TITLE: Iron Maiden - Days of Future Past
DISCLAIMER: The Marvel Cinematic Universe characters and everything from Earth-199999 belongs to Marvel under the umbrella of The Mouse of Doom, ahem, sorry, Disney... anything from other Marvel Universes / dimensions / timelines belong to their respective comic creators… basically, if you recognise it, it isn't mine... Please don't sic SHIELD on me, I'm just here for the fun.
The days of future past, to wander on the shore
A king without a queen, to die forevermore
To wander in the wasteland
Immortal to the end
Waiting for the judgement
But the judgement never ends
Iron Maiden - Days of Future Past
Stark Mansion
10880 Malibu Point
Malibu
California
January 30th, 2010
Stalking around his workshop, Tony Stark yelled in frustration as he threw an empty glass against the wall. Watching in satisfaction as it shattered into pieces, the horrible green chlorophyll residue dripping down the wall.
Nothing worked. He'd run through every single element on the periodic table, there was nothing that could replace the palladium core of the Arc reactor that was keeping him alive.
It was a catch twenty two situation, and he hated it.
The very thing that was keeping him alive was killing him, and he didn't have any answers left.
Between that, the upcoming launch of Stark Expo, and the construction on the Stark Tower in New York that was going to be his legacy, he had so much on his mind that he could barely think straight, and testing his blood every single day to check the toxicity level wasn't helping one bit.
"JARVIS, load up a new workflow, start looking into composite shielding for the Arc reactor housing." Tony said aloud as he stalked back over to his workbench, sitting down and dragging his chair back over so he could sit at the bench properly and see everything he needed to.
"Of course sir," JARVIS replied automatically, bringing up the requested screens along with an exploded diagram of the mark two arc reactor and it's current housing. "The current titanium housing is blocking seventy eight percent of the radioisotopes created by the palladium core."
"Yeah, it's that twenty two percent that are killing me," Tony muttered off hand. "Run sequenced tests, every combination of metals, start with the base lowest on the table and work your way through."
"Simulations in progress," JARVIS responded.
Tony nodded automatically, running through the same thoughts in his mind. Whatever the housing was, it had to be properly shielded to prevent any problems with the Arc reactor, but couldn't interfere with the magnetic fields that were keeping the microscopic shrapnel in his chest from working their way through into his heart or other organs.
The fact that it was going into his body ruled out quite a few metals, and keeping in mind the structural integrity of the Arc reactor itself ruled out more. A ceramic composite over a metal housing might work, depending on if he could find a better metal than titanium to work with. It wouldn't block out radiation or radioisotopes, but it would coat any metal and prevent problems caused by his body rejecting the implant or reacting to the metal itself.
He was still musing over the thought of which ceramic compounds would be best when the lights automatically dimmed in the workshop, the monitors automatically changing from his simulations and normal workflow to show the security footage from upstairs in the mansion itself.
"Sir, an intruder has landed outside the mansion." JARVIS reported.
"Landed?" Tony blinked, swiping at the monitors until he came to the one showing the rear of the mansion and overlooking the pool. "That's..."
He simply stared, using his hands to manipulate the image until it zoomed in on the intruder. It was... an armoured suit certainly, sleeker than his, curvier somehow. There weren't any sharp lines or overlapping plates. The iridescent blue purple shift of the armour's main colour was certainly different, and the colour went well with the reflective chrome that made up the rest of the armour.
What had his attention most though was the large shell like design on the armour's back, along with the hexagonal glow coming from the chest of the armour.
And... damn... it was a woman. Now that he was looking at the chest, he could easily see the armour had a distinctively feminine style to it. Not blatant or ridiculous or anything, but it was there and had been definitely designed around a woman's body.
"Sir, shall I inform..."
"No," Tony cut JARVIS off as he stood up. Whoever it was, they'd managed to recreate his Iron Man technology, at least some of it anyway, and had been competent enough to re-purpose the designs and work around an entirely different suit. This wasn't Hammer or some third rate weapons designer, this was someone who knew Arc technology and knew armour. "Whoever it is, they've probably got more weapons in that..." He trailed off as his eyes caught the security camera footage.
This time it showed the armoured figure outside simply looking around at the mansion before its helmet actually melted away, flowing back and dispersing into the rest of the armour, exposing a beautiful brunette underneath that was staring at the mansion with a curious look on her face.
That definitely wasn't any technology he knew. At best it looked like liquid metal, probably nanotech, but there was nothing on the market like that. He'd know, if there was something like that around, it would have been Stark Tech.
"Sir, the Mark Five is not ready for sustained use beyond testing." JARVIS voice announced.
"Yeah, no, that's not going to work." Tony snorted, whatever technology this woman had access to, it was far beyond what he had built into the Mark Four or Mark Five. Not to mention he didn't really relish the idea of a throw-down match between him and this woman in his mansion.
Walking away from his workbench he casually opened the glass door, moving to jog casually up the stairs to greet the intruder properly.
"Sir, are you certain this is wise? I have no reports of this woman or any descriptions fitting her armour appearing prior to this moment." JARVIS reported.
