Stark Industries Factory, Los Angeles-
-June 30, 2009, 2000h local-
"Sir, we're down to fifteen percent power." JARVIS reminded.
"I know! I know!" Tony replied, before using the last of his flares to get out of Stane's grip. "Wtf, man! You're just going to sit up there!?" He shouted through the comms.
"Yup! Clean up your own mess. I told you to toss him out of the company and be done with it." Naruto retorted. Tony just grumbled back. Naruto was currently on top of a Roxxon building two blocks away, watching the fight between the armored suit and the giant man. "Having a good day?"
"Considering that my men and I just had to outrun that behemoth, I'll just say that it has been a typical workday..." Coulson answered. Naruto picked him up right after he gave his men orders. "I could've used a heads up that there was a goliath in there."
"I thought you knew! How could SHIELD not know!? You guys were tailing the dude for at least a month, and you had no idea what he was doing. What a spy agency." Naruto commented.
Coulson didn't even try to counter Naruto's argument. SHIELD was widely regarded as the best spy and paramilitary force to ever grace the surface of the Earth. They pride themselves in always being ready to deal with a wide variety of circumstances. To achieve this level of preparedness, they gather as much information on everyone as possible. That was why he was so irked when they were caught unaware by the mass of steel. He would make sure that somebody will get fired by that massive oversight.
"Though to be fair, I didn't expect Stane to build something so huge. His scientists must have encountered problems with making a suit, so they just made him a mech instead." Naruto added while staring at the monstrosity that Stane was wearing, or more like piloting.
The goliath was around 25 feet high and maybe weighing 5 tons. Naruto used his Shinigan to study Stane's armor, and he was not really surprised by what he saw. Two miniguns for each arm, anti-tank guns, and a couple of missiles. Just basing on what he can see, the armor was powerful af. It was basically a walking tank. He wouldn't say it straight to Tony's face, but he lowkey thought that Stane's armor was fantastic.
Tony's 6'2", red and gold armor practically looked like a midget compared to Stane's. Tony couldn't take a solid hit from Stane since he was unsure if his armor could take the punishment. The one advantage he had over the goliath was that he was faster and more agile. The bulkiness of the monstrosity prevented it from making any motion without doing some form of windup.
Tony couldn't do anything but do hit and run attacks to the joints and exposed parts of Stane's armor, but it looked like he couldn't keep it up for long since his arc reactor was running out of juice.
"He's slowing down. I need to call in some backup. Fury will blow a gasket if he finds out that the golden boy died." Coulson said while pulling out his phone.
"Don't you mean furious?" Naruto replied with a chuckle to which Coulson was thoroughly unimpressed. "Call for backup but don't let them help him for now."
"Care to tell me the reason why?" Coulson asked while staring at Naruto incredulously.
"Cause you still need some Avengers candidate, and this is Tony's hero moment. The first avenger and the ex-merchant of death in the same team. Highly volatile, but it could work." Naruto explained.
"He could die." Coulson retorted.
"He won't, but Tony doesn't need to know that." Naruto argued.
Coulson released a sigh and relayed Naruto's 'request' to the backup team. The duo could see a team working their way towards the SI factory while making sure to stay away from the fighting 'knights.'
It looks like the backup wouldn't have any use for now since Tony decided to do something new, boosting straight up towards the stratosphere. Stane didn't disappoint, though since panels around the goliath's leg opened up, and this opened revealing powerful rockets that propelled the massive construct upward. The rockets left behind a crater, showing evidence of just how powerful they were.
"Damn, look at them go..." Naruto stated, genuinely impressed with what was happening. "Wait here a second. I need to pick up Pepper. I got a feeling that they're going to kick it up a notch if Tony's plan fails." He explained before disappearing.
Coulson ignored Naruto's sudden disappearance since he had already seen it so many times before. He had to agree with Naruto's statement. Desperation can make a man do a whole lot of stupid, and Stane would most likely be desperate after whatever Tony is planning. After a few seconds, Naruto reappeared on the roof with a disoriented Pepper.
"Ugh. I have to agree with Tony. I'm not too fond of your teleportation thingy..." Pepper said while trying to hold back her lunch. It only took a few moments before the redhead's temper flared up. "What are you doing here with Phil just watching Tony fight that thing!?"
Coulson subtly moved back to get away from the redhead's target. He had a lot of experience of dealing with angry redheads since he had a close working relationship with Nat. But it looked like Naruto was not afraid of Pepper, or he just didn't have any sense of self-preservation.
"First of all, it's Hiraishin and not teleportation thingy..." Naruto retorted half-jokingly before getting a lot more serious. "And as for us not doing anything, it's because of the fact that it is not our fight. He needs to do it himself. It's better for him to work it out on his own. Especially in a safe, controlled environment like this."
"Safe and controlled environment! You call this safe and controlled?" Pepper retorted while pointing to the rising Tony and Stane.
