"Poor Tony. I don't ever wanna have panic attacks like that." Ruby said.
"It comes with the territory of doing dangerous things and risking your life." Blake told her.
"What's important is that you have people there to help you through these kinds of things. That you can talk and get them off your chest. And that you don't let them eat away at you. Unfortunately, that's exactly what Tony's doing." Qrow stated.
"Hopefully, he stops and talks to someone soon, then." Pyrrha said worriedly.
"I think this is going to be a more emotional journey for Tony than anything else. But by the end, I think Tony will get past this." Weiss said.
"Well then, why don't we just watch and see?" Katana asked as she continued the movie.
At Stark Industries, Happy Hogan pointed to his badge as walked through the lobby, passing the other employees and pointing out the badge on his chest they should all be wearing as well. "Badge. Badge. Come on, badge. Badge, guys. I put a memo in the toilet, come on." He complained.
"Hey, it's Happy!" Jaune noted.
Cinder scoffed. "Right. A memo in the toilet. Because of course, the first thing I think of when I go to the bathroom is to look for a memo." She said sarcastically.
"Still, I wonder what Happy's doing here instead of with Tony?" Ren wondered.
"For now, let's just say he is no longer Tony's bodyguard." Katana told them.
Later, Happy was seen with Pepper as they rounded the corner into the main lobby of the building. "Tony has got them in his basement, they're wearing party hats. This is an asset that we can put to use." He suggested, referring to Tony's robots.
"Uh-huh. So, you're suggesting that I replace the entire janitorial staff with robots?" Pepper questioned, only half paying attention.
"What I'm saying is that the human element of Human Resources is our biggest point of vulnerability. We should start phasing it out immediately." Happy explained.
"What!?" Pepper asked incredulously.
"Hey Jimmy, looks like Happy has your line of thinking." Qrow teased, pushing the general lightly.
Ironwood rolled his eyes at this. "My aim is to minimize harm to living soldiers and Huntsmen by creating machines that are expendable. I'm certainly not trying to replace janitors with robots with minimal movement." He told the former drunk.
"Although, if there's one job I think people wouldn't mind having robots do for them, its custodial work." Velvet admitted.
"Excuse me, Bambi." Happy said to another employee as he walked past them, pointing to his badge.
"Did you just say that?" She questioned again.
"Security." He declared.
"Happy?" Pepper announced to get his attention.
"Yes." He acknowledged.
"Okay, I am thrilled that you're now the Head of Security, okay? It is the perfect position for you." She told him.
"Impressive. I knew he was serious about his job, but I never thought he was competent or responsible enough for such a position. Especially considering the plant incident." Winter stated.
"Still, it is nice to see Happy get a more fitting position. It seems rather foolish being the bodyguard of a superhero." Penny agreed.
"Hey, he did a pretty good job when Whiplash first showed up and he hit him with a car repeatedly." Neo reminded them.
"Thank you." He said gratefully.
"However..." She moved on to a new point.
"I do appreciate it." He assured her.
"Since you've taken the post..." She continued.
"You don't have to thank me." He added.
"We've had a rise in staff complaints of three hundred percent." She finished.
"Well, now he's just gloating." Weiss scoffed.
"Now I feel bad for all the employees at Stark Industries." Pyrrha said sympathetically.
"Certainly, if any one teacher had caused that many complaints, they'd be promptly fired." Glynda said.
"Based on what I've heard, professor, I think that would be you." Blake told the assistant Headmistress, leaving Goodwitch shocked. Sure, she was tough on students, but it was to bring out the best in them. Surely, they couldn't begrudge her that much... could they!?
"Thank you." Happy said gratefully once again.
"That's not a compliment." She told him.
"That's not a compli...? It is a compliment! Clearly somebody's trying to hide something." He declared.
"I..." Pepper began.
"Excuse me." Pepper's assistant interrupted.
"Yes?" Pepper asked.
"Miss Potts, your four o'clock is here." The assistant explained.
"Thank you." Pepper said.
"Did you clear this four o'clock with me?" Happy asked.
"She's the CEO, Happy. I don't think she has to come to you for everything." Ruby told him.
