Birth of Ironman Part 4
Chapter 10
Pepper and Happy arrive at Stark Industries H.Q.
"Alright, Happy, stay out here and I'll be back as soon as I can."
"You got it, Pep."
Pepper practically jumps out of the car, sprints into the building, and heads straight for Obadiah's office.
Thankfully, she finds his laptop sitting on his desk. Pepper darts over to the desk and inserts Tony's flash drive.
The drive forces the laptop to turn on and Pepper watches as it combs through Obadiah's hard-drive.
It brings a video file up on the screen, the content of which horrifies Pepper. It's Tony, restrained, battered, and barely conscious with a bunch of armed, masked men surrounding him while one of them is speaking to the camera.
The speech is translated and it confirms their suspicions that it was Obadiah who arranged for Tony to be ambushed and killed during the Jericho demonstration, but the Ten Rings realized who the target was and decided to take him captive instead.
"That bastard!" The video file closes while another one opens, Pepper gasps as Gohan appears on the screen, strapped to a bed with an unconscious Goten on top of him.
"Oh my God!" Pepper shouts when she realizes that this is live footage.
The computer shuts off, Tony's flash drive having copied everything on it. Pepper takes it out and dashes back to the car.
As she gets in, she pulls out the card she got from Coulson and dials the number on it.
"Hello? Agent Coulson? This is Pepper Potts."
"Yes, what can I do for you, Ms. Potts?"
"There is a situation going on and we could really use your assistance."
-Stark Malibu Home-
Tony storms into his house and frantically calls out, "Gohan?! Goten?!"
Unsurprisingly, there is no response.
He wanders to the living room and drops onto the couch, "Shit! Where could he be keeping them?!"
Damn it! Why hadn't he considered the possibility of the boys being taken?! Gohan may be borderline invincible, but he's still a little kid, and Goten is just a baby!
Why couldn't he have taken the smallest of precautions and stitched some trackers into their clothes?!
Tony's pulled out of his self-effacing thoughts by a familiar ring tone. He checks the caller ID and confirms it's Pepper.
When he answers it, "Hello? Tony?" is all he hears Pepper say before her voice is drowned out by a excruciating ringing screeching right into his ears.
His body goes into complete paralysis, Obadiah steps out from behind the couch, plucks his phone out of his hand, and hangs it up.
Tony spots the small device in the man's other hand that's emitting the noise and he immediately recognizes it.
"Easy, easy, breathe." Obadiah calmly instructs as he pushes Tony further down onto the couch.
Obadiah turns off the device and pulls some high tech earplugs out which kept him from suffering the same effects as Tony. "You remember this beauty? It's unfortunate the military passed on these, they have so many applications."
"Wh...where...are...the boys?"
Obadiah laughs. "You and that older brat are becoming very similar. You really need to worry about yourself right now. Don't worry, they're ok, and will stay that way as long as they stay in line."
"H-how?" Tony tries to ask. How could he possibly get the drop on a Saiyan?
Knowing what Tony was going to ask, he gloatingly asks, "How I can keep that super brat of yours under my thumb? Well, thanks to JARVIS' scans of the little one's tail and the talent of my scientists, I'm able to exploit their biology's built in weakness with a drug I call 'S-Suppressor'."
Tony's eyes widen and Obadiah smirks. "You know, when I arranged for you to be killed by those morons during the Jericho demonstration, I never expected you to return."
"But it must have been fate." He continues as he pulls a device from his pocket and uses it to remove the Arc Reactor from Tony's chest.
"Before the golden goose died, it gave me 3 more golden eggs, this little beauty, and those 2 boys who popped up on your doorstep."
Tony starts wheezing, pure agony branching throughout his entire upper body.
"I'm sorry, Son, but you left me no choice. Keeping this and those super weapon kids to yourself. Your father helped create the atomic bomb, where would the world be now if he was as selfish as you were?"
The physical pain is temporarily overshadowed by rage and terror, not being able to move or do anything as this bastard Tony used to think of as family monologues on, but mostly he's terrified for his friends, Pepper, and his boys.
"It's too bad you had to involve Pepper in all this." Obadiah taunts. "I would have preferred her to live."
