Chapter 61: V3 Chapter 25 - I shall steal the Heavens
Less than two weeks after Tony Stark returned to his home in Los Angeles on the morning of November 17th there was news of an unidentified flying object over the city of Los Angeles, which was later clarified by the military as them testing a new drone's flight capacity.
'I know what it was.'
I thought as I scoffed at the shoddy cover-up story.
A week later on November 24th, the news came of two robots fighting on a highway, near the Stark Industries building and a blast in the said building, though no one died amd no severe injuries were mentioned in the report.
'I even found some videos on the internet, though they were being repeatedly purged.'
Two days later in an interview Tony Stark personally confirmed that he was the 'Iron Man' on national television.
Guess the troubled times just started.
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Nick Fury POV
'Tony Stark, that son of a -**- , he just had to say it!'
Nick Fury thought as he quickly pressed a button on his desk and spoke
"Coulson, get in my office, now!"
"Yes Sir."
A voice came out of the speaker and repeated.
After Coulson entered the office Fury asked for a complete briefing on the events that took place in Los Angeles.
"That's all Sir."
Coulson said as he finished his official report of the events.
"What is your personal view on 'Iron Man'?"
Asked Nick Fury as he turned back to look at Coulson
"A great name sir."
"Coulson! Is he a threat or an asset according to you?"
Nick Fury questioned.
Taking a moment Coulson answered.
"Officially, I think he is neither or both at the same time but personally, I think despite all the flaws Mr Stark has as a person, he has too much potential to be something or someone great, I think all he needs is just time to grow into it."
"Fine, I will take that into account, prepare a quinjet."
Said Nick Fury as he got up and put on his long coat.
"Where are we going, sir?" (Coulson)
"To meet Iron Man."
Said Nick Fury as he prepared to infiltrate Tony Stark's mansion for a meeting.
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I even had a thought to go watch the fight up close but decided against it as I knew there were a lot of government agents present at the scene and in such a situation I didn't want to take such a big risk just to watch a show.
The next month was peaceful and happy, with Tony Stark all over the news and media, which was a happy thing for me as I watched my wealth increase along with the Stark Industries share price.
Me and my family celebrated Christmas and New Year together at our home taking a break from all the work.
In the second month of the New Year of 2010 set in Stark Industries announced that the Stark Expo will be revived this year and will be held from 22nd April in Queens, New York for a period of 1 Year.
This announcement reminded me of the fight that will take place at the expo with robots of some weapon company being controlled by a villain to attack Tony Stark.
I quickly searched the net for the weapon companies in the US to find out who was the one behind making those robots and after searching for 10 minutes I finally came across the name that rang a bell for me.
HAMMER Industries, after some digging I found that after Tony Stark shut down the weapons division of Stark Industries it was the company that grabbed a large part of the market that Stark left behind.
I closed my eyes as I dug into my mind for all the knowledge I had about those events and I pieced together the following information.
[1. The enemy was a Russian man armed with a downgraded arc reactor.]
[2. He used an exo-suit with a whip-like weapon charged with electricity.]
[3. Some time at the expo he launched a platoon of robots to fight Iron Man and was ultimately defeated.]
[4. His death caused the detonation of all the robots which resulted in 4 civilian casualties at the scene.]
How do I know about the casualties, you ask?
Tony Stark of my timeline kept newspaper clippings that recorded the number of casualties that were caused by any and all actions in which he and the Avengers were involved, except the wipe of half the population.
He tried to restore as much of the damage as he could but there was only so much he could do.
As my mind raced through the possibilities trying to find anything I could do in that situation while minimising the risk to myself I came up with an amazing plan.
One that will not only allow me to benefit from the events but also prevent the death of innocent people caused by the mayhem of the Russian whip-man.
And so I decided that while the Hero and the Villain duke it out I will steal all the arc-reactor copies from the robots left at the venue, which I hope will render their detonation capacity useless.
Now that I had a plan and time, I began to make preparations.
I named the operation - I shall steal the Heavens.
(AN - No... anything but that!!!!)
After deciding upon my plan, I started to make preparations and the first objective was scouting the field and planning escape routes.
When the final location of the Expo was announced two days later, my days of wandering around Queens started.
I memorised the whole layout of the area for the surrounding few blocks not only on the ground and the roads but also the roofs and paths that can be manoeuvred using my newly learned parkour skills.
But while dealing with all those paths and roads I realised that I would still be vulnerable to monitoring from air and sky and if someone used satellites it wouldn't bode well for me.
So I decided to dive deeper into my plans and go underground, I searched and memorised the underground sewer layout of Queens and the whole of Manhattan while I was at it.
Finding that the only way to Manhattan was through the main Bridges connecting to Manhattan or by swimming I decided to rent an apartment for a year some distance away from the venue.
I also marked a few abandoned buildings nearby as backup locations.
This project took me over three months to complete and a few days after I finished it was 22nd April and the Stark Expo began and I visited the place to see old Iron Man close up.
However, I could not enter as it appeared the first day was an invitation-only event.
I did get to see the Iron Man suit dropping from the sky from the outside as I was returning home.
A few days later the live footage of Tony Stark's courtroom hearing was broadcast and I finally saw how the current Tony Stark behaved.
The future him was much better, I could feel the ego of the being bigger than the size of the courtroom.
I also confirmed that the person who collaborates with the villain in the future is Justin Hammer of Hammer Industries, with how badly Tony Stark suppressed him, I would be surprised if he did not take revenge.
I mean, I sure as hell wanted to punch him in that smug face of his, when he started blowing flying kisses.
As the date of the heist was close I spent the rest of the time working on my secret weapon for the heist which will allow me to remove the arc reactors from the suit.
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