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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Aim for the heart, shoot to kill
It was Rhodey who made the first move, though it was not for the benefit of Tony or in a willing way.
He raised his hand, pointing it at Tony and shouting a warning moments before he fired.
The crowd screamed and the drones around him followed suit. Tony suddenly found himself flying through the city with twenty some-odd drones on his tail all lead by his best friend who no longer had control of his suit. He knew what to do the moment he took off flying but Nikolas was not here and so Tony had to go with his back up plan.
"Jarvis break in. Reboot his system. Do something- I need to own that suit now." Tony dropped low, only vaguely aware of the sound of three drones missing the quick maneuver and exploding on the large sign at the top of the building.
Rhodey still spoke to him, though it was more directly at him, small warnings and comments to let him know what was coming at him. Tony concentrated solely on dropping as many hammer driods as possible with minimal casualties.
"You've got multiple coming at you Tony." Rhodey warned, his own suit firing an array of bullets at the Iron Man armor, all of which he successfully dodged.
The rest of the fight was a blur.
It had taken everything in the Stark to get rid of all of the suits with as minimal casualties as possible, and only after that was Jarvis able to reboot the suit though Tony suspected his capability was because of someone else on their side.
In this moment, as Tony stood knee deep in water and knocking on the helmet of his friend, Tony considered Nikolas again.
Realistically, Nikolas would have been able to solve this issue as soon as it had begun.
"I wish Nikolas were here." At first, Tony believed he had been the one to speak, but when Rhodey's helmet slid up and the man repeated his words and the Stark frowned. "I wish Nikolas were here."
He didn't want Rhodey to ask the question that he was surely going to ask, he connected his suit to the same database that Rhodey had been controlled through. "Romanoff?" He spoke loud enough for Rhodey to hear.
"You got your best friend back." She sounded smug. "And well done on the new chest piece. I am reading significantly higher output and your vitals look promising."
The confirmation that the new arc reactor was working made Tony smile. "Yes well, for the moment, I am not dying."
"What do you mean you're not dying! Did you just say you were dying?" Pepper's voice cut through the system and Tony winced at her tone.
"Pep? Is that you." He knew it was. "No I am not, not anymore."
A huff sounded though Tony could not tell who from. "Were you ever going to tell me?"
"You didn't let me!" Tony did not yell, despite the fact that he felt like it.
"You were really dying?" She was on the verge of hysterics.
Tony sighed. "I was going to make an omelet and tell you." He put emphasis on the word, despite the fact that he was sure she wasn't actually listening to him.
"Alright you two-" Romanoff pushed herself into the conversation. "Save it for the honeymoon. You got incoming Tony, this one looks different. The repulsor signature is significantly higher."
Tony nodded, despite the fact that neither Pepper or Romanoff could see him. He bent over, pulling Rhodey to his feet as he spoke. "Great, Pepper?"
She took that as her invitation to speak. "Are you okay now?"
"I am fine. Do not be mad, I will formally-" She cut him off, and for the first time Tony wasn't frustrated by it.
"I am mad!" She yelled out, her voice cracking loudly on the last word.
Tony paused, a faint smile on his face as Rhodey stood in front of him. "We could have been in Venice."
"Oh please." She huffed.
Rhodey smiled at him, offering a hand as he did. "I'm sorry Tony."
Tony paused, looking at the hand as if he were considering taking it before putting his own in his. "You shouldn't have said what you did, but I shouldn't have put you in that position." It was still relatively new for Tony to be so easily forgiving, but he didn't have any reason to stay mad.
Rhodey didn't get the chance to answer.
The entire world seemed to as the large form of Ivan Vanko in a suit similar to that of the Iron Monger machine that Obadiah Stane had made.
It was almost as though a flip was switched in Tony. His back straightened, his jaw clenched at the thought of Obadiah. He and Rhodey acted immediately each doing their best respectively to take down the man.
It happened to quickly, Vanko showboated the entire time, his hands moving in a flash and wrapping the ends of his electric whip around each of the man's necks.
Tony had to resist the urge to scream, the pain of the electric whip charging him with hundreds of volts affected his heart almost instantly. He spoke to Rhodes loudly, "Rhodes! I got an idea- you want to be a hero?"
He was obviously confused, "What?"
Tony smiled, lifting his hand and replicating the events of nearly a week ago at his house, when Rhodey had first stolen the suit. "I could really use a sidekick! Put your hand up!"
Rhodey groaned loudly, "This is your idea?"
Tony blinked, shaking his head firmly as Nikolas appeared over his best friends shoulder. "Yeah." Nikolas smiled at him, he charged his hand repulser. "Take the shot!"
Nikolas stepped back, disappearing into the darkness of the trees around them. Tony yelled to him as his and Rhodey's repulser blasts hit each other, successfully blowing Ivan Vanko into the air.
It took ten seconds for the air surrounding the three to clear, and the moment it did it was to a red flashing arc reactor and Ivan Vanko's smug face.
"You loose Stark." He grinned, spitting blood in the man's direction. "You loose."
Tony took off immediately, calling Pepper's number as he did and speaking through the comm system to the man he had just left behind with Vanko.
