Ch5. The dinner
Entering his workshop in the basement of his Malibu house was a very nostalgic experience for Tony.
By the time Avengers lost to Thanos, his Malibu house was completely remade several times over so seeing it all as it was when he first made his Iron Man suit was... indescribable.
"Hello, sir. I see you are back from your unscheduled vacation. Welcome home. How can I be of assistance?"
A voice with a British accent suddenly startled him out of his reverie. Realizing who just spoke to him, Tony couldn't help the big happy smile that formed on his lips. He had so many other concerns that he forgot JARVIS was not yet destroyed!
Fuck Vision! Tony would not let JARVIS be destroyed the second time!
"Hello, JARVIS. Yes, next time I will go somewhere less sunny." He answered lightly before he seated himself behind his work desk. "I am going to activate several new secret projects. Save them on my secret personal servers and encrypt them enough that even I would have a hard time getting to them without permission."
"Are you sure, Sir?"
"Definitely. Go wild." Tony said while inwardly marveling at the level of JARVIS's development. It surely was not his imagination. He could actually hear the concern in his A.I.'s voice. 'Was JARVIS always so advanced and I just never noticed? I did take many things for granted at this stage of my life so it is definitely possible...' Tony lamented.
With this realization, a plan started to form in Tony's head. He couldn't do everything alone but he didn't trust people with his stuff anymore. He needed help and a lot of it.
The number of projects in his mind just increased...
He didn't plan to do this when he stepped into his workshop. He didn't plan to do this at all, but... plans change at the drop of a hat.
"JARVIS, the first project will be named FRIDAY."
...
The little dinner Tony organized was informal and only JARVIS, Rhodey, Pepper, and Happy participated.
They enjoyed pizza while chatting about unimportant stuff but Tony could clearly discern the looks of concern they were throwing him when they thought he was not watching. Fighting aliens and supervillains made him quite observant so it wasn't particularly hard to notice a bunch of normal humans acting weird.
He opted to let it be and not comment on it as his previous self would no doubt do in the most assholish fashion. They were simply worried and as uncomfortable as it made him feel, he appreciated it enough to play nice.
When they finished eating, Tony decided it was time to talk about the serious stuff. He almost found it a pity to ruin the happy mood but it was necessary.
"I have decided to order the immediate stop of weapon manufacturing for the Stark Industries." He bluntly said in an offhanded manner which instantly quieted down the warm merry mood in the room to a freezing halt.
While Happy and Rhodey were surprised, it was Pepper who was looking at Tony's face with an intense gaze, causing him to start fidgeting when she didn't stop after a few seconds. He wanted some kind of reaction that wasn't stunned silence so he could get a clue how they felt about it and how to reason with them in the best way to make them understand his point of view, dammit!
Pepper's eyes suddenly widened in surprise as she exclaimed in a quiet and horrified voice, "Oh my god, you are serious. Tony, you can't! It will be..."
"A catastrophe? Expensive? Irresponsible?" Tony quickly interjected, "Yup, that describes me perfectly, doesn't it?" He jokingly quipped.
Pepper, however, didn't seem to appreciate it so Tony quickly added, "Besides, the company is mine and I am just telling you what will happen to make sure you are prepared for it. Don't worry. It's me! I obviously have a plan." He tried to reassure her.
That seemed to calm Pepper down a bit as she dropped her head into her hands in despair. But hey! Anything that wasn't hysterical screaming was good in Tony's books!
"Man~, I thought something was up when you acted a bit strange on the plane but you really do need a doctor." Rhodey quipped in good humor, instantly breaking the darkening mood and making Tony smirk while Pepper smiled a bit too.
Rhodey did not like it. He was a part of the US army. But... he was willing to give Tony a bit of leeway and who knows? Maybe Tony would rethink it later.
As for Happy... he was happy to just quietly observe while enjoying the remaining pizza.
Pepper took a deep breath, "Okay, Tony. What do you need from me?" She asked with resignation in her tone and Tony did a small mental fist pump. She was on board.
"I need you to organize a press conference tomorrow. I will announce it to the publi-" Tony started explaining his amazing plan with a grin on his face.
"Wait." Pepper suddenly interrupted him in panic as she realized an important fact, "Why didn't you invite Obie? He is the CEO of Stark Industries. You should talk it over with him first!"
Just like that, Tony's grin fell. "Pepper, calm down." He firmly said, making Pepper stop fussing about things that were making him feel sour. "JARVIS, if you would."
Images started to appear on the nearby windows and Tony gestured Pepper towards them. She had no idea what was he planning but nevertheless, she stood up and went to look at them.
Pepper instantly found out these were documents. Documents of...
"Oh... shit." She quietly remarked, feeling... well, she was not sure what she felt but it was definitely not a good emotion. "These... are they real!?"
"Yup." Tony casually said as Rhodey and Happy approached the window to get a look at what made Pepper so surprised.
"Yup? What do you mean 'yup'!? We should call the police and-" She heatedly started and Tony knew if he let her go on, it would be hard to stop her.
"And that's where I will stop you, Pepper." He stated with steel-like firmness, something he very rarely used because he hated being serious most of the time. That's why it worked like a charm and stopped Pepper in her tracks, causing an incredulous expression to appear on her face. "These are just documents about his illegal trade with the Stark Industries goods. They are not important-"
"Not important!? Tony-!" Pepper hissed.
"I want to get Obadiah for handing me over to the Ten Rings." Tony dropped the verbal bomb and the room became silent again.
"What do you mean by 'handing you over'?" Rhodey asked after a moment. "You want to tell us it was Obadiah who..." He trailed off, not wanting to finish that thought. Obadiah was something akin to Tony's foster father. Such betrayal would have been brutal.
"Who sold the Ten Rings my weapons and hired them to kill me. Lucky me, they had other plans." Tony nodded, causing Rhodey to wince and Pepper to take a sharp intake of breath.
"And the proof?" Rhodey asked. Not that he didn't believe Tony but nobody would take such an accusation seriously. Especially when it came to the SI CEO. If they wanted anything to be done about it, they needed undeniable proof.
"I will get it. It's probably on one of Obadiah's computers. I doubt he would be stupid enough to save it on the company's computer in his office so I gotta find which one of his personal ones it is before I can act." Tony lied with a straight face. He knew Obadiah was that stupid. He simply didn't want Pepper snooping around. It was not needed.
Tony also wanted Obadiah to stay the CEO of his company for a while longer. He was going to make a shitstorm of cosmic proportions with his announcement tomorrow and he'd rather Obadiah deal with the fallout... after all, he did a really good job last time around... instead of putting such a burden on Pepper.
Obie could have the stress of keeping SI from crumbling in the upcoming months before he will be inevitably arrested while Tony will be his usual irresponsible assholish self.
"I am not telling you this because I want you to do something. I am informing you because I want you to act as usual and do nothing. Don't do anything stupid and keep low. I will deal with Obadiah myself." Tony said, giving Pepper a meaningful look. Happy was just his driver slash bodyguard while Rhodey had nothing much to do with Stark Industries so they were of no concern in this case. Pepper, however...
Fortunately, it seemed they all understood the gravity of the situation and would listen to him. For how long, he had no idea.