"Oh yeah, definitely. SHIELD is here to control the environment while I'm here to make sure that he won't die. See, safe and controlled environment..." Naruto answered calmly, but Pepper was still pissed off and unconvinced. "Just watch. He's not going to die today..." He added. "Where's Morgan, by the way?"
Pepper took a series of deep breaths until she calmed down enough.
"She's with Happy in the safehouse." Pepper replied.
"What happened anyway? I haven't checked on Tony for a week, and the next thing I know, Tony got his chest piece removed and was on the verge of dying. Good thing he had a Hiraishin tattoo on him." Naruto asked. Coulson listened in on the conversation trying to get something that he could report.
"JARVIS reported a separate archive that he couldn't access in Obi computer. Tony couldn't precisely walk towards Stane's office without getting mobbed on the way there..." Pepper started. "I got definitive proof of everything that Obi has done. Backdoor selling, skewed contracts, and the ten rings 'renegotiating' their deal with him..." She said with a sneer. "I saw Phil on my way out and brought him to deal with Obi's monstrosity before it got started. We just got there too late."
"And none of you tried to call me?" Naruto replied sarcastically before they heard something huge dropping near the SI factory. "Don't worry. That's just Stane. I thought that was going to take him out."
Tony was on the rooftop, catching his breath. He was down to six percent power. Just enough to keep the suit from turning into a statue. He walked over towards where Obi dropped. As expected, the ceiling couldn't take the force of the behemoth dropping from 35 thousand feet. Stane just punched three floors into the basement. He peeked through the hole and saw something alarming. Stane's massive suit was nowhere to be found, and the breaking sound under him was not a good sign.
A massive metal hand broke through under him and wrapped around his body, effectively trapping him. Tony's suit was groaning due to the force of the grip. Stane worked his way up the rooftop.
The goliath had dents, scratches, and missing parts. Most notably, the missing helmet. Tony could see Obi's bruised and bleeding face.
"That wasn't very nice, Tony." Obi wheezed out, referring to letting him drop from high up. He only managed to survive by forcibly opening up the air brakes, slowing him just enough not to die.
"Well, leaving me to die on my own wasn't nice either..." Tony retorted with his usual attitude while thinking of how to get out of the situation. He looked around and saw the only viable plan given the circumstances. He disabled the external speakers. "JARVIS, overload the arc reactor and push the discharge to the rooftop." He ordered. JARVIS could take over any system connected to the central server ever since he had been uploaded into the Stark Industries system.
"Are you sure, sir? It might kill you, sir. It would also cause massive damage to the factory and take it out of operation for at least three months." JARVIS asked for confirmation.
"Just do it. I'll die now if I don't do anything." Tony retorted. He could already hear the external plating bend.
"Alright, sir. Fifteen seconds from discharge." JARVIS informed Tony while placing a countdown timer at the heads up display.
Tony reoriented his hand so that the repulsors on his palm are aimed towards Obi's face or somewhere close to it. He fired the repulsors, which missed Obi's head but just enough to startle him and get out of his grip. Tony created some distance and fired his unibeam straight towards Obi's face. This caused Obi to stumble backward, right into the path of the arc reactor.
"5... 4... 3... 2... 1." Tony counted down.
When the countdown reached 0, a beam of blue light fired up into the sky, enveloping Stane in a wave of energy. From a distance, Naruto could see everything that was happening to Stane. Weirdly enough, his armor was the first one to go. His armor slowly melted before disintegrating. The same thing happened with Stane himself; the flesh started melting, but it quickly charred before disintegrating.
"Well, he's dead..." Naruto informed Pepper and Coulson nonchalantly. "We should go back down."
Pepper felt so much lighter. She knew it was terrible to be thankful that Obi was finally dead, but it' was either him or Tony, and she would always choose Tony to live.
Naruto grabbed hold of Pepper and Coulson before using Hiraishin. They reappeared just in front of Tony, who was lying flat on his back with his faceplate open.
Pepper immediately ran towards Tony and knelt beside him, checking for any injuries visible on his face. She started stroking his cheek, but he still didn't open his eyes. She raised Tony's head and laid him on her lap.
"How much power you got left?" Naruto asked.
"0.5%. I already disconnected my suit, so I'll just be lying here until it recharges back to 5%." Tony replied without looking at anyone. He was too tired to do anything else.
"All right. How long is that anyway?" Naruto asked again.
"Maybe twenty minutes, at least." Tony replied.
"Damn. Ok. Coulson and I are going to give you two some privacy while we clean up some of this..." Naruto stated before walking towards the rooftop access with Coulson behind him. "How are you going to sweep this all under the rug?"
"With a mess this huge, we don't sweep this under the rug. We just redirect the public's attention to something else while making a bigger mess to cover up this one..." Coulson answered, already thinking about which plan would work the best for the current situation. It looked like they would need to use their celebrity contacts to create some sort of scandal for them to get by. "I'll call for a cleanup crew. We need to clear some debris and tag some tech to make sure no one gets a hold of it."
