AN - I've been told through feedback on Discord (since I am on a couple of servers where you can recommend fanfics you write and get feedback) that some of the Wards feel a little too professional in how they've been written. I am going to try and experiment a bit with Vista in this chapter; if I am successful, then I'll try and continue going this route for Vista.
I hope that Sophia comes off as a bit more mean tempered here, I must admit that writing a character like her is something I've never done before. As for why she's being polite to Tony, her Jury is still out on whether or not he's weak.
Settling In - 2.1
Tony Stark
After the bomb had exploded and the Wards had mostly left, Tony really didn't know what to do after he had enjoyed his lunch. Mostly because Jarvis recommended that he continued speaking to the Wards due to his own Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, he liked to think that he had a good handle on it. But he feared that he would have a Bad Time with it tonight because of that bomb.
He sighed, knowing what his dreams would likely hold tonight.
"So Mister Stark," Vista said some time later. "What were the Avengers like?"
"Interesting to say the least. We had a demigod, a supersoldier -a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend-, a man with breath-taking anger management issues, a couple of master assassins, and myself - the first internationally known superhero of the modern era." Tony explained as he thought back to those frantic few weeks that had culminated in the Battle of New York.
"Sounds like a dangerous team." Vista noted.
"We are to be frank. We're all fairly unique people to be honest as well." Tony replied.
"Considering you have a demigod, a supersoldier, a man with breath-taking anger management issues, a couple of master assassins, and a literal genius. Unique doesn't even begin to cut it." Vista pointed out.
Tony had to coincide that point. "Need I point out that you're on a team of kids where basically all of you can go and make physics go cry in a corner?"
Vista giggled. "Not wrong."
Tony shared in a laugh. "True, we both are on odd teams."
Vista shook her head but amusement was clear in her eyes. Tony had to admit, she might have been practically military, but there were moments when Vista seemed to act like the kid she was. Still, he knew he needed to check on his armor.
"Vista, can you walk with me?" Tony asked as he stood up from where he was sitting on a recliner.
"Why's that?" Vista replied as she remained on the couch, her tone curious
Tony shrugged. "I want to check on my armor and see what needs to be repaired."
Vista vaulted to her feet, her eyes wide, glee apparent. "And you want me to accompany you so you can look at your fancy armor without getting into trouble?!" she asked excitedly.
"Yes." Tony said bluntly, he found Vista's behavior a little off putting, but he had to remind himself that she was maybe twelve years old at most. Thus the idea of looking at a really powerful, hyper advanced armor was really something for her.
Vista's screech of delight echoed through the room.
Armory Seven was the Ward-Protectorate Armory for the PRT HQ, it was part armory, part machine shop. The reason it had some of the tools one might find in a repair shop was due to the need for field repairs on the power armor that Armsmaster and Kid Win both used.
Standing tall and proud was an armor suit of hotrod red and gold with a glowing blue-white core in its chest. The armor was battered with paint seared away and the armor cratered in several places that had previously been glowing due to heat but had now cooled, leaving blackened silver-gray metal behind.
Tony pulled out his phone and keyed the PIN. "Jarvis you there?" he asked.
"At your service, sir." The AI replied automatically.
"Hey Jarvis!" Vista greeted eagerly.
"Hello Madam Vista, I take it that Sir is behaving?" Jarvis replied and Vista laughed.
"He is and he's not in trouble either. We're just here to check on the armor." Vista replied with a smile as she looked upon the armor, the sight of it caused the young Ward to blanch.
"No offense Mister Stark, but this armor looks like hell." Vista said and Tony nodded.
"Considering what the Mark VII went through, I am not surprised that it looks like this." Tony admitted.
"Was the fight in New York that bad?" Vista asked.
"Yes, it was." Tony said in response and Vista cringed.
"You have my sympathies, I've been in a few rough fights myself." Vista said and she knew that was the truth.
"Thanks. So, J. Damage report for the Mark VII Armor?" Tony replied with sincerity.
