First Flight
Tony’s back on the heat proof mat, this time with his cars behind him. He wears the arm and leg pieces, all connected to the arc reactor.
“Day 11, test 37, configuration 2.0. For lack of a better option, DUM-E is still on fire safety.” He glares at the bot. “If you douse me again, and I’m not on fire, I’m donating you to a city college.
A few people chuckled, but Drax frowned.
“That’s not nice.” He commented.
“He knows I’m only teasing.” Tony assured him.
U rolls the camera once again.
“All right, nice and easy. Seriously, just gonna start of with 1% thrust capacity.”
Shuri nodded. “That’s more sensible.”
He raises his arms out, his palms facing down.
“And three… two… one…”
A blast of energy shoots Tony into the air, however unlike before, Tony hovers only a few feet off the ground, the flights stabilisers keeping him stable.
Everyone held their breath, waiting for something to go wrong.
“That is awesome!” Peter chuckled, an awed expression on his face.
The repulsers cut out and Tony drops to the floor, sparks spitting out of the repulsers as he regains his balance.
“That looks dangerous.” Pepper said. “Is it supposed to spark like that.”
Tony shrugged. “Yeah, happens all the time.”
“That doesn’t mean it should Tony.”
He chuckled. “It’s fine.”
He looks back round at DUM-E. “Please don’t follow me around with it, either, cause I feel like I’m gonna catch on fire spontaneously. Just stand down! If something happens, then come in.”
Rhodey laughed. “Your fear of DUM-E is hilarious.”
“And again, let’s bring it up to 2.5. Three… two… one…”
Tony lifts again, this time slightly higher. He tries to remain stable, but keeping control of the repulsers proves difficult.
A few people started snickering at Tony’s struggle.
“Hey, it’s difficult to control, okay.” Tony defended.
“Oh no, I understand completely.” Quill said. “It takes true skill to master jet boots.”
Gamora rolled her eyes. “And yet you still crash into walls.”
“Hey, that was one time!” Quill exclaimed.
“I’m pretty sure it’s all the time.” Rocket snickered.
“Okay, this is where I don’t want to be!” He exclaims, as he begins to float over his collection of cars. “Oh, not the car, not the car! Yikes!”
“Not the multi-million dollar cars!” Happy complained, running a stressed hand down his face.
“You perform dangerous experiments next to multi-million dollar cars?” Wanda asked incredulously. “Do you have so little care for your wealth, Stark? Or do you like burning the money you made on the weapons that destroyed my home?”
Her words caused an awkward silence to fill the room for a moment. Tony at least at had the decency to look guilty.
In an attempt to regain control, he ends up floating over to his table full of papers and documents, sending pages flying everywhere.
“No! All those notes! That’s even worse than the cars!” Peter said, trying to relieve some of the tension in the room.
He laughs nervously.
“Could be worse! Could be worse! We’re fine!”
“I mean, true. It could be totally worse.” Natasha grinned.
“You could have seriously burned the house down.” Happy said.
“Are you kidding? I’ve built more dangerous stuff than that in my lab.” Tony said, then cringed as he glanced at wander who pursed her lips disapprovingly.
“I don’t even wanna know.” Steve said.
He navigates back to the centre of his heat proof mat, bringing his hands tightly to his sides in his iconic pose, finally bringing him stability.
He lowers back to the floor, the repulsers cutting off, as he not so elegantly lands on his feet.
The theatre burst with applause.
“You actually got the hang of that pretty quickly.” Quill said. “I mean, considering they’re, bulky inefficient prototypes.”
Tony raised an eyebrow. “Thank you? Also, nothing like this had ever been invented before, so I might hit a few speed bumps along the way.”
“Only on your planet buddy.” Rocket said. “I can make a pair of those in my sleep.”
“Actually, I had already made something similar in Wakanda.” Shuri said.
“You’re kidding.” Tony said.
“No, I did. But then I realised that it was an inefficient use of power, so I moved onto other things. If I’d come up with the idea for a miniaturised arc reactor, I could have made something even better than your clunky iron suit.”
Tony smirked. “That sounds like a challenge, Princess.”
She smiled slyly back at him. “When we get back to our world, I’d gladly take you up on it. Although, are you sure you can keep up.”
“Oh no.” T’Challa sighed. “Please don’t blow up the planet during this competition.”
“You have no faith, brother.” Shuri pouted.
“Yeah.” Tony agreed. “We’re gonna need a bigger planet.”
“Hey, I want in on this competition!” Rocket exclaimed, villainously wringing his hands in excitement at getting them on an arc reactor.
“You got it, build-a-bear.” Tony agreed, his excitement not recognising the potentially catastrophic conciquences of giving the space racoon an arc reactor.
Nebula leaned to Gamora. “We have to stop this before those three idiots destroy the universe.” She whispered.
“Oh definitely.” Her sister nodded seriously in agreement.
He stumbles slightly before catching sight of DUM-E targeting him.
