Aftermath
Tony stood outside the medlab, hesitating. He knew this talk was coming, knew it had to happen, but he had no real idea how to proceed. It was one thing for him or any of the other Avengers: they had all killed before when the need had arisen. They understood that sometimes the balance of battle sometimes cost lives, whether lost or destroyed. But none of them were ten years old when they first came to understand this.
Raising his hand to knock again, he hesitated, then lowered it. How could he even begin to explain things to Rainbow? How could he make things better? Was that even a possibility?
He had reviewed the combat footage JARVIS had uploaded to him, both from Rainbow's own suit and from the security cameras in and around the bank. He knew how hard Rainbow had fought, and how close she had come to losing, possibly even being killed. He also knew that whatever had happened with the wing of her suit wasn't a conscious action. For one thing, it wasn't a part of the suit's original design. The only explanation he could come up with lay in the reactive alloy and the way the suit used a controlled set of nanites and her 'magic, snort snort' - she had actually labeled the energy her arc batteries stored as that on the blueprints - to both self repair and 'adapt as directed'. As best as he was able to determine from that, as Rainbow grew stronger she'd be able to consciously reconfigure her suit mid-battle to a certain extent. But the blade of the wing had not been a conscious action. It had been too quick, and no command prompt had actually been given.
How do you explain to your sweet, innocent little girl that the reason she accidentally just crippled a man is because her instincts indicate she comes from a race of ruthless killers?
Tony smacked his forehead with his palm. He was not going down that path of explanation. It was a crippling blow, yes, but it could just as easily have been a lethal one. Had the strike been aimed at Wrecker's neck it would have taken his head clean off. Besides that, without the armor the strike would have been, at most, stunning. So her instincts would be from a warrior race then.
Tony managed a smile then, his mind finally having forced through the block that had kept him from talking to Rainbow. She was an instinctive warrior, and needed to learn to control those instincts to keep herself from doing something like this again without meaning to. And who better to train her than someone she already respected from another warrior race? He was glad Thor insisted on sticking around this time until he was sure Rainbow had recovered from the fatigue of her first battle. Lifting his hand, Tony knocked on the door.
Pepper opened the door from inside. "About time you got here," she scolded, looking rather disappointed.
Tony shrugged, smiling disarmingly. "I have to get this right," he said apologetically. "I didn't want to risk making things worse with a wrong word."
Pepper sighed. "The delay may have done that anyway," she said, stepping aside to let him in.
Concerned, Tony headed to where Rainbow had been bedded down. The first thing he noticed as he entered was Rainbow's armor belt - the straps that held the arc batteries to her and from which her armor unfolded - hurled against a nearby wall, the damaged arc battery still not fixed. Turning his head, he then saw his daughter, her face buried in her cloud bed as she shook from long weeping. "Rainbow?"
She looked up at him, tears in her eyes. "Dad...I...I'm so sorry...I didn't mean to...I..."
Tony quickly crossed the room, sitting beside the bed and pulling her into his lap. "Hush now, Rainbow," he said softly, holding her in a gentle hug and rubbing the back of her neck through her mane. "It's not your fault."
"B-but I crippled him!" she whimpered. "I...I was just trying to save the day, like you always do...but I'm not a hero...I'm a monster..."
Tony winced, recognizing his own folly in this situation, the things he hadn't told her. He enjoyed how she looked up to him so much, he had only ever told her the 'good bits' of being Iron Man, not wanting to disillusion her. "...you think I've never done the same as Iron Man? Or worse?"
Rainbow looked up at him in surprise, sniffling. "Huh?"
Tony gently stroked her cheek. "Rainbow, being a hero isn't like in those comic books or cartoons. You can't always save the day completely, and not everyone makes it home or to jail in one piece every time. Sometimes, you can't save everyone. You can only do so much. You're only hu-" He paused. "Well, you're only mortal, anyway."
Rainbow couldn't help but giggle at that near slip.
"When I first started work as Iron Man," Tony explained, "I already knew that there would be times I couldn't save anyone. I built the first version of the suit in the middle of a war zone, and had to use it to fight my way out of a hostage situation to get to safety. I...had to leave someone who helped me behind, and I had to kill to make it to safety." He shook his head, not liking reliving those particular memories. "After that, the first time I wore the suit to save the day...I got lucky. I was facing robotic foes I could smash without concern, and I managed to save all civilians with a minimum of property damage. But...I knew I wouldn't be lucky forever. I worried a lot about how I would handle it when I'd be forced to kill again, to save others."
Rainbow was wide eyed. "It...it doesn't seem to bother you," she pointed out.
"It does," he replied easily. "I'm just better at hiding it. I also had a talk with someone that helped out."
