Field test -142
[Home of Tony Stark]
"Sir, the suit update has been completed." The voice of Jarvis came and not a moment too soon.
"Perfect, let's take it for a spin then." Tony said as he had Jarvis begin the process of getting into the suit, or more correctly, getting the suit onto him.
The process still needed some refinement. He was well aware of this, but it couldn't be rushed, and the current state of the process was good enough for his current needs.
He would have liked to have the suit ready sooner, but the icing issue needed to be dealt with. After the attack, he decided to improve the anti-EMP shielding for all the systems without the suit.
After all, he had learned that those people had used some EMP pulse every time they were active somewhere, or at least that was what the SHIELD report he had gotten his hands on said.
He had also spent time fully reworking his home security so If that so-called Chaos Insurgency were to come back, he wouldn't be as powerless again. He would have time to get in his suit before they would be able to get inside.
"Sir, what kind of test do you wish to run?" Jarvis asked as the suit came online.
"A field test." Tony said while looking at the news report about a group of terrorists in the Middle East, who clearly had his weapons in their hands.
"Sir, I must advise against that; there are multiple untested system upgrades within the suit." Jarvis couldn't help but caution his boss and maker.
"Then this will be the perfect time to test it, plot the cause!" he said before taking off, shooting fast and high. He watched in wonderment as the world under him became small.
There really was something special about flying, and he understood why it was someone people had dreamed about since ancient time. Though it was likely that he, the brilliant Tony Stark, was the very first person in the world to achieve flight like this.
This wonderful feeling had nearly cost him his life and one of his little babies the first time he took flight, though at least he had been able to learn several things about the suit's limitations and make improvements.
Even now, he had many plans for upgrades, but first, he needed to deal with the current situation. For one, those weapons that had ended up in the wrong hands needed to be destroyed, and he needed to find who was selling them.
He had already gotten the help of Ricci to track quite a few shipments around the world, and he would be dealing with them one by one. Today, he would deal with this one as it was clearly a more pressing situation.
After all, Not only was this apparently a splinter cell from the Ten Rings, but they were also the ones behind his kidnapping and, on top of that, currently killing innocent civilians using his weapons. So, they rest of the targets could wait, this was personal.
As soon as he arrived in the small town, he was met with a sight of misery; death was everywhere; he could almost feel the fear; he remembered it, how it was to be taken, captured, and held against his will, to knot know when his last moment would be.
One of the terrorists opened fire and started shooting at him. Tony simply punished him. Sending him flying through the air, Jarvis noted that he was eliminated, though Tony ignored it and just started using the energy blasts from his hand to take down a few more.
He turned around to find a group of women and children held hostage, though it was a little problem to deal with that situation, one moment the terrorists were screaming at him; the next every single one was shot and killed in the same instance, not even given a chance to fire once.
The sight of the little boy running up to his father was touching; Tony couldn't help but leave the leader of this attack in their hands. Knowing that they, just like himself, deserved the chance to get revenge with their own hands.
He then took off, flying off towards the next target, the base of the terrorists not far off.
"Override." The mechanical sound of the suit's system came as it dodged a tank shell. Tony couldn't help but be glad he had made the automated system there. He had based it on what little he had been able to glean from the old AI he had bought and then stolen from him.
The system wasn't an AI, but it would allow him to use the full capabilities of the suit better, allowing him to avoid threats. For a while, he was fairly sure something like a tank shell wouldn't be able to take him down; it would do at least a little damage to the suit.
He quickly evaded the next shot on his own and used the small missile mounted to his wrist to take out the tank. While not one of his weapons, he didn't think these pieces of shits deserved it. He then, while ignoring the small calibre fire, had Jarvis highlight his targets and flew out there soon after having reduced their weapons to fire and death.
He then, satisfied with what he had done here, decided to call it quits after all, this was but the first test, and he didn't have an infinite amount of ammunition or energy in his suit. However, he would make further upgrades next time.
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[Edwards Air Force base, California]
They had been tracking the ongoing situation closely. This was the same group that had dared to target Stark, which was the same as targeting the military, and while Stark had survived, he had also stopped selling and making weapons, so it wasn't much different if he had been killed.
The military wasn't happy about this, so they wanted to go in there and show those upstarts who were bosses, more so since they were the Ten Rings, the same group that had caused havoc down in Asia for their allies.
They quickly noticed what was happening, and a flurry of questions was passed around as everyone wanted to know.
"Are we cleared to go in there?" Someone asked.
"No sir, they were using human shields. We never got the green light." Came the response.
"WASN'T AIR FORCE!" Someone shouted loudly.
"It wasn't Navy."
"Wasn't Marines."
