Ten Rings Headquarters — Flashback to days prior

Raza, a Ten Rings operative and leader of this particular faction, stayed stationed outside his camp, watching a fleet of cars roll up towards him, as they had given word that they had found what their employer was looking for; the very armor Tony Stark had built in their caves with a box of scraps.

He took another puff of his cigarette, as one of his men opened the door of the first convoy, with none other than Obadiah Stane coming out. Stane toured the camp with a sliver of a smile on his face, seeing the weapons being put to "good use." He approached Raza, as the leader had welcomed him in. However, Raza now had an ugly scar to boot on his face, which Stane had obviously seen. "Compliments of Tony Stark," Raza waved his hand over the scar, still keeping his eyes on Stane.

"Well, if you'd killed him when you were supposed to," Obadiah retorted. "You'd still have a face." Raza, on the other hand, had seen no laughing matter. "You paid us trinkets to kill a prince." He scoffed back at Stane, to which he held no regard. "Show me the weapon." Stane commanded fiercely.

"Come. But leave your guards outside," Raza requested, as Stane showed his hand to his men, and followed Raza into one of their many tents. Within the tent laid the setup for Tony's ransom video, the Ten rings flag in the background, the chair Tony was bound to, and then Stane saw his prize. Scraps of armor wielded together to make a suit of armor. "So this is how he did it," He said aloud while crossing his arms.

"His escape bore unexpected fruit," Raza explained. "This is only a first, crude effort. Stark has perfected his design. He has made a masterpiece of death," He complimented the effects of the suits. "A man with a dozen of these, can rule all of Asia." He noticed Stane's looks, anxious to have his place restored to him. "And you dream of Stark's throne." He deduced. "We have a common enemy." Raza walked over to the chair and sat, wanting to negotiate with the industrial monger.

"If we are still in business, I will give you these designs.. As a gift," Raza said, pouring a glass of whiskey. "And in turn, I hope you'll repay me with a gift of iron soldiers." He raised his glass, hoping making a toast... and a new deal. But Obadiah had other plans.

Stane gently smiled, put his left arm on Raza's shoulder, and showcased a device. He slid it open, and a high frequency was emitted near Raza's ears, as he noticed glowing lights in Stane's ears. Raza shuddered in fear with veins crawling from his scar, effectively paralyzing the terrorist.

"Tumara kasurr hae yeah,"* Obadiah spoke dreadfully in Urdu, as Raza was fully paralyzed, and he was not. "Technology. It's always been your Achilles' heel in this part of the world." Stane recalled while taking Raza's glass from him. "Don't worry, it'll only last for 15 minutes." He drank up and removed his earbuds, but had placed his hand on top of Raza's shaved head. "That's the least of your problems."

(This is your fault...)*

Stane left the tent dramatically, calling out to the men. "Crate up the armor and the rest of it." He commanded them with their orders. "All right, let's finish up here." And with that, his men shot every single terrorist in sight, as he slid back into the car to make another call to one of his accomplices, William Gunther Riva.

"Set up Sector 16 underneath the arc reactor, and I'm going to want this data masked," Stane commanded once more. "Recruit our top engineers. I want a prototype right away."

End of Flashback – back at Stark Industries.

"So, what are we going to do about this?" Stane spoke up as he walked into Pepper at Tony's desk, startling her as she had come across the revelation Stane wanted to kill Tony. "Hmm?" He asked again, walking over to the good whiskey Tony keeps, pouring himself a glass. "I know what you're going through, Pepper." He spoke up again, as Pepper focused in between copying all the incriminating files and avoiding the titan's suspicions. "Tony, he always gets the good stuff, doesn't he?"

Stane poured another glass for her, hoping to see if Pepper would let her guard down, but just as he did, Pepper sneakingly covered up the drive with a paper. As Stane marched towards her, she quickly navigated to the top of the desktop, switching it to its screensaver before he could see what she was up to.

"I was so happy when he came home," He lied, but it wouldn't matter, as Pepper knew he was. "It was like we got him back from the dead. Zach would have his dad again, I've seen how... miserable and deplorable he was." Stane continued. "Now I realize... well, Tony never really did come home, did he? He left a part of himself back in that cave. Breaks my heart."

