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mischiefandspirits · 4 years

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Iron Legion (14/?)

Never let it be said that Tony Stark ever does things by half. He might have grown up with little family, but he wasn’t about to keep it that way.

Tony Stark was seventeen when his first child was born, and that was just the beginning.

For Masterpost, Timeline, AO3, and Fanfiction

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cerberus, Part 2

Once the three youngest AIs had returned to their respective servers and Peter had shuffled off with a pout, a glass of water, and a warning that J.A.R.V.I.S. would inform them if he didn’t go straight to bed, Rhodey turned to Pepper with a teasing grin. “So, is Mom going to help?”

“Absolutely not,” she said blankly.

Tony frowned and took her hand. “Pep, if you don’t want me to do this…”

Pepper sighed and leaned against him. “Honestly, I don’t. HYDRA is dangerous. You’ve already given the world so much.

“But,” she continued, setting her hand over his mouth before he could speak, “I know you. You want to help people. And if something went wrong and you weren’t there, even if you couldn’t have done anything to prevent it, then you’d blame yourself. At least if you’re with the others, you’ve got backup. Just… promise to be careful.”

“I will.”

“And you have to keep your appointments with Dr. Dillon. No more missed or late appointments, even if you have to miss a mission.”

Tony frowned, but at her stern expression, he nodded. “Plan around appointments, got it. I’ll even have Fri set something up. Anything to make you feel more at ease.”

She kissed him and set their foreheads together. “Thank you.”

Nebula cleared her throat and they pulled away.

“Anyways,” Rhodey chuckled. “The team’s going to need a home base, in New York preferably. If both you and Bruce are staying here, then Rodgers, Romanoff, and Barton should probably be nearby. I’d say Thor as well, but he’s probably going to want to stay bunked up with Foster. And that hammer means he’s pretty fast.”

“We could use one of the conference rooms here?” Tony said, though it came out as a question as he glanced at Pepper.

“Oh legal would love that,” Nebula muttered.

“Let’s not have legal breathing down security’s necks,” Pepper said, patting his leg. “Maybe we can look at getting a building, something with space for a meeting area and training room. Also an infirmary, just in case,” she added giving both him and Rhodey knowing looks.

“How about in the Hamptons? We could use a new summer home,” Tony suggested. “We could get some land then split it up. Avengers building on one side and summer home on the other.”

“You just miss living on the beach,” Rhodey snorted.

“He should have thought of that before he got our home blown up,” Pepper said icily.

“The avengers would need privacy and space,” Tony pointed out. “We wouldn’t be able to get that in the city.”

“If you want to put it out there, we might want to consider barracks too,” Pepper hummed. “Just in case you guys get back late enough that the others just want to crash instead of driving back home.”

“Or some apartments they could rent,” Nebula added. “It’s not like they have anywhere to stay now.”

“Cap’s pretty attached to Brooklyn, but I can offer. I don’t think we’ll need to charge them though,” Tony said, rolling his eyes.

“They’re grown adults. They can pay rent,” Nebula said.

“You don’t,” Tony pointed out. Not that he would ever charge her, or any of the kids, rent. Any home of his would always be a home for them.

Nebula frowned and set down her tablet. “I’ve actually been considering renting an apartment of my own.”

“What?” Tony asked, and was glad he heard Rhodey and Pepper echoing the question.

“Right now people think I’m living in the staff apartments, but if anyone actually looks into it, they’ll realize I don’t have one logged under my name. Someone will get suspicious. I’m an adult. I should have a place of my own. I earn more than enough.”

“You want to move into the staff apartments?” That was unexpected, but Tony understood wanting your own space.

“Actually,” she glanced towards the hall, “I had planned to wait until Peter brought it up, but I was thinking about getting a place in Queens.”

“What does Peter have to do with this?” Pepper asked.

Nebula came over and sat down on the arm of Rhodey’s chair. “He doesn’t want us to know -- I only do because I happened to look over his shoulder when he was on the computer and didn’t know I was there -- but he’s been looking at the website for Midtown School of Science and Technology, a high school in Queens.”

“I’ve heard of it,” Pepper said.

“I think he wants to go there next year.”

“What’s wrong with T.A.?” Tony asked, and wow his voice was shakier than he’d meant it to be.

“There’s no human interaction,” Rhodey said bluntly. “Tones, Pete isn’t like you and Nebula. He’s a people person. He’s going to want to get out and make friends.”

“Make friends as in meet people, not literally make them,” Pepper added pointedly.

“Father doesn’t make friends, he makes children,” Nebula argued and Tony gave her an affronted look.

It was true, but she didn’t have to say it.

“The point is,” Rhodey said, holding back a laugh. “Going to an actual school with people his own age could be good for him. A bit of socialization wouldn’t hurt.”

