Story {Marvel Universe}- The Iron Cure - Iron Man, Hulk, Wolverine - Post 4 Jan 23rd

1

-New York City, New York-
March 1, 2013

“Let’s go out to Linda Saunders who is in the conference room at Stark Tower!” The 40-something male anchor said.

“Thanks George, as you said I am here in the main conference room of Stark Tower which takes up the entire fifteenth floor of the building.”

The camera leaves Linda and pans around to show the vast room to show just how big it truly is. There are reporters jam packed in the room, giving no one much room to move.

“As you can see and hear there is certainly a buzz in the air. Billionaire, Tony Stark called this press conference three days ago and people from all around the world have filed into New York to hear what he has to say.” Linda announced as the camera focused back on her.

“Linda, is there any new information to what this press conference is actually about?” George asked.

Linda shakes her head, “No, George. Of course rumors are out there, we haven’t been able to get any concrete answers. But Tony Stark is due on the stage here in a matter of moments so we won’t have to wait much longer.”

The noisy room became louder as Tony Stark entered the room accompanied by an entourage of men in suits. Tony himself wore an expensive black suit with blue tie.

“There will be plenty of time for questions after the announcement.” A middle aged man announced standing at the podium. “Here he is, the man you’ve been waiting for, Mr. Tony Stark.”

The room quieted down in sheer anticipation of what Tony had to say.

“Thank you all for coming,” Tony started off, mildly clearing his throat and adjusting his tie, yet to make eye contact with anyone. “The reason I’ve called this press conference is because Stark Industries has made a major breakthrough.”

A new energy source for the world amongst other things escaped the mouths of several media members.

“Although this isn’t just a discovery from Stark Industries. We’ve had help from two other people, without them none of this would be possible. So I’d like to call them into the room. Some of the residents of New York might have gotten a little closer to this man than feels comfortable last year… You know him as The Hulk… I know him as a friend and esteemed colleague, Dr. Bruce Banner!” Tony announced.

The tension in the room was palpable as Bruce Banner walked into the room. He gave a shy nod to the audience as he stumbled on stage. He approached Tony and they shook hands and Bruce stood by his side as Tony continued.

“I was introduced to this next individual just a few months ago. Logan, come on up!” Tony led the applause.

The man known as Wolverine to many mutants appeared and walked up onto the stage. The look on his face was surly and he did not seem to enjoy the attention. He wore a white t-shirt with a black leather jacket and dirty blue jeans.

“Glad to see you dressed for the occasion,” Tony joked.

Logan shook Tony’s hand a little too hard.

“Guess I should have worn the suit,” Tony remarked, shaking the pain out of his hand.

The audience laughed at the joke and Tony took a sip of water and cleared his throat.

“So um, where was I?” Tony looked around at the other people on stage. “You think I should just come out with it? Yeah? I don’t know, I’m sort of enjoying the anticipation. Can you all feel it?”

There was a large murmur in the crowd, agreeing they were ready.


“Thanks to this collaborative effort…” Tony paused, soaking up the moment. “We’ve cured cancer!”

There was a low rumble in the crowd that then turned into a furious race to see who could raise their hand first and get the first question.

“How!”

“Our friend Logan here is what we affectionately refer to as a mutant.” Tony said. “By the way, do you find that term offensive, I never asked.”

Wolverine glared at Tony.

Tony’s eyes widened in discomfort as he turned back to the media. “I guess he doesn’t care for it. Regardless, his mutation is a very rare one. He has the amazing ability to heal at such a rapid pace that he can’t die. Wait… can you die?”

Again, Wolverine glared.

“Well, he isn’t dead yet so I guess he wouldn’t know.” Tony joked. “Studying his cells combined with Dr. Banner’s extensive knowledge of gamma radiation and using electric currents from my arc reactor technology, we have discovered not just a treatment for cancer but a way to eventually obliterate it from the face of the Earth.”

More hands flew to the air.

