Tony, with the help of Blake, get to work on making a new element for the Arc Reactor.
—
Blake (V.O.): "I wasn't quite sure where Tony was taking us, but nevertheless, I went anyway and see what he was going to do."
Both of them were in Tony's car, driving in the highway. Tony then made a stop to a little stand where a man was selling strawberries.
Vendor: "Hola señores (Hello sirs)."
Blake: "Cuanto por las fresas (How much for the strawberries)?" He asked.
Vendor: "$6. Six."
Blake: "Here you go." He said as he hands him the six dollars and the vendor gives him the strawberries.
Vendor: "Aren't you two Iron Man?" He asked.
Blake: [chuckles] "He is, not me." He clarified, as he believes he was referring to the incident in Monaco where he wore one of Tony's suits.
Tony: "Well, sometimes." He said as he drove off.
Vendor: "We believe in you!" He yelled.
Blake (V.O.):"I know for a fact that Pepper was allergic to strawberries, as I told Tony that but he decided to get it anyways, 'cause... I really don't know. We did get Pepper something else, and I figured I keep the strawberries for something else."
—
Pepper: "It was an illegal seizure of trademark property."
Pepper was currently in her office, having a phone call with someone else. As she was talking, the PA entered.
Secretary: "Miss Potts?"
Tony: "Relax." He said as he entered the office, while Blake following, holding a bag.
Secretary: "Mr. Stark..."
Tony: "Is here." He cuts her off.
Secretary: "He refuses..."
Tony: "I don't. It's fine. I'll just be a second."
Blake: "I'm so sorry about him, miss. We'll be very quick, I promise." He said as she then nodded and closes the door.
Pepper: "Listen, it's our position that Stark has and continues to maintain propriety ownership of the Mark II platform." She was still talking on the phone.
As the two were walking towards her, the TV was on.
Man on TV: "When Mr Stark announced he was indeed Iron Man, he was making a promise to America."
Pepper: "No, the suit belongs to us."
Man on TV: "We trusted that he would look out for us."
Pepper: "Yeah, but you're not...
Man of TV: "He obviously did not."
Pepper: "Burt..."
Man on TV: "And now we learn that his secretary..."
Pepper: "Yes, it does."
Man on TV: "...a woman named Virginia "Pepper" Potts, has been appointed as CEO of Stark Industries. What are her qualifications?"
Both Tony and Blake stood there silently, glancing at the TV and Pepper. Things were looking too good.
Pepper: "[Firmly] No."
Man on TV: "Miss Potts has done nothing to manage this terrible..."
Tony: "Mute."
Blake: "Man, this is not looking too good..." He said to himself.
Pepper: "No... Burt... Burt... Burt, listen to me. Don't tell me that we have the best patent lawyers in the country and then not let me pursue this."
As they were still waiting, Tony walks over to the side of the office to find a bunch of boxes and other stuff covered up.
Tony: "I'll get this stuff out of here."
Pepper: "Well, then, tell the President to sign an order. We'll talk about it at the Expo."
Tony pulls back a sheet and finds the same model as that that was in the video with his father.
Pepper: "Hammer's giving some presentation tomorrow evening. Will Tony Stark be there?"
Tony: He pulls up a chair. "Will I?" He asked.
Pepper: "No, he will not. And neither is Blake Riley. Bye." She said as she hung up.
Tony: "We both would like to be. Got a minute?"
Pepper: "No."
Tony: "Come on, you just got off the phone. You're fine. 30 seconds."
Pepper: "Twenty-nine Twenty-eight." She starts counting down on her watch.
Tony: "We were just driving over here, and I thought I was coming to basically apologize, but I'm not."
Blake: "What?"
Pepper: "You didn't come here to apologize?"
Tony: "Look, that goes without saying, and I'm working on that. But I haven't been entirely upfront with you, and I just want to try to make good. Can I move this? This is crazy. It's like a Ferris wheel, going. I'm trying to get some..."
Pepper: "No."
Blake: "Oh, Christ..." He said as he covered his face, looking down. He knows this is going to be long conversation.
Tony: [Clears Throat] "Do you know how short life is? And if I never got to express... And by the way, this is somewhat revelatory to me. And I don't care... I mean, I care. It would be nice. I'm not expecting you to... Look, here's what I'm trying to say. I'm just gonna say it."
