Unexpected // An MCU Story (Book One)

vii

For the next couple weeks, I spent almost all of my time down in the shop with Tony, which made Pepper (and me) very happy. We worked on the suit all day every day, and I never got bored of it. 

Tony had showed me almost everything in the lab, and I knew how to work a lot of the equipment. I was finally able to actually work on the suit, and although he wouldn't say it directly, I think he was surprised at how fast I learned.

We were in the shop testing the parts again. I aimed the camera at him from the side, feeling that this test run would go a lot better. 

"Day 11, test 37, configuration 2.0. For lack of a better option, Dum-E is still on fire safety. If you douse me again, and I'm not on fire, I'm donating you to a city college." He told the robot, who looked away sadly. "Alright, nice and easy. Seriously, just gonna start off with 1% thrust capacity. "And three, two, one."

The gloves and boots turned on and he floated a few feet off the ground before lowering himself back down.

"Yes!" I yelled, throwing my hands in the air.

"Okay. Please don't follow me around with it, either 'cause I feel like I'm gonna catch on fire spontaneously." He told Dum-E. "Just stand down! If something happens, then come in. And again, let's bring it up to 2.5. Three, two, one."

He floated up a little further and then began so move around the room towards the cars.

"Okay, this is where I don't want to be! Oh, not the car, not the car! Yikes! Table!"

Papers flew up in the air everywhere and I backed up so I didn't get knocked into. "Could be worse! Could be worse! We're fine! Okay. Okay. Okay."

He dropped back down onto the floor, stumbling back a bit upon landing while Dum-E aimed the fire extinguisher at him.

"No! Uh-uh! Uh-uh!" He yelled, making the robot stand down. "Yeah, I can fly." He said into the camera.

"Success!" I shouted, throwing my hands up in excitement.

After a lot more time and a lot more building, the suit was finally finished.

I watched from the side as Tony walked out with the suit on, nodding at me.

"JARVIS, are you there?" He asked as he put on the helmet.

At your service, sir.

"Engage heads up display."

Check.

"Import all preferences from home interface."

Will do, sir.

"All right, what do you say?"

I have indeed been uploaded, sir. We're online and ready.

"Can we start the virtual walk-around?"

Importing preferences and calibrating virtual environment.

"Do check in control surfaces."

As you wish. Test complete. Preparing to power down and begin diagnostics.

"Uh, yeah. Tell you what. Do a weather and ATC check. Start listening in on ground control."

Sir, there are still terabytes of calculations needed before an actual flight is...

"JARVIS! Sometimes you got to run before you can walk. Ready? In three, two, one." He turned to me, nodding through the mask. "Be back in a sec."

The boots turned on and he shot through the tunnel that leads outside. I ran after him and watched as he flew around the sky, only a little bit jealous. He suddenly flew straight up, going higher than I expected and not stopping.