Lost Cause (Ironman)

Chapter 10

Word count-1309

A few days later, Tony was in his lab. "JARVIS, you up?"

"For you, sir, always."

"I'd like to open a new project file, index as Mark 2."

"Shall I store this on the Stark Industries central database?"

Tony dragged a blueprint of the suit and made it 3D. "Actually, I don't know who to trust right now. Till further notice, why don't we just keep everything on my private server?"

"Working on a secret project, are we, sir?" Tony started moving the 3D projection around and taking things he didn't want on it off.

"I don't want this winding up in the wrong hands. Maybe in mine, it can actually do some good."

"And mine, of course." Tony spun around and saw Cal with her arms crossed, eyebrows raised and she was leaning on the wall behind him. Tony went to object but Cal wouldn't let him. "You can trust me." She walked towards him as she spoke. "We're in this together." He smiled at her.

"Alright, Cal."

"So, what are we doing?" Cal walked up to the table and saw the holographic suit.

"I, am making a new suit. One that works properly. You can't help me."

"Oh." Cal looked down sadly.

"Because you'll be too busy making your own." Cal's head shot up.

"I get my own?" He nodded whilst smirking at her. She pulled him into a hug,

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"She repeated.

"You're welcome." He said laughing.

"Next. Up." It had been a few days since Cal and Tony had started to make new suits. The two were working on their boots, a robot arm helping both of them. The mechanical parts of the boots were moving as they were all soldering. "Not in the boot, Dum-E. Right here. You got me?" Tony was having some difficulty with Dum-E, the robot arm. He would've used U, the other robot arm, but Cal used it first. "Stay put. Nice. You're of no benefit at all. Move down to the toe. I got this. Okay, I'm sorry, am I in your way? Up. Screw it don't even move. You are a tragedy." Tony managed to get the boot to open on its own. He looked up to show off to Cal but he realized that she had finished both boots for the last five minutes whereas he had only done one.

Later on Tony had finished his boots too. They were running tests to see how well the boots could fly. Cal had insisted that Tony went first so whatever he did wrong, she could correct before trying to fly. He was stood in the middle of the room with temporary thrusters in his hands. "Okay, let's do this right. Start mark, half a metre and back and centre." He took a deep breath and turned to Dum-E who had a fire extinguisher. "Dum-E, look alive. You're on standby for fire safety. U, roll it. Cal, you're the emotional support." She sarcastically cheered for him. "Okay activate hand controls." He placed his hands in front of him and bent his knees slightly. "We're gonna start off nice and easy. We're gonna see if 10% thrust capacity achieves lift. And three, two, one." In that split second, Tony was flipped backwards, his front hit the wall, upside down, that was behind him. He landed on the floor. Cal's knees were bent as she was laughing so hard. Then Dum-E extinguished Tony, despite the fact that there was no fire. This made Cal sit on the floor. She was laughing so hard that there was no noise coming from her.

"So, much for the emotional support." Tony groaned as he stood up. He walked over to her and walked her to the middle of the room. "Your turn." Her eyes widened.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!" She repeated quickly. "We've already established that it doesn't work!" Tony didn't listen. He pressed the button and she flew backwards and landed where Tony had. "Jerk." She muttered, trying to stand up. Tony started laughing when Dum-E extinguished her. Cal went to the camera that U had and turned it off.

After a bit more planning, the two were able to make a sleeve with a thruster on the palm. They had used the same structure that Cal's glove had, the one that she had made before the presentation. The two had been putting them on as Pepper entered the lab, carrying two parcels and two mugs. "Up two. Alright, set that."

"I've been buzzing you. Did neither of you hear the intercom?"

"Yeah, everything...What?" Tony distractedly asked Pepper.

"Obadiah is upstairs. What would you like me to tell him?"

"Great, great. We'll be right up." Tony then proceeded to pull his arm off the stand and held it up, ready to fire.

"I thought you said you were done making weapons?"

"It is. This is a flight stabilizer. It's completely harmless." As he said that, he activated the sleeve and he was fired backwards. "I didn't expect that." Pepper left as Cal started snickering. Tony threw a screwdriver at her, which she caught with one hand without looking.

They both went upstairs and heard Obadiah playing the piano. "How'd it go?" Tony asked him. Cal spotted the box of pizza and went to take some.

"It went that bad, huh?" She asked, sitting on the couch next to Pepper.

"Just because I brought pizza back from New York doesn't mean it went bad."

"Sure it doesn't. Oh, boy." Tony commented, taking some pizza whilst sitting on the other side of Pepper.

"It would have gone better if you were there." Obadiah came over and sat next to Tony.

"You told me to lay low. That's what I've been doing. I lay low, and you take care of all..."

"Hey, come on. In the public. The press. This was a board of directors meeting."

"This was a board of directors meeting?" Both Cal and Tony said at the same time in shock.

"The board is claiming you have post-traumatic stress. They're filing an injunction."

"A what?" Tony asked in shock.

"They want to lock you out."
"Why, 'cause the stocks dipped forty points? We knew that was gonna happen."

"Fifty-six and a half." Pepper corrected.

"It doesn't matter. We own the controlling interest in the company."

"Tony, the board has rights, too." Obadiah stated. "They're making the case that you and your new direction isn't in the company's best interest.

"I'm being responsible! That's a new direction for me, for the company." Pepper, Obadiah and Cal looked at him having heard his mistake. "I mean, me on the company's behalf being responsible for the way that..." Pepper sighed at him as he tried to justify his mistake. "This is great." Tony got up, grabbed the pizza and started walking away, Cal trailing behind him.

"Oh, come on. Tony. Tony."

"We'll be in the shop."

"Hey, hey! Hey, Tony, listen." Obadiah also got up and went to the two. "I'm trying to turn this thing around, but you gotta give me something. Something to pitch them." He pointed to Tony's arc. "Let me have the engineers analyse that. You know, draw up some specks."

Then they both started to talk over each other.

"It'll give me a bone to throw the boys--"

"No. No, absolutely not."

"--in New York" Obadiah stopped talking.

"This one stays with me. That's it, Obie, forget it."

"Alright, well, this stays with me, then. Go on, here, you can have a piece."

"Thank you." Tony went downstairs.

"Please, Cal? It'll help with the board."

"Sorry, Obie. They both stay with me." Cal replied whilst taking two slices of pizza from Obadiah.

"You mind if I come down there and see what you two are doing?"

Cal continued down the stairs. "Goodnight, Obie."