Why Can't We Be Friends?

[starkingenuity]

"See, I really appreciate this actually."  The scotch it good, the company is interesting and he's got a gun training on the back of his head.  It makes him smile because Tony Stark isn't always in his right mind.  Danger is a turn on.  It means he's not bored and likely not alone.  Both of these things are the utter bane of his existence.

He smiles at the shorter but equally impressively dressed man.  Irish.   Snarky.  He gets that it's pretty rare to get a meeting like this.

"The invitation, I mean."  By invitation, he really means kidnapping.  Oh well.  "But you know I can't do what you want.  Stark Industries is out of the weapon's biz."
 

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[starkingenuity]

Moran stands silently, off to the side. He's never heard that one before, and when Tony reaches up to stroke Jim's hair -- probably out of some sort of personal amusement and little more -- he nearly shoots Tony Stark dead, then and there. But Jim moves into his line of fire, and Sebastian knows that what Tony said was true.

Moran is a genius, but he's not on par with these two.

He's here for backup, as a pet, to do the heavy lifting, but this is a meeting of the minds more than bodies.

And Tony seems to be considering it very hard, the answer to Moriarty's question.

"If you could threaten to take away who I am, what I'm able to do, my very mind--. But yanno, that'd defeat the purpose really. Neuter me and no more anything."

[dontbeobvious]

"But that sounds so much more fun."

To destroy Tony Stark and only leave some empty shell behind for everyone to find and be stuck with. Not a great genius inventor but some zombie instead, a shadow of what he'd once been. And constant reminder that the man they loved hadn't died, he'd be trapped with them and they could do nothing about it. Jim smiled at the thought.

"You know, that's not a impossible task. Of course he remove what you are would mean you wouldn't be making weapons but who's to day you wouldn't be remove and someone else would out bid that women you gave control to. You know, the one who is only there because you said so? She really has no qualifications," and there was no way of denying that. But it would be such a shame to waste such genius.

But then... "Would be no great loss, you never were as god a your father. Let the legacy die now? Not a bad idea."

[starkingenuity]

"Boy, is it lucky that being compared to my father doesn't send me into a rage," Tony says with a mock sincerity that causes Sebastian, in the corner, to laugh.

"What?" he shrugs when the other two glance at him. "Oh c'mon, that's funny." He snatches the lighter and burns the end of a cigarette. He has needs. They ate. Watched Glee and Big Bang Theory and he's overdo for a cigarette damn it!

Tony shakes his head at Jim, despite the pain he's in. "I don't really want to be your creepy love slave with a lobotomy."

[dontbeobvious]

"Why would you be a love slave? You'd just be a lobotomised puppet. And I'd give you back, I'm sure your friends would adore the burden that is a slobbering waste of space," he grinned darkly before hopping off the bed and moving closer to Moran and giving him a stern look. "You were quitting, remember? everything we own smells of smoke because of you. Don't make me practise lobotomy on you."

And he probably would, it wouldn't be the first time his men had lost their lives so Jim Moriarty could practise something. Oh so many lives lost to bombs.

Turning back to Tony, he huffed slightly as if he didn't know what to do. So many options, so little interest in actually doing it.

"I'm losing interest in you... that's annoying."

[starkingenuity]

"Annoying? I don't know. I like the breaks. Go roll up a newspaper for the puppy."

"I am not the puppy!" Moran roared, but he'd already removed the cigarette from his mouth and-- Oh, let's face it. Jim commanded, Moran almost always did.

So. Getting to Moran seemed to be the way to get to Jim too. Or at least it could be a distraction. Tony grinned. "Kinda looks that way to me. You're pussy-whipped."

Too much annoyance, not enough Big Bang.

Psychopaths need down time too. Snubbing the cigarette on Stark's face will give him a lot of sanity back, he's sure.

[dontbeobvious]

"Moran," Jim said in a warning tone as he moved closer and grabbed the mans hand, jerking him away. The purposeful taunting of Moran? Yeah, he saw it. And his companion rarely had a great method of dealing with his anger so he decided to go about this his own way. "I think we should go for a ride."

He finally knew what he wanted to do to Tony and he really was eager to get ride of him now. He wasn't going to do what they wanted and he was causing fuss.

No more games.

"Stick him in the boot. If he tries to run or mouths off, shoot his toes off."

[starkingenuity]

Moran has that look like he's going to shoot Tony's toes of whether he mouths off or not. At least getting the Avenger into the car isn't as difficult as one might expect. He's limping, there are burn marks on his face and his hand is turning purple from the breaks but the one time that they meet someone in the hall way, Tony just plays off drunk.

Moran doesn't understand that at first until he realizes that Tony is martyring himself for everyone else.

God. He hates him.

Shoving Tony into the trunk is easy when he gets in willingly and Sebastian slides into the driver's seat and slams the door, staring at Jim with dark eyes.

"We should kill him."

[dontbeobvious]

"We're going to destroy him first. Don't you trust me?" Jim said, cocking his head to the side and smiling playfully. "Do we still have all the bombs set up? The back up plan in case one of us got caught? Well, they've just become plan A. Radio the boys and tell them to wait for my sign, the one we discussed. We're going to have some fun in Manhattan."

Giggling, he clambered into the back and got himself settled.

Tony wanted everyone to think of him as a hero, a protector, that's all he wanted. To be that good guy who could sacrifice himself and mean something. Being useless in a time of crisis? That would be a great send off.

Jim pulled out his phone and started to work, he had a lot to organise in a short space of time.

[starkingenuity]

Moran liked where Jim went most of the time. His mind-- Insane, fractured, but the way it mended together in the end, the way it played on the threads that stitched it together, was absolutely beautiful. He put on the radio and headed to the rendezvous point for the original plan B.

