Chapter 2. Stark’s Promise!
"Ugh… How's this one?"
"Not impressive."
Tony grunted and picked a different set of dumbbells, weightier. "How about these? They look good? What about the sweat?"
Happy Hogan kept the smartphone steady, recording Tony. "That's good enough, Boss."
With that, Tony started doing bicep curls with those weights. He did a few before placing them back in the racks and turning towards the camera, looking into it. "Great view, isn't it?"
He strolled up to the colossal glass window, soaking in the panoramic vista of the ocean stretching out before him. The sun danced on the waves, a sight that could make even the most stoic envy a billionaire. "I can practically hear the eye rolls from here. 'Oh, Tony Stark, flaunting his toys again.' 'Ugh, there he goes, Mr. Privilege and his ocean view.' 'Talk about disconnected from the real world.'"
Tony snapped his fingers, and Jarvis obediently projected a hologram into the air, revealing a peculiar, slender, metallic figure. It was not your typical Iron Man suit; this one was constructed from thin metal rods, lacking the usual thickness for arms or legs.
"Sure, I boast. But you should be able to boast too. Why does it cost an arm and a leg to buy a house these days? Back in the good old days, you could snag a house, a car, pay in installments, and still have plenty left over for a big, happy family."
Tony stepped closer to the camera then, "I can bring back those days. With a revolutionized construction industry that promises speed and quality—Soon every American will be able to afford a house. Let me introduce you to Project Backbone."
Happy Hogan stopped recording right then, as the next part of the video was to be added later on since it was mostly an epic animation. The idea was to create exoskeletons for construction workers and builder droids for bigger, more complex projects.
"You're really going to do it?" Happy asked, his palms sweaty, considering his boss would likely be the future President. "There will be a lot of pushbacks."
"I know," Tony muttered and nonchalantly went to the side to grab his water bottle. "Housing, Healthcare, Infrastructure—everything has someone's vested interest."
"Are you gonna go against them?"
"We've got the tech to make life a breeze for just about everyone. But hey, every time you try to shake things up, you get resistance. That's just the way the world works, right?" Tony wiped his face clean with a towel as he saw Pepper walk into the gym area, "But, I'm Tony Stark. They can try, but they won't succeed."
"Notary's here! Can you please come to sign the transfer paperwork?" Pepper walked over to the side and started working on her phone.
"Training time," Tony blurted and moved towards the boxing ring. "We can do that anytime…"
He trailed off mid-speech as he saw another person walk in. Tony couldn't take his eyes off this one—silky flaming red hair, an oval face, and high cheekbones. Her frame wasn't too tall, lithe, with a symphony of curves right where needed, particularly visible in her tight white half-sleeved shirt and formal pants. Her eyes a hypnotic emerald gleam that matched Tony's gaze right away.
Hiring department deserves a fat bonus. Tony thought after seeing her.
"Approved," he blurted.
Pepper looked at him and then noticed the new person. She rolled her eyes in the end, "She's from legal—"
Tony's brows furrowed, and he glanced back at the new girl. "Legal? What's your name, lady?"
"Natalie Rushman."
"You lift?" Tony asked jovially and walked over to the dumbbells again to continue his workout.
"Tony, it's unnecessary. Just sig—"
But Natalie walked up to him on her own, getting closer to Tony's side. The top two buttons of her shirt were dangerously unbuttoned, threatening to show a little too much. Without much effort, she leaned down a bit and picked up a heavy-weight dumbbell with ease.
Tony nodded in admiration. "A beauty with brains and brawns? You're practically a unicorn."
Her eyes were big and green, and her red lips looked particularly succulent. She kept staring at Tony so much that even the billionaire genius playboy felt taken aback—not that he hated it, appreciating her beauty.
"I need your impressions," she softly spoke, her words as if manufactured to seduce, carrying a breathy feeling to it.
Tony looked intensely at her, nodding. "Beautiful, smart, clearly strong—"
"Thumb impression."
