monaco
While a loud, driving rhythm pounds over the speakers, there’s a glimpse of town on a green hillside that slopes down to the sea. ‘Monaco’ reads on the screen.
“Oh no, Monaco,” whispers Maria.
A man speaks in French, announcing the Grand Prix de Monaco Historique.
“Is this lunatic gonna be here?” Tony winces, thinking about Vanko.
At that moment, with two security guards riding in front, a car pulls to a stop in front of an expensive-looking hotel. Tony Stark steps out of the back door.
“I’m the lunatic then.” Tony nods.
“The security will catch Vanko should he try anything at the event,” Howard says but it weirdly sounds as if he was reassuring himself. Is Tony going crazy or does his father care about him a little bit?
Anybody that happens to be sitting or standing where they could see him at once burst into applause and Tony raises two fingers in salute at that. On the other side of the car, Happy opens the door for the new CEO of Stark Industries, holding a red briefcase in his right hand.
“It’s not just a briefcase, is it?” Tony narrows his eyes.
“What do you mean?” Howard turns to him.
“It’s too flashy for just a briefcase.” he shrugs.
Inside the hotel, Tony leads the way into what seems to be the dining room.
“Oh, posh,” Maria says.
"You know, it's Europe," says Tony, turning briefly to Pepper. "Whatever happens in the next twenty minutes, just go with it."
“Oof, trouble?”
“It’s you,” answers Howard.
"Go with it?" asks Pepper suspiciously.
"Mr. Stark?" is heard a female voice.
“Like that.” Tony turns to look at no other than Natalie Rushman. “Hey.”
"Hello, how was your flight?"
"It was excellent," answers Tony, and he takes a small glass from a tray that was being offered him by a waiter. "Boy, it's good to see you." Pepper looks from Tony to Natalie in shock.
“So I can hire someone on my own.” Tony smiles in triumph.
"We have one photographer from the ACM if you don't mind," says Natalie, gesturing over her shoulder, and a man who’s standing behind her raises a camera.
“Who would ever mind a paparazzi.”
"When did this happen?" asks Pepper, her teeth gritted in a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes.
"You made me do it," answers Tony, his mouth also stretched into a smile meant clearly for the camera only.
“Yea, you quit.”
“You promoted her, dear.”
“Obviously, I must’ve not realized at that moment what it would mean.”
"Smile," says Tony, pointing to the photographer. "Great. Stop acting constipated, don't flare your nostrils." he coaches.
“I don’t like it that you know how to act for the camera.”
“I already have 5 different masks, I’d expect to have more of them by this time,” he answers automatically, only a second later catching up to what he said and that he said it to his mother and he hides a wince.
“You have masks?” Howard asks him, turning around.
“What do you think? That I’m 16 years old and actually sleeping with ten different girls every week?” he snorts. “It’s pretty easy to show you a mask when you don’t even pay attention to me.” he turns back to the screen.
As Pepper stays behind to grab a drink, Tony follows Natalie. ”Right this way," she says as they walk across the dining room to one of the large windows overlooking the race track.
“Show us the cars,” Howard says.
“Oh, you and the cars.” Maria barely holds back rolling her eyes.
“I’m curious if there are any flying cars in the future.” the man continues.
“You do realize that normalized flying cars would be simply inconvenient?” Tony asks, fed up with this topic already.
“It wouldn’t be.”
“Use a plane if you want to fly, cars in the air would make everything messy, scare the birds, and more than likely be bad for the air pollution,” Tony answers, looking back at the screen already.
“Don’t speak to me with that tone, young man.” his father answers, but he doesn’t really know how to deal with Tony so that threat isn’t quite scary even if he doesn’t realize it. Tony only gives up because he said what he was supposed to say already, and he wants to watch this future already and get back to his life.
"You look fantastic," Tony compliments the woman.
“She does, but a boss shouldn’t talk to his employee that way.” Maria reminds.
“Why, thank you very much," Natalie answers.
"But that's unprofessional," Tony goes on. "What's on the docket?"
“See, I can be professional.” Tony points out and his mom only smiles and shakes her head fondly.
"You have a nine-thirty dinner," says Natalie, smiling up at him.
"Perfect," answers Tony, putting his sunglasses back on. "I'll be there at eleven.”
