Lexi POV:
"That kid definitely had hots for you Lexi."
"Really? That's the first thing you say in the past forty-five minutes we've been in this car? That kid has hots for you. Unbelievable Tony." I scoff.
"Yeah, well did you find anything out about AIM?" Tony asks as I furiously type on my computer.
"Nothing suspicious. I don't even have the type of power or authority to access it if there was. I mean, I have an IP for AIM that's run on behalf the U.S. government but we would need someone's account as a way in. Wait......woah, War Machine's switch to Iron Patriot was done by AIM? What does that mean?" I ask.
"It means we have a way in." Tony says. "Give me your phone."
I give him a look.
"Lexi can I please borrow your crappy SHIELD phone." He tries again.
I roll my eyes and hand him the phone. He types in a number and puts the phone on speaker.
"Uh..hello?" An unfamiliar voice says.
"Did you ever have a chick straddling you and you look up and suddenly she's glowing from the inside out, kind of a bright orange?" Tony asks as I groan again and facepalm.
"Really Tony?" I say.
"Shut it, Carson." Tony responds.
"Yeah, I've had that. Who is this?" The person asks.
"It's me, pal. Now last time I went missing, if I remember correctly, you came looking for me. What are you doing?" Tony smirks.
"A little knockin' talking, making friends in Pakistan. What are you doing?" He asks.
"Your re-design, your big re-brand, that was AIM, right?" Tony questions.
"Yeah."
Tony immediately takes a turn sending me against the window.
"Ugh...really questioning your driving skills Tony." I groan as I pull myself off of the window.
"I don't blame you." The voice says and I can almost hear them smirking. "Who am I speaking to?"
"Agent Carson, you are?" I ask.
"Colonel Rhodes. Nice to meet you."
"That was nice. While you two catch up, I'm gonna find a heavy-duty comsat right now and I need your login Rhodey."
"It's the same as it's always been, War Machine 68."
"And password please?" Tony asks.
"Well, look, I gotta change it every time you hack in, Tony." Rhodes says, sounding annoyed.
"It's not the eighties, nobody says 'hack' anymore. Give me your login." Tony sasses back.
There is silence on the other end and a sigh. "War machine rox. All caps."
Tony snickers and I snort. "That is so much better than Iron Patriot."
Tony finally pulls into some local festival and the two of us get out.
"Really. This is your big idea." I say, looking at our surroundings.
"Come on Carson," Tony half-groans. "Give me a little credit here."
We walk over to one of the News vans and sneak in while the cameraman is on the phone. I turn my computer back on and look over at Tony. "How much power we got?"
The speed test pulls up and it's barely doing anything.
"Yeah, that's not gonna a cut it." Tony says as the van door opens revealing the cameraman we snuck around.
"Excuse me. I don't know who..." He says, his eyes flickering with recognition.
Please say you don't know me. Please say you don't know me.
"Ssh..." Tony says, putting a finger over his mouth.
"Mom, I need to call you back, something magical is happening."
"Ssh man keep it down." I groan and continue to scan the computer.
"Tony Stark is in my van. Tony Stark is in my van. " He chants and I breathe out in relief. He doesn't know me.
"No, he's not." Tony says and I snort. "Come on in and shut the door."
"I knew you were still alive! Wow, can I just say, sir?"
"Uh..yeah," Tony says.
"I am your biggest fan." He says.
That's when I interject. "I don't mean to be rude and interrupt this beautiful moment but is this your van? Is anyone else going to come in here."
"No, no, no. It's just us." He says, looking at Tony.
Uh oh. Tony's got a fanboy.
"What's your name?" Tony asks.
"Gary." He guy says. Tony gets up and shakes his hand, and I think Gary's blushing. Oh my gods I am not letting Tony live this one down.
"Oh wow."
"I get a lot of this, it's okay." Tony smiles.
"Not since you've been dead." I sass.
"Shut up Carson."
"Oh, good. Can I just say?" Gary starts.
"What do you.....yeah?" Tony says confused.
"I don't know if you can tell, but I have like, patterned my whole look after you. " Gary says, taking off his hat and running his hand through his hair.
It is literally taking all of my willpower not to start laughing.
"My hair's a little...it's not right. Because there's no product in it," he says. "Also, I don't want to make things awkward for you, but........
I look down at Gary's tattoo and stifle a snort. Tony is NEVER living this one down.
"A Hispanic Scott Baio? Oh, I'm sorry. Is that me?" Tony says, kinda taken aback.
"Yeah. It's uh... I mean, I had them do it off a doll that I made, so it's not like it's off a picture. So it's a little bit..." Gary says.
I raise an eyebrow and judge him silently from my corner. Okay, I know there are probably a lot more people like him in the world, but when you know the person the tattoo's of......its awkward.
Just leave it at that.
"Gary, listen to me, okay? I don't wanna clip your wings here, we're all a little over-excited. I got an issue. I'm chasing bad guys, trying to grapple with something from some hard-crypt data files. I don't have enough juice. I need you to jump on the roof, right? Recalibrate the ISDNs, pump it up by about forty percent." Tony says, gesturing to my computer.
"Got it," Gary says.
"Right, it's a mission. Tony needs Gary."