“I’m going to let our team of scientists here at Stark Industries answer your questions.”

Tony waved to the crowd and Banner and Logan followed him out of the room as reporters yelled for him to come back.


**

“You know we still have final testing to do.” Bruce mentioned as they approached the elevator.

“We’ve been over it a thousand times, don’t worry.” Tony said.

“You don’t say much, do you?” Bruce said, looking at Wolverine. “I thought I was always angry.”

Wolverine scoffed, folding his arms as the elevator made its way to the penthouse of Stark Tower.

“That wasn’t really my type of scene. I’d have rather stayed a silent contributor.”

Tony led the way to the bar and grabbed a bottle of scotch.

“Well, it’s too late now big man. Scotch?”

“How about a beer?” Wolverine huffed.

Tony grimaced looking around the bar. “Yeah, I’ll get right on that. Jarvis, how long would it take you to brew some beer.”

“I’m afraid, Sir that even with the vast technology in Stark Tower that we do not have the wares to perform such an action.”

Wolverine walked up to the bar and snatch the bottle of scotch out of Tony’s hand and took a long drink.

“You know that’s not really good hygiene to drink from an open bottle, no telling where it has been. You could catch something.” Tony pointed out sarcastically.

“I’ll take my chances.” Wolverine said, wiping his mouth.

2

10:00 P.M. later that night.

Tony was on his eleventh celebratory drink, his tie loosened to the point that is was almost falling off. He could no longer stand on his feet and had resided to watching CNN on the couch.

“You know Jarvis, I never get tired of hearing people talk about me.”

“Actually, Sir I have come to realize that about you over the years, believe it or not.” The A.I. voice said. “A call from Ms. Potts is coming through.”

“Give me a second.” Tony said, trying to wipe the drunken state off of his face.

The flat screen television flipped from CNN to a picture of Pepper Potts on a luxurious jet.

“Hey…” Tony said, trying to hide his slur.

“Celebrating much?”

Tony shrugged.

“Well, I’m about an hour away from LaGuardia.”

“Great, we can celebrate together when you get here.”

Pepper smirked, “I doubt you’ll still be awake.”

“Aren’t you going to ask me how the press conference went?” Tony asked.

“I know how it went, I watched it, Tony. It was on every major network and news channel in the world.”

Tony stood up and walked over to the bar, trying his best not to trip over himself. He poured himself another glass of expensive scotch.

“What’s the word on the stock?”

“It should do very well in the morning. Of course a lot of other stocks look like they could plummet.” Pepper informed him.

“How does that concern us?” Tony asked.

“Pharmaceutical companies around the world are now probably the number one enemy of Stark Industries. As if you didn’t have enough people who wanted to kill you.” Pepper enlightened him.

Tony’s face was overcome with a cocky smile, “I’d like to see them try.”

Pepper shook her head. “And I don’t."

**

Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngster’s – The Next Day –

Ororo Munroe knocked on a wooden door. “Logan, are you awake?”

The door opened and Ororo walked in to see Wolverine putting on a white t-shirt.

“There is someone here to see you.” Ororo informed him.

“Who?”

“A friend,” she smiled.

Wolverine followed her down the corridor of the school, dodging young mutants who were scrambling around. They came to the office that used to belong to Professor Xavier and when they entered Wolverine saw the mutant known as Beast.

“Logan!” Beast said in a jovial voice, as he moved to shake Wolverine’s hand.

“Hank.” Logan greeted him and shook his hand.

“I just want to say I am thrilled you took my advice. On behalf of everyone in Washington, we could not be prouder.”

“Thanks.” Wolverine said nonchalantly.

“The President and his staff are making preparations to spearhead the outcry that is sure to come.”

“Outcry?” Ororo spoke up.

Hank grimaced, “As you can imagine there are some companies out there that make a lot of money because diseases are not cured.”

“The money is in the medicine, not the cure.” Wolverine said, a hint of anger in his voice.

