24 Chapter 24) – Broken Machine

After an unknown amount of time, and an equally unknown amount of coffee, Mara slowly released the final metallic coil and stepped back as the chains wrapped around the circumference of the coil became taut in order to keep it suspended it in the air.

Tony, with his trusty spirit level, got close to the coil in order to ensure that it settled perfectly level and would therefore allow them to start the element creation experiment.

With the little bubble within the green liquid in the centre of the spirit level's length, Tony wore a pleased smile, "Perfectly level. Good job, Mara. With the loop complete and all the prep work done, we can fire her up."

Preventing my host from continuing the conversation was the sound of the garage door being unlocked.

As both Tony and Mara turned their heads to the entrance's direction, they were greeted by the suited agent Coulson who got straight down to business, "I heard you might have found a solution Mr. Stark. I assume the remodelling has something to do with that?"

Smiling and waving to the agent, it was Mara that replied, "Yo Coulson, nice of you to finally get here. You're just in time, we were about to fire this mini particle accelerator up and see what happens."

Scoffing at my host's words, Tony 'corrected' her statement, "It's not a miniature particle accelerator Mara, it's a prismatic accelerator. A particle accelerator smashes particles together to study the energy released, the reactions, or what other particles are produced. This prismatic accelerator will allow me to focus the particle stream into an intensified beam of subatomic particles with sufficient intensity to synthesize the new element my dear old dad first theorised but was prevented from actually creating due to the technological limitations."

With Tony's technical exposition being useless to my host, the information went in 1 ear, and out the other.

Instead of trying to rebuke, or understand, the Iron Man's words, Mara just pointed to him as she said to Coulson, "What he said. You wanna watch?"

Giving my host a slight smile, Coulson replied, "As much as I appreciate the offer, I came here to let you know that since you have found a potential cure, I'm being reassigned. As such, I need to do a hand over to my replacement."

Bobbing her head, Mara questioned, "Are you able to say where you're being reassigned, or is it confidential? And who's my point of contact now?"

Still sporting his slight smile, Coulson answered my host's queries, "The Director wants me in New Mexico for a possible 0-8-4. You can ask your new lead what the code stands for. I would introduce you to your new lead, but you've already met - and know her quite well."

Not leaving us in suspense, as soon as Coulson had finished his sentence, we heard the sound of heels clacking on the stairs that lead to the garage.

Attached to the heels were a pair of slim, yet athletic, olive legs. Yes, our new lead was also our handler – May.

Walking through the unlocked garage entrance, May came to a stop besides Coulson as he introduced her for Tony's sake, as he had no idea who she was, "This is Melinda May. Mara and El already know her as she's their handler as a result of them being newly recruited. I've worked alongside her multiple times, and she is an exemplary agent with a wealth of experience. She's also the one who taught Mara the little technique that turned off the lights the other night - if you catch my drift."

Still as stubborn as ever, Tony responded, "Nope, no idea what you mean. Now are you done with the introductions? My life is, quite literally, ticking away and I'd rather it stop doing that - at the speed it currently is at least."

Not seeing the need to drag out the conversation either, Coulson retorted while holding out his hand for a handshake, "Goodbye, Mr. Stark. And good luck."

Taking the offered hand, Tony replied, "Bye. Thanks."

With the 2 men separating their hands, Coulson gave Mara a few parting words, "You've done well so far Mara, there'll be no complaints in the mission report from me. Good luck with the rest of the assignment and thank you for taking my recommendation for handler. You and May will do great things together, I'm certain of it."

Widening the smile on her face, my host said, "Thanks Coulson. Have fun with your 0-8-4 thingy and, whatever it is, stay safe."

The agent nodded his head once, and left the garage after confirming, "I will."

With Coulson's exit, there was only Tony, me, Mara, and May left in the garage.

Not wanting to waste any more time, Tony promptly resumed his experiment, "Mara, everything's ready so let's get this show on the road. You and your girlfriend get some of the protective spectacles on, it's going to get bright."

Rolling her eyes, for the umpteenth time, at the childish comment, Mara followed Tony's advice and proceeded to grab a pair of protective glasses for herself as well as May.

Stopping Tony moments away from turning on the prismatic accelerator, Mara asked him, "What exactly is supposed to happen, Rusty? Just so we can recognise if something goes wrong and I can attempt to get you 2 out before we explode or something."