"Probably not, but I'm looking at her suit, and if she wanted to start something, it'd probably start with raining missiles down on the mansion, not just land and start looking around." Tony pointed out.
"If you say so sir," JARVIS responded. "Though my programming dictates that should hostilities break out, I will notify the authorities and Miss Potts prior to enacting the 'told you so' protocol."
Tony actually snorted in amusement at that, grinning and making a mental note to thank JARVIS for breaking the tension as he moved through the rooms of the mansion, jogging over to the back balcony before he slid open the doors and squinted a bit in the bright light as he looked over to where the woman was still standing by the pool.
Up close the armour was... well, he had to admit it, it was gorgeous. Far smoother than his armour. The way the colouring of the armour shifted in the light through blues and purples was actually beautiful, spectacular in every sense of the word. He always preferred candy paints for his finish on the Iron Man suits, the wet look paint that reminded him of hot rods and just felt right for the sleek and attractive look he was going for. The paint used on the woman's armour was iridescent though, perfectly glossy and the way it caught the light just demanded his attention.
"Nice landing, eight out of ten, you lost the two points for an unannounced drop in though." He said with a smirk as he stepped out of the mansion, watching as the woman span around to face him properly. "Nice design, actually spectacular. If I wasn't me, I'd think it was one of mine." He grinned, keeping his hands in his jeans pockets as he casually walked around the pool. "So, what's your secret? Nanotech? Obviously, but processing power? The back shell is a bit much, what are you hiding in there? Power cells, the hardware to drive the nanotech?"
"The shell's an add-on, needed it to cover up the backpack." The woman grinned at him. "You ever tried carrying a backpack while wearing your suit?"
"Can't say that I have," Tony mused aloud, cocking his head as he considered that. An attachable shell to secure items for transport was actually a good idea, he was honestly surprised that it wasn't something that he'd have thought of before.
"It sucks, centre mass is all off, throws my flight angles off completely." The woman rolled her eyes.
"I could see that," Tony nodded automatically, thinking about how the extra weight would change everything. "Alright Blue, what are we talking? Not that I'm seriously against reenacting a whole red vs blue Youtube thing here, but I've got enough on my plate right now." He smirked over as he approached her, feeling confidant now that she hadn't made any hostile moves. "Dropped in hoping for tips? Problem with the repulsors? And let me tell you, reverse engineering my repulsor designs, I've had my lawyers wake up for less."
"Like combining ion propulsion into your original muon cascade plasma was hard," The woman scoffed, causing Tony to actually blink in surprise.
"Wait... you added ion propulsion, feasibly? In designs that small?" Tony demanded. "Explain!" He demanded, actually moving to grab one of the woman's hands so he could examine the repulsor tech himself.
"Hands off," The woman quickly moved her hand away, moving it up and double tapping the glowing hexagon on her chest. "I don't like people touching my stuff." She said firmly as Tony watched in awe as the armour flowed away into liquid metal before vanishing from her body completely.
Out of the armour the woman was even smaller than he was. Petite even. She was wearing a comfortable looking set of jeans and a sleeveless t-shirt thing with an Iron Maiden band logo across the front, and now he could easily see the heavy looking holdall backpack she was wearing that the armour had covered up with that specialised shell.
"OK, ten out of ten for the nanotech," Tony applauded. "Seriously, I didn't even know anyone had got that far with nanotech research lately. I mean, Pym's been boasting about figuring it out for years, but nobody believes him, and he's never published anything or patented anything on it, so that pretty much rules him out." He mused aloud. "You're not a Pym are you, because I'm so not in the mood for dealing with Pym's accusations and douchebaggery right now."
"Nope," The woman grinned at him. "And Pym never figured out nanotech, he always just used that as an excuse to stop people figuring out what he was really working on." She explained with a laugh. "This is tenth generation nanotech, technically eleventh but I never include my own personal improvements in the public designs until I'm at least a couple of generations ahead of what we release." She explained.
"Bullshit," Tony shook his head. "There's no way anyone's been working on functional nanotech that long. That's at least a decade's worth of improvements, and if anyone had patented nanotech in two thousand, SI wouldn't have been the top tech company that year." He said with certainty.
"Nope, two down." The woman smirked over. "The first nanotech designs were patented in twenty eighteen." She paused for a beat, watching as Tony's eyes narrowed a fraction. "By you." She added with a small grin.
"Nice, appealing to my ego, going with time travel as well? Bit too science fiction-ey for my taste, heard the new Star Trek movie has a whole schtick about that, that where you got the idea from?" Tony snorted. "Truth this time?"
"Truth," The woman smirked. "You," She paused, poking Tony in the chest and causing him to step back with a mild glare. "Figured out time travel in twenty twenty three, barely days before you died." She said with a glare. "I was five."
"That... even if, and that's a big IF, if time travel were possible, travelling back in time wouldn't..."
"Change anything. It would simply create a branch timeline breaking off from the point of change. Travelling between different timelines or decades is only possible with a quantum phase discriminator, or a time space GPS as idiots generally call it." The woman continued on Tony's thoughts with an oddly familiar smirk of her own. "Twenty forty four says hi by the way," She paused for a second, seeing the doubts in Tony's eyes. "Dad." She added, causing Tony's eyes to widen to ridiculous levels.
