Of cats and spandex
It was extraordinary, Tony thought, the amount of stuff you're able to do when you're not rushing left and right to extinguish brush fires after idiots... Or coddling a bunch of ungrateful sociopaths.
He'd almost forgotten how it felt, to have time that was his own.
Not that he wasn't busy, mind you. He was working on Iron man 8 jumping to 80... with perks. Once he'd gotten used to the permanent coconut taste again, it wasn't all that bad. Was he going to go through the arc reactor removal again? He wasn't sure. Not really worth it if he had another "friendly" discussion with Crapstain for whatever reaso... Barnes, of course it would be Barnes.
He thought about it, because the electro magnet casing may have been stylish, but was not exactly comfortable.
The things one does for fashion.
But however you cut it, with or without the arc reactor, Tony would apparently require Extremis at some point... The only other solution was the Eskrine serum, and Tony had some deep suspicions about that one, considering how all the recipients had turned out. So, Extremis. Not enough to get flamey because DUM-E would never get over it, but enough to boost his system slightly. Also, nanites at some point
So he was keeping an eye on what Cho and Hansen were doing, just in case. Yes, squishy science was not supposed to be his forte, but he'd managed when Pep's life had been on the line, hadn't he? And now that SI was investing in medical, it was only normal he took an interest in it, after all.
The Craddle seemed to be well on it's way, but Extremis was slow going. Tony guessed working for a psycho with blatant disregard for human life and ethics was a powerful motivator, in it's way.
Tony and SI Medical could offer full dental, but as incentives went, it was apparently not the same thing.
Oh, well...
In the meantime, Tony worked at bettering his relationship with the Pentagon... And the UN, for obvious reasons.
Tony knew how to track his own tech. Stane didn't like it, for now quite obvious reasons, but the trackers had been a Howard policy from the start, so not that easy to turn back. Tony just revived it, with JARVIS help.
Last time, he'd gone lone wolf as he blew Ten Rings hiding places all over the middle East...This time, he did it with the US military blessing... of sorts, anyway.
They never were going to say out loud they were glad Iron Man was blasting all caches resulting from Stane backdoor dealings to Hell and high water, off course...But they didn't object either. In fact it was astonishing how many assorted generals and colonels "forgot" plans and maps of known hideouts when he was in their offices and they went for coffee.
After all, all what Tony took care off was something they would NOT have to face in the field.
And yes, Tony was officially a civilian, but he'd been considered Pentagon/NATO compatible almost since the day he'd been born. So much he was actually invited to the Christmas parties and various events.
And in his spare time, Tony helped with a few local incidents in Malibu or NY, including occasionally pulling kittens out of trees. Wonderful PR, kittens... especially when Goose insisted to come with. She usually meowed a few times before pining the crying kitten with a firm paw and giving it a thorough tongue washing on the spot. The kitty usually calmed down after that, not that it had much choice.
Goose had apparently a quite "no nonsense" approach to parenting... And also a made to measure perch on the Iron Man suit, which was one of the perks Tony added since he'd discovered the Flerken simply ADORED flying, the faster the better. Tony could relate.
And it was somehow comforting to have someone quite literally "watch his back" from her comfy kitty backpack.
As one would expect, Iron Man and his "Iron Kitty" were a media sensation all over the globe. And if Tony needed any more proof that the Flerken was highly intelligent, he got it as Goose played the medias like a pro, posing for photoshoots with Iron man and even hosting a press conference that delighted cat lovers.(not a tentacle in sight, obviously)
The Maria Stark Foundation created a no kill shelter in Manhattan, close to the Stark Tower, and SI medical started working on allergies. All in all, life was good.
"Sir, the frozen body of Mr Rogers has been found."
Crap.
"They found the Capsicle? How do you know this, Jarv?"
"SHIELD internal servers are buzzing with it...And so do the HYDRA branch. Everyone seems to be overly excited by the news, sending elementary caution to the wind" Jarvis sounded a bit sceptical about the humans behavior and Tony smirked.
"Rogers hype has that effect on people at large, Jarvis. Better take that into account as we plan to erode that. How is that docu drama going?"
"Editing, Sir."
"And?"
"I don't think Director Fury is going to show it to the recovering Captain, sir." The AI said primly after a few seconds. Tony laughed.
He wasn't going to undo all that had been built around Rogers in the past forty years (Thanks, Howard!), but he was sure going to try. The thing about icons is that there's always a commemoration thing to pull out if you wanted to.
The second thing about icons is that after almost half a century of hype, not only were some people more than ready to write the darker side of the story... But people would be willing to listen... so amusing to watch an idol crumble on its feet of clay, after all.
Since Carter retired (probably to bone Cap 2.0 in peace), SHIELDRA had unsurprisingly let the propaganda about Crapstain slide. Comics, yes. But comics don't shape most of the people opinion. Not outside the US, anyway.
So when the Maria Stark Foundation offered grants to historians and documentary filmmakers to do stuff about Captain America and the Howlies "to keep the memories alive", it was unsurprising only about 12% of the project had a positive spin... Tony was sure the 88% others were persuaded they were dangerous rebels taking huge risks, conning the Starks in paying to demolish Howard's legacy, but he wasn't going to complain.
It was just the right time, too. Some of the Howlies were still alive, as were some Brooklyn people who had known Rogers as a kid. And since Captain America was such an icon, even the ones who had died had told stories to their own kids for sure.
God only knew Howard could never shut up about "Steve" once he'd had a glass or two.
And since Rogers had always been a piece of shit, Tony was pretty certain some quite ugly stuff was going to rise to the surface. Looking forward to it, actually.
Tony was not deluding himself: People were not going to change their mind about Cap fast. The simple fact that he was "Captain America" shielded (pun intended.) him with a hefty dose of somewhat rabid patriotism, and some people would willfully stay blind to anything other than Rogers been a tall blond white blue eyed man with the US flag on his ass.
A portion of those would passionately fight to keep that ass in spandex no matter what.
But they were not the majority, since, oh shock, there was a world out there.
A lot of people on the planet were not entranced with the US of A and that flag to begin with, some with very good reasons. Tony was in a position to know exactly how many countries the US Military had carpet bombed in the last 40 years, and he was not naive enough to think that endeared them to the people that emerged from the rubble.
Maximoff had made that abundantly clear, if nothing else.
And even with their nominal allies, the hamfisted tendencies of the US diplomacy and the "manifest destiny" thing tended to rub people the wrong way, go figure. SI was a global corporation, after all, so Tony had to learn that while most people were going to be polite (because nukes, if nothing else) they found the arrogance extremely irritating.
And Rogers, with his Holier Than Thou attitude, his certainty that he was always right, his unwillingness to compromise, talk... Or even consider that others would, and could have different viewpoints that would be as valid as his own, well...
"The best hands are our own"
That was going to go up like a lead balloon on quite a big chunk of the planet. And let's not mention Rogers "old-fashioned values", shall we?
The first time he would open his mouth without close supervision (and Tony knew all about how Crapstain felt about supervision), he was going to offend at least a solid dozen influencers in all walks of life and maybe a head of state or two.
In fact, time to stock on popcorn and missiles, if Tony was not mistaken about the date.