12. Privatized World Peace

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Washington D.C.

"Mr. Stark, could we pick up now where we left off?" the senator began. We were in court in Washington the morning after the New York Expo.
After Happy and Tony hopped in a two-seater and drove off without me, I ended up taking a ride down with Marshal, the woman who he served Tony the subpoena.

On the drive down, Marshal informed me that the court hearing was about the Iron Man suit; the government deemed it to be a specialized weapon that could not be trusted in the hands of Tony Stark and therefore, were arguing the case that it should be in the hands of the military.

Tony was turned around in his seat to face the second row, where Pepper and I sat side by side, complaining how he needed a bathroom break. We'd already been in here for 2 hours and still, no progress was being made.

"Mr. Stark, please," Senator Stern begged. At that, Tony turned his body back around to face the front of the court.

"Yes, dear?" he joked and the court erupted in laughter. This hearing was supposed to a serious matter, but of course, when Tony's around nothing can be too serious.

The senator banged his gavel to regain the court's focus, "Can I have your attention!"

"Absolutely," Tony responded leaning his head into the mic so the court could hear him.

"Do you do or do you not possess a specialized weapon?" the senator asked sternly.

Tony simply responded with, "I do not."

"You do not?" Senator Stern repeated back to Tony, making sure that was the answer he was sticking to.

"I do not," Tony doubled-down, "Well, it depends on how you define the word weapon."

"The Iron Man weapon." Stern cleared up.

"My device does not fit that description," Tony said defensively.

"Well... How would you describe it?"

"I would describe it by defining it as what it is, Senator."

"As?"

"It's a high-tech prosthesis..." Tony started, making the court laugh again. Tony basically described his suit as a mannequin, which was kind of accurate, except for the part where he missed the lasers and the fact that it can fly, but for the sake of this hearing, he needed to downplay the suit if he wanted to keep it, "That's actually the most apt description I can make of it."

"It's a weapon. It's a weapon Mr. Stark" Senator retorted.

"Please, if your priority was actually the well-being of the American citizen—" Tony argued but the senator cut in.

"My priority is to get the Iron Man weapon turned over to the people of the United States of America."

I didn't think this was a good idea, the government getting involved. They didn't know how the suit worked, they weren't there when it was built. We all knew for a fact they just wanted to use it the same way Tony's missiles were used back when he was still manufacturing.

He didn't want to be responsible for the death of innocent people anymore, and the suit was helping compensate for the damage he'd already done. And they just wanted Tony to hand it over? They should at least be offering him a check if they wanted the suit for themselves.

"Well, you can forget it. I am Iron Man. The suit and I are one. To turn over the Iron Man suit would be to turn over myself which is tantamount to indentured servitude or prostitution, depending on what state you're in. You can't have it." Tony said in a surprisingly heartfelt manner. The suit meant a lot to him, it was who he had become now. He couldn't let it go.

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