Soon enough, Colonel Rhodes was called in to consult about the situation.
When he encountered a situation like this, the first thing he thought about was that it must be Stark. So he quickly made a call.
Tony, however, was his usual self and not at all helpful, trying to deflect, which just told him that it was indeed one of his toys. He watched on as the situation developed, impressed that it had managed to disappear from their sight like that.
He couldn't help but want something like that himself, hoping that Tony would agree to sell whatever it was.
*Ring, Ring* His phone suddenly started ringing, and it was Tony, no doubt about to brag about outsmarting, or if the toy had been lost, complain.
"Hello Rhody it's me."
"It's who?"
"I'm sorry, it is me. You asked, what you were asking about is me."
"No, see, this isn't a game. You do not send civilian equipment into my active war zone. You understand that?"
"That is not a piece of equipment. I'm in it. It's a suit. It's me!"
Rhodes couldn't help but feel a cold shiver run down his spine as he heard that. Before he could even wrap his head around the situation, things took a turn for the worse.
Then, just as everything was about to go to hell, the door was kicked open, and General Rushwall shouted. "Stop! I order you to stand the fuck down! Do not fucking engage with that!"
"Stand, down, I repeat, stand down, do not continue to engage! General's orders!" The man in charge quickly informed the two pilots. And Rhodes couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
"Sir, what is going on?
"That's classified; you don't have the rank needed to know that soldier. And you for damn well sure don't have the rank to shoot that down. It's expensive and highly experimental. Now stand down and forget about ever seeing it." The General thundered before turning around and marching out of the room, leaving everyone stunned.
Though none more so than Rhodes, who knew what it was, who knew that, for some reason, the General was lying and covering up for Tony.
He would need to find a time to talk this over with Stark face-to-face. "Tony, for some reason General Rushwall just had us stand down, so you clear for now, but we will be talking about this later."
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[With Tony Stark]
Tony couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief himself when he heard that the fighters were called off. He had managed to avoid getting hit thanks to the suit override system, which allowed him to dodge, but it also stopped him from flying, which meant that he wouldn't be able to pull away if they kept shooting at him.
A flaw he would need to address once he was back home, though at least he was satisfied with the system overall. It had perfectly used the suit's capabilities and the three-dimensional space available to it to perfectly dodge the barrage of bullets from the fighter jets, something he knew he himself wouldn't have been able to do.
Though he wasn't sure why this General Rushwall had helped him, he wasn't even really sure who they were. Though he would no doubt find out soon enough when they tried to cash in that favor.
…
Once he was home again, he found that removing the suit was a whole lot more difficult than he had expected. Thankfully, it hadn't suffered any damage, but even a small amount of denting could have made it not just difficult but also painful.
He was even found by Pepper, who was less then happy to see him like that, not to mention the state of his lap. He could admit that he had been a bit too quick to test his gauntlet on the windows like that.
…
"Hmm, we need to increase the amount of shoulder ammo, and the max speed as well. I want to be able to outfly those jets next time." Tony told Jarvis as he went over the data from the first field test.
"Increasing the speed will be difficult Sir, at least without either using far more power or increasing the size of the suit to allow for bigger pulsation generators." Jarvis responded and showed off some data to match his suggestion.
"I like the size, so it will be energy input."
"That will limit the range at which you can be active in. May I suggest refitting the stealth yet into a mobil armory? That way, you will be able to save power doing the flight itself and not be restricted doing combat."
Tony paused, considering Jarvis's suggestion. "That might just work. Refitting the stealth jet into a mobile armory could give me a lot more flexibility. Start drawing up the plans for the modifications, and let's see how we can make this work without compromising the jet's stealth capabilities."
"Understood, Sir. Initiating design process now," Jarvis replied.
As Tony continued to analyze the data, Pepper entered the lab, looking exasperated. "Tony, we need to talk."
Tony looked up. "Good, I just had a task for you as well." He said. He looked around for a moment and found the flash drive. While he did know of a few more caches of weapons, he wanted them all and to find out who was selling them, and for that, he needed a hand.
Pepper raised an eyebrow, looking skeptical. "And what exactly do you need my help with this time, Tony?"
Tony handed her the flash drive. "I need you to dig through this data and find every last cache of my weapons that's out there. Someone's been selling them to groups like the Ten Rings, and I want to know who."
Pepper took the flash drive, her expression softening slightly as she realized the seriousness of the task. "Alright, I'll see what I can find. But Tony what are you going to do with this information?
"Same plan, go down there, blow up my weapons." He said, his voice full of conviction as he remembered his time in the cave and the two people who had died in there to save him, who had both wanted him to leave a legacy he could be proud of, that they would be proud of.
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