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.
Stark Research and Development Compound
Albany
New York State
United States of America
April 7th, 2010
In upstate New York, time was very much against the pair of Starks as the days marched on.
Both had headed directly to the new R 'n' D compound as soon as the hardware had been moved in and all the basics of upgrading the new complex had been taken care of by the 'techies' or 'grunts' as Tony called them.
Everything was going nicely, and he'd dove straight in to putting together the new up-scaled Arc reactor for the facility with Morgan's help, fixing up a reactor that was nearly the size of the one powering the Los Angeles branch of SI, only with all of Morgan's new tricks and tech that she'd put together on the Arc reactor powering the mansion, and using a Starkanium core that was bigger than a basketball to drive the entire thing.
It was a work of beauty alright, and the power output put nuclear power plants to shame. Looking at the readouts of this reactor, he could easily see what Morgan meant by Arc power scaling perfectly alone an exponential growth curve, and a farm of six, or even twelve or more, reactors like this working to generate power twenty four seven would be able to power the entire country alright, freeing any country from gas and oil, and even nuclear power.
For powering the R 'n' D compound it was overkill to the Nth degree, at least for now, but it did give them a ridiculous amount of power for later use, and would very likely be perfect for Foster's experiments and when they got the prismatic accelerator ring up and running.
There were workshop areas set up for him and Morgan, with every type of electronic or engineering tool imaginable, with high speed computers set up along the entire complex and all networked in to the main server farm that was secured away underneath the living area of the compound where one of Morgan's fancy consumer standard QSI's had been hardwired in and was running the entire show.
For now though, the compound was coming along ahead of schedule and looked amazing. Set in a hundred acres of woodland and on the banks of the Hudson river coming down from Albany, it had an up to date dock now for ships coming up and down the river, which had been very useful for moving equipment and heavy materials up from New York, a separate structure set up for landing the new Stark jet, parking areas with paths and various relaxing areas outside on the grass and around the encroaching woodland for people, and the shining new Stark International logo was proudly emblazoned around the entire complex, shining with chrome against an onyx black glossy background.
The main laboratory complex was still under renovation, about a third of it was up to spec now, with equipment and hardware set up and ready to use, even so that third of the main complex that had been the original Stark Warehouse was more than enough for two dozen scientists or more, with plenty of room for whatever experiments people needed to conduct along with facilities for experimental testing, and more dangerous experiments that were shielded and secured away from the main laboratory areas.
The rest of the complex was slowly coming together, but until he'd headhunted more scientists from Morgan's list, or come across people on his own that he thought would be a good fit for the R 'n' D compound, it was just going to be a playground for him, Morgan, Foster and Streaky, and probably Banner when he poked his head up again and he could finally track him down and make the offer.
By comparison, the living areas were completely finished. They were on the smaller irregular shaped part of the compound that was set away from the laboratory complex and connected by a gangway corridor that separated the two parts of the compound, fitted out with security systems and sensors to make sure that anything dangerous or potentially dangerous was kept in the lab complex and wasn't brought through to the living areas.
That had been Morgan's little setup, and she'd argued that it would keep her mom happy and make her more willing to visit and spend time here if she knew that the lab areas and experiments were being kept securely distant from the living areas and everything in the communal complex.
The one thing he had been endlessly amused with was the room Morgan had commandeered at the end of the laboratory complex where she'd outfitted the entire place to set up and rebuild the variable gravity field generator systems and get an entire system ready to be put together at the Expo to show off.
He found it utterly hilarious to walk past the room most days and see the yellow and black 'warning' line that had been painted a good fifteen feet around the room, he regularly ended up stopping by randomly through the day when he was bored, or whenever he wanted some amusement or a distraction, just to either poke his head inside or randomly throw anything that came to hand across the barrier to see what sort of gravity was on the other side today.
Idly throwing pens and watching them move from normal gravity through to a gradual field of zero-G was endlessly entertaining. He could think up more than a few engineering applications for the field already, and was certain that Foster, Streaky and Banner would be able to think up a few dozen more.
It was going to be amazing to see the finished product at Expo, and he couldn't wait to see the reactions from disbelievers and sceptics as they tested out the room for themselves, walking through and finding themselves in zero gravity would be highly amusing to watch, and he outright knew that NASA, the Air Force, and probably more than a few private research companies would be lining up to pay ridiculous amounts of money to buy the setup for their own laboratories or other setups.
It might not make them stupid amounts of money, but it would bring in a decent revenue, and it would put the Stark name firmly in the scientific history books for the third or fourth time, securing him and Morgan's names forever, and setting up their legacy for generations.
Things were going... mostly alright back at SI. It was a headache dealing with The Board on most days, thankfully with their majority stock now they'd neutered most of The Board, but there were still a few members trying to puff up their own importance and demand answers and constant progress reports from any project that caught their attention.
Telling them about Morgan last week had been a nightmare in itself, but he'd fubbed through a reasonable enough explanation, enforcing the discussion with binding non-disclosure agreements and the threat of his personal lawyers getting involved if any news about Morgan did leak out.
FAITH had been a big help, creating a fake birth certificate and history for Morgan that he'd been able to share with The Board, along with her education and 'proof' of her genius. The Board were still trying to demand to meet her personally and asking when she would be attending events as the official heir to the Stark fortune, but he'd held them off for now, but he knew that after Expo they were going to get even more insistent about actually seeing the woman responsible for the future legacy of the company.
As it was, he'd derailed that conversation pretty quickly by talking about his upcoming hospitalisation. That had scared more than a few of The Board members, until he'd reassured them that Morgan would be stepping up to lead the R 'n' D side of SI in the interim, while Pepper would be taking on more and more of his workload, even more than she already did, taking on the acting CEO position, and dealing entirely with the logistics, management and organisation of the company, while assisting Morgan with anything she needed.
There'd been more than a few grumbles about that, mostly about promoting a PA to the acting CEO position, but he'd managed to shoot down every single argument by referencing and going over all the work Pepper actually did for the company, everything she'd actually done while working directly under him for the past five years, and pointing out that she was one of the very few people he actually trusted with the company after everything that had happened with Stane.
A minority of the arguments against Pepper taking the role were actually sexist bullshit about a woman being moved to acting CEO of a technology company, those comments he didn't even deign to address, other than sending the two old men withering glares that shut them up very quickly.
The threat was clear, even without him needing to verbalise it. Both Pepper and Morgan had his personal backing, and that was the end of it. If anyone didn't like it, he would buy out there shares right here and now, and they could leave.
Not surprisingly, nobody took him up on it. They might be the biggest pains in the ass he'd ever known, but they weren't stupid. Money silenced practically all objections and complaints, and the amount of money SI would be making after Expo with the new reveals and product launches stood to make their weapons manufacturing days look like a child's lemonade stand.
Honestly, he wasn't really worried about any of it. The six months he'd be recuperating from his operation wasn't a long period really, and between Pepper and Morgan, and FAITH, FRIDAY and JARVIS, they'd be able to run SI without any hitches.
Morgan had been running the future company for years already, and the Stark International she was used to running was four or five times as large as the company was now. Between her and Pepper, there wouldn't be anything they couldn't handle, and that thought made him exceedingly proud of both the women in his life.
Generally The Board were mostly appeased by all the projects he had distracted them with. The projected revenue from the new silicone fabrication plant was already in the billions, which kept them happy. Hell, he already had contracts from Intel, Sony, AMD and a few other companies, with Samsung and Apple chomping at the bit to try and get meetings and contracts with them as well.