"Hang on, you're saying that you have six other suits?!" Vista asked in amazement.
"Kind of, the Mark VII was meant to be a generational advancement over the Mark VI - which itself was a leap over my last non-portable suit, the Mark IV and incorporated lessons learned from the Mark V and its vulnerabilities. The Mark III suit which preceded the Mark IV was really the first suit that had something even resembling the capability in speed and firepower of my later suits. The Mark II was a prototype, and the Mark I was a suit that I built with the help of another man named Yinsen to escape from the Ten Rings, and it was just a simple thing, meant to help us escape more than anything else." Tony said, thinking back on his various suits and how Doctor Yinsen's words rang true with him.
Vista merely looked confused. "So you technically have seven suits but you only use one?" she asked.
"That's the gist of it. Depending on how badly damaged the Mark VII is though, I might have to build a new suit entirely, taking into account some of the lessons that I learned from what happened in New York." Tony said as he examined the armor with his eyes, wincing as he found more and more signs of damage to critical internal components.
"How long would that take?" Vista asked curiously.
"With the right tools, no more than half a day to build the suit, probably a week or so to design the thing. But I need to see what's broken first and in need of repairs." Tony said.
"It reminds me a little of Kid Win's armor, though his armor has a lot less gold and the red is more of a maroon." Vista admitted she couldn't help but draw comparisons between the two. But whereas Kid Win's armor wasn't designed to be flight capable and while it was a power armor, she could tell that this Mark VII armor was vastly more capable.
"The integrity of the chest plate, faceplate, and torso faulds have been fatally compromised Sir and will need replacement. The flight system is functional, however the chest maneuvering jets were pushed to their limits and need a full service tear down before the next flight, furthermore there is damage to the force multiplying and strength amplification systems however they are functional but not fully operational. Finally all missile ammunition has been expended as well." Jarvis explained after running a full diagnostic on the Mark VII armor.
"Damn." Tony said.
"I take it that's bad?" Vista asked.
"Considering what this armor went through, it's not as bad as I feared it would be, which given the energies and things being thrown around, is saying something. Though it's still a bit banged up." Tony said as he looked at the armor.
"Does that mean it's fixable?" Vista asked.
Tony nodded. "With some elbow grease, yes. But I would need access to the right materials and tools to get it done."
"I wouldn't mind helping." Vista said and Tony nodded.
"Good to hear, Jarvis, can we fix the suit here?"
"Negative sir, we lack the requisite materials to make the repairs for the plating itself. Additionally, this machine shop lacks the precision tools to manufacture the MEMS control systems required for the Strength Amplification and Force Multiplication systems." Jarvis said and Tony scowled.
"Great, where's carbon nanotubes and titanium-gold alloy when you need it?" Tony grumped irritably, he wanted to do something in order to get his mind off of what had happened in Afghanistan so many years ago. Thus, he grabbed a pen and paper, might as well just do a thought experiment then.
"Well, since I can't fix the armor. Let's do something of a thought experiment together." He said.
"What sort of thought experiment?" Vista asked.
"Why modifications to your armor of course, why else would I be asking for us to do a thought experiment together?" Tony said in a snarky tone.
"Really?!" Vista asked, sounding super-excited.
"Yes. So, anything in particular you'd like? I was thinking we should keep the color scheme as the green, white, and black actually go quite well together." Tony asked.
"I wouldn't mind having even a simple baton or a containment foam thrower, a proper helmet would be better as well." Vista admitted and Tony looked at her shocked.
"Who was the idiot that gave you no weapons or a proper helmet?" Tony demanded, he didn't snark, if anything he was horrified at the idea. Sending a little kid with super powers out without a means to defend herself and a costume that lacked proper protection for her coconut.
