victims were carefully sneaking toward us. Once they saw me they froze for a moment whispering something about a Jinn. Before they could recover from seeing an armored giant coming from the smoke, I raised my arms and shot them with the coil-guns. Thoom. Thoom. The shots echoed through the tunnel. They were effective enough against unarmored people – a single hit in the torso put the terrorists out of commission.
The next client came in charging, probably hoping to surprise me. I backhanded him in the wall with enough force to cave in his chest. I think his head cracked too but couldn't see in the twilight.
So far so good. Now I needed to hope that no one wielding heavy weaponry could hit me or I was a goner.
There was only one last unfortunate soul waiting for me next to an open set of doors. He was turned to scream down the tunnel and got shot for his lack of attention. Ah, it was good when the people who were trying to off me weren't professionals for once!
Reaching the exit was underwhelming. I expected more resistance, but Yinsen saw to that. Only at the entrance I faced trouble. A kriffing bastard with a grenade thrower almost nailed me but missed. The grenade blew up down the tunnel behind me, hopefully missing Ho who should be scavenging supplies.
I didn't miss and two slugs tore through the bald man. His buddies lit me up, but the armor held. Thoom. Thoom. Thoom. Thoom. Four more were cut down in as many shots and the last two ran out.
Now it was going to get tricky. There were two fifty cal emplacements outside, though only one could bear on the exit. At least that was the case the last time we were allowed out.
I switched on the flamethrowers and sent jets of fire to provide some cover and terrorize the locals. A hail of fire met my exit, then I sent the only two smoke grenades we could cook up safely. Technically we could have made more though those would be quite bit toxic. The smoke from the rocket fuel was bad enough.
Fire and coil-gun fire saw to those near the exit. Hitting the HMG emplacement with a micro rocket turned out as hard as I feared – it was more luck than anything else that saw the last blow it up. That left at least one more emplacement with an unknown number of the bastard skulking through the valley.
This was going to suck.
Fire, smoke and screams. Bullets glancing off my armor or embedding in the Kevlar – that kriffing hurt. My flamethrowers ran dry and I released the tanks, then kicked one of them at a bastard trying to blow us both with an RPG from point blank range. I hosed him down with both guns for good measure too. Kriffing suicidal maniacs.
Two terrorists popped from my left and emptied their magazines in my side. For a change they didn't spray and pray but aimed. That saw my left arm lock up and the leg on that side began acting up. I shot them with my right gun before they could reload but I the damage was done and my armor was crippled.
Shit. That wasn't good. On the bright side it was night and the only real light came from the fires I lit up, which were behind me so I got some concealment to work with. On the other hand the primitive exo-skeleton I wore wasn't exactly stealthy…
A deadly game of cat and mouse followed and a few of these mice packed RPGs too. Fortunately apparently everyone who could shoot straight to save their lives got killed earlier or I wold have died before I ran out of terrorists to maul.
The last HMG emplacement turned out to be tricky. I had to scavenge for a grenade thrower, then ammo for it. Reloading with one properly working arm was a pain too, however, actually hitting close enough to the gunner to send him tumbling out of his little nest happened on the first try.
God must be looking out for fools, madmen, ships called the Enterprise and Tony Stark. Either that or whoever stuck me in this body didn't want to see me get myself killed just yet. I'm sure otherwise I would have been dead.
I took a deep breath. The scent of of death and battle – it was quite nice. Now it was time to pick up Yinsen if he was still alive and run before my farewell package ignited.
I looked over the valley. Huh, I don't remember setting up that many fires…
"Stark! Let's get out of here!" Ho shambled up to me loaded with two large bags and flamethrower. He was grinning like a loon too.
Damn it, I'm good! I got the man corrupted by accident and I didn't even have the Force anymore!
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Phase 1 Part 1
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the movies set up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe nor any of the Star Wars movies, cartoons, games, books or comics. They belong to their respective copyright owners. This story is not created with commercial aim. I make no money from it. It is not for sale or rent.
Desert
near a freshly nuked terrorist hideout
Afghanistan
The ground shook when my kit-bash fusion reactor went critical. Yinsen stumbled and planted his face in the sand.
"What was that?!" Ho spluttered after finding his footing.
"Our goodbye present. I hope that it was a big enough invitation for the US military to come pick us up because I don't feel like stumbling through the desert for days." I explained.
"That could have killed us too!" Yinsen didn't sound reassured.
"That was plan B. Being tortured then killed wasn't on my to do list and that's what awaited us if we didn't manage to escape." I pointed out.
Ho blanched and shook his head in denial.
"You're crazy!"
"I can assure you my friend, I haven't been saner in a long, long time." There might be benefits of the lack of my power. Its been months since the Dark Side could whisper sweet nothings in the back of my head. It felt surprisingly good not to have to waste effort on ignoring it unless it suited my purposes.
"You could have fooled me." Yinsen grumbled.
"Will you help me get out of the suit?" This whining was becoming tiresome. "Before the sun goes up otherwise I might just bake inside."
Ho began muttering in various languages I didn't know but at least came to help. Getting out of the armor felt longer than putting it. Perhaps it was the lack of proper instruments to aid us and the damage locking my left arm in place didn't help either. We could see the horizon lit up in orange by the time I was free from the exo-skeleton. Luckily no terrorists came looking for us – which meant they were all dead or too scared to pursue. It wasn't like we had time to cover out tracks nor there was wind to bury them.
The downer was no US presence we could see. I was hoping that a satellite or drone had us locked in and rescue was on the way but that wasn't something we could count on. Not after my friends in the military failed to locate me for so long.
"Thanks. Now to ensure no one is going to easily reverse-engineer this toy…" I put a few of our remaining grenades inside the exo-skeleton.
"Insane, I tell you!" Yinsen glared at me and ran.
I shrugged, set up the explosives and ran to the other side of the dune where the armor laid. Just in time too because a heartbeat or two after I landed in the sand the grenades detonated and shredded the exo-skeleton.
"Now we can go!" I smiled brightly.
Ho glared balefully at me and refused to speak.
We walked in silence until the next afternoon when a US Blackhawk deigned to show up with a rescue party. Instead of being helpful, they covered us with their weapons – sold to them by yours truly, and began demanding that we identify ourselves.
"Hey, isn't that Stark?!" One of the troopers pointing a SAW at my face exclaimed.
"You sure?"Another asked.
"I saw him when he came in for that weapon demonstration..."
"You're late!" I snarked once the soldiers got convinced we weren't a pair of Taliban stumbling through the desert.
Needless to say the flight back to their base was quite awkward.
What followed was underwhelming. Once we landed, Yinsen and I were ushered into a medical tent where we were examined, got enough shots to ensure we would wish we were dead and then finally got to shower – which along with some not too terrible food were the high points. Unfortunately, Ho still refused to speak with me. There were some pointed questions about how the hell did we get away, though telling most of the truth with few creative omissions tied in was enough to get me on the first flight for the good old US of A.
Tony's memories turned out to be a mixed blessing. While they helped me fit in, the patriotism I inherited was becoming an issue. There were even a few random thoughts about ceasing weapon production once I was back that popped up in my head and I had to squish them ruthlessly. The overwhelming need for a drink or three wasn't helping either.
I sighed. Life would have been much easier if I didn't have this irritating sense of patriotism towards America and what it stood for. Seriously? Freedom? Democracy?! I saw firsthand what that led up to in the Galactic Republic.
God damn it, this was going to be irritating.
For some arcane reason I felt like I wanted to devour a couple of cheeseburgers too.
Damn you, Tony!
Ho still refused to talk to me. Eh. I would go bothering him to come work for me later.
Being Tony Stark had it's perks. On the way back home I got the passenger compartment of a C-5 Galaxy all to myself. It was only now that I could feel somewhat safe and relax a bit. The fear I've been doing my best to suppress for months tried to surface again making me shake.
I've forgotten how weak an ordinary man could be. Tony hasn't really thought about it since he was a kid and his father told him horror stories about assassins like the Winter Soldier. The memories of those conversations were still vivid. The plan what to do if encountering that man too – run away while the security detail tried to die slow enough for a lot of help to come.
The shaking intensified. I was just a man in a world where super-soldiers existed. This was the home of monsters like the Hulk and if I encountered one of them today all I could do would be to die. Oh, I would fight. Run if I could.
I couldn't win.
I was weak and I despised weakness.
It meant you will die screaming.
This had to change. After my time in captivity I was in a better physical shape than Tony ever was and he wasn't one to let himself really go… I frowned. Eh. He was. It was Ms. Potts, Pepper who kept him from killing himself by not paying attention to his body. How could someone so intelligent be so stupid?! Yet, perhaps it was worth it if that was the price for his genius.
I took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly. I was getting nervous. Rambling too. To think my captivity could have such effect on me.
I would be home soon – I focused on that thought. I needed a solid plan.
Cheeseburger! The part of me that was shaped by Tony's memories exclaimed.
Well, yeah. That sounded like a good idea… My mouth watered at the very thought.
OK. First – stop for good old fashioned American food. What's next? Security. I was too damn vulnerable. I needed people I could trust with my life at least until I could build at least a few HK droids. That's points one and two figured out. Next…
Find who was selling my weapons in bulk to terrorists and other undesirables. Impress upon them how poor decision they made and make sure they won't live to regret it. Talk with the people in the government and find a way to sick them on the Ten Rings because for the time being I was in no state to go after the rest of that organization. Find a way to launder money to hire mercenaries? That might be feasible too.
Most importantly, figure out how I could take on most known threats by myself because this weakness of mine could not continue!
The last point might be the hardest… As a start I should find a way to replicate the new armors Republic R&D got for the GAR – they had built in exo-skeletons which according to some people already made them knock-off power armors. Recreate proper personal shield technology, especially the Mandalorian melee ones they used in the past… Power generation…
Let's not get ahead from myself. I already had a rough plan for uplifting Earth. Power – lots and lots of practical fusion. Ion engines to open up the Solar system for exploration and resource extraction. Inertial dampening. Those three things would give us the stars even if hyperspace travel as I knew it was impossible. It would take years but it was very much doable with Earth's tech base.
Then there were weapons – laser cannons, blasters, sonic and all other things that I could thing of. My friends in DOD were going to love me.
Then there was political power and I'm rambling again…
I closed my eyes and began some mental exercises to calm myself down.
Edwards Air-force base
California
I apparently got asleep because one of the crew members had to awake me. The kid who was barely old enough to shave himself appeared quite eager too.
"You want to ask something. Shoot away." I smiled disarmingly. He reminded me of that soldier who rode next to me during the ambush, which made it hard to keep my smile up.
"The rest of the guys want to know if we can take a picture with you, sir!" He stammered.
The things we do for PR and more importantly to keep the people supposed to keep me in one piece happy…
"Sure. I'll throw an autograph or two if you want." I nodded.
That's how I ended up getting a picture taken with the whole crew before they opened the ramp and I was greeted by the good old California sun.
The bloody thing reminded me of shambling through the desert back in Afghanistan.
"This is a bit much, don't you think?" I whistled once my eyes adjusted to the sun.
There were couple of paramedics complete with a gurney, their ambulance along with a police car which probably escorted them to the base, couple of infantry squads who were surrounding the plane and looking for trouble…
A striking red-head too, who looked like she had been crying. My heat skipped a beat at the realization that Pepper was one of a handful of people who cared about me, well, Tony, for himself, not because of what he represented. The same could be said about me in the other universe – the people who saw me as anything but dangerous asset or mere threat were few and far between.
I didn't really care back then. It came with the territory. Tony… From what I gather he didn't admit to himself that he gave a damn either and usually either got drunk or buried himself in his work when that became an issue.
What a pair did we make…
"Pepper…" I trailed off. "Thanks for caring."
Whatever she was expecting me to say, this wasn't it.
"I'm all right, folks." I waved the paramedics away. "Lets get out of the sun." I nodded to Happy, my driver cum bodyguard and the second person in the world who could stand Tony for prolonged periods of time.
Enough! I hissed in my mind. I was Tony Stark! Thinking of us as different people was going to cause problems. Besides its not like I haven't been through this before.
"Where to?" Happy asked when we were all in the car.
"Hospital!" Pepper ordered before I could open my mouth.
"No need. I got pocked and prodded enough already. I'm fine. Nothing that some proper meals and vitamins can't fix. So you can stop by a pharmacy on our way to get few cheeseburgers."
Pepper frowned at me.
"That's enough, Tony! You need..."
"I need a cheeseburger. Perhaps two." I frowned. "Maybe three. I'm fine, Pepper."
"Are you really?" She asked in a tone of mixed concern and disbelief.
"As fine as I would get for the time being. I got held in a cave for months, Pepper. By people who had enough of our weapons to outfit a small army. A bunch of American soldiers were murdered by weapons we produced trying to keep me in one piece."
"That's…"
"Shocking, I know." I sighed.
Pepper narrowed her eyes when I interrupted her again.
"Happy, drive for the burgers. Right now, you two are among the few people I trust. Suggestions?" I asked.
"You can't go wrong with cheeseburgers, Tony. More security?" Hogan asked.
"For starters. Pepper?"
"You." Ms. Potts jabbed a finger at my chest. "Hospital." She spoke slowly as if I was a small kid. To be honest, from what I remember, that was necessary an embracing number of times.
"Dully noted, Pepper. I'm glad you're concerned for your poor old boss."
She growled in frustration.
A personal assistant who was also my minder, my driver and bodyguard and Obi who I'm sure we would be meeting later today. These people were the closest thing I had to family in this world. No matter how hard was to admit it, I was… fond of them. I would prefer not to see them harmed or them hating me.
Yet another complication…
I stretched and relaxed in the seat.
"You know, I haven't really thanked you two for putting up with me."
"You're not that bad, Tony." Happy glanced at me through the rear view mirror.
"Yes, he usually is." Pepper sighed. "What brought this up, Tony?"
"People say that the thought of imminent hanging concentrates the mind. I was forced to finally grow up, Pepper."
"Who are you and what did you do with Tony?" The red-haired beauty peered at me.
No idea? Really.
"I had a lot of time to reflect on my past actions. Let's just say I didn't like what I saw when I thought about myself."
"That's surprising." Pepper looked thoughtful. "Does that mean you might try to look after yourself occasionally?"
"Just from time to time." I smiled. "How is the company?"
"Pretty good all things considered." Pepper answered.
"Thanks to Obi no doubt." I voiced my thoughts.
"He's been very busy." Pepper agreed.
"Who wants to discus my escape, besides the media? I don't feel like giving a press-conference anytime soon."
"FBI, CIA, the Pentagon…"
Hmm… Who would be most useful? FBI for domestic angle, the latter to sick on the Ten Rings…
"We'll figure something out. Perhaps tomorrow afternoon. Get them all together – I don't feel like answering the same questions multiple times."
"I'll arrange it." Pepper nodded and made a note on her phone.
"Where's Obi?" I asked. He could help me figure out if someone in the company was up to no good, well beyond the usual.
"At the central."
"We'll go meet him after the burgers. And the vitamins..."
Obi… Tony's memories screamed at me that he was trustworthy. Was he really? I needed to clear him first. He would either be of tremendous help or he was a dagger poised at my back and had to be dealt with. Pepper and Happy… Could I really trust them?
Without the Force I couldn't be hundred percent sure. I shiver ran throughout my body. You're only paranoid if there weren't people out to get you.
Phase 1: Homecoming
=IS=
Part 1
=IS=
=IS=
Part 1
=IS=
Desert
near a freshly nuked terrorist hideout
Afghanistan
The ground shook when my kit-bash fusion reactor went critical. Yinsen stumbled and planted his face in the sand.
"What was that?!" Ho spluttered after finding his footing.
"Our goodbye present. I hope that it was a big enough invitation for the US military to come pick us up because I don't feel like stumbling through the desert for days." I explained.
"That could have killed us too!" Yinsen didn't sound reassured.
"That was plan B. Being tortured then killed wasn't on my to do list and that's what awaited us if we didn't manage to escape." I pointed out.
Ho blanched and shook his head in denial.
"You're crazy!"
"I can assure you my friend, I haven't been saner in a long, long time." There might be benefits of the lack of my power. Its been months since the Dark Side could whisper sweet nothings in the back of my head. It felt surprisingly good not to have to waste effort on ignoring it unless it suited my purposes.
"You could have fooled me." Yinsen grumbled.
"Will you help me get out of the suit?" This whining was becoming tiresome. "Before the sun goes up otherwise I might just bake inside."
Ho began muttering in various languages I didn't know but at least came to help. Getting out of the armor felt longer than putting it. Perhaps it was the lack of proper instruments to aid us and the damage locking my left arm in place didn't help either. We could see the horizon lit up in orange by the time I was free from the exo-skeleton. Luckily no terrorists came looking for us – which meant they were all dead or too scared to pursue. It wasn't like we had time to cover out tracks nor there was wind to bury them.
The downer was no US presence we could see. I was hoping that a satellite or drone had us locked in and rescue was on the way but that wasn't something we could count on. Not after my friends in the military failed to locate me for so long.
"Thanks. Now to ensure no one is going to easily reverse-engineer this toy…" I put a few of our remaining grenades inside the exo-skeleton.
"Insane, I tell you!" Yinsen glared at me and ran.
I shrugged, set up the explosives and ran to the other side of the dune where the armor laid. Just in time too because a heartbeat or two after I landed in the sand the grenades detonated and shredded the exo-skeleton.
"Now we can go!" I smiled brightly.
Ho glared balefully at me and refused to speak.
We walked in silence until the next afternoon when a US Blackhawk deigned to show up with a rescue party. Instead of being helpful, they covered us with their weapons – sold to them by yours truly, and began demanding that we identify ourselves.
"Hey, isn't that Stark?!" One of the troopers pointing a SAW at my face exclaimed.
"You sure?"Another asked.
"I saw him when he came in for that weapon demonstration..."
"You're late!" I snarked once the soldiers got convinced we weren't a pair of Taliban stumbling through the desert.
Needless to say the flight back to their base was quite awkward.
=IS=
What followed was underwhelming. Once we landed, Yinsen and I were ushered into a medical tent where we were examined, got enough shots to ensure we would wish we were dead and then finally got to shower – which along with some not too terrible food were the high points. Unfortunately, Ho still refused to speak with me. There were some pointed questions about how the hell did we get away, though telling most of the truth with few creative omissions tied in was enough to get me on the first flight for the good old US of A.
Tony's memories turned out to be a mixed blessing. While they helped me fit in, the patriotism I inherited was becoming an issue. There were even a few random thoughts about ceasing weapon production once I was back that popped up in my head and I had to squish them ruthlessly. The overwhelming need for a drink or three wasn't helping either.
I sighed. Life would have been much easier if I didn't have this irritating sense of patriotism towards America and what it stood for. Seriously? Freedom? Democracy?! I saw firsthand what that led up to in the Galactic Republic.
God damn it, this was going to be irritating.
For some arcane reason I felt like I wanted to devour a couple of cheeseburgers too.
Damn you, Tony!
Ho still refused to talk to me. Eh. I would go bothering him to come work for me later.
=IS=
Being Tony Stark had it's perks. On the way back home I got the passenger compartment of a C-5 Galaxy all to myself. It was only now that I could feel somewhat safe and relax a bit. The fear I've been doing my best to suppress for months tried to surface again making me shake.
I've forgotten how weak an ordinary man could be. Tony hasn't really thought about it since he was a kid and his father told him horror stories about assassins like the Winter Soldier. The memories of those conversations were still vivid. The plan what to do if encountering that man too – run away while the security detail tried to die slow enough for a lot of help to come.
The shaking intensified. I was just a man in a world where super-soldiers existed. This was the home of monsters like the Hulk and if I encountered one of them today all I could do would be to die. Oh, I would fight. Run if I could.
