Tony Stark, with the help of Blake Riley, get to work on finding answers about the Arc Reactor.

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Blake (V.O.): "The offer on that hot chocolate and donuts was something I couldn't refuse. Besides, I was already awake so why the heck not?"

It was the morning, as the sun was slowly coming up. Tony Stark was sitting inside of a giant donut, above Randy's Donuts, eating a donut and wearing sunglasses. Blake was also there sitting next to him, eating a chocolate donut on hand and drinking hot chocolate in the other. Tony was, of course, wearing his Iron Man suit while Blake was wearing his SHIELD uniform. Both were just relaxing, enjoying the breeze till someone shouted at them.

Fury: "Excuse me, gentlemen! I'm going to have to ask you to exit the donut." He yelled at the two.

Both looked down, lowering their sunglasses to find SHIELD Director Nick Fury on the ground, hands on his waist, and a disappointment look on his face.

Blake: He sighs and looks at Tony. "Oh damn, he's here." He says.

—

Tony: "I told you, I don't wanna join your super-secret boyband." He told Fury, leaning on his elbow and feeling hung-over.

The three were sitting on a table, in the donut shop. Director Fury was sitting on one side while the other two were sitting on the opposite side.

Fury: "Heh. No, no, no. See, I remember, you do everything yourself. How's that working out for you?" He asked.

Blake: "Uh, well..."

Tony: "It's... It's... It's... I'm sorry. I don't wanna get off on the wrong foot. Do I look at the patch or the eye? Honestly I'm a bit hung over. I'm not sure if you're real of if I'm having..."

Fury: He leaned closer to him. "I am very real. I'm the realest person you're ever gonna meet."

Tony: "Just my luck. Where's the staff here?"

Fury: "That's not looking so good." He leaned in again to get a close look at Tony's neck.

Tony: "I've been worse. Plus, Blake's been trying to help me out."

Blake: "Yep, it's true. Well, up until that party." He said as Tony simply sighed and looked down, taking a sip of his coffee.

Then, a female figure was approaching behind them. Then, she spoke.

Female: "We've secured the perimeter but I don't think we should hold it for too much longer." She said.

Both Riley and Stark look over to the source of the voice. Tony looks over his glasses to find "Natalie Rushman" wearing a SHIELD uniform.

Tony: "Huh!" He said as both Fury and Riley smirked. "You're...fired.

Natalie: "That's not up to you." She said as she sits down next to Fury.

Fury: "Agent Riley, care to do the introductions?" He asked as Tony looked towards Blake.

Blake: "Right, uh, Tony, meet Agent Natasha Romanoff, aka the Black Widow. One of SHIELD's finest."

Tony: "Hi."

Natasha: "I'm a SHIELD shadow. Once we knew you were ill, I was tasked to you by Director Fury."

Tony: "I suggest you apologize." He said to Natasha.

Blake: "Hm, you know Fury, I'm still mad that you never bothered giving me a heads up that Natasha would be joining me on the mission."

Fury: "Right..." He simply said as he turned to Tony. "You've been very busy. You made your girl your CEO, you're giving away all your stuff. You let your friend fly away with your suit. Now, if I didn't know better..."

Tony: "You don't know better. I didn't give it to him. He took it." He interrupted Fury.

Fury: "Whoa, whoa, whoa. He took it? You're Iron Man and he just took it? The little brother walked in there, kicked your ass and took your suit?" He turns to Agent Romanoff. "Is that possible?" He asks her.

Natasha: "Well, according to Mr Stark's database security guidelines, there are redundancies to prevent unauthorised usage."

Blake: "Yeah, but they also are encoded to five specific people. One is of course, the primary user, Tony. The others are Rhodey, Pepper, and Happy."

Fury: "That's only four, who's the fifth one?"

Both Blake and Tony turned to each other and smirked, having the young agent to turn back around and pointed towards himself, while making a whistling sound. Fury turned to Tony with a raised eyebrow.

Tony: "What, I like the kid. Anyways, what do you want from me?"

Fury: "What do we want from you? Uh-uh. What do you want from me?" As he was going off, Natasha leaves her seat. "You have become a problem, a problem I have to deal with. Contrary to your belief, you are not the centre of my universe." He tells him.

Tony: "Yeah, I get it." He said, exasperated.

