Marvel: President Stark

####

As soon as former Sergeant James "Bucky" Buchanan's trial became public, support poured in for Tony. People demanded death for the traitor. But Tony and most of the knowledgeable folks knew what the verdict was going to be. It wasn't even hard.

The blind lawyer who represented Bucky proved that Bucky was brainwashed and not in control of his own body. That he was used by Hydra as a weapon over the years. In the end, Bucky couldn't be legally punished.

The high-profile criminal case ended with Bucky's acquittal. Tony accepted the verdict since he was already aware it was going to happen. However, he did come out and give a public response.

"I can't just let it go, you know? Sure, he was brainwashed and controlled, but I'm still just a guy with feelings. I get the law, I respect the verdict—I even agree with it, a little. But let's not pretend I'm fully convinced. Mr. Buchanan's free now, but he's still a super soldier. I just hope he uses that fact for good. Maybe spend his days keeping this country safe from whatever comes next. That'd be a start…"

Measured, and in his style, his beautiful Press Secretary, Christine Everhart wrote the small speech for him and he rolled with it, after rolling in bedsheets with her, of course. It was good for the optics, at least. People sympathized with him as he couldn't do anything about his parent's killer.

But at the same time, people started to raise questions. Who else did the Winter Soldier kill? And sure enough, the names shocked the world—JFK, the Starks, nuclear scientists, Presidents, Prime Ministers, Kings, Princes, and many more. The pattern was clear—destabilizing the countries.

Since the Hydra files were mostly declassified by now, the world didn't blame America or Bucky. Instead, the Hydra wing of the Soviet Union bore the blame, and by that extension, modern-day Russia.

Tony didn't bother to fix the blame as Russia being blamed was good for him. Instead, he focused on the final days of campaigning for the midterms. Finally, voting was just a few days away.

All the candidates for the Senate, House, gubernatorial seats, and other state legislatures had been selected. Out of his own pocket, Tony spent almost twelve billion dollars to create the National Technocratic Alliance, NTA, from scratch. Its sigil was an encircled, gray metallic torch.

With 'Technocratic' in the name, it wasn't hard to guess what the party was all about. Meritocracy above everything else. But at the same time, Tony advertised that being technocratic didn't mean those less fortunate would be ignored.

True technocracy wasn't possible unless every single citizen had access to an equal level of opportunities be it education, healthcare, or financial institutions. So, Tony reminded everyone about his educational reforms with EMMA, and soon his medical reforms were going to roll out.

Then, just 7 days before the election, with much fanfare, Tony held a massive election rally. This one was unlike anything else and calling it a festival was better.

Held in the middle of nowhere on flat grounds, the scale was similar to the Tomorrowland festival. But since it was his money, the experience was out of the world. Iron Guardians secured the entire grounds, massive resting tents hoisted, food everywhere, drinks everywhere; no drugs, of course, since folks brought their kids.

It was supposed to last five days and each day more people joined. For five days it was just a music festival with singers, bands, and performers arriving from across the globe and performing at one of the five grand stages. Entry cost was 100$ on the first 3 days and on the last 2, it was free.

The Internet was flooded with videos and photos. American flags were everywhere, NTA sigils were everywhere, and often announcements would be made about Tony Stark joining the show on the last day. Simple to say, Tony was no less than the world's biggest celebrity at that point, not just the most powerful man.

Finally, when the last day arrived, almost half a million people gathered around the only stage left at the massive festival grounds. The stage was so huge that it forced the crowd to not huddle too much. With the Iron Guardians acting as crowd controllers, no chances of a stampede were left.

And then, as the last of the performers ended their performances, and the sky began to turn dark, the many lights of the grand stage and the towers around turned on to set the mood. Red, white, and blue was the theme.

The mere colors excited the crowd. But there was one last band left to perform.

From the stage, a certain guitar riff began to resound. The sound slowly increased and shrouded the entire grounds.

With a loud click, the lights focused on the stage and revealed five men. And pretty soon it became clear what the song was and who the band was—AC/DC, also Tony Stark's favorite band.

