By the time Tony Stark finally reached New York, he had already done many things.
For one, he had fully decoded every secret of the Talon Fighter he had taken from Wakanda, and had already thought of several ways he could improve the design.
Though that was something for the future.
Another thing he had done was finish the designs for a device that would hopefully work on the Sentinels' network. It hadn't been tested yet, but since he was the one who made it, how could it not work?
He even had the spare time to help Reed with his own little project, which was promising, but the fact that he had needed his help clearly told Tony that the title of the World's Smartest Man should be his.
But as Doom would say, he was a generous man, so he would allow Reed to hold it for a little longer before finally taking it back.
Still, all jokes aside, Tony was furious, furious that someone had turned technology against them.
Technology was supposed to serve as humanity's shield.
The Asgardians had their semi-godhood and magic, the mutants had their mutant powers, and Arthuria had her magic and godhood.
And all those, humanity would counter with technology.
This was something Tony believed in firmly. Whatever it was, he would be able to overcome it. Magic, as Arthuria had explained, was just a science he hadn't yet mastered.
A way to use energy to skip a few steps, but anything magecraft could do, technology could as well.
Magic just looked impressive, but in the end, what he did was true magic, turning a box of scraps into a revolutionary miniature generator, changing the world of energy forever.
Yet now Trask had taken technology and turned it into a threat; he had turned it against humanity.
And Tony, well, he had a feeling people would turn against technology out of sheer stupidity.
The public was easily turned into an angry mob that hated anything for no reason at all.
Just look at the mutant situation. Tony had no love for them, well, except that Mystique woman who worked for old Magneto, a woman who could turn into everyone?
Now, if that wasn't exciting, nothing was.
"No, bad, you have Pepper," he said to himself, shaking his head, though not before the image of two Peppers briefly made its appearance.
Alright, he kind of understood it. Mystique was a dangerous woman for sure. He still wished he had been able to get to know her before he got together with Pepper; that would have been a legendary night.
But back to technology. Yeah, just like how people hated mutants because a few had done some bad things, and how they hated Albion due to Arthuria's actions tanking an already bleeding economy.
Now that Trask had turned the Sentinels on the population, even if his intention had been mutants... No, that only made it worse, as it showed everyone that technology was dangerous because it couldn't be controlled.
Yeah, people would be afraid, and fear easily turned to hate, and that led to action.
He could already see how robots would be destroyed in the streets, how people would burn 5G towers.
Poor Elon was only just starting on self-driving cars, and yet that seemed impossible.
Because people couldn't live without technology, that was a fact.
So, since they couldn't target what they had without making their own lives worse, they would instead target the future.
Make laws against AI, against robots, against innovation.
Maybe not make it illegal, but make it much harder to do, until it was no different than illegal.
Tony knew all about that. The government and military had been trying to claim his suit for years now, ever since he stepped out of that cave in Mark 1.
They hadn't used force, but had tried pretty much everything else.
The number of laws that had been written that would force him to hand it over, or make it illegal for him to own and use, well, it didn't quite reach the same number as his bank account, but it was worryingly close.
In the end, nothing had come from it all. The laws had never passed anywhere, never gone into effect. They were nothing more than a threat, something to show him that they, the people who wrote laws, were in power.
An attempt to pressure him.
But in the end, the invasion in New York and Arthuria's wrath after it, which led to the formation of the Illuminati, ensured that he never had to worry about that.
Sure, he didn't get one of the permanent seats in the Illuminati, but he was still a member, which offered him all the rights and protections.
All he lacked was a fancy chair and a vote.
But with how Cap was, he still let those like himself have a say.
So with the outrage at lawmakers and Tony's immunity, things had cooled down, but now? It would be worse than ever.
Trask wasn't a popular man. He wasn't a billionaire with a massive PR team, and he hadn't tried to privatize world peace, but to kill millions.
Outrage at what he had done would be immense, and it would, as always, hit innocent people.
Even his own project, "Ultron," might suffer because of it. While the Illuminati couldn't be blocked or stopped, Cap would definitely listen to their worries and concerns.
Banner and Reed might also step away from it, just because they couldn't handle the heat, and without those two, it would take a lot longer to get the project underway.
"Damn midget, you better hope I'm wrong, or your legacy will be no better than Herostratus, remembered forever for being hated," Tony cursed, yet he was never wrong, so the future didn't look bright.
