"Here our seats are just over there," Colleen said to Mark as they both waded their way through the crowd at the Stark Expo.
"These seats are pretty close, you must have some rich friends," Mark said with raised eyebrows.
Colleen shrugged. "From what I head the tickets were made cheaper so regular people could come, not a bunch of suits."
Mark moved into his seat with Colleen sitting down next to him. It was quite an impressive stadium, not that Mark had been to many before, he'd seen a few online though and while it couldn't compare to ones in metropolis it was pretty state of the art. "People don't usually come here to admire the scenery you know," Colleen commented with a smirk on her face.
Mark chuckled "I can appreciate a nice building and whatever science stuff they bring up."
"Did you not read the leaflet?" She asked.
Mark raised an eyebrow "Leaflet?"
Colleen sighed "Never mind," she said, though after that the lights started to dim signalling the expo was about to begin. A fancy light show began spiralling in pretty patterns while on the stage a large screen sprang to life. For the next two hours different tech companies came on stage showcasing their products, and each product was as about as useless as the next worry only a few promising ones. Mark turned to Colleen who was looking down at her feet trying not to meet his eyes. She had told him this was the best showing of technology on the planet and that the stuff you see here is decades ahead of its time.
Suddenly the lights went dark and then the screen turned on showing a Logo which said Hammer Industries. Then off the stage to the left came a short slender man in a brown suit, music started playing and he danced to the beat right to the centre stage. At this point Mark looked at Colleen again.
"Sorry..." she said quietly.
Mark rolled his eyes and looked back on stage, the guy had only been talking for five minutes and Mark already disliked him.
"Hammer Industries has been called to serve the United States government , and we have answered!" Justin Hammer said in airing a few moments for the crowd to applaud.
"Now... ladies and gentleman, I present to you the future of the American Armed Forces... the Hammer Drones!" He shouted. On queue several platforms started moving up.
"Army!"
"Navy!"
"Air force!"
"Marines!"
Mark raised his eyebrows, this was some pretty advanced tech. Especially for the current year —he had found out that not only was it a different universe but he was also over a decade in the past.
"See I told you there's some cool science stuff here," Colleen said punching his shoulder.
"Yeah yeah," Mark said as he watched the showcasing with much more interest.
"But a drone can not lead, no no no, nothing can take away from a human beings leadership and ingenuity!" Justin shouted while wagging his finger.
"May I present to you, the leader of these drones, a true machine of war, Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes!" He shouted as if he was about to jump in excitement.
From the centre stage a slimmer grey robotic suit was lifted up. This one looked similar in design to the Iron Man suit though it had been extensively modified.
"Ladies and Gentlemen! Your heroes!" Justin said as he waved his arm to them all.
Colonel Rhodes saluted as did all the other drones. Marks ears started to hurt from how loud the crowd was cheering, though Mark soon turned his head as he heard what sounded like a missile flying towards the building, a few moments later other people turned their head.
None other than Iron Man flew into the building landing on the stage right next to Rhodes. It was strange to say the least, from what he'd read Hammer hated Stark, yet here he was waving to the crowd.
Something didn't seem right.
Mark was proven right when the weapons on the Hammer Drones as well as War Machine all took aim against Iron man. Said hero shot off into the sky and a moment later they all open fired.
"What the hell!" Colleen shouted next to him. The whole crowd erupted into panic and they all jumped out of their seat trying to get out the way and escape. Time seemed to slow for Mark as he watched the glass ceiling shatter and shards of glass start to fall into the crowd. He glanced at Colleen and saw she was on the ground having been pushed from behind by the panicking crowd.
Mark looked back up and tensed his muscles he brought his hands together.
*CRACK*
The shock wave from his clap shattered the falling glass into harmless pieces, though it deafen those closest to him. Mark then helped Colleen up who was holding her head, it must've felt like a flashbang had just gone off near her.
He'd apologise later.
Helping her up he moved her through the crowd and took her out of the stadium. If Hammer wanted to fight Stark then he'd leave them to it, right now he was focused on getting arguably his only friend out of the crossfire. Pushing through the crowd he could hear Colleen trying to talk but struggling to as she was pretty disoriented. Mark led her to one of the many ambulances that were quickly arriving on scene.
*BOOM*
Mark turned to see more Hammer Drones exiting the stadium firing rockets into the crowd. 'Shit...' Mark thought to himself. Now he had to get involved, he couldn't let these people die because he just didn't want the hassle.
'I've been hanging out with Luke too much,' he thought to himself as he set Colleen down. She tried to grab him and ask where he was going but before she could he already disappeared behind the ambulance. He then shot up into the air, as he did he took out on of the drones flying above snapping it in half and using each piece to take out a few others. He needed to take out the Navy Drones first, they had the shoulder mounted rockets that were causing the most damage.
