Tony understood, knew and practised one old wisdom perfectly. A boss should only do some things himself and be able to set and distribute tasks correctly. So it was Potts and the departments she had formed that took care of the work with the mobiles, flyers, speeders, phones and glasses that had already been presented. Dr Octavius, Benner and a few other little-known but talented assistants and lab assistants with the design department took over the new reactor. However, the station and periphery still had to be built to the reactor. Stark's arc reactor and high-capacity batteries were the starting point, and in addition, Tony shared his and the proteans' knowledge of nuclear power with the Wakandians and his stockpiles of vibrantium, vibranium and adamantium sheets. The project was of little interest to Stark because he already had a more efficient, cheaper, safer magical analogue. But, alas, it could not be sold, so he was aware of the development and mostly gave advice.
Tony's main interest was the serum project led by Betty Ross, Helena Cho, and Hank McCoy and joined a little later by Dr Connors. The big challenge was not to get them all together but to get them to work together without pandering to each other or trying to take credit for all the achievements. However, a rather tough but highly-paid contract, some critical perception-reducing charms, and a general drinking binge had helped, and things had gone from bad to worse. In addition, Stark suggested using Parker as an assistant in his spare time, to which Connors and the others suggested several other talented candidates. Yes, the project was secret, but they could be entrusted with dismantling individual genes, monitoring equipment and some calculations, for example, plus some experience that would help in the future.
So poor Peter had to do research in addition to translation, litigation, studies and suffering in training with a beautiful but unexpectedly strong and cruel Valkyrie. If not for the increased stamina and the possibility of getting three hours of sleep, he would not have been able to endure such a regime. But he did not refuse, realising that there might not be a chance to work with several luminaries of science on such an interesting project, which also involved the changes that had happened to him. However, the idyll was shattered instantly when Stark's house was attacked again...
- Mr Stark, - spoke the electronic voice of Jarvis when Tony looked at the complex structure of another mutant X-gen and did not understand how some curl could allow to control electromagnetic fields, become invisible or pass through walls.
The bank of samples Xavier had provided was truly vast. Tony was coming around to the idea that gene X was not the cause but the effect, and it was all about a change in the soul causing a change in the body. Or gene X is like some kind of key to the universe, unlocking which one can get any ability. But so far, it was clear that nothing was clear. Magical methods of diagnosis showed the existence of all mutants, Me or the so-called superstructure of the soul. And he also showed its rudiments. But what is primary - superstructures or genes, is still being determined as they appear simultaneously. It seemed that someone powerful had performed a ritual or exposed mankind to some kind of radiation, giving birth to the rudiments of Me and inactive parts of the X gene in some parts of it. The latter was confirmed by the fact that Stark had acquired them through irradiation by the Magneto machine. He'd never had anything like that before.
- Master! We have five unidentified helicopters approaching us from the ocean. They're flying at 15 metres above the water. They're not responding.
- Activate the Home Alone system, and release the suits!
The good thing about copying charms is that you can create hundreds or thousands of identical original copies. The main thing is that the sample to be copied is not an enchanted or magical artefact - in that case, the magical "stuffing" is simply not copied. But with technical devices, it is optional. Thus, unique and extremely complex devices can be replicated in almost any quantity without compromising their functions. Stark used a similar method in his machine factories, even though they used matrices. But that doesn't mean he stopped there. The Mark-IV suit, albeit without enchantments but modified and free of the "childhood diseases" of the second and third versions, was replicated in quantities of thirty pieces. They were the ones who, under Jarvis's control, helped people when Stark's direct presence was optional. In fact, they also helped him create an alibi that he was not Iron Man by using them when he appeared in public. In addition, remembering the attack of the Wakandians, who did pay retribution for their joint, he had reworked and strengthened his defence system. That's why Jarvis suspected something wrong with the help of radar even a couple of dozen kilometres away.