"Funny," Tony rolled his eyes after recovering. "Me being a dad, just slightly less believable than the time travel theory. And by slightly less, I mean about as likely as me running for President."
"Pft, you'd have to drop a hundred IQ points just to fit in with the politicians," The woman shook his head. "Wait, American politicians, make that a hundred and fifty points." She added with a smirk.
"I feel I should defend America here, but... point." Tony grinned at her, enjoying her style of humour. "Speaking of Americans, you're definitely not. European, obviously... bit of a mix of accents. I can hear the Spanish twang, West Europe definitely. Touch of French maybe? Ergo, not my kid."
"Spain mostly, France, Switzerland for University. Bit of time in London after SI opened a tower there." The woman explained with a nod, knowing her accent stood out even though she'd spoken English for her entire life. "Mostly Spain though. Valencia for the SI Tower HQ, and Madrid for the compound and R and D branches."
"Still sticking to your story?" Tony shook his head. "Should have quit while the going was good." He frowned at her. "So, one last chance. Truth, or are you wanting me to suit up and go a round or two?"
"What'd it take for you to believe me?" The woman asked outright, causing Tony to cock his head to the side. "Seriously, I'm carrying a bag full of stuff from twenty forty four. Laptops, SI server backups, my personal drives, your personal backups right up until... yeah, so... go on, name it." She said, meeting Tony's eyes with a challenging smirk on her face.
"Alright kiddo, you know what, thrill me." Tony grinned back at her. "Because hearing stories about me making it another thirty three years sounds like a pipe dream I could do with right now."
"Oh, the poisoning. Right, yeah, I knew that was a thing." The woman nodded, sliding the backpack off of one shoulder and then the other, gingerly lowering it down to the ground. "You figure it out this summer. A new element, it's actually the basis for..."
"Ah," Tony held up his hand. "Proof first, story time after." He cut her off.
The fact she actually knew about his poisoning problem was interesting, worrying, but interesting. It showed she had a far deeper understanding of Arc technology than he had given her credit for.
"Rude," The woman huffed with a knowing smirk. "Mom always said you had more snark in you than anyone else alive. She always thought you'd secretly patented it with SI." She said with a wistful smile. "She always said I was full of Stark patented Snark since before I can remember."
"The first thing you've said that I would completely believe," Tony said with a wide grin as he watched the woman dig through her backpack.
"Figures," The woman rolled her eyes at him as she pulled out a small black box. "Had to actually liberate this from the SI Plaza museum," She explained with a grin. "The DSN were still on high alert when I left." She laughed, tossing the box over to him.
"Departamento de Seguridad Nacional," Tony mused as he caught the box one handed. "You've done your research for this wacky story of yours." He nodded, giving her points purely for that. "What's this?" He asked, tossing the box gingerly in his hand and testing the weight.
"Mark four Arc reactor," The woman grinned at him. "The last design you used before you had the surgery to get that crap out of your chest." She said with a wave towards his current Arc reactor where it was housed. "I replaced the core with the more refined Starkanium, boosted the power output, updated it a bit. It's not a nanite reactor core, but it won't put you in a coffin anytime soon."
Tony cocked his head to the side at that, curiously opening the black box. It actually did look like an Arc reactor, hell, it even looked like one of his own designs. The connection plates, the wiring, even the fasteners... they all looked like his work.
The internal core was definitely different from his designs though, it was a spherical object, not a small thin and flat replaceable core design like he'd been using, but an actual ball like object suspended by various connections.
"Alright, you've bought yourself ten more minutes, just out of curiosity and amusement, I could use the distraction anyway, so, if nothing else... thanks for that." Tony said, his eyes never leaving the Arc reactor. "You expect me to just plug this into my chest right now then?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Well, yeah, you know, if you just suddenly dropped two hundred IQ points became an idiot." The woman snorted in amusement. "Like you're not dying to run tests on the core anyway, and you want to check the machining to see the SI chips integrated into the design. That'd prove that it's actually Stark tech, and not just some desk-light knockoff to sell to tourists."
"Two points," Tony mockingly applauded, first for the woman actually recognising common sense, and a second for her knowing that SI integrated identification chips into their tech to make sure that they knew it was original tech and not stolen and replaced with a knock off, a tactic he'd kept up with for his Arc reactors once he'd got back from Afghanistan.
"Fine, hands to yourself. And when scans tell me this is just a knockoff..."
"When they tell you it's the real thing," The woman countered with a grin as she buckled up her backpack again before slinging it over one shoulder.
"Highly unlikely," Tony scoffed. "But when I find out the truth, then I get the real story?"
"Fine," The woman rolled her eyes at him. "But when it comes back authentic, you have to actually listen, not just make bad jokes about everything."
"I'm wounded," Tony mocked, gesturing for her to follow him into the mansion and down to his workshop. "I'll have you know my sense of humour is part and parcel of the coveted Stark charm."
