I am Iron Man

04

"And we're just received word that Mr. Stark will be entering any moment…"

I looked up from the holographic projection of the Expo. "That's my cue." Straightening my tie, I turned to the holographic projection of Friday—looking like a cute little Irish redhead in office wear. "How do I look, Friday?"

She eyed me critically. "Hm. Acceptable."

"Ouch. High standards much?"

"Yes, boss," she smiled.

On screen, the crowd roared as the very first flying car swooped in, cutting speed as it circled the stadium. "Is that…? Yes, it is! The very same car spotted in Japan last month! I guess it wasn't just a rumor after all!"

The sleek black and red flying car finally flew into the middle of the stadium and lowered itself down, perfectly touching down. The door slid up and one of Amelia's long, toned legs slipped out, clad in black hose. My prim and proper maid slid out of the car, looking damn sexy as she did. She moved around to the front of the car and popped the hood, revealing a storage space. Drawing out a metal briefcase, she moved it off to the side and dropped it. The case reoriented itself midair, hovering for a moment before splitting open and unfolding as it landed on the ground. A big, man-sized ring extended from the inside of it and, a moment later, it lit up orange.

On my side, the portal hub opened up and I had a view through to the stadium. "Come on through, Amy," I said, and she nodded, stepping through.

As soon as she was clear, I stepped back out onto the field carrying my own briefcase, to a wave of noise that I felt in my bones. Holding up both hands, I waved to the crowd. "Good evening, Stark Expo L.A.!"

I dropped the case and it unfolded into a second portal—which connected to one I'd set up in the New York Stark Expo venue. Both crowds went absolutely nuts. "Good evening, Stark Expo NYC!"

I waited for the applause to die down a bit. "Now, normally, this would be a bit hard coordinating between the east and west coast, but… I'll give it a try."

A hologram sprang into being on the L.A. side, with another in front of me showing the view on the other side. "There, that's better! I trust you're all just as excited as me to see the new lineup of toys everyone has for you this year. Unfortunately for my competition, I may have just stolen their thunder. And to that, I say: I'm sorry. Deeply, truly sorry… Not sorry."

The crowds laughed at that and I let them for a few moments before easing them back down. "Now I know, I know. You're sitting there thinking, 'My God, Tony Stark brought a flying car and portals to the Stark Expo, if that's his opener, what's he going to do to really knock our socks off.' Well, let's start small. First, those flying cars. You're probably thinking that they're going to be a few hundred grand each, minimum. Then you've got maintenance, repairs, parts, labor, fuel, insurance, and all the other hidden costs. But you'd be wrong! Each one of those will go for no more than five thousand dollars."

I let that one hang a minute before asking, "Sounds crazy, right? Right?" I laughed, before adding, "That's what my board of directors thought too! …Before I fired them. Oh, sorry, my bad. Before I downsized them. Before I made their positions redundant. And then increased pay for every single Stark employee on my company payroll! But the way I see it is: in a few years, it's not going to cost me much of anything to make them. Pennies on the dollar. So I can pass those savings on to you. And then there are the other benefits.

"People talk about wanting green this and that, emissions and smog, and saving the environment. You know what I say? Okay! Let's do it! Put your money where your mouth is! Every model of Stark flying car is powered by a miniaturized arc reactor. One hundred percent safe, non-reactive, non-polluting, and they run off of an element Stark Industries creates. If you're thinking, 'Ah ha! There's the catch!' then yeah, you're half right. We're the only ones who make fuel for them. But that fuel will be cheap and last for months on a single refueling. In the end, it'll come out cheaper than gas or diesel.

"And that! That is where I'm going to knock your socks off. Those miniaturized arc reactors powering my cars? Now, imagine one powering your home and everything in it. No more ugly power lines. No more forest fires and brush fires started by sparks coming off of lines during high winds, for those of you who live in California. You'll plug a household arc reactor into your home, flip the switch on it, and it'll power your home for about a year of continuous runtime. Again, fueled by the element we produce, and again, cheaper and cleaner than any power plant and with less environmental impact than so-called green solutions of hydroelectric dams, solar and wind farms, and whatever else you care to name. They'll supply power to all of your Stark devices wirelessly, with no need to plug them in."