"Well, he's a... complicated person," Pepper expressed her feelings, as Obadiah sipped his whiskey. "He's been through a lot. I think he'll be alright."

Obadiah stopped in thought, and then spoke up, "You... are a very rare woman," He said truthfully. "Tony and Zach don't know how lucky they are."

"Thank you," Pepper flushed, embarrassed. "Thanks... I'd– better get back there." She stood up, and expertly removed the drive from the computer, still hiding it by the paper. Stane still had one more idea up his sleeve. "Is that today's paper?" He asked her without turning around, stopping her in her tracks. "Yes," She said quickly. "Do you mind?"

"Not at all!" She gave it back to him, as he falsely examined it. "Puzzle," Stane replied with a smile. "Of course," Pepper answered, and left, holding her cover. "Take care," was the last thing Obadiah said to her.

MINUTES LATER...

"Ms. Potts?" Agent Coulson approached her in the common area. "We had an appointment. Did you forget about our appointment?"

"Nope, right now!" Pepper rushed, looking around. "Come with me."

"Right now?" Coulson shockingly asked her. "Yeah, right now!" "Okay." Coulson willfully joined her, while Pepper continued to case the area. "I'm going to give you the meeting of your life. Your office."

MALIBU MANSION

Tony was seemingly alone in his mansion, as the phone rang for him. He walked over to the couch to grab it under a pillow, seeing it was Pepper, and picked it up.

But then all of a sudden, Tony was beginning to be paralyzed.

"Tony?" Pepper spoke into the phone. "Tony?! Tony, are you there? Hello!?"

Stane walked behind the stiff Stark, the same veins collating on his face, ending the call, and laying Tony on his back. "Breathe... easy, easy," he instructed Tony, as he continued to put him back. "You remember this one, right?" Stane showed the device to him, a compact miniature of a rejected concept. "It's a shame the government didn't approve it. There are so many applications for causing short-term paralysis." Stane explained, rolling it in his hands before casing it back.

"Ah, Tony," He grabbed his face to turn to him, as the Monger stood over him, more powerful than he was at the moment. "When I ordered the hit on you, I was worried that I was killing the golden goose." Stane droned on once more, removing the plugs from his ears, now opening a briefcase with an extractor, the perfect size to snatch the Arc reactor in his chest. "But you see, it was just fate that you survived that."

He placed the device on top of the reactor, burning the fabric of Tony's shirt, and plugging into the reactor. Stane jammed it as he felt it plug in, as Tony hiccuped, and with a twist, the arc reactor was now in Stane's possession. "You had one... last golden egg to give." Stane grimaced, admiring the reactor.

Stane placed his hand above Tony's right shoulder, menacingly staring at him. "Do you really think that just because you have an idea, it belongs to you?" He asked him greedily. "Your father, he helped give us the atomic bomb. Now, what kind of world would it be today if he was as selfish as you?" He removed it from his chest, taking it out of the extractor, and looked at it in its entirety.

"Oh, it's beautiful. Tony, this is your Ninth Symphony. What a masterpiece. Look at that." Stane glowed, and sat down next to him. "This is your legacy. A new generation of weapons with this at its heart. Weapons that will help steer the world back on course, put the balance of power in our hands. The right hands. I wish you could've seen my prototype."

"It's not as... Well, not as conservative as yours." He referenced Tony's own suit of armor. "Too bad you had to involve Pepper in this. I would have preferred that she lived." Stane walked away from the dying Stark, but not knowing another was still there, as Zach walked up from the basement with a glass jar of the whiskey he nicked from Tony before, shocking Stane.

"What the hell have you done ..." Zach growled at the person he loathed since his childhood, balling his fists. "You son of a bitch!" Obadiah stood there, not afraid of the young one, as he had secretly shared his discontent at Zach. "Nothing that concerns you." Obadiah answered wisely. "You never liked how your dad and I were making weapons for the world. Pepper had told me once that your once... girlfriend hated that we were. No wonder she left you..."

