The Initiative Reserves #1: Earth's Mightiest Hero- Iron Man

The Initiative Reserves #1
Earth's Mightiest Hero
IRON MAN

A world of his own making surrounded Tony Stark. His workshop, crafted by his hand or at least under his direction. He felt more at home here than he did anywhere else in his mansion. It was practically a bunker with concrete walls and floors. Wide, open, it featured a few of the sportscars he retained for appearances sake and because sharing one of his suits was not as sexy or intimate as it sounded. Lots of smells involved. Sweat too. Now he'd be the first to admit depending on the circumstances, that could be considered a good thing but not when trapped inside his armors.

A ramp led up to the surface directly outside the mansion on the far end. A ninety percent unbreakable glass polymer spanned just under a quarter of another wall. It kept the rest of his home, allowing only those who had been granted access into his not-so-secret-sanctum inside, at bay. Stairs leading up could be glimpsed through the holograms of live news playing over its surface. Seven armors, his first made many years ago and serving as the archetypes for what was to come, flanked the glass, ranging from the restored Mk I that had freed him from a living hell and opened his eyes to his first variable suit to a suit that had actually lasted for more than a year. Machines, tools, pieces of tech and armor littered the rest of the area. Not the cleanest workshop. Only a deranged mind had one of those. Like one that lived in a cave. What mattered most was keeping the center, right here where he sat, free of debris. That and his desk –

Tony glanced at his desk, grimacing. One of his latest armors, gutted, lay atop it. Yet another stealth prototype. Why did they always give him the most trouble?

He spun on his stool, acting the child despite his sinisterly handsome, distinguished appearance. Flecks of gray littered his hair including the closely trimmed goatee and mustache that had at some point become his signature look. His world spun with him. Planting his feet firmly on the ground, it all stopped.

The hologram of his current project filled his vision. Bulkier than he preferred but that was part of the design. There would be layers upon layers. It'd make an onion look simple by comparison. There would be no easy way to tear him out of it. No sir.

He smiled.

His ears caught the sound of a door opening.

"End program," he muttered under his breath.

His world vanished, leaving behind only the stool he sat on. Concrete was replaced by carpet. His wall of armors, a couch. The glass door, well that was still a series of news programs. What would have been a cot that he usually slept on if he had to stumble to a bed for sleep back home if it hadn't been hidden behind everything else was now a king-size bed. Unmade of course.

"You're back early," he said with a smile to the leggy redhead who brought with her the most glorious of gifts. Breakfast. "Shouldn't you be, oh, I don't know, overseeing the last bits of preparation for the Expo?"

"Yeaaah, I have people for that." Pepper Potts the undeniable rock in (and love of) his life. The one woman in the world who loved him (most of the time) despite his rather noticeable character flaws. She planted a kiss on the top of his head, keeping the plate just out of reach. "What about you? I didn't expect you up for another hour."

"This and that."

"Tony."

"Stuff, for the Expo. Obviously."

Pepper's blue eyes pierced his soul. Or if Tony was more honest, saw through his bullshit. Her shoulders rose beneath her pale blouse in a long suffering sigh. "J.A.R.V.I.S.?"

"J.A.R.V.I.S. don't – "

The workshop popped back into existence. Including the project he'd prefer her not to find out about. It was a perfect real-time representation of their home back in Malibu.

"Shouldn't have – "

"Shouldn't have given me permission," Pepper finished for him. She pushed Tony out of the way so she could get a better look. Thankfully, it gave him the perfect opportunity to snatch the plate of bacon and toast out of her grasp. "The Flashbuster Armor, really? Are you still angry he stole your colors?"

He stopped in midbite. "Do you remember what happened last year when someone used one of my armors against him? He – "

"He dismantled it in less than three seconds. I know." She scrolled through the specs. Some that had been pioneered during the developmental days of his Arctic and Inferno Armors. "What Rogue did you add this time?"

Tony smiled, keeping his mouth shut, and finally took a bite out of his breakfast. He promptly spat it back out, gagging in disgust. That was not bacon.

"What the hell was that?"

"A bacon alternative one of Sunderland's subsidiaries is debuting this year. It's supposed to be healthy for you."

"Healthy?" He asked incredulously.

"The doctor told you to watch your cholesterol."

"My-my cholesterol?" He stood up, planting the plate down on his seat. "I don't have to worry about my cholesterol. I don't have to worry about anything and you know why – "

"I'm sure you're going to tell me."

" – because of this," he tapped the miniaturized next generation Arc Reactor implanted in his bare chest. "I took care of the shrapnel. Got rid of it. For you, I might add, and remember what happened?"

"You had a heart attack."