"Now with you out of the way, I have this little tech marvel and those boys. I can return the world to its natural order, with the U.S at the top. With young Gohan building me an army of those super suits –though they're not going to be as conservative as yours– and leading the charge on the front lines, as long as I keep producing S-Suppressor and have sweet little Goten as leverage, he'll have no choice but to answer to me. I'll have an unbeatable army at my disposal."
Obadiah stands up and walks away, leaving Tony to die without even looking back at him. "Goodbye, Tony."
Tony can only listen as Obadiah steps grow fainter and fainter.
For a moment he thinks it's all over, he's gonna die here. Obadiah is gonna kill Pepper, maybe Rhodey and Happy too, and enslave Gohan and Goten into doing his bidding with no one to help them.
Before the despair can completely consume him, he remembers when he and Gohan made the newer Arc Reactor.
He gave the original he made in the cave with Yinsen to Pepper, telling her she could do whatever with it, claiming he wasn't sentimental and didn't care.
Of course, she'd seen right through him and brought it back a couple days later in a display case with a small plaque that said, 'Proof that Tony Stark has a Heart'.
She also put a picture she'd taken of him, Gohan, and Goten in with it.
It was the three of them asleep together on the couch during a movie night. Gohan's head was resting on Tony's shoulder, Goten was curled up in his lap, and each boy had one of his arms wrapped around them.
It's still down in the lab, so he uses all of his strength to get off the couch and drags himself down there.
He manages to make it to the lab and finds what he's looking for. He stumbles over to the table the display case is sitting on, but trips just before he can reach it.
Tony crawls the rest of the way to the table, and when he gets close enough, he tries to pull it down, but his arms give out from under him and he's unable to reach for it again.
Just as he's starting to fear he really will die before he can stop Obadiah, a few beeps and whirs grab Tony's attention, and he finds DUM-E holding the case in his reach.
"Good boy." Tony praises the bot in gratitude as he takes the case from him and smashes it on the floor to get to the Arc Reactor inside.
-Outside Obadiah's Lair-
After briefly explaining the situation, Pepper meets up with Coulson and a few of his agents, shows them the evidence Tony's flash drive retrieved, and leads them to where she saw Gohan and Goten being held, recognizing it as one of Stark Industries' buildings.
As they were preparing to storm the place, Pepper calls Rhodey, who thankfully is still in town.
"Hello? Pep?"
"Rhodey, you need to head to Tony's house right now. I think Obadiah might have hurt him."
"What?! Ok, I'll head there right now."
The call disconnects and Pepper leads Coulson and the other agents into the building.
-Inside-
Gohan keeps trying to power up, to break through the binds holding him down, but this 'S-Suppressor' is keeping him groggy and barely able to move.
It's infuriating, Obadiah exploited the Saiyans' weakness in a way he'd never thought possible. Gohan had never even considered why the tail being grabbed completely paralyzes the Saiyan it's attached too.
Does the gland that secretes this neurotoxin shrivel up after the tail is grabbed enough times? Is that how Saiyans rid themselves of this weakness? Did Vegeta even know about any of this? (Though if he did, it's not like he would've given out that information, especially since Goten is the only one who still has a tail.)
As Gohan struggles to get free, a door creaks open.
He freezes and calls out, "Who's there?"
"Don't worry, it's just me." Obadiah smugly replies as he comes into view.
Gohan glares at his captor, but his eyes quickly lock on to the Arc Reactor in his hand and all the color leaves his face. "Where did you get that?"
Obadiah flashes a dark smirk. "I think you know where I got this."
"You didn't...y-you couldn't have." Gohan pleads. It can't be! Tony can't be dead!
Before Obadiah can continue to torment the boy, he's interrupted by a stampede of steps storming toward them. "Shit!"
Obadiah runs out of Gohan's line of sight as someone kicks down the door and starts moving aroud inside.
"Hello? Is someone there?" Gohan calls out.
"Gohan?" A familiar voice replies.
"Pepper! Thank goodness! We're over here!"
Gohan listens as several people's footsteps head his way, a wave of relief coming over him when he sees Pepper, Coulson, and several other people behind them approach.