"Who?"
"The head of an SRU team." Seeing Rainbow's confusion, Tony chuckled. "Strategic Response Unit. They're the division of police called in specifically to deal with hostage situations...at least when it only involves ordinary humans. He gave me some good advice, based on SRU protocol."
"Their protocol?" Rainbow asked, confused.
"Order of priority when securing lives in a hostage situation," Tony explained. "First priority is the hostages. Second is the officers. Third is the subject, the one who's taken hostages. He suggested I look at all situations where I'm called on as Iron Man in that way: first civilians; then myself, any teammates I have, and the local authority units; then the bad guys. That's the order of who I have to save." He looked her right in the eye. "Your first battle was rough...but you saved all the hostages, you came away in one piece, and three out of four 'subjects' were taken away alive and in one piece. Also, SHIELD's already working on fixing Wrecker's spine so they don't have to put him in a medical jail. Those are easier to escape."
"They...they can fix him?" Rainbow asked hopefully.
Tony smirked. "They certainly can. Heck, even if SHIELD couldn't, I probably could." Reaching over, he picked up her armor belt. "Now, what's this about? Why'd you throw this away?"
Rainbow's gaze lowered. "I...I'm still not a hero, Dad. I...I only crippled someone this time...but what if I do worse someday? What if...what if I kill someone? I don't even know why I did it! I didn't decide to do it! It just...happened!"
Tony smiled. "Rainbow, you aren't human-"
"Gee, thanks," Rainbow groused.
"Let me finish," Tony chided. When Rainbow settled, he continued. "You aren't human, Rainbow. It only makes sense your instincts will be very different then those of humans. Apparently, you also have some highly developed combat instincts, which means combat is something your species is naturally adapted to."
"You mean...I come from a race of brutal killers?" Rainbow whimpered.
"If you hadn't been wearing your armor, at best that blow would have stunned him, possibly temporarily caused a vertebra to slip," Tony pointed out. "Aimed at another Pegasus, though..." He gently trailed his finger up her spine. "It would have hit about here," he said, stopping his finger just below her wing base. "In air, that kind of blow would have probably locked the wing joints and caused the target to drop." As Rainbow's eyes widened, Tony grinned. "You don't come from a race of killers, Rainbow. You come from a race of warriors."
Rainbow blinked. "Huh...that's pretty cool, I guess."
Tony's grin softened into a relaxed smile. "And if you want to avoid something like this happening again, trying to avoid fights isn't the way to do it. If you've the blood of warriors in your veins, the call of battle will stir you to fight. If you want to fight well, so you don't hurt someone like that again, you need to learn how to fight right. You need to train. And I think training with a representative of another race of powerful warriors might help you learn to understand and control those instincts of yours."
Rainbow's eyes widened. "I'm going to train with Thor?"
"That's right," he replied happily. "Pretty cool right?"
"It'd be cooler if I were training with someone else," Rainbow muttered.
"Oh?" he asked. "Who? Me?"
"Well, you'd be pretty cool, too," she admitted. "But who I'd really like to train with-"
At that moment, the door opened and another person familiar to Tony came in. "Hey, Tony," he said. "Is she doing okay?"
Tony smiled up at him. "Hey Steve!" he greeted enthusiastically. "Finally found the time to meet her?"
Rainbow's ears perked up at the name, and her eyes locked on the iconic shield strapped to her visitor's back. "Omigosh omigosh omigosh omigosh omigosh!" she gasped out. "You're Captain America! You're, like, the third coolest person in the world! Aside from me, of course."
The Captain sat down as Rainbow hopped from Tony's lap back onto her cloud bed. "Only third?" he asked jokingly. "Who'd I rank under?" He turned to Tony. "Nick needs to talk to you," he mumbled, jerking a thumb towards the door, indicating Fury was here.
"Right," Tony confirmed. Picking up the armor belt, he smiled at Rainbow. "I'll get this back to you once it's repaired," he reassured her, scratching her behind the ear.
"Thanks Dad!" she said as he left. She turned back to Steve. "Well, my Dad's number one!"
Steve laughed. "I expected that. But who else do I rate under?"
"Hulk!"
"I'm less cool than him?" Steve demanded.
"I don't see you dressing up as Nanny McPhee to babysit me!"
Tony chuckled as he left the medlab. He didn't think Rainbow was fully over this, but at this point Steve - having started out trying to be a soldier - would have a better chance of helping her accept what had happened. The fact that he was apparently her #3 coolest person on the planet certainly didn't hurt that.
Tony found Nick waiting for him in his lab. "How is she?" Nick asked without preamble.
