"Hi boy," Harry said to Padfoot as he returned home after giving his report to Fury. "how are you doing?" Harry asked as he stroked Padfoot's head, Padfoot barked in response. "Good, you haven't been chasing any more cats have you?" Harry asked only to receive an indignant bark. "Whatever." Harry chuckled as he sat on the sofa and turned the TV on.
"Woof." Padfoot barked.
"One sec." Harry said as the news channel came on to reveal a press conference involving Tony Stark. Stark appeared to be sitting down with a burger in his hand while a bald man with a grey beard was sitting next to him, Harry recognized the man as Obadiah Stane.
"I never got to say goodbye to dad," Tony said to Obadiah before looking towards the reporters and the cameras. "I never got to say goodbye to my father. There are questions I would ask him, I would ask him about what this company did, if he was conflicted or if he had doubts. Or maybe he really was just man we all remember." Tony paused as a pained look came on his face. "I saw young Americans killed by the very weapons I created to defend and protect them. And I saw that I had become part of a system that had become comfortable with zero accountability."
"Mr Stark, what happened over there?" One reporter asked.
"I...I had my eyes opened." Tony said as he stood up and walked behind the podium. "I came to realize that I have more to offer this world than just making things that blow up and that is why effective immediately I am shutting down the weapons manufacturing division of Stark international." The reporters quickly jumped to their feet and began asking questions while Obadiah began trying to get Tony off the stage.
"Well," Harry looked towards Padfoot. "that made things interesting."
"Woof, woof."
"Yeah, suppose it's not really our business. My job was just to rescue him."
"Woof."
"You're still not getting a phone."
"Talk to me Jarvis." Tony said as he sat downstairs in his lab. Tony had a lot of things to think about, not just the direction of his company but also what he would do from now on. They hadn't even invited him to his own company party, he knew that they were unhappy about his decision to stop making weapons but he couldn't change his mind. He couldn't just go back to his party days and drink it all away, he had a mission now. He had to be better than before, hopefully he would make Yinsen proud, it still hurt Tony knowing that the man died so he could escape that stupid cave.
But for the moment Tony's thoughts were stuck on his rescuer, he remembered waking in the desert after he escaped using his suit. He had been tired, thirsty and hungry but he knew that he would have still been able to keep walking for much longer. Tony had been knocked out before, mostly from drinking, but when he fell unconscious he remembered getting hit by something in the back. He was sure of it.
"I have one thing that may interest you sir," Jarvis, Tony's A.I system, said. "I have something that may interest you.
"What is it?" Tony asked.
"It's grim sir." Jarvis replied.
"What is?"
"Your rescuers name, 'Grim'." Jarvis answered. "I highly doubt that it's his real name but that is the only name I can come up with." Jarvis said as several files appeared on Tony's screen.
"His name is 'Grim'?" Tony snorted in amusement as he accessed the files and spent some time reading whatever he could.
To Tony's surprise there was only very few files on him and very little information in those files, there was not even a single picture of him. However the very little information that was available did interest Tony greatly. This 'Grim' guy had only been on the scene for about a year or so, the earliest thing that Tony could find on him involved him killing him over a hundred people in one night.
Everything from the guy's name to his abilities was being kept a secret and Tony found that especially odd for an intelligence organization.
"The guy is a total ghost story." Tony commented.
"Indeed," Jarvis agreed. "I highly doubt he is the sort of person you can simply call and invite over for a drink."
"Shield knows about him, or at least a few people in Shield do." Tony said thoughtfully. "What kind of tech and connections must the guy have had access to if he is able to kill so many people in a single night?" Tony wondered. "And why is it that there is barely any information on him at all?"
"I don't know sir, shall I assume that you wish to find out?"
"You know me so well Jarvis." Tony smirked.
Harry was enjoying a nice ride on his motorbike, he was wearing black boots, blue jeans, a grey shirt under a black leather jacket and he also had on a pair of black gloves and a helmet. As Harry was driving he received a call, he answered it using his ear piece.
"What do you want?" Harry asked.
"It's me Coulson," Coulson's voice replied. "do me a favor because I really need Grim right now, there's a situation at Stark industries."
"What kind?" Harry asked as he changed directions and started driving towards Stark industries which was fortunately quite close to where he was now. Harry activated a set of runes that he had built into his bike and the bike speeded up beyond it's usual speed, it was much like the Knight bus in Harry's opinion, just much more comfortable.
"Obadiah Stane is trying to kill us." Coulson said, his voice as calm as ever, despite the situation.
"You guys can't handle one man?" Harry asked with disbelief, knowing there was more to it than that.