“Precisely. I think for now it is best if you lay low until everything can be sorted out.” Hank explained.

“Laying low, I’ve done that before. What about Stark, he isn’t really the laying low type.”

Beast nodded, “Indeed. He will be a tougher animal to tame… No pun intended.”

“None taken.” Wolverine grunted.

“Fortunately for the three of you, including Dr. Banner, you can all handle yourselves if something ever does happen.”

**

--Undisclosed Location --

A large conference table was surrounded by well-dressed men and women in a poorly lit room overlooking the skyline of a major city.

“You said that they wouldn’t succeed in this venture.” The man at the head seat of the elongated table said.

A voice that was not in the room replied, “I had assurances that it would not.”

“Yet your sources were wrong,” another man in the room spoke up.

“We will lose billions overnight.” A middle aged woman yelled.

“The cure is still only in prototype stage.” The mysterious voice said.

“What are you suggesting? Stark Industries security is better than that of the White House!” A man with a foreign accent said.

“Our only solution is to destroy all of their information, that can be done from the outside. I have a team working on hacking into Stark’s interfaces as we speak.” The voice informed them.

“What about inside, they will still have everything they need inside of their laboratories!”

“Luckily for us, Dr. Bruce Banner is overseeing the project on a daily basis.” The voice said.

“What are you saying?!”

“I’m saying… We unleash The Hulk!”

I actually have some radical plans as the story progresses, just have to get to that point. I want it to be very comic book like but as I can't draw, this is the best I can do. Thanks for the reply

Thanks! I'm mulling over the next scene in the story. Don't know if I want a big blow out or just keep it civil for the time being. But I do know the scenario I want to put Tony in.

Part 3

-New York City, New York-

The rain hit the windshield of Tony Stark’s Ferrari. The wipers on full blast he could barely see but that hardly slowed him down. Recently Tony had transferred some of the Iron Man technology into his personal vehicles, including computer mapping of his surroundings. It seemed more like a virtual reality video game than driving.

“Alright there?” Tony asked, glancing over at the man in the passenger seat.

It was his lawyer, or what schmuck they sent over from the firm that represents Stark Industries. His eyes were widened and he seemed very alarmed at the high rate of speed they were driving.

“Mr. Stark, please… I have asthma.”

“Just uh… close your eyes.” Tony shrugged and sped on towards their destination.

That destination was the Fugger-Morgan-Ford building. Fugger-Morgan-Ford, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. They had invited Tony Stark personally to come speak with them, almost overly politely if Pepper had any say.

As they pulled up a valet ran out to greet Tony.

“Yeah…” Tony said looking at the valet and then the car, then back at the valet. “I’m pretty sure you don’t have the class of license to park this kind of vehicle.”

The valet looked dumbly at Tony, “Dude, I do too have a license.”

Tony scratched his nose, trying not to make eye contact with him.

“Luckily…” Tony said, pulling out a small remote from his jacket pocket. “It parks itself.”

He pushed a small button simultaneously and the car sped off. Tony and his lawyer representative walked inside the building and to the nearest elevator while they waited for it to arrive. The lawyer straightened his tie and messed with his thinning hair, trying to check his appearance in the brass door of the elevator.

“Look fine, you do all the talking.” Tony mumbled.

“Oh… Thanks. No problem on that Mr. Stark that’s what I’m here for.”

Tony’s head jerked to look at the lawyer.

“What?” He asked, an odd squinty look coming over his face.

“You told me I looked fine and to do all the talking…?”

Tony shook his head, “You heard that?”

The elevator doors opened and Tony stepped on. The lawyer lingered for a second, trying to figure out what page Tony was on.

“Well yes, you said it.”

Tony shook his head and began to admire the elevator, “I didn’t say anything.”

The lawyer shook his head but didn’t say anymore.

“Mr. Stark!” A voice came over the speaker in the elevator.