“Dear, that is not how meetings work at all.” Maria sighs.
“At least I warned in advance.”
“Being on time is one of the most important things about a meeting in the first place,” adds Howard. “If you're late that much it just shows disrespect.”
“I think fashionably late still describes 90 minutes, now can we go back to watching this because I didn’t even say that yet so I don’t see any point in lecturing me?” Tony’s smile is tight and very obviously fake.
Tony points at a table next to the window. “Is this us?"
"It can be," answers Natalie, her arms folded behind her back.
"Great, make it us," says Tony, and the PA steps aside to tap a waiter on the arm.
Meanwhile, Pepper walks up to a man in a white suit jacket. "Mr. Musk," she greets him. "How are you?"
“Why is there so much small talk?” Tony groans. “Can’t they just show the race already?”
“This is how social gatherings work, dear.”
"Hello, Pepper," says Mr. Musk, rising to his feet and shaking her hand. "Congratulations on the promotion."
"Thank you very much," answers Pepper politely.
“Why does the look on his face look like she didn’t deserve it or something?” Tony narrows his eyes.
“Well, that’s a woman in a high position, he probably thinks she got it through bed.” his mom answers.
“That’s horrible, she’s literally more qualified than me, I can see that after what- twenty minutes?”
“I guess the world doesn’t change that much just yet.” Maria sighs.
Tony notices the man. "Elon!”
“Ugh, why do I know this prick?” groans Tony.
“How's it going?" he asks, getting up to shake the man's hand in his turn. "Those Merlin engines are fantastic."
“This man is working on Merlin engines?” Howard sounds interested.
“Maybe his engines are in the cars or at least one of them that are going to be racing.”
"Thank you," says Elon. "I've got an idea for an electric jet.”
“Uhh, no, thank you.” Tony frowns.
“You do?" says Tony, already a step past the man.
"Yeah," answers Musk.
“Is an electric jet even possible?” Tony tilts his head.
“Not likely to be happening anytime soon even in the future but even if so, it would just be small aircrafts.” answers Howard.
“Gotta try using solar power,” Tony says.
“Jet fuel contains around 30 times more energy per kilogram than the most advanced lithium-ion battery in-talks to be available,” Howard explains.
“So the plane would need batteries weighing 30 times more than its current fuel intake, meaning it would never get off the ground.” the teen talks to himself. “Awh.” he winces. “Well, it’s a nice idea.” he shrugs.
"We'll make it work," says Tony over his shoulder as he walks after Pepper.
“This is definitely my it-will-never-happen-but-i-won’t-tell-you-that face,” Tony smirks.
“You want a massage?" he asks Pepper, putting his arm around her.
"Oh, God," sighs Pepper. "No, I don't want a massage."
“Why not?” Tony frowns.
“She flew to Monaco as a CEO, not to get massages.” Maria answers.
"I'll have Natalie make an appointment," says Tony as he walks with Pepper toward the bar. "I don't want you to be tense--"
"I don't want Natalie to do anything -" protests Potts.
"By the way, I didn't mean to spring this on you," Tony goes on.
"- thank you very much," finishes Pepper rather wearily, and puts her glass up on the counter.
"Green is not your best color," says Tony, coming around to stand in front of the woman.
“She’s not wearing anything green,” Howard observes.
“I never said my mind works in a logical way.” Tony shrugs.
"Anthony? Is that you?" sounds the voice of the Hammer guy from the Senate hearing. It’s followed by the man stepping closer. "Hey, pal!" says Hammer, clapping Tony on the shoulder.
"My least favorite person on earth - Justin Hammer," says Tony, turning only at the last possible moment.
“Doesn’t he see that we’re not friends?” Tony resists the urge to throw his hands up in frustration. He already has enough people trying to befriend him because his last name is Stark.
Then, Hammer proceeds to introduce a female reporter who is with him and she asks Pepper for a quote for her editor.
“Oh, Powerful Women issue? That sounds interesting.” Maria speaks, looking at the screen.
Pepper looks from Hammer to Christine. "Well, she did quite a spread on Tony last year."
"And she wrote a story as well," adds Tony, rather hurriedly, just to spite Hammer.
“Oh, I see you!” the teenager sits up on the couch, crossing his legs.