I paused, opened a portal to grab a glass of water from my refrigerator at home, and took a sip to wet my throat. "Convenient, right? Now, imagine being able to step into a portal here in New York and step out in Los Angeles. Or London. Moscow. Sydney. Tokyo. You name it. Freedom of travel, instantly, anywhere on the planet. A network of portals in every major city, every state, every country that anyone can use for cheaper than the cost of a bus or subway pass."

I put the empty glass back and closed the portal. "But if that didn't blow your socks off and set them on fire, fine. I guess I'll just have to try harder. How about I give you the moon? Mars? Venus? Saturn, Mercury, Neptune, the Kupier belt. Ladies and gentlemen, we're going back to space! Not just going back to space, but we're going to establish colonies everywhere in the solar system worth having one. And then, it'll be a portal from NYC to Stark Base Mars, or whatever we decide to call it. All those untapped resources out in the asteroid belt are available to anyone who can go out there and stake a claim. We're entering another Wild West era, another frontier race, and I aim to be the first one out there. Now, those of you who want a ticket off this rock, you're welcome to come with me. I'll be taking applications for colonists as soon as I get the first colonies built and tested. And to anyone who wants to try to compete in this second space race, I just have one thing to say…"

I stepped through the portal back to L.A., opening the door to my car and climbing in. Turning back to the camera, I grinned as I brought the door down. "Eat my dust."

With that, I lifted off and flew into the sunset.

"Share prices are up 63%…"

"Nice," I murmured, nodding as I kept reading.

"Tony, are you listening to me?"

"Not really. Sorry Pepper," I shook my head. "I've got the gist of it though. We're doing good and people like what we're offering. Everyone I just challenged is filing lawsuits and trying to stop us, but we've already got the patents so they can't do much other than try to make us waste money. We've already got anti-trust cases being pushed forward against us, which I can't do much about directly. Indirectly… I need a list of names of key people to visit to talk to about this."

"Already on that," Pepper confirmed. "Rhodey is blowing up my phone. NASA is blowing up my phone, Tony. NASA. They're…"

"Thirsty and desperate for thick, juicy… financial backing?"

Pepper sighed. "Yeah. Like the 'ugly girl' when the prom king asks her if she wants to go somewhere later. She's already on her knees."

"Not surprised. We should start our own NASA and just poach their people. Run that by Obi for me later," I instructed her as I looked at the sample of Extremis I'd made under a microscope, piped to a holographic emitter.

Obi was a potential problem. One I was aware of and needed to get rid of eventually. I still wasn't entirely sure how to handle him, though. I knew what he could do, thanks to metaknowledge. But just like Vanko, that wasn't necessarily this Obi. He didn't seem like the betraying murderous type… but then, neither had MCU Obi to MCU Stark, so…

I'll… retire him. Give him a nice retirement package. Then keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn't get any ideas.

"Hey Pepper," I said, interrupting her going on about… I think she was saying something about Exxon wanting to schedule a meeting. She looked a bit annoyed at being interrupted, but I sent her a smile. "Come on, you know I'm not going to meet with them. Tell them to fuck off. Politely, but firmly. Now, there's something else I want you to do. Namely, I want you to start looking into someone to groom to take over Obi's position. And look into making his severance and retirement package nice. But the old man's been at it too long. He deserves a vacation. To just be able to sit back and relax, and enjoy the rest of his life outside of the stress of the corporate environment. Find me someone young, eager, and sharp. Someone hungry. But not stupid. I can't work with stupid. Make sure that they understand that if they take this position, there is no 'upwards mobility.' This is it. If they think they're going to one day usurp me as the CEO, they can fuck off."

"And I assume you don't want Mr. Stane to find out until it's time?"

"Yup. You read my mind," I sent her a grin. "Now, skedaddle. I've got work to do."

With that, Pepper made her way to the portal hub and took a portal back to the L.A. office. "Alright, time for live trials. Gonna need a few rats to test this stuff with…"

"Tony."

"Ancient One."

"What am I looking at?"

"I thought Friday told you."