The Board knew those figures already and they had already been included in the projected quarterly earnings reports. Nobody complained about a project when the first contracts that were signed came with a figure that had an eye watering ten zeros after it.
Tossing in the projected earnings from smart phones, tablets, computer technology and then talking about a possible deal with The Ford Motor Company that he'd been banding around in his head, had them all eating out of the palm of his hand when they realised just how much money he was really talking about.
Nobody was thinking about Morgan and Pepper anymore, and he could practically see the dollar signs etched in their eyes as it really sunk in how profitable the shift to Stark International was going to be for them all.
There were still one or two grumblings when he'd launched into his plans for the new Stark Plaza in Spain, especially when he'd mentioned the initial outlay, but those complaints were quickly silenced when he threw in a few tidbits about how restructuring Stark Aviation and starting production of repulsor powered jets would be one of the main projects to come out of the Spanish branch.
Like him, every single one of them knew exactly how lucrative the private aviation sector was, SI had been making jets for the USAF for years now, but they'd never moved into the public space before. With all the new technology and advances he had under his belt, and if he pushed the repulsor technology further and broke into commercial space, without fuel costs and being able to make larger and faster planes that didn't have to account for the weight and space needed for fuel, then billions was an extremely conservative estimate for the amount of money that SI would be making from passenger flights alone.
He knew outright that American Airlines alone brought in well over forty five billion annually, and repulsor jets would be far faster, more environmental, and infinitely cheaper to run than fuel based planes were.
"Boss?"
Tony looked up from the three holographic monitors as he heard FRIDAY's voice, LARA was still very much in the infant stages of AI development, though with FAITH, FRIDAY and JARVIS teaching her and putting their own knowledge and algorithms into LARA's neural net, she was coming along faster than he could ever have expected. Leaving him to slowly go through Morgan's quantum programming and learn the entirely new programming language based on quantum architecture from the future, while watching LARA's neural network develop in real time.
"What is it baby girl?" Tony asked idly, cracking his neck comfortably as he leaned back from the screens he'd been diligently working on for the past god knows how many hours.
"Three vehicles have just approached the security checkpoint, the occupants are being issued their passes now." FRIDAY reported.
"Foster, Streaky and Shortstack?" Tony double checked, knowing those were the only three people aside from him, Morgan, Pepper and the SI board that even knew about the R 'n' D compound right now.
"That's them boss," FRIDAY's voice came back with an amused lilt in her accent. "Security has issued them their passes and directed them towards the living areas. They are returning to their vehicles now."
"Our first think tank candidates," Tony grinned as he stood up from their chair, rolling his shoulders and stretching a bit to get comfortable. "Where's Morgan?" He asked curiously.
"Little Boss is continuing her variable gravity generator work Boss, shall I inform her of the new residents?" FRIDAY asked.
"Nah, I'll do it," Tony smirked as he headed out of his workshop area, casually sticking his hands in his jeans pockets as he walked through the corridors of the laboratory complex towards the end of the building where the gangway that led through to the communal living areas connected the two buildings.
He was going to have to show the two geniuses and their intern around the place anyway, and showing them Morgan's gravity room while she was working on it had the possibility to be highly entertaining in it's own right, and would serve as a good primer to see how the new three could cope with the crazy science that was hopefully going to be thrown around here on a regular basis.
Heading through the gangway he completely ignored the sensor sweeps and various cameras that tracked his movements, Morgan apparently took security very seriously and getting any dangerous equipment or experiments out of the lab complex through to the living areas was practically impossible with FRIDAY, or soon LARA, running the system.
The living areas of the compound still made him smile as he walked through and around the communal areas, his eyes gliding over the high tech and modern facilities where lounge and relaxing areas were set up, along with a few communal kitchens and private rooms that could be customised and set up for dozens of residents.
It'd be a bit quiet with just the three new people here, but him and Morgan would be in and out of the place regularly until Expo kicked off, and then he knew Morgan would probably be spending more time between here and LA while he was in London recovering from surgery, but afterwards he was damn sure he was going to be back here and start filling the place up properly with all sorts of geniuses that he could convince to come and work for him.
Off to the side of the living complex by the road that swung around the river and came up between the living areas before winding around to the main laboratory building was the Stark Jet, secured and taking pride of place, practically glistening in the afternoon sun and drawing attention with it's swooped wings, futuristic repulsor engines, and the loading ramp that was still down from the rear undercarriage and leading down onto the main asphalt lot.
Beside the jet was his updated Mustang, complete with all the bells and whistles that they could fit in to the damn thing. It was somewhat amusing that currently that single car had more memory and processing power than ninety percent of 'high tech' businesses out there.
With a real time link to the Stark International Satellite, a composite frame that was nearly as tough as his old gold titanium plate armour, and FRIDAY, or any of their other AI's really, that could take control at a moment's notice and access the cameras, sensors and other equipment, it was just perfection given form.
The car might look like an old sixty seven Ford Mustang fastback, but underneath the hood was an Arc reactor and enough processing power to make most businesses cry with envy, an electric motor that put high performance cars to shame with the amount of torque it put out, and sensor kits from the twenty thirties that made his future nanotech suit feel outdated and yesterdays news.
It did feel a little weird driving it, there was no hum of the engine, no vibrations or gasoline smell, it didn't feel like 'real driving' and was as silent as a ghost even at the impressive top speeds that Morgan had managed to coax from the electric engine.
The new matte silver paint job with chrome striping was perfect though, and the personalised 'Stark TM1' number plate was the finishing touch that gave the old classic a personal feel that Tony just loved, and signified the first car that he'd worked on with Morgan together.
Working on it he'd had a chance to actually examine the scaled up battery tech that Morgan had been talking about. He knew her battery tech was damned impressive from what had already been put into production in the new Stark phones and tablets, but scaling it up to cars was truly phenomenal, combined with efficient electric engines and proper power management, the batteries had enough juice for about twelve to thirteen hundred miles on a single charge.
That varied depending on the weight and speed of the car obviously, but it was damned impressive to his eyes, and with specifications like that he could see electric cars actually taking off and replacing standard commuting and short range cars very easily.
He couldn't see combustion engines going away any time soon though, there was just something about a proper engine, the rumble and thunder of it as he revved the motor and drove at breakneck speeds that just wasn't present in electric cars, even the Mustang that had enough torque to make a super car jealous.
The week rebuilding and customising the car with Morgan had been some of the best days of his life so far, and while it wasn't as fancy as working on satellites, nanotech or future tech, just doing something simple and fun with his daughter like building up a car and kitting it out with all their fancy tech had really felt like the bonding time between father and daughter that he'd wished he'd had with his dad growing up.
The loud rumble of engines drew his eyes away from the Mustang and put his attention back onto the people he'd actually been drawn out of his lab to meet, his eyes catching sight of the pickup truck, and an old Toyota Camry coming up the road towards the living complex, both of them followed by a rather large and beaten up old grey camper van that really looked like it had seen better days and had probably spent far too many months in the desert than was good for the old vehicle.
Moving over to his Mustang and idly leaning up against the hood of it with a smirk on his face, he watched the little motorcade slowly drive into the parking lot, somewhat amused when he noticed it was actually Dr Streaky behind the wheel of the Toyota and leading the way, while little Dr Foster was driving the pickup truck with the back of the truck impressively loaded up far higher than looked safe.