Helicopters and private planes are not uncommon in this area - the rich, influential and famous people live here. But such a purposeful movement spoke of possible problems, as did the pilots' need for more response. At that moment, the house was being closed off with vibrantium shutters, the false bollards rising upwards, revealing rune-enhanced railguns and laser and plasma turrets hidden in the turrets. Identical Jarvis-controlled Iron Man suits and flying turrets flew out of the many hitherto hidden passageways lurking in the optical spectrum. Had Stark completed his force shield project, he would have covered the building with it. But, alas, there were many other things to do. However, he had finished the detection and fortification charms, so destroying his house would take a lot of work. Fidelius didn't impose only for one reason - he had to have an official residence. It would be strange if no one could find his house, including business partners or the same Shield. Tony changed into his armoured suit and told Jarvis to put him on speakerphone.
- Unidentified vessels, you are on private property! Turn around or be destroyed! - Stark said.
His response was the extension of the helicopters' inboard doors, to which the launchers were attached.
- Well, say hello on the other side. I warned you. Jarvis, fire!
The missiles that flew out didn't even make it halfway but were shot down by a laser missile defence system that was once created by an alien warlike galactic empire that had been at war for most of its existence. So it's like shooting a modern tank with an onion. And after another tenth of a second, the plasma charges literally vaporised the helicopters into a molecular suspension, as not even debris remained due to the extreme heat of the ionised gas.
- Damn, we should have left someone alive. We didn't even find out who it was," Stark said aloud.
He didn't care much about the murder. He was beginning to treat it not as a horrible crime but as an unpleasant thing that needed to be done. He'd been attacked and definitely been tried, so there was no time or inclination to reflex. He'd been through that long ago in the caves of Afghanistan, etched into him the realisation that some people weren't worth pitying. They wouldn't pity him. Jarvis's next words, however, made him forget that oversight as well.
- Mr Stark, Miss Pepper Potts has been attacked by unknown assailants!
Without even listening, Stark teleported to the woman's beacon, which was the present locket.
- ...She was protected by Lady Sif. Yeah, why listen to stupid Jarvis," the AI added at the end.
- Pepper? - Stark showed up at the cafe, which was located in the Stark Tower of New York.
Still, everyone needs to eat, including the employees. There were discounts and free lunches for them, but it also welcomed private diners. And that's exactly what the attackers took advantage of, scattered in varying degrees of integrity throughout the dilapidated room. Of the twenty tables, only three were relatively intact. And in the middle of all this bedlam, covered in blood, stood Sif, sword in hand and wearing the Iron Man costume he'd given her. Behind her, on the floor, was Pepper.
- Tony! - Potts exclaimed and was about to rise, but Sif stopped her, keeping her blade up.
Stark had to roll up his helmet and show his face because the bodyguard was very zealous in her duties, and Jarvis might not have believed her. "And that was a good thing," Tony thought. There could be no overdoing it in protecting his Pepper. No longer preventing the reunion of the lovers, Sif, keeping her guard up, reported what had happened. However, Stark was already watching with the edge of his eye the video footage of the cameras inside the cafe and the suit itself.
Pepper had gone to the café for lunch as usual. The woman saw nothing wrong in eating with everyone else, especially since it was a good way to discuss various topics and take a break from work. Following her, unseen, was Sif. Everything happened suddenly. Men and women with visible military poise and clarity in numbers of ten attacked Potts. They struck to kill. Except they hadn't expected two things. The artefact covered her with a shield, and Sif, fearing to increase the number of wounded and dead civilians, used a sword that was made in the likeness of Stark's but in the more familiar Asgardian form of a gladius. That's why so much blood was around - it cut the human body better than a hot knife cuts butter. After hearing the rest of the story, Tony nodded and, without letting go of Pepper, collected the bodies, casting stasis and soul-restraint charms on them. He would resurrect these bastards, interrogate them, and, if he didn't like the answers, slowly finish them off and interrogate them again. Tony was rarely ever truly pissed off. He wasn't angry, even at the morons who attacked his house. But attacking someone he cared about... That was a big mistake. Stark wasn't kidding when he said that someone was bound to die if he was serious.
