Iron and Blood

[Cazzik]

3 MONTHS AGO

As Alex looked on to the sea of reporters before him he shrugged to himself. It was now or never. Most of them were there because somewhere deep down they knew what was coming. They were about to get the story of a lifetime. It had only been days since Alex, as Iron Man, had taken down the mutant terrorist known as Titan. With help from Vanguard and the Thunderbolts he had managed to repel the other attacks from the terrorist organization known as the League of Mutants. He was still uncertain why they had targeted his company, Stark Industries. But they had done some serious damage to several of his plants before being stopped. The rest escaped but Titan was locked away in Blackwell Prison, the wold's premier holding facility for super villains. As he looked past the reporters he saw two of his employees and dear friends, Natalia and Sam. Their presence made him feel more comfortable. To his immediate right, standing at the podium with him was the director of Vanguard himself, Jackson Cole. To his left was Marvel Queen, current member of the Thunderbolts and former lover of Alex. They were present to show support for Burke by the U.S. government. He looked down at the podium for a split second before raising his eyes back to the crowd and speaking. "So......I'm Iron Man."

The crowd erupted and Sam Freeman looked to Natalia. "Well that was subtle."

********************

NOW

Alex was sitting in his office when Sam, his head of security, entered the room. The African-American former F.B.I. agent smiled slightly at his boss. "We got rid of the reporter. He was sure insistent though."

Alex just nodded and didn't look up from his newspaper. "Thy're all insistent. And obnoxious. And inconsiderate. And...."

Sam raised his eyebrows as he cut Alex off. "And you basically just don't like any of them."

Burke grinned. "Basically."

Alex stood up off the leather couch and walked over to his desk as his phone rang.

OOC: Good place for your phone call to Burke, Aleria.

[Aleria]

OOC: College got in the way and life, sorry Ive been out of the "office" lol.

She held the phone tight to her ear, her heart was pounding in her throat, a little bit unusual considering the friendship she had developed with Alex..and considering it was nothing more than that. Perhaps it was just the ordeal she had just gone through, the excess adrenaline burning off her system, had to be. She let off a deep sigh as she listened to the ringing on the other end, she knew he was a busy man but didn't he have a secretary..some woman, what was her name again? "Meh, she's probably fetching him coffee or something...." And with that she heard the phone pick up "Uhm..hello?"

[Cazzik]

OOC: I'm not really sure where you want the phone call to go so I'll just let you rp it, Aleria.

[Aleria]

OOC: LoL, You sir, suck I'll post later today by editing this thread.

[Mirrodin2nd]

"The problem is, you have an A, my friend, and I don't."

"You have a very good A and you know that. I wish I had your T."

"Well, we can't all be blessed with great Ts, now can we?"

"BItch."

Samantha Walker laughed at this remark. "Now you're sounding like your boss when talks to me."

"So what, you're going to wash my mouth out with 'soap' like you do his and bend me over for a spanking?" Natalia replied.

"I might if you keep it up." The blond haired woman said.

Natalia just smirked and turned to look at the mirror once more. "I needed this trip. I really did." She said.

"Well, there's nothing like going into Manhattan for a quick pick me up at Prada or Louis Vuitton, but why do that when you can just bat your eyes at Burkie and I can tell him that he doesn't love us and he'll fly us out to Lagerfield or Valentino?" Samantha asked. "I mean, I could have done it myself, but I do love the Stark logo and if I don't see it that often I get all pouty." She said as she turned so that Natalia could unzip the dress that Samantha was in. The silk creation fell to the floor and Samantha stepped out of it before reaching down to pick it up so she could set it back properly. "We are still on for a trip to that Turkish bath I was telling you about, right? It's not that far of a flight from here." She added.

"No, I have to get back. Feel free to take the jet and-"

"I can fly, doofus."

"Right, I forget that sometimes." Natalia said as she looked at the three dresses and four outfits that she was going to buy. She smiled, thinking on how Samantha had also pried Alex's Black American Express card from him. Though it wasn't needed. It wasn't like Natalia didn't have all of Burke's financial information memorized because of her job or anything and that she was on the accounts anyway in case anything happened. Still she liked seeing Samantha in action. "I need to get back though. I think there was a news conference that Alex was at, and if he was, then either there are dead reporters, or I need to get some female reporter out of the house. Regardless though, there's PR work to be done."

"DId he text you?"

