Upgrades

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"Aaaaaad… that should do it." Tony Stark finished, leaning back and wiping his forehead. "Jarvis, run some tests on the new core and suit, will you?"

"Commencing tests now, sir." Jarvis replied as Tony took a swig of cola. "All tests have been concluded."

"Wow, that was fast." Tony said, his eyebrows raised in surprise. "Ummmm, report?"

"The new computational core is ready for upload." Jarvis said and Tony could have sworn he had heard excitement in the virtual personality's voice. "All indications are that my processing speed will be increased by at least fifty six percent while my RAM will be quintupled."

"Okay, then you may as well move into your new home." Tony smirked. "Remind me to send a thank-you to Clark and Forge for whipping that tech up for me."

"Very good, sir. The move has been completed and I am running my optimisation algorithms now."

Tony glanced at the screen showing Jarvis' status and whistled as several of the bars suddenly lengthened.

"Very nice." He said approvingly. "Almost as nice as my new reactor."

"Indeed, sir, although it was quite entertaining watching Miss Potts explaining why she should not be kept out of decisions like that in the future."

Tony winced at the reminder of having to dodge a large number of thrown pieces of crockery while his team-mates laughed at him (the traitors). "In my defence, I'm not dying any more and I now have over four times the power for my armour."

Jarvis didn't comment at that, although Tony could almost hear the cutting remark.

"So," He said in an attempt to re-direct the conversation. "I think it's time to take the Mark 45 out for a little test-flight and try out the new neural link."

"Very good, sir."

Tony moved to stand in the center of the room and spread his arms.

"Iron Man, armour up!"

Several armatures extended out of small paneld in the floor and ceiling although instead of the normal multi-jointed arms of the previous iterations, these one were tipped with small glowing dishes made of crystal pentagons. The gravetic fields that they generated controlled the movement of the armour as it floated into place around him, then Tony found himself hovering in the air.

"What the…?"

"You did give Forge permission to make upgrades to increase efficiency, sir." Jarvis said as the armour slotted into place on Tony's body. "This is a localised null-gravity field."

"Wow." Tony said as the helmet faceplate slid into place and he was lowered to the ground. "I want one for my bedroom."

"Your request has been forwarded to K-Tech Industries." Jarvis said as the ceiling above Tony slid open. Gravetic cannon is ready."

"Wait, gravetic wha-aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahooooooo! Oh yeeeeeeaaaaah!"

.

Pepper turned as a portion of the balcony floor opened. A slight shimmering showed that a protective field had activated to stop anyone falling in, then a red-and-gold blur shot upwards, the hatch closing behind it.

"Did he like it?"

Tony zoomed down past the window and a moment later, the hatch re-opened.

"I'll take that as a yes." Pepper laughed as once again, Iron Man was catapulted through the hatch and into the sky. "Jarvis, give me a link to Tony please."

"Whahoooo! What a rush!" Tony's voice echoed and Pepper smiled.

"I thought you'd like that."

"It was you who had it put in?" Tony laughed. "Give yourself another raise, Pepper."

"At this rate, I'll soon be earning more than you." Pepper mock-protested.

"We both know you're worth it." Tony countered. "Oh, I so have to persuade Fury to put one in the Helicarrier."

"I had Supergirl test it out for me." Pepper noted as she returned to her desk and started shuffling data on the holoscreens. "Thor as well. It only works for fliers, those with parachutes or similar and supervillains."

"Wait, supervillains?"

"Can you imagine the look on Loki's face if he suddenly gets hurled out of the tower by that?"

Tony's laughter echoed across the commlink.

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Fury nodded as he looked around him.

"Nice."

"Means less things to risk bumping against if the helicarrier gets impacted." Clark said as Fury tapped on one of the projected holoscreens, nodding as he encountered what seemed to be a solid surface, then Fury moved the screen to the other side and back again before tapping on a corned of it, causing it to shrink and descend, turning from a full-sized hovering screen to a small image on the handrail. Fury minimised the other screens, then turned.

"I approve. Can you get similar upgrades for the other stations?"

"I can." Clark said and Fury pulled up a screen.

"This will also cut down on our maintenance costs… It'll increase the amount in the discretionary funds."

"I can have the new consoles built within a week, ready for installation." Clark said. "In fact, I can probably get the whole bridge outfitted, allowing for the screens to be transferred between the stations."

"Hey, Fury! I found a neat toy that you need for this ship of yours!" Tony called as he strode onto the bridge, raising his faceplate. "Oh! Hey, big blue."

Fury blinked and Clark shook his head. "I should never have allowed you to meet Peter."

"Hey, kid's a genius, like me." Tony grinned. "Shame I can't persuade him to join the Avengers."

"He's happy as a semi-independent operative." Clark shrugged. "What toy were you talking about? The gravetic cannon?"

"Hell, yeah!" Tony laughed. "Best way to launch, ever! And I have the first one!"