"Don't you bring her into this," Zach furiously answered, still not knowing the answer. "You don't know a single thing about me, Obie!" He spat angrily, and noticed his dad on the couch, struggling to breathe, and the hole in his chest, only making his anger grow. "You piece of shit, you're killing him!" He walked forward to Obadiah, who hit him with the briefcase, but Zach didn't feel it on him and to his shock, Obadiah's briefcase exploded into pieces, dropping the arc Reactor considerably far from both of them. But Obadiah was concerned how Zach wasn't affected.

"How did you–" He asked as Zach shrugged it off. "I told you, Obie." He spat once more. "There is so much you don't know about me." He threw the jar in the air, catching it by the head and wacked it right into Stane's head, exploding the jar and throwing him on the ground. Stane now suffered a few cuts, but none too fatal, but Zach was still unaffected, his eyes glowing blue as they stared at him. 

He got down to his knees above Stane, beginning to punch him hard and bloody. "You're not getting that Arc Reactor," Zach growled at him, with hard punches to Stane's face, while Tony stumbled, trying to get to the workshop. "Happy New Year, playboy."

(a/n: a lil reference for my Euphoria watchers...)

Stane saw another valley of convenience and quickly pulled out his paralysis device, while struggling, spitting out blood from his mouth, but still activated it with a loud hum. It was still effective, as Zach quickly stopped punching and held his arms to his ears, screaming in pain and unconsciously, he began to float in the air, struggling to comprehend as the frequency got louder and louder, with Obadiah steadily increasing the frequency each time, with the fear of God in him. Zach had enough, and turned around, readying a photon blast directly at the device in the form of a finger gun.

His arm went up and the shot rang, destroying the device and leaving Stane without a means to defend himself. But Zach's ears were still ringing, as he dropped to the ground, making Stane grab the Reactor and making a run for it.

RHODEY'S VEHICLE

"What do you mean, he paid to have Tony killed?" Rhodey asked Pepper, who had immediately called him, who was scrambling. "Pepper, slow down. Why would Obadiah... Okay, where's Tony now?"

"I don't know! He's not answering his phone, neither is Zach or Amara." Pepper told him worriedly. "Please go over there and make sure everything's okay. Thank you, Rhodey."

Rhodey then immediately rushed to the mansion and ran inside, finding Zach getting up around shards of glass and liquid around him, as Amara had just ran from Zach's room to see him in pain. "Zach!" Rhodey called to him. "Where's your dad!?"

"He was over there–" Zach struggled to hear him, pointing to where Tony was, now no longer there. "Shit... how long was I knocked out?" He asked them both. "Just a few minutes," Amara answered and helped him up. "But Mr. Stark must be in the workshop." The three rushed down to the workshop, where Tony was on the ground, passed out near more broken glass and DUM-IE near him.

"Tony!" Rhodey yelled as he ran towards him. "Tony?! Tony!" He grabbed him, as Stark was still kicking, with a new Arc Reactor in his chest. "Zach – Zach was" Tony said as he saw Zach, now standing on his own, breathing hard. "Hey – slugger... you win?" Zach shook his head sadly, as Tony looked back to Rhodey. "Where's Pepper?!"

"She's fine," Rhodey answered. "She's with five agents, they're about to arrest Obadiah." Tony groaned in pain. "That's not going to be enough. Need to– get to– my suit."

"And mine," Zach added, as the two men looked back at him. "Come on, Dad, I've had access to your private server since I was 13!" He exclaimed. "It was... so easy to hack, not as easy as the Pentagon."

"You know about the–"

"Yeah, the uh... red and the gold–"

"Oh dear, well," Tony stood up to get towards the machines that'd suit him. "What's yours look like?" Zach smirked and looked at Amara, also smiling and called for Jarvis. "Mr. Jarvis, do show us the completed.... Marvel Suit."

"As you wish, Miss Rosas."

A suit of armor was pulled out from the floor, unveiling Zach's new suit, a black suit with splashes of blue & white, and red & gold on the shoulder pads. No mask at the top, as a helmet similar to Tony's was the the top, but designed more effectively. Slight bits of the same style of armor Tony had were on the suit but even more slim than Tony's.

