The young master of the Stark family met the young master of the Wick family.
Entering the Wick home again, Tony felt uncomfortable all over.
His gaze kept drifting over the layout and toward the floor above.
"Looking for someone?" John saw through his reason for coming at a glance.
"No... all right, let's cut to the chase." Tony instinctively denied it, but remembering who he was dealing with, he admitted the truth.
He walked up to John with his head held high and stopped before him.
Despite his youthful face, John was hardly short.
"I know you rescued him, and I don't understand why," Tony said, taking off his glasses and fixing his eyes on John. "You know what he did, Wick."
"Avenged his father?"
That answer made Tony's expression turn awkward.
John naturally knew whom he meant.
He had never intended to hide it anyway.
With JARVIS helping Tony, keeping it from him was plainly unrealistic.
John settled onto the sofa and said with interest, "You seem to have something else in mind, Stark."
"You found out he wasn't dead. You could have told the government, but you didn't."
"That's not your style," he added pointedly.
Tony had been the target of an assassination attempt, and the attacker was Ivan Vanko, whose family had a longstanding feud with his.
Tony's behavior was unusual.
Hanging his glasses awkwardly from his collar, Tony admitted, "You're right. It's not my style."
"There's something I want to know."
"What?" John guessed what he was about to ask and said casually, "About your father?"
Tony fell silent.
His father held an important place in his life.
After taking over Stark Industries, he had come to understand that the vast corporation made its profits selling weapons.
But he had always believed his father was an upright, great man.
His father had been one of the founders of S.H.I.E.L.D., after all, working to make the world a better place.
Yet Ivan Vanko's appearance had torn a gash in that image.
Exiling his partner and claiming the reactor research for himself.
His father had actually done that.
Tony found it hard to accept.
"I want to know more about my father. He was strict with me, but I don't believe he would have driven his partner out over the reactor," Tony said.
"You think too highly of human nature." John shook his head, rubbing his ring as he invited Tony to sit.
"People are selfish, Stark." They were ten years apart in age, yet John seemed more like a mentor. "I can tell you that your father did nothing wrong."
"This country has always touted its freedom, but we both know the thinking: anyone who isn't one of us must have different loyalties."
A glimmer of recollection appeared in John's eyes. "Ivan's father was a Soviet scientist. He defected from the Soviet Union, but how many people could be certain that was genuine?"
"Change your perspective, and what counts as right changes too," John said calmly. "To Ivan, the Starks were thieves who stole his father's work. To the United States, they stopped an evil Soviet."
Relations between the two countries had been tense back then. How much credibility could a scientist who claimed to have defected really have?
"Do you want to find Ivan because you fear further retaliation, or because you feel guilty about what your father did?"
John stopped rubbing his ring, his eyes deep enough to swallow someone whole.
"You're Iron Man. When you learned that Stark's weapons were hurting the world, you chose to shut that business down."
"When you discovered that your father might have done something wrong, you wanted to fix it."
"Stark," John said, slowly shaking his head, "you're Iron Man. You're not God."
"I can tell you Ivan is at Taran Industries. I can also tell you he doesn't regret what he did. Once he has enough power, he'll come after you."
A white owl stood on the upstairs railing, one eye open and the other closed.
"You can choose to go after him, but that will bring trouble, because I won't stand by and watch."
John's honesty surprised Tony. This man disdained even trying to hide any of it from him.
"Aren't you afraid I'll put on my armor, fly to Taran Industries, and drag that bastard out and kill him?" Even Tony sounded uncertain.
"You can do that, provided you can beat me." John wagged a finger and chuckled. "Power comes first, Stark."
"If you have the power to destroy the world but destroy only one country, everyone left alive will praise your mercy."
Tony was confident he could handle Ivan, but faced with the unfathomable John, he hesitated.
It wasn't fear, exactly, but wariness of the unknown.
His father's mistakes played a part as well.
"Why did you choose to help him?" Tony asked, baffled.
As far as he could see, John wasn't that sort of person.
Although this was only their second meeting, John had saved him during their first. That said enough.
"Because he's my uncle's friend," John said as though it were obvious. "That makes him practically one of us."
"Your uncle's friend? He's crazy enough to kill hundreds of people!" Tony shouted. "You should have seen how insane he was!"
John shrugged. "He didn't succeed."
"What?" Tony couldn't believe it.
Was he brushing all those threats aside just like that?
"I'm not American, am I?" John smiled. "But for your sake, I can promise one thing."
There was no point expecting someone of mixed British and Russian heritage to feel much sympathy for the United States. Besides, John was a wizard.
"Ivan will fight you. It might be in business, or it might be in technology, but he won't drag civilians into it again."
He made that promise on one condition: Tony had to agree.
"You're even more willful than I am. You'll protect him just because he's practically one of your own?" Tony was exasperated.
"Don't tell me you don't know the United States does the same thing," John said indifferently. "He can build the armor and reactor that only you possess. Tell me, if he went to the government-even S.H.I.E.L.D.-what grounds would they have to turn him away?"