The light show was insane, half a million people waved their hands in the air with their wristbands also lighting up for the first time and synchronizing with the entire ground's lightwork, creating waves and from an aerial view, the American Flag.

The first song, Highway to Hell, slowly came to an end.

"Ready?" the lead singer shouted.

People thought the man was talking about the next song.

But suddenly the lights started to dim, putting the crowd in a dim darkness with only their wristbands still emitting light. Even the stage darkened a bit, with only five spotlights focusing on the band members.

Slowly, the second song began with a long guitar riff. The song was Thunderstruck, everyone knew it.

The music slowly became louder and louder. The starting guitar riff played longer than natural.

Shhhh…!

Suddenly, loud jet engine noises started to echo in the sky. It was loud, like a spacecraft lifting off. But the music also became louder with that.

Woosh!

And then, the crowds became restless with their screams. Finally, a massive lineup of Iron Guardians painted in the American flag appeared in the sky, a total of 50. They all hovered in the sky, their feet letting out fiery beams. They quickly divided into lines of ten and hovered at the edges of the crowd on all four sides.

As for the last ten of the Iron Guardians, they descended down slowly onto the stage, standing in a V-shaped formation with the tip still empty.

The guitar riff was still in its initial phase, as if waiting for the final piece.

Shhhhh!

Finally, a long streak of fire appeared in the sky, descending down towards the stage like a straight dive. The iconic, red suit of armor made it clear who was steering it.

Clank!

Iron Man made its iconic, one-knee and one-fist landing on the stage right at the tip of the V-shaped Iron Guardian formation.

"THUNDER!"

BOOM!

As the Thunder word was spoken and the drum blasted, all the flying Iron Guardians and those on the stage punched one fist in the air.

Synced with the song, the fists created actual, massive bolts of crackling, loud thunder, shooting toward the sky. It was dark already and the sight was beyond beautiful.

Goosebumps marred the skin of every living, breathing human on the grounds and the stage. This was an experience people were going to tell their kids and grandkids for years to come.

"THUNDER!"

As the second thunder was spoken, Tony stood up and punched one fist into the sky.

Once again, massive, loud bolts of lightning came off all the Iron Guardians' fists towards the sky, this time including Tony, whose bolt of lighting was the biggest, clearing up that he was the real deal.

"THUNDER!"

At the third repetition, the lightning bolts were joined by pyrotechnics throughout the stage, shooting into the sky. Spotlights also sprang back to life and the entire ground and the stage were filled with crazy light shows of American colors.

For the following reparations of Thunder, the Iron Guardians kept throwing bolts of lightning, but they also moved. Those on the stage flew away to join those in the sky, also acting like Tony's security.

With only Tony and the band members left on the stage, Tony unmasked his face without removing the armor. The lead singer handed Tony a guitar too and with that, the main song began.

♫I was caught… In the middle of a railroad track…♫

Tony didn't sing, but he did play the guitar while walking around the stage, waving at the people. Then, when the second song came—Back In Black, he kept playing the guitar. But there was something different this time.

In the sky, the Iron Guardians created a massive holographic screen the size of a football field. On the screen appeared a fast-paced montage of heroic acts by people—soldiers, firemen, police officers, civilians—protecting a human, a cat, a dog, saving lives, or any other heroic act recorded on screen. Of course, some of the faces from the video were also present there on the grounds, in tears already. It was a tough job that Jarvis fulfilled.

Eventually, the song started to fade out into silence. The band members gave Tony, still in armor, a hug and retreated to the back of the stage.

Eventually, it was just Tony left on the stage, all the lights focused on him. The massive holographic projection in the sky showed Tony's face, live. All the lights around began projecting red, white, and blue in an organized manner.

It took some time for the crowd to calm down.

"What a night," Tony said into the mic. "Sorry for running late—my buddy Reed just launched himself into orbit today. If he pulls this off, humanity's about to get a serious upgrade."

Once again, the people began cheering.

______________________

Check out Tony X Rogue NSFW ART and

Advance chapters on [PATREON] are in long-form format. I have 4 long chapters of this story on Patreon. That's equal to 12-15 Webnovel chapters.

Old Free Art on Discord: https://discord.gg/W5FdB6WXaP