"I had a heart attack. With this thing, my heart will keep going for a thousand lifetimes. I'll be dead and buried but my ticker will keep on ticking."

"I don't think that's how heart disease works."

"Did you build it?' He didn't wait for an answer. Instead he whirled around and snapped his fingers. "Friday!" a skeletal figure stepped into their fake world before another hologram glimmered to life around it. "I want you to go to the nearest concession stand and buy me a hotdog with the works. After that, I want a burger. Just ketchup. If I find a single pickle on there, I'm replacing you with Dum-E."

"Would you like cheese?" the android asked, its voice feminine and featuring a slight accent.

"Would I like cheese? Of course. Who doesn't want cheese on their burger?"

"I'd imagine those who are lactose intolerant don't, boss."

"They want cheese. They just can't have it. Now go. I want breakfast."

Pepper watched the artificial assistant go, a look of unease flashing across her face. J.A.R.V.I.S., Tony's ever-present confidant or conscience depending on the situation, read the mood enough to drop the hologram of their home once more, allowing her to find the edge of the bed to sit down. Ah. He replayed their – okay his – conversation in his head. Might have gone a bit far there.

His fingers scratched at his beard to buy himself some time. Friday had been built during a difficult period in their relationship. A byproduct of many of his personality flaws. An idea he thought was good one under the influence of one too many bottles and countless shots. He built them a daughter. When that hologram popped up, she looked at default like he had imagined any girls of theirs might appear. Twenty-something, short red hair, freckled with an arrogant grin and snarky personality reminiscent of his own. Eventually, he simply repurposed Friday as his assistant full time but had never got around to redesigning her appearance.

"Sorry…"

A long poignant pause awaited him. Long enough for him to settle onto the bed beside her.

"Do you still think Iron Man will be your greatest legacy?" She asked quietly.

"Why? Have you changed your mind?"

She leaned in close, her nails scratching against his skin before tapping the reactor. "You don't need this. You don't need Iron Man. They're just suits. And until you remember that, again, the answer is a solid maybe."

He really wanted to correct her about not needing the reactor. He wasn't entirely confident or comfortable with the thought of undergoing major reconstructive surgery again. And it helped to always have a backup power supply for his armors.

"You need to put on a shirt. You're nearly fifty. Nobody wants to see that." She said playfully, nevertheless giving him a kiss to take his breath away. She pushed him down on the bed. Remarkable contrast to the answer she gave.

"That's exactly my point. I'm getting up there in age and you're –" self-preservation and a painful bite to his shoulder silenced him. "You're still gorgeous with a healthy set of child bearing hips on you."

It was that moment with her fingers buried in his hair and his pulling her shirt free from her skirt that the most despicable of things happened. They were interrupted. In the midst of their reconciliation over a not-quite-disagreement, a distinguished British voice had the courtesy to cough. A delightfully realistic personality trait that Tony had not put into the coding.

"Excuse me, Miss Potts," J.A.R.V.I.S. began quite cordially, "there seems to be a disruption in the park."

"See," Pepper bit his lower lip. "Do you really want children when we already have J.A.R.V.I.S. for times like these?"

"I always saw him as more a weird English uncle."

"That was your butler, sir."

"What is it, J.A.R.V.I.S.?"

A hologram appeared in the center of the room. It took only a moment of inspection to realize it was a live feed from Friday's visual sensors. The android was shepherding people to safety while observing a figure in cybernetic armor sending his hot dog stand flying with a single swing of a glowing staff. A booted foot smashed a bun beneath it.

"Friday, activate all defensive subroutines and keep those people out of danger."

"Already on it, Boss."

"J.A.R.V.I.S. deploy the Iron Legion to – "

"I am afraid that is not possible."

"What? Why?" Pepper shot Tony a look, already tucking her blouse back in.

"They're on joint maneuvers with SHIELD and the Air Force," he answered sheepishly.

"They're supposed to be on security detail here!"

Tony allowed her that anger. Not pointing out that it was always better for that one eyed bastard to owe him for the times he might not always follow the law. "Well, I thought that it was better for the economy if we hired locally." He grinned and put on his best redneck accent. "Stop them damn robots from stealing our jobs."

He deserved the roll of her eyes.

"Speaking of locally, we're in Queens. Let the kid handle it. He's ready for the big leagues. We let him do that, you and I can resume where we – "

"Tony…"

"Right. I'll suit up. Just remember, you asked for this. Mixed messages and all that. You want me to stop but when push comes to shove…"

Iron Man landed in a crouch that for once did not leave a crater behind. It was his Expo and a part of him cared about mitigating the damage. This feeling was not shared by the intruder now that he had let loose all his pent-up aggression on concession stands, trash cans, lights, and anything else that was in his way.