Vista's snarl would have impressed Rhodey. "Blame my fucking parents for no weapons, both of them, they agreed to have me join the Wards if only I wasn't allowed to fight - thus I was relegated to a support role." she growled angrily, before turning suddenly sheepish. "As for no helmet, that was my fault, I was nine when Glenn Chambers put together my costume with my input. I thought that the visor was cool looking and that the skirt was cute, Glenn insisted on the armor that I got though, it's not powered though but provides protection against assault rifles and resistance against battle rifles and energy weapons."
Tony hummed and jotted down some notes. "I think a logical upgrade would be to make your armor at least semi-powered, maybe even fully powered. That way if some idiot does attack you, you can give them difficulty in finding their front teeth. It would also be useful for SAR due to being able to move things or do stuff with your power that's very insane." he said.
"What do you mean?" Vista asked, she seemed to be curious.
"If we can make the armor capable so that each arm can handle roughly one ton as easily as you might be able to pick up a baseball. You could then use your power and compact, say, a small car, using your mad power, into roughly the size of a baseball and then throw it like a fastball." Tony said and Vista gaped.
"Why did I never think of that?" she asked, surprised.
Tony shrugged. "Probably due to your role, I would say. Realistically speaking, with the right equipment and properly applying your power, you can do things that are very scary."
"You don't say. That will probably put a crimp in Lung's day, Director Piggot is pretty pragmatic, she'll probably find a way to keep me as support while also having me be in the thick of the fight." Vista said, she sounded eager.
"Who is Lung and why did you emphasize his name?" Tony asked, confused.
"Ohhh yeah," Vista said slowly. "I forgot, you're not from around here."
"So, who is he?" Tony asked.
"Frankly, probably the most powerful Cape in Brockton Bay. His power allows him to transform into a dragon that grows the longer a battle goes on and more stressed or hyped up he gets. He's also a rather terrifying pyrokinetic in addition to his mundane breath attacks and is a regenerator to boot. He damn near killed Leviathan when he attacked Kyushu." Vista explained off handily.
"Sounds like he would be a good sparring partner for the Hulk." Tony said as he began to draw out several designs for a helmet for this thought experiment.
"Who's the Hulk?"
"A 4-meter tall, two-ton, insanely ripped, giant green rage monster that's uncomfortably smart and the madder he gets, the stronger he gets as well. The man who turns into the Hulk is also a genius, one of the smartest people in the world as well." Tony replied and Vista blanched.
"A Changer-Brute, those are damn rare." Vista said in a shocked tone.
"How rare?"
"Rare enough that in the entirety of the East Northeast Division, the only one I know of is Browbeat." Vista explained and Tony whistled.
"Impressive." he said.
"No kidding."
"Here, I've drawn up several designs for helmets." Tony said as he laid the designs he had drawn up for Vista to look at, they were extremely basic, really just showing the shape of the helmet with nothing on materials used, but it was a start.
One design was very clearly based on the Iron Man helmet, a pair of eye holes that the notes would indicate would light up in a distinctive silver color with the helmet having a green faceplate and the rest of the helmet being black.
The second design was clearly based on the helmet that Alexandria used in terms of shape, but it had a mouth guard. The colors had the mouth guard being black, with a strip of green where Vista's visor was currently, and the rest of the helmet being an off-white.
The third helmet was similar to the second helmet only that it actually had a removable mouthguard. The colors were the same as well as the second helmet.
The final design seemed to be a mix of the first and third designs with silver eyes and flat faceplate, along with a retractable mouthguard. This design had the same colors as on the second helmet.
"I like all of these designs, I particularly like the fourth one. It could keep my current look relatively intact while providing way more protection." Vista said as she looked over the designs.
"Alright, so your new suit will use the fourth helmet design then. Do you want to keep the skirt as fabric or do you want to do something with holograms?" he asked and Vista frowned.
"I think that holograms might be better. I've had to replace the skirt part of my armor more than once and it's really embarrassing hearing fabric rip in the middle of a fight because it got caught on broken concrete or something." Vista admitted with a blush.
The former playboy snickered loudly. "Yeah, I can see how that would be embarrassing."