"Right? If she says the word, he's out of there." Coco agreed with the younger girl.
"But she's known Happy for too long. They're friends! She can't fire him!" Velvet said, hoping that wouldn't have to happen.
"Happy, we'll talk about this later. But right now I have to go deal with this very annoying thing." Pepper told him, a bit irritated as she started walking towards her office.
"How so?" Happy asked.
"I used to work with him, and he used to ask me out all the time. So it's a little awkward." She explained.
Hogan opened her office glass door and they entered. "I don't like the sound of that." He said.
As they stepped inside, they saw Aldrich, looking handsome and fit in a business suit.
Pepper looked shocked at the change in Aldrich's appearance. "Pepper." Killian greeted.
"Is that... Killian!? The guy Tony ditched on the roof?!" Nora asked in shock.
"What happened to him!? He's... He's..." Weiss began.
"He's hot..." Blake silently said with a slight blush.
"Killian?" She asked in disbelief.
"You look great. You look really great." He told her.
"God, you look...you look great. I... I...I can't... What on earth have you been doing?" She asked, still a bit shocked.
"Nothing fancy, just five years in the hands of physical therapists. And please, call me Aldrich." He requested.
"There's NO way it was just that. It is physically impossible, even with aura." Glynda stated.
"Hey, we didn't know what exactly was up with him, maybe he just had a broken leg or something." Qrow said.
"No. Glynda is right. Something else is at work, here." Ozpin agreed with his right hand woman.
"Uh...you were supposed to be issued a security badge." Happy told him.
"Happy, it's okay." Pepper vouched for her former coworker.
"Yes?" He questioned.
"We're good." She told him.
"You sure?" He asked.
"Yes. Stand down." She ordered.
"Okay. I'm gonna linger, right here." Happy explained.
"Thank you." Pepper told him.
"Okay." Happy accepted before he stepped out of Pepper's office and closed the glass door.
"It's very nice to see you, Killian." She told him.
"I think she's just liking the eye candy now." Yang said with a smirk.
"It is a big change from the start." Blake admitted with a bigger blush, shaking her head and holding onto Emerald.
"I know, he's pretty easy on the eyes. I won't hold it against you." Emerald told her.
As Hogan waited outside Pepper's office, he saw Aldrich's man sitting in the waiting area. "Hey, guy." He called out, pointing to his security badge. The guy simply reached over and picked up his badge from the table next to him and held it up to show Hogan he had a badge.
"I appreciate his strict attention to protocol, but even I'd call that excessive. Bordering on OBSESSIVE." Winter stated.
"Seriously, why on Earth are these badges so important to him?" Weiss questioned, agreeing with her sister.
"I think if there's one thing we've seen from Happy so far, it's that he's WAY too serious about his job." Qrow stated.
"I used to think that wasn't possible. Now, I'm not so sure." Ironwood stated.
"Merry Christmas." He said to an employee as they walked past him.
Hogan looked at him with suspicion.
"I will admit, there is something about that man that doesn't sit right with me." Glynda stated.
"Maybe because he arrived with the person who's almost guaranteed to be the villain." Cinder stated.
"Well, at least Happy thinks there's something wrong here, too. Hopefully, he'll be able to do something." Jaune said.
"Sure. HE'S gonna do something." Neo laughed, earning a light punch in the shoulder from Yang.
Back in Pepper's office, Killian was explaining his proposal. "After years dodging the President's ban on 'immoral biotech research', my think tank now has a little something in the pipeline. It's an idea we like to call Extremis. I'm gonna turn your lights down." He explained as he dimmed the lights then held in his hand three small metal balls. "Regard the human brain." He declared as he threw the balls onto the coffee table and as they rolled and stop, they projected a 3D image of the universe into the room.
"Whoa! That's so cool!" Ruby cheered.
"Pretty..." Nora said in awe, her eyes sparkling.
"That's what the observable universe looks like in my world." Katana said.
"It's amazing." Pyrrha said in awe.