"No." Natalia replied with a frown. She reached out and checked her phone, but there weren't any texts from Burke in her phone since yesterday, when he had asked her if he could borrow her as a "date" for a charity dinner in order to make some other woman feel jealous and whether or not she could go buy new underwear, since he had forgotten most of his at a vacation house in Aruba. She had said no to the first, and yes to the second. He had complained, she had threatened and then he had backed down.

"I'd go with the second one then. Definitely in bed with some reporter chick, promising her the inside scoop on how hot and sweaty the Iron Man suit gets." Samatha said.

"Oh great. I can't believe someone fell for that one in the first place. Damn thing has climate control." Natalia said, rolling her eyes. "You know, you never did tell me, those jokes you always make about him, are they true or not?" She asked.

"Would you look at the time? I think one of us needs to be going." Samantha said.

"Uh huh." Natalia replied, with a smirk.

Walker shrugged and pressed a small button on the wall by the door to the room. A female attendant came into the changing lounge that they had reserved and picked up what they had decided they would purchase and took it with her to ring it up.

"It was good to see you again, Natalia."

"Same with you Sam."

[Halcyon508]

Iron Lad! The mechanical teenager flew overhead as the crazed maniac in a mechanical Minotaur suit ran below with two stereotypical bags filled with money. Iron Lad didn’t know what insane plan the criminal had but he knew that him and his team would stop them. “Spider-Boy, webbing now!” He yelled.

As he did so the red clad figure shot a line of webbing tripping the mechanical man. A girl in a tight black suit followed up with a black webbing around his feet holding him to the ground. With a sinuous heave the man burst through the webbing. “I AM THE MIGHTY MAN-O-TAUR!” he yelled. “I shall not be defeated by a group of Mini heroes!” he spat out the word heroes.

Iron Lad landed adjacent to the manatour. “Oh really?” he said extending his hands and firing two repulsor beams. The two streams of energy hit the man knocking him backwards. “I AM MANATOUR!” he yelled recovering from the blow and charging the metallic teen. “I WILL NOT BE BEATEN BY CHILDREN!” As he ran forward Iron Lad struck up a pose and smirked in his mask. Suddenly he hit a large blob of webbing and tumbled over as Venom shot at his hands on the ground. His face slammed into pavement and Iron Lad jumped into the air sending a flying elbow into his back. The Manatour groaned as it hit the ground.

“Oh yeah,!” Spider-Boy said stepping over the defeated villain. “And your name sucks!”

“Dude... you really need to work on your quips.” Iron lad said. “I mean your dad is funnier.”

“Yeah yeah tin man!” Spider-Boy murmured. “I’m working on it.”

The group dispersed making their way towards their secret hide out. The black clad figure decided not to follow, Spider-Boys Spider-senses has managed to allow the group to elude her so far and she knew it was useless to follow them alone. “Cute kids.” She said with a smirk. “Little Spider-Man and Girl, and Little Iron Man.” Shaking her head she watched Manatour being pulled away by the police. “Run run little heroes, I’ll find you. The Black Widow is on the case.”

She walked accentuating her femininity and extended her hand.”Mr. Burke.” She said to her new ‘Boss’. She smiling a little she blinked both her eyes fluttering her lashes like butterflies.“My name is Kathrine Howard.” Katarina said smiling, “I’m your new Public Relations Secretary.”

[Cazzik]

OOC: I guess I should get to the posting.

IC:
The beautiful woman extended her long, slender arm and shook Alex's hand. Quite naturally a small grin appeared across his face which immediately made Sam think about how fast Natalia would have slapped it off. Burke had known the woman for a brief fifteen seconds and he was already trying to figure out the fastest way to bed her. Superman's Achilles heel had been kryptonite. It was very apparent to just about everyone that Alex Burke's was women. Alex motioned for Katherine to have seat on the couch in his spacious office. He took a seat at his desk and smiled slightly. "As you can guess by your presence here, Ms. Howard, my last Public Relations Officer really didn't do his job. I hope you are a bit more competent than he was."

Sam approached the woman and shook her hand as he introduced himself as Alex's Chief of Security. "Ever since he told the entire world about his extracurricular activities we've been having some serious PR issues. Not to mention the security issues with reporters. Unfortunately for you, you stepped into a PR nightmare. Other than Paul Matthews and the Fantastic Five I don't think there are any other high profile heroes that revealed their true identities. It turns out people are more interested in super heroes than they are actors and musicians these days."

