Date: 15/12/2008
Location: Malibu Mansion, Workshop
The workshop was a light show of sparks and clangs of metal filling the room . The light illuminates the welding mask and reflects the work being done. In the background black ice by AC/DC blasts through the room's speakers.
The door beeps open as Matthew slushie in hand walks in and peeks over the screen of data on the holo monitors behind his working brother.
"What are you working on?" he asked in a sing-song way , more to annoy than to actually get an answer.
"I'm looking for the sweet spot of the thrustor out put." His voice was muffled till he flipped the mask up grabbing the drink outta Matthew's hand. Matthew's lips twitched in irritation before his gaze landed on the piece of still heated metal. " It needs to allow me to achieve flight." he continued in between the annoying slurping of the straw.
" Those things look like it'll explode" he stated raising his brow, slight concern clashing with curiosity.
"Oh they have," he ran a hand through his minutely singed hair, " multiple times. Dum-E's fire extinguisher can tell you that."
At that the robot beeped in affirmation, his arm turning towards Tony ever so slightly .
"Okay then?" He stressed his words, a bit more concerned than he originally was, seating himself onto one of the rare, mostly uncluttered, tables in the room. The silence stretched in the room for a brief minute, Tony running the diagnostics on the recalibrations he just did and Matthew looking ever so constipated about the can of worms he's about open.
"Ever think about coming back to the company?" He asks this because it was the main agenda of that last meeting. If he'll stay. Or if they should make Matthew their new figure head. In Stane's case , the new puppet heads to their inventive empire. For Christ's sake he's nineteen and yeah, he's the C.E.O of Stark Mottos but that was a whole other ballfield than the entire conglomerate.
" Is that obvious?" Tony looks up at him, helpless smile in tow.
"Well you kinda looked yourself up in here for 7 days, you smell like you need to be introduced to a shower and the stack of burger wrappings in the corner has to be some type of record" he listened, his fingers going up at each point,, his tone was beyond deadpan.
Tony, a tad irritated , throws the nearest object to him , an empty McDonald cup, missing cleanly as the cup falls short . He earned an unamused brow from the stunt.
" wanna try again" he taunted , selecting a screen from the desk and looking it over.
"You know.." he trails off imagination and possible calculations running wild " since the repulsors and thrustor all work with the junk in your chest it would be better to use a different conductor here" he enhanced a part of it , pointing as thought it didn't solve a problem tony was having a few hours ago.
Tony scoffed, and threw him a soldering iron " you fix it then.
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The recording plays with Matthew and Tony on screen.
Matthew had just finished securing the repulsors to Tony's arms and gave a thumbs up before retreating a ways away from the blast zone
"Day 9 test 26 configuration 2.O" Tony started , arms aimed downward and stance straight.
"Matthew will be on fire safety and will check the reactive data as we go. Say 'hi' Mat"
" Hi" his head popped back in frame then retreated again, then he started a count down . " power at 40% , start in 3…"
"2"
"1" Just as it was said, the reactors lit up and sent Tony up and slamming into the roof. Tony was dropped on the floor , a groan punctuating the fall.
" Oh shit, are you okay?" was the last thing heard before Matthew ran over and the recording cut.
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In frame , Matthew's hands covered the entire lens before he steps back and nods to himself in approval, before disappearing off screen. Tony stood in the middle of the test floor , again , the experimental equipment looking to have changed slightly since the last few tests.
"Day 11 test 37 configuration 2.O" he started, shaking off his arms a bit before taking up his stance " for lack of a willing volunteer," Tony side-eyed Matthew.
" What you nearly burnt my hair off last time" Matthew voiced , slightly offended.
" Dum-E will be on fire safety. If you douse me again, and I'm not on fire , I'm donating you to a city college." Tony threatened the robot pointing at him in warning.
" Oh no a community college , the horror" he muttered sarcastically off screen, loud enough that only the camera picked it up.
"Alright, nice and easy. Seriously Mat, start off at 1% thrust capacity" tony looked toward the camera for affirmation then back at the floor "in 3"
"2"
"1" the thrusters lit up , lifting him off the floor, with intermediate sparks flying off of him but he remained stable none the less.
" Okay now that's cool." Matthew's voice sounded off screen , the awe evident as Tony landed safely.
" Alright, this time at 2.5%" Tony readies himself again and takes off but this time the propulsion moved him around the room.
"No, no, no. Not the car. Not the car." tony pleaded as he flew over his extremely expensive supercar collection.
" You've used a flyboard before, just think of it like that" Matthew add, attempting to help
" It's not that easy" Tony retorted, now using his hands to try and balance himself. He finally managed to land , albeit like a human equivalent to a jet, still stumbling at the landing.
"No uh uh" Tony chided Dum-E as he turned to see the nuzzle of the extinguisher following him. The robot responded in a sad beep.
Tony looked towards the camera and with a self fulfilled look he stated " Yeah, I can fly."
" Can't land though," Matthew knocked him off his high horse, still seemingly doing something off screen, earning a frown from the older man.
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They sat on the balcony , admiring the sea and the night sky. Tony let out a content breath before speaking.
" About what you said earlier," he said with a slightly guilty expression on his face, " I know I shouldn't have left you to keep my position. I did the same thing dad did when he…" he stopped, a complicated look crossing his expression.
"No, I get it. You finally got an out and you took it . I know it was kinda hard. You had to raise me and save what was left of the company . I wouldn't wish that on anyone" he said self-deprecatingly.
" Hey you act like I didn't enjoy raising you, you turned out so much better than me" he said proudly, nudging his shoulder playfully then his tone turned back to serious, " If you really need me to come back, I'll think about it, no guarantees though."
"Better than nothing" he smiled looking back at the half finished Mark2.O, the metal frame nearly finished but the signs of the future Ironman were clear to see.
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Date:22/12/2008
Location: Secure location under Stark industries
"Dr. Montgomery, where are we at with the blue prints of Tony's toy?" Stane had not been having the best of days. Earlier this week , Matthew had side lined him and gave him a talk of " what he's doing is for the good of the company" bullshit. Then Tony had once again denied him from even browsing the workshop data logs. Then those Ten Rings guys sent another threat but this time they located his primary home, so he had to send Zeke back to boarding school early.
He was most definitely not having a good day at all. To top it off, this so-called science is constantly complaining that they can't build me at least a replica of Tony's damn suit.
" I'm sorry Mr. Stane but the schematics we have don't have anything remotely helpful to remaking the miniature reactor that Mr. Stark possesses. If you could get a physical one, it would be much-"
"Tony Stark made this with a box of scrapes in a war zone, and you're telling me that you can't with a top of the line facility and premium materials!" he shouted at the men , the majority of them flinching but still remaining steadfast in their conviction.
"Not every one is a stark sir" the Doctor with the main tag " Humphrey" said though his slouched presence did not convey his audacity.
They had a hulking piece of metal armor but no power source. Wouldn't this just be an utter waste of what little funds Stane has left?