"Uh...wait. Hold on, hold on. That's...that's the universe, my bad. But if I do that..." He corrected as he pressed his projector control, which changed the 3D image to show inside of the brain. "That's the brain. Strangely mimetic though, wouldn't you say?" He asked.
"Wow, that's amazing!" Pepper said in awe.
"Thanks, it's mine." He told her.
"What?" Pepper asked.
"That's what a brain looks like? Cool." Yang said.
"Kind of weird seeing an image of his own brain, though." Blake said, surprised.
"Nice colors he's chosen for the image, too. It'd be SERIOUSLY off-putting if it was all red and pink." Coco stated.
"On a side note, it's quite impressive a glass table can hold both their weights." Ozpin noted.
"This...you're inside my head. It's a..." He explained, tapping behind his ear, referring to something embedded inside his head. "It's a live feed. Come on up, I'll prove it to you." He said as he rose from the couch and stood on the coffee table. "Come on." He urged her and helped Pepper to stand on the coffee table next to him, so they stood directly in the 3D image. He then held his arm out. "Now, pinch my arm. I can take it. Pinch me." He instructed. Pepper pinched him and immediately something lit up in the 3D image of Aldrich's brain.
"Incredible! Real-time 3D holographic imaging able to show the brain's physical reaction to external stimuli! Remnant has absolutely nothing like that!" Penny said in amazement.
"Well, considering we can go into people's heads and give them new eye implants, that's probably not far from the realm of possibility." Qrow said, remembering what they saw of his idol, the Grim Reaper, Maria Calavera.
"Still, seeing it up close and lit up like this... It's almost magical." Ren said in awe.
"What is that?" Pepper asked, amazed.
"It's the primary somatosensory cortex. It's the brain's pain center. But this is what I wanted to show you." He explained, before he turned Pepper around and pressed his projector control and started changing and moving the image with his hand. "Now, Extremis harnesses our bioelectrical potential and it goes...here." He explained as he zoomed in on what looked like a hole in his brain. "This is essentially an empty slot, and what this tells us is that our mind, our entire DNA in fact, is destined to be upgraded." He declared.
"Wow." Pepper said in wondered.
"Is that true?" Jaune asked.
"No, Jaune. Humans do not have a hole in their brain they can just put an extra app into or something. That being said, to a minor, MINOR decree, we have managed to be able to SLIGHTLY alter our DNA with gene therapy, using what is known as a CRISPR, used to treat genetic defects, but it's still a VERY new process that still has many flaws that need to be worked out." Katana explained, looking up the basic details on her phone.
"Incredible." Emerald said in shock.
"Being able to alter the DNA. I don't think that's something that's ever occurred to us." Ironwood said.
"Still, with everything we have to deal with at the present, I think that's something that can be discussed with the council later." Winter reminded the general, concerned by how complex and problematic Katana made the process seem.
As Happy sat outside Pepper's office, he got a call on his tablet. He answered the call and held the tablet high so the camera monitor showed his forehead and eyes. "Hello?" He answered.
"Is this forehead of Security?" Tony asked jokingly.
Everyone laughed at this. "If only I'd gotten to say that to a guard when I hacked the CCT." Cinder said.
"How can you be that bad with technology in this day and age!?" Glynda questioned.
"Especially working for one of the world's top tech companies." Qrow added.
"What? You know, look, I got a real job. What do you want? I'm working, I got something going on here." Hogan declared.
Tony was now in his lab. "What? Harassing interns?" He explained.
"Let me tell you something, you know what happened when I told people I was Iron Man's body guard? They would laugh in my face." Happy complained, to which Tony laughed.
"I had to leave while I still had a shred of dignity. Now I got a real job, I'm watching Pepper." Happy declared.
"What's going on? Fill me in." Tony said.
"Aww, that's sweet that he's concerned and checking in on her." Yang said.
"Would you check on me every so often?" Neo asked teasingly.
"Probably every ten minutes just to make sure you didn't get put in jail." Yang returned the teasing.
"For real?" Hogan asked.
"Yeah." Stark said, clearly only half paying attention.
"Alright, so she's meeting up with this scientist. Rich guy, handsome." The head of security continued.
"Right." The inventor acknowledged.
