Chapter 62: Hearing.

Author: I'm sorry for the late chapter. Just got back from the airport. The chapter is a little shorter than usual. Be nice to me.

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Ava Starr has a mission today. To bug a house of an important figure of the country. The justification to do that? 

Recently there is talk of getting nuclear energy for Somalia, in a new city that the family is building. 

"The Knights have been acting suspiciously. We need to be sure that they are not a threat to the country and earth." A Hydra operative inside of Shield said to her. 

This will be an off-the-book mission. Ghost agent specialty. Tim's influence is at the extreme right now as he can call the president of the United States. Hydra feels threatened by this, and Shield feels he is a threat. 

They want to monitor his movement and his connections. To find out Tim's plan and prevent him from getting more influence. 

Shield is trying to figure out the Knight industry's involvement with nuclear power. They don't want Somalia to become the Knight's backyard equipped with some nuclear missiles. 

If there is any organization on earth that is allergic to change, it's Shield. The new city will be outside their jurisdiction. Shield has no power there 

The organization doesn't mind that they are advanced. But other organizations or countries that can do that themselves are considered a threat. 

Ava doesn't care about the justification. She only needs to do her job, and then return home to her cage. The quantum chamber that can stabilize her.

After bugging Tim Knight's house, she is waiting by the extraction point, which is a warehouse in New York. 

Getting out of her stealth mode, she reported her success on the communication channel. "It's done." Her body keeps phasing out of reality when she doesn't control it. 

She is alone at the warehouse, waiting. Or so she thought.

"Boo!"A voice sounded right next to her ears. She is greatly startled that she goes into intangible mode and retreats a few meters. 

She scans the area."Weird, there is no one here. Maybe it's my imagination."

She calms herself down before a voice sounds in her other ear. "Boo!" 

Goosebumps arise all over her body when she checks, once again, no one is here!!!

Codename:Ghost now wonders if there is an actual ghost there. "Is anyone here?" She whispers. 

"Yeah, you're at my house." A spooky voice says to her. Her heart is beating wildly.

"I'm sorry to bother you… spirit… I will go now." Her fears are at the extreme. After all, she is 18 years old right now. The seemingly ordinary place turns spooky in her mind. 

"Why are you there?" The voice said to her, stopping her in her steps. 

"I am waiting for someone to pick me up. I will go outside now!" She wanted to leave, but fear froze her body. 

"That's not what I meant." The voice said. Suddenly, the voice took on a corporeal form. She looks at the figure in horror. 

"What I meant was, why are you at my father's house?" Ryan shows himself to the Ghost.

'I am exposed.' She tried to phase and run, but Ryan has closed the distance between them. He wants to grab her arm, but his palm goes through her. 

'Interesting,' Ryan thought. He changes his posture to attack her abdomen. Still, his fist went right through her body.

Ava couldn't kill him as he is not a target. She tries to attack him to get some distance to run, but the guy is sticking close to her.

When Ava attacks her body becomes tangible. Ryan braces for impact to his abdomen. At the same time, he grabs her wrist again. This time, it works. He puts something there. 

"Just like an Obito." He smiles and says to Ava. When she wants to hold something tangible, she needs to be tangible too. He can touch her at the time. 

"You think that the cuff can hold me?" Ava said coldly. She tries to phase her arm out of the cuff, but… "It's not working. What did you do!" 

She phases, but the cuff stays linked to her. She is flustered. At this time, her ears perked up as she heard the sound of a van outside the warehouse. 

She runs towards the sound and phases directly into the van. "Go go!" She says urgently to the Shield(Hydra) agent.

Ryan just lets her leave. His work is done. His figure in the warehouse disappears as he returns to his apartment via teleportation.

… 

The next day, US Senate hearing, in Washington, DC. 

*Bang Bang Bang * Senator Stern hit the gavel three times. "Mr. Stark, can I have your attention please." 

"Yes, dear." Stark's answer made the crowd laugh. 

"Did you or did you not possess a specialized weapon?" Stern asks from behind the judges' podium for the Senate Armed Services Committee. 

The 6 old people behind the podium are representing the country in the Weaponized Suit Defence Program Hearings.

"I do not. Well, that depends on how you used the word weapons." Stark's answers. 

"The iron man weapon." Senator Stern clarifies. 

"My suit did not represent the description. I will describe it as what it is, Senator. " Stark defended. 

"How do you describe it then?" 

"It's a, um, a high-tech prosthesis." 