"Not when he is in a giant suit of armor." Coulson replied. "We need you to try and stop it before any civilians get hurt."
"On it." Harry said just before noticing something up ahead, he saw what looked like a giant grey robot battling with a regular sized red and yellow robot, though if one of them was Stane in a suit then Harry figured that that meant the other one was also a man in a suit. Apparently they were no longer inside the Stark building. "I see two suits, one grey and one red, which one do you want me to go after?" Harry asked.
"The grey one." Coulson answered.
"You got it, call you back." Harry ended the call before speeding up. Harry pulled out a gun just before he slowed down and stopped his bike, Harry activated a portkey feature he had in on his bike and sent it away. Harry walked towards the two just as the grey one, who Harry guessed was Stane, stomped on top of the red one. Harry aimed his gun and shot two bullets that bounced off Stane's helmet but was able to succeed in getting his attention.
"Really?" Stane chuckled as he looked at him.
"Run!" Whoever was in the red suit shouted.
"I'm giving you one warning," Harry said to Stane. "stand down."
"Didn't you hear me?!" The guy in the red suit shouted with disbelief.
"Oh don't worry Tony," Stane said as he kicked the red suited man away. "I'll make it quick."
"Tony? Oh fucking hell, you're telling me that that is Stark?" Harry sighed.
"Friend of yours Tony?" Stane asked before looking in Harry's direction. "I'm giving you one warning, stand down." Stane said, echoing Harry's earlier words and Harry could tell he was smiling under the suit.
"Well at least nobody will say I didn't give you a chance." Harry said as he aimed the gun at Stane's head, he discreetly activated the runes he had placed on the gun. Harry had spent a lot of experimenting on runes for his gun, this particular gun had various runes including runes that would stay active such as self cleaning runes and runes to prevent it from running out of bullets. The runes that Harry had just activated were more destructive.
"Oh this'll be fun," Stane laughed. "bring it half-pint." Stane taunted.
"Consider it brought." Harry replied before he fired, the bullet pierced through the air before it crashed against Stane's helmet and exploded, Stane stumbled back from the force of the explosion. Harry followed up with three more bullets which caused Stane to take a few steps back. Once Harry had stopped firing, Stane was still standing and his suit didn't appear to look very damaged...or even damaged.
"That's just pissed me off." Stane said before he raised his left arm and a machine gun rose out and was aimed at Harry.
"You failed me." Harry whispered disappointedly to his gun before he jumped out of the way as Stane began firing, Harry quickly got behind a car, barely avoiding getting shot but Harry didn't stay still as he knew that the car wouldn't offer much protection against a gun that powerful. Harry teleported and landed on the bus behind Stane.
Harry switched his gun out for his wand and fired a blasting spell that hit Stane in the back, Stane stumbled forwards and nearly tripped but managed to barely stay standing. He growled and turned around, he raised both of his arms and tried to slam down on Harry only for Harry to jump to the side, it was lucky that he did as Stane had crushed the part of the bus he smashed. Harry jumped on top of Stane to avoid another strike, Harry jumped off but managed to shoot Stane before landing.
As Harry landed he rolled into a standing position and turned back to face Stane, Harry aimed his wand at him, three red beams shot out of it and headed into the air before spiraling down and striking Stane in the chest and making him fall onto the bus.
"What the hell is that?" A voice said behind Harry, Harry turned and nearly shot Stark who had raised his hands to show he was not going to attack. "Wait! Peace! Peace!" Stark said quickly.
"Damn it Stark." Harry sighed before he looked back at Stane.
"Who the hell are you? And what the hell is that stick in your hand?" Tony asked.
"Ask later, what are your offensive capabilities?" Harry asked.
"Running low on power so not great." Tony replied. "Especially when you consider the fact that it is also keeping me alive." Tony added, almost as an afterthought.
"Is that your power source?" Harry asked as he gestured to the blue circle in his chest.
"Yeah, why?"
"Try this." Harry said as he aimed his wand and sent a small amount of magic into it.
"Power has increased by two percent." Tony heard Jarvis in his ear piece.
"What was that?!" Tony asked immediately.
"Did it work?!" Harry asked impatiently.
"Uh yeah, apparently so." Tony nodded quickly.
"Good." Harry said before he sent more magic into Tony's power source.
"Power is up to thirty percent." Jarvis informed Tony. Harry was going to put in more but decided to place his focus on Stane who was walking towards them.
"It looks like you have made a new friend Tony," Stane said. "he can die alongside you." Stane said before he aimed his arm gun at the two, Stane fired but didn't hit anything as Harry had quickly grabbed Tony and teleported them out of harm's way.
