The Next Step
Chapter 6
"Who is Mr. Stane?" Gohan asks.
"His full name is Obadiah Stane. He was my dad's right hand man when he was in charge of Stark Industries." Tony explains. "Now he's my business partner."
Pepper moves to head upstairs to let the man in, though before following her, Tony tells Gohan, "Gohan, while I trust Obi with a lot of things, I don't think he should know you and Goten are here. At least not until we get your covers set up, and he definitely can't know about your powers. So can you hide in here until he leaves?"
"Sure, Tony, no problem." Gohan easily agrees.
Tony shoots the boy a thumbs up, then heads upstairs to greet Obadiah.
"There you are, my boy." Obadiah says when Tony opens the door.
"Hey, Obi, what's up?" Tony casually greets back.
"I just wanted to see your progress on the Jericho, make sure we're on schedule." The large man answers.
"Don't worry, Obi, it'll be ready. Besides, we've still got like 6 months before the demonstration." Tony reassures, hoping to keep the man from going to the lab.
Obadiah claps Tony's shoulder. "And I have the utmost faith in you, Son, but you know how the board gets without constant updates. I'd like to see it so I can keep them out of your hair."
Seeing no way to deter the man without him getting suspicious, Tony gives in. "Alright, let's get it over with, give the buzzards what they want."
Reluctantly, he leads Obadiah down to the lab.
-Inside Tony's Lab-
After Tony and Pepper dissappear upstairs, curiosity gets the better of Gohan. "JARVIS, If it's ok, could you bring up the live feed for upstairs?"
"Certainly, Young Sir Gohan." JARVIS answers. A screen appears in front of Gohan as the man Tony was talking about enters the house.
The moment he stepped inside, Goten starts crying.
Gohan rocks his brother in his arms in an attempt to calm the baby down. "Goten, what's the matter?"
While checking to see if Goten needed a change or was hungry, it occurs to Gohan, 'This is exactly what happened right before Broly showed up, could it be?'
On a hunch, Gohan extends his senses to feel this stranger out and gets bombarded by pure darkness.
There isn't even a single glimmer of light in Obadiah's Ki.
This darkness, it's almost overwhelming. Gohan has never felt so much malice and ill-will from a regular human before. Is this what's got Goten so upset?
Before he can ponder any further, he sees Tony bringing the strange man down to the lab. "Oh no."
Gohan quickly floats up to a ceiling corner in an attempt to hide and rocks Goten back and forth to hopefully soothe the baby enough to quiet down.
Luckily, as he senses Tony and Obadiah about to enter, Goten begins to chew on his tail and settles down.
'Oh thank goodness.' Gohan internally sighs in relief as the door opens and Tony and Obadiah enter the lab.
Tony leads Obadiah to a monitor and brings up the Jericho specs. "Ok, Obi, there you go. You can tell the board I'm on schedule."
While Obadiah looks over the screen, Tony takes the chance to peek around the lab to see if he can spot where Gohan hid himself and Goten
A few moments into the search, Gohan's voice echoes in his head. 'Tony, look up at the corner behind you.'
He follows the boy's instructions and finds Gohan floating in the air holding Goten.
'Sorry, Tony, I panicked and this was all I could think of.' Tony hears Gohan's voice in his head again.
'Don't sweat it, Kid. You can hear me, right?' Tony thinks, assuming the boy can hear him as well.
'Yeah, I can hear you.' Gohan confirms. 'I'm using a trick Piccolo taught me. As long as I keep it up we'll be able to communicate like this.'
Tony turns back to appear to be looking over the Jericho specs with Obadiah and tells Gohan, 'Good, just stay up there and I should be able to get Obi out of here without him looking your way.'
"You got what you need, Obi?"
The screen disappears, and Obadiah turns to Tony. "Yes, I can go assure those worry warts that everything's going fine. But you know, it would be easier if you just send me updates that I can show to them."
"Yeah, but it wouldn't be as fun, I gotta keep those rats on their toes. Besides, this way there's no risk the blueprints can leak out since I'm the only one with access to them." Tony replies as he starts directing Obadiah out of the lab.
As he listens to the exchange between the two men, Gohan feels the anger and malice from Obadiah swell, and all of it was directed at Tony.
'Isn't this guy supposed to be Tony's friend? Why would he direct such negative feelings at him?' Gohan ponders but keeps Tony from hearing.
Seemingly also feeling the darkness from Obadiah grow, Goten releases his tail from his mouth and starts to tear up again.
'Oh no, not now. Tony, please hurry, Goten's about to start crying and I don't know if I can stop him.'
Warning received, Tony tries to rush Obadiah out of the lab. "Come on, Obi, how about we grab something to eat upstairs?"