(all mods in the passage -- minus the gun and sword)

"Oh my gosh, it's so much cooler than I thought it would be!" Zach cheered, and immediately rushed to try it on, as Amara walked to the men. "He thought it would be best to have some of your colors, plus his birth mother's." She explained to Tony. "Not made like yours, per say, but high intensity kevlar weave, plus a few screws and nuts, and we have... the Iron Marvel."

Soon enough, both Starks were suited up, and ready to bring the fight to Obadiah.

STARK INDUSTRIES – SECTOR 16

Pepper was leading Phil Coulson and his squad of agents into Stark Industries' labs, hopefully about to arrest Obadiah for his crimes and for assembling a machination similar to Tony's suit. "Sector 16...Sector 16..." Pepper muttered to herself as Phil and the agents followed after her. Amidst her muttering, Pepper spotted the yellow door to the Sector. "There it is," she said determinedly, and slid her card across to unlock the door, to no avail. She swiped it again, waiting for a different answer, but it was still the same.

"My key's not working," Pepper turned around to Coulson, who took out his right hand for an agent to place a device on his hand. "It's not opening the door–" Pepper stopped as she saw the device. "Oh, wow! What's that?" She asked, as Coulson gave no response. "It's like, a little device?" Coulson stepped forward to place the device and activate it, as Pepper kept rambling. "It's like a little thing that's going to pick the lock!"

"You might want to take a few steps back," Coulson advised her as all the agents had their backs to the door, to which the two joined them in. The device beeps slowly, "beep-beep-beep" until BAM! The door was opened, but on the other side, Obadiah, now sporting a few cuts covered up by medical tape, had heard the sound and quickly rushed to place himself in the device.

The agents, now armed with Pepper, approached cautiously and walked through the sector, and with a few steps, they approached Obadiah's muse; the original armor Tony used to escape. "Looks like you were right," Phil told Pepper, assuming the armor was Obadiah's finished product. "He was building a suit." But something felt off to Pepper, this wasn't the armor she saw in the files. "I thought it'd be bigger." She spoke up, but heard the jingling of chains in the distance.

Behind her, a rig was stationed above, with wires displayed, as if something were up there, now gone. The agents kept on investigating the lab, looking in every nook and cranny. One agent looked to his left, finding more specs for the armor. Coulson and another agent were searching other spots where Obadiah could have been hiding. The chains continued to move around, attracting Pepper's attention. She moved closer to the chains, feeling something was there. And she was right.

A pair of cold blue eyes woke up in the darkness and rose up above her, as Pepper screamed and ran off to the agents, but the Iron Monger had taken off, attracting the agent's attention while Pepper escaped. But the Monger rose his metal fist and plunged it into a reactor, making it explode. It looked at Pepper and jumped after her, ready to pursue and kill her. Fortunately, it couldn't fit through the door, and was stuck as Pepper fled outside the building. And just at the right time, Tony called her.

"Pepper!"

'"Tony! Tony, are you okay?!"

"I'm fine. How are–"

"Obadiah, he's gone insane!"

"I know, listen, you'd better get out of there!"

"He built a suit–"

"GET OUT OF THERE RIGHT NOW!"

And just behind Pepper, the ground shook and a robotic arm came smashed through the ground, and the Monger pulled himself back up from the ground, eyeing Pepper with its cold, mechanical eyes. "Where do you think you're going?" Obadiah Stane's voice emanated from the suit, looking down at the disgraced assistant. He raised the Monger's right fist once more, revealing a machine gun built into the armor, right at her. "Your services are no longer required."

"STANE!" Tony yelled from above, in the skies, as a object crashed down on Obadiah's suit, back underground, and Pepper noticed another object fly down in with Tony. Through the building and right to the highway, Stane was left inside the armor, causing a hell of a lot of traffic. A car full of a mother and her children slowly stopped to avoid hitting the suit, but like the madman he was, Obadiah rose up, clamped down the car with the arms, and picked it up as if it were a toy, ready to kill them and Tony all in one fell swoop.