Pepper immediately starts to untie the binds holding him down and pulls the I.V out of his arm. "Gohan! My God, what did that sociopath do to you?!"
Still hardly able to move, but managing to sit up, Gohan explains, "Obadiah was able to do something I didn't realize was possible. He created a compound that forces a Saiyan into the same state of fatigue and powerlessness that having our tails grabbed causes."
Pepper picks Goten up and shifts him to one arm and offers her other arm to Gohan. "Can you walk or do you need help?"
Gohan tries to inch himself off the bed and immediately drops like a bag of bricks, but gets caught by Coulson before he hits the ground.
"Sorry, there's still a lot of that stuff in my system. I'm not sure how long it'll be before I'm back to 100%. Thanks for the help, Mr. Coulson."
Coulson sits Gohan back on the bed, turns his back to him, and crouches down a bit. "Don't mention it. As many questions as I have for you, young man, it's gonna have to wait until Obadiah Stane is apprehended. Climb up and let's get out of here."
Gohan complies, then Coulson, his agents, and Pepper scan around the room for Obadiah.
As they make their way toward the exit, Gohan informs the group, "Obadiah was just here before you came in, he had Tony's Arc Reactor. I'm worried what he might do with it, and that Tony could be seriously hurt."
"I sent Rhodey to the house. So if Tony is hurt, he'll be there any second now and can get him to a hospital." Pepper tries to reassure him. (and herself)
Before Gohan can respond, a loud rumbling echoes through the room, and the next moment, a giant super suit appears and charges at them.
'I didn't think he'd already have a suit built!' "We need to get out of here now!" Gohan orders the group.
The agents cover Coulson and Pepper as they carry Gohan and Goten out of the building, but Obadiah effortlessly tosses them aside one by one as he gives chase.
"What the hell is that?!" Coulson asks.
"Obadiah must have seen Tony's suit somehow and managed to get a version of his own made." Gohan replies.
"Well what can we do against it?"
"Until I recover, all we can do is run."
"Come on, kid, you helped Stark make this thing, right? Then you should know it's weaknesses."
"That's just it, Mr. Coulson. Unless it's another suit wearer or myself, there are no weaknesses. Nothing can stop it."
-Tony's Lab-
Tony managed to install the old Arc Reactor into his chest cavity, but he passed out immediately afterwards.
He starts to come to when a familiar voice shouts in his ear, "Tony?! Tony!"
A hand on his back draws him closer to consciousness.
He jolts awake with a gasp and turns around to see who's in the room with him.
Once he identifies his best friend, Tony sighs in relief and asks, "Rhodey, where are Pepper and the boys? Are they ok?"
"Pepper is ok as far as I know. She's the one who sent me here. I don't know about the boys."
Tony staggers back up to his feet and heads towards the Mark 2. "Well then, I'm gonna have to go find them."
Rhodey is about to protest, wanting to get his friend to a hospital to make sure he's alright, but is stunned into silence as he watches the suit being assembled around Tony. "That is the coolest thing I have ever seen."
"Yeah, it's alright." Tony casually replies as the face plate comes down and he prepares to take off.
"What can I do, Tones?"
Tony turns to face his friend. "Keep the skies clear."
He blasts off and Rhodey turns to leave, but spots a pure silver version of the suit Tony just left in. "Hmm, next time."
Tony is in the sky as he calls Pepper.
"Tony?!"
"It's me, Pep, are you ok? Did you find the boys?"
"Yes, I'm ok, the boys are with me and Agent Coulson. But Tony, Obadiah has completely lost it, and Gohan's barely able to move on his own because of some stuff Obadiah dosed him with!"
JARVIS tracks Pepper through the call, Tony is almost at her location.
He keeps her on the line until he spots her, Goten in her arms, Coulson next to her, carrying Gohan on his back.
The ground near them starts to crack apart.
He watches who he's certain is Obadiah in a giant suit of his own, burst out of the ground and aim one of his arms toward Pepper.
He picks up Obadiah coldly telling her, "Your services will no longer be needed."
Before Obadiah can fire a shot at Pepper, Tony roars, "STANE!!!"