“For the record, I went to a school with actual people. It was awful,” Tony groaned, laying back down on Pepper’s lap. “Kids are horrible to each other.”

“You were years younger than any of your fellow students and still smarter than them, you were never going to fit in,” Pepper offered. “Peter will be in a class with people his own age.”

“Harley’s in school with kids his own age, look how that’s working,” Tony muttered. He was still annoyed Tori wouldn’t let him do anything to help the kid with his bullies. Apparently, he had a tendency to go overboard or something.

“Harley inherited your smart mouth, of course he’s getting into fights,” Rhodey chuckled.

“He’s also quite a bit smarter than his fellow students,” Pepper cut in. “His school is an ordinary public school and yours was the same but private. MSST is an advanced learning STEM school. If Peter went there, all of the students would be highly intelligent and scientifically driven. No one is going to look down on him for being smart.”

“I wouldn’t count on it,” Tony sighed. “But if the kid really wants to go, I’m not about to stop him so you guys can stop trying to convince me.” He wasn’t going to control his kids’ lives like his father had tried to do to him. “So you want an apartment in Queens so Peter can go to this school?”

Nebula nodded. “It doesn’t make sense to make him commute all the way from here to school. We could stay there during the week then come back home during the weekends. Peter is legally my half-brother and any parents we have as far as a background check would turn up are dead, so I could easily claim to have guardianship and no one will question the two of us living together on our own.”

“You’ve really thought this out,” Rhodey said and she nodded again.

“I wouldn’t have brought it up if I hadn’t. The only thing I was waiting on was for Peter to come to us.”

Pepper shook her head. “We can wait a few more months for him to say something, but we might need to be the ones to get the ball rolling. While you got Tony’s introvertedness and Harley got his smart mouth, Peter got his self-sacrificing tendencies. He’s never going to say anything if he thinks it’s going to bother us in some way.”

Tony narrowed his eyes at the three. “You know, we never talk about the good traits I passed on to the kids.”

“We already discussed how smart Harley and Peter are, that’s likely from you,” Nebula pointed out.

“The other stuff!”

“What other stuff?” Rhodey teased and Tony gave an exaggerated gasp.

“Et tu, Rho-day!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rogers, Romanoff, and Barton were waiting in the hotel conference room Tony had reserved when Tony and Bruce arrived.

They were surprised to see the other man, but greeted him warmly.

“It’s good to see you,” Romanoff said as Steve shook his hand.

“Stark didn’t say you’d be coming too,” Clint said, patting his shoulder.

Bruce twitched away from the attention, but gave him a smile.

“Wasn’t sure if he was going to. Just got the okay last night,” Tony explained.

“The okay?” Rogers asked.

Tony gestured for them to sit. “Not sure if you guys have heard, but I’ve been working with the CIA, Europol, and a few others trying to do clean up after the whole HYDRA incident. I’ve mostly been working on the file dump so far, but lately I’ve been going out more and more as we get all the data in order.”

Rogers frowned. “You’ve been taking on HYDRA on your own?”

“A couple of the more low-key ones, yeah,” Tony said with a shrug. “The ones that are too dangerous for ground troops, but in need of too much precision for a drone. Rhodey’s been taking some too, but he’s under Air Force command so they’ve got different channels they have to go through.”

“You should have brought us in,” Rogers declared. “We’ve got a better understanding of HYDRA than you.”

Tony barely held back a comment about that. He and Bruce had already decided to keep quiet about the hesitation that had been shown towards the S.H.I.E.L.D.-based members of the Avengers. “Why do you think we’re here?”

“Tony talked to his contacts and, if you guys are willing, we can reform the Avengers in order to take down the more dangerous bunkers that normal teams wouldn’t be able to take without heavy casualties,” Bruce explained.

“Of course we’d be willing,” Rogers answered immediately before turning to Romanoff and Barton.

Barton nodded along, but Romanoff gave Rogers a look. “What about Barnes?”

He frowned and sank back in his seat at the mention of the Winter Soldier. Oddly, he sent Tony a quick nervous look before refocusing on the former spy. “We can still search for him between missions. And we might even turn up some new leads while taking down HYDRA”

Tony nodded. “I can talk to the teams set up to search through information gathered during missions. I should be able to convince them that any information on him turned up could be passed on to you as part of your commission.”

“Commission?” Rogers asked.

“Since the Avengers aren’t technically an officially sanctioned team by any government, I’ve had to work out a deal with my contacts. We’ll be a sort of freelance specialized task force. Kind of like -”

“Mercenaries,” Roger spat, crossing his arms. “You want to turn us into mercenaries.”

