Gabie
III
"Mr Killian! How lucky is this?" Allie greets and bounces forward. She his him excitedly and he smiles brightly.
"Miss Hollden what are you doing here today?"
"I'm working as Pepper's assistant for the day," Allie replies. Happy steps forward and gingerly takes Allie's arm to pull her from the grasp of Killian. She frowns in confusion and Pepper crosses her arms.
I squint my eyes at Killian and delve into his mind.
"Extremis, an enhancement in an empty spot in the brain."
"Humans are destined to enhance."
"I have to get Tony Stark on this project."
"Pepper," he greets and grins. Pepper looks shocked by his appearance and gapes openly.
"Killian?"
"You look great. You look really great," he remarks.
"God, you look...you look great. I-I...I can't...What on earth have you been doing?" Pepper splutters.
"Nothing fancy, just five years in the hands of physical therapists. And please, call me Aldrich," he replies charmingly.
"Uh...you were supposed to be issued a security badge," Happy interjects and I puff out my chest.
"Where's the badge?" I ask.
"Gabie, Happy, it's okay," Pepper assures.
"Yeah guys it's fine," Allie reinforces. The two of us are having too much fun miming our bosses for the day.
"Yes?" Happy says.
"We're good," Pepper and Allie snap.
"You sure?" Happy questions.
"Really sure?" I choke in.
"Yes. Stand down," Peppe orders.
"Okay. We're gonna linger, right here," Happy relents and I cross my arms.
"We got our eyes on you," I threaten to Killian.
"Thank you," Pepper mutters.
"Just doing our job," I reply and go to the waiting area. Once there I throw myself onto a couch and Happy sits down in the chair next to it.
Pepper, Aldrich, and Allie walk into Pepper's glass office and close the door behind them.
III
Allie
III
"It's very nice to see you, Killian," Pepper repeats and he chuckles.
"It's been too long," he agrees.
"If you don't mind me asking how'd you get this meeting?" Pepper queries and I flush.
"The lovely Miss Hollden got it for me," he responds and winks at me.
"Please you can call me Allison," I allow.
"You only let your soulmates and me call you Allison," Gabie huffs.
"I'm working and Allison sounds more professional," I defend and glance her way.
Outside Happy is glaring at Mr Killian's assistant who's waving his security badge lazily. Gabie raising her eyebrows at me and smirking.
"How kind of her," Pepper says. "Let's not waste this meeting then, how about you start."
"After years dodging the President's ban on 'immoral biotech research,' my think tank now has a little something in the pipeline. It's an idea we like to call Extremis," he begins and back steps towards the light switch. "I'm gonna turn your lights down." He dims the lights and holds up three small metal balls in his hand. I watch him carefully, hunt ok to every word.
"You've never appreciated science this much." I ignore Gabie and turn my full attention to Killian.
"Regard the human brain." Jillian throws the balls onto the coffee table and as they roll to a stop, they project a three dimensional image into the room. The image is vast and in amazing color.
"Uh...wait. Hold on, hold on. That's...that's the universe, my bad. But if I do that," he presses his control and the image transforms into one of the brain, "That's the brain. Strangely mimetic though, wouldn't you say?"
"Wow, that's amazing!" Pepper gasps and leans forward in her seat.
"Thanks, it's mine," he replies and I gawk.
"What?"
"This...you're inside my head. It's a live feed," he explains and taps behind his ear, referring to something most likely embedded in his head.
"Is this what you see Gabie?"
"No I see images and hear thoughts when I read minds," she answers.
"Come on up, I'll prove it to you," Killian offers and stones up onto the coffee table.
"Come on." He offers Pepper his arm and helps her up onto the table next to him. "Allison you too." He offers me his hand and I jump up to take it and stand next to him and Pepper.
I gape in wonder at the brain image surrounding me.
"Now, pinch my arm. I can take it. Pinch me," Killian directs and Pepper pinches his arm lightly. Immediately a line in the brain lights up and flashes.
"What is that?" Pepper asks.
"It's the primary somatosensory cortex. It's the brain's pain center. But this is what I wanted to show you," he replies and presses buttons on the controller. The brain image seems to zoom in and reveal an empty spot in the brain.
"Now, Extremis harnesses our bioelectrical potential And it goes...here. This is essentially an empty slot, and what this tells us is that our mind, our entire DNA in fact, is destined to be upgraded."
"Wow," Pepper murmurs.
"I wonder if that's where our mutations are," I say to Gabie.
"I doubt it, Professor Xavier's research on mutants says that mutations affect the entire brain," Gabie informs. She studied every paper on mutations by Jean Grey and Charles Xavier.
Marveling at the brain I don't notice when I back step, before I fall Aldrich catches my arm and holds me up.
"Careful."
III
Gabie
III
"Almost perfect," Killian observes in his mind. I scoff and scowl at him, he needs to keep his paws off Allie.
A ringing turns my gaze from Killian to Happy. He pulls out his tablet and answers the call, holding the tablet so high the monitor only shows his forehead.
"Hello?"