"You can teleport?!" Tony gasped.
"You ever stop asking questions?" An irritated Harry asked before he jumped on top of a car and began moving towards Stane who was still looking for him. Harry cast an animation charm on a nearby car and had it charge straight into Stane's legs, Stane was taken by surprise but quickly grabbed the car and raised it in the air. Harry shot a spell at the car and it exploded, sending a surprised Stane backwards and causing him to land on his back.
Harry cast a featherweight charm on Stane, removing all weight from him, Harry followed up by levitating him in the air before he slammed him down hard on the ground. Harry repeated this two more times before he raised Stane even higher and cancelled the featherweight charm, allowing Stane to fall straight to the ground.
"Give up." Harry said as he blasted Stane when he tried to get up.
"Not a chance in hell!" Stane growled before he ripped a piece of the concrete beneath him from the ground with his hand and chucked it at Harry, Harry who was prepared for this quickly jumped to the side and was about to fire a spell only to see Stane's arm gun aimed at him, Harry quickly put up a shield which blocked the bullets but there was little Harry could do until Stane had run out of bullets as Harry's entire focus was on the shield because if he let it go then he would be filled with bullets and Harry did not want that to happen, believe it or not.
Stane's enthusiastic shooting was interrupted from a blast from above, Harry looked up and saw Stark flying above them with one hand aimed at Stane. Stane prepared his gun to fire just as his left shoulder pads parted to allow a missile launcher to rise. Stane was about to fire when he noticed several people a short distance away filming them using their phones.
"Tell me heroes," Stane said. "you can fight but how good are you at saving people?" Stane aimed his missile launcher at them and fired a missile launcher at the civilians.
Harry, if he had more time would have probably pulled out his own hair and ranted several hours about dumbass people with phones but sadly did not have the time, Harry quickly cast a shield over them even if Darwin suggested they die. Harry's shield blocked the missile but the shield broke and sent the people back on to their butts. Stane quickly took advantage and fired his gun at Harry who used his other hand to form a wandless shield just as Stark fired a repulsor blast at Stane. Stark's blast hit Stane just as Stane's bullets pierced through Harry.
"No!" Stark cried as he quickly descended down and landed next to Harry. "Fuck!" Stark cursed as he kneeled down and looked at Harry who had been pierced by multiple bullets since Harry's wandless shield wasn't as powerful as his regular shield. Harry had blood pouring out his left thigh, two bullet holes in his stomach, a fourth in his chest, a fifth in his shoulder and a six that had pierced through his helmet's visor. All had gone clean through his body.
"Oh Tony," Stane chuckled. "make a friend, lose a friend, you always loved to do things fast but this is ridiculous." Stark was about to reply with some very angry words when Harry suddenly sat up, shocking Stane and frightening Stark who definitely did not expect that.
"Holy shit!" Stark jumped back and onto his feet.
Harry growled as he stood up, once he was standing his blood returned back into his body as his wounds healed. Harry walked forwards just as his clothes shifted into his Grim uniform, starting from the feet and heading upwards. Harry removed the helmet just as his hood came up and stopped his face from being seen.
"I am beyond pissed off." Grim spoke in his demonic voice.
"Wow." Tony said, more to himself. Stane raised his gun and aimed it at Grim who quickly shot a spell at the gun, causing it to explode. Stane tripped back and looked down at his now damaged arm.
"Damn!" Stane cursed. "Little prick!" Stane growled before he aimed his shoulder missile Grim, he fired a missile at Grim. Grim shot the missile with a spell, causing it to explode in midair, Grim span his wand in a circle and a whip made of lighting wrapped around Stane's head, damaging his suit. "I will kill you!" Stane roared as he charged towards Grim at a surprising speed for one so large.
Grim cut off the whip and blasted Stane's feet, causing him to fall forwards on his face. Stane growled as he got up to his feet only for Stark to blast him, as Stane stepped back Harry blasted Stane's damaged arm. Stane quickly called upon a rocket launcher in his other arm and fired it at Stark who dodged, Grim fired a spell at the weapon and much like the previous one it exploded, damaging Stane's robot arm and resulted in his actual arm being burnt. Stane cried out in pain.
"What the hell are you?!" Stane demanded angrily as he spoke to Grim.
"It won't matter since you're dead." Grim aimed his wand at Stane's exposed arm and cast the killing curse which struck true and killed Stane. From Tony's perspective he saw a green light shoot out of the stick that Grim was holding and hit Stane, a second later he watched as Stane fell to the floor.
"What the hell happened?" Tony said as he flew down and landed next to Harry.
