A few months later.
"Well, that was stupid what was he even here for?" Asked Aron after a scientist came in looked at them rambled something about 'hard-light projectors and then simply left when he saw peppers genuinely confused but encouraging face.
"What do you think of it?" asked Pepper.
"The 'conversation' or the project?"
"Both"
"He needs a representative, someone who can talk on his behalf and not take advantage of his kindness/weakness and steal his work. I can tell that he has put a lot of effort into it and it is theoretically possible. If we do it right we can turn cartoons and video games into things that exist in the real-life. Now that I think about it with little props one can make monsters or become a superhero." said Aron rubbing his chin.
"What about business?"
"It's going to throw the entertainment sector over its head and also communications and few other things"
"Got it," said Pepper before clicking on the landline.
"Liz, I want you to inform Mr.Smid that his Hard-light project is a go and inform Blake about him...Yeah...thanks...Excuse me?... Sure, send him in"
"Who is it now?" Asked Aron as he solved a 100x100 Rubix cube which was being simulated on his phone.
"An old...friend, Let's see what he wants" Said Pepper.
"Hello, Pepper," said Killian as he greeted Pepper as he came in.
"Killian? Wow, you look great" replied Pepper as she greeted him surprised.
Aron was sitting on a chair being invisible as usual thanks to magic and was paying extra attention to the man that just came in because the Prototrix just warned him about his unstable D.N.A.
(A/N: This is completely random but do any of you suddenly find yourself staring into something while you think of something only to realize you have been staring at a light bulb and now you are blind? No? Just me?)
Killian just did his thing where he started flirting with pepper and explaining to her about the Extremis which is honestly a PAIN to write so I am going to skip it.
"So, what do you think?" asked Killian after he was done.
"I think it has potential to help a lot of people..."
Killian was practically beaming at that.
"...but..."
Killian's face froze.
"I also see that it has more potential to be weaponized so I will have to turn down your offer, Tony wouldn't like that"
Killian almost lost his smile and to Aron's eyes, he was generating a lot of heat. Aron prepared a few magic circles just in case of course while staying invisible.
"You know I went to Tony with my idea once,13 years ago. We know how that went. But I hoped you would be different. You are..."
"That's a no from me, Killian," said pepper with eyes that said 'Get out of my office.'
Killian stood up and left but stopped at the door.
"Well I am sure we will see each other soon," said Killian with a knowing smile as he left.
"He is dangerous." Said Aron as soon as they were alone.
Pepper just looked at him confused. She was about to reassure him but was interrupted.
"Extremis or whatever he has done to himself has left his DNA in shambles. I saw him generate a lot of heat when you rejected him. He is like a walking time bomb ready to go off at a moments notice"
"Can you do anything about it?" asked Pepper.
"Me? I can't, the prototrix can. but his DNA is far too unstable if the prototrix does stabilize him he will turn into a fire demon of some sort. I did cast a spell on him that will mark any and all like him he comes across and give...me...their...location... Tony is in danger we have to move now!" said Aron as he transformed.
"I'll see you at the entrance," said Pepper as she started going out.
"Hurry" Said Aron as he turned into electricity disappearing in the electric circuit of the building.
Pepper nearly ran out of the building trying to call Tony on the way but received no response which caused her to curse under her breath.
When she got out an Audi r8 was waiting for her but instead of white it was black with green circuit-like lines all over it, She got in and the car zoomed out and headed towards the mansion.
"Aron, what exactly is happening?" asked Pepper as she got used to the speed he was doing in (400 km/h )
"The mansion is being bombarded by multiple modified Helicopters , Tony and Jarvis are destroying them as we speak but Jarvis is disoriented since he lost his servers"
"Switch to flight mode get there as soon as you can!" said Pepper worried.
"Got it, will be there in 5 minutes!" said Aron as he transformed into a single-seater spaceship and took off, He could have gone a lot faster but he didn't want to harm Pepper.
Few Hours ago
Tony had Just finished breakfast and was about to head back into the lab to tinker with an armor his when he was interrupted by Happy, his temporary security/secretary/driver.
"Boss you have a call from a very rude black man with a single eye," said Happy clearly NOT happy with the breach in protocalls by the caller.
"Fury? why is he calling?" asked Tony.
"I need your help Stark" said Fury as the phone was on speaker.
Tony took the phone and waved happy away.
"OOH? The great spy master needs my help?" asked stark equal parts suprized and snark.
"Yes, we haven't made any sort of head way in the recent bombings across the country. Since you are... you, I figured you will be able to find something by the end of the day. Or are you not confident enough to solve it?"
Tony rolled his eyes.
"Who do you think I am? send in the everything you have and I will give you something in 4 hours tops."
Fury hung up.
Tony chuckled and entered his lab which was more of a garage at this point with the cars replaced with his suits and all sorts of devices trown all over the place.
"J, bring up 'jigsaw' and keep 'shotgun' on stand by I will play with him after I figure out 'jigsaw'"
"What about the data sent by shield?"
"Create a map and plot it out, also plot out all thermo-genic occurrences in the last 12 months and get me a profile on the suspect. I will get to it after I am done with 'Jigsaw'".
"Of course, sir. Should I also run an search into the the suspects organization?"
"Give me everything".
"Yes, sir".
3 hours latter.
"Autonomous Prehensile Propulsion Suit Prototype or 'Jigsaw' or mark 42, suite up test 01... something is missing... J drop my needle, Let's do this".
