"Sir, there is… a problem."
Tony Stark, famous genius inventor, billionaire and playboy rose a curious brow at Jarvis's words.
His mood wasn't the best currently, and even driving one of his own favourite sports cars was doing little to improve it.
Kidnapped for months, forced to watch as a group of moronic terrorists managed to hoard his technology. His weapons. Weapons he made for protecting his country, his people.
But instead, they are now being used to bring suffering on the other side of the globe.
He was done with making and selling weapons, uncaring of how much money that'll lose him.
He didn't even care that Obadiah was pissed at him, or that the media will very likely make fun of him.
This was the right thing to do. He just knew that it was.
"What is it this time?" Tony sighs, a finger coming up to rub at his temple as he sped down the road, uncaring of the speed limit. He was already way past it, so why not go faster?
Jarvis's deep voice speaks up again. "There is… An intruder in your home, sir." Tony couldn't help the small pang of panic that rose in his chest, where the machine keeping him alive was.
"A kid, from the looks of it."What?
Tony felt like Jarvis was pulling a prank on him. "How did a kid break into my home?" He chuckles, but it soon dies in his throat at Jarvis's answer.
"He hacked his way in, sir… Hacked me too, to lower my volume through the house."
"Are you fucking kidding me…?" Stark openly gaped this time. His house had better cyber-security than the damn Pentagon, which he openly hacked for fun many years ago.
And while he is usually drunk, just to make 'em panic.
And now a kid, of all things, hacked his access codes and even Jarvis?
"He has also hacked your bank account sir, and has currently ordered an exorbitant amount of delivery food. And is now taking a shower."
What the fuck is even going on?
His curiosity picked, the genius inventory sped up even more, cutting through the traffic without a care as Jarvis kept him updated on the kid's actions.
"He managed to hack his way into the workshop, sir. It took him just a few seconds."
"He admired your car collection and said that you have a good taste."
"Damn straight, kid."
"He is now grabbing some of your materials and seemingly drawing down a blueprint."
That pique Tony's interest even more, just as he pulls down his driveway and drives his way down towards his garage/workshop.
The garage opens up, and Tony's eyes instantly lock on the small figure on the other side of the garage, with their back to him and clad in one of his shirts, clearly oversized for his small frame.
Messy and wild shoulder length pitch black hair, and as the head whips towards him, bright blue lazy eyes meet his own.
He half expected the kid to panic and try to run away, but instead he just… turns away and keeps on doing whatever he is doing.
The car turns off, and he steps outside while keeping his gaze locked on the kid. "Breaking into someone's else house is against the law, you know?" He calls out with a smile.
And the kid soon answers right back. "So is going three times over the speed limit."
Smartass.
"You should pick a better password. Using your birthday is outdated." The kid seemingly chides as Stark approaches, removing his sunglasses and peering over his shoulder to stare at the sheet of paper before him.
He thought he'd be doing some of the dumb drawings kid usually do, but nope.
This kid was drawing a fucking Arc Reactor schematic.
What the fuck is even going on?
"That's the trick. Inserting the password is just a distraction." Tony corrects, hands in his pockets.
"I know. It's the hidden camera doing a facial scan." The kid's response shocks the genius billionaire once more. "Easy to get around too. Just punch the fucking thing." Turning his head, Stark stares at the now broken and dangling camera by the armoured glass doorway leading to his garage/workshop.
He blinks a few times, then turns a deadpan look to the kid. "That's coming out of your pay-check." The kid snorts.
"I got a pay-check?" Amused bright blue eyes flick up to meet his equally amused ones before flicking back down to the white sheet. "Oh right, Jarvis."
The kid leans to the side and grabs the discarded tablet on the ground, taps away at it a few times, and then puts it away as Jarvis's voice rings through the hidden speakers once more.
"Shall I call the authorities, sir?" What a killjoy.
Tony waves Jarvis's request off, then crouches down to take in the schematics even more.
They were similar to his Arc Reactor, the one currently in his chest and keeping him alive, but… far more advanced.
The energy output was a hundred times higher, with an even longer lifespan. "What do you need all this power for?" He asks, even wanting to know how the kid found out about the Arc Reactor in his chest.
Or how he is so smart when he doesn't look anywhere near ten years of age.
The kid's gaze flicks up to his own. "Don't you wanna build a more compact version of that badass suit you used to escape?" And he knows about that too… "Ain't that hard to hack into… Well, everything." Again, who the hell is this kid?