In his crouched position with the starter key hovering over the console that would begin the experiment, Tony turned back to my host as he replied, "Rusty, really?"

Pleased that her jab got a reaction from the Iron Man, in revenge for him called May her girlfriend, Mara put on her best smug face as she answered, "It's perfect, isn't it? You can describe someone that is old as rusty, and with you it has a double meaning since iron also rusts to show its weathered condition. Sometimes I stagger even myself with my genius."

Just staring at my host for a few seconds, Tony eventually cursed, "Fuck. That's a good one. But we've been over this - not old. At least wait a few more years before using that."

Mara agreed to his terms, for the time being, "Huff, fine. I'll let you enjoy your illusion of youth for a little while longer. Now could you answer my question?"

Standing up from his previously crouched position, with the activation key still in his hand, Tony did precisely that, "The idea is relatively simple. The acceleration is more of a charging or warming up of the subatomic particle stream. When the stream gets intensified enough, I use the prism within the loop to redirect the beam towards the triangular shaped core over there-"

As the Iron Man pointed towards a circular block of metal with various wires and pipes attached to it. Contained within it was an inverted triangle that would become the new core.

"-And once the core is charged enough, I cut the power to the accelerator so that the beam can die out. In theory it should be as simple as turn on the accelerator, wait for full power, redirect beam, success. Easy, right?"

Nodding, Mara replied, "I mean sure, it does sound easy. But how often do things go to plan?"

Tony took a second to think about the question as he gave an answer, "Surprisingly, more often than I would have thought. Only 1 way to find out though."

Kneeling back down to the control panel, Tony inserted the key and turned it to active the accelerator.

May took a couple of steps back from the accelerator loop while Mara stood between the handler and the loop. This was so that she could at least attempt to rescue the other 2 if something did go wrong.

According to Mara it didn't in the movie, but with the butterfly effect just from Mara existing in the world, the outcome of anything wasn't a certainty anymore.

As the accelerator whirred to life, J.A.R.V.I.S. gave status updates on the situation, {Initializing Prismatic Accelerator.}

Tony walked over to the coil containing the prism, so that he could re-direct the beam with the circular valve on top of it when the time was right.

With J.A.R.V.I.S.'s announcement of, {Reaching maximum power.} Tony grabbed ahold of the valve and tried to start turning it so that the focussed beam could be redirected.

Unfortunately, part of the mechanism was stuck, and he couldn't turn the valve by hand.

Tony immediately turned around to Mara, with a slight hint of worry in his tone, as he asked, "Mara, a little hand here? I can't turn it."

Not hesitating for a second Mara walked up to the Iron Man, who moved out of the way for her, and grabbed hold of the valve.

Controlling our strength so that we didn't shear the valve from the mechanism, we twisted the valve to change the angle of the particle beam.

Thankfully we didn't have to touch the beam itself as it became immediately apparent that whatever it consisted of was extremely hot. This was evident by the trail of flames and damage it left behind the more it angled closer to the triangular core.

When the beam eventually made contact with the core, I was once again thankful that Mara had helped me become immune to sonic vibrations.

The interaction between the beam and the core created a high-pitched whistling sound, not unlike a dog whistle, that would have definitely affected me had I not gained immunity against such sounds.

Shouting over the ear-piercing noise, Mara asked the Iron Man, "HOW LONG DO WE HAVE TO HOLD IT?!"

Tony didn't respond to my host as he was just staring at the core as it got brighter and brighter.

It was only when the light was so intense that even with the tinted protective glasses on, the core was indistinguishable from the light, that Tony ran over to the control panel and turned off the accelerator.

With the accelerator's whirring and the whistling from the core both dying down, Tony walked back over to Mara without taking his eyes off the core for a second as the light began to fade.

Patting his right hand on Mara's left shoulder, Tony said, "See, easy. What did I tell you."

As everyone removed their protective glasses and Tony ducked under the coil loop to get to his new element, I removed our agent form and transformed back into the playsuit attire from earlier in the day now that our heavy lifting was done.

May moved closer to the loop, as the potential danger of the cobbled together prismatic accelerator had passed, and stood on the left of my host where Tony had been moments before, "Looks like your first official mission is going to be a resounding success, Mara. Congratulations."