"He is dead." Grim replied.
"What?! How?!"
"He died." Grim replied before he turned and began walking away.
"Wait a sec! Who are you?!" Tony called out but Grim didn't answer, he just continued walking and teleported away.
Tony sat in his office, he heard the TV behind him and half payed attention to Rhodey speaking to the press. Pepper was standing next to him and dealing with his make up and the plasters on his face while he read a newspaper that discussed the battle yesterday, it had a picture of the suit and the hooded man from yesterday.
"Iron Man," Tony said, reading the name that the paper had given him. "it's kind of catchy. It's got a nice ring to it, I mean it's not technically accurate since the suit is actually made of a gold titanium alloy. But it is nice and..." Tony trailed off as Agent Coulson entered the room, Tony put the newspaper down as Coulson handed him speech cards.
"This is your alibi." Coulson explained.
"Right." Tony said as he began reading the cards.
"You were on your yacht, we have port papers along with sworn statements from fifty of your guests." Coulson said.
"You see I was thinking that we could say it was just me and Pepper on the yacht." Tony said only for Pepper to express her opinion of that by pulling off a plaster harder than necessary.
"That's what happen," Coulson said as he gestured to the cards. "just read it word for word."
"There's nothing about Stane here." Tony pointed out.
"That's being covered," Coulson reassured him. "he is on vacation. Small aircrafts have such a poor safety record." Coulson said with a small smile.
"But a bodyguard?" Tony asked as he reached the part where Iron Man was apparently his bodyguard. "A bodyguard? It's a bit flimsy."
"This isn't my first rodeo Mr Stark, just stick to the official statement and soon it will all be behind you."
"Fine but what about tall, dark and mysterious?" Tony asked as he gestured to the pointing of Grim. "That stick of his, it was really powerful, I've never seen tech like that."
"Oh I am sure you don't need to worry about him." Coulson replied.
"You know who he is, don't you?" Tony asked, in a knowing voice.
"I may have some idea." Coulson nodded.
"He is 'Grim' isn't he?" Tony asked, surprising Coulson.
"I..." Coulson paused before letting out a small breath. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised you know about him, I apologies but I am not permitted to say much about him." Coulson said, and he wasn't. If it wasn't for Stane then he wouldn't have even called Grim to help.
"Who is?" Tony asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Maybe you will find out." Coulson smirked.
"I am Iron Man." Harry heard Tony say on the news, and with in an hour it was all over the internet. On one hand Harry was impressed that Stark admitted it in public but on the other hand it was stupid and had painted a big target on his back.
Harry was brought out of his thoughts by a knock on the door, Harry knew who it was, he was able to recognize who it was simply by the way she knocked. Harry walked towards the door and opened it to reveal Natasha who was standing by his door with a bag of food in her hand.
"Burgers and chips?" She offered, holding the bag up. Harry stepped to the side and allowed her to enter. "You could smile you know," Natasha said as she walked in and sat on his sofa. "I have had a ton of French food by the way."
"When did you get back?" Harry asked as he sat down next to her.
"Yesterday." She yawned lightly as she stretched, making sure to push her chest out. Harry rolled his eyes at that and just began opening the bag. "From what I heard you have had an interesting few days. Want to talk about it?"
"No." Harry said before he began eating.
"Fury will want to talk to you though, especially about the fact that you can survive being ripped into by bullets."
"Yes." Harry nodded, knowing that Fury would definitely want to talk to him about the fight.
"Are you going to say anything beyond one word answers?" Natasha raised an eyebrow at him.
"Food first." Harry responded after another bite.
"Fair enough." Natasha shrugged before joining him in eating.
A.N: Hi guys, hope you liked the chapter. I don't how good the fight was, I hope you liked it. I was tempted to make it longer but I felt like I would just have to depower Harry or make him less smart and I think that that would be a bad idea seeing as I have already built this Harry up as a powerful dude who I've referred to as an 'army killer'. So Stane was not much of a challenge to him, especially when you add Tony into it.
Thanks for reading.
Omake 1:
Harry: Kids, on the summer of 2007 your mother and I had a bet. I won, we had sex, you were born nine months later. Aren't you glad how direct I was about the story?
Omake 2 :
"I'm sorry Natasha," Barton said as he looked at 'Plan to seduce Harry number 27' "but it won't work."
"Why not?" Natasha frowned.
"Because if it goes wrong then you could die."
"That's be sort of romantic."
"Maybe but it would definitely be stupid." Barton replied. "What is plan number 28?"
"Convince twenty eight women to join me and him in an orgy then win him over by being better than all of them." Natasha answered.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"That's your best one so far."