***
As it turned out later, the assassination attempts weren't the only attacks. Manufacturing and not-so-secret labs were also attacked, repelled by Stark's suits. Still, not everywhere, so there was irreparable loss of life and destruction. The perpetrators' goal was clear - to kill Stark, Pepper, the scientific staff and the production. The resurrected Mexican and Eastern European mercenaries were mere executors who did not know the customer, and all payments were made anonymously and in cryptocurrency. In fact, the police have flung up their hands at this. It is impossible to identify the customer, but "we will try to find him, Mr Stark". Tony nodded and thought in the style of a film character: "The police will never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity." Though he was wrong to sneer at them, the police were limited to one state, so the FBI would probably take over the case, but by then any remaining tails would probably be cleaned up. Which Stark wasn't happy about. To hell with the money and reputational damage. They'd attacked his employees and, most importantly, Pepper! And he wasn't going to forgive that.
The police had to be dealt with first, and he'd had a lot of help from the Shield. Stark himself had helped them enough not to be indebted to them. Tony had nothing to show for it - the helicopters were destroyed, and Sif was not to be charged, as she was in the Iron Man costume. As well as from the suits that protected other objects. Stark was a hypocrite here because he told Peter about the vigilante justice and impunity of anonymous heroes. Still, at the same time, he was quick to use it to do things that were not quite legal and quite illegal. However, Tony was covered by the international secret service and the most powerful artificial intelligence on the planet, so he was not afraid of public disclosure; it was just that it was more convenient for him. However, time had to be spent on damage assessment, sorting out the priority problems, and speaking to the media. For which Tony spoke publicly:
- Hello, ladies and gentlemen. You are probably thinking, what will the eccentric billionaire say now? Will he talk about the launch of a new device or exhibition? But, alas, no. The reason for my speech is tragic," Tony Stark paused.
He was speaking from the podium of the exhibition hall, but this time there were only members of the press, invited employees and relatives of the wounded and dead.
- The terrorists, who remain unknown, have attacked me, important people in the company and our production facilities. The cost of the damage is great, but that is not my concern right now. Forty-three employees of our company were killed today, and more than a hundred others were severely injured. Many people think that people are just a resource. But I'll tell you that the most valuable capital is people. People are everything! Every human life is not a number in statistics; it is someone else's life, just like yours. Today someone is without a brother, sister, father, mother, son, daughter, lover or friend. As a person who lost both parents in the disaster, I realise that no amount of compensation, no words of mine, will quench the pain or fill the void in your heart. It will not bring your loved ones back to you.
Tony couldn't do everything. When he did, he was able to heal and resurrect the dead. But somewhere, the souls just flew away to be reborn. It showed Stark once again that magic is not all-powerful.
- But I swear," Tony's voice, always jovial and sarcastic, suddenly became hard and steely, "the deaths of your kin will not go unpunished! I swear that all those responsible will be found and punished! That is my promise to you, Tony Stark.
- Mr Stark, won't the police be handling this case? What did you mean by that? - asked an elderly journalist with a "CNN" badge.
- I said what I wanted to say," Tony replied grimly. - If you'll excuse me, I still have to sign the compensation papers for the victims' families.
- Wait, tell me more about what happened! How many were injured, and how much damage did you suffer! - the girl with the CBS badge asked.
- I deeply respect those who bring the truth to the viewers," Stark replied with a smile that turned into a grin. - And I also hate those who savour tragedies. All the official data is on the Stark Industries website. The dates for the start of the mourning period are also written there, goodbye.
