Iron Man

Back in Tony’s lab. Tony runs his hand over a pad and brings up a holographic key pad, with symbols that are quite clearly not an alphabet.

“That is not a normal keypad.” Peter said.

“No.” Tony confirmed. “I designed it specifically for myself. It made working twice as fast.”

“And as one else knew that language, it made sure that everything on file could be read by you alone.” Vision added.

“That is so cool.” Peter said with awe.

“And smart.” Natasha approved.

“Jarvis, you up?”

“For you, sir, always.”

On the screens show the blueprints of his Mark I armour.

“I’d like to open a new project file, index as Mar II.”

Tony uses a pen to select the blueprints and then manoeuvre them onto a nearby table top screen. The prints rise into a 3D holographic image of the suit.

“You invented that technology yourself?” Shuri asked, suspiciously.

“Yep.” Tony smiled.

Shuri eyed him. They did have stuff similar to this in Wakanda, but Stark had invented this himself without the aid of vibranium. Just what could the genius do if he had access to vibranium?

Loki rolled his eyes. They had technology way more advanced than this on Asgard. Hell, he could pull up illusions right now if he wanted to. These midgardians thought they were such geniuses.

“Shall I store this on the Stark Industries Central Database?”

“Actually, I don’t know who to trust right now. Till further notice, why don’t we just keep it on my private server?”

Tony walks round the hologram, inspecting the suit.

“Working on a secret project, are we, sir?”

“Where does it get its sense of humour from?” Quill asked.

“Okay ass-hat, first of all, Jarvis is a he not an it.” Tony scolded.

“Secondly.” Vision interrupted before things could get out of hand, “Stark had programmed Jarvis to learn and mimic the attitudes and expressions from the people he interacted with. Since he spent most time with Tony, it’s only natural that he would copy a few of his more sarcastic mannerisms.”

Tony begins to manipulate the holographic image, removing the helmet and some of the outer casing.

“I don’t want this winding up in the wrong hands. Maybe in mine it can actually do some good.”

Clint snorted. It definitely did some good, but that didn’t stop all the bad or careless things Tony had done with it.

Satisfied with the adjustments, Tony spins the image.

That’s incredible. Bucky thought, in awe of the technology. He had been around a lot of technology in Wakanda, but so much has happened since 1945, he was overwhelmed just trying to keep up.

The scene suddenly shits to the desert in Afghanistan, where members of the Ten Rings are digging in the sand for the remnants of Tony’s armour.

“Didn’t you think to tell someone to collect the pieces?” Steve asked.

“That would of been a waste of time.” Tony said. “They can’t do anything with it anyway. Without the core, it’s just a very heavy and impractical suit of armour.”

One of them lifts Tony’s helmet from the sand, calling for the attention of Raza, who appears with a nasty burn on the side of his face.

“He’s alive?” Scott exclaimed.

“Come on, you buried that sucker.” Rocket moaned.

“Well, clearly not well enough.” Tony said.

Cut back to Tony’s lab, where he works on the boot piece. DUM-E is there holding a magnifying glass, which Tony tries to instruct, to little success.

“That looks so cool!” Peter exclaimed. “I never knew what it would look like without the casings.”

“It doesn’t look like that now.” Tony assured him. “I’ve updated it so that it’s neater and more efficient.”

“You are a tragedy.” Tony mutters. DUM-E lowers its head with a sad whir.

“That was unnecessary. He was only trying to help.” Thor scolded.

“I only tease my kids. They know I love them dearly.” Tony said.

“Did you just call the robots your kids?” Natasha laughed out loud.

Pepper rolled her eyes. “Yes, all of his creations are apparently his ‘children’.”

“They are!” Tony said. “They are my own creations. They are my children.”

“Of course dear.” Pepper sighed.

Peter raised a tentative hand. “Um, doesn’t that mean that Vision is also your child?”

Vision raised a curious eyebrow and tilted his head towards Tony.

Tony smirked. “Well, as I was really mostly helping Banner, I’d say we share joint custody.”

Bruce choked. “I’m pretty sure that’s not how it works.”

“It’s exactly how it works.” Tony said.

“Actually, I really don’t think that’s how it works.” Wanda said, cringing at the thought.

“It depends on your perspective.” Vision said, being the soft spoken voice of reason that he is.