I couldn't win.
I was weak and I despised weakness.
It meant you will die screaming.
This had to change. After my time in captivity I was in a better physical shape than Tony ever was and he wasn't one to let himself really go… I frowned. Eh. He was. It was Ms. Potts, Pepper who kept him from killing himself by not paying attention to his body. How could someone so intelligent be so stupid?! Yet, perhaps it was worth it if that was the price for his genius.
I took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly. I was getting nervous. Rambling too. To think my captivity could have such effect on me.
I would be home soon – I focused on that thought. I needed a solid plan.
Cheeseburger! The part of me that was shaped by Tony's memories exclaimed.
Well, yeah. That sounded like a good idea… My mouth watered at the very thought.
OK. First – stop for good old fashioned American food. What's next? Security. I was too damn vulnerable. I needed people I could trust with my life at least until I could build at least a few HK droids. That's points one and two figured out. Next…
Find who was selling my weapons in bulk to terrorists and other undesirables. Impress upon them how poor decision they made and make sure they won't live to regret it. Talk with the people in the government and find a way to sick them on the Ten Rings because for the time being I was in no state to go after the rest of that organization. Find a way to launder money to hire mercenaries? That might be feasible too.
Most importantly, figure out how I could take on most known threats by myself because this weakness of mine could not continue!
The last point might be the hardest… As a start I should find a way to replicate the new armors Republic R&D got for the GAR – they had built in exo-skeletons which according to some people already made them knock-off power armors. Recreate proper personal shield technology, especially the Mandalorian melee ones they used in the past… Power generation…
Let's not get ahead from myself. I already had a rough plan for uplifting Earth. Power – lots and lots of practical fusion. Ion engines to open up the Solar system for exploration and resource extraction. Inertial dampening. Those three things would give us the stars even if hyperspace travel as I knew it was impossible. It would take years but it was very much doable with Earth's tech base.
Then there were weapons – laser cannons, blasters, sonic and all other things that I could thing of. My friends in DOD were going to love me.
Then there was political power and I'm rambling again…
I closed my eyes and began some mental exercises to calm myself down.
=IS=
Edwards Air-force base
California
I apparently got asleep because one of the crew members had to awake me. The kid who was barely old enough to shave himself appeared quite eager too.
"You want to ask something. Shoot away." I smiled disarmingly. He reminded me of that soldier who rode next to me during the ambush, which made it hard to keep my smile up.
"The rest of the guys want to know if we can take a picture with you, sir!" He stammered.
The things we do for PR and more importantly to keep the people supposed to keep me in one piece happy…
"Sure. I'll throw an autograph or two if you want." I nodded.
That's how I ended up getting a picture taken with the whole crew before they opened the ramp and I was greeted by the good old California sun.
The bloody thing reminded me of shambling through the desert back in Afghanistan.
"This is a bit much, don't you think?" I whistled once my eyes adjusted to the sun.
There were couple of paramedics complete with a gurney, their ambulance along with a police car which probably escorted them to the base, couple of infantry squads who were surrounding the plane and looking for trouble…
A striking red-head too, who looked like she had been crying. My heat skipped a beat at the realization that Pepper was one of a handful of people who cared about me, well, Tony, for himself, not because of what he represented. The same could be said about me in the other universe – the people who saw me as anything but dangerous asset or mere threat were few and far between.
I didn't really care back then. It came with the territory. Tony… From what I gather he didn't admit to himself that he gave a damn either and usually either got drunk or buried himself in his work when that became an issue.
What a pair did we make…
"Pepper…" I trailed off. "Thanks for caring."
Whatever she was expecting me to say, this wasn't it.
"I'm all right, folks." I waved the paramedics away. "Lets get out of the sun." I nodded to Happy, my driver cum bodyguard and the second person in the world who could stand Tony for prolonged periods of time.
Enough! I hissed in my mind. I was Tony Stark! Thinking of us as different people was going to cause problems. Besides its not like I haven't been through this before.
"Where to?" Happy asked when we were all in the car.
"Hospital!" Pepper ordered before I could open my mouth.
"No need. I got pocked and prodded enough already. I'm fine. Nothing that some proper meals and vitamins can't fix. So you can stop by a pharmacy on our way to get few cheeseburgers."
Pepper frowned at me.
"That's enough, Tony! You need..."
"I need a cheeseburger. Perhaps two." I frowned. "Maybe three. I'm fine, Pepper."
"Are you really?" She asked in a tone of mixed concern and disbelief.
"As fine as I would get for the time being. I got held in a cave for months, Pepper. By people who had enough of our weapons to outfit a small army. A bunch of American soldiers were murdered by weapons we produced trying to keep me in one piece."
"That's…"
"Shocking, I know." I sighed.
Pepper narrowed her eyes when I interrupted her again.
"Happy, drive for the burgers. Right now, you two are among the few people I trust. Suggestions?" I asked.
"You can't go wrong with cheeseburgers, Tony. More security?" Hogan asked.
"For starters. Pepper?"
"You." Ms. Potts jabbed a finger at my chest. "Hospital." She spoke slowly as if I was a small kid. To be honest, from what I remember, that was necessary an embracing number of times.
"Dully noted, Pepper. I'm glad you're concerned for your poor old boss."
She growled in frustration.
A personal assistant who was also my minder, my driver and bodyguard and Obi who I'm sure we would be meeting later today. These people were the closest thing I had to family in this world. No matter how hard was to admit it, I was… fond of them. I would prefer not to see them harmed or them hating me.
Yet another complication…
I stretched and relaxed in the seat.
"You know, I haven't really thanked you two for putting up with me."
"You're not that bad, Tony." Happy glanced at me through the rear view mirror.
"Yes, he usually is." Pepper sighed. "What brought this up, Tony?"
"People say that the thought of imminent hanging concentrates the mind. I was forced to finally grow up, Pepper."
"Who are you and what did you do with Tony?" The red-haired beauty peered at me.
No idea? Really.
"I had a lot of time to reflect on my past actions. Let's just say I didn't like what I saw when I thought about myself."
"That's surprising." Pepper looked thoughtful. "Does that mean you might try to look after yourself occasionally?"
"Just from time to time." I smiled. "How is the company?"
"Pretty good all things considered." Pepper answered.
"Thanks to Obi no doubt." I voiced my thoughts.
"He's been very busy." Pepper agreed.
"Who wants to discus my escape, besides the media? I don't feel like giving a press-conference anytime soon."
"FBI, CIA, the Pentagon…"
Hmm… Who would be most useful? FBI for domestic angle, the latter to sick on the Ten Rings…
"We'll figure something out. Perhaps tomorrow afternoon. Get them all together – I don't feel like answering the same questions multiple times."
"I'll arrange it." Pepper nodded and made a note on her phone.
"Where's Obi?" I asked. He could help me figure out if someone in the company was up to no good, well beyond the usual.
"At the central."
"We'll go meet him after the burgers. And the vitamins..."
Obi… Tony's memories screamed at me that he was trustworthy. Was he really? I needed to clear him first. He would either be of tremendous help or he was a dagger poised at my back and had to be dealt with. Pepper and Happy… Could I really trust them?
Without the Force I couldn't be hundred percent sure. I shiver ran throughout my body. You're only paranoid if there weren't people out to get you.
Phase 1 Part 2
AN: The next update is here. Just couple of conversations and canon is derailed. Some feedback will be appreciated!
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the movies set up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe nor any of the Star Wars movies, cartoons, games, books or comics. They belong to their respective copyright owners. This story is not created with commercial aim. I make no money from it. It is not for sale or rent.
California
"There's a crowd waiting for us..." I pouted around my second burger. Damn, they were good!
"You said you were going to act grown up." Pepper treacherously pointed out.
"In public? Certainly. I reserve my right to act as overgrown kid in private. Hey, there's Obi!" I exclaimed. Seeing him looking happy at us the moment he recognized the car was… nice. He appeared genuine too, but that wasn't saying much. I could really like someone but that won't necessary stop me from stabbing them in the back.
"That's the Tony we know and put up with." Pepper whispered fondly.
"The one and only. At least I don't see too many paparazzi for a change."
"They'll craw from the woodwork soon enough." Happy grumbled.
I brushed by hands on a paper napkin and got out of the car.
"Obi, it's great to see you!" I exclaimed and pulled him in a hug.
"Tony! I thought you were in the hospital." He looked genuinely worried. Gave me the disapproving look too.
"I'm fine, Obi. How are you? I hear you kept things together in a commendable fashion while I was detained."
"There's nothing to worry about!" He smiled. There was pride in his words and just a hint of something else. "You went for burgers?" Obi asked.
I glanced back to see Happy and Pepper following us with the rest of the food.
"Yep. They don't have them in the desert. I brought one for you too." I began to wave at the people who were gathered to greet me and nodded at the soldiers guarding the place as we went past them.
Once inside the there were much less people to contend with. Almost all the press was left outside too, which was a bonus.
"Let's get somewhere we can talk in peace, Obi." I picked the bag from Happy. "Burger?"
Stane shrugged and took the offering.
"Let's go to my office. Or yours?"
"Yours is a bit closer."
"Ms. Potts, may I intrude for a moment? Agent Phil Coulson, Agency for Strategic Homeland…"
A middle-aged man with receding black hair intercepted Pepper. I've heard of that agency by my father. Well, Tony's dad, whatever…
"Shield?" I turned around. "Father mentioned you guys a few times."
"Mr. Stark, I'm…
"Secret agent man, I got it. Why should I give you any more consideration than the rest of the alphabet soup vying for my time?" I asked.
"Well, your father did help found Shield, besides our scope is different than the other agencies."
Shield… I had the nagging feeling it was important and that wasn't from Tony's memories. Its been too long since I was on Earth. My memories from my first life were fading.
"Once I'm done with Obi, I'll give you a few minutes. Try not to waste my time, Mr. Agent."
Obi's office was just as I remembered it – a lot of marble, modern furniture of leather and metal, fully stocked bar… An overwhelming need to get a drink sidelined me. I was halfway to pour myself a glass of whiskey before I could stop. Was I an alcoholic too? A short mental account pointed to a firm yes.
Kriff a Bantha and the Sand person who rode on it.
"Fancy a drink?" Obi asked.
"Knock yourself out if you want. I'll pass." I went to the chair farthest from the bar and sat.
"That's good. How can I help you, Tony? Why aren't you home recovering?" Stane radiated concern.
"Why? We've got a problem, Obi. The people who kidnapped me were armed with our weapons. At the place they held me they had enough ordnance to outfit a small army. Not the kind that can fall off a truck. Heavy weapons. Cruise missiles which we sell only to our government!" I snapped.
While my anger was very much real it was a mask too. I was carefully observing Stane as I spoke. The shock was probably real. The concern too. But the fear that flashed through his eyes when I mentioned the missiles?
My heat stilled. The part of me that came from Tony froze in disbelief. Obi couldn't betray me! He was a second father to me! Nevertheless once I looked at what I could remember with an outsider's perspective, the picture suddenly shifted.
Obi might have been a favorite uncle. One of my few true friends, yet for years he had been running the company and cleaning after me. It was very much possible he got enough of Tony Stark shenanigans… and if I was out of the picture… Why, he might just become the next CEO and I recalled he was one of the biggest beneficiaries of my will…
Obi, Obi… Are you really such a bad boy?
"That's… Are you sure, Tony?!" Stane exclaimed. "Of course you're sure!" He shook his head. "You would know those weapons in your sleep."
His distress was obviously real. The confusion he was trying to show? It was very good performance. It was too bad I made a living of dealing with the most accomplished liers in the galaxy. The signs were subtle but they were there if you were observant and knew what exactly you had to look for.
I had to thank the people from Imperial intelligence for teaching me the tells and how to find them. Too bad they were long dead. While I usually relied on the Force, I hadn't forgotten those lessons. Stane was a good actor. Until recently I had to deal with much better.
"We'll find out who's responsible and make sure they rot in prison, Tony! I promise you!" Obi vowed.
He was going to get a scrape-goat or ensure that there was no evidence to be found.
"Tell me what you saw!" Obi came to sit next to me.
I did, just not everything. It remained to be seen if he was simply selling weapons on the side or tried to kill me, though it didn't really matter in the long run. I would use him if practical – if I got enough dirt on him to make him my minion. Otherwise he was already a dead man. The only question was how guilty he was and how long it would take him to die.
I don't take betrayal lightly.
After my suspicions were proven to my satisfaction I cut the meeting short.
"I'll leave it into your capable hands, Obi." I patted him on the shoulder and made my exit.
With Stane dirty for who knew how long, I had to treat the whole company as compromised. I needed allies. Perhaps the secret agent man might be of use.
I found him chatting up Pepper and Happy, while she was trying to arrange the interviews with the other government people for tomorrow.
"Mr. Agent, do you know where we can talk in private?" I asked.
For an instant a look of alarm passed through his eyes but then he was smiling charmingly.
"I think I know the place."
"Happy, let's go. Pepper, please finish arranging the meetings for tomorrow then get some rest. I'll head straight home when we're done."
"Really?" I raised both eyebrows when he got it to the private parking at the back of the building after getting my permission.
"It is secure." Coulson smiled disarmingly. "There are inbuilt jammers, the car acts as Faraday cage and the windows are not only one way but also treated to neutralize laser microphones."
"Good enough I guess." I got in the back with Happy and the agent sat at the driver's seat and turned to face us.
"We have some questions about how you escaped Mr. Stark."
"I have some questions too and some concerns. I think we might be able to help each other. If you can prove you're who you say you are." Which was a point. Getting into his car without checking up first was a rookie mistake. I was getting sloppy and I wasn't sure if it was Tony's influence or the lack of the Force keeping me off my game to blame. Probably both combined with the stress.
A couple of calls that got me in contact with people I knew both in the Pentagon and Senate proved that Mr. Agent was connected if nothing else.
"A question for a question. You gave us a secure location so you ask first." I began.
"How did you escape?" Coulson asked.
"They wanted me to build them weapons. I did and used said weapons on them. If you want more, be more precise, Mr. Secret Agent."
Phil smirked at that.
"Ask away."
"Tell me about Shield."
"The Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division is a military extra-governmental intelligence and counter-terrorism agency. Two can play that game, Mr. Stark. You need to be more precise. What weapons did you build and use to escape?" Coulson smiled.
"Touche. I built a combat exo-skeleton, got it as armored as I could. It had built in coil-guns, flamethrowers and micro-missiles which were off the shelf. Once I got the idea perfected I'll be offering it to our friends in the DOD."
"This explains how you didn't get shot to pieces." The agent nodded.
"Not really. Those idiots couldn't shoot straight to save their lives. I got lucky too. A close miss with a grenade or RPG would have been it. Or those two HMGs I got lucky to take out without being taken apart by them." I shrugged.
"You've got my undivided attention Mr. Stark."
"Should I take this as a promise to buy in bulk?"
"We'll have to see your new toys in action first."
"Fair enough. You mentioned that your agency has a different scope?"
"Yes. Our mandate is to deal with… special individuals. I believe you're familiar with the Hulk." Coulson said.
"Big. Green. Has temper issues and can shrug off everything the military can throw at him." I nodded. That was one of my personal fears. There was nothing I could do against something like that for the time being.
"If he gets angry in a city again the consequences will be catastrophic. In the last few years there has been an alarming increase of enhanced individuals. We're the people who usually have to clean up after them."
"Keep them off the news as much as possible too, right?" I asked.
"True." Coulson's smile became sad. "A lot of those accidents turn quite ugly. While we've got access to the best equipment produced on Earth more often than not its simply not enough."
"I see." I really did.
I got a lot of first hand experience cleaning up after people with powers gone off the reservation. In fact, a lot of my job in the Empire consisted of cleaning after other Sith. Often removing them when they become too disruptive too. I could relate with Shield's plight.
A long time ago I was drawn out of the Sith Academy to hunt down acolytes gone bad. Occasionally full fledged Sith too. While I always had backup in those instances I knew exactly how hard it was for normal people to hunt down those with the Force. Training and the best available gear made it possible, however it one thing never changed – it was a bloody and dangerous job at the best of times.
"I'll see what I can do, Mr. Agent. I have few ideas which if they pan up might be quite useful in your line of work."
"That's good to hear. You have concerns?" Coulson's smile, the way he carried himself really was putting me at ease. Was this just how he was or was it learned technique? Given his line of work I would have to bet on the later.
"Have your people examined the camp where I was held?" I inquired.
"There wasn't much left. However the pieces we recovered tell us some concerning things." He threw my words back at me.
"A lot of weapons build by my company. Restricted ones too. There were multiple cruise missiles there among other things. I don't need to draw you a picture, do I?" I grunted.
"No. We're looking at it. So far everything your company has sold to the US government appears to be where it should be. At least according to the records. A physical check will take longer." Coulson proved that his people were on the ball.
"Good. I might be too paranoid after just escaping, but when I talked with Stane about this issue he appeared a bit off. As if he wasn't surprised there were Stark Industries weapons in the wrong hands. He hid it very well, but I knew that man since forever."
"Obadiah?" Happy sounded incredulous.
"Yeah, it came as a shock to me too." I muttered. "I don't know if he just was out to make cash, am I too paranoid or not enough."
"We'll look into it." Coulson gave me a firm nod. "There is just one more issue. Something quite powerful exploded within the caves you were held, Mr. Stark."
"That was a prototype fusion reactor I built when I got bored. Getting it to go boom took a lot of effort. The design I came up with is very safe. I had to get creative." I sighed. "It was an insurance if our escape attempt didn't pan out. I didn't fancy getting tortured and shot like a dog."
"I see." For the first time Coulson appeared surprised.
"Tony?!" Happy exclaimed.
"Don't worry buddy! Under normal circumstances I don't feel particularly suicidal." I lightly slugged his shoulder.
"Mr. Stark, do you need additional protection?" Mr. Secret Agent asked.
"I've been thinking about it. Happy was the one to suggest it. Can you recommend someone who won't stand out around me?" I asked. "I don't feel like surrounding myself with a wall of bodyguards, however I suspect there are more people after me than usual."
"We'll be able to figure out something."
"Especially if I give you dibs on the first production run of the new toys I'm going to build?" I raised an eyebrow at Phil.
"I'm sure we can guarantee your security, Mr. Stark."
"Good to know." Hopefully they will be competent enough. "Is that all?"
"For the moment. I believe that you'll give all the details during your meeting tomorrow?" Coulson asked.
"That's the idea. I might not mention about my suspicions about Stane. I hope I'm wrong, but..." I shrugged.
"Don't. We'll handle it."
"I'll hold you up to that. Have a nice day, Mr. Agent. Let's go home, Happy."
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the movies set up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe nor any of the Star Wars movies, cartoons, games, books or comics. They belong to their respective copyright owners. This story is not created with commercial aim. I make no money from it. It is not for sale or rent.
Phase 1: Homecoming
=IS=
Part 2
=IS=
Stark Industries Corporate HQ=IS=
Part 2
=IS=
California
"There's a crowd waiting for us..." I pouted around my second burger. Damn, they were good!
"You said you were going to act grown up." Pepper treacherously pointed out.
"In public? Certainly. I reserve my right to act as overgrown kid in private. Hey, there's Obi!" I exclaimed. Seeing him looking happy at us the moment he recognized the car was… nice. He appeared genuine too, but that wasn't saying much. I could really like someone but that won't necessary stop me from stabbing them in the back.
"That's the Tony we know and put up with." Pepper whispered fondly.
"The one and only. At least I don't see too many paparazzi for a change."
"They'll craw from the woodwork soon enough." Happy grumbled.
I brushed by hands on a paper napkin and got out of the car.
"Obi, it's great to see you!" I exclaimed and pulled him in a hug.