"Sure, Son, that sounds great." Obadiah replies.
Tony and Obadiah head out of the lab, but right before they get out the door, Goten begins to cry.
'Shit!' 'Crapbaskets!' Tony and Gohan mentally exclaim in unison as Obadiah turns around in search for the source of the cries.
"Tony, is there a baby in here?" He asks.
Realizing the cat's out of the bag, Gohan drops to the floor and walks out to reveal himself.
"Uhh...hello, Sir." Gohan greets Obadiah.
Completely disregarding the boy's greeting, Obadiah asks Tony, "Tony, please don't tell me these kids are the result of one of your flings?"
As Tony is scrambling to think of a reasonable explanation, Pepper comes to the rescue. "Of course they're not Tony's, Mr. Stane. They're the sons of an old friend of mine."
'Nice save, Pepper.' Gohan telepathically praises her as he connects her to himself and Tony.
'Gohan? What's going on?' Pepper internally asks, trying not to outwardly react.
'Pep, the kid's using some mind magic to communicate with us.' Tony explains, assuming Pepper can hear him.
'Tony? Well, this is good, this way we can workshop a cover story while we talk to Obadiah.'
"One of your friend's kids, Pepper? Well, where are they?" Obadiah asks.
"Well, Sir, that's why we're here. Our parents recently passed away and they were our only family. So when Pepper heard, she insisted on bringing us here." Gohan explains.
'That's good, right?' Gohan asks his friends.
'Yeah, Kiddo, we can roll with that.' Tony assures then tells Obadiah, "I told Pepper that Gohan and Goten could crash here, Obi."
"'Gohan'? 'Goten'? What the hell kind of names are those? What nationality are these boys?" Obadiah belts out back to back; he aims a suspicious glare at Gohan.
'Tony, Pepper, I don't know what he means by nationality. The Earth I come from only has one nation, divided into sectors. What do I tell him?' Gohan asks, doing his best to keep his composure as Obadiah's darkness rises even higher.
'I think I have an idea.' Pepper tells them. "They're Japanese names, Mr. Stane, and please watch your language."
At that moment, Goten begins full on wailing.
"Obi, let's head upstairs, we can talk about this over lunch. Looks like the little guy might need it." Tony suggests, using Goten's waterworks to at least get them out of the lab.
"Alright, Son, let's eat." Obadiah acquiesces.
As everyone makes their way upstairs, another thought occurs to Gohan. 'Tony, Pepper, I'm guessing it's not a good thing for Mr. Stane to see Goten's tail? What do we do?'
'Crap! I forgot about that, did you already cut tail holes out for all of the little monkey's clothes?' Tony asks.
'I did, what should we do?' Gohan asks back.
'How about this? Tony, you keep Obi busy in the kitchen, while Gohan, you come with me, we'll tell him Goten needs a quick bath or something and then we can just wrap him in a towel until Obi leaves.' Pepper offers.
'Sounds good, Pep. I'll keep Obi occupied.' Tony replies.
The moment they reach the top of the stairs, Pepper starts their plan. "The boys and I will be with you shortly, Mr. Stane. Little Goten needs a quick bath, won't be more than a few minutes."
Without waiting for a response, she guides Gohan in the direction of the bathroom.
"Come on, Obi, let's go see what we got in stock." Tony says, putting an arm around Obadiah's shoulders before leading him to the kitchen.
-Inside the Bathroom-
"That was quick thinking, Pepper." Gohan compliments.
"I'm used to getting Tony out of unusual spots, this wasn't that different." Pepper replies with a satisfied smirk.
As soon as the bathroom door closes behind them, Pepper asks, "Ok, Gohan, what's wrong? I could see the look on your face whenever Obi talked. It was only for a second, but it was there, and it reminded me of the way you looked at the monsters from your memories."
Gohan's expression turns grim and he undresses his brother and starts bathing him. (may as well actually do it since they're here.)
"I told you, Tony, and Happy that when you master Ki, you can sense the intentions and true nature of a person. When Obadiah walked into the house, Goten started to cry, and it reminded me of when Broly attacked us before we got sent here. So I checked him out, and all I could feel from him was pure darkness, malice, ill-will, and all of it directed at Tony, so it has me worried."
"At Tony?! are you sure?" Pepper asks, a little fearful.
Gohan nods. "Positive, and Pepper, I've never felt so much darkness from a normal human before, ever."
"Buh...bah" Goten mumbles, seemingly agreeing with Gohan.
"And you think Goten felt it too? Is that possible?" Pepper asks.
Gohan nods. "I think that might be the case. Goten reacted to Obadiah the same way he did to Broly, and both times he did it before even I noticed."
