Date: 09/08/2008
Location: stark industries, Miami office
The company was its usual quiet, the printer constantly inking a new report or document for Matthew to sign. The peace was only interrupted by the opening of the door. At first he thought it was pepper , coming to nagging him about his increasingly dishevelled appearance. He'd not been cutting his hair and his usually clean face had the shadow of stubble . He looked older than he actually was and it seemed to upset the woman.
"How are you?" a voice he knew all too well, the same voice that had been nagging him to increase the budget of the weapons division.
" According to Pepper , I'm grieving." he said dryly , not sparing the man a glance, but very much aware of his proximity.
"We all miss him," Obadiah says , his tone sorrowful, " Tony was… something of a light of the company, you know?" Matthew sighed , stopping his work and leaning back into his chair. But Stane continued.
" If you ever need someone to talk to," he seemed to hesitate , " or just want an excuse to do something else, I'm here for you. You know that right?" he consoled .
Matthew nodded before tilting his head at his screen, " Actually, I'm having a bit of trouble with the arrangement of these specific clients" he turned the screen to face Stane , names intimately familiar to him appearing on screen but he showed no reaction, although his suspicion of Matthew heightened a bit.
" Oh , I know a few ways to help you with that. Send me the list and I'll take care of it" he says , an amicable smile drawing on his face. " This reminds me of when you brother and you were little, you used to give me all the social work while you busied yourself with whatever you were working on at the time" he reminisced, a fond look crossing his face.
"I don't ever remember doing that, seems more like a Tony thing if you ask me." Matthew shrugged , a smile finding its way to his face.
" You two were like sons to me, always following me around, those were the good old days. Now, you two barely remember to call" his guilt trip was obvious but Matthew decided to ignore it, for now. " It was good seeing you, and I hope they find him," he said, wishing him well.
" yeah.. Me too" Matthew said going back to his papers
"Stay safe," he said exiting the room then quieter to himself, " and don't get in the way"
Once the door was fully closed , the peace returning, Matthew looked up to the door ,a glare directed at the leaving figure . " So you came to check, how thorough." he scoffed, rebooting the actual file he was originally watching. The numbers showing the different transactions between Stane and other officials in the government.
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Date:23/11/2008
Location: Malibu, California, Stark mansion
Matthew was currently staring at a satellite view of military base, statistics and data clouding up the rest of his computer, specifically modded to be off the grid and invisible to any surveillance.
Project Gamma Pulse was circled multiple times in his notes beside him, his curiosity peaked at the idea. Of course he lost his curiosity when he realized it was a super soldier recreation objective. The idea alone of forcing gamma radiation into the cells to recreate the captain didn't make sense , so he watched the base for any new activity.
" Little Matty," Jarvis sounded, a name Tony programmed Jarvis to use on specifically his brother. Matthew's attention being taken to the new pop- up Jarvis sent. If only he'd stayed staring at the satellite image a bit longer to see a large green figure break out the base. On screen , an explosion was shown, the cause of said explosion flying west of the destruction. Once Matthew enhanced the video he saw a metal man , the pieces already dropping from the suit. A smile stretched across his face , recognition of the only idiot he knows that would build a mecha suit to escape terrorists.
" Tony" he sighed in relief, then sent the coordinates of his estimated trajectory to Rhodes and Sergeant McKenna.
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Location: Afghanistan , military base
Pov: Rhodes
>Stark The Younger
[30.196473, 64.792732]
A message from Matty , that at first I didn't understand, but then our techs cross checked it. It was in the middle of the desert , near a militia base that had recently exploded. Knowing Matty, it must mean that this was where Tony was, and we're gonna find him.
"Mckenna, wings up in 10, we have a local on the target." I said meeting the soldier at the loading bay, the area filled with running mechanics and armed men.
" Copy that, Rhodes." the man stated , already getting his equipment on .
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The chopper flew over, scanning the area but so far we found nothing yet , just hills of brown sand for miles. I was beginning to lose hope till the lookout spotted something on the radar. It seemed to be soaring in the sky till it landed a few clicks south of us. It had to be him, I don't wanna be the one to tell that kid we lost his precious brother.
The chopper landed a group of us running over to the fallen figure, Tony coming into view.
"Tony!" I was relieved , the guy seemed dehydrated but alive, very much alive. Mckenna slide down the sand beside me , checking on him as we pulled him up, " we got yuh, you are one tough mother fucker." I couldn't help but laugh out loud.
We loaded him into the chopper , the bird lifting off to the nearest allied post so we could get a medic. I pulled out my sat phone and called a specific number.
"We have a delivery for Matthew Stark." I joked when the call picked up. There was a silence before a breath of total relief .
"Just when I was starting to enjoy being an only child ," he chuckled before his voice breaked, " thanks for finding him , Rhodes."