"Wait, they actually have to fight each other? Is this why Connor had to bring 'breathable' clothing?" Markus asks, quietly sending a look towards Connor who sheepishly stops sizing up the other two applicants. Connor had quickly changed into more athletic clothes(Markus is still surprised at how detailed Connor's muscles were, like, who designed that part?) and was now judging the other applicants' physique and choice of wear.
Markus had assumed that the guard applicants would just have to run some obstacle or something, he didn't think they'd have to go and spar .
Ms Potts sighs and raises a hand to pinch at the bridge of her nose. She's facing away from them, looking over the gym.
"They aren't fighting, well, they are fighting. But nothing too serious. It's just a little competition idea that Tony thought of in order to gauge how good-" Pepper turns to the guard applicants and gestures slightly, "-you guys are in combat. That, and he wanted to see how far you guys would go for the position of protecting Peter,"
Markus nods carefully and glances back around the gymnasium. Connor silently notes the affectionate tone applied for Peter Parker. Could be useful.
The gym was surprisingly large. So surprising in fact, that Connor did a quick review over the building's measurements in order to make sure there wasn't some physics-breaking going on. Turns out, the gym just extended past their floor and its ceiling was the ceiling of the floor above. He dutifully sent all this information to Markus. Who hid a groan at the influx of facts.
Half the floor was padded with dark red leather and yellow mats were stacked against a wall for easy access. A gym closet was at the opposite side of the room, with large double-doors and gold-coloured handles. One half of the room was filled with padded flooring and gymnastic-like equipment. Large pommel horses and short, shiftable, faux walls sat atop the mats.
The other half of the room had a less-padded, faux leather flooring. It was clear of any objects and perfect for a spar.
"-and Markus you will need to leave the room while we conduct this part of the interview. This is your new work tablet, we monitor what you do on it, by the way, it has some more information on your new job, as well as details about Mr Stark himself. There are chairs outside and you can also get acquainted with JARVIS, Stark's AI, while we go through this, " Pepper says as she half-mindedly hands Markus a Stark Tablet.
Markus is silently impressed with the easily given tablet and access to the AI. Pepper finishes off the short dismissal with a small warning of damage payments and soon Markus is out of the room. Connor keeps himself from immediately asking questions about how advanced the tablet and the AI are.
Connor eyes the room and the other two applicants carefully. He tries his best at looking as professional as possible. Lucy looked downright excited and the man, Mr Jacobs, looked arrogantly confident.
"Ms Erino and Mr Jacobs will go first, then Mr Jacobs and Mr Anderson, and Mr Anderson with Ms Erino, " Ms Potts says as she unfolds a chair and sits against the wall.
Lucy nods and stretches slightly before walking onto the sparring area- the clear and flat side of the room. She pops her neck and sneers impatiently as Jacobs takes his time to properly stretch. When he finally joins her on the hard mat, he relaxes his shoulders and falls into a defensive stance. However, as Connor examines, Jacobs's feet weren't far enough apart for swift kicking and leg-blocking.
Lucy, on the other hand, relaxes into a perfect, ready-to-spring, offensive stance. Her eyes are serious and focused while her lips stretch into an indulgent grin.
Ms Potts sighs quietly before speaking up,
"Start whenever one of you is ready-"
Lucy immediately begins the fight, Jacobs's eyes widen and he takes a stuttered step back before grounding himself and reaching up to block Lucy's swift jabs. Unfortunately, he had overestimated himself and his face was soon being pressed into the mat as Lucy viciously yanks his captured wrists behind his back. Lucy grins meanly and applies a small amount of extra, unnecessary pressure.
Connor hides his distaste for the obvious power display and begins to walk onto the mat for his turn.
"Mr Jacobs? Are you still good to continue?" Ms Potts asks lightly as Jacobs gets up and sends a glare at Lucy, who simply blows a mocking kiss back.
"I don't need this dumb fucking job anyway," the man mutters before leaving the gym. Ms Potts shrugged and scratched his name off the list. She sends a calculating glance over Lucy before moving back to her chair and motioning for them to start whenever.
Connor stands on the hard mat stiffly, and Lucy's excited expression morphs into a scowl as Connor calmly assesses her form.
[CURRENT TASK: DEFEAT LUCY ERINO]
[SUBTASK: AVOID GETTING DAMAGED]
"Are you seriously underestimating me?" Lucy asks dangerously. The two begin to circle each other on the mat, with Connor taking care to maintain the distance between them. Connor looks at her with a puzzled face.
