Ch61. Tony's profitable ventures

Unlike the past, the Monaco incident was forgotten soon enough by the press.

Nobody other than Vanko died so it was not as juicy as then and Tony's heroic deed of luring Vanko away was not regarded as highly as when he defeated him the first time.

The only thing that kept the story going was the mystery sniper who killed Vanko but his, or rather, her, identity was never found out.

Well, Tony got a call from Fury the second he landed back on the American soil so obviously, the black one-eyed creeper had his own idea about the identity of the sniper and he correctly guessed she had red hair and green eyes.

He was the right prick about it too! Warning Tony that Natasha should not kill people otherwise SHIELD would have to step in or something.

Naturally, Tony threw him a raspberry and ended the call.

He knew Fury was just trying to find an angle through which he could regain Natasha's services for his organization. The best way to deal with that was to ignore it since the guy was fishing for a reaction.

Tony would have been sullen that his good deed for the year was so easily shrugged off by the media but he had his own problems.

A few people apparently did not like that Tony confiscated Vanko's arc reactor and sued him because of it, the greedy bitches.

Sucks to be them because Tony had it discreetly patented so no matter that Vanko could create his own, using it was another matter entirely and Tony had the right to take it. These politicians and military men obviously lost the lawsuits but it was still annoying and time-consuming.

The only silver lining on that entire fiasco was the monetary remuneration they had to pay once Tony sued them for suing him. Obviously, the cause was called differently for propriety's sake but that is what it really was.

And while the few tens of millions that entered his bank account were barely registered by Tony, the emotional satisfaction at seeing their faces sunk when the verdict was spoken was priceless.

Hah! They definitely did not expect to pay for their insolence when they first tried to sue him!

The media instantly gripped this story and started to praise or condemn him for his actions but Tony didn't care. He could have sued the press too if he wanted.

All these articles about his sexual life, speculations, and unfounded theories stated as truth over the years... not one media company would have bankrupted if Tony wanted.

While quite a bit of what was written about it was the truth, no matter how scathing it was at times, Tony's lawyers were always good at twisting the truth to his advantage.

And boy, was there a lot to twist in his past with the press.

Worse yet, every article was basically proof of its own. The media companies were basically digging their own graves by trying to earn money off of him.

There was a reason why there were not many articles about the richest people and definitely not on regular basis. These people usually had an army of lawyers that would shut the companies down the second they wrote something these rich people did not like, freedom of speech be damned.

Tony never cared and he had to admit, it first started slowly. One or two mild articles about him per year, the journalists just trying the waters and waiting for his reaction... and when there was none, they gained more courage.

The number of articles gradually increased, until it was what it is today. Shit, praise, or most often both were thrown at him left and right depending on what small thing he just did.

But as satisfying as suing the press could have been, it would have been a wasted effort. The lawsuits about Vanko's arc reactor had a deeper meaning. Tony did not fight them for the arc reactor itself.

For all he cared, he could have given it to them, rigging it with timed subtle self-destruct function that would blow up a room or two once it went off and nobody would be able to complain.

All Tony would have needed to do was say that Vanko's reactor was faulty and nobody would be able to gainsay him.

Oh, they would be accusing him of sabotage but they could stick it where the sun doesn't shine since they would have lacked solid proof.

After all, only Tony knew how to make a working Arc Reactor. There was no other 'expert' capable of opposing him on the matter.

No, the lawsuits about Vanko's arc reactor were to show other businessmen and politicians Tony would not let them rip him off and the follow-up lawsuits proved that even trying it had consequences.

Tony was letting the press jump on his head for far too long and far too many people did not take him seriously. Especially those in the top richest ranking and the highest politicians. These sharks would have jumped at the opportunity to gain something out of his efforts if he did something massive. These lawsuits however were supposed to be a deterrent from legal actions.

The illegal ones... Tony had his own precautions set up against that.

While Tony spent his following two months running around various courts of law, Hannah and Helen were doing the last tests of Extremis Cradle on crippled veterans who volunteered.

