Merchant of Death... pfttt. Yeah right.

Ch.1

Tony can admit that he didn't choose the best parents to be born to. Howard was a cold and affectionless father whilst Maria was oblivious, to the point of negligence, towards her son.

Due to how long Death had existed and the amount of knowledge he had accumulated over the millennia, Tony seemed to be a child genius. When he was four he built his first circuit board from observing his father's work. He'd attempted to show it to his father, in a misguided hope that his father would pay some attention to him, yet he'd been ignored. When Tony had tried to get his attention again it had resulted in a smashed circuit board and a stinging cheek.
At the age of seven Tony built his first engine, and just like his circuit board, it too ended up broken. By this point, Tony had resigned himself to the fact that his father would never acknowledge him.

Tony's first encounter with alcohol happened not long after. His father was sitting by the fireplace with a glass of whiskey, when Tony had entered his office, looking for a book;

~~~~

Tony tensed up when he saw his father with a glass in his hand. His father had never been a kind drunk, often flying into an uncontrollable rage at the first inconvenience. He tried to exit without being seen, but Howard had already noticed him.

"Anthony, come here." He slurred.

Tony felt dread begin to pool in his gut. Howard was already drunk. He hesitantly made his way over to the chair that Howard was resting in.

"Drink this. It'll make you into a man." He ordered as he passed Tony the glass he was holding.

Tony had seen what alcohol could do to people before. He had seen good men become abusive fathers and husbands under the influence of this drink. He had never quite understood the appeal, after all alcohol never affected him, something which he was grateful for in his life as an Asgardian, as the Æsir were well known for their love of alcohol.

Howard must have noticed his hesitance, as he forced Tony to take the glass and put it to his lips.

"When I say drink, you drink!"

The liquid was bitter and burned his throat as he was forced to drink it. He would never forget Howard's look of contempt as he choked on the drink that was forced upon him.

~~~~

His parents had hired a nanny by the name of Beatrice Walters, she was a boring old lady with greyed hair and a plain face, and not long after meeting her Tony had developed a mild dislike for the woman.

However, there was Jarvis who had watched over Tony throughout his childhood, and had been the one to supply affection to the young child, whilst Maria and Howard were too wrapped up in their work to notice him. Jarvis and his wife Ana became his parental figures, providing him with the affection and care that a child his age should have received from his parents.

At the age of fifteen, in 1984, he began studying at M.I.T. At first he had accidentally got involved in a bad crowd due to the rich kids always inviting him to parties, and rumours being spread about him.

He met James 'Rhodey' Rhodes during his second year, whilst he had been in the engineering department, working on his project for the 4th annual M.I.T Robot Design Award. Rhodey had walked into his lab room whilst he was working on the robot that he would later affectionately nickname DUM-E;

DUM-E ended up winning the competition, even if it's coding was incomplete, leaving the AI's intelligence severely restricted.

In 1991, when Tony was 21, his parents scheduled a trip to the Bahamas to celebrate Christmas. However, that did not come to pass, as Tony had felt them depart from the mortal plane. He'd summoned one of his reapers to collect their souls and bring them to him. After interrogating them, he had found out that Howard had been developing a Super Soldier Serum, which he was delivering to the Pentagon, but as they were driving, the brakes had stopped responding, leading them to crash into a tree by the side of the road.that was when James "Bucky" Barnes had shown up;

With the revelation of Bucky Barnes being alive, Tony ordered his reaper to find and follow the man. Tony may not have held any particular affection for his parents in this life, they were still the only family that he had, and he wanted to know who had organised this.

Not long after, the reaper returned and informed him that Bucky had been taken by an organisation known as Hydra (which should have been wiped out in World War 2). They had then taken him to an underground base, where they strapped him into a chair and electrocuted him. The serum that they had stolen had been taken to a laboratory and used on five people.

Tony had heard enough about Hydra, to know that it was a very bad thing if they got their hands on five more super soldiers, so he began a plan to rescue Buck Barnes and the other super soldiers.