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Building

Tony smiled as he took another mysterious package from the bottom of the armchair in the lab, unnoticed due to everyone eating in the cafeteria. After the incident with the break-in, the AI had agreed to help him.

Yesterday's package had been delivered just a bit before midnight, almost making it today's gift, placed right in front of his room. He didn't know how JARVIS managed to get it there, but he wasn't complaining.

He made his way to his living area and swiftly hid it into a cupboard and made his way to the cafeteria. He clutched the tablet, which had displayed the whereabouts of people just a moment ago but now was completely blank to refrain anyone from peeking at it and figuring out what he was doing.

"Hey, Bruce," he said to the curly-haired man sitting by the table nearest to him, "mind if I join you?"

He looked up and a slight smile appeared on his face as he replied: "Not at all, Mr. Stark."

Tony placed his tablet onto the table, went to get some food for himself and returned to the scientist right after that.

"So," he muttered while stabbing his salad leaves with his fork, "do you think we will manage to get the Machine done within the year?"

Bruce was currently chewing on his food so he waited a bit before answering: "I'm pretty sure in a year this universe will be a memory to you. Judging by the speed we are progressing right now, we should be done in a couple of months."

Tony stopped his salad stabbing and tried to say nonchalantly: "What if we won't be?"

To that, the scientist frowned. "Then you will just stay here a little longer, we don't mind. You're a good guy to work with, even if you aren't the cheerful Tony Stark I expect to meet when I see you," he gave a soft smile, "It's nice in a way. You're your own person, a new acquaintance for us to engage with."

They sat in silence afterward and when their food was finished, they walked back to the working area and continued, as they had for the past week.

Today, they were working on the part that would essentially be a pointer for energy - through that, they would release it, break spacetime and stab a tiny hole through a universe. The pointer would be surrounded with another circle of energy releases which would once again shoot the energy, the circles would be repeated until the last one would be covered in stoppers that would create a forcefield to keep the rip from spreading further.

The forcefield would need some work, but the prototype for the pointers could be started right now.

Tony fiddled with some parts, which he stuffed into his pants pockets and 3D printed a couple of details, both for the Machine and himself. He was supposed to just be overlooking it, having assigned an easier job to prevent any unforeseen consequences.

What they didn't know was that he had aimed for the 3D printer in the first place. The last package JARVIS had sent had multiple metal details and necessary wires, yet it lacked the more specific parts which he needed to attend to personally.

With the AI working with him, there was a chance he might be able to produce a small amount of less sophisticated nanites not unlike the mark L.

When the work was done for the day and everyone was leaving, Tony went to his rooms, emptied his pockets and reached into the cupboard to get hold of the package.

It was a simple box, wrapped into brown paper like a mundane package, nothing that caught the eye.

The mechanic tore open the paper and opened the box inside to find a tiny trapezius-shaped glowing object. Tony whooped silently because that miniature piece of what was essentially glowing wire, was actually the element necessary for an arc reactor to run on. He didn't know how the AI had gotten a hold of that, but he was grateful nevertheless.

Leaving it inside its protective glass container, he observed the other materials in the box. It wasn't as much as last time due to the arc reactor core element's rather big casing, but there was enough to continue building.

He opened the seemingly harmless and unopenable poufs at the foot of the bed and took out the basic framework for a gauntlet. Today it was time to finally add the repulsor part of it, making it an actual weapon rather than an exoskeleton that would support and strengthen his arm.

There was no way he was testing it here, there wasn't even any reliable source of power outside of the power cables that let some of his tools even work. It would be tedious to fix it or cobble together a backup generator, which wouldn't give off nearly as much energy as he could mooch off the power grid.

Slowly, Tony descended completely into the zone, the only thing missing was his blaring music and an actual lab, but this was a great substitute for that.

The repulsor part of the gauntlet was coming along nicely and was soon to be completed, while the outer layer was still a framework, leaving his skin exposed from attacks. He still had to think about the kind of a weapon he could attach to the upper part of it. There was no way JARVIS could smuggle him missiles, so perhaps a laser or a blade would have to do for now.

While he was working, he didn't hear a nervous knock on the door which was repeated for a couple of times. After the fourth time, a hesitant man opened the door slowly, as if trying to avoid any attention on him.

He sneaked farther into the room, still unnoticed by Tony, yet he wouldn't stay hidden much longer. He stubbed his toe on the corner of an armchair, the same one the genius had cowered behind just a couple of night ago.

The sound of that alerted the man in question and instinctively, he dropped his tools and put on the gauntlet. He attached a cord coming from it to an extension cord which he plugged into the wall.

Hand raised, ready to attack, he marched into the room.

When he saw the one that had entered, he yelped: "PETER?"

A similarly baffled voice answered him: "Mr. Stark?"