Of Neuromancy and Iron Wills 9 (Patreon)

“JARVIS, talk to me,” I snapped as I sent the drones racing after Toni’s frozen form.

“It appears that whatever that energy blast was, it caused Miss Stark’s suit to become covered in ice crystals,” the AI answered.

“I can see that,” I said with a snarl as the first of the drones latched onto Toni’s frozen suit. “Can you tell me anything else?”

“It seems probable that the source of the blast was responsible for the blackout. Affecting temperatures to such a degree would require extreme amounts of energy. Unless such a device was powered by something of equivalent output of the ARC reactor within Stark Industries Headquarters, the only feasible method would be to tap into the city’s power grid.”

The rest of the drones clamped onto Toni’s suit, and I breathed a sigh of relief as they flew her back to the garage. Grabbing a claw hammer, I raced over and started doing my best to crack and pry the ice off Toni.

“You alright?” I called out, as I pulled a large chunk of ice off her.

“I’m freezing in here, but I’m still alive,” she answered, shortly before I freed the manual release on her suit’s outer right thigh.

Triggering it, the suit’s levers, flaps, and all the various moving parts snapped open, shattering the shell of ice and allowing Toni to move again. She stumbled about a bit, before moving back to the spot where she’d suited up, the mechanical arms all moving to take the suit off her.

“Right, up until that last part, I’d say that was a successful test run,” Toni said, her teeth faintly chattering as the last of the suit was removed.

“I’d say that was one hell of an assassination attempt,” I remarked as I got a blanket and wrapped it around her. “Whoever was behind that not only had the ability to spot a human sized target moving at near mach speeds, they also had enough accuracy to hit said target while pulling enough juice to render half of LA dark. That takes stupid levels of supertech, the kind you don’t see outside of individuals like the guy who made Captain America, or collapse the value of carbon nanotubes, or make an arc reactor in a cave with a box of scraps.”

Toni stilled as she realized what I was pointing out, before quietly asking, “Whoever was behind that has tech like what we’re making, don’t they?”

“Not entirely,” I answered. “Bearing in mind we’ve seen one example of it, but anything that sucks that much power in once while on the city’s power grid is going to not only fry the building’s electrical systems, it’s going to leave a big fat sign we can track.”

“Though doing so will have to wait until the power plant regains functionality,” JARVIS interjected.  “As the power plant’s computers would be the only ones in place to track the power draw as it was happening.”

I suppressed a growl, before letting out an explosive sigh and saying, “Fuck, well, in the meantime let’s go over the results of the test flight.”

“That anti-icing coating probably saved my life,” Toni began, latching onto the topic. “But it wasn’t enough. Once the suit was covered the cold seeped in and locked up the interior mechanisms.”

“So we need some sort of alloy that can handle colder temperatures.”

“Maybe making the outer shell out of the gold-titanium alloy used in the seraphim tactical satellites?”

“That’d work regarding the icing, but a solid gold suit’s a little ostentatious even for you.”

Toni swat my arm, but conceded the point, “Some hotrod red paint would work.”

“So primarily red with gold trim? I like the image it’s putting in my head but there’s one more thing we need to address.”

“Yeah,” Toni turned to face me, a look on her face that was trying to be a glare but there were too many other emotions bubbling up from underneath to keep it stable. “What’s up with the drones, and how were you controlling them so smoothly?”

“I had Jarvis fabricate them yesterday just to be on the safe side, in case the anti-icing coating didn’t work, as for the second question,” I simply turned my head and tapped on the tag still on my temple. “But that’s not what I wanted to address. The next time you go out, it’s going to be with more support than half a dozen drones that can’t do shit except catch you. There needs to be someone else in the air with you, providing you with backup.”

Toni snorted, a mix of amusement and something else that I couldn’t name, but didn’t like, “C’mon, Will. The only people I could possibly even consider asking are you and JARVIS, JARVIS is already in the suit and I can’t ask you to do something like that.”

I raised an eyebrow and mentally brought one of the drones over. It lightly bumped against the back of Toni’s head, before drifting around in front of her. I didn’t say a word, but the look on Toni’s face as she looked at the drone was plain to see: message received.

“If you’re going to stay in LA, I can probably control the drones from here, with JARVIS’s assistance in boosting the signal,” I mused aloud. “Anywhere further, and I’d need to be in some sort of mobile command base. Maybe a VTOL carrier, loaded with an array of support drones? Not just armed drones, but ones carrying additional ammo or the attachments and materials to perform repairs in the field…”

I was pulled from my musings as JARVIS spoke up, “Ma’am, Mr. Gibson, there is a call from Mr. Stane.”

“Put him through,” Toni said without hesitation.

“Toni! You alright, you still got power?” the voice of Obahiah Stane asked, worry in his voice.

“We’re fine, Uncle Obie. Any idea what’s going on?”

“Still waiting on PG&E, but something sucked up a crapton of power and the closest power station completely blew. There’s going to be a lot of chaos in the streets until power’s back, so I want you and Gibson to stay put. Do you understand me?”

“Yeah,” Toni said, her eyes narrowing as she got a gleam in her eye. On a hunch, I connected to the fabricator and had it get started on the Mark III. “Yeah, I get it. Stay safe, Uncle Obie.”

