Who: Pepper and Tony When: During the Crime Plot Where: Stark Industries // In the Suit What: Testing the new software, fighting crime Rating/Warnings: Low/None (It doesn't get too graphic or violent.) Status: Complete
Pepper was worried. Jarvis was a supercomputer who knew exactly what to do when something unexpected happened with Tony and the suit but she wasn’t a supercomputer and if something happened she worried she wouldn’t be fast enough or smart enough to help him. But she had promised she would help and she intended to keep that promise. If all went well Jarvis would work and everything would go smoothly.
Tony had been diligently working on the Jarvis 2.0 AI software. He was fairly certain that everything was in working order, but at the same time, he wasn’t confident enough to run it on his own without having an extra set of eyes and hands on it.
Tony was in the suit, in the air. Communication channels open and secure. He was moving through the streets of the city, toward the coast. “You logged in?”
“Logged in” she confirmed able to see his face through the little comm screen in the suit, “everything is looking good. I think” she added, “Anything interesting out there?” she asked him with a smile.
“So far it’s quiet.” Tony said, using the computer’s scanning system to check the side streets he didn’t have on the main viewfinder. “Just keep your eyes on the police scanner. I turned it off on my end.” Too many things calling for his attention. And he wanted to put some music on.
“Okay, I’ll let you know if there’s anything you need to know about” Pepper said, “How’s the suit?” she asked, checking the screens.
“Again, so far so good.” Tony said. He cleared his throat. “I think I’d know if something was off, even by a nearly imperceptible amount. This thing has become like a second skin to me.” Not just in the Dreams, but in this world, too. He was just as good a suit-pilot here as he was there.
“I have no doubt you would. Everything is looking good from here or at least no red warning signs are screaming at me” she told him smiling. He was very good but that didn’t stop Pepper worrying whenever he went out in it, being able to keep an eye on him like this was actually rather good.
Maybe it was a bonding experience. Something to make their relationship a bit stronger. Tony had been dreaming more about the machines he’d built in that other world, and was working on more suits, more advanced technology. It was amazing, the things he’d done in the Dream World. He wanted to make it a reality.
He turned a corner and lowered to fly closer to the street. “This seems so much easier in the Dreams. Everything’s in black and white there. Or, the bad guys are wearing black hats, for the most part.”
He paused in his flight when he saw a man and a woman struggling in an alley. She looked like she was trying to push him off. Then he heard a scream.
Tony landed in the suit right behind the guy, and pulled him off of the woman, then chucked him across the alley and into a dumpster.
Maybe it was. Pepper wasn’t as averse to the suits as she was in the dreams, in fact she found them rather incredible and thanks to Stiles she was learning to understand things a bit more. She’d been asking him for help so that she could assist Tony better.
“Real life isn’t quite as easy” Pepper replied before she saw him move swiftly and accessing CCTV cameras saw what was happening. “Tony the police are on their way but it looks like they’re responding to another call. There’s been a break in at a store around the corner. Does that guy have any jewellery on him?” she asked because the close proximity seemed too much of a coincidence.
Tony turned to glance, and the video scanned. He could see the sparkle of something on the guy against the dumpster. “I think so.” He said and took a few steps forward.
“Thank you,” the woman said. She was shaking, but Tony wasn’t paying her much attention. He wanted to make sure her attacker didn’t get away.
“Be careful” Pepper said, seeing what Tony was. She knew the man would be rather desperate to get away and desperate people did desperate things.
Tony moved to the dumpster and pulled back part of it so he could prevent the man from scurrying off. The man pulled out a gun, but Tony simply grabbed it out of his hand, then crunched it in his mechanical fist and tossed it aside.
“Don’t you know that Guns kill people?” Tony asked, his robotic voice ringing in the alleway.
“You’re--you’re--you’re…” the man started, even as Tony started checking his pockets for the lost jewelry.
“I’m Iron Man.” Tony said. He found some of the jewelry and frowned inside the suit. “...if you hadn’t attacked that woman, you would have gotten away with this.”
“She was hot,” the man said.
Suddenly, Tony head butted him, and he fell down to the floor of the alleyway, unconscious.
“Well done” Pepper said, “That was quite enough of him” she checked a couple of the screens, “Police aren’t far at all now. They’re slowly checking the area” she informed him, knowing he could probably see as much.
Tony wasn’t sure how much the police would want him interfering. There were laws against vigilante justice. He turned back to the woman--who was now holding up her cell phone and taking pictures--possibly video--of Tony in his suit. He held up two fingers in a ‘peace’ sign, then asked, “you’ll be all right? I have other lives to save.”
The woman nodded, staring with disbelief into the screen of her phone.
Then Tony took off again, to head up and out of the alley.
“That is going to be all over youtube and the internet by tomorrow morning” Pepper said though there was amusement in her tone.
“Good.” Tony said. “Jarvis, let’s rock a little AC/DC on the way home.”
“Yes, Sir,” the computer spoke, his voice uncannily like Tony’s best friend, “Estimated Time of Arrival at Stark Tower; seven minutes.”