"Oh," Tony exclaimed and took the file in her other hand, letting her manage the lone dumbbell she had picked. He didn't waste time and opened the correct page and plastered his thumb on it. "With that, I got myself a new boss."
Chuckling, Pepper walked over and shook Tony's hand that was initially extended towards Natalie. "You're still the majority owner."
"Anything else, Mr. Stark?" Natalie took the file back and asked, staring into Tony's eyes nonstop.
"No, that will be all, Ms. Rushman," Pepper interrupted and dismissed her, sending her away.
But Tony continued to watch her fleeting back with keen interest until she disappeared. Finally, he looked back at Pepper, "I just had an epiphany—"
"No, you didn't. No, she's not going to be your assistant."
"She's strong." Tony said, "She can double as my bodyguard too."
"I'll have other excellent applicants lined up for an interview with you. You can choose from them," she argued.
But Tony shook his head, "Too late, the decision's been made. I need someone right now. I'm too busy. I know it's her."
"No, it's not," she denied it and put her phone down. "Will you be joining the executive board's party? Introduce your new CEO?"
"Boring," Tony mumbled and walked away to enter the boxing ring. "I've got an election to prepare for."
And a damn arc reactor to fix.
"Then I'll leave you to it."
"Good luck, boss." Tony waved and jumped into the ring to practice with Happy. The man was no longer his bodyguard, however. But still, a great friend.
####
It was still over a year until the elections, but his announcement had already kicked off the election season, and the news channels started to run segments about the next election. Of course, with Stark Industries managing matters behind the scenes, the negative coverage related to Tony slowly turned into neutral, or positive.
But Tony knew it was impossible to win over the people without something concrete. He needed to show his promises weren't vague or impossible to fulfill. So, for a whole month, without leaving his mansion, he worked on creating an automated production line for his armor. It was based on the designs he had planned for the new Stark Tower being built in New York.
"Jarvis, let's start with the first phase." Tony finished the first batch of twenty suits and decided to try them right away. They weren't as equipped as his main, new Mark V suit, and were more focused on dealing with everyday crimes.
It had a compressed fire extinguisher. It had electrocuting nets to catch running suspects, and precision lasers that could cut steel or blow tires. Heat detectors, life support systems, and so much more. He was still perfecting it, but he needed to do some test runs before expanding the operation.
"All the state and federal laws have been uploaded, Sir," Jarvis informed. "Ten suits are prepared to be sent out."
"Great." Tony gave his authorization to send out the suits. They were still painted the iconic red, as the goal was to make people automatically see them and think of none but Tony Stark. "Go forth, my children. Make me proud."
With that, ten Iron Man suits flew out of the Stark mansion. The main focus areas were cities for now—Los Angeles and San Francisco. The suits were equipped with police radios as well as a 911 dispatcher tracker.
The moment the ten suits soared into the sky, they headed in different directions, coordinating between themselves perfectly. In case of a mass incident, they were programmed to work as a team.
"How long do you plan to run the first test, Sir?" Jarvis asked. "Should I proceed with producing more suits?"
"More? Don't even think of stopping now, Jarvis. We need five hundred of these," Tony warned, walking over to his desk to change the Palladium core once again. "The trial results will be tuned and uploaded to the rest of the suits later. I'd give it a week before real statistics of effectiveness start coming."
"But your health is dete—"
"I know," Tony cut Jarvis off. "I feel it every morning… I'm looking into it."
####
Woosh!
Iron Guardians, the name given to the pilotless suits, jetted through the skies of Los Angeles. It was daytime, the city was bustling with activity. People spotted the red, flying suit right away, taking pictures and videos whenever possible.
But Iron Guardian number 9 had a mission. An accident had been reported involving a biker and a trailer truck. The Iron Guardian reached it in record time and landed with a metallic thud.
There was no fire, but the truck's trailer had overturned, crushing the entire motorbike and the rider's legs. He was barely breathing through his helmet, his lower body crushed into pieces of bones.
"Don't worry, I'm here to help," Tony's voice came from the suit. Through the sensors, the suit checked the man's vitals and then proceeded to lift the trailer and shove it away. Quickly after, the suit ran a quick diagnosis on the man's lower body. "Bad, but you'll walk again."
