บท 54: Self destructive mode

Tony came back from the track after putting away the suit. He saw Bruce and others sitting in the table while most of others left who were attending the race due to security reasons.

"You selfish piece of sh*t. What were you thinking? Do you know how dangerous it was? You were almost killed just now. Do you even think of others who care about you?" Pepper shouted in a very loud voice. Tony just kept his head down, he knew this was dangerous and it was his fault.

Bruce and John didn't comment on anything as they knew why Tony was acting weird. A person who was dying might act in a self destructive way. This was normal. And specially a person like Tony, who all his life had been in control of everything.

"Thanks Bruce for the help. You saved my life again." Tony said to Bruce without replying to Pepper because he knew no amount of apologizing would remedy the situation. Bruce just gave a nod and didn't say anything.

"Who was he anyways? How does he have the arc reactor" Tony murmured.

"He is Ivan Vanke, son of Anton Vanke. Anton was a colleague of your father Howard. That's how he knows the arc reactor. Anton wanted to make money out of the arc reactor so Howard deported him to Soviet Union. Ivan inherited all the knowledge from his father. So that led to this situation. Your previous generation's of hatred continued till now." John said in one breath.

"What? You know him? Son of father's colleague. That's a first. He has been arrested already so it doesn't matter. But now the senate will come after my posterior soon. What a headache!" Tony said. he didn't ask the validity of John's claim. Being able to dream of various universes came with a perk of a peek in the future. At least, that's what Tony believed.

Everybody returned to USA after this event as this destroyed the mood of everybody. The birthday of Tony was approaching fast and Tony was thinking of enjoying it to his fullest. As it might be his last birthday, although he might get help from the Naruto world but he didn't have enough confidence if they will listen to him.

John could always help Tony with his poisoning but he wanted Tony to go through this cycle. It was important to build his character. And this would also catapult his company to a much higher level in the energy sector after he invents the new element. That's why he told Natasha to inform Fury. It was useless to play long mind games. Though he wasn't sure if Fury would listen to him.

After they returned the story of Tony followed exactly as the same as Iron Man 2. Tony did more outrageous things and on his birthday he used his suit to entertain the guests. Bruce didn't stop him as he knew Tony's situation. He even asked John for his help. John just told him not to worry, so Bruce left Tony to his instruments.

As the birthday celebration continued Rhodes came and saw the mess Tony had created. He was angry because he had been working hard to defend Tony. The US military wanted to tear down his house and take away his suit. The senate also suspected that Tony had new knowledge which was called Alchemy.

They did research on it and found out the powers of it through the series that John created. They immediately approached John to give them the information of it. John just said it was the property of Tony and he was the owner of the knowledge. John didn't even hesitate to pit Tony. Tony had SHIELD behind his back so he was sure that it would only a slight inconvenience to Tony with the knowledge of Alchemy.

Actually even if John said he had the knowledge of alchemy the senate couldn't force him to reveal this. As it fell under the jurisdiction of SHIELD and John being a consultant of SHIELD was already safe from the hounds of senate. It's just that John always subconsciously forgets that he was the consultant of SHIELD, because of the presence of Hydra.

Rhodes went to the laboratory to wear a suit and came back to the upper level where the celebration was going on. "Shut it down!" Rhodes shouted with anger.

All, except Bruce, immediately left. Tony who heard this didn't pay attention and asked the DJ to continue playing the song. Then the fight ensued. And the fight followed like it was supposed to be, with a huge blast at the end caused by their both hand thrusters. Tony was thrown away by the blast and felt unconscious.

After Rhodes came out of the mess he saw Bruce standing a little far looking at him.

"I thought you are here to make him better, you disappointed me." Rhodes said to Bruce. Rhodes being a great friend of Tony, knew the identity of Bruce.

"Do you really think you can just walk away with Tony's suit without him allowing it? If you think so then it means you don't really know Tony." Bruce replied.

Rhodes was stunned when he heard that. But when he thought about it he couldn't understand why Tony was behaving so weirdly. He looked at Tony with a complicated expression and then flew away to the US Air Force base.