Discimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don’t worry, I am pletely sober).

  Stark Residence, LA

  –Tony Stark–

  He watched Jack leave his b after they had spent the eernoon w on his powers or rather, they had just spent an afternooing 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 khe part about Jack losing all of his memories was a load of shit that he could smell a mile away. He did not dispy the same symptoms as someone who had just lost their entire life. He was not disorie all when he was fronted 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 cims he had no idea who he was, a, at the first ce he had, he had fled from him as fast as he could, as if he was guilty of something. He also said his 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 ohing, 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 thhly vaporised, not even leaving even a single piece of rubble or mortar in that pce. His first thought was that Jack had somehow dohat but despite his suspis, 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 geion and not the ability to gee enough energy to disie everything. Speaking of his powers, they were marvellous. He was already s and was growing. He ted a 1% increase in the force behind those barriers in the 5 hours that Jack had spent in his b.

  The barriers themselves were a work of art. They were based on an energy that had never been observed previously and coated with a yer 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 mamma energy coursed through them. The base energy was only responsible for maintaining the iy of the barriers and nothing more. The real kicker was the cloak that appeared on Jack whenever he tried to use his powers ter extent. If he just maed 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 mamma radiatioed from him. They had tried various experiments to figure out the different shapes, and sizes of the barriers that he could jure. Based on the current data, apart from the full body armour that he has over him, Jack summon at most 2 other barriers at full mobility before he starts to lose focus, causing the barriers to starting deg. He also has some sort of tent awareness of the barriers as he direct them without looking at them. He said that he has some awareness if he has a barrier in that pce but he ’t exactly get a full visual of the pce. They tried putting a blindfold on him aing him to navigate a space just by the awareness he gaihrough his barriers and while it did work to aent, he could not imagine someone going through a fight just by relying on those sehe barriers were excellent at deteg high-speed projectiles and somehow, automatically moved in the way onething was fired at Jack with high speed, seemingly without even him notig. He had recorded immense surprise arayal on Jack's face when he had realised that Jarvis had fired a rubber bullet on his bad 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 bee a deadly on, capable of easily defeating even his most powerful suits. They had also tested his barriers against trated repulsor bsts and found that while it did tax Jack to withstand that bst, 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 bst 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 s. He looked at it to see that his jectures were correct after all.

  “So, his barriers also absorb the energy that is i on it?” He mused out loud. The kiic fallout from abruptly stopping his repulsor bst should have been far higher than it was. That was why they had dohis experiment while he and Jack were behind reinforced gss 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 abs it and dumping it somewhere unseen. Calg the total energy loss from the shockwaves, that barrier had absorbed enough energy to power an average home for months a, 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 i you,” Jarvis’ voice filtered through the speakers he had installed throughout every nook and y of his b.

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

  “Is that what I think it is, Jarvis?” His voice gained a serious uoo 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 corred he was sure it was correct because Jarvis had do, 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 rger than normal with his heart beating at less than 50 bpm at normal state and never even crossing 80 even after Jack had beeing his powers.

  “So what? Is Jae sort of super soldier then? The first oer the Captain?” He asked Jarvis because if it was true, it indicated an astonishing breakthrough in the super soldier department and would totally expin 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 bst that vaporised that part of the base was what threw Ja that dire because if there is anything that could help Jack survive that energy bst, it would be his barriers,” He said out loud and was actually somewhat saddeo 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 pce where they had first tracked him before he became airborne a near supersonic.

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

  “Affirmative, sir,”

  He sighed in exhaustion ohe file transfer was done and all the data regarding Jad his status as the world’s super soldier were stored away in a bck box which was sequestered away in some deep dark p the o only Jarvis knew about. Some might call that extreme measure as paranoid but only he khe amount of destru that his teology could unleash if some unsuspeg party stumbled upon it and used it to create ons 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 b with her office wear. It was evident that she had just e 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 b and was absent in the boardroom meetings. Nowadays, he didn't even know what Stark Industries was fog on aside from the energy tracts for remote pces. He had expected the backsh from gress, Big Coal, and Big Oil oark Industries had announced essentially unlimited low-cost energy for all but for the President himself to call him and advising him to pace the teology had been a wake-up call.

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

  “So, Jarvis tells me something has been bugging you retly?” His shoulders sagged as Pepper ran her hands through his hair. He hugged her tightly, the ret events running tinuously through his mind. He was aware that he was stepping into a ndmine by hiding Jad not telling Fury or even his tacts 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 ohe people in the gover became aware of a super soldier living right uheir nose. Especially a super soldier who was s. 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 ly of the age where he would be fortable leaving him to the wolves.

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

  The Lab’s lights slowly dimmed before it went pletely dark in the b 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 se 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 yht now. We’ll see iure once he has earned my trust. I actually told him that he will bee your bodyguard iure once he has been trained first,” He told her, earning a surprised look from her.

  “Really, a super-powered kid who 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 a on his feet, bee indepe, safeguard him from the vultures because of his public identity, and also create additional prote for you,” He expio Pepper.

  “Prote 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 ’t? What then? The enemies we have ot be stopped by just bullets and you know it. The world is increasingly being a pce where just me in my suit won’t be able to protect you. We need more and that is where Jaes in.”

  Pepper looked at him and smiled in uanding, “Okay, fine. He bey 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.”

  Word t - 2318

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