“No! Uh-uh! Uh-uh! Uh!” He yells, DUM-E lowering its head.
Tony breathes a sigh. “Yeah, I can fly.”
“You’re not the only one mate, but damn, if that’s not a badass line.” Sam commended.
Tony steps up, as silver casing is placed over the naked workings of his suit.
“Robots that put your armour on for you? Now I need me something like that.” Scott said.
His armour clad arm reaches out for the mask, bringing it to his face.
The theatre buzzed with excitement at getting to see the fist image of the Mark II ironman armour.
“Jarvis, are you there?” Tony says, attaching the face covering.
“At your service, sir.”
A visual from inside the HUD onto Tony’s face.
“Engage Heads Up Display.”
“Check.”
Blue light emits form the HUD. A catalogue of information being displayed all at once.
“Import all preferences from home interface.”
“Will do, sir.”
Now a visual of Tony’s view from inside the HUD. He can see the lab around him, the display scanning and cataloguing everything.
“That’s a lot of data, how do you process all of that?” Hill asked.
“Well, it’s pretty easy for me.” Tony said. “I’ve always been able to process a lot of information pretty quickly.”
“Perks of being a genius, I guess.” Rhodey muttered. His War Machine HUD display didn’t have nearly as much information as that and it seriously slowed down his ability to control the suit.
“Alright, what do you say?”
“I have indeed been uploaded, sir. We’re online and ready.”
“Can we start the virtual walk-around?”
“Importing preferences and calibrating virtual environment.”
“Do a check on the control surfaces.”
“As you wish.”
The camera switches back to outside of the suit and the music starts up. Starting at the leg, the camera pans up as the outer plates are opened and closed to be checked.
“Okay, that might be the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.” Scott chuckled.
“Really?” Hope asked incredulously, “That’s the coolest thing you’ve ever seen?”
“It’s just so shiny!” Scott said.
“It’s true, it is a bit flashy.” Clint said.
“Are you kidding? Have you seen what his suit looks like now?” Coulson exclaimed.
“Maybe he could make a stealth suit, that would be neat.” Natasha said.
“Like with those reflection panels from the helicarrier?” Peter said.
“I was thinking more like a stealth jet.” Shuri pondered. “Use darkness to your advantage like what we do with the Black Panther suit.”
Tony hummed in consideration. “All very interesting ideas, folks.”
Pepper sighed. “Please don’t give him any more ideas.”
The camera lands on the face as the music intensifies, the eyes glowing blue.
“Now, that’s how you make a good helmet.” Loki said, nudging his brother. “It’s much more intimidating that those chicken wings you used to insist on wearing.”
“I’m sorry, Reindeer. Did you just compliment me?” Tony piped up.
Loki looked back and glared at him. He didn’t like the attention of these earthly heroes, but he simply couldn’t pass up on the chance to tease his brother.
“Of course not.” Loki sneered. “Merely judging my brother’s lack of style.”
Thor rolled his eyes, but smiled. “Like your horns were so much better.”
“Don’t be jealous brother.” Loki smirked. “You know you could never pull them off.”
“Oh, and you do?”
“Of course.”
“Whatever.”
“Test complete. Preparing to power down and begin diagnostics.”
“Uh, yeah. Tell you what. Do a weather and ATC check. Start listening in on ground control.”
“Tony? What are you doing?” Steve asked, although he had a horrible feeling he already knew.
“Sir, there are still terabytes of calculations needed before an actual flight is…”
“Jarvis! Sometimes you got to run before you can walk.”
“No. That is not what you do.” Pepper scolded.
“Do you even know how to fly that thing?” Sam asked. “Cause you were floating all over the place a moment before.”
“I did spend a lot more time practicing than what we’ve seen here, you know.” Tony said. “Like, at least 7 hours worth.”
“That… is not enough time.” Rhodey said.
“Says you! You managed to control my suit with barely any practice.” Tony said.
“I had more than 7 hours practice!” Rhodey defended.
“Ready? In three… two… one…”
The repulsers whir on and Tony lifts of the ground. He leans forward and is shot through the garage ramp and out into the sky, skimming the edge of the cement as he exits.
Pepper cringed. “God, you’re going to crash into something.”
“You know I didn’t, I’m fine.” Tony assured here.
“Yeah!” Tony yells in excitement as the adrenalin corses through him.
He’s clearly not enterally stable, nevertheless he lets out a crazed laugh.
Tony smiled, remembering that feeling of exhilaration and the utter freedom it brought him. It had been one of the best feelings of his life.
The others watched, wide eyed in amazement as they tried to imagine the thrill of flying freely through the sky.
“Handles like a dream.” He shoots across the sea towards the pier.
As he circles the fair, his vision zooms in on a kid eating ice cream on the ferris wheel. The kid stares, wide eyed, not even noticing as his ice cream scoop falls.
Tony flies out across the city, then immediately pulls upwards.