"No, I am not underestimating you," Connor responds promptly.
Lucy stares back with disbelief and anger before she springs into action. She moves swift and practised. Connor would have enjoyed his police job more if the officers were as focused on her.
She punches out to him twice in quick succession, and Connor dodges both, before sending one back in return. She dodges too.
Slowly, Connor's programs begin to fire up for the first time in a while. He feels something akin to excitement as he trades blows with her in increasing difficulty. Lucy ducks down and uses her hand to steady herself to the ground as she kicks out her left leg, aimed at what she presumes Connor's crotch would be.
Connor dodges cleanly and shoots out a leg at her open left ankle. Unfortunately, he had forgotten momentarily that he wasn't fighting a robot made of metal. His shoed foot rams against her human ankle and she falls with a pained yelp. She thuds onto the ground and her face lights up in fury. A bruise begins to form on her skin and Connor straightens his back as he looks down at her.
[CURRENT OPPONENT DEFEATED]
Lucy shoots back up and sends a punch towards where his kidney would've been if he were human. Connor simply takes a step back and watches Lucy's lunge lose momentum. She gets back on her feet and seems to ignore the reddish bruise on her ankle.
She takes a careful step forward and takes another boxer-like punch at Connor's right eye.
Connor turns and looks at her confusedly. Was she not feeling her injury? Did he not hit hard enough? His eyes widen as new text appears in his peripheral and as Lucy advances again.
[END TASK SWIFTLY. ENSURE OPPONENT'S DEFEAT]
Connor's eyes narrow as he finally notices Lucy wincing when she steps forward.
Swiftly, Connor moves forward and captures her wrists, twisting them behind her and forcing her onto her knees. She angrily hisses at him and Connor narrows his eyes in response. He places a foot over her bruised ankle and pushes upon it until she hisses in pain instead.
"Alright, fine you win, " Lucy wheezes out with a forced grin. Connor deftly releases her and she wipes the sweat off her forehead. If she was less focused on her loss, she would've realized how strangely not sweaty Connor was.
The room is silent as Pepper gives them a moment to breathe. For three seconds, Connor is confused before he quickly fakes taking in a few deep breaths. He doesn't have any functions for sweat, but he feigns wiping at his forehead anyway. When Lucy's face looks less red, Pepper speaks again.
"Well, both of you did a really great job. Ms Erino, just because Mr Anderson won the spar does not mean you have lost your chance at the position. You guys can head home now, and we'll do our best to send out information as soon as possible,"
In the following days, Connor gets called back and Lucy is given an email encouraging her to try for other job positions.
Markus waits patiently outside the gym, new tablet in hand. He would have just uploaded all the information in, but he isn't exactly sure how monitored that sort of thing is. So he's stuck with reading it with the speed of an above-average human.
He clicks open a document and goes through a list of Stark's preferred foods. The font is different from the other previous documents about allergies and upcoming meetings. The font in this document is distinctly less formal and, Markus tilts his head slightly, the inputted list is not as organized.
His brows furrow in slight concern as the foods immediately register as unhealthy in his mind. Across the list of foods and snacks, Markus notes certain flavours and types of food Stark eats.
Silently, he creates a new document and begins typing in a list of more healthy potential foods to serve instead.
The tablet seems to buzz for a moment, and Markus faintly recognizes the pleased aura surrounding the tech.
In the corner of the tablet screen, a fluorescently blue-rimmed LED lights up.
"Sir is also partial to Middle-Eastern cuisine and anything in the form of a sandwich, " a British voice with only the slightest tang of robotic-ness says happily . Markus's brows rise up and a smile stretches across his face.
"Thank you. My name is Markus, am I right to presume that you are JARVIS?"
"Yes. It is a pleasure to meet you, Mr Manfred, " JARVIS greets.
When Connor steps out of the gym, strangely anxious and excited to later find out whether he had won the job over Lucy, he doesn't expect to see Markus talking to the tablet Pepper had given him.
He knows somewhere in the back of his mind that he'd eventually have to meet the most advanced AI in this timeline, but he also had hoped to be more prepared. He's frozen, standing above Markus who remains seated and invested in a conversation with 'JARVIS'.
"-Connor? This is JARVIS, well, not this , he just has lots of interface connections and this is one of them. He's attached to the whole tower,"
Connor stands statue-still and Markus can almost see the yellow-red cycling Connor's LED would've been going through.