“That has some negative connotations and isn’t entirely accura-”

“You want us to fight for money. That’s what a mercenary is.”

“You didn’t seem opposed to taking S.H.I.E.L.D.’s money when you were fighting for them,” Tony pointed out.

“That’s different.”

“You’re right,” Bruce agreed. “This time we’ll be in charge of what we’re doing and how we do it. Steve, we’re not going to be working with just anyone.”

“How do we know?” Romanoff asked. “Who even are these so-called contacts you’ve got, Stark?”

“Agent Everett Ross with the CIA, he’s an old friend, long story, no relation to Lieutenant General Thaddeus Ross. He brought in Agent Jessica Drew from Europol.” He nodded at Romanoff and Barton. “You two might recognize her by her old MI6 codename, Arachne.”

Romanoff raised an eyebrow and Barton gave an approving nod.

“Rhodey’s brought the airforce in, but they and the rest of the military are only focusing on any HYDRA threats on the home turf so we’ll only be working with them in those cases. There are a couple others, but those are more case by case, brought in specifically because something came up in the files.”

“This all sounds nice, but I’m still not on board with being mercenaries.”

“Not mercenaries, a specialized task force that remains freelance in order to be available to whoever needs us the most and as such can’t be tied down to one specific branch,” Tony argued. “We could align ourselves with the CIA, Europol, or the military, but then we’d only be able to go on missions in the jurisdiction of that single branch. Like Bruce said, we won’t be selling ourselves out to the highest bidder.”

“But you’re going to make them pay us for our help,” Rogers said.

“Just like Rhodey is paid for his work with the military. News flash, Rogers, the military and S.H.I.E.L.D. aren’t footing your bills anymore, and I’m guessing since you tried to come mooch off me your accounts are getting low.”

“You’ve got plenty of space and money to go around,” Barton snorted.

“Regarding the first, I actually don’t.”

“You’ve got a giant building,” Rogers cut in.

“A giant building full of office spaces, labs, and other businessy things,” Tony corrected. “Yes, there are apartments, but those are for Stark Industries personnel and their families, who pay to live there, even if it is at a reduced fee compared to similar nearby places.”

“You and Bruce both have entire floors there,” Romanoff pointed out.

“Yes, because I own the company and am currently dating its CEO. I could pay myself, but that would be redundant. Bruce works as a consultant with the company and receives a generous salary as a result, which does go towards housing. If it’s a job you’re looking for, you’re happy to apply, but I should mention that legal’s blacklisted anyone with S.H.I.E.L.D. in their resumes.”

“Tony,” Bruce scolded.

“Anyways, our floors aren’t exactly built with guests in mind anyways. Bruce’s is taken up almost entirely by his lab and the Breakroom, by his own design. He’s only got a kitchenette and two bedrooms, one of them being his. He doesn’t even have a living area.”

“Wouldn’t a breakroom count as a living area?” Barton asked.

“Not a breakroom. The Breakroom. It’s, in Tony’s words, a room for breaking things,” Bruce explained, giving the other genius a look. “Tony and I designed it. It’s specifically reinforced to withstand the Hulk.”

“Like I said back on the Helicarrier, the big guy needs to let off some steam sometimes,” Tony said, throwing an arm over Bruce’s shoulders.

“Is that safe?” Romanoff asked and Bruce nodded.

“It’s been well tested.”

“So that covers space,” Tony said, pulling away from Bruce to clap his hands. “As for money, I have been informed by a certain someone that you are grown adults who should pay their own rent. Unfortunately for you lot, Pepper has agreed and she knows all my bank account information so I’ve been banned from playing sugar daddy to the Avengers.” Tony gave a shrug.

“They’re not wrong, Tony,” Bruce said and Tony gave a fake pout. “If it gets out that we’re relying too heavily on your money, it could give the wrong impression.”

Barton gave a hesitant nod. “Yeah, okay, I can see your point.” He shot Tony a playfully disgusted look. “I never want to give you a reason to call yourself our sugar daddy ever again.”

Rogers and Romanoff both gave nods at that.

“If it makes you feel better, you can think of it like a military stipend, Cap,” Tony said. “Just one that will be coming from different branches of different militaries given the mission. Like Bruce said, we’re not going to work for random people.”

He did relax some at that. “If we’re only working with militaries, then that’s fine.”

“Yeah, mostly. We’ll also be working alongside the CIA and Europol, but they're government-controlled and completely above board.”

Rogers looked a little uneasy at that, but relaxed at Romanoff’s nod. “Alright, so how will this work exactly.”

“Similar to how I was operating on my own. When a situation comes up that’s beyond normal means, we’ll be called in. Whoever’s in charge of the area will give us what information they have then clear us to enter. After that, we’ll be free to do our own reconnaissance and plan accordingly,” Tony explained and Rogers nodded.

