The rest of the attendees were mostly unfamiliar faces—just a bunch of generic corporate bigwigs. Luke was honestly a bit disappointed. He had been hoping to spot industry titans like Justin Hammer or Norman Osborn.
Since the venue offered free food and drinks, Luke was perfectly content to hang around and enjoy himself. Evening soon approached, signaling the start of the award ceremony.
As the hall gradually filled with people, Luke spotted Obadiah Stane striding into the room with a visibly foul expression. Luke knew exactly why: Tony had ghosted him.
Obadiah was seething over Tony's blatant irresponsibility, mentally preparing to clean up yet another one of his messes.
'Damn it! I've been wiping the Starks' asses for decades. Am I supposed to just keep doing this until I die?'
A dark thought took root in his mind and rapidly began to grow. He looked at the golden goose of his company. He hadn't originally wanted to take such extreme measures, but maybe it was finally time for Stark Industries to undergo a change in management.
'Would the world really end if Tony Stark suddenly disappeared? I highly doubt it.'
Catching that sinister, calculating look on Obadiah's face, Luke stealthily snapped a couple of photos. Releasing these pictures right now would definitely earn him a nasty cease-and-desist letter, so he decided to save them for a month or so—until Obadiah was dead and buried.
"As the military liaison to Stark Industries, I've had the unique privilege of serving with a true patriot..."
Up on stage, Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes had already started his presentation speech. Luke leaned against a pillar, highly amused as he waited for the inevitable trainwreck when nobody showed up to claim the award.
"Ladies and gentlemen, it is my great honor to present this year's Apogee Award to Mr. Tony Stark." Rhodey looked out into the crowd with genuine anticipation, waiting for his best friend to walk up the steps.
Instead, he saw Obadiah Stane giving him a grim shake of the head.
Staring at the empty seat next to Obadiah, Rhodey cursed internally.
'I actually looked forward to this for once, and you leave me hanging completely! Tony Stark, you are a dead man!'
Rhodey's expression morphed into visible, agonizing awkwardness. Obadiah quickly stepped up to the podium and shot him a knowing look.
Grateful for the bailout, Rhodey shoved the heavy Apogee Award into Obadiah's hands and immediately retreated to the side of the stage to reevaluate his life choices. He couldn't believe he had actually expected Tony to show up!
Reviewing the photo of Rhodey's painfully awkward grimace on his camera, Luke grinned. This picture was absolute gold. It was definitely enough to bait the future War Machine into angrily commenting on his blog—assuming Rhodey didn't use some ridiculous username like 'WarMachineRocks'.
Mission accomplished, Luke headed for the balcony. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the Kingpin staring at him again. Holding Fisk's gaze, Luke offered a polite, mocking bow, then dissolved into the shadows and vanished into the floor.
Fisk withdrew his gaze, feeling a faint sliver of tension leave his shoulders. 'Whoever taught him that bow did a terrible job,' he critiqued silently.
Shaking his head, the Kingpin turned his attention back to the farce unfolding on stage.
Luke made his way to Caesar's Palace, the casino Tony had mentioned earlier. Walking onto the gaming floor, he immediately spotted a massive crowd gathered around one of the tables. Tony's bodyguards were standing helplessly on the periphery, looking thoroughly defeated.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
'Looks like Tony gave them a little on-the-job retraining,' Luke chuckled, offering the guards a friendly wave as he squeezed through the crowd.
Tony was standing at the craps table, flanked by two gorgeous women. "Come on, baby, blow on these for me. Give me some of that luck," he charmed, tossing the dice across the felt. Just like that, he threw away three million dollars.
Luke shook his head. Even some actual billionaires couldn't stomach that kind of reckless gambling. Only someone like Tony, who genuinely viewed money as meaningless numbers, could play like this.
"Good thing I didn't tag along. I probably would have lost everything," Luke remarked, stepping up behind Tony.
"Oh? Who's asking?" Tony turned around.
Click.
Luke instantly snapped a photo of Tony sandwiched between the two casino girls.