"Tony! I thought you were in the hospital." He looked genuinely worried. Gave me the disapproving look too.
"I'm fine, Obi. How are you? I hear you kept things together in a commendable fashion while I was detained."
"There's nothing to worry about!" He smiled. There was pride in his words and just a hint of something else. "You went for burgers?" Obi asked.
I glanced back to see Happy and Pepper following us with the rest of the food.
"Yep. They don't have them in the desert. I brought one for you too." I began to wave at the people who were gathered to greet me and nodded at the soldiers guarding the place as we went past them.
Once inside the there were much less people to contend with. Almost all the press was left outside too, which was a bonus.
"Let's get somewhere we can talk in peace, Obi." I picked the bag from Happy. "Burger?"
Stane shrugged and took the offering.
"Let's go to my office. Or yours?"
"Yours is a bit closer."
"Ms. Potts, may I intrude for a moment? Agent Phil Coulson, Agency for Strategic Homeland…"
A middle-aged man with receding black hair intercepted Pepper. I've heard of that agency by my father. Well, Tony's dad, whatever…
"Shield?" I turned around. "Father mentioned you guys a few times."
"Mr. Stark, I'm…
"Secret agent man, I got it. Why should I give you any more consideration than the rest of the alphabet soup vying for my time?" I asked.
"Well, your father did help found Shield, besides our scope is different than the other agencies."
Shield… I had the nagging feeling it was important and that wasn't from Tony's memories. Its been too long since I was on Earth. My memories from my first life were fading.
"Once I'm done with Obi, I'll give you a few minutes. Try not to waste my time, Mr. Agent."
=IS=
Obi's office was just as I remembered it – a lot of marble, modern furniture of leather and metal, fully stocked bar… An overwhelming need to get a drink sidelined me. I was halfway to pour myself a glass of whiskey before I could stop. Was I an alcoholic too? A short mental account pointed to a firm yes.
Kriff a Bantha and the Sand person who rode on it.
"Fancy a drink?" Obi asked.
"Knock yourself out if you want. I'll pass." I went to the chair farthest from the bar and sat.
"That's good. How can I help you, Tony? Why aren't you home recovering?" Stane radiated concern.
"Why? We've got a problem, Obi. The people who kidnapped me were armed with our weapons. At the place they held me they had enough ordnance to outfit a small army. Not the kind that can fall off a truck. Heavy weapons. Cruise missiles which we sell only to our government!" I snapped.
While my anger was very much real it was a mask too. I was carefully observing Stane as I spoke. The shock was probably real. The concern too. But the fear that flashed through his eyes when I mentioned the missiles?
My heat stilled. The part of me that came from Tony froze in disbelief. Obi couldn't betray me! He was a second father to me! Nevertheless once I looked at what I could remember with an outsider's perspective, the picture suddenly shifted.
Obi might have been a favorite uncle. One of my few true friends, yet for years he had been running the company and cleaning after me. It was very much possible he got enough of Tony Stark shenanigans… and if I was out of the picture… Why, he might just become the next CEO and I recalled he was one of the biggest beneficiaries of my will…
Obi, Obi… Are you really such a bad boy?
"That's… Are you sure, Tony?!" Stane exclaimed. "Of course you're sure!" He shook his head. "You would know those weapons in your sleep."
His distress was obviously real. The confusion he was trying to show? It was very good performance. It was too bad I made a living of dealing with the most accomplished liers in the galaxy. The signs were subtle but they were there if you were observant and knew what exactly you had to look for.
I had to thank the people from Imperial intelligence for teaching me the tells and how to find them. Too bad they were long dead. While I usually relied on the Force, I hadn't forgotten those lessons. Stane was a good actor. Until recently I had to deal with much better.
"We'll find out who's responsible and make sure they rot in prison, Tony! I promise you!" Obi vowed.
He was going to get a scrape-goat or ensure that there was no evidence to be found.
"Tell me what you saw!" Obi came to sit next to me.
I did, just not everything. It remained to be seen if he was simply selling weapons on the side or tried to kill me, though it didn't really matter in the long run. I would use him if practical – if I got enough dirt on him to make him my minion. Otherwise he was already a dead man. The only question was how guilty he was and how long it would take him to die.
I don't take betrayal lightly.
After my suspicions were proven to my satisfaction I cut the meeting short.
"I'll leave it into your capable hands, Obi." I patted him on the shoulder and made my exit.
With Stane dirty for who knew how long, I had to treat the whole company as compromised. I needed allies. Perhaps the secret agent man might be of use.
I found him chatting up Pepper and Happy, while she was trying to arrange the interviews with the other government people for tomorrow.
"Mr. Agent, do you know where we can talk in private?" I asked.
For an instant a look of alarm passed through his eyes but then he was smiling charmingly.
"I think I know the place."
"Happy, let's go. Pepper, please finish arranging the meetings for tomorrow then get some rest. I'll head straight home when we're done."
=IS=
The secure place was his car.
"Really?" I raised both eyebrows when he got it to the private parking at the back of the building after getting my permission.
"It is secure." Coulson smiled disarmingly. "There are inbuilt jammers, the car acts as Faraday cage and the windows are not only one way but also treated to neutralize laser microphones."
"Good enough I guess." I got in the back with Happy and the agent sat at the driver's seat and turned to face us.
"We have some questions about how you escaped Mr. Stark."
"I have some questions too and some concerns. I think we might be able to help each other. If you can prove you're who you say you are." Which was a point. Getting into his car without checking up first was a rookie mistake. I was getting sloppy and I wasn't sure if it was Tony's influence or the lack of the Force keeping me off my game to blame. Probably both combined with the stress.
A couple of calls that got me in contact with people I knew both in the Pentagon and Senate proved that Mr. Agent was connected if nothing else.
"A question for a question. You gave us a secure location so you ask first." I began.
"How did you escape?" Coulson asked.
"They wanted me to build them weapons. I did and used said weapons on them. If you want more, be more precise, Mr. Secret Agent."
Phil smirked at that.
"Ask away."
"Tell me about Shield."
"The Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division is a military extra-governmental intelligence and counter-terrorism agency. Two can play that game, Mr. Stark. You need to be more precise. What weapons did you build and use to escape?" Coulson smiled.
"Touche. I built a combat exo-skeleton, got it as armored as I could. It had built in coil-guns, flamethrowers and micro-missiles which were off the shelf. Once I got the idea perfected I'll be offering it to our friends in the DOD."
"This explains how you didn't get shot to pieces." The agent nodded.
"Not really. Those idiots couldn't shoot straight to save their lives. I got lucky too. A close miss with a grenade or RPG would have been it. Or those two HMGs I got lucky to take out without being taken apart by them." I shrugged.
"You've got my undivided attention Mr. Stark."
"Should I take this as a promise to buy in bulk?"
"We'll have to see your new toys in action first."
"Fair enough. You mentioned that your agency has a different scope?"
"Yes. Our mandate is to deal with… special individuals. I believe you're familiar with the Hulk." Coulson said.
"Big. Green. Has temper issues and can shrug off everything the military can throw at him." I nodded. That was one of my personal fears. There was nothing I could do against something like that for the time being.
"If he gets angry in a city again the consequences will be catastrophic. In the last few years there has been an alarming increase of enhanced individuals. We're the people who usually have to clean up after them."
"Keep them off the news as much as possible too, right?" I asked.
"True." Coulson's smile became sad. "A lot of those accidents turn quite ugly. While we've got access to the best equipment produced on Earth more often than not its simply not enough."
"I see." I really did.
I got a lot of first hand experience cleaning up after people with powers gone off the reservation. In fact, a lot of my job in the Empire consisted of cleaning after other Sith. Often removing them when they become too disruptive too. I could relate with Shield's plight.
A long time ago I was drawn out of the Sith Academy to hunt down acolytes gone bad. Occasionally full fledged Sith too. While I always had backup in those instances I knew exactly how hard it was for normal people to hunt down those with the Force. Training and the best available gear made it possible, however it one thing never changed – it was a bloody and dangerous job at the best of times.
"I'll see what I can do, Mr. Agent. I have few ideas which if they pan up might be quite useful in your line of work."
"That's good to hear. You have concerns?" Coulson's smile, the way he carried himself really was putting me at ease. Was this just how he was or was it learned technique? Given his line of work I would have to bet on the later.
"Have your people examined the camp where I was held?" I inquired.
"There wasn't much left. However the pieces we recovered tell us some concerning things." He threw my words back at me.
"A lot of weapons build by my company. Restricted ones too. There were multiple cruise missiles there among other things. I don't need to draw you a picture, do I?" I grunted.
"No. We're looking at it. So far everything your company has sold to the US government appears to be where it should be. At least according to the records. A physical check will take longer." Coulson proved that his people were on the ball.
"Good. I might be too paranoid after just escaping, but when I talked with Stane about this issue he appeared a bit off. As if he wasn't surprised there were Stark Industries weapons in the wrong hands. He hid it very well, but I knew that man since forever."
"Obadiah?" Happy sounded incredulous.
"Yeah, it came as a shock to me too." I muttered. "I don't know if he just was out to make cash, am I too paranoid or not enough."
"We'll look into it." Coulson gave me a firm nod. "There is just one more issue. Something quite powerful exploded within the caves you were held, Mr. Stark."
"That was a prototype fusion reactor I built when I got bored. Getting it to go boom took a lot of effort. The design I came up with is very safe. I had to get creative." I sighed. "It was an insurance if our escape attempt didn't pan out. I didn't fancy getting tortured and shot like a dog."
"I see." For the first time Coulson appeared surprised.
"Tony?!" Happy exclaimed.
"Don't worry buddy! Under normal circumstances I don't feel particularly suicidal." I lightly slugged his shoulder.
"Mr. Stark, do you need additional protection?" Mr. Secret Agent asked.
"I've been thinking about it. Happy was the one to suggest it. Can you recommend someone who won't stand out around me?" I asked. "I don't feel like surrounding myself with a wall of bodyguards, however I suspect there are more people after me than usual."
"We'll be able to figure out something."
"Especially if I give you dibs on the first production run of the new toys I'm going to build?" I raised an eyebrow at Phil.
"I'm sure we can guarantee your security, Mr. Stark."
"Good to know." Hopefully they will be competent enough. "Is that all?"
"For the moment. I believe that you'll give all the details during your meeting tomorrow?" Coulson asked.
"That's the idea. I might not mention about my suspicions about Stane. I hope I'm wrong, but..." I shrugged.
"Don't. We'll handle it."
"I'll hold you up to that. Have a nice day, Mr. Agent. Let's go home, Happy."
Phase 1 Part 3
AN: There's insomnia, there's another update but no sleep on the horizon. Feedback?
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the movies set up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe nor any of the Star Wars movies, cartoons, games, books or comics. They belong to their respective copyright owners. This story is not created with commercial aim. I make no money from it. It is not for sale or rent.
Tony Stark's home
California
Home, sweet home. Nice enough place. Too open and vulnerable. A sniper will have a field day here. Hmm… Let's get a fusion reactor, some PD guns and see if I can kit-bash a shield. But first I needed something for self-defense. Blaster? Nah, something sonic will be easier to make. Besides using hydrogen for blaster ammo wasn't optimal. There was a reason why the Tibanna gas was all the rage.
Note to self – get probes to the gas giants ASAP.
I got a cup of nice coffee and went to the basement.
"Jarvis are you up to some tinkering?" I asked.
"Always sir."
"First, isolate my personal server. When you're connected to it I want you to cut off all external connections."
"Is there a problem, sir?"
"A lot of them, buddy. Show me your neural map on the holo-table and your code too." I was eager to compare him to a droid's brain. Hopefully he'll prove to be a nice shortcut because I simply didn't have the time to code one from scratch besides I wasn't very good at it in the first place.
I stared at the lines of code. How the fuck did Tony make this?! Jarvis… his code was beautiful. Elegant. Much better than anything I could come up with in a hundred years.
I would call him impossible if I wasn't staring at his mind. Okay. I could work with this. First things first.
"Jarvis, open three new files. Sunshine; Guardian; White noise. Lets get to work…" I looked over what I got in my workshop and smiled. No off the shelf building the nice things but I got all I needed to make myself some tools. However some design work first so I would know what tools I should begin with.
"Let's go with the simple thing – open Sunshine file..."
It was sometime later when a worried hurricane Pepper stormed in my workshop. I was just putting the finishing touches of a rough but servicing fusion reactor design when I had to stop to deal with an irked red-head.
"Tony!" My minder exclaimed.
"Pepper!" I responded in kind.
"Why would do something like that?!" She got even more frantic.
"What did I do this time?" I was honestly confused.
"Happy told me you were going to blow yourself up!" Pepper got in my face, grabbed my shoulders and shook me up.
"That was last resort! Honestly!" I gently took her arms and stopped the shaking.
"You were going to kill yourself!" There were tears in her eyes now.
"Only if the alternative was getting tortured and then shot or worse."
"Whats worse?! You could have died, Tony!"
"Many things, Pepper. I'm alive and I don't plan on getting myself killed." Not again anyway.
"Damn it, Tony! This is not funny!"
"I wasn't trying to be!"
"Tony..." Pepper stared at me. "What did you do now?! Your chest is glowing!"
I looked down.
"Ah. That keeps me alive." Uh. Perhaps I shouldn't have said that…
"That's it! You're going to the hospital!" Pepper hissed and tried to drag me away.
"Can't we talk about this?"
"NO!"
"Pepper!"
"Don't Pepper me, Tony! Hospital! Now!"
"I'm as good as I'm going to get for the time being."
"Obviously not!" She pointed at the magnet in my chest.
"I got examined by military doctors. For the time being this is as good as it gets. Until some breakthrough in medicine happens an operation to get the remaining shrapnel out might be more dangerous than leaving it in place with my setup." I explained.
"You'll be seeing a specialist!"
"I'm sure you'll find the best." I spoke in placating tone.
"I will and you'll go even if I have to drag you there!"
"We've got a deal." I agreed.
"Good!" Pepper huffed and stormed out.
I shook my head in exasperation and went back to work.
I'm beginning to pick up Tony's bad habits.
"What do you mean it's nine in the morning?" I glared at Jarvis.
"It's zero nine zero one to be precise, sir." Jarvis snarked back.
Heh. One night of talking and he was already growing up and changing. Those learning protocols built in him were something to behold. At least no matter how advanced an AI he was his personality wasn't evolved enough to call me on the personality changes that I was showing. Or he simply chalked them up to my time in captivity. I pointedly didn't ask.
"Jarvis, next time do remind me when I'm working past two in the morning. Even earlier if I've got something scheduled for the next day." I ordered.
"I'll make a note of it, sir."
"At least we did a good work." I slowly twirled the holo-image of a heavy trooper armor.
It had significant strength enhancements thanks to its motorized joints. The armor might survive a tank cannon strike depending when it hit and the type of ammunition used if some of the experimental materials Tony knew of panned out. Keeping the operator alive through such a hit on the other hand was going to be tricky. Perhaps in built inertial dampening system? I would have to recreate it first and that would take years. I knew the theory, engineering too but the currently existing tech base wasn't up to making even a primitive knock-off.
Eh. We'll see. I examined the backpack. It would contain a fusion reactor as well as place for a shield system once I got that up and running. It could work through an ark reactor too. Weapons – both in built repulsors and whatever else I could get useful. For the time being it would be much faster to use conventional arms – hell as it is the suit could handle a mini-gun, auto-cannon too. A lot of micro-missiles. A laser emitter built in the chest – powerful but strictly close range.
I couldn't decide between using repulsor tech for propulsion… Well between Tony's repulsors and the ones I knew from the other universe. Tony's might be better, however I didn't fully understand the science behind them which might be trouble.
"Jarvis, save and close the file. Get as much of the components for Guardian and White Noise built with what's available. Order everything else we'll need. I'm going to get something to eat and catch some shuteye."
"Tony! Are you all right?!" A familiar voice exclaimed.
Someone grabbed my shoulder and I was reacting on instinct.
"TONY!"
"Goddamn it Rhodey!" I blinked owlishly at my other friend.
Colonel James Rhodes. The last member of the small group who could put up with Tony Stark. Either a very good friend or a closet masochist.
"What. The. Hell." Rhodey muttered.
He was on the ground with my knee planted on his chest and I had my right hand raised to smash my fist at his throat.
"Sorry?" I got up and offered him a hand. "Please try not to surprise me again, Rhodey. This was close."
"I would say." A husky voice interrupted us.
"You I don't know." I pulled James up so he would be between me and the unknown.
A striking red-haired woman in a sharp business suit stood in my living room and looked at us with a raised eyebrow.
"I'm Natalie Rushman. Phil Coulson sent me. He said you were in need of protection."
"Babysitting. Tony here needs another babysitter." Rhodes quipped.
"Good to see you too, buddy. Do you want to see the floor up close again?"
"In your dreams."
"I don't swing that way. I'm not so sure about you Rhodey. I'll need some sort of confirmation." I nodded at the woman.
"Will shield credentials do?"
"No."
"Shield?! What did you get yourself in, Tony?" James suddenly became serious.
"The same mess that got me kidnapped. Have the Secret Agent Man call me to verify. Until then don't get out of my sight." I pointed at the woman, who smirked pulled out a phone and dialed.
"But you're back home safe! Tony, speak to me man!" Rhodes didn't let it go.
"I don't believe that was a random ambush. Those bastards got tons of my weapons on hand, Rhodey. Someone gave them all that ordnance."
"It might have been payment for killing you." Natalie butted in.
"Perhaps. However once they figured out who they had I was more useful building weapons than dead. At least in the short term." I added.
"It's plausible." The woman agreed. "Phil, Stark wants to talk with you." She threw her phone at me and I snatched it.
Barely. My reflexes still let a lot to be desired. Without something to boost them they might not get much better either. This body wasn't exactly young. Nor has Tony been training for most of his adult life neither did he had some kind of physical edge that I knew of.
"Yes?" I asked.
"Mr. Stark." Mr. Agent's voice sounded from the other side. That by itself didn't mean anything in this day and age.
"Mr. Secret Agent. What did I use to make that camp go boom?"
"You're getting properly paranoid Mr. Stark. I approve." Coulson sounded too cheerful for this time of the day, no matter whatever that was. "It was a prototype fusion reactor you had to sabotage."
"Good enough. Beautiful red haired woman, a head shorter than me. Large expressive eyes. Right now she's glaring at me. What's that? Compliments won't get me anywhere? Challenge accepted. She's currently sitting in my living room and says you sent her. What's her real name anyway? What about your, Mr. Secret Agent Man? I know your cloak and dagger types. Are you going by numbers nowadays or is it letters?" Natalie's glaring intensified. It was quite intense really. However I've been glared by Dark Council members – all of them at one time or another. Compared to them, her glowering simply didn't cut it no matter how impressive. "Congratulations, you're legit." I threw her phone back and she snatched it with a speed I was barely able to follow.
"You know, usually when his girlfriends begin glaring that way its all over." Rhodey quipped.
"Oh, in public I'll be all gooey eyed love stricken puppy!" Her whole bearing suddenly changed and she sent me a smoldering look that made junior get up at attention.
"Tony, I don't know if should be envious or pity you. I think I need a hot shower." James whined.
"Oh, you're good." I nodded in appreciation. "What did you do to get stuck with me?"
"I'm currently on the Director's shit list." She smiled brightly.
"Killed the wrong people?" I fished for more information.
"A proper girl never tells." Natalie pouted cutely.
"You can tell me everything you want..." Rhodey sighed.
I slapped the back of his head.
"Shape up man."
"I'm up."
I groaned. When did I became the grown up in here?!
"Anyway, I'm here until the boss needs me in the field. I'm in between assignments right now. Where am I staying?" Suddenly she was all business.
