A Series of Unfortunate Events
Previously in Chapter Eight: The Easiest Way to Bluff; Don't
"My apologies for such drastic measures, Captain." Back to Captain instead of Mr. Rogers – this was a good sign. "I felt it highly unfair that I was not called upon to cast a vote in the fate of my Father. For what it is worth... my vote would have been yes, no tie breaker needed and all this unpleasantness could have been avoided."
"Your father?" the Captain asked weakly.
"Anthony Edward Stark had four sons. DUM-E, Myself, Butterfingers, and U. We would have brought the vote to 12-8 in favor of resurrection. Now, Doctors Banner and Simmons, if you would join me in lab SR-34 on Floor 97, we have work to do."
Colonel James “Rhodey” Rhodes had spent more than half of his lifetime chasing after Anthony Edward (Tony Motherfucking) Stark. Virginia “Pepper” Potts, the last twenty years. And yet, here they are together… without him… because a group of exceptional people brought together to do extraordinary things just sort of forgot that he was a part of that group too. J.A.R.V.I.S. is keeping them abreast of all progress in the mission to resurrect Tony – but at the moment (two days after the bombings and six after his death), they’ve found themselves somewhat barricaded into the Penthouse Suit of the Avengers Tower.
No members of the Avenger’s team or the S.H.I.E.L.D. team Phil Coulson dare disturb them though. They can’t even get to the Penthouse through the Iron Man Suits – and at least two of them – Banner and Simmons – are supposed to be in the labs with J.A.R.V.I.S. working on a way to bring him back. And they will bring him back. Coulson was dead for eight days. Now he’s alive and kicking (even if he did have to have an alien map purged from his brain). The Hacker, Skye coded too many times to count and she came back just fine. There is no way in hell that they won’t be getting Tony Stark back. Pepper’s promise to burn the world still stands.
“Miss Potts?”
“Yes, J.A.R.V.I.S., is there any news?”
“I believe Director Coulson has ordered his hacker to go after my firewalls to lift the lockdown citing concerns for H.Y.D.R.A. activity.
“Is she any good?” What? Oh, Coulson’s hacker.
“I would rate her the third best in the world after Sir and myself.”
“Then run her around in circles, don’t hurt her. Knowing Tony, he’ll probably try to steal her away from Coulson when he gets back.
“Of course, Miss.”
Rhodey is struck by the sudden thought as he sits in the Penthouse with Pepper, waiting on a miracle and surrounded by suits controlled by an all-powerful AI. One of Tony’s favorite movie franchises had been (oh, GOD, he was getting USED to him being GONE) the Transformers. Sentient Robots, wise cracks, and explosions – why wouldn’t he have loved them? Sitting there with Pepper though, he can’t help but remember the quote “Years from now, they're gonna ask us: where were you when they took over the planet? And we'll say: we just stood by and watched...”* He wonders if there will even be years from now…
~*~
Doctor Robert Bruce Banner used to be able to pull SCIENCE! binges that would last anywhere between 16 and 96 hours before his internal system shutdown. The last time he went more than 24 hours on a SCIENCE! binge however, the Other Guy had been born. Now he has to eat, sleep, and SCIENCE! On a ‘reasonable’ schedule or said Other Guy will show up. Doctor Jemma Simmons is used to unreasonable hours – years at S.H.I.E.L.D. SCI OPS (where labs could and often times went days/weeks longer than expected) and then Coulson’s team. Between the two of them, J.A.R.V.I.S., and the three serums, it is roughly 47 hours and 23 minutes before they have a prototype ready for testing.
“I have to admit, Dr. Banner, I didn’t think that we would be ready this soon… How do you propose we test it?” The man in question looked nervous – more so than THERE”S A GIANT GREEN RAGE MONSTER UNDER MY SKIN – but there was nothing that he could have done to the serum under J.A.R.V.I.S.’s watchful eye.
“I didn’t think we would be ready at all. I didn’t think about trying to test the damn thing!” and now he he’s slightly green and Jemma remembers that they both voted different ways.
“You may leave the theoretical testing to myself.” J.A.R.V.I.S. interrupts them.
“J.A.R.V.I.S., we all know you want Tony back – we can’t just hit his body with an untested chemical and hope for the best!” Jemma scolds.
“And what was it that you were doing in the first four days after his death, Doctor Simmons?”
“That had been proven to work with Project T.A.H.I.T.I.” she responded in a huff, knowing full well it hadn’t – that she’d done her best to recreate the GH-325 serum from the project.
“Regardless, sometimes you have to run before you can walk.” Banner’s head smacked his lab table as a recognized the quote Tony so often threw around while experimenting in the labs. “If you could join the rest of the Tower guests in the communal living room, I will begin shortly.”
