Better Times

002 : Roger That, Rogers

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—CHAPTER 2 : Roger That, Rogers—

Tony was quiet for a good amount of time when the curly headed boy arrived. He knew a intern was coming in to assist him, but he never figured they would be.. very young. He made a mental note to talk with Pepper about it, but he'd forget about it soon.

"Well then," he clapped his hands and glanced at the holographic image of a list. A smile appeared on his lips, "First we learn what you know. So— like a test, a bigger test with actual...things." Tony led the boy towards a separate table and handed him a box labeled 'intern test' on the side.

"So I'm just making something out of this?" The boy, Tony thinks his name is Paper, asked softly. Tony sent him a reassuring smile and nodded. A grin appeared on his face and he quickly got to work.

Tony decided that he didn't want to wait and began working on some personal projects, like a coffee automatic machine. Because, who really wants to take the time and make the coffee? Certainly not him. He stared at the blueprints and frowned before erasing a good portion of the picture.

Engineering was difficult, but fun, and it made Tony annoyed when he got factors wrong. A hand rubbed his forehead just before he began recalculating the diameters. He could ask FRIDAY to play some more music, but he figured the boy had enough to do without getting sidetracked. So instead Tony settled on some simple humming noises.

"I'm— I'm all done, Mr. Stark," a voice quivered from behind him. Tony's head lifted up and turned, to the tiny penguin on the desk, doing a happy dance. He sent the boy a concerned glance as he shuffled his feet, "I named it PENNY. Just an artificial intelligence to do simple tasks. I didn't have any voice operation experiences very offensive so it can't talk yet."

The small robot proceeded to show off itself with dancing and answering math questions. It amazed Tony without a doubt, so he clapped, "Impressive. I love it. So, now we have to..gee kid, Pepper didn't tell me what to do. Oh wait, sorry, ok, so we need to see how fat your actual iQ is."

They spent the time working out the schedule on the screen, decoding programs and rebuilding objects. It was a fun subject to work on for Tony, but he knew that an Avengers meeting would be starting just as soon as the boy left. He practically begged the clock to never make it to 6 o'clock, but it did, and it made Tony frown.

"Looks like that's all for today. I'll have FRIDAY look through everything and then we can start on some projects," a smile played both of their lips and the boy nodded eagerly, shouted a loud goodbye as he left into the elevator. Soon it was silent except for Tony's trudging steps through the room.

"Sir, Nick Fury requests your appearance in the top level meeting room," the robotic female voice called out. Tony sighed and nodded before saying an ok. The male genius sighed and began to trudge through his private elevator, just in time to make it to the meeting. Tony could go on and bother Fury by being late, but he didn't have the strength to talkback today.

It was silent for the most part, just the zooming of the elevator escalating upwards. A ding rang through his ears and his vision soon came face to face with the Avengers. Fury turned from the board and grinned, "Look who finally made it on time. First time for everything, huh?"

"Shut it, I haven't had my coffee yet. So let's just get on with it," Tony snapped tiredly. He didn't have the most strength in the moment, not like he ever does. Tony mere propped his feet onto the glass table and leaned back, waiting for the meeting to start.