Endeavour Nikolas Stark is perfectly fine as is.
As a child he had been extraordinary, finding a home among the friendliest of people at Charles Xavier's School For the Gifted, and finding himself Gifted in many ways just beyond the X-Gene in his DN...
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Everybody is a fair weather friend.
Tony had not meant for things to go so bad so quickly.
Appointing Pepper Potts temporary CEO had not gone over well with the press and in an attempt to solve the issue, she had arrange a trip to Monaco, Italy to see a race in the Grand Prix. Tony had, of course, decided to come along.
The trip had not been successful.
A sudden decision from the eccentric Stark led to him driving his companies Formula racing car and left him with the knowledge that there was someone else out there capable of building the Arc reactor other than Nikolas Stark.
The poor turn of events had not ended there.
While speaking with the Russian capable of building the Arc reactor, Tony had lost his temper, yelling at the man as if he had something to do with Nikolas.
His return flight home was completed alone, he had chosen a commercial airline and sat in first class with only his thoughts as company. He felt as though Nikolas was watching him, sitting in judgement of his choices.
When Tony arrived home, it was his birthday.
An irrational party decision, blasting things he should not, and a fight with his best friend led to him stealing one of the Iron Man suits. At least, that is what he told the Strategic Homeland Intervention and Enforcement Logistics Division when they came to put him under house arrest.
Tony had barely any fight in him when a balding man threatened to tase him should he try and break the premise, Rhodey's words echoed in his head.
And the balding man had left him with a box of his dad's shit.
All he could think of while flipping through the box was the difference that Endeavour had made on his life, the curious consideration of what his parents would have thought, and what would have changed passed through his mind with every new page he looked at.
And then Nikolas was there, just briefly in the corner of the room laughing at him as he fell from the sky while trying out the suit for the first time. Tony had smiled at the memory, noticing the shape of his son as he sat on the countertop beside him, telling him how to create the Arc reactor and coming up with hundreds of new ideas for new versions of the suit.
And then Nikolas was there when Tony discovered a new element.
The creation had been a blur, sleepless nights fueled solely by coffee and anxiety over the idea of dying. In the end, all he had to show for it was a small glowing triangle that his new arc reactor had accepted easily as a new power source.
The new arc had not been his design, and when Tony had found it among his son's untouched part of the lab he had cried because it meant that his son had thought far enough ahead to design something that would take the place of what was killing him.
Rhodey had tried to call each night, his voice mails deleted with barely a thought. It was only when an unknown number called him did he think to answer.
"Coulson, how goes the land of Enchantment?" Tony said it with a smile as he settled the arc into a box for testing.
"Hey Tony, how you doing?" A specifically familiar accented voice asked, "I double cycle."
"Ivan." Tony said the man's name tersely, his back straightening as he looked up to the computer in front of him, his hands working fast to attempt at tracing the call.
"You told me to double cycle. Good advice."
The so called advice had been said in his moment of anger, he had not expected the Russian to remember, let alone get out of prison. "You sound pretty spritely for someone who is supposed to be in prison." Jarvis took over the trace as Ivan responded.
"You too." The man paused. "Now the true history of the Stark name will be written. What your father did to my family over 40 years? I will do to your family in 40 minutes."
His choice of the word 'family' made Tony pause and panic. Though Nikolas was far out of the man's reach, Pepper was not.
"I hope you are ready."
And then Jarvis attempted to rationalize with him as he put the new arc reactor into his chest without letting the tests run their course.
"Sir, I believe you should allow me to run some tests first. We do not know if the design will-"
Tony interrupted, smacking the palm of his hand over the circle in his chest as he spoke to push it in further, "Nikolas made it. It'll work." He coughed the moment the reactor settled in his chest. "You want to run some tests? Run them, and assemble the suit while you are at it."
Tony coughed again, resisting the urge to double over as the arc reactor started to glow brighter in his chest.
He left the house minutes later, his new suit working like a charm as he flew. Jarvis continued running his tests as Tony flew to the Expo. He had said that his reasons for putting Pepper in charge temporarily was so that he could focus on the Expo, he had not been, and the visual of just how many civilians where in the area gave him pause.
Justin Hammer stood on the stage, and Tony did not hesitate before landing feet away from the man, almost relishing in how he took a few stumbling steps back.
The image of different variations of his suit standing on the stage had almost thrown him, he did not let the distraction last as he marched up to Rhodey and spoke in a low tone.
"All these people are in danger. We gotta get them out of here." Tony put his hand on Rhodey's shoulder, admiring the image of the suit briefly as he waved to the crowd in a friendly way. "You gotta trust me for the next five minutes."
Tony could practically hear the pause in his friends voice before he spoke. "Alright."
And then everything went to shit in the worst way it could have.
