Stark Expo, Queens, New York City-
-May 7, 2010, 2300h local-
"How far are we from DC?" Tony asked he received the subpoena from the US Marshall.
"Two hundred fifty miles." Happy answered.
Tony revved up his new Audi Spyder and driving off.
"Well, let's try to make it in three hours or less." Tony replied.
Stark Expo has gotten off without a hitch. Twenty percent of the 100 billion dollar investment has already been recuperated on the opening night alone. It's projected that they would have a total income of at least five hundred billion dollars. The open show policy has really increased their profit margin since even their rivals like Hammer Industries can rent a pavilion for their products.
The opening ceremony has also gained them some significant media traction. Even more than they already have. Tony decided to go with the flashiest entrance aka, dropping to a fully choreographed performance from a C130 fifteen thousand feet high in his Ironman suit. Pepper was not thrilled with all the scantily clad women dancing around him, but she understood the 'necessity.'
Speaking of Pepper, Tony had been giving larger and larger responsibility in the company to her. Just in case the worst thing happened to him. He could feel the Palladium poisoning already slowing him down, and he's running out of elements to test from Hydrogen to Lawrencium and every alloy in between. Nothing could substitute for Palladium. It's the perfect balance of radiation and power output. Perfect if not for the heavy metal poisoning.
Tony has already looked into having the shrapnel surgically removed, but even the best surgeon only gave him only ten percent survival. He's not about to risk leaving his family to a ten percent chance. He could, of course, ask Naruto for any weird chakra voodoo stuff to help him but only as a last resort.
They were driving for around twenty minutes when Happy noticed a car following them. Not very discreet too, since it was a dark orange, Lamborghini.
"Tony, we got a tail." Happy stated while pointing behind them.
Tony looked at the rearview mirror and but he can't see through the darkened windshield.
"A Lambo? Who the hell would tail someone in a Lambo..." Tony let out. "Isn't it better to use a shitty old car?"
"Can a shitty old car catch up with your new car?" Happy countered.
Tony took a left turn at the next intersection. Then another left. Then another left. Then another left. Basically, a typical manoeuvre for identifying tails and it confirmed that the Lambo is following them. He was going to call a security detail when his phone rang first.
"Hello?" Tony answered automatically without looking at the name.
"Why the fuck are you circling?" Tony heard Naruto reply. This obviously surprised both Happy and Tony.
"Somebody's following Happy and I."
"That's me, stupid. I'm your tail..." Naruto answered with a hint on annoyance. "I heard about the subpoena from the senate."
"Ok, so why are you coming?" Happy asked.
"Added security and as your lawyer."
"Security I can get, but a lawyer?" Tony inquired.
"Of course, a lawyer. You smartass are going to face a Senate hearing with no lawyer. They're going to use your ego back you into a corner to get the suit."
Naruto's statement silenced Tony. He's well aware of all his faults, including his ego. How could he not be, Pepper is always reeling him in when he gets too far. With a proper psych eval, the US Government could just play him until they get just cause to get a suit.
"So, what's your plan?" Tony let out.
"I'm just an employee, but I can give you there options to go about it..." Naruto answered cheekily. "Let's start with what I think you would do. You'll go there and assert the superiority of your designs. Maybe by using the videos on the prototypes..." He continued. "Then there's a flashy way I want to do it.
"Flashy way?" Happy mused out loud. They could practically hear Naruto's maniacal grin to the question.
-Capitol Building, Washington DC-
-May 8, 2010, 0900h local-
"Mr Stark. There's no need for a lawyer. This is just a preliminary hearing." Senator William Stern said with a 'friendly' smile.
William Stern is a 5'10 caucasian with blue eyes, brown hair, and a pudgy build. This Senator from the state of Pennsylvania had quickly risen up from being a businessman to the mayor to governor to a congressman, and now a Senator. In the last election cycle, he won the race with a landslide. Now, he heads the Committee on Armed Services.
However, like every politician, there are skeletons in Stern's closet, and his are bigger than most. Stern's success in the election is because of one major factor. He's backed by HYDRA. HYDRA has approached Stern a little over three decades ago when he still struggling to keep his business afloat. It started with a small help here, a favour there until finally Stern has been indoctrinated to their cause. The task he's been given by Pierce is to acquire the Tony Stark's suit by any means necessary, and he already has a plan. Stark having a lawyer could hinder his plan.
"Hey, my man right here wanted to see Washington, so I brought him." Tony replied nonchalantly.
"This is not a field trip, Mr Stark. This is a nationally broadcasted hearing." Stern countered.
