Chapter 106: Hearing
The next day, nine in the morning.
Tony Stark showed up on time at the government hearing attended by the Military Committee. He sat in the defendant's seat. Although it was his first time, he was not nervous at all.
Instead, he kept looking around, greeting the friends and family around him, and winking at Pepper Potts.
Pepper quickly gave Tony a reproachful look, signaling him to maintain the minimum rules in court, but Tony didn't care about this at all. He did what he wanted, until the congressman presiding over the hearing couldn't stand it anymore.
"Mr. Stark, can we proceed with the previous topic? Mr. Stark, please!" The congressman sitting on the upper floor knocked the gavel in his hand several times in a row, and even used extremely earnest words of request.
"Of course, my dear. Do you have any instructions?" Tony turned his head and put on a serious look, and his tone immediately caused a burst of laughter in the serious court.
The senator sitting in the judge's seat pretended not to hear the laughter and continued seriously, "Mr. Stark, can you answer my question honestly?"
"Of course, my dear. By the way, what question did you ask?" Tony naturally would not be obedient just because of one sentence, but he agreed verbally.
The senator didn't care what his attitude was. He knew that anyone who could sit in this position and target Tony Stark couldn't possibly have done some research on him. So he ignored the frivolous, unseemly attitude and said to him with a smile on his face, "Mr. Stark, do you possess a special high-tech weapon?"
"No!" Tony answered this question firmly.
Hearing Tony's lie, the congressman couldn't help but raise his voice, making it sound very sharp: "You said no?"
"Yes. No!" Tony's expression was very sincere. If the Congressman had not first understood Tony Stark's character, he might have been fooled.
"I'm quite sure. Of course. It depends on what you define as a weapon."
"Iron Man is a weapon, Mr. Stark!" The congressman was too lazy to argue with Tony and said bluntly that he didn't think such an established fact could be overturned by Tony's clever words.
Hearing this, Tony immediately made his expression more serious. He pulled the microphone in front of him and said solemnly: "My invention is not a weapon!"
"Not a weapon?"
The Senator sat up straight, staring at Tony sharply, and asked, "How do you define it, Mr. Stark?"
"It is what it is, Senator. If anything, it's just a high-tech prosthetic limb!"
Tony's words immediately caused even louder laughter, and everyone knew that Tony was talking nonsense again.
Despite the laughter around him, Tony still said to the Senator with a serious expression: "That's the best adjective I can think of. A technological prosthesis, yes. That's it!"
"That's ridiculous, Mr. Stark. It's a weapon, he is a weapon!"
Faced with Tony's ridiculous remarks, the senator lost his composure. He raised his voice, drowning out Tony's voice, and gave his own definition.
"If you prioritize the welfare of the people..."
Tony naturally couldn't tolerate his invention being characterized in this way. He just wanted to make up some words to refute the Senator.
The senator interrupted Tony before he finished speaking and said, "No, my priority is to deliver the weapon Iron Man to the American people."
When arguing with a senator who relies entirely on his eloquence to make a living, it is obvious that Tony, who can only fight a short-term argument, will not gain any advantage.
But just because he can't take advantage doesn't mean he will give in.
Tony stated his opinion righteously, his voice excited and high: "Don't even think about it. I am Iron Man. My iron armor and I are one. If you want me to hand it over, you are asking me to hand over myself. So don't even think about it. If you force me to do this, I can understand that you want to force me to do labor or engage in prostitution, which is definitely illegal. Of course, it depends on which state it is. But I feel that I can fully use legal means to protect my interests here. So, in summary, Senator, I can't give it to you."
After Tony's unreasonable talk, the scene suddenly became as lively as a hilarious talk show. In this atmosphere, even the senator who was good at talking had no room to continue speaking.
He could only recruit external aid to continue his plan.
"Listen, I'm not an expert in this area. I don't know if what you said is true. I need a weapons expert to give us some advice on whether Iron Man is a weapon. Now, I'm going to summon Justin Hammer, the current main arms dealer of the Ministry of Defense."