Although pleased, Mara expected that the big battle at the Expo would still go ahead since she hadn't intervened in the Hammer and Whiplash partnership. Taking that into consideration she replied to May, "We still need to make sure that the new core works as intended and that Tony's body can purge the Palladium in its system."

Nodding her head once in agreement with my host, May responded, "Not getting ahead of yourself, that's a good mentality. Although celebrating when a major hurdle has been overcome, or an accomplishment has been made, is a natural reaction - always remember that the mission isn't over until the debrief. You've already got a great foundation for a S.H.I.E.L.D. field agent so far. I believe Coulson will be right if you continue on this trajectory."

While the duo were talking, Tony had made it over to the new element and removed it from the circular metal block, it was situated in, with pliers. He then moved it over to the new unit he had made for the core.

As he dropped the core into the housing, the arc reactor within it began to spin to life.

J.A.R.V.I.S., ever the helpful assistant, told Tony, {Sir, the new core appears to be compatible with the arc reactor. Running diagnostics to ensure suitability as a replacement for the Palladium.}

Breathing a sigh of relief, Tony turned away from the new core and directed his attention to my host, "Thanks, Mara. I probably would have been able to do this without you, but I can't deny that your assistance was of value."

Holding up a hand to cup her ear, my host replied, "Sorry what was that? I couldn't hear you?"

Noticing Mara's intention straight away, Tony didn't fall into her trap, "Yeah, no. Just saying it once made my skin crawl, not doing it again."

Clicking her tongue, Mara questioned, "Tsk, spoil sport. So, if this thing replaces the Palladium, what happens to the poisoning in your system? Are you gonna rely on your body to slowly detoxify it, or you got something else in mind?"

Not having thought about what came next, Tony said as such, "I never really thought about it to be honest. I fully expected not to develop a cure, so whatever came after wasn't really on my mind. Relying on my body to resolve it doesn't seem exactly safe, so I'll have to think of something else while J.A.R.V.I.S. is running the checks on the Badassium."

Latching onto what Tony had just said, Mara queried, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait just a minute. What do you mean Badassium? There's no shot you named the new element without asking me. I did half the work!"

The Iron Man switched into his business mode as he countered my host's argument, "I was the one that upfronted the cost, as well as orchestrated the technical side of it. You just did all of the manual labour that I would have been able to do myself, just over a longer time. Therefore, it would be more accurate to say you did about 15 – 20% of the work, maximum, giving me the 80% majority. Ergo, my majority ownership, my Badassium."

Turning to look at her handler, Mara sought back-up, "May??"

Which the handler, and mission lead, didn't give to my host, "Sorry Mara, but Mr. Stark is correct. He did do the majority of the work and it was his father that originally discovered the element. To be honest, it wouldn't be inaccurate to classify it as an inheritance."

Pouting, Mara slipped into her childish mode, "But that's not fair!"

Her statement caused Tony to chuckle, as the Iron Man replied, "Sorry kid, but life's not fair."

Not appreciating Tony laughing at her dejection, Mara narrowed her eyes at the Iron Man as she retorted, "You'd know all about life, wouldn't you? Pensioner."

As Tony opened his mouth to reply, which would have led into another old age discussion/argument, May cut him off before he got a word out, "Mr. Stark. S.H.I.E.L.D. may have a solution to your poisoning problem. Our experts theorised that if worst came to worst, we could perform blood transfusions to clean out your poisoned blood and replace it with uncontaminated blood. This would extend your lifespan, not by a lot, but enough to possibly find a solution to the poisoning. In-fact, if you hadn't found a solution in the next couple of days, S.H.I.E.L.D. most likely would have come up with something. The last report stated that the scientists we have working on it were extremely close to discovering a possible fix. Obviously just swapping out your blood won't immediately heal your organs, which have been damaged by the contaminated blood, so you'll have to take it easy for a few days. But by flushing out your system a few times, we believe you'll make a full recovery now that the source of the poisoning has been removed."

With my host still pouting, the Iron Man ignored her and replied to the handler, "I would appreciate that agent May. Do you need to call someone to get the equipment and blood to bring it over? J.A.R.V.I.S. what's my blood type?"

