I am Iron Man
On the screen of a television, a press conference was being streamed live. Rhodey was standing at the podium, the same one from which Tony had delivered his fateful company turnaround statement after Afghanistan.
“Oh this is beautiful.” grinned Tony. Rhodey sighed, shaking his head fondly.
"You've all received the official statement of what occurred at Stark Industries last night," Rhodey was saying. "There have been unconfirmed reports that a robotic prototype malfunctioned and caused damage to the Reactor. Fortunately, a member of Tony Stark's personal staff. . ."
“I always knew you made up your own personal staff.” Bruce teased, Tony smirked at him. His attitude returning now the damage was over.
But the view was now moving outward, and the viewers could see that the television was behind a couch where Tony was currently sitting reading a newspaper and being attended to by Pepper. The headline ran, Who is the Iron Man? and there was a picture of Tony's Mk III that somebody had taken during the street fight the night before.
“That’s where the name came from.” realized Steve. Tony nodded.
“Gold Titanium Alloy Man didn’t have the same kind of ring to it, so I decided against pushing for it to be changed.” At Tony’s commented Peter choked back a chuckle.
"Iron Man," said Tony experimentally. "That's kind of catchy. It's got a nice ring to it. I mean, it's not technically accurate, the Suit's a gold-titanium al-loy -" he winced as Pepper pulled a bandage off the bridge of his nose. "- but it's kind of evocative - the imagery, anyway."
“You don’t change.” snickered Brunnhilde.
"Here's your alibi," said Phil Coulson, who was standing nearby, and he handed Tony a set of blue cards.
“Oh, Coulson.” sighed Natasha fondly. “As if Tony would ever listen to the alibi.”
"Okay," said Tony as he took them.
"You were on your yacht," said Coulson.
“Believable,” commented Scott, smiling slightly.
"Yeah," said Tony absently as he read the cards.
"We have port papers that put you in Avalon all night," said Coulson. "and sworn statements from fifty of your guests."
“Damn, The government works fast.” whistled Quill.
“SHIELD was good at that.” grimaced Clint, thinking of SHIELD’s fall.
"See," said Tony. "I was thinking maybe we could say it was just, ah, just Pepper and me alone on the island." He looked impishly up at Pepper.
Bruce scoffed.
“Real smooth.”
Pepper pulled another bandage rather severely, with a smile that said "don't you even think about it", and began applying makeup to cover the scars.
“These Terrans have almost as much unresolved sexual tension as you and Gamora,” Drax observed to Quill, making Gamora glare at him.
"That's what happened," said Coulson.
"All right," said Tony, looking back down at the cards.
"Just read it word for word," said Coulson.
Tony frowned. "There's nothing about Stane here."
"That's being handled," said Coulson. "He's on vacation. Small aircraft have such a poor safety record."
Tony narrowed his eyes. Stane deserved his entire reputation ruined, not to be remembered as a rich guy who died in a plane accident.
"But what about the whole cover story that it's a bodyguard?" Tony clearly wasn't having any of it. "I mean, that's kind of flimsy, don't you think?"
“Definitely flimsy,” Rhodey said seriously. “Tony is far too arrogant to admit he needs a bodyguard.” Tony rolled his eyes as several people chuckled.
"This isn't my first rodeo, Mr Stark," said Coulson. "Just stick to the official statement and soon this will all be behind you."
“That was clearly never going to happen.” Vision commented smoothly.
“Thanks for all your faith guys,” Tony said sarcastically.
Pepper finished making Tony up and smoothed her hair behind her ear.
"You've got ninety seconds," said Coulson, and he turned to go.
Pepper hurried after him and stopped him at the door. "Oh, Agent Coulson," she said. "I just wanted to say, thank you very much for all of your help."
"That's what we do," said Coulson. "You'll be hearing from us."
"From the Strategic Homeland Interven-" began Pepper arching her eyebrows.
"Just call us SHIELD," said Coulson, and for a moment his impassive smile seemed more genuine as he turned and walked away.
“Did it really take them that long to think of the acronym?” Scott laughed.
“I think it was for dramatic effect.” Sam grinned.
“Sounds like Coulson,” Clint smirked.
"Right!" said Pepper, and she trotted over to pick up Tony's suit-jacket. "Let's get this show on the road."
"You know, actually, it's not that bad," said Tony, getting up. "Even I don't think I'm Iron Man."
“Like that’s ever going to happen.” Rhodey snickered.
“Can you go one second without commenting on my ego?” Tony rolled his eyes.
“Well, it is quite distracting,” Stephen replied for Rhodey, without even looking away from the screen.
“Yes.” Tony grinned at Rhodey. “Thank you.”
“I was commenting on your ego. Not Colonel Rhodes’ comments.” Stephen corrected. Rhodey burst out laughing at the highly offended look on Tony’s face.
"You're not Iron Man," said Pepper, helping Tony into the jacket.
"Am so!" said Tony, gripping the cards between his teeth as he got his arms into the sleeves.
"You're not!" said Pepper.
“That argument didn’t at all continue on the podium,” Bruce muttered.