"You don't say, it once caused Oni Lee, one of Lung's goons, to start laughing hysterically." Vista said and Tony had to resist the urge to laugh.
"Anyways, I was thinking about the material for the armor, we use a CNT reinforced titanium-gold alloy, I've used this plating in all of my suits since the Mark III and speaking from experience, with the right blend it's hard to perforate." Tony said as he made additional notes.
Vista looked curious. "How tough are we talking?"
Tony did some rough napkin math in his head, the plates weren't going to be the layered composite plate design that even the Mark III used, so the durability wasn't going to be as good. Even so, the protection would be considerable, a major leap to be frank. "With the thickness I am thinking about using, you'd need a Bushmaster equal to penetrate the plate."
Vista hummed. "I like the sound of that, no longer having to worry about a bullet going through my armor."
"Yeah, small supersonic pieces of metal would make anyone's day problematic. With this level of protection, the supersonic pieces of metal have to be of considerable size to pose a threat." Tony said with a smirk.
"True enough. Is strength augmentation going to be that MEMS stuff?" Vista asked.
"Yeah, it's more complex than electrostatic fiber bundles, but strength augmentation is considerably more powerful, plus you can make the suit much sleeker which cuts down on weight and you aren't likely to end up with something that would have limits to its range of motion." Tony explained as he looked at his sketch, he made a note regarding the power supply, an EXO-7 Arc Reactor would likely be sufficient for the strength augmentation.
The armor itself was looking mostly the same compared to what Vista had now, only with holographic emitters around the waistline for the skirt. He quickly sketched out a utility belt, another thing that was likely overlooked due to Vista's age when she had her costume designed and Mister Chambers probably hadn't included it due to weight concerns, which was logical. Now though, several years down the line, Vista was certainly stronger if her decently defined muscles in her arms and legs were anything to go by.
"Thanks, the idea of being able to vault alleyways is a nice idea. Would make getting around easier to say the least." Vista said and Tony nodded.
"Indeed, this is just a thought experiment though. We would need to clear it with Mister Chambers and likely Director Piggot first before we can go through with it and that's only likely going to happen after my meeting with them." Tony said as he looked at the suit.
He frowned, could he throw in flight capability? No, that would require a more substantial redesign of the armor. Since he would have to add control systems for repulsors, flaps, and other control surfaces for the armor. Maybe they could use Hastati style mobility improvements eventually, Hastati armor while it could fly, it wasn't the fastest, only about as quick as the A-10 and that was at maximum altitude while running flat out.
He did some more sketching of the armor. Then smiled. "What do you think?" he asked, showing his rough sketch.
Vista looked over the armor and smiled. "I like it, it's nice and simple." she said.
"Good, I am hoping to ask Piggot if it's okay if I make simple improvements to the various equipment for the Wards on a case-by-case basis. After my debriefing that is." Tony said.
Vista nodded and then she looked at the time. "Where did the time go?"
Tony looked at the time and blanched. "Yeah, let's get off to bed."
As Tony walked into the Common Room that led to the branches for housing. It was there that he met Sophia, she was looking better than she did earlier in the day. "How are you feeling Sophia?" he asked gently.
Sophia opened her mouth to say something, closed it and then sighed. "Doing better, Mister Stark." she said softly.
"That's good to hear Sophia, do you mind if I tell you something?" Tony said and Sophia cocked her head.
"Thanks. But I have to fucking ask, what do you want to tell me?" she asked sourly, her tone warning.
"I have Post Traumatic Stress as well, triggers are similar to yours it seems since I nearly had a panic attack when that bomb exploded." Tony answered, he wanted to try and start forming a support system here for his own PTSD and maybe even for Sophia as well.
Sophia's posture changed from one of heated indifference to surprise. "You do? Well ain't that a bitch then."
Tony snorted. "No kidding, it sucks ass to have. Too bad there's no medication you can take for it that can make it magically go away."