Stern may be losing right now, but he had another card. A wild card that he didn't want to use before. But now, he had the perfect opportunity for it. 

"You claim that the Iron man suit is a high-tech prosthesis. Within the crowd today there is an expert on the matter." The Senator says slyly. 

The attention turns to a certain young man, who is now sleeping in his chair. "Mr. Knight, can you give us your opinion on the matter?" 

But Ryan didn't respond, creating laughter from the crowd. Tony cried out to him. "Kid wake up.!" 

He didn't mind Stern's calls upon Ryan, as he expected when he claimed the Iron Man as particular. 

"What?" Ryan wakes up to see a lot of eyes staring at him. 

"Busy night? You're lucky you didn't snore. " Tony asks, ignoring the officials.

" I'm not like you, Tony. Your snoring is extremely loud. I had to call Pepper to drag you away." Ryan quipped while he stood up. 

He now understands what is going on. Although he had been rejected before, he still came to support Tony. He didn't expect Stern to be so brazen.

He says to Stern. "An Expert Witness should be notified at least 48 hours before the court is in session." He can get out of it anytime, but he won't be satisfied with just that.

"But, as a patriotic member of the country, I will make an exemption." 

Seeing Ryan's compliance boosted the senator's confidence. Pepper and Rhodes are a little worried. Hammer is easy to manage, but the kid is the final boss. 

Stark smiles a little, but he hides it from the Senators. He knows the look on the kids' faces. 'He is annoyed right now. Stern had dug his own grave' 

"Mr. Stark claims his Iron Suit is a prosthesis. As the leading expert in the matter. Do you support his claims?" Stern asks. 

"First, I needed to clarify. An Expert Witness shall not take sides in an argument. We only should show our analysis of the available evidence." He said. 'Not like Hammer who is biased.'

"Any materials we show are listed as an affidavit of the trial case, and we are not to bear responsibility for the materials. "

Stern and the other senator nodded to this. It is a standard court procedure. 

" Okay then, we can proceed. " Ryan says while smiling. If Gwen is here, she knows that is his 'you're going to regret it smile'.

"Well, let's define prosthetics first shall we." He took out a phone, hacked into the monitor in the court, and displayed his screen there. 

"A prosthesis is a device designed to replace a missing part of the body or to help the body to function better." Ryan shows a picture of a fireman with a prosthetic. 

"And sometimes, it's both." The fireman can lift a broken pillar from a victim trapped in a house fire with modified prosthetics. 

He changes it to a picture of a cop. He had both his leg cuts off, but it was replaced with prosthetic legs. "He can run faster than before, making it easier to catch a criminal." 

He shows the video of the cop catching up to a criminal from 100 meters away in just seconds. These enhanced prostheses are made by him and sold in a controlled amount to public servants only. 

It also helps him as his father-in-law is a police captain. He got additional marks in that department as he is making police work easier.

"A prosthetics' main job is to help make people's lives better. It can be in dangerous jobs, or everyday aspects. Like helping Senator Stern with his issues." 

"What issues?" Stern felt ominous. 

"Like how you bought the D-3000 18-inches dildo strap-on with an automatic lubes dispensary for your Thursday night." He shows the image of the item on the screen. 

"Stop! That's a violation of the court and privacy!!" Stern eyes widened. 

"It's not. The item is listed as a prosthetic. And I didn't violate any privacy. Your mistress shares this picture on Stargram." 

He displayed Stern and his mistress's picture with the item that was posted.

"FUCK YOU!!" Stern loses his temper. He then collected himself as the other senators calms him down.

Ryan is now satisfied. "In short, the Iron Man suit is a prosthesis. There is no problem with that" He ends it early as the courts are now in chaos and people are urging him to sit back down.

Tony is barely able to hold in his laughs. He is wheezing on the table.

…

At a certain Shield base. Ava Star is alone in her Quantum Chamber which can stabilize her condition, albeit a little. She is watching the live broadcast of the hearing. 

Watching Ryan's face on the screen, she checks the cuff that was attached to her yesterday. She didn't know why she didn't report her encounter with Ryan to the Shield last night. 

It is because, no matter how hard she tries, she can't phase-out of the cuff. It's more of a bracelet than a cuff. The silvery, 5-centimeter wide and 1-centimeter thick bracelet could phase with her. 

Another weird thing is that she can take it off! It wasn't locked or anything. 

"What is this thing?" She is curious. She waited until there was no one around to check the bracelet. There is a button on the inner side of the bracelet and a transparent tape stuck at the button. It said [Push Me] 

After some hesitation, she does it. She pushed the button without wearing the bracelet. She keeps a distance from it as she fears it'll explode. 