Interrupting the rejuvenated man, May said, "Don't worry, we know. It's A positive. I've already notified the necessary agents; they'll be here in about-" The handler looked at her watch as she continued, "-2 to 3 minutes. We should head upstairs to meet them. The garage is a bit… messy for a medical procedure, same for the rest of the mansion, so we'll do it in the Quinjet. Although it would be comical, I'm sure getting an infection after being poisoned for so long wouldn't be good for your body."

While Tony stared at the agent in bemusement, J.A.R.V.I.S. answered Tony's earlier question, {She is correct, sir. Your blood type is A positive.}

Hearing the AI, May showed no smug expression and wore the stoic mask she always did - except for the time Mara complemented her fighting combo.

Tony continued to stare at the handler, before he snapped out of his confusion as he replied, "Usually I would find that creepy, but I don't know what else I would expect from a super-secret spy organization. Rather than creeped out, I'm now concerned how much you know about me. For the time being that can wait, and we'll do as you say since I am, technically, still dying."

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It took approximately 3 hours for the blood to arrive and for the entire transfusion of the contaminated blood to be completed.

By focusing strictly on the most contaminated areas of Tony's body, according to the medical agents that performed the procedure, approximately 70% of the poisoning was able to be removed with a single 550ml blood bag.

During said 3 hours, my host had recovered from her pouting mood and J.A.R.V.I.S. finished the diagnostic of the new Badassium core.

As such, the same 3 humans, that were initially in the garage for the experiment, returned to the garage while the blood transfusion agents stayed in the Quinjet. May directed them to wait for the all-clear before they headed back to wherever the S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters was located.

As Mara, Tony and May stared at the new core, J.A.R.V.I.S. gave an explanation on it, {The Badassium, as Mr. Stark has designated it, is a more powerful core than the Palladium by quite a substantial degree. As such, I theorise that it should purge the remaining contamination within your bloodstream, sir. Just like the Palladium core, the excess power will seep into your bloodstream but fortunately, from my simulations, there are no obvious negative side effects like poisoning, and it will actually make you feel more energetic. The drawback of it being so powerful is that the previous suits were not designed to handle the load, and as such are incompatible with the core.}

Picking up the core from its pedestal on the semi-circular desk, still sat in front of the back garage door, Tony didn't seemed concerned about the suits being unusable, "We can put together a compatible suit in no time. Time to test this thing out."

Pulling out the Palladium Arc Reactor from his chest, Tony placed it on the desk before inserting the Badassium Arc Reactor into his chest hole and slapping it into place.

As the core began to glow brighter and brighter, the few remaining visibly poisoned veins on the Iron Man's chest receded while Tony himself seemed to get giddy, presumably from the energy of the core, "Woooo! Urgh, why does it taste like coconut? Oh, FUCK, YEAH!"

May shielded her eyes from the glow and I created a tendril to shield my host's eyes. Neither were wearing the protective glasses they had previously worn, as nobody expected the installation of the core to be as bright as the creation of it.

Once the glow had died down, after only a few seconds of the blinding light, I removed the tendril and May removed her arm from her eyes to reveal a much more energetic looking Tony.

He bounced up and down on the pads of his feet, causing Mara to comment, "You look like a hyperactive child that's just eaten an entire bag of sugar."

Tony was enjoying his rejuvenation so much that he either ignored Mara or was just too detached to even hear her. Either way, he didn't miss what J.A.R.V.I.S. said following my host's statement, {Sir, you have an incoming call from a blocked number.}

Tony turned to May and asked, "Is that 1 of yours or have you returned my phone privileges?"

If May was confused, she didn't show it as she replied, "It shouldn't be someone from S.H.I.E.L.D. as they could just contact me or Mara if they needed to. Your communication access was restored as soon as you succeeded in creating the re-discovered element. You were just too busy to use it."

Tony nodded to himself as he said, "True. Send it through J.A.R.V.I.S., let's find out who it is."

Answering the call, Tony waited for the person to introduce themselves and it didn't take long for them to do so, "Hey, Tony, how you doing? Haha. I double cycle."

May and Mara were both looking at Tony. His excitable mood from seconds before had all but disappeared from his expression, as he replied, "You did what?"

The voice on the other side of the call swiftly clarified for Tony, "You told me double cycle's more power. Good advice."