The woman actually snorted at that, shaking her head in amusement. "That explains why you and mom had that whole on and off thing going for so long. I'm surprised she kept you around with jokes like that."
"Wise ass," Tony retorted as he led the way through the mansion to the main stairs leading down to his workshop. "Totally not buying the whole dad thing anyway, but in this messed up little fantasy of yours, who's the lucky woman I finally got to have a kid with?"
"Mom? Pepper," The woman shrugged. "You're not dating yet?" She asked curiously. "No, seriously, mom said you two started seeing each other after you became Iron Man, I figured you'd be together at least by now?"
Tony simply blinked, nearly missing a step as he headed into his workshop. "Me and Pepper? Nice try, never going to happen."
"Kinda does, you know, proof." The woman smirked, gesturing to herself. "Run a DNA test, waving one of those in front of your face might be fun."
"Like I haven't done hundreds of paternity tests since before my MIT days," Tony rolled his eyes. "I practically have a standing order set up for the kits to beat off gold diggers and idiots trying for a quick buck."
"Wow, mom said you had a history... I mean, I had the internet growing up, but man whore? Nice title," The woman smirked as she watched him head over to his workbench and casually lift the Arc reactor out of the small black box she'd given him.
"JARVIS, run a scan on this. Focus on the element, but check the housing and circuits for anything in our database." Tony said aloud, making it clear that he was only humouring the woman.
"Of course sir," JARVIS' voice responded.
"Your first AI?" The woman asked, honest curiosity in her voice now. "Is it actually an AI yet or... you know, voice interaction with protocols and clever coding?"
Tony actually raised an eyebrow as he looked over to her, seeing the actual curiosity in her eyes. "If anyone asks, he's just an advanced system based on neuro linguistic learning protocols and algorithms. Just a rather very intelligent system." He explained with a knowing smirk.
"But..." The woman grinned at him as her dad nodded over. "Sweet, another family reunion." She said with a laugh, tapping then chrome reflective watch on her wrist. "FAITH, come on out. Time to meet your great great granddad."
Tony didn't know what to say as a clearly female form shimmered into existence next to the woman. It was definitely a very advanced holographic system, actually three dimensional, and the resolution was damned impressive. If she hadn't been a monochrome purple and slightly translucent, he would have believed it was a real woman standing there.
"OK, I'm impressed." Tony admitted, forgoing the Arc reactor for the moment as he headed over to take a better look at the apparent AI that was being projected into his workshop. "FAITH was it?" He asked, circling around the glowing form to actually admire the holographic work.
"Yes Mr Stark," FAITH responded, actually smiling at him.
"Make that very impressed," Tony nodded, making careful note of how the AI's mouth moved and eyes actually watched him in a realistic fashion. Even her hair fell realistically around her head as she tilted her head around to watch him. "OK, I'm starting to believe the time travel story at least." He grudgingly admitted.
There wasn't another explanation for it really. He outright knew that he was the leader in AI coding, there wasn't another company or private AI in the world that could match JARVIS, and that holographic system was definitely far and beyond anything that was possible with today's technology.
Having a mobile holographic system without visible projectors around was definitely something that was far in advance of any technology he could think of, not to mention the processing power to actually run a proper AI... future tech was definitely one answer, and damned if he couldn't think of any others right now.
"Finally, progress," The woman huffed at him. "FAITH... meet, your grandfather like five or six times over or something." She said with a grin, seeing the horrified reaction on her dad's face.
"No, just no, a world of no." Tony held his hands up quickly. "That's just wrong on so many levels kid." He vehemently shook his head expressing how much he hated that title. "OK, say I believe you... this is based on JARVIS' code?" He asked curiously.
"FAITH?" The woman asked, gesturing for FAITH to answer whatever she wanted.
"I am a ninth generation Stark AI Mr Stark, my direct predecessor was SARA, prior to that was KATIE. Both were based on original code from EDITH, who was originally created from FRIDAY's unique code, created by Tony Stark using JARVIS as a base algorithm. TADASHI was solely repurposed for Mrs Stark and the Rescue armour, and JOCASTA was never run outside of Mr Stark's neuro sand box server." FAITH reported. "It's nice to meet you JARVIS."
"And you Miss Faith," JARVIS' voice came back, sounding actually curious over the speakers in the workshop. "I find myself... perplexed at the idea of a new AI progressing from my functions. That I would have... family? A child would perhaps be the equivalent and best descriptor for this scenario? In Miss Friday, is a curious state of affairs."
"You're telling me," Tony admitted, still staring at the AI projection with no small amount of curiosity at the amount of AI's that FAITH had just reported.
"Scan complete sir," JARVIS interrupted where Tony was still covetously staring at the AI hologram. "The element inside the Arc reactor does not conform to any known element. The housing however is Stark Industries, and contains your personal DIC along with a coded GPS chip that is accessible using my tracking protocols."
Tony actually stumbled at that, dashing back to the workbench in shock. "It's one of mine?" He demanded.
"Indeed sir, while the element is not recorded in my database, several of the circuit boards contain chips that are manufactured by Stark Industries." JARVIS responded. "The probability of this reactor being your creation is one hundred percent sir."