“I was actually enjoying that elevator music, if you’d turn it back please.” Tony said.

“Yes, well there has been a change of plans we will be meeting on the penthouse. Let me just override that elevator for you and send you both up to the top floor.” The voice offered.

Nothing more was said as they came to the top floor and stepped off the elevator directly into a room waiting with 30 people around a very large conference table.

Tony loosened his tie very nonchalantly as he stepped up to the table.

“So Fuggar, I thought this was just going to be us and your son’s.” Tony said, accusatory. “What kind of an ambush is this?”

Fuggar was a very old man, sitting at the head of the table, several yards away from where Tony was standing. Fuggar’s body looked frail and his face so wrinkled, you wondered if he was still in his right mind just by looking at him. But his voice was boisterous and firm.

“And since when does Tony Stark travel in toe with a lawyer in his hip pocket.”

Tony laughed it off with a suggestive shrug to the rest of the people watching this exchance. “I admit, it’s not the usual kind of backup I carry. But trust me Fuggar, I always come with backup.”

“Gentlemen, can we keep this professional?” A man near Fuggar pointed out.

“I can if he can!” Tony mocked, as if he were a little child trying to one up a rival.

The man near Fuggar stood up and reached for something on the floor. He threw it on the table, it was a binder of papers.

“What’s this…”

“It is a contract, Mr. Stark.” The man said.

“That is Larry Kingstein,” Tony’s lawyer whispered to him.

“Uh huh, I see.” Tony said to Kingstein in response to the contract being tossed on the table.

“Take a look.” Fuggar said.

“Thanks but no thanks, the cure isn’t for sale. Gentlemen, have a nice day.” Tony said, turning to leave.

“We want to buy Stark Industries!” Kingstein called out.

Tony stopped in his tracks. This was now worse than just wasting his time. Now they were insulting him by thinking for one moment he would ever hand over Stark Industries for any amount of money. He spun back around and walked towards the table.

“Listen and listen good folks. The only way you are getting that cure is over my dead body. Do you think I trust you? What would you have me believe, that you are going to hand out the cure, you have the resources already to accomplish that?”

“Well, yes exactly if you would give us a chance to talk.” Kingstein said.

“You had your chance to talk and you throw a contract on the table. I don’t know what kind of game is being played here but I have a cure to find.”

“To find?” Fuggar asked.

“Mr. Stark’s cure isn’t ready yet.” Kingstein informed his colleagues. “Tony, listen to reason. We do have the infrastructure to facilitate this. Your company has no experience in something like this. It would take years after you have finish with your cure to actually get it to people as you build factories.”

Tony scanned the room, looking everyone in the eye.

"480 Billion Dollars, Mr. Stark. That’s what we are offering to Stark Industries.”

“Basically you are offering me enough money that I would be the wealthiest person alive. Even with the rise in the stock, Stark Industries isn’t worth 100 billion. Seems odd.” Tony thought outloud.

Fuggar stood up and walked towards Tony, all eyes were on the two of them.

“I didn’t want to have to do this Tony.” Fuggar started. “But we have men surrounding your main facility right now and we have a man on the inside that has the ability to destroy every physical piece of evidence that your cure was ever even viable.”

“First of all, while that would piss me off, it wouldn’t matter. Everything is backed up on multiple hard drives on servers in different physical locations. You basically just broke my stuff is all that would really happen… Then I would have to break, your stuff.” Tony’s finger pointed tauntingly at Fuggar.

“Best hackers in the world, from all over the world have been tearing down your network’s infrastructure for two days now and you didn’t even notice them. All you have left is that physical information.” Kingstein explained.

“Last chance, Tony. Sign the contract and at least walk away a richer man. We will even let you keep all technology and information about the Iron Man technology.”

“Banner is there,” Tony shook his head. “Even if you try to do something, you’ll have to deal with him.”

“Didn’t, I tell you Stark?” Fuggar said menacingly. “The Hulk is our man on the inside.”

