31: Iron Man.
The place was a mess, with fire remains, smoke, and debris everywhere. Carol focused her senses, searching for signs of intruders. There were none; at least within a kilometer radius, everyone had been evacuated. She could hear people in panic, but it was fine because no one had really been hurt.
At least not when it came to civilians. She couldn't help but look at the remains of the enemy that had been defeated. Curiously, she picked up one of the pieces of metal that hadn't melted and played with it between her fingers.
She tried to squeeze it, but it was difficult, very difficult. Even so, it was just a small and thinner piece of the material, so after much effort, she managed to bend it slowly.
Then she heard the air being displaced and turned around to see Daniel returning.
The two looked at each other in silence for a moment.
Carol felt somewhat uncomfortable because Daniel's expression was blank.
Then he sighed, and his shoulders dropped slightly.
"Help me, I need to gather all this metal," he said simply, walking over to Stane, or what was left of him, and beginning to gather the pieces of vibranium. Carol nodded, and soon both of them piled up the remains of the armor. On the other hand, what was left of the corpse was taken out and left aside, not without first taking some samples for further study.
Everything was done in a strange silence and calm, which Carol couldn't bear any longer, so she spoke directly.
"Is something wrong?"
Daniel played with one of the pieces of metal between his fingers before speaking.
"What are you doing here, Carol?" That question made her frown.
"I came to help," she responded quickly.
"In something where it wasn't necessary. You took too much risk, and if I had to guess, the helmet wasn't even your idea." He had come to know her well enough to understand how impulsive she could be at certain moments.
"Well, maybe if you told me what was going on, I wouldn't have to rush out without knowing if you needed my help or not!" The place fell silent for a moment.
Carol blinked, realizing that she was the one who had shouted.
"I—"
Daniel interrupted her.
"You're right about that, this is my fault... I'm sorry." He had been reluctant to communicate with her, it was his mistake. Carol was not a thing he could put aside until it was useful.. He didn't know how to deal with her, and instead of communicating properly, he simply ignored her. It was his fault that she didn't understand when she should or shouldn't interfere and took unnecessary risks. Scolding her for that was stupid.
Carol stayed silent for a moment, her own apology on the tip of her tongue.
"It won't happen again, I promise." Hearing him apologize like that, Carol couldn't bear to see him so discouraged and quickly approached him.
"No, I should have asked first or—" Daniel raised his palm, stopping her again.
"Carol, I don't need you to excuse me. Accept my apologies or yell at me a bit more, either way, I won't bother" Yell at him a bit more? Impossible.
Daniel walked over to the pile of metal before looking at Stane's half-burnt body and pointed at it with his finger.
"Could you?" He didn't need to say it completely for her to understand. Carol nodded, letting the dark visor of her helmet lift. Her eyes glowed bright red as a pair of red beams struck the remains of the corpse, turning it to ashes.
"Well, one less problem." Then he took the vibranium and handed it to Carol.
"Could you take this to my farm? I still need to deal with a few things." He could hear vehicles and what sounded like the blades of an approaching airplane.
Carol nodded, taking the remains of the armor.
"Will you come to dinner? I learned a new recipe." She couldn't help but ask, and Daniel thought for a moment before nodding with a smile.
"Of course, I'll be there." He missed her cooking a bit.
Carol smiled, immediately cheering up, and started to fly, but not before saying goodbye.
"Then I'll hurry." Watching her go, Daniel nodded and walked through the wrecked place, starting to clean up a bit. There was debris that could be a hazard for traditional cleanup crews, and it was better to take care of it himself.
Quickly, he finished and waited until he heard an aircraft landing not far from him. He turned to see what looked like a somewhat chubby, dark gray jet.
Quinjet? He remembered what it was.
He saw Fury getting off it along with Natasha and waved at them. The one-eyed man didn't seem very happy but nodded at him anyway.
"This is a complete mess," Fury said when they met.
"Well, look on the bright side, Tony will surely pay for this." His joke didn't amuse Fury much.
"What happened to Stane?" Natasha asked, looking around, and Daniel pointed to a dark stain on the ground not far away.
The two Shield agents were stunned for a moment, seeing what was left of the man.
"And the armor?" Fury asked.
"Safe," Daniel replied, and said nothing more, causing the Shield director to frown for a moment, but he didn't say anything else about it and just nodded.
"Stark is recovering well. Although he has mild burns on his skin and some fractures, it's nothing really serious." It was good to know that. He hadn't stayed long once he dropped him off at the nearest private hospital; he didn't want to leave Carol alone for too long after all.
"You didn't come all the way here just to say that, did you?"
