Later that day, Tony was working on armor with help from the robots. "Next," he ordered. "Up. Good, Dummy, you got it. Stay put," he ordered as he adjusted something with a small tool. "Nice," he said. "Stop. You're of no benefit at all. I'll handle it. Okay, I'm sorry, am I in your way?" he asked as he worked on the boot.
Just then, his phone rang. He checked the caller ID and answered, "Hey, Bee." "Hi, Tony," the girl chirped. "The docs are planning on releasing me tomorrow around noon." "I can send the jet out now, and it'll be there in time for you to hop on it. Hold on a sec, let me call my pilot."
"Jarvis, call the flight crew and tell them I need them to fly to Afghanistan ASAP to pick up a friend of mine. It's a young girl, and the password is 'backgammon,'" Tony ordered. "Right away, sir," the AI replied.
Tony switched back to Biela. "Okay, they'll head out right away. You'll have to use the password to enter the jet. The password is backgammon, 'cause we played it so many times." "I still won the tournament," Biela reminded. "Did not! Those last three rounds were unfair!" "The tournament only had five rounds," Biela said dryly. "And I won three of them."
"Well, a proper tournament should have at least nine rounds," Tony replied. "I challenge you for a rematch." "You're on," Biela said. "Oh, and how do you feel about playing Operation?" "Operation, like the game Operation?" Biela asked, sounding slightly confused. "Yes, that one. My PA had never heard of Operation, and it's just not right to play Operation without someone under the age of eighteen playing with you."
"If you say so, Tony," Biela laughed. "See you soon. I'll call before the plane takes off tomorrow." "Good. See you soon." Biela hung up the phone. Tony turned back to the boot…and Dummy. "Up," he ordered as he continued his work. "Screw it, Dummy. You, are a tragedy." He finally finished and opened the boot up.
Shortly thereafter, Tony was strapped into both boots. He was having one of the bots, You, film. "Okay," he said, "let's do this right." He backed p slowly. "Start mark half meter back from center." He took a deep breath. "Dummy, look alive, you're on standby for fire safety. You, roll it." He double-checked that the boots were on. "Mm-kay, activate hand controls. We're gonna start nice and easy, we're gonna see if ten percent thrust capacity achieves lift. And 3, 2,1." With that, the boosters activated, and he slammed into the wall. Dummy sprayed him with the fire extinguisher.
He made several quick calculations on his laptop. He knew he was running on coffee by now as he took another sip. He pulled up the 3D rendering of a repulsor glove and disassembled and rebuilt it. He reassembled it and put his hand in. It seemed to work.
Later, he folded the glove over his arm as he worked on it. Just then, Pepper came down the stairs and entered the lab. It must be late evening by now. He glanced at his watch. He still had a few hours. "Up two," he ordered one of the bots. "Step back." "I've been buzzing you, did you hear the intercom?" Pepper asked. "Yeah, everything's- what?" Tony said, finally realizing what she was saying. "Obadiah's upstairs, he's back in town," she said. "Great, great," Tony said absentmindedly as he lifted the glove from its stand.
"I thought you said you were done making weapons," Pepper said disapprovingly as he held his arm up. "It is," he said. "This is a flight stabilizer. It's completely harmless," he said, as the repulsor started up. Then it fired off. Tony fell backwards. Pepper turned around and covered her ears. "I didn't expect that," Tony said weakly as Pepper turned around angrily.