A light bulb went off for Tony and he saw how simple their plan was but how effective it had been. Luring him here without his Iron Man suit, far away from the laboratory that Banner was currently working in with other scientists.

Tony pulled out the little remote that had parked his car and pushed another button.

“Jarvis, run every scan known to man looking for intrusions on the YELT server bases.” Tony said, still standing in front of everyone.

“It will take a couple of hours, Sir.” Jarvis informed him.

“Hey, get on the elevator and grab a cab.” Tony said to his lawyer. “Like… now.”

“You understand, Mr. Stark… we cannot allow you to leave. Not just yet, anyway.” Fuggar said.

Five large security guards came from the shadows of the room and surrounded Tony.

“Mind if I call Pepper and let her known I’m going to be late for dinner?”

Tony pushed another button on the remote and a loud engine roar could be heard from outside. Everyone turned and looked out the window and into the overcast afternoon. Tony’s Ferrari was now flying in the air up to the height of the penthouse. As the car rose, pieces of metal came off as if the car were shedding a winter coat. It then began to morph into an Iron Man suit.

“Hard way?” Tony looked at each of the security guards. “Yeah… Hard way.”

The Iron Man suit crashed through the window tackled two of the guards. Everyone was running around frantically as Tony was held captive by the other three. The suit walked over to them and punched each of the guards unconscious.

The suit then cracked up down the middle allowing Tony to step inside. Everyone watched as the suit tightened around his body and the eyes on the mask once again lit up.

“Sir, there is a disturbance being reported at the laboratory. It seems Dr. Banner has been taken captive.” Jarvis said.

“What do you say we have, a minute?” Tony asked, joking.

“Having researched Dr. Banner with you for many hours, I’d have to say it is a matter of seconds, Sir.” Jarvis said, matter-of-factly.

“Right…”

Iron Man took off, flying through another window. He got up higher than any of the buildings and sent himself supersonic.

“Plug me in over the intercom system of the entire facility, Jarivs. I need Banner to hear me.” Tony instructed.

“Initiating, Sir. Although I do have to ask, weren’t you the one who told Dr. Banner he should strut?”

I'm really trying to keep close to Tony's movie character. I don't think he's quite the same way in the comics. I think that's my strength for this story, I think I really can picture Tony Stark/Robert Downey saying it. I'm trying to stay away from it if I think it would sound weird coming out of RDJ's mouth. So hopefully that is coming through, I really am trying to focus on his little mannerisms before he says something, because I think what he does physically is just as good if not better than the words he speaks sometimes.

Obviously Iron Man is going to be the main character, hopefully I'll be able to write some Bruce Banner stuff, but the excellent job that Mark Ruffalo did in the movie, that kind of neurotic behavior is going to be tough to translate to words, I have a feeling.

Oh well, enough ranting. Hopefully I can keep this story interesting long enough to get where I really want to take it. Trust me, it is a very comic book type of idea but that's how I want the storyline to be so hopefully when I get there people will like it.

Bah, noticed quite a few errors in the 3rd post. Sorry for not proof reading better. Should be mostly fixed now. If someone wants to beta this story as I write it, feel free to shoot me a PM.

Post 4

Tony flew past the speed of sound towards what was once a secret laboratory where now, apparently Bruce Banner had been taken hostage in an attempt to destroy the medicine technology they had been working on.

“Sir, you can now be heard throughout the entire laboratory.” J.A.R.V.I.S informed.

“Banner! I know you can’t respond but they want to bring out the green guy. I’m on my way, you have to stay calm.”

“What’s going on,” a husky voice said.

“Who is this? Logan?” Tony asked.

“This place is crawling with S.W.A.T.” Logan said. “I’ve got Banner here, we are hulled up in your office.”

“S.W.A.T? How is that possible? Nevermind, I’ll be there in ten.”

The laboratory was in upstate New York, far away from the city so that the grounds could be completely enclosed from public eyes.