"I LOVE THIS SUIT!" Obadiah hungrily spat at Tony, who also rose up from the cement. "Put them down!" Tony cried, hoping Obadiah had at least a shred of humanity in him. "Collateral damage, Tony." Obadiah hissed, stomping towards Tony, a tiny insect compared to the hulking mass.

"Divert power to chest RT," Tony instructed Jarvis, as the armor slowly hummed and the reactor turned pure white in color, unleashing a blast of white light at Obadiah, dropping the car in his grasp, and landing on another. However, someone else had caught the car, that having been Zach in his new suit, and finding that the car was practically weightless to him, a result of his new-born super-strength. 

The Iron Marvel placed the car down, and held his hand out to the civilians, showing them he meant no harm. As he put them down, he moved out of the way, just for the mother to hit the gas hard. "Never knew Obadiah was more of a blowhard until today," Zach jokes. "That piece of tech is one tough fucker."

"You again..." Stane scowled, hopping from the car and grabbed a car, revving it up to strike the father and son aside, ensuing mass pandemonium from the crowds. "For thirty years, I've been holding you up!" Stane yelled at Tony, ironically holding him up above him as well, and dropping him to the ground, and placing his foot on him. "I BUILT THIS COMPANY FROM NOTHING! Nothing is going to stand in my way." He grabbed him again, throwing him into the bus. "Least of all.. You! And your bastard kid too!"

"Oh, I'm the bastard!?" Zach argued to him. "Last I recalled, you were being a little bitch scared of me when you blasted my fucking ears with that device!" His fists lit up with cosmic energy, flying up to face Obadiah face-to-face, and went behind the helmet, trying to pry it off. Zach then punched the hinges holding the helmet in place, and furiously kept punching, as Stane struggled to grab him off, and as he did, he joined his father on the ground. The Monger unveiled a missile on his left shoulder, and released it, blowing up the bus in a fiery explosion, and launched Tony & Zach in the sky.

But before they hit the ground, Tony's repulsors activated mid-fall, and Zach's flight kicked back in. "Impressive!" Obadiah couldn't help but compliment Stark on his design. "You've upgraded your armor! I've made some upgrades of my own!"

"By your own, do you mean Stark scientists?" Zach sarcastically quipped at him, but the Monger's feet shifted and locked in flight stabilizers as well, successfully achieving flight.

"Sirs, it appears that his suit can fly." Jarvis calmed and spoke up.

"Duly noted," Tony answered. "Take me to maximum attitude," He then turned to Zach. "How high can your repulsors take you up?" Zach however quickly looked to his feet and back to his dad. "These aren't flight repulsors, Dad," he bluntly said. "This is all me, I can fly."

"YOU CAN WHAT!?" Tony yelled. "We'll talk later, now, we take to the skies." Together, the two flew up to the skies, with Obadiah slowly trailing behind them. But with each level, Obadiah's suit began to freeze up, Jarvis' warnings were ignored and Tony's Arc Reactor was flickering. And soon enough, The Monger grabbed onto Tony's leg, and Zach went near the leg, trying to dismantle it. "You had a great idea, Tony!" Stane yelled. "But my suit is more advanced in every way!"

"How'd you solve the icing problem?" Tony snarikly asked him. Stane paused curiously, and asked "Icing problem?" His H.U.D went down and the suit's eyes shut off, as his grip loosened on Tony's neck, and Zach had successfully ripped out enough parts for flight to no longer be stabilized. "Might wanna look into it." Tony scoffed, raising his fist, and hitting the helmet, dropping it out of the sky.

But at the same time, Tony's suit was running on flames, and Zach quickly went to hold his father and safely get them back on the ground, landing near the giant Arc Reactor. "Potts!" Tony called out.

"Tony!" Pepper answered on her bluetooth. "Oh my god, are you okay!?"

"I'm okay too, thanks for asking, mom."

"ZACHARY!?" Pepper shouted. "What are you doing in that suit!?"

"I told you to be careful, Zachy!"

"AMARA?!"

