Star Dust (A Paladin Adventure)

Origin Story

Sooo. The idea of being back in New York was tempting. And it was a way to reinvent myself, I thought. I told Peter I'd give it some thought, but that was a lie, and we both knew it. He'd had me on the hook as soon as he proposed his idea. I had to do something, and maybe it was time to learn a new trade, go to work like a normal person, come home, have dinner, walk the dogs... maybe catch some criminals in a new suit. Something completely unlike anything I'd worn as Paladin. First thing the next morning, I called Foggy and had him start to work on a shell company for me, so my name wouldn't be on any legal transactions for property. I knew Stark haunted LexisNexis, and he'd probably be trying to track me. Why make it easy for him?

But before anything else, there was Bucky. I made myself go to the tower and presented myself at the front desk. The guard called for Bucky, who came down promptly, fresh out of the shower in jeans and a t-shirt. I sniffed as we took the private elevator up. "You changed your cologne," I noted. He was wearing something that had a nice rich clove note and a light warm musk.

He looked at me and smiled a little. "Yeah, I needed a change." Then he sobered. "I need to tell you that T'Challa told Stark that you were going to be here. I don't think he meant any harm, but I told everybody to stay away while you were working and I think they'll respect that."

I felt like snarling, but kept a pleasant look on my face. "Ok, I appreciate the head's up. But we both know Stark doesn't really work like that. If it happens, we'll just have to work elsewhere." Bucky nodded and led me to an empty workroom where the Wakandan scientist waited. His name was Samuel, and he'd gotten all of his degrees in Cambridge. He launched into an explanation of how the sensors worked of which I understood about one word in seven. From what I understood, if the sensors were successfully installed, he'd be able to register temperature and pressure. The number of sensors was disappointingly small, but they were surprisingly  large. I had Samuel hook up a sensor to one of the new clips at Bucky's shoulder and touched it to see what Bucky felt. His eyes opened wide and had me touch his organic arm for comparison. He was so excited when he said he could feel the temperature change from my fingers and the pressure. Samuel puffed up a little; the sensors were his baby.  

We started running into snags almost immediately. First, even I couldn't make the sensors attach to the arm. Then I had concerns about the number of sensors and the area they could cover; I wanted Bucky to have sensations all over his arm, not just his hand, which is where Samuel wanted to concentrate them. Both Samuel and I got frustrated, and late in the afternoon I threw in the towel. "I'm not quitting the project," I assured Bucky. "But we're not accomplishing anything positive right now. I'm calling it a day. I'm sure both Samuel and I will be thinking about potential solutions tonight, but I just want to tear my hair out right now. Let's reconvene tomorrow morning." Samuel stopped grinding his teeth, and I left with relief.

Halfway through dinner, I had a brainstorm. Wire. I needed to make wire from the alloy. I checked a couple of sources from my table. I'd have to go to a couple of supply houses to get what I needed to recreate it, but I could get a start tonight. I bolted the rest of my dinner, got the dessert to go, and tore around the city. A last stop at a Home Depot yielded the final batch of equipment. Back in my hotel room, I measured the mass of the metals and minerals on a sensitive balance and put them in a crucible. I wouldn't need a lot of metal to produce the wire. Firing up a propane torch, I melted everything, then poured it in a mold to obtain a long, thin rod. Then I thought again and made a small ingot just in case I needed the metal for something else. Wanting to be fresh the next morning, I went to bed early.

I hustled over to the tower, fighting the commuter traffic, in the morning. The desk guard was no one I knew, and I liked the anonymity as I signed in. He picked up the phone and was about to dial upstairs when there was a shriek. We both looked over to see Eliza almost running toward the desk to hug me. "Emma!" she said breathlessly. "It's so good to see you!" She backed away slightly to look me over, then gave me another hug. Pepper came up behind her and gave me a pat on the shoulder.