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Planning

Tony stretched to prepare for the workload that was going to be his new project.

He started with the list of things he would need and how he could access them.

The materials could be acquired via the Machine project which he was a part of. Even during his short stay into the lab, he saw a few scientists who weren't part of the project working on a couple of other things. If there was no way to get the necessary things while he was trying to figure out the Machine, he could steal their scraps and start disassembling other electronics.

It wouldn't make a very advanced suit of armor, but it would provide him with protection and if he got his hands on some more powerful weapons, a serious amount of firepower.

Assembly could also be done under the guise of working on the Machine and if that failed, he could steal power tools and do it in his own room.

Again, it wouldn't make a great suit but it would be better than the one he made in Afganistan, probably better than anything before Mark VII if he had enough time and he didn't have to put the suit together while bent over the coffee table in his living room.

The coffee table reminded him that if he was going to continue with his planning, he was going to need coffee.

Still a little tingly and excited from his secret scheme, he jumped off the chair he had been sitting in and turned on the coffee machine.

Tony got multiple cups of the lifegiving liquid and set them next to the computer.

He sipped the beverage and smiled. Even if he got desperate with materials, the coffee machine would stay where it was. Its coffee was too good to die.

Designing could be done with ease, his electronics had been equipped with hologram technology. Luckily, there was no need to worry about fitting - the energy scans that he had been previously looking over also had all of his measurements.

For what purpose, he didn't know and currently, he didn't care.

It would take a long time before he could start testing, but perhaps he could leave the building for that, take the suit with him to somewhere private.

Maybe someone could help him, but that was questionable at the moment. These people were still foreign to him and their helpfulness could be an act even though they hadn't displayed any malicious intent.

For now, Iron Man 2.0 had to be kept under wraps, his own secret once more.

He thought a bit about the nanites. They would be difficult to produce unnoticed and it would take a lot of testing and calibration before he could deem them battle-worthy. At most he could have them as an emergency option or a possible weapon on the actual armor.

Most of the design would depend on the materials, so it would make sense to survey what he had. Tomorrow, he would go back to the lab, talk to people, see their progress and think up the best way to access the leftover scraps, basic tools and perhaps the actual things and production devices used for the Machine.

He could start the collection by tearing open the weird juicer that he had found in one of the cupboards. The only thing that made it special was the electronics inside of it, namely the hologram display. If he didn't find anything else, it would have to do for a basic HUD.

It felt weird, working on the armor plans again. Even though it had been just a short while, life had changed so much for him.

And now he was back in the beginning, ready to build a superhero suit in secret, just this time he was alone with nobody he could truly trust.

If there was nobody, he could always trust himself and his hands to help him deal with the situation.

It was hilarious, someone like him relying on gut instinct to survive but it was true. When he was around certain people, alarm bells went off in his head even when he tried to stay as polite and cooperative as possible.

For a moment, he abandoned the project, grabbed a pen and a piece of paper.

Tony made a list of people and the way he felt about them in this universe.
Something in him told him to write it on paper, to get the words and his opinions out in the purest way possible at the moment.

After he was done, he read the first names on the list again.

Alter - Possibly trustworthy, need to gain trust beforehand

Peter P - Trustworthy

StrangerStrange (AlterStephen?) - DO NOT TRUST