Marvel Reborn: Gems Of Infinite Potential

-x-x-x-

Interlude: The Stark Household

Timeline: Immediately after Chapter 33

-x-x-x-

As the helicopter carrying Octavian Raith flew away Pepper Potts turned to her boss and said: "How did the meeting go Tony?"

The genius seemed to shake himself out of his thoughts and said "Huh? Oh, it was interesting. He will support me with the board and throw his full support behind my green energy idea."

JARVIS spoke before Pepper could say anything "And the other matter, Sir?"

Tony was quiet for a long moment "Bury the file, then go through and clean up his data trail so no one else can trace your steps. Oh, and read the files on the USB he left in the lab and conform my own plans for dealing with the fallout from the last few days with what's on there."

"So we are working with Mr. Raith then sir?" the AI asked.

"For now. In the future?" Tony shrugged "Time will tell."

Pepper blinked and said "That's surprising, you had me preparing to start a full scale PR campaign aimed at tearing down Raith. What changed?"

"He offered an explanation and an olive branch, not sure how much of it I believe but I do know that going to war with him right now is a bad idea. We have barely kept the DoD from suing us for breach of contract, our stock price looks like a roller coaster ride, Raith bought out half a dozen of our board members, and our COO just died. Not to mention that Pakistan has already started agitating at the UN over my breach of their territory as Iron Man." Tony explained, before shaking his head in the negative and continuing "No, if I have to go to war with him then it will be after I have used his resources to stabilize my own home and done a lot more research on the opposition.

"JARVIS, toss the profile we have on Raith. We'll build another one from scratch because what we have is a fanciful farce with little relation to reality. And upgrade his threat rating to Omega-2."

The AI's tone indicated that he would have probably blinked if he had eyes and said "That far sir?", Omega being the designation Tony used for things that had the potential to end the United States as a nation (at least).

"Yes, and largely for the same reason that you and I hold that threat rating," Tony confirmed.

Pepper seemed shocked and asked "Tony?", he's' tone carrying so much more in that word.

"You aren't cleared for it Pepper," he said flatly and in a tone that firmly indicated she should drop that line of questioning.

"Ok." she said, shaking her head at his antics "Well you have an interview with 60 Minutes tomorrow, and a large pile of SI paperwork is sitting on your desk for you to review and approve.

Tony gave a nod but seemed lost in his own thoughts again. Raith had given him a puzzle, how had he moved them from his secure vault into wherever they had gone? He had thought he was the world leader in alternate dimensional phenomena, after all the Arc Reactor and Repulsors both made use of such things, but he wasn't even sure where to begin when trying to replicate what Raith had managed. He was going to have to make the time to check out the address Raith had provided, now how to sneak away to Nepal. After all, it had been years since he had anything truly interesting to draw his attention. At least for any length of time, when you could reach doctorate level in a new field of study with an afternoons worth of light reading very few things were much of a diversion.