"Oh, she did. I want to hear it from you," she said, sending me a raised eyebrow.

Grinning, I pointed to the holographic projector on her desk. "So, you know that whole 'no possession' rule?"

"I am familiar with it," she sent me a droll look.

"So, it only counts because you're taking over someone else's body. You're beating down or evicting someone else's soul to do it. Real nasty stuff." She nodded. "Well, this skips that bit of nastiness. If trying to possess someone is like killing someone to take their clothes, this is like… just making another set of clothes to use whenever you need. Clones. Clone bodies of yourself, grown from cell cultures. A designer version of yourself, made to order. As strong as you want. As sexy as you want. As young or as old as you want. Without any of the problems a lifetime of bad decisions would leave behind."

The woman leaned back in her seat, crossing her arms and closing her eyes as she considered. After a few moments, she nodded. "Alright. But where does it stop?"

"Why would it?" I countered. "You're asking about the escape clause from death, right?"

"Yes. With this, and the right runes, one need not fear death anymore. They could simply have a copy made and then, at the time of their death, their soul would be transferred into a new body. Where does that stop? The population would expand—"

"So we grow more food. Move out and colonize other planets. Spread into the galaxy."

"And if an enemy, a true threat gets their hands on this magical technology?"

I sent her an amused look. "I'm not that altruistic. I'd make sure there were kill switches built in."

"And then you become God? Tony Stark decides who lives and who dies?" she countered.

"No more than anyone else with a gun," I nodded at her and added, "or spells. I'll stay hands off for the most part."

"And when governments start demanding you shut off access to the system to, say, murderers slated for execution? Political enemies? Entire nations that they decide to go to war with? And what about certain people who have political or financial power now who really shouldn't? The other so-called global elite? Should those people be given an indefinite life extension and be allowed to continue using their resources and power to dictate terms to nations indefinitely instead of their deaths eventually freeing people from their influence? What of the poor, homeless, and destitute? Are you going to distribute this technology to them, or will this be a boon only allowed to those in first world nations with the resources to spend on it?"

I… didn't really have answers for those questions. And when I hesitated, she smiled. "You are rushing ahead so quickly, in so many directions, trying to prevent what is to come and make life better for everyone around you in the process that I fear you are not fully considering the potential consequences and ramifications of your actions, Tony. You're a brilliant man. It's not an exaggeration to say that you're probably the most brilliant man alive today. But intelligence and wisdom do not always go hand in hand. Usually, wisdom is acquired with age and experience. You're young. Idealistic. And, to an extent, naive. You act cynical towards most of humanity, claiming to see the worst in them, but your actions tell another story—that you want to see the best in them. That you truly want to believe that your gifts won't be misused."

"Well," I sighed, "I suppose that's why I come to you." My lips twitched and I fought off the grin, even as I completely failed to reign in the jab, "You're the most experienced person I know." The woman's eye twitched, but other than that she didn't rise to the bait. When she failed to respond otherwise, I nodded. "Alright. Fine. I guess I'll just toss this one in the scrap heap…"

"Now, wait just a moment," she hemmed, and I raised an eyebrow. "That's not to say that the idea is entirely without merit. Just that it would be unwise to unleash it on a large scale when it's clear that the world isn't ready for it yet. On the small scale, it could prove to be a powerful boon…"

"So, you're in and you want a sexy new young body for yourself?"

She hesitated, before nodding. "Yes."

"Great. So," I flipped through the holograms to bring up the ones I wanted, "these are what I've got so far. Soul transference/anchor, one to ensure that the brain develops and copies all the information from the original body, one to make sure it never actually becomes conscious and develops a soul of its own because we don't want actual clones running around. For these, I'm going to start experimenting with cybernetic modification and enhancements, maybe some genetic modifications in higher iterations. I'd like some ideas on spells and enchantments you think would be handy to have. Ways to increase a body's magical potential, output, control, that sort of thing. Every physical and magical enhancement we can come up with. I've had Friday making a list based on the books you've had scanned in so far, but you're the expert, so…"

The woman sat forward in her desk, her dark eyes taking on new light and life, excitement practically radiating off of her as she looked them over. She looked to have shed twenty years just from the change in attitude and the visible enthusiasm. "You're planning to power all of these with an arc reactor, aren't you?"