Those two slowly pulled into random parking spaces, with only his Mustang in the lot right now there was plenty of room for manoeuvring, and he watched as the old camper van executed a pretty good five point turn before sliding in to a parking space a few spaces down from the rest of the cars, likely chosen specifically so they would have manoeuvring room for the old heap of rust.
His smirk did quirk up when he realised that if Streaky was in the Toyota and Foster was in the pickup, then it was Shortstack that was driving the rust heap.
"Doctor Stark,"
Tony grinned over with a casual wave as Jane Foster awkwardly climbed out of the pickup truck, hopping down the last step from the truck that was clearly designed with someone a bit taller than her slight frame in mind.
"Hey guys, welcome to candy land." Tony said with a smirk, holding his arms out wide to gesture around to the complex around them.
"It's beautiful here!" Jane breathed out, looking at the modern and rather modern compound that was nestled in a stunning and idyllic looking woodland area with a wide river running down the side that she could hear even from here.
"Erik," Tony nodded as Doctor Streaky got out of his car and came over with Jane while Shortstack was still arguing with something in her camper van and trying to get the door open.
"Doctor Stark, I didn't actually expect you to be here to see us arrive." Doctor Selvig said with a smile as he came over.
"Tony, please." Tony waved off the comment casually. "That goes for all of you. I was here anyway setting up a new server system and getting all the networking finished up. Since you guys are the first ones here, was going to be either me or Morgan that came out, and she's still stuck in her workshop fiddling with some new toys."
Jane did laugh at that, knowing that feeling all too well. From the look of the facility so far, she would be delving into her own work head first very quickly, and knew from experience that it would take Darcy, or a divine miracle, to pull her out of it.
"You mentioned Doctor Banner, and another name..." Erik asked, looking towards Tony now. "Will they be arriving soon then?"
"No idea," Tony shrugged, leaning back against his Mustang as he thought about the question.
Banner was the big question mark really, he had gone to ground as soon as he'd arrived in the states, and even their AI's were having trouble tracking him down for him to actually approach the man and talk about his offer.
"They'll be here at some point, probably after summer, depends how things go." Tony shrugged the thought off. Banner would either come, or he didn't, he wasn't going to affect their plans much in the long term either way, so it really wasn't worth worrying about.
As he spoke he heard the door to the camper van actually being forcefully kicked open, the thin metal door swinging back and clanging loudly against the frame of the camper van itself, causing him to wince slightly at the loud noise that interrupted the peace and quiet of the compound.
"Darcy!" Jane winced, spinning around at the sound and glaring at her friend as Darcy practically fell out of the camper van, jumping out with a yell of 'freedom!' as she hit the ground.
"Shortstack's finally free apparently, so what do you say we get you guys settled in, then I can show you around the place." Tony said with a grin, utterly amused as the Shortstack came over, dressed in a mismatch of faded and tatty jeans, a Culver university sweatshirt, a red bobble hat and a long and thick wool scarf that was wrapped around her neck and trailing on the ground as she ran over towards them.
"What?" Darcy glared at Jane as she ran over, doing an awkward little dance as she came to stand beside Jane. "I've been stuck driving that monster for the last four days, and that Big Gulp I got in Buffalo for breakfast is really wanting out right now!"
Tony snorted at that, shaking his head in amusement at Shortstack's rather unique verbal discharge.
"Oh god, nope, can you just forget I said anything?" Darcy groaned when she actually deemed to recognise that it was actually Tony Stark standing there and talking with Jane and Erik.
"How about no?" Tony grinned at her, causing her to groan and sink her head into her hands. "Come on, living area's through to the main building. Labs are separate, but I figure we'd probably best get you in there first before Shortstack here makes a break for the bushes." He smirked, gesturing to the living area of the compound behind the main parking lot.
"Are we OK leaving things here? I mean, my equipment and everything..." Jane trailed off, gesturing back to her pickup truck.
"And more importantly our clothes and food!" Darcy piped up, hitching her thumb over her shoulder towards the camper van. "Also, sweet ride, I'd make more comments and be dying to look inside if I didn't feel like my bladder was about to make like a water balloon right now."
"Parking's fine, security's top notch, and you guys are the only people here." Tony nodded absently as he pushed himself off the hood of the Mustang and clapped his hands together. "Right, living areas, and restrooms." He said, getting an eager nod from the Shortstack in response. "Security will probably get to know you guys pretty quickly right now, but badges all have transponders and chips to open secure doors and let you in to your private rooms." He explained as he started walking, sparing a glance back to see Erik carrying his pile of papers that they'd been issued from the security team, while Foster and Shortstack seemed to both have theirs rolled up and stuck in their jacket pockets.
"Right, so keep the little cards on us?" Darcy asked.
"Unless you want to get locked out," Tony nodded as he led the way up the paved path towards the living complex. "Security's running basic right now, but the entire complex is hooked up with sensors to track who's where, so if you need to know where anyone is, just ask."
"Ask you?" Jane asked curiously. Pondering if that meant that Doctor Stark would actually be in the complex on a daily basis now.
"Actually I meant the compound AI, she'll be tracking everything." Tony explained casually, waving forwards as the doors to the living complex opened up automatically for him as he approached.
"A real AI?" Darcy breathed out in awe. "Seriously dude?" She asked with wide eyes.
"FRIDAY's running the show right now, but LARA's in development and will take the reigns once she's up and running." Tony explained as he led the way through the main doors and into the ground floor of the living areas. "Six floors, since you guys are first, your rooms got pinned up on the top floor." He explained, heading towards one of the elevators that opened up as they approached.
"Dude, is everything automatic here?" Darcy asked in surprise.
"It's all run by FRIDAY," Tony explained as he stepped inside the spacious elevator, moving to one side so the other three could get in with him. "Top floor FRIDAY, say hello baby girl."
"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance Doctor's Foster, Selvig, and Miss Lewis." FRIDAY's Irish brogue came through the elevator speakers as it started moving upwards.
"Holy crap," Darcy whispered to herself, automatically looking to the ceiling of the elevator and trying to understand where the voice had come from.
"I didn't think true AI's were a functional possibility quite yet," Erik admitted, more than a bit surprised himself at how natural and lifelike the AI's voice had been.
"Oh if FRIDAY blew your mind, you're going to love the rest." Tony grinned happily, definitely looking forwards to seeing how these three reacted to the rest of the complex and the lab areas that had been set up.
A few moment's later the doors opened, letting Jane and Darcy out first before Erik stepped to the side to allow Tony to step out and continue leading them on.
"Right, basics first, the top floor is set up into thirds. Main corridor here and at the back so people can move about and do whatever they do." Tony explained, gesturing to the wide glass windows that gave a rather stunning view out onto the lower part of the living complex and then out to the docklands and across the river. "You guys alright being bundled together in one of the setups?" He asked.
"Separate bedrooms right?" Darcy asked before Jane or Erik could speak up.
"Yeah," Tony snorted in amusement. "Each of the three areas is just set up to keep things separate. Six bedrooms in each, lounge, chill out area, kitchen, stuff like that." He rattled off as he led the way down the corridor to the end section of the complex. "Like a little community space in an apartment block, keep it as private or public as you want." He explained with a shrug as he pointed to the metal double doors that led into the areas that had been set up for the three new arrivals.
"Sweet," Darcy grinned appreciatively.