“Where will we be staying? If we’re going to be a team we need to be together. You’ve already said you don’t want us in the tower.”

Tony rolled his eyes at the inaccuracy, but let it go. “That’s item two on the itinerary.” He pulled out a tablet and set it on the table. With a touch, a holographic projection floated above the table showing a large, sleek white and grey building with a stylized blue A over the door. “Welcome to Avengers Mansion! Or at least, a concept design for it.” He gave the building a slow spin. “It would be a home base for the Avengers. Nothing’s finalized yet, so any input you’ve got would be appreciated.”

“Do we really need an entire mansion?” Rogers asked, looking closer at it.

“Depends on what we need. Right now,” Tony gave his fingers a twitch to remove the walls and give everyone a view inside, “we’ve got plans for a conference room for meetings and mission planning; a common area with a kitchen for breaks; a gym with some normal and super-soldier worthy equipment; a shooting range that’s versatile for even those of us with unorthodox long-range weaponry; an event hall for any events we might host; an infirmary at Pepper and Bruce’s insistence; a lab for Brucie and I to keep our toys; a handful of bathrooms, of course; and a pool just for fun. Plus, we’ll have a landing pad and hanger outside for transportation and a running track for exercise, with wide grounds for privacy. I’m also trying to talk Pepper into putting it in the Hamptons so we might be on the beach. That’s still up for debate.”

“She’s willing to let you use your money on this, but not giving us a place to stay,” Romanoff asked, looking closer at the hologram.”

“It’s a loan. I’ll be paying for the land and the building will be a collaborative effort between my funding and the government's. They aren’t asking for repayment, but a small portion of the commissions will go to paying off my loan. It’s kind of a lease to own situation, since as soon as it’s paid off, the land will be placed into the name of the Avengers Initiative instead of my name. I’ve got my people figuring out the details so that it’s paid off as quickly as possible while still leaving plenty for everyone to get a comfortable paycheck. Also, upkeep will come from our commissions, so try not to break anything that’s not meant to be broken because it will literally be coming out of your paycheck,” Tony chuckled.

“What about housing?” Rogers asked, pointing at a group of rooms on the upper floor next to the common area with a pair of bunk beds in each.

“That’s something we needed to talk about. As you can see, right now we’re only planning to have simple barracks in case of sleepovers. Just some beds, maybe some lockers if you guys want to keep a change of clothes there. Although considering your current living arrangements, or lack thereof, we’ve also thought about putting in apartments as well. They’d be for rent at a reasonable price, the money, of course, going towards the mansion’s budget, which covers upkeep and repayment as discussed.”

The former spies looked considering while Rogers nodded. “It would be better if we were all living in the same place.”

“Nice sentiment, but I’ve got a place already,” Tony said.

Bruce gave a hesitant nod. “I’ve thought about it, but I like the privacy and… security of my private floor in the tower. Thor is on the fence still too.”

That caught the three’s attention.

“You’ve talked to Thor?” Barton asked before the others could.

“He’s been shacking up with his girlfriend, Dr. Jane Foster, since that circus in London,” Tony explained. “He’s agreed to rejoin the team. He just had the concession that he is allowed to bring his bro’s magic wand to daddy dearest once we find it. The Vikings aren’t happy we lost it to the bad guys. My contacts agreed with the concession, which is why I’m sure they’ll be fine helping you track down Barnes.”

Barton looked uncomfortable at the mention of Loki so Bruce changed the subject. “Thor’s interested in staying here, but he also wants to stay close to Dr. Foster -”

“She turned down a place at Stark Industries,” Tony sighed, flopping onto the table dramatically.

“- so he’s waiting to see what you guys think before deciding,” Bruce finished, ignoring the billionaire.

The three shared a look. “We’ll have to think about it,” Rogers said.

Tony shrugged. “We’re still pinning down a location, so you’ve got time. Just keep in mind that the faster you make a decision, the faster we can finalize a budget.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So two things that I'd like to hear your guys' opinions on.

What should Peter's middle name be? I'm thinking either Anthony (because he's a daddy's boy and it's similar to Ana), Edwin (because it has the same meaning as Ana), or Edward (so Tony passes down his middle name), but I'm still deciding which to go with.

In the myths, Loki borrows a feathered cloak from Freya that allows him to fly, either by acting as wings or turning him into a falcon depending on the interpretation. I'm thinking of including it in the story, but it's up in the air if I want it to be an Asgardian relic, a mortal one, or something Tony's designed.

No promises that I'll go with the most popular options, but I do want to hear what you guys think.

#tony stark #bruce banner #pepper potts #rhodey #iron family

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