Natasha was preparing the Stark Tower for opening a small clinic on its premises outfitted with five hundred Extremis Cradles. She was setting up security alongside JARVIS to prevent theft and other unsavory endeavors while hiring trustworthy people to maintain the place.

Helen and Hannah would naturally have a high-ranking position in this clinic but two of them could not manage five hundred Extremis Cradles by themselves.

The advertising was also started, promising a sure-fire way to cure anything. Funnily enough, the only reason people did not outright scoff at it was that it was a Stark Industries advertisement.

The price of treatment in the Extremis Cradle was five hundred dollars. It was cheap enough that anybody could gather the money for it and expensive enough that people would not try going for it because of paper cuts or scraped knees.

There were only five hundred Extremis Cradles and one treatment took ten minutes. With all the additional things around it would take thirty minutes for one appointment. There was only so much time in a day. The Stark Clinic would at most be capable of servicing five thousand people in a day if it was opened for ten hours.

It may sound like a lot but it was really not. Five thousand a day meant 1 825 000 people per year for the profit of 2 500 000 per day and 912 500 000 dollars per year if the Clinic operated without stopping the entire year.

This was for the price of five hundred dollars per treatment, which was in Tony's opinion a very low number. He could have made it five thousand per treatment and despite that, the reservations would have been full.

But... he still had heart and money was not a big motivator for him.

The biggest seller of the Extremis Cradle was the fact it did not get rid of diseases or disabilities. These still existed and would exist. The Extremis Cradle just got rid of them. Nobody was to say the cured person could not get sick again.

And five hundred dollars to get rid of AIDS or cancer was not really a lot...

People would happily pay it and praise Tony to heavens.

Tony doubted five hundred Extremis Cradles would be enough in the long run. With the number of sick people all over the world, the reservations would be full for an entire year once the effect was proven.

he would be eventually forced to open another clinic with Extremis Cradles but... that was a talk for the future and Tony intended to have countries fight for the privilege of his clinic being set up on their soil.

After all, why pay high taxes when he could eliminate the need for it altogether?

Needless to say, he did grease enough of hands when building the Stark Tower and in exchange for providing energy for all of Manhattan via his Arc Reactor... which cost him nothing... and paying some insignificant bribes, he got a legal exception and everything going on in Stark Tower was non-taxable.

Stark Industries still had to pay taxes but as long as his clinic was on the premises of the Stark Tower...

Heh, Tony wondered how many politicians would bust a vein after hearing about his new non-taxable business that would net him over nine hundred million per year.

The best part?

The use of Extremis Cradles had no cost for Tony. All it really did was direct the actions of the healing center of the brain Hannah found, connect it to the person's soul that would act as a battery, and charge the entire healing process with sufficient energy, and then the body would heal.

There was no need for a serum since the entire process would be managed through mystical means rather than chemicals like the Extremis in the past.

The Cradle in itself was just a device to provide the brain's healing center with necessary information about how to heal the body and facilitate the entire process.

Other than the production cost of the Extremis Cradles, which was fairly low since there was no need to use any expensive material, there would be no other expense. The 'special' batteries needed for these Cradles to work would be just a dud.

The Extremis Cradles could work without them. It was just that JARVIS and FRIDAY would charge mystical energy into these batteries rather than straight to the Cradles, hence, without a battery, the Cradle would not work since there would be no energy source capable of enabling the healing process.

It wasn't a bother for Tony's two Artifacts either. Since they could easily control over a thousand Iron Man golems by now. Each. Charging five hundred batteries a day would be a quick and easy task. Their computing power was growing by the day and multitasking was something ingrained in them. Charging the batteries were for them like brushing of the teeth for human. A quick everyday task they barely paid any attention to.

Just like that, Tony made a way to help humanity, earn him hundreds of millions a year without any expense or effort from his side other than paying salaries to the few people managing the place, and screw the government while looking like a saint by doing it all in one.

It was a profitable venture as far as he was concerned.