The Iron Guardian wrapped any visible open wound and gave first aid. It could do plenty more, like performing emergency surgery. But it held back as the sound of ambulances and fire trucks started to approach.
A few minutes later, the Iron Guardian took to the sky once again. Dozens of people near the site of the accident had already recorded everything, and uploaded it on their social media accounts. It was too easy being viral as Iron Man.
Meanwhile, many miles up north, another Iron Guardian landed inside an expensive mansion in a good part of San Francisco. It walked in with authority and located the distressed party. A call had been made from there that someone was suffering a heart attack.
The suit found the patient, and a few other family members in the mansion's hall, trying to hold the patient, who was in his sixties.
"Please, move away," Iron Guardian ordered and checked the vitals. With a plethora of medical instruments added to the suit, it placed its palm on the old man's chest and used it as a defibrillator. At the same time, an emergency heart attack medicine was injected into the bloodstream.
"He's safe." The Iron Guardian announced as the heart attack subsided, despite the condition being fragile. It waited until the first responders arrived and took over the situation, thanking Iron Man plenty of times for the help.
Right after that, the Iron Guardian soared back into the sky in search of the next emergency.
It was a shocking day for the people of California. The Iron Guardians stopped car chases, and armed robberies, even saving civilians by catching bullets itself. Using the sensors, they also caught large drug shipments, caught illegal firearm sales, and stopped disasters such as fires.
Slowly, the internet buzzed with video footage of Iron Man appearing throughout the state of California. It didn't take too long before people found out about the new YouTube channel live streaming. With the faces of people blurred in real-time, the 'Tony Stark' YouTube channel gathered tens of thousands of live viewers in an instant, earning a million subscribers in the first three days.
Before long, mainstream media began to cover the news as well, and that was the moment Tony decided to come out of his hermit mansion and show his face to the world. He hadn't done so in a long time, but he had accepted an in-studio live interview with a news channel.
"Please don't say something crazy. The board is already nervous about your presidential bid." Pepper Potts came to make sure Tony looked his best for that evening interview. Having been his assistant for so long, it was just an instinct.
Tony scoffed, taking a shot of whiskey while Pepper tied his necktie. "Nervous? They should be excited to see me in the Oval Office."
"They are, but they're also afraid you'll say something... unpleasant."
Tony shrugged, "Sounds like a they problem."
"Tony, I also needed to speak with you about the Expo—"
Tony ignored her as soon as she said that and grabbed his suit jacket. Then, he stepped into his new Mark V armor. "Expo stays, Pepper."
"We're wasting money!" She had to shout as the suit's boosters made noise.
Tony still shook his head. Expo was one thing he didn't feel like budging on. Without giving her another verbal refusal, he simply flew away in his armor, flying straight to the news station's building.
An hour before the interview, he landed on the terrace of the building. Since his interview was to be shown live during Prime Time, the sky was already dark. The distant sound of a police siren made him wonder if he should add a few more Iron Guardians.
"Early? Never thought I'd see such a day, Mr. Stark."
Tony looked towards the terrace doorway of the building, finding a tall, slender, blonde woman walking towards him. Her shoulder-length hair was neatly made for that day, while her two piece dress was sleeveless; A blouse with a deep neck, and a knee-length professional skirt, hugging her feminine flesh.
Tony was no stranger to her, having known her outside and inside—literally. It being her was the whole reason why he agreed to the interview. "Ready for the career-making interview of your lifetime, Ms. Everhart?"
She approached him with a big, pearly-white smile showcased. "You know me well, Mr. Stark."
"Too well," Tony replied, knowing very well why she stood so close to him with that deep neck of her dress. Though, even placing sex appeal aside, Tony felt the need to have a few newsroom faces in his pocket, or at least in favor. You never know when you might need them.
"I will revise you through the big-hitter questions, Mr. Stark. I can't appear too docile, can I?" she said, sidestepping and inviting him to the elevator.