"Don't get mad at the kids," Tony advised her. "I'm almost out of power," He stripped off his left gauntlet, unlocking the helmet so he could take in fresh air. "NICE TRY!" Stane yelled as he landed, and Tony locked the helmet's face plate. Stane made a mad swipe at the two, which they dodged and Tony raised his arm, before forgetting he didn't have the gauntlet on, resulting in him getting punched once more.

Tony quickly rose to his feet, using the gauntlet to get himself up, and then use it to strike a punch again, and Zach followed up with dozens of photon blasts at the armor, hitting it at any weak point it may have. But Stane had kept Tony in his arms, squeezing the life out of the suit. "Weapons status?" Tony struggled.

"Repulsors offline. Missiles offline."

"Flares!" Tony gasped, unlocking hinges within the suit, and spinning, allowing the flares to hit the armor, blinding Obadiah, letting the two disappear and hide. "Very clever, Tony..." Obadiah said, looking around. "I'm surprised, Zach. You didn't put your own input into this. Really shows how useless you've been."

"Motherfucker," Zach scowled under his breath, on his own comm link with Amara. "Don't listen to him, hermano," She spoke into his ears. "He's the useless one if he believes that." On the other side, Tony had made contact with Pepper, instructing her to go to the Arc Reactor and overload it. And on his signal, Tony had taken a move out of Zach's book and grabbed on to Stane's back. "This looks important!" He shouted, ripping out something from the back.

Stane grabbed on Tony once more and launched him above the window of the Arc Reactor. The armor then opened up, revealing the true face of the Monger under the iron mask. "I never had a taste for this sort of thing, but I must admit," Obadiah spoke again, grabbing the helmet, and crushing it. "I'm deeply enjoying the suit! You finally outdid yourself, Tony! You'd have made your father proud!"

"It's ready, you two!" Pepper yelled from inside the room. "Get off the roof!" At that second, Obadiah unleashed the machine gun at them, with Tony shielding himself at first, but Zach stood in between him and Stane, taking the bullets. "What the –" Tony asked as he saw his son taking all the bullets, and surprisingly not dying, before the bullets also sprayed on the glass, breaking it and dropping on the edge. Amara on the other side, was shrieking from the camera view, seeing Zach behind sprayed with bullets.

"How ironic, Tony!" Stane yelled again. "Trying to rid the world of weapons, you gave it its best one yet."

"Pepper/Mom!" Tony and Zach yelled.

"AND NOW I'M GOING TO KILL THE BOTH OF YOU WITH IT!" Stane roared, firing a missle again, but having misfired, it landed a few feet away from Tony. "You ripped out my targeting system!"

"Time to hit the button!" Tony yelled at her, who looked up to her boss and son. "You told me not to!" Pepper argued back. But Stane had focused on Zach, as the two were still bickering. "You, Zach," Stane pointed at him menacingly. "I don't know where you got the attitude or these gifts, but you have been and still are useless."

"I should have put you out like I did with the other Stark long ago."

Zach puzzled in thought, as Obadiah still pointed at the two of them. "Hold still, you little prick!" Obadiah growled, firing more and still missing, having now been declared with the best Stormtrooper aim of 2008. "JUST DO IT, MOM!" Zach yelled, still struggling with the thought of another Stark. "You'll both die!"

"PUSH IT!" Tony yelled, and Pepper obliged, finally pressing the button and escaping, as the Arc Reactor went crazy. Tony and Zach fell to the ground, watching the electricity slowly kill and incinerate the Iron Monger. A beam of blue light had beamed to the skies, and all of the city had gone dark from a black out. Stane's limp body, combined with the mass of the armor, stumbled forward and had fallen straight into the Reactor, exploding the inside of the building, but still Zach and Tony had survived.

A FEW DAYS LATER

"You've all received the official statement of what occurred at Stark Industries last night. There have been unconfirmed reports that a robotic prototype malfunctioned and caused damage to the Arc Reactor. Fortunately a number of Tony Stark's personal security staff..."

