100 C100 Howard Stark

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Within the next 2 hours, Bruce, Charles, and Henry (Beast) rushed to the top of the Tower with confused and worried looks on their faces. At first, they thought this was a joke, but after getting some more information from Peter and Pepper, they fully understood the problem.

"Why can't you just take it off until we find a replacement?" Banner asks as if it was a simple solution, which it was but Tony was as stubborn as a mule and extremely paranoid from his recent experiences.

"I refuse..." Tony says plainly, guarding his arc reactor against everyone's prying eyes.

"We refuse your refusal." Beast says as he tries to rush at Tony to take it off of him.

Keyword tries...

As soon as Henry's hairy blue form moves toward Tony, the floor opens up and a red and gold piece of tech flies. It attaches to Tony's outstretched hand and turned into a glove, matching the one on his Iron Man suit.

Instantly, the center of his palm glowed blue and fired a blast of energy, which impacted Beast and launched his body across the room.

As Henry impacted the wall, the putrid smell of burned hair fills the room, causing some to cover their noses to block out the smell.

Peter just stood at the side watching the whole situation play out. If Tony wouldn't give up the reactor after Pepper pleaded to him, then he wouldn't give it up for anyone.

Tony wasn't playing around and called the rest of his armor, which shot into the room and attached to his body one piece at a time. The only piece that didn't come was the helmet, leaving Tony's head as the only exposed body part.

"Ugh, my fur..." Henry says as he stands back to his feet and sees the singe marks on his chest.

"Well, don't attack me again and you won't lose any more hair." Tony says as his palm thrusters pulse threateningly.

"I'll keep that in mind..." Henry mutters as he brushes the singed hairs off his chest.

As this was happening, Fury and Natasha walked into the room. Fury held a closed cardboard box in hand as Natasha walked up behind Tony and poked his exploded neck with a needle, injecting him with some sort of fluid.

Out of reflex, the thrusters in Tony's palms fired and hit the floor as he turned to see Natasha with an empty syringe in hand.

"Oh, God. Are you gonna steal my kidney and sell it? What did she just do to me?" Tony begins to panic as he looks around the room in dismay.

"What did we just do for you? That's lithium dioxide. It's gonna take the edge off. It'll help with the pain and discomfort." Fury says, which causes Tony to notice the ease in the pain he's been feeling recently.

"Give me a couple boxes of that. I'll be right as rain. Problem solved." Tony says as he points to the needle in Natasha's hand.

"It's not a cure, it just abates the symptoms." Natasha reluctantly informs him. "You're still poisoned."

"That thing in your chest is based on unfinished technology, Stark." Fury says as he walks forward and hands the box over to Tony, who took it out of reflex.

"No, it was finished. It just wasn't particularly effective until I miniaturized it and put it in my chest." Tony rebuts as he looks down at the box as if to say 'what's this?'

"No. Howard said the arc reactor was the stepping stone to something greater. He was about to kick off an energy race that was gonna dwarf the arms race. Your father was on to something big, something so big that it was gonna make the nuclear reactor look like a triple-A battery." Fury ignores Tony's look and gains the attention of all the scientific minds in the room

"Okay..." Tony says almost unbelievably. "Well, I've tried everything. I doubt there's something the old man saw that I didn't."

"You haven't tried everything." Fury says as he walks to the door.

"What do you mean I haven't tried everything? What haven't I tried?" Tony asks as Peter walks up and takes the box from him.

Tony was too preoccupied with Fury to care as Peter walked over to the couch and started curiously going through the box.

"He said that you were the only person with the means and knowledge to finish what he started." Fury says as he keeps walking away.

"He said that?" Tony asks as Fury stops at the door and turns around. "How do you know my father so well?"

"Howard Stark was one of the founding members of SHIELD. We worked together a lot before his untimely death." Fury reveals, shocking everyone, especially Tony.

"What?" Tony mutter as Fury turns around and leaves.

"I got a two o'clock meeting." Fury calls out with a wave as he rounds the corner and disappears from view.

"Wait! What's with the box?" Tony calls out but Fury doesn't come back.

"So..." Peter says as he looks up from the box and at Tony. "Your dad was a super spy, huh?"

"Shut up, web-head," Tony says in exasperation. "At most my dad was probably just a glorified money and gadget supplier. Trust me, he wasn't some type of James Bond. He was cold, he was calculating. He never told me he loved me. Hell, he never even told me he liked me."

"Sounds like the personality of a busy spy to me..." Peter says jokingly.

"No, more the personality of a busy CEO who took every opportunity to avoid his family and their problems." Tony says as his suit is removed by robotic arms and he walks over to Peter and looks through the box.

"What's all this?" He asks as Charles, Beast, Pepper, and Banner circle around to see as well.

"It's just files from your father's time working on the arc reactor with someone named, Anton Vanko. It's all just files and blueprints." Peter says as he already took a look inside.

"Is that film for a projector?" Charles asks as he sees circular tins, which held old school film for videos.

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It took almost an hour, but after going through the box with everyone, Pepper finally arrived with an old-school projector for them to use. She left to find one so that everyone else could go through the box together.

Hooking up the projector, they all sat back and watched but soon felt awkward as the film kept played. It seemed to be the outtakes/bloopers for a video that Howard Stark was filming for the Expo back in the day.

When it got awkward was when Howard suddenly started talking to Tony through the video, as they could all tell that Tony was feeling emotional from it.

"Tony, you're too young to understand this right now, so I thought I would put it on film for you. I built this for you." Howard gestures to the model of the Stark Expo behind him. "Someday you'll realize that it represents a whole lot more than just people's inventions. It represents my life's work. This is the key to the future. I'm limited by the technology of my time, but one day you'll figure this out. When you do, you will change the world... What is and always will be my greatest creation is you, Tony. Remember that."

As the video came to an end, Peter could see the mist appear in Tony's eyes but he did a good job at hiding it.

"That was nice of him." Peter comments as he finds the silence uncomfortable.

"Shut up, Web-head..." Tony uses that moment to laugh and wipe the mist from his eyes without anyone noticing.

"What, you said he was a d*ck, but now I think he was just what the Anime community would call a Tsundere." Peter says, confusing everyone in the room.

"What the hell is a Tsundere?" Bruce asks for everyone.

"Just think of it as someone that has a hard time showing their feelings. They use a hot and cold attitude to mask what they truly feel." Peter explains.

"Or he was just an a*shole..." Tony jokes.

"No, I think that video showed how much your father cared about you." Peter says as he walks up to the projector and rewinds the video. "Now there's only one question."

Peter pauses the video as it shows a good view of the model behind Howard Stark.

"Why is that miniature model so important?"

A/N: 1436 words.

[DONT FORGET MY STONES! I sleep 😴]