They both look down at Goten, who is happily splashing around in the tub, oblivious to what Gohan and Pepper are wondering.
"What do you think that means, Gohan?"
"My best guess would be that maybe since our dad was incomparably more powerful –a Super Saiyan even– when he and our mom...you know...'made' Goten-" Gohan stutters, blushing a bit before continuing. "-than he was when they...'made' me. It could mean Goten's potential ability is so high, it's coming out quicker than mine did."
"Is that a good thing?" Pepper asks.
"It could be. He has the potential to be Earth's most powerful protector, and I will need to teach him to control his power for the safety of everyone, but it'll be up to Goten if that's what he wants to do with his life." Gohan declares, thinking back to how that choice was made for him when he was so young.
"It's your choice too you know. While sometimes there may be no other option than for you both to fight, but that doesn't mean it's all you have to be, Gohan, I hope you know that."
"Yeah, thanks, Pepper." Gohan smiles, but then remembering the problem that Tony is currently alone with, he asks, "What do you think Obadiah's problem is with Tony? I thought they were supposed to be friends?"
With a frown, Pepper gives her theory. "Tony's parents were killed in a car wreck when he was still in college, leaving him the sole heir to Stark Industries. But if Tony had been with his parents that night and died along with them, Obadiah would have it all without having to answer to anyone. Maybe he resents Tony for that."
"That's awful, all of that darkness just because he isn't as rich or powerful as he could have been. He's just like Frieza."
"Awful indeed, but unfortunately not uncommon."
"We have to warn Tony." Gohan says.
"You're right, and we will." Pepper agrees. "After Obi leaves."
-Meanwhile-
The men arrive in the kitchen and Tony begins absently looking through the cabinets while Obadiah sits at the table.
"Now Tony, these boys are just here temporarily, right?" Obadiah asks.
"Possibly, Obi, but if me and Pep can't find a good place for them, I don't see the problem in letting them stay here." Tony answers a bit more honestly than he probably should have.
Obadiah levels a murderous glare at Tony for just a moment, but he dials it back when he turns to him. "Son, of course it'll be a problem. If you're spotted with them, the press will have a field day and spread rumors that they're your illegitimate spawn. Do you want that getting around?"
"Honestly, Obi, that'd be the most tame thing those vultures have said about me in a while." Tony counters. "So again, I don't see the problem."
"Tony, don't be ridiculous, just send the urchin to child services and wash your hands of this." Obadiah demands. "It'll be for the best."
Not appreciating how Obadiah referred to the boys, Tony levels a deadly glare at him and lays down the law. "Now listen, Obi, those boys have been through a special kind of Hell, and I won't tolerate anyone talking about them like that! We will try to find a good place for them, but if that doesn't work out, they are welcome here for as long as they want! Got it?"
Obadiah abruptly stands up and practically growls. "Tony, we both know you're the last person who should be taking care of children!"
"That's not true at all!"
Both men turn to find Pepper and Gohan entering the kitchen, Goten in his brother's arms while the older boy continues. "Tony is one of the kindest people I've ever met. He's more than capable of taking care of kids."
Obadiah aims a glare at Gohan which triggers Goten into crying again.
Undeterred, the man storms over to the boys. "Listen, boy, Tony is a very busy man and he can't be wasting time playing babysitter for some random, disrespectful child and a little brat that won't shut up!"
Gohan returns Obadiah's glare with a death stare of his own, freezing the man in his tracks. "Listen, Sir, you can insult me all you want, but I won't tolerate any hostility directed at my friends or my brother. So choose your next words carefully."
Giving in to his rage for a moment, Gohan's eyes flash green, as if about to turn Super Saiyan, but he quickly calms himself down, hoping the man didn't notice.
Obadiah shudders, then quickly composes himself and turns back to Tony. "Well, Son, we can discuss this matter later. I'll go inform the board on your progress with the Jericho."
Without another word, he heads out the front door. (With his tail between his legs.)
"Damn, Kiddo! That was badass!" Tony exclaims, extending his hand out for a high five.
"Thanks, Tony." Gohan replies with a small blush and returns the gesture.
Pepper walks up to Tony and lightly smacks the man on the head.
"Pep!" Tony whines. "What was that for?"
"For cursing in front of the boys." Pepper answers. "Honestly, I'm gonna have to start a swear jar."
"Wonderful idea, Ms. Potts." JARVIS praises. "With that you'd be able to put both of the young sirs through any college of their choice in no time if their stay becomes indefinite."
Instead of snarking in response, Tony just laughs along with Pepper and Gohan at JARVIS' quip.
Remembering Obadiah was now gone, Gohan tells Tony, "I'm sorry to ruin the mood, but Tony, I need to tell you something."
