The ear shattering screech of alarms filled Stark International's rooms. The blaring siren caused Tony Stark, better known as Ironman, James Rhodes, better known as War Machine, and Pepper Potts spring into action. They knew all too well what that sound meant; that an intruder was present on Stark International grounds. Currently, they were the only three there, so it couldn't have been an employee whom just happened to wondered into the area.
"Jarvis, show the intruder on the screen." Tony rubbed his goatee slightly, and rubbed his eyes. It was nearly three in the morning, and the trio had actually been asleep. Tony was wearing nothing but light blue pajama bottoms, which allowed his muscular and tan physique to be put in full view.
"Right away, sir." Jarvis was the name of Tony's intricate computer system that ran essentially everything he owned. A monitor flipped down from the ceiling, and sputtered to life in a bright yet blinding blue flash.
"Can't you adjust the brightness to that damn thing?" James, like Tony, was rather muscular. In fact, judging from the biceps rippling off his dark skin, he may have been more muscular than his best friend, although they were of similar height and weight. Also like his best friend, he also had just woken up, and was covering his eyes with the back of his hands. He wore nothing but a pair of black boxer briefs, although the way his hands were fumbling around the area he was looking for something to slip on.
"Can't you adjust that damn thing?" Tony was well known for his jokes, especially the ones that were on the perverted side. James said nothing, but managed to locate a pair of red sweat pants, and pulled them overtop his boxer briefs.
"Boys, boys. Focus." Pepper snapped her fingers and pointed back at the monitor. Pepper's luscious; tomato colored hair was tied neatly in a high ponytail, with a few strands hanging across her emerald eyes. Although it was true that the threat of an intruder was rather urgent, the main reason she wanted the two men to look up at the monitor was so that she could slip behind their backs and grab her robe. She currently was standing in a canary yellow bra from Victoria Secret which served to heighten her cleavage, and a matching lacy thong which left her toned rear end exposed. Once the two men focused on the screen, she quickly darted by and grabbed her sky blue robe and covered herself, before rejoining the two.
"By the way Ms. Potts; you've been a very naughty girl, and I'd like to see you in my office any ti-" Tony began, before he was cut off by James' discovery.
"There! Who's that guy?" James' outstretched finger had been aimed at a young male, whom appeared no older than twenty. His skin tone matched James', but he had much longer hair than the two. His hair had taken the form of black braids, which were pulled into a ponytail that ended at his shoulders, although one long braid hung across his face. He had a goatee, which seemed to be a trend among the men in the area. He had been staring directly into the camera. Although it was too dark and he was too far away to tell what he was wearing, his hazel eyes stood out.
"Yo! Stark! I've got a business proposition for you!" The young man belted at the top of his lungs. If Tony had neighbors in the area, they would have been awake by now. Tony couldn't help but chuckle to himself.
"Let him in."
"Uh, Tony, I know we have some of the most state of the art weaponry to ever exist, on several different planets, but is that a wise decision?" James' words fell on deaf ears, as he was already opening the front door and sending directions to the downstairs lab to the young man. Once he entered the room, the three instantly knew he meant business. He was dressed in a white suit with matching shirt, and a black tie along with dress shoes. In his right hand, he had been holding a small, black briefcase.
"Well aren't you dressed up?" James introduced the three to the young man, but still remained on guard. The young man introduced himself as Gabe Jackson.
"Of course. This is a business deal after all." Gabe pointed out.
"Yeah, well most business deals don't take place at three in the morning." Pepper pointed out the time, while wagging her finger angrily.
"True, but most business deals aren't with Iron Man."
"You make a good point. So what's your deal?" Tony motioned to a table in the back, and the four took their seats there. The young man opened up his briefcase, and withdrew a large, vanilla folder.
"Inside this envelope are blueprints for my own suit of armor. You can take a look if you want; I assure you that they're quite developed. Now the only thing is that I lack the resources to build it. And that's where you all come in. A little help would be nice too, since I would be able to get it done a lot faster."
"Uh huh, and you want a super suit why?" Tony began looking over the blueprints, with James and Pepper looking over his shoulder. Truthfully, they were quite elaborate and ingenious, even Tony had to admit. It wasn't as sophisticated as the Iron Man suit, but it was off only by a narrow margin.
"Well I tried the whole super hero thing before, in Alaska, but it wasn't enough, even with my power. Plus, I don't know if you've ever been to Alaska, but the temperature there rangers from cold on a nice day, to Siberia every other day." Gabe explained.
"Powers?" This caught the trios' eyes, as they spoke in unison.
"Oh, right. I'm a techno path and I can 'upgrade' technology. For example..." Gabe seemed prepared for this explanation, since he dug inside his briefcase once more. This time, he retrieved a small, black beeper. As he held it in his hand, he closed his eyes briefly, and the beeper became engulfed in an orb of what appeared to be green and black binary code. Once the orb faded, the beeper had vanished. Instead, he had been holding an Apple Iphone 3gs. "I could have taken it further, and created a new type of cell phone, but I figured you'd get the general idea."
