’Shocking news story here at Stark Industries Corporate Headquarters in Los Angeles. Tony Stark has announced that the armored hero, Iron Man, is a product and employee of Stark Industries. Calling for an end of hostilities in Transia, where Iron Men have been sighted. Warning those using the suits that if they don’t cease their activities there will be swift retribution, the state department has yet to release an official statement on this however our sources say…’
As Tony walked through the double doors he nodded to the Iron Man suit, which continued to walk out. Completely ignorant to the dumbfounded looks on Peppers and Obadiah's face, once clear of any obstructions it launched. He couldn’t help but smirk at that the looks on their faces.
“Alright, who’s first?” Tony looked between the two of them. They both looked at eachother, not entirely sure who was going to go first.
“Well come on then. Spit it out.” Pepper put her head down, shaking it as multiple phones in her pocket started to ring, walking out of earshot Tony looked directly at Obadiah.
“Well. I guess it’s going to be you then.”Obadiah just started to laugh, pulling a cigar out of his pocket and into his mouth. Chewing the tip slightly as he placed it in his mouth he withdrew a lighter from one of his other pockets, lighting the cigar. All the while shaking his head and chuckling to himself. It was only after he had blown out the first cloud of smoke that he stopped laughing.
“I thought we promised no more of this ready, fire, aim business?”“Well, I’ve promised a lot of things. I promised Sandy Graceman in Year 10 that she was my first.”Obadiah shook his head as he placed a hand on Tonys shoulder.
“You know, when you came back from that hell hole near Gulmira. You had me seriously worried when you shut down the weapons division of Stark Industries.” He looked over to where the suit was walking out of the door and flying away.
“Then you unveil this? Five years later.” He chuckled.
“I’m not sure if I want to give you a hug, or a slap.”“Well, there were some, minor, hiccups in the earlier development phases. The Mark Six so far hasn’t had any real kinks or issues. A testament to my genius.“So, when do we sell the designs to shield I think we could charge several million per unit-” Tony held up his hand, ducking back from Obadiahs attempt to put his arm around Tony's shoulders.
“We’re not selling the Iron Man technology. That belongs to me, I’m selling them the most advanced technology known to man in order to counter extreme threats. I’m not arming them.” “Tony, this Iron Man suit. That’s what they’re going to be wanting. R&D are going to be drooling to get their hands on it, all kinds of upgrades they’re going to want to make. You can’t just keep this technology to yourself.”
“That’s funny, because I’m pretty sure that’s what I’ve been doing for the past five years. I revealed the technology to let the people perverting it know that I’m going to be sending Iron Man after them. Not so that I could create a bigger problem than there already is.”“The board can always file a motion to get the designs-”“They can sure try. They’ll have an issue though when I funded, constructed and built the suit all at home. They’ve got no right to it.”“Tony…” Obadiah may have never been his actual father, but he made a good attempt at the Dad voice.
“No Obadiah. I’ve proven this company can make money without producing weapons. The Iron Man suit is a way of cleaning up the mess that we’ve caused all over the world. It’s a way of saying we’re not going to accept this abuse of technology anymore.”“The board will file a motion.”“Let them. I’ll rise to the challenge, I always do. How many times has the board tried to kick me out? I’ve lost count of how many times, and it’s still my name on the side of the building.”Obadiah shook his head, sighing. Kicking the cigar onto the ground and stomping it out.
“That it is. Listen Tony, we’re a team. Talk to me about these things first, we’ll come up with a plan of attack and then strike. You don’t need to do it alone.”Tony sighed, a grin crossing his face.
“On the note of going it alone. I’m going on a yacht trip with a group of people, and by people I mean ladies. I met them at a party last week. They’ve never been sailing before so I thought, there’s no time like the present.” He flashed a smile as turned around to walk backwards through the door.
“You’ve got this right? Yeah. You’ve got this. I’ll see you in a week. I won’t need longer than that.” He flashed a wink at the balding man.
“You know what I mean, you old dog.”Tony walked out of the building sighing, pulling his cellphone out of his pocket and dialing the only living person who knew about his alter ego.
“Rhodey, yeah it’s me. I need a favour, meet me at the house.” Tony slid his cellphone back into his pocket and placed a button on his wristwatch. There was a beeping noise as a car silently draw up before him, red with a gold trim around the edge decorating the car. In hindsight he kind of judged the media for not figuring out his connection to Iron Man earlier. He kept their lives secret but at the same time he wasn’t entirely subtle. One of the main benefits he had was the fact that his personality was such where people couldn’t believe he was the one in the suit. Little did they know how much the cave, and building the suit of armour, had reborn him.
As the car approached the door raised, letting him climb into the driver seat.
“Good afternoon Mr.Stark. I hope my performance during the demonstration was adequate.” The electronic, decidedly English, voice of JARVIS came through the cars speakers. Like all the Iron Man suits JARVIS’ AI construct was inbuilt to his car, and thankfully he was better at driving his car than he was at flying the suit.