“You are not encouraging this.” Wanda scolded, to which he smirked at her.

Quill raised his hand. “I’m not the only one confused here, am I?”

“I believe the iron man and the doctor man birthed the vision man.” Drax explained.

Gamora sighed. “No that’s not… you know what, never mind.”

Tony raised his voice to the back of the room. “Guys, don’t worry, all will be revealed eventually, I’m sure.”

The point of view changes to a camera on one robot called U. Tony stands in the centre of a heatproof fad wearing the naked workings of the boot pieces, which are connected by wires to his arc reactor.

“Oh, great.” Tony sighed under his breath, running a hand down his face. He’d really hoped they would skip his first test flight.

“Okay, let’s do this right.” He says.  “Start mark, half a meter, and back and centre.”

He looks over his shoulder. “DUM-E, look alive. You’re on standby for fire safety.” He turns to the camera. “U, roll it.”

“Oh, are we gonna see your first flight?” Peter asked excitedly.

Tony cringed. “Not exactly.”

“Okay. Activate hand controls.”

The power whirs up.

“We’re gonna start up nice and easy. We’re gonna see if 10% thrust capacity achieves lift.”

“‘Nice and easy?’” Shuri raised an eyebrow. “10% is not ‘nice and easy’.”

“I was excited okay?” Tony said.

“And three… two… one…”

Tony blasts of the floor, slamming straight into the wall behind him. He falls to the floor with a grunt, as DUM-E sets of the fire extinguisher.

The theatre bursts with laughter.

“And that’s what happens.” Shuri announced, spreading her hands wide.

Tony his is face with his hand out of embarrassment.

“That definitely looked painful.” Strange commented.

“Oh, I know from experience that it’s definitely painful.” Quill said.

Gamora sighed and rolled her eyes. “How many times have you blasted into a wall.”

“It’s a lot more common than you think for us flying folk.”

Tony is back at the computers designing a new arm piece.

He goes back to his 3D hologram to assemble it to scale, where Tony inserts his hand into the image, and it forms around his arm.

“That is awesome.” Peter exclaimed. “How many things could you design with that?”

“A lot actually.” Tony said. “How else do you think I made your suit?”

Cut to Tony closing the workings around his arm. The iconic circular repulser in the palm of his hand.

“You do work fast, don’t you.” Clint said.

“Once he gets into something, it takes him days to loose focus.” Pepper said. “Sometimes it gets so bad he forgets to eat and sleep.”

“Yes, we know all about that.” T’Challa said, sending a pointed look at Shuri.

Shuri rolled her eyes. “For God’s sakes, brother. I keep telling you, genius does not have time to rest.”

Pepper enters the lab, carrying a cup of coffee, on top of a packaged box, on top of a magazine.

“I’ve been buzzing you. Did you hear the intercom?” She asks as she approches.

“Yeah, everything’s… what?” Tony answers distractedly.

“See?” Pepper said. “It’s impossible to get his attention when he’s in the middle of a project.”

“Obadiah’s upstairs.” She says as she sets down the package.

“Great.”

“What would you like me to tell him?”

“I’ll be right up.”

Tony lifts the is arm with the arm piece.

“I thought you said you were done making weapons.” Pepper accuses.

“This is a flight stabiliser.” He corrects, pressing a button making the repulser whir up. “It’s completely harmless.”

Clint rolled his eyes. “Sure it is.”

A blast of light shoots out, sending Tony flying out of frame. Pepper shrieks covering her ears as things crash to the floor. She glares at Tony.

“I didn’t expect that.” Tony groans.

They all burst out laughing.

“Told you.” Clint chuckled.

“That… is incredible!” Rocket gasped out between fits of laugher.

Steve sighed. “Tony, do you ever create something that is not dangerous?”

“I honestly did not intend for this to be dangerous!” Tony insisted.

Tony runs up the stairs to the lobby of his home. Someone can be heard playing the piano.

“How’d it go?” He asks Obadiah who turns out to be the one playing the piano with a glass whisky laying on top.

‘“Just make yourself at home then, why don’t you.” Rhodey mutters spitefully.

 Tony notices a box o pizza on the table. “It went that bad, huh?”

“Just because I brought pizza back from New York doesn’t mean it went bad.” Obadiah says.

“Uh-huh. Sure it doesn’t.” Tony says.