Tony now reads from a newspaper labeled "WHO IS THE IRON MAN?" Pepper dabbed at his face, and on the other side, Zach was holding Jayden in his arms, coddling him while Amara watched, smiling at how adorable her brother was with her son, while petting Goose carefully. Over the few days, Zach had told them the truth about him & his powers, but kept a secret that his mother was alive and that Goose was an alien. That was only for him & Amara to know at the moment.

"Iron Man..." Tony muttered as he read the article and Pepper still dabbed on his face. "That's kind of catchy, got a nice ring to it. I mean, it's not technically accurate. The suit's a gold titanium alloy, but it's kind of evocative, the imagery anyway."

"Just take the name, Dad," Zach groaned and returned Jayden to his mother. "No-one would want a scientifically accurate name for Iron Man. Like, who's gonna call you, "Gold-Titanium Alloy Man?"

Tony chuckled as Amara elbowed her brother for teasing his father. "Here's your alibi," Coulson, still alive, handed Tony a piece of paper, as he now took it in his hand. "You were on your yacht, and we have port papers that put you in Avalon all night, and sworn statements from 50 of your guests."

"See, I was thinking maybe we should say it was just Pepper, Zach, Amara, the little one over there, and me on the island." Tony suggested. "That's what happened," Coulson kept his usual smile, as Tony flipped through the pages, observing something significant on them. "There's nothing about Stane on here." Tony said to him.

"That's being handled," Coulson answered strategically. "He's on vacation. Small aircraft have such a poor safety record."

"But what about the whole cover story that it was bodyguards?" Tony asked again. "He's my... I mean... is that... That's kind of flimsy, don't you think?"

"This isn't my first rodeo, Mr. Stark," Coulson answered once more. "Just stick to the official statement, and soon, this will all be behind you." He looked back at the TV, observing when Stark would go on the record. "You've got.. 90 seconds."

"Oh, Agent Coulson?" Pepper asked him, as he turned around. "I just wanna thank you very much for all your help." Coulson still smiled happily, which must be a trademark for him. "That's what we do," Phil responded. "You'll be hearing from us."

Pepper smiled and tried to remember the whole name of the association Coulson was representing. "From the Strategic Homeland—"

"Just call us S.H.I.E.L.D." Coulson put it in shorthand.

—-----------------------------------------------

"I'm sorry, Mr. Stark, but do you honestly expect us to believe that that was a bodyguard in a suit that conveniently appeared, despite the fact that you..." Christine Everhart bravely questioned him in front of other reporters, wanting to get the true answer of what happened. Tony was still sticking to his alibi, and quickly went to respond.

"I know that it's confusing, it is one thing to question the official story, and another thing entirely to make wild accusations," Tony answered. "Like years ago, when Zach came to the public eye, everyone was questioning who his birth mother was! Or for the other thing, insinuate that I'm a superhero."

"I never said you were a superhero," Christine answered. "Or questioned that."

"Didn't? Well, good, because that would be outlandish and fantastic!" Tony responded. "I'm just not the hero type. Clearly. With this laundry list of character defects, all the mistakes I've made are largely public."

"Just stick to the card, man." Rhodey whispered to Tony, hopefully getting this struggle away from them. "The truth is..." Tony glanced at the cards, took a deep breath, and said the words that would change his life, the stakes of his son and family, and everything in this universe...

"I am Iron Man."

POST CREDITS:

MALIBU MANSION.

"Jarvis!" Tony called out for the A.I. ready for a day's rest. Zach had publicly come out as the Iron Marvel shortly after his proclamation he was Iron Man, and now everything would be done. Or so he thought.

"wElcOmE hoMe, sIr," Jarvis spoke in a distorted voice before cutting off, and the lights opened on a figure staring out the windows of his home. "I am Iron Man," The figure repeated his words. "You think you're the only superhero in the world?"

"Mr. Stark, you and your son have become part of a bigger universe," The figure continued and walked across the room. "You-just-don't-know it yet."

"Who the hell are you?" Tony asked angrily, as the figure had now come into the full light, revealing an older man with a goatee... and an eyepatch on his left eye. "Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D."

"I'm here to talk to you and your kid about the Avengers Initiative."

"And I know everything about your son's past. Including his mother."