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….
"Ah-h," Stark waved him off with the bottle clutched in his hand, "I don't have time for another round of idiotic claims from these morons."
Perhaps it was too rude, but the billionaire's condition and mood did not dispose him to courtesy or even basic politeness.
And the worst part of all this was that for some reason he couldn't get dead drunk anymore! His body reached "medium" condition, and then, nothing!
He sobered up faster than the alcohol acted on his body. It seems the status of Loki's priest wasn't just an amusing title, and that guy himself said something about "no drugs."
Alcohol isn't heroin, of course, but evidently, the level where "quantity" transitioned into "quality" was now magically cut off for him.
For any other situation, cool and almost a dream come true, but right now it was specifically depressing.
"I've been calling the National Guard all day, trying to talk them out of the idea of rolling tanks onto the driveway, smashing everything here, and taking the Suits. And they will take them, Tony!"
"They're tired of these games! You said no one would master such technology for another twenty years? And what is the result? Someone managed to do it yesterday! And these are not abstract theories!"
"Oh! So now Uncle Sam wants to break into my house and rob me?" the engineer looked grimly at his friend, then pressed a button on his wrist communicator.
The protective glass on the display cases where the suits stood lowered. And the empty armor took a step forward.
"Well then… let them try… Just don't get offended later when I use the Third and Fourth Amendments, as well as the right to self-defense."
"Tony, are you serious?!" Colonel James Rhodes stared at him as if he didn't believe his ears.
In response, the billionaire looked grimly at his interlocutor, emphasizing with his whole appearance his own amazement at the fact that someone could admit another outcome involving him in their thoughts.
"You're serious," Rhodey stated in a dull voice.
"One colleague of yours already tried to get his hands on my projects 'in the interests of the United States.' And later it turned out he was a banal thief who appropriated part of my father's legacy," Tony stood up from the bar counter and headed for a new bottle, because the first one already showed the bottom.
"Rhodey, we've known each other a long time. I won't give up the armor. Even if I have to fly in it to the President and hang him upside down on the White House flagpole."
"Understand this!" the black officer tried to admonish him. "A loner cannot fight the state! They will get these technologies anyway, if not from you, then from this Vanko!"
Stark grimaced, casting a disgruntled look at his friend, uncorked a new bottle, and took a greedy gulp straight from the neck.
The whole situation with Ivan was simply killing him.
Their fathers obviously had worked together, and both fully possessed the technology they passed on to their children.
The history there was truly murky and dirty, but Howard couldn't be asked anymore, and Anton Vanko's "reasons for deportation" looked thoroughly fabricated.
Espionage? And what did he spy on? Looking for politicians' "dirty laundry"? How, if he almost never left the factory laboratory?
Technologies? From a man who developed a technical solution so perfect that forty years later it still far outstrips all nearest competitors? Not funny.
"He wanted to sell this technology, use it as a weapon?" So what? Arms manufacturing is a legal and ultra-profitable business; Stark Industries was built by Howard on this business, so blaming his partner for this is just stupid.
So it turned out, from the point of view of common sense, that his father really stole the Russian's developments and got rid of the man himself, except he didn't have the guts to simply kill him.
Tony had a rather complex relationship with his parent. He loved him… realizing this especially clearly when he lost him.
But he wasn't a naive fool who knew nothing about conducting business in the big leagues, and he fully admitted that Howard could well have taken such a step.
In the history of American business, this happened all the time. It was vile, low, smelled foul, but not everyone was Tony Stark to pull companies on their own inventions.
As a result, such parasitism was encountered everywhere, and swearing that a father who lived in a much harsher era and was up to his neck in Uncle Sam's affairs never engaged in anything like that…
He wanted to, but it was hard.
And they were all very lucky, had Anton not become "untouchable" among the Soviet elite after deportation (which once again emphasized that he was no spy), hundreds and thousands of "Iron Men" would now be in service with Russia (or even a preserved USSR).
And so everything returned to Vanko Jr.
Unfortunately, their negotiations ended without ever starting. It's hard to hold a conversation when someone is trying to cut you in half with an energy whip.
And even though Tony was prepared for something like this, having attended to a competent detention and subsequent convoying of Ivan, he now found himself in a very… unpleasant situation.
Yes, they managed to do everything quietly enough, catching Vanko on the approach and ensuring the absence of TV cameras.
But without his own special units with special flights for the rapid export of a prisoner abroad, he had to ask a friend for help.
And now this resulted in his superiors also being aware of the existence of a reactor copy and a person capable of replicating it.
And after that, a Soviet scientist will very quickly become worth his weight in gold.
And they will try to extract his knowledge from him. One way or another. Fury himself will run first…
And Tony was still ready to accept this, even having prepared a couple of moves to painfully and loudly slap everyone's hands, but… the worst thing surfaced here. Something he hadn't accounted for.
….
Bonus Chapter on every 500 power stones;
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