Harley W. Keener

The Second Title of Iron Man.

&. B A S I C S ;
GIVEN NAME: Harley Willam Keener
NICKNAME(S): Harls, Kid.
FAMILY: Jessica Keener ( mother ), Adelaide Keener ( younger sister ).
HEIGHT: 5'11
AGE: 18 ( up to 23 )
SEXUALITY: Bisexual.
GENDER: Male.
IDENTITY: Iron Man.
PUBLIC OR SECRET: Secret.
OCCUPATION: Intern to Pepper Potts, future CEO in the making.
POSITIVE PERSONALITY TRAITS:
NEGATIVE PERSONALITY TRAITS:





&. B A C K G R O U N D ;

The years following Harley Keener's week long visit from the one and only Iron Man were calm, no one crashing through his garage door, no exploding crazies trampling through his town and causing pure chaos. Truly, the only time he ever saw anything wrong with the world was when he went online, or turned on a television. Or when the alerts he kept on for 'Iron Man', 'Tony Stark', 'Stark Industries' or 'The Avengers' lit up. He went to school, lived his life, got accepted into MIT after graduating a year early from high school, with a shining recommendation letter and scholarship in the name of the 'Maya Hansen; World Improvement Scholarship' funded by Stark Industries.

Everything was great, perfect even, he was in his first semester when everything went to hell. His first class of the day interrupted by the alerts erupting to fill their classroom, and when he managed to look down he caught sight of plenty of notifications: world ending; alien attack in New York again, Space Attack Imminent, Unidentified Object Crashes From Space, Iron Man Tracking Space Ship, Iron Man Missing From Sight. Everything was chaos, from there on out, minutes seemed like hours as panic ensued. Him trying to get in contact with his family in Tennessee. Nothing going through, and by the end of the day, he was standing in his dorm next to a pile of ash where his roommate had been standing. It was weeks of trying to contact family, to figure out what had happened, until he got the answers he hadn't wanted to believe. There were people missing, of course there were, Tony was missing, he'd been corresponding with Pepper in those weeks, trying to figure out exactly what he could do, how he could help, but it was mostly dead leads in him staying in school. Even though classes had been put on hold.

He wanted to be far away from the shell of what this was. Not to mention that he'd gotten the call from authorities that his missing sister and mother had been found. They weren't missing because they had been reduced to the ash of the titan that had ravaged their planet. No. The plane they had boarded to come visit him, had crashed, killing all passangers when both pilots had been reduced to ash, along with a majority of the plane. Or so they assumed when bodies hadn't showed up at the crash sight. He was entirely alone, there was no taking that away. When the news that Tony had come home came, a message left by Pepper, he was there the next morning that Pepper said he could come up to visit his mentor. It had been too long since they'd last seen each other before that. Nevermind now that he'd almost another person in his life that was incredibly important to him.

The snap caused him to be around more, he came by once or twice a week to have dinner with him and Pepper, keeping up with them, especially when Tony found out from Pepper about his sister and mothers death. It lead him to becoming even closer to the man he looked up to, was friends with, it was more than just emails and phone calls. It felt like having a family again. It made losing everything not feel so lonely. Especially when Morgan was born, Harley announced himself the day of that he would babysit her forever, whenever he was needed. It reminded him of having his sister around, and he swore that nothing would ever happen to this kid. School started back up a year and a half later, and he was back to being used to school, by year three. Taking his time in figuring things out, getting used to the grief. The chaos. Dealing with losing everything, but building around it.

By year five, the chaos came back, and he wasn't around when everything went wrong again. He knew nothing other than what Pepper would call him to tell him, it all seemed crazy, he was terrified of what would happen. He knew Pepper was as well. How could she not be? They had plenty of reasons to be. Those reasons were validated when Tony Stark didn't come home from the battle that Pepper had gone off to fight in, he'd been sitting on the floor with Morgan, distracting her by trying to teach her how to properly play (cheat) at monopoly, though she mostly was just arguing over who was going to use the dog. Harley got stuck with the top hat, and Pepper kissed Morgan's head, held her close for a long time, and gave Harley a look that words weren't needed .to validate. Tony wasn't going to be coming home.

Harley slept in the guest room the following days, or on Morgan's floor when she asked him to read her seven stories and he eventually fell asleep, until the funeral occurred and he offered to stay, help with Morgan, and go back to school when classes started again. Because blood or not, Pepper and Morgan were his family, just as much as his own blood had been, just as much as Tony had been. He found the letter from Tony, the hologram video the night after what he thought would be the last words he heard from Tony played in the living room surrounded by his other family, his team.

Along with the letter was keys, access codes, anything he would need to work in one of the inventors labs in Stark industries, private, one Tony himself hadn't visited in years according to the letter. The option, something he had discussed with Pepper to take over running the company, taking it in a further direction, making it grow, under the leadership of Pepper until she wanted to step down. As well as a title, only if Harley ever wanted to take it, to pick up where he had left off. There were plenty of suits, and Tony dared him in the letter, in true Tony Stark fashion to try to make them better than he had. To make them his own if he wanted to. To remember not to carry the same weight on his shoulders, to find people he could trust. It was a second chance, something to give him direction in a world he had felt lost in. Tony knew that even if this worked, it couldn't bring back Harley's family, not his blood one at least. It could give him something to pull himself out of the darkness though. Something Harley, so desperately needed. To fight for something, to do something bigger than he was.

The first thing he did was add in something he mentioned as a child. He made the suits his own. Only on every suit. Two thin lines were etched into the suit, 'II', he would never be Tony Stark, no one could ever be the Iron Man that Tony was, but they both knew that Iron Man meant something to people. To kids who needed heroes, who would be heroes themselves, without suits or powers. Who may even start in garages at ten years old and become something greater.

( Made with Carrd )