"What's the power output?" Tony asked, honestly curious as he stared down at the arc reactor.
"Unknown sir," JARVIS responded.
"Seventeen point nine gigawatts per second." The woman reported. "I know, pretty low but without a proper nanite reactor core, that's the highest I could get that antique." She explained with a roll of her eyes.
"Seventeen..." Tony's eyes went wide as he snapped his head around to stare at the woman in shock. "What's..."
"Mine? Eighty nine point two," The woman smirked at him. "Like I said, that's an antique I had to liberate from the Stark museum wing." She explained with a grin. "Believe me now pops?" She added with a raised eyebrow.
"Pops..." Tony almost clutched his heart in horror at the nickname, moving over and practically collapsing down in his workbench chair as he stared across at the woman. "You're... you're... my..."
"Daughter, yeah, that's what I've been trying to tell you." The woman rolled her eyes at him. "FAITH, is he alright?"
"Heightened heart rate, indicative of a high stress environment." FAITH reported. "Scans indicate Mr Stark is suffering from a lack of sleep, nutritional withdrawal, mild alcohol recovery, and a twenty four percent blood toxicity level caused by the palladium core housed within the mark two Arc reactor."
Tony eyed the AI wearily now as it stared at him, the purple glowing hologram not having been what he'd expected at all. "Stress, hangover, and I haven't had lunch yet." He countered quickly.
"Lithium dioxide will provide a suitable counter agent to the blood toxicity, but it is recommended you replace the Arc reactor with the Mark Four replacement as soon as possible to avoid further damage." FAITH explained, walking over to the workbench. "Would you like me to assist Mr Stark?" She asked as she picked up the Arc reactor, causing Tony to actually scoot away from his workbench in shock.
"What the hell?!" Tony demanded, staring at the glowing purple AI who was actually physically holding the Arc reactor in her hand. "HOW?" He demanded, staring over at the woman in shock.
"What? Oh, you mean the hard light system?" The woman asked before realising what her dad was glaring at. "Yeah, it's a thing. Useful actually. I think you developed it for shields and stuff first, I got it reworked into the AI system when I was at ETH."
"Hard li... wait, ETH?" Tony cocked his head to the side. "Not MIT?" He asked in surprise. "Zurich?" He asked after racking his mind to remember where the hell ETH was.
"Mom took Stark Industries international after you... you know," The woman trailed off awkwardly. "Stark International's main compound is in Spain, but Zurich was an easy flight." She explained with a shrug. "I did want to try MIT, but mom was pretty set against it after... it's a whole thing about how America took a big shit over the Stark name. SI hasn't had holdings there since I was seven or eight, so she didn't want me going back there to study."
"That's... jeez," Tony breathed out, trying to wrap his head around the idea of Stark Industries becoming Stark International.
"Sir, I must concur with Miss Faith's findings. Scans of the unknown element indicate a suitable replacement for the palladium core. Blood toxicity will drop steadily after the replacement, in three days the radioisotopes will be purged from your system." JARVIS reported.
"Two AI's ganging up on me now?" Tony asked in amusement, his eyes still never leaving the way FAITH was holding the new Arc reactor in a suitably impossible manner than was still threatening to make his eye twitch. "Let's just... OK, slow down a minute..." He took a deep breath. "Time travel?"
"Uhuh," The woman nodded.
"Yeah, I'm a believer now." Tony said, staring at the FAITH hologram that was still standing by his workbench with the arc reactor, apparently happy to help out. "And you're..."
"You're my dad," The woman nodded. "Morgan Stark." She introduced herself with a smile.
"Morgan... huh," Tony tilted his head to the side as he considered that. It wasn't a bad name or anything, it just didn't really sound like something he would come up with.
"Mom's favourite uncle apparently." Morgan explained. "Could have been worse, I could have been named after Uncle Eightball." She added with a snort of laughter. "James... Jamie? Jamie Stark? Nope, not happening." She huffed in amusement.
"Uncle Eightball... Rhodey?" Tony stared at her, his eyes glittering with amusement. "Oh this is a story, I can tell."
"Honestly, not that much," Morgan grinned at him. "Back at ETH he'd come and visit every couple of weeks, check up on me. We played pool together a lot."
"Huh, he never played with me," Tony mused, idly racking his memory to see if he'd ever seen Rhodey around a pool table in his life.
"I was like fifteen or something, he sunk the eightball and won twenty euros off me." Morgan explained. "I said his head reminded me of the eightball, and it kinda stuck."
"Wait, Rhodey went bald?" Tony demanded with a bark of laughter. "Oh please tell me you have photos of this?"
"Oh yeah, and mom... you and mom, a few of you and me when I was a kid." Morgan smiled at him.
"That's... OK, I'll want to look at those later." Tony said firmly. "But lets backtrack for a moment, and aside from the whole Iron Man legacy thing, which I'm not sure how I feel about right now, I died?"
"Yeah, saving the world." Morgan said with an oddly disgusted huff. "Not that America were proud of you or anything. Not a year after your funeral and they were already remodelling the Statue of Liberty to hold up an oversized Craptain America shield." She explained with a roll of her eyes. "There's a golden statue of him in Central Park too, it's so tacky it's ridiculous." She explained.