"Right. Might as well install one while we're at it. Something tiny and subdermal that can be refueled easily. Bear in mind though, this is just a first attempt. As my technology grows, I'll incorporate new designs into new bodies."

"What about our old bodies?"

"Storage," I shrugged. "No point getting rid of them. Just put them in suspended animation. Cold storage. Bury them deep underground, or on Mars or something. Somewhere no one can realistically get to without knowing where they are. Then, if something happens and we don't have a spare body to go to, or all of our spares are destroyed, we default back to those bodies. But realistically, I'd be making hundreds of spares and keeping them all in suspended animation, safely spread out across the solar system, with caches of materials ready for use—all just a portal away from getting right back to business."

"I see," she nodded. "When do you believe you will have the first bodies done?"

"I could probably finish them up to their twenties inside of two years. Mostly, it's the spell-work I need help with, and that needs to be finished before I really start."

The woman sent me a smile. "Then let us begin."

"Well, hello there," I grinned at the young woman stopping at my table in the little dessert shop in Seoul with wide, brown eyes.

"Oh my God, it really is you," she gushed.

"I know, I know. I'm awesome!" I chuckled, standing up and offering my hand. "Ms. Cho, it's nice to meet you."

"M-Mr. Stark! I'm um, I'm a big fan!" she beamed a smile, taking my hand in both of hers and shaking it.

"Please, just Tony. Let's drop all the formalities."

"Of, of course! Then please, call me Helen!"

I gestured to the table and we both sat. Helen looked nervous. And young. Though, that was kind of to be expected—she was young, at fifteen. But despite that, like me (or like Tony), she was brilliant beyond her years. She had tested out of high school very early, entered upper education early, and was nearly finished with her study at university here in South Korea.

"Sir," I raised an eyebrow and Helen blushed. "Tony," she corrected herself, and I nodded, "I don't mean to be rude or give offense, but… why are you here? I thought this was some kind of prank by one of my classmates…"

"Nope, no prank," I shook my head. "And I'm here for you, Helen."

She reeled a moment and made to open her mouth, but a waitress came by and took our orders. It was a little past 7 p.m. local time, but I was still on breakfast and this was a dessert shop anyway so I ordered a cup of tea and a slice of chocolate cake. Helen ordered a slice of strawberry cake and the waitress left. The young girl quickly leaned across the table, long, black hair framing her face as her dark brown eyes stared into my blue. "What did you mean, you're here for me?"

"Well… I'm thinking of expanding into medicine, genetics, cybernetics, and other things. I had some people start looking around, scouting out various universities outside of the U.S., looking for exceptional talent in any field, but especially in anything remotely related to what I'm interested in. Your name came up. Graduated high school at twelve. Entered university immediately. Nearly finished with a triple major in three years and change. You remind me of myself, really. I want you, and that big, beautiful brain, working with me. But that's what I want. Let's talk about what you want. What do you want?"

Helen had an immediate answer. "I want to make the world a better place. Eliminate disease entirely. Help people by finding a way to regenerate lost limbs, or even artificially engineer replacement organs or even… entire bodies. If someone had terminal cancer, for instance. Imagine if we could just create an entirely new body, sedate the patient, remove their brain, and transfer it to the new body. We could engineer people to be better—stronger, smarter. The right gene therapy could make people burn fat instead of storing it and eliminate obesity entirety. I think that looking into telomere separation and repair could extend natural human lifespans by nearly double, if not more."

Biting her lip, she reached out and took my hand again as she stared up at me with those dark, earnest eyes. "What I want… What I want, Tony, is to give my children a world where they'll never get sick, never die of something preventable, where they can live long, long lives full of wonder. I saw the Stark Expo and I believe I see what you're planning. A world where we don't have to fight over resources. Where we can go anywhere, do anything we put our minds to. Where humanity has spread across the stars and a rogue asteroid or plague can't wipe us all out at once. A post-scarcity world, the likes of we've only dared to dream of in the pages of science fiction novels. I want to be part of that world, and make my own mark on it!"