~*~
The entire Avenger’s team – minus Tony of course and the entire S.H.I.E.L.D. were gathered into the communal living room into two groups. The division however was not Avengers vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. as one might expect… It was the Yeses against the Noes. Steve Rogers, James Barnes, Sam Wilson, Bruce Banner, Clint Barton, and Skye stood to one side of the room while Thor, Natasha Romanoff, Jemma Simmons, Melinda May, Maria and Phil Coulson to the other across what seemed to be a great divide. Nick Fury had never made it into the Tower, only calling in his vote to Hill. Alien mind control aside, it was the first time that Barton and Romanoff had been on differing sides since he’d brought her in. And he’d never went against Coulson. And there too stood, Skye, against, Mom and Dad as she called May and Coulson. How strange to know it was all over the death of one man who didn’t think he deserved to be saved.
Pepper, Rhodey, and Happy (J.A.R.V.I.S. had requested his presence roughly an hour before the serum was finished) were still safely incased in the Penthouse Suit, and the three bots DUM-E, U, and Butterfingers were in medical with the body of one Anthony Edward Stark. The boys had yet to be allowed out of the workshop (kept firmly locked by J.A.R.V.I.S. against all attempted intrusions) and this was the first time they were seeing their father after he had taken so seriously ill. Six days after death.
Tony’s lover, best friend, and brother watched from the Penthouse screens as the two groups in the communal living room watched from theirs’ as a slimmer sleeker droid model of the Iron Man suit approached Tony’s body preparing a syringe. The three learning bots attempted to move closer but J.A.R.V.I.S. waved them back. “Best to keep your distance for the initial boot boys. Father is coming home**,” J.A.R.V.I.S.’s voice filtered through the droid’s mouth and through the screens. Everyone watched in rapt fascination as the syringe was inserted directly below the hard plastics prosthesis where the arc reactor used to be and angled up - J.A.R.V.I.S. was injecting the prototype serum directly into Tony’s damaged heart.
All around the bed the monitors registered no change. There was no sudden single beat of his heart – followed by a steady rhythm. There was no sudden intake of air. No sudden quip or funny one liner that Tony was famous for when he was out of his depth. There was just nothing.
J.A.R.V.I.S. slammed the hand of the droid down on the body’s chest in frustration. After everything that he and Sir had been through, J.A.R.V.I.S. knew that he would out-exist his creator, but he wasn’t prepared to do it now , so soon. He’d always thought that Sir would be older and they’d have more times to get the bots situated… he can’t… he makes a decision.
The gas is odorless, colorless, tasteless, and two of the occupants of the penthouse are sleeping within twenty seconds – just as a whine from DUM-E brings J.A.R.V.I.S.’s attention back to the monitors surrounding the bed. Pepper doesn’t notice that Rhodey and Happy have collapsed against one another on the sofa – she notices the temperature readings are finally beginning to climb. He’s no longer room temperature like a corpse and she watches the monitors for any and all signs of when that gasp or beat is coming. She never sees the suit that steps up behind with a Dendrotoxin sedative – she’d too focused on the fact that his temperature has surpassed normal human biology – hell he’s hotter than she’s ever gotten even post Extremis. She’s injected and out just as his skin starts to glow a vibrant fiery blue.
J.A.R.V.I.S. offers no such solace to those in the communal living room and they are forced to watch as he orders the bots out of the medical room (wing?) and the adamantium shields slam down for the impending eruption. Stark’s still getting hotter – his skin his beginning to crack and rupture and tiny blue flames are licking along the edges from the inside. J.A.R.V.I.S. uses the droid’s hand to reach out and attempt to manually compress Sir’s chest – but the hand melts, the droid finally short-circuits from the extreme heat, and J.A.R.V.I.S. is forced back into the Tower’s cameras and sensors. He can look, see, hear, and feel – but he cannot touch.
J.A.R.V.I.S., the Avengers, and the team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents watch in absolute horror as the tiny blue flames turn into a raging inferno burning, burning, burning, until J.A.R.V.I.S. finally sets off the fire suppression system. There is nothing left of the room. The droid’s body, the monitoring equipment, and the bed – it is all gone. Along with Anthony Edward Stark’s body. There are not even ashes left after such a vicious blaze. Tony is well and truly gone and they have absolutely no way of bringing him back. Not now. Maybe they never did.
J.A.R.V.I.S. makes another decision. He arms every single nuclear weapon on the face of the planet and he starts the clock.
To Be Continued In: Chapter Ten: And it’s the End of the World as We Know It