“No, no, no. That’s too much information,” says Maria, gesturing to him with her left hand.
"So, I'm gonna -" Pepper moves to step away as they continue about the previous topic.
"Don't leave me," pleads Tony quickly, but is ignored.
"Hey, buddy, how're ya doing?" Hammer slides an arm around Tony's shoulders.
“Don’t touch me.” Tony hisses.
“Hasn’t he ever heard about personal space?” Howard doesn’t sound pleased either. It’s funny seeing Howard’s dislike directed at someone other than Tony himself.
"I'm all right," Tony’s unsubtly trying to move away from the man.
"Looking gorgeous," Hammer comments.
“Always am,” Tony answers, looking at the screen with a scowl.
“This man is really making me uncomfortable right now,” Maria mutters.
While Hammer keeps forcing himself on Tony, the billionaire looks to be almost in physical pain, trying to escape with sentences like "Please this is tough." and "God, that's so awful." However, when a photographer comes up to them, he quickly hides his eyes behind sunglasses and schools the expression on his face.
“There goes the mask again.” Tony murmurs. “The sunglasses though, this is a worthy trick.” He regrets having spoken out loud of course, when he catches his father looking at him with a weird emotion on his face that Tony isn’t able to recognize because he’s never seen it before on Howard.
When Tony moves to walk away, the reporter and that awful man follow him, while bickering about whether Hammer’s contract was put on hold or canceled.
“There’s literally no difference. You embarrassed yourself and whoever decided to hire you so then they cut ties with you.” Tony comments.
“However, I have a feeling that if they won’t be able to find a replacement, they will just wait until the storm passes and then quietly hire him again,” Howard adds, with a slight scowl on his face.
“Literally why would they do that? He’s terrible.” Tony answers. “And even if the pilot testing the suit survived, he’s probably paralyzed or something because this guy is messing with stuff that’s obviously above his pay grade.” the teen gestures to the screen.
“Unfortunately, this is just how business works.” Howard keeps his face neutral. “I don’t know why Stark Industries isn’t the primary weapons contractor, but the Army needs weapons to go to war, so if this Hammer man is the next best thing they can get, they’ll have to do with him,” he explains with patience Tony didn’t expect him to possess.
The teen doesn’t answer anymore, but he hopes that Stark Industries isn’t in the weapons business anymore because they really changed focus. Tony was the CEO after all before he gave that position to Pepper, so maybe he decided that they were done creating more chaos and destruction than there already is in the world? He thinks he’d prefer to focus on technology and maybe robots similar to DUM-E and U, they seem to have worked out pretty nice.
They sit down on the first free table while Hammer talks about his desire to present something of his own at Stark Expo.
“I believe the future me said only brilliant minds are allowed.” Tony snorts.
Fortunately, Natalie saves Tony in time. "Mr. Stark? Your corner table is ready."
They walk away with the genius throwing "Hammer needs a slot, Christine." over his shoulder.
“You really couldn’t have made it more clear for him that you don’t like him.” Howard shakes his head.
“Obviously, he has some kind of mental blindness.” Tony shrugs.
"We kid. We're kidders." Justin’s voice is heard.
Tony throws his hands out in frustration. “Why are you like this?!” he asks the man whose face already disappeared from the screen.
“Maybe he doesn’t really want to be your rival.” Maria offers.
“Yeah, ‘cause he’s losing,” Tony states the obvious. “Doesn’t mean he wants to be my friend either.”
Inside his hotel room, Tony pricks his finger with the medical device once again, and this time it reads BLOOD TOXICITY: 53%.
“Already?” Howard asks, straightening in his seat.
“Well, that is raising worryingly fast.” Tony winces.
He places his hands on the marble countertop in front of the mirror and gazes down, resigned.
“No, you can’t just give up,” Tony says to his onscreen-self. “There’s gotta be something that could replace palladium.”
“And if anyone can find it, it’s you, dear.” his mom answers, though she sounds worried. Tony notices his father looking like he wants to say something, maybe about whatever unknown element he mentioned earlier, but he keeps his mouth in a straight line and his gaze doesn’t waver from the screen for even a second.
Tony lifts his head. "Got any new bad ideas?" he asks his reflection.
“Oops.” the teen winces.
“Please just go back to your table,” Maria murmurs.