"Am I Shield's dumping ground now?" I grumbled. "That's it! I'm charging you up for the nice toys."
"That's not what Phil told me."
"Blame your director."
"Do you even know who he is?"
"So its a he? Don't know, don't care. There are spare bedrooms, knock yourself out. I'm going tinkering." My stomach growled. "Food first. Rhodey you know where the showers are, go get a cold one."
I grabbed a cup, cornflakes and milk from the kitchen and got back into my lair. Ms. Secret Agent Woman waltzed straight in behind me ignoring the security.
"Jarvis, make sure people can't just walk in here!" I glared at the woman. "That's it! I'm building killer robots."
"I will, sir."
"Really?" She perked up.
"Yes." I nodded. "How did you do that?" I pointed my spoon at the door.
"Trade secret." Natalie leaned on the wall.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"Body-guarding." She sighed. "Its a very boring job. Especially when I'm told I need to protect you from yourself. Something about trying to blow yourself up?" The secret agent took a thoughtful pose. "Or was it because without supervision you might starve in this workshop?"
"How good are you?" I asked.
"I'm a very bad girl."
"I'm offering you a deal – combat training in exchange of custom equipment for you. What weapons and armor do you prefer? Perhaps a stealth system – sound dampening and thermo-optical camouflage?"
She examined me critically.
"I don't have couple of years to spare."
"I might surprise you."
"I doubt it."
"I will."
"I don't buy it. I can't afford to break you, Tony."
"Ouch. I just felt my ego run to quietly die out of sight."
"That might be an improvement I hear." She hummed happily. "Killer robots?"
"Hunter-Killers!"
"Did you stay up to watch Terminator?"
"Those? Bah. Useless knock-offs!" I scoffed. I would bet my HK-117 against any Terminator we saw in the movies.
"Will I need to keep you from building Skynet, Tony?" Natalie frowned.
"I did better. Let me introduce you to Jarvis. Jarvis, say hi."
"Good afternoon, Miss Rushman."
"Hi, Jarvis. Who are you?"
"Him? Just the awesome and incredible AI I built."
"A real Artificial Intelligence?"
"I prefer synthetic life-from. He is very much real and not artificial at all."
"Goddamn it, Tony!"
"What?" Why people always had that reaction about things I build?!
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the movies set up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe nor any of the Star Wars movies, cartoons, games, books or comics. They belong to their respective copyright owners. This story is not created with commercial aim. I make no money from it. It is not for sale or rent.
Phase 1: Homecoming
=IS=
Part 3
=IS=
=IS=
Part 3
=IS=
Tony Stark's home
California
Home, sweet home. Nice enough place. Too open and vulnerable. A sniper will have a field day here. Hmm… Let's get a fusion reactor, some PD guns and see if I can kit-bash a shield. But first I needed something for self-defense. Blaster? Nah, something sonic will be easier to make. Besides using hydrogen for blaster ammo wasn't optimal. There was a reason why the Tibanna gas was all the rage.
Note to self – get probes to the gas giants ASAP.
I got a cup of nice coffee and went to the basement.
"Jarvis are you up to some tinkering?" I asked.
"Always sir."
"First, isolate my personal server. When you're connected to it I want you to cut off all external connections."
"Is there a problem, sir?"
"A lot of them, buddy. Show me your neural map on the holo-table and your code too." I was eager to compare him to a droid's brain. Hopefully he'll prove to be a nice shortcut because I simply didn't have the time to code one from scratch besides I wasn't very good at it in the first place.
I stared at the lines of code. How the fuck did Tony make this?! Jarvis… his code was beautiful. Elegant. Much better than anything I could come up with in a hundred years.
I would call him impossible if I wasn't staring at his mind. Okay. I could work with this. First things first.
"Jarvis, open three new files. Sunshine; Guardian; White noise. Lets get to work…" I looked over what I got in my workshop and smiled. No off the shelf building the nice things but I got all I needed to make myself some tools. However some design work first so I would know what tools I should begin with.
"Let's go with the simple thing – open Sunshine file..."
It was sometime later when a worried hurricane Pepper stormed in my workshop. I was just putting the finishing touches of a rough but servicing fusion reactor design when I had to stop to deal with an irked red-head.
"Tony!" My minder exclaimed.
"Pepper!" I responded in kind.
"Why would do something like that?!" She got even more frantic.
"What did I do this time?" I was honestly confused.
"Happy told me you were going to blow yourself up!" Pepper got in my face, grabbed my shoulders and shook me up.
"That was last resort! Honestly!" I gently took her arms and stopped the shaking.
"You were going to kill yourself!" There were tears in her eyes now.
"Only if the alternative was getting tortured and then shot or worse."
"Whats worse?! You could have died, Tony!"
"Many things, Pepper. I'm alive and I don't plan on getting myself killed." Not again anyway.
"Damn it, Tony! This is not funny!"
"I wasn't trying to be!"
"Tony..." Pepper stared at me. "What did you do now?! Your chest is glowing!"
I looked down.
"Ah. That keeps me alive." Uh. Perhaps I shouldn't have said that…
"That's it! You're going to the hospital!" Pepper hissed and tried to drag me away.
"Can't we talk about this?"
"NO!"
"Pepper!"
"Don't Pepper me, Tony! Hospital! Now!"
"I'm as good as I'm going to get for the time being."
"Obviously not!" She pointed at the magnet in my chest.
"I got examined by military doctors. For the time being this is as good as it gets. Until some breakthrough in medicine happens an operation to get the remaining shrapnel out might be more dangerous than leaving it in place with my setup." I explained.
"You'll be seeing a specialist!"
"I'm sure you'll find the best." I spoke in placating tone.
"I will and you'll go even if I have to drag you there!"
"We've got a deal." I agreed.
"Good!" Pepper huffed and stormed out.
I shook my head in exasperation and went back to work.
=IS=
I'm beginning to pick up Tony's bad habits.
"What do you mean it's nine in the morning?" I glared at Jarvis.
"It's zero nine zero one to be precise, sir." Jarvis snarked back.
Heh. One night of talking and he was already growing up and changing. Those learning protocols built in him were something to behold. At least no matter how advanced an AI he was his personality wasn't evolved enough to call me on the personality changes that I was showing. Or he simply chalked them up to my time in captivity. I pointedly didn't ask.
"Jarvis, next time do remind me when I'm working past two in the morning. Even earlier if I've got something scheduled for the next day." I ordered.
"I'll make a note of it, sir."
"At least we did a good work." I slowly twirled the holo-image of a heavy trooper armor.
It had significant strength enhancements thanks to its motorized joints. The armor might survive a tank cannon strike depending when it hit and the type of ammunition used if some of the experimental materials Tony knew of panned out. Keeping the operator alive through such a hit on the other hand was going to be tricky. Perhaps in built inertial dampening system? I would have to recreate it first and that would take years. I knew the theory, engineering too but the currently existing tech base wasn't up to making even a primitive knock-off.
Eh. We'll see. I examined the backpack. It would contain a fusion reactor as well as place for a shield system once I got that up and running. It could work through an ark reactor too. Weapons – both in built repulsors and whatever else I could get useful. For the time being it would be much faster to use conventional arms – hell as it is the suit could handle a mini-gun, auto-cannon too. A lot of micro-missiles. A laser emitter built in the chest – powerful but strictly close range.
I couldn't decide between using repulsor tech for propulsion… Well between Tony's repulsors and the ones I knew from the other universe. Tony's might be better, however I didn't fully understand the science behind them which might be trouble.
"Jarvis, save and close the file. Get as much of the components for Guardian and White Noise built with what's available. Order everything else we'll need. I'm going to get something to eat and catch some shuteye."
=IS=
"Tony! Are you all right?!" A familiar voice exclaimed.
Someone grabbed my shoulder and I was reacting on instinct.
"TONY!"
"Goddamn it Rhodey!" I blinked owlishly at my other friend.
Colonel James Rhodes. The last member of the small group who could put up with Tony Stark. Either a very good friend or a closet masochist.
"What. The. Hell." Rhodey muttered.
He was on the ground with my knee planted on his chest and I had my right hand raised to smash my fist at his throat.
"Sorry?" I got up and offered him a hand. "Please try not to surprise me again, Rhodey. This was close."
"I would say." A husky voice interrupted us.
"You I don't know." I pulled James up so he would be between me and the unknown.
A striking red-haired woman in a sharp business suit stood in my living room and looked at us with a raised eyebrow.
"I'm Natalie Rushman. Phil Coulson sent me. He said you were in need of protection."
"Babysitting. Tony here needs another babysitter." Rhodes quipped.
"Good to see you too, buddy. Do you want to see the floor up close again?"
"In your dreams."
"I don't swing that way. I'm not so sure about you Rhodey. I'll need some sort of confirmation." I nodded at the woman.
"Will shield credentials do?"
"No."
"Shield?! What did you get yourself in, Tony?" James suddenly became serious.
"The same mess that got me kidnapped. Have the Secret Agent Man call me to verify. Until then don't get out of my sight." I pointed at the woman, who smirked pulled out a phone and dialed.
"But you're back home safe! Tony, speak to me man!" Rhodes didn't let it go.
"I don't believe that was a random ambush. Those bastards got tons of my weapons on hand, Rhodey. Someone gave them all that ordnance."
"It might have been payment for killing you." Natalie butted in.
"Perhaps. However once they figured out who they had I was more useful building weapons than dead. At least in the short term." I added.
"It's plausible." The woman agreed. "Phil, Stark wants to talk with you." She threw her phone at me and I snatched it.
Barely. My reflexes still let a lot to be desired. Without something to boost them they might not get much better either. This body wasn't exactly young. Nor has Tony been training for most of his adult life neither did he had some kind of physical edge that I knew of.
"Yes?" I asked.
"Mr. Stark." Mr. Agent's voice sounded from the other side. That by itself didn't mean anything in this day and age.
"Mr. Secret Agent. What did I use to make that camp go boom?"
"You're getting properly paranoid Mr. Stark. I approve." Coulson sounded too cheerful for this time of the day, no matter whatever that was. "It was a prototype fusion reactor you had to sabotage."
"Good enough. Beautiful red haired woman, a head shorter than me. Large expressive eyes. Right now she's glaring at me. What's that? Compliments won't get me anywhere? Challenge accepted. She's currently sitting in my living room and says you sent her. What's her real name anyway? What about your, Mr. Secret Agent Man? I know your cloak and dagger types. Are you going by numbers nowadays or is it letters?" Natalie's glaring intensified. It was quite intense really. However I've been glared by Dark Council members – all of them at one time or another. Compared to them, her glowering simply didn't cut it no matter how impressive. "Congratulations, you're legit." I threw her phone back and she snatched it with a speed I was barely able to follow.
"You know, usually when his girlfriends begin glaring that way its all over." Rhodey quipped.
"Oh, in public I'll be all gooey eyed love stricken puppy!" Her whole bearing suddenly changed and she sent me a smoldering look that made junior get up at attention.
"Tony, I don't know if should be envious or pity you. I think I need a hot shower." James whined.
"Oh, you're good." I nodded in appreciation. "What did you do to get stuck with me?"
"I'm currently on the Director's shit list." She smiled brightly.
"Killed the wrong people?" I fished for more information.
"A proper girl never tells." Natalie pouted cutely.
"You can tell me everything you want..." Rhodey sighed.
I slapped the back of his head.
"Shape up man."
"I'm up."
I groaned. When did I became the grown up in here?!
"Anyway, I'm here until the boss needs me in the field. I'm in between assignments right now. Where am I staying?" Suddenly she was all business.
"Am I Shield's dumping ground now?" I grumbled. "That's it! I'm charging you up for the nice toys."
"That's not what Phil told me."
"Blame your director."
"Do you even know who he is?"
"So its a he? Don't know, don't care. There are spare bedrooms, knock yourself out. I'm going tinkering." My stomach growled. "Food first. Rhodey you know where the showers are, go get a cold one."
I grabbed a cup, cornflakes and milk from the kitchen and got back into my lair. Ms. Secret Agent Woman waltzed straight in behind me ignoring the security.
"Jarvis, make sure people can't just walk in here!" I glared at the woman. "That's it! I'm building killer robots."
"I will, sir."
"Really?" She perked up.
"Yes." I nodded. "How did you do that?" I pointed my spoon at the door.
"Trade secret." Natalie leaned on the wall.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"Body-guarding." She sighed. "Its a very boring job. Especially when I'm told I need to protect you from yourself. Something about trying to blow yourself up?" The secret agent took a thoughtful pose. "Or was it because without supervision you might starve in this workshop?"
"How good are you?" I asked.
"I'm a very bad girl."
"I'm offering you a deal – combat training in exchange of custom equipment for you. What weapons and armor do you prefer? Perhaps a stealth system – sound dampening and thermo-optical camouflage?"
She examined me critically.
"I don't have couple of years to spare."
"I might surprise you."
"I doubt it."
"I will."
"I don't buy it. I can't afford to break you, Tony."
"Ouch. I just felt my ego run to quietly die out of sight."
"That might be an improvement I hear." She hummed happily. "Killer robots?"
"Hunter-Killers!"
"Did you stay up to watch Terminator?"
"Those? Bah. Useless knock-offs!" I scoffed. I would bet my HK-117 against any Terminator we saw in the movies.
"Will I need to keep you from building Skynet, Tony?" Natalie frowned.
"I did better. Let me introduce you to Jarvis. Jarvis, say hi."
"Good afternoon, Miss Rushman."
"Hi, Jarvis. Who are you?"
"Him? Just the awesome and incredible AI I built."
"A real Artificial Intelligence?"
"I prefer synthetic life-from. He is very much real and not artificial at all."
"Goddamn it, Tony!"
"What?" Why people always had that reaction about things I build?!
Phase 2 Part 1
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the movies set up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe nor any of the Star Wars movies, cartoons, games, books or comics. They belong to their respective copyright owners. This story is not created with commercial aim. I make no money from it. It is not for sale or rent.
Tony Stark's home
California
It turns out, if you're Tony Stark, the government comes to you. In my experience that's never a good thing. I've been the one sent to visit people back in the good old days of the Empire. It seldom ended well for the people I was sent to investigate. CEOs, Moffs, it didn't matter if they crossed the Empire. All their money and clout meant nothing in the end.
I had to play host to a colonel from the DOD, a pair of very special FBI agents, a CIA spook and Coulson who posed as a Homeland Security.
There were a lot of questions I had to answer. Pictures too – of my handiwork and enough lightly scorched Stark Industries weaponry to ensure things like legal trouble, Senate Hearings and the like might be in the future if the evidence saw the light of day. Which might be inconvenient – Tony Stark was Stark Industries CEO at least on paper. People associated me with the company which right now was a rock tied around my neck and ready to plunge into the ocean.
"We've currently scouring the whole country for more equipment your company might have misplaced, Mr. Stark." Colonel Simmons continued. "In Iraq too."
"Getting intact samples will help trace the source of the leak. The ordnance I worked on while in captivity lacked serial numbers or other identification I could see without specialized gear. Well, besides the big Stark Industries logo on the outer casings." I helpfully pointed out. "I can assure you, I'm as angry about this unacceptable state of affairs as you are. I even have souvenirs in the form of shrapnel that can't be removed at this time." I rapped the magnet in my chest for emphasis making it ring.
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. We're still not sure if the missing equipment comes directly from Stark Industries or we somehow managed to misplace it." Coulson smiled disarmingly earning himself the ire of his colleagues. "I was made aware that we're currently physically checking the stocks of our SI built missiles?"
"We are. The records show everything is supposedly all right but we're making sure. Those missiles have good odds of slipping through our best defenses to strike any target in range." Simmons grunted.
"I have a few ideas that will fix that, but I'm not going to make promises I might not be able to back. The tech might not be here to make what I have in mind practical." I decided to be helpful again.
"As long as it doesn't find its way in the wrong hands." The colonel's deep voice rumbled.
"We'll be investigating anyway." Fed one grumbled. For some reason he didn't seem to like my company much and was practically gleeful to interrogate me.
That smelled of a plot to make me more likely to answer to the people of the other agencies. Or perhaps someone in the FBI had it in for me or SI. Hopefully it was the latter.
"I would expect nothing less." I cheerfully agreed. "I will be happy to help. Who will lead the investigation? You? Homeland? The DOD people?"
My guests looked at each other and began a pissing contest. Coulson sent me an amused glance behind the backs of the rest.
"We'll get back to you Mr. Stark once we've straightened out the jurisdiction." Mr. Agent said.
"Sure. You know where to find me. Any more questions?"
"We request that you don't leave the country." Fed Two answered.
"Considering what happened the last time? I won't be leaving California unless your investigation requires it. I'm just glad to be home mostly intact." I shuddered and it wasn't just for show. "The country for sure. I might move to somewhere with less sun and sand. They occasionally remind me of the desert."
While meditation or burying myself in my work helped, controlling my fear was still troublesome proposition.
"Understandable." Simmons nodded. "We'll keep in touch if there're other questions."
"How's Doctor Yinsen? I meant to check up on him. Have you talked with him yet?"
"We did before sending him home." Simons said.
"Oh. I'll have to call him then."
A round of exchanged pleasantries – which were obviously forced in the case of Fed One – and most of my guests were on their way. I was just getting a snack when the Secret Agent Man was back.
"Mr. Agent." I nodded. "Are you Coulson now, Howard from Homeland or something else?" I asked.
"Phil. I understand your AI can't hack Stark Industries?"
"Security. Any landlines could be tapped and any wireless access to the secure files is unacceptable risk. I thought about it after building Jarvis but dismissed the idea." I lied.
It was actually Pepper and Jarvis himself putting their feet down on the issue. Tony had been so sure he could find a way to have a hardline that couldn't be tapped or hacked no matter what.
"Prudent. I hear Jarvis has been pocking around for Shield data?" Mr. Agent continued to smile.
"You've been properly paranoid little spies. Only one network was left vulnerable and that was either bait or good fashioned human error." I grumbled.
"I wouldn't know. While we're on the topic of hacking, Stark Industries."
"You want access. How good is not Natalie at sneaking around?" I asked.
"Very, why?"
"Last night I had Jarvis built a certain chip in his spare time. I built in a hardwired backdoor in SI's mainframe. Once that chip is installed it will give unlimited untraceable access to my and Pepper's terminals at SI. I need someone to put the chip in while I'm distracting Stane and Pepper hacks for anything incriminating. If she either of them is caught you'll be on hand so we can hand them to the proper authorities."
"That might work. Where is Natalie?"
"Jarvis is keeping her busy. I promised to build her new armor if she trains me. She agreed when I showed her what I can make her."
Phase 2: Spy games
=IS=
Part 1
=IS=
=IS=
Part 1
=IS=
Tony Stark's home
California
It turns out, if you're Tony Stark, the government comes to you. In my experience that's never a good thing. I've been the one sent to visit people back in the good old days of the Empire. It seldom ended well for the people I was sent to investigate. CEOs, Moffs, it didn't matter if they crossed the Empire. All their money and clout meant nothing in the end.
I had to play host to a colonel from the DOD, a pair of very special FBI agents, a CIA spook and Coulson who posed as a Homeland Security.
There were a lot of questions I had to answer. Pictures too – of my handiwork and enough lightly scorched Stark Industries weaponry to ensure things like legal trouble, Senate Hearings and the like might be in the future if the evidence saw the light of day. Which might be inconvenient – Tony Stark was Stark Industries CEO at least on paper. People associated me with the company which right now was a rock tied around my neck and ready to plunge into the ocean.
"We've currently scouring the whole country for more equipment your company might have misplaced, Mr. Stark." Colonel Simmons continued. "In Iraq too."