"All right, suit yourself," said Tony. "You know, if I were Iron Man, I'd have this girlfriend who knew my true identity - she'd be a wreck, 'cause she'd always be worrying that I was going to die," he pulled the cards out of his mouth and turned around. "yet so proud of the man I'd become. She'd be wildly conflicted, which would only make her more -" he cleared his throat as Pepper straightened a folded square of silk in his buttonhole. "- crazy about me - tell me you never think about that night."
“How long does it take you to hook up.” groaned Rocket.
“Far too long.” sighed Rhodey. “It was cute at first, but after the first several years it got tiring.”
"What night?" asked Pepper.
"You know," said Tony.
Onscreen Pepper looked up into his face for the first time. "Are you talking about - the night that we danced?" she asked. "And went up on the roof, and then you - went downstairs to buy me a drink and left me there by myself? Is that the night you're talking about?"
“Interesting topic to bring up,” Shuri smirked.
"Mm-hm," said Tony, deflating visibly.
"Thought so," said Pepper, straightening his jacket.
There was about an instant's silence during which onscreen Tony's eyes rolled up and away from Pepper's face.
"Will that be all, Mr Stark?" said Pepper.
"That will be all, Ms Potts," said Tony at the same moment, and he left in rather a hurry.
"And now, Mr Stark has prepared a statement," said Rhodey down in the conference room, and then as the reporters began to pipe up he added, "He will not be taking any questions. Thank you."
“Didn’t stop them did it?” Tony whispered to Rhodey who glanced unamused at his friend.
Rhodey stood aside, and Tony came up to the microphone. "Uh. . ." he trailed off, clearly a bit out of balance. "... been a while since I was in front of you, I figured I'll just stick with the cards this time."
“Biggest lie ever told.”
The press people all chuckled.
Tony cleared his throat, and Pepper watched the live stream from upstairs.
"There's been speculation," Tony began. "that I was involved in the events on the freeway and on the rooftop -"
"I'm sorry Mr Stark," broke in an all-too-familiar voice. “But do you honestly expect us to believe that that was a bodyguard in a suit that conveniently appeared, despite the fact that you -"
“God, not her again.” groaned Brunnhilde.
“She is truly manipulative.” Thor agreed, he looked unconsciously at Loki as he said manipulative. Loki noticed.
“Yes brother, you discovered my evil plan. I go around, disguising myself as a reporter to specifically get arrogant do-gooders to reveal their secret identities as superheroes.” Loki scoffed at Thor who looked slightly awkward.
"I know that it's confusing," said Tony, making a face. "It is one thing for you to question the official story, and another thing entirely to make wild accusations or insinuate that I'm a superhero -"
Christine smirked. "I never said you were a superhero," she said.
“Uh oh.”
"You didn't," Tony backtracked. "Well good, because that would be outlandish and, uh, fantastic -" he looked back down, and Christine arched her eyebrows sceptically.
“Oh Tony.” sighed Rhodey tiredly.
"I'm just not the hero type, clearly," said Tony. "with this, uh, laundry list of character defects, all the mistakes I've made, largely public. . ."
“Way to convince yourself.” chuckled Sam.
Rhodey put his mouth to Tony's ear. "Stick to the cards, man," he whispered. Tony nodded.
"Yeah, okay, yeah," said Tony, seeming for a moment to pull it together and holding up the cards to look at them again. "Truth is. . ." He looked up, and his face went completely blank.
Everyone who knew about the next statement held their breath as the room’s tension grew.
"I am Iron Man."
“Beautiful!” cried out Clint, bursting into laughter.
“You are such a child sometimes.” Natasha smiled at her partner.
“Why would you do that though?” Scott asked, genuinely curious. “What about protecting people close to you?”
“Well, I am Tony Stark, so there is a target on my back and everyone close to me’s back anyway and I didn’t need the extra stress of a secret identity.” Tony grimaced.
Your life is so stressful right now Wanda thought bitterly.
Instantly the press conference room was in an uproar and every reporter sprang to his or her feet - all except, of course, for Christine Everhart.
Tony almost smiled for a moment, and then the screen went dark.
“So then it must be over?” Tony clapped his hands and was about to stand up.
But then the screen lit up again, and it opened on Tony's lounge as he came in. "JARVIS!" he called.
"Welcome home, sir," said JARVIS, but something seemed to be wrong with him, and his voice distorted oddly on the sir.
The tension returned for those who didn’t know what was happening.
Tony walked forward a step or two and halted. Behind the couch, in the shadows of the room, stood a tall figure wrapped in something dark.
“Oh, Nick.” Natasha realized immediately.
"I am Iron Man," said the familiar voice. "You think you're the only superhero in the world?"
“At the moment you were.” Rhodey nodded.
The shadowed form of the former director of SHIELD turned to the large window. "Mr Stark, you've become part of a bigger universe. You just don't know it yet."
"Who the hell are you?" asked Tony.
The stranger came forward into the lamplight, which gleamed on a long black trench coat and a black eye patch. "Nick Fury, director of SHIELD," he said.
Those who didn’t know nodded in understanding.
"I'm here," said Nick Fury. "to talk to you about the Avenger Initiative."
“And so it began,” Natasha stated calmly.