Tony couldn't care less about questions since he had a fixed agenda behind coming there. But still, he remembered Pepper's advice and agreed to listen. He didn't take off his suit either and walked into the elevator with her.
"Ms. Potts will be heavily discussed this time. You just made her the new CEO, and too many people are curious about the reasoning."
She should be here to answer these then. Tony felt annoyed already, remembering why he hated interviews like these.
But he tolerated it and arrived at the main floor of the news station. However, just as they were passing by the restroom, he felt the urge to pee. "Just a minute, Ms. Everhart."
Tony walked into the restroom and stepped out of his metal suit. He relieved himself first and then fixed his hair at the sink and the mirror.
"No need to worry. The makeup department will do a touchup." Christine Everhart shamelessly walked into the men's restroom, her black, high-heeled footwear tapping on the floor with an echo.
Tony didn't bother looking and continued to fix his hair. "What else is on the list of questions? My breakfast and dinner?"
Christine walked closer to Tony and acted like she was helping him with his tie, a gesture Tony allowed her to continue as he got a nice view of her hills. "Why not? You're a man that the country admires. They'd love to know what a day is like in Tony Stark's life."
"Living like a hermit in my workshop," Tony replied honestly, glazing into her blue eyes. "You haven't seen it, have you?"
"I couldn't, last time."
Tony just hummed, "True, it's only for a select few."
"Really?" Christine stepped closer to Tony suddenly, pushing the front of her body against his suit-clad chest, her hands still on his tie. "Any chance I can be added to that list?"
In your dreams maybe? Tony thought but didn't say it out loud.
After all, when a lamb willingly came for the slaughter, who was he to say no? If he refused, it'd be a shame to the Stark name.
"Depends on how good you are," Tony replied, placing his hands on her waist, feeling how thin it was. "In the interview… of course."
"Hmm… Of Course." She hummed and looked back towards the door for a moment. Then, she pushed Tony towards the toilet stalls. She moved him into one of the empty ones and made him take a seat on a closed toilet lid. "We have enough time… to revise the questions."
Without turning, she locked the stall's door behind her while continuing to stare at Tony with a sultry look on her face. She knew she was a nobody in Tony's eyes, just a hot blond with a little role in the grand scheme of things. She knew it wasn't far from reality either.
But, if being a hot blond could earn her a few extra points with the future President of the country, it was all worth it. She didn't hope for money, or power; just a few good interviews every once in a blue moon.
"Shall we start revising, Mr. Stark?" Christine asked as her body leaned closer to him.
Tony remained sitting on the toilet, his loins going warm as the long legs of this woman were indeed ravishing to look at. He had already banged her brains out once, after all, so there wasn't much of a secret shock hidden there.
He just folded his arms, slouched back, and spread his legs wide. "Go ahead."
"Hmm… always the confident one, aren't you?"
Christine started to sway her hips, both her hands pulling up her skirt with her fingers, inch by inch. More and more of her soft, sultry, pale legs were revealed. "So what does the infamous Tony Stark plan to do, when he gets the…. Highest… position in the country?" She asked with tickling whispers.
"Oh, a lot... Everything can be improved. But first, I will have to examine things thoroughly…" Tony teased with his nonchalant tone as he caught sight of her sexy, lacy, white panties. Biting his lower lip as he saw her hook both her thumbs on each side of her pantie and pull them down towards her knees and, letting them fall to her ankles.
"So, you're really going to dip…" Christine continued as she kicked them away from her high-heels. "Your fingers… ummmmph… in everything?" She moaned between sentences as her hand moved towards her warm, moist sheath.
One of her hands caught her delicate, soft petals, and spread them with her fingers; While the other started rubbing her swollen nub.
Tony enjoyed the view, fascinated by the way her juices started to aid her fingers. He also moved, his hands began caressing up and down her satin-smooth thighs, keeping her heated core right in front of his face. "Only if they let me," he answered with a smirk.