“All right, let’s see what this thing can do. What’s SR-71’s record?”
“The altitude record for fixed wing flight is 85,000 feet, sir.”
“Records were made to be broken! Come on!”
“What?” Shuri exclaimed. “There’s no way that clunky suit of armour will ever achieve that height. It will freeze before it gets there and you have not conducted enough experiments to know that the arc reactor will even be strong enough to recover. How could you not realise that?”
Tony cringed. “Yeah, yeah, I know. I just… forgot in the moment.”
“How could you forget something like that?” Steve asked.
“I was excited!” Tony defended. “I was pretty high on exhilaration and freedom. I wasn’t thinking straight.”
He shoots towards the moon.
“Sir, there is a potentially fatal buildup of ice occurring.”
“Keep going!”
“Tony! I only trust you as much as I do because I know you have Jarvis or Friday there to remind you and advise you.” Pepper exclaimed. “How can I trust you if you don’t even listen to them.”
“Yeah, I know. I’m sorry.” Tony said.
He flies higher. The metal begins to creak as ice starts to form all over.
“Higher!”
“Do you not realise what you’re doing, or do you just not care.” Steve scolded, although he was growing more worried by the second.
“I think I simply couldn’t care in the moment.” Tony explained. “Like I said, I felt this overwhelming sense of freedom and I felt untouchable. It was like nothing could hurt me.”
Sparks fly from the repulsers, the ice shutting them down, as the blue light from his eyes blink off.
The suit come to a stop and then starts to fall.
Even though they knew this was coming, they all gasped in shock as they watched Tony helplessly fall back to earth.
Tony yells as he free plummets to the earth. “We iced up, Jarvis! Deploy flaps!”
“No shit.” Clint muttered.
Jarvis doesn’t answer. “Jarvis!”
“Oh no.” Peter whispered.
“Come on! We gotta break the ice!” Tony tries to level himself, belly down.
“Yeah, now you realise.” Shuri muttered.
He chips at some of the ice around a circular panel on his leg, manually grabbing the lever and twisting it.
Immediately, the flaps on his back open out, cracking the ice and sending it splintering.
Tony continues to fall, the road below coming closer and closer, until the blue light in his eyes blinks back on and the suit whirs back to life.
The repulsers blast off just before Tony his the ground, his belly scraping the tarmac of the road, almost crashing into a car.
Tony pulls up, flying back into the open air, a crazed smile appearing on his face, his eyes bright with exhilaration and extasy.
“YEAH! HAHA!” He exclaims with delight as he flies back to his mansion.
The entire theatre let out a relived breath.
Tony broke out in laughter. Watching this scene, he understood how reckless and idiotic he was being, but he didn’t care.
“How?” Pepper breathed, her body racked with tension. “How could you possibly be laughing after that? You almost died!”
“Honestly, Tony. How could you be this reckless?” Steve asked him. “You not only endangered your own life, but the lives of those on the road or wherever you might have fallen. How could you not care?”
Tony winced, but didn't take back what he did. “Look guys, I’m sorry and I understand now what I did was probably not the best. But, you have to understand. I had just come out of three months of captivity and years of pressure from my dad, the complete control of Obadiah and then to top it off, all the expectations of the press and the world. This flight was the first sense of real freedom I’d ever felt. And yeah, I guess I got a bit carried away and I’m sorry for that."
The others were silent, pondering this. Maybe these films were useful. They really were helping them understand one another.
Pepper gently placed her hand on Tony’s arm and squeezed comfortingly. “It’s alright. I understand.”
He lowers down onto the roof, steadying himself with his hands by his sides. He hovers for a few sections like a badass.
“Kill power.”
“No, don’t…” Shuri stammered, but it was too late.
The suit shuts down and the weight crashes through the roof, through the piano, through the floor, and landing on one of his cars, smashing it to bits.
Shuri rolled her eyes and sighed.
The others stared at the screen, eyes wide in shock.
Loki chuckled uncontrolably.
“No, not the piano!” Hope exclaimed.
“So that’s how that got broken.” Happy muttered.
“The cars? Seriously dude?” Scott cried.
“That’s one heavy suit of armour. Took out three floors.” Sam muttered.
“Surely you would have realised that would happen.” Stange commented.
“In my defence, I was still coming off an adrenaline rush and wasn’t thinking clearly.” Tony said.
“You destroy your house like, every week.” Coulson said.
“Not every week.” Tony said.
“Yeah.” Pepper agreed. “It’s at least once a day.”
He lays in the wake of his own destruction as the sirens of the other cars wail around him.
To add insult to injury, the ever helpful DUM-E turns and douses him with the fire extinguisher.
Exasperated, Tony leans his head back in pain.
The theatre was full of laughter, letting go of any tension they held after the flight.
“That’s karma, right there.” Clint chuckled.
“That robot really doesn’t listen to you, does he?” Rhodey said.
“It was just the wake up call you needed. A good knock on the head.” Pepper smiled.