"Yeah, that's the plan." Tony nods, shocked at how he couldn't find a flaw in the Arc Reactor the kid devised.
Said kid hums and scratches at his neck a few times. "Though you'll need a replacement soon. One that doesn't use Palladium, else you'll risk getting Palladium poisoning." Well… Fuck.
Tony raises a hand to rub at his chest, where the hurriedly put together Arc Reactor he made in the gave resides. And where it might already be poisoning him.
He actually didn't even think about that, too high on his success at having finally cracked the damn thing.
"Finding a replacement won't be easy." Tony hums, leaning back and crossing his arms with a frown as the kid nods.
"Hence why you'll need a small weekly dose of Lithium Dioxide, so to slow down the poisoning." Smartass kid giving him ways to preserve his life and health.
He already likes the damn brat.
"Well now…" Stark hums, then smirks. "What's your name, kid?"
The blue haired kid pauses, as if thinking. "Hayden." He shrugs, and Stark can tell he literally made it up on the spot.
Oh well, he doesn't care.
"But you'll probably forget it within five minutes."
"Damn straight." Yup, he likes this kid already.
And that's when the doorbell rings, and the kid sits up as his eyes light up. "Finally, the food's here."
Now that he says that, he's damn hungry too. Those burgers weren't enough. "What'd you order?"
"Burritos, Mexican and Chinese take-outs, and half a dozen pizzas."
"A kid after my own heart."
"Nah, am just after your wallet. And I already hacked your bank account."
"I have more than one, you know?"
"He hacked those too, sir."
"Alright, listen here you little shi-"
....
"I assure you Miss Potts, I just need a quick chat with Mr. Stark about his kidnapping and then I'll be out of your air soon."
"And as I already told you, he'll just ignore you or be… Tony Stark. You'll get nothing." Pepper Potts sighs as she enters Tony's expensive home, muttering a greeting towards Jarvis when he greets her once she steps through the doorway with Agent Phil Coulson hot on her tails.
And of course the living room is a damn mess… And how did Tony eat all this food? There's so many pizza boxes and other stuff all over the place and floor…
"Jarvis, where's Tony?" Pepper asks, ignoring the mess like usual.
"He is in his Workshop, Miss Potts." Jarvis answers easily, always making Pepper's life and job quite a bit easier.
If only he had a body.
With another sigh, the redhead walks down the circular staircase, a bit confused that she finds the door already open.
But of course she swiftly finds Stark tinkering away at… something. Some sort of arm brace or something similar.
"Oh, Pepper!" Tony greets her, his usual annoying smile on his face. "Who's the guy? The milkman?" And there's the Tony she knows.
Pepper sighs. "Tony, please don't speed off by yourself again. You are still recovering."
Tony had the audacity to blink, then spread his arms wide apart with a big smile. "I'm feeling fine. Fantastic, even." She just gives him a flat look as he goes back to tinkering at that weird metallic arm brace.
"You might want to lower the power output on that thing if you still want your arm." A very young voice pipes up from the side, making Pepper jump and turn her head towards the speaker.
A young black haired kid with bright blue eyes and a bag of chips in his hands, wearing a very oversized black shirt, one of Tony's.
"I know what I'm doing, kid." Tony rolls his eyes at the kid, who proceeds to shrug.
"I warned ya." The kid drawls out before kicking a spherical object on the ground, right by a mess of metal parts, bolts, wrenches and so much more stuff. "Jarvis, is the download complete?"
Jarvis's voice rings out before Pepper could speak. "It is now." And that's when the head sized spherical object moves, two square protrusions stretching out from it's sides before releasing a small burst of energy downward.
Pepper watches with wide eyes as the bot takes flight and turns around, camera lenses winking a few times as they turn to her. "Connection successfully established. Systems are running perfectly." The kid instantly turns a smug smile towards Tony, who groans.
"I've been working on this thing for the past hour." Tony starts, speaking towards Pepper. "And he built that in ten minutes. Can you believe it?" Pepper didn't expect the sheer pride in Tony's voice, or the proud grin on his face.
What's going on here?
"Who is this?" Pepper asks, referring to the clear child eating away at a bag of chips while Jarvis's drone body floats around, undergoing some exams for the kid.
Tony's eyes widen in realization. "Oh, right. Pepper, meet Hayden, soon to be Hayden Stark. Jarvis's taking care of the paperwork ."What?" Hayden, meet Pepper Potts. And the milkman, of course."
