Somali and Resolution

Author Note..

Disregard my question about the time line. It's already in sync with the actual events and not the movie release dates.....

Alex equipped his armor once again and waited for Tony to equip his. While waiting Alex caught sight of his appearance in a nearby mirror.

His armor mostly used plates instead of scales. His helmet no longer had a visor but instead two holes for cameras that looked eyes.

His chest armor still had stacked plates that looked like a Dragon's face. Alex's arc reactor was hidden behind the face's forehead.

Because Alex had to store two thrusters beneath his chest plates, the amount of projectiles he could store decreased.

Alex enlarged his spinal fins slightly so more shurikens could be stored there. The kunais were still stored beneath his epaulets and the wrist mounted grappling gun was still there as well.

Since Alex wouldn't be wearing a hood he slightly changed his helmet's appearance. It now looked like the face of a Dragonoid, with an opening mouth for breath attacks.

Dragonscale MKII was a vast upgrade to it's predecessor, but it still wasn't complete. Alex's chosen path was the combination of magic and technology.

He still had to add enchantments to his armor. But he first had to test the armor's performance, enchantments are essentially permanent.

If he enchanted a defective piece of his armor he would have to destroy it in order to replace it. Hence the performance test.

Tony took 4 minutes to change his clothes and equip his armor. Alex then followed Tony as he flew out of the garage door.

" Where are we headed? " Dragon

" The Yemen, there's a group of Somalian pirates there that do business with the Ten Rings. " Tony

" This feels a bit like revenge. Do you have proof that they are doing anything illegal? " Dragon

" Of course I do. I hacked into their computers and found records of weapon sales as well as human trafficking. " Tony

" I had to make sure. " Dragon

" I'm not seeking revenge. This is me holding myself accountable for the chaos I've caused. I'll destroy all of the weapons Stane sold to these thugs. Death and destruction can't be my legacy. " Tony

" I understand. Let's do this. " Dragon

Alex and Tony flew the rest of the way in silence. It was an eleven hour flight before they arrived, Alex and Tony hovered a distance away and scanned the pirate ship.

" There's over 300 pirates on board as well as 20 captives below deck. What's your play ? " Dragon

" I'll take care of the pirates up top, you secure the hostages and join me when you're done. " Tony

" Okay. " Dragon

Tony then fired off a few missiles to deal with the pirates anti-air guns before flying towards them.

Dragon then flew to the part of the hull that was separating him from the hostages. He reached into his pocket dimension and retrieved his Vibranium katana and used it to cut through the hull.

The hostages inside were all young Yemeni women. Dragon flew into the room and landed before saying in Arabic.

" Follow me. I'll send you back home. "

The women trailed behind him as he cut his way through the doors separating him from the life raft. it took 2 minutes to get the women to the life raft.

Dragon then said

" Don't move yet. they'll sink the raft if they see you trying to escape. Wait for my go ahead. "

The frightful women all nodded and Dragon then flew his way above the deck of the ship. But as soon as he arrived he saw a pirate aiming a Stark Industries rpg at Tony.

Purely out of instinct Dragon fired his left repulsor at the pirate. He hit the rpg and it exploded, the blast sent the pirate flying, his fate unknown.

Dragon proceeded to blast the rest of the pirates alongside Tony. Alex felt himself level up twice, it was shocking. He earned more Exp the more dangerous the situation.

But in his new armor he was in significantly less danger than before. The only reason he could think of was the hostages.

Their total amount acted as a multiplier. Alex was now 1 level away from his next evolution. Dragon and Tony made short work of the remaining pirates.

Dragon then released the hostages from the life raft and notified the authorities of their whereabouts.

Dragon said to Tony " Follow my route back. "

Dragon then flew off and followed the course A.N.G.I plotted for him. Since his upgraded armor was flight capable his course plotter now analyzed wind patterns.

This created smoother flights and reduced the time taken as well as energy used. The flight back to Malibu took 10 hours.

Alex did this to show Tony possible paths for upgrades. After they landed Tony unequipped his armor and Alex gave Tony a USB drive.

" Satellite Imagery right. That's how you read the wind patterns? " Tony

" Yeah. That USB has my research on possible material replacements for your armor plates as well as the program to read wind currents. " Alex

" Sounds like you have some business to attend to. " Tony

" Yeah I do. Some fine tuning on my armor as well as some company affairs. You probably won't hear from me in a while. Feel free to call me if you're in a pinch. " Alex

Alex then flew out of the garage and over the ocean for a bit before he opened a portal to his base.

When he made his way inside he landed on a platform that removed his armor for repairs. The performance test revealed a few minor flaws which he planned to correct.

Currently the MKII Dragonscale armor was a prototype. It was currently only the base layer, he still had to incorporate his lightning element control and generation to it. As well as enchant it.

Alex began experimenting with copper wires to guide the lightning Alex generated safely throughout his suit without damaging it.

The copper wires did it's task but they needed a significant amount of time to cooldown. Alex ran simulated experiments with silver which reduced the cooldown time but it still wasn't a feasible amount of time.

Alex had no choice but to run an experiment with low grade Vibranium which did it's task superbly. Alex's generated Lightning was magical so it generated more energy and heat than normal lightning.

Vibranium is an excellent magical conductor, Alex knew it would work but his research with Vibranium could only allow him to forge simple objects.

This was one of the reasons his armor was still made of Dragonscale Carbon. He could forge low grade Vibranium into wire but it would take a significant amount of effort.

Alex then got to work on researching a way to focus his lightning bolts. His end goal is to be able to focus his lightning into a beam form.

But right now he'd settle for increased accuracy. With A.N.G.I running simulations for his lightning research. Alex then moved on to enchanting his armor pieces.