Placing his foot on the accelerator, left foot down on the clutch he revved the engine.
“You did good Jarvis, I would have given it a little bit more flair but then that’s just me.”“I’m sorry Sir. You have yet to update my showboating subroutines.”Tony chuckled. Smartass A.I.
“Shall I drive?”“No. I’ve got this.”
The car whirled into the drive of the Malibu mansion, built on top of a cliff. A beautiful house by any standards. As the car drifted silently down into the drive Tony noticed the large black pickup truck sitting in the guest bay. Rhodey was already here, and probably waiting. Which meant that he was probably going to be agitated, and when he was agitated he became a pain in the ass. He sighed as he walked over to a random part of the garage floor, a blue light appeared scanning him before the floor opened allowing him to walk down into the cliff below the house.
Tony walked in on Rhodey walking between suits, prototypes and former models. Currently he was holding a briefcase, as if trying to figure out why it was in one of the pods that held the suits.
“You might want to be careful with that, I don’t think your boss would cover the cost if you broke it, and I’m pretty sure your salary wouldn’t.” Rhodey put the case back in the pod.
“Yeah he’s a real jackass. Always keeps me waiting around for him, I wouldn’t recommend working for him.” Tony smirked. He could always trust Rhodey to give as good as he got. The two shook hands, pulling each other in close with a one armed hug.
“Thanks for coming.”Rhodey just shrugged.
“Well, when the CEO of the company you work for calls, you typically have to turn up-” he then signalled around the room.
“-Especially when that CEO is Tony Stark, and Iron Man.”Tony chuckled as he moved through the workshop.
“Yes well, that Iron Man part is a secret so if you could do me a favour and not go around saying that I’d really appreciate it. I’d hate to file a lawsuit against you.”“So what’s the favour Tony? I may not be a genius but I’m smart enough to know you’re going to Trasnia, and I support it. These Iron Men are causing a lot of damage, they need to be stopped before the entire country becomes a mass grave. The problem is, you can’t go. The CEO of a major tech company, who sells technology to Shield, isn’t going to get into a veritable hot zone of civil unrest and extremist activity. You’re going to be in enough trouble with Iron Man going in. The D.O.D has already been on the phone to Pepper, me and Stane. Declaring they’ll have you subpoenaed for any and all information on Iron Man if he’s seen anywhere near Trasnia. You can’t have any involvement in this.” Rhodey walked right up behind Tony, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder. Before freezing at what he saw right in front of him.
“What the hell is that?”It looked Rhodey right in the eye, without Tony as such as moving or giving any form of verbal command, it’s face identical to that of his best friend. Albeit missing a little bit of the charismatic Stark charm.
“Greetings Mr.Rhodes. I am LMD#4459. You may call me Mr.Stark, or Tony.” Tony turned back to him and smirked.
“It’s a life model decoy. I worked with some shield eggheads years ago. They found some kind of technology years ago, and they came to be to reverse engineer it. Shields struggled with the programming, can’t get them to do much more than stand and walk. I tend to be smarter than most people though and, voila. It’s not perfect though, it wouldn’t fool someone that would know me but-” Tony pulled out his cellphone, keying in details of the planned week away and slid it over to Rhodey.
“-Thankfully only one person there will know me. How about it Rhodey, can the boss bribe his way into your good books with promise of a holiday with some gorgeous women?”“You’re sending me on a yacht weekend-” Tony nodded
“-with a group of gorgeous women-” Tony nodded again, a smirk across his face.
“-and your body double?”“It’s flawless! You’ll have all ingoing and outgoing records of any communication, and we’ll be in international waters so they can’t easily come subpoena me. By the time we get back, I’ll have convinced Shield that this was a good thing and to not put me in prison. If not-” Tony shrugged.
“-I’m probably the smartest man alive so I’ll figure something out.”Rhodey shrugged.
“I’m not so sure, I always felt that Lex Luthor would one up you. I mean he did build his company from scratch.” Tony moved his hand over his chest, placing it over the miniature arc reactor embedded in his chest. His face a mix between horror and disgust.
“You wound me sir. To think, should I die the company goes to you in my will-”“Tony…” Tony held up his hand to stop it, his voice still holding the tone of fake disdain.
“No more sir. Pepper gets the house, the company and the kids.” Rhodey signed, hanging his head in shame, before looking up at Tony with a grin on his face.
“So when does my dream vacation start?” Tony smirked back as he walked over to the Mark 7, giving it a tap on the shoulder, it’s head lifted as its eyes started to glow a light blue. Power building within the suit.
“Right now.” He turned to the LMD version of himself.
“Grab your coat Tony, you’re going on holiday.”The LMD smiled, a smile that didn’t quite light up it’s eyes the way a normal humans would.
“I can’t wait, thanks me.”Rhodey shook his head.
“That’s just plain weird.”
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