"I know, isn't that better?" Tony said with a smile. "Anyway, we're here to talk about what you want. So let's talk about it."
Stern released an involuntary sigh when he heard the statement. He can't exactly force Stark to remove his lawyer out of the room in national TV. It would cause a media and public relations nightmare.
"Mr Stark. Let's start with simple. Do you or do you not have a specialized weapon?" Stern asked.
"I..." Tony started, but Naruto had cut him off.
"Senator. I am Attorney Nicolas Union. Accredited to practice law in fifteen states..." Naruto introduced as one of his established aliases. "We would like for you to define what is a 'specialized weapon'?"
"The Ironman Weapon."
"The Ironman SUIT is not a weapon. It's an armoured personnel protection unit..." Naruto argued. "To be completely honest, it's more like an advanced prosthetic. Some of its technology is already being tested for possible applications; commercial, athletic, and military."
"It's a weapon. It's a weapon. It's a weapon..." Stern said rapidly, obviously losing his cool. "My task is to acquire the Ironman Weapon for the people of the United States of America. We can have our Weapon Specialist, Justin Hammer."
As soon as Stern said his name, Justin Hammer walked in from a side door wearing a grey suit. If you look at him closely.
"I want it placed on record that I saw Justin Hammer walked in, but I don't see any specialist." Tony commented, causing everyone inside the room.
"Absolutely. I'm no expert. I defer to you, Anthony..." Justin went on and on about a lot of stuff. Naruto and Tony just tuned him off until they heard something important. "Howard Stark..."
Naruto leaned in towards Tony.
"Don't lose your cool with something as simple as that..." Naruto whispered before glancing behind them. "We got another one incoming. Remember what I told you about what you're guy is doing." He added while opening up his briefcase and pulling out two folders. Tony immediately understood what Naruto is talking about so Tony fixed up his suite.
"That is well said, Mr Hammer. The committee would now like to invite Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes to the chamber." Stern announced.
Tony stood up and walked towards the entrance. Rhodey walked inside the room wearing his formal military suit. The press all went wild and snapped multiple photos. The bestfriends met halfway.
"You know, my ramen loving attorney over there just took out a folder a lot like yours." Tony said in a low voice. The 'ramen-loving' part alone gave Rhodey all the clue he needs.
"How the hell did he get that? I just printed off my copy twenty minutes ago." Rhodey replied in disbelief.
"You know how it is." Tony shrugged before walking back to the table.
Tony sat back down to his chair while Rhodey moved to an empty chair.
"I have before me a complete report on the Iron Man weapon, complied by Colonel Rhodes. And, Colonel, for the record, can you please read page 57, paragraph four?" Stern requested while opening up a folder.
Naruto made a show of opening up both folders in front of him and slid it over towards Tony. He then pulled out his phone and typed in command but didn't send it.
"What are you doing, counsel?" Stern asked when he noticed Naruto's action.
"Just looking at what you're looking, senator." Naruto answered.
"How'd you get that? That's classified."
"No, it's not, senator. It uploaded on the senate website last night." Naruto replied with an innocent look.
Last night in the hotel, Naruto had JARVIS hacked into the US Senate website and uploaded the file as a public document from one of Stern's HYDRA assistant. He made sure to instruct JARVIS to make it look like an accidental upload.
Everyone inside the room opened up their phones and laptop to open up the file Naruto talked about. Every news website is probably going to open up the file. Naruto had to stop himself from laughing out loud when he saw Stern's face turning pale. Rhodey figured that he should just go on with Stern's request and let Naruto handle the stuff since it looks like Tony and Naruto has a plan.
"Page 57, Paragraph 4..." Rhodey started. "As he does not operate within any definable branch of government, Iron Man presents a potential threat to the security of both the nation and to her interests."
"Senator, if we are going to select only a few parts of the report then we should discard everything. We can't have one part of the report being right and the other being wrong." Naruto stated. The audience looked like they agreed with his statement.
"Colonel Rhodes. Please continue." Another senator, Mckenny, jumped the gun. Stern gave McKenny a nasty side glance.
Rhodey smiled before continuing with a request he's more amiable with.
"However, the benefits would far outweigh the liabilities of folding Ironman into an existing chain of command." Rhodey continued.
"I'm not a joiner, but I'll take Secretary of Defense if I have to..." Tony joked, causing a round of laughter to breakout. "We can amend the hours a little bit."
"Colonel Rhodes. I'd like to go on and show, if I may, the imagery that's connected to your report." Stern tried to get his plan together.
Rhodey shared a glance with Tony and Naruto, but they just gave him a subtle nod. He stood up and walked towards the television and took the remote.