Sophia giggled slightly. "I mean, there's some tinker drugs that can do that…but that shit is super expensive, like a fourteen day supply costs like five thousand fucking dollars and no insurance group carries it because tinker drugs can have some weird ass side effects though somehow, addiction isn't one of them."
Tony hurramped. "Okay, that's bullshit, in order for that thing to work…" he said, beginning to go on an extensive rant about how that would break at least one law of medicine that was common to Earth Yod.
Sophia broke down laughing hysterically. "Yeah, tinkertech is such. Fucking. Bull. Shit."
"You don't say. That is one of the most bullshit things I've heard." Tony remarked and Sophia shrugged her shoulders.
"As far as tinkertech goes, making a mockery of medical science is quite mundane. There is some really fancy bullshit tinkertech out there that can make the laws of physics their bitch and do it repeatedly, it's not fun when you have to fight against said bullshit tinkertech though." Sophia explained and Tony raised an eyebrow.
"How so? I haven't really made anything that can do that to physics." Tony said and Sophia shrugged.
"There's one tinker who is out in California, goes by Riptide, he created a tinkertech device that's about the size of a candy bar, but can hold as much liquid as a 40-foot ISO Container without the added weight." Sophia explained and Tony's eyebrow twitched.
"That outright violates several laws of physics so bad that it's a level of bullshit that's pretty damn impressive." Tony deadpanned.
"Well, you're not wrong, that's for fucking sure." Sophia admitted, after a moment she said in a low tone. "Thanks for offering your support, not too many people here can easily relate to what I went through, not even my fucking therapist."
"You're welcome, it's the least I can do." Tony said and Sophia nodded and after a moment, she spoke again in a very quiet tone.
"How do I make the attacks less bad?" she asked softly, seemingly eager to actually hear something from another sufferer of PTSD.
"Build a support system outside of your therapist with those you trust explicitly. It was thanks to support from Rhodey, Pepper, Jarvis, and Harry that I was able to learn to live with my PTSD regarding my experience as a hostage of the Ten Rings, a terrorist organization. Medication also helps and sometimes, a simple quote can help immensely because it can serve as inspiration." Tony explained.
"What quote do you use?" Sophia asked.
"Having PTSD means you're not broken. Nor is having PTSD a sign of weakness. Finally it doesn't make you a freak either. Rather it means that you were put to the test, doing what others fear and that you didn't fall apart. But most importantly, don't ever give up, otherwise it wins." Tony explained in a gentle tone.
Sophia's expression became a unique mix of irritation and respect. "That's a paragraph, I was expecting one or two sentences. But it's deep, I'll keep it in mind. Anyways, I got to go and suit up, I need to do a patrol." she said and then pushed past Tony and walked down the hallway, however her posture seemed to be a little better, slightly straighter from the previous two times that he had seen it.
Tony watched her go, he had a feeling that Sophia needed support, he would be willing to offer it. But besides making it clear that he was offering to let Sophia talk to him about it, he wanted her to take up his offer. Not him to push the issue, just make it clear that he was willing to talk to her about whatever she went through.
He knew from experience that the hardest step in moving on was that first conversation that you had outside of the therapist's office. He suspected that Dennis only knew about what had likely happened since he had likely been on SAR as well and had been the one to actually find her in the aftermath of that battle.
He figured that Sophia had trust issues stemming from something. It could explain why she was on a team of people her age, likely had been with them in fights for who knows how long and didn't trust them enough to tell them what happened. That was something which would need to be fixed at some point, preferably before it caused problems with trust among members of the team.
Shaking his head, Tony turned and walked into the common room. Same arrangement of couches, tables, recliners, and a few televisions as the last time he'd been in this room. Just like last time, the room was unoccupied, he knew that Jarvis would get on his ass if he avoided said bed rest and might even call the hospital so the doc could come and deliver him an ass-chewing before taking steps to make sure he actually got his bed rest.
Thus with a glance at the clock, he went to his room, climbed in bed, and fell asleep.
His dreams weren't kind.