"This is much bigger than I thought you meant," Jane admitted with wide eyes, staring around the corridor. "I thought... I mean, when you mentioned living areas, I just assumed..."
"Something small and packing everyone in like sardines, something like dorm rooms and grad students?" Tony shook his head knowingly. "Not my style." He said with a grin as he approached the double doors, watching them swing inwards automatically and show off the entrance area that led through to the lounge and relaxing areas. "Bedrooms are through there, take your pick." He said with a casual wave towards the various doors leading away from the main communal areas. "Three extra won't be used for anything, so if you need the extra room let FRIDAY or LARA know and they can organise something to pull out everything and set something else up."
"This is exceedingly generous of you Doctor Stark." Erik smiled, a bit blown away by the rather tasteful and obviously expensive furnishings that he could see just around the living area where they were stood.
"Bathrooms by the bedrooms?" Darcy asked eagerly.
Tony only got half way through a confirming nod before the Shortstack broke into a run, dashing seemingly to a door at random and shouting "Dibs!" as she barged through it on her search for the nearest en-suite toilet.
"I'd say Darcy's not always like that, but..." Jane trailed off with a small grimace and an apologetic smile.
"She's fun." Tony grinned back, shaking his head in amusement. "Anyway, kitchen's through there, balcony thing, big table for eating or covering with paperwork or whatever." He rattled off, waving casually towards the various areas of the communal area as he explained what they were for. "Decorate, do whatever you want. Experiments and tech stays in the labs though, apparently having weapons and high energy canons laying around relaxing areas makes people twitchy." He explained with a roll of his eyes.
"I can see that." Jane nodded with wide eyes, not having put together that Doctor Stark would be doing some of his work here too, so it was entirely likely that she was going to see the rather famous Iron Man suit at some point, or even see him working on it in the lab and workshop areas.
"Corridor through to the workshop and labs is on the other side of the living building, security sensors check people through, make sure nobody gets in to the labs without FRIDAY's say so." Tony explained. "She'll be watching the security, so don't try and sneak any experiments back here. Might be cool with just you three here, but when other people start moving in, I want to keep this place as separated as possible so people have a chill out space to get away from work and experiments and everything."
"A sensible separation of work and life," Erik nodded in agreement with the concept, it certainly made sense to keep things separate, and would likely work to actually ensure Jane rested and ate properly each day if she had to come out of her labs to return to the living area to find her bed.
"Dude, the bedrooms here are bigger than my old apartment!" Darcy gleefully shouted from the bedroom she'd commandeered before she came back into the living room area. "That bed is huge, dude!" She grinned happily towards Tony as she came back to stand next to Jane.
Tony simply snorted, amused by the shortstack's enthusiasm about everything. "Settle in here whenever you want, bring stuff up, move in properly, chill out, it's your space now." He said, waving towards the open doorway again. "Next up, labs." He said with an eager bounce in his step as he led the way back out of the living area.
"You've already set up lab areas for us?" Jane asked in surprise, fully expecting to come in to a blank area for her to set up all her custom equipment.
"Yeah, obviously." Tony shrugged as he led the way back into the main corridor that spanned the length of the living complex. "Knew you guys were coming first, so I got all the toys moved in and set up." He explained. "Computers, fabricators, atmospheric scanners, seismics, air pressure... everything I could think of to get you guys set up."
"Wow," Jane breathed out with wide eyes, already running a mental list of what sort of experiments she could actually conduct with proper Stark tech backing up her research.
"Damn... half of our equipment is held together by duct tape and a prayer right now," Darcy admitted as she thought about all the custom equipment loaded up in the back of her camper van.
"Use whatever you want, upgrade your old stuff or whatever. The accelerator ring isn't going to be up and running for a few months yet, probably by the end of summer though, but power generation is kicking out enough watts to light up the entire state, so when you get ready to start testing theories, give me a shout. If you need anything more, or want to ask for something special, ask FRIDAY to send the request through to me, if she can't deal with it, I'll get on it when I can." Tony said casually as he rounded a corridor and pointed ahead to a wide set of secure doors that separated the living area from the umbilical corridor that spanned the bridge towards the lab and workshop complex. "That leads to candy land, like I said, security scans run the entire bridge, don't try and trick FRIDAY and bring stuff around through the other doors, sensors run the entire complex, and you won't fool her." He said with a knowing smirk as he approached the doors, watching them swing open automatically so he could lead the way through without even breaking his stride.
"That's got to be useful for carrying equipment around," Jane said thoughtfully, thinking back to all the times she'd struggled with doors around Culver university when her arms were full with books, papers or equipment.
"Oh yeah," Darcy nodded thoughtfully as she followed through into the well lit corridor that led away from the living complex, freezing momentarily as a blue beam of light swept over all four of them as they walked.
"Sensor sweeps, makes sure nothing's going in or out, equipment, weapons, anything foreign that could cause a problem." Tony explained. "Since I'm going to have biology and genetics in the labs too, the sensors are designed to check for pathogens and filter air constantly through the corridor, if anything pings up on FRIDAY's sensors, she'll lock the entire place down tighter than a politicians wallet until we can find out what's what and take care of it."
"A well thought out precaution," Erik nodded thoughtfully as he followed Tony, suitably impressed by everything that he had seen in the complex so far.
"Not my idea personally, but if it helps keep the place secure..." Tony trailed off with a shrug as he led the way towards the doors at the other side of the umbilical corridor. "FRIDAY, is Morgan still in the weird room?" He asked aloud as they approached the heavy double doors that opened up with a hiss of sealed air.
"Yes boss," FRIDAY's Irish tone replied. "Shall I notify her that you are bringing visitors?"
"Nah, it's about time I got to surprise her," Tony grinned, catching sight of how the little shortstack perked up a bit at Morgan's name being mentioned.
He was still a bit bemused by that whole thing, the security checks he'd run on her came back clean though. A few speeding tickets, a few fines for public intoxication, nothing major really. She was a political science student, so there was that... but honestly if actually enjoying politics was her darkest side, he was suitably impressed so far.
She did have pretty reasonable grades though, not quite genius level, but definitely up there. Enough to hold her own against two fully fledged doctorates and help them with paperwork and collating reports, which meant she had a pretty good filter on her brain and an eye for data, which could always come in helpful.
The whole thing about her and Morgan flirting was just being forcefully shunted to the 'do not touch' side of his brain where he really didn't want to think about it. Normally the whole two girls thing would have had him making some lewd comments, sarcastic remarks, and angling for an invite or at least a camera in the room.
The fact that it involved Morgan, his daughter, was just fritzing his brain and causing a logic short circuit whenever he tried to rationalise it out. So with Pepper's advice, he'd very firmly decided on 'do not touch' when it came to Morgan's relationships. He'd be there if she needed to talk or whatever girls needed to do with relationship stuff, but aside from that, he was going to stay strictly hands off until she came to him.
He did catch how Foster gave a knowing smirk towards the shortstack as well, and knew enough about smirks to know that was a tell tale expression that said that Morgan's name had been brought up a few times in conversation between the pair, which probably meant Foster had been grilling the shortstack on Morgan and teasing her about it, just like he'd been doing with Morgan as well.
Leading the way into the laboratory and workshop complex, he turned right as soon as he entered the main compound area, heading directly over to the workshops and labs set up for him and Morgan.
If the three newbies could cope with the craziness put together there with his and Morgan's brains and her future tech, then they'd fit in just fine. If not, then it was best that he found out about it now before they got too settled in.