Tony frowned slightly. "Oh, it's you again. The camera kid." He quickly brushed it off, looking amused. "You're turning into a regular paparazzo, aren't you?"
"Maybe I will," Luke replied, reviewing the photo and hitting save.
Once Tony got back from his traumatic Afghanistan trip and started dating Pepper properly, this photo would be prime blackmail material. Tony would gladly pay ten million dollars just to keep Pepper from seeing it. And the price for permanent deletion? Definitely thirty million.
Blackmail plan firmly established, Luke stepped up to the table and eyed the massive mountain of chips sitting in front of Tony.
"Hey, kid. Let's make this interesting," Tony proposed on a whim. "You roll the dice against me. If your number is higher than mine, this entire pile of chips is yours."
Luke raised an eyebrow. "Why are you so eager to give away your money?"
Tony tightened his arms around the two women. "Money is the most useless thing in the world to me. Compared to that, I much prefer the company of these two beautiful ladies."
The girls gasped and giggled right on cue, playing up their excitement. Of course, Luke knew full well that Tony wasn't taking either of them home; he was going to walk outside and hook up with a Vanity Fair reporter instead.
"I'll go first then," Luke said. He grabbed the dice and tossed them casually across the table.
A one and a two. A total of three.
"Well, kid, looks like you won't be taking home these chips today," Tony mocked playfully. He went back to flirting with the girls for a moment before Rhodey suddenly materialized next to them, looking incredibly unamused.
"You are unbelievable!" Rhodey snapped.
Tony acted as if this was the first he was hearing of it. "Oh, terrible. Did they rope you into this?"
Rhodey forced a humorless, tight-lipped smile. "Nobody roped me into anything. But someone did tell me that if I presented you with the award, you'd be deeply honored."
"Of course I'd be honored! That's fantastic!" Tony said, feigning complete sincerity. "So, when do we get it?"
"Right now," Rhodey replied, his anger deflating slightly against Tony's sheer charisma. He handed the heavy glass award over.
Tony barely glanced at it. "Wow, look at that. How special!" he said, immediately shoving the award into the hands of one of the casino girls.
Reaching across the table, Tony scooped up the dice. He had one of the girls blow on them for luck, then held his hand out to Rhodey. "Blow on them."
"I don't blow on a man's dice," Rhodey refused, his irritation flaring up again as he looked at the prestigious award being treated like a cheap prop.
"Come on, Honey Bear, just a little breath," Tony coaxed.
Annoyed, Rhodey simply smacked Tony's extended hand away. The dice flew out of Tony's palm and bounced across the green felt.
"Okay! Colonel Rhodes rolls the dice!" Tony announced dramatically. The dice tumbled to a stop. "And it's... snake eyes! Beautiful!"
Rhodey tilted his head, wincing slightly. 'Well, that's just terrible luck.'
"Well, you successfully lost to the kid's three with a two," Tony declared cheerfully. "The thirty million in chips goes to him."
Rhodey blinked and glanced at Luke, who was standing there looking completely innocent. 'Okay, that's just impressively bad luck.'
"Hey, I've seen worse," Tony comforted Rhodey with a pat on the back. He shot Luke a quick nod, and the two friends turned and walked away from the table without another word.
Luke turned to the stunned dealer. "Cash these out for me, please. I need to go take one last photo."
Stepping outside the casino, Luke watched Tony say his final goodbyes to Rhodey.
"Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's," Tony said, casually handing the Apogee Award to a casino employee dressed as a Roman centurion.
Click.
Luke snapped the picture perfectly: Tony and his bodyguards walking away, leaving only their backs to the camera, while a bewildered employee dressed as Caesar stood awkwardly holding the prestigious trophy.
Looking down at the digital screen, Luke felt this single photo perfectly encapsulated the first half of Tony Stark's life.
He turned back inside to transfer his newly acquired casino chips into his bank account. 'I guess I can treat this thirty million as an advance payment for the casino photo,' he reasoned. Even if he didn't actually blackmail Tony by showing the picture to Pepper, he could definitely still use it to mess with him later on.
The thought made Luke smile in pure delight.