"Sometimes you remind me of my father. You are more like him. Are you an old man in the skin of a teenager?" Tony said. Those words made Liam a bit surprised, but then again, it was the truth.
Liam only rolled his eyes in response. Tony got to work almost immediately after he got the Forge, and at the start, with the help of JARVIS, he tried understanding the Forge itself. Thankfully, Yinsen came in an hour, and, suffice to say, he was dumbfounded.
He thought his life as a linguist was over, but once he saw a completely different language, he dove deep into it. However, he could tell that trying to understand it would take time, but nonetheless, he also thanked Liam for allowing him to study such deep knowledge. Deciphering this would help them a lot.
Chris and Bonnie left for home early, while Liam was asked to stay back by Fury himself, as he wanted to talk to him in person. Fury didn't immediately show up, though. But two days after the announcement of Iron Mage, as predicted by Liam, Tony got a Senate hearing to attend. And what was even more surprising was that Liam, too, was called into this hearing.
Along with Rhodes, Liam was asked to be present and give his statement.
"The government wants to force a minor to speak in a Senate hearing? Wow! How low can they go?"
Liam, who had just received the letter, didn't like it at all. He knew who was behind this—that senator who worked for Hydra. He was silent for a long time.
"Tony, I want you to do me a favor."
"It must be something important if you want my help. Shoot," Tony said. Liam's statement piqued Yinsen's interest, too, because he had never seen Liam ask for help. It had always been him giving away help like free cookies.
Though Tony had helped him with money, both of them knew that Liam would be able to earn money if he really wanted to.
"I want you to go through the blueprint of Camp Lehigh and then come up with some device that will isolate all signals, both wired and wireless, that are being fed to the bunkers," Liam said.
This put question marks over the heads of Tony and Yinsen.
"Camp Lehigh... Camp Lehigh... Where have I heard that name... Where... Oh yes... Captain America... Dad... What do you want from that dusty old military camp?" Tony asked. Yinsen was still confused, though. Camp Lehigh, New Jersey, was the place where Steve Rogers was in the army for a brief period before he was chosen to become Captain America.
But this was also the place where Zola's main computer was located.
Since Hydra had decided to strike, he would strike at their vulnerable points. Didn't they like to snatch things? He would snatch their most important asset and make it a useless piece of code.
"You will know soon. Just make an EMP or something of that sort so that we can infiltrate," Liam said.
"Why do we need to infiltrate? There is nothing there anyway," Tony was still trying to figure out what was happening.
"No. This is serious, Tony. Some people need to be taught a lesson, and this is the time," Liam said.
"Alright. You are the boss here," Tony said.
The next day
Fury and Phil showed up at the Stark Mansion.
"You are a pain in the ass, Stark," Fury said.
"I will take that as a thank you," Tony replied.
"Quite the show you two put on at the Expo—flying robots, lightning storms, and a guy getting evaporated by a plasma glaive. You boys making my job easy or hard?" Fury said calmly.
"You know me. I live to keep things interesting," Tony smirked.
"That's one word for it. Another word is reckless. You think I wanted to wake up to reports of 'Iron Mage' running around, frying bad guys like some medieval wizard in power armor?" Fury didn't so much as blink.
"Hey, I didn't come up with the name. Blame the people."
"And you. You show up out of nowhere, introduce technology that doesn't exist, and then refuse to explain how or where it came from. You think that sits well with me?" Fury turned his gaze to Liam.
"You're asking questions I'm not answering," Liam replied, not bothered by the intimidation at all.
"That so?" Fury clenched his jaw.
"That's so," Liam said.
"And that's my cue," Tony smirked. "What he said. He's the supplier, I'm the user, and that's all you're getting. No blueprints, no trade secrets, no 'where did these come from' lectures. Just accept that they work."
"Fine. Keep your secrets. But that doesn't mean I'm done with either of you." Fury reached into his coat and pulled out two slim dossiers. One was handwritten, and the other had the SHIELD logo.
"Considered for the Avengers Initiative?"
"Not interested," Liam replied.
"You two can play coy all you want. But when the time comes, you'll want to be on the right side of this," Fury said as he got up to leave while leaving Coulson alone with them.
"Why aren't you leaving with the boss?" Tony asked as he saw Coulson not leaving.
"I will be stationed somewhere else for some time. There has been an incident in New Mexico, so I will be there until my mission ends," Coulson said.
"Oh... Then good luck and hope to never see you again?" Tony said.
"Tony Stark and Liam Woodworth, though the Director never said it, SHIELD is thankful for saving the lives of the people and also putting an end to those who posed harm to humanity. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you, and we are also sorry for forcing you both to do something that we have been assigned to do," Coulson said. This was a genuine apology from him. No wonder Tony and Rogers went mad after his death.
He was a good guy.