The race was about to start. James finished his meal and moved toward the field's edge. Someone dangerous was about to make a move, and James was ready, his pistol already loaded.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As the race began, Tony Stark's car tore down the track, and James scanned the crowd for Ivan Vanko. A dangerous genius. The man had built his own weaponized rig using scrap parts almost like Tony's first Iron Man.
Then he saw him.
Ivan Vanko, wearing a makeshift battle suit built around a glowing arc reactor in his chest. His upper body is strapped with metal harnesses and power cables, feeding energy into two electrified whips attached to his arms. Being shirtless, showing off scars and tattoos, and wearing torn orange prison pants, giving him the look of a dangerous, unhinged genius who built a deadly weapon from scraps.
The electric whip lashed out, slicing a car in half as it flipped down the track in a fiery roll. James picked up speed, weaving through the panicked crowd. His heart pounded. He jumped, landing on shoulders and bounding forward, until he reached the barricade. From under his jacket, he drew his twin pistols, Beretta 92F and M1911, S.H.I.E.L.D. registered, not local. Firing them here in Monaco was risky but who cares?
The crowd shrieked.
Tony Stark's car was closing in.
James raised his arm and fired. The bullet screamed through the air toward Vanko's exposed arc reactor, his crude harness offering no protection. But Vanko twisted, and the shot clipped the edge of the housing, bouncing off.
"Drop it now!" James shouted, stepping onto the track. "Get down and disarm, or I won't miss next time."
He held up both pistols. Ivan eyed the guns, he knew how many rounds they held. He was a fighter and a survivor. But James had the upper ground.
"You gonna help the Starks?" Vanko growled. "These thieves."
"Tell it to the judge. You're on a track full of civilians, using an illegal weapon. Disarm now."
"You're a rich man's dog."
"Wrong! I'm rich, too. I just happen to like law enforcement. Now drop it."
Vanko didn't answer. His eyes flicked toward the track, Tony's car was revving toward them. James noticed the change and reacted. Vanko moved, swinging a whip. James fired again.
The round curved in the air as he shifted his wrist mid-shot. It struck a cable on Vanko's right whip, disconnecting it from its power source. The electric arcs vanished just in time as Tony's car blazed past, intact.
James didn't stop.
He unloaded on Vanko's chest harness. Sparks flew. One by one, the mechanical parts failed, and Vanko staggered.
SWAT tackled him to the ground.
James calmly approached and removed the reactor from his chest. "Should've built better," he muttered.
Vanko laughed from the ground, coughing. "Tony Stark, your family are thieves. All of them... thieves."
Tony stepped through the chaos, eyeing the wreckage. "Hey, you stole my thunder. I was supposed to suit up and save the day."
James rolled his eyes. "If I hadn't, you'd be in pieces. Look." He tossed Tony the stolen arc reactor. "Same build as yours."
"Right. But first… let's hear it for the man who actually saved the day."
Later, after the race, they visited Vanko at the local precinct. Tony had secured five minutes. They entered the holding cell, and Vanko glared at them.
Tony, curious more than hostile, said, "Pretty good tech. Your rpm's a little low, though. I'd double it. You're getting decent output from the plasma tubing—but it's not efficient. Still, solid imitation."
"You could profit," Vanko said. "Sell it to any number of governments. Or just put it on the black market."
Tony raised a brow. "That's not really my thing."
"You're a Stark. Your family are robbers. All thieves, now pretending to be saviors."
"I'm sorry, where exactly do you think I stole this from?"
"My father. Anton Vanko."
"Never heard of him."
Vanko sneered. "You will. I can wait for your death in this cell. Have you told anyone about your poisoning yet?"
Tony smirked. "Sure. Him." He pointed to James. "Genius. Partner. And the guy who's going to save my life. Meanwhile, you get to rot here and watch us change the world."
Vanko looked at James now, and James met his gaze. "Everything you said came from your father. Maybe it's true, maybe not. But the record's not hard to check. It could be you're just another tragedy. You've got talent, though. Use it better next time."
They left.
Back on the jet, news played on the screen. A senator was making noise again.
"He's back, and he wants the suit," Tony said, bored.
James just smirked. "They can't afford your reactor, Tony. That's what this is. If you give up the armor, they'll be back tomorrow for everything else you own."
"Good point. I could vaporize an entire carrier fleet. What do they think they're doing?"
"Thinking you'll play nice. You don't have to. It's a free country, right?"
Pepper chimed in, horrified. "Are you two seriously planning a war? Stark Industries can't survive a standoff with the government!"
"They won't go that far," James said calmly. "You don't steal from billionaires and expect applause. And if we need to… we go public with Vanko's story. That shuts them down fast. He's not a replicable threat, and you, Tony, have the only energy source that works."