Figure Out Something, Genius

February 15, 2018:

Iron Man's raid in Genosha didn't go as well as expected. So one of his fans goes to talk with Tony about it.

Stark Tower

It is a neat building, nevermind the holes

Characters

NPCs: SIRIN

Mentions: Magneto, Polaris, Xavier

Mood Music: None.


Fade In…

Stark Tower is looking better nowdays. The building itself is slowly recovering from the scars inflicted on it and the surrounding streets. STARK brand work crews have been a common sight in this area of the city for weeks and Tony Stark and Pepper Potts work to repair the damage.

…and of course cause new damage…

The latest is of course an international incident, at least he warned some people about it. That's something right? Right. Tony Stark is never one to sit still for long though, especially when there are plans to be wrecked and things to do. Which is why now? Now he's making new plans. New bad decisiions, though how much of those deal with X-men and mutants is hard to say.

His attention span isn't the best.

Right now though he's not in his tower. He's in the lobby with a box of parts and tools next to him. A /larger/ box of parts near him, and one of the Iron Legion there fitted out as a loader bot to carry them.

People are giving him a fair distance, just in case anything explodes.


Weirdly enough more news come from Genosha nowadays than they did for ten years. Magneto is not trying to keep people in the dark and keeping the journalists from reporting, probably because he wants to draw in as many mutants as possible to the island.

This does not mean all the news are fair, or true. The northern area of the island is still under control of the old regimen and reporters are not welcomed. So what got out of Iron Man visit was some rumors and of course Magneto's statements. Also, who cares what happens to a bunch of muties in Africa?

Nate knows better than trust those sources. But he is also a hothead. Still, he gave it time. He is not a teenager anymore.

He waited to cool down some before well… some alarms are firing at the tower. A man flying at near supersonic speed approaching. Not too unusual for the Stark Tower. But the power signature is somewhat alarming, somewhat off charts. And probably unknown.

But at least he is using the landing pad. So probably not here to kill Tony.


"Sir!" SIRIN's voice is chipper as ever inn his com system as the AI registers the approach of an angry X-Man. "Someone is incoming. Fast. Unknown energy signature. But! He hasn't started shooting at the tower!" The glitch that signals the AI's tonal change to something more sarcastic screaches for a split second. "Good. Since it doesn't need any /more/ holes."

Tony just smirks and pats his bot on the shoulder. "Up to the new lab would you. I got a guest to meet."

The bot says nothing, just sets to its task.

And Stark himself heads to his own personal elevator. The one that can get him to the top of the tower /before/ whoever it is blows though a window in a fit of pique. This happens a lot really. The door is open to the veranda and balcony of the penthouse level as Stark himself stands in the living room. No Iron Man suit. Just a normal suit standing in the middle of his expansive apartment near the door. Waiting for his new visitor to arrive.

Either he's amazingly overconfident or—-no lets face it its Tony he's amazingly overconfident.


There is a tall young man there, with some kind of dark blue and grey outfit (armored, if scanners are running) and some X symbols here and there. Not a famous mutant, but Nate is somewhat known. Stark probably recognizes him from the drone he sent to Genosha.

Nate has never seen Iron Man out of his armor in person, though. He doesn't think he is amazingly overconfident either… because Nate does not really know Tony. If he did, he would think he is okay confident. Because his own standards for overconfidence are a little off.

He does a few seconds stare from the landing pad. Maybe a bit of a glare, but hardly the most fearsome glare Tony has received this week. Then he gives the older man a lopsided grin. "Got a few minutes? I need to talk to you about Genosha and this crap I heard in the news reports."

Not waiting for an answer, he walks into the penthouse.


"Come in," Tony's dry invitation comes after of course Nate walks in. The smirk on his face as he strolls into the penthouse. "Make yourself at home." He waves to the sofas and the chairs laid out in nice order. It really is a beautiful room, with a glorious view, though Nate might not be in the right mindset to enjoy it.

The glare? He accepts it and lets it roll right on by, its usually how he rolls when something like that happenens. Mostly because if he stopped to feel bad about every person that hated him in the world he might just never get started again.

"I was wondering just who would be the one coming by, you, Laser Eyes, Baldy, I was hoping for Storm but…" He shrugs slightly as he starts to stroll towards the bar. "I'm going to assume this is all about how Magneto is trying to claim the high ground here? I figured /someone/ would be coming by though. I'm glad its one of you X-people and not one of the religious ones. I swear one news story and the number of death threats I get a day triple."


"Uh, no. 'Baldy' is off country," and Storm? Oh yeah. Tony never had Storm angry at him. She is so much worse than Xavier! Not the point, though. "And I am not here to talk for the X-Men. Look. I have been in and out of Genosha for the last three months. And before… I was during the coup last summer."