"I couldn't make his face at first, right? You know I'm good with faces." Happy told him.
"Oh, Yeah, yeah. You're the best." Tony confirmed.
"Yeah. Well, so I run his credentials, I make him Aldrich Killian. We actually met the guy back in... where were we in '99? The science conference?" The bodyguard asked.
"Um...Switzerland." The billionaire declared.
"Right, right, exactly." Hogan declared.
"Killian? No, I don't remember that guy." Stark denied.
"Probably because he's not a chick." Coco guessed.
"To be fair, he was kind of easy to pass over." Emerald said.
"That just makes it even worse, though. Especially with how Tony tricked him." Blake told her.
"Of course you don't. He's not a blond with a big rack. At first it was fine, they were talking business, but now it's like getting weird. He's showing her a big brain." Happy explained.
"His what?" Tony questioned.
"Big brain and she likes it. Here, let me show you. Hold on. See?" Happy asked as he held his tablet up and pointed it towards Pepper's glass office, where Aldrich and Pepper were standing close together on the coffee table watching the 3D image of the brain, but all Tony saw was Hogan pointing the tablet camera at himself.
"Look at what? You watching them? Flip the screen and then we can get started." The billionaire questioned.
"I'm not a tech genius like you. Just...just trust me, get down down here." The bodyguard insisted.
"Flip the screen, then I can see what they're doing." Stark instructed.
"This is why we have holo tech, no flipping of screens required." Ironwood said.
"Although, from that distance, he would likely have to get closer." Ozpin admitted.
"But perhaps it would be a good idea for Tony to see this. While Pepper is the CEO, Tony's opinion may still prove valuable." Penny stated.
"I think that Pepper knows Tony well enough to know what he would and wouldn't want, Penny." Velvet said, believing in the couple's ability to understand the other and what their positions on certain subjects would be.
"I can't! I don't know how to flip the screen! Don't talk to me like that anymore. You're not my boss." Happy snapped. As Hogan was talking, Tony used his small tablet device to look up Aldrich and found his photo. "Alright, I don't work for you. Now I don't trust this guy. He's got another guy with him, he's shifty."
"Relax." Tony advised.
"Seriously?" Happy demanded.
"I'm just asking you to secure the perimeter. Tell him to go out for a drink or something?" Tony suggested.
"You know what? You should take more of an interest in what's going on here. This woman... this woman's the best thing that ever happened to you, and you...you're just ignoring her." Happy told his former boss.
"He's not wrong, Pepper is the best thing in his life." Blake said.
"True, but smothering her or spying on her will only push her away. Trust me, I have first hand experience." Weiss said, growling at the thought of her father constantly trying to control her and prevent her from doing anything under the guise of "being a doting father".
"Exactly. While showing her a hologram of his brain is quite... eccentric, he hasn't done anything that particularly warrants concern, nor has his quote-unquote 'suspicious' company." Winter agreed with her little sister.
"A giant brain?" Tony questioned.
"Yeah, there's a giant brain, there's a shifty character. I'm gonna follow this guy. I'm gonna run his plates and if it gets rough, so be it." Happy declared.
"I miss you, Happy." Tony teased.
"Yeah, I miss you too. But the way it used to be. Now you're off with the 'super friends', I don't know what's going on with you anymore. The world's getting weird..." Happy expressed his concerns.
"Hey, I...I'd hate to cut you off. Do you have your taser on you?" Tony asked.
"Why?" Happy questioned.
"I think there's a gal in HR who's trying to steal some printer ink, you should probably go over there and zap her." Tony said jokingly as he put his small tablet in his wine fridge and closed it, then walked off still with Hogan online.
"Yeah, nice." Happy scoffed.
"Come on, Tony. He was being concerned. You could've been nicer about that." Jaune complained.
"And for someone who values his robots and suits, you'd think he'd treat his electronics with more care." Pyrrha said, shaking her head at him putting the tablet in the fridge.
"Yeah, if you're not gonna treat it right, you shouldn't have it! Or better yet, give it to me!" Neo declared.