Alex stood up and walked around to the front of his desk where he took a seat on the edge. "Sam here is such a pessimist. You have to look at all the perks that come with the job as well. Perks such as lunch. Tell me, Ms. Howard, have you ever had fresh baked pizza from Venice? My jet can have us there in no time."

********************

The cars outside rushed by, occasionally honking at each other. The noise used to bother him, but not anymore. He was used to it. In fact, sometimes he even enjoyed it. It helped to drown out the screams he could still hear in his head. The screams of his colleagues, his friends, and his family. He looked around the depressing warehouse he had been calling home for the past six months. It took him a moment but he spotted the last bit of metallic plating he was searching for. He walked over and picked it up and returned to the bulky set of armor he had been working on. As he welded the last piece in place a sense of excitement flooded through him. Just as Stark Tech had taken everything from him he would use it to take everything from the man responsible; Alex Burke. He, Julian Cross, would show the world that the Iron Man wasn't truly invincible after all.

[Halcyon508]

Katrina smiled at the comment. It was no secret that men desired her, it was part of why she was so good at what she did. "I've never been to Venice." she lied. "And as charming as you are and as much as I may want to take you up on your offer, I'm going to have to pass." She pursed her lips into a thin smile and wiped a bit of hair out of her face playing with a strand, her finger curling her red hair. "It's my job after all to help your public image, not ruin it." She ran a hand down her body smoothing invisible wrinkles in her clothing. "I'm more concerned about this little boy running around in a suit of armor just like yours. If people know you are Iron Man, and they thus associate you with the boy..." she paused as if waiting for him to interject and continued when he didn't, "if anything ever happened to this kid it will hurt you. So now I'm asking you to be honest with me. Do you know anything about this Iron Lad?"

[Cazzik]

Alex shook his head, "I know of him. Thats about it. I've never spoken to him nor do I know his true identity. I can tell you that his suit is definitely made up of Stark Tech components though. Not sure how he acquired them but I'm assuming my predecessor may have had a hand in it seeing as how I have no record of him ever pursuing the boy."

Burke gave a slight shrug and returned to his seat behind the desk, "Of course the part about my predecessor helping him is pure speculation. I have no proof. I do agree with you, however. Should something happen to this kid I'll more than likely be blamed for it. What are your plans for this Iron Lad?"

[Cazzik]

OOC: I'm moving this along for the sake of all involved, Hal. I don't want this thread to become stagnant.

IC:
It had been two days since Alex had really spoken to Katrina. They had had a rather in depth conversation about the boy calling himself Iron Lad and then she had somewhat disappeared from Burke's life. He figured she had been taking care of all of the PR crap that Alex didn't want to try and take care of himself. Actually, being realistic, he would do more damage then good if he attempted to fix it. The way he had admitted to being Iron Man was probably the worst possible way he could have done it. Well, not quite the worst, but it was close.

He continued to stare out of the window at the ocean. It was a beautiful, sunny day and the water looked very inviting. The crowd of reporters and other businessmen and women were clearly enjoying themselves. They had all gathered in Maui to help celebrate the opening of the new Stark Industries Naval Research Facility. It would not be producing ships themselves, but it would be building the most advanced armor and weapons that any Naval force in the world would have. He took a sip of his scotch and smiled slightly as he heard the voice of his personal assistant from behind him, "Isn't it a little early to be drinking?"

He shook his head, "I'm on vacation, Natalia. A drink is always in order when you're on vacation."

She simply frowned at him as she walked over and adjusted his tie, "You're not on vacation. You're here to give a speech and to represent your company." She took the glass from him and put it on the far counter. "Are you ready?"

Burke smiled again and Natalia recognized it immediately as his mischievous grin, "How about we let Sam give the speech and do the representing. He likes all that stuff anyway. You and I can go find some nice secluded little cove and have a romantic picnic with strawberries, champagne, and maybe a little whipped cream."

Natalia gave a flirty smirk and walked back over to Alex where she placed her hands on his shoulders and slowly smoothed out any wrinkles he had in his jacket. "Do you remember that wonderful time we had in Florence last year? We saw all the sights and then went to that adorable little cafe? And you tried a similar thing with me there as well. Recall?"

Burke pursed his lips and nodded grimly, "I remember. The bruise took almost a month to go away."

Her face became serious as she turned him around and shoved him out the door, "The bruise will be much worse this time. Now go do your job!"