Seeing the tension in the boy, Tony gives him his full attention, "What is it, Kid?"
"That man, Obadiah, when he entered the house, Goten started crying, and it reminded me of when Broly attacked us. So I checked him out myself, and all I could sense from him was pure darkness, malice, ill-will, and all of it was aimed at you."
"What? Obi? I know he can be a huge asshole, but I never thought he..." Tony leaves unfinished.
"I'm sorry, Tony." Gohan apologizes. "I know you saw him as a friend."
"It's not your fault, Gohan, I appreciate the heads up." Tony replies with a distant look.
Goten looks directly at Tony and starts to shift in Gohan's arms, as if trying to get to the man.
"Wuh...yaa." Goten mumbles.
Tony's so lost in thought, he doesn't notice.
Pepper motions for Gohan to bring the baby closer to hopefully cheer Tony up.
Gohan complies with a smile, and when he gets right in front of Tony, Goten starts reaching for Tony's arm.
Coming out of his head, Tony looks down and sees Goten looking him in the eye, mumbling and reaching out to him.
"Heh, I appreciate the sentiment, Monkey. Don't worry, I'm ok." Tony promises the boy, ruffling his hair.
Goten giggles, then wraps his hand around one of Tony's fingers. And at that moment, the towel slips off the boy, revealing his birthday suit.
Everyone starts laughing again and Tony suggests, "You should get this little jaybird into some clothes, best preserve his modesty."
"You got it, we'll be back in a bit." Gohan goes to get his brother dressed.
With the boys out of earshot, Tony asks, "JARVIS, can you double check all home and office files for tampering, copying, and anything else you can think of?"
"Right away, Sir." JARVIS replies.
"What are you thinking, Tony?" Pepper asks.
"If Gohan is right, then I need to see if Obi has done anything he's not supposed to, and keep a close eye on him from now on."
Pepper nods. "Good thinking."
When Gohan arrives with a freshly dressed Goten in tow, JARVIS informs everyone, "I've got grim news, Sir."
"What is it, JARVIS?" Tony asks.
"I have discovered a well hidden program attached to your home security system, and it has recorded all the goings on in the lab."
"Wait, does that mean that?..." Gohan attempts to ask.
Knowing what Gohan was going to ask, Tony numbly nods. "Yeah, Kid, it means he'll see everything that the B.A.R.F recorded from your memories."
"Can't JARVIS erase it before Obadiah checks it?" Pepper frantically asks.
"I'm afraid not, Ms. Potts, without direct access to Mr. Stane's computer I can't get to anything the program recorded." JARVIS replies for Tony.
"Yeah, and I doubt he used his company issued laptop. If he's smart, he'll have it encrypted out the wazoo on a secured private server, so it won't be easy to get to. I don't think we'll be able to stop him from seeing everything about the boys." Tony solemnly adds.
"What should we do, Tony?" Gohan worriedly asks.
Seeing that vulnerable and scared look on Gohan's face looking to him for answers, Tony shoves aside his feelings of betrayal and decides, "For now we'll leave his spyware intact and when in the lab we'll act as if we don't know Obi's crooked, then wait and see how he plays his hand. Though while we do that, Pepper, I want you to look into Obi in any way you can at work, see If there's any trace of what he's up to there."
"You got it, Tony." Pepper replies.
Tony drops a hand on Gohan's shoulder and tries to reassure the boy. "Don't worry, Kiddo, we've got you and the Monkey's backs."
Gohan smiles up at Tony. "Thank you, Tony, Pepper. You're putting yourselves at risk for me and Goten, and even without the problem of trying to figure out if it's possible to find a way for us to get back to where we came from, now there's this. Who knows what Obadiah could do with my memory recordings."
"It'll be ok, we can take whatever that two-faced bastard throws at us." Tony tries to reassure everyone, including himself.
"Tony!" Pepper scolds.
"Right, right, no bad words, sorry, Pepper. JARVIS, create a new program, 'Swear Jar', and put $100 down on it for each time I slip up in front of the young ears."
"Right away, Sir, with this conversation alone were already at $300."
"Now that we've got a plan, what should we do next?" Pepper asks.
"Since we've got the serious business taken care of for the time being, we could get some grub." Tony casually suggests.
"Foo...foo." Goten agrees.
"Well, looks like I got one taker, Pep? Gohan?"
"Sounds great." Gohan chuckles.
"Sure." Pepper agrees.
"Awesome! let's pig out!"
They all head to kitchen to do just that.
-Obadiah's Office-
Obadiah closes his laptop with an intrigued smirk. "Well, Tony my boy, looks like you stumbled upon an interesting pair of golden eggs."