The military wanted the armor technology, but Tony refused to let it go.
If not for Rhodey, they wouldn't have gotten their hands on even one War Machine suit.
If they learned Ivan was alive and willing to work for them, why would they bother caring how Iron Man felt?
With enough profit at stake, sacrifices were just bargaining chips.
The truth was cruel. That was what made it the truth.
Tony understood that all of this could happen.
Keeping Ivan at Taran Industries might actually be the best way to minimize his brutality.
After much hesitation, Tony paced back and forth in front of John, then finally stopped and turned to him. "You won't stop me from fighting him?"
"As long as you're both willing," John chuckled, "I wouldn't stop you from sleeping together."
The remark was so outrageous that Tony almost thought Rhodey was sitting opposite him.
He couldn't exile Ivan or send him to prison, but as long as Ivan targeted only him and involved no one else, Tony would abandon his plan to force his way into Taran Industries.
"Then tell him for me: I'll be ready whenever he comes." With that, Tony turned and left.
On the streets of New York.
A luxury car sped through traffic.
Drivers along the road cursed at it.
Ferdinand drove, with John sitting in the back.
"Boss, I think you should get a driver's license. That's the only way to appreciate the joy of driving."
He couldn't understand how someone could own a garage full of luxury cars and resist driving them.
John wore headphones, listening to Orlov's recording of his conversation with Justin Hammer.
Justin Hammer had nothing to do with his parents' departure.
He did, however, have some connections with the Ten Rings.
Stark Industries and Hammer Industries had always been major players in the arms trade.
After Stark Industries shut down its weapons division, Hammer Industries took over those deals.
The Ten Rings also dealt with Hammer Industries, buying weapons under the table. Justin Hammer hadn't initiated it, but he had chosen to turn a blind eye.
After obtaining enough shares from Justin Hammer, John had become a major shareholder in Hammer Industries.
He was now heading to the Hammer Industries headquarters in Queens.
Although its share price was plummeting, even a fallen giant was still a giant. The company was still worth tens of billions.
If his dad hadn't secured enough shares beforehand, John wouldn't have been able to take over.
The car arrived at the Hammer Industries headquarters in Queens and stopped.
Ferdinand jogged around to open John's door.
"Could you make me a manager, boss?" he asked with a fawning smile.
If he became a manager, he would truly enter the middle class.
John glanced at him, took out his wallet right in front of him, and slipped two bills into his pocket. "Go buy yourself a better pillow," he said sympathetically. "Look at you, already dreaming in broad daylight."
Ferdinand stared blankly at the money, then at John.
Forget it. I'll keep it. It's two hundred dollars, at least.
John had expected the first person he met to be whoever was currently in charge of Hammer Industries.
Instead, what awaited him was rather bewildering.
In the office that had once belonged to Justin Hammer, he faced a redheaded woman across the desk.
"Hello. My name is Natalie Romankov."
Her professional smile was flawless.
Beautiful and poised, she radiated the air of an elite office professional.
Her sexy pencil skirt and white blouse, paired with black stockings, accentuated her perfectly proportioned legs.
John rested his chin against the back of his hand, lost in thought.
"I remember your name being Natasha Romanoff."
This wasn't Natasha's first stint as a CEO's assistant. With impeccable professionalism, she replied without batting an eye, "You remembered wrong."
"Questioning your boss isn't a good habit." John gave her a meaningful look. "Can't S.H.I.E.L.D. afford your salary? You've come to work as my assistant?"
Natasha dropped the act. She brushed back her beautiful red hair, her heels clicking against the floor.
Walking up to the desk, she gave him a flirtatious look. "I went through the hiring process. Yuri Orlov thought you ought to have an assistant."
"It seems Mr. Orlov cares a great deal about me," John scoffed. "What did S.H.I.E.L.D. send you here to do?"
"Your parents' whereabouts are uncertain, but you're an even greater concern, John Wick." Natasha perched her shapely rear on the desk and crossed her stocking-clad legs. "You're already being targeted."
"To watch me the way you watch Stark?" John shook his head with a laugh. "Should I thank S.H.I.E.L.D. for its concern?"
Hearing the mockery, Natasha said earnestly, "I'm serious. Your situation is extremely dangerous."
"Hell Paradise is nothing but a small fry. There's a much stronger force behind it. The Ten Rings don't think much of Hell Paradise."
"This is also why your father had to leave New York temporarily and go into hiding."
Black fabric showed faintly beneath Natasha's white blouse as she warned him, "We know he exists. He wants to bring your father down."
"Family is your father's weakness. They figured that out long ago."
"Even if you won't think of yourself, you need to think of your sister, Ariana."
As she said that, the temperature around them plummeted.
John raised his eyes and said without expression, "Speaking of which, there's something I'm very curious about."
"Why are you in my sister's framed photo, Black Widow?"
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