Is this girl a hardcore nerd? Kade had a bad feeling about this.
He was still processing Violet's dramatic oath when the interrogation room door got kicked open hard enough to bounce off the wall.
Tony Stark barged in past a protesting Coulson, clutching a stack of papers like a weapon.
"You say Lawson's identity is suspicious?" Tony slapped the documents on the table. "These are his American citizenship papers. I just had them processed. Now take that watch off his wrist, or I go directly to your boss."
Kade stared at him.
You couldn't have come five minutes earlier?
He'd just spent 768 AllSpark energy converting that watch into Violet. More than three-quarters of his total reserves. One of his three precious Stage 1 robot slots, gone. He couldn't undo it, couldn't get the energy back, and he sure as hell couldn't hand the watch over to Coulson now.
"Lawson, you can relax," Tony said, radiating righteous indignation. "No friend of Tony Stark's is going to be collared like a dog."
Kade genuinely didn't know what to say. Tony was a hell of a friend. Dropping everything, pulling strings, burning political capital to get a man he'd known for two weeks his citizenship papers. Under normal circumstances, this would have been a rescue.
The timing, though.
In the end, Kade put on his most selfless expression and volunteered to keep the watch. He framed it as not wanting to make things difficult between Tony and SHIELD, but on one condition: Coulson had to remove every offensive capability. No remote incapacitation, no kill switch. GPS tracking only.
None of it mattered. Violet had already neutralized everything on the watch. But the negotiation had to look real.
Tony was still unhappy, but since Kade had agreed, he couldn't push further.
On the flight back to America, Tony brought it up again.
"You didn't have to do that. SHIELD has zero leverage over me."
"It's fine," Kade said. "I'm not planning anything illegal. Sometimes giving a government agency a small concession pays off. They gave me an external liaison position out of it. Any time SHIELD wants to contact you, they go through me first. Saves you the headache."
"But isn't that a burden?"
"The liaison position pays three thousand a month. I'll manage."
"Three thousand dollars." Tony looked personally offended. "That's nothing. Effective immediately, I'm hiring you as a technical consultant for Stark Industries. Annual salary: one million."
Kade didn't refuse. He still needed Stark Industries for too many things, starting with the palladium required to build Energy Activators. A formal position made access to those resources a lot easier.
The plane touched down in New York a few hours later.
Tony's personal secretary, Pepper Potts, was waiting on the tarmac. Sharp-eyed and furious. She gave Tony a dressing-down that he weathered with the practiced ease of a man who'd been yelled at by professionals his entire life.
Then Tony said: "Pepper, I need you to set up a press conference."
Kade knew what was coming. Afghanistan had changed Tony. Cracked something open inside him that couldn't be closed. History was moving forward, and that meant the Chitauri invasion was getting closer too.
Pepper worked fast. Landed in the morning, lunch, and by early afternoon the press conference was ready.
Stark Tower. Packed room. Tony stood at the podium and announced the permanent shutdown of Stark Industries' weapons manufacturing division.
The room erupted.
Stark Industries was a defense contractor at its core. Weapons sales were the majority of the company's revenue. Shutting that down wasn't a business decision, it was potential corporate suicide. A company worth tens of billions, maybe hundreds, threatening to destabilize not just itself but the broader economy.
Tony didn't care. He made the announcement, declared the conference over, and walked off stage.
Not everyone took it well.
Kade stood quietly in a corner, dressed like staff, completely unremarkable. From there he had a clear view of Obadiah Stane, Tony's father's old partner and the company's largest shareholder after Tony himself.
Stane's expression was thunderous.
Kade recognized that look. He'd seen it on the faces of men who were about to do something drastic. Stane had leaked Tony's route to the Ten Rings. Kade knew it. Watching the old man's face darken as Tony dismantled his empire in real time only confirmed what was coming.
But Kade said nothing.
Old rule, and a good one: never get between a man and his family. Stane wasn't just Tony's business partner. He was practically a surrogate father. Decades of history, trust, shared grief over Howard Stark's death. If Kade, an outsider Tony had known for two weeks, started accusing Stane of conspiracy, Tony wouldn't believe him. He'd push Kade away and draw Stane closer.
Kade wasn't Tony's servant anyway. They were partners. Allies of convenience, each getting something from the other. He'd deal with Stane when the time was right.
After the press conference, Tony dove into his lab and didn't come up for air. When Kade found him, Tony didn't look up from the workbench.
"Lawson. The palladium you wanted is in the safe over there. JARVIS, open it."
"Certainly, sir," said a polished British voice from nowhere.
A section of wall split open, revealing a concealed door. Behind it sat a black briefcase.
Kade opened it. Rows of palladium blocks, precisely sealed and labeled, arranged in neat lines. Enough to build several Energy Activators.
Only Tony Stark would hand over refined nuclear material without asking what it was for.
"I'll get out of your hair," Kade said. "But Tony. I'm serious. Find a surgeon and get those shrapnel fragments removed. Walking around with that thing in your chest isn't sustainable."
"Relax." Tony waved a wrench at him. "I'll figure out a solution before the palladium kills me."
Kade managed a polite smile. He knew what Tony meant. The Arc Reactor's palladium core was slowly poisoning him. Iron Man 2 territory. Another ticking clock.
He picked up the briefcase, left Stark Tower, and hailed a cab.
The city scrolled past the window.
Manhattan in all its overwhelming, indifferent glory. Glass towers catching the afternoon sun, rivers of traffic, millions of people going about their lives without the faintest idea of what was coming. Kade watched from the back seat and wondered how much of this would still be standing after the Chitauri came through.
New York was a disaster magnet. In the Marvel universe, nearly every world-ending crisis seemed to converge on this one city. The people living here went about their days without knowing they were waiting for the day the sky opened. Then they'd scream and run and pray for someone to save them.
Some of them would end up on the news afterward. Others would end up in a casualty report.
Outside the window, the scenery changed. Gleaming skyscrapers gave way to squat, aging tenements. Brick facades stained with decades of exhaust. Fire escapes clinging to buildings like metal parasites. Neon signs for liquor stores and bail bondsmen.
Hell's Kitchen.
PLZ Throw Powerstones.