The server arrived with our food and quickly left. I took a bite of my cake and hummed. It was a bit too dark for my liking, sadly. Washing it down with the tea, I asked, "So. What's it gonna take to get you working with me? Tomorrow."

She covered her mouth with her hand as she chewed for a moment and protested, "But I haven't graduated."

"Don't care. If you want to continue your schooling until you graduate, that's fine. If you wanted to quit and come work for me starting tomorrow, I'd make it happen. What do you have left to do?"

She bit her lip. "Just my theses, really."

I sent her a smile. "And you don't actually need to be here for it. You could, say, come work for me, write up your theses, turn them in, show up for graduation, and never have to step foot on campus again."

She took another forkful of her cake and considered. Hesitantly, she said, "I wouldn't have anywhere to live."

Reaching into my pocket, I produced a palm-sized holographic projector. I wasn't where I wanted to be on them yet—that is, wearables—but I was getting there. Tapping it, I asked, "Where do you want to live and work? Pick a state." As I did, pictures of various properties flicked by—cities like New York and Los Angeles, Stark facilities in states outside of New York and California, even a picture of the mountain home. As I passed it, she nearly crossed the table and pointed.

"That one!"

I blinked, before backing it up. "You want to live there?"

Helen nodded. "Yes. It's a small facility built into a mountain. The scenery is lovely, especially the lake in the background. It's remote enough that any biological leaks could be decisively dealt with hopefully before it escaped into a populated area. And it looks… very high-tech. I don't see any power lines, which means you're already running it off the grid on an arc reactor, right?"

"It's not on the grid, no," I admitted.

"What do you do there?"

I chuckled. "Finish your cake and I'll show you."

"Hmm… want to swap?"

"You don't mind?"

Helen shook her head and we swapped plates. The strawberry cake was divine and the young woman appreciated the chocolate more than I did. "I would need a lab," she continued. "Does that location already have one?"

"Oh yes, it has lab space. I over-engineered it," I nodded. "If you want to work from there, there are some caveats. But I'll get into that in a minute. What kind of a budget do you want?"

The Asian girl grinned. "As much as I can get."

"Spunky. I like. Alright. Let's say I gave you a theoretical blank check. What could you do with it?"

"With time and resources? Everything I want and more, I imagine."

I nodded. Finishing off the last of my cake, I paid when the waitress brought over the bill. Standing up, I offered Helen my hand. "Alright, let's go see this place so you know what you're getting into."

She blinked. "Now? How…" her face lit up with excitement. "By portal?"

To her delight, I opened a portal right there and she stepped through. It was approaching 8 p.m. in Seoul, but in my back yard, it was almost 7 a.m.. Helen's mouth fell open as she looked around, taking in our surroundings. "It's as beautiful as I thought it would be."

"Thanks," I said, leading her towards the back door. "A family friend picked the location."

The back door opened as we approached—a layer of wood covering a steel core set on a track that Friday controlled. Amelia greeted us a moment later, looking prim and proper in her neatly pressed maid uniform as always, though this morning her hair was down in a loose tail. "Welcome back, Mr. Stark. Good morning, Ms. Cho. Can I interest you in breakfast?"

"We just ate, Amelia. Helen, this is Amelia, my maid. Come on, I'll show you down to the lab."

As I led the way to the elevator down, Helen asked, "Why is your maid at a lab?"

I laughed as we stepped inside and hit the button for the garage/lab level. "That's simple. Because this isn't a Stark lab." Helen raised an eyebrow and I explained, "It's my home. I guess I accidentally left a picture of the place in the little presentation I made. I live here, with Amelia and Friday. It's where I have my personal lab."

The elevator door opened at that moment and I stepped through, gesturing for her to follow. Helen blushed as she realized the mistake she had made. "Oh no. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean—"

"Helen, it's fine. Here, have a look at this. Friday, show off my toys for me, would you?"