"She's dealing," Tony replied, getting to work on repairing the damaged arc battery. "Thanks for bringing Steve along. I think he'll be able to help her past the parts I couldn't."
"Good." Nick leaned back against the work table, crossing his arms.
After a time of silence, Tony spoke up. "So what's the word above on her?"
Nick sighed. "Public opinion is firmly on her side. The actual fight was captured on quite a few cell phone cameras and already uploaded to Youtube. Everyone who's seen it so far is siding with her over the Wrecking Crew. Most common consensus regarding the 'incident' is that she's a child trying too hard to step into an adult role before she's ready, and she pushed herself too hard too soon."
Tony sighed in relief. "That's good." He had been worried about what it would do to her reputation. "And SHIELD?"
"Officially, she acted in good order as far as a battle situation, using only what force was necessary giving what she had available," Nick explained. "Unofficially...the fact that the strike was instinctive rather than intentional is a matter of concern. If she doesn't get trained to the point she won't have any more such 'accidents', she can't continue 'hero work', and she won't be allowed on the official Avengers roll. And if there are any more 'accidents', they'll consider reclassifying her as a danger to the public."
"You mean the same category Hulk was in before he joined the Avengers?" Tony asked. At Nick's nod, Tony sighed in resignation. "I won't allow that to happen."
"Then you'd better get her trained soon," Fury pointed out. "I've assigned the Captain here as a training partner for her until she's got more control."
Tony smiled. "I was going to ask Thor to train her as well, given she seems to come from a warrior race like he does."
"I'm glad you've got things under control," Nick told him.
"Me too," Tony admitted, turning back to his work.
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dang man. this was a deep chapter. I loved it. keep up the great work
Hopefully Tony tells Thor to tone it down a bit while helping train Rainbow. In the grand scheme of things, she's more like Steve and Tony physically than Thor. She's not as durable as him.
This is a great story. But I keep hoping that'll have a crossover with On the Corner of Straight and Narrow...
Hot d***! Thats exactly the same reasoning I thought of. AWESOME!
Moar.
5694985 I don't know, have you seen the hits rainbow has taken on the show? Or are we classifying those as cartoon physics?
5695062 One word answer. I like it.
5694982 Yup. I love how tony is actually stepping up to the plate of fatherhood.
5694985 Well, more like Steve than Tony. I don't see Tony being able to go through solid wood structures without his armor and getting back up after only a few moments of disorientation (if even that much). Something I could easily see Steve doing.
All in all though, I think the best bet is for Rainbow Dash to be trained by Steve and Thor. Obviously, neither one of them is going to be available all the time, but between the two (and the fact that she'll be less eager to go out into battles for at least a little while) they should be able to get her a nice, solid foundation balancing warrior instincts with soldier discipline.
Heck, if they're smart, they'll use Rainbow Dash's training to get the Hulk to participate in training of his own. Not so much teamwork training (as he begrudgingly participates in at least some team sessions, depending on the continuity). No, what they'll do is present the argument that he's one of Dash's role models, and what kind of message is he giving her if he's unwilling to undergo training himself to prove to the world that he's not an out of control monster?
there is a lot to think about in this chapter good and bade it all depends on who's eyes you are looking threw.
a good chapter. now time will tell as to ware it goes from here.
Harts Fire
YES!! Captain America has finally come to the story! Thank you!
5694993
At some point, each of these is going to merge into a mega-plot arc.
Part of the fun is trying to guess which bits of insanity are going to follow the ponies home, and which dimensions will retain open back-and-forth access. DC, Marvel, and Ratchet & Clank are almost a given, as various forms cross dimensional travel are at least part of their respective continuities. With Gods of War, I figure that once Kratos is gone from their realm, a number of gods are going to seal the way shut and say good riddance, regardless of his divine allies differing opinions. With both Devil May Cry and Sam & Max, it could go either way, either being a one way return or a way to go back and forth.
Both Stark and Wayne can set up technology based portals once they know the proper coordinates. Asgard's Bifrost Bridge can do the same (once it is repaired). The entire premise of Ratchet and Clank Future revolves around a plot arc going back to before Ratchet even arrived on Veldin prior to the first game, ultimately centered around various bits of transdimensional and transchronal technology left behind by the Lombax race. Starswirl the Bearded was apparently irresponsible enough to treat random dimensions as places to banish problems to, rather than ultimately dealing with them. Dante's world has magic, and Sam & Max are Sam & Max.
Some one watches Flashpoint
Neat
5695412 Where does that leave Fluttershy and the mercenaries in Team Fortress 2?
I can't wait for more.
5695599
That's easy!
