original

Assumptions

Chapter 1: Chapter 1: Background

Everyone knew that Howard was a tad obsessed after Steve disappeared. He was obsessed with finding him. More importantly, or more troubling, he was obsessed with making more of him.

Between Erskine's notes and Howard's work, a new serum was made. A serum that was supposedly better than the original. A serum that was supposed to raise someone beyond human limits rather than take them to them. The question then became who to test it on. Who should be the next Captain America?

The answer came when Howard found out his wife was pregnant. Because who would be better than his child to become the next super soldier? Who better than the child of one of the smartest men on the planet, whose child might grow up to have the same intellect if not great?

As the months went by Howard got everything ready. He tested various samples, most of which resulting in less than ideal results. He built machines to monitor his child and to hopefully increase the odds of the test going well. He wanted his child to nearly be born with the serum.

If a boy nearly a man, like Steve was, could become someone like Captain America. Then what would happen if a child grew up all their life constantly using the enhanced physique they were given. His child also shouldn't have nearly the amount of problems as Steve did when he was given the serum. The newer and better serum wouldn't have to fix nearly as much as the original had to. How strong could they become?

When the day came for the baby to be born Howard was truly happy. Not because he would soon have an enhanced son, but he genuinely felt the happiness, love, and joy that only a father could feel for their child. He had his doubts then, when he looked at that small child held within his wife's arms. Of course, being the scientific man he was those feelings got pushed back rather easily. The doubts and the sparks of guilt he had were pushed away rather easily as well. If he wanted another super soldier he couldn't let his feelings get in the way of that.

As the weeks rolled on Howard finally was able to get his son to himself. The weeks beforehand he was a model father and husband. He would care for and play with his son, but he never got alone time with him, with either his wife, Jarvis, or Peggy lingering around. Then the day came when he was left alone with his son.

That day the experiments began.

It was rather simple, straightforward, and remarkably similar to the original experiments. He injected his son, Tony, with the serum and blasted him with vita rays. The wailings of his infant son nearly made him stop the process. Once again he pushed his feelings away and told himself that it would only hurt him more by stopping the process before it was over. He watched the dials and readings silently waiting for them to reach were they needed to be.

Then it stopped. The wailings and screams and then the process itself. As the doors opened and Howard saw his son sitting there red in the face from screaming and sweat covering his small body, but still breathing he let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.

After cleaning up his son he took him back to the rest of the family and just observed. He wanted to see the changes. He wanted to see how efficient the serum was.

Months went by but nothing happened, there were no changes. This is when Howard started to drink. He wants to drink because of his failure, because of the experiment's failure, and because of his son's failure. Howard was a mean drunk. A violent drunk. The target for his rage was Tony. That's when the beatings started. It's not like anyone ever noticed. The bruises and cuts simply faded away far faster than should be possible. Even Howard didn't notice. He was far too drunk to remember beating his son to know to look for the resulting bruises and cuts. It was rough for Tony though. He wanted to tell someone, absolutely anyone, what happened but there were no bruises or cuts to show. It would only ever make him seem like a child throwing a tantrum. This is when he learned patience. The patience to keep himself from an outburst. The self-control from screaming and yelling at the world. He knew that it wouldn't help. This is when the idea of a mask, a facade, drifted into his mind.

Sober Howard simply chose to ignore his son altogether. Even though his son could have been considered a genius even among geniuses. He had made his first circuit board at two but Howard only saw this two years later when Tony was four. The same thing happened throughout his life. His first engine was built when he was barely three, but they found out, rather chose to notice, when he was six. Even when he went to college. He spent years learning everything he could. Howard, being a genius of a man himself, kept a rather large library on various subjects, and Maria, Tony's mother, also had various books on less scientific subjects.

Through the work of his butler Jarvis he was able to get into college at ten, and already had a handful of doctorates by the time they said he had graduated from MIT at 17. Which was only his latest pass through college. Not that it was all bad as he had met Rhodey then. Rhodey was the first person he could call a friend, outside of Jarvis, but he saw him as more of a father than anything else. Though they couldn't keep nearly as much contact as he wished they could seeing as Rhodey went on to join the AirForce.

Of course higher education wasn't the only thing he had to learn throughout his life. His father was a billionaire, genius, and co-founder of SHIELD so he got training. Every martial art, self-defense class, and even military and Shield training were given to Tony. Between his impressive mind and enhancements that showed up throughout his childhood, he progressed through his training at an impressive speed. Though a recurring memory was the days his father strapped a gun to his hand and forced him to shoot until he could hit bullseyes or the days that he still got a beating from his father for being a failure.

Through all of those memories were the ones that he spent with his aunt Peggy and the nights he had at the piano with his mother or even the times he got to play simple board games with Jarvis. These were some of his happiest memories. Though they did become rather bittersweet later on in his life.

