After a particularly bad drinking
binge, the board of Stark Industries decided it could no longer
subsidize Tony's downward spiral and they froze his assets. Even the
Avengers assembled to hold an intervention for him, saying though
they respected him as a hero and a friend, they could no longer stand
idly by as he drank himself to death.
“YOU ARE OFF THE TEAM, MORTAL!” boomed Thor, who due to his whole being a god of thunder thing had no choice but to speak in all caps. It came off much more critical than he intended, and Tony took it poorly. Bruce made a crack about anger issues, and it was up to Steve to settle the situation.
“For now,” he said, placating the
cast off billionaire tech mogul. “Just until you can get yourself
cleaned up. I mean, the laws don't let people drive a car when
they're drunk. It's morally and legally questionable for us to let
you operating a flying tank suit under the influence.”
Tony tried to argue, but it was all true. He broke down, apologized, confessed to all the times he'd secretly been drunk on the job, confessed to the vodka dispenser he'd installed, and to all the times Jarvis had to be a Designated Hero for him. Then he left.
Tony checked into a halfway house,
but having no Stark money to pay for it, was forced to moonlight as a
security guard in a gift shop in lower Manhattan to pay for his stay
at the center. It felt belittling at first, wielding billion dollar
anti-aircraft technology to protect souvenir mugs, but it reminded
him what he was working toward. It made him strive for greatness the
clean way. He needed that.
- Originally mailed to B. Nowell of Newport News, Virginia
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