"Is this forehead of Security?" Tony jokes through the call. Happy scoffs and lowers the camera.
"What's up goaty goatee?" I greet nonchalantly.
"Gabie hey, you with Happy today?"
"What? Yes she is. You know, look, I got a real job. What do you want? I'm working, I got something going on here," Happy grumbles and I sit up to see Tony through the screen. The scientist is in his lab dicking around.
"What? Harassing interns?" Tony retorts.
"Let me tell you something, you know what happened when I told people I was Iron Man's body guard? They would laugh in my face," Happy snaps in frustration. Tony cackles only making Happy frown. "I had to leave while I still had a shred of dignity. Now I got a real job, I'm watching Pepper."
"What's going on? Fill me in."
"For real?"
"Yeah and tell me if Allie's alright."
"She's fine no thanks to your weird secretary fantasy," I answer sarcastically.
"It may have been my idea but she wanted to do it!" Tony exclaims. "Now back to you Happy."
"Alright, so she and Pepper are meeting up with this scientist. Rich guy, handsome," Happy starts and Tony frowns.
"Allie and I met him at the gala. She got him this meeting actually," I chime in.
"Right," Tony utters.
"I couldn't make his face at first, right? You know I'm good with faces."
"Oh, Yeah, yeah. You're the best."
"Yeah. Well, so I run his credentials, I make him Aldrich Killian. We actually met the guy back in... where were we in '99? The science conference?"
"Um...Switzerland."
"Right, right, exactly."
"Killian? No, I don't remember that guy."
"Of course you don't. He's not a blond with a big rack."
"Hah! Imma tell Allie that one," I interrupt but then stay quiet so they can talk.
"Jokes on you she's a blonde with a big rack!" Tony counters and then swears under his breath upon hearing his own words.
"Anyway at first it was fine, they were talking business, but now it's like getting weird. He's showing them his big brain," Happy continues.
"His what?"
"Big brain, and they both like it. Here, let me show you. Hold on. See?" Happy holds up the tablet but doesn't flip the camera so Tony only sees me flipping him off behind Happy's head.
Behind the tablet Aldrich is holding Allie close to him on the coffee table with his arm around her waist. Allie's too nice and naive to make him stop. Pepper is standing in awe of the image so she doesn't notice.
"Look at what? You watching them? Oh and Gabie's lovely gesture. Flip the screen and then we can get started."
"I'm not a tech genius like you. Just...just trust me, get down here," Happy hisses intently.
"Flip the screen, then I can see what they're doing."
"I can't! I don't know how to flip the screen! Don't talk to me like that anymore. You're not my boss," Happy argues. "Alright, I don't work for you. Now I don't trust this guy. He's got another guy with him, he's shifty." I side eye the guy and look him up and down. He does seem shifty. He has this conniving smirk on his face and the lack of hair makes his whole appearance unsettling.
"Dumb security guard. He is so out of his depth."
His commentary remains honest though.
"Relax."
"Seriously?"
"I'm just asking you to secure the perimeter. Tell him to go out for a drink or something?"
"You know what? You should take more of an interest in what's going on here. This woman... this woman's the best thing that ever happened to you, and you...you're just ignoring her," Happy grumbles.
"She is and always will be ironaholic!" I sing song.
"A giant brain?" Tony redirects casually. I raise an eyebrow and frown lightly.
"Yeah, there's a giant brain, there's a shifty character. I'm gonna follow this guy. I'm gonna run his plates and if it gets rough, so be it." I resist laughing, Happy is a good man but I doubt his fighting skills.
"I miss you, Happy."
"Yeah, I miss you too. But the way it used to be. Now you're off with the 'superfriends', I don't know what's going on with you anymore. The world's getting weird..."
"Hey, I...I'd hate to cut you off. Do you have your taser on you?"
"Why?"
"I think there's a gal in HR who's trying to steal some printer ink, you should probably go over there and zap her," Tony taunts and places the tablet inside of something, most likely a fridge, then promptly shuts the door.
"Yeah, nice," Happy mutters in annoyance.
"Jerk."
III
Allie
III
After showing us his research and his mind Killian shuts off the projector and we all take a seat.
"Imagine if you could hack into the hard drive of any living organism and recode its DNA."
"It would be incredible."
"Hella useful," I whisper to myself. It would be really great but also really awful.
"Unfortunately, to my ears it also sounds highly weaponizable. As in enhanced soldiers, private armies, and Tony is not-"
"Tony. Tony. You know, I invited Tony to join AIM thirteen years ago, he turned me down. But something tells me now there is a new genius on the throne who doesn't have to answer to Tony anymore, and who has slightly less of an ego," Killian says in a suggestive tone. I'm taken back by the slightly rude words.
"It's gonna be a no, Aldrich. As much as I'd like to help you." Killian frowns and shakes his head but says nothing rude.
"Then I'd like to apologize Allison for not making the most of this meeting," Aldrich apologizes sincerely to me.
"Nonsense Mr Killian you definitely made the most of this meeting! Stark Industries just unfortunately can't work with you," I assure. "I'm sorry nothing can come of this."
"I am too."