Tony Stark Has A Heart
Palladium (noun):
- a silver-white ductile malleable metallic element that is used especially in electrical contacts, as a catalyst, and in alloys.
- a chemical element with the symbol Pd and atomic number 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1803 by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston.
- something that affords effectual protection or security: SAFEGUARD
The last time Tony Stark designed an element, he did so with very little fanfare. Sure, there had been journal articles and interviews with science magazines. But on a personal level, he sat back and enjoyed the moment before launching headfirst into yet another fight - this one part of his own making.
And partially Howard’s fault but he wasn’t inclined to pick the scab over that wound at the moment.
It had been just him and Jarvis as they made one of the largest discoveries of the 21st Century. A new element and with it endless possibilities.
This time, it was different. Rhodey was helping, turns out Ben was a handy mechanic as well. And of course, there were two eager kids.
One of which could literally lift a bus.
“Peter! Put that down!” Tony called over to where Peter was lifting over 100 pounds of metal. Luckily, he had disabled the security cameras for this warehouse-sized room. Last time, he’d been sequestered in the house.
This time, he was taking advantage of all his resources. And that included building the needed particle accelerator at Stark Industries. Maybe he’d build one in New York when they built the Tower.
He really could find more excuses to play with it. Perhaps he should have.
While there were benefits to hindsight, it left you plagued with doubts too.
“But Dad!” Peter sat it down with a huff that fit a teenager more than the barely out of toddlerhood boy. “I want to help discover an element.”
“And you will. But try not to give away your super strength would ya?”
“Fine!”
“Go over the calculations with your brother.” Tony nodded to where Harley was pouring over calculations, blueprints, and more at a series of drafting tables that took up one corner of the room.
Yes, he had everything memorized. But, this was a teaching moment for the boys. Around this time last time, he’d been obsessed with the idea of what legacy he was leaving behind, and this time around he actually had one.
He wasn’t sure what was more terrifying if he was honest.
“This needs to be level all around, right?” Ben looked up from where he was securing the last pieces of the accelerator. He’d talked the man into a job in his production department. It let Ben work with his hands which he’d admitted he’d rather do than watch security monitors all day.
But if his skills there were needed, he’d step up. And they may someday.
Or, hiding him away in production may keep him alive to see Peter graduate high school. If there was anything he could do to prevent Ben’s death this time around, he’d do it. But subtly, because Ben didn’t want a fuss made about it when there was half the universe at stake.
“Yes.”
Ben nodded, getting out tools to check.
“Honey Bear! How goes set up and the final supply check.”
“We’re looking good, Tony.” Rhodey grinned from his station near Harley and Peter. “Everything is in place and we’ve got the examination room set up next door to replace the core as soon as it's set.”
Normally, the footsteps that entered the room would be accompanied by the click-click of high heels but these days, Pepper Potts was favoring flats. Already in her second trimester, she was showing.
The publicity of announcing that Pepper was pregnant with his child wasn’t pretty. Unfortunately, that was a downside to doing this out of the order of last time. Last time, they’d been in a publicized relationship for a year and were engaged. This time, it seemed to come out of nowhere and the public was in a frenzy.
It didn’t help that this was less than six weeks since Harley and Peter had been shoved into the spotlight thanks to Stane.
“Hello, Miss Potts.” Tony grinned at the love of his life.
“Hello, Mr. Stark. How are things going here?” She came over and kissed his cheek and as she pulled away, he did the same. Both Harley and Peter groaned at the PDA and Tony chuckled.
While they often acted like the teenagers they’d once been, sometimes they took advantage of their new ages to act so.
Like any time Tony and Pepper shared any public bit of affection.
It had been cute.
At first.
But now…
“No comments needed from the peanut gallery over there. How are those calculations going?”
“We’re done, Mechanic!” Harley grinned. “Jarvis even checked.”
“Indeed, Sir.” The AI’s voice rang out over the speakers. “You are safe to proceed.”
Walking over, Tony checked the calculations himself and nodded his approval. “Excellent job, boys. Are we ready to discover an element?”
Both eagerly nodded and Pepper excused herself. Tony didn’t want her in the room when the accelerator fired up. Not while pregnant.
“Safety gear, Bambinos.”
Both boys went and got their safety goggles while Tony and the other adults fetched theirs. Walking around the accelerator, Tony did a last check. Out of everyone in the room, he’d been the only one to mess with this for any amount of time.
Which could have been bad. He really needed to delegate more and to make sure that people knew what he was up to. Maybe if he’d talked more the Civil War wouldn’t have happened. After all, he’d known about the Accords for months. He’d assumed the team had been keeping up as well.