"Why wouldn't th-they...Oh... A genius... Umphh... Like you?" Christine moaned, every word dripping out of her lips with heated desire, taking in the warm feeling of his palms on her skin.
"Oh… And they do say you're a-ah…a philan-nnnmm...thropist…" She started to wiggle her hips, her pussy dangerously close to his lips now. "Feeling a little generous, tonight?" she asked, looking at him with her craving eyes.
Tony smiled and finally leaned back on the toilet tank. He widened his legs with his fingers interlocked behind his head. His bulging erection clearly visible, imprinted on the cloth of his pants. "I'd have to think about that. It's not exactly…. Hard enough, to need my attention. Maybe you could help it along?"
Christine giggled at his words, both understanding what he actually meant. She placed both hands on his shoulder, her fingers moving lower and lower, as she slowly lowered her body to kneel in front of him.
She dragged her nails over Tony's shirt, tickling the skin of his chest as they found their place on his belt. She licked her lips and unbuckled his belt, "Such a demanding man. I like it."
After pulling down his zipper, she tugged down the front part of his underwear, unleashing the thing she wanted most. His cock came out, still a little relaxed but fully calling on her thirst. Her nimble fingers started stroking him up and down, and her tongue extended with its gleaming saliva.
"Um.." Tony hummed a little, suppressing a groan as he relaxed his head back.
He could feel her small kiss on his swollen head, her hot tongue sliding across his growing member, tickling his base then moving up and around his cockhead. It flicked the rim of his crown with little swishes of its tip, then finally went back down to smother his base with long, wide strokes.
Her warm saliva rolled down his shaft as her tongue went back up with slow slithers. She savored every lick like his engorged flesh was a tasty popsicle.
Christine could feel his cock throbbing under her touch, straining into a rock-hard evidence of his arousal. She left a few more licks and butterfly kisses on his cock, coating him thoroughly with her spit.
"Let's not ruin my lipstick," she suddenly said.
Tony was surprised when she stood up, but felt happy when she widened her legs and placed each one on the sides of his lap. He instinctively placed both his hands on her slender waist, slowly guiding her down. The moist junction of her thighs leisurely lowered itself towards his now rigid flesh.
Christine guided his cock with both hands, aiming straight for her sweltering core. As his cockhead kissed her lower lips, she bit her lips in feeling the way his member parted her pink petals, stretching her entrance to accommodate his size. "Ummm…."
She felt him glide into her, her juices aided as he stretched her walls inside, scraping the rim of his cock on the straining muscles of her wet walls. As his cock kept going in deeper and deeper, her eyes never left his face, as if she wanted to see who would break first.
Tony could feel the heat engulf him deep, all the way to his base.
She moved on her own, placing both her hands on Tony's shoulders for leverage. She started moving her hips, her ass bouncing on his thighs. Small whispers of moans escaped her lips as she fucked herself on Tony's iron-hard flesh. "Oh… oh…yes…"
Tony's eyes sparkled. He admired the view of his cock spreading her blushing petals and squeezing into her depths as she moved her succulent ass up and down. She arched her back, letting her core grind down on his manhood.
One of his hands went down between them, pressing and caressing her clitoris well, since it was easy in that position.
He didn't bother with her small mounds since they were a lot less plump than his preference anyway. Instead, he sunk his thumb into her mouth as he caressed the side of her face, stopping her from crying out in pleasure.
Christine happily obliged. Her lips suckled and licked around his thumb while her pussy milked his throbbing cock with her quivering walls. Her lips clamped around his digit while her body tensed up. Then, with a burst of hot release, her nectar flowed onto his cock.
"Gk… Tight! I'm close…" Tony remarked as he felt her walls contracting all around him in hot, wet clenches.
"Not yet, Mr. Stark…" Christine suddenly pinched Tony's nipple through the fabric, pulling him off the ledge.
She pulled Tony's twitching shaft out of her drenched core as she stood up, turning to the door of the stall. She lifted her skirt higher, showing him what he had done to her with her ass up in the air.