Pepper: "Let me stop you right here, okay? Because if you say "I" one more time, I'm gonna actually hurl something at your head, I think. I am trying to run a company. Do you have any idea what that entails? What is that in the bag?" She immediately asked.
Blake: "A gift. Tony originally wanted to give you strawberries, but I reminded him that you were allergic so we went and got you something else. Chocolates." He said as he handed her the box of chocolates.
Pepper: "Well, thank you. I'm glad you warned him about it. As I was saying, people are relying on you to be Iron Man and you've disappeared, and all I'm doing is putting out your fires and taking the heat of it. I am trying to do the job that you were meant to do."
Tony: "This is progress, Pepper. I knew there was a correlation between you and this."
Blake: "Oh my god."
Pepper: "I need you...
Tony: "I need you too."
Pepper: "...to leave now." She finished.
Tony: "That's what I'm trying to..." He was trying to say but stopped to what Pepper just said.
Natasha: "Ms Potts?" She said as she entered the office with Happy following behind her.
Pepper: "Hi, come on in."
Natasha: "Wheels up in 25 minutes." She walked over to Pepper.
Pepper: "Thank you."
Happy: "Anything else, boss?"
Tony: "I'm good, Hap."
Pepper: "No, I'll be just...another minute."
Tony: "I lost both the kids in the divorce. [Tony looks over to Happy, who shakes his head and laughs.] That's...no. [Clears Throat] Are you blending in well here, Natalie? Here are Stark Enterprises? Your name is Natalie, isn't it?
Both Blake and Natasha narrowed their eyes to Tony. In his mind, he is taking in his power to not just slap Tony right now.
Blake: "Tony."
Tony: "Yes?"
Blake: "Quiet."
Tony: "Okay. Hang on, I thought you two didn't get along?"
Pepper: "No. That's not so."
Tony: "It's just me you don't care for. No? Nothing?"
Pepper: "Actually, while you're here maybe you and Natalie could discuss the matter of the personal belongings."
Natasha: "Absolutely."
Pepper walks out of the office and leaves with Happy. Natasha was picking up papers from the desk.
Blake: "Well, that went pretty well." He sarcastically said.
Natasha: "I'm surprised you can keep your mouth shut." She said to Tony.
Tony: "Boy, you're good. You are mind-blowingly duplicitous. How do you do it? You just tear things... You're a triple imposter. I've never seen anything like you. Is there anything real about you? Do you even speak Latin?"
Natasha began to speak Latin.
Tony: "Which means? Wait. What? What did you just say?" He asked.
Natasha: "It means you can either drive yourself home or I can have you collected. Blake, make sure he does that." She then leaves.
Blake: "Yes, ma'am."
Tony: "You're good." He called out. "You got yourself quite a catch, kid." He looked to see Blake frowning. "What?"
Blake: "What the fuck was that? I thought you were going to tell her what was happening, but you two went on to your usual conversation, going back and forth, to the point where my brain is being melted."
Tony: "Okay, okay, that was my bad, but come on. I'm not really one with apologizing without try to explain things."
Blake: [Sighs Heavily] "Well, come on. We better head back, or else I'll have Coulson yelling in my ears."
Tony quickly piles things up under desk spinny thing, as Blake shook his head. As they were leaving, Tony stopped to look at the model. He looks to the side, that find it labeled, "The Key to the Future is Here."
Blake: "What is it?"
Tony: "Hang on a moment."
He takes off the sheet, to reveal the model in its entirety. He puts his hand over his eye, to get a closer look. He then realizes something.
Tony: "Kid, how much can you lift?"
Blake raises his eyebrow, confused to the random question. It cuts to Tony's car, driving along the road, with the model inside. Blake was holding it tightly, while being smushed by it.
Blake (V.O.): "It was odd that Tony wanted to bring the model with him and very uncomfortable for me on the entire driveway back. But it was there that Tony discovered something in the model that I didn't even noticed. Not until, when we went back."
—
Back at the mansion, Tony and Blake in the workshop, examining the model. Tony blew the dust off of it.
Tony: "Jarvis, could you kindly Vac-U-Form a digital wire frame? I need a manipulatable projection."
The model was then being scanned very slowly, but it was completed as it reached the end of it.
JARVIS: "1974 Stark Expo model scan complete, sir." He informed Tony.
Tony: He lifts the blue projection away from the model. "How many buildings are there?" He asked his AI.
JARVIS: "Am I to include the Belgium waffle stands?"
Tony: "That was rhetorical. Just show me."