Obadiah turns away from the piano now. “It would have gone better if you were there.”

“Uh-uh.” Tony snaps taking a bite of pizza. “You told me to lay low. That’s what I’ve been doing. I lay low and you take care of all…”

“Hey, come on. In the public. The press.” Obadiah approaches and sits beside him. “This was a board of directors meeting.”

Tony is taken back. “This was a board of directors meeting?”

“You didn’t realise you had a board of directors meeting?” T’Challa asked.

Tony stammered. “I er… I was a bit busy, if you hadn’t noticed.”

“As we’ve established, when Tony get’s into something, the rest of the world doesn’t seem to matter.” Steve said.

“The board is claiming that you have post-traumatic stress.” Obadiah says. “They’re filing an injunction.”

“Lair.” Rhodey mumbled. “I can’t believe he’s making it out that you’re crazy to get you evicted from your own company.”

Tony shrugged. “He’s a manipulative bastard.”

“A what?” Tony asks incredulously.

“They want to lock you out.”

“I know what ‘injunction’ means, jeez.” Tony said, exasperated.

“Why? Cause the stocks dipped 40 points? We knew that was going to happen.”

“Fifty-six and a half.” Pepper corrects.

“Who’s side are you on?” Wanda asked.

Pepper shook her head. “I’m sorry, but I was almost as confused as everyone. I was just thinking about the company which was my job.”

“It’s okay, Pep. I’d given you no reason to expect any different of me.” Tony reassured her.

“It doesn’t matter.” Tony snaps. “We own the controlling interest in the company.”

“Tony, the board has rights too.” Obadiah patronises. “They’re making the case that you and your new direction isn’t in the company’s best interest.”

“He’s making the case!” Rhodey growled, glaring at the screen. “It’s all him.”

“I’m being responsible!” Tony bursts. “That’s a new direction for me… for the company.”

Obadiah raises his eyebrows.

“I mean,” Tony amends “me on the company’s behalf being responsible for the way that…”

He turns, trying to gain Pepper’s support, but she sighs, exasperated.

“You know, you keep making it very hard for me to do the right thing here.” Tony nudged her.

“I didn’t mean to gang up on you, it’s just you had never once thought responsibly about something.” Pepper explained. “I just had to go off what I knew.”

“I know, I understand.” Tony said.

“This is great.” Tony mutters, standing angrily and stealing the box of pizza.

“Oh, come on, Tony. Tony!” Obadiah tries to placate him.

“I’ll be in the shop.” Tony calls, heading back to his lab.

“Hey, hey! Hey, Tony. Listen.” Obadiah follows him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “I’m trying to turn this thing around, but you gotta give me something. Something to pitch them.” He points at Tony’s arc reactor. “Let me have the engineers analyse that. You know, draw up some specs.”

“And there’s where the manipulation reveals itself.” Natasha rolls her eyes. “Putting pressure on you so that you could reveal the secrets of the arc reactor.”

“No. No, absolutely not.”

“It’ll give me a bone to throw the boys in New York!”

“This one stays with me. That’s it Obie. Forget it.”

“Yes, good.” Steve said. “You don’t want that technology falling into the wrong hands. Not that yours are very reliable in the first place.” He added onto the end.

Tony scowled at that. “Hey, the safest hands-”

“Are still your own?” Steve finished, turning his head to meet Tony’s, their old disagreement coming back into the foreground.

It was strange to think how far they’d come from their old selves and everything that had happened to change them.

Tony lowered his eyes and looked back at the screen. “It was a different time, back then.” He muttered.

“Alright, well this stays with me, then.” Obadiah says, stealing back the pizza.

“Go on, here, you can have a piece.” He says, opening up the box again. “Take two.”

“Thank you.” Tony dismisses, taking another piece.

“You mind if I come down there and see what you’re doing?” Obadiah calls after him.

“Good night, Obie.” Tony says before disappearing down to his lab.

“Good. Don’t let that man in on anything.” Rhodey nods his head.

“I gotta say, I’m impressed you’ve sussed out his mistrust this early.” Natasha complimented. “I mean, it’s pretty obvious in hindsight, but as of then, he was your only mentor and guide since Howard.”

“Yeah, well, I wasn’t really trusting anyone at that time. Not even really Rhodey.” Tony said.

“Well, everyone except Pepper, that is.” Fury muttered.