"More or less. After the big explosion, the broadcast images were cut off, so I thought it would be better to come and see what happened myself." That made sense, and it was also a relief to know. Tony knowing about Carol didn't bother him too much, but the whole world knowing about her? That could bring some problems, so it would be better if it didn't happen, at least for now.
"I understand. Well, I've done some preliminary cleaning, so you can let the normal authorities handle the rest. For now, I'm going home to take a shower," he said, pointing to the state of his suit.
"We still have things to discuss, so I hope we can meet again soon. Also, it would be good to have a way to contact you directly." Right, they hadn't discussed that.
Daniel would have thrown one of the communicators he created if they weren't all in pieces.
So instead, he recited a disposable number he hadn't used before. He had modified the equally disposable phone housing the chip, so he wasn't afraid of it being traced.
"You can use it if another emergency occurs. Once Tony gets out of the hospital, I'll contact him to arrange another meeting, but for now, I'm leaving," he said goodbye to both and flew off.
Watching him leave, Fury sighed, his shoulders slightly slumped. He looked at the destroyed area, already anticipating the headache this whole affair would bring.
Why didn't he become a gardener?
"Do you want me to try to track him?" Natasha asked, and Fury shook his head.
"He's too smart not to have thought of that. We already have his cooperation and direct contact; we shouldn't risk it," he said before asking about another matter.
"What about the samples?" They hadn't discussed this before.
Natasha shook her head. "Even though both women were with him, I couldn't find any traces on their bodies. There was nothing in the trash or the bathroom either. He took good precautions." Well, It would have been too good to be true if they could have obtained such a direct sample so easily.
"Since that is the case then let's forget it." Fury looked at the damage caused one last time with unknown thoughts before heading back to the quinjet with Natasha.
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Daniel arrived at his farm already smelling the aroma of a good stew. Without thinking, he entered and walked to his room, where he took off the tattered suit and took a quick shower.
Carol, in the kitchen, heard him arrive and quickly finished what she was doing and set the table. Eating alone with him was always something she looked forward to, so she always tried to make it special in one way or another.
She wondered if she should steal one of her mother's candles. Her parents were already asleep, so it would be easy to go and grab one quickly. But before she could do so, Daniel came down from the second floor and entered the dining room.
"Hey, it's been a while since I've had lasagna." He couldn't help but smile cheerfully at the dish Carol had made.
Carol took off her apron and sat next to him.
"You mentioned it before, so I thought I'd make something for you," she said, a bit embarrassed. Daniel thought about it. He had casually mentioned lasagna some time ago and didn't expect her to remember it until now.
"Thanks, I, well maybe I should do something for you too?" She always cooked for him, so maybe giving her something wouldn't be a bad idea.
Carol got excited and couldn't help but fidget with her fingers and speak almost in a whisper.
"Well, I heard a new café opened in the town center, so…"
"Eh, it seems this place is still thriving despite everything. Well, I have nothing to do tomorrow, so if you want, we can go and check it out. Maybe their coffee is really good." Carol got excited; she didn't expect him to agree so easily. Was it a date?
Daniel served himself and ate in silence, glancing at Carol, who seemed lost in her thoughts. Seeing the blush on her cheeks and how she squirmed from time to time, he didn't want to find out what she was thinking about, so he decided to change the subject.
"The one in the armor is Tony Stark," he said suddenly, making Carol snap out of her thoughts and look at him.
"The multimillionaire playboy?" she asked with a frown. Even in a town like Smallville, some news still reached them. She remembered several guys in her class talking about Tony Stark and his glorious "conquests."
She also remembered that he was the one who started Daniel's conference, although she hadn't paid much attention at the time.
"The one and only. He's pretty smart. He built a miniature reactor as well as an armor to escape his captors, in a cave! We met when he attacked the Ten Rings bases in Central Asia. I think we're friends now; we certainly get along well. We were also contacted by this super-secret international organization, Shield, to form a superhero team, the Avengers. How does that sound?" he spoke excitedly, and Carol listened attentively.
"The Avengers? It's... unique," certainly not a common name.
"And these people, Tony and SHIELD, are they reliable?" she couldn't help but ask with some doubt.
"Tony is eccentric, somewhat arrogant for sure, and very sarcastic, but he's trustworthy, at least from what I know of him so far. As for SHIELD? Well, saying they are trustworthy would be a mistake. I don't trust them at all. I trust their director a little since I can see what he's after, but I don't think we agree on many things. On the other hand, there's a spy, Natasha, red hair, incredible figure, super sexy, Russian. The leather certainly fits her like a glove,. She's more trustworthy, at least more than Fury, but less than Tony."