Jingle bells started playing and tony started dancing to it before he took a stance with his right hand forward which caused the suits right gauntlet to fly towards him and equip itself followed by the shoulder and upper arm. with a little more force than that was actually necessary but was 'within' parameters Jarvis said nothing because it was no where dangerous and Tony did not let him properly callibrate the thrusters and ignored his warnings entairly.
Now you might be asking how on earth would Jarvis callibrate the small mechanics of the machine. you forget that Aron and Tony upgraded everything so now Jarvis had little mechanical arms all over the lab that he could control and operate they sort of looked like Doc Oc's arms but smaller.
a bit of tangent but back to our favorite inventor he smirked and did the same with his left and it succeded to.
"Alright J, send them all"
"Sir, I would sugg-"
"Send 'em all J"
Jarvis sighed and activated 'all' of them but still controlled them enough that they don't destroy the lab...too much.
"J, slow them down" said Tony as he was nearly knocked out by the boots and thighs.
He then had to deflect the rear piece dodge the chest and back pieces but was not so lucky with the groin piece, which caused him to wince in pain and then fall backward as his chest piece came and slamed into him and then stumble forward as his back piece did the same forming his head.
"J, please slow them down"
"It's too late, sir" said J, politely as the face plate slamed into his face followed by the rear piece knocking him on the ground.
"This is why it is necessary to fine tune things and go through the safety breefing before attempting an experiment and also set up a safe word just in case. Sir" said Jarvis through 'shotgun' as 'shotgun' helped him up.
"Yeah...yeah. Get me an ice pack I think I broke a bone" as he stood up.
"You haven't. your face is just swollen.The pain should go away in a few minutes." said Jarvis as he handed him an ice pack.
Tony just took it as he went to the living room and sat on the sofa resting for few minutes.
"J"
"sir?" came Jarvis's voice from some where in the hall.
"Bring up the home work lets get it over with"
"Ofcourse, sir"
The empty space in front of him turned into a map of USA with points all over the place indicating terrorsit attacks causing him to frown.
"J, bring up the suspect"
The area in front of him got littered with news clippings, speculations, rumors of the 'Ten-rings' and the claims made by the 'Mandarin'. which caused him to frown
"J, remove every attack on anything important"
the map reduced to about a two dozen points.
"Give me the thermo-genic data of all of them"
The points now had graphs indicating the blast temperatures where half of them were excessively hot for explotions their size.
"Keep the once with excessive temps and get rid of the rest"
all except ten of the points disappeared.
"Show me the victims and try and reconstruct the crime scene if you can"
"Of course, sir"
few seconds later 6 crime scenes were floating in front of him while the rest had pictures of the devastation arranged in an array. of the 6, 3 of them were pecular with man shaped shadows and no fragments.
"J, bring those three up"
"When is a bomb not a bomb?" Tony asked himself.
"J, get the source of those 'shadows' and simulate a source" said Tony pointing to the giant human shadows on the structures.
A few minutes later.
2 of the 3 that had some what of an accurate recreation of the crime screen had the source ne in the form of balls near a seating apparatus of some sort. Tony's eyes widened.
"J, make the sources human shaped"
Jarvis turned them human shaped.
"When its a human" said Tony answering his own question.
"J, send this to Fury and speed up the production of 'vulcan' and 'artic', prioritize 'vulcan' also plan a business trip to rose hills, Tennese".
"They will be ready in a few minutes and you have a guest"
"Who? I am not expecting any one and Peppers a few hours away"
J simply showed him who was comming.
"Have 'shotgun' and 'jigsaw' on standby I don't have a good feeling about this" said Tony as he turned towards the entrance.
Few minutes latter around the same time Killian was talking with Pepper.
"What can I do for you miss Maya Hassen?" asked tony looking at the women who simply walked right in. As for how she was even able to get in? Tony let her obviously, he vaguly recalled having a one night stand with someone like her some where and her profile was enough to get his attention.
"I am surprised you remember me" said Maya genuinely surprised.
"You have a profile that warents my attention in a different way now" said Tony with a smile "want a drink?"
"No, I need to talk to you alone and not here" said Maya looking nervous.
"Well a few months ago I would have gone for that sort thing but now I am in a committed relationship with Pepper. So what can I help you with? and why now? don't worry we have privacy"
She took a deep breath. and tony started dreading what she was about to say.
"I need your help in fixing Extremis"
"Oh, thank god"
"What?" asked Maya looking confused,
"I thought you would say I have a 12 year old kid in the car with you whom I have never met" said tony looking relived and started to drink.
"He is 13." said Maya without thinking
*Pfff**cough**cough* he looked at her as if he had a stroke.
"I need your help in completing the Extremis because of him" said Maya before he could say anything.
Tony just looked at her and she got the message.
"His name is Noah Hassen. I did not come to you because I felt that you needed to know of him. He had an accident a month ago and lost his left side I injected him with Extremis to save him but he is unstable, I have been keeping him in a forced coma and on severe stablizers in order to keep him alive and now the only hope he has is a completed Extremis." said Maya looking down with guilt.
Tony filled a glass with the strongest alcohol he had at the moment and downed it in one go.
"I won't ask for custody" said Tony after a few minutes suprising Maya.
"All I ask is to let me get to know him after all this and tell me everything and by everything I mean everything related to Extremis"
Before she could say anything Alarms started to go off.