Fury: "I have bigger problems than you in the southwest region to deal with." As Natasha returned, he snapped his fingers. "Hit him." He tells her.

Then, Natasha injects Tony with a needle, causing him to yelp and sit up straight. Blake also sat up, with the sudden reaction from him.

Tony: "Oh, God, are gonna steal my kidney and sell it?" He says as Natasha turns his neck to see the rash fading back down. "Could you please not do anything awful for five seconds?"

Blake: "Holy shit, Tony, the rash in your neck. It's fading away. What was it she injected him with?" He asked.

Tony: "Yeah, what did she just do to me?"

Fury: "What did we just do for you? That's lithium dioxide. It's gonna take the edge off. We're trying to get you back to work." He said.

Tony: "Give me a couple of boxes of that. I'll be right as rain."

Natasha: "It's not a cure, it just abates the symptoms."

Fury: "Doesn't look like it's gonna be an easy fix."

Tony: "Trust me, I know. I'm good at this stuff. I've been looking for a suitable replacement for palladium. I've tried every combination, every permutation of every known element."

Blake: "So far, nothing. We're pretty much stuck. Please, tell us you found something that can help?"

Fury: "Well, I'm here to tell you, you haven't tried them all." He simply said.

—

At the Air Force, Rhodey opens a door to show an Air Force General the suit he brought from Tony's house.

General: "Unbelievable. This ought to get the Senate off my ass. It's functional?" He asks Rhodey.

Rhodey: "Fully mission-capable." He responded.

General: "Good. Get Hammer down here to weaponize it." He said, as he walked away.

Rhodey: "Sir?" He questioned, as he followed behind him.

General: "Justin Hammer's making a weapons presentation at the Expo. We'd like this to introduce it."

Rhodey: "Sir, I don't believe that the Expo..." He was about to explain but was cut off.

General: "Colonel, the world needs to see this fast. We've got to make this happen."

Rhodey: "Yes, General, but..."

General: "It's also an order."

Rhodey: "Yes sir." He said, reluctantly.

General: "Good work, Colonel. You've made your country proud." He saluted towards him and walks away.

Rhodey: "Thank you sir." He responded as he saluted back.

Blake (V.O.): "From what I heard from Rhodey, he reluctantly called in Hammer in to weaponize the suit and showcase it at the Expo. He really was annoyed, hearing Hammer talk all day long. But back with Tony, we all went back to the mansion..."

—

Back at the mansion, Tony and Fury were sitting down, while Blake was standing next to Tony. The mansion was still a bit destroyed from what happened last night.

Fury: "That thing in your chest is based on unfinished technology." He said.

Tony: "No, it was finished. It has never been particularly effective until I miniaturised it and put it in my..."

Fury: "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. He was on to something big, something so big that it was gonna make the nuclear reactor look like a triple-A battery." He explained.

Blake: "Just him, or Anton Vanko in on this too?" He cuts in.

Fury: "Anton Vanko is the other side of that coin. Anton saw it as a way to get rich. When your father found out, he had him deported. When the Russians found out he couldn't deliver, they shipped his ass off to Siberia and he spent the next 20 years in a vodka-fuelled rage. Not quite the environment you want to raise a kid in, the son you both had the misfortune of crossing paths with in Monaco."

Tony: "You told me I hadn't tried everything. What do you mean I haven't tried everything? What haven't I tried?" He asked.

Fury: "He said that you were the only person with the means and knowledge to finish what he started."

Tony: "He said that?" He asked, not believing it.

Fury: "Are you that guy? Are you? 'Cause if you are, then you can solve the riddle of your heart."

Tony: "I don't know where you get your information, but he wasn't my biggest fan."

Fury: "What do you remember about your dad?" He asked him.

Tony: "He was cold, he was calculating. He never told me he loved me. He never even told me he liked me, so it's a little tough for me to digest when you're telling me he said the whole future was riding on me and he's passing it down. I don't get that. You're talking about a guy who's happiest day was when he shipped me off to boarding school." He explained.

Blake frowned, hearing about Tony's relationship with his father. Howard spent only little time with his son, not even bothering caring for him.

Fury: "That's not true."

Tony: "Well, then, clearly you knew my dad better than I did." He said as he leaned back.

Fury: "As a matter of fact, I did. He was one of the founding members of SHIELD." He said as a couple of SHIELD Agents came in with a case.