"The fifth." Clark corrected. "There's one at the Mansion, the Henshin Rangers have one, Disneyland has a large one…"

"Wait, what? Disneyland?"

Clark nodded. "It's a low-powered horizontal one used on their newst roller-coaster to accelerate the cars."

"…damn." Tony groused. "And there I was thinking that I was ahead of the game like usual. Disneyland?"

"And the fourth?" Fury asked.

"Baxter building. It's another large one, used to launch either the Fantasticar, Johnny or Karsta. Or Reed as he can be his own parachute. Apparently Johnny loves it."

"Yeah, it is a rush." Tony agreed. "You gotta get one."

"I'll consider it." Fury said slowly. "I have my eye on another flier who could be a useful addition to SHIELD."

"Oh? Who?" Tony asked curiously.

"No-one you know." Fury stated. "Clark agreed to talk to him for me."

.

The winged figure coasted on the updrafts over Manhatten, looking down at the skyscrapers. His reverie was shattered by an unexpected voice.

"Peaceful up here, isn't it."

"Wha… Superman?"

"Please, call me Clark." Superman said as he took position just off the figure's left wing. "I assume that you are Samual Wilson, former Pararescue lieutenant?"

Samual nodded slowly. "That's me. Why?"

"I've been asked to approach you on behalf of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division."

"SHIELD?" Samual asked. "I heard about them just before I mustered out. What do they want with me?"

Clark shrugged. "You have built your own flying suit, showing that you are technologically adept and resourceful. They want to recruit you."

Samual frowned, then cursed as a shower of sparks erupted from one wing. "Damn!"

"Looks like a short in the third turbine." Superman said as he moved to just below Samual. "Hold on and I'll get you down safely."

Samual reached out and got a good grip on Superman's shoulders. "So, who leads SHIELD?"

"Nick Fury."

"Fury?" Samual repeated. "Wow, so that's where he went! I served alongside him on one mission, he's a real patriot. I'm in."

Superman nodded, then frowned. "You know, I could help you to upgrade your suit. You want to be your best when you report to Director Fury."

"Oh?"

.

"This… is … awesome!" Samual crowed as the forcefield wings stretched and folded in response to his mental commands.

"The wings are special force-fields controlled via the neural interface band in your new goggles." Clark said as Samual posed in front of the mirror. "Although not indestructable, they have about the same resistance as three inches of titanium and if disrupted, reform within a tenth of a second. You should have some tactile feedback from them as well."

Samual nodded as he stretched his wings out, noting the feather-like pattern on them.

"Thrust is provided through the gravetic drive unit mounted between the wing generation arrays with secondary units mounted on your boots." Clard added. "Again, they are controlled through the neural link. Combined with the wings, they should give you an incredible amount of maneuverability."

"Feels amazing." Samual noted. "And this suit…"

"Standard Kryptonian combat bodysuit, highly resistant to small- and medium-arms fire as well as most low- to medium-level energy attacks." Clark said with a smile. "Fully climate-controlled, so you'll never have to worry about overheating."

Samual nodded and stroked the guns on his hips. "And these… multi-function energy pistols… wow."

"Suitable for stunning enemies, knocking them over or cutting through things if needed." Clark agreed. "Targeting is linked to your goggles, you should see the where the shots will hit."

Samual unholstered one of the guns and pointed it at the wall, moving it slightly. "Yep, damn cool. How much does this all cost?"

"SHIELD is meeting the costs." Clark shrugged as Forge moved to slightly adjust one of the wing arrays. "Here's a troubleshooting datapad in case anything goes wrong and feel free to call me if you need help."

Samual nodded, then grinned as he looked at the reflection of his belt buckle.

"A winged alliance logo."

"It seemed a good compromise between your new icon and the normal Institute Alliance logo." Clark shrugged.

"Looks a bit like a falcon with those wings." Samual agreed. "I think I'll keep it."

"So, let's get you used to that suit, and then we'll meet Fury."

.

Nick Fury stood on the deck of the Helicarrier as two small dots grew in the skies ahead of him. One of the dots soon resolved into the familiar form of Superman while the second was a winged individual.

The duo swooped in and Superman landed as easily as if he was stepping down. The other figure flared his wings and landed in a three-point crouch before the wings folded down in a way that shouldn't have been possible.

"Nick Fury, Samual Wilson, also known as Falcon." Clark smiled as Samual rose from his crouch. "Samual, Director Fury of SHIELD."

"Nice outfit." Fury noted. "Upgrade?"

"Upgrade." Samual nodded.

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Author's afternote:- This is a short chapter deigned to introduce another character for if I need him as well as to load a few new Chekov's Guns, such as the neural link in Tony Stark's mk45 Iron Man suit.

I'm still working on sorting out the planned plotlines for IS3, so it will probably be readable (and posted) early next year (with luck).