"See the yellow and black line?" Tony asked, pointing up ahead to where a painted hazard line was marked very visibly on the ground around Morgan's 'weird room' that she'd taken over for her field generator experiments.
"Hazardous stuff?" Darcy asked curiously, looking ahead at the line and then around to see if she could see any weapons or anything that would make sense to be secured away like that.
"More like weird stuff," Tony explained as they approached the line. "Anyone got a pen?" He asked, looking around the trio and then grinning when Foster handed over a pen that had been secured somewhere in her messy bundle of hair. "Never go in without testing first." He explained with a smirk before idly tossing the pen across the line.
"What do... holy..." Darcy whispered aloud as her eyes tracked the pen through the air.
It had only been a casual toss, but the pen had arced through the air until it crossed the hazard line, then gravity seemed to cause it to gracefully slow it's decent before it arced back around and started impossibly floating upwards instead and slowly 'fell' up towards the ceiling of the corridor.
"Huh, that's new." Tony mused, looking upwards as the pen landed on the ceiling a few meters ahead from where they were stood. "Hey kiddo!" He shouted aloud. "What's going on with gravity in there?" He asked, much to the confusion of the three people with him.
"Point six inverted!" Morgan's voice yelled back from inside the room ahead of them. "It's stable for now, just hang on to the guard rails or jump and try and land wherever you can up here."
"Gravity?" Jane asked, blinking as she rationalised that out and took a slow and deliberate look at her pen that was still impossibly sat on the ceiling up ahead of them. "You're working on manipulating gravity? Artificial gravity?"
"Morgan is," Tony clarified. "But yeah, apparently." He chuckled at the thought. "Feeling brave enough?" He challenged with a smirk before striding forwards across the hazard line and feeling the shift in gravity take hold.
He was definitely thankful of the way the field worked by now, it wasn't just a sudden 'on then off' switch in gravity, but a gradual shift at the boundary of the generated field that took about ten or fifteen steps to actually shift towards whatever the 'new' gravity was inside the field.
By three steps in he was feeling a good thirty pounds lighter, and by six steps in he was visibly bouncing with every step. A glance backwards showed the three newbies were following with excited and rather bemused faces on each of them as they adjusted to the different gravity and tried to figure out exactly what had changed here.
At ten steps in there was barely any gravity at all, and he grabbed on to the yellow side rails that led through to the doorway of the chamber that he'd designated as the 'weird room', thankful that Morgan had had the foresight to have the railings installed around the chamber and leading to the outside.
"Whoa!" Darcy yelled out as she apparently passed into the free-floating area of the gravity field, fumbling with her hands to grab on to Jane and pull herself over to the guard rails to secure herself from floating aimlessly.
"Kiddo?" Tony asked aloud, pulling himself along the guard rail and into the 'weird room', and feeling very odd as gravity started pulling him upwards so he hung 'up' on the barrier instead of down to the floor. "This is weird, even for you... where..."
"Inverted, look up." Morgan's voice came back.
"Right," Tony muttered, shaking his head before looking upwards to where Morgan was in her full Iron Maiden suit, sans helmet, and was using her repulsors to float around the ceiling... or now floor, of the weird room while adjusting the various field generators and taking scans as she flew around upside down. "Kiddo, you flipped gravity."
"Yeah, easier to work on the ceiling generators like this." Morgan yelled back from a few dozen meters above them.
"Well it's weirding the newbies out," Tony laughed back, seeing how Foster, Streaky and Shortstack were all showing rather bemused and shocked expressions, though the Shortstack seemed to be mostly confused by why her long hair was now falling 'upwards' while she floated in the 'mid range' area of the field by the door, looking up at Morgan with a shocked expression on her face.
"New..." Morgan questioned before angling herself around and looking 'down' at her dad and the new people from where she was standing upside down on the ceiling. "Oh, hey guys." She grinned with a wave, spotting Darcy and smiling over as she waved back up at her.
"How are you doing this?" Jane demanded, looking between the impossible upside down armoured woman and back to Tony. "This... variable gravity... you've created artificial gravity generators?" She asked, her eyes wide at the implications of such technology. "Why does nobody know about this yet?"
"Still getting it sorted," Morgan answered in a loud voice as she tweaked one more generator. "Grab on to something, flipping back to neutral zero." She explained before manipulating the holographic screen on her arm and changing the settings for the field generators.
"I kinda like it," Darcy laughed as she made sure she had a firm grip on the guard rail. "Wait, it's safe right... like I can't float away or out a window or anything?" She asked, looking around the room curiously as gravity slowly shifted and she stopped being gently pulled 'upwards' towards the ceiling.
"Yeah," Tony nodded absently. "Float outside the field and normal gravity snaps back. It's a gradual thing around the edges though, so you don't just smash back into the floor when you go back to one G."
"That's good, not smashing into the floor is definitely good!" Darcy nodded in firm agreement with that idea as she gingerly let go of the guard rail, floating in the air alongside Jane with a wide grin on her face. "This is soo cool!" She shouted, laughter bubbling up as she pushed the rail lightly with one hand and started slowly spinning in the air. "Flying is the coolest!" She laughed.
"The practical applications alone..." Jane whispered as she tried to wrap her head around what she was seeing here. "This is groundbreaking, there are millions of experiments you could do using this technology, the people you could help... the causes..." She trailed off as her brain started listing off all the feasible applications she could think of right now.
"Yeah, we're kitting out a hall at Expo for it, showcase the entire thing." Tony explained as Morgan floated down using her repulsors to re-orientate herself so she was the 'right way up' with the rest of them. "Kiddo... the Doc's and Shortstack." He said, needlessly introducing the newbies to Morgan.
"Sweet armour," Darcy smiled over, admiring the smooth lines and purple sheen of the obviously high tech armour that Morgan was wearing. "I saw the photo of you two taking the satellite up, looks even cooler in person." She said with a wide smile.
"The power requirements alone..." Erik whispered, still trying to wrap his head around the idea of having variable gravity in a room like this.
"Aren't actually that crazy," Tony said, looking back to Doctor Streaky now. "The physics is pretty high end, but nothing too out there surprisingly. The math is enough to make my head spin, but it works... as you can see." He explained with a grin. "Once we've kitted out the Expo demonstration, NASA will be first in line I think, setting something up on the ISS is going to be a huge project though."
"I hadn't even thought about that," Jane whispered in awe. "You're going to be working with the International Space Station?" She asked.
"Probably," Tony mused with a small shrug. "You know they're going to want this stuff set up for them, I can probably swing setting up a new arm on the ISS for Stark stuff, maybe kick space travel up a notch or two, depends how it goes." He said dismissively. "Not my main focus, but could be worth spending some attention on."
"You mentioned that you had rather more projects on the go other than the ones you spoke about... but this..." Erik trailed off in awe, shaking his head in surprise at the feeling of free floating in zero gravity.
He'd never thought he would ever be able to experience anything like this, floating in zero gravity was something that only astronauts ever got to experience as far as he knew, so actually seeing, and experiencing it for himself while still on Earth was something rather shocking to be faced with without any warning.
"If nothing else, it'll come in handy if your wormhole theory pans out and we can start exploring through to whatever's on the other side." Tony mused, looking at Doctor Foster speculatively now. "Other planets won't have the same gravity, so setting up our own in a research post or something would make things a lot easier, especially if it's on a heavy gravity world or something like that."