He looks around the apartment, not taking the offered seat. But he is not admiring the furniture or the view. Just doing a cursory inspection for ways out, ways in, and possible trouble. Nothing personal, he was taught to do this when he was a kid. Age of Apocalypse survival habits that help explain why he is still alive doing what he does.

"Magneto is not going to be a good ruler for Genosha. Or stop there. He will murder a huge number of people, and eventually he will use the entire population as a weapon against the rest of the world." He looks back at Tony. "This is gonna be far more important that a few weapons you designed years ago. You are Iron Man. What you do, what you say, has an enormous weight. A lot of people all over the world admire you. And you went and made the magnetic asshole look like he has your approval."


Stark just walks over to his bar there as he talks. Taking a bottle of something and pouring himself a glass. Its to early in the day for something like this. Nevermind its well after noon. Its always too early for something like this.

So he takes a drink as Nate rounds on him, waiting for him to pause. "Right. You done?" He asks with a quirked eyebrow.

"So, if you think that I actually /do/ think he'll be a good ruler you're kinda crazy or you don't know me at all. Pretty sure Steve made his and my positions clear on supporting him, which Magneto of course completely ignored in his little propaganda campaign…"

He flings a hands out and a computer screen seemingly appears out of thin air. Playing Captain America's little speech about supporting Genosha quietly for Nate. "Thats on youtube, give it a few weeks it should be worth the hits." He takes another sip. "And more people all over the world are jealous, and or hate me. So my approval is kinda a double edged sword."

The inventor looks towards Nate for a moment before he sighs. "I went in, got my tech, and found out plenty of stuff that people were hiding from me. Hell from the world. Thanks for not sharing that anyway." A beatpause again. "Wasn't it the X-Men's little coup that started all this?"

A shake of his head. "Not pointing fingers, just sayin there. Nate." A pause as he looks towards the mutant. "There was no way in hell I was going to let them keep those weapons. Not after I found out what they were doing with them. Which again, people were /hiding/ from me and have been for years appearently. Its a personal thing. Yeah is King Magnet going to use it? Of course he is, he's an asshole. That's what they do."


"Genosha had a massive number of super-tech weapons," explains Nate. Not looking particularly angry. "Trask was there. You know, of Trask Industries. The guys that make Sentinels. They were not just enslaving the native mutant population; they were raiding other countries for slaves. And they were preparing for an expansionist war."

Nate leans against the bar, folding his arms. "There was a coup. We… not alone, mind you, brought the fascist regimen down in four days. Magneto? He was a prisoner we freed almost by accident. So… we should have stayed, yes. I should have…. but I got killed protecting Hammer Bay. Those idiots were doing experiments that would have destroyed the entire city. I… pulled myself back together. But I was in no condition to do shit for weeks."

Now he is tense. It a fresh wound and still hurts. Pacing again. "Super-weapons. They had the damn island blanketed with them. Firepower to bring down the whole SHIELD carrier fleet. Dozens of Sentinels. Power armor. Energy weapons. Flying motorcycles. I had not seen anything like that on Earth. Well, they blew most of it up during the civil war. But your weapons? I doubt they made much a difference. You looking like you were helping Magneto is going to make a big impact, particularly among mutants. Because there are a lot of mutants think you are a great hero." Like, well, Nate does!

"You know there are millions of mutants living in oppression all over the world that will want to go to Genosha?" He asks. "Not because Magneto in particularly. It is just it is a place they don't have to hide and won't be attacked for how they look. That alone is great even for the people that live in Mutant Town. Which is ghetto, and still much better than in most other places. Magneto can't be allowed to rule them."


"You look pretty good for someone that died," Is Tony's takeaway from most of that. "I mean not saying you didn't, because I've seen some things. But…" He shakes his head as he watches the mutant pace before he nods. "Trask, lovely. I knew I should have kept a closer eye on him. Well now I will."

He pauses a moment before he sighs and shakes his head.

"Kid." A pause. "Nate. Those /were/ my weapons." He says, trying to make the other understand. "Look." He gestures again and a schematic of the Genoshan power armor pops onto the screen. "Not just mine mind you, but…" He flicks his hand again, and the outer skin disappears to reveal the components beneath. Several of the systems highlight themselves in bright blue light. "I pioneered these circuit patters, the basic blocks of this internal weapon system? Mine. I can tell the patterns and the systems anywhere. They redesigned, upgraded, modified, did things to it that I don't yet understand."

Yet he said.

"Used technnomancers and mutants with that kind of ability to expand and leap head years. But if they didn't have access in the first place it would have taken them longer. That's why I needed to get my stuff out of their hands. And find out just what they had done with it."

A smirk again.

"I'm no hero, I'm just a mechanic with good intentions and bad decisions. Pepper is trying to get ahead of the political fallout of this, which isn't easy. Trying to arrange relief supplies to refugees, maybe set up some kind of funding to improve Mutant Town. But let me get one thing straight. I don't support that madman in control of Genosha."