That had certainly bit him in the ass.
Satisfied with his final checks, he headed over to where his station was. “Alright J, let’s do this.”
“Turning on the accelerator.”
To be honest, it was a hair less dramatic this time around. Maybe it was the utter lack of desperation compared to the previous time. Or maybe it was true because he’d done this before.
But the accelerator began firing.
One thing different about this compared to the first time was that he’d had more room to work with. Instead of cramming this in his workshop, he’d been able to make a bigger and proper one.
Which meant he was able to avoid the thousands in property damage he’d acquired last time. Pepper had been especially happy about that.
It lit up and both boys let out exclaims of happiness. Harley favored mechanical engineering and loved the building part of it. But he was aware that while Peter enjoyed it, he loved chemistry.
Creating a new element, even though it had been done from their perspective, was like Christmas to him.
After a few minutes, he had the new element set up in a way that he could insert it into a new core. Grabbing the core from his workbench, he went over and examined it. It glowed the familiar blue and Tony felt a wave of nostalgia hit.
He’d done it. And long before signs of heavy metal poisoning showed. But, for the sake of being thorough, he looked at the ceiling. “J, examine this and confirm that it will be a suitable replacement for the palladium.”
There was quiet for a moment. Everyone in the room gathered around to look at the new element sitting in front of them.
“The new element will replace the palladium without damaging your health. Congratulations on creating a new element.”
With the official confirmation, both boys burst into cheers and Tony slid the core into the new reactor. It lit up and Tony knew it was time to fix this.
But first, he could take a second to celebrate with his boys.
#
Six hours later, both boys were fast asleep and all of the adults were gathered around with their drinks of choice. For tonight, Tony was drinking apple juice in a tumbler he would have used for scotch.
Everyone gathered around on couches and Tony smiled at his family. There wasn’t anyone left alive who was related to him by blood (minus his precious daughter whom his wife was carrying) but he’d discovered in the years that never were that family went much deeper than blood.
“Now that we’re all here, I figured it was a good idea to hold a meeting to do a check on progress made before the boys start school in three weeks.”
The adults all nodded.
“Ned is flying in in three days to be here for Peter’s birthday. We’re doing Disneyland again on Sunday and then you had something in mind for his birthday?” May eyed the man curiously.
Tony grinned at the mention of his mystery plans. He hadn’t told anyone about it for fear of super ears hearing and the surprise being ruined. “Trust me, they’ll love it. Happy, how goes the clean sweep.”
“With the benefit of hindsight, I knew where to look for moles and problems. We have made significant progress cleaning house, on a much faster timetable. On the legal side, I’ve delivered my findings to your lawyers. When applicable, they’re filing civil suits and working with prosecutors if criminal charges apply.”
Tony nodded. “Stane’s trial is going to be in Washington DC. Considering Stark Industries' ties to the military, they won the bidding war. This could take weeks. I’m planning to be based in New York by then and can fly down when I’m needed.”
The group nodded.
“Rose, how’s packing coming?”
“We’re almost ready to move. The kids are excited. Harley is excited to live near you.”
Tony grinned. “I can’t wait to have both of them close. Pepper, Happy covered the clean-up of SI, how is the rest?”
“Ground broke on the tower last week. It will still be two years before we can occupy it but we will be ready earlier than last time. Where are we on Thanos?”
“There’s a limit to what I can do before the Battle of New York. I’m scheduled to run into at least two if not three of the original Avengers. And then there’s the Expo.”
“Please tell me you’re going to make sure that that disaster doesn’t happen again.” May groaned.
“Trust me, I plan to stop the bots and Vanko. Hammer is… a pest but I’ll neuter him too if needed.” Tony grinned. “But the Expo is important. Last time… last time it was the dream of a dying man to leave a legacy. This time, it’s about preparing for the future. I plan to expand on what I did last time. Open a junior section where budding minds can show off. One thing I’ve learned in the last five months is how many things I missed that could have helped.”
“Speaking of, how are our new allies,” Rhodey asked.
“They’re doing great, about to start a new school year. Stark Industries donated a lot of technology to the school to make sure they’re well equipped.” Pepper nodded. “It also helped us to come out as siding with the Mutants. We’re hoping that it helps ease things when enhanced beings come into play. As Tony mentioned, the Expo is set to launch on Memorial Day weekend next year and go for a year. We will officially announce it in October and open up the registration process for companies to have booths or present on one of the three stages.”
“There are two Stones on Earth. What are our plans for them?” Rhodey spoke up.