The now named Hayden turns a flat stare towards Tony. "I didn't consent to this."
"You did when you broke into my home and hacked my bank accounts to splurge on food."
"So you're kidnapping me now?"
"Ain't that what adoption is about?"
As Pepper watches the back and forth between the two, she couldn't help but notice the sheer similarity in their personalities.
The two were just so alike.
Both little shits-
"Anyway, Jarvis. Test the damn guns already." The fucking what now?
Tony's head shoots up too at that. "You put guns in that thing?"
Hayden gives him a flat look. "Why do you think it's powered by a mini Arc Reactor?" Tony raises a finger… Then lowers it and nods.
"Fair enough, just aim them away from the cars."
Phil Coulson goes to speak up at that, raising a hand as he does so. "I don't think that's sa-"
Boom!
Pepper screams as the Drone shoots it's blasters towards a distant wall, putting a hole through it, but also launching itself across the whole damn garage and crashing against the wall on the other side.
Hayden whistles and pops another chip in his mouth, as if he didn't just create an insanely powerful machine. "And that was just ten percent, goddamn…" He then turns to look at Tony. "Still sure you don't want to lower the output?"
"I just did." Tony and Hayden share a snort, and Pepper just openly gapes.
"There's another one…" She bemoans lowly, in despair.
One was bad enough, but now there's another?!
Hayden hums and picks up a tablet, letting Tony grab some chips for himself as he hops up on the table the playboy billionaire is tinkering away at.
His blue eyes flick towards the 'milkmen' shortly before they go back down to the tablet. "Ah, the milkmen here is a super secret Agent. Cool." Phil Coulson's eyes widen as the kid taps away at his tablet.
"Of what, stolen milk?" Tony pipes up sarcastically, evoking a snort from Hayden.
"Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. Or S.H.I.E.L.D. for short."
"Dumb name." Hayden nods in agreement at his now adoptive father words while the Agent's eyes kept widening in shock.
But the kid kept going. "Nick Fury, Natasha Romanoff or also nicknamed as the 'Black Widow,-"
"Damn, she's sexy."
"'The Avengers Initiative', the 'Tesseract', some files about your old man and- Oh boy, so many dirty little secrets!" Hayden cackles as Tony throws a 'See? This is my kid!' look towards the shocked Pepper.
"Those files are private and-"
"Nobody asked." Hayden drawls out, cutting off Agent Coulson's admonishment without a care.
"Clint 'Hawkeye' Barton, Bruce 'The Hulk' Banner- Ain't this the guy that broke Harlem?" Hayden asks Tony, showing him whatever he had on the tablet.
Tony whistles and nods. "Yeah, that's about right. Smart guy."
"I guess this is what happens when a smart dude hits the gym, huh…" Tony snorts at his kid's words.
"So, what does S.H.I.E.L.D.'s milkmen want from me?" Tony asks as Hayden digs deeper into the organization's files without a care, right in front of one of it's Agents no less.
Truly very Tony-like of him.
Pepper sighs once more, something that she does a lot with Tony around, and pinches the bridge of her nose. "He wants to ask about your kidnapping and about your subsequent escape from your captors."
Tony shrugs. "I wagged my eyes at them and they let me go due to how handsome I am.
"And of course his response is a joke. What did she expect?
Hayden perks up at that, a curious look in his bright eyes. "Oh yeah, you said they had your weapons in your press conference, so…" He flicks his small hand up, letting a Hard-Light copy of several files float up before him.
"Jarvis, bring up the files of all the workers of Stark Industries that work closely on the weapon manufacturing." Hayden requests, making Tony come to a pause while Pepper's eyes widen.
"You are doing a background check on the employees of Stark Industries?" She asks out of sheer shock at the action.
But surprisingly enough, Tony narrows his eyes and says nothing as the kid flicks away some of the pictures before him. "Only one that can sell Tony's weapons to someone is either he himself, or one of the highest paid workers…"
"Or…" Hayden hums, then brings Obadiah's Stane file close. "The previous Head of the Stark Industries, who might have gotten jealous after an upstart kid replaced him as the Head, then proceeded to raise said company to a whole new level with ease while he barely did anything."
Tony watches with a growing proud smirk as Hayden taps away, getting past all of Obadiah's fail-safes and passwords with insanely complicated backdoors and proceedings, cracking away at his passwords and security like they are nothing.