"Strange. What is this?" She wears it after a while. Then, something wonderful happens. 

"It stopped!" Her pain, her suffering that starts after her parents die. The explosion of the experiment with the Quantum Tunnel and inundating her with quantum energy, make her feel extreme pain as her cells are torn apart and stitched back together every single day. 

She walks out of the Quantum Chamber. She gasps. Her chin quivers. She couldn't hold it in anymore. She tries to but fails. Her tears fell. She fell to her knees. She hugs herself. What should she do now? She didn't know. 

…

The hearing moves on like in the movie. Justin Hammer was brought in as a weapon expert, to help Senator Stern in forcing Stark to give up his suits to the government. 

Even Rhodes was brought into the fray. Senator Stern tries to manipulate his statement by making him read specific sentences from a long report, which was thwarted by Rhodes himself.

Stern tries to fear-monger, by showing footage of other countries having their battle suit, but Stark hacked into the monitor and showed them transparency about the whole thing. 

"If you'll direct your attention to the screen, I believe that is North Korea," Tony said. The screen shows a 5-meter mecha walking out of the testing area, and failing to coordinate its limbs. It falls and malfunctions, shooting at the North  Korean Military member nearby. 

" Will you turn that off? "Stern said hurriedly to the assistant. Justin Hammer is anxious. He goes directly to assist in shutting the monitor off. 

" Iran" Tony mentioned another country. The footage shows their battle suit falling from the sky and exploding into ashes. He added. "No immediate danger here. Is that Justin Hammer?" 

The footage now shows Justin Hammer's experiment. 

From the footage: "Left leg up. Good" He praises the driver of the suit. "Now, turn left." 

The suit turns 360° to the left, breaking the spine of the driver. "Arghh!!" 

Tony Stark smiles at Rhodes signaling him there is nothing to worry about. Justin Hammer finally pulls the cord on the monitor, turning it off. 

"Wow," Tony said on the microphone. "I say most country's 5 to 10 years away, Hammer industry 20."

"I like to point out that the test pilot survives," Hammer said to let his record clear. 

"What is your point in showing this?" Stern asks. 

"My point is that... You should thank me instead." 

"I'm your nuclear deterrent. It's working. We are safe. America is secure. You want my property, you can't have it!" Tony slams the table with his palm. 

"But I did you a big favor. I successfully privatized world peace.!" He stands up and makes a peace sign to the crowd. 

The crowd stands up and claps their hands at Stark. "What more do you want?" He said to the crowd. "I tried to play ball with these clowns" He pointed at Stern

"FUCK YOU STARK. FUCK YOU, KNIGHT." Stern loses it. Tony and Ryan walk out of the court. 

… 

After the events, Ryan is at home, monitoring the progress of North Korea and Iran in the iron-suit-making department. 

"In the MCU, it didn't say what happened with these countries. The plot is forgotten, just like that. But in the real world, will there be a mech battle in the future?" He worries. 

"Baby, news about the hearing is on the" 

[Breaking News: Stark's is Untouchable.] 

-Senator Stern: Openly Gay Senator? Or just into Kinky stuff? More on CNN later on. 

Ryan goes to the TV to watch it with Gwen. He is not the type to watch the news, but his lover is. He will accompany her to watch it sometimes. 

[Harambe is going to celebrate his 11th birthday this weekend at the Cincinnati Zoo. It is the best time to bring your kids to the zoo!] 

"Even Gorillas had coverage." Gwen likes to see what is going on with the world and laughs at silly news. She turns to Ryan, and sees that he is… tragic? 

"The savior…" Ryan's tears drop. How could he have forgotten about it? The tragedy of the world. The start of everything bad. It all starts with that thing. 

"The f*cking kid that falls into the enclosure." He cursed. 

Gwen is extremely confused."What is going on?" She asks.

"I need to make a call!" He leaves the sofa.

"ALBUS, mobilize all of Knight industry manpower. Give Harambe the best treatment and send him somewhere nice. "

"Ryan. What is going on with you!! You're acting crazy!" 

"I am saving the world, Gwen." He said seriously. 

He went back and sat next to her. When the coverage of the hearing came, suddenly, a white figure popped out of nowhere in front of the couple. 

"Kyaaa!" Gwen shrieks in surprise. Ryan already noticed her when she got in. 

"What did you do to me?" The white figure asks Ryan. 

"Do you like my present?" He grinned.