"Getting intact samples will help trace the source of the leak. The ordnance I worked on while in captivity lacked serial numbers or other identification I could see without specialized gear. Well, besides the big Stark Industries logo on the outer casings." I helpfully pointed out. "I can assure you, I'm as angry about this unacceptable state of affairs as you are. I even have souvenirs in the form of shrapnel that can't be removed at this time." I rapped the magnet in my chest for emphasis making it ring.
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. We're still not sure if the missing equipment comes directly from Stark Industries or we somehow managed to misplace it." Coulson smiled disarmingly earning himself the ire of his colleagues. "I was made aware that we're currently physically checking the stocks of our SI built missiles?"
"We are. The records show everything is supposedly all right but we're making sure. Those missiles have good odds of slipping through our best defenses to strike any target in range." Simmons grunted.
"I have a few ideas that will fix that, but I'm not going to make promises I might not be able to back. The tech might not be here to make what I have in mind practical." I decided to be helpful again.
"As long as it doesn't find its way in the wrong hands." The colonel's deep voice rumbled.
"We'll be investigating anyway." Fed one grumbled. For some reason he didn't seem to like my company much and was practically gleeful to interrogate me.
That smelled of a plot to make me more likely to answer to the people of the other agencies. Or perhaps someone in the FBI had it in for me or SI. Hopefully it was the latter.
"I would expect nothing less." I cheerfully agreed. "I will be happy to help. Who will lead the investigation? You? Homeland? The DOD people?"
My guests looked at each other and began a pissing contest. Coulson sent me an amused glance behind the backs of the rest.
"We'll get back to you Mr. Stark once we've straightened out the jurisdiction." Mr. Agent said.
"Sure. You know where to find me. Any more questions?"
"We request that you don't leave the country." Fed Two answered.
"Considering what happened the last time? I won't be leaving California unless your investigation requires it. I'm just glad to be home mostly intact." I shuddered and it wasn't just for show. "The country for sure. I might move to somewhere with less sun and sand. They occasionally remind me of the desert."
While meditation or burying myself in my work helped, controlling my fear was still troublesome proposition.
"Understandable." Simmons nodded. "We'll keep in touch if there're other questions."
"How's Doctor Yinsen? I meant to check up on him. Have you talked with him yet?"
"We did before sending him home." Simons said.
"Oh. I'll have to call him then."
A round of exchanged pleasantries – which were obviously forced in the case of Fed One – and most of my guests were on their way. I was just getting a snack when the Secret Agent Man was back.
"Mr. Agent." I nodded. "Are you Coulson now, Howard from Homeland or something else?" I asked.
"Phil. I understand your AI can't hack Stark Industries?"
"Security. Any landlines could be tapped and any wireless access to the secure files is unacceptable risk. I thought about it after building Jarvis but dismissed the idea." I lied.
It was actually Pepper and Jarvis himself putting their feet down on the issue. Tony had been so sure he could find a way to have a hardline that couldn't be tapped or hacked no matter what.
"Prudent. I hear Jarvis has been pocking around for Shield data?" Mr. Agent continued to smile.
"You've been properly paranoid little spies. Only one network was left vulnerable and that was either bait or good fashioned human error." I grumbled.
"I wouldn't know. While we're on the topic of hacking, Stark Industries."
"You want access. How good is not Natalie at sneaking around?" I asked.
"Very, why?"
"Last night I had Jarvis built a certain chip in his spare time. I built in a hardwired backdoor in SI's mainframe. Once that chip is installed it will give unlimited untraceable access to my and Pepper's terminals at SI. I need someone to put the chip in while I'm distracting Stane and Pepper hacks for anything incriminating. If she either of them is caught you'll be on hand so we can hand them to the proper authorities."
"That might work. Where is Natalie?"
"Jarvis is keeping her busy. I promised to build her new armor if she trains me. She agreed when I showed her what I can make her."
Phase 2 Part 2
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the movies set up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe nor any of the Star Wars movies, cartoons, games, books or comics. They belong to their respective copyright owners. This story is not created with commercial aim. I make no money from it. It is not for sale or rent.
Tony Stark's home
California
For the rest of the day I lost myself in tinkering. It was disturbingly easy not to think about my situation. Before I knew it, it was early in the morning and I didn't even notice the time fly by.
I shook my head wondering how Tony didn't kill himself even with Pepper and company looking after him. What was that saying? God looks after madmen and Tony Stark?
Well, that was no longer the case. I left Jarvis to wrap up the projects we worked on, grabbed a glass of bourbon and passed by the kitchen to get a bite to eat. Once that was over and my stomach was no longer growing at me, I found myself on a balcony overlooking the ocean.
I looked down at my hands and the glass I held. The amber liquid sloshed inside as my hands shook. Fear and I, we were old companions. For as long as I could clearly remember, that emotion along with anger, was a source of power. Tonight? It merely made my hands shake and it could account for the icy ball twisting in my guts.
For the longest time there wasn't a single being in the whole galaxy that I wouldn't dare face. It wasn't arrogance. Not really. With the might of the Force at my disposal, I was a god among men.
That was no longer the case and it terrified me. I've seen the best men and women a whole galaxy could produce throw themselves against people with powers. More often than not, it was the ordinary people who ended up crushed, brushed aside like ants. I knew that right now, just here on Earth there were at least dozens of beings who could stride through every defense that my home had, ignore my so called bodyguards and kill me or worse. Even without Tony's memories I could build weapons that could glass this whole planet in a short order. I could surround myself with the best paid mercenaries, build myself a droid army strong and numerous enough to conquer this world, build myself a fortress of doom... Yet I could still easily die due to a kid with a popgun.
This weakness... I loathed it. Money? I was the richest man in the world. Could that stop a pissed off Hulk? A competent alien invasion or simply someone who wanted to gut the Earth? Hell that not Natalie red head lounging on my couch could kick my ass all over my house without breaking a sweat.
I needed power. Real power. As far as I knew, the Force didn't exist in this universe. What could I use then? Technology? Unless and until I found a safe way to make myself tougher than that green brute while retaining my faculties it would be a stopgap at best. Take over the world? It was damn tempting, however...
Something deep within me rebelled at the very idea. I laughed hollowly. Who would have thought that Tony stark was an actual bona fide patriot? He believed that America was a great country, the best on Earth, even if it had some problems. Problems that my technology could fix.
I stared at the ocean and breathed in its scent. It somehow made my situation feel more real.
Said situation was a mess. For years I let Stane run my corporation. When I was abducted, he became the acting CEO, which didn't mean that much – he had been wielding the power of that office while I was busy tinkering or getting laid. So if he wasn't a total incompetent, Stark Industries was compromised to hell and back. Probably the board of directors and I was loath to admit I wasn't sure of the exact limits of their power. It's been too long since Tony bothered to check.
Then there was the change of my behavior. Tony's influence was strong, that much I could admit to myself. However, I knew I've been acting out of character for him and wasn't sure if the trauma of my kidnapping could be an explanation enough. This was a world of magic, aliens, gods and almost magical technology. Brainwashing or alien influence, that would be something people like Shield could think about and such a suspicion could prove fatal.
The Sith I used to be until I ended up in that cave... Yeah. My morals and thought processes could be considered either alien or insane.
No competent government could allow someone like Tony Stark run around if they believed him to be compromised and no amount of money and influence could change that. I needed allies. I had to make myself trustworthy enough, indispensable enough so Shield and company wouldn't care if I was really Tony Stark or someone wearing his body as a meat-suit.
I scoffed. The very idea was insane. No, what I needed was a better explanation on how I ended up changed. My kidnapping... Could I use that? By itself the 'trauma' wouldn't be enough. Perhaps explain it merely as a catalysis that forced me to grow up? Thinking back... Yeah, a lot of the time Tony acted as a teen having fun and no care in the world. To be fair, in his shoes I might have done the same if I didn't have the baggage of so many years spent as a Sith.
So, kidnapping. Stane's betrayal. Growing up. Perhaps getting my hands dirty in a reasonably safe way until I could find a way to get my hands on a real power?
Well, there is supposed to be magic in this world. Could I learn to use it? Could I be good enough at it to suit my purposes? I hoped so because the other alternative was to find a way to turn myself in a super soldier the likes of which this world had never seen and even that might not be enough. After all, sooner or later beings who could honestly call themselves gods could come knocking.
Fuck.
I drained the glass and relished the warm burn of the bourbon sliding down my throat. I was a god damned mess.
All right. Enough moping around.
Taking my nerves under control was much harder without the Force, though doable if time consuming. When my heart stopped hammering in my chest and my hands no longer shook I took a deep breath of salty air. I needed a plan, goals. Something to focus on before my Tonyish tendencies made me lose myself in tinkering.
Get Shield's not Natalie and perhaps Pepper hack SI's mainframe while I bullshit Stane. I had no intention of making him jump the gun by going anywhere near the servers myself. I would bet a significant chunk of my fortune that he would know the moment I tried to do so. Fuck again. To do any of that I would have to go back to the Corporate HQ and I wouldn't be surprised if some if not most of the guards inside are compromised too. Would Obi be audacious enough to arrange an accident for me the next time I went there? I did tip him up about my suspicions about someone setting me up with those terrorists.
Then there was Shield. I didn't really trust them. We might have the same overall goals – protect this country and planet from threats, however technically I was one of those threats. However, such an agency... they were valuable. Having an in with the people supposed to deal with all the fun stuff – it could be a great boon. Ingratiating myself to them, providing them with nice toys and even working for them would give me an opportunity to at least monitor their activities. Doing so might eventually allow me to subvert them for my use, though without the Force it would be orders of magnitude harder.
On the other hand... Right now there were just a few people I did trust, so it wasn't like that would stop me from working with Shield or anyone else. After all it didn't in the past.
First things first. Get some actual sleep. In my bed. Then go deal with Stane, build a working relationship with Shield, regain control of Stark Industries and build myself a trustworthy power base. At the same time I was going to make my house a mini fortress of doom for peace of mind before I freaked up again. Personal protection... Get not Natalie or a colleague of hers to whip me in shape, preferably without giving me a heart attack. Build myself proper power armour, a lot of weapons and figure a way to screen a security force that I could trust.
Build an army of wardroids too when the time and resources allow.
….?
Stay alive!!!
Get another drink and try to get not Natalie in bed with me.
Profit?
God damn you, Tony!
Phase 2: Spy games
=IS=
Part 2
=IS=
=IS=
Part 2
=IS=
Tony Stark's home
California
For the rest of the day I lost myself in tinkering. It was disturbingly easy not to think about my situation. Before I knew it, it was early in the morning and I didn't even notice the time fly by.
I shook my head wondering how Tony didn't kill himself even with Pepper and company looking after him. What was that saying? God looks after madmen and Tony Stark?
Well, that was no longer the case. I left Jarvis to wrap up the projects we worked on, grabbed a glass of bourbon and passed by the kitchen to get a bite to eat. Once that was over and my stomach was no longer growing at me, I found myself on a balcony overlooking the ocean.
I looked down at my hands and the glass I held. The amber liquid sloshed inside as my hands shook. Fear and I, we were old companions. For as long as I could clearly remember, that emotion along with anger, was a source of power. Tonight? It merely made my hands shake and it could account for the icy ball twisting in my guts.
For the longest time there wasn't a single being in the whole galaxy that I wouldn't dare face. It wasn't arrogance. Not really. With the might of the Force at my disposal, I was a god among men.
That was no longer the case and it terrified me. I've seen the best men and women a whole galaxy could produce throw themselves against people with powers. More often than not, it was the ordinary people who ended up crushed, brushed aside like ants. I knew that right now, just here on Earth there were at least dozens of beings who could stride through every defense that my home had, ignore my so called bodyguards and kill me or worse. Even without Tony's memories I could build weapons that could glass this whole planet in a short order. I could surround myself with the best paid mercenaries, build myself a droid army strong and numerous enough to conquer this world, build myself a fortress of doom... Yet I could still easily die due to a kid with a popgun.
This weakness... I loathed it. Money? I was the richest man in the world. Could that stop a pissed off Hulk? A competent alien invasion or simply someone who wanted to gut the Earth? Hell that not Natalie red head lounging on my couch could kick my ass all over my house without breaking a sweat.
I needed power. Real power. As far as I knew, the Force didn't exist in this universe. What could I use then? Technology? Unless and until I found a safe way to make myself tougher than that green brute while retaining my faculties it would be a stopgap at best. Take over the world? It was damn tempting, however...
Something deep within me rebelled at the very idea. I laughed hollowly. Who would have thought that Tony stark was an actual bona fide patriot? He believed that America was a great country, the best on Earth, even if it had some problems. Problems that my technology could fix.
I stared at the ocean and breathed in its scent. It somehow made my situation feel more real.
Said situation was a mess. For years I let Stane run my corporation. When I was abducted, he became the acting CEO, which didn't mean that much – he had been wielding the power of that office while I was busy tinkering or getting laid. So if he wasn't a total incompetent, Stark Industries was compromised to hell and back. Probably the board of directors and I was loath to admit I wasn't sure of the exact limits of their power. It's been too long since Tony bothered to check.
Then there was the change of my behavior. Tony's influence was strong, that much I could admit to myself. However, I knew I've been acting out of character for him and wasn't sure if the trauma of my kidnapping could be an explanation enough. This was a world of magic, aliens, gods and almost magical technology. Brainwashing or alien influence, that would be something people like Shield could think about and such a suspicion could prove fatal.
The Sith I used to be until I ended up in that cave... Yeah. My morals and thought processes could be considered either alien or insane.
No competent government could allow someone like Tony Stark run around if they believed him to be compromised and no amount of money and influence could change that. I needed allies. I had to make myself trustworthy enough, indispensable enough so Shield and company wouldn't care if I was really Tony Stark or someone wearing his body as a meat-suit.
I scoffed. The very idea was insane. No, what I needed was a better explanation on how I ended up changed. My kidnapping... Could I use that? By itself the 'trauma' wouldn't be enough. Perhaps explain it merely as a catalysis that forced me to grow up? Thinking back... Yeah, a lot of the time Tony acted as a teen having fun and no care in the world. To be fair, in his shoes I might have done the same if I didn't have the baggage of so many years spent as a Sith.
So, kidnapping. Stane's betrayal. Growing up. Perhaps getting my hands dirty in a reasonably safe way until I could find a way to get my hands on a real power?
Well, there is supposed to be magic in this world. Could I learn to use it? Could I be good enough at it to suit my purposes? I hoped so because the other alternative was to find a way to turn myself in a super soldier the likes of which this world had never seen and even that might not be enough. After all, sooner or later beings who could honestly call themselves gods could come knocking.
Fuck.
I drained the glass and relished the warm burn of the bourbon sliding down my throat. I was a god damned mess.
All right. Enough moping around.
Taking my nerves under control was much harder without the Force, though doable if time consuming. When my heart stopped hammering in my chest and my hands no longer shook I took a deep breath of salty air. I needed a plan, goals. Something to focus on before my Tonyish tendencies made me lose myself in tinkering.
Get Shield's not Natalie and perhaps Pepper hack SI's mainframe while I bullshit Stane. I had no intention of making him jump the gun by going anywhere near the servers myself. I would bet a significant chunk of my fortune that he would know the moment I tried to do so. Fuck again. To do any of that I would have to go back to the Corporate HQ and I wouldn't be surprised if some if not most of the guards inside are compromised too. Would Obi be audacious enough to arrange an accident for me the next time I went there? I did tip him up about my suspicions about someone setting me up with those terrorists.
Then there was Shield. I didn't really trust them. We might have the same overall goals – protect this country and planet from threats, however technically I was one of those threats. However, such an agency... they were valuable. Having an in with the people supposed to deal with all the fun stuff – it could be a great boon. Ingratiating myself to them, providing them with nice toys and even working for them would give me an opportunity to at least monitor their activities. Doing so might eventually allow me to subvert them for my use, though without the Force it would be orders of magnitude harder.
On the other hand... Right now there were just a few people I did trust, so it wasn't like that would stop me from working with Shield or anyone else. After all it didn't in the past.
First things first. Get some actual sleep. In my bed. Then go deal with Stane, build a working relationship with Shield, regain control of Stark Industries and build myself a trustworthy power base. At the same time I was going to make my house a mini fortress of doom for peace of mind before I freaked up again. Personal protection... Get not Natalie or a colleague of hers to whip me in shape, preferably without giving me a heart attack. Build myself proper power armour, a lot of weapons and figure a way to screen a security force that I could trust.
Build an army of wardroids too when the time and resources allow.
….?
Stay alive!!!
Get another drink and try to get not Natalie in bed with me.
Profit?
God damn you, Tony!
Phase 2 Part 3
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the movies set up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe nor any of the Star Wars movies, cartoons, games, books or comics. They belong to their respective copyright owners. This story is not created with commercial aim. I make no money from it. It is not for sale or rent.
Caritas Night Club
California
Obadiah Stane thanked the bartender when the younger man handed him his drink. A paper napkin was stuck to the underside of the glass and there were a few words scratched on it. VIP lounge. 5 min. Stane took a sip of his whiskey, it was the good stuff and turned around. The club was chock full with people. Some danced on the floor on the beat of reverberating music coming from hidden loudspeakers, others sat on the bar or discrete booths placed around the walls talking and laughing.
Multicolored lights and artificial mist gave the place a haunting, almost beautiful visa. It reminded Obadiah of his youth, of a better time when he had fewer regrets.
There were days, like tonight, when he wondered when his ambition and resentment got the better of him. For years after Howard's death, Obadiah saw Tony as his own son. He couldn't tell when that changed. Was it covering for one too many gaffes? Perhaps it was one too many days doing the kid's job as a CEO after Tony came of age and was too busy chasing skirts instead of dealing with everything that had to be done to keep Start Industries prosperous. After all, in this kind of business, merely having the best weapons on the market wasn't enough. Convincing the government to buy enough of them was the trick, especially when Hammer and the others of his ilk were ready to offer good enough gear at lower prices.
Stane smiled mirthlessly. Stark Industries build the best weapons the Earth has ever seen. Sometimes too good and expensive to buy unless you knew the right people and could grease the right hands. That was a lesson Tony never really learned, even if he did improve as the years passed. The kid was an idealist, a patriot and that held him back. Bribing people go smooth the way in other countries? No problem. Doing so to American officials? The few times Obadiah tried to explain it, Tony just stared at him as if he was speaking a foreign language. It would be adorable and fun if it wasn't so frustrating.
Did it really matter at this point? Stane did the unthinkable on multiple fronts. Selling weapons to terrorist and less than friendly states... It all began so easy and simple. Just a way to find "clean" funds to bribe the correct people behind Tony and his pet AI's back. Then he had to build a fund for future smoothing of the way, a little secret nest egg for his retirement or in case everything leaked and he had to run...
Before he knew it, Obadiah was neck-deep in selling some of the best weapons Stark Industries created to foreign countries. They would reverse engineer it, upgrade their capabilities and Stark would have to create something that was the new bleeding edge. As a consequence, SI made billions of profit after all expenses were paid. It was good. Great even.
Yet, Tony continued to tinker, more often than not in fields that had nothing to do with weapons and more importantly, he kept wasting his time drinking and womanizing all over the world. Obadiah had to do all the real work on keeping the firm in the green, he had to cover for the kid again and again. And suddenly, he had a gut full of it all.
The most surprising thing was how easy was to arrange Tony's assassination by providing a lot of weapons to the Ten Rings. He even had a contingency to ensure that in event of the illegal weapon sales came to light, Tony would take most of the blame. It was the perfect crime... and then it everything went to hell.
Stane should have known better. Criminals. Terrorists. Of course you couldn't trust them to get the job done. Now Tony was back and he was sniffing around. Various agencies were on it too and the false trail was unlikely to hold up with a live Tony around. After all, dead men told no tales, nor could they deny anything...