RED team and Fluttershy are already back in Equestria, undoubtedly dealing with whatever force that decided that scattering the rest of the Element Bearers (plus Trixie) across various dimensions was something to do. Heck, with the rest of the Bearers missing, Fluttershy's team of mercenaries becomes the Royal Diarchy's go-to agents for crisis missions where fielding the actual military would simply be too unwieldy.
Besides - they don't want to go back to their dimension of origin.
Love the story, man! Keep pumping out the chapters.
IT NEEDS MORE!
GARGHHHHH!!!!
Nuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu, *falls to knees* Teh epicnesssss!!
Share another awesome, pwease?
That was fun, may I have another? Looking forward to more.
Keep up the good work. Deus tecum.
Can we please switch the retarded Thor with the movie version please it pains me to see people use the stupid characters comedy relief is 1 thing but on everything it is saddening
5696056
He's not stupid, per say. He's from an alien culture where he's royalty. He's not stupid so much as unlearned of human ways. Also overenthusiastic. ...kinda like Aquaman of Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
5695282 Actually those feats COULD be used in this setting, with the explanation being fairly similar to the 'bioaura' that Superman has. As long as Dash is at full magical strength, her body projects a latent field that keeps her protected from serious injury. This mare has slammed straight into the ground, through a building, at supersonic speeds with enough force to level said building. She also routinely performs aerial stunts that would involve enough G force to incapacitate a human, if not kill them out right. To top that off she has been seen crashing, sometimes with enough force to make a crater, and gets right up afterwards with no obvious or lingering injury. (Not to mention that those people she crashes into also seem to be perfectly fine too.)
I will note that the only time Dash ever seems to be actually wounded, is when she is caught completely off guard and/or taking a blow MUCH stronger than what she normally does. It's plausible that her 'protective aura' is not latent, but must be activated, if only on instinct, and can be overcome if hit with enough force/something that can disrupt her own magics. While I don't expect Filly Dash to be able to tank nearly as much abuse as adult Rainbow Dash can, the fact her armor is designed to be manipulated/enhanced by her own energies could have some very interesting applications. As a full grown mare, her armor would actually prove to be VASTLY more durable than Tony's own, leading her to being able to trade blows with people like Thing, or even some stages of Hulk himself. However I do like the idea that Asguardian magics are disruptive to Pegasus Magic. Because while she may be a mere child now, and thus her magical energies are still fairly limited, as an Adult Rainbow Dash has already shown that she has stamina and power to burn, surpassed only by a certain reality warping pony.
No. Just no. I don't care if the 4th wall is your personal chew toy. Touch my posts again and I turn you over to writers of bad grimderp fics for glue processing.
You know I will.
Damn straight you will be. Where was I? Fuck now I lost my place. Damn 4th wall breaking looney toon spawn... Oh yeah. While as a child Dash is limited greatly in how much magic she stores and produces, as she grows older that is going to become less and less of an issue, possibly even a nonissue entirely. While this Dash doesn't devot herself sports, I CAN see her devoting just as much into combat training as she did into racing and stunt flying back in Equestria. This will lead her to develop the same athletic body and stamina in this world as she did in the other. Possibly with even more stamina, as many fighters train to develop stamina and endurance over singular fast/powerful blows. While a good Sucker Punch/Sneak Attack Bitch can in theory win a battle well before an opponent can react, if that's all you got then you're odds of winning/surviving are dramatically lower. And every single member of the Avengers is battle hardened enough to know this, and thus make sure Dash would be informed as well.
So why is it good that Asguardian Magic to be disruptive to Dashie? Because otherwise she is going to have no real counter as an adult. With her armor empowered by her innate magics, she would be damn near invulnerable to physical force. Combined with its new reactive qualities, and any blow that doesn't outright KO her is only going to make her more resistant to future attacks from that source. If she can find a way to use that same magic to give her armor more physical strength/speed as well as endurance, then we have a Physical Goddess in power armor. (Think a flying Samus Aran with Cheat Codes on) Personally I would like to see Dashie simply have a weakness to non-Equestrian magics in general. It would give her a good weakness, (besides her own ego) and in the Marvel Multiverse magics of various kinds are rather common. This prevents a Superman like situation, where you have a nigh-invulnerable hero with only one real weakness that is supposed to be ultra rare, but somehow seems to be freaking everywhere.
5696174 Fascinating! Although, too big of a weakness will lead to too weak to be of any good.
5696174
Hmm...I like the idea that it's not just Asgardian Magic that Pegasus Magic doesn't mix well with.
However, if you read the second chapter again, you'll see I've already named one type of magic that is compatible with Pegasus Magic.