"I see. Gabe, could you do me a favor and activate the alarms?" Tony questioned. Gabe looked puzzled for a brief moment, before reaching a sudden epiphany and nodded his head. He closed his eyes, and within an instant the alarms went off again. He quickly shut them back off, noting the sound as being annoying.
"Just as I thought. You could have turned the alarm system off if you wanted. Hell, you could have turned off Jarvis if you really wanted." Tony noted. Pepper and Rhodes exchanged looks for a brief moment, before Pepper turned back to Gabe and cleared her throat.
"Ok Gabriel, we can see what you stand to gain in this proposition. What about our end?"
"Well, I could upgrade your suits' storage system to make them easier to transport. I can upgrade any existing technology you have, if possible. I can't upgrade all technology, at least not yet. I can help with the production of new Stark Tech. Pretty much anything tech related. Oh, and I'm multilingual so that will help when dealing with foreign business. I speak Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, French, Latin, German, pretty much any language that's encoded in some form of technology, I've learned. "Gabe smiled a bit once he finished speaking. The three superheroes backed away from the table for a moment and spoke in private.
"Can we trust this guy?" James peaked at Gabe, whom had been looking at his own blueprints.
"I think so Rhodey. I told Jarvis to record his story, and to issue several lie detector tests while he spoke and research him." Tony pointed to a small device in his ear, which apparently Jarvis had been communicating to him with. "His name is actually Gabriel Jackson, and he's twenty years old. He was a superhero in Alaska like he said, under the name of Upgrade. Nothing seems out of place here. And his blueprints are ingenious. If we agree to build the suit, I can always put a failsafe in it. I've just got a few more questions, and we'll decide." The three returned to the table, which caused Gabe's gaze to switch back to them.
"Where are you living?" Tony looked straight into Gabe's eyes as he spoke.
"I've been enrolled in New York University for half a semester now, and I've been staying in their dorm."
"Where is your family?"
"Good question."
"One last thing. Why do you want to be a superhero so bad?" Tony's last question caused Gabe to actually remain silent for a moment and become serious.
"Because I've seen the good it can do. It gives children a role model to look up to in this cold world. And if I have the power to protect, then I should do everything in my power to do that." Tony smiled at Gabe's answer.
"Unenroll from New York University and pack your things in the morning. You're working for Stark International now as head of our foreign diplomacy department. You'll be in charge of presenting our technology to foreign countries, and you'll be head of Stark Tech Support. The gig pays room and board, and um..." Tony looked around and found a pen and notepad, and began scribbling a number. He slid the notepad over to Gabe, whom caught it under the palm of his hand. "...This many. A week? Month? However salaries work, I don't handle that." Gabe's jaw dropped when he saw the money he was to receive. "Meet back here at ten, and we'll get to work. Your armor will be ready by nightfall. But we're going to put you through one hell of a test run, just to let you know. Now show yourself out so we can get back to sleep."
Ten came around rather quickly, and Gabe found himself back at the Stark institute. This time he was wearing less official clothing; silvery sweatpants with a blue tank top. Gabe was certainly toned and in shape, but he wasn't as muscular as Tony or Rhodey. He was more compact and slimmer, and about two inches shorter than the duo, and much lighter. Tony met him at the door and the two went down to the lab, and began working feverously. Although Gabe's powers made him a natural at all things that involved technology, he was marveled at Tony's skill.
Sure enough, just as Tony called it, by the time nine hit the two had completed Gabe's armor. Tony had put on his Iron Man crimson and gold armor, and stood ready for combat. His latest armor was more crimson than gold, and had blue lights shining on his torso and arms. Rhodey also stood in his armor. War Machine's armor was silver in color, with a crimson light for the center and eyeholes as opposed to Iron Man's blue lights. Pepper had also donned armor, which was named Rescue. Her armor was crimson like Iron Man's, with silver lining and on the face and neck. It had a blue light on the chest, although hers was higher up and closer to the neck. Finally, the eyeholes were crimson.
Gabe had donned his armor as well. His suit was mostly white, and very sleek and slim such as Iron Man's armor. It had black under armor and trim around the arms and legs. It had a set of thrusters on its back, which would enable Gabe to fly, as well as having a tail. The tail was actually a sentry gun, which would fire at threats automatically when activated. It also had golden claws on the forearms for an unknown reason. Gabe closed the helmet, which looked very similar to a knight's helmet, although it still retained aspects of the Iron Man and War Machine helmets. His eyes glowed bright gold as he prepared himself for his test flight.
"The Knight armor is operating like a charm." Gabe spoke through his helmet.
"Great, now let's put it to the test. Knight combat test run starts...now!" Iron Man flew off into the air through an opening in the ceiling at Stark International, with War Machine and Rescue in close pursuit. Knight chuckled a bit underneath his helmet, and then flew off after the trio.