[Randy's Donuts. The Roof. Morning.]
Tony sat inside the giant donut, wearing sunglasses to hide his bloodshot eyes. The toxicity was at 78%. His veins looked like black spiderwebs crawling up his neck.
"Sir," a voice called from the parking lot below. "I have retrieved your coffee. And Director Fury is becoming impatient."
Tony looked down. Sebastian stood next to a black SUV. Nick Fury was leaning against the car, wearing his signature leather trench coat and eyepatch.
"I told you I don't want to see him," Tony shouted.
"And I told you to get down here before I taser you," Fury shouted back.
Tony sighed. He slid down the side of the building.
They moved to the diner inside. Fury sat opposite Tony. Sebastian stood by the booth, hands clasped behind his back.
"You look like crap, Stark," Fury said bluntly.
"I've had a bad week," Tony muttered, sipping his coffee. "Whatever you want, the answer is no."
"I don't want anything," Fury signaled to the waitress (Natasha/Natalie) to lock the door. "I want to save your life. Lithium Dioxide helps, but it's a band-aid. You need a cure."
Fury placed a heavy, dusty chest on the table.
"Your father's things," Fury said. "He said you were the only one who could finish his work."
Tony looked at the box. "He said that?"
"No," Sebastian interrupted softly. "He said, 'The technology of my time is limited. But Anthony... Anthony will figure it out.'"
Fury whipped his head around to look at the butler. His single eye narrowed.
"You have a good memory, Mr. Michaelis," Fury said dangerously. " considering that conversation happened in 1974."
Sebastian smiled. "I eat plenty of fish, Director. It is good for the brain."
Fury stood up. "Romanoff will keep you on house arrest. Michaelis... I've got my eye on you."
"I am flattered," Sebastian bowed.
[Malibu Mansion. The Living Room.]
The windows were boarded up. The floor was still cracked from the fight with Rhodey.
Tony sat on the floor, surrounded by old notebooks, blueprints, and film reels. He looked defeated.
"It's all nonsense," Tony threw a notebook across the room. "Sketches. ramblings. There's nothing here about a new element."
"Are you certain?"
Sebastian walked through the mess. He picked up a film reel labeled STARK EXPO 1974.
"I remember this day," Sebastian said, threading the film into the projector. "Your father was very nervous. He had spent weeks designing the layout of the Expo. He was obsessed with the geometry of it."
"He was obsessed with his legacy," Tony grumbled. "Not me."
"Is that what you believe?" Sebastian asked.
He flipped the switch. The projector hummed. Grainy footage of Howard Stark appeared on the wall. He was younger, sharper, standing in front of a model of the Expo.
On screen, Howard pointed to the model."Everything is achievable through technology... better living, better health..."
Tony watched his father. "He never told me he loved me. Not once. He just sent me to boarding school."
Sebastian stepped into the light of the projector. His shadow fell over the image of Howard Stark.
"Sir," Sebastian said, his voice losing its usual mockery. "Your father was a man of science. To him, love was not a hug. Love was... creation."
Sebastian pointed to the model city on the screen.
"Look at the layout, Young Master. He didn't design it for the public. He designed it for you."
Tony looked. He squinted.
"The Unisphere..." Tony muttered. "The pavilions... the walkways."
Sebastian rewound the film. "He called it the key to the future. He hid it in the one place he knew you would look: the spotlight."
Tony stood up. He walked to the digital scanner.
"J.A.R.V.I.S., scan the frame. Digitally remove the pathways. Focus on the structures."
"Scanning, Sir."
A holographic map of the 1974 Expo appeared in the air.
"Whatever this is..." Tony spun the hologram. "It's not a theme park."
He started stripping away the trees, the parking lots, the signs.
What remained was a structure. A nucleus. Protons. Neutrons.
Tony's eyes went wide.
"It's an atom," Tony whispered. "It's an element."
"A replacement for palladium," Sebastian supplied. "Theoretical in his time. Synthesizable in yours."
Tony looked at Sebastian. The realization hit him. Howard hadn't just left him a company. He had left him a lifeline.
"He knew," Tony said, his voice breaking slightly. "He knew I would need this."
"He believed you were the only one smart enough to see it," Sebastian said. "He considered you his greatest creation. And Howard Stark was very vain about his creations."
Tony wiped his nose. The despair evaporated, replaced by the manic energy of a genius on the brink of a breakthrough.
"Okay," Tony clapped his hands. "Okay! We're back in business! J.A.R.V.I.S., tell me what I need to build this!"
"The proposed element does not exist on the periodic table, Sir. It cannot be synthesized."
"Not with chemical reactions," Tony grabbed a sledgehammer. "We need a particle accelerator."
He looked at the wall.
"Sebastian," Tony grinned. "We're going to need to smash up the living room."
Sebastian looked at the already ruined house. He looked at the sledgehammer.
"I shall fetch the tea, Sir," Sebastian said, his eyes gleaming with satisfaction. "And perhaps a broom."
[The Construction Montage]
For the next six hours, the mansion was a war zone of science.
Tony was cutting holes in the walls. He was aligning a massive makeshift pipe—a prism accelerator—through the hallway, the kitchen, and the living room.
"Align the prism!" Tony shouted, welding a bracket.
Sebastian stood at the other end of the house, holding a $50 million laser emitter with one hand like it was a flashlight.
"Angle corrected, Sir. 0.04 degrees to the left."
"Perfect! Lock it down!"
Natasha Romanoff sat on the stairs, watching them. She had tried to intervene, citing safety protocols, but Sebastian had simply handed her a lead apron and told her to "mind the radiation."
"This is insane," Natasha muttered. "You're building a collider in your house."
"Innovation requires a certain degree of madness, Miss Rushman," Sebastian said, stepping over a bundle of high-voltage cables.
"Ready!" Tony yelled. "Firing in 3... 2... 1!"
HUMMMMMM.
The beam fired. It shot through the tube, accelerating to light speed. It smashed into the triangular vibranium core Tony had set up.
FLASH.
A blinding blue light filled the room. A triangle of pure, synthesized energy glowed on the stand.
The New Element.
Tony grabbed it with tongs. It sizzled. He shoved it into his chest piece.
The necrotic lines on his neck began to recede immediately. The toxicity reading on the screen dropped: 70%... 40%... 0%.
Tony took a deep breath. It was the first clean breath he'd taken in months.
"Tastes like coconut," Tony blinked. "Wait, metal. Tastes like metal."
"Congratulations, Sir," Sebastian said, removing his safety goggles. "You have successfully reinvented the wheel. Now, unfortunately..."
Sebastian's phone rang. He put it on speaker.
"Tony," a thick Russian accent crackled over the line. "You sound... alive."
Tony froze. "Vanko."
"Your father did this to my family," Ivan Vanko hissed. "Now, I do it to yours. I have made upgrades, Stark. The Expo... it will look very pretty when it burns."
The line went dead.
Tony looked at the new reactor. He looked at the suit.
"He's at the Expo," Tony said. "Pepper is there."
"Then I suggest we depart immediately," Sebastian straightened his tie. "I shall drive. You fly. Try to keep up."
[End of Chapter 15]
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