Stark is gone. He loved the glory but didn't love those rats who thought they were journalistic sharks. However, there was no other way. Wait to give Tony any information; it will just be made up. Or even worse, unknown customers would have thrown in disinformation, taking advantage of his silence. Fortunately, he wasn't wasting any time. Jarvis searched for signs of payment being made to the mercenaries. The money had been wired from various offshore accounts through several banks with a cryptocurrency transfer. But that would work against the police and even many intelligence agencies. But not against AI. Nothing disappears without a trace, and Jarvis was like following a trail of breadcrumbs to the customer. So far, only the middlemen had been found, and they were already waiting for him in stasis for questioning. So straight from the flyer, he apparated home, beginning the unpleasant but necessary interrogation business. The confound us-imperio combination broke almost every one. Cruciatus was only required once when Stark had broken one veteran with an unusually strong will.
In the end, the customer was two companies at once: ExxonMobil, the largest oil and gas company in the United States, and GM, the giant of the automotive industry. The reason? With the latter, it's already clear, with its almost eternal subscription-based flyers, mobiles and speeders, it literally shot them in the foot. After all, what's the point of buying a car every few years, spending on petrol and maintenance that gets more expensive every year, if you can just rent a Starkmobile? And suppose users have yet to get used to it and fully appreciate it. In that case, the heads of companies immediately identify the risk for themselves. What can we say about him if they were sticking their necks out to smaller companies and inventors for less? It was GM that staged an attack on manufacturing to delay production and try to push legislation in Congress to ban autopiloted vehicles. They needed to buy time.
But it was ExxonMobil that targeted him and Pepper. And that's why it was more difficult to understand why. The point was that the military had leaked information about the reactors Stark was developing, the characteristics of which he had sent them beforehand. Because what's the point of making them if the military isn't interested? The oil giant, of course, realised that it would smell like a big, stinking dick if Stark decided to mass produce them. Who would need oil, then, except for plastics and lubricants?
Tony had yet to find out whether they'd come to an agreement between them or whether it was just a coincidence. It didn't matter, though. It was a war in which the opponents themselves refused to compete fairly. But Stark was no fool. He realised that a banal and primitive murder would not only have no effect on the company's policy but would also cast suspicion on himself. However, he had already punished the perpetrators by placing an irrevocable curse on them through an artefact, which would cause them to rot alive from a rapidly progressing cancer in a month. And no amount of money can help them. As for the fight, Tony did something different.
- Jarvis, I need GM and ExxonMobil's stock to gradually fall, their accounts and databases to be hacked, their servers to go down, and the Internet to start an information war against them. Bring up all the dirty secrets you can find. Let their competitors, the police and the FBI pick them apart.
- That could make Shields suspicious.
- Suspicion can't be used as evidence. Now, listen to me. I want our fusion reactor division to get a jump on this. We'll build a working prototype and power New York City. Offer a discounted order for it to Shield. Let them help us with licensing in return because, with this kind of opposition, we won't even get permission to build and sell it to legal entities in twenty years," Stark continued to ponder.
It was challenging to take down the Giants. Not only did they have a strong lobby in the government, but the government itself would not allow such important corporations to be destroyed.
- We're going to have many problems," Jarvis said after analysing the situation.
- We don't have problems, Jarvis. We have a WAR! And in this war, it's either them or us. We had more time, and the big players wouldn't use such drastic methods. They've decided to preemptively fix the problem. So we're gonna have to step up our game, too. Tell Pepper to order the existing foreign affiliates to promote our new devices and open new ones. I don't care if it's bribery or threats, but our mobilisers must squeeze out at least a third of the classic internal combustion cars and bring the oil price down to $10 a barrel. Let him offer first to Latveria through Victor von Doom.
- Other players will also start to act with a 97 per cent probability.
- It will only be a long agony. Just as the internal combustion engine once displaced horses, we will displace the internal combustion engine. And as for safety... It's time to turn our magic copier on full blast. Can you handle a thousand robots?
- I can handle a hundred times that many," the AI replied in HK-47's voice. - Shall we take over the leather bag world, master?
- Exactly, Jarvis. Exactly.