"And Gary needs Tony." Gary finishes. This time, I can barely hide my snort.
"Just go and be quiet about it." Tony says and Gary climbs out of the van and shuts the door.
Tony and I look at each other and I start laughing.
"Okay, it's really not something you should laugh at," Tony says, trying to suppress a smile. "He's got a whole agenda and I respect him for that. By the way, I don't ever recall seeing any Silver Arrow fans."
"And I'm glad for that," I smirk as the computer starts working and pull up the AIM servers. "Just get ready to never live that down."
"Hey, what happens in the van, stays in the van."
Gary bangs on the side of the van to signal that the connection should be good and I use Rhodey's id to log into AIM.
"Tony you want to take it from here? I don't know what we are looking for." I ask and hand him my computer.
Tony takes the computer and pulls up some video entries from the AIM database. A man appears on the screen with the writing Chad Davis on the side of the screen.
"An interview?" I ask.
"What would you regard as the defining moment of your life?" A voice asks.
"Well, uh...I think that'd be the day I decided not to let my injury beat me." Davis responds.
Tony cuts to the interview of the woman who attacked us. Except, it seems she's lost her arm.
"Would you please state your name for the camera?" The same voice asks.
"Ellen Brandt." The woman responds with a smile.
"Okay. So, the injections are administered periodically. Addiction will not be tolerated and those who cannot regulate will be cut from the program." The voice says again, this time coming into view of the camera and giving a speech to a group of injured soldiers. "Once misfits, cripples...you are the next iteration of human evolution."
Tony then cuts the video the soldiers' first treatment. "Hi, everybody. Before we start, I promise you, looking back at your life there will be nothing as bitter as the memory of that glorious risk that you prudently elected to forego. Today is your glory. Let's begin!"
The soldiers are injected with the serum and some start glowing orange and red underneath their skin. However, some began to reject the serum and yelled out in agony.
"We gotta get out of here! Gotta get out of here! Get 'em out! Get 'em out of here!" The man yells as the soldier explodes.
"A bomb is not a bomb when it's a misfire." Tony mumbles to himself. "This stuff doesn't always work, right, pal? It's faulty, but you found a buyer, didn't you? Sold it to the Mandarin. Got you."
"Tony, who was that guy interviewing the participants?" I ask as we pack up our things.
"Aldrich Killian. Leader and CEO of AIM. Also someone I think I pissed off twenty years ago." Tony responds.
"You seem to have a gift for that don't you." I groan and climb out of the van, Tony behind me. We thank Gary for his van and Tony signs something that Gary handed to him.
Twenty minutes later we are on the road again. Heading....nowhere.
Then, Tony shoves my phone back in my face and says, "Call Harley."
"Really Stark? I'm not your personal butler." I eye roll and call the kid and put him on speaker.
"Harley, tell me what's happening, give me a full report." Tony says.
"Yeah, I'm still eating that candy, do you want...do you want me to keep eating it?" Harley says.
I smirk. "How much have you had?"
"Two or three bowls," He responds.
"Can you still see straight?" Tony asks him.
"Sort of."
"Then you should be fine," Tony says. "Give me JARVIS." A pause. "JARVIS, how are we?"
"It's totally fine, sir. I seem to do quite well for a stretch and then at the end of the sentence I say the wrong cranberry. And, sir, you were right. Once I factored in available AIM downlink facilities, I was able to pinpoint the Mandarin's broadcast signal."
"What're we talkin'? Far East, Europe, North Africa, Iran, Pakistan, Syria, where is it?" Tony asks.
"Actually, sir, it's in Miami." JARVIS replies.
"Okay. Kid, I'm gonna have to walk you through rebooting Jarvis' speech drive, but not right now. Harley, where is he really? Just look on the screen and tell me where it is."
"Uh...it does say Miami, Florida." Harley responds.
"Okay, first things first, I need the armor. Where are we at with it?" Tony asks.
"Uh..it's not charging." Harley hesitates.
"What?!" I say as Tony swerves the car and stops aburptly on the side of the road.
"Actually, it's charging, but the power source is questionable. It may not succeed in revitalizing the Mark 42 sir," JARVIS corrects.
"What's questionable about electricity? Alright, it's my suit and I can't...I'm not gonna...I don't wanna...Oh God not again." Tony says and climbs out of the car.
"Tony!" I call after him and get out as well.
"Tony? Are you having another attack? I didn't even mention New York." Harley says from the phone.
"Right, and then you just said it, by name, while denying having said it!" Tony exclaims from the ground.
I crouch in front of him and hand some fresh snow to him. "Tony you need to breathe. Slow your heart rate down."
"IT'S KINDA HARD TO RIGHT NOW LEXI!" He yells, staring out into space behind me.
"Listen to her Tony. Really, just breathe." Harley says. "You're a mechanic, right? "
"Yeah."
"You said so."
"Yes, I did."
"Why don't you just build something," Harley suggests.
Tony takes a deep breath and thinks for a moment. "Okay, thanks kid," he says. "I'm sorry for yelling, get in Carson, we have a hardware store to hit."
Shaking my head at his sudden change in demeanor, I get up and slide into the car and relax into the seat for a very long drive down to Florida.
Hey Hey!!! What's up fam its Nerdy_Girl!!
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