Title: Protect My Heart
Author: Erik-in-CT
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to Stephanie Meyer or Marvel Comics, and not myself.
When Bella had first seen the large complex that housed the Stark Industries headquarters in Los Angeles, she had been more awed than she would admit. It was certainly very intimidating to come into this place knowing that the most brilliant minds in the technological field were housed there, and it seemed kind of naive to expect any project a high school student could come up with would be able to compete with the wonders they worked there everyday. And so it wasn't with high hopes that she had begun setting up her computer and display materials in the area designated for her in the large auditorium. But after three days of various judges and spectators wandering through and inspecting the hundreds of projects on display, and countless renditions of her prepared explanation speech, Bella was feeling a little more sure of herself. After all, she had made it to the finals, with only nine other competitors.
But now her nerves were returning in full force. Today was the day that the man himself, Tony Stark, would be there to see the final presentations. Of course she knew about Tony Stark, everyone in the world had seen him all over the news as of late, especially since his infamous press conference when he told the world he was the superhero known as Iron Man. And so Bella waited with the other finalists and audiences, for him to arrive. She kept going over and over again her computer set up, making sure everything was perfect. If she didn't know he was incapable of emotions, she would swear that Twain was starting to get annoyed with her constantly going over connections and codings and such.
"Everything is properly set up Ms. Bella," the soft voice from the computer speakers assured her. In the final days before leaving for Los Angeles, she had finally gotten Twain's voice response coding finished, and he spoke in a soft voice with a hint of an accent that she couldn't quite place, the result of combining the sounds and inflections of several people into one voice. If she thought about it, and she tried not to, it actually kind of reminded her of Carlisle's gentle voice.
"I know Twain, I'm just a little...anxious. It needs to be perfect today." Bella was distracted from her setup by a sudden eruption of applause, and she turned her head towards the main entrance. While she couldn't see much of anything over the heads of everyone crowded about, she assumed from the response that Mr. Stark had just arrived. And as the procession slowly made it's way past the displays and towards the main stage, Bella was finally able to catch a glimpse of him. She was immediately struck by him, and couldn't say exactly why. She had seen pictures of him all over the place, but he was so much more handsome in real life. And the air of confidence he had about him, the swagger of his walk, the small smirk that seemed permanently set on his lips, seemed to only intensify the attraction he held. Her stomach did a flip when she suddenly realized that she was going to have to talk face to face with him, and explain her suddenly insignifcant seeming project. Not to mention the idea of having to explain any techno thing to him seemed utterly ridiculous.
She watched as Stark made his way to the center of the main stage, seeming perfectly at ease in front of such a large crowd. As he approached the microphone, the assemblage quieted. "Welcome everyone," he began after a moment, "to the final day of the Stark Industries High School Technology Fair. I would like to say thank you to all the students who participated this year, and to their friends and family who came to support them. It is always a great event for us here to encourage the growth and imagination of the engineers of tomorrow. The students who come here from all over the country to showcase their ideas are our future, and we at Stark Industries are honored to support them." The audience burst into applause as he stepped back from the podium, giving a slight nod of his head in acknowledgement.
Bella lost sight of him as he stepped off the stage amongst the group of fellow judges. Then the emcee stepped up and announced that the judging group would move down the line of finalists, allowing for a 20 minute presentation from each participant. The students had drawn numbers earlier in the morning to determine their order, and Bella was a bit relieved when she ended up as eighth out of the ten. It would give her more time to prepare herself and get her nerves under control. Turning back to her setup, she began going over everything again.
"Ms. Isabella Swan, a junior from Forks High School of Forks, Washington," the announcer said in introduction as the group of judges approached her display. Tony glanced over the young lady. She was quite pretty, though young, and seemed just a little bit nervous. So he put on his most charming smile and stepped forward.
"Isabella," Tony said as he extended his hand to her. "a pleasure to meet you."
The girl returned his handshake with a nervous smile. "Just Bella please. And it's an honor to meet you Mr. Stark."
"Well Bella, let's see what you have for us today." Tony watched as the girl moved to stand next to her table, which held what appeared to be a modified desktop computer attached to an open sided container about the size of a small television set. He gave her his full attention as she began explaining her system to them.
"What I have done here," Bella said, "is used a desktop computer that I modified and wrote new coding for to create an interactive, three dimensional hologram." As she spoke, the lights on the computer flashed on as it began working, and within a moment, a small spherical object appeared inside the open container, seeming to float in mid-air. Reaching her hand into the box, she moved her fingers around the ball, and it spun and turned with her movements. "While there is no actual physical contact, seeing as how the object itself is nothing more than a light projection, motion sensers on the sides and top of the system track the movement of my hands, and convert it into movements of the image."
Tony looked over the girl with a new perspective. If this high school girl could create a system similar to, though not quite as advanced as, his own holographic interface using a modified desktop...
Bella removed her hand from the image of the ball, and it faded out, replaced by a more complex image that appeared to be blueprints for a building. "As far as practical applications, there are many instances where such technology could be used. My example here is of building construction. Using this setup, an architect can create, alter, and view plans for a building easier than on paper, or even a two dimensional computer generated image. Again, she moved her hand into the holographic space, turning the image to show the full 3D view of the building it depicted, and showing how individual elements of the image could be moved or deleted with simple gestures.
"And did you build this set up yourself, Bella?" Tony asked the girl as she glanced up at her audience.
"Yes sir, with a little bit of technical help from Twain," she replied.
"Twain?"
"Yes sir, Twain is my computer." She gestured towards the system controlling the holographic display. "I built and created the coding for him. He is a voice and video interactive artificial intelligence system. But he's not part of the project I entered into the fair. He's..." she paused for a brief moment. "He's my friend."
Tony eyed the girl for a moment, wondering if she was serious. This was beyond anything he would have expected to see that afternoon. "Ah, I see," he said. "Well Ms. Swan, I would certainly be interested in discussing your friend with you another time then." He flashed a smile at her. "Have you anything further for your presentation?"
Bella responded to his smile with a shy grin of her own. "No sir, thank you for your time and consideration of my project."
"Thank you Bella, for a very interesting demonstration."
The announcer stepped forward, moving to guide the group of judges to the next display table. As they stepped away, Tony glanced over his shoulder at the young lady once again, catching her eyes and giving her a slight wink. Her cheeks turned instantly pink, and she quickly turned away, towards her computer. Definately interesting...
An hour and a half later, the auditorium was filled with eager faces as the judges returned from their deliberations. The crowd hushed and the final ten students held their breaths as Tony Stark approached the podium. "Congratulations to all of our participants today," he said as he eyed the group of teenagers sitting in the front row of seating. "All of your projects and ideas are noteworthy and impressive. However, there can be only one winner. And so I am please to announce this year's winner of the Stark Industries High School Tech Fair, and recipient of a scholarship to technical school and the chance to intern with us here at Stark Industries. Congratulations to our winner..."
The faithful meeting has occurred! Yay! Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please R&R!
I've recieved a few questions that I'll try to answer as best I can.
"How old is Tony?" - To the best of my guestimation using clues from the movies (BTW, this is set between IM1 and IM2), Tony is right about 40 years old.
"Will the Cullens make an appearance?" - That would be telling. lol Although I suppose that answer is telling in and of itself. Hmmm.