He then clicks his fingers and the model begins to spin and lifts upright. Blake simply watches, still confused to what he's doing.
Tony: "Uh-huh. Um... What does that look like to you guys? Not unlike an atom. In which case the nucleus would be here. Highlight the unisphere."
He brings up the unisphere up close to him, as it was highlighted. Tony looks at the model closer, and tries something else.
Tony: "Lose the footpaths. Get rid of them."
Blake: What is it you're trying to achieve, Tony?" He asked him.
Tony: "I'm discovering... Correction. I'm rediscovering a new element, I believe. Lose the landscaping, the shrubbery, the trees." [He starts flicking things away]. "Parking lots, exits, entrances. Structure the protons and the neutrons using the pavilions as a framework." He instructed.
Tony: "Dad." He silently whispered.
The model now resembles a nucleus and Tony expands it. Both Tony and Blake look around in astonishment.
Blake: "Whoa."
Tony: "Dead for almost 20 years, and still taking me to school." He chuckled and snaps down so the model fits in his hand.
JARVIS: "The proposed element should serve as a viable replacement for palladium."
Blake: "Holy crap, you found it."
Tony: "Thanks, Dad."
JARVIS: "Unfortunately, it is impossible to synthesise."
Tony: "Uh-huh."
Blake: "So then how are you going to execute this?"
Tony: "Get ready for a major remodel, fellas! We're back in hardware mode. Kid, come with me, I'm going to need your help with this." He said as he stood and walked to the door.
—
Tony was wearing some safety glasses and brought along a sledgehammer, which he raised in the air and swung at a wall marked. After making a huge hole in the wall, he dropped the sledgehammer.
Blake was using a jackhammer in the living room, as it revealed to have a circuit box. U was holding an instruction to have Blake look over, while he was fiddling with it.
Next, Blake drilled a hole right above the workshop, where both Tony and DUM-E looked up to hear the noise and bits of cement fell to the ground. He proceeded to drop ropes down, to have crates be brought down. Tony opened the crates, carrying giant pipes and other important material needed.
They had the pipes connected, with various stacks of books and other things used to steady the pipes. A clicking noise of a ratchet was heard. Then, Agent Coulson arrived.
Coulson: "I heard you broke the perimeter. And Blake, you allowed this to happen?"
Blake: "Oh, here we go. Look, spare us the lecture 'cause we are working."
Tony: "Yeah, what he said. Where you been?"
Coulson: "I was doing some stuff."
Tony: "Well, us too and it worked. Hey, I'm playing for the home team, Coulson, you and all your Fabulous Fury Freak Brothers. Now, are you gonna let us work or break our balls?"
As Tony was looking over the balance of the giant pipe, Coulson walked over to an open crate and found a prototype shield of Captain America.
Coulson: "What's this doing here?" He asked Tony, while holding the shield.
Blake: "Hey, isn't that...?"
Tony: "That's it. Bring that to me."
Coulson: "You know what this is?" He asked again, walking towards.
Tony: "It's exactly what we need to make this work."
He was handed over the shield and inspected it for a bit. It's going to work.
Tony: "Lift the coil. Both of you. Go, go. Put your knees into it. There you go. And..."
Both Coulson and Blake lifted the coil up, so that Tony can put the shield underneath it.
Tony: "Drop it. Drop it."
Both let go as the coil rested on top of the prototype. Tony checks to see the balance of the pipe, which was the perfect level.
Blake: "Huh, wow. I guess, thanks Captain." He said to himself.
Tony: "Perfectly level. [Snorts] We're busy. What do you want?" He then asked him.
Coulson: "Nothing. Goodbye. I've been reassigned."
Tony: "Huh."
Coulson: "Director Fury wants me in New Mexico. And Riley, he assigned you to it too. Once you're done with helping Mr. Stark, you'll soon join me and Agent Barton on the assignment."
Blake: "Really, Clint is going to be there? Well, looking forward to it, I suppose."
Tony: "Fantastic. Land of Enchantment."
Coulson: "So I'm told."
Tony: "Secret stuff?"
Coulson: "Something like that. Good luck."
Tony: He shook hands with Coulson: "Bye. Thanks."
Coulson: "We need you."
Tony: "Yeah, more than you know."
Coulson: "Not that much. Take of yourself, Riley." He said as he left.
Blake: "Don't mind him. We do." He said as Tony gave a warm smile.