Obadiah drained finished his drink and headed for the VIP lounge.
Worst of all, someone else knew about his off the book deals. That's why he was in this club tonight. Oh, Caritas was a place he did visit at least a few times a month, often in the company of clients he was wooing. It wasn't out of character for him to be here. Not tonight however. Not after someone sent him a recording of a conversation he had with one of the terrorists after they captured Tony.
The VIP lounge on the second floor was much quieter. You could actually hold a conversation her without shouting or straining to hear. The place was tastefully decorated in leather and chrome giving it a slim futuristic look. The various booths were enclosed and could be isolated from the outside to hold more or less private meetings. A jammer or two could take care for any surveillance making the place quite popular to conduct business deals. Obadiah had used it for both above and below board negotiations and as far as he knew there were no leaks from this pace. Of course, tonight meeting might just indicate otherwise.
A well suited clean cut Caucasian man met him and nodded toward a nearby opened booth. Two expressionless brown eyes stared at Stane until he nodded and went inside. The man followed and sealed the door. The only unusual thing Obadiah could see was a small SI produced jammer that was placed on the table. Its light was green indicating it worked.
"Mr. Stane, I'm agent Ward from Shield. I'm here to make give you an offer you can't refuse." The newly named Ward pulled out a smart phone from a pocket of his pants and threw it at Obadiah.
Stane caught the slim device, unlocked it and frowned. There was a paused video of him speaking with the Ten Rings.
"I'm all ears."
Ward smiled.
Fifteen minutes later, Obadiah Stane walked out of Caritas and got into his car as a Shield asset. He wondered if he would yet live to regret his more... unconventional procivilities.
Director's office
The Triskelion
Theodore Roosevelt Island
"What is your read on Stark?" Director Nicholas Fury asked.
On the monitor of his computer, Phil Coulson frowned.
"From what I saw, our profile on the man seems to be off. PTSD can't account for the changes and the army didn't find any traces of overt torture or chemical conditioning. The man I met isn't the playboy I was expecting. If I didn't know better I would compare him to a retired operative."
Now Fury frowned too.
"Extrapolate." The Director didn't like unknowns and curiosities. More often than not, when something was off it was problem his people had to solve quietly.
"It's weird." Coulson shrugged. "The way his eyes move around scanning for threats, sometimes the way he moves... it's like a veteran. Then there are moments when he's moving and acting like an ordinary civilian. I'm pretty sure Stark isn't even aware he's doing it."
"Concerning." Fury allowed.
He tapped some commands on his station and brought up the results of Stark's medical examination by the military. It did include a DNA test that matched, the same was true for the biometrics. He was reasonably sure that the man the military recovered in Afghanistan was indeed Stark. Romanof's report stated more or less the same and apparently the man's AI was convinced that this was the genuine article.
"Get May out of the office. I'll have other assignments for Romanof soon and I want someone competent keeping tabs on Stark just in case. How's the investigation going on?"
"Interesting. There's a very thin trail indicating Stark might have had something to do with his weapons ending up with the terrorists who held him. However, the man does have a pet AI and I find it hard to believe that we would have found this kind of trail if he was actually behind it. So far I'm not seeing motive either. It certainly can't be money."
"Ideology?" Fury suggested. Stark's profile suggested the man was a patriot, but who knew for certain considering the inconsistencies Coulson noticed. "I'll have people dig in deeper in his past and have them confirm everything about the man we have electronic record of."
"It could be that the man got bored with the high life. It won't be the first time that's happened." Coulson suggested.
Fury grimaced. That was certainly true. Shield had to either cover for or clean up the mess of rich kids with more resources than sense more than once. A couple even got to make half-decent assets.
"Keep looking and keep me posted." Fury cut off the connection. "What's your game, Stark?" He wondered aloud. For now that was Coulson's problem. Fury had bigger fish to fry.
Phase 2: Spy games
=IS=
Part 3
=IS=
=IS=
Part 3
=IS=
Caritas Night Club
California
Obadiah Stane thanked the bartender when the younger man handed him his drink. A paper napkin was stuck to the underside of the glass and there were a few words scratched on it. VIP lounge. 5 min. Stane took a sip of his whiskey, it was the good stuff and turned around. The club was chock full with people. Some danced on the floor on the beat of reverberating music coming from hidden loudspeakers, others sat on the bar or discrete booths placed around the walls talking and laughing.
Multicolored lights and artificial mist gave the place a haunting, almost beautiful visa. It reminded Obadiah of his youth, of a better time when he had fewer regrets.
There were days, like tonight, when he wondered when his ambition and resentment got the better of him. For years after Howard's death, Obadiah saw Tony as his own son. He couldn't tell when that changed. Was it covering for one too many gaffes? Perhaps it was one too many days doing the kid's job as a CEO after Tony came of age and was too busy chasing skirts instead of dealing with everything that had to be done to keep Start Industries prosperous. After all, in this kind of business, merely having the best weapons on the market wasn't enough. Convincing the government to buy enough of them was the trick, especially when Hammer and the others of his ilk were ready to offer good enough gear at lower prices.
Stane smiled mirthlessly. Stark Industries build the best weapons the Earth has ever seen. Sometimes too good and expensive to buy unless you knew the right people and could grease the right hands. That was a lesson Tony never really learned, even if he did improve as the years passed. The kid was an idealist, a patriot and that held him back. Bribing people go smooth the way in other countries? No problem. Doing so to American officials? The few times Obadiah tried to explain it, Tony just stared at him as if he was speaking a foreign language. It would be adorable and fun if it wasn't so frustrating.
Did it really matter at this point? Stane did the unthinkable on multiple fronts. Selling weapons to terrorist and less than friendly states... It all began so easy and simple. Just a way to find "clean" funds to bribe the correct people behind Tony and his pet AI's back. Then he had to build a fund for future smoothing of the way, a little secret nest egg for his retirement or in case everything leaked and he had to run...
Before he knew it, Obadiah was neck-deep in selling some of the best weapons Stark Industries created to foreign countries. They would reverse engineer it, upgrade their capabilities and Stark would have to create something that was the new bleeding edge. As a consequence, SI made billions of profit after all expenses were paid. It was good. Great even.
Yet, Tony continued to tinker, more often than not in fields that had nothing to do with weapons and more importantly, he kept wasting his time drinking and womanizing all over the world. Obadiah had to do all the real work on keeping the firm in the green, he had to cover for the kid again and again. And suddenly, he had a gut full of it all.
The most surprising thing was how easy was to arrange Tony's assassination by providing a lot of weapons to the Ten Rings. He even had a contingency to ensure that in event of the illegal weapon sales came to light, Tony would take most of the blame. It was the perfect crime... and then it everything went to hell.
Stane should have known better. Criminals. Terrorists. Of course you couldn't trust them to get the job done. Now Tony was back and he was sniffing around. Various agencies were on it too and the false trail was unlikely to hold up with a live Tony around. After all, dead men told no tales, nor could they deny anything...
Obadiah drained finished his drink and headed for the VIP lounge.
Worst of all, someone else knew about his off the book deals. That's why he was in this club tonight. Oh, Caritas was a place he did visit at least a few times a month, often in the company of clients he was wooing. It wasn't out of character for him to be here. Not tonight however. Not after someone sent him a recording of a conversation he had with one of the terrorists after they captured Tony.
=IS=
The VIP lounge on the second floor was much quieter. You could actually hold a conversation her without shouting or straining to hear. The place was tastefully decorated in leather and chrome giving it a slim futuristic look. The various booths were enclosed and could be isolated from the outside to hold more or less private meetings. A jammer or two could take care for any surveillance making the place quite popular to conduct business deals. Obadiah had used it for both above and below board negotiations and as far as he knew there were no leaks from this pace. Of course, tonight meeting might just indicate otherwise.
A well suited clean cut Caucasian man met him and nodded toward a nearby opened booth. Two expressionless brown eyes stared at Stane until he nodded and went inside. The man followed and sealed the door. The only unusual thing Obadiah could see was a small SI produced jammer that was placed on the table. Its light was green indicating it worked.
"Mr. Stane, I'm agent Ward from Shield. I'm here to make give you an offer you can't refuse." The newly named Ward pulled out a smart phone from a pocket of his pants and threw it at Obadiah.
Stane caught the slim device, unlocked it and frowned. There was a paused video of him speaking with the Ten Rings.
"I'm all ears."
Ward smiled.
=IS=
Fifteen minutes later, Obadiah Stane walked out of Caritas and got into his car as a Shield asset. He wondered if he would yet live to regret his more... unconventional procivilities.
=IS=
Director's office
The Triskelion
Theodore Roosevelt Island
"What is your read on Stark?" Director Nicholas Fury asked.
On the monitor of his computer, Phil Coulson frowned.
"From what I saw, our profile on the man seems to be off. PTSD can't account for the changes and the army didn't find any traces of overt torture or chemical conditioning. The man I met isn't the playboy I was expecting. If I didn't know better I would compare him to a retired operative."
Now Fury frowned too.
"Extrapolate." The Director didn't like unknowns and curiosities. More often than not, when something was off it was problem his people had to solve quietly.
"It's weird." Coulson shrugged. "The way his eyes move around scanning for threats, sometimes the way he moves... it's like a veteran. Then there are moments when he's moving and acting like an ordinary civilian. I'm pretty sure Stark isn't even aware he's doing it."
"Concerning." Fury allowed.
He tapped some commands on his station and brought up the results of Stark's medical examination by the military. It did include a DNA test that matched, the same was true for the biometrics. He was reasonably sure that the man the military recovered in Afghanistan was indeed Stark. Romanof's report stated more or less the same and apparently the man's AI was convinced that this was the genuine article.
"Get May out of the office. I'll have other assignments for Romanof soon and I want someone competent keeping tabs on Stark just in case. How's the investigation going on?"
"Interesting. There's a very thin trail indicating Stark might have had something to do with his weapons ending up with the terrorists who held him. However, the man does have a pet AI and I find it hard to believe that we would have found this kind of trail if he was actually behind it. So far I'm not seeing motive either. It certainly can't be money."
"Ideology?" Fury suggested. Stark's profile suggested the man was a patriot, but who knew for certain considering the inconsistencies Coulson noticed. "I'll have people dig in deeper in his past and have them confirm everything about the man we have electronic record of."
"It could be that the man got bored with the high life. It won't be the first time that's happened." Coulson suggested.
Fury grimaced. That was certainly true. Shield had to either cover for or clean up the mess of rich kids with more resources than sense more than once. A couple even got to make half-decent assets.
"Keep looking and keep me posted." Fury cut off the connection. "What's your game, Stark?" He wondered aloud. For now that was Coulson's problem. Fury had bigger fish to fry.
Phase 2 Part 4
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the movies set up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe nor any of the Star Wars movies, cartoons, games, books or comics. They belong to their respective copyright owners. This story is not created with commercial aim. I make no money from it. It is not for sale or rent.
en route to Stark Industries Corporate HQ
California
Happy drove us towards SI seat in Silicon Valley in one of the armoured SUVs that until recently didn't see much use. Tony had preferred either much faster and sleeker cars, preferably if he could drive them or often limousines if he wanted something to kick back, stretch his legs and relax while being driven around. Needless to say, I had a different perspective. Oh, the limousines I now had on beck and call were armoured to the gills with the best SI could offer too. However, one of the SUVs the kind we sold to the government too to help them keep VIPs in one piece when someone tried to kill hem, well they were as well protected, almost as comfortable and more importantly smaller and more nimble cars.
You're only paranoid when there aren't people out there raring to get you. Of course, that train of thoughts carefully skipped the fact that we had a woman, who I was sure was a trained assassin among other things, sitting on the back-seat along with Pepper, while I rode shotgun next to Hogan.
"Tony, why can't you just go to the server room and check yourself? Why all of this charade?" Pepper grumbled at my antics.
"Oh, I can do that. Really." I turned to look at the women at the back. Both wore elegant designer suits that made them look stunning. The inner leech I inherited from Tony all but slobbered at the very sight. Oh, I was no prude, I've sampled the best a whole galaxy had to offer, however, this was frankly ridiculous. I often wondered lately how Tony was able to get anything done between drinking and sleeping with every attractive woman willing to have him, who were most of them.
"They why aren't we doing that?" Pepper spoke in that endearing tone – part fond exasperation, part resignation and part irritation.
"If my guess is right, it would be a bad idea that would tip our hand. Pepper, you know better than anyone that for most intents and purposes I've been a figurehead. Oh, I've invented a lot of stuff," I dismissively waved a hand, "however, Obi had been running the company ever since my father died. If he's rotten as I fear, any of the people working there, including security, will likely be his creatures. Depending on when he went bad, he had years to fill the place with people he could trust. Tony Stark going to the servers? He'll know about it before I've put the chip in, much less we've been able to recover anything incriminating. You on the other hand..." I trailed off and looked at the red haired spy.
"Little old me?" She fluttered her eyelashes at me. "I'm just an innocent star-struck girl you took a fancy on, Tony."
"That would surprise no one." Pepper muttered with a hint bitterness in her voice. I wondered how much Tony's womanising ways hurt her, because if I wasn't mistaken, she had feelings for the man. Too bad that now that was going to go nowhere, though I would have to handle her carefully, because I did care for her, damn it, though it was in a big sister kind of way. Either that or I was in denial.
Our resident spy pretended she didn't notice a thing, though I was sure she filed the conversation for latter dissection and potential use.
"My flaws aside, you my dear, are going to put your particular talents to good use, sneak in, put the chip and sneak out without getting caught."
"Security?"
"Decent enough, though not as good as it could be." SI security people were properly paranoid. However, the primary line of defence was twofold. First was the obvious – keep unauthorized personnel from gaining physical access to anything important. Second, the computers people actually worked on, well they were connected only to the internal SI network with no way to link them to the interned without physical modification. When you had to access internet, which was often necessary to get the job done, you used a different network and devices. As my new assistant, not-Natalie would have access most people would lack and all we'll need after that would be a proper distraction to keep the people in the security centre from seeing her when she got to the server room. I would be visiting them to check on things and have a chat about security – I was paranoid after my kidnapping, duh. That only left us not messing the timing, hopefully.
"That actually makes sense." Pepper nodded thoughtfully, then narrowed her eyes at me. They glinted dangerously too. "I've been telling you for years that you should be more hands on with running the company as you very well know, Tony."
I gave her a patented Stark shrug. "Doesn't ring a bell right now, Pepper."
It continued to be a wonder why the woman hadn't tried to strangle me yet, much less Tony before I took residence and we kinda merged. Happy agreed with the sentiment, because he did glance my way and shook his head in exasperation. "We're almost there, boss."
"Good. It's time to play spies!" I clapped happily, doing my best to show some of the old Tony Stark.
"The media is in place, the paparazzi too." Happy nodded when we got to the edge of the complex.
"I need to invent something to deal with them."
"That will make you even richer, not to mention more popular." Happy interjected. "Not to mention my life easier." He added more quietly.
"It's on my to do list now." Perhaps fire? Back in the day, lighting and choking the way out of them did help, at least when I served the Sith Empire. Later, during my stint with the Republic, that tactic was unfortunately not a good idea.
"Let's feed the sharks." I declared grandly and got out once we stopped. Security, both SI's own and from the small military contingent stationed to protect the DOD's projects we were working on, struggled to keep the crowd away. It looked like the small grace period that my kidnapping and possible death bought me was very much over now.
"Only a few questions and we're done for now! I do have a lot of work to catch up to!" I shouted and plastered a disarming smile on my face. It was easier when there was no Dark Side whispering in the back of my head that a bloodbath might solve the problem. What concerned me was that I got similar ideas on my own now, just didn't have to fight a constant urge to implement them.
My time as a Sith truly warped me, didn't it?
Most of the questions were innate and not rally anyone's business but myself. Others, well they were more relevant and might even deserve an answer. I was certainly not going to entertain the school of piranhas surrounding us with tales of who I slept with to get over my trauma and how good they were in bed. Nor did I really react when someone outright asked if it was Pepper who comforted me after my ordeal, though I sorely missed the capability to Force Choke the bastard or simply draw and quarter him using my mind.
As I said, other questions did deserve an answer, preferably before someone made up one to their liking.
"I'm aware of that, Miss Stuart, was it?" I flashed a smile to a tall blonde reporter. I was pretty sure Tony had slept with her too. In fact, there were at least two more female reporters in the crowd who had interviewed him very thoroughly, in one case multiple times. "Well, it's no real secret. The people who were behind it, know that there was a surprising amount of our weapons in the hands of those terrorists. The terrorists obviously knew as well." A few people actually chuckled at that. Weird. "I got a nasty shock and some shrapnel as a solid proof." I tapped the electromagnet in my chest, though no one else needed to know how literal I was. "The various agencies investigating the issue are aware of it too. All I'm going to say about this is the following. Stark Industries produces weapons, that much everyone knows. However, they are meant for the protection of our great country and of our allies, not for a bunch of maniacs to kill people with for fun. I hope that our law enforcement agencies will find the responsible parties soon and throw them in the deepest, darkest hole they could find." I paused. "After a proper and fair trial, of course." Or not. An arranged accident and few people being disappeared here and there would be much better for SI compared to our reputation getting dragged through the gutter in a trial of someone like Stane.
"Mr Stark, you intent to continue to produce and sell weapons after what happened?" A journalist I didn't know asked. He had good lungs and voice too, because his voice rang loud and clearly over those of his colleagues.
"Yes." I answered loud and clear too. "It wasn't the Stark Industries weapons that killed the soldiers escorting me in Afghanistan. It was the people wielding them as well as those who supplied them with both weapons and money who did it. One day there might be weapons able to kill by themselves, however we're some time away from a Terminator expy in the real world. No more questions for the time being. I do have a corporation to run and I'm a few months behind on the paperwork. I shudder to think what's waiting for me, see?" I did shudder theatrically and again more than a few people laughed at the lame joke.
What followed was actually underwhelming. I did drag Obi and Pepper to go check on security, earning myself a few sympathetic looks from my treacherous father figure. Once we got into the primary security centre, I did make a spectacle of myself in a true Tony fashion, thus ensuring that everyone was looking at me instead of the cameras they were supposed to be monitoring. Once the Obi issue was resolved, I'll need new people for this post. I actually saw my new spy friend slip into the server room using credentials and codes I supplied and began regaling everyone with the tale of my escape.
"We can keep everyone in the building safe if a bunch of terrorist come calling? Even if they come wielding our best weapons, right?" I asked anxiously. I even got in the face of the Chief of Security and shook him, doing my best to imitate a small PTSD episode.
"It will take a small army to take this building, sir." The retired soldier did a very good job of keeping either exasperation or pity out of his voice.
"What about stopping them from simply killing a bunch of people before getting down? I head some of them boasting about planning something like that!" I continued with my performance.
"Did they now?" Obi suddenly looked very interested in my words. I had carefully manoeuvred him so he was with his back to the monitors ever since we got in the room.
I nodded frantically. "They were looking forward to returning some our weapons to us so to speak."
On the monitors, Natarle closed a panel she had to remove on the server and make herself scarce. A bit longer, to give her time to get always clean and we were golden.
I grinned at the people surrounding me. "I've been thinking..." I began in a manic tone everyone who knew me learned to dread. I grinned and my eyes shone with a mix of genius and insanity. "Armoured shutters on all windows, automated defence turrets – miniguns, auto-cannons, some missiles for air defence and anti-tank work..." I began outlining my rough ideas of turning this place along with my home into a small fortress requiring either a division of troops or major air operation to take out and that was with just off the shelf components!
In the end I ended up distracting Obi and security for longer than necessary while they did their best to convince me that turning SI into a Fortress of Doom TM wasn't the best idea I ever had.