When the call came saying that his parents were dead of course he was sad. He had just lost his mother. He was, honestly, happy that his father had passed. It meant the abuse would stop. The funeral was a somber affair. And it marked the first and last time that Tony got drunk. Of course when Obidiah Stane had given a seventeen-year-old a glass of whiskey. Tony was suspicious the man reeked of schemes and lies.

He hid himself away afterwards spending his time doing what he needed to do in order to keep Stane off his back. Jarvis was one of his last islands of strength. So, it crushed him when the call came on one of the few days that he was in Stark Labs rather than his own personal lab that Jarvis had passed away. He felt lost.

He decided then to build up his mask, the facade that he would hide behind. He would be the classic drunken, arrogant playboy. No one ever seemed to see that he never actually drank any of the various drinks that he had picked up. The many women that he supposedly took home and bedded were in fact only actresses paid to help sell the mask, and were more often than not taken back home. He made his mask so well no one could see through it. Though most didn't try to either. They rather judge him on what they saw rather than what the actual truth might have been.

Years later when Tony was captured in Afghanistan he knew that it had to have been Stane. It was also the first time he had ever thanked his father. He thanked him for whatever he had done to him as it kept the shrapnel out of his chest. The various enhancements that the serum gave were incredible though the only ones that actually knew what they were, were his various instructors and Jarvis when he was alive. His strength easily rivaled that of the Captain's, but the same couldn't be said about his durability and speed. The best way to describe it is that his body adapted, so he got tougher in order to handle beatings. He got faster and more flexible in order to deal with his many years of training. Thats why he had to thank his father. Between the serum and the beatings he became durable enough to help him survive something like a bomb exploding within a very unsafe distance from his person.

He built a miniature arc reactor and a giant metal suit in order to get himself out of that cave. He had to keep the mask up even when it should have been safe to let it down. He never knew when or how information could get out. Though he added yet another death to his hands. Of course, Yinsen would never agree that his death was his fault, but he knew. Once he had reached the states he had shut down weapons manufacturing. He had changed in the eyes of the public. Though there wasn't really any change. He had always wanted to shut down weapons manufacturing, but never had a good reason why. Rather one that would fit with the mask that he had been painstakingly keeping up most of his life at this point. The only thing that changed was there was more regret and he now, hopefully, had a way to relieve that regret. And through a certain set of events, Stane was dead and he had control over the company again, and he now had a good reason and idea in order to let himself get out there and help people.

As time passed Tony settled into his life. He also made sure to keep up the assumptions everyone made of him.

Then there was the one day that a feisty redhead came barging into his office in order to correct him on an error on a document. Of course, she pepper sprayed one of his guards on the way in. He couldn't let her have her job anymore, not with a stunt like that. So, he gave her a new one, one as his personal secretary. Thats how Pepper, Virginia really because he never forgets a name, became one of the few, very few, people in his life that he trusted.

Then there was that day.

As he entered the gym he saw Happy waiting for him in the ring, and two redheads standing together. One was Pepper and the other was a woman that reminded him of how Obidiah felt, the lies, and the schemes behind his back. As they turned to him he made sure to keep up the facade he had built throughout his life. However, he was barely able to stop himself when he saw one of Shield's top agents, Black Widow, standing there with an innocent smile on her face. He had hacked into his father and aunt's organization countless times to gather information and make sure no information was added to his file that he didn't want there. So of course he recognized her. However, he made sure to play his part. Then with a quick check he found out exactly why she was in his company, and then made doubly sure to keep everything he could, reasonably, hidden from her and by proxy Shield.

After a particularly interesting day, with the Stark Tower finally being completed, of course, it had to get more interesting. The tesseract was stolen and they needed the Avengers. Which was an initiative that Fury had been putting together, since long before the idea of superheroes actually came to be. Though because of that one particular spider that was in his company he wasn't actually an Avenger he was simply a consultant and was called in to find the cube.

Throughout everything, Tony was able to keep up some semblance of a facade. Even when he had an angry super soldier screaming about how his father was such a good man. Having to work closely with two assassins, a "god", the American flag, and a green rage monster wasn't exactly how Tony wanted his life to turn out; though Bruce himself was pretty cool.

Yet, another thing he hadn't expected to happen was being forced to house those people as well. Having to live with all of those people made it extremely hard to keep up his workout routine, which was the only thing that could tire him out enough to sleep some nights, his CEO and CTO work, and all the other various projects he had. He never really understood how people could see the amount of work he does and never question how he was also a drunk and a playboy.

To relieve some of that stress he gave over the CEO role to one of the few people he could truly call a friend, Pepper. She had been the third person to ever see through any part of his mask. The first and second being Rhodey and Happy. She had, as his secretary, quickly found out the long hours he worked and how exactly his nights with various women actually went. She knew that he wasn't a playboy or a drunk. Though like the others she doesn't know the fullest extent of the mask that he has built for himself. Either way she was more than happy to relieve at least some of his stress.

Of course, all masks and facades can only last for so long.