Chapter Text
“Are you excited Peter?”
May Parker asked her 10 year old nephew while they were waiting in line to be let into the stark expo.
”Excited? Are you for real? may I’ve never been more excited for anything in my life!”
He exclaimed with all the seriousness a boy his age could muster while wearing an oversized Ironman mask that only served to make the boy look cartoonish rather than serious.
“This is like the best thing that’s ever, ever happened to me. I’m going to get to see some of Iron-man’s past projects! In. Person. And I’ll get to hear about all of the cool new robots before Ned; he’s gonna be so jealous! And Iron-man might even show up like he did earlier in the week! That’d be so cool! And then we’re getting dinner after, and then-”
Peter cut himself off when his uncle could no longer hold in his laugh.
Benjamin, or as he prefers Ben, reached down to ruffle the hair of the kid he saw as his own son.
“May was just kidding Pete. She knows you’re excited. And look! They’re letting us inside now.”
Ben smiled down at his boy and they walked up the absurdly large staircase together as a family.
Once the Parker’s were all settled in their fairly average middle of the group seats they passed the time though meaningless banter fueled by thinly veiled fondness before all the audience lights dimmed to a soft blue and moving stage lit up a figure on stage as he danced his way to the center backed up by an upbeat instrumental track.
-*-*-*-*-*-*-
“That's what I’m talking about, thanks for coming. ladies and gentlemen for far too long this country has had to place many brave men and women in harm's way. And then the iron man arrived and we thought the days of losing lives were behind us. Sadly that technology was kept out of our reach.”
Justin Hammer was using a sympathetic voice as if he was providing solace to the scared American people. It was a bit over the top, sure, but so was the whole exposition.
“That’s not fair. That’s not right. And it’s just too bad. Regardless it was an impressive innovation, one that grabbed headlines around the world. Well today my friends the press is faced with a different problem. They are about to run out of ink.”
The front of the audience breaks into a scattered and hesitant applause before two of the stage crew scramble over to take away the podium.
“get that outta here.”
Hammer grumbles rudely to the crewmembers, forgetting that he was in fact mic’d up and everyone could hear him. Back in the audience Ben and May shared a tense look neither liking the man's attitude or the words spoken.
“Ladies and gentlemen tonight I present to you, the new face of the United States military! Hammer drones!”
A montage starts up showing dodgers doing various activités and drills played on the big screen behind the stage.
“Army!” The man shouts as animatronic drones rose from one sector beneath the stage to a jaunty and patrioting marching band instrumental.
“Navy!” The montage changed to reflect the new branch as differently themed bots rose in a different section of the stage.
“Air Force!”
“Marines!”
As more and more of the stage filled up with robots little Peter grew confused, thinking the robots were awesome but noticing his aunt and uncle getting more and more tense.
“Yeah! Yeah! Woo! That’s a hell of a lot better than some cheerleaders let me tell you. But as revolutionary as this technology is there will always be a need for man to be present in the theater of war.” The false somber tone made a reappearance and Ben very nearly rolled his eyes out of his head.
“Ladies and gentlemen today I am proud to present to you the very first prototype in the variable response battle shoot and its pilot lieutenant colonel James Rhodes”
all robots and Justin Hammer saluted in sync with the coronal who’d just risen from the ground.
“for America and its allies hammer industry is reporting for duty-”
The man cut himself off because everybody looked to the sky hearing a droning sound that was increasing in volume. Ironman lands in a crouch before standing next to War Machine with an arm around his shoulder waving to the crowd.
-*-*-*-*-*-*-
“I don't like this.” Ben muttered quietly to his family. May privately agreed with this though she just held their boy a little tighter. Justin Hammer took to the stage again this time with an air of awkwardness having been thrown off script.
“Huh, uh, yeah. Ironman everybody!?”
After that grand introduction Hammer turned towards the two men in suits to speak for a moment and that’s when things truly went to shit.
Ben and May were suddenly being pushed from all sides as the horde of people around them scrambled to get out, the hammer drones now pointing their guns towards the crowd.
May tried her best to cling onto her Nephew or husband but was eventually pulled away by the crowd. Ben was doing his best to cling to Peter, but it was difficult. The little boy was scared and disorientated by the mask he was wearing. Ben ended up losing hold of Peter’s hand when the boy tripped; he was also swept away by the crowd while the ten year old curled up trying to protect himself from panicked feet. The Ironman helmet was doing a good job of protecting the boy’s skull was the last thing Ben thought before losing sight of his boy.
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Tony was flying around having lost sight of Rhodey for a moment. He was shooting an airborne drone while scanning the evacuating crowd for any civilians falling behind and he spots a young boy slowly standing up mindful of the stampeding feet around him. The kid who was decked out in Ironman apparel began aiming a toy repulsor at the drone who was already aiming at the kid.
Tony’s heart leapt into his throat for a split second because all he could think about was that little kid all alone and bleeding out on the concrete wondering why he couldn’t save the day like his hero. The poor kid was too young to even recognise that his merchandise was just that and useless for any real defence. It was these thoughts that snapped the genius into action landing behind the kid and blasting the bot. The kid turned around surprised at the sound behind him Tony took one last look before letting out
“Nice job, kid!” And taking off to find his platypus.
-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Years later Tony Stark is being confronted by a grieving mother about her kid who died because of Ultron and the Avengers when his mind drifts back to that little boy. The one who almost died believing wholeheartedly in Ironman’s protection, the one who’s only alive today because of dumb luck and Tony’s quick thinking. He needed to take accountability, for all the kids who now believed in him and his teammates. He would sign these accords.