He said honestly, making Carol blink as she processed his words.
"So... super sexy," she said in a flat tone, and Daniel nodded, knowing it would annoy her. He could see it, the poor fork in her hand crumpling like fragile aluminum.
"And in leather, dark leather," he emphasized just to see her eye twitch. He wouldn't admit it out loud, but it was fun to watch. It was a bad thing to do, he knew, but he had gotten into the habit of teasing her just to see a side of her that wasn't the usual lovey-dovey one. If he had to live with her 24/7 drooling over him, he wouldn't be able to hold back as much as he had until now.
He shouldn't keep doing it, but he couldn't help it.
Carol swallowed, clenching her teeth a bit, but took a deep breath and calmed down slowly. It was fine; it was nothing out of the ordinary, just a stupid redhead in leather.
"And you'll be working closely with her?" Why did she ask that?
"Well, she's kind of the SHIELD liaison with the team, so I guess I'll see her often. I'm not complaining; she has a pleasant voice."
"Pleasant voice, huh?" Seeing her eyes glow red, he knew it was enough and decided to stop.
"But we've talked enough about me. What about you? What have you been up to?"
Carol, of course, wouldn't forget this but decided it was better not to keep listening. With a smile in return, she talked about some of the things her mother had been teaching her. Of course, she didn't mention her combat training; that was a surprise.
"-I think I could graduate from university at this point. Honestly, learning about science is much easier than I thought," she finished saying before remembering something else.
"Oh, and I know what my birth name is." That caught Daniel's attention.
"I thought you didn't want to know." In fact, she had privately confessed to him that she didn't want to find out.
Carol nodded and sighed a bit. "My mother accidentally said it, and since then, she hasn't stopped calling me that. It's a bit strange," she confessed sincerely.
"And what is it?" At his question, Carol hesitated for a moment before saying it.
"Kora-El." It sounded strange; it was the first time she said it out loud.
"So, Kora? Interesting, a bit exotic. Kora, Kora, I like it. You don't mind if I call you that, right?" It would certainly be easier to communicate with her that way when they were in their suits; after all, Carol didn't have a codename like he did.
"N-not at all, I think it's great!" Carol said too quickly for her own good.
"I thought you thought it was a bit strange," Daniel said, hiding a smile as he saw her blush suddenly.
Carol played with her hair a bit and looked at Daniel, a little nervous, speaking in a low voice.
"I-if you say it, it doesn't sound so bad." Her heart raced too fast admitting that, and Daniel paused for a moment, looking at her face.
He shook his head, clearing any strange thoughts.
They continued talking for a while longer until Carol had to leave because dawn was breaking.
Then Daniel went to his workshop. He needed to repair his suit, and now that the presence of SHIELD and other strange organizations in the town had minimized, he could set up his small workshop again and continue working on some things.
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The hospital reeked, and Tony swore never to come to one again for as long as he lived.
"Another press conference? Are you crazy?! You need to rest," Pepper said with a frown, and Tony quickly shook his head.
"They're just superficial wounds, I'll be fine. Besides, I need to have my own big event. These vultures keep saying nonsense about what happened, and if I don't stop them, people will actually think I'm Defiant's sidekick. Can you believe it?! Sidekick, seriously?!" He didn't know what bothered him more, people assuming he was just a "sidekick" or being stuck in the hospital.
At least the name the media gave him was decent.
"I think it's too soon," Pepper said, and she couldn't help but glance at one corner of the room. There, the Mark 3 was resting. After all, there wasn't time for Tony to take off the armor. Fortunately, Daniel took him to one of the most decent private hospitals, and SHIELD made sure his "secret" remained safe. Well, one doctor and three nurses knew, but surely none of them would talk.
At least not for now, but Tony knew it would be useless to hide it for too long. His association with Defiant had already cast doubt on the identity of what people had begun to call Iron Man. The fact that the whole mess with Obadiah had started at the main headquarters of his company didn't help at all.
Crazy theories were already flooding the media, so it was better to control the narrative from the beginning and avoid any possible misunderstandings, even though there were already many.
He didn't know exactly what he wanted to do, but he at least needed to intervene.
On the other hand, Rhodes had been calling non-stop, but honestly, he didn't feel like answering. He still remembered Rhodes' earlier words. Tony could be many things, but forgetting and forgiving were not his greatest virtues.
"Too soon or not, it has to be done. Come on, help me up," Pepper sighed, then helped him stand and pulled out the spare clothes she had brought for him.
"At least put this on."
"Always prepared, remind me to give you a raise," she deserved it.