"I hadn't thought about that," Jane whispered, her eyes wide at the ramifications of what Doctor Stark was saying. So far she'd only really been focused on actually proving her theories, not actually thinking on what would happen if she was successful in proving the Einstein-Rosen bridge theory was a fact and could be replicated with today's technology.
"This is your toy then?" Darcy asked, looking at Morgan and pushing herself off the barrier so she could float over towards her with a laugh. "Got to say, much easier than walking... just... whoa..." She trailed off awkwardly as she found that she couldn't stop, then turned to laughter when Morgan grabbed onto her arm to steady her in the room. "OK, definitely better than coffee." She laughed, giving Morgan a teasing smile as she held on to her armoured arms.
"Right, that's enough of that." Tony said quickly, turning away from Morgan and Shortstack's flirty smiles that were directed at each other. "Want to see your labs? Get you settled in? I'm hyped, lets do this." He said with a forced laugh as he gestured back towards the main door to the 'weird room' and indicated for Doctor's Foster and Selvig to start making their way back to the safety of the normal gravity outside of the variable field.
5630 Ramblin Rose Road
Colorado Springs
Colorado
"Saying all of this, talking about all this out loud, the darkness, what I went through..." The man in the video trailed off as he shook his head and drew his hand down his wrinkled and aged face, dragging the skin down with it and over his silver stubble. "I did things, things I'm not proud of. Even after SHIELD fell, when Laura and the kids... when everyone was wiped out, I let the darkness in too far, and I don't think it ever left."
Clint sat there in silence, watching the video for what felt like the hundredth time. Sitting out in the forest on an old laptop, secure and away from the house, away from his family.
He'd watched it once in the house, and never again. It felt wrong, like he was tainting his family with the darkness that came from everything the older version of him was describing, everything he was talking about.
"Five years... If this all goes right, then you won't have to make the choices I did. You won't have to walk around the farm and see everything they left behind when Thanos wiped them out."
Clint nodded, mouthing along with the words he knew off by heart now.
The older version of him was aged, he still hadn't been able to figure out exactly when it was that Morgan Stark had come from, but judging by how haggard and worn his older self looked, he was betting at least forty years, maybe fifty or sixty at the outside range if he aged particularly well.
"I thought Rogers had the right idea. I used to think he had all the answers. That God's Righteous Man would see us through thick and thin." The video continued on with Clint staring blankly at the horrific future his older self was talking about. "Maybe he did, maybe he did have the answers, but they weren't the answers I needed, and they weren't the answers the world needed."
Staring at the video on the screen, he could only imagine the life he'd led in this horrible future. The future Clint had never actually come out and said everything he'd done, but he could make an educated guess about how far he'd fall if Laura and the kids had been killed by some alien that he couldn't even come close to fighting.
"The whole thing fell apart, Rogers' secrets all came out. The whole fight, god that was decades ago now, it wasn't about recognition or control, or even about transparency and who was right or wrong." The future Clint explained, shaking his head sadly. "I was so far gone at the time I didn't even think about it properly. So pissed off about SHIELD and HYDRA that had been manipulating me for god knows how long, then Loki and getting my mind played with like silly putty..." He trailed off again. "Rogers wasn't fighting for control, or even responsibility, or for the right thing, or whatever other lies he told us all. It was about Barnes, everything he did, it was always about Barnes. He'd let the entire world burn just for one man."
A few minutes worth of research had backed up everything the younger Stark had said on their fancy jet, that the Barnes his future self was talking about was Bucky Barnes, Rogers old best friend from back in the forties.
According to Stark, the second Stark, he was still around today. Brainwashed and screwed nine ways from Sunday by HYDRA, and Rogers would find out at some point in the next few years, and that would be the lit fuse that ended everything between the so called Avengers.
"Don't let Rogers bullshit his way through it again." The future Clint said, almost begging him to make the right choices this time. "You know how much it hurts me to say this, but Stark was right."
Clint mouthed along the words with a smirk on his lips, knowing precisely how fucked up things must be for him to actually admit something like that aloud, even to himself.
"Trust Stark, trust both of them. They're who we need to actually win this fight and stop everything from going to hell." The future Clint explained. "Stop Maximoff before she screws the entire world up. It's not about me, us, whatever. Just stop her, it doesn't matter what it takes, someone needs to put her down before she starts any of her craziness." His future self rolled his eyes as he tried to get his tenses straight. "Do it so Laura and the kids, my grand-kids, still have a world to grow up in. That's what matters, nothing else."
Clint nodded automatically, making the same promise he did every time the video reached this point.
"Do it right, make the world a better place. Do a better job of it than I did, and tell Laura I never stopped loving her, even after... even after everything."
Clint nodded again, watching as his future self fiddled with a worn and beaten up wedding ring that was tied to a simple silver chain around his neck.
He watched the next twelve seconds, even knowing his future self wouldn't say anything more. He would simply sit there and caress his wedding band, the same wedding band that he still wore right now, and when the tears started building up in his eyes, he would swipe them away before reaching to the camera and that would be the end of the video.
He watched to the end as always, feeling that if the future version of him had actually gone through enough to sit down and make this video, however horrible and painful it must have been, he could at least have the balls to sit there and watch it all instead of just skipping through and only watching the highlights like some sort of Sunday afternoon football replay.
According to the little Stark, Rogers wouldn't show up for another two years anyway, just in time for the alien invasion that was apparently going to hit New York.
Aliens, wasn't that a kick in the teeth. He'd known about them for years, most high level agents in SHIELD had, some of their weirdest technology had made its way through into SHIELD's regular arsenal, and while it wasn't exactly common knowledge, it was the sort of unspoken thing that most people either knew about or suspected.
But an actual alien invasion? Not just a few aliens or a crashed ship like some sort of real life Roswell cover up, but an actual invasion that SHIELD wouldn't be able to cover up or hide away with their usual secrets and lies?
He could only imagine how badly Fury was going to take that.
The entire world finding out about aliens, finding out the truth really was out there, there wasn't going to be any way of hiding that away. By that point, Laura and the kids would know about it too, they'd know what sort of things their father really did for a living, and he wouldn't be able to protect them from the real world any more.
"Trust Stark." He whispered aloud as he closed the laptop screen down, leaving it sitting on his lap like a comforting weight as he stared out at the mountains a short distance away from his home.
He'd trusted Stark, both of them, both of them had trusted both of the Starks. Nat didn't trust anyone, not after everything she'd been through, but the Stark's had come through for her, hell, they'd gone above and beyond to actually rescue Yelena along with destroying The Red Room and scouring their entire servers.
He didn't know what secrets the Starks would have been able to pull from The Red Room servers, probably stuff that would give even him nightmares, but he knew outright that Nat would be going through it with a fine tooth comb as soon as she got the chance.
Right now though, Nat was still in Morocco with Yelena and Antonia.
Stark's intel had been right in the bullseye again, and they'd made contact with Oksana and used that weird red dust stuff to free both of them from Dreykov's control. That was when he'd headed back home, with Nat staying behind without needing to say a thing. Whatever was between the three of them was Widow stuff, and he didn't have any right to pry in any further than he had already.
The Starks had definitely come through for them, above and beyond what Nat had asked for, and from the things Stark had talked about on the plane, creating future tech armour and weapons for Nat and god only knew what else, it sounded like both of them were looking to bring her on board more and more with whatever plans they had going forward from here.