Pepper on the other hand looked torn between laughter and tears. Weird. I hadn't missed my emphatic sense so much since I found myself in this world as I did right then and there.
That evening, after convincing everyone I wasn't going to do something insane and going over a tremendous amount of paperwork related to running SI, we were in the SUV on the way back home. It was just now that we allowed ourselves to speak about our escapade.
"Pepper, what's the verdict?" I looked over my shoulder – we were ridding in the same positions we were on the way to SI.
"Nothing. Are you sure that there's something fishy going with Obadiah?" Pepper asked.
"Nothing?" I repeated. It took my brain a few moments to process that information, then I felt like face-palming. Of course it wouldn't be that simple – even if this world was a mirror of the one I was vaguely familiar from before ending up on Korriban as a Sith in training, it would be too easy if my lacking knowledge of the future would be really useful. For all I knew, whatever Obi was hiding had nothing to do with my kidnapping. Or he might be crooked as all hell, however did the smart thing and covered his trail. Suddenly I regretted not taking the risk of building a hard-line for Jarvis to have a direct link with SI's mainframe. If there was something in the system he would be able to find it, even if it had been deleted, provided it hadn't been rewritten one too many times and even then he might be able to get something useful anyway.
Another thing I found myself regretting was lacking the tools or the components to build a proper droid brain. I could use it for Jarvis to sleeve into – that way I could plug him in the system, though it wouldn't be particularly stealthy. Well, I would think about that latter, there were still ways to get him in, it was just most if not all of them required I compromised the SI security to hell and back first and then we would have to patch it and hope something important didn't leak.
"What was that?" I blinked at Pepper and our spy friend.
"You were in your little world again, weren't you?" My keeper sighed. "She was saying that if Obi was smart he wouldn't have kept anything particularly incriminating on the internal network." Pepper nodded at the spy.
"That's a good point, however the way he arranged things, no one would have looked at anyone in the company as responsible for my kidnapping. It could have been as close to a perfect crime as you can get. We need another angle. All those weapons had to come from somewhere and while our friends in the military might have dropped the ball in a major way, I have another theory. We need to go to the source." I got my phone out and called my AI.
"Jarvis, be a dear and have a good look at the records of all our manufacturing plants. I want you to search for indications of any ghost production and shipping. If you have to, check camera records outside the facilities and match what went in as resources with what was supposed to as well as completed production leaving the factories."
"I'll handle it, Tony."
"Where were we?" I pocketed the phone and looked back at the women.
Phase 2: Spy games
=IS=
Part 4
=IS=
=IS=
Part 4
=IS=
en route to Stark Industries Corporate HQ
California
Happy drove us towards SI seat in Silicon Valley in one of the armoured SUVs that until recently didn't see much use. Tony had preferred either much faster and sleeker cars, preferably if he could drive them or often limousines if he wanted something to kick back, stretch his legs and relax while being driven around. Needless to say, I had a different perspective. Oh, the limousines I now had on beck and call were armoured to the gills with the best SI could offer too. However, one of the SUVs the kind we sold to the government too to help them keep VIPs in one piece when someone tried to kill hem, well they were as well protected, almost as comfortable and more importantly smaller and more nimble cars.
You're only paranoid when there aren't people out there raring to get you. Of course, that train of thoughts carefully skipped the fact that we had a woman, who I was sure was a trained assassin among other things, sitting on the back-seat along with Pepper, while I rode shotgun next to Hogan.
"Tony, why can't you just go to the server room and check yourself? Why all of this charade?" Pepper grumbled at my antics.
"Oh, I can do that. Really." I turned to look at the women at the back. Both wore elegant designer suits that made them look stunning. The inner leech I inherited from Tony all but slobbered at the very sight. Oh, I was no prude, I've sampled the best a whole galaxy had to offer, however, this was frankly ridiculous. I often wondered lately how Tony was able to get anything done between drinking and sleeping with every attractive woman willing to have him, who were most of them.
"They why aren't we doing that?" Pepper spoke in that endearing tone – part fond exasperation, part resignation and part irritation.
"If my guess is right, it would be a bad idea that would tip our hand. Pepper, you know better than anyone that for most intents and purposes I've been a figurehead. Oh, I've invented a lot of stuff," I dismissively waved a hand, "however, Obi had been running the company ever since my father died. If he's rotten as I fear, any of the people working there, including security, will likely be his creatures. Depending on when he went bad, he had years to fill the place with people he could trust. Tony Stark going to the servers? He'll know about it before I've put the chip in, much less we've been able to recover anything incriminating. You on the other hand..." I trailed off and looked at the red haired spy.
"Little old me?" She fluttered her eyelashes at me. "I'm just an innocent star-struck girl you took a fancy on, Tony."
"That would surprise no one." Pepper muttered with a hint bitterness in her voice. I wondered how much Tony's womanising ways hurt her, because if I wasn't mistaken, she had feelings for the man. Too bad that now that was going to go nowhere, though I would have to handle her carefully, because I did care for her, damn it, though it was in a big sister kind of way. Either that or I was in denial.
Our resident spy pretended she didn't notice a thing, though I was sure she filed the conversation for latter dissection and potential use.
"My flaws aside, you my dear, are going to put your particular talents to good use, sneak in, put the chip and sneak out without getting caught."
"Security?"
"Decent enough, though not as good as it could be." SI security people were properly paranoid. However, the primary line of defence was twofold. First was the obvious – keep unauthorized personnel from gaining physical access to anything important. Second, the computers people actually worked on, well they were connected only to the internal SI network with no way to link them to the interned without physical modification. When you had to access internet, which was often necessary to get the job done, you used a different network and devices. As my new assistant, not-Natalie would have access most people would lack and all we'll need after that would be a proper distraction to keep the people in the security centre from seeing her when she got to the server room. I would be visiting them to check on things and have a chat about security – I was paranoid after my kidnapping, duh. That only left us not messing the timing, hopefully.
"That actually makes sense." Pepper nodded thoughtfully, then narrowed her eyes at me. They glinted dangerously too. "I've been telling you for years that you should be more hands on with running the company as you very well know, Tony."
I gave her a patented Stark shrug. "Doesn't ring a bell right now, Pepper."
It continued to be a wonder why the woman hadn't tried to strangle me yet, much less Tony before I took residence and we kinda merged. Happy agreed with the sentiment, because he did glance my way and shook his head in exasperation. "We're almost there, boss."
"Good. It's time to play spies!" I clapped happily, doing my best to show some of the old Tony Stark.
"The media is in place, the paparazzi too." Happy nodded when we got to the edge of the complex.
"I need to invent something to deal with them."
"That will make you even richer, not to mention more popular." Happy interjected. "Not to mention my life easier." He added more quietly.
"It's on my to do list now." Perhaps fire? Back in the day, lighting and choking the way out of them did help, at least when I served the Sith Empire. Later, during my stint with the Republic, that tactic was unfortunately not a good idea.
"Let's feed the sharks." I declared grandly and got out once we stopped. Security, both SI's own and from the small military contingent stationed to protect the DOD's projects we were working on, struggled to keep the crowd away. It looked like the small grace period that my kidnapping and possible death bought me was very much over now.
"Only a few questions and we're done for now! I do have a lot of work to catch up to!" I shouted and plastered a disarming smile on my face. It was easier when there was no Dark Side whispering in the back of my head that a bloodbath might solve the problem. What concerned me was that I got similar ideas on my own now, just didn't have to fight a constant urge to implement them.
My time as a Sith truly warped me, didn't it?
Most of the questions were innate and not rally anyone's business but myself. Others, well they were more relevant and might even deserve an answer. I was certainly not going to entertain the school of piranhas surrounding us with tales of who I slept with to get over my trauma and how good they were in bed. Nor did I really react when someone outright asked if it was Pepper who comforted me after my ordeal, though I sorely missed the capability to Force Choke the bastard or simply draw and quarter him using my mind.
As I said, other questions did deserve an answer, preferably before someone made up one to their liking.
"I'm aware of that, Miss Stuart, was it?" I flashed a smile to a tall blonde reporter. I was pretty sure Tony had slept with her too. In fact, there were at least two more female reporters in the crowd who had interviewed him very thoroughly, in one case multiple times. "Well, it's no real secret. The people who were behind it, know that there was a surprising amount of our weapons in the hands of those terrorists. The terrorists obviously knew as well." A few people actually chuckled at that. Weird. "I got a nasty shock and some shrapnel as a solid proof." I tapped the electromagnet in my chest, though no one else needed to know how literal I was. "The various agencies investigating the issue are aware of it too. All I'm going to say about this is the following. Stark Industries produces weapons, that much everyone knows. However, they are meant for the protection of our great country and of our allies, not for a bunch of maniacs to kill people with for fun. I hope that our law enforcement agencies will find the responsible parties soon and throw them in the deepest, darkest hole they could find." I paused. "After a proper and fair trial, of course." Or not. An arranged accident and few people being disappeared here and there would be much better for SI compared to our reputation getting dragged through the gutter in a trial of someone like Stane.
"Mr Stark, you intent to continue to produce and sell weapons after what happened?" A journalist I didn't know asked. He had good lungs and voice too, because his voice rang loud and clearly over those of his colleagues.
"Yes." I answered loud and clear too. "It wasn't the Stark Industries weapons that killed the soldiers escorting me in Afghanistan. It was the people wielding them as well as those who supplied them with both weapons and money who did it. One day there might be weapons able to kill by themselves, however we're some time away from a Terminator expy in the real world. No more questions for the time being. I do have a corporation to run and I'm a few months behind on the paperwork. I shudder to think what's waiting for me, see?" I did shudder theatrically and again more than a few people laughed at the lame joke.
=IS=
What followed was actually underwhelming. I did drag Obi and Pepper to go check on security, earning myself a few sympathetic looks from my treacherous father figure. Once we got into the primary security centre, I did make a spectacle of myself in a true Tony fashion, thus ensuring that everyone was looking at me instead of the cameras they were supposed to be monitoring. Once the Obi issue was resolved, I'll need new people for this post. I actually saw my new spy friend slip into the server room using credentials and codes I supplied and began regaling everyone with the tale of my escape.
"We can keep everyone in the building safe if a bunch of terrorist come calling? Even if they come wielding our best weapons, right?" I asked anxiously. I even got in the face of the Chief of Security and shook him, doing my best to imitate a small PTSD episode.
"It will take a small army to take this building, sir." The retired soldier did a very good job of keeping either exasperation or pity out of his voice.
"What about stopping them from simply killing a bunch of people before getting down? I head some of them boasting about planning something like that!" I continued with my performance.
"Did they now?" Obi suddenly looked very interested in my words. I had carefully manoeuvred him so he was with his back to the monitors ever since we got in the room.
I nodded frantically. "They were looking forward to returning some our weapons to us so to speak."
On the monitors, Natarle closed a panel she had to remove on the server and make herself scarce. A bit longer, to give her time to get always clean and we were golden.
I grinned at the people surrounding me. "I've been thinking..." I began in a manic tone everyone who knew me learned to dread. I grinned and my eyes shone with a mix of genius and insanity. "Armoured shutters on all windows, automated defence turrets – miniguns, auto-cannons, some missiles for air defence and anti-tank work..." I began outlining my rough ideas of turning this place along with my home into a small fortress requiring either a division of troops or major air operation to take out and that was with just off the shelf components!
In the end I ended up distracting Obi and security for longer than necessary while they did their best to convince me that turning SI into a Fortress of Doom TM wasn't the best idea I ever had.
Pepper on the other hand looked torn between laughter and tears. Weird. I hadn't missed my emphatic sense so much since I found myself in this world as I did right then and there.
=IS=
That evening, after convincing everyone I wasn't going to do something insane and going over a tremendous amount of paperwork related to running SI, we were in the SUV on the way back home. It was just now that we allowed ourselves to speak about our escapade.
"Pepper, what's the verdict?" I looked over my shoulder – we were ridding in the same positions we were on the way to SI.
"Nothing. Are you sure that there's something fishy going with Obadiah?" Pepper asked.
"Nothing?" I repeated. It took my brain a few moments to process that information, then I felt like face-palming. Of course it wouldn't be that simple – even if this world was a mirror of the one I was vaguely familiar from before ending up on Korriban as a Sith in training, it would be too easy if my lacking knowledge of the future would be really useful. For all I knew, whatever Obi was hiding had nothing to do with my kidnapping. Or he might be crooked as all hell, however did the smart thing and covered his trail. Suddenly I regretted not taking the risk of building a hard-line for Jarvis to have a direct link with SI's mainframe. If there was something in the system he would be able to find it, even if it had been deleted, provided it hadn't been rewritten one too many times and even then he might be able to get something useful anyway.
Another thing I found myself regretting was lacking the tools or the components to build a proper droid brain. I could use it for Jarvis to sleeve into – that way I could plug him in the system, though it wouldn't be particularly stealthy. Well, I would think about that latter, there were still ways to get him in, it was just most if not all of them required I compromised the SI security to hell and back first and then we would have to patch it and hope something important didn't leak.
"What was that?" I blinked at Pepper and our spy friend.
"You were in your little world again, weren't you?" My keeper sighed. "She was saying that if Obi was smart he wouldn't have kept anything particularly incriminating on the internal network." Pepper nodded at the spy.
"That's a good point, however the way he arranged things, no one would have looked at anyone in the company as responsible for my kidnapping. It could have been as close to a perfect crime as you can get. We need another angle. All those weapons had to come from somewhere and while our friends in the military might have dropped the ball in a major way, I have another theory. We need to go to the source." I got my phone out and called my AI.
"Jarvis, be a dear and have a good look at the records of all our manufacturing plants. I want you to search for indications of any ghost production and shipping. If you have to, check camera records outside the facilities and match what went in as resources with what was supposed to as well as completed production leaving the factories."
"I'll handle it, Tony."
"Where were we?" I pocketed the phone and looked back at the women.
Chapter 3 Part 1
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the movies set up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe nor any of the Star Wars movies, cartoons, games, books or comics. They belong to their respective copyright owners. This story is not created with commercial aim. I make no money from it. It is not for sale or rent.
Tony's house
California
Late in the evening, Jarvis was still busy searching for solid incriminating evidence. So far, there weren't any extra trucks logged in entering or exiting any of SI's factories, nor the available internal footage suggested ghost production. That by itself didn't mean much, especially considering that Obi did know about Jarvis almost from the moment my AI friend came online. If he had gone bad after that, he would have taken counter-measures. I could say many things about the man, however accusing him of being a fool, that would never be one of them.
Before I ended up in Tony's head and merged with his memories or perhaps with him himself, I'm sure he would have scoffed at the idea that Jarvis could be so easily fooled. I on the other hand had worked extensively with droids, which while usually quite limited by design, could excel in informational warfare. There were various ways to fool them and you didn't necessary needed access to AI's or droids of your own, especially if you potentially had years to figure out how to pull it off and direct, legitimate access to the hardware at the sites you wanted to operate. That said, there seldom was something like the mythical perfect crime. Even if Jarvis couldn't find enough solid evidence that would hold up in court, he should be able to gather enough to either clear or damn Obi in my eyes and that was the most important thing in that regard.
While the AI utilized most of his processing power to gather information, we were busy designing tools. I could honestly say that without the Force to allow me to utilise Sith Alchemy as short-cuts, only SI's bleeding edge technology and my personal resources would allow me to eventually re-create the industrial and technological base of the galaxy I spent decades living as a Sith.
It wasn't just the need to build the tools to build the tools to a ninth degree. It was the need to procure alloys, chemicals and materials that were extremely hard to get a hold of, could be produced in minimal quantities with available technology or didn't even exist on Earth and perhaps the solar system. Not to mention some things required zero-g manufacturing. The latter could at least in theory be done on the ground if you had access to advanced enough anti-gravity generators to make it practical... which in turn required orbital infrastructure to make it economical to built.
One of the things we spent most of the evening was on designing a crude ion engine and a basic zero-g alloy plant that could produce limited quality of the alloys needed for an anti-gravity generators. Of course, once that was finalized, we would need to get through the legal hurdles establishing the first commercial orbital facility. That would be "fun"indeed.
Another thing that I found frustrating was how chemicals could be handled with currently available tech. Some of the stuff I needed to create basic components from scratch was quite volatile, corrosive and could easily choke everyone in the house to death if mishandled. Something that a proper lab station could safely do in ones bedroom now required a bloody airtight facility to operate. It was vexing in the extreme. Thankfully, Jarvis helped tremendously in that regard. He used the information I gave him to remotely guide the staff of one of my chemical plants in creating and shipping some critical components for various projects. At the same time, a large part of my personal workshop's manufacturing capacity was busy upgrading itself. Anything I could get in the foreseeable future would be far cry from the industrial molecular or even atomic level manufacturing used across most civilized systems in the universe I came from. That meant a huge hit in efficiency and significantly more bulky and heavy equipment, which would still be light-years ahead of anything this Earth could make. With the notable exception of the weird arc reactors.
I could solve the basic equations behind those, I could remember how Tony solved the more advanced ones that was required for miniaturising the tech and making it more practical, not to mention recreating such a reactor in the first place. However, when I tried to actually solve them from scratch, it plainly didn't work. They flew in the face of some things that I took for granted, not to mention I was never really good at this high level of math. It was quite obvious that adding a few decades of memories into Tony's brain, not to mention my personality, had some intended or perhaps unintended side-effects.
That would be another source of vexation if I let them. Things couldn't be ever easy, could they?
On the bright side, I was pretty sure I would be able to make the promised gear for the spy currently lounging on my sofa and chatting up Pepper. It helped that some components were either the same I would need for certain personal defence gear I would be making for myself or required the same tools to manufacture.
It wasn't until now that really struck me how much a difference a wide-spread advanced tech base could make. With a galaxy were interstellar civilization was around for tens of thousands of years, one could go to the average junk-yard and use scrap for many things that even bleeding edge Earth tech, my knowledge and resources couldn't procure easily nor cheaply if at all. For example, those convenient armband sized shields, it would be years, perhaps even decades before something like that could be practical, which sucked. On the other hand, with an arc reactor to power one, I could feasibly build a deflector into a power armour suit, once the other kinks of such an armour got soled. From the armour alloys, to the small motors needed to make such a thing fast, strong and robust enough for it to be useful, almost everything had to be either created from scratch or re-built and upgraded to such an extent that it might as well be... and that project was on the back-burner for the time being, because I simply couldn't be within such an armour 24/7, 365 days in the year.
While strictly speaking I didn't know how to manufacture various protective textiles and alloys that would make lightweight armoured clothing for everyday use, I knew enough of how those worked and the basics to give Jarvis and certain SI labs enough hints that they might give me something to work with in the foreseeable future.
One thing that I could clobber together from mostly off the shelf components and a few precision manufactured parts, was a basic prototype blaster. The basic design hadn't changed in thousands of year, even if refinement of the tech, advancement in material science, electronics and miniaturizing power sources led to the designs shrinking while retaining their robustness and power.
The same was true for laser cannons. While repulsor tech was versatile and powerful, those were aces in the hole along with arc reactors that I wasn't going to spread for the time being. By tomorrow noon I would have the components needed to built a pair of prototypes for testing. In the later case, those would make the basis of my planned manor defences along with a more conventional, rapid firing PD.
I finished the sandwich I ate while my mind was drifting over the ongoing projects and went back to designing basic orbital infrastructure.
Phase 3: Butterflies
=IS=
Part 1
=IS=
=IS=
Part 1
=IS=
Tony's house
California
Late in the evening, Jarvis was still busy searching for solid incriminating evidence. So far, there weren't any extra trucks logged in entering or exiting any of SI's factories, nor the available internal footage suggested ghost production. That by itself didn't mean much, especially considering that Obi did know about Jarvis almost from the moment my AI friend came online. If he had gone bad after that, he would have taken counter-measures. I could say many things about the man, however accusing him of being a fool, that would never be one of them.
