Chapter 1
The Nth Degree
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A young teenage boy sat cross-legged on the floor in front of a computer screen. He had warm chocolate eyes and his hair was dark and glossy, his frame small, pale, and thin. He wore a black T-shirt that said in white letters “Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.” The boy spun his thumb on the left wheel of the custom controller in his hands to the right. The blue tinged view on the screen mimicked the move and panned to the right showing the entrance to a cave. The teenager studied the dark entrance for a long moment as sand blew across the screen in grainy puffs. He took a deep breath and licked his lip nervously before using a touch pad on the right of the controller to slowly stride forward and enter the cavern. As soon as the view moved into the dark the screen automatically lit up with night vision. The cave was only about 10 ft. deep and contained only a few long wooden boxes with a Stane Industries logo showing starkly on the sides.
The 14-year-old teen scowled at the small hidden cache on the screen, gripping the controller tightly in his fists. He blew out a breath and visibly calmed himself before using the controller to move to the boxes and check their contents. He pushed at a second toggle while pressing it down firmly and a red metal fist showed up on the screen. He pressed a button a few times and a hand swung up and down on the box, smashing the wooden lid to pieces revealing a number of long barreled black guns along with long clips of bullets. The teen backed the view up and pressed a series of buttons near the top. The boxes abruptly lit up with white flame before exploding, the debris striking against the view and screwing with the night vision.
“What sort of game is that, it doesn’t seem very realistic and those graphics are sub par at best.” A deep voice spoke up behind the boy. The teen turned around, dropping the controller in shock. A tall dark young man with a bag over one shoulder looked down at the teen fondly.
“Rhodey, man, what did I tell you? Don’t come in here without knocking first. So not cool man.” The teen said before picking up the controller and turning back to the screen. The 18 year old moved further into the room and smirked.
“Hey it’s my room too, kid.” Rhodey said.
“M’not a kid.” The boy mumbled.
“Fine have it your way short stuff.” Rhodey moved over to the boy and reached down to muss up his hair playfully. The teen flinched at the touch and hunched his shoulders without replying to their usual banter. Rhodey frowned. “Grumpy much?” James Rhodes asked perceptively. The boy forced his shoulders to relax.
“I’ve just got to finish this.” The boy said determinedly as the view backed out of the cave and after pressing a number of buttons took off into the sky.
“Pause it.” Rhodey suggested with a shrug. The teen shook his head.
“Can’t. It doesn’t pause or save until you finish the mission.” He said. Rhodey snorted.
“That’s weak.” Rhodey said. The boy smiled at the screen faintly.
“It makes it challenging.” He said. James shrugged again.
“I guess, so what? Are you beta testing again?” He asked. The boy nodded.
“Yep, now leave me to my uber-important work.” He said, his voice approaching its usual humor. Rhodey smiled.
“No one says uber anymore Tony.” He said. Tony smiled back over his shoulder.
“Well, I do, so someone does, your logic is flawed, you must sterilize, sterilize!” Tony yelled. Rhodey went to his side of the room and added some books to his bag, taking out the ones he didn’t need.
“Riiight, no more geekathons for you. I just came to pick up some books for my next class anyways, don’t forget to eat okay.” He said before heading for the door.
“Yeah, thanks mom.” Tony muttered.
“Adios.” Rhodey said, and left the small dorm room. Tony sighed to himself. He cared for Rhodey, he really did, but sometimes it was just so hard to mask his true emotions from his best friend. Ever since his parents had died, were murdered, Tony mentally corrected himself; he’d had very few people he trusted, let alone cared about. There had been Jarvis, his butler at one time. Tony had cared about him and trusted him literally with his life. Jarvis had known what sort of person he was and who he was and had loved him anyway. Tony also really cared about Rhodey and he wanted to trust him… But if Rhodey found out about everything, Tony was certain that he would stop being friends with him. No one would want to be friends with a monster. After all, one could never tell when that monster might just suddenly turn on them.
Tony sighed dejectedly. It had been a long time since he had thought about his parents. Stane, how that name burned his thoughts. Everything he had become he owed to Mr. Obadiah Stane. Tony had been hacking Stane Industries on a regular basis for the past three years. After he had developed his Ironbot four months ago, he’d been using it to sabotage every illegal Stane project he could find. Sometimes he came across terrorists and other militant groups that Stane had sold his weapons and tech to. When he came across such people he would take them out and destroy their arsenals, just as he had done today with that small gun cache he had discovered. He was cleaning up after Stane Industries, one bad guy at a time.
The mini map on the right hand of the screen suddenly showed a flashing red dot approaching his blue dot, and brought him back to the present. Tony spun the view around until he could see a fighter jet approaching at high speed. A voice suddenly blared out from the screen. “Iron Man! This is Captain America, I demand you land and turn yourself in immediately, in the name of SHIELD!”
“Shit.” Tony said succinctly.