"Of course, sir," Friday answered over the intercom, before the sliding doors to the garage proper opened up and the lights came up, revealing my car collection—complete with my flying car front and center. The door to the armor locker opened and two Iron Man armors slid out—the Mark II and Mark IV, the Mark V being in its briefcase form beside my desk. Holograms sprang up all over the lab, detailing current projects and completed projects, but nothing particularly sensitive. Friday herself appeared in a hologram nearby, dressed in a loose shirt and cutoff shorts, her red hair floating loose around her head.

"Wait," Helen murmured, "you have an A.I.?"

"Yup," I nodded. "Meet Friday. Friday, Helen Cho. Be nice to her, I'm trying to sucker her into working for me."

Friday smiled. "Good morning, Helen. Please be patient with Tony. I know he can be a bit… much to take in."

"Hey," I complained.

Helen giggled. "Yes, I'm coming to realize that." Turning back to me, she asked, "If I worked here, how would that work?"

I shrugged, before nodding towards the elevator again. "How do you want it to work?"

Helen followed me back to the elevator and I selected the next floor down. "I… am not sure. I'd need equipment, materials, assistants—"

"That's a hard no on the assistants," I denied immediately as the elevator opened up into an empty room on the next floor down. It was a wide, open space the size of my entire lab area along with the space the armor locker took up. The lights came up and holograms sprang up from the floors and walls, while an auto-fabricator nearby came to life. A door opened in the wall and a set of small cleaning drones came out and began cleaning the floor. Friday's hologram appeared a moment later, seemingly sitting in mid-air.

"No assistants? How will I get anything done?" Helen looked confused.

I grinned and pulled out my phone. "Friday, catch."

Friday rolled her eyes and my phone stopped mid-air, nowhere near her hologram. "One day, I'm not going to catch your phone."

"Yeah, but that's not today." Turning to Helen, I jerked a thumb at Friday. "No need for human assistants. Anything you need, Friday can have ordered and delivered for you. Same day, soon."

"This is… really, it's amazing. Do you mind if I think about it for a few days?" Helen asked, her expression a bit dreamy as she looked at the empty lab.

"Sure, that's fine. Take as much time as you need." I paused, before adding, "Oh, there is one thing I'd like to ask your opinion on. Well, maybe two…"

Helen's eyebrows climbed towards her hairline. "You, you want my opinion? On what?"

"Friday, bring up Extremis for me," I instructed, and a moment later, a holographic model of Extremis sprang into being in front of us. I fell silent as she studied it.

"This… what in the world?" Helen murmured, looking it over, even walking around the hologram to look at it from all angles. "An engineered virus? But to what end…?" After a moment, she hummed. "RNA injection and gene therapy…"

The girl turned towards me, open-mouthed. "It's a delivery mechanism. But what does it do?"

"Now that, my dear, is a secret. But one I think you'll like," I grinned. "Friday, Project Theseus."

Another hologram popped into being, this one of a nude male and female form. Next to each form were cutaway diagrams, detailing various enhancements, along with the spellwork required to make the whole thing work. After a moment, the Extremis hologram shifted over and joined the Theseus hologram, becoming just one more section—a bubble, above both bodies, with arrows pointing down to each.

"Oh. Oh my God…"

I waited silently as she processed what she was seeing. Turning back to me, Helen's wide, dark eyes stared up at me with longing as she looked at me in a new light. I knew her answer before she even opened her mouth.

"I want in."

"Well. Let's see about talking to your parents and telling them you got a job. But first… Friday? Put in a call to Pepper. I'm going to need a full NDA packet and research contract. Tell her to take whatever egghead's salary is the highest and add a zero to it."

"That would be yours, sir," Friday reminded with an amused look.

"I don't count. Next highest. And make sure she gets at least 50% of anything she patents while working for us."

"T-that's unheard of!" Helen gawked.

"I told you, I want you working with me. I'll do whatever it takes to keep you around, Helen. That includes throwing ludicrous sums of money your way."

"…I see," she murmured. Looking at me speculatively, she smirked. "I see. Yes, let's speak with my parents. They'll need to know I'll now be living under the same roof as a man."

"Haha. It's not like that. Let's track down Amelia first. She can help us get you moved…"

Although… I wouldn't mind at all if something happened. After she turned sixteen, per Montana law. Cute and smart enough to keep up with me? Yeah, it was tempting…