Reaching down he picked up an pebble from the ground, idly tossing it between his hands as he considered everything that he was thinking about.
Secrecy had been instilled in him from a young age, his SHIELD training had just reinforced that mentality, and then when he'd got married it became even more important to keep Laura safe, and then the kids. Keep everyone safe from SHIELD's enemies and anyone that might come after him because of his SHIELD assignments.
Stark had made it very clear that it was his choice.
Get involved or not. Fight aliens or sit at home. Risk everything for a better world, or leave it to the Starks, Nat, and whoever else they brought on board.
That was his choice now. Burning bridges with SHIELD and forging his own path was one thing, but actually laying his trust in Stark and setting his flag down with the man that only a couple of months ago he would have described as an egotist and a showboat who was all flash and no substance.
It was a hell of a choice. If he trusted Stark properly, like the future him told him to, then it meant really trusting him. Trusting him with things he'd even kept off of the SHIELD servers.
Like Laura.
On the flip side though. Stark had a kid as well, older and probably even more lethal than the older Stark was, but he was a dad too, which meant her mom was somewhere in the picture as well.
Not to mention the fact that if the younger Stark delivered the videos, then she likely watched them first, especially since they apparently weren't exactly on the best terms or anything in that screwed up future. So the younger Stark at least would already know about his family, not their location, but she'd know Laura and his kids existing somewhere.
His future self would have known that, he'd have known Stark would see the videos and was already putting the fate of his family in Stark's hands. That was a true step of faith and trust, especially considering how dark the future had been and how screwed up everything had turned out to be.
It was one decision, but a decision that would have ramifications for years to come, and he could only hope that following his future self's advice he was actually making the right decision this time around.
Trusting Stark.
He'd e-mail him when he got back to the house, and tell him he wanted in properly, in on everything.
He might not be able to keep up with the geniuses or flying suits of armour or anything like that, but he'd be damned if he was going to sit safe in his house while the Starks and Nat fought aliens and did everything they could to make the world a better place this time around.
It was what he thought he'd been doing with SHIELD for all those years, only he hadn't, even now he didn't know how many of his missions were actually SHIELD missions, and how many had actually been co-opted and planned by HYDRA instead?
How many of his targets had actually been innocent people that he'd killed on HYDRA's orders? A dozen, two dozen, more? How much innocent blood did he have on his hands right now?
Throwing in his bow with Stark was the right choice, he was sure of it. His future self was sure of it, and he knew Nat was sure of it as well, even through her dislike of Stark's flashy nature and horrible jokes.
Maybe helping stop an alien invasion would balance the red in his ledger as Nat would put it, it certainly couldn't hurt, he just had to figure out a way of fighting the aliens while staying alive and keeping his brain from being scrambled this time around.
At least he could actually talk about this with the Starks, all this future craziness and time travel, aliens, red rifts and scarlet witches. If he tried to talk to Laura about it all, she'd think he'd have gone crazy, hell, perhaps he already had.
Maybe crazy was what the world needed right now, because going up against an alien invasion that could smack around a super soldier with ease, with only a bow and arrow, didn't seem sane in the least.
Tossing the pebble aside and down into the nearby stream, he waited for the pleasing splash of water before he stood up, clutching the laptop in his hand as he clambered up from the log he'd been sat on and turned to face the direction he knew his house was in.
It was just out of sight from here, beyond the tree line and over a little stream. A ten minute walk, four if he jogged it, less at a run.
He'd e-mail Stark tonight, and that would be that.
Stark Research and Development Compound
Albany
New York State
United States of America
"And this is you..." Tony trailed off like a showman as he stepped inside the large lab slash workshop area, holding out his arms wide and turning lazily around to gesture around to everything in one sweeping movement.
The lab areas were generously sized, he knew that, knowing that any scientist or engineer worth their salt would want, and need, space and extra room for experiments, theory crafting, or just pacing around and talking things out while bouncing ideas off of any convenient person that happened to be in the same area.
He'd already set up the standard six workstations arranged in the centre of the room, custom fabricated work with thick glass worktops, chrome fitted bases with plenty of drawers on either side of the workstation.
The entire lab followed the same aesthetic. Chrome and glass, wetlook paint where it needed to be, and a tiled floor with textured grip so that people didn't slip or fall or anything.
It was clean, beyond modern, futuristic and utterly perfect. There were empty shelves along one side of the wall, literally running the entire length of the workshop, which should provide more than enough space for Foster and Streaky's research, lab notes, books, papers and god knows what else they were bringing with them.
Around the rest of the lab walls were the various pieces of equipment that he'd already set up for them, and a quick glance told him that Foster and Streaky were already cataloguing the equipment and thinking up the experiments and data they could run through here and get vastly more informative and accurate readings than they had with their own cobbled together custom gear.
"It's amazing," Jane breathed out in awe, looking around the room with wide eyes and trying to actually picture how much Doctor Stark must have spent on this laboratory room alone. If all the other workshops and labs were as fully equipped as this one, then the compound in full must be worth millions, perhaps more, just in equipment alone.
"You certainly delivered on everything you promised," Erik nodded, visibly impressed by the space and equipment that had been set up for them.
"Where's the computers?" Darcy asked, looking around and zooming her focus in on the work stations and the extremely comfortable looking chairs that were neatly pushed under each work station waiting to be tested out and used. "We buying our own or..."
"You're hooked in to the compound server farm here," Tony explained with a grin, seeing Morgan's knowing smirk as he walked towards the workstations. "FRIDAY, give me two screens baby girl." He asked aloud.
The response was instantaneous, with two free floating holographic screens appearing a comfortable height above the workstations, easily visible and glowing bright enough for the Stark OS and custom software to be easily readable and visible to everyone in the room.
"Holy shit!" Darcy whispered in awe, staring at the screens with wide eyes.
"FRIDAY, give me a blank, set it up for notes and brainstorming," Tony ordered again, this time a third screen appearing next to the work station, similar to the others but larger and ready to be used simply by spinning around on the chair to face it. "All the equipment's wired in to the servers, readouts, test results, you name it..." He trailed off with a grin.
"Holographic displays?" Jane asked, staring at the futuristic technology that she couldn't believe was being provided to her like this.
"Like I said back in LA, people need to stop thinking about what is and isn't possible," Tony smirked knowingly. "Voice interaction, dictating, or ask FRIDAY for a keyboard setup on the workstations, whatever floats your boat."
"This is incredible," Erik breathed out, staring at the holographic screens and trying to imagine the sort of technology that must have gone in to creating something like this. "Free floating three dimensional holographics... the emitters alone... the processing power..." He rattled off, trying to crunch the numbers in his head and coming up with some truly staggering numbers.
"Told you, this is going to be THE place for R 'n' D. After Expo, you're going to see all the hardware we've got installed here going public. Processors, servers, stuff that's going to make the competition cry and beg for mercy." Tony explained with a grin. "Give us two years, and this place is going to be outdated, then you'll see some of the really fun stuff we're working on." He explained with a knowing smirk over to Morgan.
"Two years..." Jane whispered, staring around the lab again. This complex was beyond anything she could imagine right now, and knew outright that in two years, hell, even in five or ten years it would still be cutting edge technology that any university or private lab would be proud of and begging to have access to.
The idea that Doctor Stark was working on technology that would make all of this look outdated and redundant was mind blowing and almost impossible to fathom, she just couldn't imagine what sort of technology would make free floating holographic screens, functional AI's, and gravity generators obsolete.