He was already thinking about how he might have to push the project forward alone. The world needed an army of robots like the Sentinels but loyal to them, to humanity.
Maybe it wouldn't be as good, but it would be better than nothing.
...
As he landed on top of Stark Tower, he gave the handful of suits controlled by Jarvis a glance before he hurried inside.
Indeed, he wasn't wrong. Earth needed a suit of armor, a shield, and a sword.
Jarvis had been able to protect the area around Stark Tower by controlling a few suits. If a specialized AI were given an army of robots, designed for the role?
Then the result would have been far better.
It was, without a doubt, the future.
And he wouldn't allow the fear caused by Trask's hate boner for mutants to ruin it.
"Jarvis, how is the production going?" he asked as he walked down the hallway to his lab.
"On schedule, Sir, but it will still take a while, I'm afraid. These parts are delicate, and precision is needed, so there is no way to get it done faster," Jarvis replied.
Tony just nodded. He knew that much. The stuff needed to interfere with a bastardized Chitauri signal wasn't something you could get off the shelf.
Even he didn't have something like that stored up. So he needed to produce it from scratch.
At least Jarvis could speed things up; for others, this would take days, if not weeks. He was confident he could get a working prototype much faster.
But even then, he couldn't just sit back and watch the progress bar creep towards completion.
People were in danger out there, suffering and dying, innocent people, and he, Iron Man, wasn't about to just let that happen when he could do something about it.
"Jarvis, suits please," he requested, and moments later, one of the walls in his lab opened up, revealing a gallery inside.
It wasn't as big as what he had at home, but it would do.
He looked around. Some of the suits were of an older generation, some prototypes that had never been used.
Some were just crazy ideas he had turned into reality for one reason or another.
Some looked awesome, but they were far more look than function.
Since making his first suit back in that cave, he had been unable to stop making them; each was more advanced than the last.
Generation after generation, new ideas, new breakthroughs, new problems, and solutions.
Not to mention that thanks to Arthuria fixing the hole in his chest, he had to redesign everything, including the reactors themselves.
So a lot of these suits were impossible to use for him right now, but those were also the oldest ones, and right now, he needed something that packed a bit more of a punch.
The Sentinels were good, far better than he would ever have expected someone like Trask to make.
But they were also mass-produced and lacked that special touch of a custom design.
He walked past the older models, past the suits he had used to take out the terrorists, and even past the ones he had used during the battle of New York.
There were a few that were close to what he was currently wearing, but he was looking for something... different.
Something a little more specialized.
He found it.
In the back corner of the gallery was a suit he had built just after the invasion, one that was meant to give him the firepower to deal with Leviathans; those things had been a nightmare in the fight.
The suit was, well, a bit overkill. That much he could admit, but it packed that punch he wanted.
It wasn't fast, lacking in speed, which is why he hadn't used it. Most people fled when they saw Iron Man coming towards them.
But the Sentinels weren't people, and didn't run. Instead, they seemed to gather together when faced with a threat.
Which was perfect. He could use this suit, which was all firepower and defense, and in doing so, he could bring every Sentinel in New York City towards him, and away from civilians.
"Jarvis, prep the Heavy Metal Suit for deployment."
The suit, a behemoth of gunmetal grey and crimson, began to disassemble itself from its wall mount, plates shifting and reconnecting with a series of satisfying clicks and whirs. It was broader, thicker than his current model, almost bulky, with obvious weapon hardpoints across the shoulders, forearms, and chest.
He couldn't help but admire it. It was an ugly beast, but a powerful one.
"Preparation complete, Sir. Shall I begin deployment protocols?" Jarvis's calm, British tones cut through the mechanical chorus.
Tony walked to the center of the room, the suit's framework closing around him. The familiar weight settled in, a sensation he never quite got used to, a feeling of being both more and less than himself.
"Negative on deployment, J. Just get her warmed up. I've got a pit stop to make first." He cracked the metal neck, the sound echoing like thunder in the lab. "Also, patch me through to Cap. And try to get me a visual on a big group of these tin cans. I want to make an entrance."
He strode out of the lab, the heavy footsteps of the Iron Monger armor, as he'd privately dubbed it, shaking the very foundations of the tower.
(End of chapter)
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