urn:lj:scribbld.com:atom1:ironinandout Iron Man Iron Man 2010-05-04T00:47:43Z urn:lj:scribbld.com:atom1:ironinandout:450 2010-05-04T00:46:21Z 2010-05-04T00:47:43Z Never one for listening to <i>reason</i> or <i>logic</i>, Tony had been happy to build his own path in life. From the loss of his parents to his injury that resulted in the arc reactor that resided (once) within his chest, all these were just lessons that strengthened and never broke Tony.<br /><br />Through the hardships, after Extremis, after <i>everything</i>, Tony had never buckled under the weight of his life. Even when everything went south and he was stuck in a military facility under the pretense of his being a weapon of mass destruction. The testing and the programming, it was all weathered through with a grim mood. Sure, the drinking got heavier the longer he was in the service, but it was worth it just to keep his sanity.<br /><br />No one but Tony knew that he was the resistance's big leak. No one knew that Iron Man - thought to be a pawn of the armed forces - was the one telling the resistance of every strike, of every move. The Air Force was confounded, they had no way reconcile it - somehow the leak would still get out. Somehow.<br /><br />Oh, it hadn't been an easy task to set this all up, and it was a credit that Tony didn't even want to take credit for. It was what was right, and what needed to be done. And there was no one else to do it. At least.. no one left alive anyways.<br /><br />The deaths had been the hardest; being forced to watch your friends and colleagues be carried to their final resting place on television unable to be there. The Air Force owned all now, and even though Tony had long since cracked the spyware they had loaded into him, they still controlled his flight. They still owned the skies. They still owned Iron Man.<br /><br />Tony's only outlet to the real world was a heavily filtered internet and cable television. It was amazing what you could learn from watching CNN and the Daily Show. Tony was still amazed John Stewart was allowed to do his thing, but then again.. that was cable television for you.<br /><br />Not quite content in his little cell of a room, Tony looked around and found himself taking inventory.. again. They allowed him his tools to work, and he did work. Most of his "work" was used as weapons for the armed forces anymore, though all of them had critical flaws. Tony was sure to write those in, of course, and release the linch pin to his contacts on the other side. Still, it burned Tony that his creations were used against his will. Stark Industries didn't even exist anymore - not the way it did when he ran it.