[Cazzik]

The crowd applauded as Alex soared over head. The gold and red of the Iron Man suit gleamed in the sunlight. He had given the majority of the speech already. He had always been good with crowds anyway, but throwing the armor into the mix made his appearances even more enjoyable. As he landed on the second stage that was set up for the demonstration the crowd yet again went wild. He held up his arms like he was some sort of rock star. As everyone quieted down he began to speak again, "The hull plating that will be used is immune to many forms of weaponry that are far more advanced then typical projectile fire. This new ship armor is immune even to repulsor fire."

Alex whirled around into an attack position and let fly a barrage of repulsor fire at the hull plating that had been set up. When the sparks stopped flying the crowd was able to see a severely scorched outer layer, but Alex was quick to show that it had not pierced the armor, merely discoloring it. Again the crowd cheered and the military representatives seemed very pleased. It was at that moment that something odd took place. The communication equipment in his helmet shut down for a brief second. When it came back up only audio was working. A deep voice began speaking, "Alex Burke. You do not know my name. You do not know my face. But soon, you will know my wrath. You took everything from me. And now I will do the same to you. And when your life is in ruins, remember this. It was you that put us on the war path."

The transmission ended and regular functions were returned to the suit. Whoever has just spoken they were extremely intelligent. They had managed to bypass his entire security network and access the Iron Man armor. He needed to figure out who this person was immediately.

[Cazzik]

ONE DAY LATER; STARK TOWER

Katarina, who was going by the name of Kathrine Howard, paced a bit as she looked at the research in her hands. Several polls created by shell companies or by her contacts in the media showed that the supposed Young Avengers were popular, especially with teenagers and preteens. Adults even found the group inspiring or otherwise comforting. An odd thought, but Katarina still knew how the media would blow things up should anything ever happen to those kids. And Mr. Burke was the logical focus of that outrage being the most prominent hero who has come out of the proverbial closet.

"Miss Howard." The secretary said, "He'll be with with you in just a minute." Howard. Kathrine Howard was a queen of england. She was the same age as the Kings daughter and something of a flirt who later lost her head because of her flirtatious nature and affairs. Katrina smiled, she may be sharing a name with the former queen, but she was by no means the same as that foolish little girl.

She reviewed the Data again. They were very specific stats. Teenage girls liked Spider-Boy, teenage boys liked, well all the female members. No surprises there. Katarina always knew how the males of her species were driven by a certain lower body extremity, and so easy to control.

The secretary let her into Burkes office. She smiled sweetly as she placed the newest headline of the Young Avengers on the desk. "They are making a good name for themselves at least," he said smiling.

Katarina nodded, "I have a professional who is willing to ascertain the identities of these children. I just wanted to make sure I had your approval before doing anything. She is a private eye, comes highly recommended in the field of 'mask' protection and identification. She was the woman responsible for last years case against the Prowler in the court systems if you recall."

[Cazzik]

Alex continued to look over the paper as Katherine spoke. The picture itself was very impressive; a very nice close up of the team in action saving innocent lives. And of course, dead center, was the armored teenager calling himself Iron Lad. Just from appearance alone his suit was fairly advanced, and that impressed Burke. This boy reminded Alex of himself at that age. The suit was clearly Stark inspired. In fact, he wouldn't be surprised if the kid had actually obtained Stark tech somehow. Perhaps he had even worked with Ethan Drake, but Alex had no proof of this. He raised his eyes to look at the beautiful red head in front of him, "Yes, I remember the Prowler case."

He stood up and walked over to the window. His gaze looked out over Manhattan. He didn't really want to be dealing with this Young Avenger issue right now. In fact, there was a long list of issues he didn't want to take care of. For example, the official Avengers roster was all but non existent at this point. Patriot had left after being asked to take command of Vanguard. Wolverine had gone with him to be part of some secret Vanguard strike force. American Dream, Arsenal, Spider-Man; they had all left. He needed a new roster. Odd to think that the only Avengers team running around at the moment was a bunch of teenagers. He frowned, "Let's do it. I want their identities. It's the only way I'll be able to protect these kids."

If there was someone out there that could hack into his own armor, then Iron Lad was in trouble as well. And if he was in trouble, then the rest of the Young Avengers were most likely to follow.