He takes Obadiah's attention away from his family –and Coulson– and charges the man, driving them both through the ground and crashing through a wall.
After a brief struggle, Tony and Obadiah both end up in the middle of a crowded highway.
Obadiah looks around and spots a van –with a woman and children inside– heading right towards them. He grabs the vehicle and lifts it off the road.
Tony can hear the family inside screaming. "Put them down, Obi."
"Stop playing Super Hero, Tony, it's just collateral damage." Obadiah's replies as he readies to toss the vehicle.
Tony diverts most of his suit's remaining power into his Arc Reactor and blasts Obadiah, launching him further back and forcing him to lose his grip on the van.
Tony is able to catch the vehicle before it crashes to the ground, but the woman in the driver's seat is panicking and just floors it when he puts them back on the road, causing Tony to be dragged down the highway with the fleeing family for a little bit.
Just as he gets loose from the van, Obadiah charges at Tony and smacks him with a motorcycle he'd grabbed right out from under its rider, sending Tony crashing into an empty bus.
Obadiah fires several missiles at the bus, the resulting explosion blasting Tony into the air and then crashing into the road.
"Sir, there's only 15% power remaining." JARVIS regrettably informs.
Tony quickly runs through his options for a moment, then decides on a (admittedly desperate) plan. "JARVIS, divert all remaining power into the thrusters and take me to the maximum altitude."
"But, Sir, with that little amount of power, the odds-" JARVIS tries to protest, but Tony cuts him off. "I know the math, J, just do it."
The A.I begrudgingly complies, and Tony takes off into the air.
-Outside Obadiah's Lair-
"Can Tony win against Obadiah?" Coulson asks.
Gohan nods. "Normally, I don't think he'd have much of a problem, but I'm not sure what condition he's in or where he got another miniature Arc Reactor. Obadiah stole the only one we made."
Remembering the one Tony gave her, Pepper asks, "If the only Arc Reactors are the one Obadiah stole and the one Tony gave me that I put in a display case, does that mean he's using the latter?"
Gohan eyes widen. "If he's using the first one he made while in captivity, then he doesn't have much time. It can't sustain his current suit for very long."
Gohan starts to shift in Coulson's hold.
"Kid, what are you doing?" The agent asks as he crouches to put Gohan down.
Gohan manages to stay on his feet, then tries to power up.
As his aura bursts to life Gohan tells them, "I need to go back Tony up."
Pepper steps over to Gohan and places her free hand on his shoulder. "Are you sure, Gohan? There's no telling what kinds of side effects that drug can have on you."
Gohan extends his senses and feels Tony and Obadiah high in the air. He looks up in their direction, then back towards Pepper. "I think it's starting to wear off, so I should be ok. Besides, Tony's Arc Reactor could give out at any second...and I just can't lose anymore family, Pepper. So I'm going to be there this time to help him."
Gohan lets out a battle cry, turns Super Saiyan, then takes off, heading straight towards Tony and Obadiah.
Coulson, even with his eyes blown wide and eyebrows shot up, calmly says to Pepper, "That's one brave boy."
Pepper clutches the still sleeping Goten a little tighter to herself. "Yes, yes he is."
Gohan speeds toward Tony as fast as he can. As he gets closer, he watches Tony ascend higher and higher with Obadiah right under him.
'What's his plan? Is he just trying to keep Obadiah away from civilians? But if that's the case, why go so high up?' Gohan wonders.
He gets his questions answered when he overhears the exchange between the two men after Obadiah grabs Tony's foot.
"No matter how high you go, Tony, I'll be able to follow you!"
"Yeah? How'd you fix the icing problem?"
"Icing problem?" As Obadiah asks that last question, his suit starts freezing over.
Tony breaks free from his grip while Obadiah's suit shuts down and starts to fall.
"I'd get to work on that." Tony quips as he watches the man fall.
Gohan flashsteps over to Obadiah and drives a kick into the man's chest plate, sending him hurtling towards the ground.
He turns to Tony and smirks. "So that was your plan. I didn't see that coming."
"Gohan! Kid, are you ok?"
"Yeah, the S-Suppressor is starting to wear off. I should be back to 100% soon, but what about you? Your older Arc Reactor probably won't last much longer."