When Tony heard this name, he immediately understood who was targeting him. The Ministry of Defense was definitely one aspect, but the one who instigated the Ministry of Defense was definitely this shameless Hammer. Only he would have the spirit to target him.
You know, in the past, when Stark was still the leader of the arms industry, Hammer Industries had always been eyeing Stark Industries.
However, at that time, Stark's relationship with the Ministry of Defense was better than that of Hammer Industries, which also led to the fact that Hammer Industries had no way to target Stark.
But now it's different. Stark Industries has withdrawn from the arms field, and this means that the market share he left behind is destined to be divided up by the remaining giants.
But it happened that during this period, Osborn also got into his own troubles, so Hammer Industries seized the opportunity, caught up, and directly became the largest supplier of the Ministry of Defense.
However, even after becoming the largest arms seller, Hammer Industries still has a certain gap with the original Stark Industries.
The most significant gap lies in cutting-edge weapons. Hammer Industries is a company that made its fortune from light and small individual weapons, and is inherently lacking in this area.
In addition, the head of Stark Enterprises is a genius who can develop black technology, which naturally makes the gap between them grow wider and wider.
Moreover, Tony looked down on Justin Hammer and thought that this guy was an idiot. The reason why Hammer Industries was able to defeat several other arms dealers was entirely because they had government support behind them.
Rather than calling him an arms dealer, it would be better to say that Justin Hammer is a processing factory that specializes in processing equipment for the United States, the number one arms dealer.
Sometimes, the US president does not want his fingerprints to appear on some weapons, so Justin Hammer's Hammer Industries becomes the best agent.
In other words, it's not Hammer who's causing trouble, but the government that's forcing Tony to hand over Iron Man's technology.
Chapter 107: Military and Government Suppression
Logically speaking, Stark Industries has dominated the arms industry for so many years, and should have attracted the envy of many people. This time, the government and the military have finally taken the lead and are able to suppress it. These arms giants should be very happy and actively participate.
But on the contrary, they are not enthusiastic about this matter, and some people even express their opposition to it "privately".
Because these arms giants who have been family-run for several generations are not short-sighted people who can only see immediate benefits.
They can clearly see that compared with the benefits they can gain from squeezing out a competitor that has already announced its withdrawal from the arms industry and is no longer a threat to them, if they participate in this matter, they may have to pay a higher price in the future.
The United States is a country with a high proportion of private ownership. Most of its economic lifelines, including its currency, the US dollar, are not state-owned, but are in the hands of some large families and large financial groups, and these military-industrial giants are one of them.
These big families and big tycoons all have a unified consensus that the government and the military are used to protect and expand their interests, not to manage them.
Therefore, no matter whether it is the government or the military, no one can forcibly take anything away from them without their consent, for any reason or in any name.
So this time, they were very unenthusiastic about the government and the military's intention to force Tony to hand over the Iron Man suit, and they could even be said to be resisting it.
Because this matter itself is contrary to the private system in the United States, and it is the beginning of the state forcing private individuals to give up their core interests through administrative orders.
Today the country is interested in Tony's Iron Man armor and asks him to hand it over. What if tomorrow it is interested in the fighter jet technology of this company? The day after tomorrow it is interested in the cruise missile manufacturing of that company?
The day after tomorrow, he'll be interested in this company's military satellite technology, and the day after tomorrow, he'll be interested in their bomb technology?
Are you going to pay it or not?
If your core technology is gone and the military is researching it themselves, will they still need to buy your products? Then your company will be ruined and will be on the verge of bankruptcy.
Don't give it up. Iron Man has given away such amazing technology, why wouldn't you? Are you planning treason?
I guess a regiment of soldiers will surround your company the next day. If you hand it over, your company will go bankrupt. If you don't hand it over, it will be considered treason. The military will forcibly confiscate your core technology and close down your company.