"Greetings, sir, I am JARVIS. Just A Rather Very Intelligent System. A pleasure to meet you, "
Connor feels something akin to a shiver run down his spine as he looks toward the lit up and pulsing circle on Markus' tablet.
"My name is Connor, the an-"
"Are you alright Connie?" Markus quickly interjects, using a nickname that is sure I snap Connor out of his stupor. It works miraculously well. Markus silently shuts down the tablet and places it inside his backpack. He sets a reminder for himself to later make sure the tablet is unable to eavesdrop on them.
"Don't call me that Markus! That's worse than when Hank would call me 'Data!' I admit the comparison between me and the Star Trek character is rather good, but I find myself offended at the notion that Data and I are equal. I am far superior in all aspects regarding ability, capability, and will-"
Markus grins slyly and stands up from his chair. He quietly places a hand on Connor's shoulder and walks them to the elevator, Connor continues to rant without breath as Markus begins their trek home.
"-it's absolutely strange for Hank to think it clever to nickname me in such a way! Don't you agree? If I was more like your friend North, I'd probably call it racist!"
Markus chokes slightly on laughter as he leads Connor out onto the street.
"-I mean, Data is a very good character and I appreciate the writing used to characterize him. Hank is very good at choosing movies for me to watch. But that does not mean I appreciate the comparison at all!"
Markus and Connor step into a cab, and the driver only glances at Connor once through the mirror before sighing and focusing on driving. Markus sends him a half-heartedly apologetic smile.
"-And that is why I do not like nicknames, Markus. Seriously, Connie? You make me sound weak and that's not what I want to be presented as! Sure, the etymology regarding the nickname is rather interesting. Did you know that 'Connie' means steadfastness? It is a rather nice name, I guess."
Markus unlocks their front door and moves away slightly so that Connor can walk in. As Connor begins a report on the history of social and political figures named "Connie" in history, Markus stores the tablet far away from their room and in a jar in the kitchen. Should be good enough for now.
Connor sits on their bed as he begins a new ramble about the different forms of names that "Connie" can relate to.
"-So there's Connor, Cornelius, Constance, Cornelia, Constancy, Consuela, Constantina, Colene, Conway, Corinne-"
"We need to figure out how to get the materials for thirium. I only have so many packets with me and we're going to be expending lots of energy while working for Stark. I'm sure I can hack into Stark's tower, but it's a bit different from normal because it's protected by an AI that I don't know much about yet. Do you have any ideas on what we could do?"
Immediately, Connor perks up from his distracted rambling. His eyebrows furrow somewhat incredulously at the idea of Markus calling tower-hacking "normal", but he ignores it for now and starts to speak.
"Well, it should only take a couple of days to find holes in Stark's AI system. Even if we don't know much about JARVIS, I think we can assume that you will be able to memorize and start to recognize his digital presence when you navigate Stark's software and databases in order to avoid him. And for our thirium problem, I think I can get materials myself. When I get the job as Parker's bodyguard, I will likely have access to labs and chemical waste disposals because of Parker's internship under Stark himself,"
Markus shrugs slightly, and rolls his eyes at Connor's confidence, before rebuttal,
"How does guarding an intern give you access to labs? Don't interns push paper or something? Go on coffee runs?" Markus asks. Connor glares at Markus and his face sets in a dissapointed frown.
"Parker is not a regular intern. He was chosen as Stark's intern because of his background in engineering, biophysics, and biochemistry. Many underground journalists also suspect that Parker and Stark were the ones to design Web Fluid. Web fluid is a-"
" Spider-man? An intern helps make stuff for that spider-based hero?" Markus incredulously states before huffing at Connor's pleasant surprised expression "-What? I did some research too, thank you for asking. This place is insane,"
"So when I act as Parker's bodyguard, I will be able to have access to materials needed for Thirium-310. I have yet to decide on how to retrieve them, but I predict that hacking the security camera feeds will be simple,"
"When did you think this out?"
"On our way home, when else could I have? After inspecting the Stark Tower, I have been compartmentalizing information about its inner workings,"
"Oh. Good job Connie," Markus says, stunned.
"That is not an acceptable name! I thought I already explained this to you-"
"I thought you were one of the most capable agents. Did you not use your seductive training?"
"I did when I could, sir, but the person interviewing was not the type of person that would-"
"Then am I to assume that someone did better than you? That you were less prepared than someone else in the interviews?"
"Yes sir,"
"I had so much faith in you too. You will try infiltrating through other jobs then. Keep an eye on this, 'Connor Anderson.' Hail Hydra, dismissed,"
"Hail Hydra,"