Will Julian have superpowers? Not sure yet, but probably not, apart from the whole "useful stuff suddenly appears on occasion" thing. Also, please don't stop reading just because you don't believe what I believe. Because I know some will. Also, 17 views and not one review, on a review driven story?

Now, I wasn't in the room for the press conference, but I heard the shouts from the other room, and I knew it hadn't gone well. Then they drove me to Tony's home, and I found myself in the guest room with nothing to do. So, I used the one form of entertainment I've had with me for as long as I could remember, one with teachings to which I trust my life.

The Bible. And not one written in Shakesphere.

I only had the New Testament on me, but that was where all the useful stuff was, so I was fine with that. I got all the way through the book of Matthew, and decided I would need more than one form of entertainment here. Because as important as the Bible was, it couldn't keep me occupied forever, and eventually its words of wisdom become a blur. Luckily, that was when Tony returned, and I got to be his personal assistant in the tech lab/basement. Turns out he was building an improved miniature arc reactor. Why? Good question. He told me and Rodey on the plane that the one he had could easily keep him alive for thirty lifetimes. So was he just doing it for the sake of being over the top? Who knows.

When we got to the actual replacement procedure though, we found ourselves with a problem. I refused to help with it.

"Come on, it's just like the game operation."

"I hate that game, my hands shake too much. And I'm squeamish. It already freaks me out a little knowing that thing is actually in your chest. Why don't you have Pepper do it? Isn't she already your assistant?"

"She's busy taking care of my mess. You know what, I'll do it. If I need you or Pepper I'll call you down."

He climbed onto the table and started hooking himself up to everything, but I wasn't going to just leave him alone to do surgery on himself. So in case anything were to go wrong, I decided to stay down there with him. And sure enough, as I was reading...

"GAAHAHAHahh!"

I bolted up from my chair and ran over to him. "Are you okay? Are you hurt? What can I do?"

I found him still awake on the table, breathing heavily but calming. "I'm okay, just ran into a bit of a problem. See that wire?"

"I'd rather not."

"Yes, well, it's in the way, I can't put the new one in, the wire is being pushed into the socket wall. How big are your hands?" I showed him my hands, the left one now bearing a ring on the middle finger holding the unusual yellow stone that I had been so protective of. "Hmm, too big. Jarvis, call Pepper for me."

"On the line, sir."

"Pepper. Uh, how big are your hands?"

"What?!"

"How big are your hands?"

I suddenly realized what that sounded like coming from him. "I don't understand why you're-"

"Get down here, I need you." Moments later, she was at the bottom of the stairs. "Hey. Let's see 'em. Show me your hands." She raised them for him to see, very confused as to what was happening but figuring it out based on the object in his hand. "Oh wow, they are small, very petite, indeed. Just uh, need your help here a sec."

"Oh my God, is that the thing keeping you alive?"

"HEY." I glared at her. "I recommend you watch your words, missy."

She glared right back at me. "Excuse me?!"

"Let him go, turns out he's wildly Christain when he wants to be. And it was, it is now an antique." He held up the new Starkheart, a name of my own conception that was... underappreciated. "THIS is what will be keeping me alive for the foreseeable future, I'm swapping it out for an upgraded unit, I've just ran into a... speedbump."

"Speedbump, what- what does that mean-"

"It's nothing."

A pair of tweezers suddenly dropped from the ceiling, and Pepper slowly picked them up. "Will I need these?"

Of course, Tony being Tony, he can't switch out a battery without going into cardiac arrest or something, but all turned out well, and as he made a trip to an air force base to "speak to Rodey in private", I found myself again with nothing to do. So I had Pepper drop me off at a random part of the city, where I figured I could find something to do. I was given $500 cash to burn through as I pleased, and soon I found myself at, of all places, a soup kitchen. Not for myself, of course.

I looked around for a moment, then turned to the man on the ground next to me. "What's your name?"

"Nathain?"

"My name is Julian. How did you get here?"

"I'm... here every day. I- I- I live in the shelter just down the street."

"No, I mean, how did you end up in poverty?"

He stared at me with eyes of suffering, and I knew before he even answered he wasn't a fake homeless. "...No one has ever asked me that before, I... I was a bad kid. A really bad kid, I thought my parents were the problem, and I ran away at 14. I thought I got it all, but I lost everything. I wandered from house to house, doing horrible things just to get fed anything they didn't want, and I never found a place where I was happy. Eventually I figured out that I really was the biggest problem in my life, and even though I had nothing, I at least knew what I didn't want. I've been here since turning 20."

I crouched down in front of him, and held out my pocket NT in my right hand, and 5 $10 bills in my left. "I have one more question for you. If you could choose between wisdom and love, and wealth and satisfaction, which would you choose?"

He looked between the two of them for a moment, then slowly reached out to my right hand. "Good choice. Wisdom and love will bring you greater riches than any worldly wealth. Look inside the front cover."

He opened it, and inside he found 10 $10 bills. $100 dollars. He quickly shut it and looked around, knowing there were certainly people here who would grab it and run. "Spend it on a fishing rod, not on fish. Good luck Nathain."

The temptation to just take the money and get a decent meal must've been huge, and I had been counting on that. Luckily, he made the right choice.

I walked out, only to nearly get hit in the head as a gilded, silver coated pineapple fell from seemingly nowhere and cracked the pavement next to me.

"Well, I know where I'm taking this."

Check the last chapter's reviews for context. You may end up doing that a lot.