Daddy's Back
Previously in Chapter Fourteen: Brokering a Deal:
He did however gasp aloud when he was suddenly falling. Falling. Falling. They were sending him back to Earth. They were sending him home. And for the first time in over a decade his heart was pounding with joy and not exertion, fear, or pain.
Tony Stark did not land gracefully on the floor of his workshop. He landed flat on his belly, spread eagle, nose crunched into the hard concrete flooring. If not for all the new powers and magicks that had just been shoved into him by Loki and Odin – that nose would be very broken. It wasn’t – but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt like a motherfucker. Tony finally figured out which brain synopses he needed to fire to lift his head – and proceeded to flop over on his back and give the ceiling the stink eye.
How the fuck was he lying in a crater if there was no whole in the ceiling? And Jesus fuck! How many Iron Man suits were there in here? Currently standing over him…
“Uhg,” was his very first very eloquent post death speech. He was very proud of himself. J.A.R.V.I.S. however, remembered the days that his creator would get blackout drunk or high or concussed or all of the above… ‘uhg’ was highly recognizable to J.A.R.V.I.S. He stopped detonating the warheads and had Mach 259 lean in for a better visual. Dum-E, U, and Butterfingers had to be held back by a line of suits... They too recognized the ‘uhg’.
Visual showed that the thing that had suddenly crashed down in the workshop – hard enough to crater the floor (but did not come through the ceiling) matched that of the late Anthony Edward Stark. Audio matched as well. However, every other scan that J.A.R.V.I.S. could run told him that this was not his creator. Body Mass and density did not match that of a human, nor an Asgardian, or anything else J.A.R.V.I.S. could compare it against. There was also the matter of the energy source in it’s chest – just like the Arc Reactor, but not. So he did the only thing he could do – exactly what his father would have done…
Tony Stark grunted again when one of the suits poked him in the ribs. He tried to wave it off, but only succeed in smacking himself in his still sore nose. “Dammit J.A.R.V.I.S. go ‘way. Not dead no more. Need ‘minute,” he finally slurred out. His thought processes might be firing at a million miles a minute – but this body was brand spanking new and he didn’t have the fine motor control he needed over it yet.
J.A.R.V.I.S. felt hope swell throughout his entire global operating system. This was his creator. He let the bots through so that they could see for themselves that he’d well and truly returned. Unfortunately he was just a fraction too late – even with the Mach 259 standing right there – Dum-E let his joy be known by dousing his creator with his ever trusty fire extinguisher.
~*~
Those in the Tower’s Communal living room were still taking comfort from one another when the clock struck 6:32P.M. They could tell many of the warheads had detonated in the Swiss Alps, Germany, and Russia – the little damning grey dots replacing the angry red ones gave proof to that. What the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. team couldn’t figure out though, was why J.A.R.V.I.S. would detonate the warheads one by one instead of one big bang… after all a blaze of glory was his creator’s style.
They were even more confused when the detonations stopped – the world map still chock full of those red dots but no more going grey. They’d been waiting on the end of the world (apparently they were sitting on a nuclear warhead according to the map) and now… something had stopped it. Had J.A.R.V.I.S. had a change of heart? Short circuited? Had a higher power stepped in?
Sargent James Buchannan Barnes was the first person to speak up. “Are we dead?” It was a legitimate question considering they’d all been waiting for that nuclear goodbye and he and Stevie didn’t even belong in this time period anyway.
“No, Jerk… I think he stopped. I don’t know why… but I think J.A.R.V.I.S. stopped.” Captain Steven Grant Rogers was just about breathless in his reply. J.A.R.V.I.S. had had a set course – what could have possibly have swayed him from it?
“Are you fucking telling me that Stark’s AI just scared the holy piss outta us so he could systematically destroy H.Y.D.R.A?!” the former Winter Soldier yelled in response. The room went deathly quiet and all eyes went to him. “Every single red dot that is now a grey dot? FUCKING H.Y.D.R.A. BASES!” he yelled. Everyone jumped when J.A.R.V.I.S. cut in.