“We are leaving them where they are for now. The Time Stone has a role to play down the road and will be needed. SHIELD already has the Space Stone which will help set the events of New York into play. It’s a fixed point, it turns Thanos’ attention to us. It helps us end it.”
“What about the Avengers?” Happy asked. “Are you going to join?”
Tony let out a sigh. “I don’t know. It’s not like I’m going to sit on the sidelines when people need me. Iron Man is more popular than he was last time. But, things won’t be the way they were last time. While for them it hasn’t happened, for me it has. It’s complicated.”
“Avengers? You guys have mentioned them a few times.” Ben chimed in for the first time in the meeting. For being the only one who didn’t remember, he was taking all of this rather well.
“Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. There was an idea called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could.” Tony remembered the speech that had been given that day, the first time they’d been needed. “It started as six of us, grew to more, less, fluctuated year to year. There was a fight and then the world ended and here we are.”
Ben took a sip of his coffee. “And now that we’re back, all of those events will happen again.”
“Exactly. Now, for the next year, the focus is the Expo. I’ve got a few more missions to run to clean out the Ten Rings. Stane’s trial. And of course, Morgan.”
“I’m due around Christmas. I plan to take maternity leave until the end of March and then launch into preparation for the Expo. Rose will help me take care of Morgan and we will make this work.”
“And of course our wedding which will be at the end of Pepper’s maternity leave.” Tony grinned, eyeing the ring on Pepper’s finger. “Once the Expo is in place, there isn’t much to do until we prepare for New York.”
#
Three boys stood in a line, Tony’s cars behind them in the workshop. In front of them, was a box of supplies. Tools lay on tables and parts lay in piles near the box.
Tony stood in front of the three, grinning. Rhodey and Ben stood behind him.
“Over the summer, before everything went wrong, I was going to bring Harley to New York. I’m sure the three of you would have given me plenty of gray hairs.”
“Give us time, Mechanic.” Harley grinned.
“I’m well aware, Patatino.” Tony shook his head. “One of the things we were going to do was restore a car. Now, you three are a little young for that and are currently too short to drive most go-carts.”
That earned him a round of sulking. All three boys found it hard to be that young again. While it was fun sometimes to act that age and to run around, all three had been close to adulthood.
And now they were far from it once again.
“Considering that problem, I came up with a fun solution and that is what we are working on today.” Tony waved at all the boxes. “Today, you three will each assemble an RCV.”
Three sets of eyes lit up and they all eyed the boxes. Harley took a step but Tony held up his hand.
“There are rules. Most important, no explosives. This is not the time to figure out how to create red, blue, or green shells.”
Harley’s shoulders dropped. Peter let out a small disappointed sigh.
“Second, you will have one of us three checks over your work when you are done. We will then take the cars to a course that I have set up for a race. You have three hours to assemble your car.”
A timer appeared on a nearby screen.
“Begin.”
Four hours later found them on the lawn outside the mansion. Tony had set up a course that went about a half-mile. Ben had helped him create it, basing it on ideas he’d had for Peter.
It was time for the race to begin. All three boys sat their cars down and got into position. Off to the side, the rest of the time team sat in chairs cheering on the group. Tony stood at the finish line, eyeing the boys. “J, tell them to get ready.”
The message was relayed, he watched through a video feed as all three boys sat their cars on the track.
“Give them a countdown, J.”
Tony watched as the boys grew more determined before three cars raced towards him. While he was sure Jarvis could give him the winner, he wanted to watch this himself.
Harley had made a car with… were those rocket boosters? Tony hadn’t had a chance to look at his car, Rhodey had done the final check there. Sure enough, he was using the boost in speed (probably inspired by Mario Kart’s stars) to take the early lead.
Peter on the other hand had the smallest car. Probably the idea of it being the most agile in case Tony planted obstacles, which he had. Tony had checked that car over, leaving Ben with Ned’s.
Ned’s was in the middle size-wise but he’d used most of his time to code the computer. He’d already been ready to hire the kid when he got out of school but when the car shot out an EMP boost localized to take out Harley’s booster, Tony solidified that thought.
In the meantime, he’d give the kid a challenge or two. He’d be a force to be reckoned with.
Having lost his speed boost, Harley fell behind. They were over halfway through the course for now, and Ned had taken the lead.
Peter fell back into last place as they rounded an obstacle. Doing the math in his head, he realized Peter’s plan and laughed.
Sure enough, Harley and Ned’s cars crashed into each other, not able to fit into the obstacle Tony had set up side by side. Peter’s car came along and drove up on the wall, using a modified version of his web polymer.
Zipping around them, he crossed the finish line and cheered.