He shot forward flying down towards them when his eye spotted a child with an iron man helmet standing in front of a drone. The drone raised its weapon intent on firing; Mark urged himself forward landing in front of the child just as the drone shot a barrage of bullets. They bounced off Mark who then slammed his fist through the drones chest destroying it. He turned to the kid and an idea sparked in his mind. "Hey kid mind if I borrow that," he said and the boy took it off and handed it to him.
Mark put the helmet on before launching back into the air, he shot down towards another group of drones, landing directly on one and flattening it. He then jumped forward into a super man punch taking off the other's head and then flew to the next one, grabbing it and flying it into another group.
More and more drones kept on coming, when this was over Mark was gonna kick Justin Hammers ass. He flew up into the sky once again and clapped his hands sending a punch of missiles off course landing harmlessly into a founding. However it seemed his actions had been noted as drones with mounted anti air rifles started firing at him. They didn't penetrate his skin but it still felt like getting hit by rubber bullets.
Mark was then tackled in the air by a flying drone, he quickly dismantled it only for several more to attack him.
"This is gonna be a long day..."
...
Natasha knew something bad was going to happen before she even showed up to the Expo with Stark Industries CEO. With Vanko missing and Hammer Industries getting a new line of drones, this expo was going to be interesting to say the least.
*Agent Romanoff, be ready to apprehend Justin Hammer, we need to know Vanko's location*
The voice of her boss echoed through her head piece. She tensed and got ready to move when she saw Tony fly in and land on the stage. "We need to get back from the stage," she whispered to Pepper Potts. The ginger woman nodded and they both stood up and started moving towards the backstage where Natasha could hopefully nab Justin.
When Natasha saw the drones aim their weapons at Tony she immediately pushed Pepper down and covered her with her body.
*Romanoff watch the ceiling!*
She gunfire from the drones shattered the glass ceiling and shards of glass started falling onto all of them. Nat knew better than most how dangerous a shard of glass could be, but when it's dropped from a near 30 metre height it was damn near lethal. She went to grab a seat to cover both of them, but they'd been nailed to the ground.
*CRACK*
Something that sounded like a thunderclap echoed throughout the expo making Nat's ears ring. While it debilitated most of the people around her she had long since become used to having her senses overwhelmed.
*Agent Romanoff did you get that!*
Director Fury asked through her earpiece. Nat ignored him for the moment looking up to the ceiling only to see the glass had been shattered into harmless pieces. She thought it must've been Stark, a new sonic device or energy based weapon of some kind. Casting it from her mind she helped Pepper up and they rushed backstage only to see Hammer arguing with some of his employees.
Nat wasn't interested in Pepper trying to reason with him so the moment he shut her down she walked forward and pinned him to the table while bending his arm back. "Where is Vanko!" She growled out.
"I-I w-who I-"
*Crack*
"Aaaaaaaaaah! My facility! He's at my facility!" He cried out. Nat let him go and left the room while Pepper called the emergency services.
*Agent Romanoff be advised you have an unknown in your area*
"You got any more for me?" She asked as she quickly made her way outside. She walked lightly as she heard the heavy thumping of one of the Hammer Drones leaving the Expo.
*Cameras at the Expo show it was an enhanced who shattered the glass*
Nat took her heels off and started running down the corridor, the drone turned its head nearly 180 degrees before raising its arm. Nat moved into a slide tossing a small device onto the drone before activating it and giving it a dose of electricity overloading its circuits. She moved back onto her feet, had head to get to the facility quickly.
"I'm heading to Hammers facility, Vanko is there and likely the one controlling the drones and Rhodes," she said into her earpiece.
*Understood, be careful Agent Romanoff*
Outside the expo she headed back towards the car where she hoped Happy was still waiting. Though as she made her way there her eyes caught something in the sky.
"I have eyes on the unknown," she said into her earpiece. It was as dark so it was hard to track them moving through the sky, especially when it seemed he was flying unassisted.
*Report*
"No visual on the identity, he's flying unassisted, he's tearing through the drones with his bare hands... he has an iron man helmet on," she replied.
*Come again?*
"He's wearing an iron man helmet, like a toy one," she reiterated. There was a pause from the other side for a few seconds.
*Make your way to the facility and stop Vanko, the Unknown does not seem to pose a threat*
"Understood," she replied before beelining for Happy.
(AN: Oooooooo Natasha Romanoff, I'm sure she won't be too important in the future.... Spoiler the MC is going to bang her.)
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