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Stark Residence, LA

–Tony Stark–

He watched Jack leave his lab after they had spent the entire afternoon working on his powers or rather, they had just spent an afternoon testing out ideas that Jack had for his powers and him just facilitating those experiments, partly because he was just curious and partly because knowing more about them might genuinely help him some day. As far as he knew, the part about Jack losing all of his memories was a load of shit that he could smell a mile away. He did not display the same symptoms as someone who had just lost their entire life. He was not disoriented at all when he was confronted by something that, all by rights and means, he should have known beforehand. Even his manners, as reported by Jarvis, show that while he is clueless about some things, he knows just as more about stuff that he shouldn't know about. For example, he claims he had no idea who he was, and yet, at the first chance he had, he had fled from him as fast as he could, as if he was guilty of something. He also said his name at the clearing where Jarvis had tracked him to and was very used to the mannerisms of the western world despite him being a teenager and amnesiac.

He did not know what to make of that kid but he knew one thing, that base had something to do with SHIELD and there were marks of Jack’s energy signature in that base. Specifically, the part that had been thoroughly vaporised, not even leaving even a single piece of rubble or mortar in that place. His first thought was that Jack had somehow done that but despite his suspicions, there was no way that Jack could have done all of that judging by the state of his powers. He had the powers of barrier generation and not the ability to generate enough energy to disintegrate everything. Speaking of his powers, they were marvellous. He was already so strong and was growing. He counted a 1% increase in the force behind those barriers in the 5 hours that Jack had spent in his lab.

The barriers themselves were a work of art. They were based on an energy that had never been observed previously and coated with a layer of gamma. The gamma part was what gave those barriers their incredible strength. That was why the more force Jack tried to exert with his barriers, the more gamma energy coursed through them. The base energy was only responsible for maintaining the integrity of the barriers and nothing more. The real kicker was the cloak that appeared on Jack whenever he tried to use his powers to a larger extent. If he just manifested some barriers and moved them around, depending on the speed, he could do that without ever triggering his transformation but the more power he tried to exert, the more gamma radiation emitted from him. They had tried various experiments to figure out the different shapes, and sizes of the barriers that he could conjure. Based on the current data, apart from the full body armour that he has over him, Jack can summon at most 2 other barriers at full mobility before he starts to lose focus, causing the barriers to starting decaying. He also has some sort of latent awareness of the barriers as he can direct them without looking at them. He said that he has some awareness if he has a barrier in that place but he can’t exactly get a full visual of the place. They tried putting a blindfold on him and getting him to navigate a space just by the awareness he gained through his barriers and while it did work to an extent, he could not imagine someone going through a fight just by relying on those senses. The barriers were excellent at detecting high-speed projectiles and somehow, automatically moved in the way once something was fired at Jack with high speed, seemingly without even him noticing. He had recorded immense surprise and betrayal on Jack's face when he had realised that Jarvis had fired a rubber bullet on his back and that his barriers had stopped without any intervention from his side. Overall, he would say that Jack’s powers were defensive in nature but with just a little bit of training, he could become a deadly weapon, capable of easily defeating even his most powerful suits. They had also tested his barriers against concentrated repulsor blasts and found that while it did tax Jack to withstand that blast, it did not look like it tired him so much that he wouldn’t be able to hold on to that barrier for a long time. There was also something peculiar with the aftermath of the repulsor blast that Jack had sustained and he had tasked Jarvis with figuring that out.

“If I may, sir?” Jarvis pinged him as his attention to something on the screen. He looked at it to see that his conjectures were correct after all.

“So, his barriers also absorb the energy that is incident on it?” He mused out loud. The kinetic fallout from abruptly stopping his repulsor blast should have been far higher than it was. That was why they had done this experiment while he and Jack were behind reinforced glass and the Barrier and the repulsor array were in a bunker he had built in the basement. The fallout and everything regarding it was recorded but nowhere in the readings, he could see where all that energy was going. It was as if that barrier was absorbing it and dumping it somewhere unseen. Calculating the total energy loss from the shockwaves, that barrier had absorbed enough energy to power an average home for months and yet, all it gained was a slight green tint before Jack dismissed the barrier with ease. As soon as Jack dismissed the barrier, his green armour also receded immediately.

“Also, sir, I think I have something that might interest you,” Jarvis’ voice filtered through the speakers he had installed throughout every nook and cranny of his lab.

“What is it, J?” He asked and he received. There was a 3D scan of Jack’s body that Jarvis had been able to snag without him knowing about it. Well, he had basically consented to non-invasive experimentation. So, this was within the terms of their contract.

“Is that what I think it is, Jarvis?” His voice gained a serious undertone to it as he dropped his coffee mug and moved over to the station to take a better look at the data. If the data was correct and he was sure it was correct because Jarvis had done it, it showed the internals of Jack’s body. It was unreal. He might have had the face of a teenager, but his body was not that of a human. Well, not that of a normal human at least. Jack’s bone and muscle density were off the charts. His lungs were larger than normal with his heart beating at less than 50 bpm at normal state and never even crossing 80 even after Jack had been exerting his powers.

