Chapter 100: Chapter 99 : The One with the Flying Car!
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The Sage of the Mind: Chapter 99 [April 2012]
Manhattan [Time till Chitauri Invasion - 1 month]
–Tony Stark–
Well, that cements it, something absolutely fishy is going on and he was not in on it. That would just not stand by him, now would it?
"Jarvis? Get me our flying car, would you?" He ordered Jarvis while finishing his drink in a hurry, a protein shake, not alcohol. It was noon, he was not an animal. Well, it depends if you counted being a party animal but that mode of his was reserved for only when it was dark outside, and he was feeling particularly cheery.
"Certainly, sir. However, I must remind you that I have been advised by multiple concerned parties not to let Sir drive the car alone." Jarvis sassily reminded him and he just waved off those worries. There was no reason he could not drive the car, it was perfectly safe. He built the repulsor system into the car, he knew just how it worked.
"Bah! They worry too much, Jarvis. Just get the car out on the penthouse roof and please, get a new flavor for the protein shake. Plain Vanilla gets boring after a while,"
"Yes, sir," Jarvis said and he gleefully rubbed his hands as he came out of the elevator and saw the car in all its glory.
It was based on an old Porsche Vintage car, with nothing about it being vintage except its external looks. It still had four wheels but they were merely decorations, placeholders for the muon repulsion system that would take its place once the vehicle was activated.
It was a thing of beauty, sleek silver, and chromium, with no gold and red highlights though. What a bummer. But it was a unanimous decision between all the people that contributed to the project that the car would remain as is and any personalisations could be done on later versions of the flying car, something he agreed on so no use pouting over lost opportunities.
Finally, his dad's promise to the world that he made in the first Stark Expo would be fulfilled. A flying car!
The car slowly floated on top of the penthouse, with its doors facing him, and he grinned as the light forcefields came to life. This was another project he was working on, creation of force fields with strengths dependent on the amount of Arc Energy being supplied to the generators.
So far, he could make force fields that could not just tank but contain the explosion from a Jericho missile, the strongest weapon that the Military still had. That was quite impressive but not even close to the required rating if he wanted something like the Hulk or the Invisible Man to be contained.
To be fair, how would he even go about trying to contain the Invisible Man? He had searched high and low and aside from some partial matches that just did not make any sense, he had not found anything about the elusive telekinetic.
He slowly took a step on the forcefield ladder that had been created for him and smiled as railings simultaneously appeared on the sides of the ladder, allowing him to cover the steep climb with ease.
Once inside, he smiled once more, seeing no buttons at all. While some people really loved the tactical feedback of buttons, he liked them to be digital, so that they could be tucked away, especially since he had a very reliable digital assistant who could not just understand his commands perfectly but also sometimes execute them before he could even say them out loud.
Case in point, the railings on the ladder.
Satisfied with the novel experience, he put his hands on the steering, which was more of a plane steering than a car steering, and was about to put the car on Drive, when the screen flashed red.
"Insufficient permission? What?"
"Unfortunately, Mr.Stark, when the car was programmed to stay in storage until the next one was to be made, it was programmed to only have automatic functionality unless all three key members were present. For you to drive the car manually, you will need the immediate presence of Dr.Banner and Mr.Randall," Jarvis reminded him of that stupid thing that he agreed to.
"But, you can bypass it, right? I made you, Jarvis, I know you can do it,"
"It would be possible if only Dr.Banner had not installed a physical sensor requirement which would not be fulfilled if his unique energy signature was not recorded, reportedly, after repeated insistence from both Ms.Ross and Ms.Potts,"
Oh, so the missuses were worried then. Alright then, they win. He shouldn't really be doing this anyway. The only reason it would even be legal was because there was no such license category for flying cars, allowing him to exploit a small legal loophole that would probably be plugged by the time he was done with his personal car.
Fiinee.
"To the SHARED LAB!" He always wanted to say that, as Jarvis took control of the car and he whooped as the car immediately picked up speed, the repulsor systems allowing it to access most of its torque in the early phases.
The car slowly came to a halt, the inertial dampeners working as he barely felt any impact, as the car slowly landed on top of the warehouse, the top of which opened, and then the car landed on the ground, the top closing on its own.
He looked around, as the various teams of scientists worked together in this lab. A small team from SHIELD, led by Jemma Simmons, worked on one side, mostly on the skin tissue and the defense tech that Dr.Cho was leading, Bruce and Betty both worked on, well, their own bodies, essentially.
They still had yet to conclude the studies on the stem cells frozen, and the various goo that was left behind from little Bellina's delivery. It was apparently worth its weight in gold because the cells, even after so long, were still alive.
There was a small Stark Industries team here but they were mostly here to install the various doodads they had made over the months to secure this place. Randall was nowhere to be seen, and neither was his merry band of brothers.
He liked the brothers, they were…not as smart as Randall was, who could easily keep up with him and Bruce, but they were really loyal and more importantly, really strong.
Together, they could probably hold off even Bruce in his em[powered form if they wanted to. They didn't get injured, not by any weapon he used anyway and they were freakishly tenacious.
Randall had some weapons tuned to their bodies so that they could be used to hurt them, if necessary but even after being bloodied by those weapons, all the brothers seemed to come back for more. It was as if their bodies were being tempered by damage, allowing them to grow stronger in a controlled environment.
Lately, that part of their training has been increased for some reason, both in terms of intensity and frequency. Randall was also busy in some other project given to him specifically by the Invisible Man.
He wondered what they were up to.
"Bruce!"
"Hi, Tony/ Hello, Dr.Stark," The couple greeted him but before Bruce could go back to working with his paramour, he dragged him a bit away.
"Hi, do you have any idea what Randall is working on? Because I know they have a secret base in the subterranean levels and for the past few weeks, I am getting some really strong energy readings, along with disturbances recorded across Manhattan," He was hoping Bruce would have some idea because, being fellow Hulks, they shared a much deeper bond than he did.
Bruce looked unamused, "I don't know, Tony. The last I heard, he had some personal work from the Invisible Man that was also interesting. If you'll excuse me, I still have to compile that report by the end of the day,"
Yeah, to your boss, which was him, he wanted to say that but he didn't say it out loud. He just nodded and thanked Bruce.
"Jarvis, access the data points for the entry point of the underground Tunnel that he built and take me there," He ordered Jarvis who complied and he tapped on his smartwatch, and ordered a suit to come meet him at the entry point.
It was time to see just what was going on below the city, under the watch of the Invisible Man.
Hmm, he was strangely excited as if he was about to bust someone's completely harmless operation but finding joy in doing it nonetheless.
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