Rhodey Stark

**Rhodey Stark**, also known as **The Vindicator**, is the great-great-granddaughter of Tony Stark, CEO of Stark Industries, and leader of the Vindicates.

## History

Born Christmas 2155, Rhodey Stark is the grandchild of Tony Stark and James "Rhodey" Rhodes, her namesake. Her mother, the granddaughter of Rhodes, was the one who pushed a military regimen onto her whilst the father, the descendant of Stark, was the intellectual. Neither of them showed their daughter much affection.

What resulted from this upbringing and mixture of genes was a child even more intelligent than her famous ancestor, coupled with dangerous military discipline. By the 2100s, Stark Industries was back in the business of manufacturing weapons of war, as well as contributing to the power distribution of Earth and its colonies. Rhodey was brought up in a rigid military and academic environment, groomed from birth on how run a corporate empire, as well as self-defense, from arms training to martial arts. She almost never had a moment to herself and wasn't allowed to play with other children. Every moment of her life was spent training her body or mind, and so she graduated at the top of her class in basic training when she was eighteen, though she had not officially enlisted into the military.

Like all teens she began to rebel, but Rhodey was different. She was fascinated by the historic events of the Civil War in which her great-grandfather had played a part in, but as she read and re-read the accounts of the what happened, she became more and more confused. Conflicted by her doubts, she also began exploring the world for what it was as an everyday citizen, making friends, talking to people, realizing the every day struggles of the common man and woman. This upset her parents very much, who thought she was above those she threw herself in with, the common rabble.

But the world wasn't what it should have been. Clean, renewable energy existed - it was in every Iron Man armour ever made. The Starks could have had the world powering itself for free -  but every good businessperson knows, that's not how to make money. Arc Reactor technology is still patented to the Starks, and the supply it brings is charged for. Her parents never taught her how Arc Reactor Technology worked, they simply told her to figure it out. When she did so, she was told to guard the secret with her life, the world and most colonies were reliant upon their company, family, bloodline. When Rhodey realized this, she knew she had inherited a dynasty. She didn't like it, but was smart enough not to show it.

After her twenty third birthday, her father died, and she inherited the company, though she couldn't even share an emotional connection with her mother over the grief. Her life was turned upside down in more ways than one after that, as she was approached by men in suits with guns who claimed that her father had some kind of secret arrangement with their superiors. At first, it appeared to be an elaborate joke from some sort of cult, but as she dug through her father's files, it turned out there was a connection there.

After that, she left Earth on a quest to find the Watchtower, the base of operations for the Justice League and Avengers, which had been teleported far away from Earth when the Civil War started. After years of searching, she finally did so. She had been pondering the Vindicates Initiative for a while then, but with the Watchtower, it could finally become a reality. With an upgraded MK. VII Iron Man suit, she set out to start recruiting, first among them Samus Aran. Rhodey liberated Samus from a Federation laboratory in Earth's orbit, and convinced her that the government she fought for might be corrupt.

Rhodey then recruited Isaac Clarke after rescuing him from his shuttle after events unfolded on Aegis IV, and then received the deceased bodies of both John and Jane Shepard from Liara T'soni. After stealing information from Cerberus' Lazarus Project, she was able to resuscitate them.

*The Vindicates then embarked on first real mission together as a team, investigating a joint UEGA/Weyland-Yutani facility which had sent out a distress call. As it turned out, it had suffered a Xenomorph infestation, and military personnel from numerous groups went to deal with it. In the aftermath, many new members were recruited into the Vindicates.*

Their next mission would be to deal with Oro 'Varamee. Rhodey, accompanied by Ben-174, went to either kill, detain, or recruit Oro, who was considered an extremely dangerous target by the UNSC. They were unable to do any of those, but did bring him into their intelligence network, as well as plant the seed of doubt in the Covenant into his mind.

Omega station would be their next visit. After talking to Mitchell Harkman and Rusty, she was able to locate Paya Bhu'ja-Thwei, a unique Yautja who they had encountered on the Wey-Yu station.

## Personality and traits

Rhodey, outwardly, has a very snarky personality, but

## Equipment

Rhodey has modified an old IRONMAN MK. VII suit into the first IRONMAN GEN2 MKI suit.

## Trivia

While Rhodey's history and design are creations of Amalgamation100, the concept and name are technically from an official *Marvel* source, Avengers Vol 5 24.NOW. In that story, Rhodey is Tony Stark's descendant from the year 3030, and time travels to the present day to warn the Avengers of an incoming planetary collision.

Amalgamation100 has said that he was forced to take certain liberties with the character's personality and backstory, since official content on her was either very brief or non-existent. After reading the one issue she appeared in, he decided that he essentially had to make her his own to fill in the large gaps. The reason for making her armour look so different was that it was easier to modify the already existing MK VII than to create a new 3D model, plus the version of her that exists in the Amalgamation universe is a much younger, less experienced character, so it fit the narrative.

People often point out that Rhodey lives too far in the future to be the grandchild of Tony Stark. There are two explanations for this; technological advancement means that humans would stay younger and healthier for longer, prolonging lifespans and subsequently lengthening family trees. The second is that it is somewhat of a reference to her canon story, which had her call Tony her grandfather, despite being labelled as Iron Man 3030, meaning she lived over one thousand years in the future. The Amalgamation Universe's version, however, was born only 130 years in the future, and is instead his great-grandchild, making it much more plausible.

Due to advances in medical technology in the 22nd century, Rhodey will still be as healthy and fit as a twenty-year old, well past her fifties, if she doesn't die of other causes first.