Even Jarvis would take a while to do those things, yet this kid did them in seconds.
"Aaaand here we go, dealings with the 'Ten Rings' terrorist group, video calls and emails through secret accounts, dating back from a few years ago all the way to now." Hayden claps his hands, letting Jarvis spread the files wide, showing the emails, videos and leaked pictures to Tony, Pepper and Agent Coulson.
"You should've really put some tracking chips in your weapons, ya know?" Hayden whispers towards the grinning Tony, who chuckles and proceeds to ruffle his already messy hair.
Finally, the kid turns towards the 'milkmen'. "You want a USB Drive for the files?"
The Agent could only gulp as he stared at possible the most terrifying kid he had ever laid his eyes on.
This kid just hacked the S.H.I.E.L.D.'s servers like it's nothing…
...
"How's the kid?" Tony asks Pepper as she walks back into the now clean living room, a gentle smile on her face.
"Fast asleep the moment he hit the bed." Tony hums and nods, pouring himself a drink, which he proceeds to down in one gulp.
Pepper hesitates for a second, but in the end she speaks up. "Tony, where did you find him?"
Said man pauses, then pours himself another drink. "I didn't." He downs it again and pours another, then puts the bottle away. "He found me."
"Broke into my home as I was coming back, used my wallet to order a massive amount of food we both enjoyed, and I came back to find him creating a schematic for…" He opens his buttoned shirt to reveal the glowing Arc Reactor on his chest, which he taps twice. "This."
Pepper breathes in through her nostrils, eyes wide. "That's what's keeping you alive?" Tony nods, deciding not to say anything about the poisoning.
Mostly because he wasn't worried about it himself. Thanks to the kid, of course.
"Wait, he designed that?" Pepper gasps as Tony smirks proudly.
"Helped me change it too." He drawls out while swirling the alcoholic drink in his glass around, which he then proceeds to down once more.
His gaze then flicks to the bottle, finger rapping against the glass in consideration.
Pepper frowns. "Tony." She speaks up, making the man hum and snap his gaze towards her. "What's wrong?"
Tony keeps his eyes on hers, nail tapping against the glass in his hands. "I need to keep him hidden. From everything and everyone." Tony reveals after a bit of consideration, then he reaches for the bottle to fill his glass.
Pepper reaches forward and grabs the bottle out of his hands, forcing him to look back at her. "Why? You already care about him so-"
"It's not just that." Tony cuts her off, putting the glass down and running a hand across his hair while Pepper blinks at the fact that he kind of admitted to caring about the kid already. "It's…" Tony sighs, dropping his hands on his side.
Then snaps his fingers and raises a hand towards her. "Nanotechnology." He says, confusing her greatly. "If you were to make an estimate, how long do you think it would take me to create it?" He questions Pepper, further confusing her.
Yet, she decides to humour the man. "Uhm… Ten years?" She throws out a timestamp while shrugging.
Tony nods, then raises his head. "Jarvis." He calls out, and the Artificial Intelligence quietly creates a Hard-Light hologram between the two.
Numbers, letters, drawings, schematics and blueprints unravel before Pepper, her mouth falling open and her eyes going wide as she stares at the all the complex things before her.
"Tony… Is this…?" Pepper quietly asks for confirmation, and Tony nods seriously.
"It took me one hour to finalize the blueprints about my next project, even with Jarvis's help." The genius inventor starts, walking around the swirling hologram between them. "It took the kid half an hour to crack Nanotechnology." The man states heavily, jabbing a finger at the schematics before Pepper.
"His intelligence is beyond anything I can even imagine. He thinks and processes things faster than even Jarvis, Pepper. Faster than an Artificial Intelligence! Can you believe it?" Tony laughs, throwing his hands in the air before palming his face with both of them.
"Nobody can find out about him. About what he is truly capable off…" The genius inventor whispers, and Pepper steps forward.
"Do you know from where he even comes from?" She asks in a low whisper, holding Tony's arm as she does so.
Yet the man shakes his head, stunning her. "He has no name. Hayden is one he made up on the spot when I asked him for a name."
"No name, no surname, didn't even exist until he broke into my home. Probably deleted all traces of himself off the face of the web and buried them so deep no one can find them."
"He's hiding…" Pepper whispers in realization, and Tony nods in agreement.
"I don't know from who, or from what. But I'm gonna give the kid everything he needs to protect himself."
"Plus, didn't you see? He's just like a me!"
"An asshole?"
"Yeah!"