Tony: "What?"

Fury: "I got a two o'clock." He said as he looked at his watch.

Tony: "Wait, wait, wait, wait. What's this?" He tried to ask as both he and Fury stood up.

Fury: "Okay, you're good, right?"

Tony: "No, I'm not good."

Fury: "You got this? Right? Right?"

Blake: "Hold on, damn it!"

Tony: "Got what? I don't even know what I'm supposed to get."

Fury: "Natasha will remain a floater at Stark with her cover intact. You remember Agent Coulson, right?" Both Natasha and Coulson appeared.

Tony: "Yeah."

Fury: "And Tony, remember, I got my eye on you." He said as he gave him a stern look and leaves.

Blake: "Wow, thanks so much, boss." He sarcastically said.

Natasha: "We've disabled all communications. No contact with the outside world. Good luck." She said.

As she was about to leave, she quickly went over to Blake and gave a quick kiss on his cheek. His eyes widened in surprise as he was processing this, while Tony and Coulson watched Natasha leave.

Tony: He turned to Agent Coulson. "Please. First thing, I need a little bodywork. I'll put in a little time at the lab. If we could send one of your goon squad down to The Coffee Bean, Cross Creek, for a Starbucks run, or something like that, that'd be nice."

Agent Coulson: "I'm not here for that. I've been authorised by Director Fury to use any means necessary to keep you on premises. If you attempt to leave or play any games, I will tase you and watch Supernanny while you drool into the carpet. Okay?" He said.

Blake: "Wow, that's very harsh."

Tony: "I think I got it, yeah."

Agent Coulson: "Enjoy your evening's entertainment. And Riley, don't do anything stupid." He said, as he leaves.

Blake: "Gee, thanks."

Both Blake and Tony looked over the case they brought in, which was labeled: PROPERTY OF H. STARK.

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Tony brought the case downstairs. He opened the case, to find blueprints, news articles, and video reels. Tony had put on the video reel of Howard Stark presenting the Stark Expo, while Tony was looking over Howard's notes and Blake was checking the blueprints and taking notes.

Howard (on video): "Everything is achievable through technology. Better living, robust heath, and for the first time in human history, the possibility of world peace. I'm Howard Stark, and everything you'll need for the future can be found right here. City of the Future? City of Tomorrow? City of... hang on." He said as he gets back in position.

Howard: "I'm Howard Stark and everything you'll need in the future can be found right here. So, from all of us at Stark Industries, I would like to personally..." He stopped as he turned around to find a young Tony Stark picking up one of the buildings, curiously. "Tony, what are you doing back there? What is that? Put that back. Put it back where you got it from. Where's your mother? Maria? Go on. Go, go, go, go." A man picks up Tony and takes him away.

Blake: "That was you?" He asked Tony.

Tony: "Yep. Just little me, very curious to what my dad was doing. He never liked me interfering with his work."

Blake: "I'm so sorry, Tony."

Tony: "It's fine kid. Have you found anything from the blueprints?"

Blake: "I'm looking over the notes I took, making sure I got the right info. What about you?"

Tony: "Interesting stuff, but not really giving me a lot of answers."

Howard: "I'll... I'll... I'll come in and..." The video changes to Howard drinking.

Man: "Are you waiting on me?" He asked, as Howard gestured him to wait a little bit, as he was drinking still. The video changes again.

Howard: "So, from all of us at Stark Industries, I'd like to personally show you...my ass." He said as he turned around. "I'd like to... I can't... This is... I can't... We have this, don't we? This is a ridiculous way... Everything."

As the video kept going, Tony reaches end of notebook. Blank pages. Probably ones his father never got to fill in as he died. Tony throws the book to one side and drinks. Blake sits next as he takes a drink from his soda.

Howard: He walked up to the model and turned around, looking at the camera. "Tony. You're too young to understand this right now, so I thought I would put it on film for you." Both Tony and Blake focused on the video. "I built this for you. And someday you'll realise 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. And when you do, you will change the world. What is and always will be my greatest creation is you." He finished as the video reel ended.

Tony looked very emotional. He was happy to hear his father said that to him, but he wished that he would've heard that from him in person. Blake patted his shoulder for support, and gave a soft smile. Tony smiled back, as he then stood up.

Tony: "Come on, kid."

Blake: "Where are we going?" He asked him.

To be continued...