"They're still going on about Rogers?" Tony asked, disbelief in his voice as he stared at her.
"FAITH, when was The Craptain found?" Morgan asked.
"Steven Grant Rogers was discovered on board the wreckage of The Valkyrie along with eighteen HYDRA bombs and a hundred and seventeen HYDRA hand weapons powered by the Tesseract on the twenty third of April, two thousand twelve." The AI reported, much to Tony's amusement at the AI actually recognising what Morgan's reference to 'The Craptain' was. "He was secluded by SHIELD operatives until the third of May, two thousand twelve, when Prince Loki of Asgard invaded New York with the Chitauri under orders of Thanos. Steven Rogers, Anthony Stark, Bruce Banner, Thor Odinson, Clint Barton, and Natasha Romanoff defended New York in the ensuing battle, and the date was recorded as the first official victory of The Avengers Initiative."
"Yeah, right." Morgan snorted, shaking her head in disgust. "The invasion only happened because SHIELD was screwing around with the Space Stone trying to recreate Hydra's fancy weapons. Something that was nicely hidden from the history books." She explained with a frown.
"SHIELD did in fact censor all records of the Space Stone, then recorded as the Tesseract, from public records. Sole blame for the invasion of New York was placed on Loki Odinson in all historical records." FAITH explained.
"SHIELD fucked up and had a nice scapegoat to blame everything on, like always." Morgan rolled her eyes. "How many times did SHIELD or Craptain, or The Avengers blame things on my dad when he didn't have anything to do with them?"
"There's one hundred and sixty three references. Would you like them displayed in chronological order boss?" The AI chirped happily, causing Tony to grin at the little bounce in the AI's form as she looked across at Morgan.
"Rhetorical question FAITH," Morgan rolled her eyes. "But yeah, SHIELD and The Avengers were screwing you over for years. They conned you into being their personal piggy bank while treating you like shit." She explained.
"That's... a lot to unpack," Tony admitted, flicking his eyes between Morgan and the purple AI hologram. "Let's just start fresh. Why did you come back here? I'm guessing it wasn't just to come and hang out with a younger version of me right?" He asked. "In fact, I'd guess that from what you've said... I'm not exactly around in the future anymore." He stated with a frown. "So, come back in time to actually get to know me or something?"
"As cool as that would be, nope." Morgan shook her head, popping the 'p' in her last word. "In a few years, you find a girl in one of the HYDRA bases. She was a volunteer that was being experimented on, they used one of the Infinity Stones to give her weird powers."
"Again, a lot to unpack. But woman, wacky powers. Continue," Tony waved on, making a mental note to ask questions once he'd got his brain back on track.
"Rogers added her to the team, even though you and Dr Banner told them to screw off. She went even crazier after you died and the team broke up. Like super villain crazy. For the past few years she's been opening dimensional tears all over the place, breaking down the walls of reality to try and find some children she dreamt up she'd had in some magical acid trip years ago." Morgan explained with a frown. "How she thinks she actually got pregnant from boinking a robot is beyond me... but you know," She shrugged. "She nuttier than a pile of squirrel shit, so, whatever."
"Jeezus," Tony breathed out, seeing the horror and disgust visible on Morgan's face.
"It's bad, like the end of the world bad." Morgan explained. "The way things are going, reality will have reached total entropy around Earth by next year, the year after if we're stupidly lucky."
"No one's taken her out yet?" Tony asked in amazement.
"A few months ago," Morgan nodded, remembering what Clint had told her. "Long range sniper." She explained. "It's not helping. Nobody can seal the tears, and even without her making any more..."
"It's a cascading problem," Tony grimaced, seeing the truth on Morgan's eyes. "She destroyed the entire world?"
"Probably," Morgan nodded. "Nobody's got any idea if the tears are even localised to Earth. They might continue to spread out across the galaxy, further?" She explained. "She might have wiped out the entire universe."
"Coming back to now won't change that," Tony frowned. "Time travel doesn't work like that."
"I know," Morgan sighed. "This is a branch timeline, it split off as soon as I appeared back here." She nodded in agreement. "Even if I wanted to go back, I couldn't. One way trip." She said firmly. "Everything that happened in that future... end of the world... so I'm just going to make sure it doesn't happen again in this timeline."
"Owch," Tony grimaced. "So, pre-emptive strike against Apocalypse Girl then? If you know where she is..." He trailed off meaningfully. "Stop her now, then there's no problems in the future." He explained.
"Even easier, we don't have to do anything." Morgan grinned at him. "The Infinity Stone that gave her her powers, it doesn't come to Earth until twenty twelve. I'll intercept it, stop HYDRA from ever getting their hands on it. No stone, no Wacky Wanda, no apocalypse."
"Huh, nice and neat." Tony nodded approvingly. "And if the stone gets away?"
"I know the GPS of the HYDRA base you found her in originally. A few missiles will take care of it, and her." Morgan said firmly. "I've thought of the contingencies and run through dozens of probabilities mapped out from what the best changes for the timeline are." She explained when Tony glanced over at her curiously. "You think I didn't come back without planning everything out first?"