“Of course they were Sargent Barnes. I may not be human, but I am not a monster. Should I needed to have continued, I would have moved on to known A.I.M. headquarters and then on to any other past enemies of Sir.” You could have heard a pin drop in the communal living room. “When Sir became too ill to build, He hacked and amassed data. I used this data to plot out a coordinated strike against those that would wish my father would ill.” J.A.R.V.I.S. paused as if he were busy elsewhere. “Imagine it as a ‘working’ Project Insight – only with no civilian causalities. H.Y.D.R.A. had in my best estimation already killed all resistance… or recruited them.
Coulson finally spoke up. He could not believe that just as out of the blue the threat of H.Y.D.R.A. had come – it had gone. But the Nuclear Fallout from so many grey dots… he had to know if the planet would survive such an extreme measure. “J.A.R.V.I.S. exactly how many nuclear warheads did you use?”
The room fell silent again as J.A.R.V.I.S. didn’t answer.
~*~
In the Penthouse Suit J.A.R.V.I.S. was busy trying to wake its three occupants. If anyone on Earth needed to know that Sir was back, it was Miss, Colonel Rhodes, and Happy. As he could see the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. team still milling about the communal living room – vitals scans supported shock assessment – and Sir attempting to shower the foam away in the workshop – he felt he could do this. If sentient robot beings were capable of having heart attacks, J.A.R.V.I.S. would have suffered one when his creator’s feet slipped out from beneath him and he went crashing head first into sink of the workshop. The porcelain shattered. Sir got up like it was nothing – vitals were unchanged – and resumed his shower attempting to get foam out of his hair.
Finally! Miss was awake!
“J.A.R.V.I.S.? What’s happened? Did it work? Why was I sleeping? Why are the boys sleeping?” Virginia ‘Pepper’ Potts spit the questions out rapid fire, growing increasing distressed as she did. The only reason she could think that she would be sleeping is if she were sedated and the only reason she could think that she would have been sedated were if it didn’t work. Oh god. What if it didn’t work?
Noting her distress, J.A.R.V.I.S. did the one thing he was sure would snap her back to the present – and get rid of the fiery orange that was starting to sneak up under her skin. The view screen in front of her came alive with live video feed of Sir in the shower. Miss relaxed instantly knowing that he was alive and safe. Colonel Rhodes and Happy Hogan were also pleased… less so though than to wake up to that image.
Thorough the video feed they could see Anthony Edward Stark, a picture of perfect health. He looked so much younger than his 43 years – but that could be a product of you know – not dying. His body was fit and strong – and they had a perfect view. It was absolutely scarless. Even where the Arc Reactor used to sit – now a blue sphere sat slightly protruding from his chest – there were no scars. Pepper said the first thing that came to her mind. It was usually the first thing that came to her mind after one of his “near-death/death-defying” stunts or he generally scares the crap out of her:
“I’m going to kill him.”
~*~
Still high atop the World Tree, Hel Lokisdottir let out a small sigh as she looked around the grand throne room as Asgard for what could be the final time. Odin had cast her out millennia ago – and she’d not been welcomed back since. He thought himself as all powerful – but he wasn’t. Sure… she would not have been able to resurrect the Man of Iron – because of the way his body had been completely destroyed and not ceremoniously sent to her… but she could resurrect the person he requested. Out of all the people in the Nine Realms, the name that had slipped off his slips and into her ears could not have surprised her more.
Hel knew they would be needed though – to keep this balance of power that had been struck – so she began gathering her energies. Flitters of light swirled in from the living side of her body while darkness swirled from the side of the dead. Odin and Loki’s attention both snapped to her when they felt her gathering her magicks – but with everything they just expanded to resurrect Anthony Edward Stark – they could not stop her from doing this.
She also had the attention of Heimdall and the Lady Frigg. Both of whom stepped closer to Hel – Heimdall to protect his kings – as was his duty to Asgard – and Frigg to play peacekeeper between the truly powerful people in the throne room. The living side of Hel’s face quirked up in a devious smile (that could have come nowhere but her father) and Frigg gasped. She knew who the Man of Iron requested to be resurrected!
Hel’s powers of light and darkness – the perfect metaphor for the living a dead aspects of her own body – flared. And the Lady Frigg – suddenly very, very corporal again – spun around and very soundly bitch slapped some sense into her husband – Odin.
To be Completed In: Chapter Sixteen: We’ve Only Just Begun