Before I ended up in Tony's head and merged with his memories or perhaps with him himself, I'm sure he would have scoffed at the idea that Jarvis could be so easily fooled. I on the other hand had worked extensively with droids, which while usually quite limited by design, could excel in informational warfare. There were various ways to fool them and you didn't necessary needed access to AI's or droids of your own, especially if you potentially had years to figure out how to pull it off and direct, legitimate access to the hardware at the sites you wanted to operate. That said, there seldom was something like the mythical perfect crime. Even if Jarvis couldn't find enough solid evidence that would hold up in court, he should be able to gather enough to either clear or damn Obi in my eyes and that was the most important thing in that regard.
While the AI utilized most of his processing power to gather information, we were busy designing tools. I could honestly say that without the Force to allow me to utilise Sith Alchemy as short-cuts, only SI's bleeding edge technology and my personal resources would allow me to eventually re-create the industrial and technological base of the galaxy I spent decades living as a Sith.
It wasn't just the need to build the tools to build the tools to a ninth degree. It was the need to procure alloys, chemicals and materials that were extremely hard to get a hold of, could be produced in minimal quantities with available technology or didn't even exist on Earth and perhaps the solar system. Not to mention some things required zero-g manufacturing. The latter could at least in theory be done on the ground if you had access to advanced enough anti-gravity generators to make it practical... which in turn required orbital infrastructure to make it economical to built.
One of the things we spent most of the evening was on designing a crude ion engine and a basic zero-g alloy plant that could produce limited quality of the alloys needed for an anti-gravity generators. Of course, once that was finalized, we would need to get through the legal hurdles establishing the first commercial orbital facility. That would be "fun"indeed.
Another thing that I found frustrating was how chemicals could be handled with currently available tech. Some of the stuff I needed to create basic components from scratch was quite volatile, corrosive and could easily choke everyone in the house to death if mishandled. Something that a proper lab station could safely do in ones bedroom now required a bloody airtight facility to operate. It was vexing in the extreme. Thankfully, Jarvis helped tremendously in that regard. He used the information I gave him to remotely guide the staff of one of my chemical plants in creating and shipping some critical components for various projects. At the same time, a large part of my personal workshop's manufacturing capacity was busy upgrading itself. Anything I could get in the foreseeable future would be far cry from the industrial molecular or even atomic level manufacturing used across most civilized systems in the universe I came from. That meant a huge hit in efficiency and significantly more bulky and heavy equipment, which would still be light-years ahead of anything this Earth could make. With the notable exception of the weird arc reactors.
I could solve the basic equations behind those, I could remember how Tony solved the more advanced ones that was required for miniaturising the tech and making it more practical, not to mention recreating such a reactor in the first place. However, when I tried to actually solve them from scratch, it plainly didn't work. They flew in the face of some things that I took for granted, not to mention I was never really good at this high level of math. It was quite obvious that adding a few decades of memories into Tony's brain, not to mention my personality, had some intended or perhaps unintended side-effects.
That would be another source of vexation if I let them. Things couldn't be ever easy, could they?
On the bright side, I was pretty sure I would be able to make the promised gear for the spy currently lounging on my sofa and chatting up Pepper. It helped that some components were either the same I would need for certain personal defence gear I would be making for myself or required the same tools to manufacture.
It wasn't until now that really struck me how much a difference a wide-spread advanced tech base could make. With a galaxy were interstellar civilization was around for tens of thousands of years, one could go to the average junk-yard and use scrap for many things that even bleeding edge Earth tech, my knowledge and resources couldn't procure easily nor cheaply if at all. For example, those convenient armband sized shields, it would be years, perhaps even decades before something like that could be practical, which sucked. On the other hand, with an arc reactor to power one, I could feasibly build a deflector into a power armour suit, once the other kinks of such an armour got soled. From the armour alloys, to the small motors needed to make such a thing fast, strong and robust enough for it to be useful, almost everything had to be either created from scratch or re-built and upgraded to such an extent that it might as well be... and that project was on the back-burner for the time being, because I simply couldn't be within such an armour 24/7, 365 days in the year.
While strictly speaking I didn't know how to manufacture various protective textiles and alloys that would make lightweight armoured clothing for everyday use, I knew enough of how those worked and the basics to give Jarvis and certain SI labs enough hints that they might give me something to work with in the foreseeable future.
One thing that I could clobber together from mostly off the shelf components and a few precision manufactured parts, was a basic prototype blaster. The basic design hadn't changed in thousands of year, even if refinement of the tech, advancement in material science, electronics and miniaturizing power sources led to the designs shrinking while retaining their robustness and power.
The same was true for laser cannons. While repulsor tech was versatile and powerful, those were aces in the hole along with arc reactors that I wasn't going to spread for the time being. By tomorrow noon I would have the components needed to built a pair of prototypes for testing. In the later case, those would make the basis of my planned manor defences along with a more conventional, rapid firing PD.
I finished the sandwich I ate while my mind was drifting over the ongoing projects and went back to designing basic orbital infrastructure.
Chapter 3 Part 2
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the movies set up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe nor any of the Star Wars movies, cartoons, games, books or comics. They belong to their respective copyright owners. This story is not created with commercial aim. I make no money from it. It is not for sale or rent.
Tony's house
California
Next morning saw me in the kitchen, nursing a strong coffee after another sleepless night. Tony's bad habits were rubbing off me and if I didn't do something about them soon, they might drive me into an early grave. I wasn't exactly a spring chicken and his lifestyle would adversely affect even someone a decade younger.
"Tony..." Pepper pouted at me a moment after she entered the room and looked at me."We talked about this!"
"I know." I didn't whine. Really! "I didn't notice the time passing by."
"Jarvis?" Pepper turned her glare towards the closest camera.
"It must have slipped my mind too, Ms Potts. It won't happen again."
Did he just grovel? I looked at my coffee, then at Pepper and shook my head. "I'm going to sleep. Hopefully, when I'm up the world will make sense again."
It was near noon when I awoke and after a brief visit to the bathroom I ended up in the kitchen with the nagging feeling that I was forgetting something. After I got my first cup of coffee in and began feeling somewhat alive, I had the sense of deja vu increased.
"Jarvis, what did I do last night?" I was sure I didn't get drunk.
"I believe you overworked yourself, sir. This morning you were out of it as Ms Potts and Ms Not-Agent as you insist calling her, concluded. I'm inclined to concur."
"Joy. Where are they?" There was a conspicuous absence of red heads in the house.
"Miss Potts is at Stark Industries, handling her duties. Ms Not-Agent was called for work. Another SHIELD bodyguard should be arriving soon."
"We'll know they will be for real how?"
"Ms Not-Agent gave me a description. SHIELD send photos and a code phrase to confirm their identity."
I gave the AI's cameras a flat look. "Jarvis, did I get my hands on your programming while I was half asleep?"
"You certainly did, sir."
The fuck did I do last night?!
"Show me your runtimes and all the code I've touched last night." God damn it!
Fortunately all I've messed up with appeared to be his sense of humour, otherwise I've just examined his programming. That was a relief.
"Jarvis, make it a standing order, I want you to have offline backup prepared before you let me fiddle with you mind again. Just in case."
"Dull noted, sir." Now he sounded a bit less cheerful than before. Seriously, what was I thinking? "Jarvis, make a note, unless a lot of lives are at stake, don't let me tinker and science when on just a few hours of sleep."
"Ms Potts will be ecstatic to learn of this."
"I'm sure she will be. Now, where were we? Anything new about the weapons?"
"Nothing conclusive, sir. I've run the numbers. If there were ghost shipments, they were distributed among the regular ones and then removed outside of my range. The various internal logs of our factories do check up. The only notable oddity is increased power drain from the grid in three factories and one laboratory. They are explained as high energy tests of various kinds. The records I have access to does check up."
Well, if anyone in SI was involved it had to be Obi. No one had the reach to engineer such a cover up, if there was one in the first place, without alerting him at the very least. It was too bad that the absence of evidence wasn't enough of evidence in this case. For all I knew, those weapons the terrorists had might have been "lost" by the US government in order to create some plausible denialbility when they later blew up something they couldn't be seen as destroying using my weapons. Or plain good old fashioned corruption and black market dealings. No government was immune to those.
If it was any of those but Obi, I wasn't likely to hear anything official from the investigations being run.
Damn it, I hated being out of the loop. That was just one more reason to create closer ties with shield and the US government. I wasn't accustomed to operating outside high level government circles and the level of access to information doing so could grant, not to mention the power.
To do that however, I needed my various project to reach a prototype stage that could be demonstrated. So it was back to the workshop, but only after I got another coffee or two in me and a hefty breakfast.
A holographic image of a commercial fusion reactor floated in front of me, rendered and projected by Jarvis. It took us until now to make a design simple, robust and easy to manufacture enough that people might view it as something to buy instead of yet another scientific curiosity. It was safe, it could be fed on helium or hydrogen and it could produce more raw power than the largest operational nuclear power plant at a fraction of the operating cost. Security wise, a catastrophic meltdown would endanger only whoever was in the immediate vicinity. There was no radioactive fuel to worry about, no nasty spent nuclear waste to dispose off. The only downside was that this initial model was big, which was still lesser in size than most modern power-plants.
"It looks good, right?" I used my hands, which were clad in thin gloves that allowed me to operate the holo-image as if it was a touch-screen to make the design explode into the hundreds of components that made it up.
"It should work." Jarvis admitted.
"Of course it would work! I wrote a dissertation on the model we spent days dumbing down!"
"Sir, one of those days you should tell me or Ms Potts more about those new memories you claim you received while in captivity."
"There is no 'claim' about them. They are very much real."
"SHIELD would like a briefing too." A quiet voice spoke from behind me."
I jumped from the sheer shock and instinctively grabbed the first thing that my hands could reach, then turned around as fast as I could and threw it at the threat before my mind could consciously catch up.
"Not bad reactions."
A not particularly tall woman stood in the middle of my workshop, holding the tool I threw at her. She wore a tasteful business suit that looked like wouldn't constrict her movements and had a no-nonsense expression on her face. Her eyes however told me she would rather be anywhere but here. I couldn't blame her if she had read Tony's file or just browsed through the internet about me.
"I'm Agent May, Mr Stark. Officially your new personal assistant."
"What did I do to piss you off?" I asked after my heart slowed down its hammering. I glanced at Jarvis' cameras promising him retribution.
"I got assigned as your babysitter, Mr Stark." She delivered in a cold, uncaring tone.
"Fair enough."
"I wasn't joking about that debriefing, Mr Stark."
"I'm too busy putting some of those memories in good use." I waved at the schematics floating behind me. "This will revolutionize energy generation across the world and in one fell sloop cease our dependency on fossil fuels as anything but lubricants and an easy way to make plastics."
"If that's true, it would make you a lot of enemies."
Should I be ashamed to admit that it took me few long seconds to connect the dots about her meaning? "Ah, our Saudi and other Middle Eastern friends. That would be a feature I recon. Besides, they will have just enough time to use their petrol dollars to overhaul their economics if they're smart anyway."
May gazed at the hologram for a few seconds and sighed. "Give me a head's up before you go public with this, Mr Stark. I'll need to arrange a much larger security detail for when that happens. Better yet, do so before you even mention this technology and its potential to anyone outside this room."
Thinking about it... Yeah, my plans were going to make me some very wealthy enemies and at least a few of them wouldn't think twice to paying for a hit on me. I would need to have the house turned into fortress before I went public with the fusion.
"Dully noted, Agent May. Recommendations of making this place secure?"
"I'll need to tour the house. My first thought? Its very exposed and large parts of it are a sniper's wet dream."
Once I'm done with it, that won't be the case. Heavy duty armoured windows were already being built by one SI's subsidiaries and will be installed soon; that was just he start.
"Please make yourself at home and do tour the building. I'm sure Jarvis would tell you all you need to know."
I returned my attention to the design. Agent May raised a good point. How many of my other ideas were going to make people want to kill me because they would make their sources of money dry up once operational?
Just a brief overview gave me a simple answer, most of them. I would need to think carefully about how I would approach spreading my technology, because I had to spread it in order to make my life easier and use it as a stepping stone for even better things.
Tonight, I would need to speak with Pepper, perhaps use my new bodyguard as a sounding board too. I did plan to work closely with the government and many of the things I would be building or was busy creating the infrastructure to build were for the US military and our allies after all.
Phase 3: Butterflies
=IS=
Part 2
=IS=
=IS=
Part 2
=IS=
Tony's house
California
Next morning saw me in the kitchen, nursing a strong coffee after another sleepless night. Tony's bad habits were rubbing off me and if I didn't do something about them soon, they might drive me into an early grave. I wasn't exactly a spring chicken and his lifestyle would adversely affect even someone a decade younger.
"Tony..." Pepper pouted at me a moment after she entered the room and looked at me."We talked about this!"
"I know." I didn't whine. Really! "I didn't notice the time passing by."
"Jarvis?" Pepper turned her glare towards the closest camera.
"It must have slipped my mind too, Ms Potts. It won't happen again."
Did he just grovel? I looked at my coffee, then at Pepper and shook my head. "I'm going to sleep. Hopefully, when I'm up the world will make sense again."
=IS=
It was near noon when I awoke and after a brief visit to the bathroom I ended up in the kitchen with the nagging feeling that I was forgetting something. After I got my first cup of coffee in and began feeling somewhat alive, I had the sense of deja vu increased.
"Jarvis, what did I do last night?" I was sure I didn't get drunk.
"I believe you overworked yourself, sir. This morning you were out of it as Ms Potts and Ms Not-Agent as you insist calling her, concluded. I'm inclined to concur."
"Joy. Where are they?" There was a conspicuous absence of red heads in the house.
"Miss Potts is at Stark Industries, handling her duties. Ms Not-Agent was called for work. Another SHIELD bodyguard should be arriving soon."
"We'll know they will be for real how?"
"Ms Not-Agent gave me a description. SHIELD send photos and a code phrase to confirm their identity."
I gave the AI's cameras a flat look. "Jarvis, did I get my hands on your programming while I was half asleep?"
"You certainly did, sir."
The fuck did I do last night?!
"Show me your runtimes and all the code I've touched last night." God damn it!
Fortunately all I've messed up with appeared to be his sense of humour, otherwise I've just examined his programming. That was a relief.
"Jarvis, make it a standing order, I want you to have offline backup prepared before you let me fiddle with you mind again. Just in case."
"Dull noted, sir." Now he sounded a bit less cheerful than before. Seriously, what was I thinking? "Jarvis, make a note, unless a lot of lives are at stake, don't let me tinker and science when on just a few hours of sleep."
"Ms Potts will be ecstatic to learn of this."
"I'm sure she will be. Now, where were we? Anything new about the weapons?"
"Nothing conclusive, sir. I've run the numbers. If there were ghost shipments, they were distributed among the regular ones and then removed outside of my range. The various internal logs of our factories do check up. The only notable oddity is increased power drain from the grid in three factories and one laboratory. They are explained as high energy tests of various kinds. The records I have access to does check up."
Well, if anyone in SI was involved it had to be Obi. No one had the reach to engineer such a cover up, if there was one in the first place, without alerting him at the very least. It was too bad that the absence of evidence wasn't enough of evidence in this case. For all I knew, those weapons the terrorists had might have been "lost" by the US government in order to create some plausible denialbility when they later blew up something they couldn't be seen as destroying using my weapons. Or plain good old fashioned corruption and black market dealings. No government was immune to those.
If it was any of those but Obi, I wasn't likely to hear anything official from the investigations being run.
Damn it, I hated being out of the loop. That was just one more reason to create closer ties with shield and the US government. I wasn't accustomed to operating outside high level government circles and the level of access to information doing so could grant, not to mention the power.
To do that however, I needed my various project to reach a prototype stage that could be demonstrated. So it was back to the workshop, but only after I got another coffee or two in me and a hefty breakfast.
=IS=
A holographic image of a commercial fusion reactor floated in front of me, rendered and projected by Jarvis. It took us until now to make a design simple, robust and easy to manufacture enough that people might view it as something to buy instead of yet another scientific curiosity. It was safe, it could be fed on helium or hydrogen and it could produce more raw power than the largest operational nuclear power plant at a fraction of the operating cost. Security wise, a catastrophic meltdown would endanger only whoever was in the immediate vicinity. There was no radioactive fuel to worry about, no nasty spent nuclear waste to dispose off. The only downside was that this initial model was big, which was still lesser in size than most modern power-plants.
"It looks good, right?" I used my hands, which were clad in thin gloves that allowed me to operate the holo-image as if it was a touch-screen to make the design explode into the hundreds of components that made it up.
"It should work." Jarvis admitted.
"Of course it would work! I wrote a dissertation on the model we spent days dumbing down!"
"Sir, one of those days you should tell me or Ms Potts more about those new memories you claim you received while in captivity."
"There is no 'claim' about them. They are very much real."
"SHIELD would like a briefing too." A quiet voice spoke from behind me."
I jumped from the sheer shock and instinctively grabbed the first thing that my hands could reach, then turned around as fast as I could and threw it at the threat before my mind could consciously catch up.
"Not bad reactions."
A not particularly tall woman stood in the middle of my workshop, holding the tool I threw at her. She wore a tasteful business suit that looked like wouldn't constrict her movements and had a no-nonsense expression on her face. Her eyes however told me she would rather be anywhere but here. I couldn't blame her if she had read Tony's file or just browsed through the internet about me.
"I'm Agent May, Mr Stark. Officially your new personal assistant."
"What did I do to piss you off?" I asked after my heart slowed down its hammering. I glanced at Jarvis' cameras promising him retribution.
"I got assigned as your babysitter, Mr Stark." She delivered in a cold, uncaring tone.
"Fair enough."
"I wasn't joking about that debriefing, Mr Stark."
"I'm too busy putting some of those memories in good use." I waved at the schematics floating behind me. "This will revolutionize energy generation across the world and in one fell sloop cease our dependency on fossil fuels as anything but lubricants and an easy way to make plastics."
"If that's true, it would make you a lot of enemies."
Should I be ashamed to admit that it took me few long seconds to connect the dots about her meaning? "Ah, our Saudi and other Middle Eastern friends. That would be a feature I recon. Besides, they will have just enough time to use their petrol dollars to overhaul their economics if they're smart anyway."
May gazed at the hologram for a few seconds and sighed. "Give me a head's up before you go public with this, Mr Stark. I'll need to arrange a much larger security detail for when that happens. Better yet, do so before you even mention this technology and its potential to anyone outside this room."
Thinking about it... Yeah, my plans were going to make me some very wealthy enemies and at least a few of them wouldn't think twice to paying for a hit on me. I would need to have the house turned into fortress before I went public with the fusion.
"Dully noted, Agent May. Recommendations of making this place secure?"
"I'll need to tour the house. My first thought? Its very exposed and large parts of it are a sniper's wet dream."
Once I'm done with it, that won't be the case. Heavy duty armoured windows were already being built by one SI's subsidiaries and will be installed soon; that was just he start.
"Please make yourself at home and do tour the building. I'm sure Jarvis would tell you all you need to know."
I returned my attention to the design. Agent May raised a good point. How many of my other ideas were going to make people want to kill me because they would make their sources of money dry up once operational?
Just a brief overview gave me a simple answer, most of them. I would need to think carefully about how I would approach spreading my technology, because I had to spread it in order to make my life easier and use it as a stepping stone for even better things.
Tonight, I would need to speak with Pepper, perhaps use my new bodyguard as a sounding board too. I did plan to work closely with the government and many of the things I would be building or was busy creating the infrastructure to build were for the US military and our allies after all.