"One more time…" She begged with a seductive tone, as her hand held her blushing petals agape with her fingers from below. Her dripping juices rolled down her fingers, inviting Tony to have a taste. "If you please, Mr. President."
The way she spoke made him want to ravage that body of hers until she begged him to stop.
The smile on Tony's face wouldn't come down. He quickly stood up, standing right behind her. As his pants came down to his knees, he aimed his twitching cock right into her portals of wonder.
With a single, forceful thrust, he rammed into her squelching slit. His rhythm was quick and frantic, looking for that wondrous bliss inside her body. With both hands on the stall door, Christine pushed her ass back, letting him slam into her flesh with resounding slaps. The more she resisted the push, the deeper he went, diving and digging into her sweltering core.
"Ah, ah, ah! Yesss! Deeper, Tony… Harder!" She yelped everytime he shoved into her, causing her body to rock and thump against the door.
Tony couldn't get enough of the sounds she was making. The breathless moans in delight and the dirty, squelching spurts of her pussy; a primal symphony of lust.
"Ugh… Gk… Where?" Tony asked through gritted teeth as he was teetering on the edge of release.
"Inside! Fuck me, fill me up, Tony! Ah! Ahh!" Christine went wild with lust, her hips drawing circles around his thrusting cock.
"But.. Agh! Damn it!" Tony almost doubted, but her ass started bouncing back onto him. Her pussy firmly grasping his cock tightly.
Christine pushed her hands on the stall door, fucking herself on his cock again as her body rocked back and forth.
"I'm on... Ahhh ah… I'm on the… Ooh, the pill!" She moaned out every word, drowning in bliss.
Tony perked up at the thought, vigorously plowing in to find that light at the end of the heavenly tunnel. With long, deep thrusts, striking her core to the fullest.
Tony finally felt the twitching turn to tremors, traveling up from his knees to his balls. His abs contracted, feeling as if his soul was sucked into her ravenous furnace. It was one of the longest release he had ever felt, with burst after burst of creamy white seeds spilling into her.
His fatigue finally came crashing down on him. He took a step back, pulling his now similarly exhausted cock out of her twitching core.
Christine steadied her legs, taking some toilet paper from the roll on the stall wall, and somewhat cleaned her swollen petals with it. She rested with her back on the door, smiling at Tony with a satisfied grin.
After a minute of cleaning up and steadying their breaths, they both finally came out of the toilet stall.
Tony looked in the mirror and fixed his tie, as Christine did with her hair and blouse. Then he turned and went back into his metal suit.
"Are you going to give an interview in that armor?" She asked, not bringing up the matter of his workshop. She knew how far she could push.
Tony nodded, keeping the helmet open so his face was visible. "Don't you want it to be iconic?"
"Yes, but…"
"Iron Man's the talk of the town lately. It's good for your TRP," Tony said and wore his fashionable glasses, "Let's go then. Your revision cost us an exact forty minutes."
Giggling, Christine stepped in front of Tony to lead him, making her hips sway a little more purposefully. "Not my fault, Mr. Stark. Who knew the revision would go on for so long."
"Can't help it. So many details to hash out," Tony replied and followed her out of the restroom.
Christine led him into the studio, where the whole set was created. She introduced him to other journalists who were going to join since Christine wasn't senior enough to do the entire interview alone.
The set wasn't a green screen, but rather a large wallpaper. There were four single-seater couches, two on each side, facing each other, and the audience bench that was yet to be filled. On both sides of the set there were also large screens for them to look at the materials being shown to the TV audience.
Tony just went ahead and sat down on one of the couches, cross-legged, still in his Mark V armor. The interview hadn't started, and yet all eyes were on him. Soon, the curtain was dropped as the final countdown began.
The field producer controlled the audience while the last countdown echoed on the speakers. Christine didn't take a seat beside him and stood on the other side of the curtain as the segment's main, starting host. Tony's other side was already occupied by an old-looking man and a similarly old woman.
"Tonight, we have a special guest in the room. A man famous around the world, sometimes for his genius, and sometimes for his adventurous personality. Please wel—"
Tony cringed in heart hearing that introduction by Christine. But he did what Pepper had taught him. As the curtains spread apart, he smiled and waved at the crowd of spectators, who went wild seeing him.