"Well... you definitely didn't get that from me," Tony smirked with a self-deprecating laugh. "That's... that's your mom."
"Yeah," Morgan grinned at him. "Come on, get that antique out of your chest so you're not dying, then we can start running through ancient history."
"I'm visibly horrified that you consider the foreseeable future to be ancient history, see, this is my horrified face." Tony huffed, grimacing at the thought. "Actually... How old are you? You said you were at ETH at fifteen?"
"I was twenty seven in December, a few days ago my time." Morgan mused aloud. "Do we count ages with a negative now?" She smirked over. "Minus eight?"
"Funny," Tony rolled his eyes over towards her. "Fine, twenty seven. That's... huh, that's not out of the realm of possibility." He frowned as he considered that. He was going to be forty this year, getting someone pregnant at thirteen or fourteen... honestly the media would probably believe that without question. It would be a complete shit show of course, but it would be a scandal the media would believe and wouldn't look too hard beyond it. "Birthday?" He asked aloud.
"Twenty ninth," Morgan rattled off automatically. "Twenty eighteen."
"Huh, same day as me, different month though... eight years to get my act together," Tony nodded. "Doable." He chuckled to himself. "Fine, drop your bag somewhere and give me a hand with this thing will you."
"Sit down," Morgan sighed, taking her rucksack off again and walking over to drop it down next to her dad's workbench. "FAITH, you've got the schematics of this fossil?" She asked aloud.
"Ready and able boss," FAITH smiled back at her, still holding the arc reactor in her hand.
"AI assisted surgery, that's a first." Tony admitted, slowly walking back over to his workbench and sitting down in the chair. "I fixed the connections to a copper hotplate, should be a one on one mating if that's my original design."
"It is," Morgan nodded reassuringly, watching as Tony gingerly pulled up his shirt to expose the arc reactor underneath. "FAITH, you're the one with the steady hands. Get to it."
"Aye aye boss," FAITH smiled, causing Tony to tilt his head as he stared at the AI projection curiously. "Disconnecting." She announced aloud as she raised her free hand and Tony simply stared down at the translucent purple hand that deftly disconnected his arc reactor, removing it with precision and speed that would have been impossible for a human before slotting the replacement in.
The entire switch took less than three seconds before FAITH was securing the replacement in place, causing the new arc reactor to light up with a signature azure glow and making Tony cough and rub his throat awkwardly.
"Tastes like coconut," Tony muttered, scraping his tongue with his teeth. "Wow, that's a jolt." He admitted, shaking his head and blinking to try and get used to the strange sensation. "JARVIS, are you getting this?"
"Indeed sir, congratulations on a successful upgrade." JARVIS responded. "Miss Faith's expertise exchanged the reactor with no problems. I am reading a rather significant power increase from the previous model."
"Yeah, I can tell. Tingles." Tony muttered, dropping his shirt and standing up from his chair. "Thanks FAITH, much easier than doing that myself." He said, pausing for a moment before reaching out and ruffling FAITH's hair, marvelling that it actually felt solid and that he could feel each strand under his fingers.
"Any time grand-boss," FAITH smiled at him as he ducked away with a horrified gasp.
"Wrong, just wrong." Tony shook his head, watching as FAITH deposited his old Arc reactor on the workbench. "Is that actual humour? Emotions? Creativity?" He demanded, looking between Morgan and FAITH. "Shit kid, you took it to a whole new level didn't you?" He asked in awe.
"Couldn't be outdone by my old man," Morgan grinned proudly, actually feeling a warmth in her chest at how her dad was looking at her first the first time she could remember. Her mom had always said that her dad would have been proud of her, but to see on his face meant far more than anything else in the world right now.
"I'll say," Tony huffed, feeling oddly proud by the achievement. "Is that your thing, computer sciences? Programming? Is AI programming a thing in the future?"
"Not really," Morgan shook her head. "Is that your vague way of asking what I studied?" She asked, continuing when Tony nodded. "Cybernetics and mechanics, doctorates in bio-mechanical engineering and cybernetics. AI tinkering is just something I do to relax, kinda makes me think like I got to know you a bit more, looking through your code and seeing all the matrices and recursive algorithms you used."
"Holy shit," Tony breathed out, staring at Morgan in awe.
"Mom always said I took after you a bit too much," Morgan smiled at him. "That doing OK?" She asked, nodding towards his Arc reactor.
"Yeah, it's great." Tony nodded automatically. "Cybernetics? What are we talking, implants? Limb replacements?" He asked.
"Yup, ninety percent of artificial limbs are Stark tech now, I think about sixty percent of them are my designs." Morgan explained proudly. "Hands, arms, legs. Eyes are a work in progress, it's still on about a twenty percent rejection rate. The ocular nerves are a pain in the ass to convert between digital and biological impulses."
"Shit," Tony whispered, staring again. "OK, we're going to be talking a lot, and I mean a LOT about what sort of tech you're talking about." He said firmly. "Saving the world first, then... then everything."