A pause again as he nurses his drink and looks towards Nate. "So what are you going to do about it? About him? Another coup?"


Nate huffs at the schematics. "I am sure they are also using Tesla and Graham Bell ideas for their weapons. It is not your fault. Those bastards would use anything… and yes, they used mutants to create and design. Not their fault either, they were slaves. But if Magneto rules Genosha, those mutants will be designed weapons for him."

He glances at Tony again. "You are a hero because you go out there to fight for others because it is the right thing to do. You don't even have powers; you made a super-armor with your skills, with human 'gifts'" he quotes with his fingers. "And that makes you more a hero than if you were born with the ability to shot lasers with your eyes or lucked out and instead of dying in a nuclear explosion got super-strength."

And he has no idea who is Pepper, anyway. So. "Screw the political fallout. I just want Genosha free of racists. Humans or mutants. And Magneto is one of the worst. You knew he would spin your visit in his favor and still went, right?"


"Yeah first thing to learn about heroes, is that they still make bad decisions. I figured he would do something, not 'show up and murder everyone in front of me and then claim I helped him do it'. But something, and yeah. I went anyway. Like I said, its a personal thing, and I tend to loose my head over it. Its a thing." Stark smirks slightly. "Emma called me an idiot about it too, so please if you want to chime in there feel free."

Still he doesn't think he's a hero. It screams it in the way he turns away, partly embarrassed by the words the young mutant is saying. Words he can't bring himself to agree with. But then there is that smirk again as he glances back at him. "Wait, hold on. Did you just throw shade at Summers? I mean not that he doesn't deserve it…he's like super adept a wet blanket skills from what I heard. But…still…" A pause. "…and that wasn't a dig at Banner was it cause he's a good guy." A longer pause. "Donn't ever tell him I said that I have a reputation as a jackass to uphold."


"You know Emma Frost?" Nate eyes narrow at Stark. "Of course she called you an idiot, that is when you know she cares," he mentions with a smirk. Pretty much why he is here, see? Must be a telepathic thing.

Or maybe Tony IS an idiot.

"Yeah, Cyke and Hulk are good guys. Kinda. Not the point." He insists. "Want to keep doing the right thing? Help us figure out how to kick Magneto out of Genosha. Because the UN pretty much gave him the damn island. The morons. And don't tell Polaris. She is a good girl, but Magneto is her dad and he is trying to turn her, and she is falling for it. Daddy issues drive the best women nuts."


Stark shakes his head with a smirk. "No no, calling you an idiot is her way of showing you she's still breathing. Threatening your life is how she shows you she cares."

See. He really /does/ know Emma Frost.

"Grumpy Cat isn't bad either," Only one person would call Beast that, but yeah. That's why he's Stark.

"I told Shamrock that I'd be watching her now, pretty sure it made me sound responsible so I had to come home and drink a bottle of whisky to fix that." Shamrock being his name for Polaris. "What /is/ it with all these people and their 'battle names' or whatever. Anyway, that's a tangent. And the UN /are/ morons, but in this case they didn't have much of a choice. There was a power vaccum and he filled it, no one else stepped up with the Magistrates tried to get control back. So no wonder he's got a loyal following there now."

Totally not making any comment on daddy issues. He has a few.

"As for how to kick him out, you're guess is better than mine. Any Avenger or SHIELD intervention and he'll turn it into a rallying call for mutants to join him as he's being oppressed. You want to take away his power base? Build up somewhere else to be a better place for mutants than Genosha."


"Yeah, I am taking over a tropical paradise tomorrow," replies Nate sarcastically. "I am sure no one will miss Jamaica when I conquer it, or maybe Hawaii. No. There is no place to build a second, better mutant homeland, Stark. There is fighting for our rights here, but this is a fight we are not winning anytime soon, I doubt I will live to see it."

How to kick Magneto out? Nate knows what he has to do. But Cyclops and Xavier are not allowing him to attack Magneto directly. Perhaps because it would likely end with Nate dead. "You are a genius, aren't you? Figure out something." He concludes. "Because all the blood that is coming is going to be in your hands as much as mine. If don't stop Mags now, we will have a global race war in a few years," Nate heads out. But will let Tony have the last word.


"You think too small, kid." Stark murmurs half to himself as he glances out over a city that he knows so well. "Its not about conquering, its just about making things better somewhere else. And no, none of us might live to see it, but if no one starts anything cause of things like that then nothing gets done."

He pauses a moment before he shakes his head.

"And now you've made me sound respectable again. Go on then, get out of here! Go make someone else do that, I'm not built for it!"

A pause as Nate races off into the sky again before he frowns slightly. Thoughtfully.

How hard /would/ it be…

…Nate's right. They can't really just steal a new country…

…but building one…

How hard could that really be…

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