Of Men and Meth

Fall Of The Damned

             The workshop flickered to life when the doors opened.

            “Daddy’s home,” Tony opened his arms with a wide grin as he stepped into the familiar room. Peter smiled and set his bag down beside the sleek red couch Tony added not long ago. The couch worked wonders for short naps after working long hours. “Alright, could you pull up the blueprints, baby girl?” Tony asked as he walked over to his workbench.

            Stephen stood by the doors, gazing in awe at the sight of Tony’s workshop. He’s always heard of the place, but no one’s really seen the inside of his work, often kept from the media. He stepped in; holograms lit up the room along with the LED lighting fixtures. There seemed to be a little bit of everything everywhere. There were cars lining the wall, older models and collectables. There was a corner of the room that had a small kitchen. A bathroom was nearby. The whole workshop seemed like a small apartment, big like everything in this compound. The best part of the whole workshop were the suits that lined the walls.

            Stephen smiled at the sight of the red and gold armor. He walked to one of the suits in the wall behind the case. He gazed at the shining armor. On the gold plaque, it read “Mark XLVI” The armor was sort of destroyed. The armor had a gash in the chest piece where the iconic reactor was. It was scuffed and smashed. It stood there broken and tall, eyes of the mask glowing reactor blue. A voice startled him while he was getting a better look at the chest piece.

           “Iron Man fan?” It was Peter. Stephen looked back at Peter, blinking.

           “Uhm…” He had no idea what to say, trying to slow his heart from the previous scare. He looked back to the suit.

           “I love Iron Man. He saved my life when I was about 8.” Peter spoke lowly so Tony couldn’t hear from the work bench as he was setting up the project. “Well, that and now I work with Iron Man.” Peter smiled widely. “How cool is that, to work with your hero?” Stephen nodded.

            I’m in the same room as two of my heroes. Trust me, I’d know.

           “I was just checking this one out,” Stephen pointed to Mark XLVI. Peter looked up at the suit and something along the lines of pity crossed his facial expression. Stephen didn’t question him. Peter looked to Stephen. He looked like he was about to talk. Maybe explain something, but he was cut off by Tony.

           “Peter, I need you to get me that precision screwdriver, please?” He turned to them. He had a pair of safety glasses on and his gloved hand was held out. “The 1.4mm.” Peter stepped away from the case display.

           “Right, sorry Mr. Stark,” he dug through a thin box and grabbed the precision screwdriver, placing it in Tony’s gloved hand.

           “Thanks, Underoos,” He flipped the extra lens of the glasses back down and turned to the item he was repairing. Peter stood by him, carefully watching and handing tools.

            Stephen fixed his gaze on something else. He approached the other table. On the table was a small glass case with a shinning circle of light made of metal.  The famous Arc Reactor. Stephen remembered hearing about it in news. He had always found Tony’s story to be incredibly interesting. He found it amazing that someone could survive those elements of the terrorists he faced in that Afghanistan cave. No one should be able to survive open heart surgery like that deprived of proper tools and cleanliness. He wanted to know who did that surgery.