“I’ve got security for that, you just make sure not to let anyone in. I’ll call you when things calm down.”

The call ended, and Toni turned to the computer with a firm, steely look in her eyes, “JARVIS, how long until you can have the new armor ready?”

“Approximately five hours, Ma’am,” the AI answered, prompting a frown and a growl from Toni.

“How about we cobble together some more drones from the spare parts around here? I can send them out to do some search and rescue while the new suit’s being fabricated, so we aren’t just sitting here while there’s trouble out there,” I suggested, and Toni latched onto the offer to do something.

As we worked, I sent the first six drones out into the city, focusing on where I’d seen the icing blast coming from. I didn’t have an exact location, but I was able to start searching the general area (which was still several blocks). It was as the armor was being finished that I finally found something. Barely.

There was an empty lot in back of a warehouse that had what was left of a machine that looked like a big blocky turret. I assume it was the device that shot down Toni because even now, five hours later, it was still giving off enough heat that the cables and majority of the device were glowing a dull red. From the looks of it, its one shot had generated enough heat that the interior systems had completely melted, not unlike what happened with my makeshift rail-pistol back in the desert.

I sent one drone into the warehouse, and found a place that had clearly been used for someone making something. It was too clean to have been abandoned, and the drone’s sensors were picking up quite a lot of slag droplets, iron dust (the kind leftover from sparks), bits of copper wire, and other stuff like that. But anything that could have helped me find out who dunnit or what they were after, there was absolutely zilch.

With a frown, I pulled the drones back while connecting to the ones Toni and I had made. As she got into the iconic red and gold armor for the first time, I closed my eyes and directed the baker’s dozen drones into a grid-based search pattern. The six already out in the city quickly found the gang-based hotspots and pinged Toni. The seven we’d made while waiting for the armor began searching for those that were in need of medical assistance.

This was going to be a long night.

[hr][/hr]

It was a long night, and a much longer week before the state’s sole power company was able to finagle enough juice to get the city to something akin to normal. Stark Industries had managed to secure a deal with the state officials up in Sacramento to make a bigger, more modern version of the ARC Reactor to replace the ruined power station, with the potential to phase out other stations if it proved successful.

More than that, Toni and I had been noticed. Obviously, given how we hadn’t exactly been subtle about the drones or Toni in her armor assisting law enforcement and emergency services. Toni had even earned a couple of nicknames online for her good deeds: Crimson Angel, Iron Maiden, and Iron Valkyrie.

Toni was particularly fond of Iron Maiden, given how she was a fan of the band of the same name, but the part she was annoyed by was kinda amusing to me. Namely the fact that no one seems to have realized that she wasn't controlling the drones that had been out and about. The grumpy cat look she got when she was offended on my behalf was hilarious. 

On an unrelated note, Obadiah had a rather impressive "I am unimpressed and deeply annoyed with you" look. It was directed right at me when I sent up a bundle of paperwork to have patents filed on the drone tech. I got the impression that he wasn't happy with me supporting Toni’s endeavors that involved a kickass metal suit.

Too bad, I wasn’t going to stop. Not only did Toni need it, but the world did as well. There was shit coming in the future, and Earth needed a well prepared Stark to face it. I was going to do everything in my power to not only support her, but to challenge her and push her to new heights. 

We'd already had the test flight a full two months early, and by now the fabricator had churned out a good three dozen additional drones, and I was in the process of designing a sorta command plane to house them when not in use. Assuming I was able to get the parts I needed, I'd be able to make it in about a month and a half to two months. 

I just didn't know if we had that much time. 

[Hr][/hr] 

The door slammed open as Toni all but stomped into the room, gritting her teeth to such a degree I could almost hear it.

"I'm going to go out on a limb and say the meeting didn't go well?" I asked as I plated up some rice and stir fry.

Toni too the offered plate with a growl and answered, "The Board of Directors has decided in their 'infinite wisdom' not to push the potential in arc reactors. Just sticking with the one already in the works. Warhawk morons see it as a publicity stunt, and don't realize how much potential is there."

I got a plate for myself and gave a hum as I thought about what I'd been told before formulating my reply, "The youngest member of the Board is what, 57? They've been in the weapons business for so long that's all they know. The fact that it's been about five months since you froze the stuff that their careers are built around probably has them more than a little stressed out. We'll do some brainstorming after dinner, for now, it's time for the Q&A."

It was something we'd started doing over dinner: one of us would pose a question, we both would answer, then the other person would come up with a different question. I still had no idea how it had come about, but it was fun.

"Mt turn to start," Toni said around a mouthful of rice. "What’s the kinkiest thing you've ever seriously thought about doing?"

I coughed as some rice went down the wrong tube before I managed to speak, "Did you have a little too much booze after the meeting? Never mind, I don't want to know." I took a moment to think about it. "Probably low key bondage, no latex bodysuits or anything like that, but hand cuffs, maybe a pillory for a bit of role-play."

Toni nodded, "That's something I've thought about, but I can’t say it's something I'm particularly interested in. What I did seriously consider…" she blushed and looked away from me. "I've thought about having a vibrator in me during the entirety of the work day."

"Kinky," I quipped with a chuckle, before considering my own question.