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A few hours later, but still early in the morning, Tony stood in front of a podium in a room filled with journalists. They had arrived much faster than expected, but it was normal. Many had come to Malibu even before he announced a conference; they could smell a big story in the air.
"Well, I didn't expect to see you all again so soon. I certainly would have preferred to do it under better circumstances," he said, raising his bandaged hands. The skin on his arms was a bit burned, it stung to the touch, but it wouldn't leave visible scars.
Several hands went up, but Tony shook his head, indicating he wouldn't answer questions yet.
"I know what you all want to ask, but I'm not here just to talk about that, even if it disappoints you. Mainly, I want to talk about Stark Industries. The last time I spoke about my company, I promised changes, significant changes... and I want to apologize for not making them sooner, at least not in the timely manner I wished." The journalists' eyes widened in astonishment. Tony Stark? Tony Stark apologizing? Something that was never thought possible actually happened right before their eyes.
He never believed he would apologize live and on air, but this apology wasn't for the people present or even for most of those watching the broadcast. The apologies he gave probably wouldn't reach the people who deserved them.
But he had to do it; there were moments when even the great Tony Stark had to face the music.
Many quickly stood up, raising their hands.
Tony calmed them down quickly before continuing to speak.
"The reality is that recent events have taught me a lesson, an important one. For real changes to happen, they must be made personally; one must make them themselves—" Before he could continue, a young and clearly inexperienced reporter with short brown hair spoke up.
"Excuse me, Mr. Stark, I'm Lois Lane from The Daily Planet. I don't want to interrupt, but does this have anything to do with the events of last night and how the main building of your company was destroyed?"
Tony frowned, feeling a bit annoyed at being interrupted like that. He almost let his sharp tongue take over, but he managed to contain himself, remembering why he was here and what he wanted to achieve.
"Yes, there's a connection, and I know everyone wants to know what happened. There's been a lot of speculation, and certainly, some very strange things have been invented. I don't blame you; everything last night was very strange, but we'll get to that. First and foremost, I want to make it clear that Stark Industries will begin a new era, one of real change and not empty promises. I'll do better, be better," he said seriously to the cameras, making a tense silence fill the room for a moment.
Of course, the journalists didn't care much about that; they wanted to know about the recent events more than anything. So, another one raised his hand and asked a question without waiting for permission.
"Mr. Stark, I just want to know something. Is it true that Stark Industries created a robot assistant for Defiant? And that one of your prototypes went out of control? If so, will you pay for the reparations—" Tony interrupted quickly.
"Robot assistant? Who the hell said that?" Alright, now he was pissed.
"It's what some people think," another journalist added, to which Tony responded.
"It's not an assistant, alright? It was an equal collaboration! I want to make that clear."
"So does that mean it was indeed Stark Industries who built the robot?"
Tony sighed. Well, this wasn't going in the direction he expected, but he couldn't exactly blame them. Maybe if he had waited a few days to hold the conference, they would have been more civilized.
A hand went up, and Tony sighed as he saw a familiar blonde. Still, he pointed at her, letting her stand up. After all, if it hadn't been for her, it would have taken him longer to realize what was happening in Gulmira, and more innocent people would have died.
"Many of us have noticed your injuries, Mr. Stark. According to the reports, you weren't present at the time of the events. If that's true, can you tell us what happened?" she asked with narrowed eyes.
"Are you insinuating something, Miss Everhart?" That seemed to surprise her; it was well-known that Tony rarely remembered people's names.
Nevertheless, she quickly composed herself.
"I just think there's more than meets the eye. Many say Iron Man doesn't seem like just a robot. I was wondering what you think about that."
Tony pondered his response. He could lie and offer a flimsy excuse, but honestly, hiding wasn't his style.
"I think they're right," he said, causing the room to fall silent.
"Since you want to know, I'll say it directly." He let the silence linger a bit longer to build tension, then smiled as he saw Pepper quickly shaking her head out of the corner of his eye. The woman seemed to understand what was coming and wanted to avoid it.
Fury would probably be fuming at realizing what was about to happen, and for some reason, he felt that Daniel would be watching this with amusement.
Without waiting any longer, he spoke loudly to make the truth clear.
"I am Iron Man."
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Note:
With this, we conclude Tony's mini-arc. He still has much to show, of course, and will be a recurring character, but there are many other characters to explore and stories to tell.
As always, leave your comments, and if you notice any errors, feel free to point them out.
And remember that you can find the next chapter(and some more chapters) of this story on Patreon (patreon. com/EmmaCruzader) All the support received helps me a lot ;D