Enchantments used dimensional energy to imbue an object with power or instill knowledge, instructions or purpose into it.

Because Dragonscale Carbon is machine made it isn't a great magical conductor. So each piece could only handle one minor enchantment.

Alex took each armor piece and bestowed a minor 'Sturdy' enchantment on it. Alex used energy from his dimension so as a side effect the scale patterns within his armor plates turned purple.

Because it was a minor enchantment there was only a 10% increase in durability but that already made it a lot stronger.

As for his Arc Reactor he used a minor 'Fluidity' enchantment on it which boosted it's energy output by 10%. As for the Vibranium wires Alex planned on using a 'Fluidity' and 'Flexibility' enchantment on it.

Next were his two swords, Alex used minor 'Sturdy', 'Sharp' and 'Fluidity' enchantments on them. All of which bestowed great power to hus weapons.

As well as some aesthetic upgrades, the Dragons inside the blades of the swords occasionally blinked purple.

All of these upgrades took 4 months to complete. During the course of which a company named The Silver Group offered to buy Dragon Industries from Alex.

This was a nonsensical course of action in Alex's eyes because all of the core products from Dragon Industries were produced by him.

If someone buys his company, Alex could always use the money he mad enough start another while the original would suffer without his creations.

Currently Alex owned 95% of his company's shares. The rest belonged to the several Vice-presidents, they knew the circumstances of the company so they were unfazed by the offers.

After turning down several offers from the Silver Group they finally relented a month ago. But then Alex got news today.

A few of Alex's suppliers were not going to renew their contracts with him. After doing some research he found out that they were acquired by The Silver Group.

Dragon Industries was currently fine but in a few months when the contracts expired they'd be in trouble.

Alex searched for new suppliers but he couldn't find any that were willing to work with him. They were being strong armed by The Silver Group.

Alex spent a month looking for alternatives but he kept drawing blanks. During the course of this month the events of Iron Man 2 and The Incredible Hulk began.

Just yesterday Iron Man fought Whiplash in Monaco. Alex also caught wind of the destruction of a soda plant in Rio de Janeiro and his Satellites picked up some atmospheric disturbances above New Mexico.

This was going to be a big week for both Alex and Fury. Tony's birthday party was in 5 days on May 29th. Alex planned on attending the party because he didn't keep one for himself this year either due to the pressure his company was facing.

He also had to make sure everything happened as it was supposed to. The time flew by and Alex drove up to Tony's mansion on his motorcycle.

Alex arrived after the party began, he walked in but Tony hadn't started partying yet. Alex made his way to Tony's bedroom and just as he was about to open the door some opened it from the inside.

Alex looked at the person and instantly recognized her. Natalie Rushman, aka Natasha Romanoff aka The Black Widow.

She, like every other MCU character looked like the actors that portrayed them. They were just a bit better looking.

Alex stared at her for a bit before she introduced herself.

" Hi. I'm Natalie Rushman the Notary. " Natasha

" Alex Smith, Tony's friend I guess. " Alex

" What do mean 'I guess' ? " Tony

" It means you're annoying. " Alex

Natasha walked away while Alex and Tony were bantering. After some brief catching up Tony started partying and things soon went horribly.

Tony put on the MKIV armor and Rhodey stole the MKII armor in an attempt to prevent Tony from harming any civilians.

Pepper originally asked Alex to stop Tony but with a swift answer that he couldn't fit in any of Tony's armor and his was too far away she had to rely on Rhodey.

Alex watched as the two fought and Tony eventually lost while Rhodey flew away in the MKII armor.

Tony woke up and flew to Randy's Donuts. By the time Alex arrived Tony was already in the donut statue.

Alex made his way to the roof and said

" I must say, I enjoyed watching your sidekick kick your ass. " Alex

Before Tony could respond he and Alex heard someone say

" Sir. I'm gonna have to ask you to exit the donut. " Fury

Alex and Tony made their way inside the donut shop where Tony said.

" I told you I don't wanna join you're super secret boy band. "

After some back and forth between the two Fury then commented on the growing signs of Tony's Palladium poisoning. When Natasha walked up to them and said.

" We've secured the perimeter but I don't think we should hold it for too much longer. "

Tony saw her and said " Huh. You're, fired. "

" That's not up to you. " Natasha

Fury then looked at Alex and said " You don't look surprised. "

" I wasn't surprised by the spies you planted in my company why would I be surprised by the ones that aren't. " Alex

" So that's why they haven't been making any progress and why you agree to join us." Fury

" How long have you known about us? " Fury

" Since you were stalking me at MIT. " Alex

" Is that why you didn't join us? " Fury

" What? No. Why work for someone when you can become rich on your own. " Alex

" So it was about money. " Fury

" And the fact that I can never work for someone. My pride won't allow it. "

" Tour company's in trouble you need some help?"

" Nope. I'll either resolve it on my own or Self-Destruct. "

Fury just nodded and went back to his conversation with Tony before he had Natasha inject Tony with a shot of Lithium Dioxide.

The substance abated the symptoms of Tony's Palladium poisoning. Everyone then left and Alex said to Tony.

" Call me if you need any help. "

Alex then drove home. The next day Tony called Alex, he needed help to build his miniature particle accelerator.

Tony and Alex built the accelerator and used it to synthesize the new element Tony dubbed "Badassium".

Tony then placed the new Badassium core in his Arc Reactor. Jarvis was running tests on it when Ivan Vanko called him.

After notifying Tony that he took his advice about doubling his the arc reactors cycles. Tony attempted to trace Vanko's location but only managed to reduce it to somewhere in New York.

He paused for a bit and noticed that the only thing happening tonight was Justin Hammer's presentation at the Stark Expo.