I wanted to go right away to get some vibranium from Klaue but decided against it since I needed to be more careful.

So I spent a few weeks knocking out any kinks in the Mk.III armour and also started the construction of VANGURD (Vigilant Autonomous Network for the Global Unmanned Response and Defence) System I planned to construct.

Right now, there are only a few drones, similar to the Iron Legion but with quite a few differences. Primarily, they had the same smooth features as the Mk.III, so they were stealthy, and they lacked an arc reactor in each drone, which was replaced with my prototype, high-capacity carbon batteries, in case one of these fell into someone else's hands.

After testing them for a few days, I decided it was time to start being ironman.

“Sir, we have almost arrived at the coordinates of the ship, Churchill.” Jarvis said this as I closed the research paper I had been reading. I went up in the air a bit and hovered about half a mile from the ship as I stretched my back since it had gone a bit stiff from sitting in an awkward position for too long. I looked down at the rusted ship that was highlighted on my HUD and expanded it. The ship looked like it was barely still in one piece. I then asked, “So, this is where a lot of my weapons ended up, eh?” to which he just let out an affirmation. My fist then clenched.

I had gotten Jarvis to compile a list made up of the locations of arms dealers that Obadiah had sold my weapons to. On top of that, I also had him compile a list of other arms and drug dealers, human traffickers, and terrorists that were all publicly known since it would be incredibly suspicious if a bunch of arms dealers suddenly started blowing up, and the one thing connecting them all was the fact they possessed stark industries weapons.

When it came to how Jarvis picked out targets, that was simple. I had gotten him to leak all the information on Obadiah since that was the plan, and my ending up in the hospital didn’t stop that. The reason was twofold: firstly, it prevented the government, and by that, I meant Hydra, from trying to sweep it under the rug since the majority of the weapons were being used by terrorists who were Hydra proxies. Two, it meant that when I started blowing them all up while Hydra was stalling and Iron Man started coming into the limelight, it meant I could have plausible deniability.``

As for the other targets, well, that was a bit more complicated. When it came to human traffickers, my policy basically came down to immediate execution. I still found it appalling that there are more people now, still in slavery, than at any point in history, even if proportionally it was less.

However, terrorists and drug dealers were completely different; the majority of ‘terrorists’ were mostly freedom fighters, and I would only target them if they actually ended up doing or planning acts of terrorism against civilians. The reason was that it was kind of hypocritical to say someone can’t use force to do something when that was exactly what I was doing.

And with drug dealers, I was even more lenient. Most of the time, if you just destroy a supply chain, someone else will take its place, but this time more armed, since wherever there is demand, someone will supply. Hence, my policy was that until I could actually change the social circumstances of drug users, the best thing to do was keep them as clean as possible.

I didn’t want a repeat of the fourth Mexican civil war when, in 2026, the Mexican government finally lost control due to a recession since they couldn’t pay the army or what little remained of the police, and several generals and cartels started competing. I clearly remember when the US ended up having to intervene when a chemical attack in El Paso ended up coming over the border and killing hundreds in the San Diego suburbs.

Years later, I had heard from a few guys in the delta that the Mexican intervention was worse than Vietnam and Afghanistan combined. So yeah, the big stick approach doesn’t work unless you are willing to accept casualties on both sides.

Out of the eight drones I made, only one had fallen apart on the way here and had promptly self-destructed.

As me and the several dozen drones all came down on the ship, several streams of tracer rounds spurted out from gun emplacements that had been installed. I swerved my suit aside after a few flak rounds detonated right in front of me as Jarvis fired several missiles from the drones, and simultaneously, several explosions accurately destroyed all the gun emplacements.

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A surface-to-air missile was shot from one of the shoulders of a grunt and impacted one of the drones, causing it to disintegrate.

A drone let out over three dozen darts, which all locked onto a target, and a few seconds later all the men on deck collapsed, and there was silence. The six remaining drones began to enter the ship through a door, as I noticed a hold in the deck that had been where a gun emplacement was.

I landed with a loud clang inside the cargo hold. I scowled as I looked around and saw not only stockpiles of my weapons but even other weapons that were illegal. From toxic gases to phosphorus bombs, I held out my wrist, and out of it came dozens of silver discs with a red light on the top. They all began to buzz as they floated up and attached themselves to the superstructure of the ship.