New York would burn. Not for the first time, but this would be better than aliens and terrorists.

It's an inside job by a man without loyalties and the men with loyalties only to him.

He takes the eastern route to the jet and swings around to the passenger door to let Jim out. No one knew it was him. Their crew had no idea that this little runt was their boss. Moran's always loved that.

"New plan from Moriarty," Sebastian yells to the flight crew. "Gas us up!"

[dontbeobvious]

"Make sure they wait for my signal. And I was thinking that Mr Stark would appreciate a good sight. But of course he won't be content with watching unless he's out there suffering for those people so I was thinking we could offer him that chance," he sat back and finished the final set ups to the automated devices that were set all over the place. The thing with his plans were that they were all done with perfect detail.

Only the best were involved and they did their jobs, they made every part work like a ticking watch.

And he had no worries his plans would work, he only ever worried about one thing and that was the target of his attacks being there to see it and hate every second.

"I say we go biblical on St Stark."

[starkingenuity]

"Biblical?" Moran frowns lightly as he sits on the hood of the car. He know Tony can hear what they're talking about and that just makes it better in the long run. "Did you bring his suit? Are we dressing him up like an angel? I don't want to play Sodom and Gomorrah with him right now though. He's not my type."

No, really, he isn't. Moran'll fuck a lot of things but he draws the line at ungodly facial hair and too many muscles.

Tony bangs the top of the trunk twice and Sebastian grins up at Jim. He might not know the play but he's sure he's going to like it.

[dontbeobvious]

Jim didn't say anything cause he didn't want to ruin the surprise for Tony. So he simply leaned back and stretched out his arms in a mock cross. He wanted to be a modern day Jesus then fine, he fed the poor and dazzled them with magic tricks, it was time to suffer. It seemed very fitting for a man like Stark.

"In the centre of the disaster zone. As his world goes crashing down, he'll be able to watch."

And do absolutely nothing. He knew those damn heroes would be there in seconds when the bomb went off, they could see their dear friend in the middle of chaos and know exactly who it was intended for. It was perfect. Then, of course, as soon as they got to Tony... he was going to let Moran handle it from there.

What? He could offer people false hope. "It'll be happening in five minutes, we don't want to be delayed."

[starkingenuity]

"You're really sure?"

Moran sits glumly by the window, frowning as the helicopter takes off to put them a safe but still snipeable distance away. Tony Stark gets smaller and smaller, left on the roof of a building Jim has already determined will not be in any blast range.

"They can save him." But they won't. The Avengers will have their hands full and only one other of them could fly.

Jim kept track of when the alien was on Earth but intel suggested he might not be. Sebastian shoves an earpiece into his left ear and stands, ready to disembark as well when they hover closer to the ground.

"If you're sure Jim..."

[dontbeobvious]

"They might. Who knows? That's the exciting part. Are they as good as I'm told or are they as useless as everyone else? Who knows?" Jim took a seat back and relaxed, watching Tony as he got smaller and it was harder to see his pain. Jim didn't care what happened to Tony now, he was more focused on the best part of the plan.

The bombing was what he was focused on now, the countdown was getting closer and he couldn't wait. When they got further enough away and Tony had chance to get used to how he was stuck, trapped in a mock cross position with the help of two daggers, he sent off a text to all his bombers.

Ten seconds exactly, he wanted detonation. He had timed it to go off in a circle, it should surround Stark entirely and detonate in the pattern of morse code SOS.

Like the Avengers could miss that one.

[starkingenuity]

It was a nightmare. The pain wasn't anything to really worry about right now. He was breathing in debris and smoke. Everything was singed and burning. He could hear people screaming-- Well maybe not, he was too far up. But he could imagine it.

The snap crackle pop was nothing like the cereal. It didn't hurt this badly to enjoy little grains of puffed rice.

Tony already knew that the Avengers were mobilized by the aircraft slowly shifting downwards. Cap, Barton, Widow-- Banner would be too far away to get here in time. Thor likely would not know about it until it was too late.

He could only hope his team would right this.

[dontbeobvious]

Jim waited patiently for every bomb to detonate before he reached out and pressed a hand to Morans shoulder to calm him from jumping right into it. He knew what his companion wanted to do but sadly, he couldn't allow it. Tony was fun, he was smart and he reminded him a little of a lost enemy. If he wasn't on the side of the angels, he might of been interested in him but now, he was up to a little mystery here.

"Death is too easy but let's leave this all up to fate, yes? Shoot to hurt but not to kill. He'll either be saved from bleeding out or his friends will abandon him to save the day. Either way, they'll know we've been here and I won't know what happens till I check the news tomorrow."

This was all a little game to him and he was having fun, why end it? They knew he was a threat now.

Not that they didn't but a constant reminder was always good. He sat back and pulled out his phone, he had been hacking into Shield for the past hour and that file they had on him clearly need updating. And that was exactly what he was doing. When the men pulled up his file later, they'd see a full report on the kidnapping of Tony Stark, the explosions in New York and, of course, a little message from the man himself.

The eye patch doesn't suit you, Fury. Looks like a bad Bond villain. All my love to the council and please, no revenge acts? I'd hate to see something worse happen xxx

[starkingenuity]

"I better at least get some fucking head out of this," Moran said as he lined up the shot and sent a bullet straight through Tony's shoulder.

Just as the craft turned, the sky opened up and the Thunderer raged down through the clouds, making Sebastian snort. No fair. Tony Stark, it seemed, was going to live after all.


((Moved to: http://starkingenuity.dreamwidth.org/7447.html))