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“So what? Is Jack some sort of super soldier then? The first one after the Captain?” He asked Jarvis because if it was true, it indicated an astonishing breakthrough in the super soldier department and would totally explain SHIELD’s involvement in that military base and the part that had been vaporised along with it having Jack’s energy signature.

“Jarvis, show me the base’s location and track Jack’s energy signature when he first appeared on your radar. Also, see if there is any way that the blast that vaporised that part of the base was what threw Jack in that direction because if there is anything that could help Jack survive that energy blast, it would be his barriers,” He said out loud and was actually somewhat saddened to find that he was correct. The amount of energy it would take to vaporise that base was roughly equivalent to throwing someone of Jack’s mass to that place where they had first tracked him before he became airborne and went near supersonic.

“Jarvis, throw all of this into the black box and never access it without my permission, got it?”

“Affirmative, sir,”

He sighed in exhaustion once the file transfer was done and all the data regarding Jack and his status as the world’s newest super soldier were stored away in a black box which was sequestered away in some deep dark place in the ocean only Jarvis knew about. Some might call that extreme measure as paranoid but only he knew the amount of destruction that his technology could unleash if some unsuspecting party stumbled upon it and used it to create weapons or worse, sold them to the highest bidder.

He turned around when the sound of the door opening reached his ears and immediately sagged in relief as Pepper entered his lab with her office wear. It was evident that she had just come home directly from the office. Her role as the CEO of Stark Industries kept her incredibly busy and while he had felt guilty in the beginning to just dump that role on her, she had assured him that she was actually more than happy to make sure that Stark Industries did not lose its vision because he was more focused in the lab and was absent in the boardroom meetings. Nowadays, he didn't even know what Stark Industries was focusing on aside from the energy contracts for remote places. He had expected the backlash from Congress, Big Coal, and Big Oil once Stark Industries had announced essentially unlimited low-cost clean energy for all but for the President himself to call him and advising him to pace the technology had been a wake-up call.

So, at the pilot stages, the Arc Reactor was being offered as a safe clean alternative to energy in places where traditional energy lines did not go. It included huge cruises, and many stations on both the Poles and some remote areas of America and Europe as well. Last he had heard, Norway had ordered enough Arc Reactors to replace all of their reactors but Pepper had stopped the order mid-way because doing that would have set a precedent that could have threatened their plan to carefully, slowly, incentivise the current businesses to abandon fossil fuels and embrace clean energy.

“So, Jarvis tells me something has been bugging you recently?” His shoulders sagged as Pepper ran her hands through his hair. He hugged her tightly, the recent events running continuously through his mind. He was aware that he was stepping into a landmine by hiding Jack and not telling Fury or even his contacts in the military about him but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. Especially not now when he was aware of what fate awaited him once the people in the government became aware of a super soldier living right under their nose. Especially a super soldier who was so strong. While not as strong as the Hulk, Jack was even more valuable to them because he could be persuaded. He was not like the Hulk who would attack them before even listening to their offer. Even if Jack’s services could be bought, that would be enough for most of them but the problem was that Jack was not exactly of the age where he would be comfortable leaving him to the wolves.

“There has been this kid I met during my trip to Canada,” He began telling her about Jack as they left his lab and went upstairs to have dinner together, something they tried to do at least 4 times a week.

The Lab’s lights slowly dimmed before it went completely dark in the lab as it was locked airtight.

____xx____

“So, when do I get to meet this super kid?” Pepper asked him as they moved to the dessert section of their meal while snuggling on the couch.

“Uh, I don’t actually know. I haven't even known him for all that while so I don’t trust him anywhere near you right now. We’ll see in the future once he has earned my trust. I actually told him that he will become your bodyguard in the future once he has been trained first,” He told her, earning a surprised look from her.

“Really, a super-powered kid who can stop missiles with ease, just to be my bodyguard?”

“Not like that. You know why I did that. It will help him get a job and get on his feet, become independent, safeguard him from the vultures because of his public identity, and also create additional protection for you,” He explained to Pepper.

“Protection from whom, Tony? I am safe, you don’t have to worry about me. Happy does a great job, you know it. Plus Jarvis is always with me and if anything does happen, I know you will swoop in and save the day,”

“Yeah, but what if I can’t? What then? The enemies we have cannot be stopped by just bullets and you know it. The world is increasingly becoming a place where just me in my suit won’t be able to protect you. We need more and that is where Jack comes in.”

Pepper looked at him and smiled in understanding, “Okay, fine. He can become my bodyguard but I will take his interview before that. Deal?”

He smiled at her. She was so beautiful and more than once, he wondered how he ever got a woman like her. He certainly did not deserve her.

“Deal.”

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Word Count - 2318

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