“Ten minutes is too long.” Logan shouted through the intercom in Tony’s office.

Suddenly the roof caved in over their heads and Iron Man landed in front of them, debris flying everywhere.

“I meant ten seconds.” Tony said.

“What is going on?” Bruce asked.

“I’ll explain later, but right now I need to remove you from this situation. They mean to unleash the Hulk and destroy all of our research.” Tony explained.

“We have everything constantly being backed up, destroying anything physical would be a useless gesture.” Banner argued.

“My servers have been compromised; everything we have is now in this facility.”

Wolverine growled, “They are taking the liberty of destroying everything themselves, we have to fight!”

Tony turned and looked at Logan, the machinery of his suit making noise as he did.

“Banner, I’ll take you outside to the front… Logan you lead them outside, get them to chase you or you chase them, I don’t care. But if they want the Hulk, they can have him.” Tony instructed.

Wolverine whipped his hands out and his claws sprung to life and with a scowl on his face he ripped the door off its hinges and began to take the fight to the intruders.

Meanwhile Tony grabbed Banner and flew him through the new sunroof in his office to the outside of the facility and set him down.

“You know what to do,” Tony said, as he took off into the air to reenter the facility.

Tony could hear Logan taking care of business a few rooms away and he had to dispatch a few intruders himself. He refrained from using the full capabilities of the Iron Man suit and instead just used its ultra-strong gold-titanium alloy to punch and kick his adversaries.

“J.A.R.V.I.S we need to take back control of our servers from this room.”

“There might be a larger problem, Sir.”

“Yeah… what’s that?” Tony said as he looked over several computer monitors.

“We have a small projectile missile thirty seconds out.” J.A.R.V.I.S informed him.

“Son of a…” Tony barked. “Keep on the servers.”

Tony took off once more, flying through the halls of the facility as an alarming rate. He caught up to Logan who was chasing tens of intruders out of the building into the waiting arms of the Hulk. He narrowly passed Logan by hugging the wall, never slowing down. He hit a few of the intruders in the back, knocking them out as he turned ninety degrees and shot straight up into the air. He looked around for a moment, hovering a few hundred feet in the air until he spotted the small missile. He stuck his right arm out and shot a bolt of energy.

“Bullseye…” Tony said, a smirk coming over his face.

After the initial explosion, Tony saw something odd. The missile was still headed straight for the facility.

“It appears to have some sort of force field protecting it.” J.A.R.V.I.S announced.

“Yeah… I see that… Um… HELP!”

The missile flew by Tony and in a split second he grabbed onto the back of it, dragging him along for the short ride. He began to redirect it and eventually tossed it some several hundred feet away. The missile floundered in the air like a tipped football as it headed towards a small, unoccupied field.

Just before hitting the ground, the missile changed directions and came faster and harder towards the facility. Tony shot everything he could, with both his arms and the uni-beam in his chest. The missile just smiled and kept coming.

“Perhaps you could pick up the facility and move it, Sir.” J.A.R.V.I.S remarked.

“Mmhmm.”

Suddenly a green flash flew in front of the missile and devoured it. The Hulk landed on the ground and Wolverine ran over to him while Tony flew to see if he was okay.

“Did you really just eat that?” Logan asked.

Hulk burped and a flash of fire came from his mouth as if he were a dragon.

“Well that wasn’t so hard.” Tony sighed.

“Now, does someone what to tell me what in the hell that was all about?” Logan asked.

“Long story, I think I need a drink.” Tony replied.

They hadn’t noticed but The Hulk had turned back into his normal, neurotic self.

“I don’t really need to see that.” Tony said, referring to the naked Banner. “Honestly, I’d let you borrow my suit but I’m actually going commando myself.”

Wolverine rolled his eyes and shook his head as he punched one of the intruders again for good measure and stalked back to the facility.

“Ahhh!” Bruce said, holding his chest. “Heart burn.”