"You do that. I'm on guard duty." Naruto said before disappearing, leaving Coulson on the staircase alone.
-Stark Industries Office, Los Angeles-
-July 1, 2009, 1000h local-
Naruto was currently walking towards the side room, wearing his 'bodyguard' disguise. That was where Tony, Pepper, and Morgan were staying while waiting for the start of the press conference. He had no idea what plan Coulson decided to use, but he was sure that it would go off the rails. He heard talking as he got close to the door.
"... just follow the script I gave you, and we'll take care of the rest..." Naruto heard Coulson say before the door suddenly opened. "Mr. Umber." Coulson greeted Naruto using his pseudonym before walking away.
"Can't even stay around and chat a bit, huh..." Naruto mused to himself before walking inside the room and closing the door. "What's up?" He greeted the family. Tony was reading some cue cards that were probably given to him by Coulson while Pepper was fixing up Tony's suit. Morgan quickly jumped off the couch and ran towards Naruto. He quickly picked her up and carried her. "You're getting big, princess." He said to Morgan.
"Can you believe it? They're calling me Iron man. The suit is not even made of iron. It's a titanium gold alloy composite with carbon lamination..." Tony complained before quickly changing his mind. "You know what. I kind of like it. It's catchy."
"You should have heard what they're calling Stane... Iron Monger or Iron Goliath." Naruto countered.
"Why not Iron Giant?" Pepper interjected.
"Cause there's already a movie about Iron Giant, and he's a good guy." Naruto answered.
Pepper looked at her phone on the table when it lit up.
"Everything's ready. We should go." Pepper told Tony.
"All right. Just let me take this." Tony replied. He took a bottle of soda before leaving.
Naruto followed the couple towards the main hall. He was going to stay some ways back while still carrying Morgan, just to prevent her from running around and getting mobbed.
Ten minutes later.
"Do it... Do it... Come on, do it." Naruto whispered repeatedly.
"Don't do it... Don't do it." Coulson countered repeatedly.
The pair were standing at the back of the room, looking over the press conference. One might ask what they were talking about, and there was one simple answer, Tony hesitating on reading the cue cards that Coulson gave him.
"I am Iron Man." Tony stated, causing all the reporters to go wild. Naruto laughed hard, since he was right that something like this would happen.
"Why can't anything be easy?" Coulson mused.
-Stark Mansion, Malibu, Los Angeles-
-July 1, 2009, 2300h local-
Tony was with Pepper on the bed, who was already asleep. They had a really long day, and he had no one to blame it on but himself. The press were like piranhas, doing anything for a nibble of a story. He was about to fall asleep when JARVIS spoke up.
"Sir, there's someone in the living room." JARVIS informed Tony.
Tony quickly got up and reached for a thirteen round taser gun. He thought about calling Naruto, but he could just call him if he can't handle it.
"Does he look hostile?" Tony asked while loading up the taser gun.
"It doesn't look like it, sir." JARVIS replied.
Tony walked out of the room and slowly worked his way towards the living room. When he reached the living room, he saw a silhouette of a man, facing the panoramic windows. He hid the gun behind him and walked towards the man but made sure to keep his distance.
"I am Iron Man..." The man started. "You think you're the only superhero? Mr. Stark, you just became part of a bigger universe, but you just don't know it yet..." He added. "As if dealing with gamma radiation saturated scientists, enhanced individuals, and aliens are not enough. Now I have to deal with a spoiled billionaire who doesn't work well with others and likes to keep all his toys to himself."
"Who the hell are you?" Tony asked a little threateningly.
The man walked into the light with a confident stride, revealing a bald African-American man with an eye patch on his left eye and wearing an all-black tactical suit covered by a black trench coat.
"Nick Fury. Director of SHIELD..." Fury introduced himself with a subtle smirk. "I'm here to talk to you about the Avenger's Initiative."
"Set an appointment. I'll be available in three months." Tony retorted sarcastically.
"The Avenger's Initiative is something I thought up. Gathering the best the world has to offer and set them up to deal with things the world is not prepared to deal with..." Fury ignored Tony's quip. "The world's first and last line of defense."
"Who else is on this team of yours?"
"No one yet, but I've got some prospects..." Fury replied. "I'm here because a common acquaintance of ours recommended you. Although I still would've scouted you without the recommendation."
"It's Naruto, isn't it?" Tony asked, 99% sure of the answer.
"Him and Coulson..." Fury answered while walking towards the door.
"There's a file packet on the dining room table. Take a look at it. I'll contact you sometime in the future." He said before walking out of the mansion.
Tony walked towards the dining room and saw a thin file folder on the table. He picked it up and scanned through it. There was just one thing he realized as he was reading through it.
"What the hell did I get myself into."