Before Tony can answer, his suit shuts down and he falls.
Gohan rushes to his side, catching Tony and keeping him upright as his suit's emergency back-up power kicks in.
"You got a point there, Kiddo, hopefully that parting shot you gave Stane finished this."
"Sorry about that, I should of taken back the Arc Reactor he stole from you. I was so angry at him, I just moved."
Tony shrugs. "Eh, don't worry about it. He had it coming anyway."
Gohan chuckles and brings them back down to rejoin Pepper, Coulson, and Goten.
As they get closer, Tony and Gohan find that Obadiah crashed onto the roof of the building he was holding Gohan and Goten in.
Then to both of their surprise, Obadiah gets back up and fires some missiles at them.
At that moment, a wave of fatigue comes over Gohan, forcing him to drop out of Super Saiyan and making him unable to react.
Tony sees Gohan freeze, so he wraps his arms around the boy and uses himself as a shield to protect him.
The missiles hit their target, and the resulting explosion sends Tony and Gohan crashing down onto the roof with Obadiah.
Somehow still conscious, Tony checks on Gohan. "Kid...are you ok?"
Gohan manages a nod. "I think so, that damn S-Suppressor. I thought it had already run its course.
Tony huffs a laugh. "Uh-oh, looks like I wasn't careful enough with the swearing, it rubbed off on you."
Before Gohan can offer a response to Tony's quip, Obadiah grabs the man and starts trying to crush him with a bear hug.
Obadiah cackles as Tony grunts and struggles to get free while Gohan is still stuck, unable to move. "You know, Tony? It's ironic, in trying to rid the world of weapons, you created it's strongest one, and now I'm going to kill you with it!"
Obadiah's declaration looping in Gohan's mind, he becomes enraged, his eyes flicker back and forth from green to black, sparks discharge from his body, and his hair turns gold, spikes up, and grows longer.
'I AM NOT GOING TO LOSE ANYMORE FAMILY!' Gohan declares to himself as he gets back onto his feet and screams aloud, "PUT HIM DOWN!!!"
A golden aura bursts out from within Gohan and he begins powering up.
Obadiah drops Tony, and aims one of his arms at Gohan. "Did you really think I wouldn't have this suit prepared to fight you if necessary?"
He fires a canister at Gohan that explodes into a cloud of gas.
Certain it's more S-Suppressor, Gohan swings his arm, brewing up a powerful gust that blows the gas away.
Tony looks on in awe, watching as Gohan's hair gets longer and longer and his eyebrows dissappear.
Then he remembers. 'This is what happened to him after his mom was killed. He's going into that new Super Saiyan form again.'
Gohan's aura calms, his transformation finally finished, and in the next instant, he's right in front of Obadiah.
The man tries to launch another shot, but before he can, Gohan shoves his hand through the chest part of his armor, where the Arc Reactor sat, and tears the power source out, ripping the whole front portion of the armor off along with it, causing the suit to lose all power and leaving Obadiah wide open.
In the next moment, Gohan drives his free hand through Obadiah's chest, and as the man coughs up blood, Gohan looks him in the eye and coldly reminds him, "I told you I was gonna kill you the second I had a chance."
Gohan pulls his hand back out of the gaping wound an shoves Obadiah down.
Tony manages to snap himself out of the shock he was in at Gohan's brutal display when he notices Obadiah landing on the skylight right above the giant Arc Reactor in the building.
Not wanting to see Gohan go any further, Tony asks JARVIS, "J, is the building and the surrounding area empty?"
JARVIS immediately answers, "Yes, Sir, the agents inside evacuated with Agent Coulson, Ms. Potts, and Young Sir Goten, and the surrounding area is clear of civilians as well."
Getting the confirmation he was hoping for, Tony fires a repulsor blast at the glass supporting Obadiah.
When it shatters, and the man starts to fall, Tony taps into his Ki and dashes over to Gohan.
He grabs the boy by the arm, uses his free hand to fire another blast at the reactor inside the building, then uses a bit more of his Ki to blast off the roof, taking Gohan with him as the building explodes behind them.