"Actually, speaking of the Expo," Tony clicked his fingers idly. "FRIDAY, set up VIP passes for the newbies. Full access, chrome pass for all of them."
"Loading their details into the database now Boss, security will bring the passes and paperwork over by the end of the day." FRIDAY reported.
"Come down and see what's what sometime, it's going to blow your mind, trust me." Tony said with a wink and a laugh at the stunned faces on all three of the new people. "Anyway, settle in, move in properly, set yourselves up, whatever." He shrugged, waving away the various screens he'd asked for and watching as FRIDAY dismissed them automatically before casually sliding his hands down into his jeans pockets. "We're in New York tomorrow, probably going to be the entire day, so just take the day and do whatever you want."
"Right, forgot about that." Morgan nodded, making a mental note to remind herself to pack up the new Archangel wings and suit and get them into the jet along with all the other equipment to take down to the new Air Force base out on Long Island that they were going to evaluate and tour around.
"Shout for FRIDAY if you need anything, or me or Morgan, I'll be back in my workshop, Morgan will be... doing whatever she does," Tony trailed off, looking back to Morgan who shrugged back to him with a carefree smile. "Right, whatever, have fun kids."
With that said Tony simply shook his head in amusement and walked out of the lab, leaving the three newbies still staring around the area in awe. He'd seen in more than a few times himself when hew lab techs or engineers came in to work at SI. It was generally entertaining, but lasted a bit too long for his tastes. Once the 'ohh shiny' mentality wore off and people started getting down to work and got their heads in the game properly, the novelty wore off pretty quickly.
"Holy shit," Darcy breathed out as Tony Frickin' Stark walked past, nudging Morgan on the shoulder playfully as he headed out into the corridor and walked out of sight, leaving them alone in the ridiculously futuristic lab for the first time.
She could see Jane and Erik simply staring at each other, clearly neither knew exactly where they should even start, or what experiments and data logging they should actually start with.
"So, you're like the second boss or something here, or what?" Darcy asked, looking at Morgan with wide eyes now, staring at the gorgeous and amazingly advanced armour she was still wearing and wondering just how high up on the genius scale she actually was to be working that closely with Tony Frickin' Stark.
It was well known that Tony Stark didn't hire anyone but the best, and she could only imagine that for someone to be working alongside him, and trusted with basically being the boss when he wasn't around, then she must be VERY high up on the scale, and probably had more than a few of her own inventions built into this slice of heaven already.
The fact she was actually working on artificial gravity alone... that definitely put her into the 'disgustingly smart' category of genius, and putting together what else she knew about Morgan, like her taking the satellite into SPACE with Tony Stark... chances are that futuristic purple armour was her own design, and probably just as capable as Tony Stark's Iron Man suit was as well.
Her eyes flicked over to see Jane and Erik apparently just as interested in the answer as she was, as all three of them looked to where Morgan was standing pretty casually by the door of the lab, not seemingly bothered by the question at all.
"Yeah, pretty much." Morgan grinned with a small shrug. "If you guys are alright here, I'm going to be heading back to the chill out area for some down time."
"Chill out area?" Darcy asked, as Jane and Erik looked interested as well.
"The little garden spot in the middle of the living compound? Got it's own fountain, grass spots, benches and everything?" Morgan asked. "Let me guess, he just showed you the rooms and didn't bother showing you around everything properly so he could get you over here to show off the lab?"
"That's... actually accurate," Jane admitted with a small laugh.
"Figures," Morgan rolled her eyes in amusement, knowing her dad probably just wanted to show off all the new tech that was ready for the new scientists to play with. "You want to get your stuff moved in first and everything, or want me to show you around properly?" She asked.
"We've got time," Darcy said quickly before Jane or Erik could say anything. "Besides, these two are probably already drooling over the fancy toys and planning how to get their equipment linked up with the computers here." She said with a knowing grin. "You show me around and I'll point everything out to these two when they've got their brains out of genius mode?" She offered with a playful smile.
"Sounds good," Morgan lit up at the thought, holding her arm out for Darcy to take. "You got your security badges and everything right?" She double checked as she led the way out of the Foster Selvig lab and back into the main corridors of the complex.
"Yeah, we got the whole story about the ID and tracking and everything." Darcy nodded, feeling oddly comfortable with her arm slid around the cold metal curves of Morgan's armoured suit as they walked back towards the security corridor that separated the two huge buildings in the compound.
"Cool," Morgan smiled at that, happy that her dad hadn't been so enthusiastic about the workshops and labs that he'd skipped over all the basics of the compound. "There's a communal chill out area inside as well, bottom floor. Got a huge TV set up there, couches, kitchen and everything. Good place to laze around and chill with everyone else."
"Sounds good," Darcy smiled back, catching Morgan's eye as they walked and giving her a hopeful smile while inwardly hoping that she hadn't read all the signals wrong, and that this genius wonder woman was actually interested in her, and not just playing interest to get them to sign on with Doctor Stark's think tank thing.
She was pretty sure Morgan was interested, eighty percent anyway, but her gaydar had always been a bit sketchy around hot women. Being bi didn't make it any easier, as she'd had more than a few potential girlfriends assuming she was straight after seeing her flirt with men as well, so she knew outright that her gaydar definitely needed some fine tuning.
"What you thinking of doing once you've got your intern stuff done then?" Morgan asked, slipping into small talk as they headed towards the security corridor. "Heading back to Culver or you thinking of getting a job in politics or something?"
"Dunno," Darcy shrugged casually as they walked. "Got at least another year before I have enough credits to do anything. Jane keeps telling me I should go for astrophysics as well, she reckons I've got the brain for it but I haven't really thought about it yet." She explained.
"Do either, we could always use more smart women around here," Morgan laughed flirtatiously. "Polysci could be really useful actually, or physics, either one. Both if you can play for both at the same time." She added with a grin.
"Right, yeah, of course." Darcy blinked. Of course such a huge company like Stark Industries could use political brains around. Doctor Stark probably had a team of professionals dedicated just to the ramifications and international politics around every invention he released into the wild.
"Go for it, you'll have a job here either way." Morgan smiled. "My Uncle Eightball always said you don't waste good... so if you're good at poly or physics, you'll have a place here."
Darcy did smile at that, the thought of actually spending more time with Morgan was definitely welcome, and then her brain careered off course as she tried to think of what genius wonder woman could actually see in her.
Morgan was second boss of an entire Stark facility. She'd been to space and was wearing a suit that looked either personally designed by Tony Stark himself, or had been designed alongside his armoured suits at the same time. She was a genius with a capital G, and was doing experiments that were mind blowing already and chances were she hadn't even seen a tenth of what she was actually doing here.
Meanwhile she was an intern student trying to scrape enough credits together to graduate her polisci course and hadn't even got any real idea of what she wanted to do with her life once she'd actually graduated, if she actually got enough credits together this year to finally graduate.
It was like comparing chalk and cheese, and she was pretty sure that Morgan was way out of her class when it came to women anyway.
"Come on, I'll show you the downstairs first, the couches there are to die for." Morgan grinned as she tugged on Darcy's arm, leading her towards one of the central elevator hubs in the living complex so they could head downstairs and start the tour properly, completely oblivious to Darcy's internal turmoil and the 'in over her head' expression that was leaking into her eyes as she allowed herself to be led down the maze of corridors and around what was going to be their new home.