5697293
reading your comment
MANDARIN!
pinkie what are you doing here
oh ok
*Munching on a Bagel* Dis is gud!
5696864 That may be, but magic in and of itself isn't really that big of a weakness. We are still talking about a character who could likely reach Physical Goddess levels of combat ability.
5697293 Really? I don't recall... goes back to read, note a line about a certain set magical artifacts... Well... I forgot you did that. I will however note that in the same chapter you already did my 'protective aura' idea.
I look forward to more
Pony's, warriors? Doubtful.
5701012
Not all ponies. Specifically Pegasi.
And considering their tribal leader pre-unification was a General?
5701012
5701028
RPG logic.
Pegasus = warrior/scout
Earth Pony = Herbalist/Barbarian
Unicorn = mystic
I'm assuming you mean from the cartoon, but if you're talking about the movie...
5701012
Compared to us, they'd be a joke, yes, even if we had the same level of weaponry as them. But if they're fighting each other, not so much. When your primary enemies (fellow ponies in the case of ye olden times) are ground-bound and anti-air weaponry is iffy at best, you can fly in silently for an air-borne ambush or infiltration, drop buckets of rocks from lethal heights onto soldiers below, then of course you've got regular ground tactics (outmatched by earth ponies but possibly equal or stronger than unicorns), not to mention raining lightning down on top of the opposing forces or hiding in clouds for another ambush tactic.
5697716
dhinfo.org/images1/Oranges1c.jpg
Mandarin Oranges!
5701284
He was talking about the first time he wore the suit to save the day - wore it as a superhero, fighting in a civilian situation. That clip was in a war zone. He classifies his actions there internally as fighting a war, which he classifies separately from hero work.
He hopes he'll never have to explain that to Rainbow...because in a war, the priority is killing the enemy. Much like the alien invasion Loki orchestrated which happened just before the start of this fic, continuity wise.
5701297
Ah. Understood.
5701184
I suppose that i should be more clear next time I state my opinion. While I have no issue with the members of the wrecking crew getting wrecked in a more permanent fashion, once the crooks are in prison they aren't the responsibility of the Heroes anymore, but the non-power humans, assuming they don't have Supers for security guards. At this point, a repeated 'loser' should by law, in my opinion, say...five repeat offenses, get executed.
5701398
I agree that once an empowered individual has proved unwilling or incapable of reform and a continuing threat to civilians, some means of permanently removing the threat they represent should be carried out by the legal authority. The exact definition of when they prove unwilling or incapable of reform - number and severity of infractions, etc. - is something I choose not to comment on or even address.
5701403
Well....maybe not execute, on second thought. It just occurred to me that If we include the XMEN movies as canon to that universe (given that in the more recent cartoons both Wolverine and Spiderman have had crossovers with the Avengers cartoons, then they could give them yearly shots of the 'Cure' drug. That'd fix their butts so long as magic wasn't used on them for strength and endurance enhancement.
5701657
That only works on mutants. For non-humans, magic users, or those who have undergone artificial mutations there would be no effect.
5701946
Oh well. Was worth a shot. How about banishing them to another dimension? Some of them DO have the tech for that.
5702234
That just makes them that dimensions problem.
See Rainbow Rocks' plot for how well that works out.
5701166
5701184
That's where anti-heroes like Wolverine come in.
As for the Joker. He is legitimately insane so not even the worst lawyer in existence could fail to keep him from getting the death sentence. Which is why Batman started to just drag him back to Arkham instead of leaving him for the cops. Don't get me wrong someone needs to end him, but Bats don't kill and if you do it Bats kicks your A from every direction possible.
5701398
Depends on their crimes. For instance if you could kill him then Deadpool would get an execution, but Rhino is (my knowledge on him is from the old cartoon) just a street hood and hired muscle so killing him , no matter how many times he breaks the law, is way overdoing it.
5700963 Dashies designs document was very similar to the Varia suit! :p
*Alondro smirks* Winged pony.. terrorizes? Wait'll they get a load a' me. >:}
5709480 Yes, i'm sure your wacky hair and crazy goggles will scare everyone to death.
If not that then the obligatory crazy laugh (
)
I can see that Rainbow would be off the avenger team if she started maiming people left and right but menace to society when all she did was take out bad guys is a bit of a stretch. In any trial all she would have to do is put on her puppy face and the jury would be eating out of her hoof.
The guilt and consoling about the crippling was done nice btw.
Well, if the problem is the armor, wouldn't it be better to just put some safety protocols in that thing?
5728322 When it's something instinctive you can't put in a safety. It's something you have to train yourself in to control. So it's not the armor at all. You could roll her up in bubble wrap and Rainbow could still cut hurt you somehow.