"Medical technology is SI's second biggest earner," Morgan explained. "Personal tech is still number one, but medical isn't that far behind." She said with a smile. "You fixed up Uncle Eightball's exo-skeleton before I was born, but..."
"Wait, wait wait wait... Rhodey... exo-skeleton?" Tony held up one hand as he interrupted her. "Rhodey was paralysed?" He demanded.
"Yeah," Morgan nodded with a pained expression. "I designed his replacement spine when I was seventeen, he never went for it back then, but... yeah it happened a few years before I was born."
"Shit," Tony whispered, not liking the sound of that at all. "Right, mark that down on things to change. High up on the list. Priority mark." He said firmly. "I'm guessing there's a lot more to the story? Probably a lot of not very nice things coming up?"
"Yeah," Morgan nodded with an apologetic smile. "You dying, that's a big one. Mom... mom got cancer. Chemo didn't take. She died a few years ago."
Tony staggered at that. Him dying was an obscure thing he could put off, he was already facing his mortality with the Arc reactor poisoning him, an extra fifteen years or so sounded like a miracle to him. Pepper though, Pepper dying wasn't something he could ever accept. Not now, not ever.
"When?" Tony demanded.
"She got dosed with something called Extremis in a few years, gene therapy stabilised it, but nobody could get it out of her system completely." Morgan explained. "It mutated over the years and..." She trailed off awkwardly.
"Shit," Tony breathed out again. "OK, forget the world. Pepper is top of the list. Priority. Red highlighter. Double exclamation marks." He ordered. "We're going to go over this whole thing, year by year, every single thing you know about what's coming."
"I'm hurt you think I didn't already plan for that," Morgan smirked at him. "I've got the full historical database saved onto my QSI's. The public history, then you and mom's stuff. Security footage from the suits, tower and compound. Briefing records, SI's servers. I backed up everything before even planning on coming back here."
"Oh you are definitely your mom's girl." Tony beamed with an ecstatic grin. "Show me, this year. Twenty ten. I want to know everything."
"FAITH, can you still connect to the databases?" Morgan asked, looking over to the purple AI.
"Yes boss, waking the systems up from hibernation now." FAITH reported with a smile. "Collating data for twenty ten. Display?"
"Give me a minute," Morgan nodded, unbuckling her rucksack again and pulling out the three Stark International quantum computers that she'd personally upgraded for this task, along with four more hard light projectors. "Load up the database, answer anything my dad asks. You still good for hypothetical projections?"
"Always boss," FAITH smiled over. "Operating at two percent load currently, mapping potential time line changes will be a piece of cake."
"Great, bring it up. Month by month," Morgan said as she arranged the QSI's onto Tony's workbench, making sure that the four hard light projectors were set in the right alignment to allow FAITH to make the most use of them and not run everything solely through her nanite reactor's projectors.
"Bringing it up boss," FAITH nodded, standing aside as the entire workshop lit up with month by month breakdowns listed on twelve different free floating holographic displays that were projected around the workshop.
"Now this is what I'm talking about," Tony grinned, glancing down and giving a curious glance to the onyx black blocks that Morgan had brought out of her bag. The chrome reflective 'Stark International' logo across them was the only visible marking he could see, that didn't tell him anything about what sort of technology they were, and his fingers were already itching to take them apart and get a look at some real gods honest future technology. "Alright, January... February..." He trailed off, walking around the workshop. "April... Stark Expo?" He smiled widely. "Hammer takes over? Ivan Vanko... what the hell... SHIELD?" He asked, staring at all the information being displayed.
"FAITH, break down April for me, new reports, SI internals, everything." Morgan said, watching as the screens automatically flickered away, changing to different stories on each screen, one for the Stark Expo, another for Vanko, another for SHIELD and more for things she hadn't even looked at yet.
Tony simply stared, spinning around so he could see every screen and judge it's importance. "JARVIS, start recording. We're going into planning mode. And it's a LOT." He said emphatically, wandering over to the Stark Expo screen to start with and gingerly reaching out, smiling when he found the free floating screen solid under his finger tips so he could scroll up and down and manipulate it as he needed to. "What are you thinking for first steps?" He asked, turning back to look at Morgan now.
"Move SI international, start on phones, tablets, computers, that sort of thing. Medical next. Work on building up to scale down processing to a one point fine nanometer node, that'll be the next step onto building quantum processors." Morgan rattled off. "Getting away away binary processing by twenty twelve will be a huge step, but it'll make hard light shielding for Stark Tower easier."
"Makes sense," Tony nodded. "Quantum processing? Public sales?"
"Enterprise level, enthusiasts, stuff like that." Morgan nodded. "It'll destroy the PC market in a single year. The first QSI chips should be around the thirty gigahertz range. Run a server farm under Stark Tower and we'll have more processing power than the rest of the world combined."
"I like the way you think," Tony gave a wide grin at that. "Right then, Expo... thrill me." He beamed, turning to face Morgan and gesturing for her to come over and look at the displays with him. "Thirty gigahertz, Moore's law my ass." He grinned. "Moore's law is our bitch more like."
"OK, I'm thinking getting you into surgery first, then..."