"Intelligence suggests that the devices seen in these photos are, in fact, attempts at making manned copies of Mr Stark's suit. This has been corroborated by our allies and local intelligence on the ground indicating that these suits are quite possibly, at this moment, operational." Rhodey reported.
"We have evidence of the contrary, and ours are a little more recent. We could show it here or at the media, wherever's more convenient Senator." Naruto said with a smile.
"That's classified documents! We can have you arrested for disclosing that information!" Stern exclaimed.
"So, you know that report is false, and you'll just roll with it. Good to know Senator." Naruto replied with a shrug, camera flashing all around.
Tony took out his smartphone prototype and aimed it at the television. After a few taps and commands, a series of coding lines showed up at the television Rhodey is using.
"Boy, I'm good. I commandeered your screens. I need them. Time for a little transparency. Now, let's see what's really going on." Tony let out.
"What are you doing?" Stern asked, worried about what would happen next.
HD video of several testing and experimentation on prototype suits opened up. Tony got the footages from Naruto last night. Before this, he would use intercepted video feeds to
"If you will direct your attention to said screens, I believe that's North Korea..." Tony started his presentation. Stern ordered for someone to turn the TV off, so Hammer stood up. "Iran, Russia, China, and would you look at that, Justin Hammer..." The video showed a bulky suit connected by wires, suddenly turning its body around 180 degrees. "Oooh, that's got to hurt. Yeah, I'd say most countries, five, ten years away. Hammer Industries, twenty."
Justin finally thought of pulling the plug, effectively turning off the TV, before rushing towards his microphone.
"I want it to be known that the pilot survived."
The media are going crazy about what's happening. It's obvious that Stern would do anything to have his hand on the suit.
"We don't have to go all through this hoops. Mr Stark has agreed to provide an older generation Ironman suit with a few concessions of course." Naruto said while pulling something out from his briefcase.
"What makes you think we couldn't just arrest you and force you to hand over the Ironman weapon?" Stern countered.
"Because the US government will lose all access with Stark Industries services while the company itself would change its main base of operations to Canada..." Naruto answered while lifting up a thirty-page contract. "This is the general sales and services agreement between USA and Stark Industries signed two weeks after Mr Stark continued the contracts. Article 17 was added on the insistence of US government..." He continued. "They felt like they needed to increase their hold on the company since some operations have been moved out of the country for diversification purposes. Of course, being the patriotic person he is, Mr stark has agreed with this admittedly constrictive contract. They wanted 60% of all weapon and related services to be sold to the US government alone from 40%..." He stated. "However, the US government can't take up all of our products, so we added a few clauses of our own. First of which is that we can invoke article 12 on all existing sales and service contract if any of our conditions aren't met. Article 12 states that we can cancel all sales order and maintenance jobs, alongside the immediate payment of violation fee if any of the conditions are met. These conditions are set on Article 12 of the general sales and services agreement and now, Article 17."
"Wait, Article 17 has only one condition. They could break contracts on Stark Industries discretion if they proved that if an action severely impacts the company." A senator stated.
"Exactly. The Ironman suit is already classified as a proprietary knowledge for the Stark Industries. If the US government takes the suit without going through us, we could lose as much as 1 trillion on the technology alone. Not to mention on actual profit lose. We would need to lay off as much as 100,000 people in the US alone and that is if we cut everyone's pay and benefits..." Naruto replied. "I'm not so sure how the board of directors would react if they hear that they would lose as much as 20% of their income."
Almost everyone who's even in the same planet as Tony's net worth understands that rich guys tend to frown upon losing money. Hammer would have been ecstatic with the prospect of stepping in with the vacuum Stark Industries would leave behind, but one simple problem keeps him from being completely ecstatic. As stupid as the US government is, the US military higher-ups are even more so. Seventy percent of the US defensive network is anchored to Stark Industries ever since Stark proved that their proprietary algorithm is their best bet on protecting the country, Hammer Industries are just not capable of handling all of it.
"What are these conditions?" Senator McKenny asked.
"I'm glad you asked, Senator..." Tony said cheerfully. "I just want three small things. Only I could do maintenance and usage of the suit alongside a small group from the military to oversee. When not in use, the suit can only be placed in one of my facilities..." The generals present would grumble for a while, but they know that it would be easier for them to outsource the suit. However, Stern could feel his plan slipping away. "Finally, I would like for Senator Stern to step down as chairman of this committee."
"That's not happening..." Stern replied through gritted teeth before slamming down his gavel. "Fuck you, Mr Stark. Fuck you, buddy. We're adjourned. We're adjourned for today."