To step aside
Well, he sure had not realized it at the time (thanks for nuthing, Obie!), but his abduction had sure stirred up stuff in the alphabet soup that lived and thrived around the Pentagon and in DC.
So, it was not all that hard, relatively speaking, to get the secret services, the CIA, the FBI... Or even the Texas Rangers, for all Tony knew, to cooperate.
Stark weapons were the best and the Army loved them, but by the same token, they sure didn't want to see them in other hands (alright, in very selected other hands). And when Tony hinted at the possibility that the flying armor he'd used to escape could be refined and maybe available to the Air Force, he'd been briefly afraid that general was going to kiss him.
Which, no. Eww. (not that Tony was adverse on principle, but short, balding with a big varicosed shnotz, was not his thing. Yep, call him picky.)
Not that it was going to change a lot. Contrary to what Rogers & al thought, the armor was NOT doing all the work. Go tell a jet fighter pilot that the plane does all the work... And then run very fast, 'cause that's not bound to go down well.
In fact, jet fighters and astronauts were the only ones likely to ever get into a suit and be able to manage it without crashing it in the next ten seconds... Well, them and JARVIS (note to self: find a way to make the iron legion palatable to the public). And his Platypus, of course (and he was killing the Iron Patriot thing in the egg, this time).
Not to mention the price for armors that had to be custom-made for each pilot, so yeah, not for all the troops.
But there was a difference between point bland refusing like he'd done previously... Or let them draw their own conclusion on what the Army could afford or not, because gold/titanium alloy is pricey, and that's before Tony did anything with it..
But they didn't know that yet, and anyway, he sure had other possibilities, like the body armors he'd refined for the Avengers. Those would do nicely, once Starkium production was up and running.
With the added bonus to shake Wakanda's superiority complex a bit, once they realized Starkium was basically synthetic Vibranium. Tony could barely wait, he still had that "let them come" in his ears.
Anyway, Starkium was the most pressing order of business once he got back home, since he really didn't have fond memories of his bout of heavy metal poisoning from last time. Also, not building a Haldron collider on his lonesome this time, when he had a perfectly good and functional lab at SI.
Also, if it was build "in house" so to speak, it was going to make all those patents bloody airtight, which was just what he needed. Starkium, arc reactors...
And the prosthetics.
Now there was something straight out of Iron man tech that could be REALLY positive to veterans and all, and Tony could kick himself for not having thought of that before his Platypus had been hurt.
There was a place where he could do real good for a lot of people AND get some real goodwill out of it.
When he'd raised the idea at the end of one meeting, the brass who'd been leaving had stopped dead in their tracks, and then gone back to circle his hospital bed like a bunch of joyful barracudas.
At this point, he could probably have asked for a hot chocolate and bedtime story from the President, and nobody would have raised an eyebrow. What he wanted, however, was Stane's head on a platter... Not that he could tell them that. He just helped them to reach that conclusion.
Once you knew where to look, (and JARVIS was busy looking, per Tony's instructions) it was not very difficult to see what Obie and his cronies had been up to... And also gave Tony the answer to why his godfather had suddenly decided to kill the golden goose (note to self: find that damm cat and take him to the tower): Stane had gotten greedier in recent years, and by extension sloppy, to the point it was only a matter of time for Tony to stumble on something sooner or later. Probably sooner, and Obie didn't fancy the idea of prison, when he was concerned.
Not that it was likely to happen anyway. An extremely polite gentleman who didn't introduce himself but was probably from the CIA had quietly hinted at an *alternate solution*, and Tony had not protested. After all, in another life, he'd had to do the deed himself.
Since he was NOT a professional assassin, contrary to what Wanda had claimed and the rest of the ingrates had supported (even if at least two of them should have known better), Tony was all for letting someone else to take care of the problem.
And Stane was too dangerous anyway. Peggy Carter and SHIELD were not the only ones who'd covered his parents murder, Stane going as far as saying he's witnessed the *accident*. Looking back on it, Tony had to wonder if his godfather had been only a corrupt piece of shit or HYDRA (why not both?).
Anyway, he didn't fancy reliving another attempted murder (how was this his life again?), so if someone arranged for a convenient accident, he was not opposed.
So, on one fine morning, Tony climbed on his private jet (after it'd been thoroughly gone over with the proverbial fine comb by the secret services), and at the same time the FBI showed both at SI and at Obie's place. Then Stane tried to run, and in the subsequent car chase, *lost control* of his vehicle on a tight spin and exploded at the bottom of a convenient cliff, with at least half a dozen FBI agents watching him burn to a crisp.
Not that Obie was a bad driver, but it's admittedly hard to steer when you got your brain pulverized by an explosive bullet.
The CIA is sort of efficient that way.
Obie's death had two effects: One, the criminal investigation was extinct, even if various federal agencies fell on Obie's estate like a pack of suited vultures. Tony did not care about that, they were welcome to the loot. Two, his cronies suddenly found themselves on the front line, and of course rats couldn't jump ship fast enough.
JARVIS quietly bought enough shares of SI during the panic to ensure Tony had control of the board. It made a dent in his private funds, but not as bad as he had feared, since his captivity had brought SI shares to an all time low, that even news of his rescue had not corrected yet. Now with all the board and a few high ranking employees panic and flailing around, JARVIS got more than he needed dirt cheap.
Not a problem, Tony knew of a very competent CEO.