Who: Virgil and Tony When: Early March Where: Stark Enterprises What: Random Encounter, they talk about Virgil’s inventions Rating/Warnings: Low/None Status: Complete
The zap caps from Virgil’s dreams had been pretty helpful, at least as far as the dreams went. Richie had invented the electrical grenades pretty early on in the dreams, and they’d definitely gotten Static out of a couple of sticky situations.
They weren’t very powerful, and Virgil used them more for distractions than anything else. They’d also helped protect Richie, who, early on in the dreams, hadn’t had any super powers himself. But Virgil now was turning his mind to other uses for them.
It was a wonder that he hadn’t thought of it in the dreams, where he fairly frequently used up all his power in a fight and had to find a place to recharge. But he was working on a way now to modify them so that they could hold more power, and so that Virgil could use them as something like a recharging battery if he did happen to run out of power. It hadn’t happened yet, but the dreams showed it happening frequently enough that it could be a real problem.
The equipment at Stark Industries was miles above the stuff he had at home, and even the high tech gear at school. That, and he had a little more privacy to work at Stark if he stayed behind after everyone else had left. There were always students hanging around CalTech, trying to finish their last minute projects, but unless there was a deadline looking, people tended to leave Stark Industries when their shift was over.
It wasn’t that he was going to use any supplies to build them out of Stark’s inventory, but being able to use the equipment was a huge boon. The lights of the lab were some of the only ones on the floor that were still on, and Virgil hunched over the table, his safety goggles on tight to protect his eyes from the sparks that were flying as he soldered a couple of pieces together.
Most of the employees at Stark left relatively early. But since Pepper had moved cross country, Tony found that his late nights were coming more and more frequently. He didn’t have anyone (besides Clint, sometimes) to remind him to get home and get some sleep. Besides, there was food and booze here. What more did he want?
He was wandering through the labs downstairs, having had a couple of drinks and now just walking it off, searching for inspiration, when he came across one of the interns (… a kid… Virgin? Vir-something… Tony was sure he’d come up with it.) and raised an eyebrow. “You’re here late.” He said, wandering through the room.
Virgil jumped at the sound of Tony’s voice, feeling as though he was doing something wrong. The soldering iron died immediately - Virgil had been using his own powers to power it, both because he loved using his powers and because he didn’t want to use more of Stark’s resources than he had to, including the electricity bill.
“Sir!” Virgil exclaimed in surprise, wheeling around, and hoping desperately he wasn’t about to get fired or something. “Yeah, I was just working on… on a project. What’re you doing here?” It was his building, duh. “I mean, it is pretty late.”
Tony decided to ignore the exclaimed “sir!” and the question, and focus on the most important part of the younger man’s words. Project. Tony loved himself some projects. He was definitely interested in whatever this young man was working on, and stepped closer to try and get a better look. The thing where the soldering iron died immediately? Cool trick. He’d have to ask about that later.
“A project, hmm? What kind?” Tony asked, using a hand signal to a camera in the corner to bring the lights up a little more in the room.
Virgil swallowed. Of course Tony would be interested in this kind of thing. He turned to Tony, holding the shock cap for him to see. It fit comfortably in the palm of his hand, metal, round, and looking vaguely like a grenade minus the safety pin. “I’m just trying to work on a new kind of battery,” he said. A battery that had no way to attach to anything that required a battery, he realized belatedly.
Hey, Tony totally didn't judge. He also understood about tech that was specific to certain situations, like batteries that don't have cables or jacks. (He had the arc reactor still lodged in his chest, after all.) Tony stepped closer and held a hand out for the device. “Mind if I take a look?”
For a moment, Virgil was hesitant. Then he realized he was being stupid. There was no way that Tony could figure out that Virgil was a superhero by one of these things. “Here,” he said, handing it over to Tony. “Richie initially invented them,” he said, and quickly explained the technical aspects of it. “It’s kind of like a shock grenade. You throw it at the bad guy, and zap. Stuns him a bit, or at the very least temporarily blinds him if he’s looking at it. I thought I’d modify it a bit though. See if I can’t turn it into a kinda portable energy source, you know?”
Tony was actually quite impressed with the design. It seemed like a cross between a water balloon and a taser. Kind of. Hey, he was all about storing energy. Portable energy sources were pretty important to run his suit. He nodded. “This is a pretty excellent design.” He turned the thing over a few times, then passed it back. “You and Richie make a pretty good team.”
“That we do,” Virgil said, a little absently, his pleasure at the praise replaced quickly by the mention of Richie. Richie’s parents had called him back home, and Virgil still wasn’t sure what was going to come out of the trip back. He didn’t want to think of it too much. Richie would always be his best friend, even if he didn’t live in California anymore, though Virgil wasn’t so sure that they’d still be boyfriends.
“Any ideas on howta improve it?”
“I do have a couple of ideas.” Tony said, then drew his lips in on each other, pressing them together in thought. He motioned to a couple of parts of the device that could be improved, and gave a couple of suggestions as to how to improve it.
Virgil wished that he’d had a pad of paper and pen to jot all these things down, but he had a pretty good memory and he drank up every word that Tony said, nodding at each of the suggestions. He could definitely see the benefit of them, and he was glad that he had someone who knew what he was about around to help him out.
“I woulda never thought of that,” he said truthfully. “Don’t suppose you’d wanna work on it with me?” he offered tentatively, placing a hand behind his back so he could subtly nudge the soldering iron’s plug into the socket with his powers so that it would appear that it had been plugged in this whole time.
Tony paused for a moment, considering. He pulled his wrist up and checked his watch. Unfortunately, he had alternate plans for the evening. This was one of the last stops on the list anyway. “Not tonight,” he said, apologetically. “But another time. Send me a message when you’re planning on working on it again.”
Part of Virgil was disappointed by Tony’s answer, but an even bigger part of him was relieved. It was a lot easier to work on these kind of things when he could use his powers. “Fo’ sho,” he said. “Or any other project. I’d be down for pretty much anything.” Oh no, did it sound like he was grovelling? It totally sounded like he was grovelling.
“Sounds good.” Tony could tell he was grovelling. But that didn’t bother Tony at all. He got it all the time from his employees. He gave the younger man a smile. “Don’t stay up too late.” He said, then turned to head out of the room, with a little smile on his face.