—
The particle accelerator was near in completion. Blake was finishing up with the final tweaks, while Tony installed the last piece of equipment. A small triangle piece was place on wheel, where it will be powered up. Blake placed a key in a centre circle and turned it on. Both were wearing dark red glasses and they took of their shirts before the begin.
JARVIS: "Initializing prismatic accelerator." He announced.
Tony and Blake approached the wheel, which was on top of the device.
JARVIS: "Approaching maximum power."
Tony grabbed a wrench to use a lever to turn the wheel. He gestured to Blake to help him turn. Then, a beam of light shot through the wall.
Blake: "Whoa!" He exclaimed.
Tony: "Whoops! Alright, kid, turn. Turn!"
The laser slowly moved towards to the wheel. As they stopped at the right spot, the laser concentrated on the triangle piece as it began to glow, brightly. Then, Tony shuts it down as the bright glow fades away.
Tony: "That was easy."
Blake: "Did we do it?" He asked.
Tony: "Let's find out."
Both of them crouched beneath the pipes and moved their way towards to the triangle piece. Tony grabbed a pair of pliers as he was able carefully grab it and lifted it for them to see.
JARVIS: "Congratulations, sirs. You have created a new element."
Blake: "My god, you did it Tony!"
Tony: "We did it, kid."
Tony then carefully placed the triangle piece to the new Arc Reactor. It began to slowly beep, as then the Arc Reactor began to glow, meaning it accepted the new core.
JARVIS: "Sir, the reactor has accepted the modified core. I will begin running diagnostics." He announced.
—
Blake (V.O.): "I still couldn't believe it, even to this day. I was there to witness Tony Stark create a new element, and even crazier, I was helping him too. As we were waiting for JARVIS to run diagnostics, Tony and I were casually talking..."
Tony: "How about Badassium? Huh?"
Blake: "[Snorts] Badassium, seriously?" He said as he was drinking a soda.
Tony: "What, it's good. DUM-E, U, can we clean up this mess? You're killing me. You know I don't..." He was then interrupted from the phone ringing.
JARVIS: "Incoming call with a blocked number, sir."
Blake: "Huh? I thought SHIELD cut off communications?" He questions.
Tony: "Looks like my phone privilege is reinstated. Lovely." He then answered the call. "Coulson. How's the Land of Enchantment? Will Blake have a good time there when he leaves?" He asked, thinking it was Coulson.
Vanko: [On-Call] "Hey, Tony, how you doing? [Laughs]. I double cycle."
Tony: "You what?"
At Hammer Industries...
Ivan was speaking on the phone, with his hand smeared with blood and two guards were hanged behind him. And a bird was standing on his shoulder.
Vanko: "You told me double cycle's more power. Good advice."
Blake: "Oh, great..." He exasperated.
Vanko: "Ah, Blake. Surprise to hear you too, boy."
Tony: "You sound pretty sprightly for a dead guy."
Vanko: "You, too." He said as he laughed.
Tony shuts his eyes, trying to control his anger, as did Blake. Tony muted his speaker.
Tony: "Trace him." He ordered.
JARVIS: "Sir." He responded.
Vanko: "Now, the true history of Stark name will be written."
Tony: "JARVIS, where is he?"
JARVIS: "Accessing the Oracle grid." He said as a screen was triangulating the area. "Eastern seaboard."
Vanko: "What your father did to my family over 40 years, I will do to you in 40 minutes." He said.
Tony: "Sounds good. Let's get together and hash it out." He said.
JARVIS: "Tri-State area. Manhattan and outlying boroughs."
Vanko: "I hope you're ready. And Blake, I also hope to see you there when it happens." He finished as the call ended.
Blake: "Son of a bitch." He whispered.
JARVIS: "Call trace incomplete."
Tony was disappointed with the call trace being incomplete. He was slightly panicking as he looked to another screen, which showed an advert of Justin Hammer's presentation for the Stark Expo. He then glanced back at the new reactor and decides to put it on.
JARVIS: "Sir..."
Tony: "You want to run some tests, run them. And assemble the suit while you're at it. Put it together now." He instructed.
Blake: "But Tony, we aren't sure what the effects are..."
Tony: "I don't want to hear it! Just put on your fox uniform or whatever and be ready!" He began to cough as the arc reactor began to glow. "[Exclaims in Disgust] That tastes like coconut. And metal. Oh, wow, yeah!"
To be continued...