Monaco Heliport, Monaco-
-May 21, 2010, 1800h local-
"Alright. I already coordinated with the local PD and what this country could call a military. They're setting up a perimeter and evacuating civilians..." Naruto said after he returned from escorting Pepper, Morgan, Happy, and 'Natalie' to the hotel and contacting the local government. "Vanko still hasn't realized what's happening yet, but I wouldn't expect it to last for long. He's tuning up his Exo armor and whips."
"I still can't believe that he uses electric whips. There's like a whole bag of tricks he could've used! Why did he have to use the kinkiest thing he could've to think of!?" Tony complained. He hasn't stopped complaining about the electric whips as soon as Naruto told him about Ivan Vanko's 'peculiar' weapon choice. Something about using the arc reactor inadvertently attaching his name to whips.
"Don't kink shame, man..." Naruto rebutted before pulling up his phone and showing a holographic image of Monaco. "JARVIS already has the data, but I'll show you just in case. He's staying in a building south of the International University of Monaco. It's been under renovation for almost a month now. The city engineers would check it the day after Monaco GP, so the building is all clear. The intelligence agencies keeping track of Vanko moved a few blocks away from the area because of the evacuation. Though, they're still trying to reverse the order, but the prince will lose face if he cancels the operation now."
Tony can't help but give Naruto a skeptical look. "What did you do?" He asked.
Naruto released a half-assed chuckle while scratching the back of his head.
"I kinda gave Monaco PD a job order courtesy of Nine-Tails. So it's either you deal with Vanko or a mercenary with a reputation of leaving hard-to-clean messes. The answer is quite clear after that."
"Why do I let you be around Morgan again?"
"Cause I'm an overpowered pseudo-demi-god, and you're an overprotective father." Naruto deadpanned.
"Right. Remind me to set an appointment with a shrink, would you?" Tony countered before looking at his watch. When he saw that it's already quarter after five, he sat down the red and silver briefcase down and looked at Naruto. "Showtime?"
Naruto looked at his phone to check if the trucks block the intersections going to the building are in position.
"Showtime." Naruto replied with a grin.
Tony kicked the briefcase and stepped on the silver step pad, opening up the case. Naruto can't help but feel impressed with how the suit-up sequence looks. The overlapping plates did a small calibration before Tony flew quickly high up in the air.
-Monaco Heliport, Monaco-
-May 21, 2010, 1820h local-
Sitting in one of the empty offices, a 5'11" caucasian man is sitting down in front of the television eating some kind of soup. He has dark brown eyes and a scar under his left eye. His shoulder-length black hair has white streaks on them.
The TV is playing the news. Particularly the arrival of the Stark family. For some reason, Tony Stark was not present when the family arrived at the hotel, and it's triggering an alarm in his brain.
That alarm made him realize something. It's too quiet. No traffic. No honking of horns. No pedestrians. It should be impossible for metropolitan city-states like Monaco. Ivan didn't survive so long in Moscow's underground by not listening to his instincts. He rapidly put on his suit before taking a peek at the window. That was probably a wrong decision.
Tony, in his Iron Man suit, burst through the window, sending shards of glass straight to Ivan's face. This caused multiple lacerations to appear on his face.
"Wow. That's an improvement. It would be best if you kept it like that." Tony quipped, trying to get a reaction from Vanko.
"Stark..." Vanko growled out. "It's a bit early for our meeting, but this will do..." He added before electrifying his suit and whips. "One thing, how did you know I was here?"
"I got an overpowered ninja working for me." Tony answered with a shrug.
"Fine. Talks over."
Vanko tried to get momentum for his whips, but the closed environment of the office space is severely hindering him. He can't get enough space for both his 15 feet whips, so he has no choice but to go on defense while Tony pelts him with repulsor blasts.
Tony, on his part, refrained from using any of his deadlier armaments since he needs to bring him in alive for the plan to work. It's quite simple, really. They'll use Vanko as a lightning rod for every asshole interested in his tech.
It didn't take long for Tony to overwhelm Vanko since he has all the advantages. They were fighting in a small and contained room severely restricting Vanko. Naruto has placed impromptu lightning resistance seals making Tony practically immune to the whips. Although Tony already made a mental note to add capacitors so he can use any electrical source, including lightning, to charge up the arc reactor, if he can live that long. Finally, there's the difference of quality between the arc reactors used, with Tony's being at least having twice the power output.
In a desperate bid to get away and salvage his derailed plan, Vanko ran towards the broken window, hoping to jump through it, but Tony beat him to it. Tony grabbed onto one of Vanko's whips and pulled him back hard.
Vanko tried to get the whip out of Tony's grasp, but a baseline human can't fight against an Iron Man armor. When Vanko got close, Tony grabbed onto Vanko's chest piece and crushed it right then and there.
Tony waited for Vanko's whip to power down before restraining him to the ground.
"JARVIS, call the cavalry, would you."
"Of course, sir."
Vanko laid down on the floor quietly, but Tony remained vigilant, waiting for Monaco PD and the transport vehicle. It didn't take long for them to hear footsteps rushing towards their location. Before the police got into the room, however, Vanko left one final message.
"If you could make God bleed, people would cease to believe in Him. There will be blood in the water; the sharks will come."
"That' what I'm waiting for."
-Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure (DGSE), Paris, France-
-May 21, 2010, 1610h local-
Alexander Pierce was having a good day. He didn't wake up because of an alarm clock. The food and coffee were excellent. He was able to make a work trip into a pseudo-holiday. Hydra recouped 30% of their losses the previous year by selling a lot of their proprietary techs to the legitimate market. The Nine-tails is letting up on the seemingly one-sided vendetta against them. And the pièce de résistance is that they would be able to get their hands on the Ironman armor.
Fury found out about a possible threat to Tony Stark himself a few months ago and what a threat he is. The son of the disgrace Ivan Vanko making his own arc reactor. Pierce volunteered himself to coordinate with the DGSE for SHIELD. This way, he could have some form of information control on both agencies. They just need to make a giant spectacle out of Vanko, and they'll be able to corner the arrogant asshole. It's not like they'll share the whole tech with the French. There's just one thing, though. He WAS having a good day.
The downhill trend started in the afternoon when one of his aides informed him of a peculiar development. Someone contacted Monaco PD, the military, and the Prince himself about a dangerous criminal with high-tech gear and requesting support for Ironman to deal with the situation.
Although blindsided, Pierce didn't panic but tried to salvage the situation. With the help of the French, they tried to leverage Prince Albert II to rescind or at least delay the support, but it's already too late. There's also the fact that Nine-tails threatened them to let Stark handle the situation. The Nine-tails is also probably how Stark found out about Vanko.
They moved back all agents in the area, including the HYDRA agents, just to make sure they retained their covers. The other intelligence agencies also pulled back their operators.
That didn't mean shit though.
Each agency received a goddamn email with a link to a live stream of their agents. Including fucking HYDRA! How the hell did Nine-tails even found the email for the HR department for HYDRA agents under SHIELD.
Some might think that having an HR department for an underground organization might be stupid but the resources saved by having an HR outweighs the cons.
Anyway, everyone would need to pull all their agents out of the region.
"Sir. Ivan Vanko has been apprehended and is currently in Maison d'Arrêt, waiting for arraignment." An aide informed Pierce, snapping him out of his thoughts.
"It looks like we can still salvage this clusterfuck..." Pierce pulled out his phone and called a number. "Have you heard?"
"Yes, sir. Vanko in Maison d'Arrêt?" Sitwell asked for confirmation.
"Yes, that..." Pierce confirmed. "Leak the news on everything you can think of. Blow it out of proportions if you have to. Just make sure I can watch it on the evening news."
"Already on it, sir."
"Also, find someone who can get Vanko out. Either make him look dead or get him out clean." There was a brief moment of silence before Sitwell replied.
"Are you open for a third party to do this, sir?"
"What have you got in mind?"
"Justin Hammer, sir. Smart enough to do the job but stupid enough to be disposable. He has more than enough reasons to do anything to get ahead of Tony Stark."
"Very well. Use Stern to contact Hammer." Pierce replied before ending the call.
"Hail Hydra." Pierce whispered to himself.
-Monaco GP VIP room, Monaco-
-May 22, 2010, 1400h local-
The first official outing of the Stark family and the hidden heiress Morgan Stark caused what would aptly be called a media frenzy. Photos of the secret heiress were officially released after the Stark-Potts wedding causing people's hearts to melt for the adorable munchkin. The general public's reaction is overwhelmingly positive, causing the media to scrounge up for information even almost half a year after the reveal.
The breaking news the night before and suspiciously quick press release by Tony Stark didn't help the media's bloodlust one bit. Stark's security detail has their work cut out for them, holding back the venerable tsunami of people.
"I didn't know that Morgan is this famous." Naruto whispered out of the Stark retinue hearing range to 'Natalie', who was still acting like a damsel in distress in front of the horde.
"I told you to open up the news or even social media from time to time. Not just playing with your computer games." 'Natalie' replied.
"Hey. I love those games. I can kill all the people I want with no repercussions."
"You already do that anyway."
"Nope. Real-life has repercussions. I mean, my suits get all dirty with blood and stuff."
Natasha couldn't help but agree with that statement. One of the worst parts of the job is getting blood and grime on the designer clothes.
"You should've brought Jessica."
"I'll pick her when the race is about to start. You know how she hates to dress up..." Naruto replied while scanning the crowd. "Wait here for a second."
Naruto walked quickly to the front of the crowd and pushed off some people getting a bit too close to the family for comfort.
"Happy, we need to get out of here. We're moving like a snail. Morgan looks like getting a bit scared." Naruto shouted.
"Alright, that's it..." Happy opened his tactical microphone for his radio. "Let's push these guys out of the way. I want to be inside the building in three minutes."
Like a well-oiled machine, the security detail pushed their way through the crowd and moved their way to the VIP building. It didn't take long for the Stark family, including Happy, Naruto, and 'Natalie' to enter the building, leaving the security detail outside as crowd control.
"Next time, we'll skip the public appearance and just drive right next to the building." Pepper stated seriously.
Tony couldn't help but nod, seeing the people outside. Even as famous as he is, he never got mobbed like that. So it's probably because he's married or Morgan. Most probably Morgan.
They entered the room and were all prepared to move on and enjoy the rest of the day when something just have to ruin it.
"Tony, good to see you and your family here."
Justin Fucking Hammer.