Mara already recognised the voice as Whiplash, but since she had never heard the man speak in person, she continued to feign confusion.

Tony carried on with his conversation, "For someone who's supposed to be dead, you sound surprisingly sprightly."

Laughing through the call, Whiplash retorted, "So do you."

Muting the call, Tony told J.A.R.V.I.S., "Trace it."

While the A.I. companion was performing the trace, the Russian on the call was monologuing to himself, "Now, the Stark history will be re-written to show what actually happened."

Slowly narrowing down the location, J.A.R.V.I.S. accessed something called the Oracle grid that appeared to give the A.I. control over satellite systems.

As the assistant continued the search, Whiplash also continued his speech, "What your family did to mine over 40 years. I will do to you in 40 minutes."

Unmuting the call, Tony tried to stall in order to keep Vanko on the phone so that the tracing could finish, "Sounds good. Where are we meeting to duke it out?"

Just before J.A.R.V.I.S. was going to home in on the signal, it appeared that the Russian on the line was about to hang up as he said with finality, "I hope you're ready."

With enough implication for someone to piece together that it was Whiplash on the call. Mara reacted quickly and sent through her intention - which I happily obliged.

I created a facemask to cover my host's mouth, so that our voices became linked, as we spoke, "Who's on the call, Tony? Anything interesting?"

Responding to our question, Tony turned around to look at my host in confusion.

Fortunately, Mara's improvised plan worked as she intended.

Whiplash stayed on the call for a few, critical, seconds longer as it sounded like he spat out, "Bring the hellspawn with you. I can finish both at same time."

Once he had finished what he needed to say, Whiplash cut the call leaving the droning dial tone as the only sound.

Removing the facemask from my host, she asked the A.I., "Did you get it Jarv?"

If the A.I. had a face, or emotions, I felt like it would be smiling as it answered, {Indeed I did. Thank you for the assistance and distraction, Mara.}

Tony, realising that Mara's quick thinking allowed his assistant to complete the trace also expressed his appreciation, "Good improvisation, Mara. J.A.R.V.I.S., where we at?"

Not the assistant to keep things from its boss, the A.I. promptly responded, {Tri-State area. New York. Hammer Industries Headquarters.}

Initially surprised, and then slightly impressed, Tony exclaimed, "Justin Hammer, well how about that. I didn't think he had the balls to do something this extreme, but I guess the hearing made him desperate."

Mara turned to May in order to speak to her, but as if to read my host's mind May spoke first, "I'll give the order to prep the Quinjet. We'll be ready for take-off whenever you 2 are ready."

Not needing to say anything more, May headed towards the garage entrance and exited via the stairs to make her way to the Quinjet.

Mara turned back from looking at the garage entrance, to look towards Tony. She spotted him staring at one of his computer screens that had a Stark Expo article up.

Preventing her from asking the Iron Man anything, he turned around and spoke directly to my host, "He's gonna hit the Expo. Hammer has a presentation today. The Expo is something my dad created and since Vanko wants to hit my family, levelling 1 of the only good Stark namesakes would be the quickest way to do so."

Nodding in agreement, my host responded, "That makes sense. So, don't you think you should get to work on a suit that is compatible with your new Arc Reactor? Or do you expect me to do all the heavy lifting this time as well?"

Widening his eyes a little at my host's question, Tony realised that he didn't have a functioning suit to use, "Shit, you're right. J.A.R.V.I.S., assemble the suit. Put it together, now! We can't afford to waste time."

Before Tony and J.A.R.V.I.S. got too ahead of themselves in the suit construction, the Iron Man asked my host, "Can you go ahead? I might be a while and I'm fairly confident my suit will be faster than your jet thingy, so I can afford to set-off later. If you can, talk to Rhodey and let him know Vanko is working for Hammer. And make sure Natasha or Natalie or whatever knows as well so that she protects Pepper."

Agreeing to the billionaire's requests, Mara replied, "Sure thing. Don't be too late though or I'll have all the fun to myself. Bye Jarv. Good work and see you again."

As my host began her walk towards the garage stairs, the A.I. responded, {Thank you, Mara. Goodbye, and good work, as well.}

With the farewells said, my host made her way up the stairs and outside towards the parked Quinjet.