Back in Pepper's office after Aldrich had showed her his new research. "Imagine if you could hack into the hard drive of any living organism and recode its DNA." He declared.
"But, isn't that pretty much EXACTLY what that Maya girl tried in the beginning of the movie and it didn't work?" Yang asked.
"Yeah, he's totally ripping off her idea." Neo agreed.
"Perhaps if we keep watching, more light shall be shed on the subject." Ozpin suggested.
"It would be incredible." Pepper admitted.
"Mm." He agreed.
"Unfortunately, to my ears it also sounds highly weaponizable. As in enhanced soldiers, private armies and Tony is not..." She explained.
"Just what you were telling me earlier." Ironwood agreed.
"I'm certain that in the right hands, his project could likely do some good." Pyrrha stated.
"The problem is, how do we know if his hands are the right ones. Even if they're working with Stark Industries, we've seen with Obadiah that people can sneak things through other channels and get them to people that shouldn't have them." Blake said, everyone nodding.
"Tony. Tony. You know, I invited Tony to join AIM thirteen years ago, he turned me down. But something tells me now there is a new genius on the throne who doesn't have to answer to Tony anymore and who has slightly less of an ego." Killian told her.
"It's gonna be a no, Aldrich. As much as I'd like to help you." She denied his proposal.
Aldrich was then seen leaving the building. "Well, I can't say that I'm not disappointed. But then as my father used to say, 'Failure is the fog through which we glimpse triumph.'" He quoted his father.
"Uh... Does that make any sense?" Nora asked Ren.
"None that I can make from it." Ren denied.
"Indeed. It would seem for this man's apparent talents, philosophy is not one of them." Glynda stated.
"That's very deep." Pepper said.
"Mm." Killian agreed.
"And I have no idea what it means." She said.
"Well, me neither. He was kind of an idiot, my old man." He admitted, to which Pepper laughed.
"Well, that explains it." Emerald said.
"He should be a little nicer to his father, though." Velvet said with a small pout.
"Hey, if he's coming up with weird mumbo-jumbo like that, he's not wrong." Coco told her.
"Still better than all your metaphors being about shopping or clothes." Velvet told her, leaving Coco shocked.
"I feel SO betrayed right now!" Coco declared, causing Velvet to immediately hug her while apologizing.
"I'm sure I'll see you again, Pepper." He told her, before kissing her gently on the cheek and Pepper watched him as he walked off, then Pepper noticed Happy coming toward her.
She looked clearly flustered at what just transpired. "Happy..." She began.
"The car is ready, if you're ready to go." He informed her.
Pepper glanced over to Aldrich as he walked towards his car. "Yes. I just um... God, I forgot my... other thing, so... I'm just gonna..." She stammered, before she walked back into the building. Hogan glanced over to Aldrich's car and as it drove away, Hogan took a photo of the license plate.
Ruby looked excited at this. "Aww, yeah! Detective Happy on the case- oh, it sounds so much worse when you say it out loud." She said, deflating quickly.
"Well, it's nice to see that someone's on the case." Winter said, but didn't sound very convinced herself.
"If only it wasn't probably the worst guy possible for the case." Cinder groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"So, thoughts?" Katana asked.
"It's impressive what Killian's been able to do with this Extremis, but it sounds incredibly close to what Maya has done, so at best, I'm thinking that Killian must have stolen her work." Glynda said.
"It's also clear that he has some issues with Tony. Coming from someone who had a lot of resentment early in my life, Killian likely hasn't forgotten. And I'm thinking he has something planned for Tony." Cinder explained.
"If not him then definitely his bodyguard, with the way things are setting up with Happy." Emerald agreed.
"I hope he doesn't get himself into too much trouble." Ruby said worriedly.
"It's Happy, Rubes. I'm writing him off right now." Yang told her sister.
"Care to make a bet on that?" Neo asked with a smirk.
"Alright. 50 Lien says he's a goner." Yang declared.
"You're on." Neo agreed to the terms.
"Yang, you're terrible!" Weiss declared.
"Well, let's not keep ourselves waiting. Now I'm concerned for both Tony and Happy. I need answers." Winter said as Katana continued.