"Nuh uh," Tony raised both his armored hands, repulsors whining up. "I am not going to pay damages for the Unisphere again."

The figure stared at Tony. At least he assumed he was being stared at. The man had a helmet with eyes more a feature than an application on it. The trespasser turned away from Tony and kept on walking in a different direction. A second later he broke out into a run that was far faster than a normal human could move.

"Well, that's just rude. What do you have for me, J.A.R.V.I.S.?" His voice remained confined within his own helmet.

"He appears to be an augmented mutant, sir."

His HUD zeroed in on what his sensors detected as the power supply for the cybernetic suit. It was a circular protrusion from out of his back beneath two injection ports with a giant X slashed across it.

"Well, at least he's proud of it."

The suit itself was basic, relatively compared Tony's, in design. Simple enhancements to already enhanced speed, strength, and durability. Tactical body armor if he had to guess with a couple of upgrades based on his professional opinion. Shades of blacks and grays did that. On the other hand, a skull-like visage painted onto the helmet and glowing red bits made blending into the night a tad difficult. Then there was the staff he carried. There was nothing like it in the database. An unknown metal. Alien? Certainly was a strong possibility. It glowed scarlet as well, covered in various symbols and sigils. Definite possibility.

"The injector ports contain a highly potent sedative. Or rather, one of them does. According to Friday's readings, the other is an unstable steroid that does not appear in any known record."

"Huh. Uppers and downers. Somebody's watching."

In red (more red than most of his past armors because he'd be damned if some guy in Central City made him change his iconic color scheme) and gold armor that covered every inch of his skin in segmented plates, Tony took off flying after the intruder, tackling him to the ground just as he made it to the Hall of Armors. Dozens of past, present, and future Iron Man suits stood on display along the wall of the circular building. Screens above them showed them in action or the specs. Each and every single one of them was fake. He'd never be dumb enough bring the real suits out of the Armory for this. The specs were mostly real though. Didn't hurt to lie just a little.

The mutant threw him off, sending him crashing into the ceiling. That was some super strength Tony thought as he fell back down and did leave a crater, momentarily stunned in surprise. The staff smashed through glasses and displays. He was more interested in destruction than fighting. Tony would have to do something about that. His armored glove closed around the fancy magic stick, stopping it in its tracks before it could break one of Tony's earlier suits that focused on pile drivers for more impactful punches.

Iron Man would not be moved.

At least not until he heard the hiss of one of those injectors. The staff glowed brighter and Tony found himself flying over the man's head, making yet another crater in the concrete.

His HUD died as he felt a bit of his breath leaving his chest. Moving within his armor suddenly became more difficult, less intuitive as he failed to pick himself back off the ground. His operating system was down.

"J.A.R.V.I.S.?"

Silence. Okay… That shouldn't have been possible. Not from this level of damage.

"Damn it." Tony slapped his arm, sending a rocket punch into the mutant's backside. Fingers that didn't want to work failed to pull out an emergency drive from his watch. "Damn it." Another rocket punch to send the stick of destiny sliding across the floor. Both hands free, he grabbed the micro drive and inserted it into an access port under his helmet. "AIDA?'

"Greetings, Mr. Stark, how may I help you today?"

"Return my gloves for a start."

"Certainly."

The armor moved with ease once more and the second his hands were protected again, a repulsor blast sent the stick flying into wall and by into, he really meant it. It buried itself in the wall until the red glow vanished. The mutant took one look at Stark. One look at the staff and with a burst of speed was still brought to the ground by Iron Man's tackle a second time.

A cord extended from his gauntlet and he plugged himself into the cybernetic armor as he kept the mutant pinned. AIDA quickly – not as quickly as J.A.R.V.I.S. but this wasn't exactly in her job description – overcame the firewalls and security it possessed. He ordered a release of that highly potent sedative into the mutant's system.

"Go to sleep."

The reaction was immediate.

He stopped moving, stopped thrashing. He was out.

"AIDA, query J.A.R.V.I.S."

"Query is nonresponsive."

"Okay…Query anything on the home network."

"Dum-E reports that there is a second intruder at your mansion."

His beautiful baby boy. Might just be time to bring him out of the corner of shame.

"How would you like to go for a flight?"

"I find that most agreeable, Mr. Stark."

"Open up a line to Pepper… Pepper, honey, get Fury down here for a pick up. Make sure it's SHIELD. If the DMC get ahold of this guy, there's no telling when I'll be able to get my hands back on him."

"Wait, why? Tony, what's going on?"

"There's an unexpected guest back home."

Boots blasting him into the air, Iron Man took flight with his new operating system in the passenger seat.