I just shook my head, and a few seconds later I was impacted by a grenade, which detonated on impact. I was sent back a few feet while still staying upright and immediately lifted my hand repulsor, searching for where it came from. I flinched slightly as I let out a short stream of nouns straight at the guy's face and watched in slow motion as the man crumpled to the ground, his face melting off. After checking that the rest of the cargo hold was clear, I lifted into the air as I flew through the glass in an office to the side of the immense cargo hold. As soon as I did, I went flying as a blast of blue energy impacted my chest. “Fucking vibranium weapons.” I cursed out loudly as I landed in a pile of crates. As I got to my feet quickly, I dodged a second blue blast and immediately took cover behind a giant pipe in the wall. "Jarvis. Damage Report!"

"Sir, the energy impact has caused major damage to all systems. Mitigating currently." He responded as I surveyed my options. I knew the best thing to do was retreat since this suit wasn't built for this, but that would mean that Klaue would escape alongside his vibranium. "Jarvis, shoot a dart as soon as you have a firing solution on the weapon; I want Klaue alive, though. okay?" I then blasted up and around the pipe, coming face-to-face with Ulysses Klaue. I dodged again as the swirling blue mass of kinetic energy impacted the ship's hull behind me. At the same time, a shoulder dart shot out and hit Klaue's shoulder, and as it did, the arm went limp.

As I shot towards him, he tried to lift his arm with his other, but I impacted his chest with my foot as I landed, sending him flying a few feet against the wall with an audible crunch. As another goon walked around the corner, I bathed him in a shower of muons without hesitation, and he collapsed as his chest caved in. "I'll be taking that." I said as I limped over to Klaue, who was propped up against the wall and had coughed up a small amount of blood. As I grabbed the piece of Wakandan mining equipment, he wheezed out. "Who the hell are you, and what are you doing on my boat?"

I looked into his eyes and said, Ek gaan jou verdowwe, jou vibranium vat, en as jy wakker word, sal jy wees waar jy hoort, okei? (I am going to sedate you, take your vibranium, and when you wake up, you'll be where you belong, okay?) I then ripped off his arm, causing him to shout out in pain as I turned around and walked out of the room. As I did, a dart came out of my shoulder, but this one was full of sedatives. I just ignored him and began to clear the ship deck by deck while being careful not to get hit too much since my suit was heavily damaged. I eventually found a secret room that was hiding the vibranium. I smiled as I said. "Jarvis, get me a warehouse to store all of this." Klaue had somehow gotten away with half a tonne of vibranium, which, at three times less dense than titanium, was enough to last me a long time.

Once Jarvis had bought a warehouse just outside of Cape Town and had hired some guards, I began to slowly load the vibranium onto drones that carried it across the ocean. The Churchill was only a few miles off the coast of South Africa, so it didn't take too long. After a few trips, I then hoisted up the limp Klaue and took off for the nearest police station. I ignored the ship as it ignited into a huge ball of flames so hot that the metal itself would burn to a molten slag.

There was one officer with an elbow on the desk, using his arm to prop up his slumped head as he struggled to stay awake in the middle of the night. He was instantly put on alert when a man came flying through the front glass, smashing it. The officer immediately called for backup as I walked in. I then turned to him and said, "That man’s name is Ulysses Klaue; he has fourteen international arrest warrants; oh, and he needs a doctor." while using my British accent.

I then just walked out and took off for home after grabbing the piece of mining equipment and a small amount of vibranium from the warehouse.

Once it was on autopilot, I removed the head set I was wearing and got up to make myself a cup of tea. I was still limping, but I was confident I would be back to normal pretty soon.

Once the drones and Mk.III arrived back in Malibu, it practically fell apart as it landed. I sighed, realising that I had a long way to go before I could guarantee my safety in combat.

I then shook my head, and after getting them all back inside, I went out to an appointment I had with a team at Stark Industries run by Quentin Beck.

He was one of those villains, which, to be fair, I could actually sympathise with. Seriously.

“Mr Stark.” He greeted me as I shook his hand for the first time. He then introduced the rest of his team. I then said in reply, "Well, I look forward to working with you guys; what you're doing here is phenomenal work, and I’m going to make sure you get credit for an invention that is going to change the world.”