I guess I really can become the President. He felt after seeing the excited crowd. I hope they're not paid.
"So, some people are interested in the daily life of a billionaire? Let's start there. What did you have for breakfast today, Mr. Stark?" Christine sat beside him on the couch and asked the first question. It almost took him by surprise, making him chuckle.
"Worked all night, so my lunch was my breakfast. Just a few boiled eggs and a glass of juice," Tony answered, going slow with what he had planned. "Yeah, I'm just like you all."
"What about dinner?" Asked the old man, thinking it'd be funny.
It was funny though, but only in the mind of Tony and the blonde woman beside him as he responded. "Already had that—some top quality meat."
Christine licked her lips at that and decided to change the topic. "So, Mr. Stark. I think everyone watching wants to hear about those flying Iron Man suits across the state these days. What are they? Who are they?"
"Peace!" Tony responded, delighted that she had brought him to the topic he wanted to discuss. "Can you pull up the stats?"
"W-What stats?" the old woman interviewer asked.
Tony sighed, took out his personal device, and just hijacked the network. Right away, an easily understandable bar graph appeared on all screens.
"What you look at is the crime statistics of every major city in California. The red bar is the weekly number of violent crimes before my Iron Guardians started to help out. The blue bar is today's calculated weekly violent crime numbers—look at it! A drop of eighty percent."
Tony tapped on his device and changed the bar graphs. At the same time, he showed a few family-friendly clips of Iron Guardians stopping robberies, accidents, and busting drugs.
"The number of robberies fell by sixty percent. Large-scale drug trafficking decreased by ninety percent. Kidnappings have fallen by one hundred percent. Every single crime-related matric has dropped more than fifty percent, if not by a whole hundred."
Tony gave back control of the broadcast to the station and got off his seat. He looked straight into the camera, letting people digest the data he just showed.
"Imagine a world where you don't have to fear getting robbed, murdered, kidnapped, attacked, or receiving delayed medical aid. Ten—that's the number of Iron Guardians I used to change the crime statistics of this state," Tony revealed. "And I plan to deploy five hundred of them around the country!"
The interviewers, the staff, the audience, and even those watching the television went speechless for a moment.
Tony continued, standing still proudly, his Iron Man suit making him look taller and imposing.
"As Tony Stark, and as the future President of America, let this be my promise and gift. I won't stop until this country is crime-free! That is my promise—that is my guarantee!"
Finally, he showed a victory sign with a big smile. "Vote for Stark!—Vote for the future!"
"Stark!"
"Stark!"
"Stark!"
The live audience began chanting his name right then, feeling excited and pumped by his little speech and a promise that had already shown effective plausibility and results.
Easy, as expected. Tony felt, seeing how easy it was to sway the public. The hard part is surviving till the election.
However, as if that wasn't enough, Tony went on and dropped another big announcement. This was so wild that it made every single American hopeful and a little excited. Especially since it came from his mouth.
"And I'm on the verge of a breakthrough of a century—Mark my words! By the end of next year, I'll revolutionize the energy sector! One hundred percent clean, uninterrupted energy will run New York at a cost seventy percent less—by the end of twenty-fifteen, all major cities will—by twenty-twenty, all of America."
This time, Tony threw a fist at the sky, hyping up the viewers. He didn't ask for a vote this time, as it'd be counterintuitive. But that didn't mean the crowd couldn't.
"Vote Stark!"
"Vote Stark!"
"Vote Stark!"
Damn, I feel like a rockstar with a fan club of murderous teen girls.
Tony didn't like to lie to himself, so he knowingly greatly enjoyed the chants. His narcissistic heart loved the attention.
Go on, cry for your benevolent god… Alright, that was a bit too much.
He just couldn't help his proactive mind.
Winning's gonna be a breeze as long as no crazy supervillain appears out of thin air now.
Sadly, only if Tony knew how massively jinxed that thought was.