[Halcyon508]

Katarina walked among the back alleys. It was easy enough to figure out where the Young Avengers usually showed up. The large man approached her and grabbed at her purse pulling it. "Oh no help me!" she yelled desperately pulling against him. She'd done this before multiple times to no avail, a young Avenger never showed up. Her plan was simple, get saved and then follow the child back to their base. "Oh god!" she said as the man pushed her up against the wall and started to rips strips of cloth off her. "Help me please!" she hired scumbags to mug a woman, they didn't know her identity, and she'd clobber him before he could do any real damage. The man pulled out a knife and threatened Katarina with it. As he did so webbing grabbed his hand and pulled it away knocking him over. Spider-Man Katarina thought with a sigh. She looked up to see a younger arachnid with a redder suit. "Spider-Boy!" she called in a cheer staying in character as the boy beat up the large thug.

"You shouldn't be in a neighborhood like this." The boy said grabbing her by her slender waist and taking off into the air. The two stopped on a buildings roof and he set her down. "You should travel with a friend for now on." he stated, "Its less likely that you'll be targeted if you're with people.

"Oh Spider-Boy." she said reaching a hand and caressing his masked face. "You're such a gentleman." She leaned in lifting his mask a little and preparing to kiss his lips. Suddenly she felt something on the back of her head and she was pulled backward. She fell to the ground and quickly looked up to see Spider-Man looming over her.

"Stay away Katarina." Spider-Man said frowning under his mask.

"Dad!" Spider-Boy yelled the part of his face showing red.

"Dad?" Katarina said with a smirk. "I've seen you under the mask, your not old enough to have a kid his age."

"Time travel thing. He's me from the past."

"So he's that handsome huh? I wish I had kissed him."

"What is this all about?" Spider-Man demanded.

"The Young Avengers."

"Stay away. This is your only warning."

[Cazzik]

The pair stood in front of the massive suit of armor. Between the two of them, his brilliant engineering mind and her resources, they had created a masterpiece of modern warfare. Dinah Frost smiled as she took in the sight. At long last her carefully laid plans were coming to fruition. It had been so long since her adoptive father had killed himself. Then her brother followed suit. All because of Stark and the Iron Man. Now the sins of the original had carried over to the latest bearer of the Iron Man mantle; Alex Burke. He would die for the things he had done. For the things his company had done. She looked at her companion and nodded, "Suit up, Cross. We have a billionaire to kill"

Julian said nothing in return. He touched his creation gently before climbing the ladder to get in. The armor was immense, much larger than the Iron Man armor. And hopefully, far more advanced. As he sat down the systems sprang to life. The computer flickered on and began running start up diagnostics. He smiled. It was much more of a malevolent grin than it was a smile. As the armor closed around him the helmet's eyes lit up with a red glow. He stared down at Dinah. "Ready the automated soldiers. Burke isn't going to know what hit him."

[Cazzik]

Sam Freeman burst into Alex's office at a dead sprint. Natalia wasn't far behind him. Burke stared at the pair, slightly amused for a moment. The feeling vanished quickly as Sam spoke, "The Stark Naval Facility in Paragon City is under attack. We just got the call."

Alex frowned. This wasn't the first time that particular facility had been attacked. When it was being built a group of ocean men had wreaked havoc on the place more than once, until Alex and Patriot had put a stop to it. As his thoughts went to his patriotic friend he spoke, "Has Vanguard been notified? I'm sure Brian could send in some backup."

Natalia nodded, "Vanguard is who called us. Agents are already on the scene."

Alex stood up from his desk and started walking past them, "Those damn water people again?"

Sam shook his head as he took up strides alongside Alex, "No. Apparently some kind of robots. They're being directed by someone in a suit."

Alex stopped dead in his tracks. A suit. A suit of armor. Just like his. This could very well be the individual who hacked his communications only a few days earlier. He resumed walking, not saying another word. The group of three made it to the elevator and rode the machine up to the private headquarters of the Avengers, who were all but defunct at the moment. With a hastening walk he made it to the secured Iron Man room and pressed in his code. The blast doors opened and the group stepped through into a lab that housed some of the most advanced technology and weaponry on Earth. He pressed several buttons on a control console and his current armor was lowered to the floor by the automated systems that held it. As he climbed in he could see the worry on Natalia's face, "Don't worry. I'll be back in time for a nightcap."

The faceplate on the helmet slid shut and he stepped down off of the platform. The armored individual was truly a sight to behold. Despite the amazing technology that the suit held, the man inside was even more impressive. He had built the weapon and all the technology it housed. He was truly a genius among geniuses. Repulsor fire lit up as he floated off the ground, "Sam, keep me informed and let Vanguard know that I'm on my way."

The ceiling opened and Iron Man shot up through the exit and towards Paragon City.